Pokemon Shuffle - Shuffle the Monsters

Pokemon Shuffle- Nintendo 3DS

Pokemon Shuffle, released on February 18, 2015, is a free-to-play download-only title on the Nintendo 3DS; right in this first sentence is everything you need to know before you download it: it's free, it's a Pokemon-themed game, and it is for the 3DS. There's really no excuse not to own it.

Of course, Pokemon Shuffle is not a traditional Pokemon RPG, rather it is a puzzle game similar to and arguably as addicting as Candy Crush (as long as Pokemon appeal to you more than candy does). 

Pokemon Shuffle is broken up into puzzle-levels themed after different Pokemon. The Pokemon you are "battling" in each level appears on the top screen of your 3DS, while a grid of adorable Pokemon-face images will appear on the bottom screen. Your task is to rearrange the Pokemon faces in the grid to make rows of at least 3, if not 4 or 5, matching images. Once each row is forged, it disappears, damage is inflicted on the opposing Pokemon, and the disappeared Pokemon images are replaced with new ones. Each level is completed once the Pokemon you are battling has its HP reduced to zero.

What sets Shuffle apart from similar titles, such as Bejeweled or the aforementioned Candy Crush, is how the traditional rules of Pokemon are re-imagined and integrated into the Poke-puzzle interpretation of the classic JRPG. Though this game is played by creating rows of matching Pokemon images, the goal is still to inflict damage on the opposing Pokemon, just like how it is in the RPGs. While there are no familiar Pokemon moves to be executed in Pokemon Shuffle, type match-ups do play a huge roll in defeating each Pocket Monster. 

The Pokemon that actually appear on the puzzle grid are yours to choose right from the beginning of the game. After each Pokemon you encounter is defeated, you get a chance to capture it- if you complete a level without using up all of your available moves, your chance of catching the opposing Pokemon will increase significantly. Once you capture a Pokemon, you are permitted to select that Pokemon to use in later battles. Matching Pokemon with a type-advantage over the Pokemon you are trying to defeat will do double-damage onto your opponent the same way it does in the Pokemon RPGs. 

However for all that makes Pokemon Shuffle unique, there are some pretty frustrating cons that come as a result of the game being free-to-play. For example, you only get a certain number of attempts to play each level before you are forced to wait an arbitrary real-world 30 minutes, after which you are allowed to resume playing. You have the option to pay real-world currency for the time limit to be removed, but the game really isn't addicting enough to convince me to pay for additional tries. Moreover, power-ups that make completing levels easier can be purchased with coins earned by completing puzzles. Then, you are awarded with 500 coins every time you "Check In" to see the latest Pokemon Shuffle offers by connecting to the internet, but you can only check in once per day- these are the only two ways of getting coins, thus getting power-ups. This has put me in frustrating positions where my lack of power-ups and my inability to earn coins other than by checking in for several days in a row renders me unable to get past more challenging levels. Of course, there is an option to pay real-world money for power-ups.

Despite these few minor drawbacks, Pokemon Shuffle is perfectly suited for the 3DS. Everything from its art-style to its price (once again, free) is begging for you to download it and give it a shot. At its best, Pokemon Shuffle is a charming puzzle game easily accessible to fans of both Pokemon and puzzle games; at its worst, it will easily grant you the means to kill time if you've simply nothing else to play. 

Pokemon Shuffle

Pokemon Shuffle- Nintendo 3DS

Pokemon Shuffle, released on February 18, 2015, is a free-to-play download-only title on the Nintendo 3DS; right in this first sentence is everything you need to know before you download it: it's free, it's a Pokemon-themed game, and it is for the 3DS. There's really no excuse not to own it.

Of course, Pokemon Shuffle is not a traditional Pokemon RPG, rather it is a puzzle game similar to and arguably as addicting as Candy Crush (as long as Pokemon appeal to you more than candy does). 

Pokemon Shuffle is broken up into puzzle-levels themed after different Pokemon. The Pokemon you are "battling" in each level appears on the top screen of your 3DS, while a grid of adorable Pokemon-face images will appear on the bottom screen. Your task is to rearrange the Pokemon faces in the grid to make rows of at least 3, if not 4 or 5, matching images. Once each row is forged, it disappears, damage is inflicted on the opposing Pokemon, and the disappeared Pokemon images are replaced with new ones. Each level is completed once the Pokemon you are battling has its HP reduced to zero.

