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Tuesday Gaming Diary – Pokemon Yellow Complete!

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It’s a long story why, but I’m not able to play games at night right now. As such, I’m getting a lot of handheld gaming in and I’ve had plenty of reading time. On Sunday, the eldest was playing at a friend’s house, and while the youngest napped, I thought it would be the perfect time to finally finish Victory Road and beat the Elite Four. Victory Road was a pain in the ass, I can’t lie there, but nothing prepared me for the Elite Four.

Pokemon Yellow has that sharp spike in difficulty at the very end, something that most RPGs of this time period suffer from. It was some developer’s way of thinking it would be “fun” to suddenly force grinding upon players. Oh, did you get through the entire game with little difficulty? Well, prepare to be punished. Come back when you’ve earned 20 more levels. Yeah, no, that’s not fun, and that’s exactly why I dropped Final Fantasy III (Japanese, not American). Unlike FFIII, I did not do all of the side quests in Pokemon Yellow. There were two I skipped, the hunts for legendary Pokemon Articuno and Zapdos. In hindsight, I should have gone after Zapdos. I was overly confident in Pikachu, and that was a mistake.

My second mistake was not buying enough Revives at Indigo Plateau. I limped through my battles with the Elite Four, surviving the final one with only Blastoise, Sandslash, Venusaur, and Moltres. But like the Inquisition, I did not expect Gary to swoop in at the end for a fifth battle with no break or time to heal. I had never lost to Gary before, and yes, it would hurt my pride if I lost to him now. It would doubly suck if I had to go through the Elite Four all over again. I thought I was super prepared for the water types with the first of the Elite Four, but her Lapras  destroyed Pikachu in a hurry. I did beat Gary the first try, and only Blastoise and Sandslash were still alive, although barely.

A win is a win, right? Good God I’m glad I’m done with that game. So much about it was great, especially the story behind the ghosts at Pokemon Tower, but that’s one game I will not play again. It’s really hard to go back to those old games. I admit we’re spoiled now with the amount of hand holding, and you know what? I’m fine with it. Perfectly fine.

One thing I will say about that experience though is I’m super eager to see how much has evolved since these first games! I really wanted to rush out and buy Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, but I remembered I have other games on my 3DS I should get through first, like the Phoenix Wright games I bought during a PW sale. That first PW game? Wow it is ROUGH. The drawings are so bad, but it’s still so much fun.

Monday Gaming Diary: Swimming in a Star Ocean

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I’ve never played a Star Ocean game before Integrity and Faithlessness. Statistics would say that I would love it. It’s a Square Enix JRPG, it’s huge, and the characters are reportedly lovable. Maybe it was because it was half sci-fi I didn’t get interested? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t 100% sold on it until I played it at PAX East. I had a 2 hour appointment for Star Ocean and I Am Setsuna, and I spent most of the 2 hours on Star Ocean. I didn’t realize that 2 hours had nearly flown by until the PR rep tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I still wanted to see I Am Setsuna. That’s the sign of a good RPG, Japanese or not.

Star Ocean 5

Now that I’ve been playing it this past week, I am in love. I know it didn’t score well, and perhaps the end game will fall apart like FF Type-0, but for now, I’m having a blast. I’m also struggling with not stopping every two minutes to harvest or excavate. That’s going to take most of my time, I think. Big shocker, right?

I’ve also made huge progress in Pokemon Yellow. I’m at the last gym, I believe, on Cinnabar Island. I finally relented an looked up a map online for the Cinnabar Island mansion, because I’ve had it with maze puzzles. I know there’s plenty of other end game stuff to do, like hunt legendaries, but I’m not that interested. I just want to be done with the game. I have my team and they’re all near level 50. I can handle anything someone throws at me thanks to my diverse team. The only type I don’t have on my team is a psychic type, but I don’t want to remove anyone else to make room for my Drowzee. Really hoped I could have found an Abra. Those guys are so adorable.

Yes, my team is mostly made of adorable Pokemon. Or they were adorable and now they’ve evolved so much they’re no longer adorable, but they’re too powerful for me to cut them. But I am still catching Pokemon because, well, you know; gotta catch ’em all (or mostly all).

While I’ll still play more Star Ocean, I’ll try to ignore how crazy October will be. Skyrim. Dragon Quest Builders. Mafia III. World of Final Fantasy. Thank goodness I have a dependable team! In fact, one has taken over Uncharted 4 for me, and we should have that review very soon!

