Flowerlark Studios » Gaming

Games To Look Forward To

Lee — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:21:20 +0000

There seems to be a great line-up of games coming out in the next couple years from a lot of series I follow. Most gamers have probably already learned of these, but I’m going to post about them anyway because I have a website and I can. I’m super-excited about these releases and here are some reasons why.

#1- Okamiden

This is the one I am anticipating most. Primarily because it’s a sequel to my favourite game, Okami but also because it’s the kind of game that can really benefit from touch-screen controls (considering it’s gameplay is based on fighting by drawing with a brush). Clover Studios closed down shortly after Okami’s PS release, but it seems that Capcom has decided to resurrect it. It takes place a few months after Okami and will revisit some old areas of the original game as well as brand-new ones. You control Chibiterasu, son of the sun goddess Amaterasu. Also, Spirit Tracks style, you will control various companions of Chibiterasu as well by drawing a path for them to follow on the touch screen. Zelda rip-off? Probably. No, definitely. But perhaps that’s why I like Okami so much, since I’m a big Zelda fan. The graphics look absolutely stunning, and will be in the same sumi-e style as the original Okami. My only reservations are the ‘cutesy’ look they’ve given it. Considering that the original was such a dark game, it doesn’t seem like an adorable little puppy fits in that world. Also, there’s no way that Okamiden- being a DS game- can be as massive as it’s playstation/ wii counterpart. That was one of the things I liked about Okami- the vast maps and near endless side-quests. It’s likely that Omakiden will be a much smaller world. however, it also looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

#2- Rune Factory 3

I’ve been following this one for quite a long time. Since it was first announced, I think. I have been a fan of the Rune Factory series since it’s first game in 2007 (which, to be honest, I thought would be awful when I first heard about it, but tried it anyway and was very pleasantly surprised). After the tedium of Rune Factory Frontier for the wii, I am glad to see the series returning to the DS. The series basically crossed Harvest Moon -a farming sim- with deungeon crawling. You play through a storyline while farming and fighting, cooking, forging, getting married, and taming mosnters. The biggest new feature in RF3 is that the main character, Micah, is both human and monster, and can switch between forms with a ‘transformation belt’. The only monster form they’ve shown thus far is a sheep, so I’m hoping there will be others. My biggest gripe on this game is the character design of Micah. When I first saw it, I was overjoyed. ‘Finally!’ I cried ‘A female lead for a Rune Factory game!’ That is, until I read the description beneath the image. Micah is indeed male. A very very effeminate male. -_-* Since part of the plot involves courting and marriage, being a girl and playing as a male can be strange and awkward. ‘Which girl do I want to marry…. hmmmm, that guy is pretty cute. Blast, I can’t marry him!’ Even so, as bad as it is to play as a man (and a man that looks like a woman) I still love this series and can’t wait for the new instalment.

#3- Harvest Moon: Twin Villages

No, I cannot understand a word of this commercial, in case you were wondering. The Harvest Moon series is infamous for milking their games for all they’re worth. It seems like a new one comes out twice a year at least. And more often than not, it’s just the same game in a new skin. But here are some reasons why I’m anticipating this particular instalment.
-Better more Rune Factory-like graphics
-A new irrigation system for your crops (watering every day gets very dull)
-New animals that you can keep, like alpacas and honey bees
-A pet owl that can fly you around
Shallow reasons, perhaps, but I’m a sucker for this series, so oh well. The graphics are the main draw for me, mostly because of the anime-style drawings of the characters as opposed to the usual chibis. It’s hard to be attracted to a chibi-man who looks more like a small child than an adult. It will also be refreshing to have animals other than cows sheep and chickens. Other Harvest Moon games have indeed had a wider variety of farm animals as well, but there was usually something about them that made me not want to play them (such as HM DS cute, the controls were confusing to me and the graphics weren’t much better than the GBA). So even though this is likely the usual overdone Harvest Moon story, it is still something that I hope to pick up once it comes out.

#4- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Sorry that the blog is cutting of the edge of this video.
I am both excited and skeptical about this one. The first thing I noticed was that the graphics are much simpler than Twilight Princess. This has really disappointed me. It may seem shallow that I’m placing so much emphasis on graphics rather than gameplay, but being a visual artist the art side of video games is important to me. Not that I don’t like simpler graphics- I love the cartoony style of Wind Waker and I have greatly enjoyed some old pixelated games. But for a big series like that to take a step down in visual appeal… But what has me excited is the new motion control system (which I have the feeling is the reason for the downsizing of the graphics. This motion control is likely tasking up most of the disk space. Let’s hope the story isn’t also downsized). Here’s a little about it:

‘The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword introduces full motion control enabled by the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which synchronizes player movements with Link’s actions while offering intuitive play control.

