MIITOPIA IMPRESSIONS

A humorous RPG with tons of charm, but is that enough to give it legs?

Recently, I played through the demo of Miitopia, a new RPG developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. As this is a demo, and therefore only covers a small section of the overall game, I have decided to simply give my impressions in lieu of a full review (which may come later once I finish the full game).

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Who would've guessed, that in the year 2017, we would be getting a full RPG starring Miis? Those weird avatars we used to bowl and play golf with are now fighting monsters as warriors and mages. Strange times we're living in.

Miitopia is a turn-based RPG staring, you guessed it, Miis. You (or more accurately, your Mii) play as a hero who has to save Miitopia from the Dark Lord (who can be any Mii of your choosing-so go ahead and make your friend, or ex, the main villain).  The Dark Lord, in a rather disturbing plan, steals the faces of various Miitopia citizens, leaving them faceless, emotionless husks (this game got dark quick). Being chosen by a higher power, you journey across Miitopia to rescue faces and stop the Dark Lord.

Watching the characters interact is one of the game's highlights

Being a game made up of Miis, the game becomes very funny right away. The first face I rescued was Batman's, who is the son of Bella Swan. Town populations are (as far as I can tell), made up of random Miis, while the more important ones can be chosen by you. In addition to the Dark Lord, you can pick the Miis of your party members, a great sage (who I made Rick Sanchez), and possibly others. I made all of my party members friends of mine, and seeing them interact and battle together was a delight.

Despite being a turn-based RPG, player involvement is surprisingly detached. In battle, the only character you directly control is your own, where you can choose from the standard RPG menus (attack, skills/magic, items). However, that's the only character you control. All your party members are controlled by AI, where they'll execute one of those three commands at random. This can lead to some pretty frustrating outcomes at times. When using items, you can only choose to use them on yourselves, so if a party member is low on HP or MP, you can't use any items to replenish them yourself, and instead have to hope that they are smart enough to use one themselves.

The level of detachment is also seen when it comes to upgrading your equipment. Instead of dedicated shops like most RPGs, every time you stop at an inn, you can see what item each party member wants. You don't actually buy the item, instead giving the gold to the character to buy the item. Most of the time they'll come back with the desired item, but sometimes they'll instead buy a completely different item.

Another example of the game's randomness is when it comes to the food preferences of your party members. As you battle monsters, your party will gather various food items, each upping a different stat. The twist is that certain party members won't like certain foods, and that will affect their effectiveness. If they don't like it, you get less, if they love it more, and so on. But you won't know how they feel about it until *after* they eat the food once. So it's all a guessing game.

Most notably, this lack of involvement is exemplified in the game's exploration, or lack thereof. The only time you move your character is in towns or the world map. Besides that, your party just moves on their own, and is essentially a cutscene, with your party members interacting with each other. This is amusing at first, but dialogue begins repeating, and I got the sense that this is something that could get old very quick. Honestly, this just feels like a huge missed opportunity, but I'll get more into why I think this is the way it is later.

The relationship between your party members is a huge component

There are some things I very much enjoyed about this game. I think the job/personality mechanics work great. Each character is assigned a personality in addition to a job, and this can impact how battles play out. For example, a cool character may be more likely to dodge attacks, while a cautious character may bring out an item they need if there are none in stock that they had hidden. Its a very clever system, and one that can add tremendously to the variety of battles.

And it can't be stated just how charming this game is. In my hour or so playthrough, I still hadn't gotten over the novelty of seeing my friends go on this grand adventure, and I don't think I will. Knowing their personalities makes some of the interactions even more funny, and I hope you will be able to give even more Miis roles later on.

Now, I feel this is an RPG created for the casual RPG fan. The fan who doesn't want to spend hours grinding or exploring dungeons. Battles happen at predetermined times, and like I said, there's no actual exploration done in the game. As a huge fan of turn-based RPGs, this is a little disappointing, but I think I'm in for the long haul.

