Grinding through Goresby-Purrvis and Godwyn

Once again, all it took was gaining a single level all around and Goresby-Purrvis went down. With a fight, but nonetheless. I chalk most of the victory up to my new strategy, however (mostly because everyone who reached level forty didn't get any skill points for their trouble and so nothing new and powerful was learned by anyone). 

First there's the assist duo. Thoth, my wizard, increases the party's speed and then attack power while my priest Peridot heals and boosts defense. 

Then there's the attack duo. My thief Kleftis (weirdly tank-like) attacks or heals my main character Nizk. Nizk, always uses the "Falcon Slash" ability since it attacks twice (and after all the magic buffs he hits for around three times the damage of a single strike). 

Keeping this setup running and using Coup de Grâces as they came up saw me through the fight with Purrvis.

And the bout with the the Gittingham big bad himself, King Godwyn. 

Not to mention the battle with bad King Godwyn's second form as well. 

Though being levels 40, 40, 39, and 38 (Nizk, Kleftis, Thoth, Peridot) no doubt helps, I think my strategy is doing more than grinding ever could. And this, using the game's stat-boosters to concentrate attack power in a few select characters, is definitely the way to play. Dragon Quest IX's combat is purely turn-based after all.

RPGs like Chrono Trigger, where there's less time to make decisions about stat-boosts cut back on the players' ability to do so. 

RPGs like Tales of Phantasia, where the battles play out like arcade fighting games, include such abilities usually only for the AI controlled characters. In doing so, these games release the player from having to actively use them in combat and thus release them from case by case strategizing for the most part. 

But purely turn-based games like Dragon Quest IX are much more contemplative. Having finally figured that out, I'm now ready for the last leg of the game. And surely that's what's coming next. 

Grinding into Gittingham

So the next phase of Dragon Quest IX requires me to go to Gittingham Palace. Since a convenient doorstep stop has been created for the Starflight Express, that's an easy enough task. So easy that I figured I would do some dawdling first. I had recently found a key that can open any lock, after all, and there were doors that needed opening.

After opening those that I could remember, I got back onto the game's main track.

So I show up at Gittingham Palace's gates and see two guards on the door. I was geared up for a relatively easy fight. Instead, however, one of the leaders of the Gittingham Empire appears when you near the palace: Hootingham-Gore. Then he challenges you.

This is like going to fight Magus in Chrono Trigger and having him challenge you after the iconic cutscene of the exterior of his castle. Although that game does an exceptional job of evenly pacing out your characters' levels with its difficulty curve.

Dragon Quest IX does not do the same.

Hootingham-Gore threw out Frizzles and Swooshes like a pitching machine throws out baseballs, and his flanking guards swung their halberds for never less than 30 damage. Not expecting a mini-boss before the dungeon even started, I was not only taken off guard I was taken out. Reduced first to my two party members who have no means of reviving the others, and then to my powerful (in one on one encounters) thief, my party crumbled then and there on the doorstep of Gittingham Palace.

Realistically, should I have expected a different outcome? No. Not at all.

Since the journey to Upover, the game's not offered any direct means of level building.

I could've left the prison break for a session to grind around the Gittish Empire or elsewhere. Or I could have done some grinding before or after going to the Realm of the Almighty. But since Upover, I've only been facing a series of bosses (mini and otherwise) without the monster-filled, and subsequently level-boosting, dungeons they usually go with.

Because I'd been facing this string of bosses I had no real sense that I needed to level up before heading into Gittingham Palace.

And maybe I don't, but I have a full quest queue so why not kill two mecha-mynahs with one stone?

Away game special: A phantasy ended

It is done. With the power of three, Phantasy Star IV was finished in the space of a weekend. At a guess, the whole game took us about 20 hours to complete.

At that time, the game comes  up a bit short for a 16-bit JRPG. A lot of comparisons we're made to Chrono Trigger (another short game if you know it well) and I think the two games share more than relative shottness.

