_hojo:Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime)

_Oh, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes…why are you so shitty? OK, maybe might be a bit harsh. Actually, it’s really harsh. It’s not actually that bad. It’s rather enjoyable. But why is it still so shitty? I find myself asking this question…and I’m not sure of the answer. I’m hoping that by the end of this post, the answer will become clear to me. Join me on a journey through space and time to find the answer to the unanswerable. OK, not time. And it’s not unanswerable either, but at this point, I’m just kind of going with the flow and I have no idea how this is going to end. Should be fun, though…right?

_hojo:Let’s go get the gold! Front Mission 4

_Never trust the opinions of people you don’t know and/or can’t name off the top of your head. Case in point – Front Mission 4. I had heard that FM4 was a vastly inferior game to FM3, and not worth playing. But when I think back…I have no idea who I heard that from. If I can’t even be bothered to remember who it was that recommended/derecommended something to me, why am I even bothering to trust their opinion? FM4 isn’t the only time that this has happened, and I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to this trap before. But the fact remains: I shouldn’t have listened to people I don’t know.

_hojo:Hello Tree-Oh Dust

_The Halo series has long been a source of fun discussions. Intelligent conversations such as “Halo? More like GAY-lo, amirite?” and “LOL Halo is shit and all the fukin XBox fagz know it they only like it becuz its all dey got we got Killzone and Resistence and Call of Duty have fun with your shitty game faggot!!!” and “HALO IS THE BEST SERIZ EV4R!!1!” have thankfully graced our lives since the first game landed alongside the original Microsoft-Box in 2001. Putting aside all those wonderful points I just brought up, I will now delve into the newest release in the series, Halo 3: ODST. Or to get more into the spirit of the game, come with me as we drop into ODST. If you know a little about the story, you probably just let out a quick chuckle, then shook your head at the bad pun. If you didn’t, the connection goes over your head and it just sounds like a typical overused subject line in reviews. Don’t worry…the sentence was both of those things.

Gendo – The Day The Earth Stood Bound

Just recently Starmen.net held an annual event that they like to call the EarthBound Funktastic Gameplay. I don’t much about it personally since I’ve never really followed the goings on of Starmen.net too closely, but by chance I found out about it through Lyndis of The Backloggery. I’ve always been a fan of EarthBound and an annual playthrough of the game sounded like a lot of fun. Personally I hadn’t played Earthbound since I was a kid so I figured this would be a good chance to get reaquianted with the game. People seem to throw around a lot of praise for EarthBound, lamenting it as beeing underrated and perhaps one of the best RPGs of all time. This recent playthrough reminded me why EarthBound truly is one of the greatest RPG experiences out there, and why more people need to play this oft ignored gem.

Noi – Guess whose still in the blog?

A Slaves to the Grind post from me? Shocking, I know. This just goes to show just how far I’ll go to distract myself from actually working on my college. So after almost 8 months from my last post, here’s a brand spankin’ new post from moi. Just don’t get used to it.

So, time to do what I actually joined the blog to do: RPG report! Or at least, report on the last few ones that I’ve played, seeing how I actually haven’t had the time to sit down and actually play a console game, so I’m just sticking to portables as of late.

_hojo:Jessica Quest 8

_The Dragon Quest series is one of the longest running and most influential series in the history of gaming. Released in Japan in 1986, it popularized many of the standards found in modern day turn-based RPGs, and is one of the most successful game franchises of all time…in Japan. In the US, the series (long known under the name Dragon Warrior, due to copyright issues) has long been overshadowed by the Final Fantasy games. Most gamers have played at least one FF game in their lifetime, even if they’re not fans of the RPG genre. I’ve often heard people say, “Well, I figure that the series is good enough to get 12 installments, they must be the best! So…might as well try out the best there is to try, y’know?” Funny enough…Dragon Quest saw its 8th installment on the PS2, but i never once heard anybody use that excuse to play it. I guess a series has to hit double digits before people start to make that assumption. Anyways, despite being a big fan of RPG’s, i had managed to go through 25 years of non-death without playing a single Dragon Quest game. Sure, I can make excuses. I didn’t get into RPG’s until 1994, when i played Final Fantasy 3/6, and another Dragon Quest game wasn’t released after that point in the US until 2001. I was scared of the 100+ hours DQ7 promised to require of me. I was too busy playing Xenogears. Excuses, excuses. But that’s all in the past now. I rectified the absence of Dragon Quest in my life last month by playing through Dragon Quest VIII. And it was good.

Kibou – Acquisition Report

HEY GUYS I AM STILL ON THIS BLOG. Surprise? I have been kind of addicted to buying games rather than playing them, so Bak’Laag has been strengthened quite a bit…Also, most of the stuff I bought are RPGs therefore they will not be beaten anytime soon. Probably. Anyways, this is a report of stuff I bought since my last post, plus a bit of impressions if I played it…All currencies are in Canadian Dollars unless otherwise specified. Unfortunately this post also includes stupid photos.

Games acquired:
Suikoden III, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, Chrono Cross, Shadow Hearts, Xenogears, Ikaruga, Final Fantasy IX, PS1 Memory Card

_hojo:Prebacklog Backlogging

_when i first joined the Backloggery, i had over 100 unfinished games in my collection, and close to 325 total. currently, those numbers sit at 49 and 424 respectively (thanks for the Total Game inflation, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection!). for many years, i had owned a ton of games that i had never played for more than 5 minutes, much less finished. occasionally, i’d look through all these games that i owned, and i’d say “i need to play all these games i’ve never played. one of these days…” then i’d play Xenogears again. but after joining the Backloggery, seeing that Unbeaten Games total fall and those Beaten and Completed totals rise were just the motivation i needed to get me to actually act upon those previous threats of…playing games. but while this was the first time i’d been truly motivated to try to beat EVERYTHING in my collection, this was not the first time i’d been motivated to beat unplayed games in my collection. let’s take a trip back into the past…the long forgotten time of 2007-2008!

『マンション』 Seijika – Scary Hairy Frightenstein

I should stop promising stuff in other posts. Looks like I won’t be writing about BlazBlue today, derp! Instead I will be writing about the slew of horror-themed games I have been going through, which has actually mostly been Silent Hill. You can’t get much scarier than that, though! In cool news, I have quite a big list of games to play now after I managed to get over 100 games and 4 systems for just $250 last week. Bak’laag laughed heartily and became violently horny. It’s not a pretty picture, so I better get to work. I’ve beaten about 7 games so far, but more keep coming, eep. There are plenty of quality titles, but also plenty of trade-inable titles as well. Which is just fine, since I need to save up for a new PSP! How I miss its silly UMD discs. Anywho, time for chills and thrills in the horror madness. The games that will be covered are Silent Hill 4: The Room, Resident Evil: Dead Aim, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Silent Hill 2. That’s quite a list!

_hojo:Woody’s Roundup.03

_another birthday has come and gone, and as my age becomes more and more advanced, i find myself acquiring fewer and fewer presents. it comes with the territory, so don’t be surprised when it happens to you. but the one good thing about acquiescing less presents is that the backlog gets fed less every year. this years haul saw only 1 addition to the collection, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. it’s a souped up version of the original, with somehow even cuter new pinatas. how they managed that is beyond me, the first one was so adorable. anyways, rounding out my gifts were season 5 of Ranma 1/2 and American Dad season 4 on DVD, and issues 1-23 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic collected in various graphic novels. overall, very high quality gifts, i must say. good work, family. anyways…somebody’s poisoned the waterhole. time for another installment of Woody’s Roundup.