Dragon Age and the Magic of Nostalgia

One thing that has become clear as the OGs age is that nothing quite mars subjectivity like a big whopping dose of nostalgia.  I think we're all a little guilty of insisting that one game in a series was never topped, for one reason or another, even when it sometimes doesn't hold up at all.  This isn't unique to gamers.  I've tried to go back and watch tv shows or movies I swore were amazing as a kid, just to blink in embarrassment wondering why I decided to destroy the magic by staring the dragon in the mouth.

The point is that Dragon Age seems to be a fanbase guilty of this.  It's not even a series that has much seniority in the gaming world and its games certainly weren't so far apart as some of its bigger competitors.  Still, I hear a lot of people insisting nothing beat the flagship game.

Maybe this is why my opinion differs so strongly.  I played the Dragon Age demos and watched my nephew playing them years ago and basically filed it under a play-later status.  I never picked up the series until Inquisition and I fell so much in love with the lore and the emotional development aspects that I finally decided to pick up the first two.  After you play Inquisition, the gameplay in Origins is so stilted, the graphics so dated, that even the story couldn't save it for me.  You just don't have the options Inquisition spoils you with either.  While I did enjoy it for the lore, I was eager to see if the second game didn't give me a headache.  I really hated that camera...

The second game is graphically beautiful, even dated.  Fenrir was a character I loved to hate and made me realize that there was a real trend with elves being a pain in the ass to romance in these games.  While I only played through the first game to complete it (and I did do the DLC) with Alistair, I actually romanced Fenrir, Merrick, and Anders in this one out of sheer curiosity.  Anders is by far one of the most aggravating but intriguing characters in that how you interact with him over the games vastly changes some of the storylines.  The one big gripe I share with others are the lazily recycled maps.  There was absolutely no attempt to cover up how unmotivated that element was.  Still, I found the game enjoyable, really loving to see more of Varic's and Cassandra's back story.

My biggest complaint with Inquisition is how little the old cast came in at all.  Morrigan's appearance was the biggest throughout and even her storyline stayed pretty enigmatic.  Connor gets a brief showing if you saved him in the World Save option, but you get mere mentions of the elven assassin from the first game and the insufferable Prince Sebastian if you bother to even read the table quests.  Alistair gets some optional appearances as well, with some mentions his relationship to the original game's character depending on decisions too.  If you don't get Alistair as your grey Warden escort, you get pegged with the so-so Stroud.  I found the choice between your Hawke and Alistair much harder a decision to make when it came time to sacrifice one.  The other two games were so complementary with these crossovers that it seemed like a real letdown once I realized how very little  Inquistition used either of its predecessors plot set-ups.

I loved the characters in Inquisition.  Even though I would have loved to push Vivienne off her balcony a few times, once I played through the game a few times, I didn't feel like I could do without any of them.  The banter amongst your party when you were out wandering really solidified how these characters felt about each other.  It didn't take much to figure out sexual preferences, but it wasn't flaming gay, bull dyke, sexually typical tropes shoved in your face.  Even the transgendered Krem was completely cool with it when you don't realize he has girl parts.  Some people picked this apart in reviews too, but I felt that these things were done naturally and if they were imperfect, it only lent to the realism of human interaction.  We're a little embarrassing and hard to understand sometimes.  I find it endearing to reflect that in a fantasy game.

I also was in love with crafting in this game.  It had the sort of options that really made it interesting and I didn't find it overwhelming.  The payoff of really learning the system was some of the best gear in the game.  In subsequent playthroughs, it can make getting that nightmare mode trophy almost easy.  Some of the armor looked ridiculous on some characters and I found myself too often passing up the strongest options because they were aesthetically awful.  It's a system I would like to see more fleshed out in a later entry.

As far as gameplay went, while there were some buggy spots, it wasn't frustratingly so.  One issue I did notice was that the audio would get a bit wonky-- cutting out or cutting off-- and the only way to fix it was to close out of the game and re-enter.  Not a huge deal, only seemed to be an issue after repeated entries into rest mode.  This seems to be an issue with a lot of games-- games seem to like to be rebooted like computers that go to sleep too often.  I am noticing this mostly in games ported over and originally made for PS3.  I'd be interested to hear more about other people's experiences and theories on this.