Both games have a sleek, slim main plot line. Both also use intuitive, pace-quickening combat mechanics. However, the games differ wildly in the range of their extra content.

Chrono Trigger has a quest or event for each character's best weapon (at least); Phantasy Star IV really only has quests to outfit two of your four core characters. We probably would've cared more about Gryz (the butt of nearly all of our jokes and riffs) if we could've walked through a chapter of his life for something to make him a worthwhile addition to our battle party.

Stepping away from matters of combat efficiency, we never really learn much of anything in-game about Phantasy Star IV's four non-core characters. The priest Raja is something of an exception here, but jovial, life-loving priest characters always have a tremendous presence.

Nonetheless, the game is, overall, something to experience (though, nostalgia aside, once is enough). Plus, Phantasy Star IV does something no Final Fantasy game has ever done: it effectively (and, a little affectively) ends its series' saga.

A radiant ramble

It is done. Vainqueur has been beaten, and the sword called the "Historica" has been powered up "Masamune" style to the "True Historica." What's more, 217 of the total 236 nodes have been finished. I'll be treated to the best ending because of that. Once I actually get through the boss gauntlet that is the game's end.

On the cusp of Radiant Historia's end, I just have a quick bit about the game's time travel mechanic. As a refresher for anyone who hasn't played Radiant Historia, you can time travel from any save point to any critical moment in time. So you're not able to zip around with quite as much freedom as you can in Chrono Trigger's Epoch, but such structured time travelling adds a great deal of depth to the game.

Replaying events over and over again does get tedious, but pressing "Start" or "X" skips you through cutscenes and dialogue. However, it does allow you to see everything in the game without any fear of missing out on sidequests or hidden dialogue. Plus, if you ever do want to go back to get something every event in the game is ordered in a complete dual timeline. And sidequests are set just below or above the regular story event where they're activated.

Thus, as boggling as time travel might be, Radiant Historia's set up makes it easy to find where you need to go and to go there. On this count, Chrono Trigger could be downright opaque in its hinting at sidequests. So Radiant Historia, though frequently compared to Chrono Trigger, bests it in terms of time travel mechanics, particularly because its timelines' organization is perfectly suited to a handheld like the DS.

Lay away book special: Looking for the hand that spins the wheel

The Wheel of Ice was maybe a script before it was a novel. That's the sense that I get from an oddity of the book's organization. Every time there's a flashback, it isn't presented as the stuff of a regular chapter, or even given space as its own. Instead they're delivered in multi-sectioned interludes.

These parts of the book let the flashbacks breathe, greatly benefiting the characters within them. But otherwise, unless there's some sort of editorial business at work here, I don't see why they need to be separate from the rest of the story.

Granted, separating them out like this does make them into more than just an embedded reminiscence. I'm not sure that seeing Phee's maternal ancestry as they passed the amulet down to her would have had quite the same impact if we were constantly reminded that she and Jamie were huddled in a shelter on Encephalaus with the rest of those gone skiing.

Speaking of which, the character of Jo, Phee's mom, reminds me of Lucca's mom from Chrono Trigger. They didn't come to be confined to wheelchairs for the same reasons, but it's perfectly within reason to say that Jo's character is a soldier version of Lara's.

Pushing the Chrono Trigger connection further, the amulet that Phee always has with her is now implicated as an object that has travelled through time. Could Stephen Baxter have played the RPG classic and taken a lead from Marle's pendant?

Alternatively, the amulet's origin in a "fossil" could be a nod to the Fourth Doctor story The Hand of Fear.

In this serial, Sarah Jane Smith becomes hypnotized by a ring on the fossilized hand of the Kastrian criminal Eldrad, and brings about his resurrection. The ring is found in 1970s Earth, and though it's been dormant for millions of years rather than having travelled through time, the same sort of idea is at work: A piece of ancient alien technology is on Earth, is discovered by someone and one way or another its true purpose is fulfilled. That's just what seems to be happening with Phee's amulet and the strange blue ceramic-y beings the miners of the Wheel are starting to encounter.

