Almost Done...Castlevania

So last night, I made it through the surprisingly short Level 6 and made it to Dracula's chamber. I was very nervous and only had one life left so I died pretty quick. Resenting the fact that I would have to start level 6 over after I had made it through on pretty much just luck the last time, I almost gave up there. Closing my eyes, sighing and resigning to try again, I hit continue and was delighted to find that the game dropped me off right before that final room. So I spent about 90 minutes fighting that stupid fanged bastard over and over. I finally mastered the timing of his first form, but once he drops into the second form, it gets nigh impossible.

I was told by a few friends that I needed to overload him with Holy Waters, but I don't have the speed modifiers so I can only throw one at a time, and he is incredibly strong and incredibly fast. So I really need to figure out his pattern, if he even has one - or make it all the way through level 5 and 6 without dying so I can use my leveled up Holy Water.

We'll see what I can do - The fight continues tonight.

Crap.

So I had forgotten that I lent out Boom Blox to a friend. She returned it to me but also returned the favor by letting me borrow the sequel. Also, when I bought FF XIII, I made a deal with a friend that I would get that game and he would get God of War 3 - then when we both beat our respective games, we'd switch. I had completely forgotten about this. So this morning when I got to work, God of War 3 was sitting on my desk.

Damn it.

Two months ago my reaction to having a new game on my desk would have been to squeal and giggle like a little girl, but today I let out a groan of dread. "More work" my brain thought.

So I've added three more games to the list. Boom Blox, Boom Blox 2 and God of War 3. Although God of War should be a nice treat - I'll make sure to save it to play after a particularly frustrating game. But still - I've only beaten one game so far and now I've added three. One step forward and three steps back. Damn it.

Still Playing...Castlevania

I've spent the last three days mired in Level 5. I played through the level over and over almost always making it to the Grim Reaper and always getting utterly destroyed because of his obscenely difficult, and frankly, rude fighting style. He floats around the screen while miniature sickles fly around randomly with no pattern. They are extremely difficult to hit with the whip and the Grim Reaper seems to have no pattern either, so it cannot be memorized.

After the actual boss, the second hardest part is the hallway leading up to him. There are these knights that take about 10 hits to kill and back away from you as you approach. So you have to jump toward them to gain any ground. While you're worrying whether or not they'll launch an axe at you during your jump, there are also Medusa heads flying all around the screen. Oh. And everything that hits you takes away 1/4 of your health bar. So 4 hits and you're dead. So even if I made it to ol Grimmy, I would really only have 1 or 2 hits left in me.

I finally got frustrated and watched a Youtube video of someone playing through the level and discovered that the Holy Water is a must. It stops the Knights in their tracks. It stops the Grim Reaper in his tracks and even prevents him from summoning the mini sickles if you do it fast enough. But it looked a little cheap - I wanted to do this on my own - just me, my whip and my skills.

That got old mighty quick and I decided to try the Holy Water approach.

I soon realized the inherent challenge in that. The Holy Water is the very first sub-weapon you get in this level and it doesn't appear again after that. So you have to:

1) Not die if you've passed the first check point
2) Avoid touching any other weapons lest you lose your Holy Water
3) Find both Level Up modifiers to make them effective

I was finally able to make it through the entire level without taking a single hit and reached the Grim Reaper with about 75 units of fully maxed out Holy Water. And I shoved every single one of them down his stupid, dead throat.

So even though I didn't kill the Reaper with the whip, I still felt accomplished for getting through the entire level on one life. 

Then I started Level 6. Then I wanted to find the level designer and punch him in the forehead. With a gun.

Up Next: Castlevania

I want a vampire hunter with a short skirt and a long whip. 

Seriously - look how revealing his tunic is.

That's at least rated T for Teen.

So after the slog through the lengthy but relatively easy Final Fantasy XIII, I would like to try the short but difficult Castlevania. I never had this game as a kid, I only rented it a few times. I recently downloaded the game on the Virtual Console for Wii and have given it a few attempts. I have yet to beat the dual Mummy bosses at the end of Level 3 so I have a good bit of practice and work ahead of me. I've also heard that the Grim Reaper boss in this game is an absolute beast.

Wish me luck.

[UPDATE]
So I gave it my first attempt this afternoon and played for about an hour. During that time, I took out the dual Mummies (yes!) and made it all the way to the Grim Reaper - with only one hit point. I died immediately. Something I didn't realize about this game that makes it a LOT easier than I thought it was gonna be: Infinite Continues. Wow, what a treat! Also, since I'm playing on the Wii, I can save state my game and pick up right where I left off.

