Thursday, June 5, 2008

18 Floors Down the Yggdrasil Labyrinth

Since my last update, I've been playing Etrian Odyssey almost exclusively. I thought that after hopping back in I would just make my way through the third stratum (B11-B15), but once I got on a roll I couldn't stop, and as of this writing I'm busy mapping out B18 in the fourth stratum, the Sandy Barrens. The plot (the garnish that it is) has started to kick in, and I'm eager to see where it goes, and what the final strata are like.

I finally unlocked the Ronin and Hexer classes, not that I plan to use them much. My core unit of Protecter, Landsknecht, Combat Medic (Caduceus FTW!), Survivalist, and Troubador, has yet to encounter any F.O.E. they couldn't take down. This game is crazy addictive. It takes just the very core gameplay of your typical turn-based JRPG, adds a nice character customization system, and then puts you in a long dungeon-crawl and leaves you to do the mapping yourself with the stylus. It may not sound like a lot of fun, but in practice it's great. And the story is told in first-person, as if by a DM, so there's no melodramatic latter-day FF protagonist angsty crap.

In other news, I played just long enough of GTA IV to get past that one mission I was on, and I failed once again to get past Green Grass and High Tides on hard guitar in Rock Band.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beat GTA IV last week and was working on polishing off an Okami save that I started on about months ago, when CoD4 had a Double XP weekend, so I played with JP dude from work. Man, that is a solidly put together game. It's like a finely-tuned automobile, no part of it is extravagant, but it all works together so well. In other news, I got a wireless headset for Live, so let's hit up something soon.

E.

Count Elmdor said...

Sweet. I never tried out the CoD4 multi, but the campaign was pretty cool as a once-through. It's a shame that Activision are such sequel-whores.

They're going to supplant an industry-wide adored CoD4 with a sure-to-be-shitty CoD5 from that other dev team.

Their handling of the Guitar Hero franchise since Harmonix bailed has nothing short of a clusterfuck.

But this is the company behind the Tony Hawk series...

Anonymous said...

Yeah man, they have absolute idiots in charge over there. I mean, they are a rich company, but they're just lucky that a couple of their franchises were well-received. Then they just milk them for all they are worth. In JP, they lose money left and right. I don't know why they even have an office here.

Anonymous said...

Hey dude,

You should check out "Soul Bubbles" for the DS. It's from Eidos. I met the creator yesterday and played it. Very unique, great use of the DS controls. Try it out.

Count Elmdor said...

huh. ok. Never heard of it, but I'll keep my eyes open.

I'm getting so pumped for tomorrow & MGS4! I just finished watching the Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD, which has a kind of story synopsis and all the various MGS4 trailers.

I love this series, and it's been a while since I've been this excited for a game. You remember the period leading up to 3? The Famitsu Wave DVD with the trailer featuring the "stirring music" theme? Fuck Yeah!!

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah I remember. Fucking Famitsu Wave! Yeah, I'm pumped as well, but no way I'm playing it in Japanese. Heading to Akiba this weekend to track down the US version. I'm most excited about all the plot points getting finished.

Liquid Ocelot?
The Patriots?
Olga's kid?
Fox....die.
la-li-lu-le-lo!?

I hope you get to take out Vamp!