Latest Timesuck
Well, it has been a while since I did a post. I have started several drafts, but none of them are anywhere near ready to go. This week, I have abandoned doing anything because of my addiction to Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. I am really addicted to collecting souls, which give you new abilities to choose from and can be fused with weapons to make better weapons. I am at a high enough level to finish the game, but I do not have the weapons that I want. I currently use the third best axe, which is a slow but powerful weapon. I only need to collect a duplicate of a soul that I already have so that I can upgrade my axe to the second strongest form, but the strongest form requires the soul of a boss, and I am not sure if I would want to give up one of my boss souls for any weapon. When I get the correct souls for it, I will probably try to get a Valmanway, which is the equivalent of the Crissagrim from Symphony of the Night, which was by far my favorite weapon in that game. I also use a throwing sickle occasionally when I want to attack from a distance. I also use Eversing armor, which has the second highest defense in the game. I switch between accessories a lot, but my favorite is the Soul Eater Ring because it increases the appearance of souls.
As for souls, there are four types that you can use: Ability, Bullet, Guardian, and Enchant. All ability souls are active all the time, so you never have to choose between them. Enchant souls are souls that are always active and do not use magic. I have used Ghost Dancer almost the entire time, as it increases your luck, which increases the appearance of souls. (Gotta catch them all!) Guardian souls are pretty interesting, as they are activated and drain MP at a constant rate until deactivated. This category includes familiars. I switch in this category more than any other. I use Flying Humanoid when I want to increase my luck, I use Manticore to grow a tail when I want to increase my attack, and I use Bat Company when I need to turn into a bat. Bullet souls are one time costs to MP. I mainly use Malachi which shoots an enormous dark energy ball that usually hits the enemy four or five times as it passes, Witch which is basically a homing missle, and Waiter Skeleton which serves delicious curry. That is the most amusing soul in the game: He throws a plate of curry on the ground, which burns any enemy that steps on it.
Anyway, so I am not done with the game yet, so I know I am not posting a lot. (Also, our DVR is getting really backed up.)
Here are two of my favorite links, to try to make up for lost time. I enjoy Grand Theft Auto, and one of my favorite aspects of both Vice City and San Andreas was the amazing soundtracks. These two links are to decode the music so that you can use it on your computer. Vice City had a single sound file for each of the stations, so that is what you get when you decode to a wav file. (It should be easy enough for you to cut into the individual songs with a sound editing program.) Really, while the way that they did the decoding for Vice City is impressive, it pales in comparison to the San Andreas radio program. This program is amazing, allowing you to do everything you could want to do with the sound files. If you have either game on the PS2, get these programs.
Vice City Radio
San Andreas Radio
As for souls, there are four types that you can use: Ability, Bullet, Guardian, and Enchant. All ability souls are active all the time, so you never have to choose between them. Enchant souls are souls that are always active and do not use magic. I have used Ghost Dancer almost the entire time, as it increases your luck, which increases the appearance of souls. (Gotta catch them all!) Guardian souls are pretty interesting, as they are activated and drain MP at a constant rate until deactivated. This category includes familiars. I switch in this category more than any other. I use Flying Humanoid when I want to increase my luck, I use Manticore to grow a tail when I want to increase my attack, and I use Bat Company when I need to turn into a bat. Bullet souls are one time costs to MP. I mainly use Malachi which shoots an enormous dark energy ball that usually hits the enemy four or five times as it passes, Witch which is basically a homing missle, and Waiter Skeleton which serves delicious curry. That is the most amusing soul in the game: He throws a plate of curry on the ground, which burns any enemy that steps on it.
Anyway, so I am not done with the game yet, so I know I am not posting a lot. (Also, our DVR is getting really backed up.)
Here are two of my favorite links, to try to make up for lost time. I enjoy Grand Theft Auto, and one of my favorite aspects of both Vice City and San Andreas was the amazing soundtracks. These two links are to decode the music so that you can use it on your computer. Vice City had a single sound file for each of the stations, so that is what you get when you decode to a wav file. (It should be easy enough for you to cut into the individual songs with a sound editing program.) Really, while the way that they did the decoding for Vice City is impressive, it pales in comparison to the San Andreas radio program. This program is amazing, allowing you to do everything you could want to do with the sound files. If you have either game on the PS2, get these programs.
Vice City Radio
San Andreas Radio
posted by Xryz - kingofallcosmos at
12:48 AM
4 Comments:
I haven't had the patience for a proper timesink since I spent 200 hours playing Tales of Symphonia. I've got a serious dislke of collection-based gameplay now -- although I still look back fondly on Symphonia -- and I think it started with Donkey Kong Country, which betrayed my trust by having a "percentage completion" stat that went up to 101%. Then DKC2 went to 102%, ha ha, and then Symphony of the Night went up to 200.6%, what the hell.
