If you mean Raidou Kuzunoha 1, it actually wasn't such a long play-time. Took me 25 hours to beat, which is right around the average time spent on it according to howlongtobeat.com. It's an action game with a few rpg elements rather than a straight-up grind-fest like most of the Shin Megami Tensei series. On the other hand, if your "insanely long" description was in relation to the game's title, I'm with you 100%. It might be the game with the longest title in my whole collection! Is that an achievement? I guess it is, in a way.

Amusing that you noticed how I slam through PS2 games, as I've been aware of that tendency as well. It's not even really intended, either. Last year, I unintentionally spent around ten days each beating three of the RPGs that I played. Speaks to my level of investment and interest in each of them when I beat a 30-hour game, a 50-hour game, and an 80-hour game each with the same general timespan. That hours-per-day metric stacks up pretty well against how much I enjoyed them, too. There might be some formula that can measure how much I like a game based on how quickly I beat it. Although it wouldn't always apply. The game I expect to win my Favourite of the Year denomination took me almost three months to finish.


I knew you'd end up getting a in FFX at some point! As a gaming goal, I think it's a good fit for you. Have you taken up using any guides to sort out all your requirements and such?


Are you liking Soul Calibur 2? Have you settled into a main character yet?

Hope you enjoy Skies of Arcadia, I tried playing it back in 2011 to make sure my disc worked and was quite enjoyable. Need to get around to playing it at least at first on DC before going to the updated GCN Port.

i like to leave room to account for the fact that other people have different tastes and that what you get out of a game depends on what you value in your entertainment. and that said, jak II is seriously some of the most purely-distilled misery i've dealt with in quite a while. back in the day i quit playing very early on, and it is one of those games where just playing the early hours leaves you with no clue what kind of horrors are in store further down the road. after playing what i later learned was regarded as the worst mission in the game i had to hop into chat and brain-dump to a friend about it [Link]

ape escape is a great series, one that a good friend here (kittenclanclan) got me into. one thing it helped me realize is that what i really enjoy in a 3D platformer is when whatever you're collecting is more than just floating dealiebobs that make a counter go up. in jumping flash, you're "collecting" jetpods but in terms of the level design they're freeform points on a relay race and you're finding optimal order to pick them up and the shortest routes between them. in ape escape you're "collecting" the monkeys but they're living things that you have to size up and then outwit or outfight them using your tools and the level layouts.

i'm always a little wary of sharing anything critical of a game with anyone that really enjoyed it, but you don't seem to mind so long as it feels well-intentioned and reasonable? [Link] this old piece on wind waker was something that really impressed me at the time and got at a lot of the things that had bothered me but had trouble expressing at the time; maybe it's more typical of games writing these days, but in 2003 it was hard to find anything like this.

I beat The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the Nintendo GameCube this afternoon!

So, the last 3D Zelda I had played was Majora's Mask back in 2002. I was in college and brought up my N64 to play through some games. My roommate was able to help me and I was able to beat that game. Afterwards, I played Link to the Past and then Zelda II respectively for the first time. Link to the Past was a few years after college and Zelda II was just recently. So, I was due for a 3D Zelda title and the Wind Waker was one of the main reasons I bought a GameCube as I was so excited to play it.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is one of the greatest games I have ever played. It might reach my top 10, but I know that it is in my top 20. I loved absolutely everything about the game. It is unbelievably fantastic and just an absolute blast to play. I love the cell shaded look and the art style. It has such a timeless look that blew me away even 15 years after its release. Also, Link is full of expression that his face cracked me up several times. I will never get tired of the look of wonder on his face when he pulls up a treasure chest. I loved traveling from island to island, exploring new areas and uncovering hidden secrets. Even though it got a bit much, it never became tiring or frustrating. I loved all the inhabitants and the mini-games that were brought there. There was never a mini-game that was too difficult or that made me want to quit the game. In fact, I enjoyed them all and will never get tired of saying 'Ker-FLUME!' Even though the dungeons weren't that plentiful, they were rather long and exciting. After a few hours of playing them, I had a feeling of accomplishment when I finally beat them. And the bosses were unique as well and creatively designed.

Overall, I will always have a treasured spot in my heart for the original Legend of Zelda. That game was my childhood and I beat it countless times. For my second spot, I always said Ocarina of Time was it. For now, I think it has some competition. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is one of the best games I have ever played and I cannot get enough of it. It was enjoyable and so close to perfection in my mind. I loved everything about it and I'm so excited to continue my Zelda journey. I have some compilations first, but in the end, I am now looking forward to playing Twilight Princess!

Welp, now that I'm done with Shining in the Darkness, I can say my initial thoughts still hold true. While I'm sorry I couldn't give it a more rave review, I know that a lot of my issues with the gameplay come down to personal preference. If you're a bigger fan of RPGs and don't mind simple turn-based combat, grinding and random battles, you may wind up enjoying it far more than I did.

