Eternal Punishment

Originally posted 2008-11-13.

I’ve been intrigued by the Megami Tensei series (intensely informative history at HG101) ever since SMT3 appeared on the huge swag bags at Tokyo Game Show 2002. I found Persona 2: Eternal Punishment in the huge box of Japanese video games my friend Andy sent me in 2003, and I have also picked up Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga on my Shinjuku game shopping ventures. Some of my most trusted sources of gaming recommendations, Richmond Scott and Sendai Tom, have strongly recommended SMT games to me. But I have yet to get very deep into any of these games yet.

Mana-Khemia impressions

Originally posted 2007-07-30.

So I’m about 12 hours into Mana-Khemia now. It seems meaningful that this is the first console game I’ve played more than 2 days in a row since the lady came back to live with me; she doesn’t mind watching me play it at all.

• I love the character art. It’s more detaily than the cel-shaded style of Grand Fantasm, and there’s a strong downward trend in the number of exposed midriffs. With Grand Fantasm, Iris joined Shion Uzuki in the club of heroines who went from reserved to lurid; Mana-Khemia’s heroine Philo is much more tastefully cute.
• The characters are way more likable, in the Atelier tradition. Philo is endearingly clumsy, Gunnar is outrageously manly, Vain (unlike Edge) actually shows human emotions, and so on. I even like Nike, contrary to my normal anti-cat-ears stance.
• Missions feel more fun because they are presented as field assignments at the alchemy school. There are also part-time jobs that work like the quest board in GF. Now, instead of the frustrating time-limit mist, if you stay out too long it just becomes night-time and monsters get tougher.
• Between the assignment episodes, you have free time to pursue quests of your own choosing or play character-based side-quests. The character quests feel a little bit like Ar tonelico, in that you can spend more quality time with the party members you like best.
• The alchemy-based level-up system is cool. On a big FFX sphere-grid-like field, locations open up as you synthesize new items. You can use AP gained in battles to unlock the power-ups at each location; there are no traditional levels or automatic stat advancement. Tying advancement to the alchemy system makes for a fun positive-feedback loop: the more you synthesize, the stronger you get, and the more ambitious you can be in dungeons, so the more recipes and ingredients you earn, so the more you synthesize…

Here’s a comparison of Grand Fantasm portraits versus Mana-Khemia portraits.

Ar tonelico 2 first impressions

Originally posted 2007-11-01.

It’s here, it’s glorious, it’s in my PS2 right now. Few things can convince me to get up at 6:30 and come in to the office, but I did it today to have some hours with the game before work began. Here are my impressions, as impulsive as Croche suddenly pulling her sword on someone:

• As soon as I heard Chroah speak, I was worried I wouldn’t like him. He seemed a bit arrogant. But that faded quickly. (Was it Chroah? However they spelled it; I have to keep an eye out for romanizations in the UI to find out what all the katakana names are supposed to be)
• I was having some trouble keeping characters straight, what with ルカ and レイカ and レイシャ and クロア and クローシェ, and only two hair colors among the five main characters so far. I’m guessing that purple hair is characteristic of the common class in Pastalia, and blonde hair is a sign of nobility? But then I don’t know about Luka’s mother. Bleh, and come to think of it, a bunch of Chroah’s knight buddies have blonde hair (in fact I think they have the same head as the announcer from Mana-Khemia). Now I need a new Theory Of Confusing Hair Color Choices.
• The battle system is time-based. This has me worried. I play games like this to go into a state of leisurely button-pushing. On the other hand, I suspect that this game might present a challenge, unlike the first one. Maybe actually having a chance of losing will make the experience more fun.
• Croche is unabashedly ojousama-kei, while Luka is thoroughly shujinkou ni muchuu. This is going to be fun.
• No jumping, and no HUD map. I won’t miss jumping puzzles, but I will miss randomly jumping around for no reason.
• Also hey, how about a main character with glasses! Yeah!!
• The castle you visit at the beginning feels so much like the Ethos from Xenogears… :D

I guess that’ll do for now.