A Gaming Diary
PSP
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 13th
There’s really not much to say about this.
I did a few battles to get Laharl’s mana up and then created an average Warrior. I’ve called him Chopper, because I had a spare axe in my inventory, which I wanted him to use.
And that’s it.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 12th
In many ways, I don’t understand why Disgaea is fun. It shouldn’t be. Spending half an hour revisiting the tutorial map so that my brawler can learn some ice magic from his Ice Mage pupil (you know, just in case) shouldn’t be fun. Yet somehow it is, despite being repetitive and ultimately pointless. (He hates ice, doesn’t do much damage with it, can’t use it much and is fast enough so that he can normally get into range of an enemy for a direct attack.)
So that was about half an hour of the six hours I’ve spent on the game so far. Apart from that I’ve taught my cleric some fire magic, taught Laharl to heal, gone into Item World a couple of times to get some specialists out of rare gum, created a few characters and, oh yes, finished the first chapter in the story.
I think the appeal of Disgaea lies in the team. It’s not about getting to the end of the story, but about creating and moulding characters to reflect your vision. It’s a reversal of the RPG norm, where you level and customise your team to enable you to get through the story. Here you go through the story to help you level and customise your team.
Or maybe the appeal lies in something more direct, in the way that battles are always fun, with the puzzle-type levels that often populate SPRGs kept to a minimum so that you always have tactical freedom.
Let’s not forget, also, that the player decides how difficult these battles are. The focus on levelling means that you can decide where to go, what level enemies to face and therefore how hard you want the game to be.
It’s less of a traditional RPG and more of a tactical, character-building sandbox, where choice and customisation are far more important than the (fairly funny but emotionally unengaging) story. It’s not a Final Fantasy style game trying to be an epic movie, it’s just trying to be a bedroom floor littered with toy soldiers.
So here we are, with the sorely underrated PSP playing host to three great SRPGs in as many months. Jeanne D’Arc’s got the looks. Final Fantasy Tactics has the brains. And Disgaea’s got the soul.
Go team!
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 9th
Has it really been over three years since I was playing the PS2 version of this game? (Yes. It has. I’ve checked.)
Anyway, the PSP version is finally here. (I paid for it in August, I think, so it’s nice to get it at last.) First impressions, based on about nintety minutes of play – and, remember, that’s a blink of an eye in Disgaea-time – is that it’s the same game as the PS2 version, so therefore full of greatness.
It looks lovely shrunk down on the PSP screen, though the stats can be a bit tricky to read at times. There seems to be a new person in the castle, who just gives you a list of items you’ve owned, or something. (And there is a brand new story, but I’ve yet to unlock that.)
I’ve not done much yet. Just the tutorials and the first couple of missions. I’ve created a cleric and got Laharl up to rank one in the assembly and now I’m wondering whether I should make a red mage or a green skull for my next character.
I’ve looked back online and one of the last things I wrote when I was playing it in 2004 was about the difficulty I was having levelling up my cleric. And that’s the problem I’m already having right now.
It’s good to be back.
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Nov 4th
I won’t bore you with the details. Online reviews will give all the details about what this release contains. Rondo… 2.5D… etc.
What do I think about it all? Well, the main game is very hard. It’s good, but it’s harder than any modern Castlevania and, I think, harder than Super Castlevania IV.
I’ve unlocked Symphony of the Night now, though, so I’m playing that instead. You unlock it in a really stupid way (you have to find a certain item on Level 3′ (not to be confused with Level 3) but I’ve done it now, so I can’t complain too much.
Dungeon Making: Hunting Ground (PSP)
Nov 4th
Well, level two’s boss has come to live in my dungeon. Defeat him, and I get access to level three.
I’m not ready for that yet, though. Level two is unfinished and I want to finish it off before starting the next one. I can come back to live two any time I want – I still visit level one every day – but I want to take things slow. Also, I need to get some more magic points. I’m running out far too quickly.
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground (PSP)
Oct 31st
Finally got round to playing this again. Only had enough battery left to play a single day, but I expanded the second floor of my dungeon, completed a side quest and bought some new corridor decorations, which I’m looking forward to putting down.