What sets Shuffle apart from similar titles, such as Bejeweled or the aforementioned Candy Crush, is how the traditional rules of Pokemon are re-imagined and integrated into the Poke-puzzle interpretation of the classic JRPG. Though this game is played by creating rows of matching Pokemon images, the goal is still to inflict damage on the opposing Pokemon, just like how it is in the RPGs. While there are no familiar Pokemon moves to be executed in Pokemon Shuffle, type match-ups do play a huge roll in defeating each Pocket Monster. 

The Pokemon that actually appear on the puzzle grid are yours to choose right from the beginning of the game. After each Pokemon you encounter is defeated, you get a chance to capture it- if you complete a level without using up all of your available moves, your chance of catching the opposing Pokemon will increase significantly. Once you capture a Pokemon, you are permitted to select that Pokemon to use in later battles. Matching Pokemon with a type-advantage over the Pokemon you are trying to defeat will do double-damage onto your opponent the same way it does in the Pokemon RPGs. 

However for all that makes Pokemon Shuffle unique, there are some pretty frustrating cons that come as a result of the game being free-to-play. For example, you only get a certain number of attempts to play each level before you are forced to wait an arbitrary real-world 30 minutes, after which you are allowed to resume playing. You have the option to pay real-world currency for the time limit to be removed, but the game really isn't addicting enough to convince me to pay for additional tries. Moreover, power-ups that make completing levels easier can be purchased with coins earned by completing puzzles. Then, you are awarded with 500 coins every time you "Check In" to see the latest Pokemon Shuffle offers by connecting to the internet, but you can only check in once per day- these are the only two ways of getting coins, thus getting power-ups. This has put me in frustrating positions where my lack of power-ups and my inability to earn coins other than by checking in for several days in a row renders me unable to get past more challenging levels. Of course, there is an option to pay real-world money for power-ups.

Despite these few minor drawbacks, Pokemon Shuffle is perfectly suited for the 3DS. Everything from its art-style to its price (once again, free) is begging for you to download it and give it a shot. At its best, Pokemon Shuffle is a charming puzzle game easily accessible to fans of both Pokemon and puzzle games; at its worst, it will easily grant you the means to kill time if you've simply nothing else to play. 

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Apparently, some kind of undocumented planetary alignment is upon us, because lately I have played some video gameS that I actually rather loved. Yes, after a string of games that I decided (or decided for you) were sub par came and went, I stumbled upon a few older titles for the Nintendo Wii that I quite enjoyed. Today's game is my favorite kind of hidden gem as it is a game completely forsaken by the internet, and it allowed me to prove once again to myself that I, James, am the only person I can trust to be right about anything. So without further narcissism, I give thee Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon.

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon - Nintendo Wii

     First off, has anybody ever fucking heard of this game? I sure as hell hadn't before I found it featured in this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl6Tn3Kf1c. Fragile Dreams is a...game. You see, I found Fragile Dreams to be a game containing elements from most genres of video games albeit with an extremely ambiguous core around which each element orbited. At its heart, I suppose it is an exploration game, but it was linear, which means you didn't really explore anything more than what was in front of you. There was combat, but no more than what was necessary. Fragile Dreams was entirely story driven in such a way that I actually referred to it as a "drama game" for about an hour and a half before remembering that I am an aspiring critic and I have to be careful about using my knowledge in such fields to say stupid garbage like that. Ultimately, Fragile Dreams boils down to a linear exploration experience with elements of survival horror, JRPG, stealth RPG, and action games. It is also very artsy with great graphics and music, and every single thing that is on the disc contributes to the game's carefully designed story driving the entire game.

Good Things
       Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon was another short game, clocking in at around 11
hours. I like shorter games because the longer a game is, the greater chance it has to become boring or fuck something up. Short games decrease their risk of becoming boring because they seldom overstay their welcome. It's like how the cool guy at the party stays cool because you only see HIM for a little bit before he leaves to have sex with twins or something, as opposed to the women who get to the party an hour before it starts and leave once they sense that everyone has been sick of them for 9 hours, if you'll excuse my misogyny. Fragile Dreams is a great example of a game whose story ends at the same time the original ideas do. 
      Now I guess I should talk about this story for a second, since it's the only reason to play this game. The first thing that happens when you start Fragile Dreams is you get told that the grandfather of Seto, the protagonist, just died. Like, JUST died. You also learn that Seto's grandfather was the only human that Seto has ever seen or known in his life. You then control Seto, wandering around his home for a bit before you find a note left by Seto's grandfather in which he tells Seto to seek this red tower in order to potentially find more "survivors". About two seconds after leaving his home, Seto accidentally startles a girl who upon being startled, falls, and blacks out long enough for Seto to approach her and touch her cheek to make sure she is still breathing (or something). The girl awakens upon being touched, and flees. Seto is then in shock because he has lived something like 14 years and has never seen another human being before. Fascinated by her, Seto spends the rest of the game seeking the girl instead of the red tower, although as you can imagine, the red tower eventually returns. Along the way, Seto meets a number of non-human characters, mostly androids, robots, or ghosts of humans who perished in the disaster that killed mostly everything and the game ends at the red tower with an explanation to and conclusion of the mystery of how the world got to its post-apocalyptic state.
   