Inquisition was definitely my sentimental favorite.  It was a visually beautiful game and I made the effort to Platinum it since I enjoyed chasing down as many new conversations and relationships as possible.  While Origins might have set a tone for those players who played them sequentially, I found I simply enjoyed the second and third games more.  It's a series I can definitely recommend and think it definitely gives you your money's worth if you like action RPGs with open world freedom where relationships determine your options, all set in a medieval fantasy world with dragons and magic.  It's not a perfect series, but it has potential.  I hope the developers do it justice and bring us closer to tying up those plots!

Skyrim Review: The Old, the New, the Not Yet Certain

I never knew anything about the Elder Scrolls series until I picked up Oblivion.  Oblivion was the game that got me hooked on open world games.  I had a few minor gripes even then-- how easy it was to break the game (in terms of difficulty-- you could make the full invisibility armor or just not level and the game never got harder), the annoyance of weapons breaking when you didn't pay attention to their condition, the usual nit picks.  So when I heard Bethesda was putting out Skyrim I absorbed all the information I could get a hold of and, wow, they really listened to their fans.

If you were a Day One Skrimmer (I'm not coining that phrase and yes, Skrim.  It's how my nephews and I shorten it), then you're aware of the huge blowout over the glitches.  I got it for PS3 but apparently my fat PS3 is a magical creature that wasn't susceptible to all of the supposed issues it had.  Xbox fans didn't escape from their own issues either.  If I were writing a Day One review, then I would go on about the massive list of reported problems, but let me tell you-- the problems I experiences were minor freezing and save issues and the most entertaining glitches in memory.

I'll give my glitch experience its own paragraph and let me say that I wish that PS Share was a thing back then because I had the motherlode.  My absolute favorite was when I teleported to an alternate entrance of one of the dwarven ruins and I look off to my left and Shadowmere is upside down and bouncing on the tent on his head.  I still have Elder Dragons that will fall out of the sky onto my head in the middle of nowhere at that and damn if it doesn't have me laughing every time.  It never felt like a disconnect when it happened.  I could get right back into my roleplaying fantasy adventure after a good laugh.  The most annoying ones were the freeze up when trying to submerge in water and the slowdown in Whiterun, both things that were fixable later.

Let's face it-- Skyrim is a huge, lovingly detailed masterpiece.  No matter how frustrated you might have been with your own brand of glitches, you could not deny that serious talent and thought went into the game.  Who you chose to be affected how people reacted to you, you could really customize armor and weapons to your own unique style, you could do damn near everything on one file or limit yourself for a challenge.  The books you collected could be read and were substantial in their lore, entertainment value, and interesting.  I absolutely used the bookshelves in Markarth to alphabetize my collection.  I absolutely stop fighting dragons to catch butterflies.  Putting heads on shelves like trophies was inevitable.

While I do think the movement could be a bit clunky (and this is partially due to accommodating the character's movement so that you could play in first person.  I preferred to see my character's back the whole time), the overall animation didn't suffer.  Power kills and executions are always fun to watch.  While the enemies you could run into weren't very varied, the selection fit with the theme.  I've seen people call the game overhyped, but the only other game I've ever dumped so many hours into was Dragon Age Inquisition (another game I will eventually review) and from where I stand, if you can pour that much time into a game and STILL find new things to do, it earns the hype.  That being said, one complaint a lot of gamers have is recycled quests.  Fetch quests, kill this monster quests, fishing quests, cooking quests, photography quests, mini game within the game quests.  Some people find these tedious.  I'm the sort of person that can poke at Solitaire for two hours while waiting in a hospital, so these elements are definitely for gamers like me.  I'm not sure why gamers complain about these things when they are almost always optional.  The side benefit of doing these inane quests is often building experience, cash flow or gaining otherwise unattainable items so you don't just spend time grinding or power-leveling, whatever you prefer to call it.  If you like grinding, great, but I hate it.  I'd rather have something that keeps me focused and stands a chance of me running into something because I am actually paying attention.

