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.

Persona 3: FES - PS2

Persona 3: FES is the first Persona game I've ever played. I played Digital Devil Saga and got to the end, but got defeated by the boss and never got around to complete it. Another game that I played from the SMT series seems was from the Super Famicon and I can't even remember the title. But regardless of the background of this demonic series, I am thoroughly enjoying Persona 3.  

The story revolves around six high school kids from Gekkokan High, somewhere in Japan. They go to school, meet up with friends, live in a boarding house, and fight demons. Yes, they fight demons with conjured spirits called Personas. 

The game's protagonist goes to school and makes social links with his friends, which in turn powers up his Personas. He studies, plays sports, goes on dates, and gets picked on by teachers to answer test questions. He gains academic points by studying, charisma points by doing well in front of his peers, and courage points by taking on dares. In a sense, he's not like your regular RPG protagonist at all - and I'm loving these aspects!

The game revolves around a calendar and the phases of the moon. While every day you'll have to go to school and find clues amongst the students, nights are made for dungeon crawling. The only dungeon so far in the game is Tartarus. I've only gone up to the 50th floor, but it seems to extend towards infinity. Sundays are days where you're free, but you should go hang out with your friends to boost social links. Then there are the days with the full moons; these are days with boss battles. With that in mind, every day can be used to effect, or wasted if you're not careful. It took me awhile to get used to this format of playing, but once I did, I felt something I haven't felt in video-games for awhile. I get totally absorbed. 

Another aspect is the Rated-M parts of the game. I haven't played an RPG that's rated-M since Digital Devil Saga, and it does make a difference. They can say harsher words and use a lot more blood. Even bosses expose a bit more sexual innuendo than before. But all in all, I think everyone should give this game a try. I know I'll be rushing to defeat it. Hopefully Persona 4 will be just as good.  The following pictures are of the main characters: Mitsuru, Junpei, Akihiko, and Yukari. 

Continued on Part 2

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. 

01 - Heroes of Might and Magic V

Well, there you have it, the fifth installment of the HOMM series. I have to say that... I loved this game! I have tried the third and fourth games of this series, but I never got into it. This time, I played two maps and got hooked.

Not really much to say about the game play, everybody knows by now that HOMM is a strategy-rpg game where you control armies lead by heroes. There are two types of play, the town building and resource acquiring aspect and the tactical battle aspect when a fight occurs. There are six types of troops this time (althought this being HOMM5): Humans, Elves, Dark Elves, Wizards, Demons, and Undead.

The story is of Agreal, the expeled demon on the quest of saving the human queen, Isabel. Through the worlds and leaders, we find great leaders and dark plots that have been set in motion by the demon lord. I just completed it and the four "good guys" linger in my mind: Findan, Godrick, Zehir, and Raelag (Agrael). I will definitely try the add-on and perhaps try "hard" difficulty soon.











Completion: Normal Difficulty
Hours spent: 60Hrs