With the Wii MotionPlus accessory, every movement of Link’s sword matches the player’s motion with exact precision. If players motion left to right, Link swings from left to right. The precision play control is applied to enemies as well, as players must contemplate strategy when battling opponents that actively try to defend against attacks. ‘
-IGN

I’ve the feeling this is going to call for some quick and clever movements on the player’s part. Considering my bad reflexes and lack of coordination, I am wondering if this is really the kind of game I’d be any good at. I played Twilight Princess for the gamecube, and so can’t say what the wii motion controls on it are like, but it looks as though they’re going to be much more complex for Skyward Sword, and I can’t wait to try it out. Is in 2011 yet?

#5- Pokémon Black and White

I’m not too sure about this one, actually. The graphics look nice, but rather dizzying. I’ll be keeping an eye on it, but you can’t really keep making the same game over and over and just introduce new pokémon (I can’t even keep track of them anymore) and some new multiplayer features. It needs a bigger draw than that (even though Harvest Moon does pretty much the same thing, but I’m not sick of that one yet). I don’t know much about Black and White yet, so I won’t make judgements. I just hope it’s not another Diamond/ Pearl disaster.

One Big Huge Game Review Blog

Lee — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:22:19 +0000

I’ve been meaning to do some video game reviews on new games as I play them, but usually got lazy and never did them, so I decided to lump them all into one huge review blog. Here you’ll find a list of all games that I have played extensive amounts of, as well as my overall impression of them compared to one another and then in-depth reviews on some of the more recently released games. I have only been playing video games for about 6 years, and of those 6 years, most of the time I couldn’t play. Despite this, I would consider myself a ‘core gamer’ as when I am not writing or drawing, my free time is spent firmly ensconced in front of a nintendo console.

Gameboy Colour:
Pokémon Yellow
Pokémon Silver

GameCube:
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
MarioKart: Double Dash
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Pokémon Colosseum
Pokémon XD

Gameboy Advance:
Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Pokémon Sapphire
Pokémon LeafGreen
Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town
Golden Sun

DS:
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Pokémon Diamond
Pokémon HeartGold
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Nintendogs
Rune Factory
Rune Factory 2
Time Hollow
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Spore Creatures
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

Wii:
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Rune Factory Frontier
Okami

—
Best Multiplayer: Super Smash Brothers Brawl/ Melee

Graphics that Blew me Away: Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

Best Soundtrack: Okami

Best Real-Time Gameplay: Okami/ Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker/ Super Smash
Brothers Brawl

Best Turn-Based Gameplay: Golden Sun/ Pokémon HeartGold

Cutest Game: Nintendogs

Game that made me go SQUEE the most: Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

Hardest Game: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Easiest Game: Time Hollow

Most Monotonous Game: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass/ Harvest Moon

Most Interesting Concept: Rune Factory Series (Farming + Dungeon Crawling)/ Kingdom Hearts Series (Final Fantasy + Disney)

Best Storyline: Okami/ Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Most Sidequests: Okami/ Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Best Boss Fight: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Twilit Dragon: Argorock) / Okami (Orochi- 1st visit)

Scariest Boss Fights: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Most Fun Dungeons: Okami

Most Epic Adventure: Okami

The Ones I Found Most Addicting: Pokémon HeartGold / Rune Factory

Cheesiest Storyline: Final Fantasy IV

Lamest Character Design: Pokémon Diamond

Best Character Design: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Most Full of Bugs: Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

Game that made me go WTF? the most: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Most Bizarre: Spore Creatures

Saddest Video Game Moments [SPOILERS]: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (When Zant injured Midna) Okami: (When Issun is left Behind at the Ark of Yamoto) / Kindom Hearts: 358/2 Days (when Roxas leaves the organisation)

Most Touching Video Game Moment: Okami (cutscene during final boss fight)

Overall Favourites:
Gamecube: Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Gameboy: Pokémon Sapphire
DS: Rune Factory 2
Wii: Okami

Games I would most like to replay: Okami / Pokémon HeartGold

Game I was surprised was excellent when I thought it would be lame: Rune Factory

In-depth reviews:

Pokémon HeartGold
I have played and beaten many a Pokémon game, from the old Yellow to XD for gamecube to the ultra-lame Diamond. Silver was one of my favourites, and when I heard that they were remaking Silver and Gold, I was excited. The remake did not disappoint me as Diamond had, instead, it exceeded my expectations and I must say that this is the most amazing Pokémon experience I have ever had. I mean, not that it was so different from the others, it has the same basic plot. A young boy/ girl is given their first Pokémon by a Pokémon professor, and they’re off to explore the world, defeat gyms, and collect every type of Pokémon out there. But it was the little things that added up. For one, I loved how the Pokémon first in your party followed you around. It was beyond adorable. The soundtrack was a lot better, too, though I still found it a little annoying. Traditionally, I’ve always played Pokémon games with the sound turned off, but this one I could turn it on for a while without my ears hurting too much. The sprite drawings were also nice, and of course, since they were old pokémon (for the most part), the designs were cool instead of super lame like in Diamond/ Pearl. Features like the Pokéwalker and the seals for the pokéballs were also a nice touch that added variety (I love my Pokéwalker ^^). There were tonnes of minigames to keep you occupied and the main storyline seemed a bit more epic than other games, especially when Ho-oh or Lugia appears. They also went all-out with the legendaries; it is possible to obtain both Ho-oh and Lugia, Kyogre or Groudon, Latias or Latios, all three legendary dogs, and all three legendary birds and MewTwo. There are more legendaries, too if you attend events, and Rayquaza is possible to catch if you obtain Kyogre or Groudon and then trade for the opposite. Gameplay was the traditional level-up. The game did get a little dull after beating the elite 4 and entering Kanto, but still interesting enough to hold my undivided attention to the end. Once you enter Kanto, there will also be a host of new pokémon to find. A lot of Pokémon from Diamond/ Pearl creep up, too. After defeating Red/ Blue, though, there isn’t too much to do other than level and battle pokémon. Facing Red was one of my few gripes with the game. The battle is epic, but takes a LOT of level-grinding. You should be about lv. 60 once you’ve reached Red, but to face him requires levels of 70+, and they’re not easy to obtain as the highest level wild pokémon are around 50 and don’t give many experience points. I ended up transferring a level 100 Groudon from Sapphire into HeartGold to avoid all the grinding I would have had to do. Nothing loses my interest faster than having to grind levels. Other than this one small annoyance, however, the rest of the game is excellent. If you’ve never played Pokémon before, I highly recommend HeartGold/ SoulSilver, as it is by far my best experience with the series.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The premise of this Zelda game is basically the same as most- you are the young hero, Link, setting off on a puzzle-solving, action-packed adventure to rescue the land from the impending evil force. However, this instalment has a unique twist- this time Zelda herself is your sidekick! In the style of Fullmetal Alchemist, she is an armour-possessing spirit who has lost her body, and it’s up to her and Link to get it back from the evil demon king. The gameplay is excellent, the stylus control couldn’t be smoother and the puzzles are tonnes of fun. What really won me over was the tower of spirits dungeon in which Zelda can possess Phantoms, different kinds of which can accomplish different tasks. You get to control both Link and Zelda through the many visits to this dungeon. Fortunately, unlike Phantom Hourglass, you do not have to redo the same floors over and over. The only thing I feel disgruntled about in this game is the very thing it was named after- the train. It’s fun at first, but the farther you get into the game, the more tedious it becomes. Even once all the warp gates are unlocked, it still takes forever to get from point A to point B, all the while dodging the same obstacles over and over. The train I think is really what kills the game, and it’s unlikely that I will want to replay it over like I did with Wind Waker. Sailing could also be tedious, but you weren’t restricted to such a linear path. It also didn’t help that I am a terrible engineer and tended to destroy my train on a regular basis. Other than that, though, Spirit Tracks is an excellent Zelda adventure. And either the puzzles are getting easier, or I’m getting better at solving them.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
The hero of previous Kingdom Hearts games was Sora, the young keyblade wielder from an isolated island home. However in 358/2 Days, you take control of Sora’s Nobody, Roxas. He is new to Organisation XIII and as his best friend, Axel puts it, pretty much a zombie. He has no memories, no heart, and no place in the world. The Organisation takes him in because he can wield the keyblade and thus collect hearts from the heartless. As he collects hearts, the released hearts form Kingdom Hearts. When Kingdom Hearts is completed, every Nobody in the Organisation will finally have a heart of their own. Each day Roxas is assigned a mission to complete. These vary from collecting hearts to gathering intelligence, following suspicious people, defeating bosses and and gathering emblems within a certain time period. Completed missions can be replayed at any time as ‘holo-missions.’ Also, missions that do not advance the story line can be skipped if desired and played later as a holo-mission. The actual gameplay is excellent. Most missions are quite short, which is good because you can’t save during a mission, though you can withdraw and start it over again later. The plot is pretty good, that is, until you start getting pretty advanced into the game. If you haven’t played Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 or Chain of Memories, prepare to be confused! I never beat Chain if Memories and never played 1 or 2. The plot of 358/2 Days leans heavily on the events of previous games. And so by the end, I was so thoroughly confused that it somewhat spoiled the intense drama that was unfolding. However, you do not need to know what’s going on in order to play and beat the game, it’ll just makes things richer. The controls are a little complicated, but smooth once you learn them. The graphics absolutely blew me away. They were gorgeous and detailed- probably better than the N64 graphics. My only beef is with the camera angles. Prepare to get dizzy ans the camera wildly swings around- especially if you equip the auto-lock panel. Gameplay is real-time hack and slash. There is some strategy when it comes to arranging your panels appropriately for the mission. You cannot change them once in a mission, so come prepared! Overall I immensely enjoyed this game, even though I couldn’t get the full storyline effect.

