Paper Trails (A Pacman inspired story)

As you probably all managed to gleam from the title I recently wrote a story which was very loosley based off of Pacman. As it was written for a school project there is a word limit and therefore the story is not as polished as I would like it to be, however I hope you all enjoy it anyways!

- Ross!

Paper Trails

My footsteps echoed through the concrete hallways, the same sound today as it was yesterday. I bent down to pick a crumpled piece of paper from the ground and slipped it into my pocket. Every day was the same for me, I prowled this concrete maze gathering the paper that lay like breadcrumbs, guiding me through the labyrinth. Of course by now, I knew that they guided me nowhere, it was but a sick ruse that gave me false hope of an escape, something that didn’t exist in this hell.

I have been here for as long as I can remember, where here is I’m not sure I’ll ever know. My prison, is a sprawling concrete maze which holds no entrance. At its centre sits not a grand statue that befits a maze like this, but a small cube that emits a blue aura. I have spent many hours sat in front of the cube, it’s blue aura and gentle humming brining a sense of tranquillity over me, allowing me to mull over my existence here.

I exist to gather the papers, just as the papers exist for me to gather. Without one the other would just lay there, gathering dust until the end of time. It is in front of the cube where all this is clear to me, I understand why I gather the papers, why I continue to cling on to this desperation to survive, when giving in is so much easier.  Where the blue aura of the cube reinforces my desire to live, the darkness of the corridors corrupts me. My mind becomes filled with the same darkness that clouds the corridors. It envelops my resolve and squeezes it to a pulp, slowly draining me of my desire to live. More than once I have found myself sprawled in the middle of a concrete hallway, the papers I treasured now scattered in a fit of hate. I have found myself lying in the darkness more often now, succumbing to the fact that I am alone, alone and destined to play this cruel game till I die.

Despite this sense of isolation, I knew I was not alone; for every day the paper was placed anew. My captor, whoever they may be kept me here for reasons unknown. They placed the papers and I picked them up, that seemed to be our lives. My life consisted of the paper, that was my sole reason to live, but what was a life of pleasing my captor? The more I realised this the more my view changed; this paper trail was not leading me to the exit I saw in the aura of the cube, it took me towards the shackles that already bound me. The paper no longer acted as my saviour, it now mocked me, laughing at the fact that I was playing the role of my own captor. My other captor was clever, and I hated him for it.

It was with this hatred lodged in the forefront of my mind that I sat in front of the cube, and unlike every other night of this torture I was not cleansed of it. The hatred stayed, the darkness that had previously lurked only in the corridors now created an aura that resided within me. My darkness counteracting the tranquillity of the cube. It is in the darkness that my mind began to wander, and as a result my plan was born.

It occurred to me now that this paper did not appear out of nowhere. Every night whilst I slept my captor must place each piece separately. However sick my captor may be he’s certainly clever. The cube, much like the paper, was never my friend. The cube it seems was a device there to be brainwash me, it possessed this unfathomable power to enter my head and push away my negative thoughts. My captor wanted me to play this game of his and the cube was his way of making me do so. It was with the pieces of the puzzle all arranged in my mind that I found myself crouched in the shadows of a hallway, waiting for my captor to appear. It was time to escape.

I remained crouched there for what felt like hours, waiting for the smallest sign of life besides me. Nothing had happened yet but still I crouched there; this was nothing compared to the eternity I would spend here if I failed to escape. I was determined that tonight I would beat my captor at his own game and leave here, free at last. It was then I saw it; a ghostly blue light emanated from the hallway to my left. The light rendered my hiding spot useless and so I stood, ready to face whatever this was. In the middle of the hallway there was a sphere of the same light suspended in the air. Slowly the sphere grew in shape and size, moulding itself into an ethereal body. I looked at it, momentarily paralyzed by its sudden appearance, though even that would not quell my anger. I ran at it, screaming, the rage the cube once kept in check now bubbled over and I harnessed it, charging at this body of light with the intent to kill.

I should have realised that this, thing, whatever it was certainly wasn’t human. It took my fist passing through the entire of its head to realise that. The momentum carrying the punch brought me face first into the concrete. Now filled with fear of the creature I scrabbled backwards from it. It cocked it’s head at me, perplexed, and shuffled slowly towards me. My back hit the wall but the creature kept on moving, slowly, drawing out my inevitable demise. The creature now stood over me, it’s hands moving towards my neck…

…I awoke, basking in the aura of the cube, being filled with the tranquillity it offered. I stood and went to collect the papers.

Digimon World- The Legacy of T.Pain the mighty!

