Game EXP: Final Fantasy VIII - Disc 3 & 4

Uh oh.  

Yes, uh oh.  Disc 3 is when I finally decided to refer to a walkthrough.  I had encountered an enemy I just couldn't beat.  And upon referencing said walkthrough, it became clear that there was a bunch of stuff I missed leading up to this point.  Oops.  

I could be mad about it.  It seems like a dirty trick to make so many helpful items and things something you can just completely miss and never be able to get again.  One of the earliest fights in the game has a Guarding Force that you can Draw out from the boss.  If you didn't?  -  Tough luck, you don't get it.  And in this game, the Guardian Forces are the core of what you are doing, they give you access to abilities and upgrades that are central to how you play the game.  FFVIII is a tricky game because leveling up doesn't really help you all that much - enemies level with you. It's raising your AP, learning abilities and junctioning magic that improves your stats and makes you more effective in battle.  

It is clear to me now that for my ideal play experience, I should have reviewed a walkthrough at the beginning of the game.  I don't need to follow it step by step (the walkthrough on this game is incredibly detailed), but it would have been nice to pick out a couple things, to check in every so often to see that I stay on track.  Really, I only want like 1/10 of the obscure items in the game.  

So, anyway, this has put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  I'm mostly concerned that I will at some point get stuck, and not be strong enough to finish the game.  That would be  real bummer.  Thinking about it now, I realize that's what happened the last time I played- I never beat it.  Maybe when I'm finished, I'll put together a simple outline of things to know before playing FFVIII.  It's not like I read an instruction booklet, afterall.  

The Plot of Disc 3 gets pretty convoluted.  In classic JRPG fashion, the villain is not the villain, it's someone else.  But also there's this other villain.  And weird magical technology, and space and the Moon.  And like... huge, seemingly important details (monsters come from the Moon?) that are just sort of tossed off without much care.  It's clear to me that the Junction and Guardian Force system is where most of the fun of Final Fantasy VIII lies.  While the plot isn't any more or less crazy than any other FF game, it just isn't my favorite.  

The 4th disc is similar to FFVII's third disc.  There isn't any new plot, just a final dungeon and the ability to traverse the world and tie up loose ends.  I just tried and failed to beat the final boss, so I am going to spend some time leveling up my new Guardian Forces* (they give you access to almost all of them in the final dungeon, so that counts for something). 

-D

*I haven't mentioned this, but the Summons in general in this game are excellent.  It's pretty impressive how much better they look than FFVII.  My personal favorites are Diablos and Leviathan.  

#IndieSelect: Nicky The Home Alone Golf Ball (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of Nicky The Home Alone Golf Ball by MiniMal Lab on the Nintendo Switch from QUByte Interactive through Xinthus' #IndieSelect event earlier in the week.  The game was given and received without expectation or promise of a positive review, only that the game be played and the experience be shared through social media channels.  All of the words and pictures in this article unless otherwise noted, are my own and form my own experience playing the game.

Based on the trailer for Nicky The Home Alone Golf Ball (hereafter referred to as Nicky), you get was is advertised, but only to a certain extent.  Before even starting the game, you can customize your playable golf ball, Nicky, with hair including facial hair, glasses, hats, and bling, and you are thankfully told that these cosmetic effects have no effect on the actual gameplay.  This is good because I obviously put the Viking hat on my Nicky and we all know from games like Katamari Damacy that pokey-things on rolling objects is a real hindrance.  Once you do start, you are greeted by a digital voice that sounds like it was compiled of audio from British comedian Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Worms Revolution) and you start off on your adventure, leaving the box of golf balls in a house and headed back home to the local golf course.

Nicky takes a mechanic similar to Angry Birds and Midnight Deluxe, where you slingshot/golf-shot an object towards a goal.  The difference though in Nicky is that you cannot see the end goal, and are instead following arrow signs pointing you in the right direction to shoot as you make your way through obstacles.  There is a bit of platforming going on, trying to shoot Nicky onto bookshelves, lights, telephone poles, windmills, and through car windows.  As is the case with slingshot and golf games, you can direct the shot as well as the amount of power you want to use, but I genuinely found that I would either use full power or some amount between 1/2 and 3/4.  I found that when I used less than half power, the ball would hardly travel in the direction I had intended.  The game can be played with the controller or with the touchscreen, but I found the controller to be comfortable and easier to track Nicky, especially when the ball was rolling on the screen and I wanted to take another shot immediately before stopping.  Also, any chance to not obscure the viewable area, I will usually take.

