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| Netrunner on Friday Night |
Anime Detour 2016 was a ton of fun this year. A whopping total of 5,500 people crammed into the Doubletree in Bloomington, MN, for another year of cosplay, antics, games, and awesome. And hoo boy, do I have stories!
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Anime Detour 2016
Anime Detour 2016 was a ton of fun this year. A whopping total of 5,500 people crammed into the Doubletree in Bloomington, MN, for another year of cosplay, antics, games, and awesome. And hoo boy, do I have stories!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Hipster Anime Fans! Anime Detour 2014 in review
Once again, Anime Detour takes over the Doubletree by Hilton in Bloomington, MN. Last weekend, 5,000 people descended upon the hapless hotel staff to party, congregate, and discuss the intricacies of "the manga was better." This year was awesome, in so, so many ways.Wednesday, April 24, 2013
A Decade of Construction: Anime Detour 2013 Recap
Wow, what a con This past weekend, 5,000 people gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington, MN, for what is one of the largest anime conventions in the state. It was an exhilarating, awesome, epic weekend. And I was in the thick of it.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Import Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs
Players: 1-2 offline, 8 onlinePlatform: PS3, Also available for Arcade
Rating: CERO-A (suitable for all ages)
Publisher: Namco Ban-Dai
A friend of mine was in Japan a few weeks ago, and brought back a bunch of games for me. One of them was Gundam Extreme Vs. And man, is this game awesome!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
MMO tropes that need to go part 2
Continuing the story from last week, here's part two of this article. If you missed the last one, you can read it here.
Player versus Player, or PvP, has always been a staple of the MMO
genre. Just about every MMO has their own take on it, and some do it
better than others. Silk Road, for example, relied heavily on PvP for
endgame content. The faction war between merchants, hunters, and
thieves made for a highly entertaining experience at the higher levels.
Of course, this wasn't always the case. There were several occasions
where a level 60 or 70 thief would go to the level 14 area (tiger
mountain) and spawn tons of attacking mobs that would kill nearby
players. This usually meant a loss of experience, a significant hit to
the equipment's durability, and quite a bit of gold in repairs. For a
higher level character, a loss of experience can mean having to grind an
additional month or more to level up.
If PvP is going to work, you cannot have a penalty for dying due to PvP, especially in the open world. Having an arena or specified PvP zone is helpful, especially if the No Death Penalty applies there. Penalizing someone for being killed by someone 40 levels their senior is just not good planning at all. Ideally, PvP needs its own arena. If that's not feasible, enable someone to "flag" themselves as open to PvP, but keep it to players within the same level. I remember hearing a story about a level 1 fighter in Final Fantasy XI, who was challenged by a level 60+ character to a duel. People started stopping to watch, just to see if the underdog could do it. Some white mages started healing the fighter, and black mages stunned/debuffed the higher level character to keep him from attacking. By the end of the fight, the spry little dude had quite the following. So I'm told, he actually won the duel, too.
PvP does not necessarily have to be one on one, either. Before it was shuttered, All Points Bulletin, or APB, had an interesting take on PvP. The duel system, or whatever they called it, would, on occasion, pair three or more level 20 characters against one level 40 character, where the weaker team would have to use smarts, teamwork, and a little luck to bring down the higher level character. Game Informer pointed out that this system was actually surprisingly balanced, and the match would be a fair fight. Go figure. It would be interesting to see more MMOs approach PvP in this way, and give the underdogs an entertaining fight.
One of the main endgame features for many MMOs is the raid system. Usually, this involves gathering a group of twenty or so friends to beat the snot out of a huge "boss" monster. At the end of the fight, the boss will drop a rare item that can only be obtained through that raid. This can add a sense of community to a game, especially if the raid requires a large number of people. On the other hand, it also can be the only place where players can obtain some of the best items in game.
One pitfall that MMOs should avoid in this field is the trope of making the high value drops too rare. If the players need this gear but can't get it in a timely manner, they will get discouraged and give up on playing. In addition to the grind issues that Silk Road Online had, getting the "good" equipment, known as Seal of Star, was an exercise in futility. Seriously, it seemed like the game would drop you one every 16 levels or so, if you're very, very lucky. A mid-30s set of armor would cost 1 Million gold per piece or more, and Seal of Star weapons at the same level would go for 5 to 10 Million gold. Seal of Moon/Seal of Sun armors and weapons would go for two or even three times their Seal of Star counterparts. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't so blasted difficult to earn gold in the game. You can see why gold farming is so pervasive in Silk Road. This video captures my sentiments.
To be fair, I'm not encouraging game developers to give away the best items in the game willy-nilly. The current World of Warcraft patch falls to this trope a little too much. Come to think of it, "Nerf Now!" tackled this very topic when the most recent patch went live. Eventually, those "super rare items" that everybody wants will be so commonplace that nobody cares about them anymore. Between all the PvP and Raid gear available to the people who work for it, everybody and their mother can have a set of epic equipment. Purple means nothing anymore.
