Avalon Code Review

Seems like I've been doing a lot of game reviewing lately. I have too much free time... that's not good.

I actually had no interest to start playing this game at all. I was having trouble locating (and securing) a copy here so I had my friend keep a look out when she went down to Seattle for a day. It just so happens that she -did- manage to find it, so I had her get it for me. She apparently bought too much that day so she opened the games she bought for me so it didn't look like she just bought it (it's hard to hide games to begin with isn't it? o_o)... Since I got it opened, sure why not, let's play this one next!

The only thing I knew about the game is that it's localized by XSEED and made by MMV. Oh and it's an RPG. Since I didn't know what to play next, Avalon Code was a perfect candidate to keep me occupied until I did know.

STORY 3/5
It's saving the world AND recreating it... well, not so much on the recreating unfortunately. You start off picking your gender which determines who of the opposite sex you can woo. You're napping at your usual napping spot on the hill until suddenly a frickin' book pops out of a giant rock/tablet. The next thing you know, you're getting attacked by mysterious soldiers. A magical spirit comes out of the book to your rescue, teaches you the basics of using the book to beat up the bad guys and then tells you your role. So hello, apparently you're the destined creator/designer of the new world when the current world falls. Your goal is to gather data from the current world so you can use it in the world to be.

The recreating idea was really neat but it seemed like it fell a bit short. I was hoping for some more customization with the future instead of just getting a mere glimpse of it.

CHARACTERS 3.5/5
I was a pretty optimistic and nice protagonist so it seemed like everyone was generally pretty neutral. The characters were rather shallow so it was difficult for me to pick a guy I wanted to chase after or a girl friend I really wanted to befriend. There is one guy character that is involved with the story itself and had a bigger back story but sorry I don't particularly dig childhood friends who try to act tough but are actually wishywashy. I also find it weird that you can choose to hook up with one of your spirit friends instead if you wanted.

And gosh the confession and feeling scenes were so corny and awkward.
(insert floating bubbles background) "I love you!" *fade out*

SOUND 3/5
They managed to put a few voices here and there and they weren't half bad. Music-wise, nothing particularly stuck.

GRAPHICS 3.5/5
The characters and fields are surprisingly rather detailed for a DS game using a 3D engine (but then again, I don't play enough NDS games to begin with... so I don't know if I have a say in that). However, on field/world textures and backgrounds are reused often so going through the multiple maps of the areas does get rather boring. There's also a pretty little anime opening which includes your typical jpop song.

GAMEPLAY 3/5
I didn't expect this game to be an action RPG. In fact, I didn't know what to expect so I can't really say. You had to go around "code scanning" objects throughout the world by SMASHING your book on the object (no really - it looks and sounds painful). Then you get to equip a weapon on each hand and decorate yourself with pretty/useful equipment. Weapons and equip can be customized through the usage of the codes you scan. Different scan combinations can create stronger equipment, etc etc. Then there's a strange little feature called "Judgement Link" where you basically juggle enemies to their death. It sounds weird and it actually looks weird too. On top of being action RPG, it also heavily features on PUZZLES. There's the dungeon puzzles (which are ok) and then there's the SLIDING PUZZLES(!). Some objects you code scan require you to solve the puzzle to get the item. Such time wasters but I beat them all just to show it who's boss! D:

The most frustrating part of this game was the menu. The game revolves around the book being the menu so imagine scanning everything in the world - everything has its own page. Now try going through those thousand of pages just to find one particular code you want just to complete a code combination! URAGH, that was probably the most tedious and annoying.

2nd most frustrating is probably the fact that the game required to use both the stylus and the buttons. So you'd action RPG button mash and then have to stylus your way around to use the menu... and yes, you do use the menu quite often. However, the up side is that you can go into the menu anytime in the game... even in the middle of a swing/chop to SAVE if you really want to.

Ok, so the gameplay wasn't all bad. The dungeon crawling is pretty fun: each map gives you a goal time plus objectives you can try and complete, so it wasn't all just hack n slash.

OVERALL 3/5
As I mentioned, I wish they did more to the "future world" concept. I seemed to have looked forward to that the most. The game became a free roam after you "saved" the current world, which made the game (or story, at least) feel incomplete.

