Ace Attorney's resourcefulness as an advantage

The Ace Attorney series of games lets you play as a lawyer/detective to investigate and solve mysteries, usually murders. The series is well known for its over-the-top characters and ridiculous dramatic twists.

I recently finished playing the first three Ace Attorney games, and I was impressed with how much they did with what seemed like not very many art assets. The first Ace Attorney episode has 11 characters, only 3 of which are exclusive to that episode. Pheonix Wright himself has about 10 different poses (with variants in how his mouth moves and whether or not he's moving). Most characters you talk to/cross-examine have around 6 different poses. I guess looking at it now, that does seem like a lot of art, especially if one person had to make it all, but it's not an impossible amount. But for a whole team of artists, that's totally doable! The different poses really show the character's personality too. The bizarre personalities and artwork are half the fun!

I found it interesting how the different poses could be combined to create different impressions. While a character might only have 6 poses, different combinations (surprised/worried, confident/thinking) make it feel not as limited. And usually, the character has one or two poses they only use rarely, which also helps give an impression that they have a wide variety (i.e., you don't see a character's whole spectrum of poses in just one conversation). The pose animations are usually super simple too, like one arm moving back and forth. The paucity of poses actually make the characters stronger because they have a few readily recognizable poses, which are carefully tailored to reflect their personality. This contrasts a lot of 3D art where half the characters have the same body and gait. With 2D art it is easier to make a variety of body types, tics, postures, and mannerisms.

Radiant Historia is actually pretty linear

Radiant Historia is often lauded for being "non-linear." It's a JRPG for the Nintendo DS in which your character experiences "standard" and "alternate" history of his time, and can revisit events in the past with his knowledge from the future. It's a fairly cool premise, I mean, instead of "you have a sword save the world!" it's "you have the power to change certain aspects of the past based on the future so save the world!"

It's almost as non-linear as a novel, except you can't peak at anything further ahead than your current point in the game. I guess I felt excited that I could make choices in the game, but there were only a few choices that actually affected the ending. Most of those choices are in sidequests that are easy to miss (some of which I did miss. Don't worry, I watched the True Ending online). The main storyline choices are "ending that lets you keep going" and "bad ending." I wish that there had been more branches and a better illusion that there wasn't always one right choice. Maybe you need a less epic story to have multiple "okay" endings; where the world ending because of something you did isn't the default "wrong."

Radiant Historia has a fairly interesting battle system. Enemies are in a grid and certain powers can move them around to overlap, and when enemies overlap you can hit both of them at once. Also, if you hit an enemy many times in a row, successive attacks do a little more damage. You can also change the turn order to get everyone doing stuff in exactly the right order. I don't think I properly appreciated this system until a walkthrough got me to string ten attacks in succession (and I think you get more XP if you do more attacks in a row). It makes me sorry that I didn't experiment with it more earlier. 

If you're a fan of JRPGs, I recommend this one, especially if you liked Chrono Trigger, but don't expect a bazillion endings. 

HEY ICE KING: Why'd you steal our garbage? Review

I've been anticipating this game with much excitement! I played through it yesterday and this morning and it is excellent (if a bit short)! The Adventure Time DS/3DS game is fun for any fan of the series. My husband who is not as big of a fan said it looked fun too. It's a 2D action/adventure game, and I think an old-school game deserves an old-school review. So here we go!

THE GAMEPLAY: People have been saying it's a lot like Zelda II. The enemy encounters and walking everywhere on the minimap are like Zelda II, but the difficulty is not. It was easy enough for me to beat, and I suck at Zelda games. For those who like more challenge, supposedly the New Game+ is a little more difficult. You hit enemies with one of several moves to do damage; if you can't avoid them you take a hit.

Food lying around gets you health back, as do the numerous save points. You can combine condiments with food to make it better, but only if you find the right combination (I put wildberry jam on a royal tart and it actually hurt me when I ate it). Oh, and I think apple pies are probably the best healing thing in the game.

There were lots and lots of items to give you temporary powers. I tended to save them up instead of using them... the only ones I was glad I saved was a bomb for a boss, and some wings to get to a certain area sooner. The others I think I should have used as soon as I got them so I could have had more room in my inventory for food.

I loved the save points in this game. They were always there when I needed one, and since they give you full health, they cut down on the need to constantly chomp down on hamburgers.

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THE STORY: You're running around on fetch quests trying to find the Ice King, who stole your garbage. You get to interact with many characters from the TV show, and it's hilarious. I laughed out loud several times.

A few times I was feeling stuck and almost stopped playing, but I thought "I'll just go back here or explore this next area" and that always worked. Like I said, the game wasn't very long, but I'm actually glad it didn't get much harder. It might have been cool to have one more area in outer space or something, but the arc of the game felt good, and I wasn't sick of playing when it ended.