Thankfully, there's an MMO out there that has elevated this balance to an art form. Phantasy Star Online kept a fantastic balance of rarity and availability. The boss fights were challenging, but the rewards were worth it. They also weren't as ubiquitous as World of Warcraft's current shenanigans. Sega may have shut down its Dreamcast servers back in 2003, but fans have operated private servers ever since, a testament to the staying power of Phantasy Star Online. Even the Gamecube and Xbox versions have numerous private servers available for fans of this classic.
The MMO genre has opened up a new layer of social activity to the average gamer. We've covered a lot of ground over the years, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Developers should learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, or else we will never see progress. This concludes part two of my rant. Do you think there's another trope that should go? Sound off in the comments below!
 |
| That's not what I meant by player versus player... |
If PvP is going to work, you cannot have a penalty for dying due to PvP, especially in the open world. Having an arena or specified PvP zone is helpful, especially if the No Death Penalty applies there. Penalizing someone for being killed by someone 40 levels their senior is just not good planning at all. Ideally, PvP needs its own arena. If that's not feasible, enable someone to "flag" themselves as open to PvP, but keep it to players within the same level. I remember hearing a story about a level 1 fighter in Final Fantasy XI, who was challenged by a level 60+ character to a duel. People started stopping to watch, just to see if the underdog could do it. Some white mages started healing the fighter, and black mages stunned/debuffed the higher level character to keep him from attacking. By the end of the fight, the spry little dude had quite the following. So I'm told, he actually won the duel, too.
PvP does not necessarily have to be one on one, either. Before it was shuttered, All Points Bulletin, or APB, had an interesting take on PvP. The duel system, or whatever they called it, would, on occasion, pair three or more level 20 characters against one level 40 character, where the weaker team would have to use smarts, teamwork, and a little luck to bring down the higher level character. Game Informer pointed out that this system was actually surprisingly balanced, and the match would be a fair fight. Go figure. It would be interesting to see more MMOs approach PvP in this way, and give the underdogs an entertaining fight.
One of the main endgame features for many MMOs is the raid system. Usually, this involves gathering a group of twenty or so friends to beat the snot out of a huge "boss" monster. At the end of the fight, the boss will drop a rare item that can only be obtained through that raid. This can add a sense of community to a game, especially if the raid requires a large number of people. On the other hand, it also can be the only place where players can obtain some of the best items in game.
One pitfall that MMOs should avoid in this field is the trope of making the high value drops too rare. If the players need this gear but can't get it in a timely manner, they will get discouraged and give up on playing. In addition to the grind issues that Silk Road Online had, getting the "good" equipment, known as Seal of Star, was an exercise in futility. Seriously, it seemed like the game would drop you one every 16 levels or so, if you're very, very lucky. A mid-30s set of armor would cost 1 Million gold per piece or more, and Seal of Star weapons at the same level would go for 5 to 10 Million gold. Seal of Moon/Seal of Sun armors and weapons would go for two or even three times their Seal of Star counterparts. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't so blasted difficult to earn gold in the game. You can see why gold farming is so pervasive in Silk Road. This video captures my sentiments.
Thankfully, there's an MMO out there that has elevated this balance to an art form. Phantasy Star Online kept a fantastic balance of rarity and availability. The boss fights were challenging, but the rewards were worth it. They also weren't as ubiquitous as World of Warcraft's current shenanigans. Sega may have shut down its Dreamcast servers back in 2003, but fans have operated private servers ever since, a testament to the staying power of Phantasy Star Online. Even the Gamecube and Xbox versions have numerous private servers available for fans of this classic.The MMO genre has opened up a new layer of social activity to the average gamer. We've covered a lot of ground over the years, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Developers should learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, or else we will never see progress. This concludes part two of my rant. Do you think there's another trope that should go? Sound off in the comments below!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Top 5 Video Games Based on Anime
As long as Japan keeps producing video games and anime, there will be anime tie-ins to video games and vice versa. Like the movie to video game counterparts in the states, there's a lot of crap and a lot of good titles. Here's my...
Top 5 Video Games Based on Anime
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Ville Zur Macht
Developer: Namco
Price: $5.99 at Gamestop
Players: 1
Save file size: 165 KB
Rating: Teen, for Blood and Gore, Violence
When Xenosaga first came out on the PS2, it received a perfet 10 out of 10 from Game Informer Magazine. The reviewers loved everything about it, and it was recongized as a well-polished PS2 RPG. I had friends in high school who played it and loved it. Now that the price on it has come way down, I figured I'd give this "gem" a spin in my PS2.
In case you were wondering, the subtitle for this game is German for, "do as you please." It is the first part of a series of three games. The game is set approximately 4500 years in the future, in which humanity has left earth and gone on to colonize other planets. As they explore, humanity runs into a hostile alien race called "Gnosis," which are bent on destroying these "invaders." Humans have fought back, with their own Anti-Gnosis Weapon Systems, or A.G.W.S. (pronounced "Ags") The main character, Shion, is working with Vector industries to produce a new humanoid weapon to fight these Gnosis. Shion has named this weapon "KOS-MOS," who doesn't quite understand human logic. As the game progresses, Shion and KOS-MOS meet other characters who join them as the story progresses.
