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Reviews (2)
03 Feb, 2010
Fun Game To Grow On
2 of 2 found this helpful My own copy of this game arrived with a bit of gunk stuck in the cartridge which had to be cleaned out before I could play it. But that's an issue with my seller, not the actual game.
To begin with, the game seemed quite slow and full of uninteractive conversations in the traditional style of JRPG games. It was at times a bit tiresome, but the dialogue was witty at moments and aside from the contrived attempt to blend explanation of controls into the characters' conversations smoothly it was actually fairly interesting. A lot to have to skip through if you've already seen the introduction, though.
Once you actually get playing, the gameplay implements an interesting and original way of allowing characters to develop skills you want them to develop by using them in battle... The fact that the character develops the skills associated with equipped items even if he didn't use them that time seems to beg a question or two, but since some skills can't be used by simply commanding the character to do so (and others are occasionally outlawed and will make your character get sent to prison if he does use them) it works fairly well.
My main complaints about the gameplay are the details they left out that could have made it better, so obviously that I found myself annoyed they weren't there. For example, while any given weapon or piece of equipment shows which classes or races can learn special skills by equipping it on detailed view of the item, they do NOT state which OTHER classes can use it, which means that if you want to buy a helmet or a pair of boots to equip to your character just for good defense, you have to buy it and go to the character's inventory before finding out that that class can't use that item.
A similar problem occurs with melee classes' weapons. Some weapons are two-handed, so you can't equip a shield with them, and they will simply be unequippable on the menu unless you unequip your shield first. Why can't this be automatic? Again, the detailed screen does not mention whether they are two-handed, so if a particular weapon is unequippable, the player has no way of knowing except by trial and error whether it's because the class can't use that sword, or because it takes two hands. Or, for that matter, because it's already being held by someone else (though that is stated in a # used/# owned stat beside the item which is easy to overlook).
The basic jist of tactics in the game is to attack the enemy from behind or from the side - which makes sense, but it is frequently hard to both do that successfully and prevent them from stepping around you and doing exactly the same thing. Status afflictions can be used, mostly by archers for some reason, and can be exceedingly useful to exceedingly broken, if they hit. I swiftly found that Blinding my enemies pretty much assured they were useless for the rest of the battle unless the enemy had a status healing move.
The chances of hitting an enemy don't seem to improve by leveling up, and many of the missions consist of sending someone away for a short time and having them return to declare it a success. Sad. I would prefer to play them out.
It's not a bad game, and I found myself really getting into it after a while, but many details are unintuitive or just missing. I prefer Fire Emblem, as it's much more intuitive to control, has a well-developed personality for every character you can use in battle, and a story which always gives you a reason to be fighting.
04 Jan, 2010
A Glimpse of My Childhood
I was visiting my friend - now boyfriend - away from home, for Christmas, and remembered to ask him whether he'd found the video of The Velveteen Rabbit he said he used to have and still might. The story is one that I used to listen to as a storybook on tape when I was a young child, and the music completely drew me in. Not only was it my favorite audio story, but it remains to this day the reason that Carol of the Bells is my favorite Christmas carol - It's the Christmas song played at the beginning of the story, and the arrangement is absolutely beautiful, as are all the others.
Anyway, I decided to try searching Youtube for the story, and found a couple of versions, and melted when I heard what was unmistakably the same voice telling the wonderful story again, over magnificent music. However, the youtube version had sections of instrumentals cut out, which I must admit enraged me. The music was far too good to miss any like that. I did, however, find what I was sure was the right version, even though it had been butchered a bit by irresponsible cutting.
I looked up the listed narrator and composer, searched for a significant amount of time, and found this album advertised somewhere. It even claimed to have sheet music for those magnificent arrangements, and that was one of the other things I was searching for. I play piano and it would be wonderful to be able to play the melodies that entranced me as a child.
As luck would have it, the very album was on an auction on ebay, for $4.99, due to end that very day. So I bought it - my first ever ebay purchase, I might add, and it arrived about a week later, causing much excitement.
I'm happy to say that while some childhood joys lose their appeal when you grow older and return to them older and less impressionable, this story and the wonderful music that accompanies it are not one of them. The disc includes the every one of the piano solos without narration in tracks after the story itself - which is divided into short segments - for ease of navigation, I assume. This doesn't interrupt the flow at all, it just means you can skip from one part to another if you wish.
The only disappointment I had about it at all is that there is only one song - or, depending on how you look at it, a medley of two - which it provides sheet music for, but after doing a little more searching I decided that most likely the composer has never released his arrangements of the others, so I should be happy with what I have. I may try to learn the other tracks by ear - they don't sound very complicated. Their beauty is laced up in simplicity and finesse.
Anyway, I would recommend this story, in audio format if you can get your hands on it, to anyone who knows, or is, or was once a young child and still has a heart somewhere. It's a true gem and I'm glad I got to hear it in my own childhood. Thanks to ebay for allowing me to hear it again!