Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Square Enix
Completion Time: At least 20 hours, probably 30
To quote from the final ending screen "Where there is Love there is Mana, where there is Mana there is Love".
That pretty much sums it up. I am required by my soul to love any game in the Seiken Densetsu series, regardless of major gameplay flaws. This game is a pain in the ass to play, yet it is beautiful and enchanting in a heavenly masterpiece kind of way. I love the visuals, music, story, cutscenes, nostalgia, everything... Everything except the very limit of frustration that is achieved at times while playing due to the terrible camera system and gimmicky use of Half-Life 2's physics engine, that's right. Dawn of Mana is some kind of weird action sandbox physics sim game that isn't exactly that fun to play most of the time. Still I trudged through it as the universe of the game speaks to me in ways I will never be able to properly define.
From the menu screen with the melodic piano intro with 3 red crane silhouettes appearing and fading away, a tingle ran up my spine because I knew this was fan service in every way but the gameplay, ha! I just wish they would have made this a classic Seiken game, top down, 2d sprite based, kill shit and level up. The genre crossbreed retard cousin that resulted is not exactly flattering to the Mana legacy but the game makes up for it in presentation.
I would love to ramble on about the virtues of this game but I fear it would be lost on the majority of gamers these days. In reality, I'm beginning to assume that Square Enix by some divine grace tailors these games specifically for me. They can rest assured that no matter how bad of a game they make, if it's Mana, at least one copy of it will sell.
Oh yeah and Watts in a tank tearin' shit up with Flammie flyin' around firing lasers from his mouth was one of the most oh fuck yeah moments I have had in many moons.
So if you love Seiken Densetsu unconditionally like me, trust me you don't. Run to your nearest game retailer and pick up a copy of the game that no doubt is selling for half the price I paid for it at release by now. Happy times!
All fluffing and very little stuffing Kuni rating: 5/5
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Half-Life 2
Platform: PC
Developer: Valve
Completion Time: 14 hours
I have no idea what is going on in these games. I still love them dearly.
Once every few moons I get a strong urge to play through an FPS in just a few sittings. Usually in the Fall, and usually Half-Life and now its silly awesome sequel. I originally purchased this burly mofo back at release and ended up getting into Counter-Strike: Source to an extent that I never finished HL2... My bad. There's not much to say here really, it's pretty, it's fun, it makes no sense(to my feeble mind anyways).
I remember playing for the first time after I installed a few years back, I was chugging along enjoying the action until you get to this little playground with swings, a slide, a seesaw, milk crates, cinder blocks, a baby doll... the works. I must have seriously spent close to an hour playing around with the physics. Finding amusing ways to combine the above ingredients and good old artificial gravity to produce endless entertainment.
Once you get past the neat factor of everything being realistically interactive and dig into the meat of the game, it holds up as a highly immersing sci-fi epic with delicate flavors of Bladerunner, The Matrix, Mad Max, all that good stuff. It has its flaws like any game but they are pretty few and far between, the level of polish on this game is so shiny you can see your reflection.
I can honestly say I would play this game again multiple times, just for the experience, it isn't exactly deeply replayable it just rocks so much you want to see everything again.
Oh yeah, gravity gun.
Highly scientific molecular Kuni rating: 4.5/5
Developer: Valve
Completion Time: 14 hours
I have no idea what is going on in these games. I still love them dearly.
Once every few moons I get a strong urge to play through an FPS in just a few sittings. Usually in the Fall, and usually Half-Life and now its silly awesome sequel. I originally purchased this burly mofo back at release and ended up getting into Counter-Strike: Source to an extent that I never finished HL2... My bad. There's not much to say here really, it's pretty, it's fun, it makes no sense(to my feeble mind anyways).
I remember playing for the first time after I installed a few years back, I was chugging along enjoying the action until you get to this little playground with swings, a slide, a seesaw, milk crates, cinder blocks, a baby doll... the works. I must have seriously spent close to an hour playing around with the physics. Finding amusing ways to combine the above ingredients and good old artificial gravity to produce endless entertainment.