Gameplay involves you walking from one location to the next while the story justifies your doing so. Seto wields both a flashlight and weapons to be found laying around. Of course though, this world has been destroyed which means the only things laying around for you to wield are sticks, pipes, and brooms of various varieties. Good news though: swings of your weapon are executed by pressing the A button instead of by swinging the Wii Remote. Weapons can break if the A button is spammed though, so timing your combos properly is essential, and although it seems annoying and arbitrary at first, you come to love it once you accept that you can't do anything to change it. Of course, with broken weapons comes an inventory system, which is the same as that found in Resident Evil 4.
     The flashlight illuminates the dark path that lays before you while also stunning enemies. Flashlight, intuitively, is controlled by pointing the Wii Remote to the location you wish to illuminate. Using different types of flashlights will make hidden messages scrawled on the walls of the subways, hotels, and sewage pipes you navigate appear, and most of them when accompanied by the low piano scores played in the game, are pretty unnerving.
      Killing enemies will increase your max strength in a basic level-up system, and a crawling system is implemented to get past certain enemies or obstacles, making stealth always a conceivable option in case you decide to become curious about what life would be like if you were an enormous pussy.
      Fragile Dreams also makes great use of the Wii technology without using the motion controls. The speaker in the Wii Remote can be used to receive information from other characters by pressing the Wii Remote up to your ear at any point while playing, and creepy laughter of little girls gets pumped through the controller's speaker when ever you're near a hidden enemy.
      Really, you're in this game for the characters. The gameplay is fun, as it is pretty freaky and upsetting sometimes, stimulating an emotional response from me, but the story and fondness for the characters is what will keep you coming back. The story also has great pace; as soon as one character leaves you, another comes to its place almost immediately. Also, the voice acting is stellar.
   
Short-Comings
     Most complaints about Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon regard the fact that the developers clearly cared more about the story than they did about the gameplay. According to professional reviewing companies, the story, while beautiful, overwhelmingly overpowers the bland gameplay. In response, I offer my opinion that the fight choreography in Toby McGuire's Spider-Man 2 overwhelmingly overpowers the personality of Mary Jane. Some aspects of some games are better off being pushed to the background in order to emphasize the game's strengths. In this case, the game's story shines more than it's gameplay does, so if you have a problem with a strong story being supported by average gameplay, then this game will not blow your mind the way it blew mine.

Conclusion
      Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is a game for gamers who like a good story. This is a hardcore game simply because it is a hidden gem, even though it is an easy game. It tells a great 11 hour story, so I recommend this game to anyone who is interested in that. I don't recommend this game as much to people who NEED rich gameplay in order to be engaged, because you won't find it here.

Another Essay: Incentive

I've noticed that it has become more difficult for video games to capture my attention lately. I blame growing up. But actually, I blame only myself and my personal need for video games to offer me something profound. In fact, I think the only reason anyone would ever play a video game is to gain something spiritually satisfying. Yes, we play video games for fun, but the question I intend to answer is the following: what makes certain video games fun for some people and not fun for other people? Why do we personally choose to play the games we choose to play? I've been dwelling on both the question and its answer for a long time, and I believe the answer is "incentive".

