Niahak's Place

So if you haven’t heard, a translation patch was released a few weeks ago for the oft-overlooked game Der Langrisser.  DL is my one of my favorite SNES games,  about even with  Earthbound and Chrono Trigger.  Branching paths and an enjoyable battle system, fun plot and now a good translation.  For more info, look at my vl blog because I’m too lazy to write more here.

I have also gotten further in Genso Sangokushi 2 / Fantasy Sango 2.  Believe it or not, I’m still playing it – it’s a good long game.  So far I still more or less understand the plot, and the battle system, plot, and graphical style are growing on me.  The music is excellent, too – I’m glad I got the soundtracks with the game.  Usually not very fast-paced, but perfectly themed for the game.

I started Suikoden Tactics and am about 10 hours into the game.  I already have 25-ish characters.  The most I’ve been able to use in battle is 8, so this seems a bit much like overkill.   One thing I don’t get, though – story characters can’t die.  Non-story characters can (and in fact every time I’ve had one beaten, they have died).  I wouldn’t mind this as much if the enemy didn’t seem to target my killable characters, get a critical hit, and kill them without me being able to do anything about it.  I’ve now stopped playing for the third time just because that happened halfway through a battle.

Besides, Pablo  should be a story character, damn it.  Kika is one, and she’s had less to do with the story and has shown no reason to research rune cannons specifically.  Pablo has a vested interest, seeing as he was the only apprentice to the only rune cannon maker ever, and still doesn’t know how the damn things work.  I would think academic curiosity alone would’ve made Pablo a story character, but nooo…

Otherwise, the story has so far been pretty good for the beginning being depressing and Yohn being depressing.  And the fact that the game said “resting makes your characters talk to each other”  but so far it’s “resting makes Kyril sit by a fire while Yohn sits there being depressing”.

…barely. Driving from WA to Indianapolis took about 3 days, and now I’m all moved into my apartment and (nearly) everything is put in its place. I get to start work tomorrow, lucky me! At least then I will know some people around here. But for now I shall briefly mention Lords of the Realm 3 and some books.

So now I’m all graduated.  Doesn’t feel a whole lot different yet, but I’m guessing it will once I start working.

So, I’m going to reflect a bit on my illustrious alma mater in the nerdiest way possible (therefore, in true tribute).

First off, Rose-Hulman is obscure but still a good school.  I love obscure things (particularly if they are also good); it’s like the game you see in the corner of the store, unloved.  You buy it, take it home, and thoroughly enjoy it.  You feel like you experienced something few have.  Obscurity alone isn’t a good reason to love a game, but it does add some charm.  More entertaining is the look people give you when you say Rose has been top-ranked for several years.  Still, nobody knows about it.  It’s the game everyone enjoys, but never got many sales.

Second, Rose is utilitarian.  It’s no-nonsense, no unnecessarily fluffy graphics or amazing new features that don’t pan out.  It makes the most of recent technology, but doesn’t go into the experimental stuff.  It’s like a game that is stylized, but it’s clear more attention was paid to gameplay (learning) than graphics (campus looking nice).  The math department is the most extreme example: a solid brick building with no windows at all.  Sturdy, but not pleasant to look at (or be in, really).  I wish I had been there when the power went out and a professor nonchalantly went back to his office, grabbed a flashlight, and resumed teaching.

It it also hardcore.  I can’t help but smile at writing that, but Rose is an engineering school.  Sophomore year there were several weeks where we didn’t get nearly enough sleep – a trend that would continue.  I recall one day where we woke up at 5:00 AM to start video recording of a presentation for class, and skipping the last half of our first class to edit and subtitle it, managing to turn it in an hour late.  After that year, there was always at least one class that would keep me up late doing homework, studying, or in a panic about the next exam or some proof I needed to finish.  Sometimes two.  And I wasn’t even an engineering student; they’re the ones that had to work hard.   I see this as being a game that is properly challenging; there is a winning strategy but that you have to work to get there!  Something like Persona.   I love a challenge, so I can’t easily pass that kind of thing up.

Finally, Rose has variety.  The humanities department is great for an engineering school,  and I picked up two minors just for the enjoyment of taking the classes involved.  It’s not nearly as crazy variety as Mario Party, but something like the difference between Suikoden and its strategic sub-games.  The strategy battles keep you entertained and refresh you for the regular fights.

Oh yeah, and in the (sometimes brief) time between homework, meals, and sleeping, I got to enjoy playing games with several fellow students who have the same tastes as I do.

