games of late

In which I put a lot of effort into venting my obsession of the week. >_>

-- The most recent Ace Attorney game (Dual Destinies) came out in Japan two days ago, and thus far I haven't quite spoiled myself on the culprits for the last two cases of the game yet... okay, I suck at not spoiling myself. This wait for the English version can't seem to end any sooner.

All I've done these past two days is massively obsess over the new game and start up a replay of Apollo Justice (just cause it's the last mainline game I haven't replayed yet) while listening to a livestream of someone playing the new game (and not watching the video so as to not spoil myself... all I'm hearing as I'm typing this now is chainsaw noises...) and refreshing the message boards every 5 minutes to see if anyone's posted anything new, while half-heartedly not trying to read everything... I know, it's sad.

If for some reason you own a DS/3DS and haven't played one of these games yet, PLAY IT. But I guess don't take my word for it because I'm automatically biased for this series by now... and if you've talked to me about games anytime in the past decade you've probably heard me gush about it enough already. But it really is a good series, particularly if you like solving murder mysteries with intense courtroom drama.

-- I finally finished Front Mission 5 earlier this week. I think in some senses it was a little overhyped for me, but at the same time it still definitely was the best game in the series and made for a great experience. Most of the things I found worth liking in the game were subtle: the updates to the battle system; the vast amount of mech and pilot customization options; the attention to detail in the setting and continuity established with previous games; as well as the overall maturity of the plot and its subject material, particularly the aftereffects of war on its participants, hence the subtitle Scars of the War. It's something you don't necessarily see often in war-based video games; the only other one that comes to mind for me right now is Spec Ops: The Line, and that game basically throws the subject in your face.

Due to the nature of how the plot progressed- time jumping forward across a series of scattered major world events- the story sometimes felt a bit jarring, and at one point I didn't realize that 9 years had passed within minutes because the character models didn't change at all to reflect it (and also because they were still talking as if 9 years hadn't passed...). Towards the end, I was feeling a sense of "that's it?" because it didn't feel like that much had actually happened before the final conflict, which I assume was a consequence of all the jumping. Without taking the time to reflect on the events that have happened, you don't really get a good sense of what's going on overall.

Likewise, the man antagonist barely had enough time to establish himself as it was; up till the end you get this sense that there's more to his backstory and motivations than what you've been presented (which I know to be true having read up on the external series material online), but as you're about to finish him off anyway it doesn't seem to matter anymore. At the end of the day he ends up acting just like another evil villain, which felt a bit disappointing- he had the potential to be a lot more interesting with the details we were given even in the game.

Overall, though, FM5 is a great game and worth checking out if you're into turn-based strategy games and looking for something different from the typical medieval fantasy fare they've been coming in lately. The real-world setting is a plus here, and I can't think of any other series that handles its strategy in the same way with the individual customizable mech parts with their own HP and the AP/leader link system among other things. It's also got good replay value in the form of New Game+ and Hard Mode, although I doubt I'll have time to get to those anytime soon. Just be sure to play at least the first game before this one, or else you'll feel even more lost in the story than I did trying to put the pieces together.

-- On a whim I also randomly started games in Shin Megami Tensei 4 and Shadowrun Returns this week, but I probably won't really get to those for a while.

I've also been randomly craving playing a fighting game (either Persona 4 Arena or Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom), a One Piece game that lets you play as Nami, Robin, Kuzan, Borsalino, and Law (incidentally, Pirate Warriors 2 pictured above comes out later this year...), and a round of Mario Kart on a Wii that I don't have. In short, I just feel like playing too many random games right now for no real reason. And it's kinda driving me crazy.

-- In the process of writing this I wound up making a list categorizing all of my favorite games in the order that said categories would excite me if a new game were to come out for them... because I spontaneously make lists like that sometimes. Okay, so I spend a large chunk of time just going back over stuff like this just cause. I've lost track of how much time I've spent... definitely too much.

But anyway, the full list of games is too long for here, but here's the list of the overall categories with favorite games from each in parentheses and links to relevant articles and retrospectives from Hardcore Gaming 101 and other sites as I could find them (which I'll admit I got carried away with looking up). Speaking of which, I love Hardcore Gaming 101; it's what got me into Ace Attorney and Front Mission years ago among other things thanks to its detailed series overviews. But anyway, I enjoy reading articles that give you a vast sweeping overview of games across a series and particularly across a developer's set of works. Consequently, a good majority of these categories wound up being the names of specific individuals or studios rather than just series names.

(I'll admit this list is more for my own personal reference than anything else. But I can attest that some of the links are probably good reads... particularly regarding the history of gaming, although this list is mostly eschewed towards adventure games and RPGs as usual.)

1. Chrono (Trigger; Cross)
2. Shu Takumi (Ace Attorney; Ghost Trick)
3. Ragnar Tornquist (The Longest Journey, Dreamfall)
4. Chris Avellone, Obsidian, and others (Planescape: Torment; Mask of the Betrayer; Fallout: New Vegas)
5. Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle; Grim Fandango; Psychonauts)
6. Telltale (Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse; The Walking Dead)
7. Wadjet Eye (The Blackwell Series; Gemini Rue; Primordia)
8. Hiroyuki Ito (FF6; FF9; FF12; FF Tactics)
9. Kotaro Uchikoshi (Ever17; Remember11; 999; Virtue's Last Reward)
10. Shigesato Itoi (Earthbound; Mother 3)
11. Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island; Putt-Putt; Pajama Sam; Spy Fox; The Cave)
12. Shin Megami Tensei (Persona 2; Digital Devil Saga)
13. Tales (Symphonia, Xillia)
14. Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenogears; Xenoblade)
15. Mario RPGs (Super Mario RPG; Paper Mario; The Thousand Year Door)
16. Golden Sun

Honorable Mentions:
1. Kingdom Hearts
I still have fond memories of the first game. Everything after has been kind of meh and the Xehanort plot is unnecessarily convoluted (and I still can't get over the fact that Xemnas just happens to be an anagram of Mansex...), although I'll admit the gameplay is still fun sometimes.
2. Front Mission
The only reason this isn't on the main list is because this series doesn't need anymore games. I hear Evolved was a major disappointment, although considering main director, Tsuchida, left Square already, I'm not surprised.
3. Major Nintendo Franchises
I enjoy playing mainline Mario, Zelda, Pokemon games and the like, but since I know they're always going to come out anyway, I don't feel too compelled to always play the next game in the series and I generally skip around a bit. Pokemon might be the one exception to the rule here, but I can only play a Pokemon game once every few years anyway before burning out on it. And planning my own team is unhealthy for my list obsession...

Anyways, next up: Fallout 2. And I should probably finish Tales of Graces F before Xillia comes out in two weeks.