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Feb 8th, 2008 at 21:02:21 - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS) |
Gamelog #3 Session #2 for CMPS 20
Start Time: 7:00 pm
End Time: 9:00 pm
Assignment due 2/8/08
GAMEPLAY
I really enjoyed the story of L:SSSC. The characters, as I've mentioned, were absorbing and entertaining. When you play certain scenes outside of cutscenes, the faces of the characters speaking show up in various moods and emotional states. This furthers plot progression and is more interesting than text alone. When I last played the game, I had just begun on a story arc past the first major conflict. I suspect the game supplies many more conflicts, and that this is just the beginning. I really want to keep playing to find out.
The game was a lot of fun to play. A lot of that was because of content other than gameplay. This was kind of strange for me; usually the gameplay is what matters in a game. However, the music was original, the art was consistently good, and the animated cutscenes really make this game unique. They all made me want to play more of the game. It also didn't hurt that the gameplay, which could have been neglected, was awesome. With this game's scope as vast as it is, leaving things less than great was a distinct possibility, and I'm pretty relieved it didn't happen.
The game was interesting to play. Besides offering interesting characters and story, there were puzzles where you had to observe how your environment would respond to certain actions. It took me a while to figure out how to clear the path in the first cave, but after I figured it out, I was fine. Besides that, I didn't even get frustrated with the puzzles because I was gaining experience, leveling up, and gaining new abilities. In other words, the rewards in-game more than balance out the puzzles' difficulty. Even when you're technically stuck, you're usually having a great time.
However, there's not much social interaction while you're playing. The game has a small but devoted following that enjoys discussion of the game, but, there is no multiplayer option. That doesn't mean that observers don't get absorbed in the game right along with you, though. While I was playing, several people stopped what they were doing to watch me play. It has a pretty cool effect on people. Just passing by, they go from not caring to wanting to watch you play, if not play themselves.
The storyline has a strong but linear flow. I experienced a little bit of flow while playing the game. Playing the first few hours of this huge game, I got a sense that there was some urgency involved in the story. It was a little bumpy, though, in terms of coherence. Specifically, in one scene, the main characters are preparing for a festival in honor of their goddess, Althena. However, after you retrieve a treasure from the nearby cave, you make plans to depart right away. This was a little strange, considering that some of the main characters had been preparing for something they weren't going to follow through on. Real people probably wouldn't forget something like that as easily. Despite its minor flow issues, I really liked this game.
DESIGN
Some of the innovative things in this game were the previously mentioned technical achievements. I'm still amazed that you can play a game with this scope on a PlayStation. They crammed a whole lot of game onto two discs. I have a feeling this was made possible by cutting corners on the main gameplay graphics, which are solely in 2D. Cutting corners in this way, however, was surely an early game design decision, rather than one coming from a poorly managed schedule or budget. I was pretty impressed with this game.
The tone of the gameworld is excited and adventurous. The use of mostly bright colors helps with the tone. You never feel a sense of despair playing this game. The characters also have a huge emotional expressiveness. That always appeals to me. Some emotions the characters have displayed so far include the basic happiness and sadness, but also embarrassment, shock, worry, and anger. The wide expressive range of the characters helps to flesh them out and make them seem more like real people.
Some ideas this game gives me for my own project is using resources wisely. It's not necessary to have lots of hours of gameplay on a game so long as the game is fun and interesting. It helps to decide with certainty on what style to use for creative content. I may eventually make a game with cutscenes, but I won't worry about having cutscenes that look like the main gameplay. A lot of games brag about that, but most gamers don't really care. The styles on L:SSSC vary a lot, but they're always high-quality and appropriate for the tone of the game.
This game is pretty much non-emergent. There are some basic moves involved in gameplay, but it is definitely an RPG. As such, I would expect to find a walkthrough for this game more easily than I would find a strategy guide. There is a user manual for if you can't figure out the basics, but it's not really necessary. It would be even easier if the choices you could make were labeled with buttons to press beside them, but they didn't choose to do that in this game.
The cutscenes were really impressive. They support gameplay by contributing to the flow and tone of the game. The visuals and audio were always pleasant to the senses, and so I enjoyed playing more. The cutscenes don't really interfere with gameplay at all; the cutscenes are short and they're only used when the story needs an extra boost of creative expression. They are not used overly much; they are not abused.
I really, REALLY liked Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I would recommend it to anyone.
Keep playing!
This entry has been edited 4 times. It was last edited on Feb 8th, 2008 at 22:43:24.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 21:01:44 - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS) |
Gamelog #3 Session #1 for CMPS 20
Start Time: 5:00 pm
End Time: 7:00 pm
Assignment due 2/8/08
SUMMARY
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a beautifully crafted game. It boasts anime cutscenes, varied and plentiful voice acting, and old school RPG gameplay reminiscent of a 2D RPG by Square/Square-Enix. The story is pretty compelling, and it's really interesting what can be done on a mere PlayStation in terms of artistic achievement and interesting gameplay. If you ever get the chance to play this game, drop whatever you're doing and play this one. It's that good.
