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Jan 15th, 2008 at 01:24:38 - Death Jr. (PSP) |
GAMEPLAY
So this pretty much made the brain-deadness after my work shift go away, especially when my pistols got uploaded to a shotgun that makes even bigger splatters. I’m enjoying it a lot, and I think it’s due to two main things; the self-parodying humor, and the near-melee battles that force you to button-mash. Only it’s strategic, to a certain extent. After unloading a round into a wall, the resulting explosion collapsed the ground and dropped DJ into a whole underground cavern with sparkly useful things. It’s rockin’.
DESIGN
While the gloom definitely adds to the Halloween-style atmosphere, at times it also sacrifices visibility. The landscape itself is wonderfully varied, allowing you to use tipped-over cars or giant bones as cover, requiring some skill to balance across walls to reach treasures, or letting you trick demons into falling into the lava. Useful items are just common enough to keep you from dying of enemy-fireball-overload, but not to the point of making it too easy. The soul of every enemy you kill is automatically collected by DJ and then used to open supernatural doors — giving you some purpose for killing things rather than just because the bloodspots look pretty.
Giving grades based on how you performed during the level for certain criteria (killings, combos, etc) isn’t exactly innovative, but here you receive it in the form of a report card. (Did I mention that DJ got sent to kiddies’ military school?) One of the categories is ‘Destruction.’ YES.
As for things like artwork and music, both are quirky and cute in a dead-babies kind of way. Overall, a potentially silly plot for little kids is made awesome through morbid humor, violence, and just fun irreverence; except for a few irritating little things like camera angles, I’m loving it. Totally worth the ten bucks I paid for it down at Streetlight, and more.
I’m thinking that it’s the games that don’t take themselves too seriously, and also force you to think on your feet, that are the most fun. Did I mention you can blow stuff up?
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 19:45:57 - Death Jr. (PSP) |
SUMMARY
Pandora was determined to open that box in the museum while on a school field trip, and being the good friend he is, DJ (Death Jr.) helped her out. Unfortunately, something Bad With Tentacles reached out, grabbed all his friends, and has now scattered bits of their souls in the shape of puzzle pieces. Whatever is a shrimpy, scythe-wielding Grim Reaper’s son to do?
Kill things, naturally. And collect the soul pieces along the way, of course.
GAMEPLAY
So far, this game runs like a wonderful parody on the horror genre—a girl that bleeds from her hands when nervous, a fetus in a tank, and a dead guppy are a few of DJ’s other buddies. The dialogue isn’t particularly interesting, but the visual gags had me laughing, and the mood and music both remind me of Invader Zim with a bit of Tim Burton.
At first it was awkward getting used to which buttons do what, but it doesn’t take long to learn how to switch quickly between long-range firearms and your close-range scythe. Pros: your bullets don’t run out, and you can focus on a specific target using [R]. Con: the camera angles suck, and you can’t control it when running and trying to dodge enemies’ fireballs. Once I got into it, however, then yes, I had a great time watching the blood spray — and this was just in training mode. The enemy demons were relatively difficult but not overwhelming, and made for a nice balance of making progress possible without compromising the fun and challenge.
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Jan 13th, 2008 at 23:31:02 - Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) |
[Part 2 of 2.]
It’s amazing how quickly you can get drawn into a game, so much so that seeing one of your characters get hit makes you reflexively cringe. On another note, I think a chocobo’s greatest weapon isn’t his beak, but the woeful doe-eyes he makes when you raise your hand for the killing stroke. I felt so terrible, but then he Cured both himself and another monster and that effectively slaughtered any mercy I had for him.
The characters themselves haven’t gotten much more interesting. But having to consider where to attack from, deciding whether to heal yourself or slice an enemy with the one turn, which enemies you need to eliminate as quickly as possible (like those black mages), etc — you actually have to pay attention and plan ahead (and thanks to MarsDragon for the hint.) Being able to move around the battlefield rather than being stuck in place, as well as the wide variances within a single landscape, makes it more challenging but also more engaging. I admit I swore aloud a few times. However, at times I feel it’s too difficult, placing you against enemies too far above your own units’ levels; thus leading to lots of GAME OVER screens and frustrated tantrums. Whether this is a fault of the game or just me is debatable.
(I was rather fascinated to find that when I paid for mercenary allies, I was much less likely to use Items on them in battle than on my original units. I’m not sure if this is a result of subtler game design or simply me playing favorites.)
Haven’t yet gotten far enough to comment much on the storytelling or plot advancement itself. Overall, I’m loving the actual strategy necessary for battles, but not so thrilled about the odds I’m being tossed against without the gradual gain of EXP.
I need to hug a chocobo, gosh darn it. (Although Cloud would do, in a pinch.)
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Jan 11th, 2008 at 21:37:48 - Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) |
About the previous post for FFT: War/Lions -
I'm sorry, I meant to say that playing this game doesn't require having played any of the previous related titles, such as the original Tactics or FFXII. It was supposed to have been made both for newbies and for old fans, which was something I appreciated about it. Sorry for being unclear and wording things rather strangely. :)
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lucem_ferre has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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