If this pattern is being followed, then all that's left is the why. Given the book's tagline of "Resilience. Remembrance. Restoration. Whatever the cost." and the prologue about the intelligence responsible for these things, the why looks like it'll be because that intelligence failed. Shifting the question to the how.

After a quick stop for a magic sword

No J-RPG would be complete without the need for a magic sword to defeat the final boss. Radiant Historia makes this step quite quick, almost ridiculously so. Especially since the boss you need the sword for waits patiently while you run off to jump through time to get it.

Getting the sword itself is probably the easiest thing in the game yet. You just need to grab the drained sword from the spot in the lab beside the demigod Hugo, hop through time to Celestia, speak with Elm, and then away you go.

Magic sword aside, though, Hugo's something of a pushover. He has stamina, but not nearly enough offense to pose much of a threat to any party. Taking him on with Stocke, Raynie, and Marco, my standard strategy worked fine. Use some Mana Bursts, get Marco on support while Stocke moves enemies into place and Raynie showers them with her powered up magic.

What's missing, actually, from the battles so far is any sort of serious puzzle. Moving enemies around the battle grid to maximize the damage you do and the number of enemies you do it to is helpful, but all it takes is one turn to break an enemy's special attack formation. So, the hope for the game's final boss is that something along the lines of the fight with Magus or Lavos from Chrono Trigger will show up. A battle where you need to pay attention to where you attack and what you attack with to actually do any real damage would really bring Radiant Historia to a masterful close.

Restrictive controls

The fight with Doctor Peace was as good a place as any to remind myself that you need to hold "1" while jerking the wiimote to charge Travis' beam sword. Oh, No More Heroes. At least blocking his bullets is automatic. Though just being able to hit "A" to attack and only periodically actually having to swing is disappointing.

Playing an array of games from a console's lifespan with no regard to the chronology of their release dates never mattered at all until the Wii came along. With Skyward Sword forever engraved in my memory (muscle and otherwise), it's underwhelming to just run up to a boss and hit "A," shifting from "High" to "Low" hits with motion control. Still, the game's voice acting is good and the cinematics are an excellent touch.

Plus, as an RPG and Legend of Zelda fan, having an actual speaking protagonist is a great plus. Though, it has stood in the way of Travis' being as much of a proxy for me as say Crono or Link.

Back again to the Sand Fortress

Once again, Radiant Historia's story has Stocke and the gang go back to the Sand Fortress. Where the road branches off to Granorg, Allistel, and apparently Cygnus. This is definitely the most visited place in the game's story, and it shows, somewhat annoyingly, in the limited exploration of the area.

Having already visited the Sand Fortress on several occasions, it has been entirely looted. The way through the sprawling building has also pretty much been memorized at this point. In a way, the familiarity with the Sand Fortress that you build up to this point really makes you, the player, feel like Stocke and/or Rosch. These two characters were stationed at said fortress for a chunk of the game's story, and no doubt the two veterans know the place like the backs of their hands.

For such a late-in-the-game return, though, there should really be more to do. Maybe a hidden room that couldn't be accessed before, or some sort of chest that can only now be opened. Such a delayed secret is something out of Chrono Trigger's book, but still. Good artists borrow and great artists steal.

Most certainly, it's definitely strange that Field Marshall Viola's nowhere to be found, especially since it's made clear that she's been sequestered in such a remote place as a kind of punishment. Instead, the Sand Fortress is being commanded by a generic soldier who, though decked out in the newest Thaumatech suit, goes down like a failed soufflé. Perhaps Stocke and co. meet her again in Granorg.

With some questing on the side

Though now some two chapters behind, Radiant Historia's Alternate History is now one step closer to being brought back up to snuff. However, since the two creatures you fight in the Cygnus tournament after having beaten your human opponents are from the Abyssia Forest, and that's where Stocke and co. must go to earn their right to treat with the Gutral, I'm making every preparation possible.