The adventure continues tomorrow. At the rate I'm going I should be done with this one in a couple of days.  

Review: Final Fantasy XIII

So the first game I've completed in this project may end up being the longest one. Good thing I got it out of the way up front. Overall, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII. The story didn't really shine as much as it could have, there were periods of extreme monotony and boredom, and the game felt a bit rushed, but damn it all if this game doesn't have the most exhilarating battle system ever in an RPG. 

The Story
The overarching concept of the main (and really, only) plot line is an interesting and unique one. You have two worlds: Cocoon and Pulse. Cocoon is where our heroes call home and is set up in a typical dystopian, tightly controlled society. Pulse is "the world below". The citizens of Cocoon have been convinced by their government that anything and everything from Pulse is pure evil.

Now there are these god-like machines that make decisions for both Pulse and Cocoon. These things are called fal'Cie. One day a Pulse fal'Cie invades Cocoon and our heroes come into contact with it. And when one comes into contact with a fal'Cie, they are given a "Focus" - basically they are slaves to the fal'Cie and have a very specific task to carry out. If they fail, they are turned into monsters and eventually die. So there is a lot of mystery in the early hours of the game as to what the characters focus actually is. Is it to destroy Cocoon? Is it to destroy Pulse? Is it to be a puppet of the fal'Cie? All are possibilities.

This is what hooked me early on in the game. It's a storyline that is wholly unique to the medium, and one that really hits all the right notes when it comes to story concept. Ultimately, the story doesn't deliver the way you probably want it to with gaping plot holes and unsatisfying conclusions. The biggest payoff is finding out what the little logo on the box art behind FINAL FANTASY XIII means. The way I described it to a friend was this: I felt like I wasn't smart enough to follow the plot of FF12, I felt like I was too smart for the plot of FF13. Really it just feels like they ran out of time to fully develop the story, because they obviously spent a TON of time perfecting the battle system - because it kicks all the ass in the world.

Ugh. Shut up.

The Gameplay
Let me warn you. If you loved the mini games from FF 7 or the card trading from 8 and 9 or Blitzball from 10 - don't expect anything like that in 13. The whole game consists of: cutscene, run straight, battle enemies, run straight, battle boss, cutscene. Rinse. Repeat. So since the story is a bit of a letdown, the battle system really has to carry the game because that is literally all you're doing. And carry the game it does.

So think of it like this. There are six possible roles or jobs that your characters can use. After a few hours, each character will have access to three of the six. The roles are made up like this

Commando (physical attacker)
Ravager (magic attacker)
Sentinel (defender)
Synergist (support magic)
Saboteur (slow, lower enemy defense type spells)
and Medic (healer)

Now, with three people in your party at a time, you have the option to set up six different "paradigms". A paradigm is set of three of these roles. For example, Commando, Ravager, Ravager is your all out offense paradigm. Medic, Medic, Sentinel is a defense and recover paradigm and so on. You can swap your paradigms as often as you want within a battle without penalty. For the first few hours, you can get by just switching between offense and healing paradigms, but later you must get much more strategic about which paradigms you use. Some battles that seem impossible can be easily beaten with pattern recognition and proper paradigm choices. So those are your paradigms.

Strategery.

When you actually start attacking, the default selection is "Auto Battle". You have an Active Time Battle gauge that has to fill up before you attack. This gauge is segmented into different pieces which you can increase the number of as you level up. So let's say you have four segements in your bar and you are set as a Commando. If you select "Auto Battle" you might see your ATB gauge fill up with "Attack" "Attack" "Attack" "Attack". Meaning you will attack four times. You can manually select your actions, and your tendency will be to do that at first, but you'll quickly learn to use the auto battle option. The battles occur so quickly that you will not have time to sit and think about which action to take. Fortunately, the AI that selects your actions is fairly intelligent. There are times - especially when you are a medic - that you are like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!" but for the most part it's pretty good. So your main strategy comes from building the proper paradigms and then knowing when to swap to which one. So you become more of a strategist than a micromanager.

Segmented ATB Gauge.

The final, brilliant layer of the battle system is the Stagger system. Most enemies hit points will not deplete very much when you first start attacking, if at all. What is affected is the "stagger bar". This is a bar that gradually increases as you attack, but depletes while you aren't attacking. Once it fills up, your enemies are EXTREMELY vulnerable, but the stagger bar also begins depleting rapidly once it's full. This serves as a "countdown". During this 30-45 seconds you have to unload everything you have to try to take as much HP from your enemy as possible. So the first goal of every battle is to stagger your enemy. This can get difficult when your enemy doles out devastating attacks that require constant healing. But it's this back and forth madness that really makes the battle system exciting.

