A Gaming Diary
PSP
Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (PSP)
May 14th
Just a couple more missions last night. Got up to level ten, unlocked a nifty new costume. All good.
Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (PSP)
May 13th
Should there be a colon in that title? I don’t know. It’s not important. After all, I think I technically should be calling Infamous inFamous every time I write about it, but that’s just silly.
Anyway, Strikeforce. It’s Monster Hunter, only not as complicated. And instead of hunting monsters you’re hammering the square and triangle buttons to kill hundreds and hundreds of enemy people. After a couple of hours play, I can say that I think I enjoy this more than Monster Hunter. Not that it’s a better game – I really don’t think it is – just that it suits me better. Monster Hunter is an awful lot of work, Strikeforce is just (almost) mindless killing. There are fewer things to worry about in your village and quests are much shorter. (Also, so far, they’re much, much easier. I’ve not come close to dying yet.)
I can see this thing getting pretty stinky reviews, but if you like the Dynasty Warriors style of play and just think that Monster Hunter is too much like hard work, then you might find a good fit here. It’s also a better game than Phantasy Star Portable, which uses the same sort of model, simply because there aren’t a million pages of tedious dialogue to sit through.
Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
Apr 21st
I hate the story missions, by the way. Too much talking, not enough killing things. Much prefer just doing free missions over and over again. Weren’t the levels randomly generated in PSO? In this they always appear to be exactly the same.
Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
Apr 20th
Well, I’ve been playing some more. I think I’ve worked out that MAGs are now support items for magic users, more or less, which means I won’t be using them. That’s a shame. I like having a little guy hovering over my shoulder. On the plus side, I’ve changed class from ranger to gunmaster, which should help. I’ve also noticed that the sword I often use (because it doesn’t consume PP) actually fires projectiles when I swing it, which is pretty awesome.
Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
Apr 19th
Going away next week, which is a good excuse for a new handheld game. There are three reasons why I decided on this.
1) It’s new.
2) Nostalgia, based on playing Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast.
3) I wanted something like Monster Hunter, but less hardcore, for want of a better word.
I agonised over what type of character to create and decided on a CAST (i.e. robot) ranger (i.e. shooty guy). I’m not regretting the decision yet, so hopefully it was a good one. There’s a lot to take in, with different parts and items and upgrades and a million shops and different types of mission, etc. I think I’m getting it though. Except my character level and ranger level seem to be different, which I don’t quite get.
My main trouble at the moment is the controls. Specifically, the lock on for enemies seems to be very sensitive and doesn’t work in quite the way I think it should. I’m getting more used to it, but it’s a bit weird.
It’s a bit early to say whether or not I like it, but going to down to a bright green planet and shooting some monsters certainly gave me the nostalgia fix I was looking for, even if it’s not online.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 6th
Hmm. Well.
I’ve completed all the basic weapons training now. If bowguns had a better range, I might stick with those, but they don’t. So I’ve settled on dual-wielding small swords/daggers for now.
I got an “urgent” quest from the village elder to go kill a big monster, the same one that I had to kill in the last of the general basic training missions I tried. The one I was stuck on, remember? I did it first time without any issues. Now, the monster in question wasn’t any easier, I don’t think, so the only conclusion is that I’ve got a lot better at the game in the last few hours. Which I find somewhat surprising, as I don’t really feel any better.
A lot of things are still a mystery. Can the cooks in my kitchen do anything other than cook my raw meat? Is it worth keeping all these items I find, or should I sell them if I don’t think I need them right now? What’s the better upgrade for my (very neglected) farm – another row to grow seeds in or a mushroom tree? Why do I have to visit the mountains with a quest, why can’t I just pop over to farm myself some items? Etc.
Still no closer to deciding whether or not I actually like this game, but it’s certainly got something.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 5th
Right, I’m not about five hours into this and I still haven’t decided if I like it or not. I think that the base mechanics might be too simple, but the number of items (and their uses) might be too complex for me. Or something.
I’ve done a few quests for the village chief and improved some of my weapons and armour and made some new gloves and trousers.
Right now, though, I’m going through the weapons section of basic training, trying to find a weapon that fits me. I think I like dual wielding best so far, but I’ve not tried any projectile weapons yet.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 2nd
Beat the quest that was giving me trouble while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor last night. Didn’t capture the beast, but I killed it good. Now I’ve gone around the village talking to people and might take a simple quest from the village chief. Probably something involving gathering herbs. I’ll leave the monsters taller than me for a while.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 1st
So, I’m up to the final tutorial mission in the Basic Training section. It’s a bit hard. I could probably kill the target creature, but there are better rewards for capturing it, so I’m trying to do that. However, I keep getting knocked unconscious (i.e. dying) and there doesn’t seem to be any lock on, so I’m having terrible troubles throwing things at my target monster. I’ll get there, I’m sure, but it’s a bit discouraging.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Mar 31st
Had this lying around for many months, but never got around to playing it. With GTA’s story completed, I thought it was time.
I had a brief addiction to the first game a while back, so thought that I’d remember how things worked.
I don’t.
Luckily there’s a full set of very thorough tutorials that I’m working my way through. So far I’ve killed some big shaggy things for their meat, cooked the meat (which is very difficult without having any sound, but I got there in there), gathered some herbs and honey and mined a whetstone.
If I can keep my momentum up and not leave it for long enough to forget how to play, I could probably get addicted to this all over again.