THE MUSIC: I loved it. I think my favorite was the little remix of the theme song for the victory music. I didn't care for the song playing on the title (the theme only covered by a different band), but the rest matched my expectations for zelda and megaman-themed music. The final boss theme song was also hilarious and awesome.

THE GRAPHICS: Cute and perfect.

THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION: The map was the map from the game and... not all that cute, although I guess they were going for a retro feel, which I understand. The little monster guide booklet had some cute copy in it. The sword stylus is cool, but this game doesn't use the stylus that much, so I might have to use it for some other game. The Enchiridion case is awesome, and since I'm a big fan it was worth the extra $10 to get some goodies. Otherwise it's probably not worth it (like most collector's editions).

PERFECT FOR: Children with a 3DS who are old enough to read and understand information (it's all text), and fans of Adventure Time.

Ghost Trick expertly uses elements of visual novels.

Whenever I have a hard time thinking of what I should write for a blog post, I try to think of a game I have played and not written about. Usually I'm like "ahhh I had things I wanted to say while I was playing this and forgot all about them!" So my advice to myself is: if you play a game, write about it. I've been trying to cover some more obscure things over at Kill Screen (maybe to a fault). And it's kind of hard to find stuff sometimes! I spend a lot of time curating--reading over news from various sites and mulling over whether or not our readers would find it interesting. I should probably get less picky because it's ridiculous how much time it can take (or not take).

ANYWAY, what I really wanted to write about is how Ghost Trick basically addressed all my complaints in my post about what visual novels should learn from comics. Short recap: Things that bug the heck out of me in visual novels are 1) information redundant to the artwork, 2) artwork that doesn't pack much information in it, and 3) a slow pace. Ghost Trick avoided all of these. The narration didn't tell me things I already knew from visual information (though it did review information I needed to make sense of the plot). Characters had unique animations that brought out their personalities:

The game ended about where I was beginning to tire of the mechanics, and had a satisfying, if ridiculous, ending. It was really fun to see a game execute parts of visual novel style in such an excellent way. Some might argue that it's not really a visual novel, in which case I might just have to admit that I don't particularly like visual novels as a genre.

I feel bad about disliking most visual novels... but I think if I'm going to spend all that time reading on a bright screen I want to have some interaction with the story. If there isn't some kind of gameplay (like the puzzle sections in Ghost Trick or 999), or a branching storyline, then I might as well be reading a comic book, in my mind.

I started playing around with Ren'Py, the python-based visual novel engine, and immediately I wanted to learn about things like making choices and keeping track of statistics. I think it's more about how the elements of visual novels combine with others that make it interesting (I find reading scripts for plays terribly boring, but generally enjoy seeing them... I see visual novels as a game that's missing vital parts). On the other hand, I can see how for a budding designer, learning one or two parts of a game at a time could be really useful, fun, and instructive. Feel free to share about why I shouldn't give up on visual novels!

Devil Survivor 2's dramatic irony and stuff

After much strategizing and frustration I finally beat Devil Survivor 2 (DS2), the tactical JRPG for the DS. At first I was really impressed with the unrelenting difficulty that forced me to actually look at my battle and demon possibilities. I got to know the system better, but by the end I just wanted to be done. I was hoping to have some kind of awesome idea for an article while I played the game, and I took notes. However, no coherent theme emerged. So I'm writing you my thoughts on: 1) DS2's self-consciousness as J-horror, 2) DS2's reflection of Japanese ideals in endings and 3) the coolest in-game explanation for a new game+ I've ever seen (the last two parts will have spoilers).

w-why are all these ladies so busty

DS2 is trying really hard to think about how teenagers would TRULY react in a disaster situation. There are fights about who should get supplies. You friends frequently compare their situation to that of a horror movie: "If this was a monster movie it'd be a dumb cliche to go for landmarks like that" (Joe). Keita, speaking of communist idealism, says, "'comerade,' what fantasy are you living in?" Well Keita, this fantasy I'm living in is one where we're real people and completely aware of the absurdity of our situation as teenagers saving the world by summoning demons through our cell phones (fun side note: instead of killing dissenters, you take away their cell phones. It's basically the same!)!

I haven't played through all the endings, but one of the "happy" endings is when you join neither of your warring extremist friends and opt for a compromise position (trying to keep things the way they were). Daichi's philosophy is, "But even peons have a right to choose! Not to be bossed around like pawns on a chessboard!" The irony, of course, is that Daichi is a pawn on the player's chessboard, and he really has no say in what his battle actions are (besides his inherent stats).

 You have the option to defeat "the world's administrator" too. I'm interested in how so many Japanese games see the person in charge as malicious... well, malicious is too harsh. Many Japanese games have a deity that is kind of apathetic about humans, but annoyed that they are trying to have a say in things.

