Recurring Fantasy Side Post Theater Proudly Presents
The List of Greatness Missed and Regretful Purchases
To sum it up, I've made some bad game purchases in my day. Many games have been gotten and almost immediately eliminated from my collection. Was it the game's fault? Yes. Yes it was. However, in that same vein of thought, I've also looked over games and/or passed some titles by. Only to come back later and realize that a mistake was made in NOT getting that greatness! I could probably make quite a list if I really went at it, but for now, I'm going to limit it.
I will list three games of Greatness Missed and three games of Regretful Purchases. Let's start with the regrets so we can wrap this all up with greatness! First up, let's get a list going...
Regretful Purchases
1. Witch and the Hundred Knight
2. Hyperdimension Neptunia
3. Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW
Now, I could easily go on and on with NIS (Nippon Ichi Software) titles, but I'll spare us the longwinded rant and just say... I do not appreciate them. However, I'm not going to start anything here. Let's focus on the Regretful by starting with #3 and just rising up from there...
Now, I am a fan of the TV show, Adventure Time. Lots of people are. It's a fairly entertaining show with a generally great story, fun characters, and lots of goodies thrown throughout. It's lots of little jokes they make, say, do that entertains me here. When I saw the "Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW" coming down the line, I went so far as to reserve it to get a copy. It was to be a dungeon crawler with multiplayer elements! What's not to love?
The game came out, I picked it up, and then... the unfun started. The game follows the show's look and style all throughout while giving itself a game-like look for kicks. (The animated cutscenes are quite humorous and made to look like old-style arcade almost.) Then you start playing the game and try to enjoy it... But it's very slow and monotonous. I expected a bit more fun and expansion as I was going, but you don't really get anything new.
Some characters have special abilities or different attributes that make them different, but that doesn't help anything when the game just feels soooo sloooow and repetitious. Floor after floor of exploration, but it ends up not really changing. Even when the dungeon changes from like a cave style to an ice cave style (or other various palette changes), the gameplay never evolves or grows to be different. Smack this, smack that, repeat... a lot. You get money to upgrade your character, but the upgrades start getting really expensive and would require hours of grinding it up. Combine that with quickly boring gameplay, and you have yourself a super boring game! I traded it in and never looked back.
Up next comes Hyperdimension Neptunia. Now, keep in mind, I'm talking about the very first version of the game, and not the various upgrades or sequels that were released later. (There's like 3-4 of them now, but I think only ONE is an actual sequel.) The gameplay consisted of dungeon crawling mixed in with turn-based input-style battles. (When I say input-style, I mean like you give your character a series of actions, and then they go through them. Kinda like Xenogears or Legend of Legaia?)
It had a customization system in place, but it didn't really seem to do a lot apart from cosmetics. Of course, I may just not have given the game much of a chance. I remember very little of the characters or story, but I do remember not feeling that interested. This came around the time my anime-love side was really starting to fall out. I still enjoy anime here and there, but my love for it is mostly dissipated at this point. Getting back on track, the cutesy little girls that are designed to represent consoles... Got old and annoying.
The only plus of this game is that they did the live-avatar style of 2D displays. Basically, rather than a dead single-imaged box that would randomly change based on the character's speaking style, you got a live image of the character that looked and felt alive. They would appear to be breathing and actively change expressions as they talked. (Of course, I might be thinking of the wrong game... I know Trinity Universe did it for sure! But I won't go into that because I didn't really enjoy it either.) Doesn't matter really. I didn't have much interest in the game, and I never got far enough because it never truly grabbed me. Another game bought (even got the fancy NIS super special edition) and then traded in.
Finally, we come to a more recent game I got. Now, considering all the dislike for NIS, one would think I'd have never touched this game. Well, I reserved this game on a recommendation. The guy acted like it was something good coming down the line, and that it would REALLY be worth the money. So I gave it a shot! That was my biggest mistake yet.
There's really no excuse for me though. I didn't really research into the game, and I was trusting that guy's opinion completely. (He's someone I can almost always trust the opinion of! In his defense, he also greatly regretted the game's purchase as well.) ANYWAYS!
The game starts off, and it's already abundantly an NIS game. The characters, the look and style, the attitude and how everything is going. It's clear this game was their baby. I'm nowhere in the game, and I feel like it's Disgaea... but an action RPG! On top of that, I played for a few hours, and the game didn't explain ANY of the gameplay. I was informed of the controls, and then set loose into the world.
It took time to explain the most basic of mechanics (ones you could probably figure out from just messing around), but then neglected to explain ANYTHING else. Granted, it might have went on to explain these later, but damn it! I gave the game like 4-5 hours of my time, and I was kinda frustrated with all these things around me I had no clue what they did.
The worst part of it all? It was just a terrible action RPG in the end. It did really basic action RPG things, but it never felt new, unique, or even fun. The story and characters started feeling pretty much like previous games from NIS, so... I lost all interest. I recently sold the game and plan to never ever look back.
The main moral of all those? I paid full price for those games, and they didn't deserve even half of what I gave for them.
THANKFULLY! I've also found some greatness along the way, and these games easily make up for what I've lost on the terribleness... The list is below!
Greatness Missed
1. Dragon's Crown
2. Remember Me
3. Naughty Bear
As with my last list, I'll start with the third one first. That brings up the very odd title known as... NAUGHTY BEAR!