Once you get past the neat factor of everything being realistically interactive and dig into the meat of the game, it holds up as a highly immersing sci-fi epic with delicate flavors of Bladerunner, The Matrix, Mad Max, all that good stuff. It has its flaws like any game but they are pretty few and far between, the level of polish on this game is so shiny you can see your reflection.
I can honestly say I would play this game again multiple times, just for the experience, it isn't exactly deeply replayable it just rocks so much you want to see everything again.
Oh yeah, gravity gun.
Highly scientific molecular Kuni rating: 4.5/5
Sunday, September 23, 2007
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon no DokiDoki Daiboken
Platform: Super Famicom/ZSNES
Developer: Hudson Soft
Approximate Completion Time: A few hours at least
I played this without any kind of translation patch so I'm going to guess what the point is.
I think you're supposed to be collecting musical instruments to thwart evil or some nonsense. It doesn't really matter, it's your typical platform game setup, you have themed worlds (forest, lava, ice, etc) whacky bosses, catchy tunes, stuff to collect for extra lives, a few different power ups, all that good stuff. I really dug it, the graphics and music just appeal to me, and the levels were really well designed and kept the game interesting all the way through to the end.
The music is just so super groovy and it even has a cameo from the bomberman guys. The difficulty wasn't too terrible although I must admit to a bit of save stating in the final levels and especially on the last boss due to its multi-form madness. To defeat stuff in this game you blow bubbles to trap baddies then send them flying on their way. There is also the occasional bowling ball which you can use to topple many foes in a row. I don't know if there is slowdown in the real version of this game but I was definitely in slow motion for the more chaotic levels which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as anyone who has been emulating for a while can tell you.
I would rank this little gem right up there with the big boys of platforming action. If you like uber Japanese awesomeness you will certainly appreciate bubbling and jumping and running through this title. There is a lot of other stuff to discover that I didn't describe due to laziness so just give her a squiz!
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 4/5
Developer: Hudson Soft
Approximate Completion Time: A few hours at least
I played this without any kind of translation patch so I'm going to guess what the point is.
I think you're supposed to be collecting musical instruments to thwart evil or some nonsense. It doesn't really matter, it's your typical platform game setup, you have themed worlds (forest, lava, ice, etc) whacky bosses, catchy tunes, stuff to collect for extra lives, a few different power ups, all that good stuff. I really dug it, the graphics and music just appeal to me, and the levels were really well designed and kept the game interesting all the way through to the end.
The music is just so super groovy and it even has a cameo from the bomberman guys. The difficulty wasn't too terrible although I must admit to a bit of save stating in the final levels and especially on the last boss due to its multi-form madness. To defeat stuff in this game you blow bubbles to trap baddies then send them flying on their way. There is also the occasional bowling ball which you can use to topple many foes in a row. I don't know if there is slowdown in the real version of this game but I was definitely in slow motion for the more chaotic levels which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as anyone who has been emulating for a while can tell you.
I would rank this little gem right up there with the big boys of platforming action. If you like uber Japanese awesomeness you will certainly appreciate bubbling and jumping and running through this title. There is a lot of other stuff to discover that I didn't describe due to laziness so just give her a squiz!
