Skyrim is out

Skyrim.

obviously this is all that I have been doing for the weekend, I could pre-emptively give this game my Game of the Year award, if it weren't for the fact that I haven't yet played Zelda:Skyward Sword because that game has an equal chance for getting the award, but I can definitely give Skyrim my best RPG and biggest gameworld awards without a second thought.

anyway, naturally the gameworld is beyond huge, is massive. fit for an elder scrolls game of course. there is also so much to do, this bears repeating, there IS SO MUCH TO DO.

here's just a quick tale of an hour of adventuring last night.
I cleared out a tower of werewolf hunters, and came out with a ton of metal and ores, I traveled to the central city, Whiterun, and smithed all the metal I could get into daggers to quickly raise my smithing skill and sell them, I didn't make much money back from the trip, but I did get from 36 smithing to 60, which was great.
then I decided to visit the imperial legion, but due to a previous quest I had in that location, I needed to remove my bounty first. so I head to the thieves guild to get my bounties erased.

finally I arrive in the imperial city of Solitude. so I head up to the castle, on the way, I hear the voice of an Argonian (Lizard people, my favorite race) asking me for help, I talk to him, him and his sister are planning to wreck a boat and take the treasure, I agree.

first step, put out the lighthouse, easy enough. just a quick run to the lighthouse and getting to the flame, simple.

then I find the mission giver again, apparently he and his sis' run a band of marauders, I had hoped they were freelance treasure hunters, but nope.
naturally, I suspected a trap.
so the guy tells me where to find the wreck and my "cut" of the loot. yeah, right.

I head to the wreck, and SURPRISE! it was a trap. yeah,

*sound of a sword being unsheathed, screams of pain and surrender*
yeah, you don't mess with my character in close quarters. ever.
at this point, the original questgiver was still at large, but I had to get off and go to sleep at this point.

also, hooray, 100 hits.

Darned absences.

sorry I was away, again.

on the upside, Skyrim, 5 days, WOOHOO!!!

sorry for the caps lock

anyhow, this time I was away on vacation to my dad's house, normally, my parents are divorced, and under casual circumstances, I would change houses every week on the monday, however, due to the fact I have relatives (1 year, 5, and 10) staying for a few months, studying has become near impossible over there, so I have been at my mothers house primarily for schoolwork.

on the other hand, my Dad's place is in some ways nicer, the primary issue being that at my mothers house, our television just died, its non-functional. I cannot play console games at my mothers house at all, which is aggravating, Skyrim is on the console so I need to go to my dad's place this weekend.

oh yeah, I get a AP European history test next monday, JOY, I lose Skyrim time =(

then, I need to go back to my dad's place every time I want to play Skyrim, which means my Let's play will be staggered, until I can fix my TV at my mothers place at least.

on that note, I have my PSP and Gods Eater Burst at my moms, so I will be getting back to that tomorrow.

Gods Eater Progress

Having an update at last.

Managed to make some story (and equipment) progress in Gods Eater. first I'm going into the gear, because thats the easiest part to talk about.

I've used primarily Longswords and occasionally I use the short blade, not a big fan of buster swords to be honest, in the same vein, I alternate between sniper guns and Assault, still never using my shield for anything other then stat boosts.

I need to constantly get new gear because keeping up with the elements is tough, I use fire the most though, there are plenty of good farmable aragami weak to fire. Longswords, just like in monster hunter, are also extremely high DPS, your allies with new type God Arcs can use an ability called link burst, this is a super mode more powerful then the ordinary burst, and at level three, when combined with the longswords ability to fire a short range explosion, is insanely powerful, the "Impulse Edge" normally takes both stamina and Bullet energy to use, and cannot be used more then 5 times consecutively, however, with a level 3 link burst, stamina and Bullets recharge almost as fast as they are used, allowing me to chain Impulse on a monster as many times as necessary, this often leads to a stagger, and I can stunlock the beast to defeat almost instantly after getting the link burst, its somewhat overpowered, especially if you get abilities to boost Impulse's damage and your element damage, its strong.

secondly, the plot has been making considerable progress past its originally stereotyped beginnings, I am giong to spoil more of the plot below now..


