Those three words were the first ones that came to mind when I wrapped up Sweet Fuse: At Your Side for the first time over the weekend.
That's because, after spending about a week and a whole lot of hours on this PSP-based visual novel, the first ending I encountered was a bad one. (As in, the guy I had the hots for didn't admit to feeling the same about me, er, my 18-year-old female avatar.)
I considered that to be completely unacceptable, so I promptly decided to go through the whole affair again--which is easier than it may sound in Sweet Fuse (and many other such games), as it offers players the ability to fast-forward through text that's already been read.
The problem is, I made a wrong choice at the very beginning of that follow-up attempt (these games are all about making the right choices--to the extent that most fans refer to a guide while working through them) and as a result I wound up not being able to re-woo the character in question.
So, after that campaign ended an hour or so later--also badly, I might add--I gave it another go. This time lasted just 45 minutes or so, and guess what? I finally ended up with the man of my dreams. Er, sort of. I think.
Was it all worth it? Surprisingly, I think it was. Although Sweet Fuse started slowly for me, its story--a murder mystery set at a video game-themed theme park, basically--eventually sank its claws into me, as did its colorful cast of characters.
I have to admit that I only found two of its woo-able men to be at all attractive--the "mature" (he's all of 32) journalist, Ayumu Shirabe, seen in the screenshot above, and the wild-haired "escort," Ryusei Mitarashi--but the rest of the bunch were interesting enough that it didn't bother me much, if at all.
As much as I enjoyed this experience, I can't help but think only a small fraction of today's gamers would find it similarly enthralling. That's largely because of the Choose Your Own Adventure-esque gameplay, by the way, and not because it's aimed at women and girls.
Still, that hasn't hurt this game's main competition in the Western world, Hakuoki, from finding a surprising amount of success, so maybe I'm selling non-Japanese gamers a bit short?
Regardless, just know that the main thing you do when you "play" Sweet Fuse is read. Once in a while you're asked to select between two or three options that will advance the plot in various ways, but other than that you'll be advancing lines of text with your PSP's X button.
If that doesn't bother you, I'd highly recommend giving the game a go should you own the requisite hardware.
A game I wouldn't give such a hearty recommendation to at this point, although I'm admittedly still at the very beginning of its adventure, is Golden Sun for the GameBoy Advance.
I've had this one for ages now, but for all sorts of reasons failed to boot it up until this past weekend.
Now, before I get too negative, let me just say that already I like a number of things about this portable RPG: I like its graphics (yes, even though they exist in that rather unattractive and awkward space also filled by games like Donkey Kong Country), I like its basic gameplay (which is like if Shining Force were turned into a traditional, turn-based RPG) and I like its soundtrack, too.
What don't I like? For starters, I hope that whomever designed the stairs found throughout the initial town was fired shortly after Golden Sun's release. On more than one occasion I've become stuck because I couldn't see the steps that supposedly had been carved out of the stony backdrop.
Actually, I hope the person in charge of this town's layout was fired, too, as it's a far too circuitous for its own good, if you ask me.
Oh, and then there's the fact that after an hour or two of gameplay I've still yet to find my way out of said town. Admittedly, it's possible I just haven't been paying close enough attention to what the game's NPCs are saying, but I doubt it.
Don't worry, I'm not planning to give up on Golden Sun anytime soon as a result of the above-mentioned shenanigans, although I wouldn't expect me to beat it anytime soon. After all, I just began Bravely Default, and anyone who has been coming here for even just the last few months should know that game is likely to take the bulk of my gaming attention for the foreseeable future. (Hell, I spent eight to 10 hours on the Bravely Default demo alone.)
Speaking of Bravely Default, I've played about three hours of it the other day and, boy, were those three hours a blast. I'm happy to report the full game eases folks into the experience a lot better than the demo did.
My favorite part of Bravely Default so far: the "party chat" feature. I can only imagine how much time this added to the game's localization effort, so I'm glad the people responsible for it decided to keep it intact.
This feature allows gamers to gain a bit of insight into the feelings and motives of each party member, by the way. As far as I can tell it can be completely ignored, so those of you who'd rather just get on with things are free to do so.
Other than that, I'm also loving the game's battle system, of course, as well as its graphics (or maybe I should say "art style") and soundtrack--although none of that should come as a surprise, as I loved all of those things in the Bravely Default demo, too.
Are any of you also working your way through this beautiful RPG at the moment? If so, what do you think of it so far?
One last thing: should you want to read a few impressions of another game I've spent some quality time in recent days, click here to check out my initial thoughts on the Japan-only puzzler, Zoo Keeper 3D.
Also, click here to scroll through previous "Shall We Do It?" posts.
