Crusade of the Guardian

One my favorite games when I was little, was a game called Guardians Crusade on the Playstation. It was a super simple RPG, turn based combat, bright colors, a Tamagotchi/Pokemon-like pet and collectibles galore. So, I did some fanart for it, years ago. And then some more a couple years later. 

This and Wild Arms were the games that made me love RPGs. Speaking of Wild Arms... there's a game I haven't done any fanart for a while now...

Addendum to Ember Lancin'

I explained each of the classes to my girlfriend as she sat in front of the character creation screen for Torchlight. That's the Destroyer, he's like a big tank of a guy. Hits things with swords and axes and stuff. And that one is the Alchemist, he has magical spells and the ability to summon little imps and robots. And that one is the Vanquisher, she's good with bows and stuff. Throws traps that explode and shock people and that. 

She chose the Vanquisher because it's the one with the girl character model :P 

FFFFFFFFFFF

In an attempt to get something new to play on my phone apart from Pokemon, I got Fire Emblem. It seemed like a good idea at the time, A turn based fantasy strategy RPG. From Japan. Yay! What I didn't know was that it was ridiculously unforgiving. 

If one of your units dies they're gone for good, I am not sure if there is any way to resurrect them short of cheating. What this means, if you're like me, is that I can't finish a chapter unless I clear it perfectly. Which means a lot of restarting. A lot.

Look at this sexy mofo

Magicman does whatever a Magicman can.

That's the welfare tier 13 robe, yes it is. Since the new scroll of bringing people back with crazy benefits and playing WoW again, Seedus the mage has actually been able to do a raid and kill the dude on the box. The whole "killing the big baddie on the box" has always been an issue with me. Ever since I started playing Warcraft, either my lack of ability to sink time or find a good guild or have a decent internet connection has never allowed me to raid. With super easy Raid Finder raids though, I've done it. Yes, it was easier than it should be, yes it was with a group of strangers, but still, I did. So, props to Blizz for making casual raiding a reality. 

This might be worst screenshot of the Deathwing fight ever. 

Does it mean less though? Not taking down the big bad Deathwing in a challenging and rewarding way? I have been playing this game for years. I'm just glad I got to see the fight to be honest. 

Rawr.

And it's not like the gear is the best, so to get the upper level stuff, it would be more of a challenge. I felt a bit bad this morning when the chestpiece dropped and a Druid whispered me asking if he could have it. Then an awesome trinket dropped, which I won the roll for, and he couldn't believe it. It does come down to luck when getting items in LFR, and maybe if I had better gear I might have given it to him. But they were upgrades and I won the roll, should I feel guilty? If I'd won the roll on the shoulders then...actually I would have kept em, because everyone knows that shoulders make up 50% of a set. 

Bear Stealth mode activated.

Now I will get Gambito the Troll Druid to max level, and then see how I feel. I like Warcraft, it's a polished and huge game, and running dungeons with my mates is always the best. Am I interested in purchasing Mists of Pandaria? I'm leaning towards yes right now, but we'll see when it gets closer to release. I have a soft spot for Seedus, and taking him on a holiday to a mystical land full of panda people sounds like a good reward for him. 

What I Reckoning about Amalur

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a strange beast. It is essentially the product of an extremely rich person throwing money at people until a game comes out, in this case Curt Shilling, a retired baseball player who founded a videogame company after his retirement. I get the impression that Mr. Shilling wanted a game, so he took his money and gave it people until they released Reckoning.

There's also a whole bunch of big names attached to the game. Ken Rolston, an experienced game director with titles like Oblivion and Morrowind under his belt. R.A Salvatore, a best selling author with a lot of experience writing for the Fantasy genre (if the popularity of Drizzt is anything to go by). And Todd "let's make everything look scary" McFarlane, who spawned Spawn (and also drew some pretty terrible Spiderman comics back in the day).

That kind of describes Reckoning actually. It's like a whole bunch of things mooshed together to make an RPG. It's got the quest structure from World of Warcraft, a beefed up version of the combat from Fable, lockpicking (for some reason and also done incredibly badly) from Fallout and Skyrim, some brutal quicktime-y events from God of War  and probably a whole bunch of other things from other games I haven't played.

