Review: "Dragon Age: Awakenings", Dragon Age revisited.

Seeing how Dragon Age 2 is already released, I decided to spend whatever little free time I have into replaying Dragon Age: Origins along with all the DLCs and the Awakenings expansion. Then I took a quick glance at this old post and realized I might need to justify my tone then.

(Note that this is going to be mostly a Dragon Age revisited rant/review more than an Awakening review, seeing how the weak points of Origins carry over and Awakening being actually easy. Honestly, there's not much to talk about Awakening other than "wow nice voice acting, nice story, etc". I could talk about the characters you recruit, but what's the point? It's like spoiling the game already for those who haven't played. What I can only tell you is that it's rather good and worth playing through).

I was most probably hoping for a Baldur's Gate 2 replacement, and I might have been unfair to compare both games given both their circumstances. Games nowadays are harder to create. What was simply a hand drawn dungeon is now a 3D mesh complete with shader effects and textures. It's ultimately unrealistic to expect Dragon Age to have as much content as Baldur's Gate 2.


I'm probably more sympathetic now than I was before, but Dragon Age's problems still remain: Mages and Itemization. I used to complain about "Reusing formulas" in the old post, but I must admit that it is a safe formula and there is actually nothing wrong with using it. Also, nowadays it's hard to expect a 'complete' game with 1000 sidequests on release, that's why there are such things known as DLCs and patches. Games are taking a different route now. Whether a consumer should pay for such content is another debate for another time.

For now, I'm just going to add on to the two main points that harmed the game in my opinion. I also complained about the "Difficulty" but it's really mostly due to enemy mages more than my lack of 'skill'.

Mages
Now that Starcraft 2 is out, I can bring up the templar analogy. For those who have played Starcraft 2, you know how Feedback works? Yes, I'm talking about Mana Clash. It trivializes the game for my current run (my main is a mage) as much as it trivializes the opponent killing my mage-less party the last run I did long ago.

Although in Awakenings mages do not shine as much (due to warriors and rogues getting armor and talents so ridiculous that healing, buffing and crowd controlling hardly matters), playing through Origins without a mage is still hellish. The question is: are mages too important, or the talents of the other two classes too underwhelming? Mage is THE control class, but compared to them, Fighters and Rogues are really crap. Archers get a decent CC late into one of their trees (Scattershot). Fighters who specializes as Champions get their first AoE knockdown at their 4th talent of their specialization tree. Shield fighters can knockdown at melee and Rogues can stun for awhile (Dirty Fighting) in melee. Bards and champions can buff rather well at their 3rd talent into their respective trees. That's about it really.

Compared to that, what do mages get (not even counting those AoE spells that has friendly fire)? Replaying my main character as a mage doubly reinforces my viewpoint that mages are indeed overpowered in Origins.

1) Mana Clash: Instant kills almost ALL other mages. Period. It crashes my computer a couple of times too.
2) Glyph of Warding: Adds +30 defense to any friendly within the circle. +30 defense btw is essentially a flat (not compound) -30% accuracy on the attacker's hit.
3) Forcefield and Crushing Prison: Immediately takes one guy out of the fight for a pretty long time. Both are 2 active skills from the same tree (if you are getting forcefield, might as well get crushing prison)
4) Glyph of Repulsion: Knocks back all enemies that fails a physical resistance check. This usually saves the lives of your ranged units from swarms of enemies.
5) Glyph of Paralysis: Stuns one creature that enters the circle. I use it on (usually) lone spellcasters when my Mana Clash is on cooldown.

I have not fully explored the mage spells but there are a few more worth mentioning like Paralysis, Mass Paralysis, Miasma, Sleep, Cone of Cold, Glyph of Neutralization but even these are overshadowed by the ones I mentioned above.

And Blood Wound. Oh my god Blood Wound. If there's ONE spell that makes Blood Mages powerful, it's Blood Wound. It's a delicious mini-Crushing Prison on a huge area of effect.

