First Impression - [Suikoden Tierkreis]

"yeah b*tch, I play SUIKODEN!" - Brad, 4pp

That's my first reaction when I saw the title of this game on the list. Since the suikoden series is one rpg franchise that I'd yet to get my hand on, I was kind of delighted when I found out the existence of this game.
You begin off with a [insert name here] character, which I just use the usual names, unlike my attempt with chrono trigger. You are a part of a village defence squad and take missions from other people (apparently). Though having said that, I am not sure if it's me playing too aggressively through the main storyline, I am yet to encounter a side quest.
DS function, you got the main screen on the bottom, which you can move your characters with either the d-pad or the stylus. I prefer d-pad since I got too annoyed with the stylus controls in the last few nds jrpg i'd played. on the top screen shows the status of the 4 combat characters (HP, SP, etc...)
Now on to visuals, the character design is quite good, though I am not comfortable with the 3D model you see on the screen. The monster design is quite sh^t actually, especially the boss, hope that they pick up in the latter stages of the game, coz they are awful.
sounds. When I play a rpg I love to turn the sounds on, since the background music is one of the features that creates immersion into the world, which is very important especially in rpg. The bgm is generally quite good. Though I would have to say that I totally hate the english voice overs. They are robotic, emotionless, and just purely embarrassing. And the worst thing is that you cannot turn them off......Which is a mark down in terms of personalising the playing environment. luckily that they don't talk often, and most of those times I only get to hear half of it as I would just speed read and skip them all. But still, they are just bad...
Dungeons, one major element of jrpg as usual. The maze in this game is quite short, just 4 maps per dungeon, which kind of surprised me. But on the bad side, the character moves like turtles........it's just so annoying when you go onto another route slowly just to find out that it's an useless dead end. Another mark down.
Combat, it's awesome, quick and crisp. There's even a option at the start if you just want all the characters to randomly normal attack the enemy, which is just awesome. There's even co-tech!!!Gosh I love the combat system, only if the dungeon can be better....
Side note, I am not sure if it's because of the slow movement in the dungeons, I find that leveling up is quite easy and quick, so I don't really have much trouble with the mines at the moment, which can be suck if I got stuck in a boss fight. Also you replenish all stats when you level up.
Save system, you can only save at certain locations. Can be a bit annoying when you tread like though miles in a dungeon with you slow speed and want to turn off the DS.
Shopping, gosh I hated this system. expensive weapons and armours, unable to see the effects directly on the characters, annoying selling system, slow interface. Godamnit can't I just have better weapons?!

so far, 6.5/10, 3 hours into it. However, since it's SUIKODEN, I'll try to finish it at least.

First Impression - [Big Bang Mini]

fireworks anyone?

Never had a sylus only game been this fun since trauma centre. David was right, this is a great game, unless i think it's a great game only because David suggested it.

Basically it's a vertical 2D shooter, you shoot "fireballs" at the opposition on the top screen by flicking the stylus at the direction, and drag your hitbox with your stylus. This combination of mechanism means that you cannot move and shoot at the same time. I like the idea, but sometimes I got a bit frustrated when I reacted too slow to some of the projectiles from the enemy.

Visual is one major part and so far i am liking it, with the obvious colourful fireballs flying around. not much can be said on the sound as always. so far, I say I am liking it. It's quite a good mini game, and quite cheap as well. Designed specifically for a handheld to be played on things like the tram or something. 

Up to stage 6 at the moment, so can't really say it's the "first impression", but i figure I might as well give it a shout out here.  

First Impression - [Moon]

Can I see red vs blue all over again?

ok, I'd played a bit of this game, and so far i am liking it. 

it's made by the same company that brought us Dementium Ward, a FPS horror survival game that controls just like Metroid, i.e. you just D-pad to move, and stylus to look, L/R to shoot.

medium graphics, nice sound quality, story a bit generic, love the little android pod, hate the repetition of levels that involves using the pod, love the cinematics before and after the boss fight, glad the infamous save system in DW had been improved immensely, hate the vehicle stage as the car drive like shit.

i like the level on the first glance, but fear it can get quite repetitive.

had encountered a major bug in one of the boss fight. The thing is, the boss required me to use the pod  on the first half of the battle, and usually if i want to leave an area without retrieving the pod I will be notified to do so. What happend was usually I would get teleported instantly to another aread after the boss fight, but since I didn't retrieve the pod mid battle all i get was the notification telling me to get it. So I get it but then nothing happened, which means I would have to restart the level all over again, go through the area, fight the boss while remembering to get the pod mid battle......which i forgot to do so once again on the 2nd time.

Right now I am kind of like on episode 8, rookie difficulties since i want to have a feel of the story without annoying myself with the combat.

if i have to give it a score right now, i would say 6/10, but it can potentially drop if the levels get too repetitive.

Game Review - [Chrono Trigger DS]

I am a RPG fan. I love the story, the characters, the settings, and the ability to think up an strategy during the battle with random monsters on the map. It's probably due to my exposure to games like FF earlier in my life that brought me into this. However, I do not regret it. I am not a big gamer back in the day, the first game I played being a good RPG game made by a Taiwanese company that does not get translated to other languages. It was a good game, and I really enjoyed it back in the day, even if I never get past like the 5th chapter or something due to academic commitment.

