As always, multiple things on the go at once.
So, I remembered recently that I was borrowing a copy of Mana Khemia 1 for the PSP. Now, this is a case of good news/bad news, with the good news being, Mana Khemia 1, it is an awesome game of awesomeness! And the bad eing PSP port, it has the loading times of ultimate suckage. Fortunately, the save was basically just before you get five people so there's an actual battle system as opposed to a game where you are expected to use MP like crazy, but you have no method of getting more. Also, Roxis and his ability to play around nicely with the Time Card system.
Anyways, been making some progress with it, both as something to play on the move, and otherwise when at home. Forgot about Anna and her awesomeness. Seriously, when Flay eventually gets to the point of being He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Vayne might be the one who plays the part of The Boy Who Lived, but it's gonna be Anna that gets the title of "The Only One He Ever Feared." I mean, seriously, the guy has spent half his time running away from her.
Majora's Mask - Doing a replay of this because it is freaking awesome. And because the other Zelda game I kinda want to replay will either involve me finding all the pieces of my NES and getting that operating, or trying to play Zelda 2 on a GC controller, which, no. Just no. Currently up to the boss of the swamp temple, after which I'll probably get me a Goron mask and then do some mask hunting around town. Probably looking forward to that tower the most. That place was nice and creepy.
My Life as a Darklord. Like peanut butter cups, the mix of Final Fantasy and Tower Defense is a fun one. And, oddly, I've never finished it before. Regardless, I've made it to chapter 3 and am trucking along happily. About to get Behemoths which will help to start leading to more choices about how to deal with annoying archers. I hope they have Guard... because I want some way to deal with those annoying room destroying Thieves.
And then we hit the Intelligent Systems games. Yup, two of them. Both played on the Wii. Both from different non-Wii systems.
Paper Mario - Yup, the first one. Played it for the N64 back in the day, but always felt kinda bad about it because the controllers for that system were, let's be diplomatic and say poorly designed. So, whenever I did some of the action triggers it felt like I was destroying the poor controllers which, to be utterly fair, I was. Hell, the N64 is practically junk these days because the controllers have been wrecked by the process of using them. The GCN controller on the other hand, is beautifully designed for this. And if the years (almost a decade... damn does time fly) of using them for Blue Sparking and Smashing haven't wrecked 'em, Paper Mario won't even phase them. Just wrecked the "invincible" Tubba Blubba and need to move on to Chapter 4, so making good time. Kooper has been invaluable as a sidekick and easily got the first power up. Goombario got the second, and those two are basically by power duo, though Bow the Boo has taken a good third place due to her badass slap. Even though she does fear defense like nothing else. Having played a lot of Fire Emblem since this came out, it's easy to see that this game was made by the same guys.
Speaking of Fire Emblem. I've been playing Path of Radiance, because I kinda want to go over the story of the Tellius games again. The moral of the early game was a party wide aversion to gaining strength. I mean, a point was gained here or there, but Ike managed to hit Level 14 with only 8 Strength to his name. I mean, a few people were blessed with Strength. There was Gatrie, who cut and run, and Boyd, but that was about it. On the other hand, Ike has also been averaging 4 point levels. Specifically, he's been Averaging Speed and three other non-Strength things. So the guy capped Speed at level 17, and is otherwise accurate and durable. Also, after I gave him a Energy Drop, he seemed to get the hint and started gaining Strength, so after promotion her was sitting at 16 Str.
So, mid game, starting with hitting the shores of Begnion is where the core of my team started developing. I mean, Rolf is turning out great, Nephenee is being quietly competent in pretty much every stat. Boyd is a solid member as always. But the real star at this point is Jill. Remember how I said my early party seemed to have issues with Strength? Well, that's because everyone's strength growth seemed to be funneled into Jill. The girl has only three stats she gets with any regularity, but as they are Strength, Speed and Defense, there is little else to say. She also has been getting timely crits, so she's been doing a lot of hopping out of unhittable locations off of ships or from the other side of trees, murderkilling dudes, then darting back out of reach. She's kinda been benched since reaching Daien, not because of keeping her from murderkilling her countrymen, and more because I need to cut someone from the team to make room for thieves or people to talk sense into Crow Kings, and because she just has that huge a level lead at the moment that I want people to catch up to her.
Also, special mention go to the less good members. Oscar is one of the few people on my team who rarely doubles people. And who rarely kills even with that. Guy is just lacking anything that isn't defense, really. But, easy and early Earth/Earth with Ike, plus bonus crit for Rolf/Boyd and potential for Triangle attack means he gets to stay on. Meanwhile, Kieran got his final chance in Chapter 17. He got a level, great! It was a 0 point level. He is benched indefinitely.
Of course, now all of these games have an insidious and invasive competitor. I got the new Smash. Already unlocked Gannon and Pittoo. Sadly, Marth lost to a little kid. And Ike was bested by some kind of ridiculous Space Falcon Laguz. But they will lose sooner or later.
