Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy has the potential to be a really good game.
It’s based on the highly popular anime and manga series and it’s a beat-em-up at that.
You get to play as Edward Elric Alphonse, Armstrong, Scar, Mustang, and Izumi.
The game closely follows the storyline of the first anime series. You even get to hear clips from the English voice actors. In addition to the main game, you can do a bunch of minigames, such as chopping wood with Armstrong.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’m not going to talk a lot about video games here because I haven’t had the time to play them, especially Persona 4.
I’m going to rant about a lot about life and some other stuff, so don’t feel bad if you’re not going to read the rest of this post.
Go play a video game, watch tv or anime, read something, kick a can, or do something more exciting.
You know…..I’m doing smaller avatars when I get around to upgrading Game Paused.
As much as I love my Firo avatar, I find it really tough to write enough so my pic won’t mess up my post. You still want to hear me rant? Before I do, I’m going to share a really short story with you. Three whales fall out of the sky. Two hit land, one hits water. *rimshot*
Are you still reading this?
There’s no turning back.
Persona 4 is a really big time sink. You think you’re only going to play for a couple hours, but 6 or more hours pass since you loaded your file. That’s what happened to me last night. I played Persona 4 last night around 6:30 last night and stopped around 1:30 am because I had class at 9:30. Trust me….I could’ve played a lot longer, but I value my sleep. Possible spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.
That’s why I usually put aside a lot of time whenever I play Persona 4. The same goes for just about any RPG, especially something as long as that game. Anyway, this post is about what happened during the 6 hours I played P4 last night. I was at the 10th floor of Void Quest when I booted up my game file last night. The boss owned me on my last three attempts, so I did a lot of level grinding and walked to the entrance of the dungeon on the 1st floor by foot. I left the TV and went back to my house.
I’ve thought about how I’m going to organize my posts and have an idea about when I’m going to update The Backloggery Chronicles. I decided that I’m going to do a new post whenever I 
or 
a game. That way, I’ll have more time to do my rants and other posts. I’m still going to update this segment until I clear my backlog.
So let’s talk about games that I’ve beaten since Crisis Core. No…Cheetahmen II isn’t one of them. Playing that game was a big mistake. Last Friday, I did an all-day Viewtiful Joe 2 marathon on Kids (Easy) Mode. VJ2 isn’t as tough as VJ1, but I stuck to the easier difficulty because I was having trouble on Adult (Normal) mode. I always used Joe during my playthrough because Sylvia is very useless. The only time you use her is when the game forces you to do so. The two toughest bosses in the game were Ice Leo and the Black Emperor. Ice Leo is the brother of Fire Leo from the first game and both fights are almost the same. The difference with Ice Leo is that you can easily beat him by staying in the bottom of the arena. You can’t do that against Fire Leo because the bottom is covered with lava. Then there was the Black Emperor. I always lose a couple hearts at the beginning of the fight because I get hit by projectiles when I try to kick him. It doesn’t get easier once you regain your powers. Most of the Black Emperor’s attacks are undodgeable in Slow-Mo. I was on my very last heart when I defeated him. It was a close one.
I then played Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy for the DS. It’s a lot easier than Viewtiful Joe 2 and one of the best anime games I’ve played in a while. Dual Sympathy is a side-scrolling brawler with touch-based minigames thrown in for variety. I went through Story Mode as Edward Elric, something that only took me a couple hours. I can now go through Character Mode as Armstrong, Mustang, Scar, Alphonse, and Izuma. You know who I’m playing as first? Major Armstrong! *flex*
In case you haven’t noticed by now, the last post I did about Cheetahmen II was an April Fool’s Joke. It’s actually one of the worst games ever made, one that was never released for the NES and left unfinished. To give you an idea of how poorly programmed this game is, you can’t make it past the 3rd level out of 5 without a hacked ROM or taking advantage of a rare glitch. That’s assuming you make it to the third level, which I think is impossible.
Some people on Foxkei have heard me talk about Cheetahmen II and it’s crappiness. I heard about this steaming pile of crap when I watched a video of Syobon Action featuring the orchestra cover of the theme song found in the video I posted for my April Fool’s blog. I looked up the game the song was based on and became really interested in Cheetahmen II and it’s predecessor Cheetahmen, featured in the equally abysmal Action 52. April Fool’s Day comes along and I’m browsing the Backloggery to see what other people did on their pages. I saw WorldDude’s Superman 64 theme and I decided to do a Cheetahmen II theme.
Ever heard of a game called Cheetahmen?
No?
I don’t blame you.
Cheetahmen was a game featured in Action 52, a game for the NES which had…you guessed it…52 games in 1. Cheetahmen was a game so good, it was Super Mario Bros. 3 compared to the other 51 games.
Cheetahmen II, a sequel to the original featured on Action 52, was in development but was never released. In 1997, all 1,500 copies of the game were discovered and soon put on sale. From there, it made its way to the emulation scene.
Watch this video and you’ll understand why this game is so great:
Nintendo needs to release Cheetahmen II for the Virtual Console.
You heard me:
This post is about a future post.
I’ve decided that the next game I’m going to review is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. It’s been a week since I beat the game and enough time has passed for me to really think about the game.
On a side note, I looked up Eternal Sonata on Google Image and a pic from the blog I wrote about the 360 version back on The Legendary Left showed up on the first page. We don’t use The Legendary Left anymore, but you can read the review here:
Wandering #12 – Waking Up From A Dream
It’s one of the best posts I’ve ever done and I’m so proud of it that I plan on doing a follow-up blog about the PS3 version in the future.
For now, I’m going to work on my Crisis Core review and play some more Persona 4.
Sometimes, I feel like doing more than one post a day because I have a lot to say and I don’t feel like putting all in one big post. Does this happen to any of you?