Itemization
I don't believe I have to mention this again. One huge gripe I had with Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings is the itemization. The old post explains it well enough and hopefully Dragon Age 2 doesn't face the same ruddy problem. Awakenings brings in another kind itemization problem but I'm unsure whether it is intended or not. The equipment you get in Awakenings is really so damn powerful that even Nightmare mode seems like a joke.


Summary
So yeah, after replaying it, even with the DLCs, it still has the same problems. However, the DLCs are excellent. Witch Hunt, Golems, Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar, Leliana's Song, etc are actually better than I expected. If you actually felt underwhelmed by the effects of choosing the Dalish Elf Origins (which is actually almost non-whatsoever), you might like Witch Hunt a bit although the ending is...'open to thought'. I liked how Return to Ostagar shed some light as to why Loghain betrayed Cailan.

And after replaying it, the story of Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings, as 'save the world' as it might be, is actually pretty darn good. Setting and atmosphere is fantastic. Cutscenes and voice acting is beautiful.

John just told me that DA2 was a disappointment so far. I hope that is not the case =/

Baldur's Gate 2: Good Party Guide v.1.0

DISCLAIMER: This guide only considers Shadows of Amn characters. It doesn't take into account Throne of Baal expansion. Also, there are a couple of Neutral characters in this party, so it's not a 'pure' good party.

Ah, the good party. We all know how overpowered the evil NPCs are in this game. Despite their limited numbers, almost all of them are pure classes, so they fit straight into an 'ideal' party composition. Let's look a quick glance at them:

Edwin: Everyone loves Edwin to death. Not only is he the only pure mage class in the game(not counting his Conjurer specialization), he also has a necklace at grants him additional spells per day, effectively making even any of your custom-made mage characters jealous. He also comes with a memorable personality and a hilarious quest line.

Korgan: Korgan is THE Fighter. Even better, he's a Berserker, giving him the Enrage ability which, at the cost of being 'winded' after the Enrage ends, give him +2 Attack, +2 Damage, -2AC (it's 2nd Edition, so it's good), +15 HP, and immunity to all sorts of crap. Too bad he's strength is 18/77. Otherwise he'll be easily the strongest melee character in the game.

Viconia: Viconia is the only pure cleric in the game, which basically means she have the fastest access to clerical spells as well as being the few healer/support character in the game that can wear some armor. Too bad she's evil =(


Seeing how specialized the evil party is, we now look at our choices for the good/neutral party here. After some experimenting, I came up with some conclusion that is restricted only within my build; BG2 is an open game, and I don't really think any character is truly 'bad', but this build is what I consider an 'ideal' good party that can cover most grounds.

Go here goes:
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Keldorn: Keldorn is the first obvious choice as the party 'tank'. Inquisitor is sickeningly overpowered as a class, because in exchange of close-to-useless spells, Cure Disease and Lay on Hands, he gets immunity to Hold and Charm, True Sight and Dispel Magic for almost free. See a Mirror Image? True Sight. Someone disappeared? True Sight. Everything else? Dispel Magic. Just sick.

Also you'll want to get him Carsomyr, the +5 Holy Avenger. Keldorn is the only NPC that can wield it and it gives him 50% resistance to magic, dispel magic on hit, and some other minor stuff. For an optimal good party, Keldorn is almost a no-brainer. Remember to ALWAYS give him the DEX gloves to boost his AC.

Mazzy: Mazzy is strangely good. Maybe because she can cast free haste as a special ability! If that's not good enough, Mazzy is the other pure fighter in this game, aside from Korgan. Unfortunately, her strength is seriously lacking (15), but items can still make up for it. Also she specializes (aka spent points on) in shortbows and shortswords, so the first thing I thought of was to have her carry all the shields in the game (since Keldorn isn't going to use them). Her specializing in bow allows her to be useful in ranged combat when her AC isn't needed.

Did I mention she has free haste?

Jan: Neutral Illusionist/Rogue character. Jan is really really good as a support character. He comes with his 'rogue' gear, which grants insane bonuses to his rogue skills. Unfortunately as an illusionist, he isn't very offensive unlike Edwin.