Rune Factory Frontier
The Rune Factory series is an interesting combination of a farming/ dating sim and a fantasy RPG. In this instalment, you take control of Laguna once more (the hero of the original Rune Factory game). He leaves Kardia and travels to Trampoli in search of Mist, the girl who gave him his farm in Rune Factory 1. Once there he finds her, and decides to settle down on yet another derelict farm in this new town. While there, he must solve the mystery of Whale Island and save the day again, all the while growing crops, forging weapons, cooking, making accessories, fighting and taming monsters and falling in love with the girl of his dreams. The graphics in Rune Factory Frontier are very beautiful, and it has several new features, such as the ability to bring a monster ally into boss battles. It’s a nice touch also that you can see Laguna wearing the accessories you make while they’re equipped. Seeing the monsters larger and more clearly is awesome, and there are a lot of new monsters as well as old. Monsters that previously did nothing but fight for you now have new features. Monsters can gather wood and wild plants now, as well as give seeds and rare items every few days when you use the harvester tool on them. Another new feature is the Runies. If you create the proper balance of Runies throughout the map, your farm enters a state of prosperity in which the plants will mature faster and bear fruit more often. However, this game advances very slowly and tediously. Your rune meter deplenishes very quickly, making it very very hard to level up after a while. Also, the fixed camera angle makes dodging monster attacks much more difficult than in the handheld games. It also takes a while to load new areas, making even moving around tedious. I am currently in the end of fall of my first year, One girl has 1/10 hearts for me, I have a field full of rocks and stumps still, I am only on the second floor of the second dungeon and am a dismal level 30. And this is all after putting over 50 hours into the game. As you can see, it advances so slowly it makes staying interested difficult. If I was able to level faster, it would make all the difference, but getting ahead in anything can take hours upon hours. I would only recommend this game if you had unending supplies of patience and persistence,

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
I won’t lie. This game got pretty terrible reviews. Which goes to show that you can’t always rely on reviews for an accurate depiction of a game. Nor can someone else tell you whether you’ll find a game fun or not. It took me a while to get into this one, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once more you are a young aspiring farmer given a run-down piece of land which you must build to prosperity as you fall in love with one of the villagers. This game lets you choose whether to be a boy (Mark) or girl (Chelsea). Whichever you choose, the plot is the same. Your boat is shipwrecked on an island, and instead of calling for help, you and the other travellers decide to call Sunny Island home. As you advance, more and more people come to the island until it is a booming town full of residents. You get to grow a large variety of crops and trees, care for Chickens, cows, and sheep, as well as a horse and a dog. You have 6 bachelors (or bachelorettes) to choose from. The controls are… wonky. It’s all stylus controlled, and very awkward. However, once you become accustomed to the odd setup, it goes fairly smoothly. There are no rucksack shortcuts, which makes things more time-consuming, but after a few seasons on your farm, you get to be pretty fast and efficient at accessing your items. It’s definitely a LOT harder than other Harvest Moon games. Tool upgrades are difficult to get and require a lot of patience to obtain. The harvest sprites do NOT help on your farm, and it is almost impossible to keep your animals outside. If you were new to Harvest Moon, I would recommend (More) Friends of Mineral Town for the GBA. however, if you are a seasoned player and are looking for a challenge, Island of Happiness is for you.

