And here we are with the last of the backlogged items I had saved from the past. Now, all you'll see are more recent postings with more information, hopefully something a bit more inspirational to play the games too.
---
Title: .hack//G.U. (3 games)
Released: 2006-2007
A sequel to the .hack series for the same console, .hack//G.U. is a series of three discs for the Playstation 2. The games are:
.hack//G.U. Rebirth (Part 1)
.hack//G.U. Reminisce (Part 2)
.hack//G.U. Redemption (Part 3)
As you can probably guess, this game strings the story across all three, and it does it so well, even including small animated shorts within the game, that are unlocked through the course of the game, that explains what goes on in the real world while the game is slowly deteriorating. The entire story takes place, in fact, after the events of the anime series, .hack//ROOTS, where Haseo's background story and involvement with the Twilight Brigade is cemented.
To those that would rather not watch the series, the game makes a good attempt in recreating the key scenes, from Haseo's first day in The World: V2, to Haseo's time as the Terror of Death, a PKK, or a Player-Killer Killer. His reputation as the Terror of Death is cut short as he runs in with the vagrant AI known as Tri-Edge, and attempts to get revenge on it for taking a friend of his away some time ago, turning her into a Lost One, or someone who has slipped into a coma in the real world.
Haseo's fight with Tri-Edge shows no sign of flinching on the opponent's part. Haseo pulls out all of the stops, trying his hardest to land a hit on his enemy. However, Tri-Edge simply holds his hand out as a digital bracelet becomes visible around his wrist. Streams of data shoot through Haseo, stripping him of his information, and eventually turning his screen off. Having gone through the same events that countless others before him, Haseo is seemingly unharmed in the real world. When he logs into The World: v2, though, he finds that his character has been deleted! His Lv.122 Adept Rogue no longer exists, and he has to recreate his character once again.
The story, from then on, has Haseo attempting to hunt down Tri-Edge and beat him once again, all the while becoming involved with strange characters. The game presents itself much better than its predecessor, and it does show that more effort was put into arranging every little detail, from the dungeon design, the differences in characters, as well as the Root Towns.
One of the additions in this series is the Arena, which you will come to rely on heavily throughout all three of the games. PKK is looked down upon, but within the Arena, people can freely attack one another without loss, which is why there are Tournaments held constantly. Through these, however, Haseo comes to learn of many problems that threaten this version of The World, similar to the instances from the first. Although the combat basics are generally the same, you play as an Adept Rogue this time, rather than a Twin Blade, so the differences in the class vary now.
Throughout the three games, the Adept Rogue class has two additional upgrades it can go through, allowing for more abilities and more weapons/armor to be usable. To attempt each class change, an Adept Rogue must reach certain conditions, which are mostly story-based, and there is hardly anything you can miss if you generally stick to the story. Side-missions, such as the Mecha-Grunty, Bike Races, and more will be unlocked as you get around to it. Furthermore, your guild's specific Grunty will carry with it the Book of 1000, which is filled with many different requirements. Should you meet the requirements for each stage in each game, you'll be rewarded with wallpapers to customize your desktop, new music, and many other pieces that'll be helpful on your Desktop.
There's not that much that's different between this and the first series, and while it is certainly grander in some of the things they've designed, it actually seems shorter, due to the Arena being a major part of the story. The game is definitely worth playing if you're into this sort of thing, as they have put quite a lot of time into making sure you have lots of things to do, from the Crimson Vs. card game to the item collections, affection system, and filling out the Book of 1000.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Press Start: June 18th, 2015
Another one from the vault, but this is close to the last I'll have to rely on. You can definitely see the difference between the past and the present, but not by much I'm sure.