Jan also has a custom made crossbow which can shoot custom made ammos, which actually stun enemies!

Minsc: Remember me saying about how Korgan isn't the strongest melee character? Minsc is the reason. At 18/93, he has a slight edge over all the melee characters in the game. He also has a berserk ability much like Korgan! So why is Korgan/Mazzy better in anyway? Well, Minsc is ulimately a pure Ranger. That means, he cannot have any Grand Master Specialization. Then again, it's not a big loss. Furthermore, he gets priest spells eventually to help out.

Aerie: Alot of people are going to whine about this. Aerie is honestly not very good. In fact the only thing going for her is her cute voice. Otherwise, she's a decent mage/cleric, meaning divine spells and clerical spells are mostly open to her. She levels very slowly however, and she cannot wear armor (due to her mage multiclass). She fares pretty well, though, given her wide versatility, and the possible fact that she's the best NPC healer. I think she dies too fast though.

Also, the 16 INT and 16 WIS really stops her from being incredibly powerful.

Nalia: I don't like her since she's pretty crappy as a thief and doesn't have the 18 INT to replace Edwin anytime soon. Still, she's your best mage if you want a pure good party, and pure good parties selection have too many choices in the melee department. I didn't really use her much so I'm not sure about her thief capabilities.

Valygar: Valygar is pretty decent, yet not so decent. If you like to backstab, you might as well make your main character an assassin. However, he is probably the best backstabber NPC in the game given the fact that he is a Ranger which means that he has a better attack modifier (thac0). If you can't fit a backstabber into your team, you are better off using other NPCs.

Haer'Dalis: Haer is a Blade, which is one of the better bard kits out there. If you really want a bard in your party without making use of your main character, Haer is the only choice you get. Considering that Blades can solo the game (I tried it to a certain extent), Haer can be really powerful if you play him well. However, there isn't really anything unique about him otherwise.

Jaheira: Very solid Neutral NPC. She's a jack-of-all-trades and more. Although she's a Fighter/Druid, she can eventually cast her version of Raise Dead and also take the Critical Strike feat from the Fighter class. That combined with harm can occasionally cause devastating effects. You'll have to live with her bitching though. =/
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So without further ado, here's what I think is the ideal pure good party:
You - preferably a spellcaster or thief
Keldorn - tank/debuffer
Mazzy - tank/archer/buffer (free Courage and Haste!)
Minsc - Damage
Aerie - Healing/Support
Nalia - Mage with thief support. Replace with Imoen once you get her back in the story.

Comments: This party seems rather shaky. It is heavy on melee, and very lacking in thief skills as well as magic (both arcane and divine). Damage doesn't come freely with this party too. Keldorn and Mazzy isn't really damage material in the first place so your character would preferably be a damage dealer. You COULD replace Mazzy with Valygar, but that would require you to micro him and abuse his backstab ability (run away, hide, return, poke). I've played an Assassin main character before, so I know how incredibly troublesome it can be.

If we allow neutral characters in the mix:
You - Up to you.
Minsc or Mazzy - Damage or tank/archer/buffer
Keldorn - Tank/debuffer
Jan - Amazing control and thief skills + spells
Jaheira - Great solid character overall. Buffer/Damage/A bit of tank
Nalia/Aerie - For arcane magic. Aerie is better imo since she sacrifices level 7 spells for 6 levels of cleric spells, which this party could really use.

Comments: The reason for the choice between Minsc or Mazzy is that since there are better choices for the back row, we don't really need to clutter the front row like we did with the pure good party (which you don't really have much of a choice). Jan takes very good care of traps and thief-related stuff. Jaheira grants you access to druid spells and can also backup as a Fighter. It's almost all you need

In closure, hopefully this guide will become more in-depth and ultimately cover all characters in future iterations. Feel free to post comments :)

Dots and Circles!

