Tuesday 16 July 2013

Fav NISA Titles (game)

Japanese fans voted saying what was there Fav NIS game
Here is the link

now I have quite a few NIS titles however because i never owned a PS3 and i don't yet own a vita i did miss out on a chunk...
so this will be my list of my fav NIS games keeping in mind ionly really played ps2 and DS ones.

now i am assuming that if it was put out by NISA then it's NIS... i know this isn't completely true but it helps me put more on the list so.... yeah.


so i've played 9 games released by NISA... so this will be a top 9... fancy that.

9. A witch's tale.
I have many things i want to say about this game.
so much anger and hatred i have for it.
I picked up the game because i like NIS titles AND it had really interesting art.
but then i played it... and nearly broke my DS.
i barely remember the plot... your a withc whose being sent around by a vampire to reunite the storybook lands? i don't know... all i know it all the controls... from moving to combat are done with the stylus.
now some games can do that just fine.
this is not one of those games.
i stopped at a point where you had to go underwater... not cause i hate that underwater time limit crap (though i really do hate it... even in Ys Origin it was my least favorite part) but because the glitchy controls wouldn't let me get through a puzzle are quick enough which made me drown constantly... and then when i was close to getting it right... the game wouldn't let me go on a platform... i'd be trapped and drown.
so i put the game down and knowing i was close to the end (for me anythign past half way is close) i looked up a walkthrough cause at this point i didn't care i just wanted to get to the next part.
thats when i noticed something.... distressing.
the walkthrough had instructions or mentioned somewhere that in order to get the game to end... you have to beat it a second time.
So take a crappy broken stupid game....
then artifically lengthen it by forcing you to play twice....
...
..
.
well to say the least that game was out of my DS pretty damn quick cause i was not tolerating that shit. i already felt ripped off... that was just adding insult to injury
all i can say is at least i didn't get there cause my ds may have gone out the window....

8. Disgaea infinite
I picked it up cause i enjoyed the disgaea series and ti seemed cute.
it's like a vis. novel type game where based on choices you take different paths... each path is pretty short and their are a lot of them... plus you have to get some to unlock others.
not a bad game just doesn't stick out as terribly memorable.

7. Makai Kingdom
I really liked the concept of this game but the humor just felt a little flat, the combat was kinda bland and the story was pretty short. again not a bad game at all it just didn't resonate with me.

6. GrimGrimoire
um... i think this game was supposed to be hard... but a friend and i beat it in an afternoon.
granted... once you get dragons and chimeras.... it's kinda like... yeah... game over... i win.
it was the first time i encountered this artist and while i do not particularly enjoy his style (cause... the anatomy tends to throw me off) i still think the character design and the art in the game are really nice... even if thye are a little silly...
not a fan of breathing sprites though... it just was a bit too much movement in my opnion.

5. Phantom Brave
This game is just to damn hard for me. i hate timed crap to begin with so the fact that characters only stay on screen for X amount of turns... no my brain just doesn't work like that.... i like setting up all my pieces then attacking...
still what i saw of the story was enjoyable while i didn't like the mechanic in the battle system when i did manage to beat a level i was pretty happy.

4. Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
yes this is the glitchy psp version... i don't know what to tell you... i realyl loved everything about this game... the only time it upset me was when it crashed right after beating a boss forcing me to do the entire area over again.
but otherwise i had a black creating all the items in order to get stronger... so much fun.  still haven't had a chance to play 2 but oh well

3. Disgaea 2
So disgaea 2 had a lot to live up to... when i found out Laharl wasn't the main character i was pretty disappointed. still Adell was prettyfun to play as and the humor still made me smile... plus we did get cameos from a lot of other games... it was also really easy to get super high levels pretty early on (at least for clerics.)
still it's not higher cause the last two games here just have a special place for me

2. La Pucelle tactics
This game...
oh this game...
i should hate this game
See when i played it i kinda screwed myself over.
I focused all my attacking power on Prier the main girl, Allouette who is another main character and said to be the next maiden of light, and Croix who is a badass guy they find early on.

now those who have played this game came probabyl pinpoint exactly where i went wrong.
due to reasons there is a mission where not only do you not get to use any of those three.... but you also have to be a boss with a very specific character.
the character learns a spell that takes 80mp but will kill the boss.
but i rarely used him... and when i started the level i only had 79 mp max....
and while i could get him to level up... i stil lhad to get him to restore the mp and then make it to the boss without dying.
why not grind outside the level you ask?
it's a point where you can't.... i think you are trapped on another island or something... but the point it i couldn't level up outside the fight or if i could the experience was so piss poor that it would take a while.

