Bastion (XBLA)

Time Played: 15-20min (Trial Game)

What Happened:

Issam and I tried Bastion for a few minutes at PAX East, but we couldn't hear any of the audio and I've been meaning to check it out again. Since it's part of Summer of Arcade, I downloaded the trial last night. Basically this is an action RPG with really cool art, and a hinted at story in which information is conveyed as you need it - for example, I'm headed towards the "Bastion" but I don't know what hat it, and there was an event called the "Calamity" but I don't know what that is --- but it makes me want to know. :)

You primarily hit things with a hammer, but you also get a couple of different ranged attacks, and can choose (as in most action RPGS) what stats you want to boost, and some degree of what attacks you'd like to use. I've encountered a couple different types of AI, which tend to swarm you in most cases (also like most Action RPGs), and there are also some ranged AI (see below). There is a hub, but I don't know a lot about it yet, since I just played the trial. So far I was able to get information from the "Stranger" character who hangs out there (who is also the narrator ;) ), and choose if I wanted to build an armory or distillery. Then I used a portal to progress to the next level (where the trial ends).

What I Liked:

Art. Clearly very cool, as everyone is talking about it. :) But that also brings me to a negative - it's so cool that I often wished the camera was closer in. Usually the information you need is contained in the center of the screen, so there's not much need for the wide angle of view. I could see this being done strictly for the mood and composition - like, you're this small thing in this big floating, mysterious world - but even still. Particularly because the art is so pretty it would be cool to be a little more up close and feel as though I'm part of the world. It could still be isometric. I'm just glad I finally got an HDTV or this game would have been impossible to play.

Narration. This is the main reason that people are talking about this game and it makes sense. It's pretty cool. :) You feel like you're in the middle of a story while it's being told, and like I mentioned above, you get little snippets of information that make you curious about what's going on - like mentions of the Bastion or the Calamity.

Story. Basically the same as what I was saying above - there's a story that's hinted at, and it's intriguing. I didn't actually learn anything during the demo though - I wonder how much you actually get to find out during the game. That being said, it still didn't hook me quite enough to make me keep at it to find out. I guess I still needed more mystery.

Limited Moves/Heal (Whirlwind). The only thing that seemed a little different from most Action RPGs was that your special move was linked to collectibles - you collected up to 3 bottles of, I guess, alcohol, and each allowed you to perform your special attack once. They were plentiful enough that you could do the move fairly often, but just rare enough that you tried to be smart about it. I guess it was really the same set up as any game which gives you a mana bar - but it was represented by items instead of a gauge. You also were able to heal fairly often - you refilled your '3 swigs of potion' each time you encountered a fountain (which felt often enough). But yeah, I like being able to heal often. ;)

Fall off World. Just as an interesting note, you can fall off of the world. There didn't seem to be a penalty that I noticed - maybe your health bar goes down a little to prevent you from using it as a strategy? I thought it was neat though - after all, you are on a floating island.

Stranger. In the hub you run into an NPC with the title of "Stranger" - who is the narrator! I thought that was a neat touch, to give him a face and a place in the world. I also liked that after you asked him all of the questions he had available, you'd encounter an empty menu and the phrase "sometimes, there's just not much to talk about".

Length of Trial. For me, this was a good trial length. Games get about 5-10min to get my attention, and as is clear from my journal, I usually play in really short chunks. ;) I feel like I got a pretty good sense of what this game was about.

What I Didn't Like:

Traversal Speed. You're just a hair too slow. Sometimes you don't notice... but sometimes you really do. This seems to be the case in a lot of isometric games - I wonder why.

Distillery. This is totally a personal preference thing - but as I said at the top, you occasionally come across distilleries which let you alter your stats. 10% speed increase while blocking, etc. I just really don't care for this stuff - I never really feel that it makes enough of a difference to be noticeable. Clearly they can't dramatic alter the way that you play the game, or it would be hard to balance.. so I sort of feel like I'm pretending to do something. That or maybe I just never play these games long enough, and it actually does make a difference over time... but I never really want to be thinking about numbers when I'm playing a game.

Arsenal. In addition to the distilleries, there are arsenals where you choose your weapons and special moves. I actually just really found this confusing. There are 3 slots - which at this point in the game you really only have 3 weapons anyway (hammer, ranged weapon, special attack) so I poked around and managed to switch which button did what... I guess I just needed more of an explanation. :)

Ranged Weapons. Somewhere in the first half of the trial I got a ranged weapon (I can't think of what it was called... but basically a crossbow) - and then at some point later I got a bow and arrow. I never really figured out if I lost the original weapon? Maybe this is where I should have been paying more attention in the armory, and I had a choice of what to use? But when I picked up the bow I didn't know I was going to lose the ability to use the other weapon, so that was confusing.

