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Feb 9th, 2008 at 02:55:00 - Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer (GBA) |
First off, I had technical difficulties submitting the first log, so there was a bit of a delay.
GAMEPLAY:
I got a bit farther in the game. I got to the point where I was impatient with my reading skills (or rather, lack thereof) and would just glance at the speech bubbles before going on. Also, I turned off the music for a while, because it got really annoying. I turned it back on for the battle, though.
A little more background. Angelic Layer is set in (more or less) modern-day Tokyo, but an alternate reality where Anglic Layer is a super-popular high-tech toy. It involves putting on a headset to control a doll to fight other dolls. The main character is a young girl just getting into it.
I found it a bit frustrating, since it took me a while to figure out the controls for the battle... moving the character, the doll, was easy, but the attack and defense controls are odd, and I couldn't fully understand the instructions.
DESIGN:
This game is very very linear. The player is, at least thus far, confined strictly to the bounds of the anime's story. It's pleasant enough, and it means that even with my poor Japanese I can still follow the plot, but it's a bit frustrating. It is a common choice for licensed titles, though.
The battle system is odd. I can't say I've ever seen anything exactly like it. Superficially, it does resemble Megaman Battle Network, as I said in the previous entry, in that it takes place on a similar 3x6 grid and is loosely turn-based, but the attack system is different. The doll, Hikaru, only has fairly short-range martial-arts type attacks, but she (?) has a pretty free range of movement. When you attack, a bar comes up on the bottom with an indication of what key to press, and it moves sideways. When it reaches a marker on the screen, you're supposed to press the button. If your timing is good enough, you make an attack. The guard system is similar - depending on what button you press, you can either try to guard or escape (oddly, written in English) and avoid some (perhaps all) damage. Also, if you screw up, your "concentration" score goes down, but I have yet to see this affect play, and it goes up again fairly quickly. You can win a battle either by reducing your opponent's health to nothing, or by knocking them out of the battle arena (the "Layer") which you do by hitting them with a strong attack while they stand on the edge.
I'd have to say the battle system is the most innovative part of the game. It somewhat resembles the various rhythm games (of which I know Dance Dance Revolution the best), but has to disadvatage that the button presses are not in time to the music. I may start to like it better as I continue to play, but for now it seems a bit awkward... it definitely doesn't have the draw of a game like DDR.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2008 at 02:57:49.
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Feb 9th, 2008 at 02:36:23 - Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer (GBA) |
SUMMARY:
Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer is a Japanese RPG based on the Angelic Layer animated series, though that in turn was based on a comic book. The game incorporates elements from the show, such as video and audio clips. Otherwise, it uses a super-deformed isometric visual style, similar to that found in many older Japanese RPGs. There is a combat mode that seems reminiscent of the Megaman NT Warrior/Rockman.exe games, though I'm not sure which came first.
GAMEPLAY:
I was eager to play this game finally after years of fandom and inability to find it. I played by myself in a quiet room (although a cat was moving in and out). The only sound was the game's music, which is rather repetitive and tinny, typical of a GBA game. The sound quality on the occasional clips of the voice actors is surprisingly good, though such clips are few and far between.
Honestly, I haven't experienced much gameplay yet. So far I've gone through a good bit of the first episode plot, but it's been slow going, since my Japanese is not really up to the task. Maybe this was a bad choice of game, in that way. The controls are easy thus far. The main downside is the font, which is really hard to read. It has a lot to do with the GBA's low resolution, but the kanji (Chinese characters) are nearly unreadable, and give me a bit of a headache. Otherwise, it's kind of fun playing though the plot of one of my favorite comic books.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 19:08:57 - Super Smash Brothers (N64) |
GAMEPLAY
This time I played with a friend of mine, who was much more experienced. There were also other people in the game lab, but they were quiet.
We played versus mode with two computer characters. I tried playing as several characters as did she, and we played around with different color schemes and AI skill levels. I found it a much more frustrating experience, because the opponents were more difficult and I really still suck. We didn't do any real smack talk but instead talked about other stuff whenever we had the concentration to spare. The conversation once took an awkward turn when I was playing as Kirby and mentioned "swallowing" other characters.
I found it difficult to follow what was going on onscreen, especially with some of the alternate color costumes - at one point three of the four characters were brown. Also, since I was playing against a real person, I felt more competitive, so that I wasn't okay with losing anymore. The degree of randomness in the results also decreased with a human opponent and smarter AI.
DESIGN
The gameworld in Super Smash Brothers is very colorful and cartoony. This is appropriate both to the characters, most of which are cartoony themselves, and to the console, which was a pretty early one for 3D visuals. The attacks and sounds also carry out this aesthetic. The only real exception I noticed to the visual theme is Samus and her arena, which are darker and more blocky. It doesn't feel particularly jarring, but it is an irritating arena, with the acid (I think) that rises to cover it and will damage any character caught in it.
This brings me to the level design. Levels are themed based on the original source of the characters, and each has its own challenges. All of them are effectively two-dimensional, no matter what they look like, and all have multiple levels, usually with platforms to jump on (some of them even move). A couple of the levels are very narrow, and the risk of falling off is greater. This can be either irritating or fun, depending on one's skill level and attitude towards losing.
After each battle, the game displays a screen showing who won - the winning character is displayed larger than the rest, and the other characters are also sized according to rank. This is followed by a text ranking screen with score breakdown, but in my opinion the first of the two screens is a more motivating reward, since it's very direct. This might be something to incorporate into the game I'll make with my partner this quarter - a visual reward.
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Jan 18th, 2008 at 18:35:16 - Super Smash Brothers (N64) |
SUMMARY
Super Smash Brothers is a mainly multiplayer game in which one controls a well-known Nintendo character, such as Link, Kirby, or Mario, in a brawl against up to three other player. There is a single-player campaign of sorts, in which one fights a series of battles against the computer, culminating in a battle against a giant hand. It involves both skill and luck, due to the many powerful items that appear on each stage.
GAMEPLAY
I hadn't played this game before today, although I played its sequel for the Gamecube with a group of friends once. Today I played through the single-player mode. I realized early on that it was kind of a bad idea to play a game like Super Smash Brothers by myself, but the single-player mode was surprisingly fun, largely because of the luck involved and the frantic pace. It has no real story, but each enemy is found in a themed stage.
I was alone in the game lab playing this game, which felt a little odd at first - I remembered a lot of smack talk from the time I played its sequel - but the recorded crowd noises helped a lot. On one of the later stages I was playing as Pikachu and the crowd chanted his name, which was really cool. I found myself joining in.
I only played as two of the characters, Link and Pikachu. I found their slow movements across the screen (they walk, not run) frustrating, and at first I found it very hard to control their jumps, which are much faster. Fortunately the game lets you play any stage over an unlimited number of times. I ended up playing about an hour and twenty minutes to get to the end of the single-player mode.
Next time I mean to play the versus mode.
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BadWolf has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 10 days |
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