29 comments:
Yeah, I wasn't too hot on Golden Sun, either. Much of Camelot's work isn't that compelling to me, although I'm trying very hard to give Shining Force 2 an honest chance.
Now Bravely Default I really DO want. Still getting by with the demo, but I hope I'll be able to afford the real deal in a couple of weeks.
I'm actually kind of sad that it's annoyed me so far, Jess, as I've always liked the Shining Force series.
Anyway, now that I've started Bravely Default -- and I'll be starting Weapon Shop de Omasse sometime tomorrow -- it'll be interesting to see when and if I return to it. And if/when I do, will my opinion of it improve?
Glad to hear you're enjoying the BD demo, by the way. I'd fully expect to like the full game, too, if my reaction to it is any indication.
I think of Golden Sun as aggressively mediocre, honestly. Endless dialogue that contradicts and restates itself over and over, underwhelming battles, "go find a FAQ" hidden secrets... And remember, it's only half a game as-is. (Then again, I ended up not really WANTING more of it.)
I'm about 34 hours into Bravely Default at this time I believe. Really enjoying it immensely. In fact, just completing the various quests that net you new job classes alone has been extremely engaging. I've completely rebuilt Norende which frankly surprises me, as I didn't really imagine that I would get drawn into the real-world time managing aspect.
I will say that I have found the Japanese voice overs to be preferable to the English ones, as I find Agnes especially grating over time.. But nonetheless, it's a fantastic game. Glad to hear you are playing it too!
How did I not know this game had such negativity associated with it? I always thought it had been received rather warmly by the GBA-owning masses. Anyway, we'll see if I continue on with it. It's not like I don't have other things to play at the moment. Still, thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!
34 hours, Ken? Man, you're *way* ahead of me. I'm about 3-4 hours in at this point.
Anyway, I agree with you that the rebuilding of Norende is surprisingly engaging.
Also, I've been OK with the voice work so far. You just reminded me that I can switch to Japanese voices, though. Doh! Going to give them a listen when I play again tonight.
Are you liking the party chat option, BTW? I'm finding I can't help but check it out, which surprises me, as it's usually something I'd mostly ignore.
I love Golden Sun. I practically devoured that game when it came out. The djinn system reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy 8's Guardian Force junctions. It's one of the GBA games I hope makes its way to Virtual Console.
I'm only ten hours into Bravely Default, but I'm loving it. Work is hectic right now, which has kept me from sinking in as much time as I'd like. My 3DS spends more time in sleep mode than actual play, so my Norende village is almost completely restored. lol
Oh yes - I always do the party chat. I've found myself actually chuckling at several of the dialog bits.. There's some honest to goodness funny bits in the game, which I think really adds a sense of depth to the game that I find is often missing when games take their whole tragic tale waaaayyyy too seriously. I'm excited for you to experience one scene in particular that I think you will find hilarious as I did.
Strangely enough, or maybe not strangely at all, I don't know, one of the designers mentioned being inspired by Beverly Hills 90210.
Yes, I'm really enjoying the sense of depth the party chat stuff adds to the game, too, Ken.
Also, I saw headlines about one of the designers being inspired by 90210 (and Glee, I think?) the other day. How funny!
Hmmm, well, I'll definitely consider picking it up at some point then.
Honestly, I shied away from it back in the day due to its art style. I much prefer the "cuter" art style of the SNES games as well as FF7 and FF9, so the look of this one turned me off a bit.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I'm enjoying Bravely Default quite a bit. I'm playing it on hard and it is kicking my ass. The last boss I fought (the sword-master boss) can counter your attacks but can only counter either physical or magical attacks at a a time but if he switches it'll always be at the beginning of the turn and if he counters a party member they're dead. He also will brave and then attack if someone twice they're dead but this puts him in negative brave points but lucky he doesn't counter you when he has negative brave points. As for summoning friends, I haven't used it yet and I just sent my 1st person out. I think I'll change it tomorrow so my person uses a healing special. I've also been putting my 3DS in sleep mode during work/charge for Norende.
Agreed. It's a good thing Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga came out a couple of years later, because Golden Sun does very little to scratch that turn-based RPG itch.
On the plus side, it's really fun to chant "Golden Sun! Golden Sun!," like the natives in the first few episodes of DuckTales.
I happen to like Golden Sun m'self. As far as I always knew, it was well-reviewed when it came out! The reasons being things which you, being stuck in the early game, haven't seen yet. For one thing, the djinn system--it's a beautifully crazy, mad hybrid of a class system, summons system, and limit breaks, and I've always liked it. For another, I'm rather fond of the game's dungeons. The game takes a very Zelda-esque, puzzle-and-skill-heavy approach to dungeons instead of just having labyrinths. It helped that I first played it when I was in a real Zelda-obsessive phase.
