Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Fierce Sonic Hunting Tempest Rain Beast
I wish that's a legit move. =P
I'll just do a brief recap of what my Remembrance Day weekend was like:
Wednesday
Got off work around 4pm, caught a bus to the train station. Train ride was pretty comfortable, slept through most of it, and the train is very punctual. My Stepdad picked me up at Union at 9pm, went home for dinner, watched TVB serials with Mom and Stepdad, slept.
Thursday
Visited Woodlands first, then got some groceries. Went out for lunch with my Mom, then visited my Dad (my Mom lent me her car to use for the weekend, so she carpooled with my Stepdad). Went home and sang some karaoke, and made preparations for dinner. Phoned Paul. Cooked dinner for family (that's right!), then headed into 'Loo to DB's. Played Melee until 4am.
Friday
Played a bit of my solo Tales game. Spent about 2 hours running around MC trying to get myself enrolled into a 6th course. It proves more difficult than it sounds. Basically right now I need to wait until 1st day of classes to have the opportunity to apply to the 6th course that I want to get in (Stats 331), and I'll know by like the end of the 1st week if I got in. So right now I might just duck the 6th course 'cause I don't see anymore Arts courses that interests me. If anyone have any good suggestions feel free to give them. Met Wilson (UW) for Bubble Tea. Watched Bao play Halo 2. Went to CCF, pretty good Bible Study, chilled w/ Chris and others at Chill 'n Grill afterwards. Played Old Smash @ DB's until 3am.
Saturday
Played some more solo Tales, then a few 1 on 1 Melee matches w/ Duy before Alan and Bao joined us for FFA. Went back to 'sauga, picked up Jia and Rama. Stopped for McDick's 'cause Darbha was hungry. Went to DB's, played a bit of Melee, then went to my place to get Original Smash. Played that, lots of fun, the MacMaster team is pure jokes when playing that game, haven't laughed so hard in quite awhile. Dropped Rama off at Anup's, bought some groceries, had sausage rolls and fettucine alfredo w/ broccoli at Jia's. Watched 4 CSI episodes w/ Jia (slept through 1). Went home and slept for like 12 hrs due to lack of sleep over the entire weekend.
Sunday
Went to church w/ Mom, then met up with Ed (my co-worker). Leeched a ride back to Ottawa w/ Ed. Went out for dinner w/ Ed and my housemates. Played Tales until 1:30am.
If you haven't noticed from my title already, I'm growing rather fond of Tales of Symphonia (13 hrs into the game so far, although I'm rather overleveled, as I usually am in RPGs). I just like the overall battle system, it's almost like playing a round of Melee everytime I fight, he he. Still sticking to using Lloyd exclusively, I may switch to other characters...maybe =P
Dinner, followed by Tales. Or maybe Tales, dinner, followed by more Tales, he he.
I'll just do a brief recap of what my Remembrance Day weekend was like:
Wednesday
Got off work around 4pm, caught a bus to the train station. Train ride was pretty comfortable, slept through most of it, and the train is very punctual. My Stepdad picked me up at Union at 9pm, went home for dinner, watched TVB serials with Mom and Stepdad, slept.
Thursday
Visited Woodlands first, then got some groceries. Went out for lunch with my Mom, then visited my Dad (my Mom lent me her car to use for the weekend, so she carpooled with my Stepdad). Went home and sang some karaoke, and made preparations for dinner. Phoned Paul. Cooked dinner for family (that's right!), then headed into 'Loo to DB's. Played Melee until 4am.
Friday
Played a bit of my solo Tales game. Spent about 2 hours running around MC trying to get myself enrolled into a 6th course. It proves more difficult than it sounds. Basically right now I need to wait until 1st day of classes to have the opportunity to apply to the 6th course that I want to get in (Stats 331), and I'll know by like the end of the 1st week if I got in. So right now I might just duck the 6th course 'cause I don't see anymore Arts courses that interests me. If anyone have any good suggestions feel free to give them. Met Wilson (UW) for Bubble Tea. Watched Bao play Halo 2. Went to CCF, pretty good Bible Study, chilled w/ Chris and others at Chill 'n Grill afterwards. Played Old Smash @ DB's until 3am.
