VVVVVV

This little indie game is a must play for all gamers. It’s a regular offering in all the indie bundles popping and often on sale for around 2$. The game is quite short but very enjoyable and the chiptune music fits perfectly.

Don’t let yourself get turned away by its simplistic graphics, it’s one good game.

Bastion

This one caught me by surprise. I had seen a couple of screenshots of the game and it looked interesting, but I was not really considering purchasing it. It’s only once I saw a gameplay video that I understood this game was special. The game features a reactive narrator who accompanies you in your adventure commenting on your actions and explaining the unfolding story. The narrator’s voice is perfect and never repetitive or annoying. Of course, the music is also excellent. It’s available on Steam for $15 and, as most indie games, will probably have deals for it every now and then.

Shadow of the Colossus

This one is probably better known than the 2 games above. Featuring excellent and unique gameplay (epic boss battles!), the game features an incredible soundtrack to help immerse the player in the action even more. The game was released a couple of years ago, but the recent HD/3D remake for the PS3 (bundled with the excellent ICO too) makes the purchase an easy decision.

Games by Square Enix

I will not list all of them because so many of their creations would fit in this list. Among the most noteworthy are Final Fantasy (IV, VI, VII, IX are my favorites), Kingdom Hearts (the main games) and, last but not least, Chrono Trigger. I had the chance of going to a Distant Worlds concert and loved the experience.

Zelda

There are generally 2 reasons why people don’t want Dota 2 to be F2P:

• The games will be flooded with noobs and trolls that don’t care about playing well and making sure everyone’s having fun.
• F2P means having to pay later for DLC (downloadable content) to unlock the full game (heroes, items, etc.)

Both are legitimate reasons, but I trust that Valv^E knows best than locking up part of the game behind paid DLC. Also, with a decent matchmaking system, experienced player won’t ever be matched against new or annoying players.

F2P with Valv^E means:

• A free game available to everyone, including all your friends.
• A game with plenty of paid DLC to unlock aesthetic modifications to the game. Furthermore, there’s a possibility that the paid DLC will be available to players for free by simply playing a lot, like most of the content for Team Fortress 2.
• A game where content creators from the community will be able to make some money (or a lot).

So, as long as Valv^E addresses the 2 issues, a F2P Dota 2 would be awesome for everyone and it can be very profitable for the company as Team Fortress 2 has shown countless times.

Some gamers have been outraged at Blizzard’s decision to put an auction house accessible to Diablo 3 players that will require real money. The main issues mostly turn around these points:

• Cheapening the experience by allowing players to buy their way to the top
• Destroying the regular auction house because people will obviously favor real money over item trades
• Blizzard making money from it

All valid points, but here’s why they don’t matter.

Players would trade items for real money either way

People were already buying and selling items for real money in Diablo 2. There’s absolutely no doubt that it would be the case with Diablo 3. So now, instead of going to a shady website with tons of spam and malware, you will be able to exchange money for items through a secure website. Blizzard is not fighting the issue anymore, instead they’re embracing it and controlling the transactions to make sure no one gets scammed (in or out of the game). Some people argue that since Blizzard is sanctioning it, players that would never have used those other websites, will now do. I say that’s a good thing because players will now be able to do what they wanted all along.

No one is forced to use it

The real money auction house is one way to trade items, the other way is through the regular (in-game) gold auction house. No one will be forced to use it and with the listing fees, people will have to think twice before putting an item up for trade. Even if Blizzard offers a couple of free listings, once those are used, the regular auction house will be used again. Also, if you sell items through the real-money auction house, you won’t have the currency to buy items in the regular auction house, forcing you to buy using real money. Either way, the choice is yours only and if you don’t like it, don’t use it.

Blizzard will have an incentive to keep supporting the game

With the standard pay once model, Blizzard ends up supporting 5-10 year old games that people are not buying anymore. I don’t have any numbers but selling a couple hundred or thousand copies for $10-15 per month does not cover a lot of the expenses related to supporting an online game such as Diablo. Blizzard is known for supporting its games for a very long time and with a model that gives Blizzard quite a lot of money all the time, it has all the reasons to make sure as many players as possible keep playing for a long time. World of Warcraft has seen an impressive amount of updates for just such reasons, the more people keep playing (and paying), the more money Blizzard makes, this isn’t true for Diablo 2 once most people have bought the game.

