I'm selling a Limited Edition copy of Demon's Souls.

For all parties who are interested, I'm selling off my copy for $40. I figured I'd make a good offer to my friends before going the Ebay/Amazon route. That's half the purchase price brand new and I promise it's in near perfect condition. Primarily because it spent 90% of the two months that I've had it sitting on my shelf. I'm afraid the game is entirely too damned beastly for me to bother to ever continue to play it. Maybe one of you out there will have better luck. In any case, if anyone is interested email me here.....

kenolabar@hotmail.com

And we'll do buisness.


UPDATE (Dec 7): $old!!! Thanks for playing!

I am teh weaksauce.

When I stated that I was tossing in the towel on Demon's Souls, I didn't necessarily mean that I didn't like the game. I do. And I likely won't get rid of it, if only because it's an Atlus game and I already paid for the special edition version and if I ever wanted to go back and play it I'd probably have to pay a hefty price online for it. Besides, the game is fantastic. It's just, well, I'm getting too old for this shit.

What I mean is, I just don't have the patience for extremely difficult games that I once had. I remember as a kid going through and actually beating all of the Ninja Gaiden games on NES because I actually had things like time and patience to do those things. Nowadays I get probably like 1 to 2 hours tops of gaming in a day because I attend college and work about 20-30 hrs a week. I don't feel like spending that time going through and doing the same thing over and over until I clear it. Because then it just begins to feel like work. Its time to stop playing when you're loading up the game and just going through the motions. And no, the game isn't perfect by any means at all. The targeting system is a little wonky; sometimes you can't exactly target which specific enemy you want, particularly if there are a lot present and in a game where a split second could mean the difference between life and death that's pretty important. The lack of music starts to get to you after awhile also, especially after you've gone through the same area for 50 times and worst of all, while you can reclaim any lost souls you have when you die, if you die in a boss battle you have to enter the boss arena to reclaim it, but of course you have to beat the boss all over again....which, if you're unprepared for the boss you may as well kiss those hard earned souls goodbye.

Oh well, I'll probably return to it at some point later but for the moment at least I'm done.

YOU DIED

......That's a message I've been seeing a lot lately in the past week, thanks to Demon's Souls. Don't get me wrong, I still keep coming back for more, because like I said, it's perversely fun and truly rewarding when you actually get ahead in the game.

It just takes a lot of deaths and a lot of broken controllers time and effort to get there. That being said, I was planning to review this game, but I don't think that review is coming anytime soon because I like to beat, or at least, you know, get far in any game I plan to review but good God I don't think that this game is going to allow me to progress anytime soon. I've had the game for about a week but only have managed to get as far as Armor Spider. (Which ain't far, no sir.)

Of course, when I'm not embarrassing myself with pathetic attempt after pathetic attempt to clear Demon's Souls, Katamari Forever has been soaking up my time also. It's amazing how fun rolling a stupid ball around and picking up a bunch of shit can be.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Review

You know, I’ll be honest. I’m very torn about my feelings when it comes to Persona. On one hand what you have is an excellent redesigned port of an older game that addressed many of the issues that plagued it previously. But on the other hand, the game itself just had a few nagging flaws already to begin with that keep it from being fantastic.