Saturday
Played some more solo Tales, then a few 1 on 1 Melee matches w/ Duy before Alan and Bao joined us for FFA. Went back to 'sauga, picked up Jia and Rama. Stopped for McDick's 'cause Darbha was hungry. Went to DB's, played a bit of Melee, then went to my place to get Original Smash. Played that, lots of fun, the MacMaster team is pure jokes when playing that game, haven't laughed so hard in quite awhile. Dropped Rama off at Anup's, bought some groceries, had sausage rolls and fettucine alfredo w/ broccoli at Jia's. Watched 4 CSI episodes w/ Jia (slept through 1). Went home and slept for like 12 hrs due to lack of sleep over the entire weekend.
Sunday
Went to church w/ Mom, then met up with Ed (my co-worker). Leeched a ride back to Ottawa w/ Ed. Went out for dinner w/ Ed and my housemates. Played Tales until 1:30am.
If you haven't noticed from my title already, I'm growing rather fond of Tales of Symphonia (13 hrs into the game so far, although I'm rather overleveled, as I usually am in RPGs). I just like the overall battle system, it's almost like playing a round of Melee everytime I fight, he he. Still sticking to using Lloyd exclusively, I may switch to other characters...maybe =P
Dinner, followed by Tales. Or maybe Tales, dinner, followed by more Tales, he he.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
An End to the Skies, A Beginning of a Tales
Finished Skies of Arcadia today. I didn't have too much of the game left (since I stopped playing it for SoA), probably the last 10-15% of the game or so. I figured I'd do a review of the game, considering that most of you don't have the systems that platform this game, besides DB, who probably at most borrow SoA from me to play, if they play it at all. I'm gonna try to make the game spoiler-free anyway (in terms of plot lines), but if you're the type of gamer who likes to figure out strategies for battles and such, perhaps you should skip this post and wait for my next one, heh.
Plot & Characters
Standard RPG plot of "group of hero goes against the evil empire who wishes to take over the world". The plot is overall pretty linear, after the first couple bosses it becomes apparent what you'll spend most of the game doing. There aren't any "unanticipated" plots twists (at least to me), and definitely no "Zeromus" or "Norg" type battles, which is a good thing. There are side quests that adds to the storyline, which adds incentive to doing them, besides for gold and experience. Overall the plot is not good, but not bad, as the writers didn't try to be inventive with the writing and make a "from where" plot.
Characters are also very standard: the hero who never quits, the spunky cheerful redhead (kind of like Kid), the timid, quiet Mage. Character development is kind of odd in retrospect, most of the supporting characters have background stories and events in the game forces some character changes, but the main characters remain the same throughout the story. Again, nothing spectacular here (no badass playable character like Magus, or awesome ones like Kratos).
Battle Engine
There are two types of battles in SoA: you have your normal use heroes' weapons and kill the enemies battle, and ship battles (since the game revolves around travelling in airships).
Normal battles are classic turn based, you input your party's commands, and they are executed along with your enemies' actions resolved through a speed stat. Once the round is over you enter commands for the next round, and so on and so forth. Your party shares a "Spirit Gauge", every round your characters regenerates some spirit points to build the gauge. All other commands besides Attack, Items, Focus (use your character's turn to build more spirit) and Defend will require the use of Spirit Points. SP will most likely be used for Special Moves (you can use them as long as you have the SP for it) and Magic (each spell costs certain amounts of SP and also 1 MP). There is a colour system that is very much like the Pokemon "fire-water-lightning" system, where each of six colours is strong against some and weak against others.
Ship battles are also turn based, although each round consists of 4 alternating turns. The commands are about the same as that of the normal battle, however, all types of attacks require SP.
Overall, the battle system is pretty well done, albeit that due to certain Special Moves normal and even boss battles become pretty easy (or very exploitable).
