Niahak's Place

I beat Steambot Chronicles yesterday. That game was impressive enough in some ways for me to write a review immediately.

To summarize: Despite being in almost all other ways a mediocre game, the amount of choice present makes it really fun to play up to a certain point. If you like Harvest Moon, you will like Steambot. It’s nearly everything Harvest Moon should have become five years ago. Dozens of ways to make money (though only a few are viable).

I went out and got a new TV yesterday. It’s a 26-inch flatscreen. I’m upgrading from a 19-inch CRT with only the coax input working to a 720px widescreen with composite input. So far I’m much more impressed by Odin Sphere, but I’ve only played that and Steambot on it so far. I’m looking forward to playing something like Wild ARMs on it, weird as it sounds. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that the text is incredibly sharp, and colors are much better defined. Any sprite-based game should look much better. Now I just need a composite input for my SNES…

In terms of other games, I’m still playing Genso Sangokushi 2 (Fantasy Sango 2). Observe.

Yuan Shu: To think you all made it this far! Guards! Deal with these nuisances right away!

If you noticed Lady Wu’s thread, he ends up getting burned for being a bit too close to his advisor. In any case, the game is certainly continuing and I’m still enjoying it. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t even notice some of the core features of GS2 until a dozen or so hours into the game. I would love to see it translated (I could possibly do it but I don’t have the hacking know-how and I’d need to shore up a LOT on my kanji), because some of the bits are really nice – the item creation in particular is useful and well-done, if not as deliciously random as in Star Ocean: The Second Story. You upgrade skills by allocating points to them (the higher the skill, the more to level up) and the game has great strategic depth as there are 4 paths you can take for each of the 7 (!) sub-characters Miel (as Lady Wu eloquently named her) can become. Not to mention the fact that some skills are really formations that affect your stats… My only complaint is I don’t have a good heal-all ability, just a couple positive status effects (Armor up is really useful) and Miel’s weak heal-one-person skill. I went down the wrong branch for the lettuce kid (whatever you call him), so I just now got the heal-all skill for him and I bet it’s weak.

Since I just recently figured out how to take screenshots easily, I will likely post many more, as GS2 is a beautiful game.

Also, I’m working on a translation of the NES adventure game Akira, based on the anime movie of the same name. In the past week, I had the chance to read the manga and see the movie. The manga is so much better that I can’t imagine anyone liking the movie – the manga just has so much more depth, while in the movie, everything is horribly compressed and much of the original vision is sadly lost. I really hope no one ever tries to condense Three Kingdoms into anything less than 20 hours.

And, sadly, my work-lots time is not what ends now. I will try to keep updating the site once every few days, but no guarantees.

This doesn’t really fit anywhere (in fact it could fit in all three of my major categories – books, games, and japan stuff) but here it is anyway.

(I’m too lazy to edit the image again – the strip is titled “Take and Run” and it’s by (probably – name renderings are odd) Chikusa Hiroko.

It took me about half an hour to do this, because I’m not very good with image editors. The fact that I only took a half an hour shows, and I apologize.  If anyone else knos how better to do all the image modification stuff, I’d love to translate.  I just don’t have the expertise.

To extrapolate more on the source; this is from a 4-koma manga (4-koma being a style- Azumanga Daioh is probably the most famous one in the US – similar to a standard throwaway comic strip). More specifically, if you can’t tell, this is from a 4-koma manga about Wild Arms: Alter Code F. I’ve had 5 full strips (and a few very blurry others) on my hard drive since I took a few minutes with a scanner to grab them about 5 or 6 months ago.

I’m actually really happy with the manga itself, as it pokes fun at dozens of RPG cliches as well as at the ACF plot itself from time to time. It has a variety of artists/authors, some of which I really like too.  And it wasn’t too expensive either.

If anyone wants to see the originals, let me know. I’ve been meaning to talk about these for a while.

…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.

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…