Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I remember that people were really excited about the rewritten script when it came out, but I've never seen the big deal about it. The original translation is fine (there's only one instance in which it's even remotely ambiguous in terms of game play, and in that case it's completely negligible) and has a lot more character in addition to being freaking hilarious. The new one just tries too hard on too many levels, the biggest one being that it attempts to "localize" or modernize a lot of the original humor and winds up making nonsensical and non sequitur pop culture references which, past and present, just don't make any freaking sense in the context of the game.

This is in evidence almost in the very beginning. When Bow agrees to help find Suzy simply because he discovers that Mina is gorgeous, in the original, the script goes...

<Bow>
Please, elder, leave it to us! We would be happy to help such a pretty girl
find her pet!!

<Elder>
...... You are a calculating man
Well, try your best

The retranslation is:

<Bow> How can I refuse a sweet face like that?

<Chief>*sigh* The same way you do everything else. Shamelessly.

The first one sounds like a genuine, cynical old man who is tired of fooling with these scoundrels. And it's actually funny. The second sounds like the annoying sidekick in a terrible anime. Which is probably exactly where the inspiration probably tends to come from for most of these fan retranslations.

Bottom line, the original is the most Kafka-esque script a game has ever had, and with a game like Breath of Fire 2 and its bizarre plot, I'd rather have weird and blunt than shiny and mass-produced. But yeah, it's a shame you haven't played the game through, it has some of the best characters and probably the best storyline in 16-bit RPG history.

Here are my games that I'm playing now. These are games that will likely not be part of my gaming science experiment once I've done the formal proposal this spring and have an experimental design that's tight enough for a Master's thesis.

Touch My Katamari on Vita - it's Katamari, what is there to say? It's quirky, strange, and fun. Though the stretch mechanic with the touchpad adds a nice new element.

Far Cry 3 on PC - restarted this one as I felt it would benefit on PC. And it has. Much easier in terms of aiming and weapon switching. And a lot of fun. So far, the story is good (if gritty and heavy) and there are already hints of an interesting arc for the player character. And it's an arc that definitely makes you think. And Vaas is an entertaining villain (and my avatar as of this writing).

The Last of Us Remastered on PS4 - sure, I just beat survivor on PS3, but that wasn't enough to stop me playing this within days of getting it. I also don't think I need to elaborate on my overall thoughts about this game.

www.starpirates.net and http://www.gatesofcamelot.com. Took a break from the xbox for a bit thanks to XBL being drunk again.

I have to admit I'm pretty biased in favor of older translations, most of the time. Probably nostalgia, but I'm a pretty silly person when it comes down to it, so I like the kind of head-scratching craziness that comes from the older RPGs. FF4 is a good example, I mean, the original US script is obviously archaic as all get-out, but I kind of like it.

But yeah, the random battle thing in BoF II is a killer. It's the only thing that really annoys me about replaying it these days. It could probably win an award for most or most frequent random battles. The funny thing is that there's an item and a spell that are supposed to reduce enemy encounters and they're both bugged. But dude, Jean's cook-off was just about my favorite part of the game. He is by far the funniest character in any RPG I've ever played (including Raja). That's when the game really opens up, too.

Believe it or not... I'm currently playing Phantasy Star 2 ! After having completed Phantasy Star 3 (since my childhood) with Sean. I'm in the BioSystems Labs. It is not the first time i "attempt" to play PS2 : i tried twice since a few years, but endend in this maze after the underwater dungeon ! This time, i'll complete it !

In addition, i play a little (with my brothers, so only a few hours the week ends) Hyrule Warriors (i just love it, especially with Zelda and cheated Adult Midona), Smash Bros Wii U, Mario Kart 8 and Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl (i'm running the game, to a bad ending, continuously and aimlessly !)

And when i'm in the train, i play Final Fantasy 3 DS, and i've also FF4 DS to finish, and Bravely Default to play (i want to finish the FF before ; i've just beaten the Black mage boss in the beginning of BD).

And countless Wii games to play or finish, from Xenoblade to DK Tropical Freeze passing through Metroid Corruption...

Right now I'm playing a couple of things.

First off is Shogun 2: Total War. While I play a lot of strategy games, it's commanding samurai that really brings out the inner warlord for me. "You there, why are you dying?! I did not order you to die! Stop that right now!"

The second is Feda: Emblem of Justice, best described as "Shining Force with an alignment axis." Basically, there are quite a few battles in the game where there's a way of finishing the map other than killing everyone. Minimizing enemy casualties moves you up the axis, while indiscriminate killing moves you down, and there about four different endings depending on how big of a mess you made getting to the end.

Since I beat Touch My Katamari yesterday, I went and found something else to play. I did try a few arcade shooters on Vita that were recently PS Plus freebies (Titan Attacks and Txk) but I got bored after about 15 minutes of each. Going for just a high score, essentially, doesn't interest me much and arcade shooters aren't too interesting to me, for the most part. They're fun for a few minutes, then bleh. Too many other games to try that are more interesting to me.