We're back! And by we I mean me because none of you were actually with me and Jeffer is dead. It's sad but it's what happens when he has a careless owner like myself. In Jeffers last moments he managed to make a new digital companion out of his ashes and so I embark once more into the Digimon World with the mighty T.Pain at my side!

How does this....

Day 1/7 - With the pain of the recently deceased Jeffer fresh in my mind I vow that with my small baby Poyomon T.Pain I will do better. However as a baby Digimon there is nothing T.Pain can currently do, so we hit the Gym.

Side note 1- With baby Digimon the main idea is to train the two base stats HP and MP. In theory this allows you to be able to focus on the other stats such as defence and attack when your Digimon grows up as you've mainly covered the HP in it's youth. 

Of course we overlooked that T.Pain is but a little baby so after two rounds of HP training and several adorable noises he's tuckered out and needs a nap, bless him. So after our mid-morning nap we awake to a dusky afternoon where we dive straight back into training. This non-stop train of training (Does that count as a Pun?) is rewarded with a Digivoloution into the kind of cute kind of scary Tokomon. I mean his angry glare could curdle dairy! From here we do a short round of training, working on defence before hitting the hay feeling accomplished!

Turn to this...

Side note 2- The time has not come to push the button, but rather to branch out our training regime. The reason for this is now what stats you train effect the Digivoloution of your Digital partner. So for example if were to change my focus from defence to Attack it's possible I could get a different Rookie Digimon.

T.Pain's not very mighty

Day 2/8 - The cycle of training continues, when T.Pain isn't training he's pooping or eating or sleeping. After T.Pain's most recent bout of sleeping we take a small break from training to pick up our Daily food supplies from Palamon (the slightly less dreaded if you want her full title) before going to the town square to see how things are shaping up. To my surprise Betamon and Colemon have set up a small street stall selling items like HP floppies and MP floppies (Health and Mana items respectfully). After our detour we go back to our strict training regime and once again are rewarded with a Digivoloution. This time our rookie is Patamon. T.Pains transformation must have taken more out of him than I thought as immediately afterwards he needs to sleep.  

Just shifting dirt, nothing to see here

Day 3/9 - With the early morning rays shining on T.Pain and I we decide on some last minute training before whirling outside of town to take my new orange T.Pain on a test run! So a few sparse minutes later we're out in the Native forest battling a Dokunemon (Well, watching a couple of monsters run around a field is more true to the scene) to which T.Pain copes well! We beat our opponent but not without a few bumps and bruises. Our remedy to this is to extensively train the brains of T.Pain so that he can learn the attack command. (Great Doctor I am eh? ) So with a smarter T.Pain in tow who now listens to my attack commands we decide to not actually utilise this new ability by going to Drill Tunnel and attempting to move the remaining dirt. Two dirt trips later T.Pain needs the toilet, and so we are forced to retreat back home to the toilet and end the day there.

Side note 3- Brains is the means of teaching your Digimon more advanced commands, such as 'attack' or 'keep distance'. This makes battle a slightly more controllable affair.

I don't think I'll ever earn enough
money for him

Day 4/10 - The morning -like many - is filled with training, so to break this routine T.Pain and I go off to Tropical Forest to explore the area more. Exploring proves difficult though as some powerful Fly things and the dreaded creatures who took out Jeffer (Moment of Silence please) lurking about. Our exploring proves fruitful though, as we stumble upon an Invisible Bridge leading over to the Great Canyon top area. With some more fumbling and stumbling we enter Monochrome Shop where the owner, the rather unsurprising Monochromon, ropes us into selling some stuff for him. Several Customers later we sell what we find a quite impressive sum of 2680 DigiDollars, Monochromon is unconvinced and pays us 1500 whilst asking for us to do better next time, the cheek. Upon Leaving the shop T.Pain - who did nothing might I add - is tuckered out, but before we sleep we head on home as Digivoloution into champion form is looming right around the corner.

His image brings a tear to my eye
every time

Day 5/11 - This day ends as it begun, with training upon training upon training. All in the hope that T.Pain might get a little stronger. Of course he doesn't and so we go to sleep feeling more powerful, yet a bit unhappy with the thought of having to repeat the same again. So we decide to do something more useful tomorrow! Like.. erm... Shift Dirt?

He looks more derpy that
fearsome

Day 6/12 - Setting off in the early morning we take up our previously brilliant idea to shift more dirt!! And as if for proof of my now scattered thought process we manage to anger a group of three Goburimon and decide that instead of running away with our tail in-between our legs immediately we stay and fight to see if T.Pain really can bring the Pain! ... He can't, of course, but that fight seems to trigger the Digivoloution from Patamon into a more fearsome Tyranamon! And it's here our more Powerful T.Pain needs to rest. Awakening soon after we go off presuming to shift some dirt, but somehow that job was already finished and a new tunnel was revealed. Inside T.Pain the mighty lives up to his name and shifts a giant boulder opening up a chamber with a small path running parallel to a river of lava. Following the path leads us to the insane looking Meramon whom immediately attacks us (Nice locals eh?) After a heated (Ha) battle we loose our first life to him. We end the day with a beaten T.Pain who vows to train and get stronger so that tomorrow we can show Meramon who's boss!!

