I wonder, where did I go...?

So, I figured I'd write up a bit of a piece about the recent games I've backlogged. By recently backlogged, I mean games I've played in the past month or so which have gotten put on the back burner due to me being distracted by some other, newer game.

So, here we go:

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

(Yes, Dante from Devil May Cry IS in this game, and you CAN recruit him into your Demon Army)

This is actually the second time I've picked this game up. I started playing this again around the time when SMT: Strange Jourey came out for the DS> I'd had it pre-ordered, but decided to cancel it due to finances and the fact that the only other SMT game I've actually completed is Persona 3 (list of SMT games played: Raidou 2, Persona 4, Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, Persona 1 PSP, Digital Devil Saga 1). So, rather than adding yet ANOTHER game I wouldn't actually end up beating to my collection, I decided to try and beat Nocturne. Which, by the way, is quite good.

I can't really talk much about the story without spoiling much, but it's basically a dark post-apocalyptic RPG where your goal appears to be to survive by building a demon army out of the demon's you've "captured," and to shape the new world that you've found yourself thrown into. Oh, and to find out WTF just happened, and perhaps to reunite with your old friends.

Pokemon: Soul Silver

All I can say is this: I played this on-stop for 3 days straight and really enjoyed it, but then the magic just suddenly... disappeared. And the game just wasn't fun anymore. Kinda like how after beating Diamond and having a bunch of post-game goodies open up, I just didn't feel like playing anymore. Gold/Silver were seriously my favourite games in the series, too, so I was SO hyped for the remakes. *Sighs* My Poke-ee-mons. T_T

Tales of Eternia

I really, really love the newer Tales games. Like, REALLY love. However, this love doesn't seem to extend quite so much to the older Tales games, the ones that use the basic Linear Battle System (Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia; however, Destiny Remake's battle system is AWESOME). I totally got to, like, just before the end of the game. And then a bunch of side-quests opened up, and I was kinda like, "Argh." And then I got distracted by...

Sengoku Rance

Basically a strategy eroge. You play as Rance, a foreign man who plans to unite Japan if only so he can have his way with all of the land's fine women. Has some pretty fun gameplay, and it's quite amusing to see how the game represents some famous Japanese historical figures.

Would still be playing this if I hadn't hit a brick wall due to a severe difficulty jump near the end o the game. Basically, there's this group called the Demon Army. I've managed to push them back to the far-left peninsula on the first Sengoku Rance image, but there's a few problems: I can't attack them without losing one of my commanders because of a stupid enemy commander who's so flamingly gay that he turns into a (literally) flaming bird who instantly perma-kills one of my own commanders, the Demon Army is brutally strong, I'm running out of money to heal my troops, and if I win a battle with female commanders in it at low health the Demon Army leader kidnaps and brutally rapes (literally) one of my poor female commanders, permanently removing her from my party. I think I may have to start myself a new game, now that I'm not so clueless and know how to not waste turns/money.

Thus concludes my (recent) backloggery of games. For those whoa re curious, I am currently exclusively playing Monster Hunter 3/Tri!

that always follows you...

EDIT: My Capcom code is L9AMH1. Feel free to add me as a friend!

So, I picked up Monster Hunter Tri today. If ayone wants to play online with me, my user name is Mari. Her name comes from her red-and-green colour scheme (Mari>Merry>Merry Christmas). I'll probably be hanging out in the rookie server #1 (or whatever # is most populous).

Sadly I don't have Wii Speak, but I thankfully do have a USB keyboard so I can type easily. I've already been online for a bit, and it seems like my connection likes to drop out sometimes, so I apologize if I disconnect on anyone. I'm pretty sure it's because my ports on my wireless router aren't forwarded, but since I live in a house that's divided into 3 separate apartments who all share the same internet connection, I have no physical access to the router (it's not in my apartment), nor do I have the password. Argh.

I'll update this post with my user ID for MH3 so people can friend me easily.

As a side note, I haven't seen anyone use ay other weapon other than the basic sword and shield or the great swords. I, on the other hand, am a proud lance user. Hoo yah!

