Kreation’s Edge

Finally beat this one today along with Army of Two: 40th day (this weekend). I thought Star Ocean was a pretty solid RPG. Added a short writeup below

Update:

Okay going to keep this one brief. No spoilers. Total playtime was around 50 hours (hard to be certain, I go afk alot)

Pros:

1. Really enjoyed developing my characters

2. The Combo system was quite clever. Really enjoyed maxing out the combo skill and allocating skills to consume my combo points

3. Really enjoyed the powers my characters learned

4. Really liked some of the eldarians

5. Fairly clever use of the party system. You can take the entire party with you on adventures. However only 4 people can be active at once. I actually preferred this system over Dragon Age Origins

6. Fun combat system with a bit of twitch in there. Was pretty fun

7. Game endings for party members was a nice touch’

8. I’ve read game has a final dungeon after you beta the game.

Cons:

1. Cannot select enemy mobs directly. I am very puzzled by this decision. This almost completely ruined a fun combat system for me.

2. Lymle or whatever her name was; she was a total pain. Really hated all of her lines. Maybe Japanese voices in the International version will improve this

3. I found the main character, Edge, somewhat highly annoying as well after mid way through the game. However, his character sort of at least rebounds again a few hours later

4. I love watching Anime. But really didn’t dig the anime art style at all

5. Long stretches between Save points later on in the game. I mean, for hours. That long of a stretch. Luckily, this was literally the last dungeon. But that was pain

6. Final boss fight (last stage) was just total too long winded. Took way too darn long. Just endless repetition. I really feel Bayonetta did a much better job with their boss fights. You really should only punish the player for not following the routine or making the wrong moves. But once they solve the puzzle, you proceed. Not so with this game. I dreaded the final boss cause I knew it would be pain. And it was. Almost was a deal breaker. Way too long winded

7. Cutscenes way were too long winded for my taste. Could’ve sworn they went 45 mins or so. And I LOVE cutscenes. In particular, it’s the cutscenes towards the end of the game that a bit long winded. Before that though, they were okay

RPG, Video Games

Watched a few episodes of Wakfu anime and thought that was pretty cool. I noticed someone suggested I should list the Wakfu MMORPG in the sandbox section. I’ll check it out. But anyway, my first impression is that it doesn’t qualify due to the presence of a rigid Class structure and so forth. but still looks cool!

Taikodom is a game I’ll be adding to my list of space games however, since it seems to ofc fit into that genre quite nicely

MMO, PC Games

Saw this Indie MMO that is in closed testing called Gnostaria. Looks pretty cool will be sure to keep an eye on it. Also noticed Saga of Ryzom servers are backup trying to get logged on right now

MMO

Just saw this post by HanshotFirst at mmorpg.com:

“Silk Road Online immediately comes to mind (though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it). Another is Dream of Mirror Online, which despite being “cute” actually has a pretty cool multi-profession, skill-based system. Oh and another I believe is Mabinogi by Nexon, though I never got much farther than the tutorial.”

Had no idea will have to take a look

MMO

Lively looks very interesting might have very nice potential for 3d chatrooms and meeting places created by users. Lots of rooms up already. Reminds me of Habbo Hotel or something. Massively wrote up a short article on it.

MMO

MMORPG.com has an interesting writeup about a turn based mmorpg called Atlantica Online. My guess is that the mmorpg market has become so saturated that developers are finding the need to innovate. PErsonally mostly look forward to MMOFPS but Turn based gameplay also gets my attention because that’s a lot less ping dependant and could possibly allow for some interesting innovation in regards to UI and strategy.

Hm, okay found a film on youtube it’s not really the hex grid type of strategy RPG I had in mind. I still might check it out but it’s not quite the board game based combat I had in mind after reading the article

MMO

Massively provided some details about Runes of Magic, a new MMO that allows dual classification.

“Runes of Magic will include a dual class system, where you will choose a primary and a secondary class, armor dying, player housing, crafting, an auction house, unique mounts, a fully customizable user interface and either click-to-move or WASD controls.”

Interesting they choose the ‘dual class’ approach over totally freeform like Champions Online, Well Online, Mortal Online, etc all offer. Their implementation of player housing might be interesting though might be something to follow

MMO

Just read an interesting post at DFO forums (Darkfall Online):

One player (the original poster) claimed that World of Warcraft PvP takes skill to play. I agree with that from my experience. Anyway one poster in particular made this interesting argument:

“No, it doesn’t. It takes time invested and knowledge of the game, nothing more. Once you know which talent builds are overpowered in the most current patch, all you have to do is memorize the order in which you use your specific class’ spells/abilities.

That isn’t skill. Skill means not having prior knowledge of all your opponent’s possible moves and being able to adapt your strategy to any changes on-the-fly. World of Warcraft doesn’t have that. It has classes, so you know what each class can do before they do anything.

Skill means timing AND aiming real-time attacks as well as finding the right combination of time spent dodging/blocking and time spent standing still casting. World of Warcraft doesn’t have that. It has auto-attack and chance dodging/blocking based entirely off gear.

Skill means having the threat of death shoved in your face no matter who your opponent. World of Warcraft doesn’t have that. In WoW you are only afraid of people whose gear is on par with or better than yours.

Skill. World of Warcraft doesn’t require it.”

MMO, PVP Darkfall Online, PVP, skill, World of Warcraft

Just heard about this mmorpg the other day. Not sure what to make of it yet. Looks like it will be a static Class based MMO. Has some interesting ideas here and there. Looks like it is pretty far away from coming out though.

MMO

I must say APB is looking pretty darn good. This MMO is being developed some of the guys behind Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. Promises to try to present fun gameplay rather then “grind”. Interesting….

MMO all points bulletin, sandox mmorpg