But how does it all fit together? I have had a lot of trouble finding the words to describe that answer, and I'm going to settle on "potentially awesome while still being fun".

The combat is arcadey, theres no doubt about that, but there were times when I'd get a nice sense of satisfaction out of beating a roomful of baddies without getting hit, weaving between foes with a light blade before switching to a hammer to put the smackdown on someone.

I also like how you're not too restricted when it comes to trying out a new build. There are three trees of combat, Might, Sorcery and Finesse which equate to your standard Warrior/Mage/Rogue archetypes. You're free to mix and match trees as you see fit though, and choose different Destinies for bonuses to the type of class you'd like to play.

I settled on a Might/Sorcery build that gave me the ability to bash baddies with a greatsword, but also wield magical chakrams and spells to affect larger areas. The thing is though, you can visit a Fateweaver to reset all your point allocations for a fee, and then try out a completely different build, if you feel like it.

From a design point of view, it hits a few marks while completely missing others. The general design of the world is very pretty in a cartoony, stylized sort of way, and some of the baddies are amazingly well realized. Mr. McFarlane gets a gold star there, for sure. I particularly like the Thresh and Boggart designs as well as the big tough Bolgans and Jottuns. The generic dark evil elves are kind of samey though.

 The world feels a bit too spaced out, like it was designed for multiple players instead of one character running around in it. A leftover from it's roots as an MMO maybe?

What about the story though, I mean, this is a Role-Playing game, what's the role you play? Reckoning puts you in the shoes of the Fateless One, the result of an experiment to defeat death. Everyone in the world of Amalur is governed by fate, but by dying and coming back, you have somehow detached yourself from the tapestry of fate, and can change the fates of others. This serves as an explanation for the aforementioned ability to reset your skills, seeing as how you are no longer governed by fate.

So you have this interesting concept in an admittedly huge world, but what Reckoning falls short on is delivering a well paced or even sometimes coherent story. The main questline itself is such a slow burn, combined with the multitudes of sidequests that proceeded to get me sidetracked, everything just seemed like it took too long to get into gear.

When the main plot does get going though, it has some pretty epic moments. And while the world is definitely fleshed out, I failed to feel anything for any of the characters. I mean hell, I loved the characters in Saints Row the Third, but the cast of Reckoning failed to give me anyone to relate to, or even care about. What Reckoning needed was an Alistair or a Varric. (No gold star for you, Mr. Salvatore)

Maybe if they had taken out 50% of the sidequests and used that time to polish the main story, there would be something here. As it stands its bland and has been done to death.

TLDR version: Reckoning is a decent RPG with some fun and interesting combat. It's not going to break any molds or win any awards for groundbreaking mechanics, and it definitely could have used some more polish in the story department.

However, I got the story of how my girlfriend slaughtered an entire inn of people by accident, because she didn't know she was stealing a book off a shelf. She felt bad for a little while, then proceeded to go back to bashing things with a hammer.

Sometime later... More thoughts on Skyrim

Hello, my name is Albert and I play too much Skyrim. 

Falmer? More like FODDER, amirite? 

My first two characters in Skyrim were fun. I finished the main dragon-y questline with Kukurin the Imperial Swordswoman first and then with Jan'Ice the Mage I got my fill of mage-y goodness. My third character though, feels like...I dunno. He feels like the one. Is it possible to have a "main character" in a single player game? If so, that's what Albrecht the Nord feels like. Also, he has the most screenshots.

Lots of these screenshots are of Albrecht stabbing people.

I have definitely got my moneys worth out of Skyrim, almost two hundred odd hours later and I am still finding new places, new quests and new ways to utterly decimate enemies.

Decapitation, fun for the whole family! 

I also don't know why it takes me so long to get into the main questline. Actually, I do know why. It's because the other questlines are so much cooler. The Thieves Guild definitely has to be my favorite. In discussions on Skyrim that I have had with my friends, some of them lean more towards the Dark Brotherhood, but I feel like there is a sense of satisfaction that I get with that questline that kinda beats the Brotherhood a bit.