---
Title: .hack (4 part game series)
Released: 2002-2004
The title is actually to cover the four .hack games in a series for the PS2. The games are:
.hack//INFECTION
.hack//MUTATION
.hack//OUTBREAK
.hack//QUARANTINE
These four games follow the adventures of Kite, a Twin-Blade character within the CC Corporation's famous game, The World. The first day that Kite starts to play, he is invited by his friend to a beginner's field, which he is going to help him get used to it all. Of course, during their lesson, they see a girl in white flying by them in the dungeon, being chased by a strange creature with a red wand. As they attempt to save the poor, defenseless girl, Kite's friend is defeated, and suspiciously he is thrown into a coma in the real world from it. Before Kite is affected in the same way, the girl sacrifices herself to save him.
Now, Kite is determined to find the strange creature with the red wand, as well as the girl in white, in the hopes of figuring out why his friend, and many others, are in a coma due to the game. What he eventually finds out is that he will be fighting to protect more than just The World, as the internet itself suffers from the same problems, as shown through the many events in the game, and the OVA CDs that come with each game.
If you've seen the .hack//SIGN anime series, this series of games picks up only a few months after the events of the end episode, if I remember correctly. A handful of characters from the series will make an appearance randomly, but for the most part, you will have quite a list of new characters to choose from. Kite befriends BlackRose, a young Blademaster, that lost her brother in the same way that Kite lost his friend, and they work together to unravel the mysteries that The World holds.
It is a simple hack-and-slash game that does its best to resemble an online game without actually being online. Each of the servers hold a Root Town, which is the center of resupplying and hanging out with other players. Here, you can transfer to different Fields by the use of three different keywords, which will generate areas randomly through the combination of words working together. Of course, when you start off with the first game, you won't have access to the other servers, but as you progress through the story across these four discs, you will come to gain access to many other features besides the new servers: Grunty Racing, the Ryu Books, and Data Drain.
Data Drain is the act of draining the information off of an opponent, stripping them of viruses often times, and turning it into useful items. For the most part, if used on a random creature, it will devolve them to a lower form, decreasing the experience you may receive from them as well as giving you an item for draining them. However, throughout the game, and they get more frequent near the end of the last disc, there are specially-coated enemies that have been infected with a virus, giving them bugged stats. You must whittle away their health until they acquire Protect Break status, which allows you to data drain them and receive a Virus Core, which is involved in Gate Hacking (explained later). The problem with Data Drain lies in your Infection Rate, which gradually goes up when you use the ability, as opposed to going down from killing creatures regularly, and letting it decrease on its own. Should you drain too much, the infection will affect Kite and, ultimately, Kite's player, causing you to have a Game Over.
Gate Hacking, which is something that, I believe, you start to get near the middle of the series itself, involves collecting a bunch of Virus Cores from the different servers and using them to break into Protected Areas, or fields that have been sealed off from the general public by the administrators of The World. This is generally for the sake of the story, and you'll never come across these when trying to level up. It simply requires you to drain specific types of creatures (small, medium, or large-sized creatures each give different cores per server) and then using them to break the gates. Certain cores will also only appear from story-specific dungeons, so if there are certain cores you have yet to get, but come across a field that requires it, then wait for a new field to be required, or data-drain it off of a random enemy.
The story itself is epically stringed through the four discs, and picking up in the middle means you miss out on the main information stream. Sure, it gives you a brush-up when you start each new game, but you miss out on carrying over everything you may've acquired, including stat bonuses and specific weapons, if you decide to start from any other part. To top it off, the included OVA discs help you understand just what is going on in the real world while the games show you what is happening inside, which is well thought-out. If you're into MMOs, or into RPGs in general, then you could always try and pick this up and try it for yourself. It doesn't come with a monthly fee, and you're guaranteed to enjoy it if you like these sorts of games.