The games (or the lack of quality games)

The 3DS has some quality games, but it’s seriously lacking in diversity. The top rated game is a 13 year old remake, followed by fighting games and a bunch of Nintendogs variations. No serious RPG, adventure, or even a well known series in the top games. I took a look at the upcoming titles and not much is coming to the system in the next few months. Among the interesting games, a new Paper Mario, Luigi’s Mansion 2, Mario Kart and another remake, Star Fox 64. Nothing that can’t wait a couple of months.

Unimpressive hardware

First, the biggest feature of the handheld, the glasses-free 3D is reported to put a strain on the eyes and many gamers just turn it off for long gaming sessions. Furthermore, the short battery life of 3 to 5 hours is far from being impressive considering it’s supposed to be a handheld system to take on the go.

Why buy one now

As I said earlier, those who log in the virtual shop before August 12 (price drop day) will get 20 free games (10 NES and 10 GBA virtual console titles). Buying the system later will save you $80 unless you go for a price match after the price drop or buy one where the price has already been lowered. So it is possible to get the 3DS at the lowered price and the 20 free games.

Why wait?

The Nintendo DS went through 4 variations, the Game Boy Advance has 3. I would be very surprised if a new 3DS model did not get release sometime in the next year or two, hopefully with a better battery, improved 3D visuals and better games to choose from.

DotA

The creation DotA has created its own genre and is now becoming mainstream. A first game, League of Legends was released in October 2009. Guinsoo, which modified the original DotA into DotA Allstars, was part of the design team for the game. Another clone, Heroes of Newerth, was released in May 2010. It is often regarded as a less user-friendly game for games who want an experience where skills matter more. It is less popular than its direct competitor, League of Legends, in part due to its price.

Finally, superstar game company Valve, saw the popularity of the genre and decided to purchase the rights to DotA and create a full-blown sequel using its own engine. The sequel, Dota 2, is supposed to play very much like the original, but with updated graphics, integrated online functionality and other benefits that making a standalone game provide.

Blue Magic, also referred to as Enemy Skill or Lores, is a skillset consisting of abilities used by monsters. Most of the time, a character who can use it is known as a Blue Mage.

source

It was first introduced in Final Fantasy V and has since reappeared in most games from the series since then. The most common way of obtaining those skills or spells is to have the blue mage get attacked by the spell and survive it. There have been other variants, but they all require the player to fight the enemy with the wanted skill.

Why do I hate it?

Blue Magic is a pain to build, if you want to have a decent blue mage, you’ll have to spend a ton of time hunting enemies and grinding until the enemy finally decides to use the spell, then hope it hits your blue mage (if that’s the way to learn it in that particular game) and hope that the character survives. Of course, the best spells are usually the hardest to learn, some of them are friendly spells, making it unlikely the enemy will use it against you (you’ll have to either control the monster or use a reflective barrier on the enemy and hope the reflection hits your mage). Other spells will obliterate your character or even your party, forcing you to make use of some auto-life ability.

Fortunately, learning blue magic has always been optional, it just annoys me that in most games, there will often be one class or character that won’t be of much use because I can’t bring myself to grind the spells.

Famous blue mages

In Final Fantasy V, any character could be a blue mage, but in other games, a specific character usually has the ability.

Strago in Final Fantasy VI was able to learn spells simply by seeing them being used in battle, making it a bit easier and faster. Furthermore, Relm could take control of monsters to force them to use certain skills. Gau could also be considered as some sort of blue mage since his ability was to mimic monsters.

Quistis in VIII could learn blue magic by using items dropped by the enemies. Quina in IX had to eat the enemies and could only use the spells as a limit break. Finally, Kimahri in X simply had to use his Lancet ability on an enemy to learn a skill, much simpler.

Final Fantasy II and III

These are the most known examples of this strategy. The Final Fantasy II and III games as we know them in North America are actually the 4th and 6th installments in the series. Square had no plans to release the games between the first game and FFIV so they whacked the number so that consumers wouldn’t be confused. Fortunately, they rectified the numbering with Final Fantasy VII, but that left people wondering where Final Fantasy IV through VI had gone until fans learned that FFII (us) meant FFIV (jp) and FFIII (us) meant FFVI (jp).

Final Fantasy Adventure

A lesser known title, Final Fantasy Adventure, is actually the first game in the Mana series. The game was re-released by Square Enix with a name closer to its original name as “Sword of Mana” on the Gameboy Advance. Just to make things still more confusing, the game was named “Mystic Quest” in Europe. Even though the game is a sort of Zelda-esque spin-off of Final Fantasy, it shares only the basic RPG elements with the main series.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

While we’re on the subject of Mystic Quest, since Square had burned the name in Europe, it had to be released as “Mystic Quest Legend” over there.

