Felin Files #1 - Stranded

I am Kathmandu.

I must survey the surroundings!

You may have heard of me. I'm an intrepid Felin explorer. I am known for my unending wealth of curiosity even for a Felin. As luck would have it, I'm stranded on this blasted moon in the Lathasia Expanse. My worthless piece of junk of a starship has broken down in orbit and I am scrounging the surface of this inhospitable death zone for food and supplies. Everything here wants to kill me and my pathetic katar barely scratches their hides. I have hidden myself underground numerous times to avoid confrontation with the indigenous species.

Salvation is at hand!

I have spent many horrible days on this planet looking for some means to defend myself. I finally found an old weapons crate with a rusty pistol inside. It was truly a gift from Bastet at this point. I cannot tell you how embarrassing it is to hide from these pitiful creatures. Aside from misfortune, I found another traveler on this planet. Before we could get acquainted, he was devoured by tongue-bats from the depths of an old abandoned mine. I could not save him for fear of shooting him myself. I mourned my unnamed friend for several more terrible nights before braving the depths of this mine myself. Hopefully, I will be able to find materials to repair my ship within.

I smell a delicious fish dinner!

- Kathmandu
@TOPGamingBlog

Featuring:

• Felins

2015 - A Life & Game Review

I'm trying to think back on the games of 2015 and I'm struggling. In February, I moved from Maryland to Hawaii. I bought Tales of Hearts R for the trip, but technically that was a 2014 release. Even still, I ended up going absolutely head first into Pokémon Y (again) and to some extents Alpha Sapphire. Tales of Hearts just didn't hold my attention. The "Tales" series seems to be hit or miss for me - I love some of them, but others bore me. Either way, none of these games came out in 2015. So what the hell did I play in 2015? Looking back, there really weren't that many new titles in my house.

The Bunker Hill Bros played the hell out of some Dragon Ball XenoVerse which is a great game, but not Game of the Year material. I will never forget the rise of (custom character) Potatta and her domination over this game. I was supposed to join the Deez in Star Wars Battlefront but I ended up flaking out and walking away from the purchase. I got Disgaea 5 for my birthday in October, but for the first time ever - a Disgaea game did not hold my attention for much longer than a week. I got much more into a play of Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness earlier in the year- also not a 2015 game.

Flipping through the internet, I see a lot of talk about Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5 and even Bloodborne. Surprisingly, all of these were on my "I want to buy" list but none of them were purchased. Particularly surprising is Bloodborne, because I held it in my hands at least ten times and put it back on the shelf - including the day I bought Dragon Ball XenoVerse. I don't really have a lot of excuses for this. I suppose money has been relatively tight, but more so I've just found my large library of older games has really gotten me through the year. When Fallout 4 launched I realized I never fully explored or beaten Fallout: New Vegas and so I loaded her up instead of spending $60. Similarly, when Bloodborne was tantalizing me, I did another playthrough of Dark Souls II. Such was life in 2015 for me.

The only 2015 titles I can think of that I picked up and really sank my teeth into are Final Fantasy Record Keeper and Xenoblade Chronicles X. It feels severely unfair to slap either one with "Game of the Year" title when I really didn't play any other 2015 launch titles to any great extent. It also makes me feel guilty giving Xenoblade the high honors because the only other time I've posted a Game of the Year it was for 2012 and Xenoblade Chronicles won that award.

• TOP Game of the Year 2012 (Spoiler: Xenoblade Chronicles)

So let me tell you about the two games I did play to some great extent. 

 

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a free-to-play iOS and Android game. It's honestly the first mobile game I've ever enjoyed and endorsed. I know part of that stems from my love for old Final Fantasy games, to which Record Keeper gives much fan service. However, it's been more than just a passing fancy. I play Record Keeper every single day. I'm sometimes overwhelmed at the level of strategy and planning the game takes, but it's the cute SNES-style sprites and the level of challenge the game brings to the table that keeps me coming back. 

The game is at its core an All-Star Final Fantasy Battle game. You collect characters from every Final Fantasy title and equip them with equipment and skills to do combat with various monsters and bosses from each title. Although each character can only have 2 abilities equipped at any given time, the battle system itself most resembles Final Fantasy IV and VI. As of today there are roughly 90 characters to collect, level and utilize to complete new events and dungeons. Events come once a week and new dungeons are added twice a month. 