Stagger bar in the top right, health bar above the flying dragon thingy.

Overall, the best thing about the battle system is that you actually feel like you get better at it over time. It is a skill that takes practice and is extremely rewarding when you're firing on all cylinders. It's almost like when you finally get going in Guitar Hero and your fingers seem to be moving on their own. You will end up really impressing yourself. 

Additional Things I Enjoyed

• Save points are frequent - like every five minutes. This is a godsend for busy people who only have a 20 or 30 minutes to play at a time. Ahem. Lost Odyssey.
• Even with this save point miracle, you aren't pushed back to a save point after losing a battle. You are given the option to retry the battle right where you started. This seems like there's no penalty for losing, but there is still a lot of frustration when you die in battle. Some enemies can take up to 15 minutes to beat - so if you die right before you send him into stagger mode at 14 minutes in - it can devastate you. 
• All cutscenes are skippable. Even the first time you view them. I watched all of them, and can confidently tell you not to feel bad about skipping any of them - you're not missing much. 
• When you load a save file you are given a summary of the most recent events in the story while the game loads. This is great if you are someone who takes long breaks from a game and forgets what was happening in the story. This little feature also reveals additional details about the story that aren't explained very well in cutscenes. 
• The graphics are freaking gorgeous.

Additional Things I Hated

•  Voice acting/direction. The voice actors are OK by video game standards, but too often they fall into stereotypical niches and respond in unrealistic ways. Lightning (the girl on the cover) and Sazh (the black dude) are the best and most believable characters. Vanille however, may be the worst acted character ever in a video game. Her reaction in every situation is completely disconnected from reality. She's sickeningly positive. Like, after watching the slaughter of dozens of people she just gleefully says "It will be alright." She will make you want to chew shards of glass to relieve yourself from her stupid outlook on life. 
• Lack of RPG standard fare. No towns. No mini games. No exploration. Walk fight repeat. It gets old. 
• Weapon upgrade system. It's really the only distraction from fighting, and it's never explained how to take advantage of it. I ended up just pouring my resources into upgrading my final party's weapons not knowing if what I was doing was good or not.
• It takes about 20 hours to "get going". Many reviewers have complained about this, and I am no different. The first 1/3 of the game is EXTREMELY slow, usually only allowing you two characters at a time. Fortunately this is when the story is most interesting. After 20 hours you are finally given the ability to choose your party, and after 30 you can actually grind if you want. Imagine that.  
• It's linear. Another common complaint amongst reviewers. There are beautiful settings and places designed by the artists at Square Enix, and you are restricted to walk through them in a singular narrow corridor. One of my favorite things to do in RPGs is just walk around and see what the artists created. There is no opportunity to do this in FF13. And it's a shame.
• Vanille again. I hate her so much. 

THIS is Vanille. 

So that's it. I don't want to give it a score. I liked it. I would ultimately recommend it to a friend, based solely on the fact of having them experience the battle system. But will it hold up as a classic to be remembered years later? Probably not. 

10 Words or Less Summary
Battle system is great. Everything else isn't.

One game down. Eighty-six to go...

Finished: Final Fantasy XIII

I did it.

Final Hour Count: 54:38
Final Team: Lightning, Fang, Hope
Final Paradigm Deck: Relentless Assault, Diversity, Combat Clinic, Evened Odds, Delta Attack, Mystic Tower

Still Playing...FFXIII

Current Chapter: 12
Hour Count: 50
Estimated Remaining Time: 5-10 Hours

All the leveling I did back when I first landed on Gran Pulse has paid off. Boss battles, while still challenging, don't require as much controller spiking as battles like the one against Cid Raines. Also, there's these huge elephant turtle things walking around on Gran Pulse that could kill my entire party in one move back when I was there, and now in Chapter 12 I was forced to fight one and was actually beat it. That, for me, is one of the greatest pleasures of playing an RPG: being able to beat an enemy that seemed previously impossible to beat, and it felt great!

Overall, I'm getting ready to move on. This long, tedious task of playing only one game at a time is worsened when it's a 60 hour RPG. There are a few RPGs like this in my collection, like Kingdom Hearts 2 and Grandia II, that will probably slow me down big time when I get to them. But after FFXIII, I am looking forward to taking down games a little more rapidly, so I will likely move onto a few NES games for a while. Hopefully, with practice, I can beat most of those in about a week.