Or at least, that's how I've described my impending playthrough of Final Fantasy XII. Final Fantasy XII had a lot going for it on the outset with me: Yasumi Matsuno was directing it (I was a huge fan of his work from Final Fantasy Tactics & Vagrant Story), the game looked gorgeous, it took place in Ivalice from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (allegedly), was the next mainline entry in the Final Fantasy series, the characters all looked charming, the voice acting was extremely well done, etc.
The battle system sank the ship for me however.
I hated the demo that came with Dragon Quest VIII. I sadly decided I was going to pass on it, until some blog posts convinced me to give it a shot, that it was different from the demo in a few key ways.
No it wasn't.
I played it for about 20 hours and shelved it after conferring with a friend of mine who said I wouldn't enjoy the rest of it. And there it has sat, for 2-3 years.
After talking with a couple other friends who spoke highly of it and see the game pop up on a few web sites as a BEST GAME EVER (shout out to Gamespite), I've decided to give the game another go, with a much more open mind this time. I know what I'm getting myself into, and hopefully I'll be able to get into the swing of things. I'm hoping to make this a log of sorts on my journey to complete this game, hopefully before the release of Final Fantasy XIII.
Let's see where it takes me.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
GG RIAA
Well, I just received an e-mail from Youtube saying that my Brütal Legend video was blocked for copyright infringement due to content being owned by Viacom. Seeing as I'm pretty sure EA is still independent (massive, but independent) I can only guess that Viacom is protecting any of their music that appears in the game. So! Seeing as the music is a major MAJOR part of the Brütal Legend experience, I guess I'm done posting direct feed footage of the game. MAYBE I will post some footage of the RTS battles just so you all can see what that's about, but... I'm kinda sour on wasting my time encoding and uploading these videos just to be shit on by the RIAA and its members. GG RIAA, your draconian bullshit is why I pretty much don't buy music anymore.
Suffice to say though, Brütal Legend itself continues to hold up with interesting characters, humorous dialog and fantastic all-around presentation. This is a game where any (possibly perceived) shortcomings in gameplay are bolstered (possibly overshadowed) by the fantastic aesthetic presentation.
Suffice to say though, Brütal Legend itself continues to hold up with interesting characters, humorous dialog and fantastic all-around presentation. This is a game where any (possibly perceived) shortcomings in gameplay are bolstered (possibly overshadowed) by the fantastic aesthetic presentation.
Monday, October 19, 2009
That's Brütal
Finally, one of my most awaited games of the year was released last week. I've gotten to the point of experience in this hobby that I'm starting to follow notable designers and software teams' work as opposed to being attracted to strictly brand loyalty (although that happens too I guess...)
But I digress. Double Fine Productions, headed by Tim Schafer, has released their latest game, Brütal Legend upon the world. One of the interesting things about Schafer is that ever since he left Lucasarts he has been dabbling in other game genres while still keeping his signature sense of humor and strong character-based plots. Psychonauts was a ridiculously funny platforming game and Brütal Legend is a... really ambitiously designed game. Thus far, Brütal Legend is no different. If there were two things that have surprised me about the game so far though, it's that 1) The sharp dialog seems to taper off after a couple hours (somewhat disappointing) but the visual humor keeps the overall comedic tone high and 2) it's a Real Time Strategy game. The latter point completely blindsided me until maybe a couple days before it was released. The demo gives no indication to this point (indeed, you'll see not even a couple hints of RTS game in the first couple videos I'm embedding below). Despite what(Tim Schafer says about the game not being an RTS, I'm more inclined to agree with Penny-Arcade.
It's not that I dislike RTS games, it's just that I find them really hard to play and there's a huge learning curve on them. While I'm dealing with my RTS shortcomings I will say that Brütal Legend's hilariously badass aesthetics make me want to continue learning to play the game and get better. For the record, I think Brütal Legend will probably join Warcraft III as the only RTS game that I actually enjoy, but time will tell.
Below, I've posted some direct feed HD videos of my concurrent Brütal Legend playthrough. I've put the subtitles on for a particular friend of mine. I also have a save game that's much farther along than this, but I'm posting this one to make the game look as badass as it deserves. Some game over screens will be preserved for hilarity's sake (like Jack Black's/Eddie Rigg's line of dialog before crashing into the sea on the upcoming 3rd video). Should I put video updates in new posts or should I append them to this current one? Let me know in the comments.
Introduction:
I get to play! (the demo material...):
Alright, now it's time to finish off the demo and show a snippet of the full game itself:
But I digress. Double Fine Productions, headed by Tim Schafer, has released their latest game, Brütal Legend upon the world. One of the interesting things about Schafer is that ever since he left Lucasarts he has been dabbling in other game genres while still keeping his signature sense of humor and strong character-based plots. Psychonauts was a ridiculously funny platforming game and Brütal Legend is a... really ambitiously designed game. Thus far, Brütal Legend is no different. If there were two things that have surprised me about the game so far though, it's that 1) The sharp dialog seems to taper off after a couple hours (somewhat disappointing) but the visual humor keeps the overall comedic tone high and 2) it's a Real Time Strategy game. The latter point completely blindsided me until maybe a couple days before it was released. The demo gives no indication to this point (indeed, you'll see not even a couple hints of RTS game in the first couple videos I'm embedding below). Despite what(Tim Schafer says about the game not being an RTS, I'm more inclined to agree with Penny-Arcade.
It's not that I dislike RTS games, it's just that I find them really hard to play and there's a huge learning curve on them. While I'm dealing with my RTS shortcomings I will say that Brütal Legend's hilariously badass aesthetics make me want to continue learning to play the game and get better. For the record, I think Brütal Legend will probably join Warcraft III as the only RTS game that I actually enjoy, but time will tell.
Below, I've posted some direct feed HD videos of my concurrent Brütal Legend playthrough. I've put the subtitles on for a particular friend of mine. I also have a save game that's much farther along than this, but I'm posting this one to make the game look as badass as it deserves. Some game over screens will be preserved for hilarity's sake (like Jack Black's/Eddie Rigg's line of dialog before crashing into the sea on the upcoming 3rd video). Should I put video updates in new posts or should I append them to this current one? Let me know in the comments.
Introduction:
I get to play! (the demo material...):
Alright, now it's time to finish off the demo and show a snippet of the full game itself:
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