Skyrim was a pivotal entry into the genre of open-world.  If it couldn't do something well, it showed other developers what the future of the genre might be capable of.  It might have been a frustrating beta release, but it was an inspirational sample for better things to come.  I could go on for hours about specifics, but I'll actually keep this one a bit spoiler free.  It was a solid story and it was fun to walk off the beaten path (and possibly get trapped in a mountain-- fast travel is a wonderful thing to fix that).  If you want freedom, this game has it in spades.

I'm sure someone might ask me at this point how I felt about ESO.  Sorry, but I hated it.  It was practically another World of Warcraft.  I'm not a fan of games that force you to play on servers or online gaming in general.  I'm in the camp where I game to be in total control and escape from the annoying assholes around me.  It didn't even do the format better, it just copy-pasted over the Elder Scrolls lore.  I won't be reviewing it, simply because I probably couldn't give it the chance it deserves as it's not a format I'm interested in.

I am mostly waxing nostalgic here because unfortunately I haven't been able to play the remaster, but I will absolutely add my impressions of it once I do.

Dun-dun-DUUUUUN!  The future?

Am I excited for another console entry?  Abso-fucking-lutely.  Fans are already speculating on the Valenwood, Elsweyr, which other land in Tamriel might get the spotlight this time.  I'm rooting for something greener.  I loved the viking theme in Skyrim, but now I'm ready for my warm weather hooker duds.  As with most of my current favorite series, I am always anxious that it will continuously be a ten year wait.  While I want that top quality game, waiting longer than five years feels cruel.  Often it is simply because they are paying attention to other projects or series.  What I wouldn't give for these companies to have a dedicated team for each series.  Hell, sign me up.  I would work on my favorite series for the next 50 years exclusively.  It would also eliminate or at least lessen all of the bad direction, production, deadlines and confusion that are causing half-assed games to hit the stores.

It can be done, guys.  Somehow Uncharted has been a stellar series, a complete masterpiece in every entry (again, if you like that sort of thing).  Naughty Dog is doing other games.  One thing I never see is news about how often they are restaffing because their company is disorganized.  Right now, I'm looking at SquareEnix and Ubisoft, the most recent offenders in my favorite genres.  I hold you accountable because I see what your artists and programmers and technical staff are putting out and you aren't doing them justice!  Ambitions are crap without cohesion.  I can wait years for that masterpiece if needed.  In fact, I have to.  I know that holding onto a game without releasing it costs you money everyday you have to pay staff but aren't seeing financial returns while it's in development.  These are all things that were supposed to be set in planning.  You pull in new project direction midway and they make costly bad judgments, yeah?  I know that gaming has become as epic and complicated, if not more so, than making a blockbuster movie.  I don't pretend it's as simple as following my suggestions, but your name and reputation of a series is only as good as your most recent game.  Longtime fans won't be fooled forever and new customers won't take a second look.

If you read my gripes on FFXV, you know that I absolutely loved all but the story.  While I'd like to believe that Square is patching in a fix for the butcher job that it was, I do hope that redeems it.  It was an otherwise incredible game that threw away all the work that went into the first 9 chapters.

Not trying to get sidetracked-- the Elder Scroll series hasn't managed to leave a bad taste in my mouth yet, although trying to go back to play Morrowind was a lost cause.  If you didn't play it first, it just doesn't jive when you're spoiled by Oblivion and Skyrim.  It's like playing Uncharted then trying to go back and play Pitfall.  Given, Pitfall is a great game in its own right, if you thought it would be anything like Uncharted you'd be sorely disappointed.  I like pixel games still.  Old generation 3D games give me a headache now and don't hold up for me.  I might have liked Dragon Age Origins too at that, but again, it doesn't hold up after playing Inquisition first.  Dragon Age 2 was a massive graphics upgrade.  While you can say that Origins might have had a better story, I have to admit that the look just distracted me.  The environments caused a huge disconnect for me.

Augh, look at me, running ahead of myself.  I have to remember I can hash other series out at a later date.  I apologize for running off topic, but I think comparisons are also important things to balance the overall gaming experience on.  Nevertheless, I will absolutely try to keep my crossover opinions to a minimum to focus on the game or series under review.

I hope that this review has given someone the push to give Skyrim a try though.  The original has been looking dated and a remaster came just in time.  Eager to play it myself, but do pick that up and give me your impressions if you're so inclined!  I blog to spark discussion so it is welcome.

