Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1599https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425...and we're back. Another exciting installment of my time in Skyloft awaits you, lucky reader... Before I reveal the next exciting play through I"ll do a brief recap: I completed one run through of the three provinces, Zelda is stuck in the past (I could make a mildly sexist joke about relationships but I won't), and I just gave special water to a Magic Pot. So now for that Ancient Cistern Level... There's a giant statue in the middle of this temple, that deja vu of OoT is strong here... Not a complaint, I was one of those bizarre sort of players who actually liked the infamous Water Temple. I will begin by swimming around. Hey, look! Silver Rupees! Alright statue Miyagi, I will have that money. Ha! Got them. Alright now to get a bit more serious. Hey, a golden four-armed skeleton. Now my guess is he is handled just like how his weaker compatriots were handled, the bomb trick from Link's Awakening... That didn't take long. Hey, now I have a whip. Cue the 80's New Wave while I see what this thing is useful for. Alright, so I can play Tarzan and Indiana Jones with it, sweet! Plus it causes jets of water in some places. Now I'm in some sort of basement, looks like an entirely different place. I wonder if there was a Temple idea that got abandoned too late to keep the aesthetic consistent. Pretty cool area none-the-less. Alright, now this moving pillar is threatening to ruin my day. Luckily this isn't a recording, because I'm certain I have sworn more times than is necessary. Ah, I flip the switch, should've thought of that sooner. Alright then, now on to the boss. So those rings must require the whip, let's try that. Oh cool, I have to hack away at him with his own massive sword! Now I have a longer and stronger sword. So that's pretty cool. Onward to the next province. Now I have returned to the desert. Hurray! Ok, found the location of the next trial. This one is actually easier than the first one, I think. Eureka, claw shots. So now I can get through the sand falls. That is quite a long way to fall, thankfully I have the claw shots. Alright, now the robot is revived. So, you're a seafaring mechanization, yet I am the one who must pilot your personal sea craft? That makes perfect sense. That is a rather precarious island dwelling you have robot. Now I have your charts, what's next. Well this is a really cool roller coaster! It would be even more fun if my sensor bar played nice. Well, at least it worked right this time. So what happens next? A short dungeon area? Now for another ride! No issues that time, thankfully. Oh great, another giant scorpion. Fantastic. Thanks for letting me know the ship wasn't in here after fighting the thing Fi. Ok, so now would be the time to head to the pirate island. Well this is a cool place, looks like a giant mouth. Decent time puzzle area, glad it's a quick one. So the ship is still seaworthy, in a manner of speaking... So, shoot randomly while sailing then? Alright. Ten minutes later, finally aboard the ship, alas it is time to stop for the day.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:35:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425&iddiary=9729https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425Previously on my venture into Skyward Sword I was trapped in the Mine, trying to figure out how to progress. On this episode, I finish the mine! (I hope...) Alright, so here I am in this gate puzzle. Now to run around the dungeon aimlessly until I find something. Well, that happened faster than I thought it would. Excellent, now I can continue. While I admire the new Beamos design, I have never hated the things more. Of course, there's a gauntlet of them to run. Well this room is a bit frustrating. Ok good, now I can get to the boss room. Ah the boss is a gigantic scorpion, that explains the fleshy little ones. That reminds me of the Temple of Time from Twilight Princess, actually. This boss is much harder though, thanks in no small part to my buggy sensor bar! Well, there go my fairies. Drat, now I have to be careful. Dead, knew that was gonna happen. Now to try again! Alright, managed to win with 1 heart left. The inclusion of the shop vac was pretty neat. On to the next challenge. Impa blasted the hell out of the Time Portal, now I have to find the other one. Let us place the last slab and find out what to do. ALright, to the Forest Temple, I guess the sage will know. Oh look, Groose followed me here. Fantastic. Big and Toothy has been arisen from his seal, and is now slowly walking up to the temple. It is pretty cool that I have to swing upward to hit the little spike in his head. So... he slides, I guess this makes him some sort of gigantic eel-penguin hybrid? I shall nick-name him the Eeguin, because it is somewhat more humorous than Demise. So now I must figure out how to find some sort of beacon for the hero. Well, there is that Tower near the edge of town. So the windmills turn when I use the shop vac. Good thing I had a few ancient flowers, that way I can just revive that robot for the other one. Indignant little guy, isn't he? Constantly insulting the guy with the sword. It is funny that he views Fi amorously. The other pinwheel, I remember seeing something like it near the second Temple. There we go, now to make the tower do something. More tedious flying! After arriving at the Isle of Songs I have been told I must now revisit the three provinces again. Onward to Faron. So now I have to perform the song to enter some sort of trial. Now, let's give this a try. I like the serene blue, the statue guardians look kind of cool. Now the world is all orange, and they're after me! Crap! I need to find one of the droplets! Oh good, respite. Now back to the serene blue. For my deeds I receive: A scale on a necklace! I can swim now. So, now I will go up the tree, I guess. There is an old kikiwi up here. So, I open the gate by completing the symbol. Sounds simple enough. The octorocs understand people in this game, but seem quite cocky about their swimming skills. So, the dragon is in a pot? Of course she would send me back to the other side of the forest for water. Alright lady, but only because I need to get to the next temple. Here's your water, seems like a very small amount to really be as helpful as it seems... Now for the Cistern, which reveals itself like the Angler's Cavern from Link's Awakening. I have got to stop here now. I'll pick it up again later.