Final Fantasy VII Getting a Re-Release Kind Of

So, hey remember when Final Fantasy VII was released for PC?  N....no?  You don't?  Well.....uh....it happened.  It was a thing that existed.  I should know, because I own it....somewhere.  And never got it to work past a certain boss or random encounter that I don't remember because, as we all know, Final Fantasy VII wasn't really, uh, good on PC.  It's a common complaint from that era and continues even now because nobody has realized that you actually have to work on a port to make sure it works on the systems that you obviously didn't really want it to be on, but yet still wanted the money from it.  I'm not grouchy or bitter at all at that whole thing, what are you talking about?  Regardless, Final Fantasy VII, by all accounts (that I've heard of, as well as experienced) was a pretty egregious case on the PC even for the time and the standard.

Obviously, the best idea is to re-release that version with a few tweaks on PC.  Wait, what?  When I say tweaks, I mean added Cloud Saving functionality (hurr hurr), Achievements (Nobody cares about them on PC games!) and a Thing where you can just kind of click to get free HP, MP and money called the "Character Booster".  No, I am not exaggerating.  Yes, it is kind of defeating the purpose of an RPG.  No, I don't expect it to be criticized.  No, it doesn't make any goddamn sense.  Considering all we have to go on is a cached webpage, I'm not saying that's -all- the information we have about it in regards to the tweaks, nor do I expect "Hey, we made it so you can actually play the game now" would be a bullet point, but I -am- saying that I expect it as much as I don't expect it.  Because I anticipate Squeenix doing dumb things, you realize, because they do that a lot.  I mean, I think re-releasing Final Fantasy VII on PC for '£7.99 / €9.99' (no $ listed, but it translates to about $12.50, so expect $9.99-14.99) with -even less work necessary- than most re-releases nowadays is as brilliant as it is terrible, so you kind of see where I'm coming from.

Well, one thing that the site doesn't clear up is just how they plan on distributing the game, which I imagine is likely because it's not really fully in the works yet, what with the no $ thing.  Regardless, if this is even real (which, let's face it, it's like 98% possible) the likely thing would be to suggest integrating the game into Steam for the copy-protection, actually using the Achievements, and having a realistic expectation of the game to actually sell to people who play PC games.  There are other avenues, of course, but considering Squeenix's PC ventures are already on Steam (At least FFXI and XIV which, despite whatever flak you might give them, are legitimate installments for Squeenix and Steam's partnership), I'm not going to suggest them, nor am I going to suggest that Squeenix is dumb enough to attempt their own service, ala Origin.  I mean, they are, but it's not going to happen, thankfully, because I think they're starting to realize that they kind of need to start -making- money soon.  (Which would be a lot easier if you would localize fucking games like Final Fantasy Type-0 you fucks.  I don't even care on what, re-format it for the Vita and localize it for $40, I'll fucking buy it.)

As an idea, this is all pretty inoffensive aside from the Character Booster which I will have to see in action before I acknowledge it as anything but dumb and I would probably buy it if I was into PC gaming and such.  Since Steam Money cards are officially a thing, I could even buy it as more than a theoretical.  It's totally possible now.  But I already have a digital PSOne version of the game bought, and I'm just waiting for the day that it's playable on the Vita (Or I happen across a really cheap PSPGo) to give it another good once through.  It won't have trophies because why would this quick cash-grab extend to anywhere but PC, but it'll be fine enough.  Really, I think this all just came around because, during a meeting, some higher-ups were talking about some quick cash ideas.  Since the next port up is Final Fantasy VI, they were talking about that and the different versions of it out there to see if there was anything else.  And then someone says "Hey, did you guys know we released FFVII on PC?" and everyone looks at each other in wonderment as he says "It was 1998, though.  Also barely playable.  I guess we should just ign-" and then he was promptly assaulted by someone else who said "GET SOME PEOPLE ON IT RIGHT NOW.  FIX IT, ADD A COUPLE THINGS AND CHARGE CHARGE CHARGE!".  It was likely very entertaining and oh god, I really shouldn't be doing things when I'm sick like this.

Still, it's pretty neat that other people will be able to play the game in a way that they likely have not done so before.  At least not legally.  And likely not the PC version because seriously, who else knew it existed?  If you're holding your hand up, first off, stop that because I can't see you and second off, you're lying.  Who knows, if it goes well, maybe we'll see something similar with Final Fantasy VIII because it -also- had a PC release that you didn't know about either.  And it is likely just as ripe for re-jiggering with achievements and other silly things as VII was which was, uh, not all that ripe at all.  I mean, come on, VIII was released on PC 12 years ago likely as an after-thought of gigantic proportions.  At least VIII has Triple Triad, though.  Mmm....maybe they'll add online multi-player with Triple Triad.  They won't, but it's fun to dream.

My Games of 2011, Part 2

Tonight's post of picks 8-6 for my GotY list is going to require a little more care than it might otherwise for the simple fact that one the two games that I didn't play, but felt as if I could place, are within these three slots.  Obviously, without actually playing the games myself that means I did happen to miss out on some of the actual experience of it for better or worse, but, and while this is a dangerous thing to state it's normally true, you can sort of get a feel of a game to be able to tell how your overall opinion of it might go.  We are often wrong in those times, and it's quite possible that I will be proven wrong when I do eventually get to play these two games, but, for my part, I could only suggest that I'd expect these two games to actually exceed what I thought for and of them, knowing what I know about them.  Which is enough to have spoiled me on some of each game but certainly not all of it, so unless the parts I missed are akin to the optional content in Chrono Trigger DS, it's not going to negatively skew anything.

Much like yesterday, however, I make this big opening paragraph about the 'big issue' of this crop of games and then the first game I bring up isn't affected by that at all.  Where I haven't played a couple of the games on my list, the first game up here is the game I've played the -most- by far this year with, in all actuality, something like 140+ hours invested in it between its two parts.  Astute readers of the blog will be able to figure out the game by that, but if it wasn't obvious by that, then I'll just go ahead and say it.

