The game is coming out with a new expansion this winter. I’m all for a game trying to stay alive, but what happened to caring about what the players want, instead of trying to push more expansions? This will be the 4th expansion to the game. I haven’t beaten any of the earlier expansions, but I managed to have three level 75 jobs and many other jobs around the 50’s and 60’s.
This new expansion will be the same as the others. Right now there’s very little information about what the expansion will come with, but what we do know from the trailer is that there will be new areas to explore. Also, I’m guessing these new areas will not be new player friendly, they’re catering to the veterans of Vana’diel.
I’ve mentioned this before how I was a die-hard fan of FFXI. I guess most of it was for personal reasons, as well as it being my first MMORPG. The thing I hate about FFXI is the lack of individual growth. Everything end-game had to be done with 6-18 or more people. It was also a popularity contest. If you even argued with any one person, you would be hated by all members of that linkshell.
I believe that smaller circles for missions make it less daunting than the task of pleasing more than 18+ people at a time. After playing since the Playstation 2’s release of the game back in early 2004, I decided that I would stop playing while still keeping my account alive. Why is it still around? I invested a lot of time on the game and met a lot of people that I’ve shared lots of memories with. I don’t want to lose that just yet. My real life friend who still plays the game messages me pretty often about stuff that is happening in game, like the “Adventurer Appreciation Campaign”. I will most likely pick up the expansion, but even if I did I would only play a bit of it and then stop. Like I did with the Treasures of Aht Urhgan. I installed the expansion, downloaded the patches and found ways to get to the new areas. Met up with my small linkshell, unlocked the new jobs and that was about it.
Lately, looking back, I realize that I have a lot of issues with FFXI’s gameplay especially after playing FFXII. FFXII is a gorgeous game even though it has it’s own issues. I know I sound like some fangirl, but I’m not kidding. Compared to the lack of color and depth in FFXI, FFXII is both visually beautiful and meaningful where you actually care about the well-being of the people of Dalmasca. I also like it that the gameplay in FFXII makes it that more feasible that you don’t need a hoard of people to take down an evil empire. On the other hand, FFXI makes it feel like you’re replaceable by another person with the same job only because you have weaker gear and also because you’re a different race playing a job people think you’re not suited for and not because they’re more skilled. When I play FFXII I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot more after taking down the Elite Mark like Trickster with simple gambits, rather than depending on a guy who just wants to leech exp and he’s leveling a job like white mage because he knows he will get picked up faster than a dragoon, only to get you killed minutes later and your home point is back in Windurst.
Is Tally excited? No, not until FFXI actually makes some real improvement like: make it easier to play the game than to log on everyday just to accomplish one objective. Not everyone’s going to school and have summer breaks to “catch up”. Also, SE should look into making it more fun to solo, because I believe that people should be able to exercise and enjoy their individual freedom in addition to the forced conformity FFXI dictates.
This game was released alongside Pokémon Pearl (ポケットモンスターパール) on September 28th, 2006. I bought the game on March 15th, 2007, I just couldn’t wait any longer for the US release. The last time I played a Pokémon game was when my younger brother gave me his GameBoy Color (the lime green one that I lost during a move).
The game in a way, is very simple and very “cute” if you want to go there and call it that. I like games that pay attention to little details, for example the bike. I love that bike more than anything…if not more than my Pokémons in game. I would ride it everywhere I go except indoors…because you simply “can’t” (T_T)…anyway I digress…This game is finally hitting the US on the 22nd of April. Yippee! One step closer to getting Pokémon Battle Revolution (ポケモンバトルレボリューション) here in US.
I’ve been playing the JP version since I bought it and I’m in about 42hrs, maybe 43hrs? I finally got my 8th badge so now I am on my way to “Victory Road” (official English translation I believe from past games…. it’s referred to as “Champion Road” in Japanese). All I’ve been doing is using all the special “outside of battle” moves that I gained from beating each gym leader to find treasures I have yet to collect from areas I didn’t have access to prior.
I really enjoy the game, not because it has cute pixelated monsters that you capture in a ball, but because the game is a very simple RPG and the characters aren’t annoying. The game has a lot of WiFi capabilities that you can indulge in. I have yet to test them all out since no one else would play the game with me. Maybe when the US version comes out, I can get my DS buddies to play with me. If they refuse, I will just taunt them with how my Pokémons can kick their asses any day, until they give in. Ah…see it’s working already…just got some evil eyes from Dylan Garret, our resident music guru… He also just denied it by saying “I don’t resort to such petty tactics” while giving me more evil eyes…
WARNING:
There are SPOILERS up ahead. PLEASE refrain from reading this if you’re faint at heart and will “die” if you simply see any kind of spoilers. I will not be held accountable for exposing you to the awesomeness of Pokémon Diamond, which you could not handle. The following was brought to you by Tally (me) with my ghetto style of video capture (via my camera).
