Tag Archives: rpgs

Retrospective, Reviews

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dragon Age

2 Comments

Dragon Age is a series I didn’t get into until very recently, for several reasons.  One of the reasons was a simple lack of time to play every video game I want to play.  Another reason was “I dunno, I’m not really a Bioware person.”  And, finally, there was the “I know I’m going to get obsessed with it if I play it, so I’m not going to play it” reason.  Hey, at least I can say I know myself well, right?

So a few months back I gave in, due largely to Mister Adequate’s insistence as he’d recently played through the games and recommended them.  So I bought them, rubbed my hands together, and went on a marathon.  I played all three – Origins, 2, and Inquisition, as well as nearly all of the DLC – in order.  And I came out of the experience a broken creature, sniffling and teary-eyed because this stupid game series had put me through the wringer more than anything in recent memory.  (Except maybe Undertale, which had me sobbing because a couple of pixels told me I was their friend, but that’s a story for a different blog post.)

Anyways.  The tale of how Dragon Age ruined my life.

Before Dragon Age, this gigantic art print most certainly was not hanging on my wall.
Before Dragon Age, this gigantic art print was most certainly NOT hanging on my wall.

I figure most of you reading this have probably heard of this series, if not played it.  So I won’t go into huge detail about what it is.  A quick overview, though, just in case: it’s a party-based CRPG – a spiritual successor to games like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale – but modernized for a new generation.  It’s made by Bioware, which means it’s full of choices and romance and a pretty thick story.  The lore is excellent and done in a way that it falls smack in the middle of Saturday Morning 80s Cartoon (Warcraft) and Complicated Ethereal Tangle Where Everything and Nothing is Canon (The Elder Scrolls).  But while all of these things were well done, where this series truly shines is the characters.

47810_screenshots_20160624181631_1Do you see all these losers?

They’re my best friends in the world and I love them dearly.

The Dragon Age Setting aka Thedas (yes Bioware we all see what you did there) is a dark fantasy world inspired by, among other things, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.  But whereas I eventually quit watching Game of Thrones because it was just so dark and dreary all the time– oh look, another one of your favorite characters bit the dust in a horrible fashion, hooray!– Dragon Age actually manages to shine a beam of hope through its dark world.  And that hope is largely generated by the companions you meet, who offer moments both humorous and tender.  So while death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints (and it takes and it takes and it takes)… well, we keep living anyway, and you’re not alone.  And let me tell you what, in today’s world, that’s an incredibly comforting reminder.

So moving on.  If you laugh in the face of the idea of falling in love with a bunch of polygons on your monitor, I’ve got news for you buddy: Alistair is adorkable, Zevran needs your help remembering his worth, Leliana wants to talk to you about shoes and Shale is a giant robot made of rocks.  Also you get a dog.

Thank you for the Snapchat, Bioware.
Thank you for the Snapchat, Bioware.

Ohhh and we’re not done yet.  Hold on to your hats because it’s time for Dragon Age 2 which is all about friendship with a bunch of losers who only ever exist to make your life a living hell, and yet you love them anyway because… why?

Oh. Got it!
Oh. Got it!

You’ve got Varric, the Ultimate Bro (using bro in a good way here – he’s your buddy, your wingman), Aveline, the Mom Friend, Merrill, who is as clueless as she is adorable, Isabela the sweet-talkin’ pirate, Fenris the broody (“I’m not brooding!”) anime elf featuring Gideon Emery’s smooth movie trailer voice, and Anders, the healer who likes cats and FREEDOM and more cats.

…granted, that doesn’t mention the parts where Merrill is really into blood magic and trying to fix a Very Evil Broken Mirror, Isabela conveniently being the reason why a bunch of Baddies won’t leave the city, Fenris’ penchant for drinking and ripping peoples’ hearts from their chests, and Anders sharing his mind with a demon and blowing things up.

But, I mean, they’re family, right?  And families are weird and dysfunctional.  And that’s not even getting started on your actual in-game family.

