Oh, Right, I'm Back

In the excitement of having fully-functional internet and being able to actually use it and play games with it and the like, combined with the excitement of there being all sorts of news flying about, I never really made a "Hey, I'm back and stable" post.  Though, to be fair, I did not to jynx myself by making one since I was convinced something would wreck right after such a declaration as that is how things tend to work out.  And to further being fair, tomorrow is kind of a big deal to have internet which leaves it as prime "Murphy's Law" territory for my net shitting the bed for absolutely no reason.  Or, you know, any of a dozen other issues.  Basically, I'm just saying that it's Spring and shit happens in Spring to drive me even -more- crazy than I am dealing with the fucking heat and allergies.

Still, it's worth it to bring up that I was gone, I am back now, and I have things I can marginally discuss for now, likely to further elaborate on in the future.  Since, thankfully, I was not forced to be idle during my internet break despite, you know, not having internet whatsoever in the grand scheme of things.  My games all still worked (which I hope to hell won't become a 'Novel Concept' in the next decade) so it was simply a matter of playing them without the luxury of being able to look up a single bit of information on them (which...was honestly and unfortunately harder than you might think).  I did have the net for the majority of one day which was spent mostly as a waste which I will describe below, but that night saw its demise and plunged me definitively into the 90s existence.

I want to get into that one day with internet before anything else, however, to explain the friggin' comedy of errors that day took.  As I stated previously, I have a copy of Deadly Premonition:  Director's Cut and I was slightly worried about the framerate and such when I started hearing complaints throughout the internet of it, but I had a relatively cool day and decided it was prudent to throw the game in and give it a shot.  So my thought process was basically thus:  The game came with Pre-Order DLC, that means a Day One patch to include it, right?  That is the case in 99% of situations, so I prepared myself for this scenario.  I tried to open the Store and it claimed that there was a system update.  Fair enough, I initiated it and let it run and install with no issue.  So I try to open the Store again only to find there's an update for the Store.  Which is pretty frustrating but I would be alright with it if it improved the Store's performance.  (Spoiler alert:  It doesn't.)  Regardless, that downloads and installs and I am then afforded the opportunity to download my Espresso Suit DLC which I had assumed was...more than just that.  (I don't think it is.)

So, I downloaded the DLC and installed it, since that usually works, and was more than ready to download yet another update, this time for the actual game that this whole endeavor was centered around.  Yet, when I put the game in and started it up there was no such update that occurred, only a message telling me the Game Data was incompatible and to delete it and try again.  That confused me, but I did it anyway (The DLC created Game Data, of course) and tried again.  This time it tells me there's not enough HDD space for the Install.  Urgh.  Deciding that I can live without a few choice Game Datas for games that have even bigger patches waiting for them, I go into the game one final time and let it install.  That works.  I exit, re-download my DLC, load the game again to make sure it's compatible and it is.  Thereafter, I was more than able to play the game with the realization that I was also more than able to do so at any point in the two hours spent doing all of the above because there was no game update.

I....didn't play Deadly Premonition that day.  Though I did play it a couple days later and am happy to report that, aside from one of the hub areas, issues with framerates don't seem that bad whatsoever.  Now I just need cooler weather or a cooler environment to actually resume playing the damn thing.

As is likely obvious from the screenshot at the top of the post, I also put a good bit of time into Soul Sacrifice and have come around to seeing why some people don't like it.  It's not to say that I'm starting to enjoy it any less, but rather that I feel like my enjoyment has reached its peak and will remain a constant which, in a sense, will bring it down.  I've reached the point of the game where it's only going to get exponentially harder with every leap, as it likely assumes I'm spending the time that I'm spending grinding up Offerings (and Levels in the meantime), but grinding up Offerings....well, it gets a little rough after a while.  Especially when you're playing a Glass Cannon since you either bring along allies and merely suffer getting smacked around (thankfully for no damage) by their AOE attacks that they love to spam, or leaving the allies at home and potentially losing a 10-minute battle because of a cheap shot.

The problem is that, I'm at an area where the second-tier of spells is the normal expectancy, and getting those buffed up is not nearly as simple as it was for the first-tier since getting second-tier when you don't have a recipe means involving a lot of first-tier.  Using the above picture as an example - that's the second-tier Ice Arrow skill.  Without a fusion recipe, I can still get more Ice Arrow (M) spells because I got that one from boosting Ice Arrow (S) a bunch.  And by a bunch, I mean four levels.  Which means getting two to boost to One-star, getting two One-Stars to Boost to Two-Stars, getting two Two-Stars to boost to Three-Stars and finally getting two Three-Stars to boost to (M).  Shit is exponential.  That is sixteen Ice Arrow (S) for one Ice Arrow (M).  Which means thirty-two for a One-Star Ice Arrow (M).  It's honestly just must simpler, of course, to find a level that offers the damn spell, or to stumble across the fusion recipe, but, well, both of those require treadings into areas where I should already have the spell and it gets all contradictory there.

