PixlBit

    I played a bunch of games this year (70 to be exact), not all were released this year. I think the most important factor is time spent, so I ranked them that way. This first blog are all the games I spent at least twenty hours with. These games I’ve developed intimate knowledge of. Some I still haven’t completed even with all that time.

                                            Blue Dragon [Xbox 360] - 80 hours.

            

        This is a turn-based 3D RPG directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi exclusively for Xbox 360. It got a lot of press at the time for that and did fairly well financially. The character designs are by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama and for fans of the show, it’s obvious as my friend let me know.

       I had no idea I would get so hooked on this game. I was collecting games that came out in 2006 and popped it in to check it out. Eighty plus hours later, I was facing the entry point to the final area knowing there was no return to the world after it. I decided to finish all the side quests in the world before finishing the story and then stopped playing. My gaming buddy was playing it too and did finish the last area, and I watched him to see the final cinematics.

     I fell head over heels for the Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy composer and founding member of The Black Mages rock group) soundtrack and downloaded it from Amazon and listened to it all year. The progressive rock influenced track “Mechat Takes Off” and the Deep Purple sound-alike battle song “Eternity” are forever blazed into my memory.

                                         Enchanted Arms [Xbox 360] - 80 hours.

                

     This is a RPG with a positional turn-based battle system developed by From Software. I liken it to the Shadow Hearts series especially From the New World whose characters and art style seem similar.

      It's another game I picked up in my 2006 games collectathon and hadn’t a clue as to whether I’d like it or not. Eighty hours says, yes, I did enjoy it.

     I loved the battle system on a grid where you have to use position as well as spell choice to win. It reminded me of the system in Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes.

    I got all the way to the final multi-stage boss fight and lost in the final segment. I figured I needed to grind for some levels and so went off to do some side quests when I decided to play something else. Something about getting near the 100 hour mark in RPGs has me reaching my limit. Fatigue sets in and I lose my interest. Still, I came really close to finishing the game.

                         Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga [Xbox 360] - 60 hours.

                

      I was going to play the 2006 release Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, but why do that when I could play I and II together in The Complete Saga which came out in 2007? I looked up an achievement guide and worked it until I completed all 1000 achievement points. It wasn’t a cheat, just a way to streamline my experience. It worked like a charm, and I had a lot of fun without getting lost or spending hours finding that last blue canister (I didn’t look up locations for the canisters unless I was really stuck though). I had to play the entire game (and it’s really two games in one) three different times with several different characters to meet all the achievement goals. What’s best about this game is it has online co-op so my gaming buddy could play too. There are very few Lego games with online co-op (only Lego Indiana Jones II and upcoming Lego: The Movie), so this one is special for that reason.

     At Thanksgiving this year, I re-watched Star Wars Episode I and II and marveled at how Lego Star Wars had so closely copied the movies. Every scene had me thinking of the same level in Lego Star Wars. Traveller’s Tales does a great job!

   At Christmas, my nephew was playing the iPhone version of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and I helped him through one part because my memory of the levels was so ingrained.

                          Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl [3DS] – 60 hours.

                

      Etrian Odyssey Untold is a first person dungeon crawl with turn-based battles. It’s totally old school like Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and that’s why I love it. Untold is really a remake of the first Etrian Odyssey game with the addition of a Story mode that features preset characters and anime cut-scenes. There is also an added Easy difficulty setting.

   2013 will always be the year of the 3DS for me. So many great games came out almost every month of the year. I didn’t get to play all of them too many hours but Etrian Odyssey Untold I spent all of October playing every spare minute. I played it in Story Mode on the easiest setting because I know EO games are usually very hard. I wanted to get to the end of one and then maybe go back and play on harder difficulty. Well, even on easy, I didn’t get to more than 60% of the game in the 60 hours. The battles did seem a tad too easy, but it was so much fun to explore and draw the map out on the bottom screen, I never wanted to change to a higher difficulty.

                                            Just Cause [Xbox 360] – 40 hours.

               

       This is a third person shooter in an expansive open world environment. Your mission is to liberate the island of its corrupt influences and give it back to the people. You fight drug cartels and government forces and play one revolutionary faction against another.  When you liberate the island you then have to take on the dictator on his private island full of tanks, planes and anti-aircraft emplacements. You eventually parachute from a fighter jet to the dictator’s private plane and engage him directly. The final mission is tricky but not impossible. Parachuting is a big part of the game and you will need to master those skills to finish the game and get all the achievements.

