It’s been quite a while, but I’m back!

Since my last episode, I’ve had to change computers, so a lot of tools are out of my reach for a while. This will explain why there’s not as much fancy stuff in this episode. Also some sync issues with the other camera, nothing I can do.

But we have a change of format for this episode, the first in a series I’m calling “2 Noobs Fighting (For an Undetermined Period of Time)”. It features my two friends and fellow @TI partners Unrealist and Goldstorm as they struggle to mash their brains against each other for galactic dominance. Enjoy!

Also, a heads-up: GxCraft will be going onto YouTube very shortly (presently uploading, even) so I’ll attach the higher definition video that YouTube will provide once it all goes up! It also gives you the added bonus of being able to subscribe to my channel so you can know when I upload, considering how sporadic that is. I’ll keep you posted while our forums continue to be a ghost town.

Why, hello there. Yes, I am talking to you. I actually did mean to go through with this, and, as such, here I am typing up my second review.

Today, I am reviewing a GBA game. It might not be quite as old as other games, but it’s close enough for my purposes. Today’s game is Lunar Legend. Once again, it is a turn based strategy game like my last one. The battle system is the same with the exception of lacking enemy ranks (Front or back, having to kill all the frontline before hitting the ones in the back for that side). Without these, you are able to target enemies freely, and thus formulate a better attack sequence. You are also given Limit Breaks, which if it sounds familiar, it was used in a couple Final Fantasy games. Normal attacks slowly fill up an Arts Gauge, and, when this is full, you can unleash the character’s Limit Break.

That aside, we can talk about the story. You follow the journey of Alex, who’s goal is to be the next Dragonmaster. His idol is Dyne, who was the previous Dragonmaster fifteen years ago. Since then, supposed strange events have been occuring. On your journey, you are joined by Nash, a magician from the floating city of Vale, your sister, Luna, and your good pal Ramus. Along the way, you lose allies but gain new ones. The other members you end up with are Mia, the next head of the Magic Guild at Vane, Jessica, an apprentice priestess who is also the daughter of one of the companions of Dyne, and Kyle, a bandit. If you want their roles, in the Final Fantasy sense, Alex is a knight, Nash and Mia are Black Mages, Jessica and Luna are White Mages, and Ramus and Kyle are tanks.

As to the graphics, they are about average for a GBA game. There are some still shots that you can view in the gallery after viewing them for the first time. Everything else is the standard gameplay for this genre, with 2D overhead in the overworld where you control characters until you enter a random battle, and then you are shown the battlefield with yourself on the right and your enemies on the left in a 2.5D fashion. You then select action commands from a menu and proceed to attack enemies. Nothing special.

Unlike the last game I reviewed, this game has several downsides. You are given a teleportation item that let’s you visit previously visited areas without walking through the rest of the world, which is standard. However, you are given it relatively early on in the story. And the game creators find ways to make it useless for 75% of the story; you can only ues it during the middle quarter of the game, after having gotten the item and before it mysteriously “loses power” during the final three or four dungeons. What use is a teleportation item that you can’t use end game? This does not help with 100% completion as many of you might want. Also, the game is very easy. Your two frontline characters at the end of the game are extremely overpowered (assuming you do their technique combo). I was able to go through the entire game without difficulty and without powerleveling. Finally, the game has almost no replay value. One reason to play again is to get cards, which serve no purpose other than showing you character sprites and trading. They do not give you enemy stats and they can’t be accessed directly in game. They are only accessed in the Main Menu at the Title Screen.

The other reason, and the only one I cared enough about to replay the game for was because there are (only) two secret areas, which I missed the first time through. When I finally got to them, they were very difficult but made an easy game even easier. It might as well been a two person party, because I was hitting the damage cap for two characters at level 30, when the other 3 characters were only doing around a tenth of the damage. Even then, the two secret dungeons were made pathetically easy by exploiting one of the many glitches in the game, which restored me to max HP and MP at the end of every battle. In addition to this bug, there are several graphics glitches (sometimes an area doesn’t load, sometimes only half a sprite) and several save glitches.

This would have been a subpar game for the NES, let alone as something made 20 years later. I would only recommend this for someone who really enjoys this type of game, like me (and I barely enjoyed it). So for most of you, this is probably not a very interesting game.

Happy gaming ’til next time.

Hello there. I’m LunaStik, and I plan on using this space to write reviews for some video games. Mainly I hope to specialize in handhelds and N64 era or earlier.

