Mathurin47

Personal issues kept me from working on my planned 3rd year-end entry. It was intended to look ahead at what had my eye in 2010, though now that I think about it, my preorder list pretty much sums that up. Even as I write this, I’m uncertain how current events are going are to play out. Most likely things at home will settle back to the status quo, but I must prepare myself for the possibility that any of the worst-case scenarios I foresee could occur. It is quite likely that I will be looking for a new place to live sometime this year. I had hoped to delay this at least another year, but I’m not going to sit around and watch things disintegrate around me.

Instead of doing one post on the games I’m looking forward to the rest of the year, I’m going to end each monthly entry with a look at an upcoming game that has my eye, but isn’t going to get much mainstream interest. And I’ve got just the title for the inaugural entry.

Mass Effect 2

Sands of Destruction

January Gain +545 – 39 Achievements unlocked

December Gain – Level + 0 Trophies + 0

Backlog increased by 2 in December

Rank 18 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard -5

Game spending vs. ‘09: Monthly -30% | Yearly -30%

A good start for the year, slightly ahead of my goal. March will be the big test as Atlus season opens.

13 Hearts
Obtained the final map piece and arrived at Goron Village.
Riding the rails has become monotonous, perhaps adding passengers and freight for the numerous upcoming sidequests will change that. Still taking obscene damage from random cliff jumping and other events that could have avoided without forced stylus controls.

Dragon Quest II
Hero Lv 10 | Prince | Lv 9 | Princess 4
DQI greatest weakness was the 1vs1 combat. Having finally assembled a party, I’m actually enjoying the grinding process. Tower of Wind is my next destination.

32:02 Chapter 7
Emil Lv 48 | Marta Lv 47 | Presea Lv 45
Made good progress this month and the final chapter is quickly approaching. Plot is becoming pretty obvious, though the party is oblivious, of course.

And probably Game of the Year as well. Any and all weaknesses of the first game have been improved or eliminated. The RPG fan in me cringes at the hiding and streamlining of the RPG elements, but the shooter fan says, “Shoot! Shoot! Kill! Kill!”
Level 13 Infiltrator recruiting the 2nd set of characters (1 of 3).

While the original Army of Two didn’t seem particularly well received, my co-op buddy and I enjoyed it, making quite a few runs though it. It was a pretty short game and it didn’t take itself too seriously. The sequel is here and it is more or less the same experience. There are some nice improvements here. Some, such as being able to quickly change which shoulder you are looking over while in cover, I hope other developers take notice of. For the most part, the changes made to the game have been for the better. A few more weapons, with the ability to interchange parts between most of the guns and improve their stats. Being able to shoot your pistol while carrying a shield is nice. My main complaint is that tying the game to a single city has greatly hampered the variety between the stages. A few stages stand out, the zoo in particular, but even as Shanghai collapses around you, the urban setting is prevalent. The plot is largely forgettable and the morality decisions the game forces you to make, save the final one (pending good morality run), don’t seem to have any lasting impact except for scoring some extra loot. In the end, though, it’s a great way to spend a weekend with a buddy. I give it a 7.9.

The box seems a little small for the pair, but they’ve been sharing it quite nicely of late. That is until Sunny (orange) gave PJ (black/orange) a shove off the box while she tried to bathe. She’s sulking in my lap as a type this paragraph.

After a long break from anime I decided to watch a few of the new series airing in Japan at the moment. One of these was Ookami Kakushi and as I listened to the opening theme, I was not too surprised to see FictionJunction appear in the credits. Yuki Kajiura’s work has a very familiar feel to it and I continue to list her amongst my favorite composers. Here is FictionJunction’s latest single “Toki no Mukou Maboroshi no Sora.” Maboroshi no Sora would be Sky of Illusions, though I’m not quite certain how to translate the first part. Mukou is more of a concept of facing something… Anyway, Yuki Kajiura herself is on the keyboard in the video.

2 Pickups, 1 Addition

Atlus & NIS America

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Others

Alpha Protocol	Arc Rise Fantasia	White Knight Chronicles	Yakuza 3
	Resonance of Fate	Fallout: New Vegas

Eye on 2010

The visual novel is a popular genre of gaming in Japan, but one that most publishers won’t take a chance on localizing. In fact, the Phoenix Wright series are the only games that I can think of off the top of my head. I was hoping someone would pick up 428 after Famitsu gave it a 40/40, but it never happened. Thanks Sega. So it was with some surprise that I read NIS America was planning on bringing over Disgaea Infinite in May. I hadn’t even heard of it before NISA sent out the emails announcing their plans.
NISA promises an Adventure Novel style game with the Disgaea humor and ridiculous story as Prinny attempts to solve the mystery of who attempted to assassinate Laharl. If the price is right this one could become my first PSN game.