Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Thankfully, my worries were unnecessary. Karaoke was fantastic, the ex was not there, and we had a lot of fun. I also got a new Shadowrunner to join our group from that night, too. Woot. Highlight of the evening was definitely Kat doing the most amazing Patsy Cline rendition I’ve ever heard. The rest of the weekend? Shadowrun, Parasite Eve, and a crap-ton of Me Not Spending Any Money. Okay, I lie, Winco counts as spending money, but it is in spirit a preface to me not spending money for the rest of the week or so.

The rest of this post has to do with video games.

On Saturday I figured out finally how to get the cut scenes to play perfectly on the ePSXe emulator, and from that point forward, it was Game On. Back in 1998, I purchased the fantastic game Parasite Eve right when it came out, and played straight through it. I really loved that game, but I realized right before the very final boss of the regular game that I had apparently gimped my character’s weapons and armor beyond use. I could not beat that boss’s second transformation no matter how hard I tried, and eventually gave up. This time around, excessive use of Save States and a spoiler-free walkthrough have gotten me almost back to that point in less than 12 hours of game play, and by mixing the right combos of weapons, I’m rocking the house.

Next on the list? Vagrant Story. Why? For the same exact reasons: I almost beat it, but somehow gimped my character by not mixing my weapons together correctly. I am really put off by games that include sub-mechanics which make it entirely possible for you to completely gimp yourself out just because you don’t know the super-secret hidden mechanical tricks that aren’t detailed anywhere in the manual. Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve are both prime examples of this. In Vagrant Story, the manual tells you about weapon-making, and encourages you to mix and match and put them together in weird and new ways. Go to town, it basically says! But if you do this, you will suck. Unless you take great measure to document, cross-reference, and catalog every change you make, your weapons will be totally gimped. Even the wikipedia article confers this belief, stating that “even hard-core players require a “comprehensive understanding” of the weapon customization system.” Parasite Eve does this to, only on a lesser scale.

I never finished either of those games because I chose to focus more on the story and action of the games than the stupid built-in build-a-bear minigames. This time, I’m playing through them both again, because I want to know how they end. Save States and Weapon Guides and Secret Item walkthroughs are making it possible to quickly get right back to where I was when I stopped playing before. So far, I’m almost done with Parasite Eve, and I’m having a lot of fun. Beth has re-awakened the die-hard console gamer within me.

The Solo Play Roster:
* Parasite Eve (current)
* Vagrant Story
* One
* Final Fantasy 9 (my fave of the whole series)
* Syphon Filter

I’ve got a few others on the list (Fear Effect 1 & 2, Silent Hill 1, Martian Gothic, Galerians), but I’m saving those for the TEAM HOTTNESS play roster. >=)

In two weeks, I’ll be living in the new place. I’m stoked. In one week, I’ll be packing. I’m not stoked.