Rogue Galaxy - PS2 (part 2)

Sometimes you reserve an hour to finish a game, and sometimes you realize that RPG's need more than that. I should have learned from my last play of Dragon Quest 8 that games these days take more than an hour to complete (from the last save point), and damn, the endings are long. 

In the finishing of Rogue Galaxy, I have to say there are a lot of things left to do. I beat the game, but my completion of it is way under par. I have an empty log for the Factory mini-game, missing one beast on my battle recorder, the Ghost ship to conquer, several uniforms to find, and yet to begin the insectron breeding game. I guess I just want to see the end. And a fine ending it is. 

Before we get to the end, I shall recap since the first time I wrote about Rogue Galaxy. Your team of eight space pirates wander into a warp gate to reach the lost planet of Eden. They find out that Eden has been the only thing holding off the Evil of the galaxy from spewing into their world, and the root of all evil is Mother. She becomes the new villain of focus, outdoing Valkog the war profiteer. The tactic for defeating Mother is explained as the collecting of Dregellum (spiritual essense?) orbs and forging a sword with it. With that all done, and as stories unfold about your starting line-up of eight, we go on to fight Mother.

She turns out to be a being living in a river of rune power, the source of all evil in Rogue Galaxy. The first two bodies are not difficult, just hack away with Illusion Sword, and since you have three guys, you will always have one guy to revive the other two. The Third form comes with a twist, Valkog returns. Yes traveled all the way from Zerard to find you and more rune. His air-ship flies a bit too close to the river of rune, and since the rune has lost it's host, it decides to suck in the next most evil dude... there you have it, a reason to create a half-mecha, half-alien boss to end the game. 

Now here's the hard part: each of your characters must destroy a part of the machine. Hopefully you have not neglected your lesser used party members. Their levels should be fine, anything above 58 or so. But the problem might be your equipment. Use the Frog! Get weapons that are above level 47. I think the hardest two are Lilika's and Zegram's bosses. For Lilika, you'll have to attack the boss on the wall while the walking tank is falling apart. For Zegram, you'll have to run around until the evil scientist wacks its arm down to the ground, then quickly use Twin Sword and run up the arm and attack as fast as you can. Now everything is a bit harder, because as you can guess, you'll die if your guy dies. Nobody will be there to revive you. 

And lastly Jaster fights Valkog. You know how these last fights are. Ending is pretty good and of course there is a New Game Plus Mode, so I'll have to see if I want to play that. 

Completion: Beat the game, 100% of Frog Log, Reached #1 of Hunter Rankings. 

Hours Spent: 65 Hrs 16 Mins

Romance of the Three Kingdoms III - SNES

A couple of retro-posts from here on. I want to say something about Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3. Not only is it the first RTK game I've ever played, but it's the one that I played the most. I played it so much that I remember the songs, the menus, and most of the character's images. Heck, me and my buddies remembered a lot of the key characters' traits. It was sickening, yet it was a game that we loved. 

The game is simple, build a city, raise an army and reunify ancient China. How hard can that be? Well, according to Koei Games, that structure has led to the publishing of eleven games and counting. I never played the first two, but the this third one really introduced me to simulation gaming. 

The reason why I like this one is because the stuff you did in the "non-crucial" months actually work. Yes, sometimes spreading rumors did decrease your opponents' vassal's loyalty. Yes, you can recruit people from other towns, and if they are the only person in that town, you can take it! Yes, sometimes you can set arson to the enemies' cities, and this does help in a long drawn out war. 

I even remember the slew of fictional characters I put into the game. Insane how the simplest games are the ones you remember. Maybe it's also because I'm Chinese-American that I feel especially connected to this one. 

Completion: Beat the game multiple times in multiple settings
Hours Spent: approx. 150 hrs

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift - NDS

After the initial 9 hours into this game, I realize I am hooked. The game is not much different from Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSX nor Disgaea for PS2. You control a small group of vagrant doing quests from one place to another while gaining levels and items for the big central quest, which is in this case to get back home. With that out of the way, I have to say that if you like leveling up, this game is a treat!

There are three major things you level up, your character's level, your characters abilities, and your clan's levels. With six races of characters, one of them being Hume of course, and dozens of job classes, there are a lot of possibilities. As you acquire more loot items, you can bring them to the bazaar where they forge new weapons and armor. These new items have abilities embedded into them, where you gain the abilities by wearing them. Now as you gain more abilities, you can change into different jobs. With new jobs, you get to defeat stronger enemies which drop higher level loot - as I said a very addictive cycle if you like leveling up. 

For now I have the Thief, Warrior, White/Black/Red/Blue Mages, Fighter, Soldier, Dragoon, Assasin, Archer, and Hunter. Hopefully I'll get more the next time I write. 

