Let's face it, a lot of DS games suck, and suck badly. Any of the dozens of Imagine titles, for instance, or anything with 'baby' or babyz' or whatever in the title. They kind of make me puke in my mouth a little, and also make me very embarrassed to look at the wall of DS games at Gamestop. I'm 41, makes me kinda feel like a perv or something to even glance at that crap.
Fortunately, there are a whole lot of good games for the DS that don't involve babies. I was very lucky to get some GS giftcards and a little money for my birthday, so I recently got two very good DS games:Glory of Heracles brand new for 15 bucks and Portrait of Ruin used for the same amount.
Glory of Heracles got mediocre reviews when it came out, but it's a pretty decent little RPG. Yes, you play a character, apparently an immortal demigod, with amnesia (an incredibly overused JRPG cliche), but the story is interesting and quite funny. The battle system is the standard turn-based affair, but each character has different passive and aggressive skills and magic abilities, which you can choose to 'soup up' by performing minigames on the touch screen. The music is nice, and the graphics are a little better then those you'd see on the PSOne, which is definately not a bad thing.
Overall, this JRPG does nothing radically different, but I am very much enjoying playing through the adventure and highly recommend it to anyone who like JRPGs, especially for the sweet $15 price.
Castlevania:Portrait of Ruin is your standard 'metriodvania' game, but when is that ever a bad thing? I've been wanting to get this game for quite a while, and when I saw it used (with case and instructions!) for $15, I snagged it. Haven't gotten very far, but what I see I like. The graphics are definately more detailed than than the GBA trio of Castlevania games (I have all three), and I like the fact that you can 'swap out' the two main characters, or even play with both at once, a nice touch. Plus the titular 'portraits of ruin' are a cool gimmick enabling players to visit different locations other the usual dreary old castle. I even like the story:set 1944, a really bad vampire dude named Brauner brings back Dracs' castle by collecting the tortured souls of those who died in World War II, and thus got his magical vampire powers back. Plus a whole bunch of hideous monsters to loot and pillage as a bonus!
I recommend this game also, but at this point anyone who is a Castlevania fan probably already has it. I have about 20 bucks left from my birthday, anyone recommend a good DS RPG? What about the other two DS Castlevanias?
No comments:
Post a Comment