Still, the actual game part is still fun, which is what matters of course.  It's just that I feel myself getting more into the thought-process of playing the game rather than just playing it, which is the trap I fell into with Disgaea 3.  Though, to be fair, you have to do that with Disgaea if you plan on doing anything but stumbling your way through the lackluster main story.  Still, just because the things you have to do to conquer even little parts of the 'bonus' content (which is lined up, in my case, as the epilogue to the game and doesn't read as 'bonus' to me whatsoever) are 'extra', that doesn't mean you can do whatever the hell you want with them.  Which is something I've been meaning to bitch about, but haven't gotten quite around to it just yet.

I've talked a few times about The horrors of Mushroom Baal and the horrible grind to get close to his level, but something I've really failed to break-down here is the actual context of what's going on here.  Mushroom Baal is the last fight of the epilogue which is basically just a lot of fan-wanking as you fight a bunch of characters from the game and games previous who have 'lost' something to a 'mysterious' Overlord.  As an example of that, the last fight before Mushroom Baal is Laharl, Etna and Flonne along with a field of crazy prinny soldier things.  Without exaggeration, I could throw Dinah as she is into that fight all by herself and she would win it.  Laharl and Co. are somewhere in the Effective Level of 2000-3000 and honestly are not all that impressive.  Dinah is, of course, Effective Level 9999, but her Sum Level is 30,000 and change.  As you've seen, she comes nowhere close to the Effective Level 4000 Mushroom Baal that has 1.2 Million ATK and is the fight directly after Laharl/Etna/Flonne.  I want to make that clear.  You have normal battles against previous characters like Axel and the mentioned trio and then immediately after, NIS just decides to punch you straight in the dick with a character that you cannot kill unless you've been grinding like a motherfucker.

It is further compounded by the issues that have summarily sprung up from my plans to just raise a really good Majin for Dinah to eat for an all-around boost of no small quantity and the Evilties that come along with that.  Majins, as I have stated in the past, simply require more Experience to level up.  Why this is is entirely beyond me because restricting them strictly because they get good Evilties seems a little overboard, but at the same time, the Evilties are literally all the Majins have.  Their stats being overall the same is nice, but unless you buff them with Class World and feed them someone for weapon skills, they're not going to be useful except for in the most specific of circumstances.  There is a lot of work to put into a Majin to make it 'good' even if it didn't have the EXP restriction.  With that, it's just fucking ridiculous.  I mean, I guess the benefit of an automatic 50% boost to all stats because of an Evilty is pretty crazy, but not fifty-hours-just-making-this-asshole-useful crazy.  When all that's going to happen is that he'll end up getting eaten by Dianh for about 100,000 (MAYBE) stat points (in full, not counting HP/SP and distributed between the stats) to be added to her well, and getting the Evilties she so needs.  And I will still have grinding to do to bring Dinah up to combat-readiness with Mushroom Baal after that.

There's absolutely no getting around the stupidly long grind either.  Either I grind this method, or I hop into a Legendary Item or Weapon's Item World and do all one hundred floors of it (not counting floors I have to redo because I went into a mystery panel) all so I have the 'privilege' of trying to Reverse Pirate the item for Statisticians who are the innocents that grant you more EXP when on an item that you have equipped and are, of course, a fucking rare spawn.  Reverse Pirating, by the way, requires that I have a Pirate Ship, which I do have, but if I didn't, that would mean...being in the Item World -again- relying on random chance that Pirates will show up on one floor at some point and I can murder them for their ship.  So I do all that for Statisticians and then I go through some sort of dupe thing with a particular weapon for more of that or something (which I will have to Item World beforehand) all just so I can grind my Majin more, hoping that the statisticians bring him up to normal, if not better, EXP gains.  It's one of those things that helps in the long run, of course, since it means free EXP for anyone when I'm specifically grinding them since I can just give them the item or move the innocents, but it's so fucking monotonous that it's not worth it.

And I cannot....cannot stress enough that this is not even the biggest fucking challenge of the game, this Mushroom Baal fight.  Because it's not the Land of Carnage version of the fight.  In which Mushroom Baal has about 20 Million in most stats.  I am not doing that fight for obvious reasons.  The most obvious among them being fuck you, Nippon Ichi Software.

