Braids and Grimoires

These are the games I am playing.

First off is Braid, the new X-box Live Arcade time based puzzle platformer. I found this game to be charming since I first checked out the demo the day it was released. However I didn't buy it up right away because I was scared off by the prospect of having to complete a series of difficult jumps and other staple platformer objectives. However after researching some more I found out that the game isn't really a platformer at all per say - in fact platforming only plays a small role in the game, and the main difficulty can be found in trying to solve the game's various puzzles.

Your goal in the game is seemingly to find the mysterious Princess whom the main character seems to have a relationship with. In order to accomplish your goal you have to make your way through 7 worlds that are each broken up into little puzzles. Inside of these puzzles you have to find jigsaw puzzle pieces, similar to stars in Mario 64. Most of the puzzles in the game involve you using your ability to rewind time. Also, in each world theres a new mechanic thrown in to keep things fresh.

For example, theres one world where whenever you rewind time there will be a shadow form of your character that will act out everything you just did before you rewound time. These little elements make each world a little more complicated than the next, and some of these puzzles are really fucking hard.

I'm not sure how many puzzle pieces I have in total right now, but it seems like there's already at least 5185 people who have all 60 pieces. I'll probably go back and try to solve the rest of the puzzles I haven't completed yet, but chances are I won't be getting all the pieces until an FAQ of sorts is released. Sadly, I'm not much better at puzzle games than I am at platformers.

The other game I've been playing is Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Grimoire of The Rift. I was hesitant to get started on it, even though I enjoyed Tactics Advance. As far as I can tell A2 is better than the original Advance, but still falls short of being a better game than the original Tactics. I've been pretty addicted to the game though, so if you're a fan of the series at all I'd highly recommend it.

Most of the things that I liked about Tactics Advance have made their way into this iteration. These include the variety of races and job classes, the art style, the "sweet spot" in terms of difficulty, and the overall depth of the game. That isn't to say everything in the Advanced series is great. I still find the childish story and characters lacking when compared to the original game's more mature theme. The music could also be better, and I'm not sure if I prefer learning skills from items or buying them with job points.

One of the things that has been improved over the previous game is the Judge system. It was pretty fucking annoying in the first game not being able to do certain actions. While these rules still apply to every battle in A2 - they don't seem to be near as bad, and best of all - it doesn't really matter if you uphold the law or not. You get a bonus for not breaking the law, but it isn't required for you to do so. And besides - the bonuses are pretty lacking as you progress farther into the game.

There are a ton of side missions, similar to Crisis Core. However, for whatever reason they don't really strike me as being too grindy. Seeing as how random encounters are gone, these missions are pretty much the only way you're going to level up. So instead of doing random encounters over and over again, you just do more side missions. You get nice rewards for completing these missions, as well as experience, money, and ability points to boot.

Not much else to say about that. I'm really enjoying both games, in fact I'm going to go play some more A2 right now.