1Up.com - Retronauts

After spending a bit too long today on deciding what game I'd write about t some degree, I decided to do something a bit different. Since I haven't played anything I'd consider new over the past 24 hours for more than a few minutes (I tried Blue Dragon Plus... yeah, no) I decided to write about something different I tried new today; the gaming podcast Retronauts run by (I would presume) a staff member of 1Up.com (which I have never actually visited, and never intend to; I hear it's like IGN... ugh).

As is the case with most things, I first heard tell about this on SomethingAwful (big surprise there, right?) in the Gaming Podcast thread in the Games board and I figured I'd check it out since I have a lot of retro stuff myself, although I have nothing - and I do mean nothing - on these guys.

I only really listened to one "episode" (#74) but it was a celebratory episode for the approx. 20th anniversary of the Nintendo Gameboy, and what better way to celebrate than to talk about handheld gaming systems... apart from the Gameboy?

Maybe it's because of how much of a nerd I am but I absolutely loved it. I got most, if not all, of the jokes and I even learned about systems that I didn't even know existed. I'd definitely recommend giving it a listen at least once, just a bit of a warning; if you get the RSS feed, you can't seem to go back any earlier than episode 56. That may be my PSP dicking me around or something, but I don't think they're available without a separate download. It's gotta be worth it though.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Originally posted less than half an hour ago. I'll try to get daily updates done to this thing but no promises. I doubt I'll play a new game a day, but weekly updates (like ever Sunday or something) are a bit more feasible (and possibly even definite). This is the first, and possibly last, "review" - for want of a better term - wherein I focus on something other than the titular game.

*sigh* Another day, another crappy blog post about a game y'all likely don't care about (I'm basing this off of GMT times, so if it's not the 23rd yet for you, not my problem). This time, I'm pretty disappointed with the game though. Maybe I'm spoiled by games that are actually, what's the word... oh, yeah, good. Maybe I'm spoiled by good games lately, or maybe it's just another shitty game that can't live up to the hype but Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a pretty bland game, and thus there isn't much I can say about it.

Yeah, yeah, I just got a great (and I do mean great) first impression from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (which I'm going to finish before I even consider touching another DS game after I'm done writing this) and I finally managed to acquire a working copy of Hotel Dusk, but I decided to spend some time doing other stuff first so as to not influence my opinion of this game. I probably shouldn't have taken that break.

When you've heard nothing but good things about a game, you expect it to be good right? Well, at the end of the day, Hotel Dusk is just bland. Sure, one can argue that maybe I don't see some deep philosophical context, or that I'm not far enough into the game yet (started about 3 hours ago, and just finished chapter 2) to appreciate how good it is, but there's something missing that is really affecting how much I enjoy this game. Perhaps, the streams and streams of positive reviews gave me such high expectations that this game just can't reach. Perhaps there's actually decent music in this game later. I don't know, I don't care, and I'm not inclined to find out.

Random background-y shit (read: filler):

After I got hooked on these types of games a very long time ago (years before Gyakuten Kenji even existed on the GBA) I've found them enthralling. As something of a puzzle game enthusiast, I do enjoy the challenges a mystery game can present and I've managed to finish every single one without looking at a guide of some kind because I revel in difficulty (as we established with SMTDS I'm an Atlus fanboy; if I dislike hard games I'd despise Atlus). Sure, one can argue I looked at court-records for case analysis, but I did that long after finishing Apollo Justice and... why is any of this relevant again? Right, mystery games on the DS.

Sometime last year (like October-ish), I heard someone mention a certain Phoenix Wright series and how good it was. Naturally, I checked it out because it's a series within my second favourite genre of games (my first being RPGs of course) and became hooked within the 20 minutes or so it took me to finish the very first case. A few days later, I got all three sequels and had them beat as well. I was pretty bored of my other games so I started looking for games that could pique my interest. I heard about Hotel Dusk. I tried to find a copy, and never once found anything. I even tried emulation, but that didn't work out since it crashes when you reach game play, and I couldn't get it to work on an R4 either so I all but gave up and forgot about it. I'd seen it mentioned a few times but never once cared enough to give it a look at (for various reasons).

Fast-forward to July this year, and you've got Time Hollow. As I mentioned at the end of my post on that, it's supposed to be good if you like Hotel Dusk and, well, I'm glad I played Time Hollow first. That manages to hook you right away and this... 2 chapters in and I'm bored of it already.

A few days ago, I wrote about Flower, Sun and Rain which I'd say was the most boring game of its kind I had played but at least it was still fun in some respect. This is worse.

Now, I may not be far enough in to judge the game properly but as I have no inclination of finishing it, I don't intend to give the game a proper review (I already have a few to write anyway, I'm just a lazy git). As you may have gathered, I write most of these based on my first impressions and I guess I've just been playing good games lately. I made a jokey comment about Lock's Quest at the end of Time Hollow, and I can sum that game up right here and now: desktop tower defence DS. There's nothing to write about, really, so I didn't bother with it.

I'm kinda getting off-topic here, so if you've actually read all this way through I'd like an unbiased opinion from you: should I give Hotel Dusk a second chance or not (after SMT of course), and why? Any fanboy/hater opinions (and those from the people fortunate enough to be on my blocked list for various reasons, such as being whiny bitches, spamming me with nonsensical drivel or existing) will be ignored, and yes I'm aware of the irony in that I'm ignoring fanboy opinions and I spent a few paragraphs drooling over Atlus' unrivalled awesome mere hours ago.