Ranged Combat. Ranged combat is super annoying when you use the bow and arrow. There are stationary ranged AI which shoot a semi-constant stream of shots at you which you can block with your shield. In order to use your bow and arrow, you have to hold down the button to pull the arrow back - but generally, the amount of time it takes is less than the amount of time between AI shots. Maybe I didn't understand something, but I was basically just getting creamed in every AI section. I never died though... just got creamed.

Going to Next Level. At the end of the demo in the hub, I got stuck for a few minutes because I wasn't sure how to proceed. :) My first instinct was to go towards the 'magical looking thing' at the top of the level, but I didn't see any button prompts near it.. so I wandered around for awhile. Eventually I went back to it - and this time noticed a prompt. It could have been placed better I think - and perhaps the object itself could have looked more like a portal, or something that suggested activity.

Hub. More personal preference, but because I don't tend to care about stats, I never really like hubs. I'd prefer to just move from level to level with minimal interruption. Hubs to me just feel like double the loading screen time. I'm sure I could be convinced of a use for hubs if they offered a little more... but generally they bother me.

AI Swarms. This is just personal preference, obviously, since it's a standard in action RPGs - but I hate AI swarms. They get so tedious.... I actually find that in cases where I don't have to kill AI, I just run away from them after awhile because I'm tired of fighting.

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

I think this is a beautiful game, and I think the narration is neat -- but other than that, it's really not offering a unique experience. I think the 15-20min trial was good enough for me. Maybe I'll look for some spoilers online if I'm really curious about the story - but I don't feel like battling my way through thousands of AI to figure it out. :)

Space Channel 5 (PS2)

Time Played: 1 hour

What Happened:

I've been visiting a couple of local used games stores lately, which sell a lot of older games. It's cool because there really are a ton of games that I missed, and now I get the opportunity to check them out. For example, I got my hands on the PS2 port of this game for about $4, and I'd always wanted to try it.

Basically it's a call and answer music/rhythm game. You get a sequence of inputs to a rhythm and you repeat them back. This one follows a space reporter (who rescues people and carries a laser gun) and focuses on dance. In each level, there is a situation where people are being held hostage by aliens, and you go through a series of sequences where you dance and shoot to save them. Each level seems to feature some sort of rival entertainer (another reporter, a pirate radio personality) that you dance off against, as well as a giant monster boss which requires you to alternate between your 'shooting things' and 'saving things' buttons.

What I Liked:

Over the Top! I'm a big fan of games that celebrate the fact that they are games by being wacky and over the top. The entire premise for this show is ridiculous, and I love it. Is she a reporter, or a crime fighting vigilante? What in the world does dancing have to do with beating aliens? Why do the rescued hostages feel compelled to dance along behind her once you've saved them? How can she walk in those shoes? Who cares? It's super fun.

Dance Choreography. It's primarily a dancing game, and I think the dancing is really well done. It too, is over the top - particularly her 'good' or 'bad' walk from sequence to sequence (in fact, the walk is so funny when you do fail that I don't feel all that bad about doing poorly). Despite some minor foot sliding (and a weird bug where Ulala lost contact with the ground for a whole sequence) the animation looks great.

Structure. I think there is a good mix of types of sequences - there are sections where enemies/hostages pop up and you have to aim & shoot at them to a rhythm, sections that are purely dance, and sections that are purely shooting. The shooting sections are particularly cool, since you get a different dramatic camera shot for each hit. I think the game has a nice mix, so you don't quite feel like you're always doing the same thing, even though you really only have 6 different actions.

Characters. All that same stuff about being over the top can be said about the characters. They're all totally crazy looking and seem to show up for no reason. It's pure joy.

Gameplay! I dunno, music/rhythm is fun! I like when there's a particularly challenging rhythm to repeat and I nail it.

What I Didn't Like:

Timing. This game is totally unforgiving in terms of your input window. I noticed this when I picked up Parappa again maybe 2-3 years ago: there are a lot of time where you could swear you were doing it correctly, but getting negative feedback. This could also just be a product of the game being an older title.

Repetitive? I didn't get sick of it yet, but I also get the feeling I've seen all this game really has to offer in terms of gameplay. Maybe that's just fine though. :) I'll have to play it some more and see if I feel like it gets old - because I hadn't really felt that yet.