So, I've just been running through sidequests. It's definitely very helpful to be able to do them at any time, since too often - even in games involving time travel like Chrono Trigger - it's easy to miss your chance to set them off. Travelling around in the game's quite linear storyline, though, always keeps sidequests - those found, and those yet to be found - ready for picking up.

Since the game's nearing its end, many of those side-quests involve secret techniques for characters, or best equipment. The set of tasks tied to the even "Living Legend" has already yielded a few "Pacts" that purport to teach special techniques, but it seems that they all need to be found before they can be learned.

In keeping with the game's fairly free-flowing time travel mechanic, most quests can't be completed as soon as you find them. Or, later in the game, they require a lot more jumping around. My hope is that the Living Legend won't prove to be one of the latter, since if it does then I may find it necessary to gather all of the spear and sword techniques from a sidequest started much earlier in the game. And such would put the "ech" in fetch quest.

Grinding through the Lazvill Hills

Grinding's proven necessary to get past the thaumachine Stocke and co. have to face in the Lazvill Hills. Radiant Historia's giving experience points to everyone in your party is great for this grind, but it halves points for characters who aren't actively battling.

Therefore, putting Rosch into the active party spring-boarded him to level 24 in a handful of fights. Though, fights against Alistel's soldiers are genuinely difficult. All the same, the neat thing about Rosch's special moves is that they all affect the target's stats. Since this will make the thaumachine fight much much easier, Rosch will definitely be coming into that battle.

But this need to grind brings something to my attention. The fact that a difficult boss has been what's forced me to change up my party isn't a great thing.

Earlier in the game, various story conceits forced a change of party, and so my general strategy of pushing enemies together with Stocke and Marco and then following up with one of Raynie's spells had to be revised. However, swapping Marco out for Rosch means that this strategy hardly needs to change. Rosch's moves still move enemies around the field, along with lowering their defense, or speed, or magic.

What's less than great about this is that, though my party has changed my strategy generally hasn't. RPGs are generally about freedom of choice, but it would be better if a party change was more often necessary - not forced, but necessary to explore more of the characters' relationships and how their moves meld together. Doing so would help expand the game's characters in a way separate from the exploration of the two timelines. Putting more character development into battles would thereby free you from having to play the game's events in a loosely ordained order - giving more freedom by taking a little bit away.

Time Flattens When Travelling Through It

I noticed something rather odd playing through Radiant Historia, today. For a game that deals with time travel it really doesn't give a strong sense of time passing.

Part of this is, no doubt, the game's lack of any distinction between day and night (Stocke and co. met Raul at night, and it looked exactly like daylight). But, more importantly, I think, is that there aren't very many side views of the world. What I mean is that there aren't NPCs who tell you much about the world aside from the odd tidbit about this or that character or this or that opinion. The impression that this leaves is that events aren't happening in time, but are instead just piling up on one another.

What really triggered this realization for me is that after spending maybe half-an-hour going through events General Hugo won a major battle on Gran Plain - effectively ending the conflict on the Alistel/Granorg front. The game explains that Hugo and Granorg's Count Selvan are working together at something as explanation for this smooth victory, but even with such co-operation, ending the war so quickly seems like just another event added to the pile. It doesn't feel like something that happened in time, only in space.

Another reason for the apparent flatness of time in Radiant Historia is that you never really play through major scenes. In Chrono Trigger, you were there at the Battle of Zenan Bridge, you were there when the Enlightened ones complete the Ocean Palace and then raise it into the sky, you were there when Lavos falls from space. This presence at major events makes the game's story larger than life, and so far, this just hasn't happened with Radiant Historia.

Nonetheless, what the game's offered so far is more than enough to keep me sticking around - waiting for the big one.

A Glimpse of Time's Expanse

Well, it isn't exactly freedom, but it is a challenge. 

Time travel finally has some use in Radiant Historia, outside of side-quests, I mean. 