Thank you, Incorrect Dragon Age.
Thank you, Incorrect Dragon Age and Arrested Development.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is the newest and fanciest one, and features many new and wonderful friends such as a Spirit of Compassion who doesn’t want to hurt anyone but is mysteriously very good at stabbing people, and an unwashed apostate hobo elf whose head looks like an egg and who speaks in iambic pentameter half the time.  He also [redacted] and [DATA EXPUNGED] and romance him at your own peril because YOU WILL REGRET IT and end up buying plushies of him that you then sob over.

…not that I did that or anything.

I like my Egg. He's squishy.
I like my Egg. He’s squishy.

And I most definitely did not dedicate a Spotify playlist to him. Nnnnope.  Not me.

Ok, maybe I did.
Ok, maybe I did.

The point is that Dragon Age does for characters what The Elder Scrolls did for a world.  Morrowind throws you into a strange and alien land and over the course of the game you come to care about it, and that’s your motivation for beating the Big Bad.  With Dragon Age, you’re thrown into strange circumstances with a bunch of strange companions, and you care for them so much that they’re your motivation for beating the Big Bads.

Ultimately, this series is comfort food of the best kind: the kind we need right now.  2016 has not been particularly kind to us.  A lot of scary and tumultuous things are happening in the world right now.  It’s rough when every day you dread checking the latest news headlines or reading the trending topics on Twitter or Facebook.  It makes you wonder where the bright spots are.  What, in this strange, chaotic world, is worth it?

The world of Dragon Age is not kind to its inhabitants and yet its inhabitants are still plucky and still your friends.  They need you, and you need them.  And they’re not perfect, but they make you smile.  Or cry.  Or laugh.  Or all three.  And maybe, just maybe, it’s nice to have the reminder that there are people who are worth fighting for.  Both in a video game and in real life.

And frankly if there are video games that can remind you of that, then those are video games worth playing.

I highly recommend booping your Egg on the nose.
I highly recommend booping your Egg on the nose.
The Android's Casting Magic Missile (RPG)

Guest Post: One Way Heroics

We haven’t updated in forever! We apologize and bring you a lovely guest post!

One-Way-Heroics_960-1320

One Way Heroics doesn’t try to bog you down with the kind of grandiose plot commonly associated with JRPGs. The Demon Lord is wreaking havoc and “The Darkness” is sweeping across the land, killing everything it touches. With such a weak context, JRPG fans expecting a quirky narrative will be disappointed. But those looking for a unique side-scrolling experience are in luck.

Thirty seconds after heroic Swordmaster Max is given his quest, he forgets to move right and dies. The tutorial character pops up and ridicules him—or rather, ridicules me—and explains that One Way Heroics is about moving right. Every action causes the screen to move to the right, and if you don’t keep up, the left side of the screen—The Darkness—will instantly and remorselessly murder you. Dead. Game Over.

At first, this forced scrolling mechanic seems punishingly unfair. The first few dungeons are impossible to explore before the screen catches up with you. The good treasure chests take too long to bash open. If you’re impatient or quick to anger, it might only take a single botched run before you wish it were a physical game you could hurl across the room. But One Way Heroics is not a game you win on the first attempt. Or even the second attempt.

If you want to succeed at One Way Heroics, you need to accept one universal truth: the RNG gods are fickle. Max II died in his very first battle. His attack missed, and the enemy wolf double critical hit him for instant death. But quitting is not the answer. In fact, one of the best strategies comes straight from master tactician Zapp Brannigan: simply sending wave after wave of heroes at the enemy will yield progress. Each run awards Hero Points based on stats like distance travelled and number of treasure chests opened. Those points can then unlock new classes, gain new perks, and expand the Dimensional Vault—a persistent, cross-character treasure chest that can be accessed at the start of each run.

Suicide runs are a good way to get familiar with other aspects of the game. Knowing which merchants to speak to and which enemies are tougher than others can save precious time. But it can feel like a tough, lengthy grind before the game actually gets fun. The first two classes—Swordmaster and Knight—are infuriatingly average. Swordmaster draws inspiration from the Fire Emblem class of the same name: hit first, hit often, and do criticals for massive damage. Unfortunately, enemies tend to surround you and simply mosh you to death—assuming the RNG doesn’t screw you first.

maxresdefault

If you can stomach the initial difficulty, One Way Heroics is insanely entertaining. But it can feel somewhat like Dark Souls; until you master it, the game is relentless and crushing. Minor errors can leave you trapped behind a wall, without enough time to smash a hole in it. Being economical with actions is the most important skill to learn. Mastering diagonal movement will also save your life more times than a big sword will.