---
Title: .hack (4 part game series)
Released: 2002-2004
The title is actually to cover the four .hack games in a series for the PS2. The games are:
.hack//INFECTION
.hack//MUTATION
.hack//OUTBREAK
.hack//QUARANTINE
These four games follow the adventures of Kite, a Twin-Blade character within the CC Corporation's famous game, The World. The first day that Kite starts to play, he is invited by his friend to a beginner's field, which he is going to help him get used to it all. Of course, during their lesson, they see a girl in white flying by them in the dungeon, being chased by a strange creature with a red wand. As they attempt to save the poor, defenseless girl, Kite's friend is defeated, and suspiciously he is thrown into a coma in the real world from it. Before Kite is affected in the same way, the girl sacrifices herself to save him.
Now, Kite is determined to find the strange creature with the red wand, as well as the girl in white, in the hopes of figuring out why his friend, and many others, are in a coma due to the game. What he eventually finds out is that he will be fighting to protect more than just The World, as the internet itself suffers from the same problems, as shown through the many events in the game, and the OVA CDs that come with each game.
If you've seen the .hack//SIGN anime series, this series of games picks up only a few months after the events of the end episode, if I remember correctly. A handful of characters from the series will make an appearance randomly, but for the most part, you will have quite a list of new characters to choose from. Kite befriends BlackRose, a young Blademaster, that lost her brother in the same way that Kite lost his friend, and they work together to unravel the mysteries that The World holds.
It is a simple hack-and-slash game that does its best to resemble an online game without actually being online. Each of the servers hold a Root Town, which is the center of resupplying and hanging out with other players. Here, you can transfer to different Fields by the use of three different keywords, which will generate areas randomly through the combination of words working together. Of course, when you start off with the first game, you won't have access to the other servers, but as you progress through the story across these four discs, you will come to gain access to many other features besides the new servers: Grunty Racing, the Ryu Books, and Data Drain.
Data Drain is the act of draining the information off of an opponent, stripping them of viruses often times, and turning it into useful items. For the most part, if used on a random creature, it will devolve them to a lower form, decreasing the experience you may receive from them as well as giving you an item for draining them. However, throughout the game, and they get more frequent near the end of the last disc, there are specially-coated enemies that have been infected with a virus, giving them bugged stats. You must whittle away their health until they acquire Protect Break status, which allows you to data drain them and receive a Virus Core, which is involved in Gate Hacking (explained later). The problem with Data Drain lies in your Infection Rate, which gradually goes up when you use the ability, as opposed to going down from killing creatures regularly, and letting it decrease on its own. Should you drain too much, the infection will affect Kite and, ultimately, Kite's player, causing you to have a Game Over.
Gate Hacking, which is something that, I believe, you start to get near the middle of the series itself, involves collecting a bunch of Virus Cores from the different servers and using them to break into Protected Areas, or fields that have been sealed off from the general public by the administrators of The World. This is generally for the sake of the story, and you'll never come across these when trying to level up. It simply requires you to drain specific types of creatures (small, medium, or large-sized creatures each give different cores per server) and then using them to break the gates. Certain cores will also only appear from story-specific dungeons, so if there are certain cores you have yet to get, but come across a field that requires it, then wait for a new field to be required, or data-drain it off of a random enemy.
The story itself is epically stringed through the four discs, and picking up in the middle means you miss out on the main information stream. Sure, it gives you a brush-up when you start each new game, but you miss out on carrying over everything you may've acquired, including stat bonuses and specific weapons, if you decide to start from any other part. To top it off, the included OVA discs help you understand just what is going on in the real world while the games show you what is happening inside, which is well thought-out. If you're into MMOs, or into RPGs in general, then you could always try and pick this up and try it for yourself. It doesn't come with a monthly fee, and you're guaranteed to enjoy it if you like these sorts of games.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Press Start: June 10th, 2015
Let me take a moment and first say how much I value Double Fine for their fair repertoire of video games, and I'd love to merit that solely to just Tim Schaffer but I think it's as a whole that they manage to pull together such amazing games like Psychonauts, Stacking, Costume Quest, Brutal Legend, and their most recent title, Broken Age.
