Lippincott (Day 230)

I thought it might be interesting to do a visual representation of some games I'm currently playing. After finishing Kirby Mass Attack, I figured I'd branch out and try a few things, although I am continuing with the Kirby series.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby showing off his amazing refrigerator powers.

The Crystal Shards is a game I've played before, but it was many years ago. I've pretty much always been a fan of the Kirby series (or at least since about 1997) but for some reason I never owned this game. I guess I was more focused on finding a good RPG for N64 at the time, which. . .was honestly a very unproductive search. The only good RPG on the system that I can think of off the top of my head is Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber and it was excellent. Most people will tell you their favorite N64 game is Super Smash Bros or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or maybe Super Mario 64, but for me Ogre Battle clenched it by a large margin.

But that's not the point. The Crystal Shards is the only game in the Kirby series that allows you to combine powers. It's such a simple and effective idea that I have no idea why the developers haven't repeated it. The idea was flirted with in Kirby's Dream Land 3 by augmenting the effects of powers with certain companions. The Spark power when paired with the tiny bird Pitch would result in a RC Pitch that could be controlled with the d-pad, for instance. I love this kind of thing and I hope they do something else like it in the future.

Dragon Quest

This guy's about to cast a spell on me.

Yep, it's the original Dragon Quest. Despite being a self proclaimed JRPG aficionado, I have never played a single game in this series. I've always (and perhaps unfairly) dismissed the series as painfully generic. I don't think my accusations are completely unfounded, but I feel I should give the series a genuine chance before I make the declaration. And hey, I'm enjoying it so far. The gameplay is incredibly simple, but engaging. It mostly consists of grinding until you can afford the equipment you need to brave the monsters in the next area. Unlike Final Fantasy, I have more than enough MP to cast the spells I have.

Breath of Fire II

Every JRPG has a slime enemy.

I've actually played a pretty good portion of Breath of Fire II before, but never finished it. At some point I lost my save data and thus my motivation. My primary complaint about this game has always had nothing to do with the gameplay. The original English localization is notoriously horrible, which killed my motivation to ever replay it. Fortunately, some rudimentary sleuthing turned up a complete fan translation of the game. So far, it seems to be vastly improved from the original and I see no reason why I won't complete the game this time. Of course, then I'll feel obligated to finish Breath of Fire III, since I've finished both BoF and BoF IV.