Graphics
I was never very keen on graphics; a game that plays well doesn't have to look spectacular. Considering that the game is a Dreamcast port, the graphics aren't too shabby.
There is very limited voice acting, but again, that's probably ported from the original Dreamcast game. Voice actors were hired to say short phrases like "Yes!", or "Goodbye, handsome." and exclamations such as cheers and gasps.
Leveling, Side Quests, Etc
There are plenty of side quests to embark on in the game, most of which goes concurrent with the plot. Most of the side quests involve exploration, to keep to the air pirate theme of the plot. In essence these side quests gives incentive for the player to explore as much of the surroundings as he can. In a way this keeps the player leveled.
Speaking of leveling, the game does not require too much leveling, if any at all. The random battles in dungeons and the world map are frequent enough to keep the experience level up. Magic is also learned though gaining "Magic exp", although it doesn't take too long to learn all the essential spells (mostly for healing and reviving).
Overall the difficulty of the game is easy to medium, at most. All the dungeons are fairly linear, as is plot progression. The game will direct the player as to where to go next, so there isn't much chance for the player to be lost in where to go or what to do next. Most of the boss fights can be easily handled (providing you use the correct [or cheap =P] strategy), and the difficult boss battles are mostly optional ones from side quests. However, since the battles are made easy with the use of Special Moves, the player can impose challenges such as "No Special Moves" game and so forth for added difficulty.
Final Thoughts
The game itself is fairly straight forward and easy to play. Battles are pretty easy once you learn the battle system, which won't take very long. There are enough side quests to do intertwined with the main progression of the plot so that the player almost always has something to do. An easy and enjoyable game to play, although one shouldn't be looking for a challenge when playing this game.
== End of Review ==
Now that Skies is completed, I think the next game for me to play is Tales of Symphonia. After that, I may finally hit my Playstation 2 backlog of RPGs, heh.
I can only assume most, if not all, of you have read my previous entry highlighting my schedule in 'sauga next week. I probably won't take my laptop back so I won't be on MSN much when I'm back. Thus I just like to confirm w/ DB and Alan that they'd be there Friday so I can play games and such before CCF in Waterloo. Just leave a comment or message me. Oh, also if you guys know what your plans are for going back to 'sauga from Waterloo (one of your parents coming up Fri/Sat or planning to come back w/ me) it'll be good too.
Should see you all soon.
Plot & Characters
Standard RPG plot of "group of hero goes against the evil empire who wishes to take over the world". The plot is overall pretty linear, after the first couple bosses it becomes apparent what you'll spend most of the game doing. There aren't any "unanticipated" plots twists (at least to me), and definitely no "Zeromus" or "Norg" type battles, which is a good thing. There are side quests that adds to the storyline, which adds incentive to doing them, besides for gold and experience. Overall the plot is not good, but not bad, as the writers didn't try to be inventive with the writing and make a "from where" plot.
Characters are also very standard: the hero who never quits, the spunky cheerful redhead (kind of like Kid), the timid, quiet Mage. Character development is kind of odd in retrospect, most of the supporting characters have background stories and events in the game forces some character changes, but the main characters remain the same throughout the story. Again, nothing spectacular here (no badass playable character like Magus, or awesome ones like Kratos).
Battle Engine
There are two types of battles in SoA: you have your normal use heroes' weapons and kill the enemies battle, and ship battles (since the game revolves around travelling in airships).
Normal battles are classic turn based, you input your party's commands, and they are executed along with your enemies' actions resolved through a speed stat. Once the round is over you enter commands for the next round, and so on and so forth. Your party shares a "Spirit Gauge", every round your characters regenerates some spirit points to build the gauge. All other commands besides Attack, Items, Focus (use your character's turn to build more spirit) and Defend will require the use of Spirit Points. SP will most likely be used for Special Moves (you can use them as long as you have the SP for it) and Magic (each spell costs certain amounts of SP and also 1 MP). There is a colour system that is very much like the Pokemon "fire-water-lightning" system, where each of six colours is strong against some and weak against others.