One of the things I noticed right away is that the visuals are gorgeous. Everything is very detailed, and the cinematics are beautiful. It really feels like you're watching a movie sometimes.
The battle engine in Xenosaga is a rather fresh take on what's been considered a very overused system. characters get Action Points, or AP, which they can use to attack, use items, defend, or use special abilities called Ether in the game. Players can also charge up their AP to six in order to use a special "Tech Attack" against enemies. The "Boost" system is rather interesting, as well. Characters can jump ahead in turn order, which can mean the difference between life and death in some battles.
One of the things that really bugged me with this game was the sheer number of cinematics. There were several moments where I'd be stuck watching cinematics for twelve to fifteen minutes before I could resume gameplay. Thankfully, you can skip the movies by pressing start and then the triangle button, but then you risk missing some important plot detail. This drove me up the wall. In addition, there were several instances in which I had to spend time battling enemies just so I could defeat the boss at the end. I wasted a good hour and a half in this manner for just one boss. If there were more ample opportunities to level up my characters, this wouldn't be as big of an issue as I'm making it out to be. Also, I did not like the english voice-overs. I would have preferred the option to switch to Japanese dialogue, something that would make the game much more enjoyable for me. I know I tend to nitpick over these sorts of things, but that's just something that matters to me.
If I were one of the reviewers for Game Informer, I probably wouldn't have given it a perfect 10. While this game is very well polished and has a well-written storyline, it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I probably would have given it an 8.5 or a 9, but that's just me. Overall, if you eat, sleep and breathe RPGs, this game is worth checking out. If you're not one of those types, you're better off skipping it.
Parental information: This game does feature several scenes which may be disturbing to younger audiences, and the storyline is relatively deep. Depictions of blood are unrealistic, in my opinion. I'd recommend this for persons over the age of 11 or 12. As always, this depends on maturity level of the child.
Price: $5.99 at Gamestop
Players: 1
Save file size: 165 KB
Rating: Teen, for Blood and Gore, Violence
When Xenosaga first came out on the PS2, it received a perfet 10 out of 10 from Game Informer Magazine. The reviewers loved everything about it, and it was recongized as a well-polished PS2 RPG. I had friends in high school who played it and loved it. Now that the price on it has come way down, I figured I'd give this "gem" a spin in my PS2.
In case you were wondering, the subtitle for this game is German for, "do as you please." It is the first part of a series of three games. The game is set approximately 4500 years in the future, in which humanity has left earth and gone on to colonize other planets. As they explore, humanity runs into a hostile alien race called "Gnosis," which are bent on destroying these "invaders." Humans have fought back, with their own Anti-Gnosis Weapon Systems, or A.G.W.S. (pronounced "Ags") The main character, Shion, is working with Vector industries to produce a new humanoid weapon to fight these Gnosis. Shion has named this weapon "KOS-MOS," who doesn't quite understand human logic. As the game progresses, Shion and KOS-MOS meet other characters who join them as the story progresses.
One of the things I noticed right away is that the visuals are gorgeous. Everything is very detailed, and the cinematics are beautiful. It really feels like you're watching a movie sometimes.
The battle engine in Xenosaga is a rather fresh take on what's been considered a very overused system. characters get Action Points, or AP, which they can use to attack, use items, defend, or use special abilities called Ether in the game. Players can also charge up their AP to six in order to use a special "Tech Attack" against enemies. The "Boost" system is rather interesting, as well. Characters can jump ahead in turn order, which can mean the difference between life and death in some battles.
One of the things that really bugged me with this game was the sheer number of cinematics. There were several moments where I'd be stuck watching cinematics for twelve to fifteen minutes before I could resume gameplay. Thankfully, you can skip the movies by pressing start and then the triangle button, but then you risk missing some important plot detail. This drove me up the wall. In addition, there were several instances in which I had to spend time battling enemies just so I could defeat the boss at the end. I wasted a good hour and a half in this manner for just one boss. If there were more ample opportunities to level up my characters, this wouldn't be as big of an issue as I'm making it out to be. Also, I did not like the english voice-overs. I would have preferred the option to switch to Japanese dialogue, something that would make the game much more enjoyable for me. I know I tend to nitpick over these sorts of things, but that's just something that matters to me.
If I were one of the reviewers for Game Informer, I probably wouldn't have given it a perfect 10. While this game is very well polished and has a well-written storyline, it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I probably would have given it an 8.5 or a 9, but that's just me. Overall, if you eat, sleep and breathe RPGs, this game is worth checking out. If you're not one of those types, you're better off skipping it.
Parental information: This game does feature several scenes which may be disturbing to younger audiences, and the storyline is relatively deep. Depictions of blood are unrealistic, in my opinion. I'd recommend this for persons over the age of 11 or 12. As always, this depends on maturity level of the child.
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