I'm starting to obsess about Pokemon again :P

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Yeah, it's a good enough premise. I've just heard that it wasn't done very well. A few grating characters and such.
I liked the old FF Advance, btw. The story served its purpose as an excuse to manage a militia. The Thief class could steal pretty much anything. Once you got your hands on the Cinquada, the dagger with Steal:Ability, the Thief became a god.
In hindsight, the Thief was like Peter Petrelli from the show Heroes. Except that the Thief was cool.

Good luck.

I started playing both Valkyrie Profile and Final Fantasy A2 to see what was what and I found that FF A2 was way more enjoyable than Valkyrie.
First off, the story in Valkyrie is really gloomy and so is the environment. The use of old speak is quite tiring and what they seem to have aimed for as the peak of the game play is a function where you gather sin to please an unknown force that has promised you your revenge, which the main plot is about. Basically the highlight of combat is when you get your foe down to
0 hp then you continiue to bash him/her/it to gain "Overkill!" where those points later add up and turn in to sin points.
To get by in the game you need to at times sacrifice your teammates by giving them ultimate powers from this special object which the shady unknown force has given you and when the battle is over the character who received the powers die...
Now, It's a very interesting way of going about a fighting system for a turn base RPG but it just didn't do it for me. The idea of having to end your allies now and then in a game that is about revenge seems in the long run boring and frustrating as I'm the kind of dude who grown fond of characters and I do not want a new stranger poping in to my group every 10th fight and dress him scanning the Shop repeatedly.
I want my allies to grow on me and if they have to die I want something deeper then "Here ya go, you're a God, go play!"... "Oh jeah, dude... you're gonna die when we're done here. Sorry."
Another thing that bothers me is the way you move about. You get the sense of being in a North Korean RPG where every destination is set and ready as soon as you're done with what you were doing before. As soon as you end a battle the map shows you 1 new location and there is no other place to go. And when you get there it's the same thing; background picture of a little town, 3 options of text: Store,Tavern,Depart. That's it.
I don't want every time I move my character to be in a battle, that won't fly with me.
I know turn base has a certain structure of levels that you follow but this game seems to lack even the tiniest bit of free room that you can move about. In the Tavern you can read up on Lore which is about 5-8 rows of text and 1 "quest" mission that you can go do before going back to the main story line.
I know I'm bashing this quite a bit and I'll stop right now, but playing Valkyrie Profile made me claustrophobic and depressed.
Maybe I'm just the type that needs some color in my journey.
It has some charming functions though, like battles after confronting your foe and then enter a sequence where you damage it by pressing the characters assigned button. It is also possible to fight 4 at the same time all chars having one button making it possible to bang bang a enemy with a swarm of pain (often leading to a Overkill! as the enemy dies rather fast).

Another thing is the voices during the battles and when a battle is done, all the battle cries and comments make it more alive.
But in these sequences the enemy is able to retaliate if it's not dazed/stunned during battle and that leads to extra damage taken during the time you engaged and the time the enemy engages. This leads to fast death and you'll end up using Phoenix Down as your main health potion.
I'm no beginner at RPGs/turn base but there was just something about it that threw me off after 4 hours of following arrows and shopping in stores that had nothing at all to offer then what was needed.


I found FF:A2 to be waaay more fun and interacting. Even though it is a turn base as well it had the mass quest system with loads of quests and fun functions that grants you the sensation of actually evolving in game play. And every quest is different and ends depending on your skill and not how many you kill. In some missions you kill, in others you gather materials while dodging monsters on the turn base platform and some are just exchanges of items and favors leading to other missions.
This type of variety gives you the feeling that you're not playing a game that already has levels ready for you waiting to take you to the last stage but a world where you run around questing increasing different stats and creating weapons and gear from the materials you find and receive after battles as loot. And the professions make it even more fun as you get to customize and match different abilities, grants a more personal feeling to it.

It's not as flashy as Valkyrie and the characters do not scream "I'm gonna tear your head off!" then you attack a monster but it gives a very satisfying game play with enough options to make you come back for more (next to addicting).
Maybe I'm just that old school, I don't need any big bangs as I attack or nifty battle systems but FF:A2 has satisfied me beyond good.
And even gives me that sense of color and depth in my journey that I didn't get from Valkyrie.
I love the way everything looks, the maps, the Pub (where the quests are), Store. It all gives the feeling that there is in fact a little world inside my DS which i can dive in to and kill a couple of hours and not feel as though I'm wasting time.


It's hard to balance things but even tho FF:A2 looks like Super Mario World from SNES and has a very childlike exterior it is still challenging and interesting with funny and witty comments. You don't get the feeling of it being to simple and get tired of it, instead you get caught up in solving the riddle of how he got there and how he'll get back.
But with Valkyrie it's though, it's cool, everybody looks like super models and everybody has problems. I know it's suppose to be that way because it's not a kids story line but if your going to make it so serious and so dark then give it at least some light, make it about something but with some additional factors that brighten up the room. I really don't want to follow a character and "waste" my time on a gloomy dude with two ponytails hell bent on vengeance.


The cat knows.
Valkyrie Profile:
Final Fantasy - A2 :



(For now Valkyrie is sucky in my opinion, maybe I'll continiue after I finish FF:A2 or save it for a time when I'm in a state of deep depression. Maybe then can I relate to it's gloomy ass environment and storyline.)