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:02:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425&iddiary=9728https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425Play session #3 of Skyward Sword, told by reaction rather than assessment as per the usual. Alrighty, now to take on this Fire Temple. Begins fairly well, I am reminded of the OoT version with the open atrium space. Hurray for bomb flowers, always fun to blow stuff up. I won't waste much time thinking about how impossible this mode of transportation is, save to say there is no way Link could survive that. Oh good, they gave me a bomb bag. Sweet, I can pick up bomb flowers to refill the bag! I wish they had done that in older entries... Running on a giant marble through the lava river... Still running... Now I'm running from a giant ball, I don't even have an Incan statuette! Oh look, that Ghirahim guy again, well of course your work force is incompetent, have you seen them? A gigantic flaming marble with legs, what an interesting boss. Well, Impa, perhaps I would've been on time if there had been a faster way to travel down a lava river... Well, second temple down, back to the Goddess Temple in Skyloft. As I suspected, Lanayru Province. This looks like some sort of mine. Oh, I'm supposed to bowl the bombs. Now I feel foolish. I like the spots where time alters to patches of life, cool idea. Don't worry robot guy, I'll take out the Tron Bobokins. It would seem that these guys don't fight for the user... That is a lot of quicksand, let's see I guess I should kill the nautilus and maybe use its shell? Fairly neat timing puzzle in the tree trunk. Go figure, I can't get into the Temple of Time immediately. There's another way, but I have to get to the entrance first. Ok then, onward! This temple is pretty cool. I guess the shop vac is pretty cool. So, how in the world do I progress from here? I'll pic this back up tomorrow.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:17:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425&iddiary=9727https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425So shall begin session 2 of Skyward Sword. Here I am in the first temple. These spider-webs are quite aggravating. The swinging mechanism is really neat, just wish it was more precise with the webs. I like how short and to-the-point this dungeon is. My biggest complaint about Twilight Princess was the dungeon length being too long. Oh that's fairly neat, a beetle RC device. Now to see what sort of mayhem I can cause with it. The range isn't long, but the giant spiders really hate it. It takes out the Deku Baba with ease too. Now I have reached the first boss room. Ghirahim, that name seems familiar. His design reminds me of the count from Super Paper Mario. Ah, of course he will grab my sword if I don't attack from the correct direction, problem is the sensor bar loves to mess that up. At long last, and one fairy later I have beaten him. Pretty cocky exit, perhaps underestimating Link is against your best interests... At any rate, it is time to find out where to go next. I like that the name conventions are the Twilight Princess ones, as going back to calling the volcano Death Mountain would just seem uninventive now. What's with the mole people? I prefer the Gorons, I wonder why there's only been one so far. Cool, now I can dig holes. That yields a few items, and pockets of air. After a long climb, and thwarting many pesky Bobokin, I have reached the Fire Temple. Alas, I must end here. This game has me hooked already... (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:37:57.)Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:59:04 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425&iddiary=9726https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425Finally, I have my Wii. Having returned from an exhausting trip to Hampton Roads, I am back to my Student Apartment. I have high expectations of this particular entry into the series, largely because Nintendo has never let me down. Other reasons include: ridiculous hype to which only Link can live up, my status as a life-time fan of LoZ. The first video game I ever played was the original on the NES back between 1989 and 1991. Personal history explained: let us begin the first entry. My room is obviously not the ideal setting for a sensor bar, the damn thing won't pick up the remote well. Blast, I have to update. Now that my system is as ready as I am, let the game begin! So far so good, calibration successful (we'll see about that sensor bar). I am really enjoying the water-color art style. The story is beginning well, that is a rather large mouth... I believe this is the 4th LoZ entry to begin with Link asleep, what a lazy guy. Dual analog has spoiled me, this camera set up is a little frustrating. Why does Nintendo hate joysticks? I'm glad to see Zelda taking an active role in the story, that trend has been in escalation since OoT. Well, Link isn't the first Nintendo character I would want to push off a cliff but the humor is well placed. It's not everyday that a light-hearted Nintendo game begins by nearly murdering the protagonist. Evidently, Nintendo has taken a cue from Square because the big guy looks like a character from FFXIII. I like that the art team utilized the limitations of the system