So I started Gravity Rush. Not too far in, but I like what I've played so far, for sure. The art style reminds me a bit of Okami, and reminding me of Okami is basically a guaranteed plus. The gravity shifting is a neat mechanic as well, though combat, at least now, is a little uninspired. However, early on I can't expect anyting too difficult so I have hopes it'll get better. But I intend to continue it and see where it goes.

Right now I'm playing Darkest Dungeon. While a lot of people generally bill it as a roguelike, it's actually much more of a Grim Fantasy X-Com, as it does revolve quite a bit around managing your cash and heirloom resources over the long term to be able to continue to make delves against the darkness. What makes it unique is that you not only have to manage the skills, abilities, and equipment of your roster of mercenaries, scholars, and zealous volunteers, but also their stress and mental health as they slowly but inevitably acquire phobias, manias, and other derangements from facing the horrors of the corrupted lands beneath and around the family's old manor week after week, such as how one of my Crusaders and one of my warrior nuns lost their Faith after encountering the Necromancer, meaning they could no longer pray or flagellate for stress relief. Perhaps the other best thing about it is that the game has an actual style.

I started playing Beyond Good & Evil HD a few days ago on my PS3. I had never played the original before, and the HD version popped up in a PSN sale a while back, and I picked it up then. It's one of those titles that I hear about a lot for being creative and unique, especially from critics (Yahtzee often makes fleeting references to it in his videos that come off as favorable), but had never tried it myself and wanted to.

I will say right out the gate that considering it's a a PS2/XBox/Gamecube title originally, it holds up pretty well graphically, though that may be due to the HD remastering. It's also stylized, helping in that. And to be fair, I have no point of comparison. But it's a colorful, alive game to look at. It's also quite fun. I'm not too far in, but so far, the characters are turning out to be interesting (there's even an NPC called Hahn), the gameplay is good and varied, and the world is quite interesting. It's also always refreshing to see a strong female protagonist who's realistic and not grossly sexualized. My only real complaint right now is the camera control - there's only a universal camera direction setting, no separate settings for vertical and horizontal control. And it is unfortunately configured in such a way that I have to have one set of directional controls opposite the way I like (I like my vertical inverted and my horizontal normal). I've settled on horizontal control being opposite how I like, as it's easier for me to adapt to. But that's a pretty minor complaint.

There weren't many games that came out last year that interested me. There are a few that I want to try eventually, but only two that I got legit excited about in some form. The first is (naturally) The Last of Us Remastered, which I've beaten once. The other is the game I started two nights ago on Steam, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I got it on sale early in March, as the game bundled with the season pass was discounted by 50% for a weekend. When it first came out, I was interested, but what got me excited to play it was when I heard about its new Nemesis system, which I first heard about when I watched the Zero Punctuation review for it on its release.

Digression: I watch ZP primarily because I think he's funny. I don't take his mostly negative opinions for much. But, I have noticed over the years that what he likes and what I like have a lot of overlap, so when he actually likes a game, I do pay attention. When he did his top/bottom 5 of 2014, Shadow of Mordor was his GOTY.

The Nemesis system is the game's internal management of Sauron's Orc Army. There are orcs in the ranks that are captains and war chiefs with varying levels of power in the army, and they each have individual names, strengths and weaknesses. Those guys are feuding and fighting with each other for power and hierarchy, and the rankings are in a state of constant organic flux, with different captains rising and falling in the ranks, and entering the ranks. If an orc kills you, he enters the ranks of the captains (and that gives you a lot of motivation to avoid death - you don't want new captains!), and part of the gameplay is tracking them down, which often nets you an upgrade. And you don't have to just go fight them - you can interrogate other orcs and find intel to discover a specific captain's strengths and weaknesses for the best approach to take them down. I have encountered captains who basically have "fear of insects" listed as a weakness. As I love games with potential for random stories, different experiences and unexpected occurrences, this majorly appeals to me. Otherwise, the game has a combat system similar to the Arkham games, and it has stealth as well with instant stealth takedowns, and both work very well. The open-world is also great, as I love exploring non-city open worlds. So outside the Nemesis system, it doesn't do anything new but does everything well.

Even as I get upgrades, I don't feel overpowered. The thing is, there are just so many orcs, and getting in a fight, even with a small group, will usually attract more. Since you don't want to die and create a new captain, clever on-the-fly tactics are a necessity (or, just turning tail and getting out of there). And then there's the chance you'll run into a random captain who you know nothing about (and therefore is difficult to fight) who will eat you alive unless you flee. Which motivates you to learn more about him to take him on to more freely explore.

All in all, I'm enjoying the experience with this game so far.