NekoJonez Wins Unique Blogger Award

So, thanks to Games With Coffee, my blog is an award richer. In total, I got 2 awards from other websites. Feedspot and MarketInspector gave both gave me an award. In addition to that, my gaming blog got a few other community awards. The Versatile Blogger in 2013, Liebster Award in 2014 and The Blogger Recognition Award in 2017. So, this is the 6th one. Now, thank you so much for the recognition! So before I go in the community part of the reward, allow me to say a few words. 

A few words

So, besides working on my own content and blog each and every week, I like to help and support other bloggers behind the scenes. In 2013, I started with this blog, but I have been blogging since 2010. In 2010, I wrote a Dutch blog that now got deleted and got replaced by this blog: NekoJonez’s Gaming Blog.

While I just enjoy writing articles as a hobby, the fact that people do read my content, like it, comment on it, share it… just makes me happy. It gives me a special feeling when I got support from anybody.

I’m just a hobbyist writer who loves to talk about my game collection & my opinion on the gaming market.

In any case, I can talk about this for hours, but I’m not going to let this part drag on for too long. Thank you for this award and I can’t wait to see what 2018 will bring. Be sure that there will be a lot more collabs and guests featured on my blog!

Question time!

What qualities or characteristics in a villain from your favorite game or series do you admire and why?

I have a few favorite villains, to be honest, but talking about their characteristics might spoil the whole experience in some cases. I do enjoy villains with an amazing twist, something you don’t see coming like in Zero Time Dilemma or in Bioshock Infinite.

Another villain I really enjoy is Sachiko Shinozaki from Corpse Party. The false sense of security she lures you into, that’s something I really like in the Corpse Party series.

To be honest, I really like villains that have a reason to be evil. Those stick out more to me. Even when you see the identity of the villain coming from miles away, like in A Hat In Time I honestly don’t mind.

Even when you know the big bad guy from the start of the game like in Tomb Raider, I enjoy that he has a reason to be evil you know?

What I don’t like in villains is that when near the end somebody betrays you since he or she was the big bad guy all along. Or a bad guy who is just there to be the bad guy. Except when I’m playing a kids game from my childhood, then I can excuse it.

But, that’s not an answer to the actual question. My answer is the villain in Zero Escape Time Dilemma. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say this. After playing the three games in order and getting surprises, twists and turns left and right; the ending to the series is pretty good. It actually stuck with me for a while and made me think about the whole series for weeks after that. The reasoning and the ideology of the bad guy are so screwed up but logical at the same time, it’s something to think about you know? That’s all I’m going to say without getting into spoiler territory.

 

If you could choose any character from any video game to become for a day, who would you choose and what (with their special abilities or powers) would you do in that timeframe?

It was tempting to cheat here, to say something like Hat Kid from A Hat in Time or Link from Majora’s Mask. The reason why is that they can both manipulate time and I could restart the day easily when it was almost over.

Why would I choose Hat Kid? Well, because I want to live in her adventure. I fell in love with the charm of the world and I wouldn’t mind living in it for a while.

Why would I choose Link from Majora’s Mask? Well, I played Majora’s Mask when I was pretty young. I had a fascination with masks/suits that provide you with special powers. This was because I recently saw The Mask movie with Jim Carrey before I played Majora’s Mask.

I was about 9 years old back then, so I always imagined that one day I would find a mask that transforms me into a certain creature when I felt like it. Oh, innocent child imagination is interesting is it not?

Actually, I made up a sort of sequel to the game with more masks and transformations and puzzles. Too bad I lost the papers I wrote it down on to a bottle of water. Yeah…

If I’m allowed to choose a character that can’t mess with time, well, currently I would have to go for Indiana Jones from the Indiana Jones games. I know, I know; he is a movie character in the first place. But, he has appeared in a whole slew of games. And, if I would be able to be him for more then one day, I would love to go through one of his gaming adventures like The Infernal Machine.

And if I have to choose a character that only appears in gaming; well, Frederica from Etrain Odyssey Untold. Oh yes, her personality and all that is so similar to mine in some aspects and her role in the story feel just right for me to be for one day.

And what would I do in that day? Well, just explore the labyrinth with the rest of the gang and have the biggest adventure of my life that only 24 hours can give.

In your mind, what constitutes a Mature, Distinguished Gamer?

A pretty simple answer here, in my opinion, somebody who is able to keep an open mind about gaming. Somebody who plays retro and modern games. Somebody who doesn’t play the latest of the latest game because of the hype train, but plays the games he or she wants to play.

