Record of Agarest War 2 release info

The Story:
One day, the world was enveloped by a mysterious blinding light. The destruction it caused was terrible, even as the light itself was sublime in its beauty, and it made those who witnessed the awesome display think of the unrestrained rage and fury of the divine.

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Handful of gaming thoughts...

Some items I've been posting on Otaku Gaming:

- Is Record of Agarest War 2 North America bound?  According to a stumble-upon I had on Amazon, it may be, but I haven't seen an official announcement yet.  I am pretty excited about this one and emailed Aksys PR to see if they could give me any other info, as I was a fan of the first Agarest War and it was one of my earliest reviewed titles and also the subject of a re-review by me.

- Persona 4 Arena has been announced for North America as well.  I only ever played the first Persona for the PlayStation years ago, but I really liked it - it struck a very positive note with me and I've been eying the titles for PSP for awhile now, so this caught my eye also.

- I really liked Final Fantasy XIII - I scored it well on my review on the site earlier, and I've been enjoying the sequel.  There's some new info about an upcoming episode to Final Fantasy XIII-2 courtesy of DLC.

- And last but not least, I've talked about my RPG Maker XP project, Summoner on here in the past (I was actually just prodding at that again on Saturday.  Still don't know if I'll ever finish it or not.  If I do, I will likely have to make several sacrifices because I just had too large of a plan for the game for my time to allow it).  That said, RPG Maker VX Ace has a release date and pricing.

Any of these articles of interest to you?  Do you like/dislike/feel indifferent about when I link to another site or blog like this to show details on the articles?  Let me know your thoughts on this - or any of the above - here or at Otaku Gaming.

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Gyromancer - PC Review

I have always been a fan of puzzle games.  I had Tetris and Dr. Mario on my NES, was extremely good at Columns on my Genesis and sunk countless hours into Bejeweled.  They are a good, often semi-mindless way to kill some time.  RPG's are probably my favorite video game genre, however.  The blending of puzzle and RPG in Puzzle Quest was a lot of fun when I first gave it a shot on my PSP a few years ago, and I have enjoyed a lot of similar titles since.  Of those, Gyromancer has been among my favorites.

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Hoard - PC Game Review

It's fun being the bad guy.  A lot of people who get a chance in games with moral choices go to the dark side in Mass Effect or Fallout.  There are some titles completely designed around this idea such as Dungeons and Overlord, though their degree of success can be debated.  Hoard embraces this role though as you play the part of a dragon who spews fire and collects gold and princesses every chance you get.  I picked this particular title up off of Steam fairly cheaply awhile back and have enjoyed it for the most part.

Graphics - 7:

This is not a pretty game.  The top-down graphics do a good job of showing you everything you need to see, but the world itself is fairly dull and lifeless unless there are a lot of moving units active on the map at once.  It looks like some sort of an old board game as you soar around the countryside looking to cause trouble.  That said, at times there can be several things happening at once on the map and I never experienced any glitches or slowdown.

Sound & Music - 5:

Not a real big fan of the music to be honest.  It does not fit the game very well, much like I felt Record of Agarest War's metal music was a bad fit with its medieval fantasy setting, the music in this game seems out of place as well.  The sound effects are simple, but effective.  To be honest though, this is a game you can just as easily play with the music turned down and something else playing on your computer in the background.

Gameplay - 8:

Your dragon handles pretty well once you get the hang of things.  Blazing knights and thieves, burning down towns and terrorizing princesses is a lot of fun and the controls work well.  Getting around the game's menus is easy enough as well.

Intangibles - 8:

The multiplayer is a lot of fun, and there are enough varied objectives to give you something to do as you move from map to map.  If you are a fan of achievements, there are a ton of them if you are playing this game through steam.  Adding to it is a leaderboard that I will never be at the top of, but for fans of the game it gives them some definite goals to try and attain.

Overall - 7:

This game is a lot of fun in quick, short bursts.  It would be perfect on a handheld.  The graphics, sound and music do disappoint, but they don't actually take anything away from the gameplay itself.  That said, once you play it for awhile, there might not be a lot left to do outside of the multiplayer.  I played this game very heavily at first, but scarcely since.  The same can be said of my son, who seemed to enjoy the premise for awhile, but after about a week hasn't touched it.

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Our friends at Volatile Mode

For those of us who follow Jeff on Volatile Mode, he has relocated to Armed Mode, which can be found here.  If you are unfamiliar with his postings, now is a great time to get acquainted with them as Jeff is a longtime and avid gamer with some great opinions on the industry.  Let's help make him nice and cozy in his new home!

 

Click the image above to be taken to his first post on Armed Mode

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