Monday Gaming Diary: Walking Simulators

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I’ve never liked the phrase “walking simulator,” but I suppose it’s an appropriate descriptor for some games. I’ve loved several such simulators, such as Valley, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and while I didn’t love the game, Firewatch was okay. I didn’t enjoy Gone Home, but I understand why so many did. One walking simulator I’ve always wanted to play but never got around to it was Dear Esther. I own the soundtrack, which is absolutely amazing. However, I never did play the game. Until today.

I was assigned the PS4 version (called the Landmark Edition) to review, and while I should have played it over the weekend, I was too busy enjoying the For Honor alpha, The Witcher 3, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. But I was told it was short, so I should be able to get it in this morning and write it up tonight for tomorrow’s deadline.

I am so glad I did not spend money on this game and buy it on Steam when it originally released.

I know that walking simulators aren’t typically the most exciting games out there. That said, I want to do more than wander around. As much as I didn’t like Gone Home, at least I did more than wander around. There were puzzles to solve. And there was a coherent story to follow. Dear Esther barely has that. I played through in its entirety in hopes that it would get better, or an amazing story would come out of the snippets I found, but NOPE.

I suppose I can at least say the game is pretty and the soundtrack is still amazing. But so is Valley. And Vanishing of Ethan Carter. And both blow Dear Esther out of the water. I like visual novels too, but again, in a visual novel, such as Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness, I do more than walk around in hopes of piecing together a story.

I normally dislike it when haters of something dismiss it by claiming it is “artsy” or “pretentious,” but in this case, I have to agree with the subset of players. It is pretentious.

Monday Gaming Diary: Psycho-Pass and ReCore

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I’ve been in a bit of a review frenzy since PAX West. In addition to all of the wonderful games I saw at PAX West, I reviewed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice for Game Revolution. Then this past weekend I reviewed Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness for PlayStation Lifestyle and then ReCore for GameRev. It’s been busy to say the least, and I’m so thankful I have a team here to help me out with a couple of strategy guide reviews I’m way behind on. I do wish there was a strategy guide for ReCore, though, because despite the faults of the game, it really taps into me hardcore to collect everything imaginable. And this is one of those games where all collectibles pop up on the map, but you can’t always get them just yet. If I had a guide, I’d know which ones to let go and when to come back from them at the right time.

But I really shouldn’t complain, because all three games were fairly good. PWAA and PPMH I recommend the most, but only if you like those genres. PWAA is an acquired taste with an unusual method for puzzle solving. The biggest problem I have with it is that as a former litigation paralegal, I can’t stop yelling at it that that’s not how the legal system works. But once I get over it, I have a good time. And then that’s when I find myself staying up until midnight mumbling, “Just one more witness…”

Psycho-Pass was quite the weird trip. I haven’t seen the anime, but thanks to this game, I really want to. Like PWAA, it’s a mystery, but it’s more of a Choose Your Own Adventure book in visual form than a video game. At first, it really bored me as all I was doing was pressing X to move things along. But it didn’t take long for me to get hooked and sit on the edge of my seat, waiting to see if I chose wisely or poorly.

He Chose Poorly

I’m going to be playing this one numerous times as I try to unlock all of the endings. I have to see all the horrible ways this story can go like the monster I am.

Now that the reviews are done for this week, it’s time I get into The Witcher 3, yah?

Tuesday Gaming Diary: Mom, when was the last time you played a game for fun?

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video-games1“Mom, when was the last time you played a game for fun?”

My eldest asked me this just last week as I was playing Hue for a PlayStation Lifestyle review. I was getting overly frustrated with the game, because it’s a platformer and I suck at them. After the thousandth time I yelled “UGH!” after dying, the eldest asked, “Do you like what you’re playing?”

I said it was okay, but not my bag. He then asked why I was playing it. I explained it was for a review for work. He cocked his head to the side and then asked the question above. So innocently. And dammit if he wasn’t right. I’ve wanted to play Uncharted 4 for the longest time now and yet never found the time because of a review. Not to mention The Division, which I still want to finish. Not to mention Star Ocean, or Deus Ex Mankind Divided or LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Are these all games I’m supposed to review for strategy guides? Absolutely! But you see, I very rarely review a strategy guide for a game that I don’t want to play. It’s one of the perks of starting this site seven years ago. (Whoa, has it been seven? Crazy!)

Well, my son is right, and I’m done. Of course I’ll still review games, because I like to be paid, but I’m definitely backing off. Things are different now. I’m not running a somewhat major website where so much depends on me. I’m with two awesome teams, and it’s okay if I don’t review every massive AAA game under the sun. It’s okay to play a game for me, and it’s time I do so. I’ve been lucky that the games lately I’ve been reviewing are pretty good, even Hue with its controller-throwing urges. But Uncharted 4 and several others await.

May all of you play games for fun!

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