Meramon proves one
FIERY foe (Ba Dum Tiss)

Day 7/13 - For the umpteenth time we train, train, train until T.Pain is begging for a rest. Granting him that we actually prepare for a fight, this time to take on Meramon and show him we mean business... business this time around means a quick defeat which knocks us down to our final heart. After a quick bout of training we go on an epic quest for adventure, traversing a new path that was untill now littered with boulders. We find ourselves out in Gear Savannah where we prove once and for all that neither me nor T.Pain were gifted in the brains department. I manage to recruit an Elecmon by being stupid enough to run into his electricity not once, not twice but thrice, and T.Pain struggles to fathom the idea of running away from me to catch a bird, told you we were stupid! From there we find ourselves scaling Trash Mountain, which coincidentally is the home to the, wait for it, *cue drum roll* poop shaped Digimon Sukamon. Everything in this area seems to focus on human excrement in some way, I mean there's a giant king sized one and some bizarre training that asks your Digimon to hide in a giant metal one... you just can't make this stuff up. From there our situation just goes from bad to worse, on low health and with no food T.Pain and I find ourselves stuck on the summit of Trash Mountain surrounded by Sukamon facing an uncomfortable night's sleep, all in all today could have gone better.

Sweet Jesus that's terrifying

Day 8/14 - Leaving the hell-hole that was Trash Mountain we find ourselves in a very hectic morning. Despite our best efforts at retracing my steps we find ourselves running around in loops, always ending up at Trash mountain, each attempted journey home rewards us with something each time. Our first attempt includes a meeting with the cat's pyjamas Leomon (He's a lion and I like bad puns!), our second attempt nets us that Pesky Biyomon whom we failed to catch yesterday, rather worryingly she begs to work for us, I didn't realise we were so threatening. Our third attempt home is a success and to my surprise the town centre is now a bustling hive of activity! Elecmon has installed some shiny new lights whilst Betamon is now lounging inside a new fountain as his street stall has been transformed into a fully fledged shop! With a new feeling of determination to provide for this town I throw T.Pain into an endless loop of training with the goal to take down our biggest rival yet: Meramon. We gear up and sleep, prepared for what could well be our final day.

The cat's Pyjamas

Him? My Doctor?

Day 9/15 - Our feeling of determination stays with us as we square up with Meramon once more, this time determined to win. YATTA! (We did it to those who don't know Japanese) Meramon is down and out, causing the heat and lava in the volcano to vanish, leading to treasure troves of stat boosting chips. Feeling accomplished we set off home only to discover two things; Meramon makes an excellent cook, providing curies from his restaurant and there is a special Digimon to be recruited somewhere in Tropical Forest using our newly acquired rain plant. Heading out there we recruit Vegimon, who as you might expect further develops our Meat farm, but it seems the recruiting train has no breaks, as it pulls up in Armada forest where we overcome the mysterious mans challenge, resulting in our new town Doctor: Centarumon!  Before we sleep we think; Our predicted last day has turned out to be quite an eventful one.

Day 10/16 - With such a busy day yesterday we plan for a quiet day of exploring, going up into the Grand canyon and seeing what lies beyond Monochromon's shop. There we are ambushed by the feared Bandit leader Ogremon and his cronies! Our quiet day has quickly become a heated battle for our lives, one which we reign victorious by the skin of our teeth! On our way home as a means of rest we try and shift more of the aforementioned Monochromons stock, gaining us 1500 moneys in our wallet! We head home with a heavy wallet and another battle under our belt, it seems T.Pain is truly living up to be mighty indeed!

He likes his street signs

Day 11/17 - Curiosity killed the cat they say, in my case it almost killed the dinosaur. In a strange desire to go speak to the almighty town chief Jijimon (his name translates to old man monster) whom simply commends us for our progress it's here where curiosity comes to bite us in the behind with a rival dinosaur challenging us for a.... street sign? Once more victory is not easily gained and we scrape by, his reward? An arena for us to test our strength in! I commend T.Pain to a lovely meal from Meramon before bed.

Day 12/18 - We decide that we deserve a quiet day of exploration, one which Ogremon stole from us two days ago. Our adventure takes us past Trash Mountain and into Geko swamp, which in turn leads to the Misty Trees, which is surprisingly.. well.. misty. Unsurprisingly I get lost, which results in the recruiting of a Gabumon and the accidental stumbling upon Grand Canyon, where we decide to lay our heads for the night!