In order to go forward in the game, to get through the Granorg border, Stocke needs to show the guards that he is indeed a performer. To do so, he needs to learn sword dancing, though the only person from whom he can learn is back in Alistel. In fact, your teacher is none other than the head of the new recruits, Kiel. 

So, I've gone back to where the mine event starts and now just need to work out how to initiate the teaching scene. Then I should be able to zip back to the "present" and get through to Granorg.
And so, at long last, rather than just being a way of getting around, Radiant Historia's intense time travel has very much increased the puzzle element involved in the game. It's as if the puzzle element present in some Chrono Trigger sidequests (like the one done for the Sun Stone) has been amplified. 

And there're still another 200+ nodes to discover. It might not be as long as other RPGs, but this game is going to be huge.

In too Narrow a Time Corridor

Things really do get more challenging once you step into Granorg in Radiant Historia. Even the Gran Plain, what seems to be the frontier of this other country, has proven a challenge. Enemy-wise, I mean.

Goblins are afoot, and they're tough buggers - mostly because (surprise, surprise) they attack in formations that don't lend themselves to a smooth chain of place shifting moves and attacks. That their standard attacks take upwards of 40 HP off of any of my character's 200 or so and that they have poison laced arrows doesn't help either.

However, I'm starting to feel the limitations of the game's core time travelling mechanic. Not that it itself is limiting (though I don't have that many points to jump to just yet), but rather it limits gameplay quite a bit.

In a game like Chrono Trigger, time travelling is an excellent mechanic that lets the player feel an incredible sense of freedom. But, in Chrono Trigger, you don't travel to specific points in a specific past, you travel to a general time in which your free to wander.

In Radiant Historia, on the other hand, travelling to specific points in specific timelines leaves the game feeling like it's railroading you. Though, I imagine that once you've unlocked enough nodes and forks the game opens up like a stunningly beautiful flower.

But, for now, I'm still nursing a bulb.

Away Game Special: Fire Emblem Awakening

I'm not always at home, and while I'm away I'm not always going to be playing the games from my list. So, since I'm away for the next few days, the next few video game entries will be "Away Games Specials." Today's game? Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS. Or, rather, its demo.

A short look into what sounds like a long game (according to episode #324 of Radio Free Nintendo (RFN)), the demo offered on the 3DS e-shop gives a review of the game's basics, introduces the beginnings of its story, and hints at what the new mechanics can do.

However, if I hadn't listened to that episode of RFN, then I'd have no idea that the relationship mechanic could lead to characters marrying and having children. Plus, I'm sure that in the full game every combination of characters doesn't just give your hit rate a 10% boost. That's all that seemed to be in the demo, though.

What bothers me most about the demo, though, is that in the second cinematic it looks like there's a 16-bit sprite in the middle of the inter-dimensional gate. Yet, it's blurred just enough to be impossible to make out.

Maybe it's a character from a Fire Emblem game from the SNES/Super Famicom era? Or just something thrown in by a nameless designer with absolutely no meaning attached to it.

But the more I look at it, the more it looks like a Chrono Trigger sprite.

A Brief Reminiscence

It's been a while since I played it, but so seldom has an RPG left such a strong impression on me. Radiant Historia is without a doubt the best RPG on the DS that I've played to date - though I've only just nibbled at the sweet sweet biscuit that is this title.

Of course, it is an Atlus game, and so greatness is to be expected. It's just that Radiant Historia's greatness seems to be more of the wide appeal variety.

In a way, the game's time travelling mechanic is like Chrono Trigger's, but dialled all the way up.

Instead of being able to travel to periods in time, you travel between events in time. So far, in the few hours I've put into the game, you don't travel very far into the past or future, but the game's idea is to play more with destiny and cause and effect on a smaller scale than that of Chrono Trigger.

And yet, presented as it is, it's an adventure that seems as grand - hopefully not too grand though, since I still have a lot of backlog to get through.