I felt like SOTN expected me to explore every nook and cranny, no matter how boring and repetitive the task, and that I was being judged for not having the heart to get 200.6%.
Symphony of the Night is not my least favorite game, but it is nevertheless probably the game I hate the most, surpassing Quake or whatever. It takes that primeval impulse inside me that makes me endlessly bounce on a koopa shell just to see how high the numbers will go, that makes me aim for the healing pads in F-Zero even though I know I am in no conceivable danger, that makes me cure all my light warriors up to 100% after every battle ... and it uses that impulse to make me perpetually miserable.
I will say, though, that Castlevania games, which I have no intention of ever playing again, have the best fucking weapon names.
By
Zack, at 9:53 AM
Now that is what I call a response! So much substantial commentary.
1. I am interested in my use of timesuck and your use of timesink as synonyms. Is this a regional variation? I know what timesink means, but I would feel very odd using it.
2. Given that your problems with Castlevania seem to spring up after Symphony of the Night, might I assume that your problem is not with Castlevania, but with the Castleroid style gameplay. (I found the word Castleroid in reviews, and personally I would have chosen Castletroid. Let me know which term you prefer.) As I recall, I thought that you were the one who introduced me to Dracula X.
3. I had 200% completion in SOTN, but never bothered with the sword brothers trick for the extra completion, and I never felt guilt for it. I got the Crissagrim a couple of times and I played through as Richter, but I only bothered with 200% once.
4. I hated that DKC had 101%, and it was one reason why I stopped playing it after about 28%.
5. Do you dislike Metroid games in the same way you dislike Castlevania games?
6. In case I never mentioned it, symphonyofthenight was my first choice for the name of this blog, which should show how I feel about the game.
7. The completion percentage in recent Castlevania games to me does not seem to be as pushy as other goals in other games, nor as time consuming. I do not have 100% completion in any other Castletroid game.
8. I do agree that I have tended toward games that are forgiving and not pushy lately. I want fun, not punishment for taking a curve at a couple of degrees off the ideal angle. Ico was nice like that, and I am hoping that I will like Shadow of the Colossus in the same way. I guess that is another reason I enjoy Katamari; it is not that I have never failed at a level, but I get it done after a couple of tries, and I never really feel much pressure to improve on my initial tries. (Despite disappointment from the King in the size of my balls.)
9. I truly hate Quake and all of it's cousins. I have a slightly related topic in the works...
10. For me, my SOTN is Final Fantasy X. I loved the SNES Final Fantasy games, but even FFVI did have a collection aspect. Getting all of the espers, rages, etc. I ended up a couple of rages short and short in a few other things. That said, FFX is ridiculous with the collections of the legendary weapons, which aren't even the best possible weapons. I will be perfectly honest here: I spent well over a hundred hours on that game, and I have never completed it. Not even close.
11. I have recently given up on most RPG's because I am overly compelled to complete them in the most personally devasting manner. (Meaning that I spend hours building up levels, finding useless items, etc.)
12. This brings me to a point where I differ from several gamers, and which probably reflects quite a bit on my old school roots: When someone says a game will take 10 hours to complete, the reviews all call it short, but I think that is the ideal length. It allows you to play it again if you want to, but is long enough to get into. Silent Hill 2 was a little over 10 hours, but it took me weeks to complete that 10 hours. I think that quality rather than tacked on quantity makes a great game.
13. This is not to say that I do not like a timesuck, but the timesuck has to be enjoyable and pretty much needs to be portable. I like Mario Golf because I can play it while watching tv, same for Pokemon and Pokemon Card Game. I don't think I will ever really invest a major chunk of time on a single console game again, at least not to complete one game. I don't know how much Madden I played, but it was a lot, although not a lot when you co
14. I think it is funny that the justification for several people that they want their games to take forever is that they have invested so much money in the game. During the SNES era, I bought games for $75 and even $85 dollars. Games are overall cheaper now, and there are even budget titles. Now I usually buy most of my games when they go to $20, which is usually a month or two before they become greatest hits.
Anyway, maybe you would like to respond to these comments. Truly, I understand the impulse, the search for perfection in a game that sucks all of the fun out. I know what it is like to heal everyone to 100% and other impulses that take away all of the fun. Hell, I played the original Final Fantasy everyday for nearly a year when the game erased my save data and I was left with nothing. I could have stormed the ending at anytime, but I had to get every spell possible and every item possible. I think that is where the impulse really started for me. (I was not really into the first Zelda much and I didn't have Super Mario Bros. so this was my first major game.)
By
Xryz - kingofallcosmos, at 2:48 AM
1. I had noticed that you used "timesuck," a word I had never heard before. I just assumed it meant "timesink." Google turned up some dude's LJ which managed to absentmindendly use both words in consecutive sentences.