I see where it got it's name

Day 13/19 - The main goal of today is to hightail it back to the safety of town, which unlike most of our plans goes relatively smoothly, providing us with plenty time of resting an recuperating for our planned excursion into more of the unknown tomorrow! Whilst in town we discover the new treasure hunters Drimogemon and Gabumon  whom charge extortionate prices for their services. Deciding to boycott them we go to sleep

The final Day - Our excursion is cut short as T.Pain the mighty dies suddenly! In his last days alive T.Pain proved his might by vanquishing foe after foe and providing well for our town! He shall always live on in our hearts!

This was something I found floating about in my drafts from a while back and thought to polish it up and release it, this will however be the final work on Digimon World as the gameplay gets a bit stale after a while, so I hope you enjoyed this! 

Ross!!

My Inspiration KaeyiDream

"I feel inspired; a rare occurrence in my life". Those were the opening words to my very first blog and they were words which still ring true today. I'm a lazy person, one whom needs poking and prodding to get up and do things, it's a personal trait I hate about myself but one that I sadly possess. So on that day in March, and the several days after that I'm going to share with you the person who has inspired me the most to start blogging, I know this is a bit different from what I usually post but it's something I feel like doing.

That's her

She goes by the pseudonym of KaeyiDream, and is what I would describe as Youtube famous. She, much like me, is set on the goal of providing entertainment for people and to follow her dreams. (fitting name then?) So what makes her special, what makes her someone who is inspiring? 

As Kaeyi openly shares with her fans she faces health issues, things that could potentially hinder her current style of life and stop her in her tracks. Some people let an illness like that overcome them, let it dominate their lifestyle and they fall into the trap of being somewhere they don't want to be. Kaeyi has remained determined to stay herself, to stay true to her goals of entertaining people and following her life aspirations. This is something I find truly admirable and is something which changed me.

I have recently been overcome with the idea of doing. I no longer want to lie in bed at night, gazing at my ceiling and thinking of all the things I've never done. I describe it like this; I want to be that old man with a story for every situation, and to do that I've got to get on living. Kaeyi has almost enkindled my determination to live life to it's fullest, despite any looming obstacles.

It is this display of sheer willpower to overcome her problems, and continue to be the person she wants to be that I find admirable. So Kaeyi, if you happen to read this I want you to know that your goal to entertain people continues to be met everyday you release a video, for there is always someone who enjoys it, you have also reached the non-intentional goal of being an inspiration for not only me, but many other people like me. So I thank you, for giving me the drive to start living!

So before I go I'm going to link you to her Youtube channel, go and show her some love! Thanks for reading, I know it's a bit different but I hope you enjoyed regardless!

Ross

Youtube channels links -https://www.youtube.com/user/KaeyiDream
                                       - https://www.youtube.com/user/InTheLittleDream

The Wolf Among Us and why you need to play it!

(I've tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible with any important details being within the first 20 minutes of game play)

Back in 2012 Telltale games took the gaming world by storm, taking their style of episodic writing and merging it in the cruel zombie infested world of The Walking Dead. It was a match made in heaven. Here was a game that made you think and care, where it wasn't the game mechanics that mattered, more your cast of characters; and most importantly the decisions you made. There was never a decision with a clear black or white area, it was all a nasty shade of grey, something which made the game unique and left me, along with many other gamers, longing for more. This is where The Wolf Among us comes in.

Bigby Wolf

Following the same style of The Walking Dead it was an episodic adventure with decisions and tense quick time events galore. Set in 1980's New York as a prequel to the hit comic series Fables you play the sheriff of Fabletowns Bigby Wolf. Discovering a severed head on your doorstep you are sent on a spiralling chase to discover the culprit, uncovering a wider mystery that could very well change Fabletown forever. 

That face just tells you
she's gonna be trouble

Like The Walking Dead though the game is only as powerful as the cast of characters you get to interact with, and there is a particularly powerful relationship that I'd like to highlight. Meet Snow White, personal friend of Bigby and current assistant to the Deputy Mayor. She feels a great deal of compassion for the less fortunate fables, and is angered at her inability to help in her role of assistant. So when circumstance place her as the new Deputy Mayor she is insistent on finding a way to help these fables and is often with Bigby to help with his investigation. This creates an interesting dynamic where you are often challenged between choosing what you think is right and what Snow thinks is right, where you have to weigh up what matters more to you; the satisfaction of carrying out your own course of action, or the opinion of Snow White.