Click below for the video/photo spoilers:
Here’s a short clip of my character showing off her “wheels” in Nomose City. It’s the 4th Gym.
Second video (I’m on a roll!) of me riding around, but I stop inside the Gym to solve the water puzzle. I took this video after beating all the trainers and getting my badge so you won’t see the battle with the Gym Leader, Makishi.
My saved file. Too bad you only get one save file. Make it count!
What does the file mean? My character name is Tally (har har)
I played 41:57 hours (really?!)
8 badges (yay!)
124 Pokemon recorded in the Pokedex
Here are all the badges you get. I polished them up (see how they’re glittering?) for this money shot.
Tally’s “Trainer Card” it has all the info about you, such as your ID no. (which I think might be the same for everyone?), your character’s name, money, Pokemon seen, score, playing time, and the date you started.
This is the part that makes this game a little more special, the appearance of Dialga for Pokémon Diamond the Time Pokemon.
Akagi (boss) awakens Dialga (he’s so cool looking). Professor Rowan and Hikaru tells you that you must stop Dialga or the world will be destroyed.
Team Galactic’s Mars and Jupiter step in, to block you from stopping Dialga. So you get into a double battle. Shigeru (my rival’s name) battles along side you. His Pokemons kind of suck though!
After the battle you see Akagi, ordering Dialga to unleash it’s ultimate power.
BUT what’s this??? The legendary Trio, Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie that you saved earlier, just stopped Dialga from using his powers.
Now it’s time for you to kick Akagi’s ass! After you beat Akagi, you get to battle Dialga. You either have to defeat him or capture him with the ultra ball (hyper ball in japanese). I caught him after several resets and retries. He is really hard to capture.
That’s all I have to share for now. I haven’t beaten the game yet, the game is pretty long, another thing I usually look for in an RPG. I hope you guys enjoy the clips and photos!
I bought the DS Lite about a year back when it came out in the States. I got it and Brain Age (like you all didn’t buy it!) from Nintendo World, New Super Mario Bros. from Best Buy and Phoenix Wright from J&L. Three games from three stores — all in the same day! (I told you I have gaming addiction!)
The very first import game I bought, which I had to order from Yesasia.com was Cooking Mama. Like many other fans of Nintendo’s quirky DS lineup, especially Japanese games… (more Phoenix Wright, yes please!), I loved Cooking Mama. And please do not go on saying how “girls only like these kind of games” because I know guys who actually enjoy making takoyaki just as much as I do, if not more.
To go with my “addiction” I usually write up a list of games I want to buy. Cooking Mama: Cook Off was one of those games that I was waiting to play with my beloved Wii. Sadly, Mama has lost some of her special charm jumping from the DS to the Wii.
The biggest problem is control. You’d think with the Wii-mote this would be an area of improvement! But the cursor in the Wii version is so small that you always waste precious time just getting your Wii-mote in the right position. Because of this, tasks which were handled with relative ease with the DS stylus, peeling potatoes for example, have suddenly become frustratingly difficult — and that’s coming from someone who was good at the DS version (I finished the handheld version in less than a few hours of getting it in the mail).
What makes this bad play control situation worse are the skimpy explanations of what exactly you’re supposed to be doing. Since you never quite get a clear picture on how you’re supposed to move or even hold the controller sometimes, you suffer a lot of trial and error. It’s times like this when you really appreciate the detailed explanations of WarioWare — those Jack Handey “Deep Thoughts”-style explanations are informative *and* entertaining!
Yet another reason why things aren’t as clear as they could be is because Cooking Mama speaks in bad Engrish! She seems to have mastered the compliments — badly accented encouragements like “Wonderful!” and “Better than Mama!” — but when you mess up, Mama says “Good, not mine!” I don’t even know what this is supposed to mean?? Is she disowning me??
WHY DOES MAMA SPEAK BROKEN ENGLISH?? I’m a little insulted by this. In fact I think this bothers me more than the bad control!
All in all, I’m sad to say you might just want to pass on Mama’s tough love this time around — especially with a price tag of 50 bucks?!?! How about you make meee proud next time Mama?!
Even though, Cooking Mama: Cook Off kind of makes me want to cry and put away my cooking knife, I still want to go over to Nintendo World this Saturday to get a free apron and make the little kids cry with my “culinary” skills!