~Kitty

As time goes by I can't help but notice the sheer volume of games I start but never finish, so I thought I'd look back at games which I've played recently and see how the amount of games I've completed compares to the amount of games I've started but haven't finished.

Now for the first game...

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

Completed: No

Genre: JRPG

Rating: 7/10

The first of a trio of Atelier Iris games. The story and characters are rather cliche, and the writing is subpar. The translators for this game really worked hard to spice up the English dialogue, because the Japanese dialogue is SUPER bland. How they made the English dialogue more interesting yet COMPLETELY botched the translation for this game's item synthesis system is beyond me (trust me, it's terrible). You can come out with items that have properties like "little for adults" and "very childish" with that exact capitalization. Not to mention these properties are on the SAME ITEM! The best part of this game is definitely the exploration and the powers you gain by obtaining new mana (spirits). Nothing like blowing stuff up with fireballs or converting giant mushrooms into mana for item synthesis. I mostly stopped playing this because I got distracted by other games which came out around the time I started playing it. Would definitely go back to play this game again though.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

Completed: No

Genre: ARPG

Rating: 5/10

Ugh. Stupid story, repetitive levels, gameplay that is not in the least bit challenging, and multiplayer only available once you've beaten the stage you want to play in multiplayer mode in single-player mode = boring game. Don't get me wrong, the KH series is one of my favourite series of all time, 95% of this game's levels are ripped straight from KH2. Not to mention one of the best parts of KH games is exploring new worlds, while this game pits you on hundreds of missions in only about 5 or 6 worlds. As you can see, not much opportunity for exploration but PLENTY of opportunity for repetition. I started this game because it was something I could play on the bus to work/university, but quickly grew tired of it.

Borderlands

Completed: Yes
Genre: FPS/RPG Hybrid

Rating: 8/10

A nifty FPS/RPG hybrid that has the environment of Fallout 3, the gameplay of many recent shooters, the quests and character building of Western RPGs and the item system of Diablo. Its only flaws are its length and bland missions. I thoroughly enjoyed playing as the Siren, whose special ability makes her the perfect assassin. Man, is it fun to be able to run around really fast while being invisible, recovering health, dealing shock damage to nearby enemies, and stunning everything in sight once the ability wears out. Its story sequences are few and far between, but what story it does have is quite amusing. And, let's face it, the multiplayer is great. Although... you might find yourself arguing with your friends over who gets to play as the Siren, because she's the only attractive character in this game (and man, is she a knockout with a sexy voice).

Today I'll be playing Demon's Souls for the Pure Black World Tendency event and watching some scary Asian horror movies (Audition and Suicide Club to be exact).

However, what I REALLY want to be doing (and would be doing if I weren't living in an apartment but instead in my own house) is scaring the pants off of little kids and teenagers. If it were up to me, my Halloween would be spent blasting out some of the scariest Silent Hill tracks on loudspeakers while silently waiting in the bushes (dressed up as a Nurse mosnter from Silent Hill 2) with a friend (dressed up as Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2) and jumping out at little kids to scare the pants off of them and then giving them candy as consolation.

Quite frankly I would rather scare teenagers or adults, partly because it's funnier to scare older people and partly because I'd feel guilty for scaring kids. But alas, Halloween is abundant with kids, not teenagers and college student, because they're probably off partying somewhere (come to think of it, during Toronto Pride '09, I had a drag queen hand me an invitation to a Halloween party, I suppose because I was dressed up in my "Kitty Waitress" outfit, but it's in Toronto so I can't go).

I've got a whole entire playlist of my favourite scary Silent Hill songs that I could use for Halloween night. Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill's composer, sound effect producer, and series producer) is seriously brilliant. Nothing beats his music in terms of scary atmosphere (but his non-scary stuff is great too). Seriously, how do you think kids would react if a Nurse (seen in the movie below) and Pyramid Head jumped out at them while music like that was playing? *Evil grin*

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Welcome to my blog! Here there shall be short game reviews and occasionally blurbs about my life.