Like many games in the Persona series, this game has an excellent, stylish presentation. Many changes were made to give the game an updated feel and it all works. The new opening video is marvelous and captures the feel of the story perfectly. Other new fully animated FMVs, with voice acting exclusively for the English version as well, and of course, the translation has been completely overhauled, in order to present a more authentic version to the English audience. To continue this update, the music has been entirely redone in the style of some of the more contemporary Persona games. It’s all personal opinion really, but for the most part the new music works and tends to get catchy after awhile, even if you have absolutely no clue what they’re singing. It just gets indoctrinated into your brain after awhile and eventually you start to enjoy it. Of course, this a problem in other Persona games as well, but the biggest problem with the soundtrack is that many of the same tracks often repeat way too many times and your growing affection for the music may quickly turn into seething hatred for the music depending on how long your play session is. 2 to 3 hours nonstop of listening to the battle theme tends to have you reaching for the volume button irregardless of how catchy it becomes. But really that’s a minor issue, even if you hate the music there’s plenty more put into this re-release to enjoy that makes it all worthwhile. But unfortunately, the visuals for the most part have remained largely untouched. It’s initially jarring to see how the graphics have aged to a degree, particularly when witnessing the stiff, wooden, battle animations, but really, the graphics overall haven’t aged that badly and while the graphics have remained largely untouched, the menus have been given a brand new look and are easier to navigate and the absolutely atrocious world map from the original game has been mercifully redesigned. Instead of a hideous 3D map, the developers wisely opted for a panned out 2D map and a simple press of the square button will tell you each location in the immediate area. Game progression is handled much more smoothly this go around. Load times have been shortened. An option to shorten battle animations has been added. Walking speed has been greatly increased and holding down the circle button lets you move even faster. All of this helps create a more enjoyable gameplay experience from the original.

This is a fun game. But it helps to remember that this game is not the same experience you’ll get from playing some of the more recent Persona games. This game settles itself in sort of a limbo between the old school dungeon crawling RPGs of yesterday (dungeons are actually in first person in this one) with the more contemporary story driven RPGs of today. Story is secondary to the actual gameplay and you’ll spend most of your time navigating the many of the labyrinths the game offers. That’s not to say that the story isn’t memorable or doesn’t have memorable characters. In fact, one of Persona’s greatest strengths is in the excellent pacing of the game. The plot is revealed in such a fashion that you get just enough information so that you’re able to figure out what your objective is and move forward with little hassle. Never does the game get sidetracked in its plot, dragging the length of the game to an unnecessary level; in fact the game is only about 20 to 30 hours long depending upon your play style and by the end it doesn’t feel like it was too short or too long, but just right.

However, like I previously stated, you’ll be walking around and navigating dungeons in this game. A lot. That’s not particularly a bad thing though. Because where this game shines more than any other area is in its unique battle system. Similar to a chess board almost, you have to place your characters on a grid and their placement on that grid, coupled with their weapon choice is what determines what enemies they can attack. Characters can choose between both weapon and gun attacks, with guns generally providing better range, but sacrificing power over weapons and of course characters can also summon their Personas in battle as well. Each of your characters can keep a stock of up to 3 Personas at a time, with each character having a different affinity for different Personas. In other words, some Personas work better than others depending on who has it “equipped.” Now a staple of any Persona game, players can create new Personas by visiting Igor in the Velvet Room and fusing them together by obtaining various spell cards from the demons you encounter, which brings up the most unique aspect of the battle system, the negotiations. Yes, in order to be successful in Persona, holding conversations and trying to pick out the right answer to please demons so that they’ll relinquish these cards and other items and money is essential. It seems a little confusing at first but really it’s just a matter of mix and matching, and eventually you’ll figure out what to say to which demon after a few encounters. To help you out a meter that displays the demons’ various emotions is displayed and shows your progress with the negotiation. If you find yourself angering it further and further, try having another character negotiate or try a different approach with the same character. It’s this interaction that keeps battles fun and fresh. They can also save your hide if you’re low on health and suddenly get ambushed from behind.

