bouteillebleu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bouteillebleu) wrote2005-07-22 08:10 pm
bouteillebleu) wrote2005-07-22 08:10 pm
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Recent game reviews - Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy, Pop'n Music, .hack Infection
Since I've been free this last week, I've been going through Playstation 2 games. Thus, here's what I've been playing this week, with reviews of them under the cuts.
Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy (Everyone Loves Katamari Damacy)
As with the original Katamari Damacy, the basic idea is "roll things up on a big sticky ball, make the ball bigger, roll more things up, make it bigger, and so on". The places you can roll around are different this time round, and as well as the types of stages from the first game ("make it such-and-such size within a time limit" and "collect a certain number of things") there's also the time attack stage where you have a size limit but no time limit, and some fun things like rolling a sumo wrestler over food so he gets heavy enough to defeat his opponent in the ring.
The soundtrack isn't quite as unremittingly excellent as the first one, but that's hardly enough to condemn it - it does have two very nice tracks, Everlasting Love and Baby Universe. There's also a song sung by the King of All Cosmos, which is... indescribable. (He has the most bizarre and giggle-inducing Japanese accent I've ever heard.)
Essentially, if you liked the first Katamari Damacy, then this is the same sort of thing in different locations - with the added bonus that on the latest stages you can roll up famous buildings around the world. It is somehow very amusing to roll over the Houses of Parliament. It's also had a tentative US release date - as "We Love Katamari" - given of September or October, which is good news, since I can play most of the stages but would like to know what the King and the fans are saying (my Japanese isn't up to much).
Pop'n Music 8-10
These three games are all examples of one of Konami's "Bemani" series of music and rhythm-related games, so I've included them together. Essentially, in Pop'n Music you play songs in various genres by pressing buttons to the beat to make various parts of the music play - if you miss, that part of the track doesn't sound, and the music sounds wrong. It's more fun than Dance Dance Revolution in this respect, since it feels like you're actually making the music. The Pop'n Music games also have many more tracks, with the latest ones having over 100 (at least half of which have to be unlocked through minigames or playing for a certain amount of time).
Each Pop'n Music game has a section of "licensed" tracks, which come from anime series or other games (though some Konami ones pop up in the normal list, like a remix of Beyond the Bounds from Zone of the Enders), and this section isn't usually too large. Of course, most of the tracks are sung in Japanese, which I would guess is one reason why Pop'n Music hasn't been seen outside Japan. It's a pity, really, as it would be a lot of fun and the text of the game wouldn't be all that difficult to localise.
.hack Infection
Part of "project .hack", which encompasses the .hack//SIGN anime series, several other OVA series, and four games of which this is the first. It's a PS2 RPG that includes a simulated MMORPG called "The World", in which the player's character Kite is trying to find out what put his friend Orca into a coma. As well as the actual game of "The World", you also have access to the game's bulletin board, and Kite's own computer and email, to try to figure out what's going on in and out of the game. It's quite an interesting idea, and does have touches of fourth-wall-breaking humour like the NPC who apologises for having lag when it takes a while for her to speak to you.
One problem I found is that, although the idea of .hack Infection itself is interesting, "The World" itself is a somewhat pedestrian MMORPG, with randomly-generated dungeons filled with tedious hacking and slashing. In an MMORPG like this, what might keep players coming back is the chance to interact with people they liked. When all the people are NPCs, though, it loses even that possible appeal. Most of what I enjoyed about it (from the three or four hours I spent) was based on the aspects that aren't really part of "The World" - the BBS especially, and also opportunities to use Data Drain (which is fairly pretty). It also appeals to my penchant for mindless levelling, though, so I'm likely to play more of it.
Finally, since it's the first in the series of four, I should mention what I know about the other games - the difficulty apparently climbs steeply between games, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theblunderbuss mentioned that he stopped during the third game because the random enemies were just getting too hard (casting confusion on you all the time, for example). And at the price one of the games goes for in the shops, it's not entirely worth it. When they get down to £5 each, perhaps, but not at £10 each.
I also have a list of games I'm planning to play, which tends to get longer and longer.
Waiting to play:
Fantavision - make firework displays.
Mad Maestro - conducting classical music.
Pop'n Music 11 - pretty much the same as any other Pop'n Music, with slightly different tracks and a different theme (it's "travel" this time).
Angel's Feather - a strategy dating sim of some sort.
Kenka Banchou - pretend to be a Yankee gang member with a quiff.
Chocolat Maid Cafe Curio - not entirely sure, though I'd imagine it features maids and/or waitresses.
Metal Gear Solid - stealth and fourth-wall-breaking. Currently stopped, because the VGA box makes it too dark for me to get out of the air vent I've led Solid Snake into.
Planning to acquire:
Psychonauts - navigate through people's psyches.
Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot - a music game and robot piloting game in one.
Hatsukoi First Kiss - dating sim with most of the questionable content removed for PS2.
Hayarikami Revenge - a Nippon-Ichi game that hasn't made it to the US.
Considering:
My Merry May With Me - a maid sim.
Eternal Aselia: The Spirit of Eternity Sword - another Nippon-Ichi game (and apparently also an anime this season).