What have I been playing…….Wild Arms 3, Skygunner, and Persona 4.
One thing that I usually do with games, especially RPGs, is the 3 hour test. The way it works is that I start a new game and play it for three hours before I decide if I want to keep on going with it. It doesn’t strictly have to be 3 hours. Heck, sometimes, it can take me 10 minutes of game time to reach a decision.
That happened with Wild Arms 3. Loved the setting, the music, and the battle system. I cleared the first dungeon of that game, which was really easy. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a manual in front of me, so I had to learn things as I went along.
Then there was one time I tried to play The Red Star, a side-scrolling shooter with melee combat. It has an old-schoolish feel, but I it started to get really cheap by Chapter 11. You have a bunch of powerful enemies who gang up on you. The thing that makes it more difficult to deal with is that dodging is more difficult than it should be and your shields only last for a short time before it overheats from use. Then there’s the miniboss, which is a floating pyramid that teleports from place to place and shoots a flurry of energy balls at you. You are given very little room to dodge, depending on how far you are from the miniboss. I always got out of that fight with very little health. Thankfully, there’s a healthpack, but it’s not enough to help me past the next part of the level. You have to fight a bunch of enemies, and that’s where I always die. You get teleported back to the very beginning of the level. Great. I tried the level 10 times before I gave up on The Red Star.
I’ve only played a little of Skygunner so far. Basically, it’s a airplane shooter set in a steampunk world. The controls take some time getting used to, which is why Training Mode was a must for me. I did a run through the first two levels of the game without saving to get a taste of what’s in store for me.
Most of my focus is on Persona 4, which I haven’t played in three weeks. I got sick at the beginning of the month and put P4 on hold to finish some other stuff. When I last left off, I was trying to find clues about Rise. I soon found my way to the strip club dungeon, aka the 3rd dungeon. Aside from losing 30 minutes of level grinding because an enemy reflected Mudo at me, I finished that dungeon in one sitting. That was the good news.
The bad news was that I couldn’t go back into the TV, meaning no level grinding for a while. I used the time to spend whatever money I had left from my dungeon expedition, working on my social links, fishing, working on requests, and increasing my stats. I’m one level away from maxing out Yosuke’s social link.
It’s good to be back in Inaba.
You’ve probably heard me talk about how I want to clear my backlog of unfinished games, whether it was here or on my 1up page. Here, I always put those posts under “Tales of a Wandering Mind.” Me writing about my list of unbeaten games have taken up so many of my posts that I decided to start a new category segment:
The Backloggery Chronicles
In what will be the first of many posts, I’ll talk about my quest to beat every single unfinished game I own. It’s not going to be an easy task, as I still have 75 unbeaten games to go as of tonight. I’m going to retire this segment as soon as I clear my backlog. You have to start somewhere, though.
For me, my quest began when I joined the Backloggery on December 05, 2008. I didn’t have my complete gaming collection in front of me when I signed up, so I added games that were in front of me and anything else that I could think of out of my head. I added the rest of my game collection to my Backloggery list when I was home for winter break. I always had a fairly large collection, but I never realized how large my backlog was. I always thought it was much smaller. Something had to be done…and there was only one way to do it: beat those unfinished games! I tried organizing a game list on 1up.com, but site-related problems kept me from adding every single game I own and keeping it updated. There were other sites that let you make similar lists, like Gamespot, but it was too much of a hassle.
The Backloggery was different. Organizing my gaming collection was a snap and the site itself is easy on my computer. I wish I could say the same about 1up.com. Along with Foxkei, I couldn’t ask for a better gaming community. I’ve met a lot of awesome people and got the inspiration to start Game Paused. Something about me changed. Before, I would play a game and not finish it, regardless of how far I was. That happened with Area 51, Final Fantasy VII, Shadow of the Colossus, God Hand, and countless other games. Now, I’m determined to keep playing until I reached the ending credits or gave up, whichever comes first.
You know how you make a New Year’s Resolution and soon forget it? Mine was to beat at least 7 RPGs this year, one of which had to be Persona 4. I didn’t want to push myself too far, but I wanted a challenge. I forgot about my resolution until I went through some of my older blogs. As it stands right now, I’ve beaten:
Chrono Trigger (DS)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (XBLA)
Eternal Sonata (360)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
4 out of 7 isn’t bad at all. At this rate, I’ll be done well before this year is over. I recognized that would happen, so I’m taking on a much daunting task: to clear my backlog before I graduate from college in May 2011. 2 years sounds like a long time, but it will go by quickly. I have a lot of RPGs that I need to start and I realize that I buy a lot of games from time to time, something I hope to keep under control. There will be times when I won’t be playing video games because I’ll be out of town or busy with other stuff. Of course, some games will take a lot of time, some because of length and others because of difficulty.
Will I enjoy everything I play? Nope. There are times when I run into something that’s absolutely boring or frustrating. At that point, I ask myself if I want to keep on going. Sometimes I say yes. If I’m in a bad mood or get pushed too far, I drop that game. Unless I feel like going back to it, it will be marked as Null on my Backloggery. If I’m not going to enjoy a game, I won’t force myself to play it.
It’s going to be a long journey, but I’m going to enjoy it along the way. After all, I love playing video games.
I’m making some changes around here.
I’ve changed the name of the blog from “The Legendary Left” to “Game Paused.” I realized that a lot of people wouldn’t get the Shaman King reference and that they would get the wrong idea about what this group blog is about. That’s why I changed the name to “Game Paused.” After all, we talk about anything on our minds, but we’re unified here as gamers.
I’ve imported everything from “The Legendary Left” and “Tales of a Wandering Mind,” a short-lived blog that I ran on my own. Feel free to look through the older posts while I write a new post later today.
Welcome again.