If I had to look at this for the entirety of the game, you
have to look at it for the entirety of the article.

Like golf, Nicky keeps track of the number of strokes you have made with the goal being to have the fewest number of strokes by the end of the game.  The game constantly reminds you of this fact by having a worldwide leader board permanently plastered in the upper right portion of the screen.  To remind you that that stroke you just took, now totaling 186 is still too high to beat Sarah who is sitting firmly at 147.  I found this a bit distracting because, on my first playthrough, I had a general sense of what I was doing and the direction I was going, but I definitely hit a wall where I got frustrated and just started taking shots haphazardly and probably wracked up 20 plus strokes out of frustration.  Plus learning the mechanics of the game, how much power actually affects the ball, how to best shoot at/around the birds, how fast the ball travels towards a car window that keeps opening and closing.  Maybe have the option to turn off the leaderboard or be able to view it in the pause screen?

As far as content goes, the game is comprised of just one level/world/stage that is actually pretty large.  The areas consist of a house, the roof, telephone poles, a street with cars, trees, windmills, a stealth area involving a stressed-out dog, and a mini-golf course.  In all honesty, I felt that the playable area was too big, especially since more often than not, I would shoot at a 45° angle at full power since most of the game was about distance and less about chipping and putting technique.  There were moments when full power played a hindrance, but with the   But there are more feelings about this than, "Woah, big world," and I am going to be jumping around a bit so try to keep up.

Wait, what!?

One final criticism is that I often found myself shooting into an area that I could not see.  You are able to move the camera a little bit, but you cannot see the entire playable area, or at least, the area where your ball could land.  Have the viewable area somewhat limited I could understand otherwise the player could just look at the entire world to see what was up ahead.  Combined with not always being able to see where you are shooting, often times the camera is unable to keep the ball in frame long enough to see what happened to you.  Maybe this was an attempt to be similar to the camera operators in real golf games who have to track the tee shots, but that might be giving too much credit.  In the picture here, I shot off a telephone pole then bounced off of something, possibly one of the birds that littered this area because there was a tell-tale squawk right before the bounce.

The game sells for $0.99 and is currently (as of 01/16/2020) on sale for $0.49, which is a decent price for what the game is.  Had the game been broken up into say, nine individual areas, even if the developers used the exact same world as it stands in the game, it could add to the perceived value of the game.  With there being just the one world/map/area, it feels like there is not a lot of game here.  And with there being only one world, it makes practicing on certain obstacles like the backyard stealth area or the windmills very difficult to improve upon.  Had there been individual levels (unlockable as being able to play them individually after completing the whole game), it would allow players to practice stages before attempting to make a run for the leaderboard, which would only tabulate scores when you play the entire course (as opposed to jumping around).  Using this format, I could see the game selling for $4.99, or do the frequent sale thing for 75% off at $1.25.

As it stands, Nicky The Home Alone Golf Ball does feel a lot like a proof of concept, something that the developers would show around to publishers as a sampling, that there could be more on the way, but alas, this is the entire game.  Even though the game encourages you to replay multiple times to challenge the top scorers on the leaderboard, I do not see myself replaying the game much at all after this first playthrough.  It was a decent experience that lasted just over an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half at the longest, but even then, I might be more inclined had the world been broken up into more easily to digest chunks.  You know, like the front nine of a golf course, rather than playing a single obstacle-laden course stretching some 3,138 yards to a single hole at the end.

~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

Oh Let Me Make Sure The Camera Doesn't Quite Get It


P.S.  I realized pretty early on in my playthrough that I would not be able to make a run at the leaderboard, and a final score of 410 I was semi-happy with despite getting frustrated with the windmills and just shooting without a specific care.

Final-final critique about the leaderboard is that it obscures the in-game congratulatory text.  Maybe it's just bad UI when the game was in development, not taking into account a full list of 10 players, but that's just me.