Title: Broken Age
Released: 2014-2015
Broken Age was initially started as a Kickstarter project by Double Fine, called the Double Fine Adventure at first. The reason the release date is such a wide form is because Act 1, the first half of the game, was released in 2014. They partitioned the game off for some marketing reason, perhaps to give the backers a taste of what they had put their money towards. While it could really take you a brief amount of time to finish all the first act had provided at the time, the real way to play the game involves going through all of the dialogue options and seeing how the characters interact with one another.
We have Vella Tartine and Shay Volta, two seemingly opposite individuals in two distinctly different locations, separated at the very beginning with a choice to play either one. Vella lies resting beside a tree, enjoying the sun on the day of the Maidens Feast, a ceremony that each village celebrates independently. This celebration is not meant for the maidens taking part, but more for appeasing the beast that is summoned. Mog Chothra, the most recent of a long line of Grand Mogs, makes its way from one village to the next and takes the offered maidens as sacrifices to spare the village. Vella does not feel this is an acceptable means and feels resisted by her family, trying to encourage them and everyone around her to take up arms to defeat the threat. She resigns to her fate, though, since her family is so adamant and happy for her chosen sacrifice. Determined to prove her family's beliefs wrong, she shakes up the entire festival and escapes, seeking another alternative to the sacrifice of maidens every Festival.
Shay dwells within the Bossa Nostra, a spacecraft that he has been in since as far back as he can remember. He is watched under the caring gaze of two programs called Mom and Dad. The normal routines that he has gone through, day in, day out, have started to drag his spirits down. He is disconnected from anyone physically and feels that there is nothing exciting in his life. The only things that seem to help him are his living yarn buddies and the very vocal silverware. In trying to make his life on the spaceship more eventful, Mom has set up several mission protocols for him to run through, but even those have become so predictable and boring to him. So, when he changes up his routine during one of the missions, he comes to meet a suspicious individual that has been living on the ship this entire time. This fateful encounter begins to unravel Shay's normal life on the spaceship.
These are two sides of the same coin, though, as you will start to see it play off of this as the story continues. Shay's boring life on the spaceship gets gradually more exciting and dangerous, while Vella comes one step closer to realizing her wish of destroying Mog Chothra and saving future maidens from being sacrificed. I won't say too much simply for the true enjoyment that can come from playing the game. One thing I want to establish though is the choice of the name.
From simply playing the first act, you can kind of understand a bit of what the inspiration behind the title may come from. Shay and Vella are teenagers and live in broken relationships from their parents (or parental figures in Shay's case). Add this with the two scenario settings that they are both in and it shows a greater rift that forms between them. While Vella's given an exterior and the freedom of the open sky, we see how Shay's confinement to the interior of the spaceship drive their differences, and their similarities, together. But it is when you include the surprises both at the end of the first act and the entirety of the second act that you understand the titular choice and what it means for the characters involved.
Title: Broken Age
Released: 2014-2015
Broken Age was initially started as a Kickstarter project by Double Fine, called the Double Fine Adventure at first. The reason the release date is such a wide form is because Act 1, the first half of the game, was released in 2014. They partitioned the game off for some marketing reason, perhaps to give the backers a taste of what they had put their money towards. While it could really take you a brief amount of time to finish all the first act had provided at the time, the real way to play the game involves going through all of the dialogue options and seeing how the characters interact with one another.
We have Vella Tartine and Shay Volta, two seemingly opposite individuals in two distinctly different locations, separated at the very beginning with a choice to play either one. Vella lies resting beside a tree, enjoying the sun on the day of the Maidens Feast, a ceremony that each village celebrates independently. This celebration is not meant for the maidens taking part, but more for appeasing the beast that is summoned. Mog Chothra, the most recent of a long line of Grand Mogs, makes its way from one village to the next and takes the offered maidens as sacrifices to spare the village. Vella does not feel this is an acceptable means and feels resisted by her family, trying to encourage them and everyone around her to take up arms to defeat the threat. She resigns to her fate, though, since her family is so adamant and happy for her chosen sacrifice. Determined to prove her family's beliefs wrong, she shakes up the entire festival and escapes, seeking another alternative to the sacrifice of maidens every Festival.
