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Feb 9th, 2008 at 01:01:03 - Harvest Moon, Magical Melody (GC) |
GAMEPLAY
The customizable aspect of the game got a bit more interesting in this session, since I made enough money to start purchase some land and a chicken coop. I probably cared a bit too much about naming chickens, as this managed to stall the game a bit. I managed to establish a method for getting through a given day, though it occasionally got interrupted when new people move in. (I tried to move in a particular circuit so that I kept backtracking to a minimum and was at each building when it opened.)
I realized that I chose relative easy girls to woo (Jamie and Maria), in the sense that I was able to access their preferred gifts without too much trouble. I cheated a bit in that I looked up what they liked, since trial and error is a bit of a pain with this aspect. Apparently, giving someone a present that they dislike but isn’t intrinsically bad is enough for them to immediately become less friendly with you. (This doesn’t, however, stop characters from taking the item anyway and depriving you of a shippable resource.) This was probably intended to add to the challenge of befriending characters, but there are enough characters that it takes a while anyway.
DESIGN
The story in this game is pretty clearly a way to include some extra rewards into the otherwise standard Harvest-Moon-style gameplay. Most musical notes end up appended to some task or event that you would normally participate in anyway, like going to festivals, wooing/befriending eligible singles, and using tools. Apart from collecting notes, the game is mostly built on goals that aren’t exactly required by the game, but are necessary to keep the game interesting. The player doesn’t need to get married, buy all of the property, get fully-upgraded tools, or reach the bottom of the mines, but without doing at least some of these, the game would likely feel boring and pointless.
One thing that disappoints me in this game is the interaction with other characters. The dialogues isn’t particularly varied – the characters only have one line associated with a location, and will spend the rest of the day telling the player “goodbye” after speaking together once. A couple of these lines change whenever the player jumps whenever the friendship goes up a level, but this is gradual enough that it doesn’t really keep the day-to-day interactions from being monotonous. Little of the dialogue expands the character much, particularly when it’s used as an in-game tutorial, which happens relatively frequently.
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Feb 9th, 2008 at 00:03:54 - Harvest Moon, Magical Melody (GC) |
SUMMARY
In Harvest Moon: MM, the player controls a farmer (either male or female) and takes part in various activities such as growing crops, raising livestock, socializing, fishing, mining, and wooing members of the opposite sex. As the player completes various tasks (shipping particular items, whistling a certain number of times, etc.), the game awards musical notes used (somehow) to revive a local petrified deity.
GAMEPLAY
Unlike my last couple of games, I had played this one before, so it didn't quite have that 'freshness' that comes with a game that I'm not familiar with. Still, I enjoy playing Harvest Moon now and then, so it was fun for me. I at least knew exactly which of the three initially available properties I wanted (river).
While I've often seen this praised as having more story than most Harvest Moons, it really just has a bit more of an obvious goal (reviving the Harvest Goddess), which doesn't really affect the open-ended gameplay very much. Apparently, people aren't nice anymore, so the Goddess turns to stone (on purpose?), and you must collect musical notes that appear for some reason when you do things. Every five notes turn into an instrument, and enough instruments will bring the Goddess back.
The gameplay is entertaining, though it picked up pretty slowly in this session since I've never really mastered moneymaking. There's a lot to do in a day, especially if you're like me and try to cram in every possible kind of activity. (Talk to every villager, water/harvest crops, weed, mine, fish . . .) I usually pick up a particular routine to get everything done in these kinds of games, but it had been long enough since I played the game last that I wasn't immediately very efficient.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 21:02:41 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) |
GAMEPLAY
One thing I’ve started to notice is that the fairly basic premise – Mario collecting stars and rescuing Peach from Bowser – allows me to focus more on my usual 100% completion goal. I’m more willing to spend time finding every available star at a given point when I’m not really anticipating the next scene.
The extra challenge types are a bit hit-and-miss for me. I enjoy playing as a bee, but not having to roll a ball around using the Wiimote. I guess this is because the former provides an alternate, and often more useful, set of abilities, while the latter mostly just gives me a new way to die. The bee suit also has the added virtue of appearing to be a shout-out to Mario’s animal-themed powerups from SMB3.
DESIGN
The levels are surprisingly linear for a game that appears to make strong use of all dimensions. In galaxies that require you to travel from planet to planet, you are usually only given one option as to where to go next at any time. Most other paths that appear available tend to either lead to a minor powerup and a dead end or, on one occasion per galaxy, a hidden star. The good side of this is that most of the individual missions in a galaxy place you in a completely different part area, so you aren’t just doing minor variations on the same thing in each mission.
One of the more significant issues is the camera. It very frequently does not respond to player input, and while it is usually positioned satisfactorily, it will occasionally do things like point in the opposite direction of where the player is trying to go. The game often does not even allow first-person views, which can be a pain when trying to explore. Since the player is almost guaranteed to be stationary when using first person, it seems like allowing first person most of the time wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
The entire game is essentially a series of small challenges, which means the rewards (i.e. stars) are provided with high frequency. This gives a good incentive to keep playing from moment to moment; the next star never seems that far away. The missions themselves often use numerous small challenges, like getting off the current planet, to keep the pace moving even more quickly.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 19:56:59 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) |
SUMMARY
Super Mario Galaxy is a 3-D platforming game that focuses on collecting stars from various areas (called galaxies in this game) primarily through exploration, boss battles, and navigating Mario through hazardous landscapes. Most of said navigation is done through running and jumping, with occasional missions involving things like swimming or riding rays. As the player collects more stars, more galaxies are unlocked, eventually allowing the player to access a final galaxy that marks the end of the game’s story.
GAMEPLAY
The game has been fun for me so far; I’m pretty fond of collection games, even if concept isn’t terribly original. While I played the game for a fair amount of time, I’m still not particularly far in it and therefore haven’t reached anything frustrating, though I could see things like platforming over constant bottomless pits becoming challenging later in the game. Most of the bosses so far have had pretty simple attack patterns, though it was at least kind of interesting leading Bullet Bills around on the one major boss.
A few of the elements felt a little strange for me, mostly because of incorrect, unconscious expectations I had about the gameplay. In particular, I was a bit more careless about taking damage because I was used to being able to take five hits, as in the previous two 3-D Mario games, instead of the three hits given in this one.
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Cambdoranononononono has been with GameLog for 16 years, 9 months, and 11 days |
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