The Video Game Revue

Ico

I finally finished Ico, not more than two minutes ago. The ending for that game is amazing--it really adds a lot to the whole experience, and reminds me of what it used to feel like to work really hard to finish a game and be rewarded with an epic, story-driven conclusion. For the record, I'd say it took me about 9 hours to finish the game: 4.5 hours to reach the final save point, about 2.5 hours that weren't recorded by the game clock on my memory card saves (time that I spent stuck on a puzzle without saving), and 2 hours from the last save point to finish the final set of challenges and watch the credits. (I shouldn't have to tell you this, but make sure you sit through all of the credits right until the very end. You wouldn't want to miss anything.)

As much as I enjoyed Ico on its own, I have to admit that it looked a lot better given that I've seen so much of Shadow of the Colossus; it's just that the visuals in Ico, while artistically stunning, were hampered a bit by the low resolution--both of the screen and of the textures. As much as it was a flaw for Shadow of the Colossus to be so choppy, I think that the low res graphics of Ico are decisively worse. But when you have Shadow of the Colossus burned into your brain, you can subcontiously extrapolate how great Ico would look if it was in hi-res; after all, the art style for both games is the same, and it is a gorgeous art style. The artistic direction of Ico is by far its strongest point (ditto on Shadow of the Colossus.) It's hard to say exactly what comes in second in terms of the game's strongest points, but it's probably either the puzzle-solving aspect or the intriguing story and setting. The gameplay gets passing grades, but it's nothing to write home about.

I'm really happy to have finally polished that one title off, at any rate, although I'm eager to see another game by the same developers. I'm procrastinating badly at finishing Digital Devil Saga (yes, the first one--the second one is still waiting), and I haven't played Dragon Quest VIII in weeks. I have been messing around with Metroid Pinball, which has displaced Mario Kart DS a good deal (but not completely), and I recently rolled a katamari just over 1800m on As Large As Possible 5 in We Love Katamari. That was fun. I still haven't managed to roll up the sun, which is interesting because some friends of mine who also have the game say that they did that quite handily. There's probably a whole bunch of levels that I still need to complete. Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is still seeing some play, as is Soul Calibur III. Am I forgetting anything?

Ah yes, I was recently re-bitten by the Disgaea bug and put a couple more hours into it. I'm at about the 38 hour mark now, I believe, and Laharl has hit level 50 (although he's 10 levels ahead of my next highest level character--a Ronin whom I named Kasumi after Akane's eldest sister in Ranma 1/2, and whom I'm hoping to transmigrate into a more powerful character soon. Too much information?) Disgaea really seems to plod along, but it sure has lasting appeal. It happened a few times where I got so caught up in power levelling that I played for roughly four hours mining experience and tweaking equipment before remembering that there are actual story missions to complete, and then over the course of a half-hour I finished an entire chapter of the game. Usually after that I hit upon a story mission that I'm not strong enough to beat, and the cycle begins again.

As soon as I finish Disgaea, I intend to start on Phantom Brave. I'm not going to start on Digital Devil Saga 2 right away, though--I'm hoping to leave a bit of room to continue my in-progress playthrough of Xenogears, not to mention Dragon Quest VIII. I'm not sure what's going to take Ico's spot on my schedule yet, if anything. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones? Zelda: Wind Waker? The Mark of Kri? Perhaps I should focus on getting further in Burnout: Revenge, take up Gran Turismo 4 again, or hell, even crack out my old copy of Ridge Racer Type 4. There are also Resident Evil games for me to play and replay. Oh, and having just said all of that, I am reminded that there is an unopened, recently purchased copy of Riviera: The Promised Land sitting next to me while I type this. Whew, so many possibilities.

Have I ever mentioned that I need to take a week, month, or even a whole year off from work just to play video games? Ah, but then how would I pay for them? Yes, I'm pretty sure that dilemma has come up before.

On a different note, I've been sucked in by the "rebel sell" (that's intended to be a Naomi Klein quote from No Logo--check out what a fucking smartie I am) of a couple of odd game titles. The first is Nintendo's Electroplankton which sounds like a really interesting sort of "game," if it can be called a game--it's really more of a simulation from the sounds of it. There's a pretty good chance that I would have bought it if it had been available at EB Games, but I have to admit that the fact that it can only be purchased online from Nintendo's web store made it seem that much more exotic and pretty much clinched the deal. I hope the game doesn't take too long to ship. On some small level, this is helping to make up for the fact that I couldn't buy one of those rare Star Fox Weekend Competition SNES carts that Nintendo auctioned way back when. Or that I didn't buy that copy of Castlevania: Bloodlines that I saw in the bargain bin once. Or that I didn't snag that last copy of the John Woo "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" DVD double-pack when I had the chance, naively thinking to myself "they'll still have some in stock in a couple of weeks." (Sniffle.)

The second such odd title to have captured my attention is Beggar Prince, the Sega Genesis game being published for the first time this year having only just been developed. I mean, how hilariously cool is that? I still have a working Genesis, and I badly want to support the people responsible for bringing that game out, even if perhaps it is just a bit of a publicity stunt. The game is an RPG, though, and that adds a great deal to the appeal. I would likely have talked myself into pre-ordering it already if it wasn't for the fact that they require payment through either PayPal (ugh) or money order (double ugh.) Why can't I just phone the bastards and give them my credit card information over an insecure line? I'd feel much better about that, honestly.

Well, that's about enough gamer-ramble for you to shake a stick at. I gotta get that good stuff out while I can. Whoops, I neglected to mention Final Fantasy IV Advance, which I'm still actively playing, although I'm at a mildly frustrating part at the moment (the magnetic dungeon where you can't equip anything made of metal.) Anyway, take it easy until next time!

posted by Parappa @ 11:50 PM