Playing my way through Vita RPGs
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Slow progress is still progress
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Barf me out the door!
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Bite-sized Dungeons, Older Characters and Some Disheartening News
Friday, April 10, 2015
Please excuse the break
Things have been busy the last month, and I haven't had the energy or motivation to buckle down and play Tales of Hearts R.
However, I have played some Rogue Legacy, the fusion of a Rogue-alike and Castlevania. While the game has a number of good points, it is not really a game I'm good at or greatly enjoy. It is a good distraction, though.
Ultimately, Rogue Legacy is a little too hard. It fails to recognize that the reason Metroidvanias are popular is that they let you explore and grow at a reasonable rate. The growth in Rogue Legacy is too slow and too inconsistent, and the game is difficult enough that you generally cannot explore a lot of the castle, and when you can, you end up dying and the castle changes.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Advancement in Tales of Hearts R
That brings us to Tales of Hearts R's system. When you gain a level in the game, you are awarded a certain number of Soma Points. These Soma Points can be spent in the Soma section of the menu, where you have 5 different traits that you can improve. Kor has fight, belief, mettle, endurance and sincerity. Each level takes a different amount of Soma Points (the first takes 8 or 9, the second around 15, etc.) and the character gets a minor bonus for each point put in and then a larger bonus when the level is reached (a skill, a new weapon form, a passive trait, etc.). Some abilities are unlocked when you reach levels in traits that are next to each other (they all extend in different directions from the same starting point, so if you connected them, they'd make a pentagon).
It's an interesting system. I have already run into the case where you need to level up more than once to get to the next level in some of the traits, but that's also because I've put multiple levels into the same trait rather than trying to level things equally.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Hope you like Atelier games!
Thanks to a present from a friend and the 3 year anniversary Vita sale, I have three Atelier games on the Vita. While Atelier Rorona is not PS TV compatible, the other two are.
Looks like there will be a lot of Atelier entries in the future!
In the meantime, I am still going to be playing Tales of Hearts R. After stopping g my last two games, I feel I should get a win for the blog.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Some discussion of Tales mechanics
Ever since at least Tales of Symphonia, there has been some sort of on screen representation of the random encounters. Usually, they've been some sort of blob. However, that's not the case in Tales of Hearts R. You're just thrown into combat. I consider that a step back, but it's probably one of the limitations of the original DS version of the game that they decided to not alter for the Vita version.
The dungeon also reminded me why the Tales designs can bug me. There are slightly raised areas that are completely inaccessible because they didn't want to make the room that big. What it looks like is that our protagonists can't lift their feet the 3 or 6 inches to get up on the area. That can be frustrating.
I did manage to restore an emotion to our heart-broken girl; now she can feel fear! I guess I should watch out for Yellow Lanterns now.