The game's pretty original overall. If they had a sequel, I'd dig it... that is, assuming they make the necessary improvements of course. :B

Mmmm Nap

So I chose a ridiculous appointment time today to bring in my car for her regular maintenance. I usually wouldn't find 9:00am an issue, but having to sleep the night before at 4:30am did make it an absolutely dreadful morning to wake up to. To make up for it (or, more like, giving in to my bodily/mental desires to sleep) I took a 4 hour nap just now.

Hm, I always seem to regret it after napping. It feels like I'm wasting my precious day time.

End random.

Oh, Star Trek was AWESOME. The movie left me smiling at the end. I never noticed/cared/really knew who Chris Pine was until the movie but they made him look pretty good looking. :D Zachary Quinto was quite a cool looking Spock too and I couldn't help but smirk everytime John Cho showed up thinking he'd do something funny. The rest of the cast members were pretty lovable too... NOW MAKE MORE FASTER.

Hello Mid-May!

Now, all of a sudden, it has become almost the end of May. Upcoming random thoughts post.. GO.

- I need to watch Star Trek. This weekend probably.

- Even though I've been a faithful member of NEET for a month and a half, I've finally got a positive response from a potential employer of a job that's completely unrelated to my career path. It makes me deeply miss my graphic design position pay. After calculating the difference, I cried a bit inside. I guess I should just suck it up considering my circumstances.

- About interviews.... I got a phone call interview this morning. I was really unprepared, but obviously I should've been prepared though considering I've been applying here and there. It made me realize I haven't gone through an "official" interview for 3/4 years now. Now it's back to the usual questions: "Why do you want to work for us?" "...! D:?!"

- Anime Expo is roughly a month and a little bit away (WUT!). I must say, the guest line up isn't all that wonderful (a seiyuu or two, or another band besides Momusu, or a mangaka - any would all be nice). There's a lot of power rangers BUT THERE'S NO ORIGINAL WHITE RANGER TOMMY...! Or any other first gens (besides the Black Ranger, I think?)... Oh well, I guess I'll be stalking the exhibitor's hall again, as usual.

- While on the topic of conventions, I completely forgot about our lil ol' local con, Anime Evolution. They bumped up the dates this year but then again, we never seem to remember when it happens anyways. Grats to them for the venue upgrade, but the guest lineup is still quite boring. Maybe the ReBoot creator guy could be interesting... but that's it. Might just stealborrow a badge from someone again then follow to post a complaint on their forum.

- The USD/CND exchange has improved! $1.14 is wonderful news!

- Gas is still $1.04, not so wonderful news!

- I have a bunch of manga-related babble to talk about. Maybe I'll leave that for its own post.

- That newly announced PSP-3001 pack with the FFVII stuff... I was stoked at first until I noticed the PSP IS PLAIN. NO WANT. I knew I should've just bought myself a carnival colour when I had the chance... I shake my fist at the Project DIVA accessory set made especially for the 3000 series, GRR. It's my only reason for getting a third gen PSP. Oh and no glare! PSP under the sun without having to be a beach monster would be wunderful.

- I heard the Richmond Night Market has once again started. Time to make some plans (to food raid and loiter).

- I stumbled across Volks and their M.O.E. Collection earlier line today. I knew them as the FFS model people next to wave but I think only recently did they start making figurines? Their models are pretty decent but they aren't featured in the hobby review sites I visit. The underdogs perhaps?

- There's someone trying to pull me back into MHF. The temptation.........

- While on the topic of games, Shining Force EXA has reminded me of how awesome Diablo is and I/we/theworld needs Diablo III now. Faster please, Blizzard. Starcraft II can wait, really.

- Alright, mind dump complete.

Wild ARMs Cross Faiya

...or "Ex Eff."

I didn't know what to expect in WA:XF. Definitely not an SRPG until I saw the box. It was Wild ARMs, that was a good enough reason for me to get it first and figure it out later.

Story 4/5
It begins with Clarissa and Felius recently landing on this continent the game takes place on to chase after this guy who stole Clarissa's late mother's sword. On their way, Clarissa gets mistaken for someone else. From there due to certain circumstances, she ends up pretending to be that person for the time being, to save and calm the citizens. Her involvement leads her and the companions she joins up with to deal with the country itself to save it.

I loved how there was a plot twist that wasn't even verbally mentioned and it just allowed the player to put the pieces together. Though it was a bit silly how no one in the game bothered to put the pieces together nor [spoiler]questioned/wondered why Clarissa had those premonitions and was able to shoot this magical light[/spoiler].

