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Mar 9th, 2008 at 15:19:54 - Final Fantasy XII (PS2) |
(this gamelog is being written LATE)
Gameplay:
The gameplay continues to frustrate with the use of the License board and the awkward battle system. And another issue is beginning to come to light. This issue is more of a story issue, but for me, it greatly affects the gameplay. Final Fantasy games are classically known for having vast, world (and sometimes multiple planet) scoping evil plots. Sephiroth wanted to destroy the planet to return the planet energy to the life stream, Kuja wanted to destroy TWO planets to make sure nobody could be as powerful as him, Seymour wanted to end the cycle of death by simply killing everybody. As of where I am in the game (and through the entire game. I read through a strategy guide to see what was in store) there is no such plot. The plot that comes closest to this is by corrupt officials of Arcadia who want to take over their country and the others. There is no plot to kill everybody, or become supremely powerful, just a political desire to take over the world. While this seems pretty dastardly and evil, it is nothing compared to the usual evil FF plots.
Design:
I have sort of addressed the design problems in the previous entry under the gameplay section. The design of the battle system is far from perfect, either requiring the player to rely on crudely crafted Gambits to control other characters, or interrupt the real time battle feel to control each character individually.
The leveling system is extremely lacking and annoying, making characters pay for use of items both with their hard earned Gil and equally hard earned License Points.
There are some good design elements which I enjoy. The good side of the License Board system is that the character development feels much more like that of the Online Final Fantasy XI. Each character has the ability to use every weapon, and learn every spell. Meaning that You can take every character to the max and learn everything, or, the more prudent choice, take particular characters to specific places on the License Board and making them strong in certain areas, to create a well rounded fighting force. This is hard to do however, since you can only have three characters at once, and there are a total of 6 characters to use, which means some will have to overlap in abilities to be able to switch characters in and out during battle to make sure everybody gets experience points.
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Mar 9th, 2008 at 15:10:31 - Final Fantasy XII (PS2) |
(this gamelog is being written LATE)
Summary:
In Final Fantasy XII, the main character is a young boy named Vaan. At first just a lonely street thief, he quickly becomes involved in larger issues when he steals a particularly valuable treasure also being sought by sky pirates Balthier and Fran. After refusing to give up his treasure to the pirates, his friend Penelo is kidnapped by mercenaries trying to capture Balthier, thinking that since he is spending so much time around Vaan trying to get the treasure back that Penelo must be someone Balthier cares about. After rescuing Penelo, it becomes clear that they are involved in much more.
Vaan's country, Dalmasca, is caught between two larger warring nations, Arcadia and Rozarria. He, and his new friends met along the way must navigate themselves through this difficult political climate to try and prevent corrupt officials from Arcadia from getting their hands on dangerous Magicite.
Gameplay:
I am a die-hard fan of the Final Fantasy series. As such, I enjoy when the series comes up with new ideas. The battle system in XII is very different from other installments (however it is extremely similar to the battle system used in XI, the MMORPG Final Fantasy). The new battle system allows for a more frantic feel when battling, giving the player more control of movement. Instead of being transported to a "battlefield" when encountering a monster, the player fights the monster within the real world, meaning that it is much easier to avoid and run from enemies, however it also opens up the unfortunate instance of being bogged down by multiple enemies when only wanting to fight one.
This style of battle also brings another problem. In previous installments, with a turn based and (my favorite) the Active Time Battle system, you could give commands to each character in turn and wait for them to carry out orders. however, in a real time battle, it is almost impossible to give each character instructions individually. To compensate for this, XII has two solutions. The first is that you can pause the battle, and switch control to other characters to give them instructions. This is preferable to most hard core FF players, however it does make the real time battles seem very halting and tedious. The second compensation is the "Gambit" system. You can acquire (in treasure chests or by purchasing them) Gambits, which are vague instructions which you can give to characters. As characters unlock more gambit spots, you can continue to give them more commands. These consist of things like "Cure", "Use potion", "Attack", etc. combined with "Target Gambits" which are things like "Closest enemy", "allies with >70% health", "self", etc. This can create effectively computer controlled characters, however, it is somewhat finicky and often creates problems where a character will always be trying to cure them self or others when they do not need it. Another problem is when characters have the gambit "Attack" "nearest enemy", avoiding enemies is hard because your party members will immediately attack, however without this gambit, when entering battle, you must manually pause and tell each character to attack.