Somebody who helps other gamers with their problems but also sharpens their skills so they look “cool for the young kids”.

If you want to talk about the big names in gaming who for example run the big blogs or own the big YouTube channels, I think that the people who get furthest are the people who stay true to themselves. Somebody I really look up to is Clint aka LazyGameReviews. His gaming skill and maturity he presents his content is just an inspiration to me.

In my mind, people like him are mature distinguished gamers. People who aren’t afraid to say their own opinion. Caddicarus is also a great example.

Somebody who stays true to themselves and don’t go talking about the latest new thing but talk about what they want to talk about. Also, mature gamers don’t talk down to younger gamers or games meant for younger audiences you know.

That’s the short version of my answer, I could talk more about this, but this article isn’t the place for that.

My nominations

While I could nominate a few people Games With Coffee did, I decided to not do that and give a few of my other blogger friends the spotlight. To keep the list a bit short, I decided to pick a few at random, but to be honest, if I could this list would be miles long.

1. OverThinkerY
2. DoubleJump
3. HundStrasse
4. HungryGoriya
5. FalconGameReviews
6. OtakuGamerZone
7. Sheikah Plate
8. LaterLevels
9. IPlayedTheGame!
10. Reaper Interactive
11. AdventureRules
12. RealOtakuGamer
13. AnjimPlays

Amongst a lot of others. Seriously, you all deserve more awards for creating a better community and the work and effort you put into your blog, support me and other bloggers, it’s just fantastic.

So, these are the rules for this community award.

1. Display the award. (See above).
2. Thank the individual(s) who have nominated you and include a link to their blog. A little promotion for their blog is also welcome.
3. Answer the questions asked by the individual who has nominated you.
4. Nominate an arbitrary number of bloggers and have them answer three questions you put forth to them.

What are my questions then? Feel free to answer how much detail you want! Ready, set, here we go:

1. If you were able to erase all memories from one game to be able to fully experience it again, which game would it be and why?
2. If you were allowed to help in the production of a game, which role would you take on and why? The role of producer, voice actor, writer, designer…?
3. What is one of the earliest video game memories?

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing this! Thank you for the award Games with Coffee for the award! The fact that you got it too is well deserved in my opinion.

I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care!

Also, remember if you aren’t reading this on NekoJonez’s Gaming Blog (https://arpegi.wordpress.com), this article might be stolen. Yes, this is a test to see how much theft is still going on by a theft website. So ignore this section, please. Okay? 

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Creative Christmas #6: Transportation Time

So, I’m still in the collab with LaterLevels, where myself and a few other bloggers answer a question each and every until the 1st of January. Now, I have to warn you, tomorrow and the day after that won’t have a question to answer. So, after this article, this series will be back on the 27th of December. Plenty of time to think of a theme. Yeah, I haven’t forgotten about that. But, look, I’m almost done with the intro; this way I can pick up my phone that keeps ringing and tell you about the question for today. 

You’re woken from your drunken haze by another frantic call from Santa, who’s worried he’s not going to make all his deliveries in time. Which video game item or vehicle would you recommend for him?

An easy answer would be a portal gun of course. I mean, it would save Santa some time if he didn’t have to climb down each and every chimney.  Somehow, I feel that that wouldn’t cut it. Since it would mean that Santa has to focus on way too much.

He has to aim each and every time, guess where the tree is located in the house. In addition to that, he can run the risk of using the wrong portal and creating a loop. Oh dear, I think I have to look for another solution.

Maybe the elves can help him, while the elves are driving one of the carts from Mario Kart Double Dash, Santa can throw presents into the houses of the children.

But then again, that aiming aspect of him having to put it underneath the tree. This is getting trickier and trickier.

I have to find something useful that he can use without (m)any additional issues that he has to worry about. I need to keep it simple for sure. Or have I? I mean, I looked for a logical answer each and every time, I think it’s time to go fully off the walls crazy with this one. For this one time.

So, get this. What if I gave Santa a couple of Command Blocks from Minecraft. This way he can input commands to replace blocks. So, what if he has the elves help him to write a script that translates the wishlists of the children into commands for the command block and then with a 2nd command block, replaces the air underneath the Christmas tree with said presents?

Meanwhile, a 3rd command block and check for nearby letters for Santa, cookies and milk so those get to Santa as well. While Santa’s IT-department will call this idea nuts, I just think it might be as nuts that it might just work.

Besides, if Santa wanted a better answer, honestly, I think it would have been a better idea that he called me when I wasn’t in my drunken haze anymore. I did have a big party last night, with a kiss underneath a mistletoe you know.