If you feel put off by things like “dungeon-crawler”, and “negotiation” because it sounds like it’s complicated, don’t be. Actually, arguably this game is perhaps the easiest game in the series, provided you do the main storyline. While the inability to attack every enemy on the screen and only those “in range” force you often times to rely on magic, your magic slowly regenerates as you move outside of battle and no matter what spells that particular Persona has learned, it costs the same amount of MP to use no matter what. In fact, your Personas level up based upon how much you use them in combat so there’s absolutely no reason not to use them frequently in combat. If your main character dies, it’s not an instant game over and while exploiting weaknesses is still a part of the strategy, it’s not as absolutely vital to success as it is in P3 or P4. In fact I progressed through the game and very rarely had to use a healing item. Not to imply that this game is a cakewalk or anything. A cheap death is still very possible. There are a lot of nasty status effects in this game that can disable you if you’re not paying attention and your whole party could be quickly wiped out because they continue to neutralize your members and attempting to flee the battle results in failure more than half of the time. Couple this with a very high encounter rate and you could quickly find yourself loading up your last save if you’re not careful. The game isn’t the hardest RPG out there, but it certainly doesn’t allow you to get lazy. Easily the worst aspect of the game is the ridiculous encounter rate. While negotiation with demons helps somewhat it’s still aggravating to take two steps and immediately be thrust into another battle.

But for all of the game’s flaws there’s still plenty of reasons to give the game at least one play through, but really to get the maximum enjoyment from it, multiple play throughs are recommended. In fact, the alternate side-quest, the Snow Queen Quest has been added to this version of the game which was cut out of the original and offers a completely different storyline from the main game. While this is intriguing, I should give a fair warning and say that this is significantly more difficult than the main storyline, although it’s still do-able provided you have the time and patience to complete it. Each story has both a bad and a good ending and which party members you can take along can vary depending upon your responses and choices as you play which makes each play experience different from others.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but overall I enjoyed this revisit to see where the Persona series began. This game won’t set the world on fire or anything but I encourage all fans of the Shin Megami Tensei series to check it out, especially if you’ve never played the original release on PSX. It’s been given a cool new look and feel and while visually it doesn’t really impress by today’s standards the game mechanics still shine and provide two things that are timeless; an intriguing story and plain good ol’ fun.

Demon's Assholes.

Yup, so pretty much as expected Demon's Souls is a completely punishing and utterly unforgiving bastard of a game. But the crazy part? I keep coming for more. That's right, despite having died like 20 times in 2 hours I still continue to take the punishment and press on. This is due to the simple fact that this game managed to achieve what so many other games attempt to do, yet fail at. This game is very hard, because it's just hard. Not yet have I experienced a cheap death out of the innumerable amount of times that I've died. All deaths were due to my erroneous behavior and I have no one to blame but myself. It's all about learning the layout of the levels and making sure you don't make the same dumb mistakes.

I kind of like the whole online interaction thing where you get to leave messages for other players and leave hints and other various tips. Some of those tips have actually saved my hide. So um, to the guy that left that hint in the first stage to attack the box containing the iron balls that roll down the hill and pretty much eliminate 15 possible enemies at once, um, here's my shout out to you. Thanks! Whoever you are.

I'm off to go let Demon's Souls make a bitch out of me some more.

Only in a Japanese RPG could a fucking basketball do you in.

So, um....yeah. Snow Queen Quest. Much to my chagrin today I made it all the way up to the top of the first tower only to be bested by a group of basketballs and toilet seats right before the boss room. Yup. 2 to 3 hrs or so completely down the drain. Because you see there are no save points once you do a tower and if you get back attacked by a group of enemies due to a spell of bad luck and die because you weren't probably prepared you get hours of work wiped out just like that. Unfortunately such a fate has befallen me today. I likely won't be going back to Persona PSP anytime soon. That Snow Queen Quest is just plain evil man. I like old school RPGs but man, the era of playing for hours with no save points is one I'm glad we aren't re-living in this day and age......

.....That reminds me, Ashley called me and told me that my copy of Demon's Souls will be available for pick up tomorrow. Oh, well. I've got some extra money in the bank I've been saving up for any possible controllers I may throw out of the window in frustration when the first dragon I come across roasts my ass and I lose all of my equipment and items I worked for hours to obtain. I do love wasting my time with frustratingly hard RPGs. I seem to have some sort of sick, twisted obsession with it.

Hurt me MORE Atlus

P2 IS EP AS DLC?!?

