Sooy-koden

On 04/13/2015 at 01:39 AM by KnightDriver

I replaced my original Xbox with my PS3 today at my friend's place. Between my 360 and PS3, there are a lot of games I can play. Just having access to both online stores lends itself to even more games through download. I think this is the best arrangement of consoles for me at my friend's place. I'd add my Wii as well if there was room, but there isn't. It's ok though. I got a TV at home now and I'm going to try and find some after-work time to play those.

I also changed up my play list a little bit. I'm focusing more on recent titles, playing right away what I buy new, and saving retro stuff for when I run out of the new stuff.

I began my gaming today with 3DS and Etrian Mystery Dungeon. I played through the second dungeon and part of the third before the red battery light came on. There are many interesting ideas in this game. One is at the entrance to many rooms there is a circle you can stand on where you can arrange your party in formation for entering the room. That way the leader doesn't get surrounded by monsters with the rest of the team stuck in a passageway behind you. It's really tempting to just dash around the dungeons, but it's best to remember you can stop and plan because you never know how strong a monster will be. I got decimated a couple times by just underestimating a creature's strength.

The game is default set for your team to auto attack (minus your leader which you always control), but you can issue general orders or even turn it off and control every character. In end of dungeon boss battles, the auto-attack setting is turned off so you can plan out every attack in such a crucial situation. When you die, you're returned to the surface town with some loss to your items and cash, but I didn't noticed much loss in that area and definitely no loss of equiped items, which was a relief.

I discovered the "forts" feature and the cards you share in street passes. You can build the forts on a dungeon level to freeze it from randomizing every time you enter it. There are different kinds of forts too, some of which will reveal adjacent levels. You can also put in extra characters into the forts and they will slowly level up while you explore with your main team. As for street passes, I can't wait to activate that and see how that adds content to the game.

When the battery ran down, I switched on my consoles and checked sales and then started the trial version of Tales from the Borderlands on Xbox 360. I was going to buy the season pass right off but Mark said how much he disliked the TellTale games and that scared me a bit, so I started the download on the trial to make sure I wanted it. He's not much into the point-and-click style Adventure game stuff. I almost ignored his criticism, but better safe than sorry.

But then I noticed the download was taking way too long and so I switched over to PS3 and bought Suikoden II. The download for that 300MB file took only a few minutes. The Tales from the Borderlands trial was 800MB and looked like it was going to take hours. It did too. So I started playing Suikoden 1 and didn't stop the rest of the night.

Suikoden is a great game. It's a turn-based RPG from 1995 and looks a lot like those more famous sprite-based RPGs, Zelda Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger. So far it's mostly story and exploration with random battles and a few minibosses. It's not too difficult so far and I'm really enjoying the story about a rebellion against a corrupt government. The characters are nuanced and interesting; most of the main characters are torn between which side they should be on.

The turn-based battles are very traditional but the view isn't face-to-face first-person like many others but isometric third-person; and the camera zooms in when a character does a critical hit giving you a closeup of the action. There's a blacksmith in many of the towns to improve your weapons and there are magic stones you can attach to yourself or your weapons to give you elemental attacks. There are also a few minigames. There was a three cup guessing game and a dice game that I came across so far. The music is excellent as well.

I really had to pull myself away from the game when it was time to leave at 11pm.

Right now I'm putting another 9 Miis I collected today via McDees through the mud run of games. It's become my ritual before bed every night.

Nicoleb1989

04/13/2015 at 03:28 AM

I never have auto attack on when it optional really unless it too much work for me. I typically have horriable luck with my characters doing stupid crap and getting killed easily. However if it's too much work to plan and play everyone accordingly then I leave it on. Sounds like you had a full day of gaming ^_^! I wish I could say the same but I pretty much slept all day....my sleep schedule has been a lil crazy so today was catch up day.

KnightDriver

04/14/2015 at 01:52 AM

Sleep is good. I"ve been somewhat fatigued lately but I think if I do my workouts like I should, it'll help my sleep. It's worked the little I've done so far.