FFXV: Review and one fan's personal history with the series

I won't belabor an introduction to my lifelong love of Final Fantasy and the handful of disappointments I've experiences amidst the overall shining glory as a whole.  The graphics are always cutting edge.  The characters are worth investing in.  The gameplay slowly evolved but always tests new systems.  And the stories...  Well, damn it, Square...

I don't like to cry, but I like a moving story.  I have been okay with the feels that other FF games have given; even when they tear your heart out, they triumph in heroic glory.  FFVI was a game that I don't think can be surpassed in terms of storytelling.  It moved and rocked me and not one of the main characters had to die to do it.  FFVII was the game that brought along the first death scene and I think no one can forget how shattering Aeris's death was. The spin-offs were actually welcome and brought such a richness to the whole. FFVIII brought along the bittersweet notes of two ships passing in the night and their children picking up the torch.  Sorry, but FFIX was meh for me, but I didn't love the music or gameplay less for the story.  FFX is to many people the last of the best storytelling.  The ending was sad but sweet and you could make it even better with the sequel.  FFXII is usually where most longtime fans start to fall off with the unconditional love, although I'm probably one of the few who really enjoyed it completely.  It wasn't wholly memorable but it was a feel good game for me, although the bunny chick Fran was probably the worst character in the series as a whole.  You wanted to be sympathetic to her story since her boyfriend, Balthier, was one of the most animated lovable characters, but she really fell flat.

XIII was the series that started to leave the bad taste in my mouth.  It was absolutely beautiful but the first game was linear in gameplay and confusing as a whole.  It brought along a very extensive vocabulary and while I loved Lightning and Snow and Hope, I had a hard time liking any of the others.  Once I finally understood all the magical rules, the story itself started to become less clear.  Let me summarize the rest because the blog post is ultimately about the newest entry to the series.  The second game was an unexpected gem.  The battle lost its anal-retentive structure and while I found Sera annoying in the first game, I truly liked her and her new sidekick Noah.  Again, we got a sad cliffhanger ending.  Enter Lightning Returns.  I couldn't get through the very first town in this game although I restarted the game three times trying to get on the right foot.  This game was nearly unplayable.  I would have been more excited if you threw a bunch of one piece Legos at me and told me to build a dragon.  I am still tempted to Youtube videos from the game to see what possibly resolved in this trainwreck of a series, but I can't bring myself to try a fourth time.

Type-0 had its jerky camera but couldn't been great aside from that oversight.  The beginning cutscene was a tearjerker and it had some real downer moments, but I still felt like the plot made sense.

Ah, FFXV.  I loved the brotherhood theme.  The building blocks for all of the characters was masterfully done, a hard feat to accomplish with such a huge cast over the course of the prequel movie Kingsglaive and the Brotherhood anime.  I have no complaints about either.  They were easy to watch and really got me excited to game.  And damn, the gameplay was a mark of grace and mastery.  There is so much freedom in the choices which is also difficult to pull off.  I never felt like I had to troll through menus to get what I wanted out of battle but the choices were there and they were fun to play with.  I loved how you could tag team in your comrades' techniques to change the flow of battle.  I loved that the menus could give you a breather without disconnecting you from the action.  I'm the sort that loves trolling around on fetch quests so I loved the many, many that they gave me.  The hunts were always fun (although I admit that I haven't yet beat the Daemonwall, mostly due to not leveling magic because I'm a melee whore).  It was the story that could have murdered this game if not for all the shining talent that went into every damn thing else.

So spoilers, peeps, because this is where I needed to rant.  It was a great story up until you wake up in Altissia.  I didn't hate how Lunafreya died.  It seemed inevitable.  She hadn't failed to mention that her oracle duties were already shortening her life span just as the Crystal drained the king Regis.  Basically, the first 8 chapters really built up a vast potential of possibility... and the rest of the story practically shit down its backside and wiped it up its back.  It would be a bit tedious to really hash out all of the WTF moments without having to retell the whole story but I will attempt to bullet some points that bothered me, in no particular order.

*The Niflheim emperor never comes into play after Kingsglaive.  He is mentioned but his enormous betrayal or fate never comes up again.

