‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”

‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”.

First Impression: The Legend Of Zelda – A Link Between Worlds (3DS) ~ The Future Of Zelda

Official website

Well, some of you guys might have already finished this game. Yet, I have not. There are a few games I’m playing during my free time so this one I play in parts. I have also a link to another world. It’s called real life. College is bothering me as well. Read as, giving me loads of work. Yet, I enjoy it. I would love to succeed in my future profession as a teacher. Anyways, enough about that. I got with the pre-order a special bonus. A chest that could open and close at will. And when you open it, the melody plays. You all know what it’s. It’s the chest opening sound. Anyways, this game is highly praised. Will this first impression add to the praise or will I rip this one apart? Of course not that last one since I’m such a Zelda fan. But I have some issues with the game. Oh yeah, I nearly always forget to add this part. But leave a comment with what you think of this game and / or my article. Thanks in advance. 

Graphics?

To be honest, when I saw the original teaser trailer, I was put off from playing this game. The graphics looked so ugly. Thankfully the finished product looks a lot better. Yet, I don’t think this is a graphic style for on portable devices. It more reminds me of games on the Gamecube then on games on the 3DS.

To be fair and objective for a second, the graphics are amazing. But like I already mentioned they aren’t my cup of tea. At least, not on the Nintendo 3DS. I’m a bigger fan of the design of the previous games. But I give credit where credit is due. The design of the enemies are similar to the previous game. I’m talking about A Link To The Past here, since this game is a sequel.

Fans of my blog know that I normally write about the story first. But I wanted to tackle this graphics part first. Since I honestly don’t care that much about graphics. Yet, I think some things in this game don’t look like they should. They don’t blend in with the rest of the look of the game too well for my taste.

Anyways, enough about the graphics. The animation of this game is well done. It looks alive. Also, the throwing of the spears from the enemies is perfect. You see a downwards motion and that’s just mind blowing.

Story

The story in portable Zelda games is never deep as in the console games. But this game actually challenges my statement. It builds on the previous story unlike the sequel of Ocarina of Time, which is Majora’s Mask. Also, the story is what YOU make of it. And now even more then before.

Out of order dungeons. They are finally back! One of the last times I can remember that you could do that was in Zelda I. The very original. In all other games you have to go from one dungeon to the next since you needed a certain item. But about that more later.

The story is played out nicely. Ganon returns but not on the way I suspected it to be. Also, the other world isn’t the past. It’s a mirror version of Hyrule. And thank the triforce for that. Nintendo really knew that they should make the other world something different.

But I can’t give my full opinion about the story yet since I haven’t finished it. But I promised to talk about the items later. And now is the time. You can buy and rent nearly every item in the game from the get-go. While this has me still mixed, the mechanic actually works and provides additional challenge. Renting an item costs you 50 rupees.  And buying, well at this point in the game, 800. While it’s true that you can farm out rupees, it makes you think about spending them when you don’t farm them.

This makes the dungeons not having an item in them. So, it’s basically a rush to the boss. Is the game easier then? Well no. Some dungeons are extremely challenging. And some puzzles are as well. Thinking out of the box with the mechanic that you can merge into walls is just great. First I thought that it would make the game easier and give you the ability to skip puzzles due to being able to go over holes. Yet, with some well placed design, this isn’t possible.

New and old?

So, I’ll go more in depth in my review. But because this is my first impression, I’m going to try and keep it short. So next up is the music. And holy smokes is it beautiful. It might happen that the music makes it on my favorite game music lists. Yeah, those articles. For some reason, I really enjoy writing those. And this music truly inspires me to write more. Many Zelda tunes are in this game. New music as well. Also, the themes are recognizable from the older games while it still manages to keep fresh.

Also, when you merge into the wall, the music sounds like you outside of the game area. Like you are approaching the game world. And that you hear the music. Lovely touch.

While I hate the save points, it provides a nice challenge. They went from the ability to save everywhere to save statues like in the previous Wii title.

Backtracking is thankfully a thing of the past! You have now a bell for calling a witch that will drop you off at any activated save point.

Wait, I’m nearing the end of the article and I haven’t talked about the controls and the new inventory system. I try to keep these kind of articles at the same length and now I’m really nearing the end. So, I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. When I’m finished with this game, I’ll surely write a review about it. So, keep your eyes open for that. But until then, let’s save Hyrule!