8. Dynasty Warriors 7 (And Xtreme Legends)

Know that the above figure is no exaggeration - I know for a fact that my playtime of the original game broke 100 hours.  I know this because when I was copying my save from the HDD to my Memory stick directly after Platinuming it (I believe this was when, at least) I noticed for the first time, that a Play time was displayed and that playtime had 100 or 101 in the hours spot which seems absolutely ridiculous to me and is in fact the only reason why I remember it.  While I have spent a -lot- of time with Xtreme Legends, I'm not prepared to say it's as much time as the original yet, and a conservative estimate puts it around 30-40 hours overall, given the amount of grinding I've done on that game.  Getting the weapons, beating every mission at least once and then several, several times more to unlock titles for over half the characters in the game...it all adds up, clearly.  And it clearly speaks to just how much I am able to enjoy these games.

They are not the best games by any means, but they are games that scratch a very specific itch, fulfill a very specific craving and are generally simply a means to an end.  I'm sure we all have games like these, games that we acknowledge aren't the best, sometimes even aren't that good, but we love them because of what they have to offer.  And the Dynasty Warriors games offer me to build up a bodycount in the thousands per level by simply cutting swaths through anything that isn't allied with me.  Where some action games and FPS can try and guarantee you carnage on a grand scale, none of them can boast quite like KOEI can, if only in that very specific department.  And it's for that that I have bought, played and enjoyed about every Warriors game I can get my hands on and will continue to do so.

Dynasty Warriors 7 placed like it did for generally impressing me more than a Warriors game has done in a while.  While it's easy to get lost in the grumblings I have at the grinding and the pure stupid it propagates through poor interpretation of history, Dynasty Warriors 7 is actually really quality in terms of the games that came before it.  The way it handles the story modes is slick and innovative for the series and the game just looks generally a -lot- better than iterations before it, which while being coupled with the 'winning formula' from previous games that aren't 6 (more varied weapons and movesets, having different levels of every weapon, etc.) it's just a recipe for success.  It's not perfect, and it still lacks a little bit in my opinion (Free Mode battles, a few different generic enemy models would've been nice especially for the Nanman battles and a return of personal items would've been nice) but it's probably the best Dynasty Warriors game since 3 or, depending on your perspective, 5 (Since both of those are generally touted as 'the best') and that really means something.

7. Ghost Trick:  Phantom Detective

Some of you might remember that I have some very, very strong opinions about Ghost Trick that sort of hover around it being "my favorite, if not the best, DS game of the year" which is reflected by it being one of two DS games to be featured in my list and the highest ranking of the two.  It's also reflected by Ghost Trick being the first game I reviewed because I felt as strongly as I did.  I understood just how I could like a game so much, yet be as objective as one could expect about pointing out its flaws, of which Ghost Trick certainly had a few.  Yet I was more able to celebrate all of Ghost Trick's successes with gusto that was deserved, not given, than I was able to criticize its short-comings given that I had to actually think about just what I didn't like about the game.  It was only after playing through it twice entirely that I had managed to compile a short list of deficiencies that I very nearly discarded from my mind directly thereafter.

Basically, the defining downside of Ghost Trick is the one shared by all, or at least most, of puzzle games out there:  they're lightning in a bottle.  Brilliant, beautiful, intense and wonderful, but only for that one first moment that you can never catch once more.  You open that bottle when you finish it and you're left with only the memories since you can always put electricity back in the bottle, but it's never going to be as vivid as it was that first time.  I'm not going to argue if this method is more effective than other games that manage a little more staying power at the cost of not having a few of the types of moments Ghost Trick offers, but it certainly worked for this game and I can say with certainty that I'm quite glad I actually grabbed the game when I did and played it.  With it giving something of a turning point to me and this blog, who knows what would've happened had I not!

6. Dead Space 2

I recall quite easily stating something to the effect of "I hope Dead Space 2 doesn't end up on my 'Games that weren't my games of 2011' list" last year because Dead Space 2 promised to be more of the same of the original in terms of quality.  The original Dead Space is something that I sometimes am amazed that I played all the way through, seeing as I am very, very susceptible to being scared far too much by things that aren't real - things like particularly scary movies and shows, frightening imagery and the like, but I managed through it because for as scary and unsettling as the original game was, it was also very, very good.  Most took to calling it RE4 in space, but it was quite a bit more than that, if only for the fact that (yes, I said it before and will continue to say it) it didn't control poorly.  The aiming was nice and smooth and responsive, you could actually move while aiming to assist in that, and the melee options of "Pistol Whip" and "STOMPYSTOMPSTOMP" were visceral and actually quite useful.  I recall quite fondly a moment in Dead Space the original where I ran out of ammo completely, but managed to stasis an incoming Necro to pistol whip/stomp him to (re-)death before resuming my frantic search for plasma energy.

It's for those reasons that I am genuinely disappointed in myself that I didn't pick up Dead Space 2 this last year and that I had to resort to a (very good) LP to finally introduce and carry my way through the game.  It is most certainly not the same thing, especially with a horror game that is actually scary like Dead Space 2, but it was a good window into the story and the mechanics and offered me the opportunity to see what was polished and what wasn't.  Perhaps it was because I wasn't immersed in it, but I found it quite hard to call the story of the overall game, or more specifically the flow of it, 'great' but merely 'good' at best.  This was balanced out, however, by the inclusion of the Javelin Gun which looks to be the single-best weapon of any game from 2011, or at least high up in the running for it.  Really, the whole inclusion of actual impalement physics was enough to make me feel literal pain and shame for not buying the game.

Much like the two games from last year's list that I included prior to playing, I only included Dead Space because I can very easily imagine just what my experience with the game will be like, more or less, so I can take that and put it where I feel it'll rank. While I feel it's entirely possible that the game will be very different from my expectations, I imagine the difference will be in the game's favor rather than against it.  After all, that Javelin Gun.  It's a wonderfully compelling argument, I'd say.

While I hate to seem like I'm breaking up these posts even more than normal by offering only three today, there's a good reason for it, which will get explained in due time.  Most of it is that I'm finding it hard to really parse out my reasons for number five being where it is, as some of it is....well, personal reasons.  Which is an odd thing to say, of course, but it's something I've been thinking of since being exposed to the game and I have to, very carefully, figure out just what I want to confess (not only here, but to myself) regarding it.  I only hope that I can better formulate my feelings tomorrow than I was able to tonight, but I figure I'll manage.  Somehow.

It's History Nerd Rage Time

Pictured:  Exactly why History Nerdage must be checked at the door.