Miitopia has definite faults, but it's a game I want to keep playing. I'm definitely going to buy the full version (and I may have already by the time you read this). It's just so damn charming and witty that I can't help but smile my entire time playing. As for whether this will keep me going throughout my entire play through, well, let's see what my final review says.

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Have you played the Miitopia demo? Or the full game? Let me know what you think about it! You can also follow me on Twitter!

LET'S REVISIT FINAL FANTASY VII - PART TWO

WARING: Spoilers follow 
For part one, click here

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Well, things just got weird. Basically, we learn that Tifa was last seen in the mansion of mafia man Don Corneo, who I think is looking for a bride. Unfortnuately for our heroes, no males (except those who work for Corneo) are allowed in the mansion, which leads Aeris to come up with a plan to dress Cloud up as a girl to get in. What follows is a very, um, strange series of events. After finding a dressmaker at a bar and getting him out of a funk, he makes a very beautiful dress for Cloud. However, that's not enough, so Cloud goes around town looking for accessories (wig, makeup, etc.) to pretty himself up some more. This brings us to the Honeybee Inn, which is pretty much a brothel. Cloud enters one of the rooms, but passes out after seeing a vision of himself? He's woken up by a man, who I'm pretty sure raped Cloud, and this game is suddenly a whole lot different than I remembered.

But we must press on, I guess, and Cloud & Aeris pretty themselves up to enter the mansion. They find Tifa, where we learn that she's here to get information from Don, as he may be involved with Shinra. They eventually confront him, and after threatening his geintalia, he admits he's been working with Shinra; not only that, he also reveals that Shinra plans on destroying Sector 7 (where our heroes reside), as that's where they believe the AVALANCHE headquarters is. Well, that's just not good at all, is it? But before our heroes have a chance to react, Don opens up a trapdoor, sending our heroes into the sewers. They make their way through the sewers, but not before defeating a giant pig monster.

When the group finally reaches Sector 7, it's already under attack, though the AVALANCHE crew is trying is best to defend it. Tifa and Cloud go to help Barret, while Aeris goes off on her own to look for Marlene. Honestly, that doesn't sound like a very good idea. Since all Materia leaves your possession as soon as you leave the party, all the girl's got to defend herself with is a giant stick. But no one seems to think about that, as they all go on their separate ways. Unfortunately, they're too late, to save the sector with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie among the casualties. We hardly knew ye (literally). To add salt to the wound, they find out Shinra captured Aeris and is taking her to their headquarters. Guess that stick didn't do you much good, did it?

Tifa and Barret take this pretty hard, Barret especially so since he doesn't know where his daughter is. Coupled with the fact that 50% of AVALANCHE is now gone, things aren't looking good for our heroes. But none of that matters to Cloud, of course! No, he is more concerned with what all this "ancient" crap has to do with Aeris. Obviously the best place to start is with her mother, so they go back to Aeris' house, where, SURPRISE; Aeris took Marlene before she was kidnapped.  After a lot of climbing, our group finally makes it to Shinra HQ, and face their next challenge.

I guess I should talk a little more about the game itself, no? Well, after spending more time with the Materia system, I'm starting to warm up to it more, though I'm still not completely sold on it. Call me old fashioned, but I personally like when characters have defined classes and abilities, and you have to work your strategy around how they best fit in your party, a la Final Fantasy IV and IX. Don't ask me why, as I can't really put it into words, but I just find it more fascinating from a character and gameplay perspective. On the other hand, I really did end up loving the Sphere Grid of Final Fantasy X, but that's also a fair bit different than this. While the characters in X can theoretically learn any ability, they each start on a certain section of the grid, with abilities related to that character. So in a sense, the characters are somewhat divided into classes. The characters in VII are similar in that each character has different stats and different ways of attacking, but unless I'm mistaken any character can learn any ability. So while some characters may be better suited to learn magical rather than physical abilities, all characters can learn magic spells. Only three characters can be in your active party, and only X allowed you to switch characters mid-battle, so I'm not really sure what are the real advantages of the Materia system.