   I played this last Spring during my 2006 playathon. I had played Just Cause before but not quite to completion because the last mission frustrated me so much. This time I was out for achievement blood and used a guide. I finished the game and had a blast doing it. My favorite part was flying the helicopters over the wooded island and landing in tiny clearings to liberate remote towns of their government or cartel forces.

                                  Mario & Luigi: Dream Team [3DS] – 40 hours.

              

          The game plays a lot like a turn-based RPG rather than the platformer you would expect. You move around 2D and 3D environments and do some platforming, but nothing so challenging as in a true Mario Bros. game. Then you fight in turn-based battles that also have a real-time element. During battles you choose an attack but then have to execute it with a timed button press or series of button presses. Defense is also a twitchy real-time affair. You then have special moves which utilize different features of the 3DS like its motion sensor.

     I picked this up very late in the year and finally stopped on a particularly tricky boss, the Pajama Mountain itself! It’s a giant fight, meaning you turn the 3DS sideways and use the stylus to swipe commands to your giant Luigi. I thought I was doing everything right, but I kept getting only Great ratings. Eventually my health ran out as I made mistakes in timing. I really got fed up with it, but I’ll be back after a break.

                                                Mass Effect [Xbox 360] - 25 hours.

                

        This is a third-person shooter with lots of RPG style character interaction and open world exploration.

     I finally sat down to play Mass Effect all the way through and what a fun game this turned out to be. From talking to people in the Citadel, to traveling space and exploring planets in the Mako rover, I really couldn’t get enough. The story and voice work is really engaging too although I hated having to fall for Ashley. I wanted Dr. Liara T’Soni instead, but I guess I said the wrong things and ended up with a unwanted affair with Ashley. God I hated her. Anyway, that’s some of the way dialog choices in the game can steer things in different ways and sometimes not always in the ways you want them too.

                                                  Okamiden [DS] – 25 hours.

               

  Okamiden is the sequel to Okami on PS2/Wii/PSN and it’s a third-person action RPG in the style of Legend of Zelda. The main difference being that you use the stylus to cast spells and do slashing attacks both in combat and in the world. Also it has a Japanese watercolor style to it that's absolutely gorgeous.

   I got this day-one and played it probably ten hours the first time. I started over this time and got much farther but stopped on a tough segment I kept failing at ( I think it was some area with a wind demon and a tower you had to climb). It’s a fantastically beautiful game and plays very well. I still wish it had been released on console since I like more screen size to work with, but I got along fine with it. One day I’ll return to it and finish it.

                                                   Ni No Kuni [PS3] – 20 hours.

               

     This is a third-person RPG from the developers Level-5 with anime cut scenes by Studio Ghibli. What a match made in heaven! It has a unique battle system where you use pokemon-like minions to fight for you in a sort of action-time turn-based manner.  That is, it’s turn-based, but you have time limits for every move and have to decide quickly which to do next when the time limit runs out. I found the system hectic and never quite got the full hang of it. This came to a head on a lava creature boss that I couldn’t beat. I got frustrated and took a break. I may return to it as I still think about this game almost daily.

                                         Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion  -  20 hours.

                

     It’s a first-person open world RPG (or third-person if you choose). What drew me to the game initially was the amazing environmental art. Stars come out at night, the woods are thick and varied, and there’s so much to do. Quests abound, so many in fact, that the first time I played the game, I got overwhelmed with the options and couldn’t get anywhere. I kept stumbling into encounters I wasn’t ready for and got myself killed. Over and over again. This time I used an achievement guide as I was determined to finish the game. I got through the Fighters, Dark Brotherhood, and Mages quest lines (not without some trouble and a few restarts of the game) but got stuck on the Thieves Guild quests, which for me, are the hardest. I got so frustrated with the very first initiation mission that I just put it down. Yes, one day I’ll go back and finish the Thieves Guild and then finally dig through the main quest line. Why does Elder Scrolls games vex me so?

    

     And that’s the games I put over 20 hours into this year. I’ll probably do one more blog on the ten hour games because I finished most them because they were short but no less fun.