Failing. Failing sucks because you have to replay the entire level. I only failed once, but I think if I had failed twice I probably would have quit playing. I think the joy in this game is seeing what's coming up next, so repeating a section lost a lot of the magic.

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

Overall I think it was fun and I want to check it out some more!

Bit.Trip Series (WiiWare)

I had demoed Bit.Trip Runner at GDC this year and really enjoyed it. It was actually one of the few games where I didn't feel self conscious just picking it up and playing it (more on that below), and so I've been following news about the games. I read at IndieGames.com that there were free demos up for some of the games, so I thought it was a good opportunity to check more of them out. There are more games in the Bit.Trip series, but I only had the opportunity to play Core, Void and Runner.


Bit.Trip Core (2nd in series)
Time Played: ~5min

I'll start with Core since I liked it the least. Honestly, I'm not really sure if I actually figured out what I was supposed to be doing. You control a dark circle, which you can move around the screen as you wish, and white and black dots appear in from the side of the screen (I think they appear to the beat). You can absorb them by moving on top of them. I figured out through sound that absorbing dark spots was good (it made me bigger), and absorbing white was bad (it made a bad sound, and instantly made me small).

This game seemed to have the least to do with the music, and I didn't enjoy the music itself as much. There are points where absorbing a white spot is unavoidable...which I guess is just a standard part of progression (like, you finished this section), but I didn't get a lot of positive feedback, so I never really knew if I was doing it correctly.


Bit.Trip Void (3rd in series)
Time Played: ~10min

This game has a lot of similarity to something like Guitar Hero - there is a plus in the center of the screen, and you hold down a direction on the D pad and tap a button to 'strum' it. This causes a solid line to shoot out from that direction, which catches the pixels which are flying around the screen. As all the other games, this is a music game - you are catching the pixels to the ryhthm of the music.

I think I would have enjoyed Void a lot more if I had found the music to be more compelling. Also, it took me a little bit of time to figure out what to do. But yeah, mainly the music is what would have made this a great game.. as is usually the case with music/rhythm.


Bit.Trip Runner (4th in series)
Time Played 20-30min

Runner is definitely my favorite of the three games - it's also the most polished, and most recent of the 3. Your character runs automatically across a level which scrolls from right to left. You have 3 basic mechanics: jump, slide and kick, and you simply react to what is coming. To time your moves correctly, they all must be triggered in time with the music (funny: I was totally working on a Bollywood game which was the same idea. If I had finished it, it would have been a clone without my even realizing.)

You collect white orbs which bring the game 'to the next level' - the music kicks in another level, and your character eventually grows a rainbow trail. I did well in the first few levels, so it wasn't until the 4th or so that I figured out the game loops until you successfully collect enough of these orbs in succession (so, your goal is actually to reach a certain power level, as opposed to just surviving a linear level). If you hit a hazard, you jump backwards in the level, and your power level is back to one.

I really enjoy this game for a lot of reasons. Primarily, the music makes this game. It starts off pleasant enough, but when you reach the 3rd power level it really kicks in, and it sounds awesome and you feel like a badass. The visuals are simple and very neat. When I looked for images for this writeup I was excited to see that there are other themes to levels than what I saw in the first couple. The timing is unforgiving - you have a very narrow margin of error - but I think that it's just at that sweet spot between being challenging and fun.

As I mentioned above, this is a game that I felt very comfortable picking up and playing - it's extremely easy to figure out what to do. I think it is inviting - I'm not 100% sure if I could convince my mom to try it... but I was happy because I was not intimidated at all. (That being said, players that are rhythmically challenged might feel the exact opposite). The mechanics were introduced individually, one level at a time (although that made the ramp in difficulty seem a little off in the very beginning - the 3rd level was a lot easier than the 2nd level -- but I don't think it matters too much since the point was really just that you got the mechanic.)

This game actually has been calling to me since I played it on Sunday. :) I really want to pick it up again, simply because the mechanics are so fun. (I think the pull for me might be similar to Geometry Wars - which I also need to write about at some point).

***UPDATE** SO I just bought the full version of Bit.Trip Runner and I was completely wrong about progression. :) Apparently all you actually have to do is survive the level to progress to the next one. The gold and levels are all just bonuses. If you make a mistake, you get teleported back to the beginning of the level. After 45min of playing, I'm thinking the penalty is too high, and gets extremely frustrating during longer levels. I think I'll still keep playing it though.

I'm curious to play Fate & Flux, which came after Runner.

