I live again!
I took yesterday off.
After 6 days straight of working nearly 10 hours a day, it was quite nice and I feel very refreshed.
Part of this is game choice. See, Odin Sphere is at one end of the “RPG” spectrum (I feel calling it an RPG is a charity): It’s very engaging, but perhaps overly so. The game’s focus is more on action and less on thought. Decisions must be split second (or you will be split… in a second?).
After finishing Steambot Chronicles, which was very laid-back, I went for a game that’s even more so. One of my new favorites, Wild ARMs.
WA was never really on the top of my list until about two years ago. I found it for $13 and went for it, remembering vaguely it was kind of neat. As I went through the game, I was struck – by plot, (sprite) graphical style, and, most of all, music. The intro video enchanted me even more so than it had before, and the fact that the game starts off incredibly depressing (Rody, of course, has good reason to be depressed – as does Jack/Zack. Cecilia’s reason comes soon enough) only kept me engaged in the story. I mean, most games start off with a character’s hometown burning or them being expelled from said hometown (a la Rody, but it’s not his hometown), but never manage to drive the idea home. I mean, look at Secret of Mana – the main character just kind of wanders off on his mostly-merry travels. But the way that Wild ARMs truly begins – as the credits roll, during a funeral procession – truly touched me in a way that few games have.
And so WA made it onto my list. And now I see it as quite possibly the most relaxing game I have. Since battles are turn-based, I can take my time. Few puzzles are so fast-paced that I really have to try very hard, but they are tricky enough to keep me engaged. And, of course, almost all of the music is relaxing.
This is why it succeeds for me where Odin Sphere has largely failed – a good game should be a balance of activity and thought. Odin Sphere has a strong emphasis on activity – combat – and what little thought there is involves figuring out how in the blazes to fit that last Muggle Seed into my overstuffed inventory. In this respect, it makes the same mistake too many games – Riviera, Final Fantasy Legend, and Suikoden – have made: it forces the player to choose what to lose when they almost certainly don’t want to lose anything. I have a math background, so I know – Knapsack problems are tough, especially if you have to invent values for things on the spot.
To be fair, Wild ARMs has little activity, and much thought. Only a few puzzles must be done quickly. In even the toughest battles, you can take your time. This is, to my mind, what RPGs can do best: make battles tough, make the player think, but give them as much time as they want. And give them nice music while you’re at it, right?