Friday, August 17, 2018
Monday, July 16, 2018
Sky High
Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shane. Goodbye Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter!
Clearly I liked the first one enough to find out what happens next.
Well what can i say about this one? There's a lot of charm to it, the dialogue is hilarious, the plot has some great twists and the boss battles are nothing short of epic. Funnily enough, I've often found with RPGs that I spend more time grinding to a point where the final boss seems like a pushover when compared to their predecessors - but this one was a rare exception. The end boss was just as challenging as some of the previous bosses that, somehow, the grinding didn't really feel like I was levelling the playing field.
Which is fine by me as I enjoy a challenge and appreciate the fact that the game was keeping me on my toes.
Ultimately though, this game has had an interesting localization history: It came out eight years after it's initial release, and the localization team, XSeed, had a series of well-documented troubles of their own to deal with. You often hear about how fans are left hanging when their favorite series comes to an abrupt end (Firefly anyone?) but you never hear (as much) about how fans are grateful when their favorite series has a proper follow-up let alone one that resolves everything.
So while I have no idea if anyone within XSeed would bother with this corner of cyberspace, may I say the following regardless:
You did good.
You put yourselves through a lot to get this game to the eager punters who have been left hanging.
You went out of your way to make sure the cliffhanger in the first game was properly resolved.
You did a Herculean task in translating a game with a monumentally large amount of dialogue
And I, along with so many gamers, are grateful for the effort.
And you have certainly earned those big sales.
You did good.
Original image located here. Accessed 15th July 2018
Clearly I liked the first one enough to find out what happens next.
Well what can i say about this one? There's a lot of charm to it, the dialogue is hilarious, the plot has some great twists and the boss battles are nothing short of epic. Funnily enough, I've often found with RPGs that I spend more time grinding to a point where the final boss seems like a pushover when compared to their predecessors - but this one was a rare exception. The end boss was just as challenging as some of the previous bosses that, somehow, the grinding didn't really feel like I was levelling the playing field.
Which is fine by me as I enjoy a challenge and appreciate the fact that the game was keeping me on my toes.
Ultimately though, this game has had an interesting localization history: It came out eight years after it's initial release, and the localization team, XSeed, had a series of well-documented troubles of their own to deal with. You often hear about how fans are left hanging when their favorite series comes to an abrupt end (Firefly anyone?) but you never hear (as much) about how fans are grateful when their favorite series has a proper follow-up let alone one that resolves everything.
So while I have no idea if anyone within XSeed would bother with this corner of cyberspace, may I say the following regardless:
You did good.
You put yourselves through a lot to get this game to the eager punters who have been left hanging.
You went out of your way to make sure the cliffhanger in the first game was properly resolved.
You did a Herculean task in translating a game with a monumentally large amount of dialogue
And I, along with so many gamers, are grateful for the effort.
And you have certainly earned those big sales.
You did good.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Six Shooter
I got bored so I made a got a whole bunch of ESO screen caps and came up with this:
Yep, these are all my guys fashioned in a homage to the boxart to The Chaos Engine.
Erm......"Wayshrine Activated"?
Yep, these are all my guys fashioned in a homage to the boxart to The Chaos Engine.
Erm......"Wayshrine Activated"?
Friday, June 1, 2018
Stationary position
Last week i was grumbling about Sony's refusal to partake in backwards compatibility. Well, a thought van must've been driving by my house as rumors have been floating around recently about Sony dusting off the PS1 and making it available to the retro market.
Source
Still not sold. Sure the NES mini may have been massive sellers but I do not see Sony falling over backwards to resurrect backwards compatibility having ditched it long ago. A quick look at the PlayStation services offered online and whilst there is plenty of support for the PS3 onward, the list of PS2 games is small and the list of PS1 games is non-existent.
Come on Sony, you can do better than this.
You have to if you want to bring me back from the Valve pool
Source
Still not sold. Sure the NES mini may have been massive sellers but I do not see Sony falling over backwards to resurrect backwards compatibility having ditched it long ago. A quick look at the PlayStation services offered online and whilst there is plenty of support for the PS3 onward, the list of PS2 games is small and the list of PS1 games is non-existent.
Come on Sony, you can do better than this.
You have to if you want to bring me back from the Valve pool
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Monday, May 28, 2018
Jump in my car
So there's a game doing the rounds on the PS4 called Detroit: Becoming Human.
Thing is everyone's calling Detroit - which is funny to me because I recall in 1994, a game called Detroit on the Commodore Amiga. It was a management sim where the player ran a car-manufacturing business.
I assume this....Detroit: Becoming Human has nothing to do with cars?
Thing is everyone's calling Detroit - which is funny to me because I recall in 1994, a game called Detroit on the Commodore Amiga. It was a management sim where the player ran a car-manufacturing business.
I assume this....Detroit: Becoming Human has nothing to do with cars?
Friday, May 25, 2018
Sunset on the Eighth Age
Perhaps the most significant news for this week was the announcement from Sony that the PlayStation 4 is nearing the end of it's life cycle.
Source
In a way perhaps this should not come as a surprise. The current console generation (eighth) started in 2013 and it's been five years - the usual amount of time for any console generation. So does this mean the ninth console generation is just around the corner....?
Or most likely it is already underway with the release of the Nintendo Switch.
In any case, the news of the PS4's march off of stage is meaningless to me. Ever since the PS3 callously ditched backwards compatibility, I divorced the PlayStation and have never really looked back. No doubt Sony will repeat their familiar tactic of offering some new tech with their new console (ie PS2 = DVD, PS3 = Blu-Ray, PS4 = 4K UHD....kinda) but Sony's cavalier attitude to their history still doesn't sit well with me.
A wise man once said: you can't scrap a library's worth of gaming from the outgoing console and call it an improvement. For Sony to increasingly move away from backwards compatibility, when they originally introduced it with the PS2, is mind-boggling to say the least.
I am open to the potential PS5 being completely backwards compatible but, what are the odds of that happening?
Source
In a way perhaps this should not come as a surprise. The current console generation (eighth) started in 2013 and it's been five years - the usual amount of time for any console generation. So does this mean the ninth console generation is just around the corner....?
Or most likely it is already underway with the release of the Nintendo Switch.
In any case, the news of the PS4's march off of stage is meaningless to me. Ever since the PS3 callously ditched backwards compatibility, I divorced the PlayStation and have never really looked back. No doubt Sony will repeat their familiar tactic of offering some new tech with their new console (ie PS2 = DVD, PS3 = Blu-Ray, PS4 = 4K UHD....kinda) but Sony's cavalier attitude to their history still doesn't sit well with me.
A wise man once said: you can't scrap a library's worth of gaming from the outgoing console and call it an improvement. For Sony to increasingly move away from backwards compatibility, when they originally introduced it with the PS2, is mind-boggling to say the least.
I am open to the potential PS5 being completely backwards compatible but, what are the odds of that happening?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)