So why then, as my title says, do you need to play it? It's simple really; the story. Telltalle have created their own little slice of the gaming market which you can't go anywhere else for. I want to have those overbranching decisions, that matter and effect the rest of my game. I want to have those set of characters where I love some and hate others. I want those quick time events where the battles, though in gameplay simplistic, offer a tense atmosphere where one wrong move costs you your life. Only Telltale manage to offer all of these things in one place, and if it's a Telltall game your after The Wolf Among Us is the best one yet. Each episode presnting more of the bread crumb trail you've been following to the culprit before blowing you away with a finale which left my mind spinning.

Even the poster oozes a noir
detective world

Before those of you go and play this masterpeice of a game I want to leave with you a reccomendation; never pause the game to give yourself time to mull over those difficult decisons. Those time limits cleverly create a feeling of haste, that you need to act, and that in itself often means you rely on gut feeling. Gut feeling can be wrong and my case I made mistakes, but it makes the games storytelling all the more powerful when you feel like you, the character, grows throughout your time playing and is molded by your decisons.

Thanks for reading and I hope I've managed to give some of you the incentive to play such a wonderful game, all kudos to the talented people at Telltale!

Ross

I'm back.... sort of

It's been a while, I know and for any of you who cared about this laughable excuse of a blog I'm sorry for both my absence and this post, as it's not even a proper blog. 

I'm writing this as a sort of update so you know what's going on and why it happened. I guess the reason for my abscence is that the fuel that got me writing my original posts all but dwindled out as I noticed no one seemed to be interested. I realise now, that that was a stupid view to take, as I still stand by original opinion when I started this; I'm not here to get popular, I'm here to write. That is a view which I think against my best intentions I forgot about, and I was wanting to get some recognition.

But this time I'm back, and I plan on staying that way, there will be blogs posted, I'm not going to lie and say it'll be regularly as the truth of the matter is I don't have as much free time as I did, but I shall always have plans in my head of what to write next! There might be monthly gaps between posts but what I've realised during my short hiatus is that I'm doing this for me aswell as the people reading it; therefore that means I write when I want to not as if to a deadline I feel you guys want (I know I'm just making the fact my fe readers want more but you get what I mean).

So to those of you who enjoyed my previous work I'm back and ready for more typing, and for those who might be newly initiated into it, go read it all and enjoy them (I hope atleast)

Thanks for reading: Ross!!

The Super Boy of Meat

With the lack of reviews on here I’ve decided to treat/torture you to a double whammy of them. This time looking at the hard as nails platformer Super Meat Boy in which you play as the super boy of meat on his mission to save bandage girl from the evil Dr. Fetus – yep, it’s bonkers.

 Humble beginnings

This is one of the easier ones....

The original Meat Boy was a flash game released on Newgrounds on October 5^th 2008 created by Edward McMillen and programmed by Jonathen McEntee. By April 2009 the game had racked up 840000 views and a map pack was in the works and soon after Super Meat Boy was born after McMillen was asked by Nintendo and Microsoft to develop a game for their online services WiiWare and XBLA respectively.

Not so super meat boy

The developers themselves came out with the statement : "Super Meat Boy is "a big throwback to a lot of super hardcore NES classics like Ghosts'n Goblins,Mega Man, and the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2" so it comes as no surprise that they succeed with this. The game itself tasks the player with making split second jumps through gaps of buzz-saws and landing on about 10 pixel wide platforms before dodging a missile headed your way. It's tough and many angry words may be blurted out, but in spite of all that it overcomes the hurdle many hard games fall at; making the mistakes fair.

Many games like this one will give you a level and make you get so far before hurtling an obstacle at you and killing you. This makes the deaths cheap, you feel like you've died due to the game making you and not through your own errors. Super Meat Boy on the other hand traverses this line brilliantly, though sadly not without fault. For about 95% of the game it feels fair the other 5 I felt cheated and I found some of the level structure 'bull-crap' in the sense that you needed a sort of Sight-before-sight to be able to traverse levels like that.

Ninja's Grace

For that other 95% though the game is all about mastering the fluid, precise jumps through platforming hell. The controls lead themselves perfectly to this. It's a simple system, one button to run one button to jump and off you go. However it's the almost decimal point perfection of the jumping that makes everything feel good. When you spend days on one level which had you shouting nasty words at the screen and finally crack it there's that unbeaten joy of satisfaction - in my case I felt like a Ninja, albeit one who drips blood every step he takes.

An example of something I
find too funny

The game never takes itself to seriously, which aids it immensely in the aspect of cutscences. It has a crude humour to it which actually made me chuckle once or twice, there might have even been a chortle at one point. 

