This blog was always a learning and practice experience for me. Soon I’ll be doing reviews with some friends on a new site and hopefully I’ll be able to direct the 12 of you that actually know this site exists to that new site. Look for something in hopefully about a month. My first review over there will hopefully be for Disgaea 4.
To suggest that Catherine is all kinds of messed up really only scratches the surface. It’s difficult to tell just what type of game Catherine really is. In some ways it’s a fast paced puzzle game with a goal of making it to the top of an ever more harrowing wall. In other ways it’s a visual novel telling you a story based on your own choices. What’s certain is the lack of titles in gaming to compare with Catherine. The real question is whether or not this mixing of puzzle and visual novel work together or just get in each other’s way Continue reading
I rarely get downright angry at a game. I’m not talking about cursing at the screen or complaining about some little issue that isn’t a big deal. I’m talking about real seething anger. I’m talking about the kind of anger you feel when you are at the last boss and the power goes out. I’m talking about the anger you feel when you find out you have to play through half the levels again to pick up some hidden but centrally important bauble to open up the end of the game. Most games bring me nowhere near this kind of anger. But Split/Second manages to do it with ease.
Well this is interesting to say the least. In the original Japanese version of Disgaea 4 there is a full featured map editor that allows you to create custom maps. However, the American version will be modified according to NIS America. Due to differences between the policies and procedures of Sony America and Sony Japan it became infeasible for NIS America to keep the feature as it was. Instead, several modifications will be made. Users will have to make due with preset landforms instead of individual blocks. Multiples of objects other than geoblocks and characters cannot be placed next to one another(although I don’t know if this affects the preset landforms). Finally, character and map names will be randomized.
For more info check out the NISA forum post(especially page 12 where an NIS employee weighs in) or the original press release here.
This is just a quickie reminder to those NIS America fans out there. The preorder direct from NIS’ webstore should be going live in a day or two. Those who had preorder reminders set up got the notification yesterday. It’s probably no rush unless you want the premium figure set edition. They expect it will sell out extremely quickly, and they won’t have more on the way.
I’ve played all the Disgaea games and they really do set the bar high for strategy/tactical rpg games. The story is always fun and engaging with just the right amounts of humor and heart. The gameplay is well balanced and extremely deep and rewarding. The art style is endearing despite it’s somewhat dated appearance. A player can spend hours in this world just making a really powerful weapon or leveling up a new party member. Others might skip all that in favor of playing through the main storyline so they can shelve the game. I tend to be that way with quite a few games, but something about Disgaea does make me want to see some of the seedy underbelly of the Netherworld.
I told you a while back that I’d be putting up a blog about some of the more interesting things I found when trying out Japanese game demos on my Xbox Live Japanese account. I still haven’t had enough time to really try out all the demos I downloaded, but here are some highlights.
I’ll be talking about 4 games. Catherine, El Shaddai, Bullet Soul and Gal*Gun.