Another problem is the leveling up system used. In addition to leveling up regularly, characters earn "License Points" or LP from battles. these LP are used on the "License board" to unlock the ability to use specific weapons and spells. So, in addition to having to purchase a weapon or a spell, you must also use LP to unlock the license to use it. The problem with this is that each character must individually unlock things on their own license boards. With this system, I cannot escape the feeling of paying for everything numerous times. Fortunately, you only have to buy spells once, and then as long as a character has the license they can use it. However, for weapons, I have to buy weapons for each character, and then (sort of) buy them again to be able to actually use them. It does allow for creative character creation, as you don't have to unlock EVERYTHING for everybody. You can take certain characters through certain paths on the license board to unlock, for example, all the swords and shields, and make another character unlock all guns or bows. The problem is that, an effective character should know most (if not all) the spells, and have the ability to equip multiple type of weapons to avoid having a character become underpowered later in the game.
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Mar 9th, 2008 at 14:31:15 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
(this gamelog is being written LATE)
Gameplay:
Continuing to play Shadow of the Colossus has not brought up many new gameplay elements. I have found that if you find a fruit tree, shooting the fruit off and eating it can increase your health bar, and finding lizards (only the ones with white tails) and shotting them and eating them causes your stamina to increase, meaning that you can hold on to ledges and/or colossi much longer than normal, which is essential for later battles where holding on for long periods of time is a must.
Mostly, I have just enjoyed finding more and more stunning scenery to find and explore.
Design:
The design of Shadow of the Colossus is very interesting when compared to most "similar" adventure games because at this time there really are no truly similar adventure games. there are no regular enemies, or mini-bosses. The only fights are with colossi. This makes the game move slightly less and seem less tedious without the constant killing small minion-type enemies. Each boss is such a different fight from the last, that the game never seems tired or boring.
Another creative design element for this type of game is making sure that the main character's abilities are completely realistic. He can't run extremely fast or jump very high, or (at the beginning) hold on to a ledge for very long. he turns at a normal speed and for the most part is exemplary of very average human abilities. With the exception of his skill with a bow. he is extremely accurate with his bow and arrow. His word skills, even, are very basic. The only real thing he knows how to do (and the only thing he really has need for really) is the ability to stab while he is holding on to a colossus.
The graphics are not extremely impressive. The character is somewhat roughly animated, however, the colossi and the environment are beautiful. absolutely stunning. This is a game almost more like watching a movie (except being responsible for whether or not the main character succeeds or fails). This creates a very unique cinematic experience and makes the game enjoyable to play even when not fighting a colossus.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Mar 9th, 2008 at 14:46:41.
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Mar 9th, 2008 at 14:30:03 - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) |
(this gamelog is being written LATE)
Summary:
In Shadow of the Collosus, you take control of "Wander" a young man hoping to restore the soul of a woman, "Mono". He makes a deal with a mysterious voice, "Dormin" who tells him he must destroy the 16 idols inside the mysterious temple they are in. However, to do this, he must defeat the corresponding colossi, giant mosters which roam different territories outside of the temple. Wander must ride his horse, "Agro" to each colossi and defeat them by climbing on them and attacking weak spots.
The colossi are giant conglomerates of stone, earth and some seemingly man-made architectural elements. Each one has portions of hair, which Wander must grab onto to stab weak spots after scaling the colossus, using the stone parts to climb on it. Each colossus has a different mode of attacking, and range from humanoid shapes to being more like large birds or serpents. Some are aggressive and attack on seeing Wander, while others will simply meander around their area and must be chased and hunted.
(SPOILER) In the end, it turns out that Dormin's reason for helping Wander was that in addition to returning Mono's soul, his essence is restored and he is able to posses Wander, just as a band of warriors chasing Wander enter the scene. The leader of the warriors throws the magical sword used by Wander to kill the colossi into a pool and both Wander and Dormin are sucked in, as the bridge out of the sacred lands is destroyed (after the warriors escape on it). Mono wakes up and finds a small baby in the pool and takes the baby and follows Agro up to a secret garden, and so ends the story of the game.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus is very different from most games of today. A large portion of the gameplay is simply getting to the colossi on horseback. The scenery is breathtaking and one of the great joys of playing the game is just exploring the world and finding new and interesting places to enjoy.
Fighting the colossi is often challenging and is sort of a modern version of a puzzle game. One must first figure out where the weak spots are on the current colossus (by shining sunlight from the magic sword on the colossus, which reveals its weak points), then one must find a way to reach those weak points. This often involves climbing up onto the colossus (as it tries to attack you), or jumping onto it from a higher point. On several occasions, the player must stay on Agro because the colossus is too fast to outrun or catch on foot.
Control can sometimes seem clunky, however this is only because Wander is not the most agile adventure game character. He runs at an awkward and slow pace, and can't turn very fast. However, this simply lends more strategy to battles, as you must figure out how to overcome these deficiencies to fight the colossi using your sword and bow.
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Peter Dalldorf has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 10 days |
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