Alright, it's finally time!
Here's presenting Yee Howe's and my Digipen's first semester's game project made using ProjectFun! Here's a quick rundown of the game and should explain things better than the website:

1) Control a big circular object
2) Change 'type' by Left Clicking
3) Collect small circular objects that is the same type as you
4) Hit different types of objects and you die
5) 3 lives, aim for high score!

View and download the game HERE!

Comments and feedbacks are much appreciated. We might be considering bringing this further hopefully when we get the time and porting to other devices such as the iPad!

This game is copyrighted by Digipen Institute of Technology Singapore.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Somehow, I managed to put aside some time to post just to let everyone know that I'm still alive. Never before have I thought that Chinese New Year was godsend because it gives me more time to work on my assignments and projects. Digipen life is choking everyone with one tough assignment after the other.

It's been painful, but less unnerving than last semester so far. Maybe because most of us are already used to the pace. Well it's still hard to say this early in the semester...

This year is a Rabbit year. Not just any usagi, but a HAGANE usagi...whatever that means. I've just checked a few random horoscopes sites and none of them seem to give me a useful or proper advice to copy pasta here. I guess I'll stick with my knowing that that animal represents a lot of things related to 'wealth' and 'luck'.


Right now I have a whole wealth of animes and a couple of games waiting to be unlocked from my new 1.5TB hard disk. The only problem is whether I have the time to spend to play/watch them. I'm still trying my best to make tomorrow free for myself so enjoy CNY instead of working. Tons of assignments due. Most of them with deadlines closer than I would've liked.

I managed to catch GSL last week thanks to John, and watched MVP trashed MKP mercilessly 4-0. Not really the best finals in the world of competition I guess, but it's still an okay watch. It's always amazing to see MVP in action. Almost like watching Daigo in SSF4.

I still have plans for this blog and I'm still motivated to keep it alive as long as I breathe. There's not going to be much of an update due to work and all; in fact I think the next update won't be until spring break right after midterms.

As for gaming, yes I'm still playing games. At least, Monster Hunter Portable 3 has been keeping me and my friends company while we are taking a break from work together. We need to gear up and get out of HR6 soon :)

Here's wishing everyone blog a Happy Lunar New Year! And of course no picture more fitting than Tewi :)

Anime: "Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi"

Also known as "Ookami and her Seven Companions", this short 12 episode anime is a Romantic Comedy between Ookami Ryouko and Morino Ryoushi.

I decided to watch this because of the rather unique setting. At first, I thought this was going to be a high school splice and life + romance like Toradora!, but it proved to be rather different. So without much more of my ramblings, here is the basic synopsis of the show:

The main character is Ookami Ryouko (naturally), a tall, flat-chested (as occasionally pointed out by the narrator), tsundere with a lot more 'tsun' than you would like. Hiding her cuter 'dere' side is a character that acts like a delinquent, fights thugs, trains in boxing, and is overall quite 'manly'. She is a member of a club at her school known as the "Otogi High School Bank" where they take requests of students in return for a favor (a debt), much like how loan sharks work. Oh she looks a lot like Taiga from Toradora, just that she is way taller.



The guy chasing her is Morino Ryoushi, a shy guy trained as a hunter since he was a kid. He usually hides from the crowd but manages to confess to Ryouko despite his shyness. He loves her so much that he is willing to change and overcome his fears for her. Etc etc, you know the stuff.

The anime is told much like a story, with a narrator constantly filling comments as you watch on. This is probably because the anime parodies fairy tales (most of them japanese) like 'The Little Red Riding Hood', 'The Tortoise and the Hare', 'The Ant and the Grasshopper', 'Tarou Urashima' (you know, the guy who rescues the turtle), 'Yuki-onna', 'Snow White', 'Aladdin' and so on.

Like most Romantic Comedy, and the fact that most characters are somehow alike to a fairy tales, they usually have sad background stories (in which most ended well...most...). In this anime, it deserves more praise because they are tied to fairy tale characters and we can see how they managed to twist it in such a way where only setting changes but the plot remains the same.

