Niahak's Place

Writing has felt difficult lately. I think this is partly because I have been playing a less compelling-to-write-about set of games, skewing more towards indie and older ones. Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a “brief reviews of things I’ve been playing” post. I’ll start with the older games and move on to (slightly) newer ones.

Kessen 2 (PS2): Probably one of the strangest games I own, Kessen is an odd fantasy-opera take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, throwing in new characters, completely reimagining existing ones, and mixing action elements into an otherwise real-time-with-pause strategy game. It also has strategy-level decisions as well as tactical ones before battles. I don’t think it’s particularly good, though – while other games are more than the sum of their parts, Kessen 2 has very little actual fun packed into all of its mechanics. Things feel surprisingly dry for a game that is intentionally dramatic, and oddly rigid for a game which clearly has detail under the hood (formations, unit types, general stats, etc).

Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (PS1): Compelling for all its difficulty, Shadow of the Horned Rat is a frantic real-time strategy RPG set in the old Warhammer Fantasy universe. You play as a mercenary company, picking jobs and trying to make money while gradually getting wrapped up in greater problems. You start with two small companies – cavalry and infantry – and gradually acquire archers, wizards, potentially artillery, etc. While it’s polished in some ways for its time (in terms of artwork, story, and voice acting) its mechanics are opaque and often unfair, giving it a kind of “old school hard” feel. It is possible and perhaps even easy to get “stuck” in the campaign, as reinforcements are restricted and money can get tight. Several branches in the campaign are intentional dead-ends, while others offer different units or outcomes later on. I do think many modern games mistake being perfectly balanced for being fun. A game can be hard and still fun (like this one), or easy and still fun. Hidden items exist in most battles, too, and cannot be transferred between units. Many of these items are situational, but some are generally useful. While there are fewer decisions to be made between battles than Kessen 2, it feels much more satisfying in-battle and the plot is considerably more bearable. The dialogue and music mesh together really well to make battles feel very dynamic, as your various troop commanders yell “Charge!”, “Fire!”, “Engage!”, or enemies cackle as they join the fray.

Motivation to write has been low lately. There are several reasons for this, many of which I won’t get into, but I hope to write something not as focused on games soon. Things are still good, it’s just a motivation thing.
When I’ve been writing, it has been, as is periodically the case, at videolamer.com.
For example, in the past year I wrote about:

• Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (highly recommended)
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (a more refined, thoughtful and emotional post than the one here)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, by proxy (it’s worth experiencing but I found it cluttered and unsatisfying – this article explores a little why I didn’t enjoy it, rather than focusing on the game itself)
• Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (not posted yet – a sanded-down version of a notoriously lengthy game that loses some charm and oversimplifies a core gameplay loop).

I also played several games I didn’t write about:

• Fantasy Life i (addictive, though not particularly deep),
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake expansion / Power-up Kit (adds more tools for an already-easy game, but offers much more variety)
• .hack// Part 1: Infection (revisited – a trip to an older, simpler internet without some of its rough edges. But it has plenty of rough edges in its gameplay)
• Stardew Valley (always a great experience)

I’m also partway through People of Note, which so far I would recommend as a short, music-focused homage to both musical genres as JRPGs.

Disclaimer for these chapters: This is a project I wanted to pursue in-line with playing. But it’s been a couple months, so by the time I got to it (now), I’ve long since finished replaying Suikoden 3.
I’m not sure I’ll continue these. We’ll see!

Hugo Ch. 2
There’s really not that much to this chapter. Having discovered the Karaya village burned to the ground, Hugo and Sgt. Joe move on to the Duck village. There they encounter Lilly, an impulsive and sometimes delusional princess-analogue from Tinto. After some negotiation they decide to travel together to the Great Hollow via an old tunnel. So there’s only really one area to navigate here. On reaching the Great Hollow, Hugo discovers its entrance under attack by the Zexen Knights – who shortly retreat, not wanting to risk fighting inside the Hollow itself.
The optional battle in the tunnel is worth mentioning – it’s one of many times you can choose to fight in Suikoden III, and it’s probably the hardest one that isn’t a “sink or swim in the first round” affair like later ones.
Yuber is probably the most visible villain in III, or at least the most straightforward “definitely a villain” as Sarah makes several ambiguous appearances. While it’s unclear what exactly Yuber is, he’s consistently menacing and makes for a good recurring villain.

Chris Ch. 2
In Chris’ chapter, she moves on to Brass Castle, planning to assault the Great Hollow. She can make a brief detour to Lake Castle, but otherwise moves on to one of the game’s Strategy battles – in which characters have the same stats/abilities from regular combat, but form into 4-character units and are AI-driven instead with only broad control.
Generally I think Suikoden 3’s strategy mechanics are one of the more interesting in the series. Unfortunately there are only a couple of strategy battles that are not fully plot-driven – and they can be mostly made trivial by keeping up with equipment/weapons.
After the strategy battle, Chris learns some more detail of the reasons behind Zexen’s war with the Grasslands. She plans to confront the council, but falls ill due to overwork. After a brief rest, she goes on an impromptu holiday to Iksay, Percival’s rustic hometown, for a harvest festival.

I enjoyed journaling progress through Strange Journey in 2022-23 and wanted to do a similar project, but didn’t really think of writing down thoughts as I go until now. These posts will likely contain some spoilers for Suikoden III but I will try to obscure them behind the “more” section where possible. Suikoden III is one of my favorite games (as evidenced by the favicon I’ve had for over a decade). Since this is my 4th or 5th play-through, I wanted to do a longer-form

I’ll apologize in advance if anyone is offended by the black bars in screenshots in this series.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Suikoden games. When Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes went on Kickstarter, I enthusiastically dove in. It was disappointing in some ways, but I still really enjoyed the game’s actual release. ECHH is a supplement, though, not a replacement for the original series (in particular the first three entries, although V is an excellent entry as well).

While the Suikoden 1&2 remaster doesn’t completely overhaul these games, it does add re-done portrait art for 1 (by the original artist) and fixes some major bugs and an exploit in 2. It also adds a fast-forward feature for 1 as well as the ability to run. Having the game simply available on modern platforms alone, for me, is worth the price of entry.