For the last several weeks, I’ve been reviewing Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, which is sort of an enhanced edition of the original game that released on PlayStation 3. I really enjoyed the first half of the game, and the story overall was pretty darn entertaining, but when you reach the second half, the prerequisite of the grind creeps in. And it’s not welcome. I’m not sure the grind ever really is.
Enjoyment turned to pure annoyance. If there were interesting side quests to undertake to help with the grind, perhaps I would have enjoyed it a little more. The sub-events are okay for grinding, but they’re also extremely short. The actual side quests are the absolute worst. They’re a series of fetch or kill quests that can only be completed during certain parts of the game, when different enemies appear. I’m used to most RPGs requiring fetch quests as side quests, but they’re often mixed in with other pieces for character development or other story elaboration. This had none of those things, leaving me with little desire to do any of these quests.
As a result, I was grossly underpowered to continue with the story missions, forcing me to replay areas repeatedly in the name of the grind. I finally bumped the game down to Easy because I loathed the grind so much. Maybe back in the day we found the grind charming, but it’s the principle reason why I haven’t finished so many JRPGs, especially the older games. RPGs need to find a way now to either eliminate the need for the grind or come up with more satisfactory ways to grind than fetch quests that don’t add a single thing to overall story. My patience, as well as my time, is wearing thin for this sort of thing.
That’s one reason why LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been such a lovely distraction. There’s no grind, just silly fun with LEGOs and Star Wars jokes.
Without a doubt, DOOM is my shooter of the year for 2016. Bethesda and id have done so much to get back on track with the Doom franchise, and DOOM does exactly that. It hits all those lovely nostalgic notes all while keeping the gameplay fast and fresh. I cannot wait for the inevitable sequels to come. That said, however, how does the DOOM strategy guide stack up in comparison?
I never played the video game Metro 2033 or even Metro: Last Light. They’re both horror games, so my natural reaction was to avoid them like the plague. However, when I heard that these games were based on a book, I was instantly intrigued about the book. I knew very little about the video games, other than they took place in a post-apocalyptic world where the inhabitants fled to the underground subway systems to escape nuclear fallout. And as video games do, there are monsters in the metro that need killing or something, and if they see you, they’ll kill you on sight. The games always reviewed okay, but they never really offered anything new. Yet, I still wanted to check out the book. I started the Metro 2033 book several times and then put it down, because Russian literature is the driest form of literature on the planet. This time I forced myself to forge ahead. I was going to finish it or rage quit it for good.