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 4/5
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Silent Hill 3
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Konami
Completion Time: 6 hours, 18 minutes
In this game you vomit God, then someone else eats God and gives birth to him/her? Then you kill God with firearms and a katana? What? This game could also be called "what the fuck was Akira Yamaoka on and where can I get some?" or "video game laxative" basically, you turn off all the lights in your video game playing location of choice, proceed to sit down and play the game alone, then have a bowel movement in your pants. This game is terrifying, and it takes a lot to get to me these days. The atmosphere is just beyond comparison, I have played the previous two titles and completed them at least once each. Somehow they managed to up the ante and make this a mini nervous breakdown in a dvd case. Also this game is fucking cryptic as hell when it comes to the puzzle gameplay. There is no way I could have possibly completed this without the help of my good friend GameFAQs. I really want to meet the mathletes who can play this with no guide or tip sheet and just somehow make sense of the riddles. Maybe in my younger days, but my beer addled mind of many years has no hope of solving this game solo. This game is a mindfuck in every direction and I love it deeply, however. The only thing I can complain about is this is so far the shallow end of the Silent Hill pool from the titles I have played plot-wise. In SH1 the whole experience could be explained multiple ways, drugs, near death hallucination, ancient gods, aliens, what!? In SH2 it was way more psychological and had to do with the personal purgatory of the main character and his struggle to atone for the sins of his past. In this one it pretty much picks the ancient god theory and concretes it and just runs with it. Ok, I guess... :\ I didn't really catch the symbolism with the main characters mentality as much, just a lot of throwbacks to the original. Which is cool in a way, but what I loved about the first two titles was how everything you saw had some obscure or obvious symbolism and when you figured it out, your eyes went crossed. The only time I felt like that in this chapter was when I realized the significance of the save point symbol... well done :)
This game looks like sex, I want you to know. I haven't been so happy with 3d realistic graphics since Shenmue. It just looks perfect, bravo Konami. This game easily beats the pants off any PS2 game I have played in the graphics department. I wasn't super thrilled about the soundtrack however, the ambiance and sound effects were top-notch as always but the ambient almost 80s flavored background music from the first two was sadly lacking. It still had the loosely related alt rock opening music and ended with the intro music from SH1 which was a nice choice but I would have enjoyed more mellow chill gray sky groove-tastic awesomeness :p
I can't really see myself replaying this one, although the bonus costumes and weapons are pretty good by series standards... the endings that I have read about are kind of weak. I'm still intrigued about the UFO ending from SH1 and if I can muster up the motivation I'll try to obtain it, but that's even after knowing exactly what to expect. This game I'm just glad to have completed, I don't know. One other thing I want to mention, fuck you Konami for resorting to the jump out of your fucking skin scares... that is too easy, I liked how the atmosphere just built in the last two until I was almost too uncomfortable to play the damn game. Screw you for cheapening it by driving down easy street *cough* manikin room *cough* I wonder how many heart attack lawsuits they had to fend with this game haha...
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 4/5
Developer: Konami
Completion Time: 6 hours, 18 minutes
In this game you vomit God, then someone else eats God and gives birth to him/her? Then you kill God with firearms and a katana? What? This game could also be called "what the fuck was Akira Yamaoka on and where can I get some?" or "video game laxative" basically, you turn off all the lights in your video game playing location of choice, proceed to sit down and play the game alone, then have a bowel movement in your pants. This game is terrifying, and it takes a lot to get to me these days. The atmosphere is just beyond comparison, I have played the previous two titles and completed them at least once each. Somehow they managed to up the ante and make this a mini nervous breakdown in a dvd case. Also this game is fucking cryptic as hell when it comes to the puzzle gameplay. There is no way I could have possibly completed this without the help of my good friend GameFAQs. I really want to meet the mathletes who can play this with no guide or tip sheet and just somehow make sense of the riddles. Maybe in my younger days, but my beer addled mind of many years has no hope of solving this game solo. This game is a mindfuck in every direction and I love it deeply, however. The only thing I can complain about is this is so far the shallow end of the Silent Hill pool from the titles I have played plot-wise. In SH1 the whole experience could be explained multiple ways, drugs, near death hallucination, ancient gods, aliens, what!? In SH2 it was way more psychological and had to do with the personal purgatory of the main character and his struggle to atone for the sins of his past. In this one it pretty much picks the ancient god theory and concretes it and just runs with it. Ok, I guess... :\ I didn't really catch the symbolism with the main characters mentality as much, just a lot of throwbacks to the original. Which is cool in a way, but what I loved about the first two titles was how everything you saw had some obscure or obvious symbolism and when you figured it out, your eyes went crossed. The only time I felt like that in this chapter was when I realized the significance of the save point symbol... well done :)
This game looks like sex, I want you to know. I haven't been so happy with 3d realistic graphics since Shenmue. It just looks perfect, bravo Konami. This game easily beats the pants off any PS2 game I have played in the graphics department. I wasn't super thrilled about the soundtrack however, the ambiance and sound effects were top-notch as always but the ambient almost 80s flavored background music from the first two was sadly lacking. It still had the loosely related alt rock opening music and ended with the intro music from SH1 which was a nice choice but I would have enjoyed more mellow chill gray sky groove-tastic awesomeness :p
I can't really see myself replaying this one, although the bonus costumes and weapons are pretty good by series standards... the endings that I have read about are kind of weak. I'm still intrigued about the UFO ending from SH1 and if I can muster up the motivation I'll try to obtain it, but that's even after knowing exactly what to expect. This game I'm just glad to have completed, I don't know. One other thing I want to mention, fuck you Konami for resorting to the jump out of your fucking skin scares... that is too easy, I liked how the atmosphere just built in the last two until I was almost too uncomfortable to play the damn game. Screw you for cheapening it by driving down easy street *cough* manikin room *cough* I wonder how many heart attack lawsuits they had to fend with this game haha...