Yeah, I remember FFT: Advance being really addictive. I remember getting AyvuirBlue and AyvuirRed, and then equipping both of them with Double Sword. It was awesome, and I kept it like that even if I found better weapons.
And I had an immensely overpowered Paladin, who was the last man standing in the battle against Li-Grim and the Dephs. Even he was on his knees when he won. I believe his randomly generated name was Salsber, and he became a memorable character without saying more than a few standard lines.

And I'm much the same about keeping characters with me. It seems like a waste to lose them. And colour is good.

Indeed. Indeed.
Your tellings of thy Pally sounds pretty darn heroic.
I'm a upgrade nut, but sometimes when a blade has a special effect and bonus I like I keep it hanging around till the end of the game. Even tho the blade/item is many lvls old.
Characters who I don't like I keep in the cave of ignore, got served at the end of Dragon Age: Origins as my second team were item stripped rejects (wasn't to bad though I just took the darkspawn weapons and gear during the fight).
When playing Awakening I saw to that I wouldn't lose Oghren to some conversation trigger that would make him leave. Another I liked from Origins was the Mabari dog, that mutt was awesome and I would often stop and pat him.

Even tho having ignored hand-held games since Advanced being back really creates contrast between the computer and Game Boy adventures, and even tho there are lots of impressive RPGs for the computer I will always favor hand-held and console whenever I get a taste.

(Last game I played on console, PS2, was Rogue Galaxy which was a really nice space adventure rpg with a nice system of weapon forging and a bunch of lovable characters. I later started playing Final Fantasy XII which was in German... I know but it came with the extremely cheap PS2 Slim I bought. FF XII was really good but I made it halfway through and it sort of slipped in to the background as life took on a new course.)

Long live flaming swords, great digital adventures and lovable characters.

I'm about to see if the brand new Safari Zone in Johto is accessible yet. I know it isn't open, but I still want to reach the facilities and have a look.

The memories of Salsber are coming back. He did a lot of healing and defending, but I also liked disarming and subduing foes. The funny thing is that he had the skill Mug, and would beat thugs and animals up for their lunchmoney. I don't remember which or how many passive abilities he learned, but he could shrug off most attacks in any case. And that big Holy sword was no tap on the shoulder, either.

Well, I got to the reception counter, at least.

The new Ho-oh Pc Box Wallpaper is pretty.

I started catching Yellow Forest Pikachu. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, but I'll eventually get a few good ones.

What Pokémon version are you referring to? Heart and Soul?

My Pokémon Diamond has been enjoying a nice well deserved slumber as I've maniacally but happily enjoyed FF:A2.
There is just so much hanging together, it's all connected in an invisible neat way. They aren't telling you go there, do that but after each and every section and option you visit you think of your next step and soon you're on the next quest.

In FF:A2 they mentioned something about auctions and turf wars, controlling different areas but I haven't seen any options about it yet in the menu's. Guess it will pop up later on.

For some unknown reason and invisible force I have started to scan Gamespot.com for every single DS RPG game possible and found plenty that I want.
I reckon me buying the DS has awoken something demonic from my hand-held past, I must chill or I'll end up mass spending on games when I haven't even finished my first one.

I think I know what lies behind this frantic searching, I suspect it's the absence of a normal adventure RPG for my DS.
I think I'm looking for a Golden Sun substitute to "complete" my newborn DS collection for now.

My top 3 for concideration are:
Lunar Knights (creators of Metal Gear Solid)
The World Ends With You (People seem to like it a lot)
Suikoden Tierkreis (it's a series with a love/hate relationship)

(Think it's between Lunar and World...)

:: EDIT ::
I was just reminded that Mega Man Battle Network exists for DS and it's still awesome. I used to play them a lot for Advanced.

Yeah, Heart.


Oh, the turf wars make a return! Yeah, some missions will give you control over an area. Some missions will force you to defend them or lose them.


That might still take a while, but it's in the works. Assuming Golden Sun would be a good Golden Sun substitute.

Haha, if only I could wait that long.

I'm starting a poke'mon team of ones based on myths and legends such as Froslass (Yokki-Onna) Lapras (Loch Ness) Abmasnow (Abominable Snowman) Deilbird (Santa Claus) Banette ( I just love the ideal of a puppet coming to life or perhaps Pinnocio) and lastly either Golduck or Ludicolo (Kappa) I guess to keep with the theme of Ghost/Ice I'd replace Golduck or Ludicolo with Dusknoir (Cyclops/Grim Reaper).

I'm working on my all ghost team right now.

Gengar, Froslass, Dusknoir, Rotom, Mismagius, Spiritomb

Also just caught Mewtwo and Ho-oh on Soul Silver, time to round up some dogs

Banette is an improperly discarded doll. A big no-no in mythological Japan.

My active team is still composed of:
Feraligatr
Noctowl
Crobat
Ampharos / Growlithe
Heracross
Aipom

I have a lot of pokemon left to train, though. And I caught a Surf Pikachu yesterday.

I just thought about does Sneasal count as a sickle weasel?

had Pokemon Red when I had a GBC.

May get Soul Silver soon, but want to complete some other games first.

Kamaitachi? Kind of looks like one. I doubt that it could have been designed without a kamaitachi in mind, unless they got some wolfraised caveman to draw it.

I do like Weavile, by the way. The Platinum sprite is visually striking.
The initial animation looks quite graceful.
It made the battle against Cyrus more fun.

I'm trying to think of a myth to base a water/ghost on besides a Umibōzu due to them being massive.