I really need more magical power and I’m not getting it. Hopefully some new animal-type enemies will appear soon which I’ll be able to make new magic-raising dishes from.
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground (PSP)
Oct 18th
Well, I need to upgrade my magical skills. There are enemies on level two of my dungeon that can’t be harmed by my axe. They don’t turn up every day, but if I run out of magic before I meet them I’ve got a problem. Not much of a problem, as I can happily out run them, but leaving anything alive makes me feel like I’ve failed.
I’m itching to play this at lunchtime. I put a treasure room in the dungeon yesterday and want to see if it’s attracted anything. And I just bought an Altar to put in a room, so I’ll set that up when I get down there again.
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground (PSP)
Oct 17th
I didn’t intend to play this. I thought I’d pulled the Sega Rally UMD out of the case, but Dungeon Maker booted up instead. I had been waiting until Jeanne D’Arc was finished before playing it, but as it was there I thought I’d have a quick go.
A “quick go” which ended up eating my entire evening.
It’s all very simple. If you want a soundbite, think Viva Pinata with monsters. (Thanks to my wife for that comparision.) If you want a slightly more detailed description, it’s a simple dungeon hack, where instead of the levels being pre-determined or randomly-generated they’re user-created.
A day goes like this. You wake up at home in town and then go into your dungeon. You run around killing the monsters your dungeon has attracted overnight while refining and extending it. Run to a dead end? Then bring up the building menu and add some rooms or corridors from your supplies. Running through boring corridors? Why not bring up the building menu and give them some wood panelling, if you’ve got some in stock. In a boring room? Add a fountain or some beds. Everything you do improves your dungeon and changes which monsters you’ll attract. Some need water, hence the fountain. Some are only attracted by certain types of room, such as the self-explanatory Goblin Room. Once you’ve explored and expanded your dungeon, it’s back to town. Sell any loot you don’t need, buy supplies, cook yourself an evening meal, go to sleep ready for the next day.
Combat’s pretty simple. Two attacks (fast and slow, basically) and a magic menu which lets you teleport or drop rocks on enemies, or, well, I’ve not got any new magic yet. So far my dungeon is just a single level and money’s tight. I’m spending most of my cash on new building parts. Only about half my dungeon is decorated, so I need more wood panelling. There’s lots of space and the bigger your dungeon is the more and better monsters you get, so I need to buy more corridors and rooms.
My current main goal is to attract a boss creature. Once the dungeon’s good enough he should turn up and defeating him will let me add a second floor to my dungeon. I also get the odd side-quest, which all seem to be “find object X”. At the moment I only have one, which is to get a Kobold Ring for the weird chap who runs the museum in town. I’ve killed plenty of kobolds, but not one has dropped a ring yet.
It’s all quite simple after some initial confusion, but that’s not a bad thing in a handheld game. At least, it’s not in short term. It remains to be seen if this game has legs, but I’ve had a good couple hours of fun so far.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 16th
I have to say that, despite its faults, this game is excellent fun in short bursts. I set up some Instant Action using Random settings and played a couple of quick rounds during Dragons’ Den last night and had a great time. I earned a couple of medals (Achievements in all but name), manned the gun of an AT-AT, rode a Kybuck and killed Admiral Ackbar. Excellent.
The clunkiness of the controls is an issue and always will be, but I think the solution they’ve come up with is the best possible on the PSP. It’s just a shame the PSP doesn’t have a couple of pop-out analogue sticks or something.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 12th
I just tried this online. Oof.
The interface is easy enough to use, but finding anyone online in the EU is hard. (Plenty of US types playing, but the pings are bad.) I fought two matches against bots before finding a server with people playing. That was like playing against bots, except it was horribly laggy (teleporting stormtroopers, no thanks) and unfair. Unfair, because I got stuck on a team consisting of myself and seven bots against a team of four people and four bots. As the bots are utterly useless, that meant my opponents had a massive advantage.
Still, I played for over half an hour, so it can’t have been utterly awful, I suppose.
And then I went to the stats page… but I didn’t seem to have any. Maybe you need to play matches full of people and no bots, or something. That could prove tricky, unless things pick up a bit. I mean, maybe people are out on the town, as it’s Friday night, instead of staying home watching Emmylou Harris Night on BBC4.
