Monthly Fees, Not Necessarily Hidden

We’ve seen a bunch of Massively Multiplayer Online games come and go throughout the years. Many of these games have tried to use a different play on the “pay to play” system that has made Blizzard a ton of money in the last decade and some strayed off to try something a little more unconventional. My brother convinced me to try Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and I am not sorry that I have thrown extra money at a well put together experience. We will fight the urge to keep our money…

To start I played World of Warcraft from December 2004 until the Fall of 2007 when I decided that all the time I spent raiding had been undone when I picked up a green item almost on par with my former raiding gear shortly after marching through the dark portal. I haven’t really played an MMORPG seriously since save The Secret World because I’m a sucker for Lovecraftian themes. Really, the first few areas of the TSW are pretty incredible but once I was done with them I lost interest in the game. A Realm Reborn takes all of that tried and true cool down based gameplay and puts its own spin on things, starting with the most well put together story line in an MMO. Ever.

Following the main story quests will take you to all of the currently available regions of the world and you are the driving force behind the story. In true Final Fantasy fashion you are a warrior of light out to collect crystals and are the center of the story. The individual leaders of the world request audiences with you and your created character model is in all of the cut scenes. As a single player RPG FFXIV:ARR is surprisingly fulfilling and a better Final Fantasy experience that the trio of the XIII games. And that’s that. If you don’t want to play any more after you see the credits you don’t have to, the story quests keep your equipment updated and you eventually wear equipment fitting for your job (Dragoons get Kain armor, Summoners wears horns, etc.) that ends in an epic raid dungeon with a slew of boss battles. If you want more and wish to participate in raids and daily quests you can continue with that too so you can be equipped well enough to take on the challenges of the next patch.

Are you tired of waiting a long time in the Duty Finder for a dungeon run because you are a damage role? All you have to do is talk to a guild master and change your main hand weapon and your class changes to a tank or healer role. You only really need one character on a server because they can instantly change their class, and this goes for crafting and gathering professions too. Yes, fishing rods are main hand non-joke weapons in this world. Since each class has its own experience level, even the crafters and gatherers, you will be occupied for too many hours if you want to master every skill. Throw in class specific quests to unlock the greater potential of your role every five levels to make it interesting and you may not ever get out.

If you like MMO’s. This game is good. The pace is much faster than similar titles with hardly any downtime between encounters while still being extremely friendly for solo play. If you haven’t been sold on it yet, you won’t be. Yes, this is a time sink that will have you trying to optimize your sleep schedule because dungeon runs can be done fairly quickly and instances that are just a single boss battle (Trials) lend themselves to the “just one more” mentality. What got me in the end was that you can play the game on a gamepad (I’m playing on the Playstation 4 with a generic USB keyboard for typing to people on the internet) while sitting on a couch. I have a very comfortable couch; the experience is great being able to sit back and play on a big screen rather than hunched forward over a keyboard staring at a monitor.

Give it a shot.

Top Ten Games Notable For Not Being Notable

Somehow I’ve hit 1000 collective views and I would like to thank all of the bots that visit my blog. Without you I’d probably still be doing this. Here’s a Top Ten, well not really a TOP Ten, a list of ten not very notable games; hence why it isn’t numbered.

 Vay – Sega CD

Working Designs

Who doesn’t love Working Designs that’s into classic games? Nobody. They had something when it came to choosing what Japanese titles to localize and somehow kept this whimsical air about them when it came to RPG’s. The Shumps where good too. It’s hard being considered the worst game that a company put out even if the game was a fairly solid but generic early 90’s Japanese RPG.

Reason: Every other Working Designs RPG.

      Gargoyle’s Quest – Nintendo Game Boy

Capcom

Demon’s Crest is an amazing game from Capcom that was a spinoff of the Ghosts and Goblins series and everyone remembers it as the game that was one the best seller list because of returns or a really hard game that is really good. Too bad the Game Boy prequel doesn’t get as much love as it should even if the resolution on the portable makes the play area a bit small.

Reason: The Game Boy being seen as a puzzle platform. Tetris and Dr. Mario were in full force while RPG nuts would have purchased Final Fantasy Legend.

      Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Playstation 2

Ban-Dai

Licensed games tend to be overlooked because they are usually rushed over promised pieces of software that are used for cash ins. At best you can hope that it will keep the aesthetic of whatever property it is based on and here we have a solid third person shooter that would be fun without the Ghost in the Shell connection. I bet most people didn’t even bother looking at this one.

Reason: Seen as a cash grab, but is actually solid.

