The First Dungeon

I hit that spot in Final Fantasy XIV, the very first dungeon. In that moment I instantly learn what I think of any MMO. It's one of the first major milestones and it sets the tone for the rest of your experience. In the first dungeon you see the beginnings of raid mechanics, how your class really plays, and get a small sense of the community.

Your very first taste of loot.

In the case of XIV the first dungeon is a pirates' cove called Sastasha. My first time through as a level 17 white mage took about 40 minutes. My tank was a good friend from school so I had the benefit of being walked through the dungeon.. The rest of the group was a pug but they were all very consistent in their play, no wipes or deaths. My friend made sure we did all of the fights, apparently most groups that grind this instance just run past a few of the boss fights. Overall, the instance wasn't very different from any other MMO. The raid was solid, most bosses were tank and spank but that is expected in the first dungeon. The last boss was an exception, you had to run around and stop water ripples from summoning extra enemies. Pretty plain but solid all the same. I enjoyed how the groups worked, it was nice to see some synergy between classes rather than each one doing their own things. Also queuing up for the dungeon was simple and super fast, a rare thing for too many games. This dungeon just furthered my current belief in the game. A good game but you've seen it all before.

She hasn't said "Hey, Listen!" even once. 

I'm well beyond the first dungeon in Bravely Default however. It is amazingly addictive, it just pulls you in and keeps you there. It has such a strong sense of progression that every level feels like a big deal. I'm always super excited to see what ability the next job level will unlock. That feeling has let me down more than once though. some of the earlier abilities just suck. The Norende mini game also keeps me coming back to the game. My 3DS hasn't actually been shut off in a week. I keep it in sleep mode to get more Streetpasses and more shop levels. I worry though that the shop items from Norende break the game. I've bought some of the higher tier pieces and I feel like my characters are burning through the early game content faster than they should. This is compounded by the fact that I have set my encounter rate to +50% so I'm fighting more things then I am supposed to. For the curious readers my party is White mage, Knight, Monk, and Black Mage. I'm doing something pretty dumb and keeping them those classes until they max out the jobs. I know it is not efficient, but it's fun to me. If I looked more into it, I bet the systems are really easy to manipulate. There is just enough "extra" social stuff in it that I think your party could become excessively strong extremely fast.

Also this week I did a little more grinding in .Hack//Infection. I'm hoping to wrap that game up this weekend. Expect a full review soon!

Happy Valentines Day!,

Chemystery

Caves, Elixirs, and Grunties

College has really murdered my game time, but I am still doing my best to get through .Hack Infection and Final Fantasy 6.

Fabuloussss!

I'm 9 hours into Final Fantasy 6 and I'm starting to warm up to it. Terra went all super sayian and now I'm trying to rescue and/or find her. My party is Locke, Cyan, Edgar, and Celes. One of my big worries is that I am going to miss out on a bunch of characters because I didn't explore enough or something. Hopefully the other characters that haven't been introduced yet are in mandatory cut-scenes or found in painfully obvious places. I've reached the city of Zozo and I think it is an awesome area for a Final Fantasy game. A derelict town full of enemies, jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper, and a cool puzzle with clocks just feels right in this game. Also Edgar's auto crossbow is an amazing ability and should be used without discretion.

This is what computer hacking looks like guys.

Where Final Fantasy 6 has been constantly improving in my mind, .Hack Infection has been maintaining the status-quo. Gardenia joined my group so now I have a long arm that I can recruit to my party. I definitely need to stop and do some grinding though. A friend warned me that if I don't farm the early virus cores now it will be hard to get them later. I'm also plagued with constant feeling that some party members are way under leveled (I'm looking at you Natsume). I should probably raise some more grunties as well but I keep getting noble grunties. For that matter, I don't understand what grunties even do. I can trade with them for some okay stuff but that's about it right? Add to the .Hack chore list Trading with NPC's as well. Somebody must want those Golden Axes I have. .Hack has a lot of nuances that I need to work on.

The real sleeper hit was the random games of Spelunky my girlfriend and I have been playing. After watching so much Spelunkin' with Scoops I looked up some streams on Twitch. One late night I found a stream with an exceptional Spelunky player Latedog. In his stream were a few other top tier players and just generally nice fellows. These guys and gals were a delight to talk to and answered any and every question I had about the game. I actually bought the game because the community seemed so nice.