Final Fantasy Legend

The Final Fantasy Legend games have nothing to do with Final Fantasy, they are actually the first games of the SaGa series. Their names were completely changed for marketing purposes.

Final Fantasy XI and XIV

Two more recent examples of Square, actually Squaresoft and Square Enix, messing up with names are the two online games, Final Fantasy XI and XIV. The games were not actually renamed, but their inclusion as games of the main series can hardly be seen as anything else than a marketing tactic to improve the sales of the game. Up until FFXI, all games had shared the same concepts: a single player RPG game where a party of characters embark on an epic quest to save the world from evil. FFXI threw all of this away. Why not name the game “Final Fantasy Online”, or “Final Fantasy World”, or “Gaia”?

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario 2 is a rebranding of the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic game. That’s why there’s no Bowser, no princess to save and not much in common with the original Mario game except the basic platforming elements (i.e. jumping and stomping on enemies). The four characters were originally siblings trying to save kidnapped kids in a fantasy world.

Impact

The game was nonetheless important for the series, introducing a number of concepts and characters that are still key to the franchise. The shape of the characters were more clearly defined, making Luigi slim and tall and making Mario a bit rounder and smaller. The character’s movements were also set by this game. Luigi is harder to control, but he can run faster and jump higher, while Mario has tighter controls but can’t jump as high. Peach also gained her floating ability. The gender-confused Birdo, the Shy Guys and Bob-ombs are the better known characters that first appeared in this game (source). The Mario series could’ve been very different without the modifications made to Doki Doki.

Pokemon Snap

A lesser known rebranding by Nintendo is Pokemon Snap which wasn’t supposed to have any Pokemon in it. There wasn’t anything in particular to photograph which prompt the developers of the game to reconsider the goal of the game. They wondered what people would be interested in taking pictures of and using the Pokemon franchise sounded like a good idea.

Impact

Nothing new came out of this title, at best it strengthened the popularity of the franchise with a solid spin-off of the Pokemon games.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Originally called Fluff’s Yarn, Kirby appeared in the game a few months after the development had started. The main protagonist was Fluff which was changed into the secondary character providing the opportunity for a 2 players Kirby game. The designers of the original didn’t seem to be mad when Nintendo asked them to use Kirby.

Impact

It’s difficult to judge what would have been different without Kirby. The game would still have been gorgeous and the game would most likely have received similar reviews. Putting Kirby on the cover probably helped with the sales and Nintendo backing up the title can’t hurt. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Prince Fluff in a future Kirby game. However, Nintendo might have lost the opportunity for a new franchise, though they can probably do a spin-off with Fluff alone with the right concept.

Nintendo has been really successful with its rebranding, bringing obscure games with great gameplay in the spotlight. The changes were good decisions financially as well as for the fans.

Final Fantasy Adventure

Not wanting to be outdone by Zelda, Square decided to create the Final Fantasy Adventure game which really is the first game of the Mana series. There are no Final Fantasy concepts in the game except the basic RPG elements (experience, stats, hit points, magic spells). The game plays like Zelda, but has its own story and tweaks that make it unique.

Impact

Play this

The game didn’t do much for the Final Fantasy series, but its sequel, Secret of Mana, is still regarded as one of the best cooperative games ever made. Final Fantasy Adventure is also the first RPG game that allowed the player to kill townspeople.

The Final Fantasy Legend

Just like Final Fantasy Adventure, The Final Fantasy Legend is not actually a Final Fantasy game and is the first game of its own series, the SaGa series. The title of the game was changed in North America to improve marketing. To its defense, the game shares more features with the Final Fantasy games than Adventure did. The player takes control of a party of 4 characters with classes chosen at the beginning of the game and features turn-based random battles.

Impact

Beside the series that spawned from the game, the game has had an immense impact on the gaming world. Satoshi Tajiri, creator of the Pokemon series, mentioned in an interview that the Legend game gave him the inspiration for the Pokemon games.

I would argue that Square has been far less successful with its rebrandings, in North America at least. Neither the Mana and SaGa series are very popular outside of Japan, except for a few titles such as Secret of Mana. In my opinion, the modifications made to the games were more about selling more copies than about helping obscure games that deserved the spotlight. However, both games have had a tremendous impact on the gaming industry.

Whenever you purchase a game, you pay for a number of things, the most costly being the development costs, the cost of paying all the developers, designers, testers, animators, etc. to create the game that you’re about to enjoy. You also pay for the marketing department who spent money to give you an incentive to buy by showing you ads on the television, on the websites you love or in magazines you read. However, these are about the only costs that really are about creating a game and making you buy it.

