Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Kingdom Hearts 385/2 Days
Hello DS land.
So, I finally got my hands on both these games.
- At Gamestop, they had ONE FFTA2 game in stock but as much as we scoured the shelves, we couldn’t find the case, so they let me have the game for $10 less - the ‘pre-owned’ price. Downside: a blank cover with nothing inside.
- I finally managed to hack the stupid 385/2 Days rom with success after a few days of attempts; some issues with my JON STEWART micro SD - must be getting old - so I had to switch to my DINGLEBOB.
FFTA2 has been a delight. I am in love with FFT, both War of the Lions and now Grimoire of the Rift, and they just do everything right. The battle system is fab (especially A2’s improvement on Moving and Acting - you can cancel any of them before you execute an action, so if you move somewhere and your action doesn’t hit your targeted area, you can just cancel all of that and re-strategise + RE-EQUIPING AND JOB CHANGE RIGHT BEFORE BATTLE AHHHHHH [okay fine it’s because of the stupid Law but geez it makes me happy]) and Luso is adowoobie. I just want to pet him. He seems so SENSIBLE. Also, want to kick Adelle’s ass but I’m sure she’ll come in handy.
AND WHEN THAT THING HAPPENED TO CID. I was literally like HOLY SHIT NOOOOOOOO but then it was okay and I was okay again. In hindsight, it was good that he stayed a guest character. If he was part of my party, I would have WEPT at him being out of commission. I think my issues at this point would be the levelling up. Farming and Shopping isn’t so bad - the prices are affordable and you can get a steady stream of income if you play your cards right. The Questing, however, can be a kick in the ass. I want to level up so I can do certain shit, but due to the lack of random encounters, this has to be accomplished through quests that you may not even be prepared for. And that SUCKS.
The job system is really interesting, especially considering the fact that you can keep all the skills you learnt. Now if only the job-evolution made SENSE.
385/2 Days (let’s abbreviate it to KH3D) is… well, the thing is that I HAVE NOT FINISHED THE BLOODY TUTORIALS YET. It suffers from the very same annoyance KH2 had, and that was the never. Ending. Tutorials. That spread out for DAYS. To make matters worse there are cut. Scenes. Between. EACH. TUTORIAL. And each tutorial covers ONE COMMAND. ONE COMMAND. ONE. I don’t see why they couldn’t, like NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS, integrate the “INTRICACIES” of Attacking, Magic-casting, Item-using and “the Triangle Button i.e. Examine, Open, Talk, Etc.” in ONE TUTORIAL. I get the need to make it seem like Roxas is a zombie idiot for the first week, but seriously? You could just teach him all of that and make him practice on his own. THAT’S HOW YOU OVERCOME GAME/PLOT HOLES. Unless you’re trying to stretch out play time. Then you’re just assholes.
Okay, okay, on one hand, I’ve begun hating Nomura with a fucking passion { my personal opinion research paper title: Why I Hate Tetsuya Nomura (But Will Buy His Video Games Anyway Even Though I Don’t Want To) } but seeeeriously? God. God.
FINE so anyway. Things I do like about KH3D: familiar game controls. They managed to overcome the issue of the lack of analog controllers pretty well. The only problem I’d think is the suggested use of the stylus to control the camera because you’d be using both hands on the buttons, so in-battle, you’d have to run around and R1 lock-on to enemies to get the angles you’d need. Again, I haven’t gone too far due to the 9203582395823095 tutorials I need to get through and will probably have better things to say once I actually PLAY the game on its own. It’s becoming too much like a graphic novel, in my opinion. It’s dangling a carrot. Play-cut scene-play-cut scene is working out crappily right now. Just stick to all cut scene, all game play. It just works.
