GameStop, Amazon, & Play-Asia

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At one point in my life, I thought GameStop was the only store where I could purchase games.  Through looking for past generation games , I decided to also purchase games from Amazon.  When I found games that were never comming to the USA or games that would take months to come to the United States, I found Play-Asia.com

With all the advertisement on tv, for me, GameStop seemed liked the only place to find and purchase a ton of video games at.  After finding Amazon and Play-Asia, I only go to GameStop if I want a game immediately, such as the new fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us.  The game is currently being played at the bar I go to every Tuesday.   For anyone into playing fighting games competitively  knows that getting a new fighting game immediately is a must.  Before last Tuesday, I was going to buy Injustice on Amazon.com for 49.99 instead of 59.99 atGameStop but impatients won me over.  I woke up, drove to GameStop, picked up Injustice, brought the game, and walked out.

I did like the opportunity to try out the Wii U, Luigi’s Mansion on the 3Ds XL, and have a conversation with the GameStop associate before leaving.  Thankfully the associate was knowledgeable on Injustice, making the conversation pleasant.  Sometimes there are GameStop associates who have no idea what the game is I’m buying or even anything on video games.  Unfortunately, GameStop associates with little knowledge of video games, is a huge reminder that GameStop is just another retail store that so happens to have to focus on selling games.  Sometimes I just want to buy my games without having to constantly say “no” to three or more deals the associate is required to say before I purchase a video game.  When new video game systems come in, the older games get taken off the shelf, pushed to a smaller section, and eventually taken out of the store.

When I do not care about getting a game immediately or want an old game that I can no longer find at GameStop, I turn to Amazon.  Amazon has low prices on a majority of their video games, old and new.  When I wanted Kid Icuras Uprising, new and with the stand and cards that comes with it, I brought the game from Amazon.com for 27.99.  At one point in time, there was a shortage of Fire Emblem Awakening  at GameStop but not Amazon (for those that wanted a hard copy instead of downloading the game).  I could sit down in my nightgown, log on to Amazon, shop through a variety of retailers on Amazon or Amazon itself, and order whatever game I wanted.   With Kid Icarus‘ controls, I couldn’t imagine playing the game without the stand.

Last year, I decided to buy Nier Replicant, Tales of Xillia one, and Tales of Xillia 2 off of Play-Asia.com.  GameStop has never had a section for buying import games or import systems.  Play-Asia is primarily a website for shopping for items (video games, accessories, movies, etc) from Japan and other Asian countries.  When I want a blue or red PlayStation Vita, I will look to Play-Asia.com if  the colors never come to GameStop (apparently most different colored video game systems don’t come to GameStop, unless in a bundle with some game I may or may not want).  Shipping is free for the most part and there are constant deals going on for a lot of items every day.  Since I live in America and not Japan,  I waited for Tales of Xillia one and two for a few weeks before I could play the games.  One really cool thing about Play-Asia is that I get a coupon with my purchase so I can get a deal the next time I buy from Play-Asia.

Of course I am not saying that either GameStop, Amazon, or Play-Asia is better than the other.  This discussion could have gone further if I bothered with trading with Amazon or GameStop.  I am the kind of person who hates letting go of her video games, so a topic on trading with either Amazon or GameStop will have to wait.

Tera Online Review

It takes a lot for me to get into a massive multiplayer online role playing games.  Tera Online's hack n' slash style of combat, beautiful world, and lovely character designs convinced me to jump into the beta and play the game.  When I was going to stop paying fifteen dollars a month, I was happy to find out that this Korean MMORPG has gone free to play.

Positives  

• Tera Online is a very pretty and the world is massive.  I don't mind riding on my mount in order to get from mission to mission.  Each time one of my missions tells me to go to another world, I am happy to travel there with my pegasus   The first time visiting a new area is a visual treat.

• I do not have to hover my mouse over an enemy, click from a drop down menu, and wait for an attack animation to finish.  No World of Warcraft style combat here.  In fact, with Tera Online's style of combat, I use my Playstation 3 controller to play the game.  I need to aim my pointer at the enemy, with my sorcerer character, and press the action button.  Since the enemy keeps moving, there is a high chance that I could miss my attack.  I like that risk factor.

Stuck in the Middle

• The story of Tera Online is nothing to shout about.  Most quests' dialogue delves into someone is doing research and needs me to get samples from monsters, someone has gone missing and is predictably dead, kill this monster, someone is doing research and they need me to collect these items, kill these monsters, etc.  I do love missions which require me to read the dialogue because I needed to do something specific in order to complete the quest (like getting the crazed unicorn's health down to a low percentage, so I can tranquilize him and turn him back to normal).  Unfortunately those quests are so rare that I only skim the quest dialogues now instead of reading them like I used to.

• People like sex; sex sells.   Most game developers know how to use this known fact to their advantage but Tera Online goes above and beyond.  Some female characters  run around, bent over in the shortest dresses I have ever seen in my life so players get a nice view of her panties.  As the levels go higher, most of the female characters' armor barely cover anything.  Thankfully the developers decided to show some male skin on the characters as well.  Although not as skimpy as the female characters, I am happy the developers did not just focus only on showing off female skin.  There are also the options to buy long jump suits incase anyone wanted to cover up their characters, as well as a few races who's designs are not catering to horny players.