For example, it can be inferred that Ryouko is the wolf and Ryoushi is the hunter that manages to get the wolf in 'Little Red Riding Hood'. Also a side male character named Urashima 'saved' Otohime. Otohime represented the turtle because she USED to be fat, slow and ugly. This is the same that happened in the old japanese tale 'Tarou Urashima'.


Because of that, this anime is rather character driven. The plot, however, is still fairly decent. It's better in my opinion because every subplot resembles a fairy tale, so it's better to watch this anime whilst looking out for that. Otherwise it'd just be a shortened Toradora. So here're some of the the major side characters, mostly taken from wikipedia since they already pinned down what I thought and more:

Akai Ringo - A petite red-haired girl who has been longtime friends with Ryōko. She is the one who recruits Ryōshi into Otogi Bank. She is a close friend of Ryōko Ōkami, and is always trying to involve herself with her best friend's love life. Like Ryōko, she tends to smile to hide her true feelings, and admires Ryōko for trying to become stronger. She is based on the Little Red Riding Hood from the book of the same name, though some aspects of her scheming, manipulative personality closer resemble the poisoned apple ("Ringo" means apple) of Snow White, a fact which is occasionally referenced by the narrator and other characters. She is also the half sister of "Snow White" Shirayuki Himeno and feels responsible for her past. However,thanks to Ryōko she moves on from the past.

Kiriki Liszt - The president of the Otogi Bank. His skill is cross-dressing, which he uses to gain information normal men can't obtain. He is almost never seen working. He is most likely a parody of the Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper as during the opening and ending scenes he is shown playing a violin while his usual pairing, Alice, is working on her computer, and in the closing sequence he is further shown buried under snow while Alice is in an underground "nest".

Kiriki Alice - Liszt's cousin and secretary in the club. As said above she most likely fits the ant description in Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper as she is shown working and usually in a serious manner. Also, her hair's front resembles the antennae of an ant, and the first two syllables of her name, "Ari", is the Japanese word for "ant".

Tsurugaya Otsuu - The club's maid who has an obsession for returning favors. When she was young, she was saved from a car accident by a boy who died before she could thank him, resulting in her having a fear of not being able to return a favor. She is based on the crane from the Japanese tale Tsuru no Ongaeshi.

Tarou Urashima - A first year transfer student who is a year older than everyone else. He shows no interest in men but goes completely amorous towards girls. Although he is very flirtatious, he seems to have special feelings of love for Otohime. He is based on Urashima Tarō from the Japanese tale Urashima Tarō. It is heavily implied that he is in an intimate relationship with Otohime, and he occasionally enters a "gentleman mode" after Otohime drags him off and "extracts various things" from him.

Otohime Ryūgū - A girl with an obsessive crush on Tarō, who cares for her greatly but on some occasions, is scared of her. It was thanks to Tarō's motivation that she changed from a chubby bullied elementary student to a thin beauty. She constantly grabs Urashima and drags him into the closet, and the narrator remarks "I'll let your imagination figure out what they're doing", giving hints that they have some kind of sexual relationship. Although Tarō often runs from her advances, he does have special feelings for her, and can even be considered her boyfriend. She is based on Princess Otohime from the Japanese tale Urashima Tarō. The reason she is called turtle is because Otohime from the legend was a turtle on land when she met Tarō.

Majolica le Fay - Called Majo for short, she is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who builds various devices such as Ryōko's Neko Neko Knuckles. She is based on the sorceress Morgan le Fay. She also takes the role of a "fairy godmother" at times.




In conclusion, this is quite worth the watch and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. It'd be better to read up on fairy tales beforehand though. Otherwise, not a bad way to spend your time.

Anime: "Angel Beats!"

Angel Beats try to be a lot of animes at once. It touched on a wide array of genres all within 13 episodes; comedy, drama, tragedy, splice of life, girl bands (K-On), shonen action, the list goes on.

The main character is Otonashi Yuzuru who wakes up finding this crazy girl named Nakamura Yuri with a sniper rifle aimed at a girl aptly nicknamed "Tehshi", japanese for "Angel". She reveals to him that he is dead in the real world and is now in afterlife. In this strange world, everyone but souls who could not rest in peace is an NPC, the same NPC term we use when we play games.