The game is finally being released in the states tomorrow. They keep pushing the date back and I’m starting to lose faith in these “release dates”. Let’s just hope this game will actually be shipped on Tuesday and goes on sale on Wednesday the 21st.
*crosses fingers* Mama needs us to make good food, damnit! (T_T)
A lot of Americans seem to hate this series. I guess it’s because of the lack in gameplay that seems to turn people off.
Hello, I’m Tally and I’m an RPG-fiend.
The last RPG I bought before Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny was Grandia III (which I waited a really long time to buy, until GameStop decided to drop the price to $29.99). I’m not here to give you a review of these games. I’m here to admit that I am one of the few people out there that may happen to like Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny. I’ve never played any of the other NIS or Gust games, but the reason why I picked up Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny was because it was sitting in a $5.99-$9.99 bin at Toys ‘R Us in Times Square. I picked it up after work, and noticed that it was a game I looked up once upon a time and decided to give it a try, especially since it was only $9.99 (excluding tax). Brother J has officially labeled the game as my favorite game, because I played it 12 hrs straight the next night (not sure if it is, but I do like the old-school RPG style).
Long story short, I was surfing an import store and noticed there was a new RPG for the NDS called “Lise no Atelier: Ordre no Renkinjutsushi”. Ever since Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny I’ve been sort of a fangirl (lack of a better word) for the series. This game supposedly will be more involving in the alchemy aspect, which again I like because I’m still a crafting fiend on FFXI and Dragon Quest VIII.
The game seems to use alchemy much more like you would in Dragon Quest VIII rather than Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny, where you needed alchemy to advance the storyline rather than for personal usage.
This game will be released in Japan sometime in March 2007.
This is a year late…but I just wanted to post this up since The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu) will be at HARUHI PANEL Sat. Feb. 24, 2007 6-7pm at the NYCC. The panel is called “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: The First Look”.
I don’t know too much about this anime/manga, but what I do know is that it apparently is the “most-hyped anime of 2007″ and it might be releasing in the US. Of course, you won’t find out unless you go to their panel discussion on Saturday, but fret not, PCS will be there to save the day and clue you in on what’s happening (unless I can’t find where they are (T_T;) it is going to be a BIGGER con than last year).
What turned my attention to the show was episode 8, where they did a parody of Phoenix Wright. The main character is named Haruhi Suzumiya, who becomes Phoenix Wright. She mimics all his “famous” mannerisms, which I find rather funny (since I sometimes do that, too with my co-workers…please don’t ask…).
There was also apparently a computer game based on that parody created by Cube-Type. (clip above)
Posted on February 15th
I haven’t read any news on Chulip being delayed yet, but I went to GameStop on 33rd Street and the guy said it doesn’t come out until the 20th. It doesn’t make any sense, because even GameStop’s site says “Now Shipping” under Chulip.
Will add my findings later.
UPDATE (February 17th)
I visited a couple GameStops today and half the time the employees didn’t know what the game is, and the other half said they didn’t know when it was coming in. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble says it was released February 15th and that it usually ships in 24 hours from GameStop. (T_T)
UPDATE (February 21st)
Due to a bunch of speculation that Chulip will be on sale the 20th, I decided to go back into Manhattan to see if I could find Chulip at any of the GameStops around Times Square. The one on the corner of 33rd and Broadway said, “Maybe tomorrow?” I still don’t understand why they’re so flakey. So I decided to cross over to the Manhattan Mall to the other GameStop.
I went in and looked around and there was a Chulip box sitting on the shelves. I asked the guy if he had any left he said it was the last copy, because they only got three in. I was hesitant about having to pay full retail price for the last one…but in the end I ended up buying it anyways.
I’m not sure what made me decide to look this up, I think it must have been something I was reading in a magazine I happened to be scanning in for work, but I saw the words “FFXI’s sequel” and it made me jump out of my chair.
I played FFXI religiously for over 2-3 years? I have a female Elvaan character who has been abused with the job of making me millions of Gil to buy me pretty gear for the three level 75 jobs she carries under her belt. Don’t worry I do this legally, I’m very anti-RMT (Real Money Trading), but that’s a different story for a different post. With that being said, I’m extremely excited about the idea of it having a sequel.
So of course, being the curious fangirl I am, I googled it (googled: I think Webster Dictionary made this an actual word, but don’t quote me on that!). I found out that Square-Enix released a “Comment on Media Report” back in summer 2006 stating that they have no intentions of creating a sequel. Read it here.
I’m still excited at the the idea of there being future MMORPG for the next-gen consoles. I think I will have to buy a PS3 soon when this game comes out.
