One Duck's Opinion Forums

I finally got around to finishing Ar Tonelico . After like, two years of being distracted, I finally topped it off; and it was good. Gonna wrap up the other two endings this week, then move on to either Ar Tonelico II or Mana Khemia

HOLY CRAP, I just finished Batman: Arkham Asylum, and absolutely loved it. The whole environment felt like it's own character, and the gameplay shifted from combat, to stealth, to exploration so fluidly. Metroidvanias are indeed back, with a vengeance!

WJUK wrote:Did you notice that you can evade a lot of enemy attacks just by walking about (obviously not guns), I found that out in the demo.

Yeah, but you can't really just walk around everyone towards the end of the game lol.

I haven't played the demo, but anyways; how much of the game involves stalking around in shadows? Is it just optional, or encouraged? If the latter, then they'd probably want the run button to help prevent people from ruining their stalking due to pressing the analog stick ever so slightly too far.

The thing that always gets me is the HOLD crouch option in games (holding the analog stick/button in while trying to maneuver just feels wrong to me).

Key word being "most."
*grumble*

So I finished Chrono Trigger last night... or this morning. Wasn't paying much attention to the clock, but it probably was AM by the time I finished.

For the record: the Lost Sanctum is one of the dungeon/things that was added for the DS, and it's one of the WORST... things... to grace an RPG. Picture a town with some surrounding dungeon-type areas; then imagine being tasked with fetch quest after fetch quest after [/i]fetch quest[/i]. The armor you get from it isn't even a full "step" up from the main game. Very disappointing.

The Dimensional Vortex (the other addition) does seem a bit better, as you find neat equipment and upon completing one of the areas a character gets a stat upgrade (finishing Marle's area resulted in permanent boost to Accuracy, Stamina, and Speed). Also has a neat atmosphere (AND AN AREA USED THE SINGING MOUNTAIN music (skip approximately one minute if you click the link))

One ending down, twelve to go. And I can finally get back to playing Mana Khemia

It's very rushed/unorganized, but here we go:

So I finished Mana Khemia last night. And Wow. Gust is officially my favorite developer now; it's like each game they make is better than the last. Mana Khemia's pacing has a couple (I dunno if I want to call them) 'issues', but that's mainly only if you get good grades. The way the progression goes: you're in an Alchemy school, and every chapter you need to get enough credits for the Chapter; if you don't it's detention/make up work (I think; it never happened to me). Early on it's not a big deal, but later on if you get good grades for the week (2 A's), you get more Free time to do jobs (optional money making opportunity), and can explore the optional character-developing side stories (all seven characters you get have their own little side story you can explore during free time); the Free Time jobs are also where you fight the really challenging enemies (like the Snow Harpies... (*shudder*); you can skip the free time, but I feel compelled to do every last thing I can do.

LOTS OF ALCHEMY TO CRAFT. Many hours were spent running back and forth getting items to make items, making items to make other items, and forgetting to make one particular item I needed to make a weapon. The weapon crafting and item crafting are it to different areas, so it's a minor chore to run back and forth between the two. The Stat system is based on the Alchemy, so you need to craft items to make your characters stronger.

Each chapter begins with an Event, which relates to the story, and occasionally you'll get a small event during the chapter. Later on it felt like story content was starting to get kinda sparse (Event, two classes, four Free Time, Event, new Chapter). Despite that, the conclusion was worth every last bit of the 54 hours I put into the game. The story far more original than it seemed it would be, and one moment (a boss battle) I was (literally) saying to myself "No way." It was amazing.

NOW I DON'T KNOW IF I SHOULD GO TO MANA KHEMIA 2 OR AR TONELICO 2.

*wants to play both immediately*