My gaming as of late

Before I start my newest entry, I want to thank the few of you who follow this blog. The whole four of you. I realize I'm not writing really to an audience yet, I'm more writing to practice writing for an audience. xD Thanks either way, though.

Well, I promised last time that I would continue my exploration of the Digiworld with the Digimon World PSX video game series. Truth is, I played very little of Digimon World 2 - only enough to learn that it's just a Digimon-themed Mystery Dungeon copy ala Chocobo's Magical Dungeon and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. When I realized that, I kinda just facepalm'd and left it alone. I have, however, spent quite a bit of time working on Digimon World 3, but nowhere near the hardcore hours I'd put into a game that I've really got my heart into. I guess what I'm saying is that the DW series really hasn't done it for me, making the anime much better than any of the games I've had contact with. If I could recommend a game, I would tell you to play Digimon World 3 for its fun and immersive leveling system. I do love the sprite based graphics, and the training scenes are cute. Does it deserve a whole post on my blog, though? Hardly. I doubt I'll ever finish it, and that makes me sad. However, I have never played Digimon World 4 on Gamecube OR the Digimon games for DS, as I've heard they have good reviews. Also I have Digimon racing on VBA, which is just a Mario-kart wannabe with Digimon characters which makes Patamon suck. D:

As for my gaming lately, it's been kind of spotty. It's been hard to stick to just one game because it seems like Chime has something against me. Every time I play FF5 Advance, which I've really learned to love, after a few hours it'll freeze and throw me back three hours worth of playtime, no matter how much I saved to the battery or savestated. This pissed me off. I had to leave the game alone. I was like, okay fine, you proved your damn point all ready.

So I went to go and pick up a childhood favorite, Legend of Dragoon, which would freeze in each and every bossfight if I went into Dragoon mode, which is the ENTIRE POINT of that game! I managed to play around it until the final boss on the first disk, Dragoon Doel, and the bastard now freezes regardless of WHAT I do. There's still three more disks, and I swear if I find out they play perfectly I'm going to kill someone. I had to walk away from that, too.

I thought about it for a few days. What was I going to play? I ended up reading one of my little brother's status updates on Facebook about him playing Lunar 2 Eternal Blue, which I have to admit is one of my favorite games ever.

AND NOW, Just for your reference!
My most favorite games ever...
in no particular order!!
-Tales of Symphonia
-Grandia 2
-Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
-Dragon Warrior 3
-Zelda Link to the Past
-Pokemon Crystal
-Final Fantasy Tactics
-Suikoden
-Shining Force: Legacy of Great Intention

I was looking at that, and going through my ROM folders to find I had Lunar Legend downloaded. I owned Lunar Legend in high school, and for the life of me I can't remember why I got rid of it. It's actually a remake of the original Lunar: Silver Star Story on the PSX and the Sega Saturn before that. Either way, I decided to go back to the world of Lunar. I loved it too much, and I was feeling nostalgic for it. I love that world as much as I love Alefgard, Sylvarant or Hyrule.

The game's main protagonist is Alex, a young man wishing for adventure like his deceased hero, Dragonmaster Dyne. He is followed by his constant companion, a white flying cat looking creature named Nall and the girl his family adopted when she was found in the village named Luna. One day, Nash comes from Vane on a mission to look around for something and Alex decides to lead him through the nearby woods to show him around. In the woods close to home, Luna and Alex solve a puzzle when they come to a wall which is adorned with a picture of the Goddess Althena, and they find the cave that the White Dragon Quark lives in. There Nash reveals he wishes to be a Dragonmaster and wants to take the trial. Alex, since he's there, also says he wants to take the trial. Quark takes them both to the room of their souls and interviews them both, but in the end, neither become a Dragonmaster, and Nash leaves to report to his guild. Alex decides to leave home to meet the other four dragons and Luna admits she wants to accompany him. Thus the next morning, they leave to the port town and continue their adventure.

The battles are very simple and usually come completely at random while in any map that isn't a city. Each character can attack with their equipped weapon, use skills unique to them, defend, use items in the party's bag, or try to run away. The turn begins with the player putting in commands for each character present, and the actions go in order of the highest speed stat down for both the heroes and the monsters. Each character is very unique, not in just how he or she looks, but with their skills, also. Luna is the only character who can use songs in battle, while Alex flings out flashy but cool sword skills, but Mia has very powerful magics like Blizzard. Nall is a part of the battle by being the cursor that the player uses to pick options, and throwing out free revivals out of the goodness of his heart.

This game is very level based, and you must be a certain level to learn certain skills. Bosses can be very hard or very easy depending on your levels, which makes for level grinding sometimes. Some people love the grind, as I mentioned with my trek through the beginning Dragon Warrior games, but some people, especially the modern new crop of gamers, do not. I believe the level grind is not as terrible as many older games, however, the grind does exist if you aren't careful enough. If you don't run away from monsters in normal fights, you should level just enough to make it without difficulty, so be careful about how you chose to play.

As for an old school RPG, this game is solid, with lots of equipment and accessories to play around with to see how they affect the characters in battle. The sprite based graphics are lovely at all times, and the every-now-and-then anime cut are pleasant. They aren't animated as they were in the PSX games, which is to be expected. Lunar Legend was one of the GBA's first releases (as in it was the 808th game to come out for a library which would have eventually thousands) and I think it was really under loved.

My only real complaint about this game is the music. God, this music sounds nothing like the epic tunes I heard playing Lunar on the PSX. It doesn't catch my ear or hold my attention like the games on the PSX, and that is disappointing. However, it's such a minor complaint that I wouldn't worry about it very much. For the most part, you might want to provide your own soundtrack while playing the GBA version.

The characters are fun, even if the story is cliched, and if you don't mind a twenty hour romp in a classic gaming world, this is a good title for you. I started it night before last, and I'm about eight hours into it. I haven't had many complaints thus far.

I would tell you where my gaming travels would take me next, but right now, I have no idea.

Thanks for reading.
Much love,
-Suzuri