Well, sorry I haven't posted very recently. Work and school are keeping me quite busy. Here's what I've been up to:
-Beat Lost Odyssey.*
*I used my roomate's save file to finish it. Here's the deal: I was fighting the last boss on my file, trucking along just fine, dealing consistent damage. It was taking a while, but I would have finished the job in probably 10 more minutes or so when he/she/it (read: spoiler protection
) cast a spell that attempted to petrifiy the whole party. If you don't play RPGs, in most cases "Whole Party Petrified" = "Game Over" and Lost Odyssey is no exception. All but ONE party member fell victim to the spell. Phew, close call...now I can heal everyone, right? The next turn he/she/it cast the spell AGAIN and my remaining party member was lost to me. I threw aside any sense of honor in completing the game with my mediocre party and used my roomate's uberly powerful characters to blow through the final battle. I know, it's kinda lame, but that "One-Hit K.O." business really irks me when I worked so hard to get as far as I did. I'll complete my file someday!
-Beat God of War: Chains of Olympus.
Very impressive for a handheld game. Blood, violence, and nudity on the go! Rated M for Mature.
-Beat Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.
Does anyone else think a remake of Final Fantasy VII is inevitable at this point? That, or at least a PSP port of the original. I mean, it makes so much sense from a business standpoint to me. People go nuts over FFVII, and I just think it'd rake in the dough. What do you think?
-Beat PSP redux of Final Fantasy.
I was on a roll of beating games and already close to the end on this one. Of the versions I've played, this is probably my favorite of this overly-remade RPG (original NES, MSX2, WonderSwan, PSone, mobile phones, GBA, PSP).
And I recently bought the Sega Genesis Collection for PSP in order to play Phantasy Star II, III, and IV. I never owned a Genesis back in the day, and this was the easiest (and cheapest) way of tracking down the series. Well, that's pretty much it! Hopefully after the semester is over I'll be able to post more often. 
Comments
The dream sequences are pretty interesting, if a bit too long at times. I get the feeling that Kaim just wants to die. He's been through some tough sh*t. That one with the bed riddin dying girl and the guy at the bar were pretty depressing but very well written.
Also, the difficulty seems to be a bit off. It seems like this game is a throwback to oldschool RPGs like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy on NES. I have no problem with the regular enemies but the bosses kill me the first time I encounter them. Then I have to either go back and level up a bunch or look up a walkthrough to find the bosses weakness. Kind of pisses me off.
I would love to play God of War on PSP but I fear the day when they announce a port of it on PS2. The lack of a 2nd analog stick puts me off and pressing L+R plus a direction to roll is not fun. I'll probably pick it up at some point though.
I'm playing Crisis Core right now myself. I don't like the missions much, because they are extremely repetitive, but for some reason I can't stop playing them. I've done more missions then advancing the story itself lol I just finished the part where you encounter Bahamut for the first time, and I just finished the mission where you finally get his materia (after battling him 3 times).
Have fun with PS II, III and IV! I have that collection myself and I should play those games someday...
I'm glad you finally got to play Lost Odyssey, Derek. The ring thing didn't bother me. While it doesn't stand out as a remarkable game mechanic, it was nice having something to do during the turns, heh. What I really like about the dreams is how the depth of Kaim's character is revealed. It gives the player a great emotional attachment to the whole thing. I had the same thoughts about it being a throwback to oldschool RPGs for sure. As far as the bosses go, to me, the important thing about the later bosses is their patterns and how you combat them. I had to redo a few fights multiple times before I'd figure it out. Just keep sticking it to them! And I'm 100% with you on the Crisis Core missions, haha! I ended up with just under half of them done before I decided to just tear through the rest of the game! Good stuff though, and a great prequel, in my opinion.
NeoJedi