*Ravus is probably the largest most confusing plot hole.  Luna had her hands full trying to sell Noctis's good traits to him and he had been a cold and great villain with promise.  He gets a couple of cutscenes in the game and... then his body turns up.  The smaller plot up to that point seemed to revolve around how he thirsted for the power of the Lucii (but was rejected) then took the sword because Noctis wasn't worthy of it.  When you find his body, you might have missed the letters from his sister where for some unclear reason, he decided that Noctis was worthy of the sword and he would return it even if it cost him his life.  Clearly it did, but what the hell specifically could have motivated him to both betray his emperor and risk his life?  No telling because there was absolutely no real build-up here.

*Pryna...  you know, the other dog.  Umbra had the strange ability to transport Noctis and his friends "through time" (there's a reason I put that in quotes-- we'll get to that).  This is significant in my opinion because this is where I believe the game might be hinting at something with all the references to sleep and dreaming.  Pryna is the reason that Prompto turns his life around befriends Noctis but that is the last actual role she ever has... her last passive appearance being a dream Noctis has in the hotel.  It is him just fighting a hopeless battle, exhausted and hurt, with Pryna.  You see Pryna dead and he falls through the floor and wakes up.  This is where I believe Noctis is losing his mind a bit or being pulled into a dream where he can't tell what is real or not.

*The ending supports that theory but hell if I can tell you what parts were real or a dream after a while.  The whole 'ten years later' he comes out of the Crystal thing was irritating.  The world falls into ruin while he's playing pat-a-cake with Bahamut or something.  No one is surprised that Noctis shows up again, but why?  The entire story from here at least seems like it is completely his nightmare. Is he going mad or did the daemons physically pull him into a dream that gradually became a nightmare?  Did it start when his father died or was it the guilt of thinking he lost Luna where the line was blurred?  Absolutely no clue.  Did everyone actually die?  I saw one theory that stated that the last scene where they are married was simply their last wish in the afterlife, their 'final fantasy.'  Oh fucking groan, I hope to hell that corny attempt at wordplay was NOT the intention of the story.  I feel differently here...

Once the end screen fades, you go back to the title screen.  It is now bright white, with Noctis and Luna sitting together and the music switches from Somnus (Sleep) to the happier one.  I would not be surprised if the song is called "Awake".  I will research this a bit better when I'm not lazy and hungry, but I hated how depressing the face value story was and had to attempt to fill it in with my own imagination.

Which brings me to the 'final' point-- knock it the fuck off, storytellers, with the 'fill in the blanks' storytelling.  In this case, it was extremely rushed and lazy.  It was otherwise an amazing game, marred by the bad taste the story left in my mouth.  Are you planning on redeeming this story with DLC or a sequel in this world, new characters if we were supposed to take that 'born to die' shit as gospel?  I want to kiss everyone else who made this masterpiece, but I've got a bone to pick with what the final direction made of it.

Clearly, I had serious issues with the really shoddy storytelling, but let's check through the list of the brilliant.  The battle system, the foundation of the characters, the myriad side quests (hunts, fishing, monster arena, fetch quests-- there was something for everyone), the environments, the Regalia, the supporting characters, the maddening dungeons, the absolutely HUGE bosses.  While I got slammed through the map and had to walk back up onto the real world again (ohgodohgodohgod, pixel garbage disturbs me) and sometimes clipping through the huge bosses was confusing and weird, and every once in a while the mechanics got weird and the Regalia would flip up a wall or my character would slide up the ramps in Daurell Cavern instead of down... I couldn't fault the small and sometimes hilarious glitches.  Definitely didn't break the game.  My experience was fulfilling, but for the stain of plot.  I've seen some people unbothered by it because they take things at face value and don't think too much about story development.  Good on them.  Some people worshipped XIII and its sequels, also good on them.

I guess I miss the richness and completion of former entries.  I don't want to see a trend of storytelling dumped in favor of all the other bells and whistles.  I'm tired of the trend of sad as well.  I'm seeing a lot of my favorite shows and media killing off characters for the sake of 'realism' or 'shock value'.  Fine, but if you're doing it to distract from incomplete plots and Frankensteining the pieces of unintelligible garbage and saying 'good enough', not cool.  I know I am hard to please, but unless you are letting your audience know that it is episodic, it is annoying.  Games like Uncharted are absolutely phenomenal at storytelling.  Each game continues Drake's adventures, but is a WHOLE GAME and doesn't leave you feeling that someone tore out the last twenty pages.