Otherwise, if I was more awake, I would have been able to think about a more clear and not too crazy answer for him. If only he called me later, I would have been able to suggest a better solution. With the Time Pieces that Hat Kid, from A Hat In Time, has in her spaceship, Santa would have been able to mess with time and make his deliveries in time. Would have been way more practical than setting up all those command blocks. Oh well. Perhaps a next time?

So, that’s my answer to today’s question. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

More answers here: https://laterlevels.com/

Creative Christmas #5: Smooch… I mean smoothy.

LaterLevels has a collab this Christmas, but you should already know that since this is the 5th article in the series. I still don’t have a theme for these and I hope I don’t get on the naughty list for this. I mean, I’m trying my best to provide you with interesting entertainment and stories and feelings from my personal life. But, I still don’t have someone special to share it with. For those who didn’t get my subtle clue, I mean a girlfriend. So, let me think about a theme for these articles and meanwhile, you can enjoy my answer to the question of today. 

The party is still going strong and you find yourself conveniently positioned under the mistletoe. Which video game character would you call over for a cheeky kiss?

Oh dear lord, there is a lost of superstition when you kiss somebody under a mistletoe. I mean, I’m not that superstitious, but just in case the girl is that I kiss, is superstitious; I do have to make this one count. So, who would be interested in a 24-year-old Belgian guy who works in education, writes about his life in video games, collects retro and modern games… Wow-ah there Jonez, you aren’t writing a profile for a dating site here.

I mean, maybe a simple British woman would be interested. A classy but adventurous lady. Someone like Lady Croft. She was my first crush when it comes to video games. (Just like many other males I think).

Actually, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not that adventurous in real life and I think I’ll just get in her way. So, Lara Croft, I’m sorry. I have to pass on you.

Oh, I have an idea! Maybe Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite! A lady I have a who lot of respect for. I mean, just look at her, she is a smart and caring lady that I can get behind.

When things get heated, you can be sure she can take care of herself. She got into multiple heated firefights with Booker after all.

Alas, I don’t think this would be a very wise choice. Without spoiling anything, just play Bioshock Infinite or look at it’s ending to understand what I mean. There is something about her that would make it pretty hard for her to have a boyfriend you know.

Maybe I’m thinking about this too much. Maybe, I’m taking this question a bit too serious. I mean, a cheeky innocent kiss. That isn’t a confession of love right? It’s not that I’m saying that I like her, right? Besides, I might get myself in an anime style war called that “Waifu” war here if I take things too seriously. Gosh darn, I’m raising the stakes even higher for myself now. I have to take something that offends almost nobody to avoid the “Waifu war” in the comments.

That would mean that somebody like Sakuya from Stella Glow would be a bad pick too. Since, if I would pick here, fans from the game will maybe argue with me that Popo or Risette is a better girl.

In addition to that, if I had to choose between her songs and Popo’s; dear lord, I would have a big problem on my hands.

Oh yeah, maybe some context for the people who haven’t played the game yet. In Stella Glow’s world, nobody can sing apart from witches who can use magic by singing. Yeah.

Also, I will have an even more hard time with Sakuya since one of my absolute favorite characters in the game in Nonoka, Sakuya’s servant. So, I think I won’t ask her.

So, I still don’t have an answer to this question. Besides, I think I should answer honestly since this is my blog after all. I pride myself on giving my opinion to the world about the games I recently played. I think I might be superstitious after all. I think about this too much.

… Princess Zelda? No! Link would be so mad and besides that, Zelda’s fate in the legends is always so hard on the emotions, I think I will be able to handle that.

… Princess Peach, well, I think Mario will stomp me to a pulp. So, no. I think I’ll pass there too.

Maybe Frederica from Etrain Odyssey Untold? That would be a lovely idea too, but then again; she is urhm… Well; just play the game and you will understand why. On second thought, I think I wouldn’t mind a kiss from her.

I can relate somewhat to her. When I meet people for the first time, I’m a bit distant too. But, I open up more and more when I get to know the other people and to trust them.

I also have difficulties to express my feelings to others. I’m also shy as well. So, I think I might be able to match with Frederica.

I wouldn’t mind a kiss from her under that mistletoe from her. At those moments, I wish that the superstitions were true, you know? Since she deserves all the good luck she can get. Or did I look too deep into this? Who knows, who can say?

Maybe I was playing a role all along in this article you know. So, while I’m standing underneath this mistletoe, Frederica you want a smooch– I mean a smoothy? Phew, nice save there.

