One of these things is more important than the other

I feel I should talk a little about the distribution of Tales of Hearts R. You see, Bamco only has it available through the PSN store or as a Gamestop exclusive. Of course I am sure you can get it via a reseller now. I guess the combination of being a Vita game and from a somewhat marginal series was the reason. Still, at least it's available.

A mysterious girl is discovered on the beach and Kor helps her because that's what shonen manga protagonists do. After an introduction that fits the imagination of 13 year old boys, Kor and the girl go to get a Soma from Kor's mother's grave. That's right, less than an hour in and we're grave-robbing!

Overprotective brother shows up and then the witch from the opening movie appears to put a whammy on the girl. She is about to kill Kor when the grandfather intervenes and takes the hit.

After some heroic running away, Kor uses his Soma to enter the girl's mind to try to heal her. Of course, he makes things worse and ends up breaking her spira. So she is left emotionless, and her brother is not very happy about this. At this point the grandfather dies, but very little is made of this.

And this is where I start having problems. Overprotective brother is so upset at Kor, but he and his sister got Kor's only relative killed. One of these things is worse than the other.

So the Hearts in the name of the game not only refers to the last name of the siblings, but also to the fact that you'll be putting her heart back together.

I want to go into the mechanics a bit, but doing this on my phone is too annoying for that.

New game, Tales of Hearts R

I've been a bit hesitant to start up another game given the unsuccessful nature of the last two games.  That, and I've just been busy.  Still, I wanted to play an action RPG after the turn-based battles of Demon Gaze, so I decided on Tales of Heart R, the Vita port of a DS game.

The Tales series started back in the Super Nintendo era.  You go to a combat scene where you run back and forth hitting the enemies, using skills and blocking.  Most of the games in the mainline series have a western release, but it's never approached the heights of the Final Fantasy series.

Part of it might be due to the somewhat bland characters and stories.  The main character is Kor Meteor.  The only way you could have a more shonen manga protagonist name is Bigsword Warriorguy.

Pictures beneath the fold.

An unfortunate hiatus for Valhalla Knights 3

So, despite the somewhat skeevy aspects of the game, I do enjoy Valhalla Knights 3.  I like the combat system, I like improving the characters, and I like a lot of the different subsystems.  So, why am I putting the game on hiatus?

Despite the game being on Sony's list of Playstation TV compatible games, there are an awful lot of things that require the touchscreen.  In particular, the dating minigame uses it, but, more importantly, the ability to use boost in combat requires it.  I can probably continue without it for a while, but this is something that is designed to help in combat.  I don't want to limit myself in playing the game.

Now, it may be that there are workarounds with the right stick or using a Dualshock 4 with the game.  I'm going to investigate those, but in the meantime, I'm going to try another game that doesn't require this.  If I can't play Valhalla Knights 3 on the PS TV, then I'll pick it back up on my regular Vita.

Valhalla Knights 3 on the PS TV

Using the Playstation TV to play Valhalla Knights 3 may not have been the best decision.  The game is not exactly the best looking Vita game, and those graphical flaws are magnified on a larger screen.  The hostess minigame also seems to rely on the touchscreen, and that's not an option with the PS TV.

After the cut, I'm posting a screenshot which basically sums up my ambivalence about the game.  It has nothing to do with the technical side, but the tastefulness of the game itself.

Valhalla Knights 3: the magical prison life RPG you've been waiting for

Valhalla Knights 3 is actually the 4th game in the Valhalla Knights series, there was a Wii game that came out between 2 and 3, and I'm not counting the digital-only enhanced version of the second game as a separate entry.  It's an action RPG put out by XSEED.

The game begins with a scene of an evil emperor doing evil emperor things like killing one of his minions that's trying to talk sense into him.  It then cuts to the player walking into Carceron Prison with a group of fellow prisoners.  After a brief explanation, you enter the prison proper where one of the female prisoners is promptly kidnapped to meet a presumably dark fate, two of the prisoners who entered with you try to intervene and are promptly killed.

Say what you will about the game, but it knows how to set the scene!

You're given basic equipment by a merchant whose business plan seems to be "more living prisoners = more customers spending money at my store" and are set loose.  It's only then that you find out that you and one of the group you came with are Imperial agents seeking W. Flockhart's lost magical treasure that grants wishes (or at least a wish).  I'm guessing that W. Flockhart is not related to the star of Ally McBeal.

In talking to other prisoners, you sometimes want to wash your hands.  In particular, there's a guy who talks about wanting to kidnap a woman and then 'heh, heh, eh, heh.'  Unsavory is best way to describe it.

The game also allows you to romance different clerks by giving them gifts and entering 'sexy time' with them.  I guess they felt that putting date sim elements would help; that gameplay element didn't exist on either of the game's PSP predecessors.

It turns our that you and your fellow Imperial agents (you meet up with a third soon into the game) are being magically compelled by the empire.  In fact, your group seems to hate the empire since it conquered your countries.

The first boss was actually quite difficult.  I had to grind levels and gold for about an hour before I upgraded everyone's equipment and could beat him.

Beat Ether Mirage and Demon Gaze going on hiatus

After giving it several tries and adjusting the difficulty, I was finally able to beat Ether Mirage.  The problem with that boss is that it heals an unreasonable amount of hit points every three turns (changing the difficulty meant it merely healed 4800 hit points as opposed to 5400).  Once that boss was beaten, exploring the last two screens of the dungeon was easy.

Then, the final boss fight came.  More details about that after the jump.

Pluto, Uranus and a roadblock

After Astro, I guess the developers decided to cut back on the dungeons.  Pluto and Uranus had a total of 4 grids for both of them, and they were very straightforward.  Uranus was also an incredibly easy boss fight and only 2 steps away from where the elevator would bring you.

Beating them made it so I had all 10 Demon Keys.  That meant I could get the magic sword that was hanging out in the castle.  It's a pretty nice weapon.  That meant I could go shatter the magical barrier that was supposed to consist of the magic shield that made up the last of the three treasures.

Doing that brought out a new boss to fight.  Unfortunately, Ether Mirage is tough.  Not only does she do a lot of damage, but she heals nearly 6,000 hit points at the end of the third round.  I haven't beaten her, and it's making me frustrated; I see why the trophy percentage of people playing the game dropped off around here.