Niahak's Place

Now that I have the time to enjoy them again, games are creeping back into my free time.

Tuesday, I went to a bunch of game stores, mostly to find the Diablo 2 expansion (more later).   As I was browsing through one Gamestop (I think the closest non-Gamestop game store is ~10 miles away from me), I found a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army.

Despite its long name, you might recognize Shin Megami Tensei from, say, Shin Megami Tensei or its spinoffs (Revelations: Persona being the only one I’ve played much).  It’s generally dark, gritty, but occasionally light-hearted modern stuff.  Think pulp sci-fi mixed with mythology and a touch of horror and that’s about what it is.  The Megami Tensei games were all inspired by a book, which a really cool guy translated and posted up here.

Anyway, one of the coolest aspects of the series is that it’s not afraid to be a bit cheesy even if it loses a bit of realism.  The main character in SMT: RKvtSA uses both sword and gun in battle – much like the heroes in Persona.  This yields a friendly, fuzzy feeling similar to that of the Final Fantasy Legend (aka Sa-Ga) games on Gameboy – anything’s a weapon, so long as it does damage to the enemy.  This game, however, is set in early 1930’s Japan.  Against demons, the pistol generally just serves to stun them or can be used as a low-intensity elemental attack – but it’s still pretty darn cool.

Kuzunoha may have a single demon summoned in battle at once,  and each demon has elemental affinities – so there’s a nice little strategic element.  Battles occur more frequently than I’d like, and tend to yield less rewards than most games.  This is in keeping with the series’ reputation of being tough as nails (Persona 2, the aptly-named Eternal Punishment, is the hardest RPG I’ve played – Persona 1 was tough despite having its difficulty toned down a bunch in the US release).  No obstacle so far (in 3 hours) has proved insurmountable – I haven’t died yet, I’ve just gotten really close.

I am also playing through Wild ARMs, and despite my new copy being pristine, I still got a freeze earlier.  I now suspect it is more likely my PS2 that is dying than anything else… but I’ll probably pick it up again tomorrow and see how it goes.

Like I mentioned earlier – I was looking for the D2 expansion pack, and found it at the fourth store (I was bored).  One of my friends back home tempted me into playing it again, and I’ve gotten my editor from vl started as well – anyone care to join in our little addiction?  We’re on USEast, if it makes any difference.