Balancing act

Still trucking through Final Fantasy X.

With each post on my progress through this game, I have been taking notes, in the name of assessing the difference between game time and story time. At time of writing I have defeated Yunalesca. This is significant as this boss marks the point where the game opens up: From here, the player has access to the airship and can revisit previous locations in the game. From here, it's just one step away from the final dungeon and a real opportunity for the player to do anything, from sidequests to exploring.

You know, like a significantly non-linear game.

And just how long did it take for me to get there? 32 hours. A reasonable amount you may think but 13 of those hours was spent grinding playing the game the way I wanted to. This means that I had to spend 19 hours going along with the demands of the narrative.

Whether I liked it or not.

This playthrough of Final Fantasy X is one borne through playing some of the other titles in this series. And by playing I, IV, V, VI, VII and IX, I got the sense that I had a lot more freedom: I could go anywhere I wanted to and the game didn't resent me for it. True X may have been my first but it can't really use that excuse when compared to it's brethren. Makes me wonder: is the linear nature of the game the reason why many Final Fantasy fans hate X?

Still, having the game opened up before me, presents an opportunity to readdress the balance.
And having the control being taken from me so many times, six hours (minimum) of messing around in Spira looks good to me.

Resurrection

Recently it was announced that Sega is going to re-release Shenmue 1 and 2 for the current console generation and the PC.

One gets the feeling this is drum up interest for the upcoming Shenmue 3 but it's nice to know that Sega is dusting off a series that appeared on a Sega console that isn't the Megadrive/Genesis.

So tell me Sega: can we have some more Moments-from-your-history-that-only-you-seem-to-be-ashamed-of?

Say that again

Recently, Sega announced a mini-Megadrive. It's a commemoration of the console's 30th anniversary and contains 85 games built in.

Well here we are again: yet another iteration of Sega's greatest achievement. I won't deny that the Megadrive/Genesis was a major game-changer (so to speak) in the early nineties but do we really need to be informed of it over and over again?
Furthermore, yet another iteration of the Megadrive's success highlights, for me, the apathy and downright hostility towards the Mega CD and the Saturn. Okay, so maybe unsuccessful consoles may not sit well with their creators (Virtual Boy anyone?), but both consoles had some diamonds in the rough and it be a shame for them to be forgotten and left by the wayside as history continues to march unabated. Perhaps moreso considering Sega's 'scorched earth' approach to the (now non-existent) preservation of the Saturn.
If the success of Online Distribution had proved anything, people will gladly pay to play something legally. And I know for a fact that I will pay to play some decent Saturn games in a legal format.
I mean, there were other decent games that weren't Nights

Lets be honest here Sega: Do you really want the pirates to win?

Hours ticking away

Still trucking through Final Fantasy X.

At time of writing, I am girding my way through Macalania Woods.
The ratio of gameplay to story now stands at 10 hours of gameply out of 18 hours overall.

This is the first time the balance is out of order but in my defence:

• I want to level up Kimahri to have Dispel (because I'll be needing it when I face Evrare).
• Macalania Woods is a really useful place for Leveling up
• This is a game after all and not some movie
• After putting up with so many times the game has taken control out of my hands, I feel I'm entitled to play the game the way I want to play it

Imbalance

Currently ploughing through FFX again.

Previously, I mentioned the imbalance between the narrative and the gameplay. Well, at time of writing, I am currently in in the middle of the High Road and doing some Level grinding.

What this means is that I've achieved five hours of gameplay next to five hours of story.

Gotta maintain balance...

X marks the spot

Recently, I've been having a crack at Final Fantasy X (the HD Remaster).

FFX and I have a fascinating history: It was the first game I got for my PS2. It was the first game I played after some time away from modern gaming, it was my first JRPG and it was my first Final Fantasy game.
Of course in the time since, I've played more games and more Final Fantasy games - subsequently FFX may have been left by the wayside. So why not have a revisit?

Well the HD looks real nice - especially seeing favorite locations looking better than ever (Besaid anyone?). However replaying the game now, I realize something. Something that never bothered me when I originally played this game:

There is a lot of story.

Now I like a good story in my game as much as the next person but in FFX, both the story and game are treated as separate entities, separated by a wall five feet thick.
Indeed, it's only playing FFX now I realize: for the first three hours I was doing very little actual...playing. Instead, I realized that I was watching Tidus' journey play out but as an audience rather than a participant - which is the point of gaming.
True the set up had to be established, explaining the characters the world they live in and the situation that requires my involvement - but at the same time, i felt there ratio between cutscene and actual-gaming-portion was way off.
At time of writing, I have reached the Kilika Woods - where I'm actually feel like I'm playing a game: I'm wandering the woods, bashing heads, scoring gold, grinding and abusing the Sphere Grid. I've spent three hours trudging through cutscene after cutscene and now I'm at a point where I feel I'm actually playing, and enjoying, the game. I could call it a shot of revenge after those three hours doing what the game wants me to do, but really, I know what I want these characters to do and I will make sure they do it (have I mentioned how much I loved messing around in the Sphere Grid?).

That being said I realise: I'm Grinding but in this instance the Grinding fells like.......well.......fun. Call it a relief after three hours of having control of the game taken from me, but this is a rare instance when the Grinding doesn't feel like a chore. Matters are helped with the Remaster's option of having increased random encounters, meaning more xp and setting paths in the Sphere Grid.

So to summarise: After being dragged through three hours of cut-scenes, I am ceasing advancing the game's plot in favor of finding of finding enjoyment in Grinding.
What can I say except Revenge is indeed sweet.

Hottest 100 Redux

It seems IGN have released another list of 100 Greatest Games of all time.

Regular readers to this blog would know that my journey into game truly began when I stumbled across IGN's 2005 list of 100 Greatest games of all time.  What it meant for me that after so long away from gaming, I realized that this was an attempt to come up with a definitive list and chart gaming's progress over the years. The pioneers and game-changers were given proper dues and it became clear which games had endured the test of time.

However time is indeed a ravager: Looking at this new list, it seems that many of the classics have been ditched. Granted, old games can date and newer games can be game-changers in their own right but I am interested in seeing which games from the 2005 list are still present in the 2018 list.

Thirty Nine apparently.

Not a bad showing but it does raises the issue of what makes a game...well...time resistant.
What is it makes a game like, say, Super Mario Bros an enduring game that is recognized as an undisputed classic and still enjoyed by gamers over three decades on?

There's no way around it: This is an industry that moves remarkably fast. And in some cases, too fast for anything to withstand the test of time. Consider: 2018 marks forty six years since the beginning of the First Console generation with Pong and the Magnavox Odyssey.
By comparison, with movies, it took forty six years to get from, say, Frankenstein to Star Wars - two movies that are undisputed classics in their own right and look set to endure for decades to come.
Watching both movies will reveal considerable differences in forty six years of movie-making techniques - but such differences will mean little when comparing Pong to the likes of Far Cry 5.

Still, it would be interesting to see if people will still be playing The Last of Us, let alone praising it, in 2025.....