Now, I know you guys are probably sick of me bringing up DW7:  Xtreme Legends, but, well, I'm gonna so if you're interested, feel free to keep reading.  There's a history lesson creeping about in the paragraphs to follow after all, so it's not completely rehashing earlier posts about the game (again).  Now, Dynasty Warriors has never claimed to be completely historical or even mostly so, indeed it's based more on the Novel written in the 14th Century which....to say it takes liberties is being quite generous, we'll say.  So taking liberties on something that also takes plentiful amounts of liberties itself leaves very tenuous ties to the reality of it all, and this is just something that's understood.  Which is why it's sort of a fool's errand to take up the history nerd torch against a game that features various female warriors using weapons that didn't exist yet, someone walking around with a giant fucking ARM CANNON and phantom soldiers and such, but there are some kinds of errors that are needlessly glaring because not only do they conflict with history, but with the novel itself, and they need to be called on it.

Now, my issue deals with KOEI's stable of Jin characters which is precarious to begin with because of the simple fact that each and every member of the "Jin" stable (minus Wang Yuanji, hilariously) was dead before the actual Jin dynasty was formed by Sima Zhao's son, Sima Yan in the year 265 AD (which is also the year Sima Zhao died, leaving him as the closest person to make it, but not quite).  This is fairly easily hand-waved away by acknowledging that the majority of them at least laid the foundations on which Jin was built, minus Xiahou Ba who actually defected to Shu pretty much right after Sima Yi took power from Cao Shuang which is, essentially, where you'd place the 'start' of the start of Jin.  So in all honesty, there's no real reason for him to be in Jin besides the fact that they didn't want six characters in Jin, wanted Xiahou Ba, and didn't want Shu to have -even more- dudes than Wei/Wu to at least keep a semblance of balance.  (Nevermind that they're only equal in numbers because XL added three Wei officers.)

However, my issue goes a little beyond mere stable choices and into the mechanics of the game itself; namely the Title System that was implemented in this game.  Again, this is a fairly silly thing to think about because right off, you can get Zhang Jiao, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion which challenged the authority of the Han and the Emperor directly, to rise through the titled ranks (all of them being directly Empirical titles) to obtain his last three titles from the Emperor himself.  I realize this and realized it when I did it, but even after all this, I cannot forgive what I'm really seeing as an oversight here with the titles.  I believe I've mentioned it before, but there's one title that everyone* seems to get (I believe it's alled Strike General, but do not quote me on this It's called Campaign General) that reads, basically, 'Absorb health from attacks made with Speed Weapons' which is essential for Nightmare level completions. 

*You'll see why the asterisk is there in a bit.

Having to throw on the Sword for a mission or two is fine because even if dudes don't use Speed weapons primarily, everyone can use the Sword moveset, and the Ultimate Tier sword has 77 Base Attack, five seal slots and a level 6 Death Element which causes more damage on charge strikes (and possibly instant death on fodder and the like) I think.  Comboed properly, the Ultimate Sword is completely well enough as a death-dealer, as the moveset for it is pretty prime if nothing special.  With the Conqueror's Halberd (100 Base Attack, Level 6 Death Element, Five Seal Slots filled with Walking Speed Up (optional, switch out at your leisure), Synergy (Two Death Element Weapons = Happy times), Combat Resistance, Projectile Resistance and Officer Assassin (Fairly optional, but handy)) equipped in your secondary slot, a similar seal distribution to the Halberd on the Sword means you are kind of a wrecking machine built for murder on a grand scale.  Again, the moves themselves aren't necessarily special, but they're fairly primed towards charge attacks, which means the Death Element (as well as...well, most elements) is a good fit for it.

I'm getting a bit off-base here, though.  The reason I brought up the Campaign General title is because I had fallen into a pretty nice run-about things knowing that everyone got it as their fourth or fifth title (out of eight) since that meant people wielding speed weapons naturally would get easier to use and people not wielding speed weapons would have to switch to Sword at some point, if not right then, but definitely before that nightmare mission for their last title.  It was a pretty easy existence, and then the game threw a big ol' monkey wrench into everything when I tried this with the Jin cast.  I quickly learned that they do not gain Campaign General as a title which, on first read would suggest something awful.  But what they get in place of Campaign General is where my ire lies in all of this, and where all this build has gone to.

The title every Jin officer gets, rather than Campaign General, is "General Who Conquers Shu", a title that acts as the Campaign General title, yet only with that characters' default weapon.  Now -here- is where the real history lesson comes in, as I sort of set the scene here.  I know I've said several times that I want to go over the entire era with you guys and I will sometime, but I'm sure you can understand how it's a little daunting to figure out how to explain a 70 year war in separate posts in just the right, most entertaining and informative way.  But we're going to skip straight to the end of the scenario when the northern half of China is owned by Cao Wei (commonly known as just Wei), the bottom west portion by Shu Han (commonly known as just Shu) and the bottom east portion by Eastern Wu (commonly known as just Wu, also known as Sun Wu).  This is the literal three kingdoms of the era, even if all three of them were more or less falling into political messes and a time where war was just a part of the day instead of a tool or something of the sort.

In 263, Wei led the final strike against the floundering Shu which would prove to be the last straw.  Zhong Hui and Deng Ai played very large parts in the battle that basically could be said to be the lynchpins of the victory, especially Deng Ai, as it was his tactics that more or less lead to an easy victory via Shu's complete surrender.  There is, of course, plenty more detail that I can and will get into at a later date, but for the purposes of this discussion, it's only relevant to mention the fact that Zhong Hui and Deng Ai were specifically in the battle that 'conquered' Shu.  Because if you remember the start of the last paragraph, I specifically said that -every- officer in the Jin cast (all nine of them) get "General Who Conquers Shu", when I named the battle and only two of them were, er, directly involved.  Sima Zhao could be argued to have it as well since he was the ruler at the time, as could Wang Yuanji because she was married to Zhao.  So what about the other five people?