I just picked up my copy of Persona 1 at Gamestop today, it was there as "Ashley" promised and of course I'm the only one that pre-ordered it. How ner.....awesome am I? They were nice enough to even package the original soundtrack in with the game. Great! Unless you're one of those whiners complaining about how "THEY RUINED TEH MUSIC IT WAS SO MUCH BETER IN THE ORIGINL TEH JPOP SUXORS". You're just shit out of luck I guess. Anyway. Hopefully this game does well particularly as DLC on the PSN when it releases on 10/1. Why? Because as I've stated a long time ago, I think Atlus will look at the sales for this game for any possible re-releases of Persona 2, which is an even better game than this one. Seriously, even if you didn't pre-order, pick it up off of the PSN and at least give it a shot. You might be surprised. It's aged surprisingly well since 96. Good sales will hopefully finally = Persona 2 Innocent Sin FINALLY getting a translation and perhaps a remake of Eternal Punishment. At the very least the original Eternal Punishment will be available as DLC.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Review

What? A game review he does? What is this world coming to? Actually, I've got plenty in the can just haven't posted them yet. I plan to rectify that oversight in the next coming weeks. Anyway, as if you couldn't tell by my layout, I'm a pretty big fan of the MegaTen games. No way am I gonna let this one slip through my fingers unreviewed.

If you’re a fan of strategy RPGs or the Shin Megami Tensei line of games, then Devil Survivor is a game that absolutely cannot be missed. It’s one of the best offerings the Nintendo DS has to offer. With its modern day setting, unique rock soundtrack and gameplay that is both fun and challenging, this game breathes fresh life into what can often become a fairly stagnant genre and immediately hooks you in.

The premise of Devil Survivor is simple. In traditional SMT fashion, you play as a nameless main character that has come to visit your cousin, a talented computer programmer in Tokyo. After you and your friends arrive to meet up with him, he’s mysteriously disappeared and soon all of Tokyo is on lockdown, where no one can get in, or out. Food is scarce and all power is out in the city, hence the word “survivor” in the title. Luckily, your cousin left small portable computer devices known as COMPs for short (and strangely also happen to resemble DS Lite’s, hmmm…..) to be able to communicate. Unfortunately, demons begin pouring out of the COMPs and you come to find that you aren’t the only ones with this ability to summon demons as many others who plan to use the demons for harm instead of good exist as well, hence the government lockdown. Your initial task is to stop those individuals and discover the mystery of the lockdown eventually revealing a much larger purpose. The plot is revealed at the player’s pace as storyline events are marked on the map and various branches and alternative paths are opened up depending on where you go, who you visit and what time you visit them. Your actions could even change who potentially joins your party, which makes for great replay value.

I wonder if COMPs have useless Pictochats as well?

This game at its core plays like a typical strategy RPG much like a Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, for those familiar with those games, while combining elements from various other more popular MegaTen franchises like Persona or Digital Devil Saga. Even though this game is part of the “Shin Megami Tensei” line, this story takes place all in its own universe and is pretty much a stand alone story outside of technical terms like spell names and the like. While prior knowledge of previous SMT games is not a requirement, not knowing that “Zio” means “thunder” or that “Agi” means “fire” could initially confuse some casual players, rest assured that the game spends quite a few hours walking any newcomers through a few battles and making sure that you get the gist of it before deciding to just throw you out there.

