Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=9https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=78jp lent this to me on the trolley one morning. I played for about 5 minutes. It was sort of cute. It reminds me of a cross between Tetris and Galaga. You line up your red and blue potatos to match the oncoming red and blue potatos, and then blast them away to make room to get by. There's the puzzle aspect of lining up your potatos correctly, the speed aspect of doing it before the potatos hit you, and the shooting aspect of blasting your way through. I bet my mom would like it (mom is really into Dr. Mario and Tetris. I used to be able to beat her, but now she kicks my butt). Oh, don't bother if you're red-blue color blind, though. I think red-green is ok, since the green potatos also have rolling pins.Tue, 02 Dec 2003 15:19:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=78&iddiary=123https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41Wow, I've played a ton since last I made an entry. My Castle is doing well. I've got a bath house, barracks, garden, cattle, weapons shop, item shop, inn, restaurant... I'm particularly fond of the restaurant. The Iron Chef mechanic is amusing. Not that I have any idea how to affect it. The announcer's comments sounds like they give clues as to what the judges like, but I don't see that reflected in the scores. Also, are you supposed to do anything when the gages go up and down? The FAQ I was reading says yes, though I don't remember the game instructing me to do anything, and it's usually good about things like that. Anyway, I'm enjoying collecting seeds, spices, and livestock to my chef has lots of ingredients. Fishing is also fun, but I can't seem to catch a salmon for the life of me. So very sad. Oh, my other big acquisition was Vicki, the teleporter. I was getting quite sick of walking everywhere. At least now I only need to walk in one direction. I hope there will be a widget that lets you teleport home some day. Then the world will be mine! Or something. Blondie keeps getting more and more evil by the day. He just committed regicide after marrying the princess, which makes him the ueberbadyguy's brother-in-law. I think it's going to turn out to be one of those things where he's going to conquor the world and rule it with an iron fist to prevent suffering, or something like that. I keep waiting for him to kill the ueberbadguy.Tue, 02 Dec 2003 15:10:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41&iddiary=122https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=66I finished Wonderland. Must say, I was sort of disappointed. The Cheshire Cat kept mocking me for forgetting something, yet I'm pretty sure I cleared the board. Alice is still kidnapped, but there didn't seem to be any way to prevent that. Oh, and the evidence thing. So you present your evidence and the Queen presents hers, and then the boxes are randomized. You pick one, and that's the verdict. That didn't bug me so much as they had me pick the box. It seemed to me there ought to be some clever way to figure out which box was the right one, but there wasn't. I kept picking the wrong box, which meant Goofy and Donald kept getting captured, so I kept dying in the battle that came afterwards. After that, I was introduced to the ship building mechanic. It was complecated and I didn't have enough pieces anyway, so I ignored it and went on to Tarzan Land. Tarzan's probably the one animated Disney movie I haven't seen, so it was sort of wacky. Do tigers always attack you in Tarzan? I didn't remember that from the other versions of the story I've seen. Also, in retrospect, I think I was supposed to have gone to Hercules Land first, but it worked out ok. Anyway, in Tarzan Land, I swapped Donald for Tarzan pretty quick. Donald keeps dying on me, but Tarzan's very useful. What I didn't realize then was that I need Goofy and Donald to activate Trinities, so I ended up missing all of them. It's probably ok, though. It looks like when you fly around in your ship, you can't go to a planet without landing on all the planets in between. That means I'll be visiting Tarzan Land again. Though this means Donald didn't get very many experience points, and now he's even farther behind. It's always the way with mages. Happily, I have lots of money now. Maybe I can buy Donald better armor. But next, on to Hercules!Tue, 02 Dec 2003 14:57:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=66&iddiary=121https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=66It really is so darn cute! It's a little heavy on the action for my taste, but so far I can hack it. I find having multiple characters is hard, since then it's less clear where the enemies are. You're still in combat time, yet all the bad guys may be off screen fighting Goofy and Donald. I like how you can't really die. Otherwise, I'd die a lot. Donald keeps dying on me too. I have him casting defensive magic constantly now. We'll see if that helps. The combination of Disney and Squaresoft is