I've been playing some games in the time I've been gone.
Been fiddling around with Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7 around when I dropped offline. First playthrough was a nice one, decided to play a combatworthy thug with some charisma, but dumb as a rock and no good at politics. Tried seeing if I could help vault a minor power to a major force up in the northern plains, but the guy never actually did anything, so I left and joined up with Cao Cao who was busy conquoring the joint. Got plenty of fights that way, and eventually got to be a governor and led a major campaign southward, eventually getting to be a part of the collapse of Sun Quan's Wu. (The Liu family's Shu got taken out by the Sun family.)
This led to The Legend of Cao Cao, because I found an english patch for it, and it's rare to see a FE style of game that is not FE itself. I've gotten up to the battle of Chi Bi, which is as brutal as it really ought to be, and the game is kinda fun. You're given choices, some of which are story choices which move you on this Good/Bad, or perhaps Orderly/Chaotic meter, which will apparently branch the story sooner or later. And some of which let you decide on your objectives in battle, or even if you're going to retreat instead of fighting on. And picking the correct answer there can net you more powerful equipment.
This leads to the next game because the two above both prominently feature one class. The Tactician/Strategist. Complete with their fluffy war fan. So, naturally, the next game in the chain is Suikoden 5, because Lucrecia is the closest thing the series has to a proper Chinese Strategist.
This game, the plot is still strong. Probably not as strong as 3, but that's not really a failing. On the downside... loading times are a big one. The games used to be great at keeping battle times down, but here it's just terrible. Recruitment is also bad, with several recruitments getting their own quests or dungeons. And with their trolling you with the old school "Please join me" options. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a strategy guide which got me all the characters, but still. Finally, the army battles, which have two major flaws. The more easily seen one is that it's a real time strategy thing where you have no ability to pause or slow things down to give commands. Or even, really, to move around the screen without cheating the system a bit. This is troubling, since the game will outslug you if you don't give good commands and the game seems to love following up a skirmish in one location with a Barrage on the other side of the map so your response is delayed. But, the bigger flaw, in my opinion, is that the game gives you very little freedom in building your units. This is a series where you have 108 characters, and most of them get to play in the army sequences. But, a lot of the battles have forced units, and the naval units are probably the worst about this. After you get the beavers, the rest of the naval units are basically just support for them. And the Dragon Horses should just add to that. But the game always forces them to take up a land unit slot. Because a godly naval unit should start off as a passable land unit, AND should force you to make another floating Recover repository instead of getting another land unit that'll actually fight.
Ah well, at least the plot is still good. Just at the final dungeon now.
And finally, the portable games.
Seventh Dragon - I've been fooling around with this. Currently in the first arc after the prologue. Don't know if I'm actually going to finish, or if it'll eventually feel too grindy, which is part of what turned me off EO3. But right now I'm digging the actual dungeons, and the attempt at a plot. And the benefits for dealing with the Dragons properly.
Edgeworth 2 - Currently in the middle of the third case.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm having a hard time really getting into this game. That said, I did dig the second case once it got near the end. And I suspect I'll do the same with this case. I also really enjoy the interaction between Courtney and Edgeworth. But... DeBest... on the one hand, I do find him kinda funny. But on the other hand, his logic makes my head hurt. And I am having such a hard time dealing with why Courtney is putting up with him at all. So, yeah. Kinda want to finish the game just to see what the deal is there.
Also, one random thought. You name your ship the Red Rum in the Phoenix Wright universe and then are surprised when a) a corpse shows up on it, and b) you're accused of killing them? It's tempting fate in the same way as running around in a thunderstorm holding a lightning rod as high as you can is asking to get electrocuted.
9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors
Completed. I had an old save where I got the Submarine ending from a year ago, and decided to take another crack. Basically, I did five and a half playthroughs (the half is where I was going for the Coffin ending, but decided to save before locking myself into it to check a door option that was still white. Got a repeat of the Sub ending, which was expected, then went back to my save and did the Coffin ending as planned) in rapid succession. It actually worked fairly well since each repetition revealed something new, and it felt like I got the appropriate progression.
I kinda wanted to make this post while the ending was still fresh in my mind, instead of about a week old. But c'est la vie. Regardless, I enjoyed the game a lot once I got into it. Each ending did a great job of adding a little more to my understanding of what was going on. And the twist in the True end was actually pretty good, though it added some questions of it's own. That said, I've since resolved some of my speculations by reading the Answers section on the game's website. So, yeah.
I knew something was up with Akane. Everyone had their reason for being there, but Junpei's only connection was her, so I knew something about her had to explain why Junpei was there. Was not expecting that the bottom screen narrator was going to be pre-teen Akane though.
The other thing that really caught my interest is the climax. It's weird. On the one hand, I was thinking "So, a nine year conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder for the sole reason of time travelling sudoku solving." On the other, I was totally caught up in the moment. I cared. Which means that as ludicrous as the climax objectively is, it did it's job.
And that, as they say, is that.