My girlfriend's character of choice

Most of the Spelunky I have seen is single player, but let me tell you, if you haven't tried the multiplayer you are missing out. My girlfriend and I play with each other and we have a blast. We aren't too good yet, but we always laugh and carry on. The best part is that even when you are dead you can control a ghost that floats around setting off traps and pushing treasures down to a more accessible area for your partner to grab. That small touch makes the game consistently engaging for every player. It's a rare game that leads to multiplayer laughs and not multiplayer fights. 

Comments are always welcome,
-Chemystery

More .Hackin' and Questin'

As another semester begins I continue my trek into .hack Infection and Final Fantasy VI. I expect my play times to be more infrequent so I've started writing down what I was doing and what was going on after each time I play. Hopefully these games will be wrapped up sooner rather than later.

I'm about 15 hours through .hack Infection and I'm really warming up to it. I was pretty upset with the visuals to begin with but I've moved past that and found a lot of mechanics that I enjoy. Most notably, I've never once been lost in the game. Despite the fact that you have to manage information inside The World and from your desktop, the game is paced and designed perfectly so you are always progressing if you want to. It shows some real skill in pacing and story management that I just have to stop and admire.

Your in game desktop

Another great little tidbit are the books of Ryu. These books track your in game stats, like chests open and amount of money spent. The best part is that while you increase your numbers you unlock items outside of The World like wallpapers for your desktop or menu music. It's not a huge deal but it is nice to see.

With any luck it will be a while until I hit the grind wall. So far it seems like there are enough things to pursue that it will be a non-issue.

I'm looking less favorably on Final Fantasy VI though. The game is really jarring to me story wise. I just finished Sabin's segment and now everyone is together preparing for the epic battle. At first I thought the concept of the group splitting up was interesting but the more I played it the more I disliked it. The segments difference in length felt awkward, like the developers had clear favorite characters. The other story part I don't understand is the random narration. Kappas tell you game mechanics, moogles select what segment you want to play, and then random words show up to tell you what is going on in the story. It feels clunky and takes me away from the story.

Why do you exist!?

The pieces are there, I guess I can understand how this would be someones favorite entry of the series, but not for me. I enjoy the characters but everyone's favorite villain Kefka seems dumb to me. Like is...it...supposed to be a clown? Also is it pure evil or humorous? If this is someone's favorite villain let me know what the point is. Actually, explain to me why this entire game is great. Right now it is missing the mark with me.

Have a good week.

                                                                                                                                                                   -Chemystery

Papers and Default

This week has been a bit sporadic in gaming for me. I typically try to follow a "two games at a time" rule but I broke that this week. I was all over the place but I had a good time with it.

The thing I played the most was the Bravely Default demo for the 3DS. I went from excited about this game to ecstatic. Bravely Default is mechanically deep in the best way. There are 24 different jobs to class your characters as and you can combine skills and passive abilities from all jobs.

The Next Best RPG

Now that is standard affair but the combat is where the game shines. Bravely Default uses random encounters but you can't just get by mashing the A button here. Combat runs off of the Brave/Default system. When your characters Brave, they spend future turns to do extra actions this turn. When they Default, they earn an extra turn to use later and they gain a boost in defense. It is a genius way to use risk and reward in combat. You can go all out on the first turn and spend the next three waiting, or play defensively to build an amazing offense. 

The demo is free, if you enjoy RPGs please treat yourself and try this game.

I also played a large amount of Papers, Please on Steam. I love studying the cold war so this game really appealed to me. The game is inherently dark, it can really make you feel oppressed and bad about the decisions you make.

You Are Probably A Bad Person

You play a bureaucrat watching the border between two formerly warring countries. Your country is communist and you get paid for the amount of people you admit into your country and penalized for ones you allow without the proper papers. Life is a constant struggle to keep your family alive with your meager wages and often you find yourself a cog in plans you don't control.

I played the game as the perfect citizen. I refused all the bribes I could and tried to follow the law to the letter, even if it meant turning away refugees to certain death. You will not feel good after playing but you will be entertained. 

 I also continued playing my two "main" games. .Hack Infection and Final Fantasy VI, but not much happened. Hopefully I can give you a bigger report on them next week.

Take it easy,

-Chemystery