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Mar 5th, 2008 at 14:59:52 - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2) |
Gameplay:
Apparently the two main characters are apparently related, well at least Sophia called Fayt's mother aunt so I guess they are relatives, maybe I miss herd what was said. Hopefully I did because they seem a little to "close". I have begun the second game section after the computer has told your main character that your hotel is under attack.
The game is quiet humorous at this point, although it is not done intentionally. As the attack begins the characters that surround your characters still have not reacted to the attack. There is a kid looking at something in the lobby the other adults are also walking around without a care in the world. After you have run out of the lobby, everyone reacts.
After you run out of the lobby you make your way through some a teleport machine you meet your parents. Then the enemy army attacks and you make your escape, you lose your parents and end up at the refuge site. After gaining some info about the different things happening in the surrounding sector of space you activate another evacuation to another location.
During the first evacuation you get to fight off some enemies. This fighting comprises as both of the main characters running around the enemies, Fayt smacks them with a big stick and Sophia uses her mental points to attack the enemies.
Design:
This game is a pretty good, it has many design qualities that endear it to early RPG's. Like the style in which the game's story-line unfolds. Many of the early RPG's failed to give step by step instructions on what is player should do to further their game state, but Star Ocean uses a very interesting game mechanic to replace the step by step instructions. By interacting with bystanders in the game, the player learns vital information which triggers story events. Not everything that is communicated to you during your gathering of information is useful to the furthering of the game but they are interesting snippets of info about the backstory of the game. Even though the requirements of the game mechanics cause you to have to wander around aimlessly for a while, the interactions with other characters in the game make up for the extra time the game requires you spend between game events.
The game also has another unique game mechanic that is not seen in many RPG's now days. The fact that you can choose what dialog you can say during certain events in the game suggests that you can manipulate the direction in which the game unfolds.
In respect to my earlier comment about the game becoming humorous during the most dramatic bits of the story-line, it is not actually the designers fault. It is caused by the limitation of the known programing techniques during the development of the game. The characters in the game have very bad human emotions. In one scene the entire family is standing by a couple of soldiers who are immediately shot as they defend the civilians, but none of the family react to the fact that some other characters have just died. Also the voice acting in the game is pretty bad, the voices also lack emotion. Everything seems to be said in monotone even if the subject pertains to something that would cause high emotional reactions. Even though these would usually be negatives in a game, the player has to remember when the game was made. It actually made me enjoy the game more because it brought humor into the game, while also reminding me how far games have developed from even five to six years ago. (The programmers and the designers were simply restricted by game technology that they had access to)
There arn't really varied levels, just varied locations in which the game occurs. Although the game doesn't really have level segmentation the designers successfully split the game into smaller tasks by restricting the story to the current location of the main characters. A small portion of the story is revealed as the player explores the location and interacts with all the bystanders of the location. I found this a interesting way to segment the game.
The game hasn't frustrated me yet, which is interesting because usually there are a couple of game mechanics that infuriate me. I hope to find time to further my progress in this game.
This entry has been edited 4 times. It was last edited on Mar 6th, 2008 at 00:47:48.
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 11:31:22 - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2) |
Summary:
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a RPG, that follows the interactions of a couple of kids named Fayt and Sophia. Two kids on vacation on a resort called Hyda. The resort is attacked by unidentified space ships and they must escape. Game play occurs when encountering enemies. To defeat enemies the player must either physically attack, or use mental points (equivalent of magic in most RPG's).
Gameplay:
When the game begins you are immediately introduced to the main character Fayt, who apparently finds games more interesting then his friend who he stood up at the beach. His friend, Sophia, completely has him tied around her little finger. SHe is able to manipulate him with ease.I found this quiet humorous because the game is essentially like many other RPG games. Were childhood friends appear to be more then just friends, the boy always being the strong male who knows how to fight protecting the damsel in distress.
The game although like many modern RPG games is also slightly different the respect that the player gets very little direction in what action they are to take to trigger the main story of the game. The only thing that you are told is to go look around the hotel. The radar that you follow doesn't tell you what room you are entering so you randomly barge into peoples rooms. If you talk to them after walking into there room, they tell you off then tell you some information that pertains to the main story line.
It is an interesting way to suggest interaction with bystanders.
The story hasn't developed much yet, obviously something bad happens to ruin the vacation, this disaster comes in the form of an attack on the complex. The story is getting more interesting as it unfolds. The game does take a while to start moving, this is impart to the fact that you have to trigger the right events. Meaning that I did wonder around for quiet a few minutes wondering what I was suppose to do. Although the game is kind of fun I think that once more of the story is revealed then it will become more entertaining.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Mar 5th, 2008 at 11:33:20.