To me it's something which showed the developers cared. They wanted to make their fans laugh and make their game the best it could be. And it worked for almost the entirety of the game but it's the small doses of unpredictable level structure which ruin it plus the difficulty level will throw quite a lot of casual gamers so that the end credits are only seen by the dedicated fans (Like me!!)

A brilliant game with only minor niggles, would definitely
recommend for those looking for a fair challenge 

 Thanks for Reading

                           Ross!!

OBJECTION! You've not done any reviews?!

Yep, you caught me red handed I've not done any reviews yet. I have thus far gone against the creed of my whole blog (I'm a horrible person I know). So here I am with a review at last and just like the title hinted at my review it also very unsubtly hinted at the review topic.

In the review I plan to weigh up all the goods and bads of the game and discuss why I had my gripes with certain parts or why I loved others before giving my final opinion of the game and giving a score out of 100%.

The Wright team

For those who haven't guessed it it's the spiky haired Attorney Phoenix Wright who has made his début into my life along with Apollo and Athena ( Someone liked names beginning with A ) in Phoenix Wright : Ace Attorney- Dual Destinies. I certainly wasn't disappointed.

In my typical Blog format I'm a gonna go on and explain the premise for all you uninitiated to the game series. Phoenix Wright is a - you guessed it - ace attorney! And as the player you are tasked with compiling evidence from the crime scene through investigation and conversation before using all your findings to point out contradictions in the witnesses testimonies and ultimately delivering the defendant to a 'Not Guilty' verdict.

Unfortunate for me though Dual Destinies goes by another name : Ace Attorney 5. As you can guess for a newcomer for me this throws a small spanner into the works in terms of story. Whilst the story is new and fresh for the most part there is many a cameo appearance of characters and also many a reference to a previous case where Mr Wright himself was the accused. Now this detracts from some of the charm the game. All these throwbacks to the previous titles are unappreciated by newcomers. However it's not a major issue - heck if anything it makes me want to play the other games even more but it's still something which might throw some newcomers to the series.

The gameplay however is defiantly something I can appreciate with no prior introduction to the series. What the gameplay boils down to is really a series of five well crafted stories all woven in-between one big plot (Bar case two). Whilst I personally love this type of game, where you sit and watch the tightly held secrets of the case unfold before you as you find contradictions aplenty there are others who will hate it. Hate it for the simple fact that there really isn't much too it. Some people like games with action to it, something where you're just dumped and told to shoot this, or stab that. For those kinds of people this game will most likely not appeal because if you don't want to sit through hours of text scrolling then it's not for you.

Typical gameplay

So in one deft swoop what to some will be Dual Destinies greatest asset; to others will be it's biggest flaw. That being the gameplay. But for people like myself who like this sort of game there are still some niggles here and there with the writing. My biggest gripe with the writing is how it goes for a humour which just doesn't click with me. And as I'm reading some of the back and forth between Phoenix and the Judge then it's just feels a bit unnecessary, sometimes.

It's this sometimes which in almost every bad aspect of the game. The small back and forth and general conversation whilst sometimes unnecessary also acts as a window into showing us more about the characters themselves and letting us connect on a personal level.

The fact this isn't accessible to everyone
decreases the score the most, but it's
still a great store, and I implore any
3DS owner to pick it up!

So with all the above points in mind it makes it difficult to appoint a final verdict (See what I did there?). I hereby charge the accused guilty of being a joy to play through the use of its well written characters and stories. I also declare the accused guilty of the lack of actual controllable action and some mediocre humour as well. (And all of here) I shall now sentence the accused to a 77%.




Thank you all for reading!
                                      Ross

The Nostalgic effect I - Digimon World

In this soon to be recurring feature I look at games of my Childhood which I revere to be some of the best of all time and wonder whether they really were great or whether I've been blinded by... The Nostalgic effect.

(Surely there'll be extra brownie points for my incredibly cheesy intro?)

This time round I shall be looking at the first game I ever played : Digimon World. I shall present this in an in-game day by day account of the life of me and my Digimon Jeffer - His name has a reason behind it but more to that later - whilst presenting my views on whether there really was a lovely charm behind this game or if I was just a deluded young child happy at the simple appearance of some of the Digimon I marvelled at on the Television.

Before I delve into the metaphorical guts of the game I should explain the franchise on which the game is based on. Digimon (Digital Monsters) took the idea that Tamagochi had of having little creatures in your pocket. This idea transcended it's way into a successful Tv show in which several children are transported to this digital world and go on one journey or another with their Digimon companion; harking back to Tamagochi. It was the success of this Tv show which brought in the other merchandise of Toys and primarily for me; games.