The first time I heard of the name Chrono Trigger was like 6 years ago by one of my friends during class. Now I do not know how did the conversation get to that point, but I distinctly remember he mentioned that one of a character is a frog, a efin frog out of all the animals. Then he mentioned that the mangaka behind the Dragonball series was the one responsible fo the charcter design....I will not get into how much I think Akira Toriyama's style is really ugly for anything here. Back to the topic, that conversation pretty got drown off to other things, and just sit on the base of my memory bank for a long time.

One day I was browsing through the NDS catalogue at the usual place, wondering if there's any good game that came out that is worth my time to play. At that time I pretty much finished Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, had a few fun with KORG DS-10 Synthesizer and still waiting for Moon to come out. That's when I saw Chrono Trigger sitting there.

On the first impression, I remember telling myself how great the pacing was. It just grabs you in with the mysterious disappearance of a teammate, and the typical standard JRPG medieval scenario with the twist of a time portal. The beginning of the plot really sucks you in. And then at one point in the story you come face to face with the ultimate boss, and the consequence of its act of destruction. Establish the final hurdle, witness the catastrophy, and train up your characters to change the future. It maintains the quirky humour that is common in the general JRPG, minus the emo part since it's lead by a silent hero. You will get a time traveller/machine later on in the story, so it makes more sense as to why the boss is waiting for you there. Also, it allows you to challenge it whenever you like, it's just that you will be screwed before the main quests/side quests are complete due to your pathetic low levels and sucky weapons.

The characters each have great personalities. First is you the silent hero, who I named dick by the way. Then it's the heroin that i mentioned before who mysteriously vanished, the childhood female friend who loves science, a robot, a prehistorical female who speaks in simple languages, and lastly, the frog swordsman. I also add the fact that you can name every characters in your team, which is great coz i had a lot of fun putting in random names for them. One thing I had to say is how ugly the cutscene looks due to the fact that it's his works. The 8bit/16 bit on general play looks alright though.

The battle system is a bit uncomfortable to being with, as it involves an invisible timebar which dictates who goes first and somewhat, and you can still get attacked if you idle for too long. Each character can weild magic with their own attribute, except for the savage girl, but she got the best attacks anyway. There's also a double tech and triple tech, which can be used if all party involved are ready (ie. time ball finish loading), they pretty much are my killer blows in every boss battle. One main problem being that if I choose to heal a teammate who is in critical situation, and after the command is selected he/she is dead by a blow, the healer pretty much wasted her/his chance and does not gain a free move because the last move is invalid. That was a bit annoying when you are in a pinch and had to wait for the bar to load up again, and pray that the boss will not give out another majoy group damage. It sometimes can get quite hectic due to the past pacing of the battle system, but it is possible to pause mid battle by pressing Start.

As to the dungeon itself, it draws the map as you explore. Since I am playing the DS version it's all done in the bottom screen. You see the monsters on the map, and usually at fixed places. You trigger into battle mode when you touch them, which pretty much stays the same scene but all the monsters shown at that time will get involved in the battle. Most of them moves about on the map, and sometimes you cannot avoid some monsters for some reason, which can be a bit annoying this way when you are doing some serious backtracking and do not want to fight on the way. Having said that, the design of it also allows you to skip past fights in most of the map without having to worry about FOE. One other thing that annoys me is that there's not a single item that allow you to jump out of the dungeon instantly, so you had to walk a long way to find the next savepoint if you are deep in the dungeon. However, you can save whenever you like if you are in  the world map, which is a major relief..

music.......I love the one in the world map in the medieval time, since I'd heard a lot of interpretation of it before. Not sure if it's the main or the most famous tune, but it's the one I am most familiar about, so I was a bit stoked when I first heard it. The music for the other time periods also describes that era perfectly, you can immediately associate to the world view and the characters just by listening to the music. I grind/backtracking a bit too much during the middle stage of the game, so I kind of got sick with the combat music. And I just realise that there are no victory music in this game, which is kind of sad.

Like the last game I'd reviewed, this game also provides the option of NewGame+, which allows you to keep all your items and levels when you start over, minus some plot-essential items. I'd said before that you can challenge the final boss anytime right? Turns out that if you defeat it at diffent stage of the game there will be different ending unlocked. By keeping the items and the levels you can challenge it anytime in the story, though like any other RPG, the story tend to get a bit old after you finish with it. Which is why this mechanism is one major positive in term of gameplay as it give out more challenges to the player.

I finished the game in like 35 hours in the first play through, with all the side quests done (thanks to some peekings at the walkthough). All my characters are in early level 60, so i think it would not pose a major problem if i decided to finish the game mid way through the main quest, even though I was having some troubles beating the final boss before.

Overall, it's a great game. Good story, good combat, good gameplay, good music, pity the art style is shitty. It was a good 35 hour during the holiday and I cherish that experience. I enjoyed the gameplay, and it had to be one of the best RPG I'd played so far. I highly recommend it to any NDS owner who is a JRPG fan, even just a RPG fan. You will not be dissappointed.

9.5/10