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Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:44:55 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
Gameplay:
My second gameplay experience was much less fruitful then my initial gameplay experience was. I hadn’t saved the game, seeing as it probably doesn’t give you the opportunity to do so until the end of your battle with the first colossus. It took me very little time to find the first colossus again, but defeating it is a different story. I actually was unsuccessful at defeating him within the next 45 minutes.
I don’t have many assertions about this game because I was unable to defeat the colossus. You can find the first colossus within two minutes of the start of the game. From what I gather he is the first enemy that you must defeat. I still have not met any other living creature in this world. My entire experience consists of riding Argo around and fighting the colossus, and oh yeah, climbing some cliffs.
While fighting the first colossus the player is suppose to jump onto the giant's legs and start hacking at them with their sword but I found it very difficult to grab on and do this. Even if I did manage to grab a hold of the creature's legs I always seemed to fall off fairly quickly. Also there is the matter of accidently landing under the foot of this beast. If it happens then you are pretty much toast, and almost all your life gets depleted. You can try evading for a while and this regenerates your life but without a sure way of landing on the creature, you are still left with very little to do except die.
Not to fun so far.
Design:
From what I have seen of the game, it has many innovative elements. The artwork has a very aesthetic feel to it. It lends itself to the feeling of the game. It is full of dark colors, then offset by bright light. This artwork could have been created in this way so that the storyline seemed more tangible. So that you can real feel the darkness of the game. Another innovative feature is the sword mechanic. I have never before seen a game require light as a compass. While it does take a sec to figure out that you must be facing in the correct direction to have the beams of light converge, it is still a cool mechanic.
The fact that there seems to be nobody else in the world besides you and the colossi is also an innovative feature, but I would argue that this feature is not a good feature. The designers probably thought that this would create a stronger connection to the main storyline, by doing away with all distractions except your main goals, but it just made the game boring for me. I tried to defeat the first enemy several times and was unsuccessful. While this is probably more my fault then the games, the difficulty level of the game makes it more of frustrating experience. The game does not lend itself too less experienced players.
From what I have seen, of the game, it is not a game that contains levels, although it is a game of progression.
The game creates conflict around the main storyline, the main character is trying to bring resurrect a girl and to complete this task he must defeat giant creatures. So the designers created conflict centered around these creatures, creatures that are preventing you from accomplishing your goal. There is no way around this conflict; you must defeat it in order to progress to resurrecting the girl.
The game world is very open from what I have seen; the quickest way to travel around it is on horseback. I have not seen a reward system yet, but I haven’t been able to complete any of the required tasks yet. I haven’t seen any cutscences besides the first scene introducing the storyline.
Needless to say the game has not kept me interested because of the skill level required to play it.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:52:26.
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Feb 19th, 2008 at 16:30:46 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
Summary:
Shadow of the Colossus is an action/adventure game that fallows the story of the main character, Wander. Wander is on a quest to resurrect a girl, to do this he must travel the lands (on horseback) to kill some colossi. These giants are real life versions of idles he must destroy, as payment for the girl's soul. To find these colossi you must use your sword to reflect sunlight, which will converge into a beam of light when facing in the right direction (this is the direction of your next encounter).
Gameplay:
The game has an interesting feel to it. Although they don't really tell you how to use your abilities, at least at the beginning. It took me a second to figure out how to pull out my sword, then how to make the sword reflect the light. After I figured it out, I was unsure what to do. They don't really tell you that you have to be facing the right direction to actually have anything happen. After you figure out how to do the most basic things then the game gets a little better with telling you what to do, but it falls of again when you are fighting the first colossus. I guess the game is designed so that you have to find out how to do most things by yourself.
There isn't much to say about the characters, there only seems to be two characters in the game, well if you don't count the colossi, the point is that the game has a real lack of social interaction. You have the main character, a young youth, and his trusty old stead, Argo. You also have these giant things that you must defeat, why?, I have no idea. There is also some disembodied voices, which have to do with resurrection.
The lack of characters gives me the feeling of a serious lack of story and background. The game seems to be missing something, it gives me the feeling of being alone in the world. Nothing but you your house and the enemies in your way. This kind of makes the game have an interesting feel, but I don't know whether I real like it.
The first colossus is extremely huge and I have no idea how to kill it. I pretty much died in about two seconds. It got angry and stomped on me and my life was almost completely depleted. Man this guy is huge, and it is incredibly difficult to get on him. I tried climbing on him, but kept falling off.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Feb 19th, 2008 at 18:49:47.
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