       INCENTIVE FOR THE PLAYER                                     INCENTIVE FOR THE AVATAR

These are the two categories under which every single video game ever created falls.
So let's discuss each form of incentive separately:

       Incentive for the player - "If you play this game, you will gain skill".
We know that there are some video games out there that require skill, practice, and repetition. We know there are games that are designed to force the player to improve their skills in order to overcome challenges. We know there are games that require us to become better at its end than we were at its beginning. If you, as a gamer, are drawn to these types of games, then you prefer games where the incentive is for the player. A game where the incentive is for the player is a game designed with the progression and fluency of the "player" in mind. These games can be identified as having minimal or no story, a multiplayer mode(s), a scoring/ranking system, or a competitive push.
Still don't get it?
Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Guitar Hero, Bejeweled, Flappy Bird, and Angry Birds are all games where the incentive is "if you play this game, you will become better at it/ you will become better than your friends/ you will achieve a higher score than other players/ you will be the best player". The magic behind these games is that when they're being developed, game developers can devote more time to the game's ability to entertain instead of the game's cinematic appeal. The games mentioned above are all examples that are simple in concept, but are played aggressively and religiously. The best games where the incentive is for the player has players playing for dozens, sometimes even hundreds of hours as they each compete and practice and train in order to become the "best". The end goal of these games is determined by the player, not the game. Do you want to be the best Tetris player? If you do, that's awesome, but remember, no one told you that you had to - you set that goal on your own. The problem with these games though is that if the gameplay doesn't compel people to play, then nothing else will. No one will bother competing at a game liked by 0 people- a game that simply isn't fun. Why would anyone want to waste their time becoming good at a game about which no one cares?

      Incentive for the avatar- "If you play this game, your avatar will gain skill".
Then there are some games where we fall in love with a character, or grow to loathe an enemy, or decide that we want what our avatar wants. If you are drawn to these games, then you prefer games where the incentive is for the avatar. The avatar is the character you play as on the screen, and these games involve the gamer pushing the character around from place to place witnessing what he/she witnesses and feeling what he/she feels. These games can be identified as having a deep story, deep characters, motives, and choices with an emphasis on progression or working from a beginning to an end. It is important to note that it may not be necessary for the player to gain any skill at all while playing these types of games. To elaborate, I am borrowing the term "avatar strength" from youtuber Egoraptor, which he describes as a technique used by game developers in order to create the illusion of progression- a game that becomes easier not because the player is becoming more competent, but because his avatar is becoming more capable (stronger, faster, etc.). For example, imagine you're playing a game where your character wields a sword that can kill a given enemy in 4 hits. You then reach a certain point in the game where the sword gets upgraded as a part of the story, and now you can kill that same enemy in 2 hits. YOU did not become better at the game, but your avatar did. Because you played the game, the avatar gained skill. The magic behind these games is that you get the chance to relate to a character in a world to which you would never ordinarily be exposed, you get to watch a story unfold, you get to feel empathy and patience and attachment to characters for a short while, which are all profound feelings! The problem with these games though, is that if the developers fail to create an avatar worth caring about, then the game probably won't be very good. I recently played Tales of the Abyss, a game where the incentive to play was exclusively for the avatar Luke whose purpose in the game was to fulfill his destiny as the chosen hero. Luke, though, was an asshole, refused to develop as a character, and was an absolute displeasure for me to have spent 12 hours with. Why the fuck would I want Luke to gain anything? I didn't care about my avatar, so I didn't like the game. Tales of Symphonia, Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, and the Paper Mario games, however, are all games in this category that established more likable characters, and were more popular because of it.

Now for the surprise category: the games that consider both types of incentive, games that emphasize the progression of the story AND the acquisition of skill to the player. Examples? Some of the best games out there: The Halo games, Legend of Zelda games, The Last of Us, Resident Evil 4, the Metroid games, Pokemon, and the Final Fantasy games. These are all examples of games where the skills acquired by the player contribute just as much to the gaming experience as the game's characters do. I care about Link in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess because he is a good guy, looking after the children of his village while harboring affection for the mayor's daughter. At the same time, though, I feel personally empowered as the player when I find the double claw shot item and am able to spend hours zipping around Hyrule as a character who at that point becomes essentially Spider-Man with a sword. Both Link and I experience the same thrill by riding Epona the horse through the open fields of Hyrule, and we both feel the same grief when our partner Midna has to return to the Twilight Realm at the game's end (SPOILER HAHAHA). The perfect video games consider incentive for both the player and the avatar.

So why did I write this essay? I don't know. To arrogantly exhibit my comprehension of the video game world? I suppose. But really, I hope that someone finds this essay and it makes them realize that the formula for what definitely makes the perfect video game will become cracked soon enough as long as we keep asking the right questions. At the very least, I hope it gets you guys to consider what you love most about your favorite video games and learn to appreciate them for things you never saw before. And maybe, just maybe, reading this essay has helped you guys realize your own gaming preferences and in the future will now have a better understanding of what you look for in a video game. Time for me to get back to Smash Bros. Thank you!





