Are you saying you can't access any spells or just that some of the scrolls you bought are not showing. You aren't able to access level 3 white magic until you max out the white mage category. You should be able to use any level 1 White magic you have purchased though.
Back to the Present
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 On 01/19/2014 at 03:56 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
My second week of RETRO FRENZY finally ended when my buddy MadKrammer got really excited about playing co-op in Borderlands 2, and I tried out, and stayed with, the Bravely Default demo on 3DS. This week I also signed up for Steam in anticipation of Broken Age on the 28th and Banner Saga. I also started an account on Backloggery which has a very cool system for organizing your games and randomizing a suggestion as to what to play next. I’ve also been thinking about BaD coming up and what I might do for the month of blogging. Now to what I’ve played.
X-COM: UFO Defense [PS]
I played this on my silver PS2 and it worked great. This game has a ton of gameplay with a very elaborate menu system and set of controls that are not intuitive. I’m so used to games these days being immediately accessible. At one point I got so frustrated that I stopped playing and, oh man, read the entire manual. MANUAL!? What’s that? Yes, in the good old days, sometimes you had to read the manual to really figure out a game’s controls and gameplay.
Despite extra effort required, I really enjoyed this game. There are three levels to this game: building bases and managing a wealth of statistics such as income from protected governments, item research and creation, and equipping your land and air forces (that’s just the first level); responding to UFO appearances by sending aircraft to intercept and then attack them in a special screen that lets you do a variety of types of attacks (you can attack to destroy or to disable so they’re forced to land); and lastly, the turn-based strategy ground game, where it plays out like other Tactics games such as Final Fantasy Tactics.
Every level is very nuanced and full of detail. The key to everything though is your income, which I had a hard time figuring out, so I read a FAQ. Apparently, the best way to earn cash is to shoot down UFOs and collect their tech and return it to your base for research or sale. That way you can create new items you can use or sell. However, I really wanted to know about income from governments. You get an initial sum of money from them, but when do they pay you again and at what rate? I couldn’t figure this out at all. I would play through the first ground mission or two, run out of cash and then restart hoping I’d figure out this government income thing eventually.
And speaking of the ground missions, they’re not a walk in the park. It took several missions of messing up the controls before I started to learn them. At one point, instead of throwing a grenade, I threw my gun and then couldn’t figure out how to pick it up again. Once I figured it all out though, the controls do allow you to do a large variety of actions on the field. An in-game tutorial would’ve helped, but this is 1995 we’re talking about. I also figured out that early in the game you should NOT attack a UFO base. Aliens kill your rookie forces with one shot most of the time - level up on downed UFOs first.
The game allows you to control time from 5 sec to 1 day intervals. This helps a ton to switch from action moments with UFOs and advancing the building of bases quickly and every time something changes in the game it automatically reverts to 5 sec so you have time to react. It works great!
I had trouble initially with this game, but I got sucked into it and now think it’s a fabulous experience – quite an amazingly deep game for the Playstation (you can play this on Steam now too).
I picked up some retro swag at Jay St. VG: Devilish, a Breakout style game with a vertically scrolling field of play for Genesis, and R/C Stunt Copter from my flight sim list for Playstation. My buddy gave me an extra Genesis deck he had. I still need a controller and RCA cord though.
I started the Bravely Default demo on 3DS and played in off moments throughout the week before bed. It’s a fine turn-based RPG. I especially liked the town management part of the game where you can have people there upgrade shops and clear paths to new shops. Each task has a real-time time limit and you’re alerted when a task is finished and given items from the shops. You’re given one person to start and can gain more through Street Pass. I carried my 3DS in my backpack all day/night long but only got two more people (I guess coffee shops aren’t the best place to get Street Passes). You can also gain additional players that can aid your party in the main game or teach you new skills if you have friends to share with. The main game allows you to do this via the internet which will be easier for me without local friends with a 3DS.
The “default” battle option is interesting. The longer you defend the more extra moves you store up for a massive flurry of attacks.
I created a White Mage but even after leveling up several times, I still can’t access spells. I think maybe I’m wearing an item that isn’t allowed for the class but nothing is telling me that in the game. All my other characters have been gaining special abilities but her. I’m at a loss.
Then I got together with MadKrammer at his place for some Xbox 360 co-op in Borderlands 2 (What do you call “couch co-op” when you are really playing on separate TVs via internet - “Local online co-op?”) I picked up the game for under $20 at Gamestop. I played solo through the opening few missions to get the handle on the controls again and level up a little bit. MadKrammer is level 28 and I’m about level 5. I’m playing as an Assassin and he’s a Gunzerker. I got to this point where I was facing a new area with no amo, so I called him in. It was as easy as Halo Reach to bring in a co-op partner and soon I was sniping away while watching him tackling enemies left and right in an explosive burst of gore. It was hilarious! I think this game is really going to entrance me for a good long time.
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