Anyways, for my first review, I’d like to start off with a semi-classic from a series you might have heard of: Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom for the Sega Genesis. Phantasy Star is now known more for its MMORPG’s, but the series has existed well before those were feasible. The original Phantasy Star series is a turn based strategy RPG like the Pokémon and Final Fantasy series. Of course, the first two in the series are not very refined, being new and limited. The combat system for the older games was somewhat difficult, with a steep level curve at the beginning of the game, with some of the beginning enemy combinations able to kill you in one or two hits until you leveled up to a half decent level. These problems were fixed in Generations of Doom. In this game, it functions much like the early Final Fantasy games. You can select targets, and have the option to do two turns at once without pressing the action button again. However, this is marginally useful because, against most enemies, you kill them all in one shot or want to change your targets during the second round, and against bosses you will constantly having to re-select the heal option on one of your party members because they will always attack, not heal, on the second round.

In regards to the story, the game has a good amount of replay value for the time. There are 7 stories total in the game which follow a branching pattern depending on certain choices you make, which is a pretty unique experience. The game starts you off as Rhys. Rhys is a descendant of Orakio, and, like many other followers of Orakio, has an abiding hatred of Layans, those who follow Laya who opposed Orakio 1,000 years before the start of the game. This is essentially all I can give of the pregame story, because it is all that is really given to you before spoilers start. After you face the first boss, you can end up choosing to play the story one of two other characters, and for each of those two there is another choice between two characters after their boss. At the end of the third generation, you face Falz, the final boss of most Phantasy Star games which I can say without really revealing too much about the story. And that is basically all I can reveal, especially with the unique story format (four separate ways with different stories to reach the end of the game) that makes it hard to give a specific plot summary to begin with. So, it is worthwhile to play at least four times to play each story. However, all the endings are similar, the primary differences being which characters say each part of the dialogue.

The graphic style should be pretty familiar for a game of its genre. In the overworld, you control the characters while watching them overhead until you encounter enemies in a random battle. Once this occurs, you see only the enemies in their formation. You then choose attack patterns and targets. The slight trouble is that you have to (usually) kill enemies on the front rank before hitting the ones in back. This can be really frustrating when you want to kill the back right enemy because after you kill the front rank, you will start hitting the enemy on the left by default until you can re-select targets. This is what I consider to be the only (mostly minor) flaw of the main game.

So, for a game of its time, it is outstanding. It has easy to understand game play, and a not-too-difficult level curve, assuming you don’t try to rush through too quickly (which is a distinct possibility with how easy it is to unlock the different parts of the map). So, for my first game review, if you enjoy the series or genre, it is a decent get. It will also be enjoyable many people outside those categories, so I will give this a solid rating if I were so inclined to do so. Just play it for yourself.

Happy gaming.

Oh, and I will be using this random pic for my posts until Matt gets around to giving me my own @tI avatar (because, you know, I suck at drawing).

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? You’d think I was doing comics again, but no. Today we have two well-ranked players of Latin America. While NiCO (profile) is close to breaking into the Grandmaster league in his region, wzp (profile) was (at the time of acquiring the replay) ranked #4 in the world by means of ladder stats.

Oh yes, since my last episode, Goldstorm has implemented “spoiler” tags for your viewing convenience whenever a post goes too long, or has bandswidth-sucking videos all over it. So from here on in, there will be a little something below my opening statement that you can click, and the rest of the post will follow, along with the much-needed video embed. We’ll see how well that goes after the spoiler tag here.

UPDATES FORTH COMING!

Been a while since I actually posted something…ever. So let me get you all caught up to speed. Sites been renewed, new content providers, Matt’s been doing a shit ton of shoutcasts, and we have 0 viewers…and falling. I am however prepared to advertise and prepared to organize.

Our new MCH (or Main Content Hub) will do just that. Seamless organization of all of our content in category posts (wow WordPress already does that for us!) On one convenient graphical web page just for you…you can find it HERE!

Other stuff also? We’ve been gaming more, so I decided to steer the site in a more gaming oriented way. Most of the content you will see on the site is either game, anime, or math related from now on. It’s still in the works, and i need Davids permission, but i want to make Nerdgasm the official @TI Facebook group. It has a lot of our current members and then some.

Lastly, I hope to bring back our once loyal users by posting more often…that is all.

~Nick out.

P.S. WE CAN DO THIS NOW

Awesome Content Inside
Me Gusta Spoiler Tag

Two up-and-coming Grandmasters face off in a battle of standards.

That is correct, we have renowned Zerg player FXOSheth (profile), who is playing in the NASL and has made appearances on the Day[9] Dailies. He faces off against a rising star VTavilo (profile), who has only started getting higher in the GrandMaster chair, but is pushing the standards of Terran aggression as he stands. Who will come out victorious?

Well that was quick. The match, mind you, the episode itself was a pain to release now that I’m back in Florida. Enjoy this cheese. I do want to apologize for the audio levels in this episode, I’m still situating the new set-up back at home.