The Lost Vikings (SNES)

Time Played: 2 hours

What Happened:

It felt like this game came up a lot in conversation during the last few months, so I wanted to play it to really understand what everyone was talking about.

If you're like me, and didn't play it when it came out in 1995, the game works like this: you control 3 different vikings. You can only control one at a time, and must get all 3 of them through various traversal puzzles (stuff like finding keys, avoiding enemies, hitting switches, getting over pits). They all possess different abilities - they have multiple abilities, but at a simplified level, one can block, one can jump, and one can fight. If any of them dies, you fail the level. You can restart the level at any time because it is possible to get stuck.

What I Liked:
Mechanics. And of course this is the reason that people remember and bring up the game. The idea of controlling 3 characters and using them cooperatively is really cool, and hasn't used in a lot of other games. I like it because you build a different connection with each character - in one level I think the shield guy is the best and most useful, and I'm extra fond of him, then in the next it's all about the jumping guy. ;) I think because there are 3 you feel as though you are working with them, as opposed to 'being' one of them, and I think that this is a near paradigm. The levels were well designed to make you use all of them, and value all 3 of them.

Music. The music was energetic, which is something I always appreciate - especially in puzzle games. I particularly liked the spaceship level music.

Environments. I thought the overall levels were cool. Levels progressed through themes - for example the first few were on a spaceship, and so art was reused across those levels, the next few were jungle levels, and then caves. I liked the visuals and was excited to see what was coming up next.

What I Didn't Like:
No narrative. Not that this is really a problem, I just suspect that this is why I haven't picked the game back up, and what makes me think of it as a 'rainy day' game. Nothing is really calling out to me - I feel that I have seen the basics of what this game has to offer, and continued gameplay will offer more of the same.

Communication. This is a game from 1995, so I'm not going to be super harsh - but there were a few times that I got stuck just because things were not communicated well. For example, in one of the spaceship levels, a piece of artwork is meant to be viewed as a foreground element that you walk behind, but I read it as a wall, and got completely stuck in the level until Issam pointed it out. There's also on where you ride in bubbles - but when I first saw the bubbles it was completely inconceivable that I would be able to ride in one of them. :) I think this has much more to do with it being 16 years old.

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:
I had fun and I'm interested in picking it up again. That being said, it's a puzzle game, so there's no overall story which is drawing me back in to it, which I think is why I haven't picked it up in the month since I first played it. I would personally classify this as another rainy day game - fun if I want to kill some time, but it's certainly not calling to me from the shelf.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360)

Play time: ~1 hour

What Happened:
So I played the 1st 15min twice because the power went off the first time I was playing it. :) I like Journey to the West type stuff (mainly Dragonball), and I like the concept of games where you help a partner AI character survive (Ico) so I've definitely been interested in this game for awhile.

I played it for about an hour on Sunday. The story is that you're.. some guy (who sort of has a NY accent that you don't notice for awhile) who was imprisoned on a ship for some reason gets busted out when this girl destroys the ship. While escaping you find out about these devices that kill people when they disobey the rules (one of the workers on the ships talks to you to tell you he can't talk to him, and the computer kills him). After the ship goes down, you wake up to find that the girl has attached one to your head, so now you must obey her and keep her alive. She wants you to take her to a colony to the West (hence the title).

Gameplay is mostly traversing terrain - the ship is breaking apart, so I need to jump from here to here before it falls off, or there's a robot with a laser over there, so I need to go take it out before it kills us. It's broken up by occasional sections where you have to fight many robots at once (like most action/RPGs), which is something I never like so I'll talk more about that below. :)

What I Liked:

Concept. I love the idea of working together with another character. I also really enjoy the mystery in this game - you don't really know what's going on. Why is NY city rubble? Who is this woman and what can she do? Who are you and why were you locked up in that ship? This is the sort of thing that actually might keep me playing.

ANIMATION. The animation on the main character is amazing. I have fun just making him run around. There are some handling issues though (see below), but I really enjoy the animation in this game more than any game I've seen in awhile.

Characters. I like the character designs, and I'm pretty happy with their personalities, although they don't have very big personalities... basically the main character's personality is "angry" and the girl's is "scared" but I think there's been some really strong acting in there to support that.

Traversal. I think that my favorite things in a game is when you're in a big, beautiful, alien environment and you're exploring it in ways that you normally can't - and this game has that. I can't just jump into a tree, or leap through the air impossibly far. ;) I like that the main character is a monkey man, who can get anywhere, and it's really fun to feel like I'm exploring (even though the game is very linear, I'm constantly rounding the bend to something that seems new).