I can't beat this game without replaying from the start... never using a certain character and focusing more on the ones i didn't use.
so getting so screwed over... why do i still love this game?
cause i can get it on PSN for my psp if i wont (i think at least) and i get more rpgs beat on handheld.
and the story was good... and even though i now know i can't use my favorite character... i'm okay with that... cause... well i'll get to kick there ass for abandoning me like that.
also it's great playing a character who isn't 'the chosen one'

1. Disgaea
what can i even say... this game is wonderful.
the humor
the art
the characters
the endings
it was all so well done.

and i have a story with this one too!
so i was playing D&D at my friends place, one of the group members came in late and said "look look i got it i got it" and he had la pucelle tactics.
I had just gotten a ps2 and had never heard of the game so i look at it and think it looks great.
he comments that i should trying playing disgaea first if i can find it.
he showed me some art or maybe he had that game on him as well but i thought it looked interesting so i figured get it when i go to EB games next.

the problem with this logic to my poor 13-14 year old mind was that the game was no longer being printed... it was a niche title so the store hadn't gotten very many
so i was sad and figured i'd never play this rare game but oh well.
time passes and one time when i'm in the EB i see it.... but it's not a cheap game and i don't have enough on me to get it... so i rush out, run to my bank cause it wasn't that far... i get back and it's gone
i didn't bother reserving it cause i was gone all of 5 minutes.... and it's a niche title...
so i curse everything and just hope i get to see it again.
a year passes and they get a reprint
i buy that game so fast and just hope it lives up to all the expectation i had for it.

It did not disappoint.
first i wanna mention that i love the OP ninja... i mean he even dodges healing spells... it made me laugh so hard.

second i want to talk about the endings.
there are 8 endings for this game
Good (canon)
normal
bad 1 and bad 2
Etna, Flonne, Human and mid-boss.

i think i got all the ending cept for human and the 2 bad endings (cause the bad endings had insane conditions)

now you think the best ending would be the good one?
it's pretty easy to get... just don't pass too many bills or kill any allies. (which can happen by accident lol)
still when i first beatthe game i ended up with Normal ending. somewhere i accidently hit an ally... oops.
still i'm really happy that i got normal ending first.

~SPOILERS~
but the game is pretty old... and yeah...


in the normal ending you fight the seraph who has just turned flonne (who was my best healer you jerk) into a flower and now you fight for revenge.
after the fight sereaph is dead in a pool of his own blood.
but even though laharl won... flonne is still just a flower
all that violence... all that killing... it didn't actually fix the problem.
he realizes he screwed up... he knows there is a way to fix it though... he sacrificing his life and gives it to her knowing that in the end she deserves to live more then a monster like him.

roll credits.

This ending tears out my heart... when i saw it i was sobbing, i'm choking up just typing about it... it has such a great character arc in just one little scene... in that moment i saw laharl grow and realize how much impact his actions had.

at the end of the credits they get a new prinny... with a surprisingly similar hairdo (at least thats what they say).

so here i am thinking.
well if thats just the normal ending... the good ending must be incredible.

so i play through again... with laharl and ninja soloing the entire time cause... why not.... nothing hits the nija and he counters 90% of the time
i beat the seraph again but this time he's just knocked out... no blood.
he still realizes he's a jerk and gets ready to sacrifice himself but then.... 
Seraph wakes up and changes flonne back to normal... well.. mostly normal... see now she is fallen angel flonne. you find out who mid-boss really is though honestly if you don't know who he is the first time you see him then... well i'm a little surprised... anyways it was all an elaborate plan to uinte the worlds and peace and harmony and blah blah blah...
it's a good ending
it's fine... it tells the story that needs to be told.... but it just wasn't as well done as the normal ending... of course this is just my opinion and i'm not saying characters sacrificing themselves makes for a better story... i'm just saying Laharl grew so much more in the normal ending then he did the good. and that growth made for more impact then "hey JK it was all a setup... phew you almost did me in there.. .that would have been bad... okay better fix all the shit i messed up... hope you don't hate me!"

so those are my favorite NIS released games...
all the games are pretty old but again... i'm missing a chunk of time... i do look forward to playing 3 (and hopefulyl 4) on vita
otherwise i should really call it a night considering how late it is... oops... didn't expect to ramble so much.

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