There was one thing else I was going to say. Umm... oh yeah, since I recently closed my Youtube account for a little "test", I have a spare just sitting around doing nothing. Should I convert these little posts into mini-videos or not? I almost definitely won't, since I lack the awesome vocals of RandomDCE or Yahtzee, but since these aren't reviews so much as a British nerd's first impression of a game I figured I might as well ask the community, since you're the ones reading this stuff after all.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Originally posted yesterday. Technically. It was like 11:58PM or something and it's 07:21 now, so as far as I care, that's yesterday dammit.

What is it lately with me and DS games? No idea, but I'm an Atlus fanboy through and through (I've even played Shin Megami Tensei: If..., which is a game most people don't even know exists; I don't think it's even on Neo's database - that's how unknown it is) and when I found out Devil Survivor had been localised I just had to acquire a copy for myself.

I found out, and acquired it this morning. I started playing straight away. 8 hours later, I hadn't stopped yet. It is THAT immersive. I'm not particularly far in (not even finished Day 2 yet!) but I'm loving everything about it so far; it seems to me that it takes the best from every series (Shin Megami Tensei, Persona and Digital Devil Saga) and uses them to create what I would consider to be the best DS game released to date (I used to think it was TWEWY... that cannot even come close to SMTDS in my (arguably biased) opinion).

The easiest way for me to describe it at the moment is Fire Emblem meets Atlus. There's arguably an easier way to describe it, but damned if I can think of one. It's an SRPG with an awesome as hell plot but when you get the battles between teams (done via the SRPG system) it effectively becomes RPG Maker VX's battle system, which is the worst battle system ever created in my opinion. Granted, every game has its flaws but this one is more than overlookable.

For an Atlus game, it doesn't seem that grind oriented... yet. I may be overleveled though, since I have stopped to Macca grind twice to make the most of the Demon Auction to fuse several badass Demons. I managed to get the first Megami class Demon on Day One so I might be ahead of the curve just a bit but it'll bite me in the ass eventually. I remember Nix... Oh god, do I remember Nix. Cruising along overleveled and then *boom* 13 phase boss fight.

Err, anyway enough reminiscing of Persona 3 (FES). I'll definitely write a full review when I'm done. Heck, this was arguably starting to become a mini one >_>

(Box art, this time, shamelessly stolen from Neoseeker. The watermark is probably present too since I'm a lazy git <_<)

Flower, Sun and Rain

Originally posted on August 21st this year, so it's more recent than Time Hollow. Yeah, yeah, I'm just copy/pasting from Neoseeker right now, and I really need a better box art picture than that one, but fuck it I'm lazy.

Since I've been ill the past few days, I've been playing an assortment of random games but none were more captivating than Breath of Fire III. That said, why the hell is this not about the PSX legend I never played before? Simple: honeymustard.

Honeymustard is an SA goon and sometime recently finished their LP of Flower, Sun and Rain for the Nintendo DS. I never read the thread beyond the initial update since I thought it looked rather boring but I gave it a second chance when it was added to the LPArchive and found it pretty entertaining to read, so I went out and bought the game (bear in mind, this was like 2 weeks ago) and never actually got around to playing it... until this morning.

I found the game to be highly captivating, despite the slow start, and - even though I haven't finished it yet - it keeps getting better as the game progresses. Much like Time Hollow, it's a puzzle/mystery game so fans of Hotel Dusk (which I still need to play...) will likely enjoy it. I'll likely finish FSR sometime soon, and when I do I'll likely write an actual review on it (I should do the same with TH now that I think about it...) so if anyone cares about that, it might happen, it might not (most likely not since I'm a lazy git, but eh, it's an idea).

Time Hollow

Just so you know, this was originally written in early July and thus some things may not be accurate any more. Most things are though.



Roughly 5 minutes prior to the original post, I just finished a relatively unknown little gem of a DS game known as Time Hollow. I've had it since about a month after its UK release, and I finished it before and hadn't played it since. That is, until yesterday.

I was looking through the Let's Play section of the Something Awful forums, a few days ago, when I saw a post in the Magnum Condom on the Flaccid Wang of Suck of This Forum thread (and yes, MCotFWoSoTF is its name as of late) by a goon named Graceful Graveler and it was a test post of the opening of Time Hollow. I gave it a quick skim but thought nothing of it (since I'm not in the habit of seriously reading an SSLP in the Sandbox thread), since if it was bad there was no point in reading it and if it was good it'd end up with its own thread and would undoubtedly end up in the archives at some point.

Then, sometime around yesterday lunchtime (GMT) I saw a thread on the first page of the Let's Play subforum entitled "Try Not To Become Your Own Grandfather in Time Hollow!". This time I gave it a proper read and thought the game didn't look half bad and I swore I'd played it before but couldn't remember crap about it. I looked up at my somewhat small collection of DS games since it looked somewhat familiar and I saw Time Hollow on the top of the second pile.

Seeing as how I couldn't remember anything having not played it in months, it felt like a new experience to me. The gameplay is pretty much entirely touch-screen oriented but that's not a problem. It plays out sort of like an Ace Attorney game due to it's design, general structure, overall plot and the fact that it's one of those mystery-solving point and click games that are insanely fun for some unfathomable reason. Overall, if you like Ace Attorney (or Hotel Dusk apparently, which I have yet to play), it's worth either following the thread (linked above) or playing the game yourself. Just a caution if you intend to do the prior; sometimes the threads become inaccessible to non-members. It usually happens once a month for a few days to a week and a lot can occur in that time.

Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to play Lock's Quest for the first time ever. Should be fun, right?