I just wish I was fucking done with this grinding good goddamn

Tired and Cranky

If there's a few things you've gleaned about me from my blogposts, especially the more personal ones (which are rare, admittedly), one of them is probably that I have struggled lately to be positive about things and generally try and keep an upbeat attitude.  I've done a pretty good job of it with a few hiccups here and there, but it's nothing that I really try and let get me down.  The last couple days have been more of the same about that, but my erratic and silly work schedule has really taken a toll on me that I haven't really registered until tonight when I realized I have been just a cranky person the last few days.  Like, crankier than the occasional piece of snark here or there - more along the lines of full-on, 'fuck this, fuck you, fuck everything' which has been a rare thing for...well, a couple years, honestly.  Which is good that it's rare, but that does then make it a bit unsettling when it does come around.

I think when it really hit was tonight when I was plugging away at the Dragon Fantasy review I've had open since....Sunday.  It's really not coming together the way I want it to and at one point I said to myself, "Am I literally going to explain how an NES-era RPG works?  Is that literally something I'm going to do?"  For a moment, I was so annoyed with that, with the whole concept of it and that I had to consider it, that I just grumbled, saved it and closed it once more as I have three times by now.  Usually, I would try to work through it or something, but instead I did the equivalent of upending the table I was writing on and stomped away.  Admittedly, it's less violent on a computer and in this format, but still, it's bothersome at the very least.

Part of the issue is Spring, as it always is.  I complain ceaselessly about it, but I just cannot handle ridiculous heat, and in my opinion, an indoor temperature of 82 degrees -with- a fan on at 11:30 at night is fucking ridiculous.  I say every year that I'm going to look into some sort of solution, but I never do and simply end up bitching for six months on end while also being miserable for various reasons.  Hopefully this will be the year where I'm motivated enough to -actually- do something about it, since I guess there are now Space Coolers that don't have to be hung halfway out a window to work.  Or maybe that's not a new thing and I am just a dumb.  I just know that a Space Heater is....'necessary' for out here for when it gets colder (obviously, I'm not a fan) so a similar option for when it's hot out here at least should have been a possibility, though the previously mentioned window thing was an issue.  If it's not now, then this might be a bearable Spring and Summer.

Another part of my grumbling is that there are rumors moving about the internet that the just released Deadly Premonition:  Director's Cut runs a little dodgy.  Being that it was a game I was actually looking forward to getting without expecting much, it's hard to say that I'm going into it expecting something bad now, but it's not outside the realm of thought.  It's not that you'd expect Deadly Premonition of all games to be a technical marvel or even 'smooth' (it was $20 on the original 360 release, and only got bumped up for $40 on PS3 because Blu-Rays are a bit more expensive, plus the content added), but rather that you'd expect the port of a two year old game that took something like a year to do would work.  Like, decently.  But with reports of stuttering framerates and strange audio echos or tinniness, not to mention the 'graphic overhaul' doing little for the better, if not for the worse, it's hard to not get discouraged.  Being the internet, it's hard to tell what's exaggerated and what isn't, so the only true test will be playing it myself, which I am understandably wary about doing.

Basically, I'm just being cranky and grumbly and tired because of things and it's really gotten in the way of writing things that I would prefer writing.  So instead, I did this.  Since I very obviously -do- want to write, even if I'm perhaps not in the best place to do so.  Hopefully, it'll pass - after all, I have a day off tomorrow if all goes well, so perhaps a day of simply recharging, getting some Soul Sacrifice in or playing through the end of Thomas Was Alone will assuage my undercurrent of 'bleh'.  Or maybe I'll veg out and catch up on my youtube videos since there's about three dozen of them that I haven't watched yet and are just begging for a marathon session.  Several, in fact, given that the bulk of them are 30-minute videos or better.  Which just makes me glad that the Vita has a Youtube App, because I'd just say 'fuck it' otherwise.  Regardless, tomorrow looks like a day that has potential, so here's hoping.

So Much 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!'

It's one of those magical times where I literally have a wealth of information to dispense and merely have to think about the proper way to do so, rather than the normal scrounging about at Joystiq and Siliconera for something that I think I can talk about or thinking about anything of interest otherwise.  Originally, this was just going to be about the above which I will get to in a moment, but I just discovered something else from the Vita Game Heaven Event that I just cannot help but talk about, so I'll just go ahead and combine the two pieces into a single post that covers a full spectrum of awesome.  Because that's just how I do, and I'm glad to do it not only because I'm personally excited about the news, but because I'm excited about being able to share it.

