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Final Contract Update/Dragon Quest IX
Jul. 25th, 2010 12:36 am So, the votes are in, and both contracts passed with overwhelming margins. I can finally relax... until Monday, when I have to execute my duty of enforcing these contracts. I kicked back Friday night with lobster steamed in white wine (cooked it myself, mind) followed by cream sherry. Then I rewarded myself with some DQIX.
I hated Dragon Warrior. As a lover of adventure games, RPG grinding is anathema, and I remember DW as one long slog of blue slime after blue slime followed by the horror of a metal scorpion encounter-- one of the most searingly negative moments of gaming from my youth. I still hate that game-- I recall thumbing through the manual, looking at all the way-cool enemies you could eventually encounter, and then returning to slime-killing whilst thinking "this is all a lie." I never got very far.
Dragon Quest IX, though, is All That and a bag of skittles. Lovely to look at, lovely to listen to, with an engaging sense of humor and a quite interesting plot thus far. Still not thrilled with the basic grinding mechanics and all the time-consuming stuff like attending to every article of dress for every member in my party (absence of this micromanagment is one thing I love about FE), but it's a highly addictive game. It also has a plethora of gaming in-jokes-- one of the enemies is "Wooper Trooper," obviously based off one of my least favorite Pokemon. And these buggers are just as annoying in DQIX as they are in Pearl. [Aside-- I plan to buy that Glory of Heracles game soon in spite of mixed reviews, all the more so once I found out that it, too, features Nintendo jokes-- including an Archanea reference. I'm such a sucker.] But I highly recommend this game to anyone who has not yet tried it. At least the slimes have acquired iconic status in the last two decades....
ETA: forgot to add that both the hero(ine) and all the party members are created by you, the gamer. Fun enough, though the secondary party members have zero personality. I mean, none. No dialogue, no plot significance, nothin'. The fun is solely in making them. I made myself a pink-pigtailed, violet-eyed little mage girl and named her "Serra," then followed that with a green-haired spear-specialist warrior that I named "Adel" because he looked like a sinister version of Abel from FE3. Power to the gamers, I guess...
***
Food note of the night-- one of the most exquisite Mexican dishes I have ever encountered is Chiles en Nogada, which is like chiles rellenos made divine. Take a large poblano chile and fill it with a sweet-tart mixture of nuts and pomegranate seeds, then lightly batter it with egg, cook it up and smother it in velvety cream sauce. Amazing.
I hated Dragon Warrior. As a lover of adventure games, RPG grinding is anathema, and I remember DW as one long slog of blue slime after blue slime followed by the horror of a metal scorpion encounter-- one of the most searingly negative moments of gaming from my youth. I still hate that game-- I recall thumbing through the manual, looking at all the way-cool enemies you could eventually encounter, and then returning to slime-killing whilst thinking "this is all a lie." I never got very far.
Dragon Quest IX, though, is All That and a bag of skittles. Lovely to look at, lovely to listen to, with an engaging sense of humor and a quite interesting plot thus far. Still not thrilled with the basic grinding mechanics and all the time-consuming stuff like attending to every article of dress for every member in my party (absence of this micromanagment is one thing I love about FE), but it's a highly addictive game. It also has a plethora of gaming in-jokes-- one of the enemies is "Wooper Trooper," obviously based off one of my least favorite Pokemon. And these buggers are just as annoying in DQIX as they are in Pearl. [Aside-- I plan to buy that Glory of Heracles game soon in spite of mixed reviews, all the more so once I found out that it, too, features Nintendo jokes-- including an Archanea reference. I'm such a sucker.] But I highly recommend this game to anyone who has not yet tried it. At least the slimes have acquired iconic status in the last two decades....
ETA: forgot to add that both the hero(ine) and all the party members are created by you, the gamer. Fun enough, though the secondary party members have zero personality. I mean, none. No dialogue, no plot significance, nothin'. The fun is solely in making them. I made myself a pink-pigtailed, violet-eyed little mage girl and named her "Serra," then followed that with a green-haired spear-specialist warrior that I named "Adel" because he looked like a sinister version of Abel from FE3. Power to the gamers, I guess...
***
Food note of the night-- one of the most exquisite Mexican dishes I have ever encountered is Chiles en Nogada, which is like chiles rellenos made divine. Take a large poblano chile and fill it with a sweet-tart mixture of nuts and pomegranate seeds, then lightly batter it with egg, cook it up and smother it in velvety cream sauce. Amazing.
