Lots of quick days of Chrono Trigger over the holidays. I make my way through the future, and it’s an interesting bunch of RPG elements. Some puzzles, some challenging battles, and some standard weird JRPG narrative. But the game continues to be awesome in many ways, and just doesn’t stop busting out interesting new mechanics. Spoilers within.
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#10: Tutto, ma i Templari
Day 10 is a day of no plot. I basically do everything I can in Forli without encountering Templars, and then get to return to the frame story for a weird interlude. There’s a bit of repetition of content that’s disappointing, and some plot movement that is actually quite contrived. It’s my weakest session of this game so far, but the core activity is still fun enough to keep me interested. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 26, 2009
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#9: Torri, Carrozze, e la Morte di un Nemico
Day 9 in Assassin’s Creed 2 finishes off my current set of kills. The game maintains its solid gameplay in the core parts with some innovative play in the level design and a whole new mechanic for AC2 (but one I’ve seen a bit in recent games). The narrative is moving along and the detail is great, but the plot is honestly just a convenient string of missions for me. I also stumble into a lot more annoying mini-game play around finding the vague conspiratorial truth. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 22, 2009
Chrono Trigger Day#4, 5, and 6: Back to the Future!
Three short days on Chrono Trigger take me into a new time period, the future. It’s an interesting setting and there’s a lot of neat little narrative touches here. Combat gets engaging again with some nice special enemies and two new sub-bosses. I also get another innovative use of the core movement and combat mechanic. Chrono Trigger simply looks like a better game every time I play it. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 21, 2009
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#8: A Ciascuno Il Suo
Day 8 of Assassin’s Creed 2 is an ease back into the game, with a couple of assassination missions — one in the ultraviolent, one in the ultrasneaky. I’m still pretty surprised by how open-ended the game is, and how many ways I can do any one mission I try. I also play around a lot with notoriety. Overall, it’s fun to be back. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 17, 2009
Chrono Trigger Day#3: The Plot Thickens. No seriously. I mean it. The Plot Thickens.
Day three of my subway Chrono Trigger play starts in tragedy when I released that they did not update the save system for handheld play. 20 minutes of life wasted. But then the truly remarkable happens. The plot of Chrono Trigger gets interesting. I know, I can barely believe it myself. It’s true — the narrative takes some interesting pre-scripted moves as well as some interesting choice points. This game just continues to defy my expectations in very positive ways. Spoilers (and good ones!!!) within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 16, 2009
Chrono Trigger Day#2: Yakra Goes Down
I’m only playing this game on my subway commute, so Day 2 is only about a half-an-hour of play, but these brief two sessions (one going from and one returning home) of Chrono Trigger take me to the end of the first dungeon and show the complexity of combat. This game is surprisingly not easy. I’m wandering around a lot trying to figure where things are and what they do, but it’s more intuitive than I expect. I admit it — I’m having fun. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 15, 2009
Chrono Trigger Day#1: My First Time (with a JRPG)
Being in Argentina obviously kept me from being able to play AC2, but I took my DS with me and did something I never thought I would do: play a JRPG. Several people kept telling me to try Chrono Trigger, so I picked up the re-release for my DS. And you know what — I think I actually might like it. The narrative is silly, but it somehow works, and to my great, great surprise, the menu-based combat actually has some strategy to it. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 14, 2009
Assassin’s Creed Day#7: Un altro giorno, un’altra vittima
Deep in the game now and I’m an assassin for reals with several assassination assignments in a row. I get back to my home base and do some more pointless shopping. I get another glyph and play some near-inscrutable mini-games. I’m in the rhythm of this game clearly now, but I also figured out how to do an assassination, and that was in fact fun. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 5, 2009
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#6: Sono veramente il Principe di Per…eh, Firenze
Day 6 and Assassin’s Creed 2 decides to flex its real Prince of Persia muscles. I mean full fledged get-to-the-top-of-the-cave exploration play. It’s fun, but Sands of Time did it better. Another assassination that I sort of degenerate played my way through. One of the crazy collectibles I feared turns out to be simpler than I thought, and the narrative takes an interesting and geekily fun turn by diving heavily into the Medici family history. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– December 1, 2009