Yesterday during a GDC Panel Yasuhiro Wada, also known as the guy who created Harvest Moon and is thus a person who I actually know about, made a little mention about working alongside Hidetaka Suehiro or Swery on a Deadly Premonition project for the Playstation 3.  When it was initially announced, nobody knew if it meant a sequel or something of that sort or if it was actually the long-awaited localization for the game to PS3.  It has been released in Japan on the PS3, but under the Japanese name of "Red Seeds Profile" so the mention of it being "Deadly Premonition" meant specifically the Western release.  After the panel, people caught up to him for a clarification where he made it perfectly clear:  He's working on an enhanced Port of Deadly Premonition for PS3 with Swery, likely in the Executive Producer position as he was on the original version of the game.

Now, what does an Enhanced Port of Deadly Premonition mean for us, the people intending to buy it?  Well, if you pay attention to Joystiq, then it means the same game as the 360 version, but with more content (it says 'scenarios' which I believe might mean 'episodes') and support for the Playstation Move.  The former makes complete sense, being that it's a provision for approval for PS3/PSN games to have additional content when ported from another system (mostly the 360), but they seem pretty lax on just how much new counts as enough.  This means we could end up with a 20-minute extra episode between two original ones, or a fully fleshed out couple of episodes that explain a whole lot about the game that was otherwise left up to imagination or supposition.  Or just a new location or something, I don't know, it literally could be anything, it's all just up to what Swery and the rest of the team decides to put in.

Playstation Move controls, however, not only make sense but could make the game a much, much better version of it than it was otherwise.  Now, you know I champion games with poor gameplay, so long as they have a great story (whether it's legitimately great or so insane it's great), but to say Deadly Premonition was clunky was, apparently, an oversight.  We've gotten to the point where we can fully, openly, and truthfully acknowledge that Resident Evil 4 played like a pile of crap, and a lot of allusions to that were made in the reviews that came out for it.  However, it's also agreed that the Wii version of Resident Evil 4, with Wii-mote aiming, made for quite possibly the definitive version of the game, taking one of the big flaws of the original and fixing it completely, though some might consider it 'too fixed' since I do believe a common complaint about Resident Evil 4's new control scheme was that it made the game fairly easy.  I'll take that happily, though, if it means I get to finally play Deadly Premonition rather than just hope.

The other nice bit of news that came out, pretty much the important piece of news that came out from the Game Heaven event, is that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released for the Vita.  Not only that, but it will feature Cross-Play with the PC version of the game, meaning that you can meet up with your PC friends in the same world, same server, and quest with them as if you were all on PC.  Or all on the Vita.  You get what I mean here.  Similarly, if you have the PC version and get the Vita version, you can take your character out and about if you're out and about and have a stable internet connection to use.  But -only- if you have a stable internet connection as, that seems to be the catch because of the Cross-Play feature; only the PC version will feature Offline Content.  The Vita version will always be online which means you might want to also have your charger handy, but it's worth it if you simply have to have your PSO fix.

At least, that's how the landscape of it is currently, and it could change based on fan feedback or what have you.  The game itself is only 10% finished (slated for a 2013 release), meaning there's still a lot yet to be done, and new things, both positive and negative, could yet be found out while the game is getting closer to being complete.  I think the more prudent question to ask, with regards to the second version, is how the subscription for it will work.  Will it require a separate subscription fee?  If so, will it be a wholly separate one at full price, or a lessened one, similar to Final Fantasy XI/XIV's extra character fees or the like?  Or will the cost of the game itself be enough as a secondary buy-in to the game and it'll just work off your account (or, if you -only- have the Vita version, you'll pay for that only, with the ability to get the PC version, at cost, but pay the same sub price) for that?  And you have to wonder, with Samurai and Dragons coming out, how big a part Microtransactions will play in the game.

Satoshi Sakai, producer of Phantasy Star Online 2, also hinted towards more Phantasy Star related surprises to come out this month after confirming that the Vita version of PSO2 was, itself, a surprise hinted at last week.  Of course, what this means is up to anyone's imagination, but I would put good money on a Phantasy Star Portable-style game (tentatively referred to as "Phantasy Star Victory") being announced as something to play around with in the meantime.  At least, I'm hoping for it, or -something- to do with that style of game, even if it's just a remaster of Phantasy Star Portable 1, 2, and/or Infinity for the Vita.  Provided it would actually come to the States, of course.  Since we do enjoy these games, no matter what Sega thinks. (Yes I realize Sega thinks we enjoy them, but don't enjoy paying for them and while I can't exactly fault that, I want these games and will pay)  I guess we'll just find out at some point this month!