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First Impressions: Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories (Wii) ~ A mystery novel

Nintendo version of the website.

So, I have this Wii sitting in my room. I got my Wii after I graduated high school. Before that I played a countless amount on my Nintendo DS. On there I played Another Code from the amazing developer Cing. They went bankrupt and they are no more. But when I saw that this game had a sequel for on the Wii, I didn’t doubt for a second, I had to play this game. I started to play it three days ago, and I have trouble putting it down. Yup, that’s my first impression in extremely short for you. But this wouldn’t be a valid blog entry if I didn’t explain myself. Otherwise I will look as a fanboy of this game to you guys, which I kinda am. Visual novels always interested me and I love playing them. They always have a better story then other games and this game is no exception. Let me explain why this game is great and you all should give it a go. But, I’ll also explain some flaws with the system. 

The story.

This game is a sequel to the great Nintendo DS game Another Code, it’s named that way in Europe. The American is Trance Memory. I actually advise you to play the DS game first. The Wii game takes place two years after this game. The story of the DS game is very often referenced.

The familiar characters from the original DS game are exactly the same in this Wii entry. There are also a lot of new characters and you can easily get a reminder in the menu. Which is an awesome option. If you forgot which character was who, a reminder is there in game.

There is no voice acting. Which is a shame in my view. This game would have had big benefits from voice acting. Now it’s only the text displayed on the screen.

From what I saw of the story, it’s an enjoyable tale. It made me think back at the days I played the DS game. The main thing is again about memories. What I truly praise in this game is that on the end of each chapter, you get a small quiz to remind you what happened in the chapter and it really helps when you forgot or didn’t play the game in a while.

 But enough about the story, I’ll dive more into that in the full review. The gameplay mimics a lot from it’s DS game. The controls, you’ll need to get used to them, are actually quite unique and the mapping is great. Although it’s a pity that the detection of the Wii Remote seems a bit uneasy to use sometimes.

In this game you can’t really run everywhere you please. It isn’t a step back actually. This mechanic is set up in such a way that you can easily explore certain area’s and view them. Probably this made the developers have time for some great visuals.

As you guys might know, I’m not that difficult to please when it comes to graphics. But this game blew me away. The location of the game is bright and colorful, detailed and well made. It feels great with the realistic story and nothing feels out of place. It’s detailed enough that it draws you into the story easily.

Can’t put this down.

This game is also a puzzle game. And a great one. With some side quests like recycling, there is a lot of variety to the game. You can even choose how your character reacts to a situation. It adds some replay value to the game to see how it plays out if you react in another way.

I don’t know if there are different endings but I don’t assume there are. Otherwise I would be extremely impressed. Because in other games with different endings, this game is good in hiding it then.

One flaw in this game is how you can look back at the previous conversation. This is a very welcome feature but I haven’t seen a game get this right. I have to say, happy scrolling if you want to look for something.

There is no real tutorial. This is extremely welcome. Thanks to this you can explore and learn the game at it’s own pace. You don’t have to “learn” everything at the start of the game and you truly feel more free playing this game.

While exploring the area’s, things you can investigate blink in a yellow color. There is also a great indication on the screen to remind you. And pay attention, places you have explored, can also be of use later in the story. There are even various ways to control the game. Using the on screen buttons or the buttons on your controller, it both is fluent.

This game is easy and difficult. For new players to the genre, this can become quite a challenge in certain area’s. But, for advanced players in this genre or style of game, you can progress without getting really stuck anywhere.

Various story lines.

This game has various story lines running all at once. Thankfully, it’s never getting too much. When ever it’s too much too follow, a story line ends.

This game has also a very creative use of the buttons on your Wii remote. You’ll have to play the game to understand what I mean.

Before I close of this article, I want to mention the music. The music is pretty lighthearted. And it fits the tone of this game extremely well. You even have a music player in game to listen to the tracks or let them play as background music. And you can’t listen to tracks you haven’t heard in game yet.

That are most of my first impressions of this game. I’m nearly half way in this great game. The length is great from what I played till now. This seems like a game that will take you more then one day to complete. If you really want to enjoy it at it’s full potential. Whenever I finish this game, I’ll surely write a review for you guys. But until the next time, and happy gaming!