Episode 32: Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars—The One With The Boobs

Episode 32:  Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars—The One With The Boobs

Platform: PS Vita, 3DS

Release Date:  Japan: August 22, 2013. North America: April 15, 2014. EU: May, 14, 2014

Difficulty: Easy

Pricing: $34.99 (Vita), 19.59 (3DS, on sale). Don’t pay $34.99 for this game.

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

[Triche know what his priories are.]

The Good

• Granted, I had very low expectations, but Conception 2 wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. 
• The main storyline did actually keep my attention and I wanted to keep going with it to find out what happened next. The individual storylines for the heroines were more hit or miss, with some of them being well done, like Fuuko and Serina’s, and others, like Feene and Torri’s, seeing like there was very little thought put into their plots. Ellie’s storyline, about hunting down Heretics, could easily be the base for a pretty interesting game premise.
• Although the Heroines fit pretty easily into set archetypes—Fuuko is The Girl Next Door, Narika is The Shy One, Ellie is The Little Sister, Chloe is The Big Sister, etc—I did like all of them and enjoyed the character scenes with them. I also appreciated that the Heroines were all friends with each other instead of the game being one big jealous catfight over the main character.

The Bad

• If the Hero dies, it’s game over, which is the most annoying game mechanic every invented.
• The dungeons were So. Boring. They were far too long with far too many monsters. It was a mind numbing grind, running through identical corridors and square rooms to fight palette swapped monsters. I took forever to finish this game because the dungeons kept making me want to doze off. The actual battle system isn’t all that interesting either, even with your parties of various Star Children.
• The game introduces potentially interesting systems, but doesn’t follow through with them. For example, near the beginning of the game, you’re warned to talk to the NPC characters to open up options. This matters once, with getting Fuuko into the Aquatics Club, and it never happens again. Conception also could have done more with the touch event system it advertised but rarely used. 
• This is a weird criticism, but I actually wish the game has been more perverted? Despite the premise, the game was kind of tame. You’re calling yourself Conception, you’re rated Mature, and the battle system revolves around pseudo-teen pregnancy. You may as well go all out at that point instead of limiting yourself to glowy naked bodies during classmating sessions and touch events that don’t go beyond holding hands. 

The Ugly

[Chlotz REALLY likes going to bathrooms with other guys]

The Lowdown: If you have insomnia, this game is a great sleep aid. The storyline sections were interesting enough, but the dungeons were incredibly dull. And there’s a lot more dungeon crawling than there is storyline. If you really want to play this game, buy it used and try to break up your times in the dungeons with time doing character storylines. I tended to burn through all the character storyline sections—because I actually enjoyed those—and then I would go on to the storyline dungeon. I think the game would have been more enjoyable if I had used the character storylines to break up the tedium of the dungeons. Especially since there’s no consequences for leaving and re-entering the dungeons or progressing to the next day in game.

  

Music Credits

1. RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.
2. Conception OST

Episode 31: Dragon Age: Inquisition: Part 2—The Trouble With Lord Woolsley

Episode 31:  Dragon Age: Inquisition: Part 2—The Trouble With Lord Woolsley

Platform: PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, PC

Release Date:  NA 11/18/2014, AUS 11/20/14, 11/21/14

Difficulty: Technically you can pick your difficulty level. We found normal mode pretty easy

Pricing: $39.90 for the Game of the Year edition

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Find Part 1 at our website: talrpg.com!

Review

The Inquisitor is coming for you, Corypheus.

The Good

• The graphics are beautiful and there are a lot more character customization options than the past two Dragon Age games. Inquisition also expands which races you can play as. At last, you be a Qunari!
• The plot and characters are solid. It’s nice seeing some familiar characters—Leliana, Varric, Cassandra, Cullen, and even Morrigan—return and see what they’re now up to. The new characters are memorable and stand on their own instead of feeling like variations on what we’ve seen in past Dragon Age games.  It’s also exciting to watch as the Inquisition grows from a rag tag group of misfits to a formidable and influential organization.
• Inquisition also does a good job with creating side characters I care about. I’d love to see more of Scout Harding and Krem in future Dragon Age games.
• I enjoyed the world building in the two DLCs, The Jaws of Hakkon and the Descent, especially Jaws of Hakkon. Hakkon added more information about the Tribes of the Avvar and knew ways of looking at interactions with spirits—ways that probably won’t lead to demonic possession.

The Bad

• While still engaging, the storyline seems thinner than the past two Dragon Age games. The plot of the story seems to go from a big event to big event, without much connection or build up. There’s also less character development and less interaction with the party members. Additionally, there’s some important information that
• I was hoping for a more in depth exploration of Orlais. In Dragon Age Origins, the player really gets to know Ferelden, In Dragon Age 2, you get to know Kirkwall. In Inquitision…there’s not really any depth added to Orlais. They’re fantasyland France, they wear masks, they’re all obsessed with gaining political power and the Great Game. We already knew this. 
• The developers overcompensated for the complaints about DAII’s lack of exploration and repeated environments. A good chunk of the game is wandering around large areas or areas that give the illusion of space by having maps that don’t clearly show paths. The areas with the illusion of space are the most annoying, since you should be two steps away from what you need, but find that, actually, you have to circle a mountain to get where you need to go. There are still limited paths that you can take, they’re just better disguised.
• Dead enemies that you can loot or plants you can harvest don’t sparkle anymore. I miss the sparkles. L

The Ugly

• Corypheus’ face.
• 

You can never escape Varric's chest hair.