Shay dwells within the Bossa Nostra, a spacecraft that he has been in since as far back as he can remember. He is watched under the caring gaze of two programs called Mom and Dad. The normal routines that he has gone through, day in, day out, have started to drag his spirits down. He is disconnected from anyone physically and feels that there is nothing exciting in his life. The only things that seem to help him are his living yarn buddies and the very vocal silverware. In trying to make his life on the spaceship more eventful, Mom has set up several mission protocols for him to run through, but even those have become so predictable and boring to him. So, when he changes up his routine during one of the missions, he comes to meet a suspicious individual that has been living on the ship this entire time. This fateful encounter begins to unravel Shay's normal life on the spaceship.
These are two sides of the same coin, though, as you will start to see it play off of this as the story continues. Shay's boring life on the spaceship gets gradually more exciting and dangerous, while Vella comes one step closer to realizing her wish of destroying Mog Chothra and saving future maidens from being sacrificed. I won't say too much simply for the true enjoyment that can come from playing the game. One thing I want to establish though is the choice of the name.
From simply playing the first act, you can kind of understand a bit of what the inspiration behind the title may come from. Shay and Vella are teenagers and live in broken relationships from their parents (or parental figures in Shay's case). Add this with the two scenario settings that they are both in and it shows a greater rift that forms between them. While Vella's given an exterior and the freedom of the open sky, we see how Shay's confinement to the interior of the spaceship drive their differences, and their similarities, together. But it is when you include the surprises both at the end of the first act and the entirety of the second act that you understand the titular choice and what it means for the characters involved.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Update: June 9th, 2015
As you could probably tell, there are some instances where I forget/neglect to make a post for the Wednesday. I will make sure to change this, as I need this as a sort of mental focus now and then to prove to myself, more than anyone, that I can follow through with something to the very end. So while I am also going to try and make sure that I have the Wednesday posts done beforehand (sort of like homework), I'm going to start trying to write up some extra pieces to make it so, by the end week of the year, there will be at least fifty-two posts, minimum. This may also include some minor writing excerpts for projects I am doing as well, so there is that as well as I am going to continue with Press Play and start on some other things.
Summer has been fun and not-so fun at the same time. It's been fun because, with the anticipation of Final Fantasy XIV's first actual expansion, Heavensward, coming out in two weeks, there is also the added hype of some early release games in Steam and having an entire library of games open for me. This also pushes back my ability to play other games at the same time. I may be skilled, but I'm not THAT skilled. With the reminiscing gameplay of Psychonauts, the idle clicking of Clicker Heroes, and now trying out ARK: Survival Evolved with friends, I don't have as much time as I'd like to play Final Fantasy XIV or games on my PS3 such as finishing up Survivor+ on Last of Us.
Speaking of Last of Us, though, you can probably expect to see a post on that eventually, but expect spoilers. I am probably going to include that somewhere in the title of the main page so people, whomever may actually be reading this s', won't have as much of an excuse to complain about such a thing. There is that, Psychonauts, and maybe some other games that I have access to like the Blackwell games and Night of the Rabbit that I will look into elaborating upon to give a sense of what it is and why it can be pleasurable to play.
I'm attempting to write and put together a game with a friend of mine on RPGMaker VX Ace. The script is currently... maybe 33% complete? It's near halfway, but there is some finer touch-ups I'd want to go through before I continue on too. The game itself is dark and depressing; it could probably make a few tear up and cry, but that's the goal. I only hope that it comes off as touching as it is supposed to be, but only time can tell. I'm aiming to try and get it voiced through most of the game, with the interactions between the party and between the other NPCs, but that may be too lofty of a goal right now. Only time can tell as I start to put things together.