I'm Batman.

Like I mentioned in my first thoughts, the most satisfaction I have gotten in the Skyrim is sneaking through an entire bandit camp, pickpocketing as I go and looting their entire treasure trove before heading out the back. Sure, it's not the sword swinging, magic blasting way to go (not that I completely ignored those skills, theres always a shield in my favorites menu) but its fun.

Just three gang and their badass armor. 

I have my gripes with the game. That's for sure, but they are lumped into minor and major ones.

Minor Gripes (or things that probably just bug me) 

-Why can't I talk more to people? There's a Speech skill. I want to be able to persuade a bandit to put down his sword and think about what he's doing with his life. At 100 Speech I want to be able to make a bandit break down and cry with regret.

Instead, I will settle for taking everyones clothes. 

- People who get in my way. I am looking at you companions. I have probably played 90% of this game without using a meatshield, mainly because they are stupid as shit. Standing in doorways. Running over traps. Everyone in Skyrim is dumb except for me.

- The lack of love my wife shows me. My first character got married. We were both werewolves. I had thought that maybe we could have hot werewolf sex. But no. She just stays home and makes me pie. Sometimes she gives me money. She says she loves me...but sometimes I feel the magic is gone.

Nothing like some Falmer killin' for working off that frustration. 

- Feeling like a god. Okay this is just me. There is a certain point where you become very very powerful. I have tried turning up the difficulty, switching to skills that I don't use often and even like...letting baddies hit me a few times. But this is part of the progression of power that all RPG's kind of have. Plus...I do have the bad habit of grinding a bit in single player games.

- How I have to be the leader of every faction I help. I would settle for being second in command of the Companions, or even like Assistant Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild. It kinda makes me wonder what kind of selection process these people have, when you can walk in off the street on Monday and leave on Friday with the keys to the entire place. Sure, theres always the "chosen by destiny for great things" aspect to it. But come on, the leader of all these factions? Really?

Major Gripes

As close as you're going to get to riding a Dragon around.

-Dragons. That's pretty much it. For a game where one of the main selling points is it's infinite dragons, Bethesda almost dropped the ball with these. Yes, the first fights with Dragons are epic. You panic, you die, you wonder if you're supposed to be able to beat them (or maybe I just rushed into that too early on my first go) but eventually all the dragons have the same pattern to them.

Good times, though, good times.

Shoot dragon until it's angry enough to land. Then hit dragon in face until it dies. That's what I found that worked, and that's pretty much what I stuck with up until the big bad dragon in the end. (Okay that's a lie, there was a Sho...oh wait Spoilers :P)

And some of kind of dragon lock-on so that they can strafe you with dragonfire without you being able to dodge them.

Not pictured: my inability to dodge Dragonfire.

Thankfully all of this can be avoided by not starting the first dragon encounter. Which means you are free to enjoy a Dragon-less Skyrim if you please. Then again, you won't be able to use the Unrelenting Force shout to propel bears off of mountaintops.

Do I really need to praise this game more? 


What I do love about Skyrim though, are the little things. The way that you are free to level your character as you please. That you aren't overtly punished for going off the beaten track. There's always a cave or a temple or someone in need of your aid if you go that way.

And by aid I mean, help me stab these people. 

Just yesterday I stumbled upon a tower, and upon entering it happened across a battle between two mages. Then I helped one of them battle through said tower, get to the top and stop her mother from completing a dark and eldritch ritual.

Then I took the old bags staff and pawned it for some sweet sweet gold.

I like the way you can get your friend to teach you new skills. Then pickpocket your gold back.

I like propelling bears off of mountaintops with the power of my voice.

And I guess what I like the most is making my own story. The Sneak Thief with a Silver Tongue and a penchant for bashing people in the face with his shield. The Swordswoman who fell from grace. The haughty elf who loves her Firebolts. Who knows what adventures await my next character?

Yo Dawg

I heard you like Novice Necromancers...

One of the few Skyrim screenshots that I have that isn't of my character stabbing someone in the face.