The Lowdown: Although Dragon Age: Inquisition is the weakest of the three Dragon Age games, it’s still an enjoyable game and a solid entry into the series. It expands the world in intriguing ways and the ending of Trespasser has me looking forward to the inevitable Dragon Age 4. Play this game, especially if you’re already a fan of the series, but move with the storyline faster than we did instead of spending all of your time in the side areas.

  

Music Credits

RPG Roundup Theme Song: “Video Game Theme,” J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

Dragon Age Inquisition OST

Episode 30: Chrono Trigger: Part 2 – To Faraway Times

Episode 30: Chrono Trigger: Part 2 – To Faraway Times
Platform: SNES
Release Date: Japan 3/11/1995, NA 8/22/1995
Difficulty: Easy
Pricing: 9.99 on Wii Virtual Console

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Terra’s Review

       Wait until you hear his rendition        of "My Heart Will Go On"

The Good

• This game knows how to handle time travel without making it confusing or giving people Star Trek level headaches. Chrono Trigger doesn’t get all philosophical about time travel or spend a bunch of time worrying about possibly changing the future. Changing the future is the point!
• Time travel also isn’t a quick fix. There’s no going back in time over and over again for a redo. Lucca gets one chance to save her mom. Yes, you can use time travel to save one character’s life, but even that isn’t as easy as just hopping into the Epoch and travelling back to when it happened.
• The storyline keeps a good balance between taking the threat from Lavos seriously and still staying light and entertaining instead of wallowing in super grimness.
• The characters are memorable and all get their own focus and time to shine.
• Recruit Magus and watch him kill everything.

The Bad

• Death Peak and stupid hiding behind the trees before the wind blows you back to the start. The game controls (at least in PS1 and Wii version) just aren’t precise enough.
• Magus’ boy band moves when he does a magic attack. J/k, those are amazing.
• The 2300 AD dungeons get pretty boring and repetitive. And let’s not talk about the race with Johnny. Or trying to catch that $%^*(& rat.

The Ugly

• Ozzie and his weird pants and his goddamned traps.
• Dalton
• This thing: 
  

       Everyone else uses a version of this image        to illustrate the game, why shouldn't we?

The Lowdown: This game is considered a classic for a reason. Chrono Trigger is a solid adventure story with engaging characters and time travel that actually works. The game has it’s serious moments, but doesn’t get bogged down in them, and is just plain fun to play.

Music Credits
RPG Roundup Theme Song: “Video Game Theme,” J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.
Chrono Trigger OST

Episode 28: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch—Oliver’s Acid Trip

Episode 28:  Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch—Oliver’s Acid Trip

Platform: Playstation 3

Release Date:  Japan 11/17/2011, NA 1/22/2013, Australia 1/31/2013, EU 2/1/2013

Difficulty: Medium

Pricing: Amazon $19.25 (as of 1/12/16)

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Terra’s Review

[Yes, that’s a picture of the characters as frogs.]

The Good

• The artwork and music are beautiful.
• The alchemy system. The game has an extensive list of recipes and it’s a useful way to make needed items without having to buy them or run around for hours fighting monsters in hopes that one of them will drop what you need. Alchemy gave us our strongest items for restoring magic points.
• Capturing and evolving familiars. Fans of Pokémon will probably enjoy this aspect! Esther has the ability to capture some of the monsters you fight and add them to your growing army. You can feed the familiars to increase their stats and their affection for you and you can evolve them to stronger forms as they gain levels. Evolving them does send them back to level one, but leveling them back up pays off.
• Swaine’s WTF reactions to most of the Ni no Kuni events. I know how you feel Swaine, I know how you feel.

The Bad

• The battle AI. I think the battle system would have worked better if there had been the ability to be more detailed in setting the character’s tactics. You get very limited options: Go all out, focus on healing/removing status effects, don’t use magic skills, and maybe one more than I’m forgetting. I don’t think that Ni no Kuni needs FF12 level gambits, but it would have been nice to have slightly more specific commands, like “Heal when ally’s HP is down to 30%” or “use items” or “DO NOT use Ward, Oliver, and interrupt me while I’m trying to make Swaine steal something.” You had very little control over your allies’ actions and they would sometimes do very stupid things.
• Not being able to see how many magic points your other party members have left. Related to the above and party members doing stupid things. Your non-Oliver party members will run out of MP quickly—especially Esther, who really should have had a higher amount of MP as the person who gets a big chuck of the healing spells—but you can only see that they’re out when you open the items menu.
• The battle system drove me up the wall and I could say more but I’ll stop.
• Repetitive Side Quests. In theory, I like the idea of running into some of the same people and giving them and their sides quests their own mini-storylines. In practice…Catch your own familiars, Dermont! Stop losing your journal, old chap, wot wot pip pip I’m going to staple the damn thing to your head! And I don’t know what Shadar has against that poor merchant couple and why he keeps going after them.