And this is a perfect time to end this article. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

More answers here: https://laterlevels.com/

Creative Christmas #4 – Jamming those tunes

Another day and still no good idea for a theme for these articles. Maybe I’m having a writer overload. You know that feeling when you have so many ideas that you want to write about but you are unable to decide which idea is the best one to go with the article? Perhaps that’s going on. Oh, you started to read this article as the first one? Well, let me explain something then. This is the 4th article in the “Creative Christmas” series, where LaterLevels asked several bloggers to answer a question each and every day. Let me introduce today’s question while I play some music and try to focus on getting the perfect idea for a theming of these articles. 

It’s now Christmas Eve and you’re throwing a lively party for all your friends, family and favourite characters. Which video game soundtracks would be on your playlist?

This is an interesting question. While I have written various articles about gaming music in the past like the one where I talk about my favorite soundtracks per platform, I think I should think about the situation here. par

First of all, define lively. If it needs to be a party with a dance floor, I think I could go with the soundtrack of games like Electronic Super Joy.

The whole soundtrack can be considered as party numbers. Too bad, that I’m such a bad dancer, so I think I will just enjoy myself watching the people dance on this soundtrack.

It’s strange, I enjoy listening to these tracks, but dancing on them is a no-go for me. I just don’t like dancing, to be honest.

The big issue to answer this question is that most games I play don’t have a soundtrack that is energetic enough to have a lively party. Or I need to go with remixes and video game medleys like this one of Dunderpatrullen. These can bring so much joy in parties since you start to remember your favorite games and their memories. Oh, and LaterLevels, if you are reading this; surely listen till around the 3-4 minute mark. You are welcome.

In that same spirit, The GAG Quartet also made an amazing medley in a rock/metal version. This one could be on my playlist as well.

But speaking about remixes, I think the artists who created the Essence of Lime and Lime of The Season are just amazing. They pull onto my nostalgic strings so much since they remixed almost the WHOLE soundtrack both games. This is just mindblowing and the art as amazing as well.

I could also mention Overclocked Remix, if you know about a game, there is a chance there is a remix or something along those lines ready for you there. I think I would get my complete party playlist from this website, to be honest.

If you mean lively as in, background music since the party is already loud; well, then I have a few suggestions too. The soundtrack from Breath of the Wild, Minecraft, OneShot can be such relaxing music to listen too.

So, before I close off this article I want to leave you with one soundtrack that amazed me this year. The soundtrack from Outlaws. If you love western music, seriously check this one out. It’ll be right up your alley.

In any case, that’s everything I wanted to say for this article. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

More answers here: https://laterlevels.com/

Creative Christmas #3 – Help Santa!

So, today is another day and another question to answer in the mega blogging collab of LaterLevels. I’m still unsure if I should theme these articles since the goal is being creative. But, if I start a theme now, it’s a shame that the first two articles in this series didn’t have a theme. Actually, I think that shouldn’t be such a big problem. Yet, I think that editing my previous articles in this collab to fit a theme would be a bad idea to do… Hrm, while I think about it, here is my answer to today’s question.

You receive a call from Santa, as the elves desperately need a hand in the workshop getting all the toys ready. Which video game character would you recruit to help out?

So, who could help Santa in getting all toys ready? It should be a character that can work fast for sure. Sonic, maybe? Nah, I don’t think that will be a good idea since he most likely will break a lot of the tools since he is too fast.

I could put in “Sinterklaas“, a tradition here in Belgium & the Netherlands that’s extremely similar to Saint Nick. You know, you can call them almost brothers. But, since he isn’t really a video game character in the first place and more of a tradition, I don’t think it would count.

Maybe Asterix & Obelix? They got powerful druids who can make special elixirs that make them super fast and super strong. But then again, they are more comic book characters who got some pretty amazing games and they will have the same problem that Sonic has, they would be way too fast and the tools might not be able to follow.

Oh, maybe Putt-Putt? He had a Christmas book, called “The Night For Christmas“. That might work if we would live in car town that is. And sadly enough, we aren’t. Man, this is getting tricky.

Each time when I think of a character, something doesn’t click with me. Something deep inside me tells me that they aren’t the perfect character to help Saint Nick out to save Christmas.

You know, I was also thinking about some ridiculous ideas that might just work. Somebody like Paperboy could help with his experience in delivering newspapers in the craziest neighborhoods, but then again, that might not help a lot in creating toys.

