Dragon Quest 6 - Realms of Revelation (NDS)

Originally released in 1995 to the Super Famicon in Japan, this chapter of the Dragon Quest series rarely made it to United States - until now that is. I picked up the new release last month and started playing it when I got home. It was the last chapter in the "Zenithian" trilogy (4,5, and 6) because they all feature the castles in the sky. I had to redo it because I don't even remember if I finished the game the first time around.

The game revolves around three characters: the hero, Carver the muscle man, and Milly the witch. They embarked on a journey to defeat the great evil of the land, Murdaw. But the fight was not much of a battle. They get their bodies separated in twos and sent into another world, the dream world. With their memories altered, they have to find their other selves and each other, and thats when then adventure begins.

The game wasn't that much different from DQ9, even though this game was released more recently, the style is noticeably older. All the modern finishes went to DQ9. I missed being able to view the characters equipment in the menus. Naturally the game doesn't have the mixing pot neither. What it does have, and a lot, were monster encounters. You get so used to seeing monsters on the screen and dodging them after DQ9. In DQ6 every five steps you'd be accosted to another quick battle. It gets pretty annoying when you're trying to complete a quest instead of out there just grinding for levels.

But the game's story was really good. I'm about 3/4ths through and I found it intriguing. It's the ultimate adventure of "finding oneself". The hero had to go through the real world and the dream world to re-unite with his other self. A lot of talking with townsfolk ensues, but for now I'm enjoying the ride. The nostalgia is definitely a treat.

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.

Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS

I began playing this game to ween myself away from Civilization again. It seems like every time I reinstall a new computer I install Civ. 4 and try to give it another go. It's an addiction, or perhaps it's just delusions of grandeur - we all want to rule the world.

But back to Dragon Quest 4. This is probably my favorite Dragon quest game. The idea of putting the main character four chapters later into the game was novel at the time. We spend like ten hours playing through four quests and we haven't invested any time in the main character yet. It was a breakaway from the first three Dragonquests, especially as it no longer talked about Edward. Playing it again after 17 years (it came out in 1992), I find it remarkable that I remember so much about it. I still love the Taloon quest, and so did many other fans because Taloon created some franchises out for himself in Japan. I am amazed at how smooth it runs on the NDS, nothing is lost, but a lot is gained. The game will not live up to the action packed RPG's of today, but it's definitely for nostalgia's sake. People who played this one before, will love it. The music would literally time warp you back to the time you played this on your NES.

I spent about six hours on it and got through the first three chapters. Now I'm playing the fourth chapter with Meena and Maya. It's a matter of time before I get to the end of that one. There seems to be a relative ease on game settings, because I'm able to get through them with relative ease. Hopefully I don't lose my edge in the coming dungeons.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - NDS

Somehow I put down the Fire Emblem game for the Wii to play this game. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is actually a remake of the first fire Emblem game published on the SNES. It's still new to me because I completely forsaked this series, as like many people did because it wasn't ported over to the United States until much later. 

The game follows the young prince, Marth, who is chased out of his kingdom by the kingdom of Gras. He is secluded to a small city in the far marginal eastern area of the land. Slowly he gathers his forces and lauch a rebellion. He has his trusted followers: Cain and Abel, Shiida, Frey, Coyote and Wolf, etc. It steadily gets more interesting as he recruits people from every map, reminisient of the old Suikoden games. I kind of reminds me of Japan's Onin war in the Muromachi period. It took me about seven maps to totally get emotionally invested, but now I'm determined to beat it. 

The game actually does well with the NDS. Having the bottom screen as the main screen and the top screen as the profile helps you switch information quick. The mechanics move the characters quick and you can always end all the turns just by hitting START - something that happens often to me. I just want to quickly reset. I'm on map 10 now, and it seems like I'm getting better finally, dying less. Until then, I'll be playing that and Henry Hatsworth, Goodshow!

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