really disconcerting. Trippy, and sort of disturbing. I approve, but I'm surprised Disney went for it. I'm currently in Wonderland, looking for the fourth piece of evidence. I think I can get it if I get a potion so I can feed it to the flower and get big again. Either that or I need another elixer. I may have to go back to that other town and buy one... no, wait, I can't do that. We can't go back, only forward. Guess I'll have to fight more monsters. How annoying.Tue, 04 Nov 2003 23:40:53 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=66&iddiary=96https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=62I played this for several months a few years ago, and picked it up again to kill time while everyone was watching horror movies. The soundtrack interaction was interesting. I started a Ranger this time.Tue, 21 Oct 2003 17:30:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=62&iddiary=84https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41I'm up to about 17 hours of game play now, I think. I'm enjoying it a great deal. It was sort of dungeon-crawly at the beginning, but it got over that. My blond buddy finally got around to betraying me, like he was clearly going to. I was surprised he did so by killing this lady resistance leader, right after she'd shared an intimate drink with our favorite unpolished fighter guy, Victor. Poor Victor. Sucks to be him. And me, really. I really liked that combo move I could do in combat whenever blondie was in the party. We've finally gotten to the meat of the game. I have my castle, which like in Suikoden I, I named "My" (which causes all the characters to call it "My Castle", which I find much funnier than it really is.) I'm wandering around, collecting people, like in the last game. I've finding the collection to be a bit more difficult this time around, though. I find the person, but I can't figure out how to recruit them half the time. I've had to resort to online FAQ's. I am also looking forward to getting a teleporter. Trekking across the landscape is starting to get old. The money balance in this version seems to be off too. I always have way more money than I need. Though one of the first things I did was equip Nanami with a weapon crystal that lets her beat extra money out of monsters, so perhaps it's just my superior strategy. This version also suffers from the same problem the last one did, where if you blink while they're telling you about the plot, or accidentally click it away too soon, there's no way to replay that bit of conversation about what you're supposed to do next. I picked the game up again after several weeks of hiatus, and damned if I could remember what I was supposed to do next. I have recruited the blond fisherman guy with the name which is not entirely unlike Chinese, Yam Ko or something like that. He allows you to play the fishing mini-game, which I really like. Why, I don't know, since it's pretty inane. You catch fish for 100 coins a shot. You tap the X button repeatedly to increase the tension on your line, and stop to decrease the tension. You have to keep the tension within certain boundries (which change, representing the struggling of the fish). If you succeed, you catch something. If it's yummy, you can keep it for cooking (which is a mini-game I haven't found yet, though I have many recipes). If not, Yam Ko will buy it from you. Once you get a bit of practice, you can even make a little money at it. I still haven't managed to get a salmon yet, though. And now I'm on my way to the ambush in Two Rivers, so I can't try again until later. You know, it's sort of cute how transparant this game is sometimes. The bad guys are bad. The good guys are good. They try to introduce moral conflict, but it's all very simple (as well as scripted), so I never feel personally invested. It's more like an elaborate puppet show.Sat, 18 Oct 2003 01:50:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41&iddiary=79https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41TestMon, 22 Sep 2003 23:43:00 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=41&iddiary=46https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=43This is a diary entry for Thursday, when I started playing. So far, the UI is driving me batty, and yes, I have a three button mouse. I keep getting disoriented, and moving to a specific place and then arranging myself so the field of view is right is a total pain in the ass. I'm currently on the first quest, to get the three stones and balance them on the pedastal so I can get my totem animal. The problem is, even though I know I passed the rock on the way in, I can't seem to find it. I got another large rock with wacky designs on it, but I guess that was the wrong one, since it didn't do anything. That being said, the game is quite pretty. Using the temple as the main menu is interesting, though I think I'll tire of the lovely but time consuming animations that play as you navigate.Mon, 22 Sep 2003 23:05:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=43&iddiary=45