PURCHASE OF THE MONTH: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

Woah, woah, woah…two games for the Purchase of the Month? Yes. Let me explain.

For about the past year or so, I’ve allowed myself to make one videogame purchase every month. This keeps my wallet safe, this keep my brain at ease during these crazy retail seasons, and this keeps this blog active and alive with new content–well, considering that I’m often late to the party and buy mostly “old” games these posts are not necessarily new content about new content, but new content nonetheless.

Also, a Purchase of the Month does not necessarily mean a top-dog, AAA product retailing for $60 or more. In fact, here’s a rundown of my purchases from this year, as best as I can recall or find out thanks to Grinding Down‘s search function:

• January 2010 – Nothing
• February 2010 – Dragon Age: Origins
• March 2010 – Pokemon HeartGold
• April 2010 – Borderlands
• May 2010 – Picross 3D, The Saboteur
• June 2010 – Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• July 2010 – Limbo, Dragon Quest IX, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• August 2010 –  Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: The Game
• September 2010 – Mini Ninjas
• October 2010 – Chrono Trigger DS, Fallout: New Vegas
• November 2010 – Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
• December 2010 – ???

Hmm. Might have forgotten some XBLA titles in there. Now, of those listed, only a few were brand new retail copies; about 75% were purchased for less than $25 each, which I think is a great amount to spend on a videogame that may or may not give you a good amount of playtime. So, if I’m not looking for a big name retail game, I’m looking more for something in my secondary price range. The fact that both purchases of this month were released well over three years ago definitely helped with this–DQH: Rocket Slime was $6.99, and FFXII: Revenant Wings was $14.99. Perfect, I said to myself and not out loud as that would be a bit weird.

Right now, with the way life is–married, working, stressing, worrying, not drawing, not writing, worrying, worrying, wondering, sleeping more, band practice, worrying–it seems I have a lot less time for console gaming and much more time available for DS gaming on the go. These two games, plus the epic RPGs of Chrono Trigger and DQIX, should help fight back the lack-of-serious-Fallout: New Vegas shakes. I’ll also go into the reasons I picked each of these up in another post later on. Because, yes, I do have my reasons!

Getting closer to “beating” Dragon Quest IX…maybe

You know, I really am a crazy person to play three epic RPGs–Fallout: New Vegas, Chrono Trigger, and Dragon Quest IX–all at the same time. It basically means that I can only make tiny bits of progress on each of them, and that I want to play them all extensively, but I just can’t. There’s not enough time this side of New Jersey, and alas, it hurts, because all three are really deep RPGs with tons to do and see.

That said, thanks to some idleness over the weekend as Tara and I dog-sat Tucker and Chewy, I cut a bit deeper into DQIX. Finally completed the sidequest A Masky Task, which reads as so: Malinda from Stornway wants to see if you can make a malleable mask even more beautiful with alchemy. She said she would be happy enough just to see the result, but if you give it to her, she’ll swap it for a jaguarment. Sounds kind of easy, right?

Wrong.

First of all, I’ve had this sidequest in my log since the beginning of August, and it’s been annoying me since then. Had to look up exactly what was needed, and I found out that there was a lot of alchemy involved. As well as grinding for ingredients. I finally got the last set of butterfly wings needed this weekend, and ta-da, quest completed. My reward was a jaguarment, which I don’t think I’ll ever use. How wonderful!

[Some spoilers about final boss stuff coming up. You’ve been warned!]

That grinding did help though, getting three of my characters to LV 47, and my fourth, the priest, to LV 45. I figured that was pretty good for the final boss fight, and thus flew directly to the Realm of the Almighty to do battle with Corvus. He’s a Celestrian gone bad. Very bad. My first fight against him did not go well, but this second time, my team of four took him down thoughtfully and carefully, thanks to spells like Egg On and Multiheal. No one died, and we all lived to see another day.

That is…until Corvus sent a dragon after us! So, a second boss fight. Fine. That’s pretty much the standard with RPGs. The dragon itself wasn’t very challenging thanks to the fact that it did not use a lot of group attacks. He fell in due time, and again, Hadwynnn, Juniper, Tarla, and Kingsley all made it out alive.