     

Metroid Primate

The distance between my WiiU and me has put me back in the mood to go on some kind of grand adventure. I was super into Darksiders II on the WiiU and as a result of me leaving my WiiU at home, I am left to my Gamecube while I am here, at school. Now normally, this wouldn't be any issue at all since Nintendo is known for it's large adventure games with great characters and gameplay. With a longing for something bigger than I am, I decided to resume my Metroid Prime experience. Unfortunately, I found that this game was much more of what the doctor diagnosed, as opposed to what the doctor ordered.


Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime is the Metroid franchise's debut into the 3D world, much like how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time paved the first 3D path for the hero of time on the Nintendo 64. Many fans were horrified of the idea of Metroid transitioning from 2D to 3D. "What if they fucked it up?", they asked. "I hope they don't do it wrong!" they exclaimed. Well unfortunately, the fans were wise to be so concerned. Metroid Prime is simply a lazily made game with embarrassingly bad graphics, power-ups and abilities copied from other series, and a soundtrack that is only memorable because of how annoying it is.


Let's start with the environment, since it is this aspect of the game that we as the player have the misfortune of having to deal with more than anything else. This game was released in 2003. At that point, Nintendo had only been making video games for about 18 years, so I am willing to be merciful when I judge a game made with only a few years of experience under their belts, but it seems obvious that Nintendo's claims of compensating for bad graphics with better gameplay started way before the days of the Nintendo Wii, only the gameplay here too was shoddy. The graphics in this game are shockingly mediocre at best. There are times when the graphics do have some strong points, for example, the design for the space pirate enemies are admittedly somewhat realistic, but generally, the environments are bland, monochromatic wisps of negligible design that serve not as a compliment to the game, but as a reminder only of what could have been had Nintendo spent some more time considering level designs. I give it a B-

Next we have control scheme and soundtrack, appropriately written about simultaneously because they are both frustrating and poorly done. In the past, Nintendo has had success making attempts at being innovative and breaking molds - just take a look at the Nintendo 64 controller. When it comes to controls though, Metroid Prime was a collection of new ideas that should have never made it to the final product. Shooting, for example, is done unconventionally with the A button as opposed to the industrially-standardized R button. This transition took weeks for me to get used to before I finally had to reconfigure the controls manually and reassign the shoot command to the R button, like how everyone in the whole world is used to. Thank you Nintendo for trying something new, but please, don't fix what isn't broken. And speaking of broken, the soundtrack to this game! I honestly think that the speakers on my TV are broken when I play this game. To me, it seems that the soundtrack is half-missing from the disc! What comes off as some pretentious attempt to add a soundtrack that compliments the environment really only leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Some people praise the soundtrack for this game, but they're elitists who claim to have grown out of music that requires drums or guitar. Excuse me for thinking that a piano and ambient-exclusive soundtrack gets boring after playing the 60 hour game for the first 15 minutes. Perhaps a soundtrack that compliments the environment would have worked better if there was any real environment to compliment. Nintendo, if you're going to base every bit of your game off of the surroundings, then please make sure that you remember to include the surroundings in your game. C+

And finally we end this nightmare of a game with a brief discussion of how every single power-up in this game is stolen from another franchise. Understanding the way that other games execute their ideas is essential to developing your own game, but the similarities must be subtle unless they are obviously references, like how Dragon Ball Z's 7 Dragon Balls is a blatant reference to Sonic The Hedgehog's 7 Chaos Emeralds. Let's take a look at some specific examples:
Charge Shot = Mega Man
First Person Camera = James Bond 007: Golden Eye
Morph Ball = Sonic The Hedgehog
Spider Ball = Spider-Man 2
Double Jump = Dragon Buster
Ice Beam = Rayman Arena
Missiles = Galaga
Energy Tanks = Legend of Zelda
Grapple Beam = Indiana Jones
The Life-Sucking Metroids = Stand By Me (film)
Female Protagonist = Alien
Wave Beam = Wave Race 64
Arm Cannon = Planet Terror

Overall, this game was too easy, too long, and too annoying to actually play through. Admittedly, I only played through about 20-25 minutes of the game before deciding that it was not for me. Maybe I am missing something, but if you ask me, this game is simply a no-go. Happy April Fool's Day.