But boy, once you get out there, this game throws you to the wolves. This game starts out fairly simple, but is no cakewalk by any means. By the time you get to your first boss, if you don’t have the basic mechanics down you’ll get creamed. Unlike many other SRPGs, character building is done less with levels than with what skills you know, and equipment like armor or accessories is nonexistent. Instead, much like Pokemon or some other monster raising game, you must find and train new demons in order to, ahem, survive. This is done via a Demon Auction where you must bid cash in order to get the demon that you want. Other people may offer a better price so there’s no guarantee you’ll get the one that you want unless you buy it at the initial Hammer Price which is usually pretty steep. Your party consists of your main characters who each lead a team of demons. Each team consists of a human storyline character with the ability to control at least 2 demons on the field at once. It takes a turn, but you can recall a demon and switch them out from a stock of up to 24 that you can carry in all. Effectively swapping out your demons and using the right ones for the right situations is the key to success. Positioning on the battlefield is not as crucial as it is in many other SRPGs, you engage the enemy in a battle screen and not in the field so what direction from which you approach the enemy is a nonfactor. You can even heal HP or status effects even when not engaged with the enemy. However, proper exploitation of the battle system is extremely crucial. What demons you have in your stock can either make a battle excessively aggravating or a breeze. The Press Turn system that originated in SMT Nocturne and now seemingly a staple of SMT games once again makes its return here where if your opponent has a weakness and you exploit it, you gain an extra turn that you can use to either cause more damage or heal a dying ally. Likewise, your enemies have this ability as well, so paying attention to subtle details like that is a must. The game does a pretty good job with overlaying all of these statistics however, using the top screen to display each characters statistics and a simple press of the R button switches from allies to enemies.

Many SRPGs fall into the trap of letting you use the basic strategy of letting the enemy come to you, but Devil Survivor, particularly for its major storyline battles doesn’t let you off so easily. Many times, innocent civilians caught in a battle must be saved and the enemy will often times chase after them with ruthless efficiency, other times a powerful boss character will continue to summon demons to do his bidding until he himself is defeated. The player also has the option in combat to consider taking out the leader and thus eliminating the entire unit or instead choosing to eliminate his teammates first which lowers the leaders defense and keeps any teammates from shielding the leader and taking the blow for him, doing so also nets more experience. Finding the proper balance of the two and considering which option is best, particularly in the battles where simply putting the enemy to rout isn’t enough for victory, keeps battles entertaining.

As expected with this being an SRPG, this game requires a lot of time and commitment on your part as it can take quite a few replays of particularly some of the more unorthodox battles to figure out how best to set up your team. The game developers realize this fact and there is always a “free” battle for you to test out various demon combinations and skills in order to get the proper balance that you need. Any battle that will potentially advance the story is marked specifically so you don’t accidentally stumble onto a battle you weren’t prepared for. Unless you’re a SRPG or SMT veteran, you’ll often find yourself spending several hours in between storyline battles grinding and while it can get a little repetitive, discovering new skills and fusing, new and more powerful demons becomes incredibly satisfying and helps to alleviate the usual boredom that often associates grinding in SRPGs.

Of course, this game isn’t perfect. The soundtrack, while decent to listen to perhaps once or twice, has very little varying tracks and often times many of the more particularly repetitive ones can try your patience once you’ve heard them for the 100th time. Also, the difficulty often has a tendency to spike rather than steadily increase, again, forcing lengthy training/grinding sessions for most players, but all the same this game is well worth the time invested and serves as a great introduction to those not familiar with the SMT franchise as well as satiating already established fans.

Hmm, a busty Japanese girl with a ridiculously short skirt and loves Pocky? A Japanophile's wet dream.

The hate craved fools just won't stop.

So I managed to listen to the entire soundtrack for Persona on PSP and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. It's easily one of Shoji Meguro's best work to date. However, I seem share somewhat of a minority opinion regarding the soundtrack as most people actually seem to hate it. I'm not entirely sure what the reason for that is, but it seems to have to do with the fact that its representative of the fact that this series has taken a recent turn for the lighthearted and isn't all dark and moody anymore. Well, actually, I find this to be a good thing as I think the new lighthearted tone that this series has taken has made it more refreshing and sets it apart from the other games in the Megaten franchise. You want dark and moody? Go play DDS. (Don't get me wrong I love DDS, but its nice for a franchise of games to be diverse.) And honestly, the original Persona wasn't all that dark, at least in comparison to the regular Megami Tensei games that came before it. Come on guys, change is good sometimes. Embrace it. Besides, at least now we get a proper translation instead of a bastardized Americanization, so chin up okay? Everything will be alright.