If I wanted an crap rushed ending with no resolution, I'd read Gone Girl again.

I'm always interested in seeing what other fans may have to add or argue to my opinion pieces.  Forgive any of my own oversights.  I don't have a perfect memory so I may have missed things here or there.  I absolutely believe that fans need to gripe, to hold their beloved developers accountable and work together in whatever active or passive arenas to get the games the absolute best they can be!

Tutorial Mode: Skip for now?

I’m rolling out a quick (can’t promise that) intro here in case anyone is curious about my experience.  Any review blogger worth their salt will do that much.

First off, no one is ever surprised that I am a female.  There was ONE time when I worked in a mall and the guy was genuinely surprised that a girl would like video games.  ONE TIME.  It’s not that prevalent for guys to be shocked about that. 

I’ve been an avid gamer since my single-digits, starting out playing on my mom’s Commodore 64 and my uncle’s Atari.  We got the Nintendo Entertainment System (with the Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Track and Field game pack that had the gun and power pads).  I would play those games and my older brother would relentlessly play Back to the Future.  I was still a bit casual even then, since playing outside was still a thing.  I didn’t get sucked into avid status until we got Dragon Warrior for free when my dad subscribed to Nintendo Power magazine.  I was ten at the time and the first time I played it, I didn’t understand level grinding and I couldn’t get past the Green Dragon.

One day a year or two later, I picked it up again and just wandered around killing things while I saw if there was any place I could go other than to the dragon.  I noticed enemies had gotten easier to kill in one hit and thought “what the hell…  I’m going after the Green Dragon again.”  I remember how my heart pounded in my chest and how I leapt out of my chair when I slayed it.  The music changed and suddenly I was carrying an adorable pixel princess in my arms.  There was no turning back from there.

Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest was my first love, but I learned that role-playing games were not a one time thing.  It wasn’t just RPGs.  My younger brother and I would also play Wizards and Warriors, Battletoads, Double Dragon, Ninja Turtles (I actually beat the original), Mega Man, Punch Out…  It’s a long list because Video Village’s used game sales were open season on increasing our library quick.  The first system I got for a birthday was the SNES.  I fell in love with the Final Fantasy series when FF3 came out (later properly renamed to FFVI).  My brother and I also got the Sega Genesis and played Toe Jam and Earl.  I remember even then I wished that RPGs borrowed more action elements, so you can imagine my glee that action RPGs and open world gaming became a thing.

My brother went the N64 route where I took a gamble on the PlayStation.  Guess who is still a Sony fangirl?  My brother and I both got the PS2 but he got into PC gaming at that time, so it was his last console to date.  I got the PS3 and Xbox 360 (not a fan of Xbox—I may share why at a later date) and now the PS4.  Someday I’d like to get a bookcase that actually holds all the games I own so I can give you proper photo evidence of the collection I boast.  It’s not just the quantity.  I don’t own a game that I didn’t lovingly or frustratingly invest gobs of time on.

I’d be happy to wax nostalgic on the details with any gamer.  The gamer community is mostly one I am proud to belong to.  It has inspired me as an artist and designer.  Gaming isn’t just something I dabble in for some bonus nerd cred.  In fact, I am clearly a geek.  I don’t care for hoarding stats, I’m just passionate. 

That being said, this is a hobby I care about, so I write reviews with the attempt to let developers know what they are doing right and wrong from an actual gamer’s perspective.  I will continue to spark discussions and call them on bullshit and ultimately, hope it keeps our shared passion for the media growing and evolving into something we can all continue to enjoy.

I am not a feminist nor do I operate with any agenda aside from what I want to see in games.  I also speak my opinion and I don’t confuse them with facts.  Social justice can kiss my ass.  You will be treated exactly as you deserve to be treated based on how you treat me.  I won’t attempt to censor anyone, but this is my fucking blog.  If you want to make a stand, put some real work into it and make your own.  I feel that this disclaimer probably isn’t necessary, but why not get the crap out of the way so we can focus on the things we really care about?