Shin Megami Tensei IV

Shin Megami Tensei IV ReviewThis game marks my first foray into the main MegaTen series. My prior experiences being only with Persona 3 (P3P) and Persona 4 Golden. I think I even blogged about the latter a while back. I heard that the main series was pretty different compared to the Persona offshoots and their time management aspects. Having really enjoyed P3p and P4G I was a little concerned that SMTIV might not do it for me, but after 10 or so hours I’m already hooked.

The game takes place in, what I can only assume to be, some kind of post-apocalyptic Japan. Things have pretty much reverted to a more feudal era with stuff like kings, castles, nobility, and of course Samurai, which play a pretty large role in things. Every year or so all young men are called to attend a gauntlet ceremony to see if they will be chosen to join the Samurai, etc. Obviously you as the protagonist gets inducted and the game goes from there. It’s a pretty interesting narrative so far and I have the feeling that I’m just scratching at the surface so far. I can already tell there is going to be a lot of philosophical thinking about good and evil. I’m usually more for the lighthearted kind of stories but it is still interesting so far. Plus, supposedly you get to make more choices down the road and depending on who you side with you get a different ending. I’m looking forward to seeing the extent of that. (more…)

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Neverwinter Impressions

Neverwinter officially entered public "open beta" yesterday.  It might as well be called launch because everyone can get in, and characters won't be deleted.  I jumped in and began my…

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Ni no Kuni or: How I Learned to Stop Moping and Play the Game

Ni No Kuni worldI wasn’t sure that I would be picking up Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch or not.  It had nothing to do with a lack of interest and everything to do with the fact that I couldn’t get the Wizard’s Edition of the game, which left a rather sour taste in my mouth and a large pit in my stomach. If you don’t really care about any of this then just skip down to my impressions of the game.

I should probably try to explain some things first, at least the best that I can.  Originally Ni no Kuni was a Nintendo DS game, which never left Japan. In it you played a young wizard and utilized the touch screen to draw spell glyphs.  In order to help you with this task each game came with a really neat wizard’s companion book that featured tons of info ranging from spell symbols, familiars, items, alchemy, etc. You pretty much needed to use it all the time.  This concept actually resonated with me rather well. I liked the idea of needing to consult your wizard manifesto in order to learn things and solve puzzles.  It kind of gave me the same vibe I got from old copy-protection manuals for Quest for Glory games. Most people probably didn’t care for that but I really dug it.

Read more for my early impressions of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch! (more…)

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FTL: Faster Than Light

I have, of course, heard of roguelikes and know vaguely what they are and how they play, but I never really gave them much thought or tried one. A while…

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