61 FPS Farewell Review: Rune Factory Frontier (Wii)

It’s a bit odd that my final post for 61 FPS is a game review rather than my farewell post, but I had already committed myself to doing this review and I’ll be dipped if I’m going to let it slide.

Rune Factory Frontier is the third installment in the Rune Factory series, which itself is a spin-off of the Harvest Moon series. Don’t let that skew your impression of what these games offer though. The Rune Factory titles each have decently robust action adventure elements to them along with the usual farming, crafting, and courting. However, where Rune Factory 1 and 2 feel like games with lots of unrelated stuff to do in them, Frontier ties all of those elements together into a very satisfying cohesive whole.

Rune Factory Frontier is a massive game packed to the gills with content. It’s a game that will keep you busy every moment you play while also setting up long term goals and big payoffs. It is a game that wears many hats: dungeon exploring action adventure, time and resource management, climbing social ladders, but ties every last bit together. This is an adventure game where the hero must truly be self sufficient. Think you can just waltz into the Adventurer’s Store and buy some magic potions, anti-dragon armor and a sword of troll slaying? Or go out and kill a few goblins and wolves for the money they drop to pay your way? Not so here.

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Our Time Together Was Too Short

It was around the middle of last month that we writers were notified that the blog’s days were numbered. For me this was quite a blow since this was my first professional blog writing gig. I remember last year when I was invited aboard. It was a real thrill. It was tough sometimes, putting together enough material to have regular posts since my day job can demand long hours. I didn’t always write as much as I wanted to, but I loved every minute of my time here and enjoyed the contributions of my fellow bloggers. My favorite part, though, was reading comments left by all of you, the readership. However, before I say my final farewell to 61 FPS, I have some unfinished business.

Last month, I asked for your votes to determine what game my next retrospective would cover. Voting took place both in the comments section of that post and at the N-Sider message boards. I have tallied the votes counting only first choices (though I did count multiple picks if a first choice was not indicated). It was a close run between Yoshi, Star Fox, and Metroid, but 2-D Metroid came out on top by one vote. When my second retrospective is finished I plan to post it at both the N-Sider message boards and the NeoGAF message boards, both of which were the original homes of my Metroid Prime Trilogy retrospective.

Finally, I have one post yet to go up here at 61 FPS, my rather delayed Rune Factory Frontier review. I’m determined to finish this thing for this blog. Please expect it this weekend.

Thank you everyone, readers and staffers alike. I had a fantastic time writing for all of you.

Watcha’ Playing: Marble Saga Kororinpa (Wii)

I have finally shelved Rune Factory Frontier and moved on. After spending so long on that game I decided I needed a total change of pace so I popped in Marble Saga, the second game in the Kororinpa series of tilt maze games. I loved the first and was looking forward to this one. Thankfully, it hasn’t let me down.

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The 61FPS Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

Echoes of Time, Square-Enix’s latest entry into their Crystal Chronicles franchise, continues the unique multiplayer route pioneered by the 2004 GameCube game; but this time around, the focus is on a wireless cross-platform experience between the Wii and the DS instead of multiple Game Boy Advances tethered to a console by link cables. 61FPS bloggers Amber Ahlborn and Bob Mackey took a stab at playing this action RPG online together for the purposes of this review, and found that the Wii’s online capabilities (or lack thereof) hampered what would have been an otherwise great experience.

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Watcha’ Playing: Klonoa Remake (Wii)

Back during the 32/64 bit era I picked up a Playstation 1 game from Namco titled Klonoa: Door To Phantomile and became a fan for life. This beautifully made 2.5-D platformer, using sprites for the characters and 3-D models for the environment, was a joy to play. It was a gorgeous looking game for the Playstation, sported a wonderful sound track, and showcased some of the best, most creative run and jump platforming this side of Mario. What’s more, the jumping mechanics required not only precision skill, but puzzle solving intelligence as well. Klonoa didn’t simply pounce on enemies, he inflated them with a short range wind attack that turned them into harmless balloons that he could toss at other enemies and objects or use to execute a double jump. The environments were cleverly built around this enemy-as-tool mechanic and become wonderfully challenging towards the end of the game. Toss in a ferociously difficult bonus level to complete the package and Klonoa was one of the best games to be found on the original Playstation.

Since that time Klonoa has seen a sequel on the Playstation 2 and a cache of games on various handhelds signifying at least some moderate success for this series. Now, over ten years later, the original has been visually updated and released for the Nintendo Wii, and what an eye-popping homage it is.

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Video Games Don’t Have to be Fun

Shigeru Miyamoto has made statements in the past expressing his opinion that games should be fun and in depth stories weren’t necessary. It’s no surprise then that his legacy of works include some of the most joyful, entertaining, and story-lite games to grace consoles. I love Miyamoto’s work. Back when I was a child contemplating which console my dad would buy me, the NES or the Sega Master System, it was Mario that secured my decision in favor of Nintendo henceforth. That said, I am in disagreement with Miyamoto’s design philosophy. Games don’t have to be fun.

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What’s in my MP3 Player: The Legend of Zelda “Zelda Heineken”

I’m allergic to alcohol. No, seriously. I can drink a little bit of it, like say, a small glass of wine on a special occasion. By small glass I mean shot glass and I have to nurse it very slowly. Too much too fast and I get a terrible fatigue poison like pain in my shoulder and neck muscles and start feeling pretty crappy. I once got a non virgin strawberry daiquiri and it nearly did me in after four or five sips.

However, my aversion to the alcoholic beverage won’t stop me from enjoying this eccentric beer themed remix.

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It’s the Game that Never Ends, It Just Goes On and On My Friends…

So, what’s the longest period of time you’ve ever spent on any individual single player game? I ask because over a month later, I’m still playing Rune Factory Frontier. Technically I’ve completed it and am in the process of writing a review for it. Also technically, Rune Factory is the type of game that’s never really finished. I have no idea if my stint with this game is a personal record, but it’s gotta’ be up there. Frontier is hardly alone in its marathon status, however.

Typically, when I play through a game and reach the end of its main objective, I stop playing. If there’s bonus content, I promise myself to come back to it later. Then there are the games that strike a chord of interest in me, maybe even obsession, that call me back to play again and again. If I could figure out what that magic formula was I’d bottle it and sell it to the industry for a tidy profit.

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What’s In My MP3 Player Special: Icons of Game Music

For this edition of “What’s In My MP3 Player”, instead of simply putting the spotlight on a remix that caught my ear, I thought I’d pay a little tribute to a trio of the most memorable and recognizable musical themes to come out of the video game industry.

There’s a lot of really fantastic music to be found in video games. These days in particular with game consoles able to produce movie quality sound a lot of games have movie quality soundtracks. And yet, the most memorable themes often have their roots in the 8 and 16 bit eras. During these days of primitive game technology, musicians (and I use the term very generally, since back in the day the person in charge of the music might simply be the programmer who could sing on key) had to deal with an extremely limited sound palette, with the notes themselves programmed in directly. No fancy music software existed yet. Given the restricting environment, it makes sense that sound designers would go for strong melodies. While the sweeping orchestra of a modern game may be impressive, it is often equally forgettable. Not so with the themes showcased here…

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I Still Hate Toon Link

Whilst browsing GoNintendo, I came across this nifty piece of fan art and the comment, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if Nintendo took Samus in this type of artistic direction? “.

Hell no.

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