Like most online, money-driven games it does suffer from a steady power creep. I worked extremely hard for about six months to be able to steadily 100% every event that came along. I finally felt like I was on top of the world and could conquer any challenge. Then a new difficulty was released and I was knocked so hard off my pedestal that I felt like I had just been fooling myself into thinking I was the very best like no one ever was. While there are cons to a steady power creep (like invalidating your best arsenal of relic weapons when new, better ones arrive) I like to think that it will keep the game fresh and keep me driven to take my team to new levels. 

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is easily the best mobile game I've ever played.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is overwhelming. Based entirely on my unendingly positive experience with its predecessor in 2012 and well into 2013, I picked up Xenoblade CX the day it was released and I'm still playing it today. I've sank about 60 hours into this game and I'm only on Chapter 6 of 12. The amount of content this game throws in your face is truly amazing. Simply exploring this beautiful, exquisitely detailed, alien planet will probably keep me entertained for another 60 hours easily.

Speaking honestly, during my first hour with the game I felt very skeptical. The custom created "main" character is an awkward, silent protagonist in an age of voice acted cutscenes. The very concept has made me question whether Cloud will translate very well into the Final Fantasy VII Remake - or whether a game like Chrono Trigger should ever be brought into the current generation. However, Xenoblade CX pulls this off pretty well with player input answers that lead you to believe he is participating in conversations (silently). I also wasn't entirely sold on the combat and its utter lack of Monado, but ultimately I'm finding it to be a much deeper combat system than its predecessor.

After that initial adjustment - the realization that no, this is not Xenoblade Chronicles that you remember, but something new entirely - the game just goes into full bloom, in my opinion. There are a ton of playable characters to get to know. There is - what feels like - a never ending list of side-quests to pursue (600, I believe is the official estimate). The "mission structure" to the story is the perfect balance between encouraging you to continue the story, but also allowing you to pause and take in the world at your own pace.

In Xenoblade Chronicles, I remember wanting to stop and get to know everyone and do every side-quest, but the story itself pushed a sense of urgency. It was difficult to justify hanging out in one place for 40 hours just to build local affinity when your [insert plot device] was in desperate need of your help. Xenoblade Chronicles X solves this problem by taking the plot away from character driven narrative and making you feel like you are actually building a new world on the planet Mira. Each side-quest, mission and affinity mission all feels like one more step in establishing humanity's place on this new mysterious world and I absolutely love it. 

With a new console on the horizon, Xenoblade Chronicles X will likely be my all time favorite Wii U release - much like Xenoblade Chronicles is my favorite Wii title ever played. It has breathed new life into a system that mostly my children were dominating until now. 

- TOP

@TOPGamingBlog

PS - Let me know what games you think I really missed out on in 2015!

Jack Unbound - A Starbound Story

Screen Capture from Episode 1 - "Pilot"

I have been enamored by several "Let's Play" series on YouTube over the years. These video series are basically people playing video games while adding their own voice over narration and reactions to what they're doing in games. I stumbled into this genre when trying to determine whether or not I would like a particular game - and have since used it more often and more reliably (with better results!) than typical game reviews and media. Actually getting to see someone play a game hands on and mess around in the world lets me know fairly quickly whether or not its a game I would enjoy or not. I even dabbled in doing my own "Let's Play" of a game once, but it was a disaster. Although I do think I can tell a fun story when prompted, it's difficult for me to speak and play at the same time. It's difficult to think of what to say while you're actively engaged in another action. It was awkward and terrible and I abandoned it. I decided "Let's Play" are not for me.

Then a thought occurred to me several years later. Perhaps a series doesn't need a voice narration. I don't need to bring my personality to the series if I can invent personalities that are engaging to an audience. I may not be very good at narrating my own actions in a game, but I am good at narrating a story. So I began to ponder whether or not I could tell a story within a game I'm playing. I wondered for a long time if that type of video would even be entertaining to a general public audience. I fear that it isn't, but I decided to go forth and create a pilot. Some people love it. Some people think it's tediously boring. Personally, I think it's cute and I have fun doing it. Since it's not a traditional "Let's Play" series, I've opted to categorize it as a "Let's Role Play" series. I don't think I invented this genre, but the role-play series I see on YouTube are far and few between.