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 4/5
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Seiken Densetsu 3
Platform: Super Famicom/ZSNES
Developer: Squaresoft
Approximate Completion Time: Years
This is a hard game. After many attempted playthroughs, my bro and I have finally laid it to rest. That is all I feel like saying for now.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3/5
Developer: Squaresoft
Approximate Completion Time: Years
This is a hard game. After many attempted playthroughs, my bro and I have finally laid it to rest. That is all I feel like saying for now.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3/5
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Onimusha: Warlords
Title: Onimusha: Warlords
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Capcom
Approximate Completion Time: <8 hours
Game Clear Ranking: B
This is Resident Evil in feudal Japan with demons causing problems instead of nefarious bio tech corporations. This game has been sitting in my collection for quite a while so I am relieved to finally finish it. It has all the key elements of a proper Capcom survival horror game: tank controls, crazy fixed camera angles, sparse items, very shoddy voice acting and 100% pure awesome. I never got around to playing this game when it came out many years ago because I was deprived of a PS2 by my parents and was too young/stupid to earn money for one. It holds up pretty well for being an early PS2 game, I'm always a fan of the pre-rendered backgrounds with 3d characters so this game hits the spot nicely. The gameplay is not bad at all, and borrows the "soul sucking" concept from games like Soul Reaver and gives it a character development spin. You have to suck souls from defeated foes and use them to enhance your weapons and their abilities. I spent a while grinding souls and got my lightning sword maxed out early on so I could breeze through the beginning areas of the game and not get frustrated. Later on it doesn't matter if you have everything maxed as the game gets pretty tough. Lots of dying and reloading in this game so my estimated play time might be off as it doesn't keep track of the time I wasted getting somewhere then dying and having to do it over again about 5 times. Somehow this didn't bother me too badly with this game and I kept on truckin' through to the decent ending. This game is right up my alley and the length was perfect, any longer and it could have gotten tedious. While not as memorable as Resident Evil for me, I may pick up the other games in the series and give 'em a squiz.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3.5/5
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Capcom
Approximate Completion Time: <8 hours
Game Clear Ranking: B
This is Resident Evil in feudal Japan with demons causing problems instead of nefarious bio tech corporations. This game has been sitting in my collection for quite a while so I am relieved to finally finish it. It has all the key elements of a proper Capcom survival horror game: tank controls, crazy fixed camera angles, sparse items, very shoddy voice acting and 100% pure awesome. I never got around to playing this game when it came out many years ago because I was deprived of a PS2 by my parents and was too young/stupid to earn money for one. It holds up pretty well for being an early PS2 game, I'm always a fan of the pre-rendered backgrounds with 3d characters so this game hits the spot nicely. The gameplay is not bad at all, and borrows the "soul sucking" concept from games like Soul Reaver and gives it a character development spin. You have to suck souls from defeated foes and use them to enhance your weapons and their abilities. I spent a while grinding souls and got my lightning sword maxed out early on so I could breeze through the beginning areas of the game and not get frustrated. Later on it doesn't matter if you have everything maxed as the game gets pretty tough. Lots of dying and reloading in this game so my estimated play time might be off as it doesn't keep track of the time I wasted getting somewhere then dying and having to do it over again about 5 times. Somehow this didn't bother me too badly with this game and I kept on truckin' through to the decent ending. This game is right up my alley and the length was perfect, any longer and it could have gotten tedious. While not as memorable as Resident Evil for me, I may pick up the other games in the series and give 'em a squiz.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3.5/5
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Shadow of The Colossus
I've decided to broaden the scope of this blog to document all games I complete, with special attention to those that fit my original ambitions.
