Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS (part 2)

Without a doubt, this game took less time than I thought it would. I completed most of the first four quests in about 15 hours and began playing the final chapter in November. It took awhile to get back into it, but it was actually really enjoyable to play even for a game this old. I'm glad they brought it back to life with the DS remake and I think if I had more time I would play through the extras.

The game began to unfold as they described the story of Psaro the Man Slayer. He's the one behind all the evildoings in the game. Well, I guess he's the big thing that the demons have tried resurrecting. The story is that he did a lot of bad things because they imprisoned his girl, Rosa. Or was it that they killed that girl. I stopped paying attention at one point.

(My equipment for the last fight, don't forget to bring the Baron's horn so you can call your party before the boss) The fight with the final boss is tough, but not that tough. I went in there at level 36 with my crew of adventurers one or two levels below that. The boss is a golden guy, that you fight and he slowly disintegrates into a green gob with no arms or head. Fear not, he will regenerate into something more hideous and engaging. The most important thing here is remember to use the spell Oomph. It'd make your life easier. I started the part as the Hero, Alana, the Cleric, and the Black Mage. The first few forms of his body is hardly adversarial. Just keep "Kabuff" on and putting on "Oomph" on your characters. If you run into problems, don't forget that the Hero has "Omniheal", which fully recovers your entire party for 20 MP. As He starts to become whole again, in his final form, he'll start doing more fire spells so it's safe to say you'll need "insulate". But as long as you keep your Oomph up and attack him at least twice a turn, you'll be fine.

The ending is pretty much the same as the NES version. You visit all the towns of your party members and then you make a trek back to the home town, where you were raised by your foster parents. The place is burned down, but upon your return you find that young girl that saved your life by turning into your decoy. Finally you two can be together, and I guess it's speechless, but I hope you live happily ever after.

But wait! There's more. Because it's the NDS version, there's a added Chapter 6. I'm going to save that for another time. Until then, I might as well start on Dragon Quest 5.

The following are a lot of pictures I took along the way.

Culdcept DS - NDS

The hardest part about Culdcept DS is finding the control to stop playing Culdcept. This is one of the most addictive games ever made, for geeks and by geeks I presume. Seeing this new version of the game expanded into the NDS made me hesitant to get into the Magic / Monopoly world. The ability to play against your friends on your DS should be good enough a reason to get this game. It's not likely that it will get to the US any time soon, so I will talk a bit about it here.

The game is pretty much the same as Culdcept for PS2 and Xbox 360: Each player gets a hand of 7 cards, a deck of 50 cards, and you duke it out against the other players in dominating the placement of magical creatures on a board. The game play is the same and having a split view of two screen is actually quite convenient.

(Goligan, the staff) I usually specialize in Water creatures, and this time it's more than ever important to get lots them because of the card "Kelpie". This sea-horse like creature is like the Fire Card, "Old Willow" of the PS2 version - it forces the enemy to battle it upon crossing it. Getting that card will save you a lot of time.

I played it for about 20 hours before I beat the game and got my first Medal. I still play it from time to time because it's just that addictive. For a list of the medals, please check out this page. It's in Japanese, but you can google translate it.

http://exsir.exblog.jp/10076879/

• Game Time: 40 hours
• Completed the game 1x

Beating the last boss

The Goddess Culdcept has some words for you upon beating the game.

2009 - A year in review

Well let's face it, 2009 was in fact a year that I didn't play much compared to my usual. I guess that's a good thing. I got a PS3 in the last quarter of the year and started playing what I missed out on in the last four years. There were some games that I found interesting, but most of them were just eye-candy to me. I do find the wireless controllers a good and bad thing. The good is the controller works just as good as a wired one without the wire; the bad thing is that charging it is such a hassle because it doesn't charge when the PS3 is turned off. I use my iPod charger to charge it at times because the usb cord is too short for me. I am working on my Street Fighter 4 skills, but I doubt I can get good beyond Ken and Ryu. I started playing Resistance 2 and inFamous, but they're just keeping me busy in time for GT5 and FF13.

But anyway, in short, last year was a year of Shin Tegami Tensei. I started playing Persona 3 in the spring, Persona 4 in the Autumn, and now I'm almost done with Devil Summoner. They're great games and everyone should give them a try.

Here's a short recap of the games that I beat in 2009:

1. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (PC) - 45 hrs
2. Puzzle Quest (DS) - 50 hrs
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2) - 65 hrs 16 mins
4. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS) - 22 hrs 53 mins
5. Culdcept (DS) - 30 hrs
6. Persona 3: FES (PS2) - 111 hrs 41 mins
7. Google's Monopoly Streets (PC) - 50 hrs
8. Persona 4 (PS2) - 82 hrs 13 mins

*the write-up for Culdcept DS is taking longer than I thought. I keep playing it from time to time still.

I guess that's about 513 hours used on video-games last year. Hopefully I'll write more in 2010. My list of games that I didn't beat in 2009 includes: Shining Force Neo, Final Fantasy A2 (DS), Fire Emblem (Wii), Professor Layton and the Curious Village, God of War, Puzzle Quest: Galaxies, and numerous little DS games that I just start and forget all about.