Okami
I know that this one isn’t a new release, but it blew me away so thoroughly that it deserved a review. I have only one word to sum it up: EPIC. A dark power in Nippon (Japan) has been released! The long sealed Orochi has awoken and the tree spirit Sakuya summons the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu to once more defeat Orochi as she did 100 years ago. Unfortunately, our lupine heroine has lost most of her power as people’s faith has dwindled. You must play through an intricate storyline to rediscover Amaterasu’s power, gain the faith of the people, and clear Nippon of the curse of darkness that casts a pall over all its wonders. You will meet 13 spirits of the brush (some multiple times). with each visit Amaterasu gains a new ability. She fights and solves Zelda-esque puzzles with the power of the celestial brush. The wii’s motion sensor allows you to draw on the screen to evoke different powers. This game is very difficult, but absolutely amazing. The controls are smooth as silk (excepting the dodge move, which doesn’t work, but you don’t really need to use it) and the game is amazingly large and complex. The maps are enormous, the gameplay intensely varied, and mini-games and sidequests are everywhere. The plot is not only complex, but moving as well (I cried during the cutscene in the middle of the final boss fight, and I do not cry easily at anything). The graphics are a bit outdated, but highly stylised and beautiful. They mimic Japanese Sumi-e paintings. I have long been a raving Zelda fan, but can easily name Okami as my all-time favourite game. It’s like Zelda on an immense scale. The characters are quirky and lovable, there are plenty of moments that will make you gasp, cry, and laugh, and the dungeons are some of the most fun I have ever seen. If you like RPGs, Okami is a must-play. I am eagerly anticipating its 2011 sequel, Okamiden for DS.

Rune Factory: Buffamoo Sculpture

Lee — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:13:02 +0000

Mood: Tired
Watching: Planet Earth
Gaming: Final Fantasy IV

Half a year after moulding it, I FINALLY got around to painting her! A buffamoo from the game Rune Factory. The buffamoos are my favourite monsters. You can’t beat a cow that looks like it’s going to eat you. My cat actually broke this shortly after I took these photos, and I had to glue it back together. Luckily the paint hides most of the cracks.

I wouldn’t want to milk this one…

And yeah, my paint jobs suck. Acrylics hate me. I much prefer using watercolours, but they don’t bind well to the clay and flake off easily, even after being sprayed with fixative. Too bad you can’t paint these thing with oils…

EDIT: Got the background tutorial up!!

Starting Out Small

Lee — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:18:06 +0000

Mood: Creative
Watching: Ponyo
Gaming: Pokémon HeartGold; Final Fantasy IV

Hey look, I can do arts again! If pokémon counts as art. Which it most certainly doesn’t. But making these cute little guys is a good therapy for me, and a way to ease myself back into being creative. They’re simple, quick, and easy to make, which is what I need right now. Kudos points to anyone who can name all the pokémon pictured. They were made from super sculpey clay, then baked and painted in acrylics. The second picture gives you an idea of the scale. I have tiny hands, too. So these guys are pretty darn small.

EDIT: Look, Ma, I got the tutorials back online!!

Nintendo Power Article

Lee — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:00:33 +0000

Well, I’m back from LA. I did indeed end up having spinal surgery. More on that at a later time. One of my meds is giving me insomnia and I haven’t slept for 3 weeks, so I’m not sure how I’m even typing this as I’m having trouble forming coherent sentences.

Around Thanksgiving I submitted some of my art to Nintendo Power magazine and a week later they sent me an e-mail interview. Now my article has finally shown up in the May issue- the month of my birthday. I consider this a most excellent birthday gift.

Nintendo Power Article by ~Flowerlark on deviant ART

DS Screenshots

Lee — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:04:12 +0000

I’m only posting these ’cause Dad wants to see them. I’ll will most probably delete this post later.

Today I experimented with taking screenshots of my DS. I wanted to find some kind of cable that could play DS footage on my computer, but found out that such a thing is A: very expensive and B: not available to those outside the gaming industry. The best way I could find was taking pictures with my new camera. Out of about 40-50 pictures and one very blurry video, these two were my only success stories. Most of them were just too blurry or washed out. Does anyone out there have advice on taking good screenshots with a camera? I tried many methods, the best of which I found was to have the lights on in the room, the camera set to ‘macro,’ and to use a tripod and something to prop the DS up on so both DS and camera are level. I tried de-interlacing the second one on photoshop, since you can see the ridges… but I was obviously unsuccessful. The first was somewhat blurry, but looked a little better after being sharpened. The other 40 or so were blurry beyond being recognisable.

These were both taken in the game Rune Factory 2.

EDIT: Added two more shots that I took this morning of Nintendogs (yeah, I play girly games). This time it took fewer tries to get clearer shots. I only took 10 photos instead of 40+. I’m still not thrilled with the quality; I think it’ll take a lot more playing with. Most of the shots were of my dog’s butt because EVERY time I took a photo he turned away from me. It’s also kinda hard to get a clear picture of something that’s constantly moving.

EDIT #2: I’m probably going to be adding screens throughout the day. The fifth one is from the original Rune Factory game. Not only is is my clearest one yet, but it’s slightly more exciting. Here we have Laguna fighting the second boss, a chimera.