This big question is whether this anime is an "Type-A" anime or a "Type-B" anime. It does have a plot and character development similar to sadder tragic animes (like Clannad) and the action of shonen animes (Naruto/Bleach), but it also does have very irrelevant scenes of randomness. The comedy sections does not really help. Sure, "Type-A" animes have comedy too, but this time it was done almost everywhere when they get the chance and it switches from being funny to being dead serious in an instant in many instances. First you see a "Type-B" anime scene where everyone is just being funny and retarded and suddenly you get thrown into the "Type-A" scene with its moments of silence, nostalgic flashbacks and facial close-ups and back to being retarded again.

Because of this attempt at mixing, there exist many paradoxes and confusion. I know that some details with certain animes can be overlooked despite the contradictions, but with Angel Beats!, I'm not too sure. I think it's best to watch this much like how one watches Clannad/Da Capo-like shojou animes, since it seems to be the more prominent direction they are taking; don't take the shonen action parts and details too seriously. I think it's the best way, especially since it's mostly written by the Clannad author. The style of storytelling is very much alike.


But despite that, I think it's a rather decent anime. I wouldn't call it a waste of my time like some blogs do. Since I cry or laugh at everything decently sad or funny (respectively) thrown to me, I easily accept it. Although on a more serious note, this anime could've really gone a hell lot further as a Clannad/Phantom/Air-type anime. The setting, no matter how lame it might sound, IS a very suitable setting and seeing the more serious scenes in this anime proves it. Then again, I guess "Type-B" animes are a hell lot more popular so maybe that's where they are targeting at.

In conclusion, Angel Beats is a rather mixed anime. To me, it is neither here nor there, but I think they have done a rather impressive job pulling this anime through considering all the genres they try to put together. I mean, they tried to put Haruhi, K-On, Kanon, Clannad all in one anime.

Inserts are not bad for the first few episodes though :)

Anime: "Shinryaku! Ika Musume!"

Splice of life animes don't get more random than this one >.<

Ika Musume, loosely translated as 'Squid Girl', is angry with human beings for defiling the ocean and has come to the surface to invade them. After creating a hole in the wall of a shop on a beach, she was forced to work there to pay off the damages.

The whole anime is basically about life of a girl who has squid like powers. Her 'hair' are tentacles, the 'hat' she's wearing are her fins, and she can also 'vomit' squid ink. Unfortunately for her, (and quite expectedly for us), most of the humans she encountered were not normal and some have outstanding reactions towards her, usually much to her dismay.


As an anime that is driven by its characters, I'll just go through the main characters, WITH PICTURES UNLIKE THE WIKIPEDIA ONE! =D (There are side characters, but they only appear for an episodes or two )

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Ika Musume - Weird Squid Girl. Talented, genius but airheaded and ignorant.


Eiko Aizawa - Hot headed manageress of the shop. Very bad at studies.


Chizuru Aizawa - Sister of Eiko. Yandere, nuff said :p


Takeru Aizawa - Little brother of Aizawa family. Nothing special as pointed out by Ika.


Nagisa Saito - A girl who is actually scared of Ika and really believes that she is capable of an invasion...to a large extent. She loves Goto. Poor girl =/



Gorō Arashiyama - A lifeguard and childhood friend of Eiko. Loves Chizuru. Poor guy =/



Sanae Nagatsuki - Introduced as a cute, shy and polite girl, upon seeing Ika, she evolved into a really creepy stalker who is very VERY infatuated with her.


Cindy Campbell - Strange American(?) girl who works as an Investigator for some research department on alien species. She believe Ika is an alien and at a point of time, Chizuru too.

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It IS a rather strange and random anime, but suffice to say it delivered pretty well. I'm honestly not sure if the excessive use and display of Ika Musume's tentacles mean anything as all the episodes seemed innocent enough. Maybe it's just my over-imagination ^^;

Here's the PV: