Dear Final Fantasy III Designers
The next time you want to extend one game's length, try innovating or creating content. But please, avoid forcing the players to grind levels from the very start of the game }:(
I don't know if it is a big, lengthy game or not, but it is the hardest Final Fantasy I've touched. Apart from the initial cave, I'm having to grind levels to be able to do anything "not from the main quest". And even there it is dangerous; if you have bad luck (a lot of so hated random combats), yo can die.
Usually, level grinding is performed optionally for one of this reasons:
- Lowering the difficulty level: If enemies are level 5 and you level 15, you will have no problem on killing them.
- Balancing speed-runs: If you're going too fast across the main storyline, probably you'll end facing an enemy or boss that you won't be able to kill until you level up.
- Grinding money or items: Along with experience, monsters usually drop money and/or items, so it's like a 2x1, extra levels plus extra gold.
- God feeling: If a level 5 enemy is easy at level 15, imagine being level 50 or 60, it's almost like being a god. *
I at last don't see in that list something like "Make the game last longer", because that's a cheap and dirty trick.
* Beware of games that auto-level enemies acordingly (like Final Fantasy VIII)
Tags: Game Design Videogames
World of Darkness MMORPG gets launch date
After almost two years of mutism, at least some news: The World of Darkness multiplayer online game is still under development and will appear on 2010.
Let's hope to see more info and details soon...
Left 4 Dead: A computer version of Zombies!!! ?
I know it is not a CRPG, but I'm addicted to Left 4 Dead.
Simple, fast, fantastic in cooperative play, and unlike it seems not short-lived. I'm enjoying it so much it reminds me the old times of "really simple but addictive" games. I just want to kill zombies all the time!
I thought it was a fresh idea (as fresh as a zombie themed game can be this days xD)... until I came with a boardgame, Zombies!!!
I've bought it this xmas (and some expansions are on their way) and played a lot with my girlfriend (yep! girls do play geek boardgames too ;)
Instead of writing a lot, I encourage you to read the rules (can be downloaded from the official site) and have a look at some photos I've taken of actual playing it:
The goal of the survivors, being the first to reach the helipad
The city layout is random and changes on each play
Event cards serve to either help you, or be bad with the other players
Reached the mall, just fight a zombie or two and get those bullets and lives
As the game progresses, the city gets usually infested with the horde
Miniatures are great (I've ordered 100 glow-in-the-night zombies :D )
Start to see similarities? Left 4 Dead has removed the event cards (and placed instead the AID, Artificial Intelligence Director), has added special zombies, coop play, fps elements, but overall looks a lot like a computer version of Zombies!!!
Even some terms as "reach the heliport", "horde" and some event card effects are used in both places with exactly the same purpose.
Anyway it was just a rant, each one is great in its field and I love both!
And as an extra, a small 4kb flash "implementation" of Left 4 Dead (thanks Javi!)
Tags: Boardgames Videogames Zombies
Diablo 3 + info about WoW 2nd Expansion
Wow, what a weekend! I went out this friday and just came back few hours ago to find that Diablo III has been finally confirmed to be in development (and looking fantastic), and more info about upcoming Wrath of the Lich King WoW expansion!
Also, I've been playing with the Spore Creature Creator for a while, and I'll probably add a subsection in this blog with both the creatures I design and the selections I made from other people ones (Sporepedia has at the time of writing this post near 1.3 million creatures!!!).
I know it's not an RPG, but I feel this game deserves a space here :)
J2ME RPGs I'm playing
As I don't have enough time right now to play with my Nintendo DS nor the PSP while travelling to work, I've decided to play some small RPGs on my phone.
I'm on my second run on this one. A great conversion of an FPS into a turn-based action-rpg. Very enjoyable and full of secret chambers. Really worth playing.
Using an improved version of the Doom RPG engine, a more "true RPG" game, with more dialogs, quest logs (and more varied quest types), lots of items and multiple weapons and spells.
Playing it reminds me of playing the original Eye of the Beholder games :_)
Note: Images are from the first game, but the second part looks very similar.
This one has just been installed, so I can't give yet a review, but looks as a a promising dungeon crawl semi-rpg.
Tags: Videogames
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