Is it over now? Did I win? Time for cake and confetti? Nope.

Time to fight Corvus again. Only this time he’s mutated and taken on a new form. Evil form 2.0. And his attacks are extremely tough, much more damaging than before. Around 80 HP to 130 HP depending on what attack he chooses. Killed my priest really fast with a divebomb thingy, which left me struggling to keep it together. The fight ended as expected, with everyone’s name in red.

So, looks like I have some more grinding to do for money and alchemy items to make better weapons. I guess I’m going to try to wait until everyone is around LV 52 or so before tackling Corvus again. Hopefully by then, they’ll be rockin’ some crazy good gear, as well as some new spells. I’m pretty anxious to “beat” DQIX just so I can get to all the extra content I know is there waiting for me.

I don’t love zombies, but I’m probably gonna eat up I Love Zombies

Gotta be honest here…I’m not a huge fan of zombies.

Nowadays, the gaming trends seems to be “add zombies.” They’re coming soon to Red Dead Redemption, they’re swarming about in Borderlands, they’re funnily enough in PopCap puzzle games, they’re in Crackdown 2, they’re sort of in Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas, they’re in Mass Effect (don’t try and deny it, Husks), they are most definitely in the Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising series, and they are most likely not going away any time soon.

Hey, some people really dig ’em. Me? Not so much, and not just because I’d totally die super fast during a zombie outbreak.

Of course, there are exceptions. I’m totally in love with Cherie Priest’s books Boneshaker and Dreadnought, which feature zombie-like minions, nicely dubbed rotters, and I also happen to have really enjoyed Tobias Buckell’s Sly Mongoose. Guess I don’t mind the undead too much in fiction form.

That said, Zombie Daisuki (“I Love Zombies”) looks like a lot of fun. It’s a recently announced new Nintendo DS game that puts the player to the task of rebuilding one’s farm during a mass zombie outbreak. So, a survival farming sim? That’s gotta be twenty-six times better than a boring fantasy dungeon crawler farming sim, right? Check out how adorable it looks so far:

I Love Zombies will be released in Japan on January 20, 2011, for JPY 5,040 (approx. USD 62.36), with a B rating (12 and up). There’s not a lot of information out currently, but I’m definitely going to be keeping tabs on this one. It could very well be the title that changes my snobbiness towards zombie-heavy videogames for me.

The time to time-travel in Chrono Trigger is now

I’ve played the first hour or so of Chrono Trigger at least five times total over these many years of mine. But that’s all I ever played. The first hour–waking up in bed, going to the festival, losing Marle to some time vortex, following after her, the trial, eventually ending up in the future, which is all about being post-apocalyptic and  tragic–is pretty dang near tattooed in my brain, and I have shoddy ROMs to blame. Yup, I used an SNES emulator way back when to catch up on some games I missed, and it seemed like every time I got to Arris Dome (or one of those domes) the ROM would crash. And so, I never got back from the future, and I’m guessing my in-game friends of Crono, Lucca, and Marle all died terribly of massive hunger and depression. Robo’s probably still there unless his robotic comrades turned him into scrap metal.

Hmm…no good way to transition from that.

Well, last week, during a heightened stage of insanity from wedding stress and worries about [detail redacted], I picked up Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS. It’s a cartridge I’ve been wanting to add to my collection for some time now, and I found it reasonably priced at $20.00. Even though it was a used copy, it still came with the poster that new copies were shipped with…so that’s nice. Granted, I won’t really be hanging it up, but bonus stuff is bonus stuff.

And the even better news is I’ve broken out of my Chrono Trigger slump. I’ve played about three hours worth of the game now and even made it to the end of time. Dun, dun, dunnn. From there, I time-traveled to the land of dinosaurs, which, if I may make the joke, is more accurately known as the land before time. I really do hope I can throw a Lightning Slash against Ducky “Bigmouth” Saurolophus because, as it turns out, one can only listen to her “Yep! Yep! Yep!” so many times. Lots of places to visit there, but no clear quest direction, and I’m not sure how to get back yet.