Whenever you buy a game in store or online, the costs of delivery vary a lot, but most of the time the price is the same. Sometimes it’s the physical retailer who puts pressure on the publisher because he’s afraid of losing sales. Sometimes, it’s just the publisher wanting to make a bigger margin, expecting people won’t notice. Here’s my analysis of how the price differs for these two methods of selling.

Physical retailer

There are some obvious costs like the packaging which includes the box, the disc or cartridge and the printed manual. Then you pay for the people working at the store, for the shelf space (bigger titles pay to be at eye-level and have more copies in front). You also have to consider the transportation of the game and the storage. These are all unique to a physical store. However, buying a physical disc does have some advantages: you can lend it to people, you can resell it and you have a sense of ownership (if that matters to you). The reselling part is actually a big factor here, even if you just sell it at 20% of the cost, that’s a pretty decent rebate over an online version that you can’t get rid of.

Online retailer

Online stores are not without expenses though. The publisher has to pay for disc storage (which is arguably pretty cheap), bandwidth (also kinda cheap) and the people managing the online store (not as cheap). The advantages of buying online is that you can redownload the game at any time on any computer or video game system (I hope) and the game will never wear down or get destroyed by a pet or little brother.

The costs appear to be tremendously smaller when buying online, why is that not reflected in the price of games? Fortunately, there is hope: Steam and indie games are demonstrating regularly how good games at reasonable prices can be an excellent business model.

The Mognet is simply a mailing system run by moogles. When it was first introduced to the series, in Final Fantasy 9, the player could only receive letters from various NPCs. In Final Fantasy 3, however, the player can now also send mail to other players via WiFi. While the entire Mognet feature was optional for the game, a particular quest required the user to actively use it to complete the quest. The quest in question is the ultimate achievement in the game, it’s the Onion Knight quest which gives you access to the most powerful job class and equipment.

So, how does one use the Mognet to unlock this quest?

1. First, you must send at least 7 letters to your friends over Wi-Fi, note that you can send 7 to one person or many.
2. Receive 4 letters from Topapa. This is attainable by sending 4 letters to him, on his fourth reply, he will tell you to go back to Ur, so do so.

Source: GameFAQs

That doesn’t sound so bad right? Wrong! It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just annoying to do.

Using the Mognet

To use the Mognet, all you have to do is find a moogle in one of the towns. Then, you can choose to either mail an NPC or a friend who also owns the game. To send mail to a friend, you first have to acknowledge each other separately by confirming the friend codes of each other so you have to find your friend code, send it to him, get his own friend code, enter it in your game and then wait for him to do the same. Alright, that’s already annoying, but nothing new for people accustomed to the stupid Friend Codes system made mandatory by Nintendo.

Now that you can send mail to your friend, you just have to do it seven times. Easy right? Wrong again. First of all, to count towards the 7 letters, the mail has to be received by your friend, that means that he has to read it in his own game. Furthermore, the mail is not stored indefinitely on the real-life network used to transmit mails from Nintendo DS to Nintendo DS, it only stays there for a couple of days (3 I think). That means that every time you send a letter to your friend, you also have to notify him in real life to make sure he gets it. That’s more work than what was needed.

If you manage to send the 7 letters, you now have to communicate with NPCs. The developers wouldn’t let you have it that easily though, you can only send 1 mail per hour. So that’s four more hours of waiting (at least you can play or do something else, but since that quest usually happens near the end of the game, there’s not a whole lot to do while waiting to send more letters). Once you have sent the 4 letters to Topapa, congratulations you can now do the quest that unlocks the Onion Knight. Oh, did I mention that the job sucks? It really does, at least until you reach levels near the maximum (99) and you manage to gather the ultimate onion equipment.

The Onion equipment

The Onion equipment consists of a single blade, the Onion blade, and as many helmets, armors, shields, gauntlets and swords (the Onion swords are only slightly better than the blade) as you can get. The blade is easy to get, you just have to reach level 99 with one character in the Onion job (which sucks until around level 95 as stated earlier) and find the master smith in the game (which isn’t too hard). Now, you’ll have to hunt for the rest of the equipment.

Each of the pieces can only be found by killing dragons. There are three types of dragons and they’re the strongest three enemies in the game. Each of the dragons has 1.5% chance of dropping a sword and 8% chance of dropping the shield. Then each of them has 4.5% chance of dropping either a helmet, a gauntlet or the armor (each one drops only one type of these) (source). So on average, you’ll have to fight a little over 260 dragons.

This is probably one of the most tedious optional sidequest I have ever done; sometimes it sucks to be a completionist.