I picked up a copy of Yggdra Union for the GBA. I played Riviera, Sting’s previous game, and enjoyed it somewhat (though endlessly “practicing” got on my nerves). I’m relieved to find that Yggdra Union is better. In many ways it’s like previous strategy games, but it makes some nifty improvements that make it lots of fun. It’s got a medieval fantasy story with some pretty dark elements so far.
All the characters are pretty well done, and I also like the branching path stuff. It’s probably the last good original GBA game to be released (FF6 GBA will be released in the US sooner or later).
I’m also impressed with how good GBA games look on the DS Lite. I bet they’re the same on an SP, but I always had an original model GBA. I never even really noticed the darkness of games (besides Castlevania: Circle of the Moon), but everything looks so much more vibrant, it’s amazing.
This portable console generation will be the first time I ever play a portable console over one of the “main” ones. I’m not playing PS2, because Xenosaga II failed to motivate me and I’m just not feeling it now. I’m waiting to head back to school so I can play through Super Mario RPG again.
I’m also playing Rome: Total War, which I also purchased. It runs a bit flaky on my laptop, but it’s actually a great improvement over Medieval and Shogun. I’d really like to try Medieval II, except it probably won’t run at all on my machine… Ah, what a sad time when I’d have to get a new computer to play an RTS!
If you’ve never tried a Total War game, they’re sort of a combination of Civilization and RTS. Turn-based city management with RTS-style combat. Think tabletop Warhammer etc. for the battles, where you have units of cavalry, infantry, etc. facing off against each other. Great game style, and it can get quite intense. All they need to do now is make Three Kingdoms: Total War… That could be really good. Surprised they haven’t come up with it yet since they’re obviously big history buffs. Maybe The Creative Assembly is the new Koei.
Oh yeah, and Happy New Year. May it be less disaster-filled and divisive than the past 6,000+ of known history have been, though I wouldn’t count on it.