Pokemon.
Are you surprised?
You shouldn't be surprised.
Before that though, I just beat Tales of Xillia. Working on the "secret dungeon" now, but not really with any sort of urgency. I get sick of these "we turned old places you already visited a different color" dungeons.
Actually, Tales Of is getting really lazy with their stories, it feels like. I have fought the same enemies for three games now, and the three act structure is getting a little stale. You beat an important military figure/royal family member boss! But now here's the REALLY important demi-god boss! The day is saved, BUT OH WAIT NO IT ISN'T, BECAUSE HERE'S THE COSMIC SCALE BOSS! Tales of Xillia was a lot of fun, I liked the characters (despite some glaring weirdness that made it hard to get immersed sometimes) and the battle system was fun. A lot of the maps felt really... phoned in, though.
Here's a big flat space with a bunch of enemies in it! That works a little better when you're playing say, FFXII, because it's in real time and you don't have the stagger of battle transitions. Also, there was a lot more variation in FF12 with those areas. You walked along cliffs, you hopped across plateaus, etc. The DUNGEONS in Xillia were alright, and there were certainly some pretty areas in the deepwood and the gorge, but the transitional areas... were just empty. So, so empty. And invariable, three "rooms" long, it felt like. Very flat. Very stark. Nothing especially memorable about them. Disappointing. I was really excited to see this game didn't use the whole "World Map" thing, because that's so friggin' tired... but it wasn't quite done well.
The music, too. Very high whiny strings. And not a lot of it! There were good themes in the game, but I couldn't really name of them out of context, and a lot of the songs were re-used to the point of feeling almost like they were placeholders. It was also very... cheesy Japanese in places, but that's a personal gripe. Pentatonic plunking never really did it for me.
There are tons of subquests in this game. Like 80. But they're not really all that great. "I need a poison stinger. Thank you for poison stinger. Here is a shiba dog tail to staple to your butt." (That said, I REALLY like the attachment system, but it's bullshit that you have to purchase all but about three of the character costumes.) There's no real incentive to complete the fetch quests other than "Maybe THIS prize will be something I'll actually want." Rare monsters are scarce, extra bosses are... well there are about ten, but they're really nothing special, and they're just sort of hanging around the large vast spaces between levels. Wanna fight it? Touch it. Cool. You get a prize. Move on. Would have been neat if...hell, just a little cutscene before and after?
One thing this game did well. Namco always has "annoying animal friend" stuck somewhere into the new tales of games. Teepo managed to be a lot better than Mieu or Noishe or some of the others that have popped up in recent days.
I really don't REGRET my purchase, and they made a lot of interesting changes in this game, but damn if it didn't flat when the shiny wore off. :/
Discord
Light Style