I'm the type of person that likes strange but fun games and have invested in the more obscure yet (usually) cheaper side of the spectrum. I do this because the majority of my favorites have been complete shots in the dark. (Take Tomba, take Popolocrois, take Gitaroo Man, Psychonauts, Suikoden, Contact, Megaman Legends, and many many more). But with this mentality, not all of them can be great, and I stumble across maybe 1 in 5 that I genuinely love and enjoy. At the same time, "life" has struck more and more rapidly and I have less money to dwindle on these luxuries and have really only had four dark-shots so to speak in the past couple of months, as I've had to be more choosy. Here are the four and what ratings I give them tentatively without having put all that much time into them. If/when I do beat these games the ratings will likely change.

First we have Black Sigil. What looked to be a nice little tug at the nostalgia of SNES RPGs, I held back on preordering, because it looked good from videos and images, but could have easily turned out bad. Amazon eventually offered it for a $22.99 preorder and I felt as though I had to take the bate, as that's quite a deal for a new game on the DS. So I did. And was disappointed. The game has some awesome characters and looks great, but lacks originality and has a pretty godawfully bland and frustrating battle system. It's not awful but it's quickly gone to the near bottom of my list of games to beat. Tentative rating: 6.5.

Steal Princess. Damn. This looked fun to me. Created by Climax, the guys that brought us Landstalker, and whose members splintered off to make Alundra, seemed like a sure bet, as I adored those games. However, Steal Princess kept next to nothing intact besides the flaws of those games. It's a little puzzler, where you have to get a key to a door as quick as possible. See, this is alright to me, albeit disappointing because I was expecting more of an RPG, but add to that the controls being pretty terrible and it moves down there with Black Sigil. Actually, further. Tentative rating: 5.5.

Tsugunai: Atonement. Well, I didn't expect this one to be fantastic. I got it because I want to get anything attached to Yasunori Mitsuda and his music (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, etc), and it turns out not even the music is that good. Some of it in fact is downright uninspired. The battle system of this game adds some strategic elements, but the genericness of everything else takes away from it. Add the scarce save points and the first dungeon being a bit too hard for a first dungeon, so my dying and not saving a good hour or so in and thus not really wanting to play anymore because of it. Tentative rating: 6.0.

Elebits. This may have started to seem like some sort of downward spiral, but I saved the best for last, and strangely it was also the cheapest. Elebits is simple and the story and set-up is obviously aimed at kids. I never let these things bother me, but this one comes close to too much cuteness at times. That said it's fun as hell. Basically, you take the wiimote and "grab" things in a room and move them to find elebits behind or inside them. As you collect more you can pick up heavier objects. It sort of reminds me of Katamari Damacy in this regard. There's also a time limit like Katamari Damacy. Anyway, descriptions don't do it justice. If you have a Wii, you'll have fun with this one. (Not so) tentative rating: 8.0.

So, there you go, not a very good track record on the obscure games grabbing, but I still love to do it. A part of me just wants to play the strangest or least known games I can find and hope I find ones that truly are amazing so I can feel like I'm holding a little diamond that no one knows about. It's happened many times before. But it also comes at the price of a lot of crap. It's generally worth it though.

Let me know of some games you found randomly and really loved or ones that you felt you wasted too much money on.

Well, I didn't continue my Tales of Phantasia review blog... because I didn't continue that game, so there's that.

I got a Wii. Pretty exciting. It's just about as awesome as I expected. I use the internet channel probably more than I play some of my games though. Oh well. The internet is addicting... especially on a high-def TV.

I also got Chrono Trigger for DS and Suikoden for PSP (downloaded the latter off the PSN store-thingy). My two favorite games ever (now portable) are finally showing their age. Considering I played CT a million times on SNES and maybe a half dozen more on PS1, I can't really say the extras here are much worth it. I have heard there is a new link unraveling some of the mystery between CT and Chrono Cross so I feel obligated still to play it again (and again). Don't get me wrong, CT is still one of the best RPGs ever. Just don't over do it like I did, kids.

Suikoden for some reason still feels... fresh. The story and characters are comparatively shallow, but recruiting and going on an equipment/leveling spree for 108 characters never seems to get old. Maybe it really is just Pokemon for an older crowd like my brother always tells me... Not that there's anything wrong with Pokemon...

Well, I don't know why I went on about this. Blah. Just bored. Maybe I needed to gather some thoughts. Yeah, that's it. For reviews of course. *urges himself off the computer and outside for some sun and fresh air*

My first introduction to the Tales series was with Symphonia on the Gamecube. Having played RPGs since the NES, I'd seen it all and Symphonia did nothing for me. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to try out any other Tales games. Here I am finally giving the first of the series a chance though, and I love it and can finally see the charm this series once had that has now worn so very thin in its dozens of other iterations.



I didn't just start playing this game, but I'm just going to go into it. I'm about 3 hours in and I love it. The only gripe I have so far is with the script and plot. The plot was definitely fresh back in the 90s, but the fact that some evil dude has destroyed your village and family and you're seeking revenge is obviously kind of cringe-worthy today. Add to that the whole "in the past some blah blah warriors sealed away some blah blah evil king and now he is being blah blah released" and you've got every RPG ever.



I'm also playing an unofficial English translation because this game was never released in the USA, so obviously the translation is a bit lacking. Not to degrade the translator(s) hard work, because they were obviously paid nothing but did it all for the love of a great game. So I'm not going to complain to much on that note. I'm glad to be playing it in English at all.

Why is Tales good though? Because it exudes the charm of the best SNES RPGs. The graphics are beautiful, the world is interesting and charming, and the battle system is surprisingly non-standard and fun. The battles are based on a 2D field where your characters are given ways to attack that are reminiscent of fighting games. I still haven't quite figured how to do everything in the battle system, but I mean that in a good way. It's simple enough to pick up, but difficult enough to master. Two thumbs up for the battles.



Anyway, today I visited some old man on a mountain, then I needed to go get a pickaxe and rope to break rocks and climb up precipices which I thought was pretty cool and intuitive (for its time anyway) and now I'm in some dungeon that seems longer than I was hoping so I stopped playing and will get back to it later.

Until next time...