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July 19, 2007

It's all about the Minimedals.

Yep, I'm still a part of Slime Knights, why do you ask? The website is all talking about the Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker now, which is fairly exciting. I'm glad it's coming over. I dunno. I'm sure I'll pick it up day 1.

Anyway, I suppose since I'm doing the Slime Knights link thing, I might as well talk about Dragon Quest. More specifically, I might as well talk about Dragon Quest III, which I've been playing on my PSP via emulation of the GBC version, since I don't want to dig out my SP to play the actual cart and also I'm fiddling with the homebrew powers of the PSP. Anyway, it's apparently it's a remake of the remake on the SNES in Japan? I didn't realize this, but I watched some Youtube videos of the original, and it seems to have added the entire system based on the "moods" or "character traits" or whatever you want to call it of you and your party. Basically, every character has a 1-word personality description that affects their stats, I assume. I don't actually know, because I've been playing without a walkthrough, which is strange for me in old-school games like this because so often there is very little direction in these older games, and I get pissed. It hasn't happened to me yet, although now that I'm off of n00b island, the place where you start, it may begin to happen. That Island was small, and it was easy to find everything important.

Anyway, the thing that amazes me about the GBC version is the almost pointlessly elaborate monster attack animations. Every monster has two animations, one for spellcasting and one for attacking, and they're... well, they're elaborate. It's almost weird to see the Slimes doing their little back and forth dance when they attack, or the little knights unsheathing their sword to swing at me. The rest of the game looks so low-tech, it kinda stands out.

I've picked about the most boring party possible. You've got me, whom the personality test at the beginning spit out a very accurate paragraph, and then gave me the 1-word description of Lonely. (I don't really think I'm lonely. Sometimes, maybe. I'm often conflicted about being around people or not. I enjoy being around people I like, but at the same time I often just want to be left alone. The paragraph talked about that struggle. "Lonely" does not indicate it) I have a Cleric, who is Alert, I think. I have a Mage, who is... I forget. And I have a Fighter, which appears to be a Final Fantasy Monk Analogue, because he can't equip much armor, all weapons lower his attack power, and he has really high HP. Anyway, he's Lewd. Which is a good word. Lewd. In any case, that's about the most boringly balanced party you can have, but I figured if I didn't pick the boring dependable party I wouldn't get anywhere. The game is already old-school enough that I will suck and find it a challenge. It's been working out okay for me.

The other thing about the game is a real lack of descriptions of anything in the game. I have some spells that I have no idea what they do, simply because there isn't screen real-estate to give me descriptions and I haven't experimented and casted them. What does Upper do? I really don't know. I think it ups attack power, but again, I haven't tested it. What does Sap do? I think it drains HP from enemies, but again, no idea. This kinda bothers me and makes me want a spell list to refer to. But eh, I'm making it okay. I'm mostly just playing this to sorta wind down in bed before I fall asleep. Do a dungeon or grind for a little while, then go to bed. We'll see how far I get. I expect to give it up when Picross DS comes out in a week or so.

I've been writing alot since I started doing these quasi-essayish reviews. Huh.

Posted by poetfox at July 19, 2007 12:19 PM

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