I don't really even know how to describe this hilarious and oddly entertaining title. I was informed about it quite some time after its release and was informed of a "Gold Edition" that I needed to play. After the weirdness was described, I took a chance and played the game. And... it's pretty fun times actually!
The game combines stealth with an island of teddy bears and a strange British announcer. The icing on top? You're trying to stealth-ily murder said teddy bears while the British announcer makes commentary. It's pretty hilarious on the outside, and on the inside, it's actually a decent game. You play Naughty Bear. He's the lone bear that all the other Teddy Bears tend to stay away from and pick on. However, you are out to get your revenge! As you progress through the game, you deal with the teddy bears in various ways and do all kinds of hilariousness!
The game combines being gruesome and violent without actually being either one! When bears die/are killed, there is no blood or guts. Instead, they explode into nothingness or ooze stuffing. I honestly can't do the game justice of all the hilarious little elements. (Youtube video of the first chapter)
The graphics may be a bit plain, but the gameplay and the hilariousness involved. You can kill bears in so many ways. Heck, you can scare one of the various teddy bears into suicide! It's a generally pleasing game in a strange package. It's not easy to find a game that generally plays well and fun while somehow being unique. It's got several levels with varying themes (aliens, the army, zombies, and more). It's a game I really wish I could have supported at release... Definitely worth a play if you find it!
Next on the Greatness list is Remember Me. I actually picked up and beat this game pretty recently. I considered this game around its release time, but the timing, money, and unsuredness made me skip it then. I do regret that now because appearance and reviews were deceiving.
Around its time of release, most reviews seemed to look down on the game and claimed it was unrefined and lacked polish. However, despite the lack of polish to the game, my playthrough yielded quite a bit of fun and enjoyment!
It plays like a beat-um-up with platforming, exploration, and parkour (wall-climbing really). Combat is sorta like a beat-um-up, but you are able to configure the combos. Your character has combos based on simply pressing Triangle or Circle. The combos are simple but composed of multiple interchangeable effects called Pressens. You can build your combos to deal more damage, heal yourself, decrease the cooldowns on special attacks, or even simply boost the previous pressen to do more. Despite the simplicity, it allows you to customize your combos in a variety of ways. This made the combat interesting without feeling too complex. (The game only has like 5 different combos, so you get to learn them fast without feeling overwhelmed to keep pausing it or whatever.)
Getting away from the combat, the game has a pretty interesting story and nice selection of characters in a fairly unique setting. Long story short, memories have become a commodity (they're bought, sold, traded, etc), and your character is someone who's able to steal and even CHANGE a person's memory. You get to play a few memory remixing parts, and they're definitely the star attraction in the game. Unfortunately, there are only four in the entire game. (Really, really should have had more)
The game excels in almost every category possible! The story? Interesting and different! Characters? Interesting enough that you want to learn more. Gameplay and mechanics? Simple yet complex enough to offer variety and fun. In general, it felt like something new and different in a sea of games that just seem to clone each other again and again. Sad about this because it was a great game and didn't do too well on release. Regardless, I've played it and plan to spread the love. (I actually gave my copy to a friend and encouraged him to play it.)
Now, it's finally time for my #1 Greatness Missed.... Dragon's Crown!
Dragon's Crown is a game with so much going for it, and yet... I kinda overlooked it. I remember hearing about it and seeing it, but I never ended up getting it. I only recently acquired the game when it became a free title through PlayStation Plus. (If you own a PS3, GET PLAYSTATION PLUS IMMEDIATELY!) I figured it was time to give the game a shot and... I really really regret not getting it sooner.
I downloaded the game because a couple friends and I were looking for a co-op game. To our knowledge, Dragon's Crown offered couch co-op, and thus we jumped on in. You get to create a character from one of six classes: Fighter, Amazon, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, Sorceress. With that done, you're slowly introduced into the game. And it's already amazing on several levels.
The design of the game is just so gosh darn pretty! It's hand drawn graphics and backgrounds that... Well they look like this!
Do you see all that pretty!?! It looks just saw amazing! Of course, this particular picture shows off one of the few problems I had with the game. The Sorceress (lady in the witch hat) and Amazon (lady with the axe) are highly overly sexualized. They aren't even sexy... It's just hilariously awkward almost. This gif alone will either excite, disturb, or make you roll around laughing because... WELL LOOK! (link) Plain and simple, they overdid it.
However, going past that, the game's just a pile of fun and pretty. The look is great. The story is pretty good (what I've played so far), and it plays and feels a bit like Dungeons and Dragons. You are questing through this mystical world for various things and together with friends! However, if you don't have friends, you can always pick up the dead bones of adventurers and revive them for NPC assistance.
The gameplay style is close to that of an old school side-scrolling beat-um-up mixed with some RPG elements of levels, equipment, and perks. It's nothing new persay, but it's all done quite well. Journeying through a delightfully well done fantasy world. It's a great game, and I'm sad I didn't support it more in the beginning...
And that's pretty much it! It's been a while since I've done a post like this, and it feels good to finally get another one out. I realize it's not as sophisticated or detailed as previous posts, but I'm making steps here to rectify all the time I've been gone.
Hope you enjoyed a little insight into what I felt were gaming selection mistakes for me!
Stay tuned for more Recurring Fantasy and...
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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