I disliked how they, again, put Sci-Fi into this game (just like WA5). I guess it worked with the plot... but I do enjoy the old fashioned wild west idea more. They also reused the [spoiler]time travel element[/spoiler] from WA5 into this game too. Eh, overall it worked out so I'll just leave it at that.

Characters 3.5/5
There wasn't anyone that was particularly annoying. Perhaps my least favourites were Labyrinthia and Ragnar. I do wish they did reveal the plot twist... I am curious to know what would happen if they did. Though the characters are probably happy the way they are.

TONY was unexpected. Another hidden plot element that was not revealed but one could probably guess based on the previous Wild ARMs.

The bad guys were all pretty forgettable. Maybe except the last boss... but that's only because of her relationship with the rest of the characters.

Sound 4/5
An option for the Japanese voice track is always awesomely great. The music was similar to WA5 (same group of composers) so there quite a number of nice tracks ranging from the classic whistle n guitar to some sweet techno. I am sad for Naruke Michiko, but I think I've learned to move on.

Graphics 3.5/5
I love the pixel graphics! It feels so old school but the vibrancy in colours, transitions, and textures scream new school. Being an SRPG, there is very little animation except character actions on the battle field.

There were a lot of still pictures and the attempt to make it "animated" through the use of zooming here and there.

Gameplay 4/5
WA:XF is your SRPG with tile movement and class changes. Tiles are hexagons which, in a sense, makes you more vulnerable compared to the 4 corner square. With a maximum of 6 characters on field at the same time, you can surround enemies (although, enemies can do the same to you) in certain formations to do more damage.

There's a variety of class choices and you gain more as you continue with the story. You can learn the listed skills of each class by gaining skill points while using that class. After, mastering that skill, you can equip that skill while using any other class as long as you have enough skill slots to fit it.

Hiring drifters was a neat idea but I ended up not using them much on the field except for excavating items. As soon as you got the 6 main characters, hired drifters became completely useless. A variety of characters pertaining to the storyline would've been nice but the fact that you can customize them at will anyways, I guess it wouldn't matter too much.

To upgrade new equipment, one has to gather materials and synthesize them at a shop. Materials were usually scarce and synthesis for all your jobs (and perhaps multiple for more than one person) became costly. I was often behind with my synthesis due to the lack of funding and patience to farm for ingredients but you can manage without it.

The game was linear, with one hidden boss (only Ragu). I only wish there were some more extras and sidequests, and perhaps fun references to the rest of the series.

Now, the main issue people seem to have had with this game - difficulty. WA:XF is good at differentiating itself from other SPRGs with the need to use strategy and planning. Each scenario has its own list of goals to achieve before you pass the stage, so it was not so simple as to toss all your characters on the field and bash the crap out of everyone you see. Not to mention the final boss was a sneaky one. I was on it for at least 2 hours, I swear. It wasn't as bad as some of the other stages I went through, replaying stages up to 10+ times. That explains why my game's playtime says 90 hours(!!!!)...

Overall 4/5
Even through I wasted so many hours on this game replaying and replaying stages just to continue the story, it felt really rewarding at the end (that goes for anything you grind for a long time though? :b). The challenge was unexpected but it was fun and it kept the game interesting.

I don't mind Media Vision doing another WA SRPG actually... or, just any WA really. There hasn't been any news on the WA series after XF, so I guess we'll just have to keep a lookout for them.

Ar tonelico: Was yea ra chs hymmnos mea

"Punching someone while singing sounds villany."

THAT'S RIGHT, MAY THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU.

Down with another game it seems... being unemployed, it's fabulous isn't it? (no, it actually isn't! it shouldn't even be a laughing matter ;___;)

Ok to start, I decided to tackle this game out of blue because I realized that even though I love the Ar tonelico hymme soundtracks to death, I didn't actually play the actual game. I wouldn't be much of a fan if I didn't play the game that the tracks were originally made for. I even named my psn/gamertag/steam after an Ar tonelico counterpart cuz the song IS JUST THAT AWESOME (EXEC_HYMME_MOISKYRIE/. btw - pronounced moi-s kyrie)... but anyway, onto the game~

Story 3.5/5
The game's has three arcs (aka. phases) and there's a chance for you to "finish" the game at the end of any of those three arcs. Knowing there were multiple endings, I decided to tackle them all! In retrospect though, I didn't find it was quite worth it to go through the same multiple times to get/see all the endings. On top of the three arcs, there were two paths which focused on different girls depending on which path you chose to take. The differences between the two paths were rather minuscule imho but it determined which girl you ended up with at the end.