While there are eight classes to choose from, they are somehow simultaneously completely imbalanced and startling samey. My first run with Roger the Pirate was infinitely more successful than every run with a Max. He smashed his way through enemies, walls, and chests like an angry, eye-patched, out of control steam train. He hit more frequently with his giant axe—which carries an accuracy penalty of 15%—than other classes did with swords and other supposedly more accurate weapons. And yet, One Way Heroics can still find ways to screw you over. Roger axed his way through everything, and the Demon Lord still wiped the floor with him because Roger hadn’t channelled his inner Jack Sparrow enough to recruit party members.

The ability to assign five perks—including stat boosts and special skills—helps mitigate some drawbacks to each class, but ultimately some of the classes are more useful than the others. While the classes are designed to be unique, perks whitewash the differences until they all seem about the same. And when you’re out in the field using scavenged equipment, there’s very little difference between the classes anyway. The largest variation in play style comes from equipment choice, which undermines the point of including classes in the first place.

One Way Heroics isn’t a masterpiece but it is really fun—assuming you aren’t put off by the high difficulty curve and frustrating RNG screwballs. The forced scroll mechanic is novel and provides a lot of challenge and strategy to what might otherwise be a walk in the park. Playing with conventions can sometimes result in something unexpected and enjoyable, and One Way Heroics is proof of that.

Now it’s time to see if Max III can succeed where his ancestors have failed.

Today’s post was brought to you by gaming journalist Dakota “Jiro” Barker, who can also be seen at his own gaming news blog Press Start News.

The Android's Casting Magic Missile (RPG)

Bravely Default Is Looking Super Fun So Far

2 Comments

So let’s talk about Bravely Default, aka Final Fantasy But Without The Name For Some Reason.

I haven't seen any chocobos yet either, come to think of it.
I haven’t seen any chocobos yet either, come to think of it.

Now this is a bit of a backwards case where the rest of the known universe managed to get this game before us Yanks did, much to our chagrin and to the rest of the world’s amusement. There is a free demo on the Nintendo eShop, however, and I recently downloaded it and then proceeded to spend the next four hours playing it nonstop.

As I said at the beginning of the post, it’s basically Final Fantasy, right down to most of the jobs and their roles as well as item names. If you’ve played any old-school Final Fantasy game before, you will jump right into Bravely Default with zero issues. Specifically, Bravely Default is a lot like Final Fantasies III, V, or in a way Tactics, because the focus is on jobs and doing fun things with job combinations. Then you go around and beat on things with a dragoon (“valkyrie”, but it’s the same thing) dual-wielding lances just because you can.

Cooler than you. And everyone else, for that matter.
Cooler than you. And everyone else, for that matter.

There are a couple of new twists thrown in that are rather unlike previous Final Fantasy games. For starters, the first random battle I encountered included a cat in a wizard hat who promptly one-shotted one of my guys. (This resulted in me immediately exclaiming to Mister Adequate that “You need this game because it is the Dark Souls of JRPGs.”) Secondly you have a nifty little mechanic where you can either “Default” – hunker down, defend, and earn a sort of combo point – or “Brave”, where you spend those combo points to attack/cast something/heal/whatever multiple times. Timing these right can be part of your battle tactics, or alternatively you can just have your dragoon use up all his Braves and then destroy everything at the start of the fight. You know, it’s up to you.

It all sounds so simple, and yet it’s somehow very addictive, and anytime I’ve picked it up recently I’ve wound up playing for a lot longer than I expected I would. In short, if you like grindy JRPGs and giving your nondescript Heroes of Light all sorts of fun class combinations then this might be the game for you. Give the demo a try and see what you think. As for me, I think I’m picking this up when it comes out next month.