Summer has been fun and not-so fun at the same time. It's been fun because, with the anticipation of Final Fantasy XIV's first actual expansion, Heavensward, coming out in two weeks, there is also the added hype of some early release games in Steam and having an entire library of games open for me. This also pushes back my ability to play other games at the same time. I may be skilled, but I'm not THAT skilled. With the reminiscing gameplay of Psychonauts, the idle clicking of Clicker Heroes, and now trying out ARK: Survival Evolved with friends, I don't have as much time as I'd like to play Final Fantasy XIV or games on my PS3 such as finishing up Survivor+ on Last of Us.
Speaking of Last of Us, though, you can probably expect to see a post on that eventually, but expect spoilers. I am probably going to include that somewhere in the title of the main page so people, whomever may actually be reading this s', won't have as much of an excuse to complain about such a thing. There is that, Psychonauts, and maybe some other games that I have access to like the Blackwell games and Night of the Rabbit that I will look into elaborating upon to give a sense of what it is and why it can be pleasurable to play.
I'm attempting to write and put together a game with a friend of mine on RPGMaker VX Ace. The script is currently... maybe 33% complete? It's near halfway, but there is some finer touch-ups I'd want to go through before I continue on too. The game itself is dark and depressing; it could probably make a few tear up and cry, but that's the goal. I only hope that it comes off as touching as it is supposed to be, but only time can tell. I'm aiming to try and get it voiced through most of the game, with the interactions between the party and between the other NPCs, but that may be too lofty of a goal right now. Only time can tell as I start to put things together.
Press Start: June 9th, 2015
I will get into the groove of this for the summer, sooner or later. For now, nearing the last of my backlog.
---
Title: Infinite Undiscovery
Released: September 2008
More like a side-project to Square-Enix and tri-Ace, Infinite Undiscovery is not one of the greater-liked roleplaying games, I'd feel, for the XBox360. It was released in September of last year and, although it's a good game in itself, it does try a bit too hard in giving the player a challenge, sometimes.
The moon is a sign of power in the world. As such, a group called the Order of Chains has set down chains all over the world, anchoring the moon closer to the surface and causing problems for those that end up near them. Monster attacks increase greatly, and natural occurences happen unnaturally. However, a resistance force led by Sigmund, the Liberator, is on the rise, and rumor has it that Sigmund can sever the chains that tie the moon down.
You are Capell, an innocent musician thrown into Graad Prison for your... appearance. It just so happens that Capell shares similar facial features to Sigmund, and although he pleads and says he isn't, the guards don't listen. Shortly afterwards, you meet your first party member: Aya. Aya sneaks into Graad Prison upon a rumor that Sigmund had been captured. However, she soon realizes you aren't him, and begins to just leave you there. As events shift everyone's views of Capell, from being a coward to being more like a hero, he'll come to realize that there is more to the world than living for oneself, such as living to protect something dear.
The game is a free-roam live-action hack-and-slash roleplaying game. You control one character and the numerous buttons perform different features, from playing the flute, or teaming up with another character and ordering them to perform different abilities at their disposal. Of course, in certain instances of gameplay, you may be rewarded for doing such things as collecting all of the apples, destroying every barrier, defeating characters within a certain amount of time, avoiding damage when you should, and quite a few more. These are called "Situation Bonuses", and some of the achievements are actually tied to you performing them to the letter.
If you're not so big with achievements, then I guess it wouldn't be a problem for you, and that is really the only problem I had with it myself. That aside, the combat is face-paced, with the later ability of having two, or even three parties simultaneously running around, slaying creatures together on the battlefield, as well as working together to solve puzzles. As stated before, you can cooperate with another member of your party and perform different abilities that only they know, and this works for outside of battle too. If you're in town, there are certain quests or scenes that can only be witnessed with the right character cooperating with you, or "Connecting", as they call it in the game.
