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ASK SEAN

Column 55: Vindication

February 11, 2008

Sean - 10:05 pm EST

So what does one do when they pick up Devil May Cry 4? They race through Devil May Cry 1, 2, and 3 (Special Edition, of course!) in anticipation of it! That is exactly what I did in the past weeks. I have now completed Devil May Cry 4. I would say the game is awesome, but it would be doing it injustice. It is beyond awesome. Now all they need to do is bring out an RPG that surpasses its awesome factor. Mass Effect came close, but didn't quite do it!

I played Mazes of Fate DS on the weekend. It is rather short--I finished it in about eleven hours. The review is written, but I will be posting it closer to its release date, which appears to be February 26, or something like that. It was enjoyable, but I am kind of glad I didn't have to fork over forty dollars for it. I then re-tried and gave up on Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and Rogue Galaxy. I was not having fun with either of them. They have been sold.

My current list of games being played is shrinking! To further the cause, I picked up Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East again. Knowing what will happen in the last map I played, I was able to anticipate my enemy's plan and turn it against them. The teal player never saw it coming! I am now three missions closer to the end. It is a lot of fun. I really like what they did with the Orc faction.

In other news, Final Fantasy VI Advance progresses nicely. I had to put it on hold for Mazes, but I will get back to it soon--I swear!

LETTERS

Speaking as a casual Patriots fan: We lost because of bad karma. Not Spygate, but Tom Brady dumping Bridget Moynihan.

Whew, that is some backlog. Then again, you own more systems than I do. My backlog consists of: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (although that is more of a victim of "I don't want this to end!" syndrome,) Pokemon Pearl, Rune Factory, FFIII DS, FFV Advance, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Dragon Quest VIII, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, FFVII (I've even beaten Dirge of Cerberus!), Suikoden I and Guitar Hero (but does this count as backloggable?)

Sean

That isn't a backlog--it is a small shelf of unplayed games! You need to let it grow a bit to compete with the rest of us. *flexes*

A game is only backloggable if it satisfies some conditions. Is it something that can be finished? Are there goals that can be set so that it is "complete" in the eyes of the player? Sports games tend to go on for infinity, as do some party games. Can they be legitimately beaten? In cases like this I always assign goals. For F-Zero GX my goal was to finish all of the races on the first three difficulties. For fighting games I usually want to see everyone's endings and maybe unlock a good portion of what is available. So yes, Guitar Hero is backloggable, if there is a point you can call it complete. Otherwise it is just something to play at any time. That is, of course, if it is opened. If it is still unplayed, it can easily be backloggable.

I only really find myself game schitzoing on "open ended" games, like the Harvest Moon games. Occasionally I'll pick up an open ended game, play it religiously for a little while, then put it down and switch when something better comes around. When I do pick it up again, it will take me a little while to get acclimated to what my progress was when I put it down, and then I'll continue on my merry way. As for RPGs, if I put it down for a long time, when I pick it up it usually means that I need to start over again.

Sean

I hate the feeling of being lost when picking up a game after having taken a break from it. Because I am currently trying to finish off the games that I have already started, I understand your point completely. Sometimes it is a gameplay issue, but often I just forget the story. I rarely start a game over though. I find it easier to just look in a FAQ to point me in the right direction.

As an aside: What manga do you enjoy? I'm collecting a variety of series currently, and my favorites are Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, Yakitake! Japan and Kitchen Princess.

Bucket ("Maybe we would've won if I bought a Tedy Bruschi jersey.")

Sean

I had about twenty series on order, but I am cutting it back to less than half of that. I look most forward to Fushigi Yuugi, Bleach, Suzuka and Black Cat at the moment. I am cancelling Beck, School Rumble, Shaman King and Excel Saga to name a few. I just finished reading Cheeky Angel which was very enjoyable. I have been selling a lot of the manga I won't read again, I just don't have as much fun with it anymore.

The same can be said about my anime. I used to watch close to twenty hours a week, but I have cut back to just watching Naruto and Bleach. The rest just doesn't interest me anymore. I did watch the first season of Slayers again, but it didn't do anything for me. I guess I outgrew it? I hope I don't outgrow RPGs too soon!

Another letter from me! ^^

Hey Sean!

I felt that it's been long enough since my last letter, so here it is! ^^ Not really much happened to me RPG-wise in recent days, but I'll bring up what I can.

