Shall We Do It? (A Link Between Worlds, Hometown Story and Puyo Puyo Tetris demo)

Hey, I'm actually publishing another of these "Shall We Do It?" posts. Who would've thunk it, eh? Especially given my propensity to introduce columns with tongue-in-cheek titles that I return to only sporadically.

Well, screw history. For the time being, at least, I'm really enjoying writing these posts. Plus, they're seemingly giving me that extra push that's sometimes needed for me to sit down and actually play the games I buy.

With all of that out of the way, why don't I get to some of my experiences with those aforementioned games?

I may as well begin with the game that captured the bulk of my attention over the last week and a half or so--The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS.

I'm about 15 or so hours into A Link Between Worlds now and, boy, does it have me by the balls. I love nearly every aspect of it--from the crisp controls, to the "it's amazing how pretty they are in motion" graphics, to the triumphant soundtrack, to the satisfyingly unique feature that allows Link to turn into a piece of graffiti so he can scamper along walls and shimmy through cracks.



I even love the title's open-endedness--despite the fact that it's prompted me to turn to GameFAQs more times than I'd like to admit (because I'm completely stumped as to where I should go or what I should do next).

My absolute favorite aspect of this portable adventure so far: traipsing through Hyrule's fabulously malignant flip side, Lorule. It's both beautiful and a bit creepy, plus its denizens really mean business (especially in comparison to most of the pushovers that populate the sunnier side of Link's habitat).

Thankfully, I have a feeling I'll be exploring Lorule (and Hyrule) for a few more hours yet, as I've only completed what I believe to be just over half of the latter area's dungeons.

Anyway, as much as I'm loving A Link Between Worlds, it isn't the only game I'm playing at the moment. One of the others: Hometown Story.

Last time I mentioned this title, made by Harvest Moon's Yasuhiro Wada, I confessed to being a bit torn about it. On the one hand, I rather like how it looks--although some are sure to find it just a bit too twee--and I really like its 1990s-esque soundtrack, but the gameplay ... well, let's just say I'm still on the fence about it (and that I'm currently leaning toward the "it's not quite my bag" side of things).



Although Hometown Story's main gameplay "hook," which revolves around running a shop in a quaint if somewhat creepily empty town, grew on me a bit during the hour and a half I spent with the title over the weekend (I've now played it for just over two hours), it still seems more tedious than fun.

Don't get me wrong, I like that I'll be able to change the decor of my shop over time as well as expand its size, which will allow me to sell an increasingly diverse selection of goods to the town's citizenry, but I really can't see either of those things doing much to enhance the appeal of the title's core gameplay.

In the end, the gist of Hometown Story seems to be: stock shelves, sell items, buy more inventory, stock shelves, sell items, buy more inventory--lather, rinse, repeat. If that sounds fun to you, you may just get a kick out of this Natsume-published release, but I'd be hard pressed to say I'm "enjoying" it at the moment.

Still, I'm not quite ready to give up on it, so expect me to keep plugging away at it for a little while longer--and look for me to give it at least a passing mention in the next one or two "Shall We Do It?" posts, too.

Last, but not least, I downloaded the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo from the Japanese 3DS eShop late last week and gave it a whirl.



I've felt a roller coaster of emotions about this upcoming 3DS release--first feeling excited about the possibility of playing a game that includes two of my favorite puzzlers, Puyo Puyo and Tetris, then feeling disheartened after the first screenshots were released and revealed it would use the same boring art style the series has utilized since 2004's Puyo Puyo Fever.

How do I feel after playing a few rounds of the just-released (in Japan, sorry) demo? Somewhere in the middle of the two above-mentioned extremes, I guess. On the positive side, Puyo Puyo Tetris feels really good. Also, I found it surprisingly fun to be able to choose to play either Puyo Puyo or Tetris against my AI-controlled opponent (who also could choose either Puyo Puyo or Tetris). Finally, I have to admit that, in action, this title's art style is more appealing than I originally considered it to be, although I still vastly prefer the old Puyo Puyo style to it.

As for the demo's negative attributes: actually, I don't have any to share, other than all of the positives mentioned above failed to sway me to purchase the retail release that'll hit store shelves in Japan in early February.

That said, I think it's possible I'll break down and buy it at some point in the future--although not until I've gotten my money's worth out of a few other 3DS puzzlers I've picked up (or pre-ordered) in recent months, including Kumamon ★ Bomber Puzzle de Kumamon Taisou and Touch Detective: Funghi's Big Breed.

See also: 'Shall We Do It? (Attack of the Friday Monsters, Bravely Default demo, Hometown Story and more)'

Shall We Do It? (Attack of the Friday Monsters, Bravely Default demo, Hometown Story and more)

So, here we are, the very first installment of "Shall We Do It?" Like I said just under a week ago, this and subsequent installments will focus on short, but hopefully also sweet, impressions of some of the games named in the "Now Playing" list located on the right side of this blog. This time around, that means blurbs devoted to the following five 3DS titles: Attack of the Friday Monsters!, the Bravely Default demo, Gunman Story (aka Gunman Clive), Hometown Story and A Link Between Worlds.

