Suikoden Tierkreis Finds the Eternal Darkness

Here’s the cover art for…hmm, let me start again actually. Here’s the “cover art” for Suikoden Tierkreis, which evidently came out today for the Nintendo DS:

And I thought Chrono Trigger DS barely tried.

Anyways, for those too lazy to flip this over in the game store, this cover art tells them absolutely nothing about Suikoden Tierkreis other than it’s made by Konami and has WiFi features. Considering how rocking the artwork for the first two entries in series were (unarguably the best games in the series, too), this is a shame and a waste of space. The game’s biggest draw is the ability to collect 108 characters for your army and castle, always has been. Granted, there’s the European version of cover art floating around, which is much better at presenting the sort of game Suiko fans are expecting.

Yet what do we Americans get?

Blackness, the evergoing dark, a void to fall into and never return from. In short, nothing at all.

Not Game Over Just Yet

Videogames.

From Marble Madness to Super Mario World to Suikoden to Jumping Flash! to Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and countless others. More than just entertainment, they’ve been a part of my life ever since I was a young boy and received my very first game console for Christmas. It was, to my boyish delight, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and with its velvety purples and soft, ash-like grays the darn thing nearly brought tears to my eyes. In actuality, I’m saving those liquid droplets for when my SNES no longer works; I still play Donkey Kong Country 2, Killer Instinct, and Kirby on it to this very day, which, when you think about it, is akin to observing a miracle.

Anyways, I’ve gone through only a handful of gaming systems though, still not yet crossing into what Interwebberz deem “next-gen,” but not a day goes by that I don’t keep up with what’s happening in the industry or what new achievements were issued for such-and-such or when the next price cut might hit. I have thoughts, I have some experience, I have ideas and rants and questions that need posing. I guess that means writing about games again, or trying to. Hence, Grinding Down. It’s a gamer’s guide to nothing, which more or less means whatever you want it to mean. I’ll do my best to make it into something, really.

So here I am, resetting my inner console, starting over yet again.

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