So I got some grinding to do though as these dinos are actually really tough against my LV 13/14s, and I have to wonder if I wasn’t supposed to go here first; I did head back to the original timeline beforehand only to discover the town and such overrun by goblins and beasts. Not sure what to do about that yet, but regardless, I’m just glad to be experiencing more Chrono Trigger than I ever did before.

Also, the normal day-to-day enemy battles are really tense, much more than any of the boss fights so far. I really like that and miss that feeling of uncertainty and timing and importancy on paying attention to health points and where the enemies are on the playing field. No offense, Dragon Quest IX, because I do love you, but I can just button mash my way to safety each and every time. Chrono Trigger is certainly a refreshing RPG experience, which is funny considering it’s 15 years old.

The arduous task of deciding what Nintendo DS games to pack for the honeymoon

Five days to go until the wedding, and I’m still not even packed yet for the honeymoon. Hmm, might want to get going on that. Will have to make a note. Or, um, just look at this blog post again later. And I’m not even talking about packing clothes…just trying to narrow down what Nintendo DS games I can fit–and should fit–in my travel bag.

First, let me stop you and your finger-waggin’ assuming. Yes, this is Tara and I’s honeymoon, and yes, we’ll be doing lots of honeymoon-like things. Wink, wink. As well as going all over the place in Disney World and the Wizardy World of Harry Potter, dining fine and laughing and loving it up. I promise you, we will. But remember, there’s the airport waiting and flight itself to contend with, and if there’s one thing I’m really not a huge fan of…it’s flying. Anxiety and giant hunks of metal and wires magically floating in the air do not mix well. So I will need some distraction like woah, and thus enters my Nintendo DS. My travel bag can hold around 12 game catridges (I’m actually a little fuzzy on that; it might even be more), as well as another cartridge in the DS game slot.

Here’s the ones that fall under must definitely bring:

• Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
• Chrono Trigger DS
• Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
• Mario Kart DS
• Picross 3D
• Scribblenauts

DQIX will be perfect for killing time, as there are a bunch of sidequests and grinding to do. I also picked up Chrono Trigger DS last week and am enjoying that a lot too (more on that game later). Scribblenauts, while not perfect, is fun just to fool around with, and I think the others listed are self-explanatory.

And then here’s some filler:

• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• MySims Agents
• Pokemon HeartGold

 

I think Tara is just bringing one game with her, and that’s Animal Crossing: Wild World. I have good memories of that game helping to soothe my sanity during a much longer flight from New Jersey to Arizona when I went to see my sister, meaning she’ll be just fine.

Either way, still lots to get done this week. Please pray for me.

October 2010 is stuffed full of Halloween candy and new RPGs

Just imagine every pumpkin in the picture above represents a new RPG coming out this month. Well, at least that’s how it feels. I mean, this list is kind of staggering in terms of big name games and number of releases in general. I guess November and December are kind of a washout in that many holiday-loving people are asking for games they couldn’t afford to buy in October. I mean, truthfully, I pretty much want all of these games, but with a wedding in eleven days, a honeymoon trip to Florida, and the ongoing stress of moving from one apartment to the next, I doubt I’ll get more than one. And we all know what one that is, right? C’mon, Grinding Down readers. Pay attention. It’s pretty easy to guess what new game would make me, uh, fall out of my seat with excitement.

Moving on, here’s what comes out this very month…

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

What it is: It’s not very much a Final Fantasy game at all actually, but rather something more old-school like Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Complaints about a limited item capacity and unfriendly battle system only enhance my curiosity more. Plus, if Jeremy Parish praises it so openly and lovingly, I think I need to see why.
Why I want it: Hats determine job classes. That’s good enough for me.
When does it come out: TODAY, PEOPLE!