Here's a world that lived humans and highly advanced artificial female beings called Reyvateil who sang song magic which drew power from the Ar Tonelico tower. Peace at the time was disrupted by the emergence of "Viruses" which intruded into the tower system itself and caused the AI in the tower to go haywire and go against the humans. Mr. Hero was then dispatched out to the lower world outside the tower to find the crystal that can suppress the virus.

The main story was pretty interesting, plus the side stories were quite amusing. HOWEVER! The translator. WHY. The translation and editing job was disgusting. It really ruined the flow of the story and conversations... I swear they must've translated it all without the proper context which was why speech was inconsistent with a LOT of poorly chosen wording. It was worse when the Japanese dialog did not match the English text that was displayed. The script had so much potential for humor and seriousness but... it was far too broken to be saved.

Characters 3/5
The hero, Lyner, was played by a newbie voice actor. His acting skills - I mean, lack thereof - lacked the right emotion and realism I hoped for. That reflected on the character itself... not to mention, even after choosing a definitive path to take in the story and like that girl more (or enough) to end up with her at the end of the game, the lines given to him made it seem like he didn't really have THAT much care as to which girl to pick. And! [spoiler]I thought there was a huge story/reason behind his loss of memory but in reality HE JUST HAS A REALLY BAD MEMORY! HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?! Misha's path was so disappointing...[/spoiler] He's a flirt and doesn't remember who he's flirted with! What scum!

Aurica's personality was a bit boring, except the fact that she's really bad at naming things and has a weird taste in synthesis items (a bbq meat soda drink?). [spoiler]The fact that she was suddenly revealed as a descendant of one of the first Origin Reyvateils is kinda wtf.[/spoiler] Misha and her background was a bit more interesting even though I don't particularly like Nogawa Sakura. :b Shurelia's neat and cute.

I liked Jack at first. Then I stopped liking him. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY MISHA! I CHOSE HER PATH, SHE'S MINE SO F OFF! Radolf is too pure to be real. Ayatane is so obvious but he's cool. Kruche's useful for her capsule tablets ;b...

Graphics 3/5
The art portraits of the characters were gorgeous... until you get badly animated butt ugly purple dragons casting your spells. It felt like low budget part has finally come into play. I'd rather have 2 frame pixel art animation, then it'd at least blend in with the rest of the pixel world.

Reused pixel people were a bit meh especially the obvious hooded mustache man who owns an inn in firefly alley, flirts with girls (and gets beat up by the hero) at nemo, sells funbuns at platina, and is a merchant at kululu village. The guy's up to something I tell you.

There was this one (and only) animated scene (not including the intro) that occured in the middle of the game... awkward placement considering there weren't any other animated scenes ever again. I was forced to listen to the English voiceover during the scene too! How cruel!

Sound 6/5
Sorry I cheated. The MUSIC was indeed awesome but the other parts were not so lovely. Voices: the Japanese track was included, but sadly only parts of it made it. Actually I forgot to check if the English track was full voiced... but the English dialog is so nasty, I wouldn't wanna hear them say "Uh oh!" and "Oh no!" anyways. There were a few glitchy moments where voiced dialogs would lose a line or two and some voices were cut half way.

As I mentioned, the MUSIC was the awesome, mainly the hymmes. The game had a Dolby Digital sound option which I wasn't able to take advantage of considering my, uh, stereo TV. I'm not sure if it's related, but when the hymme songs were played, any vocalized dialog would get drowned by the song (I kept it on stereo setting!). SO! In reality, sound should be 4.5/5.

Gameplay 3.5/5
I enjoyed the battle system but my main complaint is the SLOWNESS. On top of the slow response time, LAG! and jitters the game had during battle, battles almost felt too tedious at times. The whole HP consumption to use special moves was a bit of an annoying concept at first, but I got used to it when I got my hands on some auto hp regen stuff. The idea of making you lengthen your battle just so you can get more better items was a bit tiring but I persisted my way through to ensure I always got FULL DROPS.