DS2 goes out of its way to make up some lore to explain save games and new game+s. It sees demons and the characters as part of an akashic record (yeah I had to look it up too, but I was pleased that it referred to a real thing). An akashic record is this idea that everything is data that can be deleted or edited (that is how the game explained it). Looking at the wikipedia page, everything being recorded is also a big part of it. What's weird to me is that with keyloggers and cloud storage etc. our digital lives can be basically an Akashic record (am I misunderstanding the concept?). It's like... technology can make this religious idea a reality. STRANGE THINGS.

Nothing Stands in the Way of Love in Tomodatchi Collection

"I'm in love with my brother," my sister told me.
"That's forbidden," I told her, "It wouldn't be in harmony with the world." She became sad and I had to cheer her up with her favorite foods and a new outfit. Then she was back to normal, but we went through the same episode the next day. Where had my life gone so wrong?

I started playing a Japanese game for my DS called Tomodatchi Collection (Friend Collection in English). In the game you have an apartment building and you can make Miis (or send them from your Wii) to live in it. Once there, you can give them food, clothing, and interiors and they can make friends, fight, or fall in love with other Miis. It's the obvious sim extension of Miis. In fact, I was disappointed when I found out that Wii Miis had only appearances and no personality, and now this disappointment has finally abated.

The first Mii you make is yourself (so you are both a Mii and a huge god-hand), encouraging you to make Miis of people you know in real life. So I made Miis of my husband, my family, my in-laws, and some friends. This was a big mistake. I thought I told the game that these were my siblings, but apparently that can't get in the way of love! I was lucky enough for my husband to fall in love and successfully woo me (In the park, pridefully finally won me over [you can choose how they confess!]), but not all of my Miis ended with their intended pairs.

It's uncanny when the game gets personalities right (like when I found out that my husband's daisuki food was sukiyaki, or when my Mii got excited about wearing a suit), but since tastes are randomly generated, they're more often way off. Sometimes I can make the Mii look like the real person, but it breaks the likeness spell when my friend hates the cute gothic dress I got her or it turns out that my brother hates bread.

That complaint aside, it is a really cute sim game and has helped me practice my Japanese (if you've studied Japanese for about a year, you'll be able to get around in this game. Heck, you could probably figure it out not knowing any Japanese, it just wouldn't be as hilarious). I'm still finding out new things about the game a month later--like that I can hypnotize a Mii if I have a special item and make them dream about something.

And speaking of dreams... Mii dreams are awesome. Sometimes it's something as usual as falling or being unable to find a bathroom, but surreal dreams where you're helping your Mii jump from one parrot stand to the other just add the perfect zaniness to the game. I love this game to pieces, and I think I can tell why it's been one of the top ten DS games in Japan. Sim games aren't for everyone, but if they are for you, you will probably also love this game.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Imagine you're in some crime show, like Bones or Monk. Now, instead of watching and saying afterwards, "I knew it all along," you must actually prove your ability to predict the solution to crazy murder mysteries. That's Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth. Gameplay is limited to investigation (finding evidence and linking information with "logic") and interaction with witness/suspect testimony. 

Superficial reactions: I've never played any of the other Ace Attorney games, but this one had a satisfying intertwining of initially disparate "chapters" of play. The script and character animations are fairly hilarious, though the distinctive music for each situation/character gets old by the end. Most of the time the obstacle is not figuring out what happened but figuring out how to tell the game that. For example, in order to use a piece of evidence that contradicts the witness's testimony, you must present it at exactly the right part of his testimony. It's remarkable that it works as well as it does, but it's frustrating when it's not as intuitive, as "dying" consists of replaying everything since your last save (booo-ring). 

Controls: You can point and click with the stylus, but you can actually play the entire game without ever using the stylus. It's difficult to decide which is more desirable; buttons are more game-feeling but less precise when you want to point to that part of the screen, but using the stylus for a long time feels kind of weird. Oh, and you can use the "B" button to fast-forward through some text you've already seen. 

Recommendations: I enjoyed the game more when I started playing in 30-60 minutes chunks. If like me, you play for 5-10 minutes and then pick it up again in a week, it's going to be frustrating to remember what's going on (although the game does provide useful hints as you flounder). 

Cultural context: There is a lot of Japanese legal system culture that comes out in this game. The bizarre obsession with "truth," evidence, and the 100% confession rate are all a part of it. This NYTimes article sheds some light on the bad reputation Ace Attorney's prosecutors have. It claims that "Japanese authorities have long relied on confessions to take suspects to court, instead of building cases based on solid evidence," which also explains Ace Attorney's obsession with evidence, to the extent of absurdity in some situations. The Japanese courts do not allow plea bargaining, which explains the odd confession rate. Go read the article, and these games will make so much more sense.