Environment. The environment is beautiful! Sure, it's just more rubble and wreckage like most games nowadays, but it's still done very well and I enjoy it. Because it is so cool looking it makes me that much more excited about exploring (obviously, that's the thing about exploring - finding cool looking things).

What I Didn't Like:

Handling. We always talk about games like this as animators, and now I'm finally playing one - the animation is fabulous in this game, but your super agile monkey man character does not handle very well! The most obvious example of this (and really thinking about it, maybe it's the only one and it's just made a HUGE impression since you see it so often) is that when you stop running, you get the "run_to_idle" transition animation, which you feel every time because it handles differently than you would expect.

Tedium. I'm so close to putting combat into the "What I Liked" section, except for the fact that it just felt like guys took a couple too many hits to take out. Particularly since you seem so powerful! I'm like, smashing the crap out of this machine, which is apparently beaten up and sort of ancient looking, and it's still taking me like, 10-12 hits to take him down. I really don't think that anything is added by making the enemies last longer than 1-2 hits - particularly since this game seems to primarily be about traversing. Example, there are 2 robots way off on the other side of this valley shooting at me. I need to have the girl cause a distraction, and then climb all of the way over there without getting shot. Getting there is where the challenge and fun live. I think some satisfaction is to be had from beating on them, but it just takes a little too long for them to explode.

Combat Cameras. This is almost really cool, but doesn't quite make it - they tried to make the combat really cinematic, so you get some dynamic camera cuts and cool angles when you fight - but then every time I stop fighting I'm completely disoriented.

Also on the note of Tedium. Sections where you have to fight like, 20 robots, 2-3 at a time. They're not particularly challenging to kill, so I'm really just then button mashing for awhile...

Animation Stretching. I think it's the result of level design - but you get some of those weird spots where the character has to jump a huge distance which the animation wasn't intended for, so the character has to travel a farther distance over the same length of time (since it's the same animation), so he goes super fast for just a second. It's a picky polish thing, but I noticed it. ;)

Where to Go? For the most part traversal paths are made apparent by a shimmering effect which runs over parts and pieces of things that can be used as handholds, but I think that this is sort of a weak solution to this problem. Also there are places where it's still not apparent where to go at all - like when you have to jump a distance that seems impossible.

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:
I will definitely pick this game up again. Despite any of the shortcomings I mentioned, it's definitely intriguing enough that I want to see more. That being said, I would be very surprised if I actually finished this game - I sort of suspect that I'll get tired of it after one or two more hours. (I know... so pessimistic. I hope I'm wrong!!)

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)

Time Played: 1 hour

What Happened:
I've had this game sitting on my shelf for awhile and had been meaning to get to it. I picked it up this week because it's being featured in the Collectables Relay Race rounds of our gaming Olympics at work which I'm helping to organize, and I needed to unlock some levels.

In the game, Kirby has been transformed into yarn by a wizard- which switches out his normal creature-eating ability for the ability to transform into different things like a parachute for floating, a car for dashing, and a weight for ground-pounding. You and a friend are searching for pieces of magical yarn which piece the world back together (unlocking new worlds). You also have an apartment, and find pieces of furniture in the levels to decorate with (a la Little Big Planet). Also at this point in the game I've been called on once to help decorate an empty apartment so that the building owner can get someone to move in.

Gameplay is simple - traverse through liner levels collecting gems and killing enemies if you should choose to. I'm not actually sure if you can die in the game... you lose your gems as a penalty when hit - but I'm not sure what happens if you're hit and have no gems. You can only be 'hurt' by enemies with weapons or entities in the level like lava - when it comes to normal minions, you can bump into them without suffering any damage.

What I Liked:

Presentation & Polish. Every little detail in the animation and visuals is just awesome in terms of polish. It really feels like a cohesive world, and small details totally make it. Stuff like the unique sequences for each new level when it is unlocked, the unique transformation sequences, etc - It's clear that a lot of love and attention went into this game's visuals.

Level Select. As opposed to just being a map, the level select in this game is presented in a similar format to the levels - you walk around and jump on things like in any level. To get back to your apartment you just walk right to left through the worlds. So far it's cute - I'm not sure if when I've unlocked more worlds it will become tedious?

Sound effects (but not music). The sound effects are extremely charming and help make the world feel complete.

Idea. Clearly, with the buzz that surrounded this game when it came out, the concept is pretty cool. It's a neat idea to play on the concept of a 2D sidescroller by making something that can only work in 2D (transforming yarn), and it works well with Kirby's traditional powers.