Soshite Bokura Ha... and he said - a dating game with boys rather than girls.
Sorairo no Fuukin Remix - probably another dating sim and thus in my list of "weird Japanese games".
Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy (Everyone Loves Katamari Damacy)
As with the original Katamari Damacy, the basic idea is "roll things up on a big sticky ball, make the ball bigger, roll more things up, make it bigger, and so on". The places you can roll around are different this time round, and as well as the types of stages from the first game ("make it such-and-such size within a time limit" and "collect a certain number of things") there's also the time attack stage where you have a size limit but no time limit, and some fun things like rolling a sumo wrestler over food so he gets heavy enough to defeat his opponent in the ring.
The soundtrack isn't quite as unremittingly excellent as the first one, but that's hardly enough to condemn it - it does have two very nice tracks, Everlasting Love and Baby Universe. There's also a song sung by the King of All Cosmos, which is... indescribable. (He has the most bizarre and giggle-inducing Japanese accent I've ever heard.)
Essentially, if you liked the first Katamari Damacy, then this is the same sort of thing in different locations - with the added bonus that on the latest stages you can roll up famous buildings around the world. It is somehow very amusing to roll over the Houses of Parliament. It's also had a tentative US release date - as "We Love Katamari" - given of September or October, which is good news, since I can play most of the stages but would like to know what the King and the fans are saying (my Japanese isn't up to much).
Pop'n Music 8-10
These three games are all examples of one of Konami's "Bemani" series of music and rhythm-related games, so I've included them together. Essentially, in Pop'n Music you play songs in various genres by pressing buttons to the beat to make various parts of the music play - if you miss, that part of the track doesn't sound, and the music sounds wrong. It's more fun than Dance Dance Revolution in this respect, since it feels like you're actually making the music. The Pop'n Music games also have many more tracks, with the latest ones having over 100 (at least half of which have to be unlocked through minigames or playing for a certain amount of time).
Each Pop'n Music game has a section of "licensed" tracks, which come from anime series or other games (though some Konami ones pop up in the normal list, like a remix of Beyond the Bounds from Zone of the Enders), and this section isn't usually too large. Of course, most of the tracks are sung in Japanese, which I would guess is one reason why Pop'n Music hasn't been seen outside Japan. It's a pity, really, as it would be a lot of fun and the text of the game wouldn't be all that difficult to localise.
.hack Infection
Part of "project .hack", which encompasses the .hack//SIGN anime series, several other OVA series, and four games of which this is the first. It's a PS2 RPG that includes a simulated MMORPG called "The World", in which the player's character Kite is trying to find out what put his friend Orca into a coma. As well as the actual game of "The World", you also have access to the game's bulletin board, and Kite's own computer and email, to try to figure out what's going on in and out of the game. It's quite an interesting idea, and does have touches of fourth-wall-breaking humour like the NPC who apologises for having lag when it takes a while for her to speak to you.
One problem I found is that, although the idea of .hack Infection itself is interesting, "The World" itself is a somewhat pedestrian MMORPG, with randomly-generated dungeons filled with tedious hacking and slashing. In an MMORPG like this, what might keep players coming back is the chance to interact with people they liked. When all the people are NPCs, though, it loses even that possible appeal. Most of what I enjoyed about it (from the three or four hours I spent) was based on the aspects that aren't really part of "The World" - the BBS especially, and also opportunities to use Data Drain (which is fairly pretty). It also appeals to my penchant for mindless levelling, though, so I'm likely to play more of it.
Finally, since it's the first in the series of four, I should mention what I know about the other games - the difficulty apparently climbs steeply between games, and
theblunderbuss mentioned that he stopped during the third game because the random enemies were just getting too hard (casting confusion on you all the time, for example). And at the price one of the games goes for in the shops, it's not entirely worth it. When they get down to £5 each, perhaps, but not at £10 each.I also have a list of games I'm planning to play, which tends to get longer and longer.
Waiting to play:
Fantavision - make firework displays.
Mad Maestro - conducting classical music.
Pop'n Music 11 - pretty much the same as any other Pop'n Music, with slightly different tracks and a different theme (it's "travel" this time).
Angel's Feather - a strategy dating sim of some sort.
Kenka Banchou - pretend to be a Yankee gang member with a quiff.
Chocolat Maid Cafe Curio - not entirely sure, though I'd imagine it features maids and/or waitresses.
Metal Gear Solid - stealth and fourth-wall-breaking. Currently stopped, because the VGA box makes it too dark for me to get out of the air vent I've led Solid Snake into.
Planning to acquire:
Psychonauts - navigate through people's psyches.
Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot - a music game and robot piloting game in one.
Hatsukoi First Kiss - dating sim with most of the questionable content removed for PS2.
Hayarikami Revenge - a Nippon-Ichi game that hasn't made it to the US.
Considering:
My Merry May With Me - a maid sim.
Eternal Aselia: The Spirit of Eternity Sword - another Nippon-Ichi game (and apparently also an anime this season).
Soshite Bokura Ha... and he said - a dating game with boys rather than girls.
Sorairo no Fuukin Remix - probably another dating sim and thus in my list of "weird Japanese games".