Sima Yi died in 251 after, again, stealing power over Wei from the Cao family which is more or less his only connection to Jin, since family ties, while extremely important, do not allegiance make.  Sima Shi took over for Sima Yi and later died in 255 of illness exaggerated by his reluctance to stay out of battles.  A month following putting down a Cao Wei rebellion, his illness took final hold and killed him, leaving the role of ruler in Zhao's hands.  So there's two people who had absolutely nothing to do with conquering Shu.  Zhuge Dan rose up in rebellion against Wei and received reinforcements from Wu at Shouchun where Sima Zhao led troops against him, eventually broke the siege that Zhuge Dan and his forces forced and Zhuge Dan was killed while fleeing.  Xiahou Ba defected right after Sima Yi staged a coup against Cao Shuang (as stated above) and died at some point between 255-259; it's not documented how or when.  So two more people who were not present in the battle and in fact would not have helped with the battle had they been there.  And as for Guo Huai, I'm fairly certain he died in battle against Shu or of illness sometime before Xiahou Ba's death, which means, again, no reason for him to have said title.

I understand that this is pedantic at best, but of nine people in a stable, a clear-cut majority of them have no business having a title that they get by any stretch of the imagination.  Like, there's really no room for argument here aside from saying, "At some point they all fought against Shu", but that distinction dies out quickly when you point out that so did everyone else not in Shu and yet they don't get that title.  It's just a mind-bendingly dumb prospect; having four entire casts of characters that gain one single title without fail (from what I can tell) and then one single cast of nine people getting an entirely different title that a simple majority of them don't have any claim to.  It's also frustrating from a gameplay standpoint as some of these characters have weapons that are entirely unsuited for the heavy combat that Nightmare levels require; Sima Shi specifically, who wields a little pissant Rapier.  It's almost insulting that I couldn't earn Lu Bu's final title with his Halberd (Because I would've gotten chewed up for not gaining health back with every attack) but I have to chip away at everybody with a little fucking toothpick as Shi to accomplish the same goal.

And before you say, "Maybe it's a balance reason", let me assure you quite pointedly that it is not.  Pictured above is Deng Ai who is one of the rightful owners of the title "General Who Conquers Shu".  Not pictured is his giant fuck-off Drill weapon that, in its Ultimate form, has a quite high base attack (I -think- 90something where the max is 100), five seal slots (put together as explained earlier for maximum efficiency) and the Wind Element (at level 6 I think) which ensures that charge attacks will break a foe's guard.  Coupled with the fact that he drains health on every strike of that gigantic drill, he is quite literally an engine of destruction on those grounds alone, not even bringing up his disgustingly powerful second musou in which all he does is grab his foe in a dropping armbar which ends with him snapping their arm.  I am not lying when I say Deng Ai is literally overpowered and broken as shit.  Not that that's a bad thing, but it serves as the perfect example for what I was getting at re: balance.

Again, I realize the hilarious futility in getting angry at historical fallacies in the Dynasty Warriors games based on what I've told you they're cribbing from and stretching out, but there is absolutely no reason for this.  Seeing as it's something that I actually got really worked up about, I figured it would be a good thing to write about, since it meant that I could inject at least a little bit of history into the blog which you all know I love doing.  So I hope it was informative and entertaining, even though this is more or less a glorified rant about a single thing wrong with Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends which I am still playing and still enjoying.  If nothing else, I feel better.

Progress is a Pile of Untouched Weapons

I'm sure it will surprise no one that I'm still stuck on Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends in terms of 'completing' the game (I.E. getting the Platinum for it because it's not -hard to do- just tedious as hell), but I am getting quite close to it.  Of the top of my head, I can't think of only five more trophies to go before I have Platinum number Eighteen, but much like Dynasty Warriors 7 vanilla, it's making me really -earn- that trophy.  Not that I mind it so much, of course, except I do a little bit, when the task at hand involving a trophy is entirely too long, convoluted and tedious to go over.  And while I've already stated my thoughts on the game once, I think a reiteration/clarification is in order since I'm so much further in it now.  I guess I should go over that one first, since it's good to get my whinging out of the way first.

Xtreme Legends claim to annoyance fame is the inclusion of the Hub City system which introduces city atmosphere, which isn't directly the cause for annoyance, but is sort of a major part of it.  You see in Legend mode (basically all XL has to offer without a Remixing of it and DW7 vanilla), your 'task' is to rebuild a city that is in poor condition and bring it to such prominence that the Emperor seeks shelter within the walls of your castle.  This occurs by, basically, beating the different tiers of the levels to unlock them to the final difficulty level (Levels are rated in stars from one to ten, one being easy, ten being hard) and then beating that.  It's.....incredibly short.  Like, you'll see the 'credits' in one sitting, basically, and the rest is more or less for your 'amusement' in general terms.  Of course, you -should- be wanting to beat every stage at least once to see just what all they have to offer.

However, this is kind of where the issue is, in that your city is treated as more important than it is.  It is, for all intents and purposes, a menu that you can walk around in, rather than just dumping you into a menu between every level that you play.  You can walk around to the different service people (when they're unlocked) and buy stat-boosting items, weapons, unlock seals on them if you haven't already, tell a merchant where to buy and sell, talk to the City Guard to pick your next level, or talk to someone to change your Adjutant.  In Legends eyes, whatever your character is is the "Ruler" of the city, and your Adjutant rules in your stead as you go out and gather glory for your banner.  This is where City atmosphere comes into play, as it kind of relies on your Adjutant but...not really.  It's a bit hard to explain.

The starting atmosphere, which you never see again after you upgrade it is "Desolate", where nobody is present but your Adjutant, the person who can change your Adjutant and the City guard more or less.  Again, you win a couple levels and bam, you have a city and it'll be either Carefree or Orderly.  If the city is Carefree, everything purchasable is half-price for....some reason, and if it's Orderly your attack and defense will be higher in the next stage you enter.  After so many stages, provided you don't switch your Adjutant, said Adjutant will switch the City Atmosphere to "Friendly" which basically means your Adjutant gives you a gift and says their 'devotion line'.  There is, to my knowledge, absolutely no way to guarantee a Friendly Atmosphere or at least no guaranteed way to a speedy one.  It seems purely random, and of course, the devotion line is the thing you need.

For every character.

There's a separate trophy for hearing all the Female Devotion Lines, one for hearing all the Male Devotion Lines and one for hearing -all- of them (which means you'll get it at the same time as the second Gender-specific trophy you get) which, if you didn't get it before, is a terrible process since it can take forever for completely arbitrary reasons.  I'm cooking up a theory about how it seems like your Adjutant (man, I'm getting tired of typing that word) raises their own stats while they're in the position, so I'm just wondering if there's a certain threshold where they have to get to before they're happy.  But I haven't done any math to go with that at all to support it.  Maybe I'll try with the next couple of people I throw up there.  Regardless, this is the -thing-, much like Bond-grinding in DW7 that will pad out the game for entirely more hours than necessary.