One thing that's no lie, though--it's only half a game on its own. I mean, you'll end the game at level 30 or so if you EXERT yourself. If you go in, you gotta go all the way, man.
Well, I guess I'll have to play long enough to get to know this djinn system, then. I do like a good RPG system, after all :)
BTW, was this game planned to be a half-game--with the second GBA game being its other half? If so, I never knew that! Until now, I mean...
And now I'm going to have to look for these episodes on YouTube :)
That sounds like a nasty boss fight, Sam! I'm playing on "normal" myself. I like a challenge, but I'm not looking for *that* much of a challenge, I guess! I have to say, though, that I really like how you can change the difficulty, change the encounter rate, etc., on the fly in this game. Hopefully this will spur other RPG devs to do the same in the future.
I summoned Sam into my game when I was first testing the link, and whatever attack he used blew the boss out of the water.
Oh, that's great, Terry! I've yet to use that option myself--I think because I'm unsure as to what the result is going to be!
Wow, that's ... quite a list of games I've never heard of (or barely heard of).
Interesting that they handled the programming of the first two Boku no Natsuyasumi games, though...
A friend of mine swears by Golden Sun. He still thinks its one of the best RPGs ever made. I've never played it. Sounds like maybe it hasn't aged too well.
If you can get over the fact that it very clearly looks like a game from the Donkey Kong Country era--aka, the era when too many game devs were obsessed with pre-rendered graphics--I'd say it may be worth a shot, Justin.
That said, I'm currently having a hard time getting over just how clumsy (for lack of a better word) this opening area is.
Now, I'm someone who completely hates how much Nintendo feels the need to "hold the hands" of gamers these days by basically walking them through the first quarter of a game (if not more), but the opening salvo of Golden Sun is on the other end of the spectrum for me.
Couldn't the first town and the story related to it be a *little* less convoluted so the gamer can just get on with things? Arrgh!
Glad you enjoyed Sweet Fuse in the end! This reminds me that I haven't included your Sweet Fuse "Shall We Do It?" posts in Dating Sim Month roundup yet – I'll make sure to put them in the next one!
Oh, yes, I definitely enjoyed it in the end, Anne. And I'll probably go through it a few more times in the future, as I'd really like to see how some of the other storylines play out.
Thanks for considering including these posts in one of your round-ups, Anne! Don't worry, though, if you can't fit them in the end, etc.
Also, I'll do my best to write an actual review of the game this weekend/next week. I really want to keep up with them (reviews) going forward, and this should be an easy one to write now that I've written about it in two or three of these posts :)
I'm also loving the encounter rate options . Especially since chapter 3 has you back track to a few places that are reasonably far apart twice (one time is a side quest) and random encounters would have made that annoying. I never finished the bonuses labyrinth in Etrain Odyssey IV because the random encounter got in the way of solving puzzles way too much even with the "decrease encounter rate" spell.
As for it appearing in other games, there have been JRPGs that had features that should of been in more games but never were sadly. I'd like to see something like it applied to encounters you can see were you could set so there to were there are no enemies on the map or you could flood the map with them or anywhere in between but I'm thinking that have to be done on a more powerful console than the 3DS.
Hmmm, I'm not sure this particular feature would work as well in an RPG where you can see enemies on the map--unless you put a limit on how many you can flood the map with. Still, I'd like to see some developer try it!
Originally, Golden Sun was planned to be one big game, encompassing everything you see in both the first game and its "sequel," The Lost Age. However, it was taking a lot time to develop, it got HUGE (too big for one cart), and Nintendo wanted something meaty to help bolster the early GBA's library. So the game was split into two, at a fairly logical place in its storyline, and a few systems were put in place to allow the player to transfer their save data between games so as to maintain all the important stuff. If you have two GBAs lying around and a Link Cable, you can do it easily. If you don't or are playing on an emulator, be prepared to spend an hour or so meticulously copying and then inputting a five-page password.
Thanks for filling me in on this, Freezair! It's quite the interesting story, too. So, did gamers know about all of this when the game was released, or did it come to light afterward? I ask because I have to imagine some folks were upset to find they were going to have to buy two carts in the end, etc.
I'm not actually sure, but I don't think the full extent of things became really obvious until the second game. Without spoiling too much, the second game starts you off with a different set of characters, but you acquire the first game's protagonists about midway through it. I do know, however, that the game actually started out being developed for the N64 until they realized that the GameCube was already becoming a thing.
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this, Freezair. Anyway, what interesting information! And it began life as an N64 title? Even more interesting. So glad it eventually was released for GBA instead, I have to say.
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