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October 28 The Stylus is as Mighty as the Sword I ended up falling pray to purchasing Phantom Hourglass a couple of weeks ago, and the only thing that is keeping me from playing it nonstop other than school and work is my constant morning sickness that plagues me. (You have no idea how much I'm counting down the weeks until the end of my first trimester.) It's almost so much fun that it makes me forget my nausea... but not quite. For those who don't know, PH is a cel-shaded goodness sequel to Wind Waker. I have to admit, I never finished Wind Waker. Someone introduced Kingdom Hearts to me shortly after I started Wind Waker, and uh, I never did go back to it. It's in the very tall stack of LoZ games that I swear I'll finish one day. I really will. I just need to stop buying new games until then. BUT... as PH is a sequel, I learned a spoiler to WW in the first, oh, ten seconds of the opener. I won't say what it was, in case there are others who haven't finished WW, but I will say that I now understand one of Grue's comments to me about Zelda always being an ungrateful bitch to Link. And like the ungrateful bitch that she is, she goes and gets kidnapped yet again by a Ghost Ship of all things, so of course it's up to the little blonde adventurer to rescue her. Again. This is the first DS game I've played that is controlled 100% by the stylus. It takes some getting used to, particularly in guiding Link where to move. I'm not particularly fond of it, especially when trying to dodge flame throwers. I don't feel like I have the complete control I'm used to with the D-pad. However, so far, this is the only problem I've found thus far with 100% style control. Sword attacks are quite simple: either tap on the enemy with the stylus or slash at them with a quick pen stroke. Draw a circle around Link to perform his patented 360 attack. Definitely no chances for random button mashing here. You also use the stylus to make notes on your various maps, which you have to do often to solve many of the puzzles in the game. My favorite use of the stylus is with the boomerang. You actually draw the precise path you want your boomerang to take. Need to hit an orb across an abyss and a sharp turn to the north? How about an enemy a couple of corridors away? No problem! The boomerang hasn't been so much fun since the pinpoint accurate targeting of Twilight Princess. Um, okay, that was the last LoZ game to come out so that doesn't make much sense, but just roll with me. The stylus isn't the only peripheral you use: the microphone also plays a part or two. Yes, I feel silly using the microphone. I've been thankful that Shawn wasn't home during my play times. I've had to yell into it to get someone's attention and blow into it to blow out torches and blow dust off maps. Each time I've laughed while doing so. I'm not a fan of using my voice to play a game unless I'm yelling at the game in frustration. That was the big reason why I never bought Odama, even though I thought the concept was very unique. But, I haven't had to yell into the mic that often, so I get over the silliness quickly. Speaking of silliness, it really cracks me up that this is an official sequel to an LoZ game and Link once again has to find a sword and shield. He really can't hang onto them, can he? So hey, I may actually finish a LoZ game! There's always a first for everything! In other Nintendo DS news, I'm sure this has been announced elsewhere, but this month's issue of Nintendo Power announced that Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 will come to the DS. The game will take place between KH and KH2 (but no mention of where CoM fits in) and will be about Roxas and Organization XIII. So no, Rin, at least one game will not feed your Riku fangirl, although there might be the fight between Roxas and Riku... October 14 Me and Strategy GuidesYes, I do buy strategy guides. Stop screaming in agony. I know that many gamers feel that you aren't truly a gamer if you use strategy guides, and meh, that's fine. Sometimes I need help and I have the patience of a New Yorker stuck in traffic. Lately I haven't been using them as much as I used to, as I find their tips for defeating bosses are ridiculous or don't work as quickly as my tried and true RARRRRR method. I mostly use them for maps and item hunting and coffee table decorations. In the past year, I've noticed that I'm taking a different trend with strategy guides, aside from the fact that I don't use them as much. I've begun to collect them. In a way, strategy guides are overly detailed artbooks to me. I've been known to sit down and just flip through them to look at the maps, character designs, etc. My KH2 guide has been a permanent fixture on my coffee table since Shawn bought it for me, and I've opened it for gaming purposes maybe five times. Phantom Hourglass was recently released, and I already want the collector's edition of their strategy guide in hardback. (Let's face it: I'm going to need help in every Zelda game so I might as well buy the prettiest book.) I do have the collector's personality, so I guess it makes sense that that piece of me would worm its way into my video gaming hobby. I'm slowing down considerably in my main collecting stream so I suppose that I had to find something else to start collecting. Can't stop collecting something entirely. That would be MADNESS. Speaking of madness... I should stop procrastinating and get to making friends with my chemistry book. Test 2 on Tuesday. Ha! Alliteration. Awesome. October 01 Hear this fangirl SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!3, count 'em, 3 Kingdom Hearts titles announced at Famitsu. They better release them in the US. I know I have a Japanese PS2 but I'd like to be able to understand what everyone is saying without making up my own dialogue. Although that did prove entertaining one night. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Kingdom Hearts: Coded |
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