            Urban Chaos: Riot Response – Playstation 2

Eidos/rocksteady

Rocksteady made this. They made those Batman games you love so much. Urban Chaos is actually an awesome translation of an action movie that has cheesy news reporters between levels, slow mo hostage “negotiations”, and fun weapons to shoot over the top gansters (many with hockey masks). If you like dumb fun, find this game!

Reason: Came out on PS2 in 2006. Everyone was looking at Black on PS2 and Battlefield 2.

      T.R.A.G. – Playstation 1

Sunsoft

It’s like Resident Evil. In an office building. With switching at will between characters. It was called Hard Edge in Japan, probably the least notable name ever.

Reason: Why play this when you have Resident Evil Director’s Cut and Resident Evil 2?

           Torneko: The Last Hope – Playstation 1

Enix

This is a turn based Rogue-Like based on the Dragon Warrior franchise. If anything needs a re release it would be this one because it came out way before the rogue craze we have on the indie scene today. What do you say Square-Enix? Bravely Default was a success, a 3DS version of this would probably be picked up like crack.

Reason: It was well received in Japan but in the US no one really had Dragon Quest on the front burner.

      Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage – Dreamcast

ASCII

Hack and slash adventure games are fun. Cloud had a big sword in Final Fantasy VII and Guts’ is even bigger and angrier, a surefire win! Nope. The action portions of the game are along the lines of Devil May Cry hard and probably off put a lot of gamers especially since the Dreamcast was mostly known for sports and fighting games.

Reason: The anime is was based was released a few years after the game in North America, things may have been a little different if the cult following had been around in 2000.

      R-Type Command – Playstation Portable

Atlus

An Atlus game? Aren’t those usually extremely low print runs that everyone is grabbing for years later? Not in this case. As a tactical battle game R-Type Command is actually good, but all it shares with the shooter series are art assets and really isn’t what you would expect from an R-Type game.

Reason: A R-Type game that’s not a shooter.

Maken X – Dreamcast

Atlus

FPS. First Person Slasher. You hit things with a demon possessed sword in first person. The North American version was censored and the localization (done by SEGA in this case) is just bad. It has characters in the same art style as the Persona games and may actually be worth a look.

Reason: Dreamcast with poor localization and hardly any marketing.

      Panzer Dragoon Saga – Sega Saturn

SEGA

Am I bragging that I bought this game over a decade ago? Not really. Whenever the Sega Saturn comes up in conversation Panzer Dragoon Saga always gets mentioned. Because it’s a good game, no? Because it costs hundreds of dollars in the open market. The game is probably one of the best ways you could spend 14 hours of your time and has an amazing marriage between the on rails shooting genre and RPGs with a battle system that doesn’t come anywhere near overstaying its welcome. If you look for or want to play this, make sure it’s because it is such a good title, not just because of its auction value.

Reason: Monetary value has eclipsed its actual value.

Was there any real criteria to be on this list? Probably not, other than the fact that they are all on a shelf behind me. Take a look at some of these games, they’re not bad.

An Exercise In Self Loathing

Daikatana

Patient has presented with odd symptoms. Patient constantly making references to magical swords and annoying bugs that mercilessly try to murder him. And some named John trying to make him his bitch over a decade later; whatever time frame we’re working with here. Will continue to interview patient.

So, since we last spoke has anything changed?

No. I can still see it, the mud, everywhere.

This mud, does it have a purpose?

It makes everything look terrible. You know, like a muddy mess.

Has the buzzing gotten worse?

It comes and goes, but when I see them they only fly at me in straight lines. It’s really not too bad if you catch them coming from a ways away.

You talked about getting lost, any updates on that?

Everything is so blocky, I don’t know where to head. Half the time I have trouble figuring out where the ground ends and the walls begin. At least the lights have more than one color.

Colored lighting? What’s that have to do with anything?

Everything. It’s one of the main reasons it was delayed after Quake II came out.

Quake?

All hail the lightning gun and watch for telefrags!

Okay. Make a note of ‘telefrag’. We found you wearing a metal suit when you were admitted, why?

Isn’t that was everyone wears in this dystopia?

I’m asking the questions. Can you tell me about your accused racism?

You call one guy Superfly Johnson and you get branded, I can’t help it if that’s his name.

Is it as bad as everyone says it is?

Not really. There is a playable game in here. Just not a very good one.

Can you think of anything worse?

Breed for the PC was an unfinished mess I regretted purchasing. Can I have more graham crackers?

Very well. Take your meds and we will continue tomorrow.

Patient is unstable. Recommend keeping in inpatient treatment. Not ready for outside world. Patient still complaining that the two Johns need to work together again and make a killer app for Oculus Rift