Time for the gut delving! Or to disappoint again we're actually just cutting open the skin; so to explain my analogy I'll speak you through the start of the game. What stands out to me now is the cut scene at the very start of the game, before you even go through menus. There is a rather epic battle between two really bad-ass looking Digimon, and to me, a fan of the show, this was something rather cool to watch. I give credit to this game for just how much it goes out to please it's fans, by including all these Digimon and cool cut scenes. There is however a downside to this. If I put myself in the shoes of someone with no previous experience to Digimon then I feel some of the charm the game has is lost. 

After having our minds melted by a Cut scene we have to traverse through a couple of menus to begin the game before being give a quick quiz to determine what Digimon you start the game with and finally naming your first faithful companion. As you all know he was a Gabumon called Jeffer for me. His original name was going to be Jeffery - the idea being that I was trying to be as authentically like a child as possible- and of course the Y wouldn't fit. So Jeffer it was! 

Gut delving time is upon us! And so I present to you the 7 day diary in which I record the incredible journey me and Jeffer embark on. Pack a hanky or two as it get's tearful. (Only if you're a sap like me mind)   

JEFFER!!

Day 1 - Being given the plot to essentially sell File City to the natives through the means of violence and general annoyance Jeffer and I find ourselves in the middle of an island with no means of direction other than too explore.

File Island

Side note 1 - This is another double edged sword for the game. Once again for someone new to the game this creates an intimidating idea of having no clear direction but it also creates the sense of adventure which is something I like. A game which whilst still easy to understand is not 'hold your hand' linear.

After exploring the rest of the town Jeffer and I go over to Green's Gym in order to train stats and make ourselves strong before exploring the outside of the City. Along with training your Digital partner you are tasked with the general upkeep you might expect with owning a pet: feeding it; taking it to the toilet; giving it medicine and general malarkey like that. 

Green's Gym

Side note 2 - These are three of the key game play elements. two being good; the remainder not so good. The not so good one is the training aspect of it, it's a mutinous routine of X button followed by Triangle button followed by X button. It's fairly dull and is the one glaring negative I've found thus far. However it is certainly bearable, just not very fun. The good elements are the exploring of the island and the upkeep of your Digimon. In the exploration as it implies you are given the freedom to go where you want; when you want. So to make sure you miss nothing you are overwhelmed by this maddening sense to search every square inch of the Island. A game which makes you want to explore the landscape the developers have created is something to be proud of I feel. As the escapism I get from such exploration is the reason games are so fun for me; just being able to be anywhere I want doing whatever I want, which in real life could never be possible. And finally there's how to look after your Digimon itself. On paper it sounds like, well, not much fun at all. I doubt those are the chores of having a pet that people enjoy. But you cannot simply neglect your Digimon. If you fail to take it to the bathroom, or feed it the Digimon could loose one of it's life's or grow unhappy. Your Digimon has three lives in total, if it loses all three then the Digimon dies. The happiness meter is what determines how well your Digimon preforms in battles and also what it Digivolves into. But like a Pet your Digimon has this endearing quality about it which makes caring for your Digimon something that bonds you. In doing so ultimately it creates a genuine bond between the two of you; meaning that every encounter is tense and every goodbye made even sadder. 

Item bank

With a stronger Jeffer in hand we move to the first new area outside the village. Where we are promptly met with an Augumon raring to fight us! We beat him! Followed by a chorus of 'Yatta' ('I did it' in Japanese) and the reward of a sick Jeffer and a new bank back in town. I return home for some late night training before we need to sleep after our rather busy first day.

Side note 3 - The final two main game play elements are shown here as well. There is the battling system and more often than not as a by-product of that the recruiting of other Digimon. The battling in itself is like watching a Wrestling match. Just with dangerous creatures who attack with fire and poison instead of the more conventional means of fists and elbows. The analogy is made because you can scream commands at your Digimon, telling it to attack or keep it's distance, but they never seem to have much effect, and so you are left watching these two Digimon fight of their own accord. This doesn't mean the battling is bad though. It's still very tense when you are in situations where you know the next move decides that battle, however in terms of actual strategy involved there doesn't appear to be much. There is also the recruiting of certain Digimon to your town; this being the players aim of the game. This is in my opinion the best feature of the game. The more you progress the more lively and upgraded your town gets. This gives an enormous sense of satisfaction as a town which started off with nothing gets a bustling town square with a building to either side.

Part of the complete city

Day 2 - Today ends in disaster for me and Jeffer. The day begins with the development of the Injury into a sickness. With no cure available it looks like Jeffer's on his last legs. To add to our despair on our attempt to go out and scout the Island we are almost defeated by the first Digimon we encounter, leading to retreat back home with our tails between our legs. The final icing on the cake though is that my initial suspicions were right and Jeffer looses a life from my poor care of him. We go to sleep on a low that night ; a low we never hope to stoop to again.