The only other thing I could hold against the game is that I'm a little fussed at the amount of stages included in Legend mode.  When you start, you see a lot of the lower star ranked levels, not to mention the inclusion of some 'classic' maps from older DWs (3, 5 and 6 specifically) from several perspectives (basically, multiple sides.  You can play the Shu version, Wei version, -and- the Wu version of Fan Castle for instance) and you're like "Wow, this is a lot of content, awesome", and then, around the six star levels it just...drops.  There's only three seven star levels which you will have to play over and over again God, to grind for titles for everyone since everyone inevitably requires you to beat a seven star ranked level apparently and only two each of Nine and Ten star levels.  I imagine you can remedy this by remixing with DW7 to access the different levels of stages in Conquest but I can't be assed to try.  Disk-swapping?  Psh.

Regardless, every one of those stages has something to offer, namely the new tiers of weapons that you earn under certain circumstances that I'm calling 'Chaos' and 'Nightmare' weapons in a bout of sheer uncreativity.  That's a word now.  As implied with the title, if you want these tantalizing new and special weapons, you have to beat the stage on the required difficulty level (Chaos is harder than Hard, Nightmare is harder than Chaos) while completing a certain amount of objectives like "Defeat # of enemies in # minutes" or "Defeat # enemy generals in # minutes", or sometimes more specifically "Prevent Wei from establishing catapults and defeat every Wei officer while ensuring Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei and Yue Ying are safe.".  They're so-so difficult at best as even the dramatically specific ones like the latter example can be gamed fairly easily.  (In this instance, by playing -as- Zhuge Liang, since the stage in question is Wu Zhang Plains which is, according to the novel, Zhuge Liang's last battle in which he actually dies during it.  And he actually dies during the stage, which throws Jiang Wei into commander's position.  Obviously, Zhuge Liang can't die if you're playing as him since that'd be bullshit.)

The Chaos weapons are nice, but the fact that I could basically accumulate every Nightmare weapon -after- getting all the Chaos weapons (by pretty much using the Chaos Sword and Chaos Halberd exclusively until I got the Nightmare version of each) makes them obsolete before they even hit the ground.  While talking with Saki-Chan about it, I basically instanced it as my character getting this weapon, showing a mild amusement for it and then tossing it into a building that housed all the other weapons that went similarly unused.  It's a delightful mental image but a terribly lacking gameplay mechanic, really.  I -could- limit myself to using a specific character for a specific weapon and then using their Chaos weapon to get their Nightmare, but, look, I have a lot to look forward to already, I don't need to make more work for myself alright?

Still, I like having all these weapons.  I like having all the characters DW7 Xtreme Legends has to offer, and I like all the stages it introduces (especially the old ones), but I can't help but just want more as I've expressed already.  More substance, at least, not particularly more to do.  Still, I've pretty much got Dynasty Warriors NEXT on my plate as well as the eventual DW7 Empires (hopefully), so it's not like my excursions with DW7 (or DW7-esque gameplay) are over with by a long shot.  I'll get my -more- eventually for sure, so the only issue is biding my time until then.  While racking up 1000 kills with siege weapons and getting those Adjutant (had to say it one more time) Devotion Lines accumulated, I'll sigh dreamily at the thought of making my own character to take with my on the go in my Vita, and wonder just what direction they'll take with this version of Empires.  I have big hopes for it, but I dare not speak them since I had big hopes for Samurai Warriors 3 and, well, we all saw how that worked out.

More KOEI Chat

Obviously, with Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends being the only thing I'm playing lately I'm thinking a lot about it and the other KOEI games out there that I just can't wait to get.  Like Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 which I will hopefully be getting for Christmas and Dynasty Warriors NEXT for the Playstation Vita which I will definitely be getting for sure.  And of course, there's the above-pictured Warriors Orochi 3 that I have already talked about but I still want a whole lot.  And of course there's the never-coming-to-America Samurai Warriors 3Z along with Warriors Orochi Z that I can always pine for vainly on top of the hopes of ever playing a Romance of the Three Kingdoms game ever again, especially on a handheld where it would be a perfect friggin' fit.  Basically, what I'm saying is that I really, really enjoy the KOEI games that come out, no matter how often and how varied (which they really are, despite what reviewers tell you.) they are.

Warriors Orochi 3 is the thing that's highest on my list, however, as more and more reasons keep getting added to it as enticement for buying.  Even more cameo characters have been announced to join Ryu Hayabusa, Jeanne D'Arc and Achilles to the tune of Ayane from the Dead or Alive series (also from Ninja Gaiden, and she's no real stranger to DW games after being present in Strikeforce) and Nemea from Trinity:  Souls of Zill O'll.  Much like the previous three mentioned, they will have stages crafted specifically around the games from which they hail, so their inclusion is more than a token effort and it lends credence to the idea that even -more- could be on the way, as there still are franchises under the Tecmo-KOEI umbrella as well as their friends over at Bandai-Namco that are as of yet untapped.  Is it too much to hope for Ken from Fist of the North Star to find his way into Orochi's realm?  I think not.

Moving on, I am really looking forward to Dynasty Warriors NEXT as I said before for quite a few reasons.  Sure, it's looking like it's basically Dynasty Warriors 7 in your pocket which is fine enough right there, but there's quite a few improvements going on with it from what I can see.  For starters, every character that is in the roster from the latest release, Xtreme Legends, will be in NEXT, meaning you have the full list right at the start without having to wait for some sort of expansion pack game or anything else of the sort.  The next reason would be that some characters might just be 'decloned' or, in better terms, given new weapons so that they're not just randomly carrying around the same weapon as someone completely different from them.  No longer will Cao Ren and Dong Zhuo be walking around with the same flail, nor will Pang De and Zhang Liao thankfully.

