December Gaming Over!

What the what?! December just started and I'm finished with my December gaming already! Well, I can't really help myself when there is a new Zelda game. I had it in my hands and very shortly after that in my Wii on November 21st. I still had school for another week at that point and my semester paper wasn't quite finished, but I managed to finish up the paper this past Tuesday and finished Zelda on Thursday. After that, I thought I'd have another forty hour adventure on my hands with Batman: Arkham City, but it took nowhere near as I long. I finished up the main story yesterday and wrapped up most of the side missions this afternoon. I have no plans to play anything else over the break though I may finally play Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for DS in between reading, writing, eating and sleeping. If not, then I'll get to it and the rest of my backlog come summer. At which point I might also FINALLY be able to make this blog something worth looking at rather than the barebones, wildly inconsistent monstrosity that greets me every time I open my favorites and click "Blogger Dashboard."

Anyway, Zelda and Arkham City. Both great games, and I have a lot to say about them. Not tonight. I've had a headache all day and I want to go to bed at a decent (as opposed to an indecent) time tonight because I have things I need to take care of tomorrow.

Past and Future

I never did get around to talking about inFAMOUS 2. My bad. Though it will probably be another broken promise, maybe I'll get around to it later.

I've been putting together a proposal for my thesis advisor over the last few days, and I realized something: Twilight Princess was released nearly five years ago. Though it is still readily available for the Wii, it is ancient history in terms of video games. Know what else I've noticed? My time for gaming declined rapidly after the release of Twilight Princess. I've definitely been able to play video games over the last five years, but have never had the time or the money to do so as much as I would like. So I made a list of games released after December 2006 (yes, I purchased Twilight Princess for GameCube), and the list of games I've actually played is far smaller than the games that I have wanted to play. I've made time for some of my favorite series, and have tested the water with a few new series and individual games, but, dang, if it weren't for the fact I play some titles that most gamers would call "hardcore" I'd totally label myself as a casual gamer.

Though it doesn't list EVERYTHING here is a list of most of the games I've played over the last five years:

1. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, played through it twice upon release and clocked around 100 hours of play time between the two playthroughs.
2. Super Mario Galaxy, only one playthrough, and though I love it I probably won't ever play it again. It makes me dizzy. Probably no more than 10 hours play time.
3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, liked it better than Metroid Prime 2, but still didn't hold a candle to the first Metroid Prime. 15 hours play time.
4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, enjoyed it, but actually prefer the first New Super Mario Bros. for DS. Probably no more than 8 hours play time.
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, clocked almost 130 hours on this bad boy in about a month and a half.
6. Metroid: Other M, made a post about this game after I played it. I enjoyed the gameplay, but the story was atrocious. 12 hours play time.
7. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, I usually love me some Fire Emblem but this game was so broken! 20 hours play time.
8. Dragon Quest IV, great game, but ruined by the lack of a party talk function and static characters. 24 hours play time.
9. Dragon Quest V, another fantastic game, and the included party talk definitely helped with character development though its predecessor did outshine it in some areas. 26 hours play time.
10. inFAMOUS, another fantastic game from the developers of the Sly Cooper series. I played both as a Hero and again as a Villain. Probably around 20 hours play time between the two modes.
11. Ghostbusters, so much fun, but super short. 5 hours play time at best.
12. Valkyria Chronicles, though Fire Emblem is what hooked me to the SRPG genre, this game is probably the best I've played. Played through it twice over the course of a month and clocked about 80 hours total.
13. Batman: Arkham Asylum, another great one. I had to go through it really fast because I was wanting to play other games. 16 hours play time.
14. Bayonetta, fun, though very odd. I bought it for twelve bucks and sold it back for ten because it was so short. 6 hours play time.
15. VanQuish, amazingly fun to play, but another very short one. 6 hours play time.
16. Okamiden, a decent little game, but one that ultimately disappointed me a bit. 20 hours play time.
17. inFAMOUS 2, a great sequel that definitely improved on the original in every way except story. Between both modes probably around 20 hours of play time.