MIDI Week Singles: "Treasure Room" - Gauntlet (NES)

"Treasure Room" from Gauntlet on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1988)
Composer: Hal Canon
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Tengen
Developer: Tengen

Good morning adventurers.  Perhaps you've seen these chests of gold lying around?  Maybe you've thought to yourself that you might just take one for yourself?  Maybe four or five?  Maybe you spotted a key along the way too.  Was that an exit over there?  Perhaps it was, but look over here!  A whole host of treasure chests just waiting to be plundered, you just have to run around that corner, make a left and then through that archway there.  Great you've found them!  But wait, you didn't notice the timer running down?  You only have eight seconds left to make it back to the exit!  Perhaps you shouldn't have been so greedy with those last four chests.  I do hope you'll make it back in time in three seconds. . .

This song causes me a bit of stress, but the kind of nostalgic stress that you can live with.  For the most part.  I have previously talked about the summer playing Gauntlet with my family, one of the few games that a lot of us played (minus my Dad who is still averse to video games in general despite having them in the house for 20+ years).  I do love how this song picks up speed naturally, that it is not just clipped into playing faster similar to the music in Tetris but that it is written to make the player anxious that their time is running out without having to look up at the timer in the top-center of the screen.  It's like the song is feeding of the player trying to get the last couple of chests right before the time reaches zero while still seeing so many un-collected chests.

Maybe there is a larger lesson here, or maybe the song is just a song.

~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

Do You Believe It's Real

Game EXP: Final Fantasy VIII - Disc 2

I liked how Disc 1 ended, I didn't like how Disc 2 opened.  The prison area is just really boring with a bland environment, lots of party switching and not frequent enough save spots.  Party switching is super-cumbersome, and often times I go through the trouble of moving all my Magic and Guardan Forces only to have a very short sequence without any combat, and you have to move them all back. There is a 'trade Junctions' function during the party switches, but I inevitably don't remember exactly who was in my party previously, as there have also been some forced party arrangements.  Finally, there is no visual signal to confirm which direction the trade happened.  So I wasn't sure if I had taken any Junctioned GFs at all.  

Anyway, it's kind of a pain.  I imagine in later portions of the game it will be simpler, and I can more reliably stick to my top 3 party members (Squall, Rinoa and Quistis, for the record).  

I am still totally happy with the crispness of the high-resolution characters, though I have noticed that I sometimes get the feeling that they are more like barbie dolls, because they have these clear faces which only one, vacant expression.  Looking at pics at the original resolution, the images are much more grainy, but that just means you have to fill in the expression from your mind, and glean more from body language.  Ultimately, I'm left appreciating both ways of playing the game, which I think is a good place to be*.  

Though and option to play either high res or original res would be nice, I guess you can't have everything.  If I ever manage to get the PS Classic emulator running, I can maybe give the original FFVIII another look.  

The plot in Disc 2 really picks up after the initial Desert Prison scene.  There is a sense of urgency that permeates the rest of the disc.  However, after reading a Walkthrough on the game, there are some things that can only be done in Disc 2.  I wish I had checked the walkthrough earlier.    

  

Giant drills that are also prisons blocks.  Total FF technology logic.

First Impressions: Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 4: Metamorphosis [Claire & Moira] (NS)

Welcome back to our coverage of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 played on the Nintendo Switch which we last looked at back in December.  Depending on how you want to look at things, this is either Part 4, covering Claire and Moira's adventures on an island in the middle of somewhere, or it is Part 7 in our entire series of Resident Evil: Revelations 2.  Just click on this or the link below for all the parts in our series.  Just another word of warning, that there will be spoilers as I cover the end of both chapters as well as the end of the game, but I will look at the game in its entirety in a Full EXP article after I finish the extra episode The Struggle which covers the six months between the end of C&M's chapter and when Barry first arrives on the island.

This chapter for Claire & Moira was short, just over 20 minutes (specifically 20 minutes and 10 seconds) and most of that was spent trying to escape the Red Tower as it collapsed around our two protagonists.  And because this side of the story takes place six months before when you are tolled that Moira is dead, or at the least "buried under a mountain of fear and despair," you just know that something is going to have to happen before the end.

But let us jump back a bit to the beginning of C&M's episode before we knew that it was only going to take 20m10s.  Their story picks up right where the last chapter left off, with them riding the elevator to the top of the Red Tower (again, because I called it that in my head even though it was never referred to it by that name in the game).  There is a little bit of wandering around control rooms in a futuristic-type setting compared to the rest of the game, similar to the lab under the Spencer Mansion in the first Resident Evil game, and the lab in Resident Evil 5.  You then have a cutscene with Alex Wesker where she laments about her place in both the Wesker family at the late Umbrella Corp., and then you see her kill herself in order to bring the tower down after realizing that her plan had failed. 

Why is this walkway even here!?

This triggers a semi-frantic sequence  (aka, the remainder of the game) where you predominantly control one character, directing them down the outside of the crumbling tower while the now-familiar digital timer counts down to your ultimate demise.  Nothing in this section is too complicated but seems more designed to make the player anxious, with areas leading to precarious precipices, and even a few dead ends. There is one section that definitely seems like you can just leave Moira behind as you are forced to split the two women up to clear a path to continue, but it felt too easy to leave Moira so I spent one life figuring out what to do, then I proceeded through to the next area with both C&M.  The amount of time left was somewhere around 1m20s and when I died and during additional attempts, I never felt like I had screwed myself over at this checkpoint; and for all I know, the timer automatically starts at a set time, regardless of the amount of time that was actually on the timer when you reached this part.

RIP Moira?

The next area took place back inside the crumbling tower, but this time the path only became clear as parts of the tower fell in your way, forcing you to either duck under debris, run across steel girders, or climb down powerfully built metal ladders.  There were a couple of Glasps here, the first time they have appeared in C&M's chapter and it took a handful of attempts to figure out the best way to kill them, this time using the one remaining smokescreen bottle I had, and then the game broke the immersion.  Like for the majority of the game, I was controlled Moira as frequently as possible if only to find hidden objects and ammunition, which really was not a priority as the tower came tumbling down, but I was forced to switch to Claire for no visually apparent reason.  There was a jump across a gap towards a large break in the wall of the tower that the game would not let you perform as Moira.  Why this was the case was made clear after switching characters and making the jump.  Shortly after Claire landed safely on the other side, debris landed on Moira pinning her to the ground.  I genuinely thought this could have been another 'Wait for Shadow before fleeing the Floating Continent' type event, but my first time through I waited too long and the rest of the tower collapsed on both characters.   The next time through, being my umpteenth attempt at this section of the level, I finished the stage watching Moira "die" under a pile of rubble and debris, then Claire leaped from the Tower to the ocean below.

That was it.  Claire & Moira's story was complete.  A bit of a letdown, but there would be more revealed in Barry & Natalia's episode.  I guess it does make a bit of sense because when you are playing B&N's chapter, you see plenty of Alex in her post-suicide-deformed-Uroboros-Virus phase so having a large-scale confrontation would be even more anti-climactic because you know at least some part of her survives, which made this ending a little confusing.  But if you take this chapter as only a part and not a stand-alone story, then you might be less disappointed.  Maybe that is where part of my disappointment comes from, that the resolution of C&M's story is dependent on B&N's story which could make sense taking the game as a whole, but again, with episodic storytelling and since C&M's story was its own beast, I would have liked a more complete story to have been told.

So please stay tuned for Part 4 (or Part 8) where we will look at the final chapter in Episode 4: Metamorphosis and see the final conclusion of this story, and which ending I managed to earn.

~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

Alright, Have It Your Way

P.S.

And as before, here is my score screen for this chapter in Episode 4.

I probably could have gotten an A rank for Time, but I waited as long as I could during my first near-finish when I died with the tower collapsing around me after Moira got pinned.  One of the gold medals for this chapter was to complete the stage in 20 minutes.  But oh well.  Also, I have no effing clue where any of the Kafka painting-things were beyond the first one that was obvious.  Either they were too well hidden over the course of the entire game, or I am just an idiot for not seeing any more than one.

#IndieXmas: Stellatum (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of Stellatum on the Nintendo Switch from developer Satur Entertainment and publisher Sometimes You for Xinthus' #IndieXmas.  The game was given and received without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and that experience be shared through social media channels.  All of the words unless otherwise noted are my own, and all screenshots included were taken during my own playthrough.

If you were to take Asteroids and 1942, you might get something close to the outer space shooter Stellatum.  But you still have a ways to go.  Throw in some resource collection and management, along with some good ol' RPG equipment management and you will be closer to what Stellatum is.  What Stellatum is to me, is a top-down space shooter and spaceship builder with semi-loose controls and a very steep learning curve.

This is Stellatum.

Now for me playing on the Nintendo Switch, there is a lot here that is good, and only a few things to criticize, so let us get those out of the way with first.

First and foremost, the in-game text is small.  Very small.  If I had to assign a font size to it, it would probably be close to 5.  It is small.  Now, I have not played the game outside of handheld mode so that could be a big part of my problem, but Stellatum feels like it was a game developed with the mobile market in mind, so having text this small does not make sense, at least to me.  There have been a number of times I have used the zoom-in feature on the Switch (double-tapping the Home button) just so that I could make out the wording on how to convert the collected Materia into components.

The second is the learning curve is very steep.  By the look of the map, there are 50+ levels and by Mission 5 I felt that I was maxing out on my ship loadout.  After mixing some of the equipment on the ship around, I was able to find a combination that worked, allowing me to casually get through the next mission, but then I hit a formidable wall with Mission 7.  Not so much the mission itself which I am able to get through on a single life, but then the boss battle is where I end up hitting the flaming wall of death.  Granted a lot of shooters I have played are bullet-hell nightmares (Vasara Collection and Inksplosion, I'm looking at the two of you) which means that they are not supposed to be cakewalks, but I feel that the entire concept of Stellatum is that through customization comes victory (you're welcome Satur Entertainment for your new catch phrase).

Now that we are moving on from the critiques to what I do love about Stellatum, let us get into the customization feature which is a welcome change to this type of game.  Throughout the levels, you pick up debris from enemy ships, called Materia, as well as the occasional larger part, which you can then use to manufacture new parts to equip your ship.  Better guns, better shields, larger energy pools, differing weapon and sub-weapon types, there is a lot here to outfit your ship with.  From what I have been able to tell, the only way you gain these upgrades is by completing Missions, but you only gain the upgrades once.  You cannot go through the same level and earn more or different ship upgrades, so if you grind levels, the only thing you get is more Materia and ship components, not more upgrades.

And here is the main thing.  I really like Stellatum.  Or more accurately, I really like what I want Stellatum to be, which is not as difficult as it is for me, as well as being able to earn/buy additional equipment for the ship outside of new missions.  It could also be that I am just not that great at twin-stick shooters on the Switch, which I already acknowledge that I am not if Hellmut and Inksplosion are any indications.  I love the concept of this type of game with the added feature of being able to purchase upgrades for your ship instead of the typical Power-Ups that appear during the actual missions.

Stellatum is a fun game and I want to see all of the ways that I can pimp-out my ship, but if I continue to slam my face against that fiery ball of death amidst a screen full of enemy projectiles, then all I am going to get is frustrated and annoyed.

~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

Don't Be Angry, Don't Be Sad

Mission 7 Boss: This Is Where I Die.

MIDI Week Singles: "Theme Song" - Papers, Please (PC)

"Theme Song" from Papers, Please on the PC, OSX, Linux, iOS, & PlayStation Vita (2013)
Composer: Lucas Pope
Album: No Official Album Release
Publisher: 3909 LLC
Developer: 3909 LLC

I guess I have been playing Papers, Please in some iteration for the past seven years now and to this day, I have never gotten tired of the theme song, one of the few songs even composed for the game.  There is very little music in this game, with the this, the theme song, a song when you lose, and a song when you win.  That is it.  There is no music for you while you sit in your box stamping immigrant after emigrant after terrorist after migrant worker after refugee through to the beauty and bounty that is Arstotzka.  There is only work and the ambience of the nearby road.  

This wonderful piece of music, composed by developer Lucas Pope sells the tone of the game perfectly.  There are the even downbeats that start and finish the song, the glory of the Arstotzkan Government if you will.  Then there is the harpsichord-like melody that could be described as the populace.  Now I am just making things up, but you get the idea.  The theme is both beautiful and brutal in a similar way that Cold War era architecture is functional and oppressive.  Or maybe it isn't.  I've only taken a handful of music courses in high school and college and my only architectural background involves housing designs in early 20th century America.

And let me tell you, there isn't much better than sitting within 100 yards of an immigration checkpoint in Saint Petersburg, Russia while listening to this music.  That's something that I'm going to always remember.

I really like this song, and I'll leave it at that.

~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

Instrumental