2. I still like the action Castlevanias (plus Simon's Quest, minus The Castlevania Adventure 1&2), and if it ever becomes affordable I'd like to play Rondo of Blood. It's actually not the Metroid elements that I have a strong distaste for. It's the hulkamaniacal RPG elements, where every single enemy is a Pink Puff.
Although, actually, yeah, I don't like the backtracking and mapping that Metroid games are made of. I'm always confusing the caverns and passages. Getting lost. I think this is the point of Metroid -- being lost and alone and confused -- and I can't tolerate it. I have neither the mental power to remember which rooms had bombable walls nor the patience to check and recheck.
I was -- do we even speak the same language? -- under the impression that the standard was "Metroidvania," actually, which I prefer both because Metroid staked its claim first and because "-vania" is more meaningful than "Castle-."
Between "Castleroid" and "Castletroid" the latter is clearly superior, and the former is presumably some sort of medieval hemorrhoid.
5. It's not exploration that I resent as much as grocery lists. I haven't loved a Metroid game yet, although I have played several. Metroid Prime was my first GC game, and I couldn't find it in me to care about it at all.
But I am just indifferent to Metroid, not hateful.
10. I like that when you reach the Calm Lands the first time, people tell you, "Yeah, summoners give up here, all the time." And it doesn't really make sense why that is until you become just another statistic, one of the thousands of players who has a FFX save game stuck forever, unplayed, at the Calm Lands arena. Ha ha, Square. Good joke, but maybe not one worth ruining a game for?
12. Yeah, I think "short" is usually just right. I think it's sick, really, measuring something's worth in terms of how many hours you spend playing it instead of how much satisfaction, joy, and feeling you get from it.
...
I like Final Fantasy IV, because I am not tempted to fight enemies over and over in hope of winning a Pink Tail or a Lilith Rod or the Mage summon. They are hidden, and not fun to get, and I can forget about them and enjoy the game. Out of sight, out of mind.
Final Fantasy VI, though, has those big, empy spell lists and the empty Rage list, and it just fucking gnaws at me.
Final Fantasy IX was just infuriating. The logic of bad design was maddening. You learn skills from weapons. Therefore, the designers can expect the player to keep using their weaker weapons until they learn the skills. Therefore, enemies need to be made weak enough for the enemies to be surmountable even with the weakest weapons. Therefore, battles are e*x*t*r*e*m*e*l*y tedious. Also, Zidane, the hero/thief, can steal rare items from bosses. The players will be angry if they get the common item instead of a rare item. Therefore, the designers allow the player to collect a common item, and uncommon item, and a rare item from the same enemy in the same fight. Therefore, in every boss battle Zidane will attempt to steal every turn for ten or even twenty turns, depending on random number generators outside of the player's control. Since the random number generator might make a player waste Zidane's turns on stealing items, the boss needs to be weak enough to defeat or at least hold at bay with three characters out of four. As a final complication, since weapons earn experience, the player can't switch weapons in battle, and since bosses often come as a surprise in service of the story, the bosses will often be encountered with crappy weapons equipped. Therefore, bosses in FFIX are so weak that they can be held off with three characters and their crappy weapons, which they will do for upwards of 20 turns while Zidane attempts to steal over and over.
Charming story, though! Gotta love Vivi, Steiner, and Beatrix.
By
Zack, at 10:11 AM
A couple of additional thoughts:
In FFX, I absolutely loved Blitzball, but I hated signing players. I would wait for several games for a player to come available that I was waiting for and then they get re-signed at the last minute by their team. Also, it reminded me a bit of FF Tactics, where even if you wanted to put in someone who was weaker than the rest of your party, you couldn't because the enemies kept on getting harder.
FF Tactics is another game that you have to love/hate. I would say that what I hated most about it was that you had to sit through every spell/summon animation everytime. I had my calculators cast Pearl (or whatever it was called in this version) and it would take so long to cycle through all enemies and allies.
Well, I definitely like Castletroid more than Metroidvania, but both are acceptable. It sounds like you definitely have had a bad case of Castleroids.
I guess that Metroid is one area we will need to disagree on, as the Metroid series is possibly my favorite long time series, although I often put Zelda in first place. (And on that subject, Zelda games have way too many side quests. I can only complete the top down ones...) Loved Minish Cap, but I still am missing about 4 of those matching stones, and I stopped caring.
To be honest, I am not sure I will ever have the patience to play a Final Fantasy game again. I have a friend who plays FFXI everyday, and has been playing it for far too long.
Which brings me to: Are you guys going to get Animal Crossing for the DS? Like I mentioned before, I am perfectly okay with portable timesucks as I can also watch tv, but if Animal Crossing 2 came out on the Revolution, I would probably not get it.
By
Xryz - kingofallcosmos, at 11:04 AM
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