At this moment, I dove in my game collection and looked through it. There had to be one game with a character in it that could help Saint Nick to create all these presents? I quickly threw Elf Bowling 1&2 on the DS to the side. I still shiver at the idea of putting those characters in my article to answer this question. I mean, that might be the reason why Saint Nick needs help since the elves are on strike and he doesn’t want to use them as bowling pins since that idea became a terrible game…

For real, this question stumped me for a while. I kept looking through my collection. I didn’t want to give a cheap answer and tell that Saint Nick can help too since he appears in various games, or say that a whole cast of characters from some game could help since they are with a lot of people…

Various characters passed my eyes as a possibility. Steve from Minecraft and the Sims are just two possibilities. But, then again, those aren’t too memorable characters since you create their story and you decide it all for yourself.

Maybe Guybrush Threepwood? Then again, rather not. I think he will just create something that looks like a toy and steal it afterward since he is a pirate, har har! Nah, I need somebody else.

This was becoming a real tricky puzzle for me to crack. I really had to have somebody who is kind hearted, a hard worker and a gentleman or a gentlewoman.

I wasn’t able to solve this one, but I’m sure that Professor Layton will know some tricks. Wait a minute. I think I can suggest him.

Yeah, he would really be able to help Saint Nick and with his knowledge of solving puzzles, he might be able to quickly think of a solution to help Saint Nick in his quest to finish all toys in time. This will work out just fine. If Layton is on the case, I know that this issue will be resolved no matter what.

So, that’s my answer. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until they have a great rest of your day and take care!

More answers here: https://laterlevels.com/2017/12/21/creative-christmas-santas-workshop/

Review: Miitopia (3DS) ~ How do you look today?

Official website

A few years ago, I took a look at Tomodachi Life. This summer, Nintendo released a sort of sequel to that game called Miitopia. While I have finished this game a while ago, I wanted to talk about a few other games before I wanted to talk about this one since I wanted to get my thoughts in order. So, before I keep delaying the review of this game endlessly, here we go. Let’s talk about the adventure Miitopia. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article in the comment section down below. 

Make your own story, somewhat

So, the story of Miitopia is that an evil lord is stealing people’s faces. You get the task to chase that evil lord and get everybody’s face back. Now, notice that I didn’t say any character names. That’s because you can pick whichever Mii you have on your system to fill in that role.

You can always switch the roles during the game. So, if you want to change the character you picked for the evil lord or the king, you can change that in the menu system. I’m also quite happy about the fact that they added a lot of Mii’s that reference other Nintendo games or pop-culture. Since there are a lot of roles that need to be filled and if your friend circle isn’t that big, you can add those.

The story of this game is decent. I didn’t expect a lot from the story of this game but if you are a veteran RPG-gamer, you will get a: “I have seen this story mechanic before” vibe quite a lot. I have seen it multiple times. It didn’t bother me that much, to be honest, but I can see it being negative for some.

The writing has the potential to be hilarious. Depending on who you pick a character to fill in certain roles, laughs can be had. There are a lot of clichés in the story and repeated events. You will have to save some people multiple times.

The humor in this game is just great. There is a hero cat class and flower class. In converstations, they all behave like they are humanoid cats or humanoid flowers. The charm is big in this one.

To be honest, near the end of the game, I lost interested in the story. I have seen all the random events, all the random blurbs the characters say, unlocked almost every class until the end; I got felt the repetitiveness coming on.

Playing or watching

The game is extremely repetitive. Even in the story, when you leave an area, the same things happen. At the start, characters can have arguments and get jealous, but this happens less and less frequent when the game goes on.

At first, you would think that there is a lot to do in this game. But, the only thing you have to do is manage your crew, where you explore and choose what the main character does in battles. There isn’t anything more.

While playing, you would wish that there is a bit more to do or a bit more that could happen. Since the game isn’t challenging at all for most of the time. There are a few enemies that are too overpowered in my opinion.

This game is a casual game. I’m quite sure that this game isn’t going to interest a lot of hardcore gamers. Well, maybe interest but I doubt they will finish it. The potential for a great game is here. Here are a few things that could have made the game more enjoyable.

One, allow the player to control all the characters in battles or at least one. When the main character isn’t around and you are exploring an area, you have to watch the other characters battle.

Two, get rid of the health banana and MP candy mechanic. For real, this is a mechanic I barely ever used. Due to the magical salt, you get to heal your characters quite easily. I used this mechanic so much I had over 50 of each at the end of the game.

Three, have something else to do besides the constant exploring. Break up the gameplay with something else. You do have a Quiz Master running around but he doesn’t show up enough to have some variation.

