The Video Game Revue

Fritzkrieg Games Week

The theme this week is going to be "Fritzkrieg Games": a combination of Castlevania, Devil May Cry, Ace Combat 5, and Xenogears. I'm not sure when Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence will be released (EB Games site says mid-March), but that's about the only major title that comes to mind which would make this Frizkrieg Games week just about perfect.

The release of the Castlevania: Double Pack for GBA was the catalyst for a recent Castlevania splurge. I've gotten through much of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonence, having technically finished the game but still needing to collect some more items to get the "good" ending. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow will be close to follow. At one point I was almost caught up enough in Castlevania fever to pick up Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, but sanity took hold and reminded me that if the GBA and DS Castlevania titles aren't enough to satisfy my hunger, I can always pick up Curse of Darkness later, and probably cheaper. Besides, although it's said to be the best 3-D Castlevania adaptation yet made, it's also said to be a fairly unexciting game that's somewhat behind the times.

Does any Castlevania fan truly understand why they keep making 3-D Castlevania games at all? Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was the best thing that ever happened to the Castlevania series (although there are perhaps a few others that come close), and although there have been several good Castlevania games since then, I haven't seen anything that pushes the envelope in the way that SotN did. Ah well, this probably isn't the best time to rant about that--not that I have much more to say on the subject.

Devil May Cry 3 was a no-brainer when I heard that not only was it coming out as a Greatest Hits title, but also that said Greatest Hits title was also a "Special Edition" with additional content. I picked that up along with the now very affordable Ace Combat 5; both games combined cost less than a copy of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (or most other new PS2 games) would have been. As of yet, I've been too distracted with Ace Combat and other games to play Devil May Cry 3 at all.

Ace Combat 5 has been excellent so far. The play-time on my saved game data says that I've been playing for just over an hour, but I've finished eight missions or so and they seemed to take quite a bit longer than that. Maybe the missions just feel longer than they really are. In any case, fantasy dogfight-sims were one of my favourite game genres back in the days of Wing Commander and X-Wing/TIE Figher. It's been a while, but the thrill of the airbourne combat remains as appealing as ever, and Ace Combat 5 does a superb job of mixing action and drama. I've only just started the game, and Fritzkrieg assures me that it gets better as it goes on.

One small shame about Ace Combat 5: I would love to have kept the Japanese voiced turned on, but in the heat of battle I find that it's too difficult to read subtitles, especially with the sheer volume of chatter involved in many of the missions. Mind you, the fact that there is so much in-flight radio chatter is part of what makes the game so much fun, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to see that changed.

As for Xenogears, I've really been shirking my duty there. If I'd stuck to my original schedule, I'd be finished by now--instead, I'm less than a third of the way through this epic RPG experience, and just on the cusp of where Fritzkrieg assures me "it gets crazy-good." It was a mistake for me to try and juggle Xenogears, Disgaea, Digital Devil Saga, Dragon Quest VIII, and Final Fantasy IV Advance all at once, among other games. For all of my talk about video games, though, I really haven't been getting a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone playing done lately. I'll blame that on my day job. :)

Back to the grind tomorrow. Best of luck to all you jobbers out there.

posted by Parappa @ 10:32 PM