The city selection map was amusing. It reminded me of my orztown project. However with the lack of traveling from point to point (instead of selecting the area to get there) made the world feel a lot smaller than it was. Well I can't say that's all bad though... less world map traveling the better sometimes yeah?

So the selling point of this game is the dating aspect a la eroge style but, eh, not so much. You can get all friendly with all the girls if you want, but it wouldn't get you the ending you want without following the proper path during the right moment in the game. So every time you rested at a rest spot or at an inn, you or the girl would come to you or go to their room and you'd just talk the night away. Conversation topics had to be unlocked by reaching certain criteria (some are automatically given to you, others took more work if you cared to complete the topic chart). Filling the chart nets you the ability to mind dive into their conscious, find out more about them and then usually followed with a new costume and some spells. I must say, the simulation adventure game (that totally copied Key's Air lol) in a particular dive was an amusing extra.

Ok now sexual innuendos. Lots of them. In the "dives" aspect, makes the girls "vulnerable" and completely "exposed". Then there's the "install" aspect. YES the guy INSTALLS INTO THE GIRL! That is, installing crystals that boost up their spells. The guy has to take responsibility for installing into the girl... or so a particular Reyvateil said. And apparently installing hurts. And installing deep is possible too. Installing means to trust the person who installs into them... so not anyone can install, of course.

Ok, enough of that!

Overall 3.5/5
An innovative battle system for a great story and amusing activities. A serious localization failure but the music was ultimate. If only they put more effort into cleaning out the little buggies and small annoying irritations here and there, I think the game would get more and better feedback from people. I think I'll take a break from AT in general, as much as I think Croix looks awesomely cool in AT2... he'll have to wait.

For the record: I did mainly two playthroughs and clocked in about 35 and 30 hours for each. 7/7 endings viewed. I did -not- choose Aurica for my first playthrough save (Aurica's path) and I chose Misha for my 2nd playthrough save (Misha's path).

PMS

The guys in this house are all PMSing. W.T.F. IS. GOING. ON.

kidd.nu is alive!

It's been THREE YEARS since I last updated my domain layout. Finally! Today! I suddenly had a design urge and changed it up a bit. It's probably because I've been a while since school and I haven't done any designing lately... Sadly from looking at what I've done, it doesn't seem like I've improved much. Having to make/design websites at school and at work makes one not want to design anything when they get home. Then again, that's probably just me...

After revamping the main domain, I've suddenly realized there's so much other stuff I have to clean and freshen up too. My domain's pretty dead except for my blog, which isn't even hosted on my own domain anymore. That's one task to do: install FTP on my server so I can move my blog back. Then there's some inactive forums that sit around and collect dust... which I only leave there for the community's sake. As inactive as they have become, it's still a way for them to talk with each other. Probably super low on the priority list is to recreate some themes (maybe find and reuse my old ones...). Then there are some fanlistings. They were so hyped in their day... now it doesn't seem to matter to me much anymore. I've already lost 4 or so in the past 3 inactive years but I still have a few hanging around.

It doesn't look like I have any real content-filled websites anymore either. My .hackers page is pretty dead, and anything that was alive before that won't be coming back. I haven't encountered anything that has motivated me enough to go and build a website for... And when there is, it's already oversaturated by the time I get to it. Then again... I think I'm just getting lazy. That's bad.

What else is there... I think I might revive my mp3 rotation site just so I can at least spread some sort of joy. Nothing else planned besides that. Revamp blackwings.net. That would be nice too.

One step at a time... I might need to wait for the next design urge before the next task gets done.

Oh, for lazy people → http://kidd.nu

Ohi May

I've been out of school for almost a month aaand... I'm still unemployed! \o/

Hey, it's not like I haven't been trying... but it's difficult to find a job that: 1. pays decently 2. is not retail (selling stuff) 3. will probably not jump off a cliff if I took a week off (cough AX) 4. has decent work hours 5. doesn't require post-sec graduation (especially for graphic design, that's a bitch it seems) 6. doesn't require me to drive an hour plus (actually a half n hour is already too long!) to get there (and is not basically downtown and anything beyond richmond and burnaby - the two nearest cities)

Am I being too picky? Really? D:

Yeah... probably. ):

I can't help it. I had the same problem the last time I was unemployed too. How in the world did I get around that one that time?

MIRAKURU KUDASAI. ＿|￣|○