SPOILERS AHEAD, ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE



first of all, the player character is made the leader of squad one since Lindow has died. because of this, you start getting assigned special missions from both the definately secretly evil scientist. and the just as obviously Lawful-evil executive of Shinra, I mean Fenrir, well, the organisation does remind me a lot of Shinra in Final fantasy 7: Crisis Core....
wait a minute, in Gods Eater, it was recently revealed that Soma (the ineffectual loner with a big sword) is not only the Directors son, but he was also injected with Jenova... I mean Oracle cells in the womb and his mother died in Childbirth, and he is the prototype for all SOLDI- I mean God Eaters, and, there is a black haired mentor figure who dies, and the player character assumes his place. oh man, this is funny, I think FF7:Crisis Core and Monster Hunter had a child and Named it Gods Eater Burst, what other parallels can I find?
well, that is yet to be seen, but I'll get to the unique plot points,

notably, one recent mission I finished ended with the Scientist (Doc. Sakaki, not Hojo, he certainly isn't as outwardly evil) laying bait and capturing a new aragami, an aragami that happens to have assumed the form of a human and with the ability to speak, as well al learn things instantaneously, this creature (named Shio) has a very enthusiastic manner of speach and a completely alien personality, something that, when written well, is one of my favorite characters in fiction. Shio also notices that Soma is Half Aragami and mentions it a few times, and she is the only being that Soma even slightly opens up around, despite being very suspicious of her (it?) also, there are hints that Angeal- I mean Lindow isn't dead (of course!) his Gods Eater bracelet has been emitting a signal, and I suspect a future mission will involve going to look for it.

STORY PREDICTION TIME!
Soma will become evil, or turn into a full Aragami.
Lindow has turned into a monster and the part of his personality still left hates it,
The Hero will inherit Lindows sword.
The Hero (whom I now wish I named Zack) will die a heroic sacrifice.

SPOILERS OVER.

Keeping a singular schedule is tough

especially with all the things going on this week, I unfortunately have not been making Progress in Gods Eater, in fact, I haven't been making progress in anything except my studies, however, there is a light at the end of this horrible tunnel, less then a week from now, Skyrim will finally release, and my Let's Play/Gaming Log for TES V will start the minute I get the game, I have seen the leaked footage of the beginning of the game, and can safely say it looks epic. don't worry, I should be able to update Gods Eater tomorrow, though I promise Nothing.

Same Game, new features.

Alright, this post has spoilers in it, so if you are the kind of person who hates them, please skip the part that I label as a spoiler.


First off, lets go into one other detail found in Gods Eater that MH doesn't have, you can bring AI controlled team mates in with you, most of them have God Arcs locked in one form, but they are all useful to have, and the AI is rather good.


SPOILER TIME, SKIP THE REST OF THE POST.





Alright, so lets just say the awesome leader guy Lindow, he dies, he dies because the only other New Type (transforming god arc) Hunter was brainwashed into killing him, long story short, he left a hidden message, and Alisa (the brainwashed one) gets better, so at the moment, the plot seems to be to find out Lindows message, thats about it.

Gods Eater Burst early impressions.