Finished Ogre Battle 64.  Although it’s not at the top of my list, it’s a decent game.  I enjoyed the atmosphere, the epic-yet-realistic storyline, and some of the strategy aspects.  It just has a bit too much micromanagement for my taste.  My Chaos Frame at the end was 94 (in the final scenario I accidentally left a city to be taken by some leaderless enemy unit, then captured it back with a wrong-aligned unit).

I bought Galactic Civilizations 2 about a week ago, and installed it… and I got a bluescreen.  Turns out I need DirectX 9.0c compatibility. Which, of course means that I only need graphics drivers updated in the last year.

My card (a Mobility FireGL 9000)  is made by ATI, but for some ungodly reason they let Compaq take care of the video drivers.  Compaq got bought out by HP the year I got my laptop, and older driver support was left by the wayside.  In other words, the last time new graphics drivers came out for my laptop is 2004.   3 years ago.  So despite the fact that my old desktop computer is now 7 years old, it can actually play a new game.  When my 4-year-old laptop, with double the clock speed and an otherwise-nice setup, can not.  Curse HP.  Looks like I’ll want to get a desktop soon after I start work.

Since, in the wake of the announcement of Starcraft 2, I had a spot or two of nostalgia anyway…  I started the Starcraft campaigns over again.  Bit easy so far, but fun.  I finished the Terran campaign last week and I’m starting the Zerg campaign now.

I also started playing Ys: The Ark of Napishtim last week.  It is a bit simplistic, but fun.  I never really got into the Ys games very much.  Only played the third game on the SNES, and it was rather difficult.  I don’t really even remember the plot.  But judging from Napishtim, I think the whole series would be pretty enjoyable.

Now I have two weeks off in preparation for entering the real world.  We’ll see how it works out.

Yesterday was my last set of classes. Although I have a couple more things to take care of on Sunday and Monday (including getting my broken CD-ROM drive fixed), this means I’m done with everything that’s graded. We seniors now have a week to reflect upon their long, winding path of engineering education at one of the premier institutes in the country.

Which is to say, of course, nearly everyone’s going to be finishing off their alcohol and playing video games.

Anyway, it doesn’t quite feel like it should be over. I’ve made a lot of friends here, and we’re all going to be going our separate ways.

So, in any case, here’s what’s been going on (to me and in the world):

Starcraft 2 was just announced.  Though many are surprised it turned out to actually be a sequel and not an MMO, I’m not particularly.  Making another MMO at this point wouldn’t be particularly profitable when they already have the majority of the market share.

From what I’ve seen, Starcraft 2 is really shiny.  Gameplay balance, which is Blizzard’s forte and what keeps people coming back to Starcraft, is still unknown.   Blizzard has said that they are keeping it in mind.   Now Blizzard just has to make Diablo 3 (assuming it isn’t WoW).

Part of the announcement for Starcraft 2 includes a mention that users will have access to the same tools as Blizzard to create maps.  This is great news; much of the appeal of both Starcraft and Warcraft 3 is still in the form of custom maps – ranging from RPGs to strategy to theme games.  Speaking of which, if anyone *ever* wants to play the Starcraft RPG map “A Call for Help” let me know.  I have a copy, but every time I play everyone else leaves or doesn’t realize the incredible difficulty of the map, and I want to actually see the end.

I got a copy of Genso Sangokushi 2 in the mail a while back.  After having played the demos of both 1 and 2, I can say that the full version of 2 is beautiful and builds upon the demo’s portion of the game.  Though, truth be told, so far it’s been rather on the sad side of plots.

For the uninitiated: Genso Sangokushi 2 is Fantasy Sango 2 in Japanese.  There is no English release, only a Chinese (Taiwan) and Japanese release, and the Japanese release is rather expensive for a PC game.  It’s based on Three Kingdoms, with added magic and other nonsense.  You play the part of Chu Ge, a money-grubbing young adventurer.  After a few introductory bits, his hometown is attacked by the Yellow Turbans.  It is rescued by Ma Chao, but not before his friend Han Jing is thrown off a cliff (by a giant spider-monster summoned by an evil sorcerer, no less) and his other friend Shen Yan (daughter of the local troop commander) is abducted by the Turbans.

Hoping to get more of GS2 finished this week, and also to finish Ogre Battle 64 (that’ll be tonight).

I’m also considering buying a copy of Galactic Civilizations 2.  It’s down to $20 and I’ve heard little but good about the game…