As for Shining Force, if there's one thing playing Darkness did for me, it's get me even more excited to play the sequels. I remember you said the Force games were strategy RPGs, so I'm thinking the gameplay will be much more engaging in those and fill the one major void I felt in the original, and if the Force games have the same level of humor and charm as the first, then I could easily imagine them being phenomenal.

Heh. I've never tried the second quest in Zelda, but I'm not surprised at all to hear they made it even more cryptic.

Just to show you exactly what I'm talking about: [Link] . The width is almost exactly the same as that of my television, so it would be a nice snug fit, and while it's not "indestructible", it is very sturdy. Just wish I'd had the foresight to buy two of them at the time.

If you personally ever want something to store your extra controllers and things in, I would recommend a small canvas basket. I picked one up from Club Nintendo to store my Wii remotes and chargers in and it works great. It sits out of the way on the floor next to the entertainment center and has helped keep the clutter down. If I'm unable to find a stand with drawers, I'll be picking up two more myself for my bedroom setup.

That song gives me the warm and fuzzies. Top Gun is one of my mom's all-time favorite movies, so I heard those Kenny Loggins tracks quite a lot growing up. I'd never seen the music video for "Playing with the Boys, though, so thanks for sharing that! Can't believe the music video is also about volleyball. We clearly need a cheesy Markies' Button Mashing Muscle™ montage. [Link]

Hey! Thanks for enlightening me about WA3, I might try it someday! I don't have a controller nor a memory card for my PS2 anymore, so it might take a long while before I get back to it. I still have so many games I want to beat in my PS1, PSP and PC. But I will definitely try it one day! I hope you enjoy it. How do you do it, playing all those RPG games? I'm struggling only with 3 games at the moment...

Happy gaming!

to be fair, triforce hunt is something even the devs backed down on and admitted some fault with. [Link]

i've kept on using the 4-star scale backloggery used way back when; 2/4 to me is not burning hatred, just a disappointment that i feel let me down in a significant way. there's plenty of things i genuinely enjoyed about wind waker but i feel like it really shows a clumsy transition to aonuma as the new director that was born out as a lot of spinning its wheels and a general lack of coherent vision.

jak & daxter is a pretty rote 3D platformer of its time. it's technically impressive; expressive animation and a huge world with no load screens. it leans real hard on collecting doodads to pad out the run time, the story is pretty forgettable, and there really isn't a whole lot to it. decent fun while it lasts. i think there's better genre examples out there that you could go to first (jumping flash! ape escape!) but it's not completely wasted time or something.

jak II is a nightmare, though. it came around in the wake of GTA3's impact on the console world, and it takes an inexplicable turn to mission-based open world game in a grim city setting. it is very hard, which i don't specifically have a problem with. but it is very hard and also all of the game's systems you need to use for these difficult tasks are joylessly terrible. every car handles like a bathtub on top of a tricycle but you're expected to do timed cross-town trips and professional racing with this nonsense. there's guns but they all use janky worthless auto-aim and there's no way to do precise targeting. so many missions are tough because they introduce some brand-new mechanic or counter-intuitive twist just to make your life hard and then never revisit that idea ever again. it's a confused, garish mess of a game and i can't i good conscience recommend it as anything other than an instructive lesson in bad game design. beyond good and evil, very specifically, is by comparison a flawless execution of what jak II attempts to do and fails at constantly. if you've played BG&E and GTA3, then jak II is straight-up obsolete and i don't think there's a more damning thing i could say than that.

because i am a complete moron, i'll move on to jak 3 afterwards and see what i think of that as well. :U if i wasn't playing the ape escape trilogy as a counterbalance of joy and easygoing fun, i don't think i could make it through the jak & daxter trilogy lol

Getting around the labyrinth in this game actually hasn't been too bad. The floor layouts are fine and I haven't run into any especially cruel tricks yet. The last floor I did was full of invisible pitfalls that drop you down to the previous floor, which is certainly annoying, but the developers were kind enough to actually leave maps for you to find nearby that actually show you where the pits are in the areas where they're most concentrated. Quite the kind gesture for this type of game. So you've had to use notebook paper too. I'd imagine the Zelda dungeons would be even more fun to do, at least artistically, since you can draw out what's inside each room.

It's nice that you were able to find a stand with supports that are "virtually indestructible". Besides the structural integrity, I bet having tubes is advantageous over wooden slabs as it gives you more room to place items and there's less hindering you from adjusting wires. My current night stand is pretty modern but I'm certain it would hold my TV. It's basically a tiny dresser. Unfortunately, I need it as a night stand, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for something similar.

Kenny Loggins playlist? Yeah! [Link]
Hammering a button nonstop for nearly an hour can certainly be a pain. That's why I'm thinking of investing in a turbo controller for some of the older SHMUPs and staving off that carpal tunnel.