when I see this game on the internet, nearly everyone says "Monster Hunter with plot" while this is a serviceable explanation, it does not fit the bill exactly, though the plot of Monster Hunter literally boils down to just doing your job (except Tri, which has some trappings of a plot, though it is paper thin) Gods Eater (which in game is said just God Eater) has actual characters and development, and while so far they are all cookie cutter stereotypes (bubbly, crazy girl, Loner with a big sword, Awesome Leader, Silent Protagonist, scientist that just screams "Evil Agenda") its more then you would get in MH, the concept is also rather interesting, in the future (when else?) a race of ambiguously alien beings with a unique cell system came down and started eating the earth's ecosystem, so the God Eaters were formed, the only weapons that hurt the creatures (Aragami) are their own matter, the so called "Oracle Cells" so the core of an Ara' is taken and refined into a weapon, A "God Arc" and the Gods Eaters have a special bracelet that keeps the Arc from eating them, sadly, the weapons themselves don't have a personality to speak of despite being alive. when it comes to gearing up for battle, the biggest differences from MH arise, there are 3 pieces of gear with 3 variations each, along with a passive control unit and two passive upgrades, you equip a gun mod (Sniper, Assault, or Cannon) a Blade mod (Short, Long, Buster) and a Shield mod (Buckler, Normal, Tower) each piece has unique stats of course, and most bestow abilities to your character, the passive Items also give upgrades, with the control units giving enough power to almost define classes. the combat holds many differences as well, control is fairly different, and combat must be balanced by appropriately switching between sword and gun mode, the blade combat reminds me of MH, with each blade almost being a fold of two classes in MH, (short is like Sword and Lance, Long is like Longsword and Gunlance, Buster is Hammer and Greatsword, all somewhat vaguely) each slash will generate energy for your gun, different bullets in the gun (which I will get to later) cost differing amounts of points. each blade also has unique functions, short is obviously agile, with good dodging and combo cancels, along with great aerial control, Long has average speed and power, with its fierce attack being a dash that can both deal damage and dodge, on top of that, the Long blade has the "Impulse Edge" attack, each blade has a pre-set ammo type (as far as I have seen, all close range) that can be fired very easily without having to switch. and of course the Buster is slower (though still not sluggish) with long range, that only increases when you use the obligatory chargeable slash. all close combat weapons have the powerful devour attack, by holding the triangle button, it is slow, and the range isn't great, but if you pull it off, you get a special limited ammo type, unique to each monster, and enter Burst Mode. Burst increases your attack power, speed, and stamina recovery, also, every weapon can change the end of a combo into a quick devour that only gives one Aragami bullet and half the burst bar.

The second part of your arc is the shield, I have actually not used mine for anything but stat tweaking yet, I dodge too much, in fact, my current shield has dodge up and dodge master, so I don't know that much, shielding is probably more useful with Buster blades, but I favor the Long.

Guns deserve a section all their own, this is the single most complicated ranged combat I have ever seen. from what I've seen so far, there are 5 elements, fire, Ice, Lightning, Divine, and Healing, along with multiple bullet types, I can't even count, but the basics are regular round, explosive, and laser, with plenty of variations for each, each bullet can be customized with up to 64 "chips" for example, the lightning laser takes up four, from there, you could add one laser of all the other elements, (though that would bump up the energy cost significantly) or make it stop in midair, turn to face the nearest foe, and fire another laser, fire 3 orbs in a midair triangle that fire off lasers at regular intervals, make a machine gun. anything. The three gun classes are fairly simple, Sniper has good range and bonus to lasers, Assault has a high fire rate, and Cannons get a bonus to explosive rounds.

The Monster Hunting Genre

first things first, sorry i was out for a few days, caught some kind of virus and was too miserable to write anything, its a miracle I finished my homework.

anyhow, I'm going to be doing a longer post today, I'll be detailing the "Monster Hunting" genre of games, and my particular love for it.

The Genre Kicked off with the eponymous "Monster Hunter" released on the Playstation 2 by Capcom, whatever they thought about it, i do not believe they predicted how much of a hit it would be. The game sold like wildfire in its homeland of the Rising Sun, but sadly, due to a low marketing budget in The States, the series hasn't taken off in the west. this can be attributed to a number of things, most notably Difficulty, and convenience.

first of all, the well documented, crushing, but oh so loveable difficulty, Monster Hunter pulls no punches, it takes the Action RPG and slams on a healthy dose of realism (not too much realism of course, but just enough) your Hunter's Massive Greatsword is swung like, well, a massive greatsword, each swing takes considerable startup, and your movement with it out is a snails pace, (though mysteriously when it's sheathed you move normally) you need to put your weapons away to use items, this takes a few precious seconds (more then enough for your character to get turned to paste) then, if you want to use your healing item, it takes another few seconds to use, did I mention your massive prey is programmed to take advantage of these oppurtunities?