Arcania: Gothic IV

What it is: An action RPG.
Why I want it: Can’t really say. Never played a Gothic game before, but it sure does look pretty; kind of like Fable, but with a much deeper magic/fighting system. Heard it’s a big open world, too. Love those big worlds.
When does it come out: October 12, 2010

Fallout: New Vegas

What it is: A post-apocalyptic game set years after the events in Fallout 3 and on the other side of the country.
Why I want it: I absolutely love Fallout 3, and this is basically more of that, plus new twists. Companions get better, there’s more guns and mods, and again, player choice is very important. Definitely my purchase of the month.
When does it come out: October 19, 2010 (too bad I won’t be able to get it then though)

Fable III

What it is: Another entry in Peter Molyneux’s favorite action RPG series to hype to Heaven and Hell.
Why I want it: I did enjoy a lot of Fable II, and there’s some great changes happening in this one to keep me hooked. Love the idea of menus disappearing as they were clunky and hard to navigate through before.
When does it come out: October 26, 2010

Those are mostly the big guns of the show. Still, there’s even more RPG goodness throughout the month. Borderlands Game of the Year comes out on October 12 and includes all four DLC packs. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals hits the Nintendo DS on the same day, but I’ve yet to ever play a Lufia game. And I believe there’s an XBLA title dropping soon called Costume Quest, which is about kids on Halloween battling other kids in their costumes. Or something like that. Might be a fun one.

Am I missing any from this list? Which one(s) are you getting? What is the secret to having infinite time and money? Please, I really need to know…

15 Games in 15 Minutes meme

So, there’s this 15 games in 15 minutes meme going around the Interwebz, and it’s been many moons since I participated in one of these things. The rules are simple and as follows: List 15 videogames you’ve played that will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Don’t take ages pondering this one over that one over that one. Just react.

And here’s my 15 in no special order:

1. Suikoden II
2. Super Metroid
3. Shadow of the Colossus
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
5. Super Mario Bros. 3
6. Fallout 3
7. Chrono Cross
8. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
9. Dark Cloud 2
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert
11. Twisted Metal
12. Super Mario World
13. Animal Crossing: Wild World
14. Metal Gear Solid
15. Final Fantasy IX

Some of these might surprise y’all. Why Chrono Cross and not Chrono Trigger? Why Final Fantasy IX and not Final Fantasy VII? What the bleepy-bleep is Dark Cloud 2 doing here? Naturally, I have my reasons, and I think it’d be good to explore this more, but for now, let’s just leave it all as a meme.

What are your quick, unforgettable 15? Feel free to post ’em in the comments below.

Nintendo 3DS coming to the United States in March 2011

…and I’m totally not gonna buy it on launch day!

Sure, it is coming loaded with bells and whistles out the whazoo, but I’m not entirely sold yet on why, seeing as my Nintendo DS Lite from 2007 is running magically and just as awesome as any other DS iteration, I need this. I’m definitely going to sit back and watch the playing field very carefully; the fact that the 3D aspect of it can be turned off entirely boggles my mind because then you’d just be using an enhanced DSi, and I need to know how much it is worth that experience. Early reviews will be telling, but 3D gaming is something one must experience for themselves, and seeing that I have terrible eyesight, this is looking less and less like something fun, and more of a struggle to get into.

As always, Japan gets to gobble it up first, and the Nintendo 3DS will be released there on February 26 for 25000 yen (about $300). And then Europe and the United States will get it some time in March 2011, but when and for how much is not yet known. Though I feel like those Nintendo reps wouldn’t mind charging us gamers $300 or more for a handheld videogame console we already purchased numerous times before. The only possibility I’d consider in getting this would be due to an awesome trade-in deal, but even then, it’d be hard to part with my Lite…we’ve shared so many good times together, and it’s not like it’s out-of-date or faulty. It just now has to compete with shinier toys.

Anyways, here’s a better picture of the final Nintendo 3DS design:

What do y’all think of it? Mmm analog stick nub thingy…

Harvest Moon meets FarmVille meets a mouthful of sleeping pills

I’ve spent the past two weeks so far packing up my little studio apartment and slowly moving everything over to Tara and I’s new place, now officially known as The Leaky Cauldron. Cause, uh, when it rains, the ceiling leaks. How fun! And I’ve discovered a number of videogames that I bought and kind of forgot about as I shove them into boxes and bags. One unmemorable piece of plastic and coding turned out to be Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, which I bought during an extreme spout of depression back in late June. I thought it might help fill the mild void that FarmVille left; side note, I was never addicted to the Facebook farming game, but I did log in every day for a few months to see what was what, but eventually lost interest despite liking the idea of crafting a piece of land into exactly what I wanted.

