Finally, after two weeks, it has slowed down a bit at work, actually giving me time to breathe. So, I suppose I should give a rundown of events…
Last week was just one thing after another. From the time I got in until the moment I left, I was busy, constantly working, and working on overdrive at that. I guess it was a good week for everyone in the world to break their computers.
I got a raise, and a pretty good one at that, which in another time may have been terrific news. It is still good news, but the fact of the matter is I’m putting my resume out again for something close. But at the very least I’ll be taking in more money in the meantime.
I finally finished Star Ocean: ‘Till The End of Time. Its been on my shelf for over a year, and I finally finished it. I must say, I’m less than impressed.
The game has a very nice feel to it. The controls are smooth, the music is beautiful, the character design is unique, and the battle system is quick and intuitive. It was obvious that a great deal of effort was made to ensure the player was entertained by the gameplay.
The plot was good for the most part. You start off on this resort planet, which gets attacked by aliens (aliens are always cool). So you take an escape pod from them and land on a medieval planet. After doing some cool stuff you escape the planet and get shot down by the same aliens to crash land on ANOTHER medieval planet, where most of the game takes place.
They did a good job, in that the planet had its own plots and sub-plots. It was quite obvious you were in a completely different world from the sci-fi one you started. It could have been a game of its own, which is really the problem. The entire plot of the game is basically put on hold while you’re wandering this medieval world. Sure, you’re fighting monsters and meeting new people, but in the back of your mind, all you’re thinking about it, “Who were the aliens? Why are they hunting me? What happened to the rest of my family?” And you have to play for hours and hours before you get any clues whatsoever.
Finally, as disk two begins, you escape the planet. But the escape is short-lived. After about five minutes you go back. Your entire experience with the expansive sci-fi world in the game is limited to a couple ships and a couple dungeons. The game’s intro paints beautiful scenes of a futuristic Earth and amazing technology, and so very little of that is experienced. I would have been happy with being able to visit just one of Earth’s cities (like New York, which was shown in the intro).
Really, a minor re-write could have likely taken out all of the sci-fi elements without really changing the game, and that’s disappointing. Add to that that the ending doesn’t even really make sense, and it just adds to how the whole experience just fell short.
After finishing that, I finally popped Wild Arms 3 in. I played through most of the game TWICE before, but never finished it. Its an amazing game, excelling in all areas, and yet for whatever reason, I keep getting distracted. So, seeing Wild Arms 5 in the store, I figure its time for me to get my butt in gear and catch up.
But for now… still at work.
Zel-kun out.
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