Ship battles are also turn based, although each round consists of 4 alternating turns. The commands are about the same as that of the normal battle, however, all types of attacks require SP.
Overall, the battle system is pretty well done, albeit that due to certain Special Moves normal and even boss battles become pretty easy (or very exploitable).
Graphics
I was never very keen on graphics; a game that plays well doesn't have to look spectacular. Considering that the game is a Dreamcast port, the graphics aren't too shabby.
There is very limited voice acting, but again, that's probably ported from the original Dreamcast game. Voice actors were hired to say short phrases like "Yes!", or "Goodbye, handsome." and exclamations such as cheers and gasps.
Leveling, Side Quests, Etc
There are plenty of side quests to embark on in the game, most of which goes concurrent with the plot. Most of the side quests involve exploration, to keep to the air pirate theme of the plot. In essence these side quests gives incentive for the player to explore as much of the surroundings as he can. In a way this keeps the player leveled.
Speaking of leveling, the game does not require too much leveling, if any at all. The random battles in dungeons and the world map are frequent enough to keep the experience level up. Magic is also learned though gaining "Magic exp", although it doesn't take too long to learn all the essential spells (mostly for healing and reviving).
Overall the difficulty of the game is easy to medium, at most. All the dungeons are fairly linear, as is plot progression. The game will direct the player as to where to go next, so there isn't much chance for the player to be lost in where to go or what to do next. Most of the boss fights can be easily handled (providing you use the correct [or cheap =P] strategy), and the difficult boss battles are mostly optional ones from side quests. However, since the battles are made easy with the use of Special Moves, the player can impose challenges such as "No Special Moves" game and so forth for added difficulty.
Final Thoughts
The game itself is fairly straight forward and easy to play. Battles are pretty easy once you learn the battle system, which won't take very long. There are enough side quests to do intertwined with the main progression of the plot so that the player almost always has something to do. An easy and enjoyable game to play, although one shouldn't be looking for a challenge when playing this game.
== End of Review ==
Now that Skies is completed, I think the next game for me to play is Tales of Symphonia. After that, I may finally hit my Playstation 2 backlog of RPGs, heh.
I can only assume most, if not all, of you have read my previous entry highlighting my schedule in 'sauga next week. I probably won't take my laptop back so I won't be on MSN much when I'm back. Thus I just like to confirm w/ DB and Alan that they'd be there Friday so I can play games and such before CCF in Waterloo. Just leave a comment or message me. Oh, also if you guys know what your plans are for going back to 'sauga from Waterloo (one of your parents coming up Fri/Sat or planning to come back w/ me) it'll be good too.
Should see you all soon.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Play Time Starts...NOW!
Wheee!
Such a liberating feeling, being done with my SoA exam and that I don't have to study for any exam or test or midterm or assignment or quiz for at least 2 months. WHA HA!
Seems like my last post was some 10 days ago, and basically what I've done over the past 10 days was go to work and study when I'm not there. Well, study as in reading or doing some questions for a couple hours, then take a break watching TV or playing a few rounds of Smash, and repeat. But now all that's over. Now it'll be pure watching TV and playing games, he he. I can finish Skies and then move onto Tales, then maybe hit my Playstation backlog, he he.
Some stuff probably happened besides work and study over the past 10 days or so, but I don't want to bother trying to remember nor do I really want to write about it. Instead, let's talk about when I'll be back in 'sauga to play games!
Next week I get Thursday off, and I'm taking Friday off, so I'll have a super long weekend again. I booked a Via Rail ticket for Wednesday afternoon, so I'll be back in 'sauga by 8:45 pm Wednesday night, assuming the train is on time (my Mom says the trains are very punctual, so let's hope so :)
Good thing is that I can be back by Wednesday night, bad thing is that I won't have my car to use. My Mom said that she'd lend me her's to use if I needed it though, so it should be okay.
Basically, my plans for the weekend is thus:
Wednesday night: dinner with Mom (after getting picked up)
Thursday: visit Dad, maybe visit Woodlands, probably Dim Sum w/ my Grandpa, dinner at home, chill w/ whomever wants to at night (if not then watch CSI at home or something, ha ha).