I may not be on board with this system quite yet, but I do know it's fairly popular, so I'm wondering if it becomes more complex the further into this adventure we get. But, that's for another time, because for now, our journey is on pause.

LET'S TALK ABOUT EARTHBOUND - PART 1

EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan) is a game that's become somewhat of a cult hit. It was not a success in the states, which lead to the franchise being dead for some time over here, even as Japan got the GameBoy Advance-exclusive Mother 3. However, due to the appearance of main protagonist Ness (and later Mother 3 protagonist Lucas) in the Super Smash Bros. series, the Mother series has always had an air of mystery around it. Soon, a passionate fanbase was created, including those with cherished memories of the game wanting to play it again, and those wanting a chance to experience what many called one of the great series of RPGs. Their wishes were finally granted, as a couple of years ago Nintendo released EarhBound on the Wii U Virtual Console. This has been subsequently followed by the release of Mother (called Earthbound Beginnings here) on Wii U, and releasing EarthBound on the New 3DS Virtual Console. EarthBound is a game I've been sitting on for a long time, and I've finally begun to play it. I decided to give a general summary of what's happening, as well as some commentary. I hope you'll enjoy the ride!

WARNING: Spoilers follow

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Mother of the year

First off, this game's not pretty. In fact, the sprites are kind of ugly. But, this is a very colorful game, and it just oozes charm right from the start. The game apparently takes place in the year 199X; okay. It starts off with our hero, Ness (you have the opportunity to name all of the playable characters, plus your dog, at the beginning of the game) snoozing away when he's suddenly woken up by an explosion. After taking a bat from my sister (who I thought was fellow party member Paula for a bit), and getting changed into my normal clothes, I go outside WITH THE PERMISSION OF MY MOTHER to explore what happened. Despite police officers telling me I can't go snooping, I do so anyway. While exploring, I met a guy who eats garlic and works out, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be a representation of me. I also run into someone who's apparently supposed to be my friend. His name's Pokey (?!), and I don't like him from the start. I'm guessing he's going to turn into an antagonist of something.

This guy is pretty much me

Not finding anything of note, Ness decides to head back to bed, but is rudely awoken by a banging on the door. It's Pokey, who lost sight of his brother, Picky (?!). He basically forces him to join him in looking for Picky, and Ness' is TOTALLY OKAY WITH THIS. Family dog Misty also joins you, which terrifies me because that's almost a guarantee she's going to die. Also, you save the game by find a phone and calling Ness' father, which is ADORABLE; but also makes me wonder, where is his father anyway? Also Ness' sister gives him a cookie (heals you) before you go, which is ALSO ADORABLE.

So, our heroes (and Pokey) go forth towards the meteor, where they are confronted by enemies such as stray dogs and crows. The game is a turn-based RPG, as was standard back in that era. But I'm a huge sucker for good-old turn-based RPG's so this was right up my alley. Ness is pretty much the bulk of the party's forces at this point, Misty occasionally attacks, while Pokey's totally useless. They eventually reach the meteor, at which point Misty LEAVES US AND RUNS AWAY. Not cool, Misty, not cool. Either way, we find Picky, and start to head back.

But not before A TALKING BEE COMES OUT OF THE METEOR AND TELLS ME I AM THE "CHOSEN ONE". Apparently I, along with the help of three others, am supposed to defeat some evil guy named Giygas? Honestly, more information was probably given, but I got distracted once I saw Buzz-Buzz the talking bee, since my mind immediately went to Bee Movie. While on our way back to the houses, we're confronted by something called Starman, which looks just like the guy on the boxart, so I'm gonna guess they're one and the same. . I thought this game wasn't supposed to get weird until later in the story?? Anyway, group fights Starman, while Pokey is as useless as ever.