Four, I wish there was an “auto-cure” item. Whenever a character gets a status effect, you can put it in the safe zone. In that safe zone, it can’t be harmed but it gets healed after a few turns. This mechanic made a few fights too tense and made me lose a few fights against those OP enemies.

Five, if only the game was less linear. In various areas, the game is too linear and you don’t feel like you are exploring the world.

In this game, you have also a friendship mechanic. When you arrive at the inn after you explored, the relationship between the characters improves when they sleep in the same room. When two teams meet each other, they all start at friendship level 0. While you have at least 5 or more with each team member. I wish there were other ways to improve your friendship level. I could explain this in more details but then I would spoil a lot about the story and I want to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

One thing that disappointed me a lot is the fact that some mission areas get closed off for you after you have beaten the mission. So, if you want to beat every area to the fullest, explore it before you get sealed off from that area. I feel like I missed out on loot you can only get one time. You also don’t get a warning about this.

The battles, which is the meat of this game, are decent. While some classes are fun to play but they have a few flaws with them. I talked about the safe zone earlier. Another issue is that most of the characters that travel with you as an ally are too weak and you can’t see their health bar.

Every 50 enemies you defeat, you get a reward. In most cases, your salts will be upgraded to have 5 more uses. Speaking about these salts, you have a certain amount of salts you can use each time you explore. When you use one salt, you heal one point. When you are out of them, you have to survive until the end of that exploration. There are a few other salts as well, but I’ll leave those up to you to discover.

Presentation

So, in conclusion, the gameplay is pretty basic and I wish it was a more flesh out than what we got.

Difficulty-wise, this game isn’t too challenging. You can beat this game without any problems. In a matter of fact, I only 2 times in this game. (I’m not counting the times I died at the OP enemies here)

You can get 40 hours out of this game when you want to fully complete it. Otherwise, this game will take you around 30 hours. So, if the gameplay and story are just decent, why should you finish this game?

To be honest, the visual charm and presentation it brings to the table is what kept me going. Visually, this game looks amazing. The atmosphere is extremely well done. The theming of the world is in some cases pure eye candy.

In addition, the soundtrack and sound design are pretty well done. The soundtrack is one I would love to add to my library of soundtracks. Together with the sound effects, I was able to get somewhat immersed into the game.

While the story and gameplay lack the impact to make this game good, the visual presentation is helping a lot. The attention to detail in the animations is just a cherry on the cake. For example, when you run while exploring, the cat will run on all fours. Attention to details folks.

In terms of the controls and the UI, I have to say one thing. They are good. I wouldn’t have changed anything.

So, that’s everything I wanted to say about this game. It’s time for my conclusion and final thoughts.

Conclusion

The bad:

-Repetitive gameplay.

-The gameplay could have been a bit more fleshed out. (Not enough depth)

-The story is predictable.

-The game is a bit too long in my opinion for this type of gameplay.

-The game is too easy for veteran players.

The good:

+ With you filling in the roles of who is which character, the game can be extremely funny.

+ The visual presentation is amazing.

+ This game has a lot of charm to draw players in.

+ An amazing soundtrack.

Final thoughts:

This game is decent. It’s not good nor is it bad. I think the biggest issue of this game is that the gameplay is a bit too repetitive. While the charm helps this game a lot, it isn’t enough.

I got distracted by other games while I was playing this game and finishing it. I haven’t finished the post game, to be honest, nor am I planning to.

A lot of memories are created by playing this game but I wonder if I’ll be able to remember most of them if we are a few years into the future.

The game could have been so much more if it had more depth but we got what we got. So, yeah. So close but no cigar.

Score: 65/100

First Impression: Dragon Quest VIII – Journey of the Cursed King (PS2) ~ Let’s Go Forward!

Wikipedia entry

So, I have something to admit, I actually wanted to talk about this game last summer. But, I wrote about other games and this game got on my “to review” list. Let’s fix that today. Let’s talk about the journey of the cursed king. A journey I own on two different systems. Yes, this game got a remake for the 3DS. But, I haven’t played a lot of the 3DS remake, so I’m going to look at the PS2 version. Oh, if you are wondering what the differences are between this version and the 3DS remake, RPGSite.net wrote a great piece about it. In any case, that’s enough rambling. Let’s get this first impression started since I haven’t beaten the whole game. For this review, I am give or take 25% through the story. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the article and/or the game.

Direct story

In most RPG’s I played, the story mostly starts with a peaceful setting and then something big happens and the world needs to be saved. Yet, this story starts out a bit more “humble”.

You start looking for a jester that cursed the king and the princess into a monster and a horse. If you want to know what happened before that, you have to read the manual. So far, the story is very enjoyable. The writing is great and the voice acting is really great. But for a better analysis of the story, I think I have to get further into the game.

The gameplay of this game is a good but it has some flaws. In this game, there are random encounters. In some cases, there is an overkill of random encounters. I had several times where each 5 to 10 steps I took, got me in a random battle. Thankfully, the 3DS version fixes this with showing the enemies in the overworld so you can avoid them if you want.

Yet, it isn’t a great idea to avoid them at all, at least all the time. Since not only does the game keeps a counter with how many times you fled a battle, you will need all the experience you can get. This game can be quite hard and you will have to grind if you want to survive.

So, you will have to get yourself a lot of healing items before you can fight bosses and enter into caves. I recommend that you at least raise 2-3 levels before you venture into a new area. Also, explore each area as much as you can. Since there are a lot of side quests that might help you on your journey and make the grinding less repetitive.

Orchestral

I want to touch upon a few things that could have improved the game. I seriously miss a run button. Sometimes, I feel that you walk so slow and getting somewhere takes a bit too long.

Another thing that I don’t really like about this game is the inventory system. For certain tasks, it takes too many steps to preform. Like moving an item from the central inventory to a characters inventory. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of the split inventories but after a while, I learned to appriciate it. It adds realism into the game, since you can give certain characters items to help them in battle, like your allies are carrying a bit of the resources on your journey. But it also adds a layer of strategy. To whom do you give healing items and such.

Something that didn’t need any improvement is the soundtrack. Why is the soundtrack in this game so good? I mean, running around the open fields exploring the world with an amazing orchestral soundtrack, what’s not to love. On top of that, visually, this game looks amazing. I had several times that I just stopped moving and looked around. This game looks amazing and still holds up today.

You venture through various locations that each have an unique feel. Not only that, in some cases, you can play as the pet mouse of the main character and let it run around in buildings to open locked doors or to get more information about a certain quest.

If you have forgotten what your main quest was, you can always ask your team mates when you press the “Start” button. With this, I think it’s a great time to talk about the controls. They are great, the only complaint I have is that the menu button isn’t the start button. But, this nitpick might be because my brain is hardwired by handheld games.

Spoiled by 3DS

So far, I’m enjoying myself with this game a whole lot. Like I said, this game looks and sounds amazing. If you have any doubt, I also mean the animations too, they are great as well.

The only thing I lack sometimes is a sort of ingame map. Maybe I have looked over it, but there isn’t any map to speak off. I’m somebody who easily gets distracted and looses their way easily. So, I use the in-game map to navigate. Also, I’m bad in remembering names like street names, town names and things like that. It’s so bad sometimes that I forget the streetnames of the neighbouring streets of the street I live at. Yeah. So, an in-game map with names would be so lovely. That’s why I “cheat” sometimes and have an overworld map open on my tablet if I need to take a quick look at it. But only the overworld map.

Like I said various times in this first impression, I think that this game is great but the 3DS improved on a lot of things. It also added additional content. But, why don’t I play it on the 3DS then? Well, for two reasons. My first reason is that I owned this game on PS2 first and I gotten to far and didn’t want to restart. And my second reason is that I think this game looks a bit better on a bigger screen than the 3DS screen.

So far, this game has a high score in my book. But, due to the high random encounter rate, the need for griding and the sometimes slow flow of the game; I have to get in the right mindset but I can play this game. But if I do play the game, I have play sessions that clock in at 3 hours or more each time I boot this game up. That’s why I haven’t gotten too far in this game in over a year. According to some sources, you can get over 100 hours of gameplay out of this game, so I have a long away ahead of me if I want to complete this game.

That’s everything I wanted to say about this game for now. If I ever beat this game, I will write a review about it. But for now, I have to thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

First Impression: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 5 – Dual Destiny’s (3DS – eShop) ~ Silence!

The Japanese box-art because we only got an eShop release.

