Culdcept - PS2

Putting Culdcept in front of me is like putting crack in front of a crackhead. It's hard to explain the simplicity or the addiction of the game to people that haven't invested some time into it, but I'll try my best to here. It's a game that' s like Magic the Gathering crossed with Monopoly. That's about it! You (Ceptors) have a deck of cards and you try to conquer the board by placing Creatures on the board. Upon passing them you can improve their land levels, and when an opponent lands on them, they have to pay (in the form of Mana). The Ceptor that reaches the Mana goal first gets the win. Not difficult right? Well throw in items, spells, and elements and you actually have a really intriguing game. 

I started playing it maybe three years back and I couldn't stop playing it for like three months straight. I carefully prepared my deck of 50 cards: a deck for water and wind Creatures, a deck for fire and forest creatures, a deck for non-elementals, and an all-out offence deck. I beat the game sixty or seventy hours into it, but then I discovered the Medals and I tried my best to get those too. Medals are awarded for performing special tasks on the board that are milestone-like. It took specific cards or combination of cards to complete the Medal tasks. You just can't forget the art involved in the game, and the recurring sound effects. Just hearing "Giant Bat vs. Giant Rat" makes me laugh. Everything is epic. Every card has a weakness, a strength, and a function: thats what makes the game so good, the odds of losing are always there, so the wins really give you a sense of accomplishment. But most of all, I got my brother into it, and he had made a character also. We'd duke it out and team up together, some of the greatest hours spent in videogaming. 

And now there's the new Culdcept DS (Japan Import) due to be out. Can't wait to see how the new cards are. 

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Nintendo Wii

Have you ever played a game that took so long, that life invariably gets in the way? When I first started playing this game for the Wii, I was planning a vacation and my company was going through some of the hottest summer days with work spewing out by the truckload. Now, 3 months later, I have already returned from my vacation, the DOW has lost another 1500 points, and I have found little time to pick up my wii-mote. Fire Emblem takes a long time, so don't go off buying it and expect to complete it in a week to return it to your local game store. 

t's the 5th of the series I believe, and it continues off of the Game Cube instalment, Path of Radiance. The DS version, Shadow Dragon is a remake of the first one, not sequential to Radiant Dawn. What makes it new is that it's the FIRST time I'm playing a Fire Emblem game, and I am liking it. It does make you whimper though, or as some reviewers say, "makes you cry like a little girl". Yes, the maps are difficult. Your guys are not superior to the enemy. Death occurs and there is no revivication. Death is death. It's part of the appeal of the game, the relentless difficulty of it. I've seen the Game Over sign countless times and it really makes me want to buy the guide. 

The game is like a rubix cube and a crossword puzzle; it makes you think, try new things, and build of answers for a complete solution. Well, you'd have to if you want your guys to survive.  You have to fiddle with it. Play through maps again and again until you realize your party's strengths and weaknesses.  You have to attack the maps from different perspectives. Once one segment is solved, other parts of the map is revealed. It's really a patient man's game. Whether it makes you patient or it's meant for patient people is a different story. 

The story is about a small group of rebels that are fighting back against a ruthless empire in the medieval times. Magic, might, and mayhem are all parts of the game. But there's also a big paper-rock-scissors. Lance takes swords, swords take axes, and axes take lances - I guess thats how it always have been in the series? What I find new is the "CARRY" command. I have played Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics, but never came across a game that lets you carry a person. I guess there's a a bit of that in Super Robot Wars as you can go back to the main carrier ship, but in this game, you have to use every command to your advantage. 

For now, I'm still learning the ropes as I play this in between Shining Force Neo and God of War.

Here's a video (set of videos) of a guy doing this game on a "speedrun". The blinking makes my eyes hurt, and I didn't watch anymore after the first video to prevent spoiling the game. I read that you can cut out animations only after you beat the game once, what an interesting reward:

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen - SNES

When I first played this game, it was the only game of it's type in 1997, and well, twelve years later, I still feel like it's the only game of it's type. Ogre Battle is a RPG game that acts more like a strategy game. You control parties instead of individual characters and you send them all out from your base to defeat the enemy parties. Your characters have HP, MP, levels, and character class. Naturally there are special characters that have unique abilities. The "new" concept of the game is that you don't actually control your parties in battle, you have to learn their tendencies and just hope that the outcome goes in your favor. It was truly novelle at the time; I consider it like Final Fantasy 12 of today. It also has a great soundtrack with memorable tunes perfect for battle. The way the game is set up and the rich story of how you're the last bastion of light rebelling a giant empire (cliche nowadays?) made it an awesome game for 1997. 

I spent that summer in the 11th grade playing it for the first time. I got through it begrudgingly at snails pace and missed out a LOT of characters. It was also the first game that had good, evil, and neutral meters that reflected your actions in battle. Using your sense of morality, you can dominate over the weak or using weak characters to overcome adversity; creating a good alignment for your campaign. It had like 13 endings and I played it four times. The fourth time, with the help of a FAQ, I finally got it right, the uber ending.

Why did I bring this back up? Because I read this morning from 1up.com that this game is coming back, yes to the Wii as a Wiiware for like $8.00. Great deal for a game that is limited to 25,000 copies in North America. Ebay was selling this for at least $50.00, thankfully most of these games belonged to RPG lovers in the first place so they were kept in good condition. Ogre Battle, celebrated as an "A+" game, has finally made it's way back to our homes. 

I've included a video I found on youtube that shows how some of the battles go. I say don't go watch the ending videos, it spoils the game... even though it's 12 years old. 

Completion: Collected all characters and received rarest ending.

First Run: 35 hrs

2nd Run: 30 hrs

3rd Run: 60 hrs

4th Run: 80 hrs 

Hours Spent: approx. 205 hrs