robio said:

Blah, Phantom Hourglass was much much better than the Minish Cap.  PH actually added to the series in a meaningful way.  There were genuine challenges in the dungeons.  Exploring was rewarded with more than kinstones that unlocked. . . more kinstones.  Plus, and I will argue this until I'm blue in the face, the mapping system was the single best addition to the Zelda series since riding on horseback. Mapping felt natural, easy to do, and actually filled a need that the series had.  With as much as there is to do and see in Zelda games, mapping and making notes on a map just felt like the ultimate addition that was long overdue.

Lies

Bringing my thread back to topic I've now put in about 6 hours or so into DQM: Caravan Heart.  It's different. . .  and I'm not sure I like it.  I think that explains what it only moved half a million copies in Japan.  To the Japanese you don't fuck with even the spin-off franchises when it comes to Dragon Quest.

The game is much more strategic than any of other DQM games or even more jRPGs for that matter.  In previous games you have 3 monsters and you roam around the landing fighting other monsters to capture them as well as do battle against other monster trainers.  That's all been tossed out the window here.

Instead you (eventually) get 3 caravans.  Each caravan is lead by a monster who can be controlled in the same way as previous games, either by selecting a battle strategy (aggressive, defensive, mix it up, etc.) or by commanding them yourselves. But there's also a back-up team of humans on each caravan made up from around 20 different job types that range from the standard warriors and mages to the more unique fishers, mappers, prophets, etc.  Each human will join the combat for one round and they will join in the order they've been placed.  They have one action that they will do each time.  After their round in combat is over they will go to the end of the line so to speak and wait 4 more rounds until it's their turn to contribute again.

This is part of where the strategy needs to take place.  For instance you don't want a cleric to be first, otherwise he may heal the monster before  any combat has taken place.  So you might want to start with a wizard or soldier and then place the cleric in the 2nd or 3rd slot.  The 4th position could be too late to be effective.  However you can't just stock up your back-up with all your heavy hitters.  Each caravan has a weight limit so you'll be forced to give up some of your heavies (no pun intended) and include some of the light weight characters that a bit more useless when it comes to combat time.  

Not only do you have to make sure that you've assembled a good back-up team to compliment your lead monsters, but that you're also inviting the right people to be a part of your pool of characters to choose from.  You're limited to how many people can be in your camp (the area where everyone hangs out).  You may want to have a lot of merchants in your camp for instance.  They don't do much in combat other than find money, but if you have a lot of them in your pool you can buy much better items in your camp and that's important.  Likewise Fishers aren't great in combat, but they can catch fish which can be used for rations and since you're responsible for feeding your team (and penalized when there's nothing) that's important too, and not something that damage dealing soliders and mages can do.

Needless to say there's a lot of layers to this game.  All that is well and good and makes for a deep experience, but there's just one problem. . . the game is boring.  I've been presented with challenges so far, but. . . I don't know I'm just not overly compelled to keep picking it up.  It really doesn't help that the story is paper thin.  Old 8 bit RPGs had better stories than this.  This was made shortly after DQ VII, which also started off very slowly so I'm trying be patients.  This could have been a phase that Enix was going through at the time.  But if by hour 10 this game doesn't pick up I'm putting down.

Yodariquo said:

^Sounds like Ogre Battle

Could be. The only game of that series I touched was the GBA one years ago, The Knight of Lodis and man oh man was that just mind numbingly dull.

Summer handheld gaming extravaganza is back on!!  I arranged for some trades over the past few weeks and yesterday and today all of the games from both my sources showed up (they should have been spaced out by about two weeks, but I'm just happy they're finally here).  Anyway for the rest of the summer - and frankly the rest of the year - here's what I'll be playing:

Izuna - Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
Meteos Disney Magic
DQV: Heaven's Bride (see how Old School I am? I refuse to call its new subtitle)
GTA: Chinatown Wars
Rythm Heaven
Mr. Driller - Driller Spirits
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Soul Bubbles
Chibi-Robo Park Patrol

I also got a copy of Professor Layton.  I've already played through the game once, but it's pretty good and it's worth having in case I get interested.

So that's the list.  I've already spent the last day or so playing so I'll be writing up some early impressions soon.

robio said:

Meteos Disney Magic - I'm not sure if the Disney version of the game just isn't as good as the original, or if the game just isn't striking a chord with me, but after playing this I can't figure out all the Meteos hype.   Don't get it all. It's an okay puzzler, but there's a lot better games out there.

Rhythm Heaven - What a piece of shit.  Seriously, where is the fun in this?  Does it come in after the first few levels?  It's quirky but that doesn't mean it's a good game.  It's tough to explain it, but I'll just save myself the effort and say that it blows. Rhythm games without a guitar controller or dance mat just aren't worth much in my book I guess.

As yoda said, meteos disney is nowhere near as good as the original.

strange that you're not feeling rhythm heaven at all.  while i don't share gg's enthusiasm for the game, i still liked it well enough to beat all the mini games and even ace a lot of them.  and even though there are 50 games, i don't think the style of the game changes so you will like the later ones more than the first few.  there's no hope for you.

travo said:

Hey Robio, how is Chibi Robo?  I loved the GC version.  I heard it's only exclusive at Walmarts.  Strange.

i ordered this from a canadian site (videogamesplus.ca) back when it was released.  it was a fun enough game though very different from the GC original from what i gather (neither game was released in europe so i haven't played the GC one).  in this one you try to turn a stretch of land into some kind of garden,  it was fun enough, but it lacks any level of challenge as it's clearly targeted at young children.  some "bad guys" appear from time to time turning your flowers black but you can very easily run them over with your buggy or spray water at them and most of the time you're left alone to get on with your landscaping

The original Meteos is effing awesome! Never played the Disney version, though.

bugsonglass said:

  it was a fun enough game though very different from the GC original from what i gather (neither game was released in europe so i haven't played the GC one). 

 The GC Chibi Robo was never released in europe? That's a shame; it's such a cool game. 

Okay I tried out three more games since the last update.  Chibi-Robo Park Patrol, GTA Chinatown Wars, and Izuna.

Izuna - Legend of the Unemployed Ninja - It's an okay dungeon crawler but it's not quite up to par with the Shiren styled games from Chunsoft or even the Chocobo Dungeon games that SE makes.  It may be a little too early to make this call, but the first hour didn't impress me much so I'm putting it on the back burner while I play the more fun games.

GTA: CW - Surprisingly I've enjoyed this game a lot.  Not a big fan of the GTA games, but this is different enough in style and spirit that its managing to keep my attention.  I'm just getting into the narcotics angle of the game and it's already grabbing me.  If only selling drugs was this much fun in real life. . . or maybe it is!

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol - Fun, but there is nothing even resembling a challenge here.  Its fun in small doses but gets kind of old.  There's little danger and little strategy needed other than watching your power supply.  It's only sheer charm that keeps me interested and that frankly says a lot.  Still it's got me interested enough that I'll give the New Play Control version of the original a shot when it's released.