Jack Finds an Abandoned Mining Camp

I decided to play an open-ended sandbox game called Starbound. I've mentioned it before in a couple of "Week in Review" columns as it's a game I've been playing on and off for about two years. The game is still in development and so content changes a few times a year. I think the game finally hit its stride with the current version, called Spirited Giraffe, and has provided an ample staging ground for telling a dynamic story. There is enough to do and the added convenience of bookmarking and teleporting to and from worlds which was absent before now. The basic premise of the game casts you in the role of intrepid space adventurer, braving the dangerous of unknown planets to forge your destiny in the universe. I know that's vague, but the game is so open there really isn't any set path for a player to explicitly follow. This is what makes it such a fun playground in which to invent a story.

The story revolves around Jack - as of yet no known surname - who awakens on a broken down starship and is forced to mine the planet below for enough materials to repair the ship. Jack's ship was attacked while he was in stasis and he remained in stasis for twenty years. There is much Jack doesn't know about the current state of the universe and humanity, but he's desperate to find out - and reclaim some of what he's lost. He is accompanied by his prison ship's Artificial Intelligence who seems to have an agenda of his own.

Jack Does Some Light Tomb Raiding

While I tend to play Starbound at a rather frantic pace, consuming and exploiting each new world I visit as quickly as I can and then moving on to the next, I really wanted to slow down with Jack. I spend a lot of time building up shelters and other constructs for Jack as he explores the universe. Typically such things are just for fun and there's not a huge amount of incentive to spend the time gathering and building up huge bases, but because I'm playing Jack with a realistic mindset, he eats everyday and sleeps every night. He hunts and gathers and mines and builds. The series is much slower paced than the average "Let's Play" of Starbound, but within the series there is an unwinding narrative about Jack's past and what he intends to make of his future.

I'm posting weekly on YouTube. I try to have a new episode up every Friday and if I do any heavy building, I post a "Build Episode" on Mondays or Tuesdays. Those episodes don't really progress the story, but show a lot of the edited out footage of building up structures and shelters. I hope you check it out and more importantly, I hope you enjoy it.

Jack Unbound



- TOP
@TOPGamingBlog

The Return to Blogging

Many times this year I've thought about returning to TOP Gaming. I originally started this blog as a way to get back into writing. I'm a storyteller at heart, one of the few and proud gamers of the world who actually value a good story and strong characters over graphics (and to some extents gameplay). Blogging was mostly an exercise to get myself writing every week and perhaps launch into bigger and better writing projects in the future. After a personal tragedy in 2013, I returned to college to finish a degree in Applied Linguistics and decided that since I was writing a paper every week, I really couldn't afford the time to write about video games every week on top of that. I was certainly getting enough writing practice.

I wanted to do a grand reopening in January with a "Best of 2014" article, but that fell to the wayside as I prepared to move from Maryland to Hawaii. It's roughly 4800 miles to move a family of five. No big deal. My supportive wife says, "It's never too late." So perhaps I will do a review of 2014, or perhaps I won't. I haven't decided what to do, honestly. All I have decided is that I need a creative outlet. I've been out of school since January and comfortably settled in Hawaii since March. It's time to get back into writing - and hopefully back into blogging.

The last real post on this blog was Music May of 2013. It was a huge undertaking and it was one of my favorite projects that I've ever done. It took months of preparation and hours of writing and listening to music. When Grooveshark crumbled in April, I was fairly devastated. My entire blog was dependent upon Grooveshark to provide the optional, ambient background music of TOP Gaming. It was another crushing blow and another setback to my return, because I knew once I came back I'd have to address it. I still don't know how to solve the issue. There really isn't anything quite like Grooveshark on the internet that I'm aware of. I don't know how best to integrate video game music with video game musings. I'm sure that in time something will come up.

May 4th of this year, a new son was added to my family. He's asleep right next to me as I write. The weekend leading up to his birth was a very difficult weekend for me and I wrote a yet unpublished blog about how I was feeling at the time. I'd also like to polish up and publish that blog for you sometime as it was an amazingly powerful outlet for me to vent some pretty strong emotions - and yes, I somehow managed to tie it together with a video game, or specifically a video game song that I don't know how to feature on this blog at the moment.

That brings me to June - which it is for a few more hours. I didn't really have any life-changing or blog-disrupting changes this month. I probably could have posted a bit earlier, but I did not. I got caught up in the Heavensward launch for the MMO Final Fantasy XIV, but now things have settled down and I'm trying to set aside more time for creativity and expression. That's really all I have. I don't want to tease an audience (whatever's left of one) into thinking I'm truly back. I haven't really thought this through. I just thought it was long overdue that I sat down and wrote.

- TOP                    

@TOPGamingBlog