I'm still new to this whole thing. I'm trying to find a balance between talking about the game and talking about my experience. In a very linear story driven game (such as the story mode of Etrian Odyssey), I maybe don't want to spoil every detail. But I do want to talk about my experience and allow people a peek.
So I've been playing Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: Fafnir Knight like crazy. Or at least as "like crazy" as my schedule allows. I've posted a couple tweets about it, but haven't really done a journal entry yet. I was planning on doing journal entries every day. Habits need to be formed.
I'm loving this game. There was a side quest which I found to be very unique. I've probably come across it before, but it felt unique in this game's presentation and how it seemed to defy what I expected from this game. I was asked to babysit the inn keeper's daughter. No one tried to rob her or attack the store. It was just about a shy girl asking adults her mother told her to trust for help, and how I as the aforementioned adult responded to her. I did everything I could to build her confidence and assist. It gave me a new emotional connection to the game and inspired me in the way I think about game design. Sure, I got XP and some other reward when I |
Then I fought a couple bosses. First was Chimera. This was my first time facing a boss in an Etrian Odyssey game (Etrian Mystery Dungeon bosses don't count). It somehow felt completely different from boss battles in turn based games I've played in the past. Something about the pacing and strategy just felt... right... I'm certain a great and skilled team iterated this to death. I felt challenged, but I never felt like things were beyond my control. If something went wrong, it was because I made a mistake. And no single mistake was a death sentence. As long as I |
It also gave me confidence in the direction I've been taking my skill trees, while also inspiring me to experiment more with my strategies. It was the Chimera battle in which I discovered my "k-k-killer kombo"! Fafnir uses Delayed Chase and Chloe uses Warmight on Fafnir.
Grimoire Recycle was recently unlocked in my playthrough, and I'm really enjoying that feature. I got Holy Shock this way and I've enjoyed it thoroughly.
I've gotten a mission to hunt down Salamander. I'm gonna guess it's a fire lizard. Just finished maxing out Bertrand's physical defense, so now I'm conveniently working on his elemental defense.
I decided to buy the Ultimate Feathered Warrior DLC, since it was the first DLC boss and lives in the First Stratum. I was pretty disappointed when I saw the recommended level was 65 or higher. I kinda wanted something fun now. Bosses in this game just feel so... satisfying. I also went to sleep to hear someone. The game asked me who I thought it was, which was a somewhat clever way to let me decide who I wanted it to be. I chose Chloe and the following scene of bonding over late night food was adorable. |
But that's not all I'm here to talk about today. I got a gift. A terrible burden of a gift. Someone gave me a copy of Monster High: 13 Wishes for Nintendo DS. Kinda confused that a game representing a hugely successful brand which was released in October 2013 was for the DS rather than the 3DS. If Spirit Camera is new enough for a review I suppose this is too... |
I played a good bit of it tonight (1 hr 13 min). I can tell you right up front, it's one of the ugliest DS games I've played. The game design is not terrible, but is poorly delivered. It feels like someone's first pass at a game. Like no one iterated on it. Did this game have any quality assurance?
It played kinda like a crappy version of Mario 64. Imagine if Mario 64 looked hideous, had enemies that could only be killed by punching (no jumping on enemies), had much smaller less interesting levels, insane mandatory item collection, and fixed camera angles which hide level elements. One of the conceits of this game is that all the Monster High girls- |
oh... I'm sorry.... my mistake... all the Monster High "ghouls" (that doesn't get tedious and annoying fast) are under an evil mind controlling spell. As you free them you unlock new characters with special abilities. For example, Lagoona is the only one that can swim.
It's not bad design. But one thing that really bugs me... when you find the ensorcelled "ghouls", a text based cutscene plays and you "think" really hard at them. Supposedly you're using a magic orb to free them, but you never see the orb. You just see your character take a pose like they're fighting a migraine.
Having characters under an evil spell would have been a great opportunity to have boss fights, but apparently they were more interested in the only challenge of this game being how to control it.
The attack button doesn't reliably respond to input, attack ranges and animations make attacking enemies more of a guessing game than a skill, and you have hearts which indicate "death" when you lose all three... but... you just respawn close by. I guess you lose these jewels you're trying to collect when you die, but not the other items you collected. It's weird.
Also, I feel like Monster High dolls are about dressing up and roleplaying. This game utilizes neither of those core play elements. So the game doesn't seem to be for gamers or for fans of the franchise. Who is it for? Parents who think this might shut their kids up on Christmas? Practice for Little Orbit so they can make a better game next time?