So aside from a few heavy hitters, a number of the games I've played over the last few years are lucky to hit ten hours of play time. Adding up the play time of all the games listed puts me at around 518 hours, or about 21.6 days, of play time over the last five years. Sound like a lot? Well, that's actually barely more than 1% of the total number of days in a five year time period. To be sure, it is still a pretty significant number, but considering the amount of time I put into JRPGs from 2001-2006, I'm very certain that 518 hours pales in comparison. The three Fire Emblem games I played from 2001-2006 probably amount to 110 hours of play time, and I played numerous other RPGs that easily amounted to 50+ hours of play time. Not to mention other games like Super Smash Bros. Melee that I'm positive I played more than its successor.

I can infer a lot from my list. I haven't had the time to play that I used to have. This is mostly because of, well, growing up. In the Spring semester of 2007 I'd finally scraped enough money together to go back to school full-time, and I was beginning to get into the more intensive courses of my Bachelor's degree. Working a part-time (and at times full-time) job on top of that didn't really leave me with the time to play video games, and especially those epically long RPGs like I had in the past. As can be seen in my list, I did make a few exceptions for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Valkyria Chronicles, but for the most part the video games I played were fairly short in comparison to those RPGs, and that leads me to my next point. I was less likely to plop down $30-50 for longer games and went with shorter games instead. When I did purchase a longer game, it was from an established series and developers that I have been a fan of for some time.

So what does this say about me? Basically, my gaming tastes have stagnated significantly over the last five years due to my lack of time to play and explore new games. For example, VanQuish was my first 3rd person, over-the-shoulder shooter video game; a genre that was established by Gears of War even before I played Twilight Princess. I've not played critically acclaimed games like BioShock, or Fallout 3. These two titles, and probably some I'm forgetting, helped revolutionize the Western developed RPG genre and actually started giving the JRPG developers some competition outside of Japan. Oh, and those JRPGs that basically defined my gaming existence from 2001-2006? Yea, the JRPG genre is pretty much dead outside of Japan these days. If I were to ever want to play some of the JRPGs that have piqued my interest in the last two years, I'd either have to learn Japanese and import from Japan or import an English version from Europe where they are still (somewhat strangely) being localized to the European market.

I'm currently half way finished with my Master's degree. I haven't decided for sure, but I'm beginning to feel that I don't want to pursue a PhD at this time, if at all. I'm hoping to find a job once I'm finished with my MA this coming Spring, and not just a job, but something long term and careerish. When that happens, I hope to be able to pursue my old hobbies once again. You have no idea, dear nonexistent reader, how badly I want to read a book just to read it! I'll never forget my English major training so I'll always think about whatever I read in that light, but I won't have to write a paper about them or discuss them in class! I was able to read two books over the past summer that didn't have anything to do with school and it was such a joy. I haven't been able to read like that since 2006 either. And though I'll probably pursue a social life, I plan on catching up on some of the games I missed and I'm looking forward to what else is on the horizon.

So what do I plan on playing when I have the time? Here is a list:

1. BioShock and maybe BioShock 2 if I like the first.
2. Fallout 3
3. 3D Dot Game Heroes. I actually own this one and have played it a bit, but didn't have the chance to finish.
4. Heavy Rain
5. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
6. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
7. L.A. Noire
8. Epic Mickey
9. Mass Effect 2. I don't have a 360, and I have no plans to purchase one. As a result, I can only play the second Mass Effect for PS3.
10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
11. 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
12. Radiant Historia
13. Final Fantasy XIII. I'm not really sure about this one. It looks better to me in many ways than Final Fantasy XII did, but I'm very tired of Tetsuya Nomura's character designs and the excessive overly dramatic dialogue.
14. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I have it, just haven't played it yet.
15. Muramasa: The Demon Blade. I have this one too, but haven't played it.

That list looks quite a bit more diverse than my previous list. And maybe that means my gaming tastes will catch up to the current state of games. There are also two video games coming this fall that I'll probably play come December. The first is Batman: Arkham City, and the second is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. But until that Master's thesis is finished, the degree is obtained, and a careerish job is found those games will still have to wait.

...I knew there was a reason I decided to call this blog "The Most Outdated Gaming Blog on the Net."