The Mediocre

• Yes, a new section to our usual review template just for the storyline. The story wasn’t really bad, but it wasn’t exactly good, either. The death of Oliver’s mother feels tacked on—Even though it’s what kicks off the plot and is Oliver’s main motivation!
• Speaking of tacked on…The White Witch storyline could have been better integrated into the game and fleshed out more.

The Ugly

• This picture of a cracked out mouse represents my feelings on the battle system

 [This is Gascon. This is Gascon on meth. Meth: It's a hell of a drug. Also apparently horrible for your posture]

The Lowdown: Despite my rants about the battle system, my overall reaction to Ni no Kuni is a shrug and a “meh.” The outlines of a good game are there, but the battle system is frustrating and the characters and storyline aren’t engaging enough to make up for it. The music and graphics, especially the backgrounds, were the best parts.

  

Music Credits

RPG Roundup Theme Song: “Video Game Theme,” J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

Ni No Kuni OST

Episode 27: Chrono Trigger Part 1—Robo’s Rave

Episode 27:  Chrono Trigger Part 1—Robo’s Rave

Platform: SNES
Release Date:  Japan 3/11/1995, North America 8/22/1995
Difficulty: Easy
Pricing: $9.99 PSN, 800 Wii Points (about $8.00) Virtual Console

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Terra’s Review

What We’ve Learned From Chrono Trigger

• It’s totally possible to accidentally invent time travel.
• Never trust the Chancellor. He’s either a demon in disguise or he’s overly fond of rigging trials so he gets to execute people.
• DON’T EAT OTHER PEOPLE’S LUNCHES!!! The penalty is death.
• Lavos wants to party like it’s 1999.
• Between his intro music and the lightshow that come with his attacks, Robo is always good party entertainment. Time for Robo’s rave!
• Primitive cave soup will give you a hangover. 
• Stop it you dog!
• Magus leaving his boy band for a solo career didn’t work out too well. 
• But his minions make great back up singers! 

Music Credits

RPG Roundup Theme Song: “Video Game Theme,” J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

Chrono Trigger OST

Never Gonna Give You Up vs Robo's Theme by Yuzoboy

Episode 25: Final Fantasy VI: Part II – Atma Ponders on the Toilet

Episode 25: Final Fantasy VI: Part II—Atma Ponders on the Toilet

Platform: SNES, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Wii/Wii U, and Android and iOS.

Release Date: 

Japan: 4/2/1994

NA: 10/11/1994 (As Final Fantasy III)

Difficulty: Moderate

Pricing: Play Store: $7.99 (during 50% off sale), Wii: 800 Wii Points/$8

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Terra’s Review

Kefka’s Tower: At least there’s a place to take a shit!

The Good

• I don’t even know where to start with the good, I love this game so much.
• The sense of scale. The world is large, the story is epic. The places in the storyline that require you to split up the party to deal with simultaneous enemies adds to the feeling that you’re dealing with a threat that is truly world spanning. It also gives you a reason to care about leveling up and using all of your characters instead of letting all but your favorite four fall by the wayside. You’re going to need almost all of your characters by the time you get to Kefka’s tower!
• Speaking of…Kefka is one of my favorite villains. No sob story, no angst and whining, just pure joy of destruction and making people’s lives hell.
• You fight a train. And an octopus. And mini bosses named after the Three Stooges. For a game that’s dealing in some very heavy subjects—Terra and Celes have basically been raised to be weapons, the deaths of almost everyone in Doma, the Empire’s experiments on Espers, and THE END OF THE WORLD—FF6 doesn’t lose its sense of humor or sense of the absurd.
• There’s a strong emphasis on character development and giving each character a time in the spotlight and a backstory. The only ones that don’t get some focus are the optional secret characters. The second half of the game is especially focused on backstory and character motivations. With the world basically destroyed and Kefka in charge, what motivates these characters to keep fighting?
• The Opera House sequence.

The Bad

• Even though I was just praising the character development, there are some things I wish the game had done differently. Relm and Strago showed up too late in the game to have much of an impact. I also would have liked to see more of the characters interacting with each other. Imagine the conversations Terra and Celes could have had!
• The battle menus could be unwieldly, especially once you’re further along in the game and have accumulated more spells and items. Scrolling through those, trying to find what you want can take valuable time, especially if you’re using the Active Battle System.
• PlayStation only: The long load times.

The Ugly

 

 

 

 

[No comment.]

The lowdown:  I love this game and everyone should play it!

Music Credits

FF6 OST

RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.