Transformation Sections. Almost every level features a section where Kirby does a unique transformation - for example, a tank, a firetruck or a UFO. They provide a change to the pacing and feel of the game, and usually feature a different mechanic - this provides a nice break, and adds a feeling of variety to the gameplay.

What I Didn't Like:

Music. I think this was a repeat of ilomilo for me musically. :) It started off cute and charming, but quickly got monotonous. It was just a little too low energy for me, and I started to feel like I was dragging just a little because of the music. As much as I dislike games which play up the tension to the point that you feel like you need to decompress after playing, I appreciate some level of tension in a game, and the music really worked against that. This also coupled with the overall lack of difficulty in the game (see below).

Pacing. This was also an issue in the cinematics (see below) but it felt that everything dragged just a little bit. Some levels felt like they took a bit of time before they really got going. I liked the level unlocking animations, but they drew out the amount of time that you weren't really playing. The apartment decorating sections (the required ones) felt unnecessary and drawn out (example: the one where you decorate an apartment so that the building owner can sell it). I think a fair amount of this can be chalked up to the fact that this game was targeted towards younger audiences - but usually Nintendo does a good job of making games pretty universal, so I don't know if that's it.

Cinematics. I find that this is true about most games which are translated from Japanese into English, but the narration in the cinematics feel like it takes FOREVER. This may be intentional to create that old-time storybook feel... but I found the cinematics to be excruciating.

Brutality. I'm not a huge fan of violence in any games, so you'd think Kirby would be right up my alley - but since the characters are all made of yarn, when you kill them they are seemingly ripped to shreds. Like, yarn floats off into space as though they were never alive... for some reason I found this sort of disturbing.

Minions. I don't know if I would have noticed if I hadn't read the Kotaku article pointing it out, but there is seemingly no reason to attack most of the bad guys in the game - they don't damage you. They knock down your gems if they're holding weapons, but if they're not, they're pretty much just collision. They also fall down pathetically when you come close to them, which makes it even more tragic to kill them. When I was UFO Kirby I'm pretty sure they were actually cowering as I flew overhead, which made me feel even worse when I realized I had to suck some up in order to build up a charge. Tragic.

Boss Fight. I've only done the one boss fight, but it seemed completely disconnected from the rest of the game. I don't even understand why I was fighting a boss... Also it was extremely easy, and a bit tedious.

Easy. There's not very much in the way of challenge in this game. I actually don't think there's anything wrong with easy games - but I think in order for an easy game to be successful it needs a little more going for it in terms of story, or uncovering new, fun game mechanics. This just felt lacking.

Apartment? I'm not really sure if I'd say it's a negative - just that it was something that didn't seem to fit with the rest of the game.

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

Meh. I don't feel that the overall experience has been compelling enough to keep my interest. Maybe if the story were more interesting, or if the gameplay was just a little more fun... but just the visuals aren't enough to keep me on board.

Okamiden (DS)

Play Time: ~20min

History with the Franchise:
Everyone told me I would like Okami, so I tried it. I think I lasted for an hour before collapsing of boredom. I know, harsh... it just really didn't grab me. I didn't even find the graphics particularly enchanting because they had been talked up so much beforehand. It was slow and felt tedious.

What Happened:
This is going to be a short journal, since I barely played any of the game at all! I wasn't planning on doing a write up until I had given it some more time, but I'm really pessimistic that I ever will give it more time, and that in itself is a valuable observation, so I want to capture it.

So yeah, even though I disliked Okami, and every review explains that this is basically the same exact game (although, some say, a little worse?) I was hopelessly sold by the adorable characters. I'm so simple-minded.

I watched the intro sequence, and got into the first few gameplay tutorials before I quit for fear of my battery dying. I have not picked it up since (this was... a month ago).

What I Liked:
Cute! There's an adorable puppy! Look at it!!

What I Didn't Like:
Slow! The dialogue felt tedious and drawn out, and 10min in nothing had happened and I was bored and tired of the game. Yes, I know that this is unfair --- but I think it's really important to understand that first impressions are vital! I forget which speaker said it at GDC this year (maybe Richard Dansky) but as a game designer, you are only guarenteed one thing: that the player will start the game. From there, the player can do anything he wants - including quitting. There are so many games to play and there's so little time, that if you don't hook me fast, I'm going to find something more interesting.

That's all I wanted to capture on this one. ;) Maybe it'll get another shot someday when I'm bored at an airport.