But really, the top reason here is the return of CAW or Create a Warrior for those not in-the-know.  Create a Warrior is exactly what it sounds like, in that you have a character editor and can make your very own Chinese Warrior to run about the battlefield wielding whatever you choose and doing whatever you wish.  Or, just make a Time Traveler who dresses up like the rest of the people back then to fit in.  It more or less just depends on what you name your character and whatever you hope to have going through your head while playing your character out.  For instance, "Dian Shan" would likely find himself comfortable back then whereas, er, someone named "Alexander" might....not.  Just saying, it all kind of depends on what you want out of the experience; if you just want to make a dude to join the roster of 65 other characters and kick ass alongside them and don't care much beyond that?  More power to you.

Still, with KOEI games, you more or less have to take what you get which is a shame as there really is way more material out there that would be fantastic if we could get our hands on them.  The entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition series has basically been scrapped outside of Japan and while I understand it, I don't like it as I have lamented in the past, because that breed of game just...doesn't see enough usage.  I have heard whispers of Romance of the Three Kingdoms 12 (which is PC-Only for now) being compatible with some sort of touch screen support which gives me hope for a Vita release, but only just so, especially because Romance of the Three Kingdoms 12 puts you directly into the Rulers shoes rather than letting you decide just what you want to do.  Still, if it would come out, I'd buy it if just to encourage them to do better.  Also because it might be enjoyable still.  But mostly the 'do better next time' reason.

Legend Mode and Other Xtreme Legends Issues

I should preface this post with the fact that I really like Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends as it is, essentially, more Dynasty Warriors 7 which is as much of a good thing as it can be.  I realize upon thinking it out that I'm more or less going to tear into everything that is 7XL and throw down all the tatters here as examples of my problems with the game, which will leave a negative opinion hanging over it all.  So I really want it known that, despite the bitching I'm about to do, I enjoy the game and don't regret my purchase of it.  This is really vital to spend a little bit of time talking on, as you might guess from the amount of time I spent talking on it.

With that out of the way, I have to start with Legend Mode which is basically the entire draw of the game.  The new characters are good, the new weapons are fantastic, the remix option assuredly breathes a whole new realm of life into the base game and Challenge mode....exists, but Legend Mode is where the bulk of the effort went and it shows.  Basically, in Legend Mode, you pick your Ruler and your Adjutant (both of which don't matter much at all, except you play as the ruler which can be changed freely to no negative impact) and are given a 'desolate' city to reinvigorate by going out and killing men by the thousands in the missions tailor-made (or not, I'll explain in a bit) for the mode.  I'm not even going to pretend that this is deep in any fashion and it's clearly another attempt at a hub city ala Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, yet somehow more shallow.

Once you unlock a utility (blacksmith, weapon dealer, strategist, etc.) they remain forever and you can use their services to your hearts content.  The Weapon Dealer will, unsurprisingly, sell you weapons (of which there are six new categories I believe), the Blacksmith functions exactly like it does in the base game; you give it a weapon and money and he'll slowly unlock the seal on your weapon.  I have no use for this as I loaded my Dynasty Warriors 7 save into the game which has the added benefit of carrying over everything I unlocked like seals, which was, of course, everything since I platinum'd the game.  The Merchant will scour one of the handful of provinces of the land and come back with treasure and/or weapons according to some random formula that only it knows and the Strategist will sell you manuals to increase your stats.  Which is very, very useful for obvious reasons.

There is, by that merit, absolutely nothing to do in the city as it serves as only a hub from which you upgrade your character, get more money/weapons and go into missions.  There's a token effort of development, in that the city can have a 'mood' (which is either Desolate, Orderly, Carefree or Friendly) which has some sort of effect on the city (carefree being the most useful as all prices are halved because nobody cares, get it) and it changes between missions.  Well, mostly between Orderly and Carefree, with Friendly only coming up after your Adjutant has been your Adjutant for some length of time that I couldn't discern.  When it reaches friendly, you talk to them, get an item (manual of some stat booster) and then go about your way.  Or, if you're me, you immediately replace them, as getting them to friendly gives you their 'devotion line' which gives you access to their Legend Mode voice gallery.  There's a trophy for hearing everyone's devotion lines, of course.  Well, a few.  One for women, one for men, and then one for everyone, if I'm not mistaken.

Legend Mode is a disappointment in a very minor way as I was having flashbacks to Dynasty Warriors 4's take on roughly the same concept, in that every character had one battle tailor-made for them and their exploits, whereas that was sort of the case here, but not for every character and some of the missions were just....ridiculous.  The manual claims that if you play the stage as the Recommended Warrior, you'll get more scenes and such, but from my experience, you get the same amount of scenes no matter who you are, unfortunately.  I might be wrong, or it might be a consequence of seeing the 'ending' of the game (brought about when the Emperor comes to stay in your town for being so awesome or something) which is just the credits.  Or it might be a clever ruse to get you to play as characters you might not have played in the base game, or rather just developing some of the underdeveloped characters (ones that didn't feature heavily into their respective story) which is rather welcome.

Unfortunately, I kind of just roll my eyes when one stage is playing as Xiao Qiao (wife of Zhou Yu, historically wasn't a warrior at all, of course) during Chi Bi (or Red Cliffs as you might know it by) escorting Zhuge Liang to the altar where he shifts the direction of the winds and then protecting him as he's doing it.  That sort of level is a step above inane which is beyond frustrating, but there are levels that really make up for it.  Whether it's because it's more 'accurate' than the norm or what, the Battle of Jieting with Yue Ying as a recommended character is rather nice as it details the infamous battle where Zhuge Liang's student, Ma Su made such a big blunder that he was executed in shame for it.

Not to get off on a history tangent, but, basically during the Northern Campaigns of Zhuge Liang towards the latter half of the war, Shu was in a constant state of trying to take the northwest area of China from Wei and failing miserably at it.  They managed to get the really important location of Jieting which Zhuge Liang entrusted the defense of to his student, Ma Su.  Ma Su had the bright idea to make camp atop the mountain (likely for the best vantage point possible) despite being told it was an incredibly bad idea by his underlings, as it left them unable to properly defend their water sources.  This is, of course, always reason enough to not do something, but Ma Su didn't listen and, sure enough, Wei cut off their water supply to force them off.  It was a decisive victory for Wei and Shu lost many, many troops in it, which was the direct reason for Ma Su's execution.  Of course, there are conflicting reports saying that he might've been killed while imprisoned awaiting execution, he might've simply escaped, or perhaps was just held indefinitely, but whatever the case, it was the last thing of note that Ma Su did.

