Ey-yo, it's been about a month since I last made any posts and boy are you going to get a lot of posts this coming weekend because a lot of things have happened regarding Arashi and I need to talk about these things, but first! The most important thing - within the month that I disappeared I have played two games and these are Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Child of Light.
They were both relatively short games, so I'm just going to be really brief with my thoughts which is why they're going to be squished in to one post. Ready? Let's go!
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
So a brief summary of the plot - something called the "Star Festival" is going on and there is this special "Star sticker" that Bowser wants to steal - he touches it and it blows up and you have to collect the pieces and defeat bowser. Easy? Easy. Like. Actually. Haha. The way the game is designed is like a classic Mario game with the 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, worlds etc. so I found myself flying through the game because I just kept thinking "Oh, I can beat the next level really quickly... and the next one... and the next one...". I think overall the game only took me... 20hrs max? Probably less.
So what did I think? It was fun. I'm glad they styled it in a classic mario sort of way because.. honestly, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the game otherwise? Let me just say this now - Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door was one of my most favourite games ever. Like - it's up there with Kingdom Hearts. I really loved it - I didn't love Super Paper Mario as much, although I think the story for that was alright - it got better near the end, but the beginning was a bit tedious. For this one... I'm not sure if they designed the plot based on the gameplay, or the other way around, but overall the plot was nothing much. In fact... it really is just like a classic mario game. Go through all the worlds until you hit Bowser at the end. So in that respects, I think it worked. As a classic Mario game, it did feel very mario and it worked. As a Paper Mario game... eh. It was okay. Also - I guess as a handheld game on a 3DS it worked very well because it was clearly meant to be very pick-up and play, very on the go. If this had been a console game though, I would have been very disappointed.
What did I think of the sticker system? It worked, they got pretty creative with it. I missed the partners, but I guess you really didn't need partners for this game. I don't know what they would have done.
So... pretty much, overall - it was an okay game. It's not at the top of my recommendation list, but if you're out of other games to play or you really want something simple and Mario then this would be it. It definitely feels like Mario, plays out like Mario, and it is definitely a very quick, on-the-go sort of game and I appreciated that a lot. I'd give the game a solid 7/10.
Final thoughts: I really, really, want to replay Thousand Year Door.
OH - and the sticker pixie.. who I don't even remember the name off (yeah.. that's kind of how... plotless the game felt and how distanced you are - you really don't get in to the characters at all or really care about anything. Like, I really feel like the only reason I finished it was because it was split in to worlds so it was like.. well why not? A quick game and then back to work sort of thing. But anyway - the pixie was really funny. Paper Mario has always been amusing - all the games have been - and this one was no different. I know a lot of people complain about the amount of text - I never minded because the text is usually hilarious so yeah, this one is no different.
Child of Light (PC)
The other game I finally got around to playing was Child of Light created by Ubisoft. I played it on my laptop and probably nearly killed it in the process *pats laptop*. Although, it's kind of sad considering how simple this game is and yet my laptop still couldn't fully handle it. Also for some reason, it didn't register my controller so I had to use the keyboard which... while not that annoying was a bit of a downer since I had to play with my laptop on my lap the whole time.
ANYWAY - about the game. It was.... It was cute. Haha. I love the music - it was super calming. The story was... like your typical fairytale. Princess saves her kingdom from the evil Queen. And I think ti worked - I mean the game was supposed to play out like a fairytale and the plot matched it.
In terms of controls - the game was very simple. You fight monsters, level up, upgrade your skills. The game tried to do some customization with these things called occuli which you can collect and craft to add boosts to your characters, which was... interesting I guess? The battle system was interesting in that it was... sort of real-time turn-based, so you had a timeline at the bottom that the characters all moved on and you could actually hinder the speed of an opposing monster by shining your light pixie partner (Ignatius) on them. So, you could essentially defeat your opponents without getting hurt even once, or being hurt very little - it took a bit of skill and timing and thinking, and I liked that. It made the battles less boring than they could have been (and they could have been really boring). Overall though, in terms of actual attacks and what-not the battle system was pretty boring. You pick your move, do your thing, move on, and you can only use two people in your party so... eh. Maybe three would have been nicer (although that may have made things way too easy as well).
Speaking of the partners you get - you get way too many, and I'll be honest... I didn't even use... half of them. Three of them I literally never used. Why? Because they were literally just there to provide buffs for your characters and honestly, you really don't need those buffs. In fact, I really didn't like how they spread all the buffs to different characters because it was honestly a huge pain. Also, half the attacks the characters had I never used. Like, for each character, I would really just use the same 1-2 attacks over and over and nothing else, because there really was no point in using stat buffs. At all. You also never really need to use potions, or anything either. Again - maybe this is because I am playing on normal, but I mean, I'm not necessarily a hard-core super skilled gamer, so I feel like even the "normal" level shouldn't be this easy.
At the same time, I'm glad it was easy, because... eh. I mean. Child of Light was okay. I'm glad it was so short and simple because.. I don't think I could have survived a longer game. Like I said, the plot was very fairytale-esque and simple, which was fine. It was cute and sweet, but wouldn't have worked for a longer game. Also the way that people spoke was super annoying. I just skipped dialogue all the time and never read it because it was just hard and not worth it. Eeeeh. What else can I say about the game?
That's about it I think. Like. It was a cute 10 hour game. I spent a weekend finishing it, you win in the end, yay, nice calming relaxing music, a slightly interesting battle system that did utilize a bit of skill if you wanted to (but if you were lazy then whatever, just attack, attack, attack)... you can honestly kind of just shut your brain off when playing because puzzles aren't tricky either. A nice, cute, 10 hour game - very fitting to the storybook image it was trying to portray.
and there you have it. What game am I playing now? Pokemon Omega Ruby - and guys. Guys. I. Can't. Stop. HELP ME. (although I feel like I have yet to create a good strong core team like I had in Gold/SoulSilver.)
But. I'll talk about Pokemon when I'm done the storyline. Until then! (and be prepared for Arashi posts regarding Sakura, Pikanchi Half, and also I think I might start doing weekly reviews of Shiyagare cause that show has been gold lately).
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