Ys VIII location point screenshots

Very legit review from a Chinese tourist

Tokyo Xanadu

An action RPG by Falcom, creator of the Ys and Legend of Heroes series. Tokyo Xanadu is in some ways like the current-gen iteration of Nayuta no Kiseki, being a marriage of action combat and the story progression in recent Kiseki games. It’s also handled by newer members of Falcom and targeted at newcomers, and uses the same engine and graphical style as Sen no Kiseki/Trails of Cold Steel. Unlike Falcom’s usual fantasy games, Tokyo Xanadu is set in modern day Japan at a normal high school.

Games I didn’t write about last year

I’ve been slowly dying off due to university, evident by the decreased frequency of updates by the second half of the year. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t play any games. In fact, I probably played more, but was too lazy to write about them.

Warning: Huge wall of text.

Ys: Memories of Celceta clear!

Yeah, yeah. I’m late to the party.

Cleared my first playthrough on hard, although perhaps I should have gone for nightmare instead, since the game’s difficulty has become more friendly with allowing the use of more items. Anyway, this is the remake of Ys IV, and actually the first version of Ys IV that was actually made by Falcom. I haven’t played the previous ones before (supposedly they use the bump system so I might go back and give ’em a try).

The gameplay is pretty much the same as Ys Seven, with some additional stuff like weapon/armor reinforcing (can’t remember if it was in Seven or not) and Kiseki-style quest boards. Game is 20-30 hours depending on how often you fool around/get sidetracked, and uses Seven’s 3-member party system with 3 different attack types.

I find Celceta to be an improvement since the characters have better variety to their play styles, and each character feels different in control. Back in Seven, character of the same attack type pretty much felt the same, so the differences in Celceta are quite welcome. The reinforcing system was fun, you get to put various properties onto weapons and armors like status effects and HP regen. Favorite character to use was Karna, because damn, her range is useful and Napalm Shot is hella useful. Callilica was also very fun to use with her wide-ranged hammer attacks.

The main differences Celceta has against Ys Seven is that you are no longer restricted in the amount of items you can carry. In Seven, you had a limit of 5 of each item on Normal, 3 on Hard, and 1 on Nightmare. Here, you can hop into the final boss fight with 40 potions and 30 revival items and no one will bat an eye. It’s more fun to limit your usage of items for boss fights and actually learn to dodge/flash guard, but those potions were much needed for the damn Ruler of the Forest. That freaking laser-spewing deer deserves no mercy. Also you have NG+ and generally more side stuff to do, so Celceta is probably the “meatiest” Ys yet, at the expense of boss design. Ys Seven had the better bosses, as well as the games that use the Napishtim engine (well, minus Napishtim, except for a few memorable battles).

Story-wise, it was a pretty standard excuse to go on an adventure with a new cast, but also really neat for those who have played the other Ys games since it’s foreshadowing galore for Napishtim and also sheds some more light on the Eldeen race. On its own, it won’t be much, but it’s cool to see the various Ys games connect together in lore. As far as the standalone plot goes, it lacks grandeur.

Conclusion: Game was fun, fuck that map that’s standing at 99.8% complete after I beat the game. I probably forgot to hug the wall in some particular part of the Great Forest. My opinion on life hasn’t changed, I still want to be Adol Christin.

Asshole dialogue choices are the best

IT IS GREAT TO BE ALIVE

 

THANK YOU BASED PARENTS FOR GIVING BIRTH TO ME IN THIS ERA.

IT IS GREAT TO BE ALIVE.

GLORIOUS NEW OUTFITS ARE GLORIOUS (gimme some of that Laura)

I SHALL GET THE LIMITED EDITION THIS TIME

AND BUY THE GAME FOR BOTH CONSOLES

今私は生きている！

 

 

Finished first playthrough of Sen no Kiseki

Sen runs parallel to Ao, except the viewpoint is shifted to the Erebonian Empire, which is going through internal conflict between the noble families that have power over the land and a revolutionary party led by the Giliath Osborne. The protagonists are members of the special class VII of Thors Military Academy, and as a part of their special training, they get to visit a different city in Erebonia each month (chapter) and carry out tasks. I expected the game to be similar to Zero/Ao where the protagonists operate from a central city and occasionally travel to smaller surrounding towns, but due to the size and diversity of the areas in Erebonia, Sen feels much more adventurous and refreshing. I’d say that Sen is more similar to Sora FC than Zero due to the larger cast of playable main characters and the variety of locations you get to visit.

Ao no Kiseki Chinese LE unboxing

I’m late since the game came out in March, but I left it with my Chinese relatives until my dad went back to visit in order to save on shipping costs. This is one of the many different Chinese limited editions, priced at 299 Yuan (~$50 CAD). It’s slightly smaller than the Ys Seven box length*width-wise, but also thicker (as thick as a DS game case is tall).

Anime North 2013 round up!

I managed to spend a lot less money this year, which means more money for importing games. I severely cut back on the impulse purchases, and that’s not due to an increased self-control level either. I think my main interests have been getting more and more niche each year, and I’ve been doing more importing/online shopping so I own almost all the existing English 7th-gen games I really want. Nevertheless, I did buy some goods:

Sora no Kiseki FC & SC Special Collection Book

Review: Gurumin – A Monstrous Adventure

Immediately after I gush over an eroge, I type up a review about a kid’s action game. I am adept at keeping things consistent on this blog, clearly.

Gurumin is a standalone action/adventure game by Falcom, the creators of Ys and Legend of Heroes. It was originally released for the PC, and later got ported to the PSP. The player takes control of a young girl named Parin, who just moved in to a mining town to live with her grandpa while her parents go off exploring ruins. Said town is small and has no other kids, so Parin can’t even make friends. That is, until she encounters monsters that only children can see, and is brought to the monster world through an opening behind a wall. She manages to pull out and gain ownership of a legendary drill, and is tasked with saving the monsters from the phantoms who invade their town.

Whoa! 100,000 views!

That’s not very impressive for a blog that’s been on the interwebs for 2+ years, but I’ve always been kind of a forever alone so time to celebrate! I wanted to draw a nice Christmas picture and a separate nice 100k picture, but my hands couldn’t hold a tablet pen for long before reverting to mouse or controller, so have a Christmas Estelle (from TitS/Sora no Kiseki) sketch.