It’s a farming game with a mix of monster killing/monster raising, but I never got very far with it. It’s also been described as “Harvest Moon where you wield a sword.” The mechanics of it all though were very cold and regimented, leaving me confused and unsure of my farming skills. I basically started the game as Raguna, a fellow suffering from amnesia and wandering into the local town called Kardia. There he meets a girl named Mist who gives him a piece of land to farm and then…well, then you farm it. No tutorial really, no explanation. Exploring the city’s shops and houses allows Raguna to meet a host of characters, eventually finding himself face to face with the mayor who will allow him to enter the first cave and clear it of nasty monsters attacking Kardia. From there, Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon is open-ended. You can continue farming, trying to earn money by selling logs, woo women from town, or go cave-clearing. Or you can do what I did and try to clear the first monster cave only to get so far and then run out of health, exit out to rest, and go back to find ALL THE MONSTERS I PREVIOUSLY KILLED RESPAWNED. Meaning, I was not moving forward, only wasting my time.

Supposedly the storyline will not continue on unless new caves aren’t opened and cleared by beating the boss at the end. Greaaaaaaat.

Well, let’s try farming. Maybe I will become an expert farmer instead of a supreme warrior. So, in Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, you have two gauges to keep track of: Hit Points and Rune Points. I think we all know how HP functions (if not, maybe Grinding Down isn’t the blog for you), but Rune Points more or less convert to stamina, and just about every single action Raguna takes uses up RP. If you run out of RP, then every subsequent action depletes your HP bar. Let’s take a look at what uses RP: digging, planting, watering, picking crops, swinging weapon, cooking food, and so on. RP is essential to living life, and it’s a shame because after maybe planting 9 seeds and then watering them, you’ll have run out of RP and are then forced to go to bed to restore your bar. And that, to me, seemed to be all I could do, day in, day out. I tried selling some logs and plants to make some money, but had no idea what to buy.

Either I’m missing something or I’m just not good at this game. It might be a mix of the two, but I found myself growing bored very fast as doing the same exact tactics over and over was not very fun. Maybe someone can explain it to me? If anything, Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon is a gorgeous-looking game. So there’s that at least, but it’ll most likely never get played again…

Collecting side quests in Dragon Quest IX is all the rage

Unfortunately, I got very busy and had to put Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skiesdown for a bit. To progress forward, I had to grind a bunch for money and experience and alchemy ingredients for better gear, and that sort of grinding did not sit well with my schedule. However, if there is one thing I have kept up with week after week of getting the game, it’s been downloading weekly DLC quests…quests I have not yet–and might not ever–played.

DLC quests #121 through #135, as of today, to be specific. Fourteen! FOURTEEN.

See, in Stornway, in that main inn with that name I just can’t recall, you’ll meet Sellma. She runs the DQVC, a daily online shop that hosts rare ingredients and equipment. It changes every single day so it’s worth visiting. Then, every Friday, DLC side quests are available. These get dropped into your quest log, but every single one so far is for post-game content only. I have about 15+ quests just sitting there, mocking me. Yet…I have to download them. I like having and knowing that I have this content ready for experiencing. That’d be some major gaming OCD for yah. I mean, I also went to that meetup to get that cool, rare grotto treasure map, and I haven’t even tried tackling it yet. Might not ever. I just like having it, in case, one day, a bolt of lightning strikes me, and I want to go grotto-ing about for loot and big bosses.

Anyways, over the weekend, I found a pocket of time during a dog-sitting day to immerse myself back into DQIX. And boy did I! I grinded, I completed some main quests, I beat a very catty boss, and I found myself thinking about all the recipes I want to complete and just how hard some will be to obtain all the specific ingredients. Man, this game just gives you so much to do, and I love it for that. Then I think I found myself fighting the “end boss” because I beat it once, and then it took a second form, which is very much an end boss thing to do. That second boss form wiped the floor with me as I had used up all of my resources during the first battle. Will have to grind some more and strengthen up, but I do plan to attack back soon as the list of untouched DLC quests is just getting too big for my brain to handle. FOURTEEN AND COUNTING!