Friday: going into Waterloo, visit a prof, game w/ DB, Alan, Jason, whoever's there, go to CCF, chill w/ whomever wants to at night, not sure when I'll go back though, depends if DB and them go back Friday or Saturday (or if they want to go back w/ me or something...)
Saturday: game-age somewhere. ('Loo, 'sauga, Mack'...)
Sunday: church and lunch w/ Mom, leave back for Ottawa w/ co-worker.
So my visit back is pretty much set like that, Wed, Thurs, Sun for family, Fri and Sat for games and friends.
Paul if you want to chill etc just call me whenever, I'll most likely be free.
Bush won the election, as I expected him to. Well, if I was American I'd just vote for Bush and let him finish his agendas, since Kerry doesn't look too hot of a contender anyway (if it was somebody like Gore or Clinton it'd be different, but eh, I guess you're stuck w/ what the political parties dish out).
Hopefully he won't start any more useless wars...hopefully.
Oh, there was this good link about how a study projected George Dubbuya's IQ to be 91, but I'll need to forward the link from work...I'll probably edit the link in tomorrow or something =P
And now...onto games, or other fun stuff that's not studying...victory is mine!
(Btw, I think I did alright on the SoA exam today).
Such a liberating feeling, being done with my SoA exam and that I don't have to study for any exam or test or midterm or assignment or quiz for at least 2 months. WHA HA!
Seems like my last post was some 10 days ago, and basically what I've done over the past 10 days was go to work and study when I'm not there. Well, study as in reading or doing some questions for a couple hours, then take a break watching TV or playing a few rounds of Smash, and repeat. But now all that's over. Now it'll be pure watching TV and playing games, he he. I can finish Skies and then move onto Tales, then maybe hit my Playstation backlog, he he.
Some stuff probably happened besides work and study over the past 10 days or so, but I don't want to bother trying to remember nor do I really want to write about it. Instead, let's talk about when I'll be back in 'sauga to play games!
Next week I get Thursday off, and I'm taking Friday off, so I'll have a super long weekend again. I booked a Via Rail ticket for Wednesday afternoon, so I'll be back in 'sauga by 8:45 pm Wednesday night, assuming the train is on time (my Mom says the trains are very punctual, so let's hope so :)
Good thing is that I can be back by Wednesday night, bad thing is that I won't have my car to use. My Mom said that she'd lend me her's to use if I needed it though, so it should be okay.
Basically, my plans for the weekend is thus:
Wednesday night: dinner with Mom (after getting picked up)
Thursday: visit Dad, maybe visit Woodlands, probably Dim Sum w/ my Grandpa, dinner at home, chill w/ whomever wants to at night (if not then watch CSI at home or something, ha ha).
Friday: going into Waterloo, visit a prof, game w/ DB, Alan, Jason, whoever's there, go to CCF, chill w/ whomever wants to at night, not sure when I'll go back though, depends if DB and them go back Friday or Saturday (or if they want to go back w/ me or something...)
Saturday: game-age somewhere. ('Loo, 'sauga, Mack'...)
Sunday: church and lunch w/ Mom, leave back for Ottawa w/ co-worker.
So my visit back is pretty much set like that, Wed, Thurs, Sun for family, Fri and Sat for games and friends.
Paul if you want to chill etc just call me whenever, I'll most likely be free.
Bush won the election, as I expected him to. Well, if I was American I'd just vote for Bush and let him finish his agendas, since Kerry doesn't look too hot of a contender anyway (if it was somebody like Gore or Clinton it'd be different, but eh, I guess you're stuck w/ what the political parties dish out).
Hopefully he won't start any more useless wars...hopefully.
Oh, there was this good link about how a study projected George Dubbuya's IQ to be 91, but I'll need to forward the link from work...I'll probably edit the link in tomorrow or something =P
And now...onto games, or other fun stuff that's not studying...victory is mine!
(Btw, I think I did alright on the SoA exam today).