Wikipedia entry

After my anger towards Capcom for not releasing Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investegations 2 on the DS, I finally got my hands on a new official Ace Attorney game. And this in brand new 3D! Pokémon Y has to wait, I have a client to defend. Yes, you read it correctly, I choose a 3rd party game over an official Nintendo game. But don’t worry, I’ll write my review of Pokemon X & Y soon. Anyways, this game is excellent. And this article is meant to convince you even more to download and play it. It’s cheap, extremely cheap in fact. You pay half of the price you would pay for a normal Ace Attorney game. So before I start this first impression, I’m at the start of the 3rd case. That’s the mid-way point. If you take that all cases are of the same length. Yet, comparing it to previous installments, the later the case, the longer it is. Anyways, in the Ace Attorney series you play as an attorney or a prosecutor in the spin-off Miles Edgeworth: Investigations. Your goal is to search crime scenes, question suspects to get enough evidence to be able to defend your client against everything the prosecution throws at you in court. It’s a visual novel adventure game, and it’s a hidden gem series to be honest. So, before I continue, let me know in the comments what you think of this game and/or this review. Anyways, let’s start!

Wright is back!

For real, Phoenix Wright is back in full force. In one of the previous installments we learned that Phoenix Wright actually stopped being a lawyer. If you play Apollo Justice, you’ll learn why. I won’t spoil anything here. But one thing is clear, this game is filled with references to anime’s and older Ace Attorney games. Yet, you don’t need to have played the previous installments to enjoy the extremely well done writing.

The writing is funny at time and makes for a great laugh. The characters are memorable and well done. They are believable and are a great addition to the great cast of characters. I’m a bit bummed out that some characters won’t appear in this new installment, yet I might speak before my turn. (And an objection will be raised in my face).

And not only the extremely well done writing is back, it’s now presented in an extremely better way. Gone are the days you skipped over text, you can now scroll back in the dialogues. A long awaited addition. Thanks for finally adding this. I’ll directly mention the extremely handy fact that the save feature is better implemented. Now you have a button to save on the touch screen and wait… what’s this? Two save slots?! Yes, you have two locations to save your progress. And it saves extremely fast! That’s neat.

Anyways, back to the story part. This time around, some parts of the story are presented with anime cut-scenes and they look brilliant. I love when one comes on and the voice acting is how it should be! Well done and on the spot good. I love how you now hear more of the voices of the characters outside the “objection” and “hold it” phrases. All in all, the story and it’s presentation is top notch.

Pretty neat!

Besides the story, the game got a graphical update that blew me off my socks. It’s a game where I don’t mind having the 3D slider on. It’s visuals look sharper and pop out even more with the 3D. The art style is what the series needed all along.

This game is a visual eye candy for anime games. The animation is superb. I like how some locations look alive when you come to them, like flags blowing in the wind and various other details. It makes the game have more immersion.

The UI (= User Interface) got an upgrade as well. It controls a lot smoother and it’s how it should be all along.

The character animation itself is just a tip of the mountain of amazing design that this game has. The fact that this game looks more realistic like seeing the crowd behind the defendant makes the scene much more alive. The camera often zooms out to show a view of the whole court room and when you have the 3D slider on, this game blows you away.

The gameplay just got some neat tweaks as well. Your partner will tell when you have everything at a certain location and that makes getting stuck a lot less frequent. Also, the notes that Apollo uses makes for a great check list if you may get stuck. You also can call in help of your partner who’ll say which statement is the one you’ll need to present evidence on when you failed several times in the cross examination.

Is there something bad?

Of course, I’ll continue to praise this game. But there is one thing that I dislike. The fact that there might be future DLC. Why Capcom, why? -Sigh- If this is the only bad thing about this game, I can let it slip.

The music is like expected top notch. And before you all get mad, if a DS game series gets it’s music in a concert, that’s something. If a DS game series get it’s own movie… Yeah, then you have a great game on your hands.

I already explained how everything got better compared to the previous entries and it really is that way. The better UI, nicer visuals, improved animation, anime cut-scenes… I can’t get enough of this game. My college work might suffer if this game continues to be this good. So yeah, I might need to give my 3DS to someone so I can still concentrate on my college work.

This game’s price is a steal. It’s only 25€. Just wanted to mention that.

Also, some old elements with Apollo return from his installment. Yet, the new mood matrix gameplay, which I didn’t have the luck to play around with it often, is extremely interesting. It provides a new and refreshing element for the new and veteran players.

In terms of length, this game is pretty lengthy, yet I’m hoping that the 3rd, 4th and 5th case keep me playing for a long time. Since this game has been released 3-4 days ago and I would love it if this game lasted me more then a week or two. Oh well, if you play on a game as often as I do on this game, I can’t be helped I guess.

So, that’s going to be it for this first impression. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Give this game a chance and you’ll understand why this game is worth it’s purchase. Now, I’m going to sit down and continue to play this wonderful gem of a game.