Summer Gaming Part 1: Okamiden

So the semester ended in May and I started playing some games right after that. My gaming for the summer is mostly over unfortunately as I'm getting started on research for my master's thesis, but I did get the chance to get two games under my belt in the mean time. Both games did a great job of making me happy even if I wish that I could play some more to make me even happier. Those two games were inFAMOUS 2 and Okamiden. Both games are sequels to games that I enjoyed immensely, so I had pretty high expectations for both. Though I enjoyed them, my expectations weren't entirely met. Oddly enough the main reason for the disappointment I experienced is the same for both of them. That reason being the lack of a strong, stand-alone narrative.

I feel a bit of a rant coming.

Don't get me wrong, I was really happy that Okami received a sequel considering the fact it was a commercial flop and a sequel seemed unlikely. I even have tremendous respect for the director and development team as Okamiden became a reality because of their tremendous love and respect for the original. I'm hesitant to lay the blame on the dev team because of the hard work they had to do to get a green light for the sequel, but unfortunately I can't shake the feeling the problems I encountered with Okamiden may have been avoided if the original dev team, Clover Studio, was at the helm. However, that was impossible as Clover Studio was dissolved by Capcom shortly after the releases of Okami and a lesser known title called Godhand. The problem with Okamiden largely being the fact it was in many ways a carbon copy of its predecessor. Players go through the game in largely the same order as they would have in Okami, and the brush techniques are largely the same with, perhaps, some minor variations thrown in to freshen them up a bit. Some of the geographic areas from Okami were changed dramatically while others were removed entirely. I can understand these changes considering the limited memory space of the Nintendo DS cartridge even if I am somewhat bitter that Kusa Village didn't make the cut (one of my personal favorite areas in Okami).

What I don't understand is the narrative decisions the development team made. In Okamiden, players take the role of Amaterasu's cub, Chibiterasu, on an adventure to once again purge the land of Nippon from evil. Chibi, being a young god, is not as proficient with the Celestial Brush as his mother and requires companions to help him with his quest. He meets four different companions throughout the game, and these companions largely detract players' attention from Chibi stealing the show in the process. The narrative content of the game follows these companions, their development, and self-acceptance. The best way I can describe the development of the companions can be summed up in two words: cute and predictable. Cute in that they are all heart warming, and predictable for the same reason. Nevermind the questions that arise at the game's onset when Chibi first shows his admittedly adorable little face. Where did Chibi come from? Why isn't he with his mother? What is happening with Amaterasu and Waka on the Celestial Plain? These are questions that Okamiden never really asked much less answered. Instead the developer's try to turn players' attention onto the new companion characters which left me feeling even further removed from Amaterasu and the events of Okami than I already felt by playing as Chibi.

I can't deny that these complaints are a result of my love for the original, and I have my own opinions on what a sequel to Okami should be like. Yet Okamiden kind of crossed the line in that it actually has the audacity, through a time-traveling plot device, to muck around in the plot of the original to make up for its own lack of originality. Thus players see key story events of Okami from a different perspective, some events change drastically such as Susano stumbling across an unconscious Mushi while en route to save Kushi from Orochi. Furthermore, the evil essence that apparently inhabited Yami, the final boss of Okami, returns as Akuro and takes root in one of the friends Chibi makes on his voyage despite Amaterasu defeating Yami.

So while Okamiden is cute and mostly enjoyable it wasn't quite capable of living up to my expectations through its lack of original narrative content. What was there either focused on the predictable development of Chibi's companions or literally recycled narrative events from the original. I really wasn't expecting much from the game as a whole considering the complete change in development teams, and I did enjoy much of what I found. Yet the narrative just wasn't able to cut it for me and left me with more questions than answers as well as some cute new characters that I don't care to see again in anything more than cameo roles should another sequel arise.

I'll talk about inFAMOUS 2 later.

Blog Status 2011

Well, I did a pretty good job updating over my holiday break, but once I went back to school all posting ceased. I have a few unfinished drafts saved that I'll probably post sometime in the future. So as of now the blog is once again on hiatus until this semester is finished. I may update occasionally as I did last semester, but maybe not.