I Put This Down: Tales of Symphonia

Mkay so as you all know, I acquired about 20-22 new Gamecube games over the summer. God damn. I haven't even opened all of them yet. I had to develop a strategy in order to quickly play and/or beat all of these games so that I could talk about them here. Typically, I would figure out which games were short, and I tried to blast through them, while allowing myself to spend weeks on longer games, such as Metroid or Wind Waker. Among these longer games was, and still is, one REALLY damn long game. With a typical playthrough occupying at least 80 hours of your life, this next title really had me baffled as far as how I was going to go about playing it quickly. Do I play it every day for a month until it's done? Do I allow myself to take 1000000000 years on it while playing other games in between sessions? Well Ill tell you, what wound up happening was me putting this game down. "Ill play it later" I would tell myself. But days, weeks, maybe a month went by before I finally picked this game up again; this is where our story begins.

Tales of Symphonia

Recently, I've been going around saying "Most of Gamecube's best games came from Dreamcast." It's a hyperbole, not a lie. Tales of Symphonia is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) that came out for the Sega Dreamcast maaaaany many years ago. Despite it's age, it has made a pretty remarkable impression on Gamecube and RPG fans alike. There are many notable qualities this game has. From it's adorable graphics, to it's deep story, this game really kicks ass from beginning until...you put it down. Notice I didn't say "end". It's true- I haven't finished this game yet, but I will. Don't worry. The question today is the same as it always is with I Put This Down:
Why did I put it down?  Why did I pick it up again? What do I think of it now?

Why did I put this game down? Well let's see. I suppose the answer is that I simply didn't have time to play this game. Believe it or not, between my band, school, sleep, friends, working out, getting mad chicks, getting beefy, buying Red Bull, and donating large sums of money to charity, I didn't have a spare 80 hours of my awesome life to designate to this game. It is a shame too because I really do enjoy this game. Tales of Symphonia is the first real RPG I've ever played, so the new gaming experience was very exciting. This game is often praised for it's amazing character development, graphics, fighting style, and soundtrack. The dungeons are fun because the 1 item you have that pertains only to dungeon exploration changes with every dungeon, affectively creating as many different puzzles as there are dungeons. These are all claims that I found too awesome to be true while reading about the game, but it turns out that they are, in fact, true. Those were just a few reasons why the game was all the more difficult to pause. Unfortunately, in the end, the amount of fun the game was to me was not enough to keep me going for more than 20 hours at a time. Ultimately, I put this game down.

 

But then I picked it up again! I think I just missed playing it. The thing about Tales of Symphonia is that the story makes you want to play the game. It's like reading a good book - you may not love reading in general, but what the hell, are you just going to put down the damn book without fucking finishing it? You're already 20 damn hours into it you scumbag! Just finish it and learn what happens. The game is fun to play and the ever-growing story counteracts the sometimes repetitive gameplay. Maybe you find yourself pressing the same buttons over and over, but the reason WHY you're pressing those buttons changes, and so does too your feelings towards the repetition. Considering the game has 80 hours to god damn do it, the character development IS really flawless. You got some dudes betraying you, some people dying, some friends destined to become enemies, some unlikely alliances, all while optional cut scenes take the development one step further by providing you with windows into the personal lives of each of your team members. Is the viewing of these scenes essential for the understand of the story? Not at all, but they are a good example of the steps game designers can take in order to ensure that those who may put this game down pick it up again. As you guys know, this isn't a review, so I can't talk about gameplay that much, but I will say that the fighting is fun as hell, as it takes place in real-time akin to Viewtiful Joe or even Super Smash Bros., and navigating the open hub world is very fun and rewarding. When a developers give you a big map, they want you to get lost. They want you to appreciate what they have created, and I do. I so do, Namco.

So what do I think of it now? I love it. In the end, Tales of Symphonia offers an exceptional gaming experience. Nothing is too challenging, nothing is too annoying. Everything is perfect as far as I am concerned. The idea of playing an 80 hour game is daunting to me, as, like I've said, I've never played an RPG before (I know this isn't even the longest RPG out there, dickhead, so don't yell at me), but I anticipate feeling really good when I beat it. It will be rewarding and I look forward to it. I do feel like I will wind up putting it down in increments of 20 or so hours, but that's fine by me. If spending 80 hours on this game is inevitable, then I might as well enjoy every last second of it. Seashells. Forever.