Right, anyway, a really positive addition to the Legend Mode roster of stages (which play out from left to right in rising Star Rankings, starting at one, ending in 10) is the inclusion of some Classic Dynasty Warriors stages recreated with DW7 assets.  These stages all have whatever modes they offered in the game they came from (Meaning some battles like The Battle/Siege of Fan Castle have three different versions) and are enough of a blend of past and present to offer nostalgia with out sacrificing much, if anything, in enjoyment.  There's not quite enough of them, but there's more as DLC for DW7 (specifically, they won't work with basic DW7XL as they require Conquest mode to be played) that it was surely done that way on purpose; if you want that nostalgia you gotta pay for it.

Also of interest is the addition of personal Titles that every character earns (up to 10, I believe) by performing certain tasks under certain difficulty restrictions.  These range from "Simple" to "Goddamn Nigh-Impossible" depending on whether or not other Titles offer bonuses appropriate to assist with getting the higher titles.  For instance, Lu Bu's top title is earned by defeating 1000 foes on a Ten Star ranked level on Nightmare difficulty (which is new to XL, is higher than Chaos which is higher than Hard) without using a musou attack and while keeping his health above 70% full.  On its own, this is patently impossible, let's not mince words on that.  Everything in Nightmare, even with the max defense possible, hits like a goddamn truck and there's not one damn thing you can do about it.  However, the bonus of one of Lu Bu's other Titles is that attacks made with a speed weapon transfer health from the target to the player.  This, coupled with the strongest Speed weapon I have (Base attack of 56 whereas the best Halberd I have so far has a base attack of 83) and good seal distribution makes it possible, though difficult.  Especially with the no musou restriction as musou attacks are really your lifeblood in Nightmare mode.

Once you really see all that Legend Mode has to offer you do, unfortunately, get a sense of "That's it?", which is disappointing, however there is still every single level of Conquest mode available to you in a technical sense as well.  But the good missions make up for it, and it's a fun little toy to play around with on the set that is Dynasty Warriors 7, but that's all it really is is a new toy; an addition.  Collecting all the new weapons put in the game (Some by beating stages on Chaos and under certain circumstances like "Swiftly complete the objective" or "Beat X, Y, and Z Officers personally", some by, likely doing the same or similar on Nightmare mode.) is a fun distraction and basically the only one you have full control over.  I'm sure I could play a game of "This is how I would make it better", but I won't bother.  Xtreme Legends is almost always the one I find little reason to play (excluding Samurai Warriors 2 Xtreme Legends as basically everything Samurai Warriors 2 was fantastic), whereas Empires is always the game that gets you to play more and more.  And there likely will be a Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires and, provided I have the opportunity, I will buy the hell out of that, too.

Aaaah, Japan, Learn to Trophy Design!

I believe I've mentioned it here a couple times, but it bears repeating, especially for this post; lately, I've been playing Dynasty Warriors 7 again lately to pick off the last few trophies I need for the game before Xtreme Legends comes out.  I imagine Xtreme Legends will have it's own Trophy List and when I get it, I'm not really going to want to play vanilla 7 because, well, with Xtreme Legends, I can load in vanilla 7 and make it more with Xtreme Legends.  That's how the whole thing works and has worked; you put in Xtreme Legends, set it up to 'mix' with the base game, switch disks to load it, and switch back.  It's a convoluted process that hasn't gotten any better, unfortunately, but the end result is generally worth it, since Xtreme Legends on its own tends to not be 'enough', whereas, after you've played with it, going back to the base game without it is a bit rough.

The rough thing here is that Dynasty Warriors 7, like a lot of games right out of Japan, have the philosophy that you have to do literally every single thing to get all of the trophies.  To the extent that some gamers look at Trophy/Achievement lists and scoff, going "Welp, never going to get a Platinum or 1000/1000 on that game!" because it's honestly just too much.  In the example of Dynasty Warriors 7 here, the few trophies I'm still hunting down are:  Audio Collector (Bronze), Consensus Builder (Gold), Meticulous Collector (Gold) and Seal Collector (Bronze).  (and the Platinum, of course)Notice, two Golds, Two Bronzes and I'm going to tell you right now that the amount of work involved with three of them is roughly the same among each other.

Let's start with the descriptions/unlock conditions for them, shall we?  Audio Collector:  Unlocked all Officers' voices in the gallery.  Consensus Builder:  Maxed out your bond with every officer in Conquest Mode.  Meticulous Collector:  Unlocked all possible items in the gallery.  Seal Collector:  Unlocked every seal.  I'm sure you can understand which ones are the ones roughly equivalent with one another, but if not, I can point it out in so many words.  Meticulous Collector is the outlier here as it's pretty much going to be the last thing I unlock before the Platinum, I'm sure.

How you unlock these things is clearly the issue here, really.  To unlock all the voices in the gallery, at this point, I need to make sure every character learns all the skills they can possibly learn, which is a harder task than it would sound, as some skill trees include skills that take 840 Skill Points to unlock.  For one skill.  Just to give you a rough estimation here on how much of a grind it becomes, I've worked out the most efficient way for me in running "Sishui Gate Defensive Battle" (I think that's what it's called) in which I can take out 9 Enemy Generals to complete the level in just under five minutes.  I say enemy generals because they're the only ones that matter, as they're the only ones to drop Skill Points.  At base, they drop 10 when you defeat them.  (Recall, I said 840 skill points.  For one skill.)  However, everybody has a skill that, when purchased, adds two more points to that, and then you can have a seal on your weapons, appropriately called "Skill Points Up" that adds another two, which you can have on both the weapons you take into battle to stack.  So instead of 10 points per general, you get 16.

Nine generals.  Sixteen points each.  One Hundred and Forty-Four skill points every five minutes.  Works out to just under six if you divide 840 by 144, so I have to run that one level, basically, six times to get enough for just one skill (if said character has that skill), and at five minutes a pop, that's, well, half an hour.  There are 62 characters in the game.  I won't bore you with the math there, but trust me, it makes big numbers.  Now, it might sound incredibly daunting here, and rightly so, but it's not quite that bad.  For one, going through story mode, all skill points accrued go into a 'pool' so that, towards the middle or early middle of every story, you'll end up having enough SP to pump every character (that you can't switch, unfortunately) full on their skills at the start of their battle.  Which means, a good few officers already have had all their skills bought by me.  Additionally, if you have a second controller, you can pop in a second player in Conquest Mode to stand around in a safe place while you, player one, runs around and does all the work.  In Two-Player Mode (Offline at least, not sure about Online) every time one defeats a general, both get the skill points, so you can, essentially, grind for two characters at a time, effectively cutting that grind in half.