Like I said, this game isn't very pretty

After defeating Starman, our heroes return to the Pickey & Pokey home, where their mom KILLS BUZZ-BUZZ. Womp womp. Before he dies, however, Buzz-Buzz tells Ness to go to a place called Giant Step, and so, a new adventure has begun.

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Like EarthBound? Feel free to share you thoughts, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I'll be posting new videos very soon!

LET'S REVISIT FINAL FANTASY VII - PART ONE

There's a little game coming out this year called Final Fantasy XV, maybe you've heard of it? While that game may actually never come out (kidding), there's still an entire backlog's worth of Final Fantasy games to experience. I've been in a Final Fantasy mood lately, so I've been playing quite a few of them actually. However, none happen to be quite as ~ridiculous~ as Final Fantasy VII, probably the most famous and popular game in the series. It's a game I haven't played in the longest time, when I was a child and couldn't comprehend what was going on, so it's pretty much going to be like playing it for the first time. While obviously I remember the big events that everyone knows, since I was so young the first time, it'll be interesting to see how different it really is and how much I really remember. I'm going to give a summary of what's happened as well some general commentary for every few hours I play. Without further ado, let's get started.

Warning: spoilers follow

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Final Fantasy VII casts you as Cloud, who is kind of a douchebag; he's the kind of douchebag that knows this quite well, and doesn't mind telling people so. He's the kind of guy that will tell you to your face that he doesn't care about what you're talking about right to your face. He used to be a member of a group called SOLDIER, which from what I can tell is a group of super soldiers (for lack of a better term) working for Shinra, a giant energy company that pretty much rules the world. Apparently they became so powerful by using the planet's lifeforce(?!) as energy. Let me just say, that seems like a pretty short-sighted and terrible plan. But anyway, Cloud also seems to have some sort of PTSD, since he has regular flashbacks. I'm sure this will be elaborated upon later, as well as the assumed "growth arc" turning Cloud from doucebag into slightly less douchey hero.

Cloud quit SOLDIER a while ago, and has now teamed up with AVALANCHE, a group of eco-terrorists created to oppose Shinra. Their grand plan is to destroy Shinra's many reactors, which are the things killing the planet. These reactors are in the city of Midgar, which seems like an awful place all around. There's smog, it's grimy, and the buildings (which seem to be made of trash to begin with) are falling apart. It also looks like Shinra is pretty much controlling the city as a police state, so that's fun.

Looks inviting

Cloud is joined on his mission by Barret, who seems kind of cliche at this point. He's a tough guy who has one thing in his life that gives him a heart of gold; in this case, it's his daughter, Marlene, who is his main motivation for wanting to destroy Schinra. He's also pretty similar to Mr. T, but one of his arms is also a machine gun, so I guess he's cool. AVALANCHE's plan is to destroy Shinra reactors that are what's draining the planet. Again, these plans don't seem all that great; I mean, innoncent people are going to die here, right? They're blowing these giant reactors up. People will get caught in the blast radius. Also, if Shirna is the one source of power for Midgar, wouldn't destorying the reactors lead to Midgar losing all electricity, therefore leading to chaos? AND if Midgar is essentially the government, destroying it would result in anarchy. To be fair I'm not one to hypothesize the implications of destroying the life of the planet, so maybe it balances out. Plus, AVANALCHE is a terrorist organization, so I guess it's not much of a concern. Cloud and Barret are also joined on this mission with fellow members Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, but they aren't much of a factor here, except Jessie gets stuck during the escape while the detonation countdown is going off, as one does.

So, Cloud and Barret complete their mission, but not before facing off against a robot scorpion thing. I'm fairly certain Cloud is trying to get himself killed during this fight; he tells you to attack the robo scorpion when it's tail is up, but then immediately after tells you that when this happens, scorpiobot will counter with its laster tail. Despite that, they manage to defeat the thing, and destroy the reactor.