I used to be all about control, but lately I've liked to set things on auto and play it easy. I even had auto leveling on, but I turned that off at one point because I wanted points going to foraging skills. The auto leveling seems to favor other skills.

jgusw

04/13/2015 at 06:42 AM

I need to get Suikoden 1 and 2 on the PS3.

04/14/2015 at 02:00 AM

I think they were on sale recently for reall cheap, but I bought in at full price, $10 each. I don't follow the sales on PSN as closely as I should.

04/14/2015 at 08:58 AM

I forgot I bought the first game. I don't have the 2nd. I think I got the 1st game on sale.

mothman

04/13/2015 at 08:00 AM

You shouldn't start Suikoden II unti you have finished the first one. :P

04/14/2015 at 02:01 AM

That's what I'm doing. Starting with S1. I had to buy S2 though. Never know when these things will disappear from the online store.

04/14/2015 at 07:53 AM

Good, I read that you bought 2 and then when you started talking about Suikoden I made the assumption that it was based on 2. My bad.

04/14/2015 at 04:12 PM

You would expect a person to play a game right after one bought it but not me. I buy something and then go play something else. Silly me. I did just change my play list to focus on new games though. I go back and forth between playing what's new and then going totally retro.

Ranger1

04/13/2015 at 08:33 AM

I love the TellTale games. So there's my two cents, for whatever that's worth.

I have Suikoden on disc, got it for $15 at one of the local places that sells retro games. They have set prices for their retro stuff, so if you happen to be there when something really good comes in, it's like heaven. I got complete copies of Tales of Destiny, Suikoden, and Vandal Hearts on the same day.

04/14/2015 at 02:08 AM

I'm sure the other TellTale games are good too. The particular stories of the previous ones just haven't interested me.

That's one great set of games to find!

C.S.3590SquadLeader

04/13/2015 at 12:06 PM

If the options available, I always turn auto-attack off. I have the worst AI luck with it on and don't like taking any more chances than I have to.

04/14/2015 at 02:26 AM

You can fine tune the auto-attack a little bit by specifying which specials the characters can use and the game does prompt you yes or no about party memebers using items or curing players of ailments. I'm experiementing with it. I've noticed one of my characters is very quick and often dashes ahead to attack monsters. That could be a problem down the road I'm thinking.

GeminiMan78

04/13/2015 at 08:37 PM

Suikoden & Suikoden II are awesome. You have not even got to the really cool stuff yet. And I have to agree with Mothman you really want to play the first one first It's a direct sequel with some carry over characters and story. I made the same mistake trying to play Lunar; Eternal Blue before finsning Silver Star Story. Ended up dropping some major plot spoilers on myself.

Tales from the Borderlands is good, it a good mix of dialog choicing and action sequences. The writing is good and well acted and the cameos have been very cool. This was the first TellTale game I ever played and I'm hooked. Picked up Sam and Max during the flash sale and I would like to get Wolf Among Us.

04/14/2015 at 02:33 AM

I know there's some RTS type stuff in it somewhere, but at only 5 hours in on S1, I haven't seen it yet.

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/14/2015 at 01:58 AM

Been seeing trailers for Tales from the Borderlands. Looks funny.

04/14/2015 at 02:45 AM

It made me laugh out loud many times. It's really good. The comedy is not quite as goofy as in the main games. The jokes are a touch more subtle and complex. It makes sense, I guess, because there is so much more dialog and less reliance on visual humor like in B1 and 2 I think.

goaztecs

04/21/2015 at 11:02 AM

Man I remember during the Playstation era how hard it was finding Suikoden and SII for a decent price. I knew I was never going to play them but it was always fun searching for those games because of how rare they were out in the wild.

04/21/2015 at 03:39 PM

I was collecting games at flea markets back then. If I had only thought of picking up RPGs, I'd have some rich finds now. I used to have Chrono Cross though. I still remember the little shop where I bought that too.

PixlBit

Sooy-koden

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