Mind you, the above I've talked about for unlocking skills?  That's just for Audio Collector which is, as you saw above, a Bronze trophy.  Of course, its completion goes towards Meticulous Collector as well, since the voices are for the Voice Gallery, so there's that at least.  The other thing in question here for Meticulous Collector?  Getting all the characters bond up to max, which unlocks either a final Wallpaper or their other Voice Gallery (yes, they all have two Voice galleries, one for general things, one for Conquest Mode phrases) I forget.  Remember the other gold trophy, Consensus Builder?  Yeah.  This is why Meticulous Collector will likely be the last trophy, as it literally requires you have to have gotten other trophies for collecting, well, everything.  Meticulously.

Upping bond requires you to either fight alongside the officer you want to gain bond with (either by selecting them as your Sworn Ally (read: Bodyguard) or by happenstance of ending up with them in a Conquest map) and win, or fighting against them and winning (which only gives you a little fraction of bond, but it's still something.).  Unfortunately, the above method for skill grinding cuts out your ability to have a Sworn Ally, and you don't gain bond with whoever the second player is.  Still, you can get enough with the right seals and by ending up with them on random maps.  (For instance, the Sishui Gate map I mentioned will always have four unique Commenders that you can bond with (read:  Non-Generics) one on your side, three to defeat)  So at the very least, you're grinding more than just one thing at the same time, but that doesn't make it happen any faster.

So, the outlier here now is the Seal Collector trophy that I mentioned earlier.  Seals, which I should've really explained better earlier than now, are enhancements you put on your weapons to, well, enhance your character.  Attack/Defense/Speed Increases, the aforementioned Skill Points Up, Congeniality (which increases the amount of bond you get), the 'Master' skills, etc. make up the entire list.  At this point, all I have are some Master skills which, when equipped on a weapon, means you treat that weapon as if you had 3 Stars (out of 3) in handling, regardless of whether you did or not.  Having 3 stars and "Master" basically makes it so you treat it differently; either your attacks do more damage, are faster, you can dash, etc.  They're useful, but not useful enough to throw on as a seal unless you want to have Xiao Qiao using Lu Bu's Sky Scorcher effectively for the laughs.  Most characters end up with "(Weapon) Master" skills in their skill lines for their chosen weapon anyway.

Still, I have to get them and, wouldn't you guess, they take the longest out of all the seals to get.  If you've ever played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Perhaps Final Fantasy IX used the same method?  Thought I heard that somewhere), then the concept isn't -too- foreign; you equip and use the weapon and the more you use it, the closer you get to unlocking it.  (Random Mooks and Generals alike give 'AP' towards 'learning' the seal, and once you've learned/unlocked it, you can equip it to whatever weapon you want)  So keep in mind, at the same time as I'm grinding skill points and, inevitably bond, I'm also trying to get these last few seals that I've yet to unlock.  (For my own sanity, I have five different weapons languishing at the Blacksmith's which give them a little more towards unlocking said seal with every battle, cutting the amount of eventual work I'll have to do down dramatically.)

...Anyways, the point in all this was to discuss the different 'philosophies' that seem to be in place where it concerns trophies/achievements for games from the west and games from the east, not whinge exclusively about my current situation.  What I was trying to establish is that everything I've said for Dynasty Warriors 7, all this effort and the like, is largely the same across other Japanese games.  Take Star Ocean:  The Last Hope (International) for example; we all know I have something of a fondness for the Star Ocean games, but there is a goddamn line, alright?  Looking through the trophy list, I see "Dutiful Deliverer (Silver) Complete 100% of all quests.", "Arms Addict (Bronze) Collect 100% of all weapon data.", "Monster Master (Silver) Collect 100% of all monster data.", "World's Biggest Welch Fan (Silver) Create 100% of all possible items.", etc. etc.  Like I said, Japanese games seem to want you to do everything possible in a game which, on one hand is kind of understandable.  If I made a game, I'd want the players to experience everything about it, but on the other hand, I wouldn't 'force' them to do it.

That's not to say that Western design philosophy is any better, of course, because Western design offers a lot of 'fluff' as well, just in a different way.  Where Eastern games want you to experience/collect everything, Western games want you to get ass-deep into their multiplayer that's oftentimes tacked on integrated into what, in a different age, would be a wholly Single-Player experience.  The flaw here being that some people just straight-up don't like Multiplayer by-and-large, and thus don't really want anything to do with it.  And the other issue at play here is that, Multiplayer Trophies/Achievements are essentially on a timer, as developers don't leave their servers up forever and once a server's gone, your ability to get that Trophy/Achievement goes with it.  Didn't get 10,000 kills in Ranked Competetive Matches in Resistance 2 before they take the servers down?  Too bad.  If anything, I'd argue that this is actually worse than these "Unlock every.  single.  thing." trophies since, well, at the end of the day, the possibility to get the latter exists roughly indefinitely.  EA's already rendered swaths of games 'uncompletable' by taking their servers down for them (Old Madden versions, NBA, etc.) and while Developers on the whole seem to be a little....er....sympathetic? to the quandary, they're not going to keep their games up forever.

I guess it's hard to say what the happy medium is, really, since in the end, you have to have at least a good portion of Trophies/Achievements mean something beyond "you beat the game, have a gold star", or else those of us that care about them will, well, stop caring.  Trophies/Achievements should be the prize at the end of a long road, not the carrot on a stick attached to your head just out of reach.  All the examples I've mentioned her, in one way or another, more closely resemble the latter, whereas the other 'widespread' trophy, I.E. the Chapter/Game Complete trophy seems not even the former.  I'm unfortunately not in a position to suggest what the perfect in between would be, as I can't remember any trophies I thought were 'just right', but I'm sure there's some out there.  Hopefully, developers will continue to work on it and really figure it out.  Until then, we all have a bit of grinding to do yet in some form or another.