Title: Shadow of The Colossus
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment
Approximate Completion Time: <10 hours
Shadow of The Colossus was a short but sweet game that I couldn't decide to fully love or hate. As the spiritual successor to Ico it shared the same haunting beauty in visual design and minimalistic but extremely well done audio. The game consisted of exploring a very large outdoor(with some ruins and other ancient structures) area in search of giant entities that looked like structures themselves a majority of the time. Then you have to find a way to bring them down which basically involved clinging to the furry animal-like bits and scaling to a weak point which you then stab repeatedly until they fall. There were some pretty smart puzzles involved in slaying the Colossi, most of which I proudly solved on my own with only a few trips to GameFAQs for the really ridiculous ones.
What I liked about the game was the concept and scale and atmosphere of the experience. It was definitely a game you want to keep playing for the engrossing adventure even if the gameplay makes you want to light the disc on fire and roll it down the street. It wasn't that bad really, just the camera always seemed to be spinning away from what I wanted to look at and was a bitch to control. Everything was a bitch to control. It felt like the developers weren't sure if they wanted to create a unique action/adventure game or a bull riding sim. Hold onto your R1 button for dear life and if you somehow get tossed into an advantageous position, yeehaw! Also the framerate was absolutely terrible at times, it's easy to understand why when you take one look at anything in the game but... I'm used to buttery smoothness, instead the Ps2 delivered jagged tortilla chip parts that got stuck in my throat. Despite it's flaws however, Shadow of The Colossus came through in the end delivering an engaging experience I'm happy I payed $20 for.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3/5
Title: Shadow of The Colossus
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment
Approximate Completion Time: <10 hours
Shadow of The Colossus was a short but sweet game that I couldn't decide to fully love or hate. As the spiritual successor to Ico it shared the same haunting beauty in visual design and minimalistic but extremely well done audio. The game consisted of exploring a very large outdoor(with some ruins and other ancient structures) area in search of giant entities that looked like structures themselves a majority of the time. Then you have to find a way to bring them down which basically involved clinging to the furry animal-like bits and scaling to a weak point which you then stab repeatedly until they fall. There were some pretty smart puzzles involved in slaying the Colossi, most of which I proudly solved on my own with only a few trips to GameFAQs for the really ridiculous ones.
What I liked about the game was the concept and scale and atmosphere of the experience. It was definitely a game you want to keep playing for the engrossing adventure even if the gameplay makes you want to light the disc on fire and roll it down the street. It wasn't that bad really, just the camera always seemed to be spinning away from what I wanted to look at and was a bitch to control. Everything was a bitch to control. It felt like the developers weren't sure if they wanted to create a unique action/adventure game or a bull riding sim. Hold onto your R1 button for dear life and if you somehow get tossed into an advantageous position, yeehaw! Also the framerate was absolutely terrible at times, it's easy to understand why when you take one look at anything in the game but... I'm used to buttery smoothness, instead the Ps2 delivered jagged tortilla chip parts that got stuck in my throat. Despite it's flaws however, Shadow of The Colossus came through in the end delivering an engaging experience I'm happy I payed $20 for.
Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3/5
Saturday, March 10, 2007
It Begins
Welcome to the future Internet presence of one who has seen and done most of what the Internet has to offer. In a state of drunken ecstasy last night I came up with the inspired idea to start(well, restart really) playing video games from what I consider the "Golden Age of Gaming" and sharing my experiences and opinions with anyone or no one who cares. Gaming is my greatest passion in this life and while I don't have as much time for it as I would like, I still manage to play games quite a bit. So here's the plan: games no more recent than PlayStation 1, one game at a time, I will finish the main objective of the game, not necessarily getting every extra thing, then make one post about it, complete with screenshots. It begins...
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