How games made me Awesome

This is a short essay I wrote a while back, for no particular reason other than I felt like writing. It rambles a bit and is never serious, so it's pretty much a standard Albie essay.

The first videogame I can recall playing was a first person shooter called Wolfenstein 3D on my fathers ancient Macintosh II. It was a fairly simple game, in which you play a Allied soldier trying to escape Nazis in the aforementioned Castle Wolfentstein. I was also about six years old. Sure, maybe letting a six year old shoot pixellated Nazis wasn’t the best idea in the world, but it did start something that I’m sure my parents regret. It got me hooked on videogames.

My God, it's like a movie!

From then on, I’ve pretty much played games whenever the opportunity arises, except with the hearts of others (Backstreet Boys reference, terrible, I know).

Nothing good on TV? Play a game.Not near a suitable place to play games? Draw something (probably game related). No paper? Think about how much I like games. Sure, you could call it obsessive. In fact, you’re probably thinking theres something wrong with me somewhere. But there is a reason why I love games so much. They made me awesome.

Games have taught me not to give up. The boss is too difficult? You failed at that jump in Super Mario? The fucking Angry Bird flew too high over a pig? Try again. And chances are, you’ll learn how to beat that problem, and you’ll be rewarded. Sure, it’s a virtual reward, that isn’t tangible, but the lesson remains. If you can learn to apply that lesson, there's nothing you can't do.

I am a huge RPG (Role-playing Game) fan. I can go on for hours about Final Fantasies, Dragon Quests and Star Oceans, and for a good reason. The first RPG that really blew my mind was Final Fantasy 7, a little game that came out in 1998, and that I picked up about a year after it was released (Fiji Time, you understand). It was the first time that I played a game with characters that resonated, a plot that spanned everything from environmentalism, to love, to corporate greed and sacrifice.

As you can imagine, it blew my little mind away. Through that game, I realised that videogames have a way to teach lessons that most other media can’t. Interaction. You can read a book, or watch a film, but these stories are presented to you to watch. You’re not responsible for the outcome, you’re kind of just along the ride. It doesn’t make them any less important, don’t get me wrong, but videogames should be up there with them.

So there I was, chugging away at this game when out of nowhere, the girl that I had been travelling with for a dozen hours is cut down by my arch-nemesis. My happy go lucky, cheerful friend was slain, and there was no way to bring her back. I had to carry that, through the rest of the game, until I finally bitchslapped the last boss to oblivion, and it made it that much more satisfying. Like I said, the fact that I had to interact with the game, through pressing buttons to progress the story, making decisions in battles and planning ahead, invested me in the story that much more.

And I will admit, I cried my eyes out when she died.

Still get misty-eyed sometimes :(

Which brings me to another reason why games made me awesome. The fact that I had to press those buttons to progress the story. Yes, it’s just pressing a button, but you have to press the right ones, in certain ways, and at certain times to get it work. Right now, I’m touchtyping this essay without even thinking about it, and the reason I know how to touchtype is because I play a lot of videogames, and had to learn that particular skill in order to succeed. Sure, I didn’t think about it at the time, I just wanted to able to communicate faster in order to tell my friend Mike to get that dragon away from me, but now that I know how to do it, it’s pretty damn useful. And I can impress secretaries.

Computers and technology are everywhere nowadays. Most people carry one around in their pockets. We use them for work, you can access your money from them on every other street corner in Suva, and we pay good money to people to get them fixed when they break. Now, I’m not an IT guy, but because of videogames I found computer science class in highschool a piece of cake. Heck, I spent most of my time using the Basic program they tried to teach us to make text adventures. I’m also pretty sure that it was my highest mark, but I’ll have to get back to you on that (it may have been Geography, but that’s a different essay entirely).

They’ve made me read more too. An old mentor of mine once told me that there are no original ideas, and the same is true for the stories in videogames. They’re all based on something eventually. Ancient mythologies, religious ideals, heck, even Shakespeare has influenced some of my favorite games, and I usually ended up looking these things up and liking them because I played it in a game at some point.

Case in point, I would never have read anything about Norse Mythology unless I had played Final Fantasy 8. In it, you get a spaceship called the Ragnarok.