to enhance the art style, everything loses focus in the manner that an actual painting might. The flight controls will take some getting used to, damn red-haired guy keeps hitting my bird! There we go, now onto the ceremony. Link is falling from a high place again, I wonder how the dev team came up with that? Perhaps they were always talking about the pressure of developing such highly anticipated software and how easily the title could push the series over a cliff if done wrong (a-la Other M). Well, that was an intense series of events, now Link is on the ground and talking to an old (person?) with a pendulum of hair. These forest creatures remind me of Pokemon, that series has really influenced every other Nintendo series it would seem. That tombstone clue was entirely useless, the diamonds do not look like stars. At any rate, I am now in the first major temple but I have to stop here.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:45:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5425&iddiary=9724https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5423I will be leaving town after this entry, and will be returning with my Wii. As such, this will be my last FFXII entry because I will now have access to Skyward Sword. At any rate, I have taken a story break to grind. My characters have gotten to the mid 20's now, and nearly 40% of the License Board is complete. Since I have not done much that can be considered new, this will also be a short entry.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:20:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5423&iddiary=9722https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5423Humorously, I have decided to create a log for the game I gave a less than stellar review to recently. As previously stated in the review, the game is not terrible. It just fails to live up to its own potential. The entire character roster only yields two well generated members. Balthier has overtones of the Han Solo brand of bravado, which is aided by him being a pirate and pilot. Because he doesn't have any overly emotional story arcs, his character does not fall into the same pitfalls that two of the others do. That is good, because the emotional characters are not well written. The other good character is Basch. He is a knight, and lives wholly up to the stoic and reserved nature that his standard build would preclude. Interestingly, these are the only two characters who are dressed in a manner that is appropriate for a medieval setting. The sound suffers from the same issues that many other games did at the same time, in tat it sounds like it was recorded in a hall with added reverb and the mic was housed in a tin can. I immediately switched to my own playlist, and the game played more enjoyably after. I have completed roughly 30% of the storyline at this point. I did not realize how short the story is.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:17:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5423&iddiary=9721https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5272Having "re-rolled" I have experienced the game in an entirely different manner. My previous character was a brute-force knight character in which I spent the time needed to craft the most powerful equipment I could. This new character is an assassin, thief and ranger. She is already maxed out on pickpocket, and has nearly mastered sneak. Many points that were difficult in the game for my previous character have proven to be nearly too easy this time, as well as the opposite in others. I mostly notice that draugr crypts give me the most pause, whereas dwemer ruins provide next to no challenge because I'm almost never detected. This will likely be the last entry for Skyrim, as I am perturbed that PS3 still has no DLC.Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:09:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5272&iddiary=9719https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5272I decided to head back into the swing of an in-depth RPG. I decided to roll a new character in Skyrim (outdated term I know, but I've used roll to describe characters I generate ever since Diablo). Barring the rampant software glitches the game is notorious for, the experience is just as enthralling each time I re-enter the Northwest Territory of Tamriel. Player choice is the strongest component of storytelling in the game. At the outset, you must sit through a story setup before creating your avatar. Unlike its predecessors, Skyrim forces you to sit through the introduction every time you start a new game. While the homage to Half-Life is appreciated, the scene should be skippable without generating a save just before the character creation screen. Since it is a minor complaint, it doesn't detract from gameplay. Player choice is gradually introduced during the first playable area. You can obtain a few spells, various weapons and armors, as well as learn to navigate the area stealthily if you choose. The options for choice explode once you leave the introduction, prompting you to travel anywhere you desire to. Gameplay has only sustained minor changes since the Morrowind entry of the series. The visuals revolve around being able to choose to explore in first or third person. Animations have improved as much as graphic presentation. The addition of "kill-cam" slow motion adds a small reward to kills randomly. The biggest changes are the ability to dual-wield any single handed weapon or spell. Shouts add an interesting depth to gameplay as well. The only real complaints to be had about the title are: -Inconsistent voice talent -Software glitches number far outside what a developer should be willing to present in a final game -Character creation has been scaled back, allowing very minor changes in appearance to be madeFri, 19 Oct 2012 14:30:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5272&iddiary=9554