Peter's 2011 Gaming Awards

Hello, and welcome to Peter’s (extremely belated) 2011 Awards! Now, I’ve been meaning to get around to this for some time. Instead of making awards for games that came out in 2011, I’m talking about games that I played in 2011. I might make this an annual thing if I’m still doing this next year.

Anyways, here we go!

Best Game I Played In 2011: Final Fantasy X (PS2)

I played a lot of great games last year, there’s no denying. And among those great games, I played the majority of the Final Fantasy series. Still, Final Fantasy X proved itself to be my favorite of the series, and I really can’t say why. Was it the imaginative art style and gorgeous visuals? Was it the epic story and well-developed characters? Was it the excellent combat system and open-ended character development? It certainly wasn’t the voice acting… but for whatever reason, I beat this game in a record (for me) two weeks, with forty or so hours sunk into it. I just didn’t want to stop playing, and that for me is the mark of an amazing game.

Dark Cloud: First Impressions

Like I said earlier, I haven't decided if I'm going to play Dark Cloud for review, but I've been revisiting this old favorite for a few days, so I might as well say what I think of it so far.

The game is fun. Really, really fun. It's kind of simple- the story is pretty bland, the music is cheery and the atmosphere is generally lighthearted and upbeat. What the game is, essentially, is a combination of Zelda, Sim City, and Mystery Dungeon. You play as Toan, a young boy whose villiage is destroyed by an evil genie. Toan is told that he can rebuild the world by finding the scattered pieces of it sealed inside stones called 'Atlamilia'. By traversing randomly generated dungeons, you open the Atla and claim something from the old world, which you can then use to rebuild the town you're in.

I'm only on the second dungeon, but so far the game is pretty fun. Because the layout of each floor is always different, each dungeon entry becomes an enjoyable puzzle- you have to find the Atla, any treasure on the floor, and the key to the next floor, all while battling whatever monsters ended up spawning on the floor. Combing the dungeons makes for an enjoyable enough timesink as it is, but the 'Georama' townbuilding feature seems to be where the majority of the game is. You use the parts you find in the dungeons to rebuild the town you're in however you like. You're rewarded, however, for following the requests of the NPCs.

I don't know if this will be the next game I play all the way through, but so far Dark Cloud is a really fun roguelike/zelda clone. Hopefully it doesn't wear out it's welcome later in the game.

October 28, 2011: What Next?

So I finally beat Final Fantasy VIII, and my review is up. Overall, it was a very enjoyable RPG. The final boss was absolutely pathetic (I didn't even have to use Squall- Irvine's limit break took her out), but the ending was nice.

For now, I'll probably work on finishing up Final Fantasy V is my spare time, but I'm trying to decide what my next console playthrough will be. I already decided that I don't want to start the next game on my backlog, what with the school semester growing more hectic and the upcoming holiday season, so I've been deciding on an older title to replay. I was fiddling around with Dark Cloud today, which was a game I've never actually beaten. It's Level 5's debut title, and it's a fun little game with randomly generated dungeons and a town building minigame, sort of like Zelda mixed with Harvest Moon. I found a new copy for $3 at a CD Exchange, so I might try to actually beat and review the game. If I don't do that, I'll probably replay The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, since lack of a Wii means I'll have to wait a while to play Skyward Sword (not that I'm bitter or anything).

As far as upcoming titles go, I probably won't get War in the North or Skyrim as soon as they come out (hopefully I'll have the chance to try them soon enough, though). I plan on preordering Final Fantasy XIII-2 at some point, though.

Right now, Dark Cloud is in the 'Now Playing' header, that might change in the coming week.

Final Fantasy VIII/V Progress

Made it to disc 3 in Final Fantasy VIII. I'm kind of punching myself for stupidity, because I forgot to draw Alexander from Edea. -_- Going to have to work harder at Junctioning, I plan on taking on Ultima Weapon for Eden and the Ultima Stones you get from him, which should make the game considerably easier. Of course, beating Ultima Weapon is never easy. Right now I'm in Esthar.

In V, I'm in the open-ended third act of the game, where you can go do sidequests and get the Legendary Weapons before going into the Rift to fight Exdeath. I've gotten six of the tablets right now, as well as the Fork Tower quest. I also got Syldra from the Pirates Cave, and the Magic Lamp. I'll go to North Mountain and get Bahamut once I have the rest of the Legendary Weapons. Right now, Faris is training as a Ninja after mastering Samurai, Lenna is finishing up mastering Black Mage, and Bartz has mastered Knight and Dragoon. I'm having him train as a Monk for the extra HP once he masters it (and Counter).

Well, that's where I am right now. I'm not sure what I'll play next, I have a rather large backlog that will only grow larger with time (Skyrim drawing nearer...). The only handheld I have on deck (for after FFV) is Dragon Quest VI on DS. I have five games in my console backlog- Xenogears, Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, Dark Cloud, and Dragon Quest VIII. I want to play something short before the holidays, so if I have time I'll probably try Vagrant Story once I'm done with VIII, but if I don't I might just replay Twilight Princess for the fifth time. :)