Sean

Hey there. Long time no see. I've been Devil May Cry'ing lately, so the same applies to me!

Anyway, as to the recent topic of how I juggle multiple games, I avoid it as much as possible. Unlike other people who wrote in about it, I used to play multiple RPGs at once when I was yonger, then when to a one-game-at-a-time policy when I got older. It changed int he summer of '04, when I was playing both Pokemon Colosseum and Skies of Arcadia Legends at the same time. Tales of Symphonia was just over the horizon and I wanted to play it badly. My sister realized that we had two games in progress and if we got ToS with both of them unfinished, they'd drag on forever or we may mix things up, or abandon one game in favor of others (we almost did that with SoA). Thus she came up with a simple solution: let's finish the game we started first (SoA) then finish the one we got later (Pokemon Colosseum). Surely enough we finished both games before ToS was released.

Sean

Coolness. Juggling two games is easy. Try ten. Or fifteen. It gets ugly around then. I really need to shrink that list some more. It is really hard! I am glad that it all worked out and I wish I had that kind of willpower.

Now we play console RPGs together one at a time. I've fallen behind on gaming yes, but because I play with my sister and not because I onyl concentrate on one game at a time. As I am a college student and my sister was dealing with her junior high school year last year and now is getting ready for college in her senior year, we rarely have any time to play together. We've been working on Phantasy Star Online Episode III since mid-August last year. THis wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Baten Kaitos Origns sitting on our shelft, waiting for us to play them. All these games are likely going to be ignored when Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out (well, it isn't an RPG and...it's Brawl for crying out loud!)

Sean

I am not a Super Smash Brothers fan. I picked up the GC version when I first got the console, but I played it maybe... ten hours? My friends were crazy for it, but I never really got into it. I am not too much into party games, I guess.

Well, anyway, enough about that. Have you heard some of the hubbub around Nintendo Power's so-called "Mystery RPG"? In last month's issue, it stated that "Next month’s cover story is an RPG so fantastic, so engrossing, so epic, and so hush-hush that we’d have to erase your memories if we told you what it is. In fact, maybe we already did. Role-playing fans, get ready for a big one."

Sean

Yeah, I heard about this last week. It wasn't much of a surprise for me. Weren't we expecting Tales of Symphonia 2 for a while now? Wasn't it announced at TGS?

SO many different ideas were thrown out as to what this game was, everything from Golden Sun 3 to Mother 3 to Baten Kaitos 3 to an actual Chrono Trigger game, etc. etc. Even I thought that it was likely some exlcusive information on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (I thought the "we'd have to erase your memories" part was suppose to be a hint since the first game had much to do with the importance and power of memories). 3

So now the latest issue is out. What did this game turn out to be? Take a look: http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9357/1202318052546hg5.jpg

Sean

I would have liked to see something original, but oh well; I'll accept yet another Tales game. That is the problem with the longer series--after a while they just don't feel new anymore. And when they are new, they get knocked for it. Poor Dragon Quarter...

Yup, Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatosk for the Wii (though it seems it has a new subtitle: "Dawn of the New World"). Sure it's great news that we know those of us in North America will be able to get the game, but it's far from "hush-hush". Nintendo Power themselves did a small preview on it in a previous issue. What was so secretive about it, whether it was coming to America or not?

Sean

I don't really know and neither can I find a suitable guess. I am really sorry for letting you down.

But I digress. I love Tales of Symphonia and have been watching out for news on this game. I'm just happy we'll be getting it in English. It just a bit anticlimatic, you know?

Well, anyway, that's enough out of me for today. Thanks for reading Sean! Until next time! ^^

-Strawberry Eggs

Sean

Thanks for writing in, Ichigo Tamago. I hope I got that right! I hate it when things get really hyped up and the annoucement just doesn't warrant it. Especially when it is something that everyone already knew a long time ago. Of course, Nintendo Power readers may use that as their only source... Get on the Internet, people! Come to RPGamer for more up-to-date and useful news!

IN CLOSING

Ugh. I am getting really tired. I decided to write this column early to free myself up for the possibility of getting Lost Odyssey tomorrow. I hope it comes in. Otherwise, I might need to wait until Friday! If that happens, I will be a very sad gamer. With Valentine's Day coming up this week, I feel the need to ask: do you have any Valentine's Day gaming stories to share? I don't, but it can't hurt to ask! Actually, it is hard to see how they relate...

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