GAMEPLAY
Emotionally, I was totally absorbed in this game and loving it. The art in-game is really beautiful; it really fits the story and capabilities of the PlayStation system well. Even though the main initial puzzle of the game took a long time to figure out, I didn't get frustrated. I did get a little tired of looking for clues, but I was rewarded enough for my effort that I didn't really mind. Furthermore, the solution to the ice puzzle was pretty novel and interesting. I didn't get lonely because I was so absorbed in the game, despite the game's lack of a multiplayer aspect.
The characters in the game include Alex, Nall, Luna, Ramus. Alex is the green-eyed protagonist who dreams of becoming a DragonMaster like his idol, the hero Dyne. Nall is a white-and-gold daemon with a high-pitched voice in which he speaks the same language in spite of not being human. Nall resembles a winged cat, and he tends to blab with unfortunate consequences. Luna is a girl with a beautiful singing voice with magical properties. Blue-haired Luna has been raised by Alex's parents, but Alex and Luna's relationship is not quite brother-sister; there's a little bit of romantic tension between them. Ramus is a nerdy boy who is a little greedy and a little chunky. Even though he has brown hair in the cutscenes, the action scenes show him with blue hair.
I really liked these characters, which is good; you spend roughly three hours or more with only them in your party. The characters caught my interest, and they seemed pretty well fleshed out. I was laughing out loud when playing sometimes; the characters are easy to relate to and it's fun to play through the story. There are some interesting story arcs, but it's important to note that, at least in the start of the game, the game flows linearly.
In video games, I like female characters who sing. Marin from Z:LA is a notable example. The singing is usually an important story element, but it takes time to make music for a game. You wouldn't make a character sing unless it was important. When a female sings in-game, it tends to signal that she will become more important later or that she is a love interest, usually both. Luna follows this paradigm. She is important as a character, but she also is Alex's main companion and one of the most prominent love interests for Alex. Even though the singing is an important cue, it's also very rare for a singing character to be left by the wayside.
The characters were pretty convincingly executed. The voice acting was appropriate. The art made it more interesting to look at, which also improved how much I stayed interested in the game. In an RPG, the character development is usually crucial. There is a bit of humor in the game, but it's usually situational and dependent upon the characters, rather than being slapstick, potty humor, sarcasm, or satire. The characters seem to care about each other and be motivated in non-arbitrary ways. In other words, I really liked these characters for being well-developed and deep. I think they're pretty cool.
This entry has been edited 5 times. It was last edited on Feb 8th, 2008 at 21:54:15.
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Jan 23rd, 2008 at 19:44:23 - Gradius (NES) |
Gamelog #2 Session #2 for CMPS 20
Start Time: 5:00 pm
End Time: 6:00 pm
Assignment due 1/25/08
Note: Whoops, this got posted to the front page. LOL, how embarrassing! Anyway, there ought to be a way to get this format template for 20/80K posted somewhere. It would be convenient.
GAMEPLAY
Gradius started out as sort of fun to play and turned into a chore. I couldn't get past the first level; a spewing volcano of sorts got in the way. The game doesn't have a tutorial, which makes you feel silly if you can't figure out the complicated weapons system when there's really only two buttons (it's the NES version). Out of boredom with the game, I tried to see how long I would last simply holding down the "shoot" button. Surprisingly, it was comparable to how long I lasted when I was actively trying to play well. This was immensely discouraging.
Some of the more difficult aspects of the game which were difficult to the point of destroying the fun of the game were evading enemies and figuring out how to use the power-ups effectively. Evading enemies of normal size was okay, but trying to evade multiple "baseballs of doom" was really difficult. The boss volcano that spewed brown "baseballs of doom" looked really unpleasant and was really difficult, if not impossible, to get by. The power-ups were often more of a hindrance than a boost. One of the power-ups also shoots bad guys, but effectively makes you a bigger target, making it more difficult to pass levels where you have to squeeze into certain areas. Not only that, it absorbs most of the accumulated bonuses, making it difficult to get something else that will help you.
One very sad thing about Gradius is that you are thrown into a situation, without any reason to care about the outcome. Usually, compelling story and characters would do this for a game. The development that would go into story and characters could be pretty minimal, such as a scant few lines of text that names a few character names. No such thing is in Gradius, which means that after I quickly tired of the gameplay itself, there were no characters or story to keep me coming back.
Looking through other reviews of the game, the major thing going for this SHMUP is that it's a classic. That good point can only persuade someone to try a game, not to stick with it. Many other reviews had similarly negative tone; my bad experience is not unique.
I don't recommend this game to anyone but someone who 1) is a hardcore SHMUP-player, and 2) has access to the manual and/or walkthrough. Although the game has a two-player option at the beginning, I didn't have the opportunity to try it. Besides, I'm not sure I would subject any of my friends to Gradius.