To mix in something different, many of the characters you have with you in your adventure have specific item creation specialties, from cooking, smithing, alchemy, writing, and enchanting. Most of the characters start at a lower level, but with work, and a lot of fol, you can accomplish a godly status of the craft, and have access to almost every recipe possible within the field. Certain conditions apply to recipes given, where different characters may have the same craft, but some of them have recipes that others in the craft may not. This is where they specialize, and information on that can be found in their Personal window.
The scenes and story follow through well enough, but there are certain characters that, in spirit, would've been much better if they didn't have attitude problems. *coughEdwardcough* But, beyond my obvious dislike with the character, in battle, every character has their use. It's just a shame that some characters come to you as a Secondary party member, meaning that you can ONLY use them when the area or objective actually requires you to make numerous parties. Other than item creation, these characters don't see much use at all, which is slightly sad. The game itself is fun, although sometimes a bit demanding of certain things to be done, which I just can't seem to do too well. Haha!
---
Title: Infinite Undiscovery
Released: September 2008
More like a side-project to Square-Enix and tri-Ace, Infinite Undiscovery is not one of the greater-liked roleplaying games, I'd feel, for the XBox360. It was released in September of last year and, although it's a good game in itself, it does try a bit too hard in giving the player a challenge, sometimes.
The moon is a sign of power in the world. As such, a group called the Order of Chains has set down chains all over the world, anchoring the moon closer to the surface and causing problems for those that end up near them. Monster attacks increase greatly, and natural occurences happen unnaturally. However, a resistance force led by Sigmund, the Liberator, is on the rise, and rumor has it that Sigmund can sever the chains that tie the moon down.
You are Capell, an innocent musician thrown into Graad Prison for your... appearance. It just so happens that Capell shares similar facial features to Sigmund, and although he pleads and says he isn't, the guards don't listen. Shortly afterwards, you meet your first party member: Aya. Aya sneaks into Graad Prison upon a rumor that Sigmund had been captured. However, she soon realizes you aren't him, and begins to just leave you there. As events shift everyone's views of Capell, from being a coward to being more like a hero, he'll come to realize that there is more to the world than living for oneself, such as living to protect something dear.
The game is a free-roam live-action hack-and-slash roleplaying game. You control one character and the numerous buttons perform different features, from playing the flute, or teaming up with another character and ordering them to perform different abilities at their disposal. Of course, in certain instances of gameplay, you may be rewarded for doing such things as collecting all of the apples, destroying every barrier, defeating characters within a certain amount of time, avoiding damage when you should, and quite a few more. These are called "Situation Bonuses", and some of the achievements are actually tied to you performing them to the letter.
If you're not so big with achievements, then I guess it wouldn't be a problem for you, and that is really the only problem I had with it myself. That aside, the combat is face-paced, with the later ability of having two, or even three parties simultaneously running around, slaying creatures together on the battlefield, as well as working together to solve puzzles. As stated before, you can cooperate with another member of your party and perform different abilities that only they know, and this works for outside of battle too. If you're in town, there are certain quests or scenes that can only be witnessed with the right character cooperating with you, or "Connecting", as they call it in the game.
To mix in something different, many of the characters you have with you in your adventure have specific item creation specialties, from cooking, smithing, alchemy, writing, and enchanting. Most of the characters start at a lower level, but with work, and a lot of fol, you can accomplish a godly status of the craft, and have access to almost every recipe possible within the field. Certain conditions apply to recipes given, where different characters may have the same craft, but some of them have recipes that others in the craft may not. This is where they specialize, and information on that can be found in their Personal window.
The scenes and story follow through well enough, but there are certain characters that, in spirit, would've been much better if they didn't have attitude problems. *coughEdwardcough* But, beyond my obvious dislike with the character, in battle, every character has their use. It's just a shame that some characters come to you as a Secondary party member, meaning that you can ONLY use them when the area or objective actually requires you to make numerous parties. Other than item creation, these characters don't see much use at all, which is slightly sad. The game itself is fun, although sometimes a bit demanding of certain things to be done, which I just can't seem to do too well. Haha!
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