thats just the items, you can only dodge so much, until your stamina runs out and you need to let it recharge, your maximum stamina is directly tied to hunger, it lowers over time, and you need to eat to keep it up, your weapon (close combat weapons at least) have sharpness, that must be kept up if you don't want your carefully timed swings to bounce off, it obviously takes several seconds to pull out a whetstone and sharpen your blade.

despite all this, every single battle boils down to the hunter's skill, your dodging, attacking, and item using timing prowess must be spot on, every single move of your weapon has a use, you must master them all, you must balance your armor skills and your weapons statistics to optimize for almost every single hunt, these hunts are like a wild dance, a flow of dodges, strikes, frantic item using, and planning, to finally take down the massive Dino with a thousand cuts from your giant knife (or maybe normal sized knife, giant toothpick, hammer, crossbow gun thing, bow, whatever.) every single strike was earned, it is a true test of skill vs. strength, and you had better hope your skill is enough.

by the time you get through the tutorial, any weapons or armor you buy will be completely obselete, to remain competitive, you must loot your kills, crafting a new suit of armor from the natural armor of your quarry, your blades made from gathered bones and mined ore, ammo for your bowgun made from seeds and exotic fruit, your potions from herbs and mushrooms (be careful not to eat the wrong 'shroom!)

Monster Hunter takes its concept quite seriously, but it is fair, and very fun once you can get over the learning cliff. of course, all these things are great, but the real reason the series has taken off is simple, convenience.

I do not have the exact numbers, but the first few console MH games sold poorly compared to the portable titles. Capcom, realizing that the first games online multiplayer was great, but that so many people in Japan are always on the go, released Monster Hunter Freedom, an expansion to the original PS2 Title, Freedom sold unbelieveably well in Japan where nearly everyone can fire up their PSP and find a local Hunting team (bringing down Giant Beasts is always more fun with a team of course) but since American Gamers usually cannot maintain the 30 feet range to play MH locally so the PSP titles didn't sell very well across the pond, in fact, they were sadly probably not worth the investment, and the most recent portable title, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, hasn't come out in america.

The only success found with this series in america is the console titles, of which there are merely two, MH1, (MH2 was released only on Japanese PS2's,) and Tri, Tri is the most recent console title, and has finally validated the series to America, it probably wouldn't have gotten translated if it weren't for the efforts of Nintendo.

My favorite Game Company is hopefully pushing MH into america, Tri has online infrastucture and a far more friendly learning curve, so much that it has almost pushed one million units in america. Nintendo appears to have sealed a deal with Capcom, as the series next title, Monster Hunter Tri G. will be released exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS, localization has not been confirmed as of this writing, but I can hope.

anyway, on to the absolutely massive success of this franchise, I have not communicated it very well, suffice it to say Monster Hunter is the Japanese Call of Duty, it sells over there that well, several millions in the first week of a new title's release, shockingly large figures,

naturally this outstanding success has attracted the attention of other companies, so much that "MH Clones" are practically their own genre, naturally few of them can match the original Juggernaut, but a few are supposedly worth checking out.

being that my TV is currently unable to play videogames (long story) and I have sold my last PSP MH title, I have decided to go for something new. God's Eater Burst.

GEB is the updated release of the original God's Eater, only in Japan of course. the series features many differences from MH, primarily that it takes place After the Apocalypse, and giant demons roam the earth, your anime-esque hero wields a unique weapon built from the cells of the enemy monsters, it is capable of switching between a close combat weapon and a ranged weapon easily, this is one of the things that intrigue me, but the main thing is certainly the ranged weapon mode.

the ranged weapon is far from the relatively simplistic Bowguns of Monster Hunter, your bullets are custom made just like the ones in MH, but instead of taking a recipe to make, say, a shotgun bullet, in GEB you actually get a huge list of sliders, minutely tweaking hundreds of variables, you can go for a simple shotgun pellet sure, but what about a bullet that stops in midair, then spews out fire in a plume like a volcano? as I understand this is totally possible, and of course encouraged, since creativity is necessary in the fights. if things go my way, I'll have God's Eater Burst later tpday, and I may do an extended play journal, since I lack the equipment to record directly for my youtube channel.