DESIGN
Gradius creates conflict, but mostly not the kind you want or expect. The challenges are mostly how to not get bored, frustrated, or angry playing this game. The game didn't bother to keep things interesting. With no story, few characters, poor gameplay, and huge difficulty, Gradius doesn't keep me interested in the least. This game could be hugely improved with tutorials and narrative, which it lacks completely.
The steep learning curve and complicated power-up system make this a bad game. Gradius has a following, but it's not part of the typically mainstream audience and market, and the learning curve and complications are likely why. I enjoyed this game for the first ten minutes, but every 10-minute interval after that, I had learned nothing and basically repeated the same game experience, which was pretty awful.
Despite all its faults, Gradius makes pretty good use of space within the gameworld. The whole screen is filled with baddies and the environment for much of the time. The sky is filled with stars rather than being a plain, empty black. Good use of space might be a good feature in a game. However, the good use of space in this game serves only to make the game more difficult than it originally was, which hurts the design of the game.
The tone of the music and the tone of the gameworld conflict hugely in my opinion. The tone of the music sounds like you're exploring and making revelations. The tone of the gameworld makes it seems as though you have a clear mission to destroy bad guys. However, the tone of the music and gameworld both conflict with what's really going on. For example, death in-game resulted in a jubilant ditty being played. The tone is therefore mixed and confused, which is pretty disappointing.
I would change a lot of things about this game. If something is not obvious, I would have a tutorial so it's not necessary to keep a manual. Paper manuals are frequently lost, even for games which require some explanation. It's not that the controls of Gradius themselves are complicated; it's just complicated and confusing when there's no explanation given. Knowing this information changes gameplay from an experiment into an experience, I think. The one thing this very frustrating experience has taught me about games I will make are: have explanations handy in-game. Not only does it simplify things and ease the learning curve, it can make or break a game.
That's it for this entry. Keep gaming!
This entry has been edited 8 times. It was last edited on Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:43:56.
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Jan 22nd, 2008 at 22:52:51 - Gradius (NES) |
Gamelog #2 Session #1 for CMPS 20
Start Time: 7:00 pm
End Time: 8:00 pm
Assignment due 1/25/08
SUMMARY
Gradius is a game with very little backstory. That's probably a good thing, considering that Gradius is a SHMUP. Even though it's not story-oriented or character-driven, Gradius is somewhat compelling for the music and gameplay. This is the first Gradius game, and all of the games that follow don't deviate from the essentials set forth in this game. Developed by Konami, Gradius takes place in a hostile science-fiction outer space environment as you navigate the land and shoot anything that moves.
GAMEPLAY
As far as my emotional response goes, I sort of enjoyed this game. Although the rules are fairly simple, the upgrade system is kind of complicated and not really obvious as you start to play the game. I probably was less enthused about the game than someone would have been when Gradius first came out, but the music is familiar to me and helped me to enjoy this game.
The gameplay mechanic is deceptively simple. You simply shoot and avoid collision with everything on-screen as best you can. The upgrade system is where the game gets complicated. You have five levels of level-up, which require more and more power-ups to attain. They are: speed up, missile, double, laser, option, ?. Speed up is self-explanatory, or it would be if it was more obvious what thing it's speeding up; I couldn't figure it out. Missile shoots a bullet-like projectile diagonally down and ahead. Double shoots twice as much as normal in varying directions. Laser shoots little beams of laser across the screen. Option and ? give you sentinels and forcefields, though during gameplay I got them so rarely I cannot reliably tell them apart. As someone whose first SHMUP is the original Gradius in 2008, this does not surprise me.
I first heard the music of Gradius as a symphonic, orchestrally-arranged suite. Hearing it now in its original, true form is an interesting twist on nostalgia. I recognize the melodies some of the time, but as far as I can tell the music sometimes lacks the expression and depth of the symphonic version. This is likely because at times the music seems to cut out. This hurts the usually immersive effect of the game simply because it sounds terrible.
I don't know the characters in this game. That's not to say that there aren't any, but I had to look up the game on Wikipedia to find the name Vic Viper to describe the name of the ship. The ship is the protagonist, surprisingly; the pilot is nameless, or nonexistent. Even the existence of a pilot is a mystery. As a game, the lack of certainty and depth doesn't really hurt the game overall; it also didn't help. I really enjoy games with a compelling story, and you just won't find such a thing in Gradius. It would be one thing if the story was bad, but not having any whatsoever is just terrible.
I didn't have any interaction with other players during gameplay. That made the game difficult to endure; I almost got lonely. It would be one thing if the game was absorbing and compelling. Playing a game for that long when I don't really enjoy the gameplay is a chore. This is my first SHMUP, and I gave it a chance. Unfortunately, the game was repetitious and frustrating; I didn't make it past the first level and the game played a jubilant ditty when I died. In short, I don't particularly care for this game.
That's it for this entry. I will continue after I play some more.
This entry has been edited 4 times. It was last edited on Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:26:33.
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