It's red, therefore, goes faster.

Sure, you may have heard the word a couple of times before (they use it all the time in bad sci-fi/ fantasy movies, usually from the 80’s) but I went and read about it because I wanted to know what the reference was. Okay, so it turned out that it was pretty much just a cool name they chose for the airship, but now I have some extra knowledge floating around in my brain that, you never know, might come in handy one day.

Quick, the Ice Giants are coming!

So what does this mean? Simply put, if you’re reading this, and haven’t played a game in your life you should try. You may end up being as awesome as I am. And at the very least you won’t spend an evening vegging out in front of a television screen. Granted, you’ll be vegging out in front a screen, but at least your brain will have to work to solve a problem or two. And if you do play games, and I’m preaching to the choir, use these points the next time someone gets on your case.

Because when the world ends, and those dragons mutate from mokos due to insane amounts of cosmic radiation, we’ll be the ones who know how to beat ‘em.

Also, don't just take my word for it, there are other people who believe that videogames can make you awesome, and make much better cases for it than I do. If you're interested in gaining some knowledge, the best place to start is this TEDtalk here. Educate thyselves.

So Damn Witchy

Was slightly traumatising to be honest. Haven't had much playtime with The Witcher 2 yet, but once I do, I'll write some thoughts down, don't you worry!

We're the Turks, yo

Ahh, the Turks. The weird thing about the Turks is how they become almost another group of heroes in a way.

I mean, in the beginning of the game you're at odds because you're working against Shinra, but as the game goes on both the main party and the Turks are working towards the same goal.

There's even an option to avoid fighting them at some point.

But here's the thing, I never do. Mainly because even though they're cool characters, THEY STILL KILLED HUNDREDS (THOUSANDS?) OF PEOPLE.

Yes, it was on the orders of their superiors, but it was still Reno's hand on the button. Anyway, I'm reading too much into this game again.

From left to right, Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena.

A wall of text and pictures appears!

So I've had a little more time with DQ9. Since the game came out ages ago, this is not a review by any means, but more my thoughts on the game.

First off, I like how it's almost a back to basics sort of RPG. There are no flashy over the top attempts to disguise it for what it is, a hearkening back to the days of SNES RPGs. Battles are turn based, and if you're not regular about grinding levels or upgrading your equipment, monsters will stomp your face harder than an elephant at a breakdancing competition.

I've also already mentioned in earlier posts how much I love the fact that each and every piece of equipment you buy or make shows up on your characters. This had a slight drawback for me at one point because there was a pair of pants that were really well suited for my Mage. Unfortunately, he never got to wear them because the model was a pair of briefs. Bright. Blue. Briefs.

DQ9 also has a pretty extensive crafting system. Sure you can buy equipment from the store, but if you take the time to scour bookshelves for recipes and the wilderness for ingredients, you can easily make gear that surpasses what you can buy for your level. It helps to give you that extra edge against monsters and bosses and well, theres nothing like making your own stuff.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned anything of the story though. I will admit, it's pretty generic fantasy, but the NPC's and the way they are written make up for this somewhat. However, the story in DQ9 is merely an excuse to get you from Town A to Dungeon B and then on to Town C.

All the while, however, throwing wonderful loot and goodies at your face. Eventually, you get the ability to change a characters Vocation, and from this point how you handle battles depends on how well you can balance your characters skill points, abilities and strengths. For example, at the moment I am levelling Mikey as a thief. However, he still has his bonuses from the time I levelled him as a Warrior, and as such, is not as squishy as a regular thief. Basically, I don't have to worry about him too much.

This will probably not be the last post about Dragon Quest IX, seeing as how when I get this far or invested in an RPG I usually end up finishing it. (Except for Warcraft... /cry)

All in all though, it's an awesome game for fans of old school RPGs and probably also people who like dressing up little people in matching outfits to fight monsters.

The Adventure Continues

So, while my progress in Dragon Quest IX has been slow, there has been progress. Thought I'd just post what my party looks like at the moment ^_^

I love how customizable the party members are. Although I haven't changed any vocations yet, since I still have the basic ones.

