Non-Dark Souls II Gaming Progress: 9/6/15

Yeah, I'm still playing and mostly enjoying Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, but I do occasionally need a break from that...

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (NES)- I tried it out and beat it in one sitting. It's that easy. Hell, there are some Let's Plays and walkthroughs on YouTube that are less than twenty minutes long. For those of you who don't know about it, it's an NES Disney game developed by Capcom where you engage some of Disneyland's attractions turned into mini-games or platformer stages (read: it's an interactive Disneyland commercial). There are only five stages, if you don't count the required Disney trivia quest line. Final verdict: not impressed. The game feels like a collection of half-baked ideas attached to a couple of basic platforming segments (although the Haunted Mansion segment is decent). I think my least favorite attraction was Big Thunder, which was basically a guessing game where you ride the roller coaster to the bottom whilst steering clear of dead ends. I only happened to complete the event on my first attempt because I got lucky.

Shaq Fu (GB)- I've heard this game was a tremendous failure, so I had to play the Game Boy version because I just knew it had to be an utter gameplay cesspit. I must say, I'm disappointed this game isn't worse than it actually is. No, it's not good by any stretch, but it's mostly functional, albeit very clunky. I'm sure you all know the premise: Shaq versus a bunch of fighting game rejects. Verdict thus far: not good. The mechanics are stiff and jumping is way too floaty. It's playable despite that, but not very charming.

Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)- Reminder: Square Enix remade Star Ocean several years ago. So far, I've recruited Ashlay and Ioshua. Verdict thus far: pick up already, geez. It's got the makings of a great RPG, but I feel that the campaign has been stalling. "We have no idea what we're doing, so let's go this way." Thankfully, the Celestial Ship has just crashed, so I'm hoping the plot picks up from there. I'm getting a little tired of the "go here, go there, accomplish little to nothing" rail. I know this game has to get better because of the decent amount of praise it's received. After I'm done, I'll be replaying Star Ocean: The Second Story, and then hitting the other two.

End of Aspiration (Android)- Overdrive just had to mention that Kemco developed a buttload of mobile RPGs, and I just had to put them all on my wishlist. I decided to start with this one since it was free, and so far I'm ***drumroll*** not impressed. Then again, I've only gotten through the preliminary dungeon, which had a boss fight against two soldiers whom I destroyed with a single shot. C'mon Kemco, even Final Fantasy Mystic Quest's first boss didn't die this easily. (Final note: the main villain group is called the Mafia? Seriously?)

Comments 3

overdrive Staff Sep 6, 2015

Oi, no joke, of the freebies in the Kemco Katalog, you picked the one widely considered to be the absolute worst. I think, in the grand scheme of things, most Kemco games range from blah to decent, with a couple reaching the Good Zone. But I haven't really seen much of anything positive said by anyone about either this one or Sheterra the Skyworld (no free version of that one).

Kemco has four companies that make games for them to distribute on mobile devices.

EXE-CREATE is widely considered the best. They try new things, they develop the most ambitious engines (first to do 3-D battles, for example). I'm playing their very first game for Kemco now (Alphadia) and it's nothing special, though, so I'm guessing they've improved over time. They kind of have a free game out, as they released both a free and premium version of their brand new Asdivine Dios (a sequel of sorts to Asdivine Hearts, which a lot of people seem to consider the single best Kemco RPG). Kemco games have DLC shops (or IAP for here) where you can buy a lot of cool items to make games easier. This shop contains items that double XP and gold drops. If you buy the premium version, you get 1000 points; while the free versions gives none. Those points can buy those items. If you don't have them, there's a LOT of grinding in your future; if you do, it'll feel like normal progress.

Hit-Point generally has the most original battle systems and gameplay. They have a couple better-regarded free games in Machine Knight (more of a traditional RPG, I think) and Band of Monsters (Pokemon clone). And I think they may have done Crystalarino or whatever it's called, which also has a free version.

World Wide Software has a couple highly regarded games in Symphony of Eternity and Symphony of the Origin (prequel to the former), but other than that seem to be really boring and generic. End of Aspiration: ONE. OF. THEIRS.

Magitec or whatever the fourth is named is generally considered pretty good with story-telling and having interesting plot twists, but I've heard bad things about dungeon design and they seem to have the creakiest (and least-upgraded) engine. I played their Grinsia when it was ported to the 3DS. I found it more "bland across the board" than the "good at some stuff, bad at others" description that I've heard about their games in general, though.

JoeTheDestroyer Blogger Sep 7, 2015

With a name like EXE-CREATE, you better rule the roost. Otherwise, people are going to call you EXE-CREment. I guess that motivated them.

overdrive Staff Sep 9, 2015

You know, I am now hoping that at some point, they released a real crappy (pun very intended) game. Alphadia's not good, but it's a bit too competent in design and execution to deserve that sort of insulting; so I'll have to keep playing these games in the hopes that I come across an EXE-CREATE game that is truly EXE-CREment.