Day 3 - I vow to train Jeffer up strong so that we can start our exploration of the Island and further upgrade the town. Of course with the rigorous training we encounter two problems. The training is making Jeffer unhappy and hungry, so hungry that he is eating more than the amount of food available. This creates a dilemma as I need to keep Jeffers hunger up and yet I do not have the food to do so. In a last ditch effort we explore the surrounding area outside of town for food and come across a Happymushroom. This cures Jeffer of both his ailments of hunger and unhappiness. This journey however leads to a risky sleep in the middle of nowhere for the night.

BIG STRONG JEFFER

Day 4 - Our troubles have not been in vain though! Due to our rigorous training the other day Jeffer has made leaps and bounds in terms of strength and after accidentally running into a Digimon we learn we have the power to crush them! (Or maybe got a bit lucky) This leads us being overcome by a Cocky nature and so we explore to the south of the Island tackling every Digimon we can to show our power! This of course leads to us fighting the wrong guy  (who Ironically is a girl Palamon but I'd rather not have my power undermined any further) and once again we find ourselves running away like cowards towards the safety of the town. This turned out to be a wise decision as my small little Jeffer the Gabumon became big strong Jeffer the Monochromon!

Digivoloution chart

Side note 4 - Digivoloution is where your Digimon evolves into it's new, more powerful stage. What makes this system so much fun is that it starts out basic. With 4 Baby stages, 4 In-training stages, but this is where it branches out. Depending on what you train and how you train your Digimon can Digivolve into a new Digimon. So to give you an idea there are then a further 9 Rookies, a whopping 29 champions and finally 18 ultimate Digimon. What this means is that the game has lots and lots of re-playability as you try to figure out how to get the most powerful Digimon you can. Also lots of cool references for fans of the show.

The Dreaded Kunamon

Day 5 -  Today started on a high and stooped to a very low point. With my new and Improved Jeffer I felt ready to take on the world and recruit some new Digimon! So this led to me defeating another Palamon (Eat that previous Palamon!) who joined my town and improved my Meat farm. This then plummeted as in my mad power rush I tried to defeat Kunamon so he could join my town, but of course he defeated me by the skin of his teeth and so poor Jeffer was down to only one life. By the time we'd awoken in the town we decided to explore the Island some more, making sure to avoid all contact. This led to us coming across a Beach where a kind Digimon transported us over to this Tropical place where we had to sleep for the night.

Slightly less dreaded Palamon

Day 6 - We awake in the early morning when it's still dark with the sole mission of exploring this new territory. We soon found our way into Amida forest where a mysterious figure threatens us. Thinking I could take him we and Jeffer try to proceed through this area when we are blown back twice taking our health down to 1 HP. We take the hint and scurry off home via the newly repaired bridge and train with the intention to tackle him the next day.

Side note 5 - It's by this point I begin to notice a flaw in the game; it's formulaic. This means that each day eventually begins to from the same sort of structure. And sadly that leads to it becoming a bit boring at times.

Day 7/ The end - With our wounds profusely licked after our embarrassment yesterday I instead decide to take the different approach of exploring the area to the right of the Town, which is the Drill Tunnel. There we are quite randomly attacked by an Angry Drimogemon (God the people here are violent! ) before agreeing to shift dirt for another one. The dirt shifting proves boring and mutinous so we leave the tunnel and decide to go explore the rest of the Tropical region. Whilst there we run into several dead ends before entering a spooky graveyard, which in typical fashion also leads to a dead end. It is this which spells death for Jeffer as at the exit lays two powerful Digimon whom are literally undodge-able. After several failed attempts at trying to dodge them I accept defeat and Jeffer goes out like the hero he was. May a salute be held for our valiant hero!

So after my 7 in-game days with Jeffer I feel ready to pass down verdict on the game, and well it's mixed. The game is fun, and in the way it gets you to care about the Digimon and the Town/Digimon progression systems are great! However it's not perfect. The training for example is a big part of the game, and yet it's boring and tedious. This boredom it creates is worse now as I'm older. If I was a child then I'd have a lot more spare time on my hands, so a lot more time to put into the game. Whereas now I want my games to be for the majority of the time fun and so something which was just an annoyance several years ago becomes a problem which hinders my fun.

Overall then the game is still fun. It has it's flaws but I feel the game overcomes them with the amount it does right. So for these reasons Digimon World makes it into my recently made Hall of Fame!

Thanks for reading!  
                          But before I go I was toying with the idea of doing a similar plan to this where I'd do the Diary plan for each Digimon's life. However I'm not sure whether people would enjoy that so I'd like to ask you to drop down in the comments below whether you'd want that or not!

Thanks Guys - Ross