Here we meet the third member of our group, Tifa, who's quite..."busty". Not Lara Croft triangle boob level, but her model is a clear indication that this was someone's first time creating a 3D character. She's a bartender at a place that also doubles as AVALANCHE's headquarters. Tifa's apparently Cloud's childhood friend, and I can't for the life of me figure out their relationship. Are they together? Not? Were they? I really have no idea what's going on between them. Tifa's also got some issues of her own, since one of Cloud's flashbacks showed that her father was killed by a (former?) SOLDIER named Sepiroth (I remember him!). She joins the group on their next mission to destroy another reactor. Cloud at first refuses to join, because apparently he doesn't care about the fate of the planet he lives on. Only after getting an offer of even more than before, he joins once again. (Side note: the money for cloud is coming out Marlene's COLLEGE FUND?!? WHAT?!?!).

This is obviously not my first Final Fantasy game, so I'm quite used to the Active Time Battle System, so I won't go into too much detail here. Cliffnotes version, it's still turn based, but instead of going in a sequence, each character has a bar that gradually fills up before you can perform a command, giving the battles a faster pace. I happen like the ATB system a lot. The characters don't have defined classes (you'll see why below), but they each have their own weapon sets and abilities. Cloud uses his big-ass Buster Sword, and is the strongest attacker of the group. Barret uses his gun arm (as he should), and is pretty strong defensively. Tifa...punches things. Gotta give the girl credit for her moxie, but punching doesn't seem all that effective when fighting robots and such, but apparently she must have a super punch or something, because she can kill robots and such with her fists, so what do I know? She' not quite as strong as Barret, but she's pretty damn close, so once again, props to you, girl. Her Limit Break also something has to do with slot machines, so there's that.

So, while I like the basic battle system, I'm not sure how I feel about the materia system just yet. Basically, materia are these objects that you can equip to your weapons and armor, not only giving you special abilities associated with that materia (like magic commands such as Fire and Cure), but also changing your stats as well. This is totally a personal thing, but I like when each character has a specific class and abilties, instead of you molding the character into whatever you want, as is the case here. There's also "special" materia, I guess, that changes the affect of the materia, but I haven't gotten any of those yet. I'm still trying to wrap my head about how materia functionally works in the world of this game, but that's probably overthinking things. (I can't help it! Do they just jam it into their weapons? And how does jamming an orb into the Buster Sword give you the ability to cast magic??)  I also later found out that whenever a member leaves the party, the materia they had equipped reverts back to you? Weird, but nice.

You apparently get magic but shoving *this thing* into the Buster Sword

So, it turns out that our trio has been caught in a trap set up by Shinra. Which, honestly, should have been seen ahead of time. Give yourself a few days before you try to blow up a reactor for a company you attacked very very recenly. Long story short, Cloud gets separated from the group, and falls.

But don't worry! He managed to fall through a roof onto a flower bed! Said flower bed is growing in a church for some reason involving the grass I think? There's a girl tending to the flowers, who you actually met earlier in the story. This girl's name is Aeris, which means she's going to die. Aeris is also the nicest person in the world, so screw you Square. Cloud is his normal arrogant self, which leads Aeris to request Cloud be her bodyguard and escort her home. Turns out there's a reason she needs to be guarded; Shinra's after her, for reasons I don't think have been explained yet, other then those after her calling her an "ancient".

I hope nothing bad happens to her

Aeris fights in battle using a giant staff, which I'm convinced re-uses a sound effect from Super Mario RPG. She's not a very good physical attacker, but an excellent spellcaster. After Cloud returns her home, she decides to attach herself to Cloud, and join him on whatever quest he's on at the moment. The pair catch a glimpse of Tifa, who I think became a prostitue?? But that doesn't seem like Tifa at all, so they decide to investigate.

And that's it for now!

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What are your opinions on FFVII? Love it? Hate it? Utterly confused by it (like me!)? Let me know! Also don't forget to follow me on Twitter if you want! And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, which I'm currently working on a few videos for!