Omega is the partys Mage. His job is to stand in the back and throw spells at people, which sometimes decimates an entire group of foes at once! You kinda have to keep an eye on his MP though. He goes through it like a hot knife through butter if you're not careful.

Mikey the Warrior has the highest strength, the best armor and the most HP of the party. And he also costs the most to outfit Kaos is a bit of an enigma to me. He's the priest...but he's also reeeally good with his spear. I guess since he doesn't have any offensive spells, he needs some way to kill monsters. I don't question it, I just let him do his thing.

And finally we have the Minstrel Albie. No, that's not a hand-me-down suit of armor, it's actually got awesome stats, it just looks the same as the level 10 chestpiece that mikey was wearing. I made it through Alchemy...and it took ages to farm the Snakeskin required for it. Was totally worth it though!

And that's how the gang in DQIX is doing so far!

Dragon Quest IX!

Been playing Dragon Quest 9 a bit. It's so old school I feel like I'm ten years old again when I play it :P

This is my party so far. Albie the Minstrel (no choice since thats the default class for mainboy >_>), Mikey the Warrior, Kaos the Priest and Omega the Mage. Can't wait to try out different classes for these guys! Will probably write some words about DQIX after I have a bit more time with it.

Those Screens!

I remembered them today! Here are a few screenshots of my short (yet awesome) time in Minecraft. A pretty early shot of my base at night. I spawned right next to a lake sort of thing, so I got in a boat and did some...boating around. (While of course, playing Lonely Islands "I'm on a Boat")

One of my first projects was to construct a skylight in my mine. It has the advantage of letting me know what time it is before I reach the first floor, and also burnin' up any skeletons or zombies that might follow me. If I run out of arrows or swords...

And this is one of the latest iterations of the base. The upper fortress is pretty cosmetic at this point, but is still a nice place to chill at night. And the tower is for sniping creepers for their gunpowder. Also, ch-ch-check the Diamond items maaaan!

Pretty Happy with This

/Movie Trailer voice on
One Man...must survive...the wilderness.

But he doesn't know...that at night...danger awaits him.

Echoes from Underground

The Unfriendlies by ~Turnthephage

Right, so I've had a decent go at Minecraft (but forgot to bring the screenshots I took to work, d'oh) and I had a few thoughts I wanted to write down. First off, if you want some extra reading on what exactly Minecraft is, here are a few links.

Right, so first off, the graphics are not the best in the world. They do however, do the job. What that means is that rock looks like rock, you can tell that that brown thing with the green stuff on top of it is a tree and that that pink thing jumping around is supposed to be a piggy. Eventually you stop noticing how blocky everything is, and some of the randomly generated landscapes are quite impressive.

Minecraft reminds me of when I was a little lad playing in my room with my legos. I'd build castles and towers and space stations and then have the little yellow dudes play out their adventures. Often, smashing some of it for dramatic effect. The game is kind of like lego, but you play the perspective of the lego men. Well, a lego man.

That's another thing, apart from the animals and monsters, you are all alone. There are no friendly humanoid non player characters, and anything that vaguely resembles a man is either going to shoot arrows at your head or try and give you the zombie death hug. I really get the feeling when I'm playing, that the world is out to get me, and the only way I can survive is to rely on myself.

Conan the Mineventurer by ~Shinedog

So you build defences, you never venture out at night (unless you are feeling brave) and you learn to listen out for the telltale sounds of a zombies moan or a skeletons bones rattling in the distance. And spiders...don't get me started on the fucking spiders.

And then there is the mining. Why would you even bother, right? If there are things that want to kill you down there? Well, that's where minerals are. Coal for your torches, Iron for better tools, and of course the elusive azure glow of Diamonds. Sometimes it gets downright tense, especially when you stumble upon a natural cavern underground. You'll creep along, putting torches on the wall, your fingers ready to switch to your sword or bow. Sure, you could play the game on peaceful mode, but I feel like the game would get a bit boring that way.

Anyway, I don't want this to turn into a TLDR wall of text, so I'll leave it at that, and get those screenshots up later.

Awesome art by Michael Corrigan