Niahak's Place

I probably have more interesting things to talk about (going to PAX, playing through Starcraft 2, enjoying Persona 3 Portable among others) but I’d rather talk about Arcana.  So let’s do that, shall we?

I originally posted about Arcana some time ago – indeed, more than four years ago.  Since that post I had looked for the game each time I went to a brick and mortar store.  There’s something that just feels right about finding it someplace physical rather than going on eBay and picking it up for a little more (or likely less).  The local Game Xchange, Spokane’s (otherwise very nice) Trade-A-Game, and the occasional not-very-likely Play-N-Trade were all candidates, and all failed me.

What actually succeeded in selling me a copy of the game – and yes, I’m aware this is not a very interesting accomplishment – was the Pink Gorilla booth at PAX.  Yes, that’s right – I had the opportunity to play Portal 2, Retro City Rampage, Metroid: Other M, and, might I add, did none of these things (lines too long / not interesting enough to me) and the first thing I post about is buying a SNES game that nobody cares about.

I’m a little late to this post-apocalyptic party.

I’m not even really sure NieR can be called a game.  While it has many elements of a game, so many of its parts are clearly parody – of Zelda, Resident Evil, text adventures,  God of War, and even bullet-hell games – that I’m not sure there’s much left you can really call NieR at its core.  Yet at the same time, it is a game with a highly serious plot.  On the other hand, it has all sorts of nonsensical banter – your floating-book companion, Grimoire Weiss, makes fun of you incessantly for accepting the most inane quests from villagers.  Kainé is also a wonderful vehicle for (more profane) banter.

It’s been a long time since I mentioned Freeware/Indie stuff, so I figure I’ll bring ’em out shotgun-style.

First, The Spirit Engine 2 is now Freeware!  It joins its somewhat more aged predecessor as a standout among free RPGs.  Not only is it *not* RPGMaker (therefore liberating itself from engine and font constraints – both are fantastic), but it’s got a great character-driven and moderately political plot.  There are some significant subplot differences based on which characters you pick, too, so I actually played through it twice in rapid succession.  It’s about 8-10 hours long, I’d estimate, on a first playthrough.

The second is really a group.  Recently I became aware of Daniel Remar‘s various games, and played through a couple of them.

Iji is to me the standout of the two.  An action-RPG similar in some ways to both Super Metroid and System Shock 2, it has a plot that shifts in tone based on your decisions and – more significantly – actions in the game.  The trailer, if nothing else, is worth watching to get an idea what it’s like.  The full game took me a little under 3 hours, but I’ve already replayed it once and plan to go through a third time.

Hero Core is more recent and less polished, but also shorter and probably more accessible than either of the above two games.  It’s a more directly Metroid-ish game, but it actually reminded me a little bit of The Guardian Legend, too.  Lots of nifty optional content, but still takes only a little over an hour to complete and the difficulty is spot-on.  It’s very retro-styled and even contains a “retro” language setting which is really great to read.

All of these are worthwhile games, and none are longer than 10 hours.  The price, of course, is the most reasonable of all.  It’s interesting to note, also – all three of these games (aside from the music) was made by one individual (Mark Pay for TSE2 and Daniel Remar for the others).  That’s some inspiring dedication!

This one really is random.  There’s pretty much no other category I would put this game in.  It’s neither especially good nor terribly bad.  It’s really nothing special, but it is random.

I don’t particularly have the urge to boot it up now, because I might get sucked into it (however briefly).  You play some kid who had his magic kingdom taken over by an evil guy when he was a baby.  His magical dog saved him and made sure he was raised appropriately (I think that’s how it goes), then reveals the truth to him.  Anyway, there’s a lot of fighting, and you have a magic dog, and there are shopkeepers that are entirely too chatty.  That’s about all I remember about the plot.  It’s sort of like a weaker Clash at Demonhead.  It’s anime-inspired, clearly, and there are bizarre goings-on, but they’re just bizarre enough to support the premise of the game.

Similar to 8 Eyes, your dog is a companion who you have limited control over.  He can be helpful, but (again like 8 Eyes’ Cutrus) he is entirely to weak to be your front-line and will likely die quickly.  Unlike 8 Eyes, he cannot be played by a second player, making this game a sad case of could-have-been.

It’s not like it’s a total loss, though.  The reason I still remember this game – and, in fact, what inspired me to post again so quickly – was the song for the first stage, which is unbelievably catchy (and linked below).  The composer credited with this is Masaharu Iwata, a wonderfully prolific and talented composer who is probably best known for his work alongside Hitoshi Sakimoto on games like FFXII and Opoona.   Incidentally, he also composed the music for the original Japanese release of Baroque.

Conquest of the Crystal Palace – Stage 1

There are a few games that I absolutely love, despite all reasons I would ever want to hate them.  Part of the reason I like them so much, I’ll gladly admit, is nostalgia.  Most such games left an impression on me growing up, and overcoming the (often many) frustrations and learning to play them the best way possible was a big inspiration for me to pursue problem-solving and mathematics.

Another, more significant part, is that they really rock.  Seriously, these are some damn good games, even when they have a few knocks against them.  It’s not a “they shore don’t make’m like they used ta” feeling, because one of these games is Persona 3.  It’s not even a “this game is good because it was made by X” because I dislike Suikoden 4, Wild Arms 4, Persona 2… and so on.  Simply put, it’s not all fanboyism and it’s not all nostalgia.  A significant amount of the reasons I like these games is because they’re a blast to play.  In some cases, the story is deep or satisfying enough that it doesn’t matter that it’s not.

All these words to say I love SaGa 2 (which, I may add, is actually Final Fantasy Legend 2 in disguise, or vice versa)  I have just written a review for videolamer, as usual, but there I try to pursue some vestiges of professionalism.  This game is fantastic; how many games let you shoot rhinoceroses with a PSI rifle?  How often do you get to battle (scaled up) microphages using a robot with a battle-ax?  The answer is not enough.  The best part of the game is its difficulty; ironic when most of my favorite games are easy.   In SaGa 2, your party is perpetually armed to the hilt with the most up to date weaponry and you are still just barely hanging on against the hordes of flying fish, oversized spiders, goblins, terrorists, the occasional demigod, robots, and so on.  Some of the original SaGa 1 / FF Legend artwork is evocative here: