The Clan of the Cave Bague

Ahem – anyway, multiple entries today. But not really in the order they were played. First off, a bit of “The Thing” on the PS2, which I used to own on the xbox and never got round to playing. It seems ok – some nice psychology things going on, but seems like a fairly basic squad based shooter.

Next up was a bit of World of Warcraft. Haven’t played for aaaages, but I reopened my subscription in blind panic cos, much though it annoys me, I don’t want Trollbert and friends to go away. Anyway, had a rampage through Arathi Basin (as you do). I think it might be worthwhile grinding my way to 48 because 47 vs 49 is just too much.

Then there was Smarty Pants on the Wii. My missus seems to develop a particularly vicious competitive streak with this type of game. If I use the provided mechanics to alter her questions, I’m “cheating” and when she does it “I deserve it”. Anyhoo, she defeated me fair and square, and thank god for that too – if I’d won I’d never have heard the end of it

Then there’s Hoshigami on the DS. It’s really nice – it’s still light compared to FFTA but it’s a lot of fun. Except I’ve just realised that characters who die are gone forever, so there’s a bit of thought involved in working out how to keep the end of a battle running long enough to give my res character enough time to bring back the fallen. Fun, though.

This was a bit of a surprise! I haven’t posted anything on it yet because I’m “only” six hours in and I’m still waiting for all the bad things the review sites moaned about to kick in. Which they haven’t. At all. Thing is, gamespot, eurogamer, all those guys, complained that Hoshigami is a bit rubbish due to being too hard. They then went on to rant about the game’s balance and all kinds of other things.

Personally, I suspect the game was reviewed by either a Final Fantasy Tactics fanboy, or someone who is just rubbish at this type of game. On discovering they’re completely crap at it, they’ve just repeated everything that was said about the PS1 original.

From my own perspecitve – it’s ACE! It’s obviously not as good as FF:TA, but then that’s a kind of high bar to set. But it’s a similar type of game and, in its own way, is just as compelling even though it doesn’t have quite the same scope.

What it does well, though, is give an indication of what FF:TA will be like when it eventually arrives for the DS.

ZOMG! I actually played a game! AMAZING SCENES ((C) 2007 DeKay). And it only took about 30 seconds of play to remember just how awesome Super Paper Mario is. I was climbing up the inside of a tree and getting up to all kinds of wierd puzzly switch-pressing antics before have a mini-boss battle with Dementio (who, incidentally, has some of the best dialogue in the game – but what does she have against tiny angry workmen?). Then it was END OF CHAPTER time.

So, I’ve now got into the big castle where the geeky guy lives and I had to turn it off cos I know what kind of dialogue to expect and it’s too late at night for such foolish hilarity.

Right, so I was playing Breath of Fire and really enjoying it. I was also playing Paper Mario and really enjoying that. And Phantom Hourglass. And Super Paper Mario. And Sin and Punishment. And Endless Ocean.

And then I stopped.

And I don’t know why.

All the gaminess has gone from my life. Metroid Prime: Corruption was released weeks ago and Mario Galaxy was released last Friday. I have neither. I saw them in the shop and went “meh.”

I think I’m broken.

It was a foregone conclusion that the only thing to break my post-Zelda ennui would be another Zelda game. And this one is pure Zelda but in your pocket. By that, I mean it’s a modern, 3D Zelda, rather than a top down Zelda. Not that that’s hugely important, but – well – it’s pretty and shiny and that’s just ACE. Basically, Phantom Hourglass has been built specifically to take advantage of the DS and it does it well. It’s completely stylus controlled, and as such is eminently straightforward to control. Some nice additional touches. Rather than using a gale boomerang (or something) to blow out candles, you just – well – blow them out – via the microphone.

Also – a note on the controls. The developers of Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance should take note -  this is how controls on the DS should work. So, if you could be a nice bunch of chaps and go off an develop it, that’d be great. ‘k thnx bye.

Whenever anyone mentions RPGs (Japanese style, rather than, say, Neverwinter Knights) conversation rapidly moves to Final Fantasy. As a result there’s little or no talk about the other awesome RPG franchises on the SNES. Foremost of these is the Breath of Fire series. This goes for me as well – I hadn’t played a Breath of Fire game (for some reason I missed it on the GBA) before it appeared on virtual console and my first reaction (at a little over three hours in) is WOW.

From the title screen onwards, the game oozes 8-bit high production values. The music is beautiful, alternating between mournful, epic, sweeping and joyous as the situation demands. The story is involved, passionate, and a good deal more adult than many similar titles.

Underneath is a solid RPG engine with random encounters, turn based combat and all the usual trappings. The animations, however, are where it stands out – it animates more like Fire Emblem than Final Fantasy, with colourful, detailed sprites leaping about and making sword slashes.

Anyhoo – I’ve barely scratched the surface at the moment. I’m sure more coherent commentary will be made once I’m a little further in.

It is complete – at a little over 50 hours, and I reckon there’s 2-3 hours of optional stuff and at least 10 hours of fishing quests still in there. The ending was as epic as games get, really, with lovely protracted titles showing events in the world after the end of the story.

Spoiler Alert – skip this bit if you don’t want a bit of a final-boss giveaway.

Still reading?

Well, the climatic boss fight with Ganondorf was completey ace – his final (fourth!) form was the longest and toughest section (although still not HUGELY tough) – it was a gimmick-free straight up walled swordfight. No tools, no hookshot or bow required – just the shield and the Master Sword against the Big Bad. And it was fab!

So, chalk up another completed Zelda to Mr Gubbins – not only that, but I think it’s the first game I’ve completed since my Castlevania binge at the beginning of the year. Time to get on with Paper Mario methinks.

It’s unprecedented! OK, so I’ve just defeated what turns out to be the penultimate boss and it used irritating and unnecessary gaming cliche #1: The SuckySuck(tm).

But hang on a minute – it was easily the best, funniest, and most entertaining boss battle in the game so far! Essentially, the bad guy warped to half a dozen or so of the locations of major boss battles and required you to use the same technique used in those locales – essentially hainvg to recall how you defeated them. But you didn’t have to do the whole boss fight, oh no, just a hit or two here and there would do it.

What this does is takes the SuckySuck(tm) technique and remolds it into a reminded of just how ace the high points of this game are – a kind of self-referential homage, if you will.

Anyway, boss duly thwarted and it’s time for the Big Reveal(tm). I don’t think I’ll be causing any spoilers to Zelda fans by saying that it’s time to go after Ganon!

Well, I have to say that the Sky City is the most annoying Zelda dungeon I’ve ever done. Thankfully, though, it was pretty short and was saved by having a fun (if a bit easy) boss at the end.

So, now I’m through the mirror and off on a rampage to hunt down the Big Boss Man.

I think I’m on final approach now. After a mad scurry about the landscape finding random stuff, I arranged to have myself shot into the sky from a giant cannon and ended up in the Sky City / Castle / Whatever. In this place, I expect I’ll find a miniboss, a boss and the final piece of mirror, at which point it’ll be off to Hyrule castle. So far, the game clock is sitting just under forty hours – it looks like the final clock will be around the fifty mark, once I rush about looking for heart pieces and the likes.