Niahak's Place

I know, I know – two posts in rapid succession.  Separate topics.

We don’t get visual novels much over here.  In fact, even one of the most popular ones to come out of Japan, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, is fan translated but still has only a niche following.  Granted – it’s too large for me to get very far into even the second chapter of four – and that doesn’t count the “Chiru” chapters.  Many VNs have been translated, but the genre just hasn’t caught on in “official” channels.

Aksys, however, has (in their wisdom) granted us the chance to experience a fantastic sample of the genre on DS.  It has some great artwork, a thrilling plot, and some pretty cool puzzles to solve.  It deserves support, and you deserve to play it.

Unlike Umineko, 9/9/9 is very easy to get into.  After all – there are only nine characters and nine doors.  How complicated could it be?  The game certainly took me longer than nine hours, but I went through it five separate times.  Yes, I went through it five separate times and I just complained about not having enough time to play RPGs.  That’s because the writing in this game puts RPGs – or at least, the ones I’ve been playing recently – to shame.

Final Fantasy XIII, for example – for all the effort they put into deliberately wrenching around the player emotionally and intertwining the backgrounds of every single character – has awful characters.  9/9/9 is how all plot-centered games should be written; gradually getting to know the characters bit by bit.  This doesn’t mean finding out their life story, or even their hidden eccentricities – it means getting a feel for how they react to situations, how they start plotting against the other “players”, and so on.

I only have two complaints about this game.  The first is that text is incredibly slow the first time through, so I think my DS’s A button has nearly worn out.  Second, the requirements for getting the “intended” endings are not hinted at.  I accidentally got the least conclusive ending the first time through, and I was initially convinced all of them were that bland.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

To conclude my meandering proto-review: play this game.

More than two years ago, I put together a post for videolamer about short RPGs.  It’s a constant problem: my favorite genre is totally dominated by games that are built to take weeks or months at the pace I play.

So what’s the solution?  I could continually start up RPGs and quit halfway through, like I have been doing with MS Saga and Arc Rise Fantasia… or I could find games of a more accommodating size.

I’ve found (or rediscovered) a few more that can rightfully join the list:

• The Spirit Engine 2 (freeware, 7 hours)
• Space Funeral (freeware, 2 hours)
• Final Fantasy Legends 2&3 (aka SaGa2 & 3 – SaGa2 DS was  recently fantranslated – ~10 hours apiece)

All of these come highly recommended.  Anyone who’s been reading this blog knows that TSE2 was one of my favorite indie games before it went freeware.  Space Funeral’s seen high rankings (but perhaps not enough actual traffic – seriously, the game can be finished in an afternoon), although it’s not *terribly* RPGish.  Finally, SaGa2 DS is a great remake of the best Game Boy RPG.  Can’t speak for the translation, but given that the original game had a good official translation (bananas and adultery aside), it should be solid.  I’m still hoping for official localization of SaGa3 DS, since it was just released – but if Squenix isn’t going to bring over the better one, why bring it over?

2010 was a good year.  We saw tons of innovative games, some solid entries in existing franchises, and (as usual) the slow, plodding approximation of “progress” that Koei and Natsume put into their Warriors and Harvest Moon / Rune Factory franchises.  It may not have been a great year, but then I’m not much interested in the mainstream games so much – if I’m disappointed, it’s just that the obscure games I found  (or the few mainstream ones I played) weren’t quite as good as I’d hoped, not that the gaming industry has suffered some setback it will never recover from.  Here are a few highlights.

Since the year’s drawing to a close, and I haven’t posted about games nearly enough to satisfy my own desire to do so… I figured I’d post my picks for GOTY 2010.  Ordinarily I’d call these the “best” games of the year, but I’ll switch it to “most interesting” games of the year.

Infinite Space (DS)

This one was a surprise hit for me.  I expected it to be decent, but not nearly as good as it was.  There is a little more linearity to it than I would like, but the gobs of recruitable characters and a few major decision points with genuinely different  results make it more non-linear than 90% of JRPGs.  Not that it really is one.  Solid customization, fun but quick battles, and a good plot make it hard to beat.  This was better than several console RPGs I played this year.  My review at vl

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)

It’s not quite as good as Baroque – in fact, it’s frustrating and repetitive to actually play.  But that’s actually part of the point.  It’s one of the prettiest, creepiest games out there, and although I doubt I’d play it again I can appreciate the amount of work put into its making.  This is the first game I’ve played in a long time that was truly touching in places.  My review at vl

Dragon Quest IX (DS)

This is without a doubt my “bland JRPG” pick of the year.  It has rock-solid pacing, lots of fun customization mechanics, good support/post-game content (I got two shirts, a poster, and some stickers out of what amounted to advertising events)… it’s like a big-budget RPG, but on a portable system.  It’s a good replacement for all the missing PS3/Wii RPGs, with the PSP picking up the slack otherwise.

Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

This is the ultimate version of the best game from last generation.  It is perfect in nearly every way; the load-time fixes make even the slow parts go by quickly, and there’s a fast-forward available for all dialogue.  The event movies are missing, but this makes a difference in only two places.  With the new protagonist, additional songs, and even subtle references to an upcoming Atlus game it’s pretty hard to go wrong with an improved version of a game that was already better than any JRPG out.

NieR (PS3/360)

Sort of a mature counterpoint to Fragile, NieR is a diverse game.  It’s sort of a JRPG, but often feels like Zelda.  Fantastic voice-acting (if SE could only get this going on their main-line…), incredible music (available on iTunes, as is a more recent arrangement album), frantic action and a compelling plot.  Hard to go wrong.  My review at vl

I hope to follow this up with a “Worst games of 2010”, since I haven’t found an appropriate forum on which to vent about Final Fantasy XIII.

In the past few weeks I’ve started playing a few more games… as usual.

At release, I picked up Etrian Odyssey III. I finally started it up and the class variety is much better – and class choice more significant, it seems – than in the original.  I never played II, but I don’t think I’m missing out on much for not having played it.  If you’re in the mood for a long dungeon-crawler with lots of cute art and frequent frustration, it’s probably right up your alley.  I think it’s parallel to mine, but not quite exactly right.

More recently I picked up Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.  Most any franchise that is inspired by Journey to the West (or Saiyuki, or whatever you’d like to call it) has at least the core of a good story.  Enslaved has three decent characters, a lot of frustrating gameplay, and the occasional beautiful view.  I finished it, and I’m convinced it’s really not worth release price.

Finally, I found a cool thread at NeoGAF that discussed an iOS game called Game Dev Story.  Although it was briefly tempting to pick up an iPhone (why yes, I will consider it seriously for a dinky $4 game), there is a free-to-download PC version.  The thread calls it a “sequel”, but it seems to be the same game with a slightly different feature set.  Given it’s incredibly awesome (devoured most of a weekend), I made a quick guide for the layman English speaker.