Attack of the Friday Monsters!--Although I bought this eShop game right before Christmas, I didn't actually get around to booting it up until a week or so ago. Sadly, I'm already done with it--after just three hours of play time. They were a surprisingly enjoyable three hours, though; full of pseudo-nostalgia and nerve-racking card battles. If you're looking for a short game with a heart-warming (if a bit heavy-handed at times) story, I'd highly recommend picking up this one should you have the dough.

Bravely Default demo--I'm done with this one, too, although I played it about five hours longer than I played the title above. Anyway, considering I spent just over eight hours on this demo (and loved every second of it, I have to say) I'm fully expecting to love the full game, which hits our shores on Feb. 7, even more--especially if the word on the street is accurate and the retail release is far less focused on fetch quests.

Gunman Story (aka Gunman Clive)--I picked up this digital title early in the week while randomly perusing the Japanese 3DS eShop. I've only played a few stages (five, if memory serves) so far, but I liked them well enough that I'll definitely be coming back for more as soon as I'm able. I especially like the art style, by the way, which reminds me of the overlooked Wii gem, Ivy the Kiwi, of all things.

Hometown Story--This is another game that I bought long ago but ignored until now for all sorts of silly and stupid reasons. Anyway, I've now played this shop-owning sim for a little over an hour ... and I'm not entirely sure what I think of it. I really like its aesthetics--which surprised me, as I deemed it "cheap-looking" before I got my hands on it--but the gameplay seems kind of thin (as in, mobile-game thin) at the moment. Hopefully a bit of depth will be revealed when I put some more time into it later this week or this weekend.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds--Those of you who follow me on Twitter likely have heard me express my reservations not only about this title but about the series in general in recent months. (I haven't been excited about a Zelda game since Wind Waker's original release.) All that said, I'm really enjoying A Link Between Worlds so far. Not only does it look surprisingly lush in motion, but it feels like a classic Nintendo game--which is always a huge plus in my book. Here's hoping I stick with it longer than I stuck with Wind Waker.

The question is: will I enjoy Hometown Story more than shidoshi has so far?

Full disclosure: I only bought Hometown Story now--as opposed to waiting and asking for it as a birthday or Christmas gift--because I wanted the "Red Ember" plushie seen in the photo below that was given to everyone who pre-ordered the game from Amazon.

Because as anyone who has visited this blog in recent months likely is well aware, the last thing I need at the moment is to add more games to my 3DS backlog. (My as-yet-unused copies of Etrian Odyssey IV, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and Shin Megami Tensei IV are glaring at me right now, as are my underplayed copies of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Paper Mario: Sticker Star.)

Still, I bought it. And now that it's in my hands, I can't say I regret that decision one bit. I mean, just look at the adorableness below:

Of course I've yet to actually pop the Hometown Story cart into my 3DS. There's a reason for that, though: rather than play it this past weekend, I put a good amount of time into Pokemon X, Sayonara Umihara Kawase and Touch Detective: Funghi's Big Breed (an import puzzler I've been meaning to try for ages) instead.

This coming weekend (if not earlier), though, I promise to put Hometown Story through its paces--or at least devote an hour or two to it.

By the way, do you think this game's cover has enough logos and other text on it? First, there's the "Family of Harvest Moon" logo in the upper-left corner, followed by the Hometown Story one to its right. Then you have the ESRB rating in the lower-left corner, Natsume's logo opposite and ... the gigantic blob of text you see above.

Although I applaud Natsume's design folks for their nod to French and Spanish gamers, I'm not sure we really needed the "Playable in 2D and 3D" blurb repeated three times.

Anyway, I don't suppose any of you also picked up a copy of this "Family of Harvest Moon" title--or plan to do so soon?

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Hometown Story edition)

When it comes to the systems that I already own and actually play (i.e., the 3DS), there are only a few games I'm looking to pick up between now and the end of the year.

One of them is Pokémon X. Another is Hometown Story, the adorable-looking life-simulation game made by Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada.

I've had the latter pre-ordered since Amazon first allowed me to do so a month or two ago, and I absolutely can't wait for it to arrive on my doorstep sometime between Oct. 22 (when it's due to be released in North America) and the end of the month.

In the meantime, I thought it might be nice to devote a "Which Box Art is Better?" post to this title--especially since the cover art for the Japanese version (releasing on Dec. 12) finally found its way onto the Internet yesterday.

Speaking of the Japanese version's box art, here it is:

And here is its North American counterpart:

Sadly, I've yet to come across the European iteration's cover art. Of course, the game doesn't have a solid release date in that region yet (just "Q1 2014"), so maybe that's why.

Anyway, which piece of box art do you like best?

Me, I like both of them--although if I were forced to say I preferred one over the other, I'd probably go with the Japanese option. I like that it's less cluttered than the North American one (which has far too many logos and call-outs) and I also like its central illustration is softer and more focused.

Buy: Hometown Story