News Dump - New Games and New Info

This is another one of those nights where there's just quite a few topics one could bring up, but each one doesn't really offer a lot of a basis to make a full-fledged post over, yet still are big enough that they necessitate being brought up at the very least.  So, seeing as it's the only thing my drug-addled mind can push together (goddamn allergies), it seems as good as anything.  This is also another one of those nights where, despite my willingness to post, and post something substantial, it's just not a thing that can be done, so apologies for that.

First up is something that is, honestly, something that's been on my radar since last year, and one could only hope that a recent interview (rather, a recent interview that Joystiq made an article about) points to a long-awaited PS3 version of Deadly Premonition (in Non-Japan).  While not the first time he's gone out there expressing his desire to do more, make more games and really take off, he seems to have more concrete plans in mind and, hopefully, some financial backing.  Or hopefully his concrete plans will bring financial backing, or something.  Point is, somebody needs to help Swery make some more goddamn games.

Quoted as saying, "Trying to think of ways to create a sequel, that's definitely on the table, trying to create a prequel is also definitely on the table; and also a project to have more people play Deadly Premonition." in regards to his current plans on Deadly Premonition, it's clear that he wants to make Deadly Premonition a thing that is a series, and, thankfully by the way he set the game itself up, a Prequel nor a Sequel would feel 'forced'.  And also, clearly, the last line would be the indicator of his intent to port Deadly Premonition proper to other systems; the only question is what.  (Psst!  Swery!  Vita Dev Kits are pretty cheap!)

We'll just have to take a 'wait-and-see' approach to whatever comes of this, since, hopefully something will come of this.  I mean, I'd be willing to put down money on something happening, honestly.  It's just always the waiting (and seeing F.K. in my drinks) that kills me.

Second up is some rather surprising news from the lands of Skyrim.  At least, surprising to me, as I haven't been following the game, but I'm sure at least part of it is a surprise to, well, most everyone who hasn't already read the article, seen it on the internet, or read it on Twitter (which is on the internet as is the article but semantics) is the news that not only will you be able to get married in Skyrim, but said marriages can be same-sex ones.  Now, while I'm not really of an opinion either way and without getting too political about it, this is honestly pretty cool.  Marriage in general is a neat, if unexpected, step in the game direction, and going right from that to same-sex is a rather bold step if nothing else.

I'm not really sure as to what the proponents of marriage include, as you can't just marry anyone, if I'm interpreting the text of this tweet correctly, but the people you can marry are marry-able (it's a word now, Blogger isn't listing it as misspelled.) regardless of your race or your gender.  This....well, this could turn horrific really quickly, so I'm going to skim away from this rather swiftly, but, again I wanted to point it out at least since it's neat.  I have to wonder what the benefits (in-game) are to getting married, and what could happen to, er.....nullify it, should you get bored of your nagging Orc husband.

We've been over this again and again, Japan.  You really, really need to stop with the awesome PSP games because all it's doing is making me sad that I'll never get to play these games on my american PS- wait what?  It's being localized?!  I....Hrm...I'm not sure what to think here.  Let me collect my thoughts here for a moment....

...

Yes, NISA.  Yes.  You're doing good things here, and it would be a reaaaaaal shame if you just stopped with Black Rock Shooter in the whole localization department, if you know what I mean.  (Please give us more PSP games)

Anyways, my own personal knowledge of Black Rock Shooter (The Game) (Well, the series it spawned from too, but, really, nobody's going to call it Black Rock Shooter:  The Game) is....beyond limited, but the simple fact that it's a PSP game that's been announced this late in the game and is definitely hitting American shores is almost enough to guarantee a purchase.  The fact that it's apparently a third-person shooter/RPG is mere icing on the cake.  The deliciously portable cake of...girl robots vocaloid(s?) shooting rocks from cannons at stuff or.....Erm....

...Okay, it's just really nice, alright?  And it makes me happy.

There's other bits of news out there, like 'Malicious' getting an enhanced Vita port, GameStop literally losing their -minds-, and Gabe Newell continuing to harp on XBox Live, but I'm not really attached enough to any of those stories to write up anything near meaty enough, so hopefully you'll be able to read and form your own opinions there.  But that feels enough for tonight, so I will try to resist taking another Zyrtec and relax with some youtube videos.