Negatives

• Over all, I am happy with Tera Online.  After playing Guild Wars 2 and seeing the Star Wars MMORPG, I feel like Tera Online could have been more enjoyable if the story was presented the same way those two MMO's presented their stories.  Maybe those same old quests in Tera Online would be a lot more fun.  

Since I originally bought Tera Online, I received the Founder Status.  Tera Online's company gets money through their cash shop and players willingly paying 15 dollars for the Elite Status each month.  The Elite Status gives players' discounts in the cash shop, the ability to try out new mounts, and extra boosts.  I found out with my Founder Status, I had 8 Character slots, a title, a free electric mount, 288 Bank slots, a special chat icon, and enhanced queue priority for login.  

Founder Status is pretty helpful and the elite status is for those that REALLY love playing Tera Online and want to get the most out of their time.  Those who want the founder status have to buy a physical or digital copy of Tera Online.  Looking through the official website, I no longer see the options to buy a digital copy of Tera Online.  I have found a few on Amazon.  The game is pretty cheap, unless you want the collector's edition. 

Persona 4 Arena Review

Arc System Works is a popular video game company known for videogames like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear.  Atlus is a well-known video game company known for games like Catherine and Persona.   When Atlus and Arc System Works got together and decided to make  a fighting game,Persona 4 Arena was the result.

Persona 4 Arena takes the characters from the popular Japanese RPGs Persona 4 and Persona 3 and puts them in a 2d fighting game for fighting game fans and Persona fans to enjoy.  Those familiar with the JRPG series will love to see their favorite characters from their JRPG go at it, enjoy the continuation of the Persona 4 RPG story, and how the mechanics of their JRPG is mixed into the game.  Fighting game fans will enjoy the unique combinations of using two characters at the same time and learning the game’s fast paced mechanics.

I love the colors and the artwork shown in this game.  With a little knowledge of the Persona series as a whole (the Persona 4 anime and watching people play Persona 3), I feel the artwork and graphics were represented nicely.

The game has a quick tutorial mode (like 5 minutes) and challenge mode helped me get used toPersona 4 Arena‘s mechanics pretty fast.    Like any serious fighting gamer, a trip to Dustloop.com sped up my knowledge of the game further as not everything is explained.  I did not know all the effects of the alignment spells until I went online.  For people who could care less for fully learning the game, there is the option of pressing one button over and over in order to do an auto combo.  I would be annoyed by this addition but the combos generally don’t do much damage.

From what I have seen of Persona 4 Arena‘s story mode is that the story is a love letter to Persona 3 and 4 fans.  There is a continuation of Persona 4′s story after two months of it’s conclusion.  Each character’s story mode is fleshed out, an hour long, and the presentation is entertaining.  Just look at the opening scene.   It is always nice to know that a company cares about their gameplay AND their story mode.

Persona 4 Arena offers a lot to not only fans of the series but also to fans of fighting games; casual and competitive alike.  This game is worth a buy as it has been out for a while and is cheap now.

Fire Emblem Awakening

So just a few days ago I finally beat Fire Emblem Awakening  with 50 hours put into the Nintendo 3D DS game.  The game has 26 chapters and is not long but with all the optional content put into the game, I played this game a lot longer than I expected.

The story follows the trials of Prince Chrom and his group, The Shepherds  as they try to keep peace in his country Ylisse from the neighboring country Plegia.  Along the way, the Prince encounters an evil force called the Risen (think zombies minus the decaying flesh), a masked man going by the name of the legendary Hero King Marth, and a mysterious character sleeping in the middle of the field (the player’s avatar).

Now keep in mind, the Fire Emblem games I have played are Path of Radiance and Sword of Seals.

Positives

• World Map
• DLC Maps
• DLC characters of past Fire Emblem characters are available to fight and recruit.
• Permanent death can be turned off for those that hate having their characters die permanently.
• Pairing up in battle and having two characters fight along side each other and the possibility of protecting each other from receiving any damage made game play really enjoyable.

Support conversations are more worthwhile with characters of the opposite gender being able to have children after getting a S rank.  There is another chapter which opens after the S rank support conversation finishes and a new character (the child) is available to recruit.  I played for hours getting my characters to have kids since the children are a lot stronger than the first generation of characters.

I honestly have nothing bad to say about this game.  The story, although not the greatest and predictable at times, was enjoyable and different for a Fire Emblem game.  Apparently ideas I thought were new to Fire Emblem, like an avatar and world map, have been used in previous Fire Emblem games (like the technician from Blazing Sword).  The game does do a good job of keeping all these elements together and not feeling tacked on. I am glad that this was my first game on the Nintendo 3D DS and I hope there will be more Fire Emblem sequels on the hand held.  This April maps for recruiting a former enemy, fighting tougher opponents, and more side stories will be released via Spot Pass..  I can’t wait.