Puzzle Quest DS - NDS

Last played - January, 2008

Let's face it, when you're playing the DS, you usually want just a quick game of something to kill the time before you get back to what you're doing. I usually find it that way, and the best games to play on it are puzzle games. I am a firm believer that Tetris DS is a must have for the DS owner. So of all the puzzle games that are available to the DS, one really that I find highly addictive is Puzzle Quest.

Puzzle Quest is an RPG where the battles are done in puzzles. You choose a hero and fight monsters and mages with weapons and armor - all this done with puzzle games. The game itself is a cross between Bejewelled and columns. Match things and you can unleash skills.

Somehow this game got me through 50 hours of boredom spread out workdays and outings. Too bad my save was erased not too long after I defeated Bane. It was the journey that counted.

Completion: Beat the game.
Hours Spent: 50 Hrs

Rogue Galaxy - PS2

Rogue Galaxy is a great action RPG from the guys at Level-5 Video Games. Think of it as a FF12 that includes button mashing and cell-shaded graphics that are are similar to Dark Cloud 2 and Dragonquest 8.

My first impressions of it are positive. I like the cartoon-like characters as well as it's battle system. Not much different from your usual Square-soft Game. The learning curve isn't that difficult and after an hour into it you'll become accustomed to the menus and controls.

The game itself involves eight playable characters: Jasper, Kisala, Zegram, Simon, Steve, Jupis, Deego, and Lilika. Each has a moderately intriguing back story, with Deego being the most tragic. My favorite character seems to be Jupis, with his love for coffee and wacky break-dance moves.

The REVELATION power-up system is not different from the liscence system in Final Fantasy 12 nor is it too different from the sphere grid in Final Fantasy 10. You take common items found through-out the game and place it in designated grids to reveal new skills for your characters. Not too difficult to figure out, and the ease of use makes the game quite addictive for the first 20 hours. There's a bit of a sticky point when you start running out of high level items.

Graphically, this game is quite impressive for a PS2 title. One of my favorite cut-scenes is when you see Jasper try to solve the puzzle of the ancients. As a giant pile of digital bricks swirl in algorithmic motions, the hero tries to re-construct something out of it with his hands and mind. Quite a trip, even for a PS2 hooked to a 720p HD screen with component cables.

As the game progresses, we find more about the evil forces that are trying to profit from the warring planets, and the mysteries of the planet Eden. As the story begins revealing the background of Jaster's parents and Kisala's origins, we begin to see why the game is titled "Rogue Galaxy".

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI - part 2

Twenty hours into my course of reunifying China, I realize how difficult this game has become. In RTK 11, the computer is prone to fighting. I started my scenario at 190 and I'm currently holding one third of the map with Sun Jian at 201 A.D. I can easily say that the last three years have been plagued with wars, not a dull moment to see. 

I fell into the same problem as I have in before, I picked the "fictional" setting with Dong Zhou in the picture. With this option, he doesn't get defeated with the ruse from Wang Yun and Diao Chan, meaning he holds one of the super powers in China at that time. Ten years into the game I see Cao Cao and Lui Bei be destroyed under his massive army. Naturally I stayed alive because my cities are in the south. In the mist of the mayhem I forged my empire. 

One thing you notice as you try to recruit vassals is that there are a lot of ladies present. Yes, they artificially incorporated women into RTK. I know that there are many things in the books, but it's a very masculine-dominated 1000 pages. Characters like Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao are now officers that can lead troops and build cities for you. I like it. 

Now one of the things that I am turned off for in the game is the monotonous background music. It never really sways from the three tracks. Even RTK3 has the decency to switch up the music after you acquire more cities. I don't think this one ever will change. I am planning to make my own music to put in the background while I'm playing this. 

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As the 45th hour began end ended, I took my positions in the north east. It becomes a steamtrain to roll over my last foe, Gungsun Zan. After conquering Dong Zhou in the south west, I had defeated all but one warlord left. Notice the mini-map on the bottom right corner of this picture. 

The final battle wasn't much a fight at all. As I collected the land's greatest warriors, I had all five of Lui Bei's Tiger Generals and most of the greatest thinkers under my realm. As my legions horsemen routed the last few companies of men from the enemy I brought my war machines in. These rolling flame throwers were new to the game, and pretty much artificial in my understanding of Chinese history, but boy were they effective.

In the end I defeated them and ended my turn. The results is the ending credits. So my game played at BEGINNER and FICTIONAL setting took about 45 hours (official timer stopped at 44:47:20). Under Sun Jian, it took about twenty gametime years: from January of 190 to April of 212 A.D. 

Completion: Beginner / Fictional 
Hours Spent: 45 Hrs