Disgaea DS: Pre-release Hype!

Not long till September 23rd now, good friends, and on that blessed 23rd day of September, the English version of Disgaea DS will be released! Now, I know we're all so excited, since Disgaea DS is just such an awesome game, that we may all wet our pants the instant it is released. But then again, we may not. What if you dont know what Disgaea IS?!


Disgaea is a series of games developed by Nippon Ichi software, (Japanese one?). All the games in the series are fairly hardcore strategy RPG games (wow I've talked alot about this genre lately - see my Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 posts). When I say hardcore, I mean aimed at obsessive compulsive players who just want to kick ass so hard, Its not humorous. The fact that you can get to level 9,999 is proof enough of this. This game is just up my alley.

I don't want to give a full review of the game since there have been so many (Disgaea DS is indeed a remake of the original Disgaea DS, for the PS2 with enhancements and bonus features). For more Information on the game, check the Disgaea DS official site.

Basically, I've loaded Disgaea DS onto my oh so sexy navy blue ds and started playing it. And man, I'm impressed. Its got decent visuals, great animations, slight voice acting here and there and great controls (including full touchscreen support!) Soon, I'll be wiping my friends out in local wifi battles.

Want screens? You got em'!

Read more...

A touch of nostalgia... NES

It may seem like such a century, but only 10 years ago we were rocking those 8-bit consoles for our gaming needs. And even though the graphics looked only slightly better than pea soup, we had hundreds of hours of fun. Today, I'm going to share some of my personal favorites with you guys, and by doing so, I'll be going back to those days i spent in front of my NES.


Double Dragon 2, The Revenge - Oh man, this game I overplayed like no tomorrow. Basically you pick a red fighter or a Blue fighter and you just go around smacking the shit out of people. Now that I think back, I wouldn't find it all that great but man when i was 9 years old, there was nothing better. I will never forget those weekends when a friend and I would pick up those perfect rectangle shaped controllers and play till the corners of the rectangular controllers hurt our hands. We would of course play co-op mode, but no hurting your partner (mode A, If I recall correctly). There was always that "ooohhhh" when one of us would get a dude in a headlock and knee him in the face. "Did you see that?! Did you?"

The game was fairly short but decent for a NES title, it had a minor storyline (which we always skipped as fast as we could) and respectable graphics. Best of all, the animations were good and varied, the framerate was steady and the game was well polished. That front cover, I admired every damn day. I always fantasized what that scene was depicting, and even though I had already played the game for dozens of hours, that giddy feeling of slotting that game in just once more never left me for a moment.



Ninja Gaiden - Oooh, the rage. This game made me scream in agony many, many times until i finally would rage and throw that same perfect rectangular controller. Well, I didnt play this nearly as much as I played Double Dragon 2, but I watched my Dad play (he was actually pretty damn good!). I was a wee little lad and I just didnt understand the mechanics, but bloody hell it had ninjas, and what better than the king ninja, Ryu Hayabusa?!




Well, I've bored you enough with my 'old man' rambling. I guess If there's anything you can take from this little article, it's that those good old classics are worth a revisit (even if its with emulators and roms!)

Dont worry guys, I'll post some real news next time! If you like this sort of article, then let us know! Drop a comment and well do our best to comply!

Read more...

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Darkenigma's OurView

Here's another in what seems to be a barrage from me. Ravenwoods has been busy lately and he apologizes profusely. Well, as promised, today is indeed Saturday, and I will keep my word and present you with my OurView of FFTA2. So lets jump right in!


Long was the time I waited for the localized version of this game to come out. And when it did come out, boy was I excited. Now you're probably wondering why I'm posting this so long after the game has come out. Well its because I only recently finished the game and I just needed to share my views on this game with the rest of the DS playing world. First of all, I want to warn you, I may get caught up in my OurView and get a little bit sidetracked, but bear with me.

Lets take it from the top. FFTA2 is a strategy RPG game (much like Fire Emblem, discussed in my Fire Emblem Love article) published by Square Enix (ooh...ahh). So automatically we expect a great game right? Well, you get what you expect with this game, as it truly is the deepest strategy RPG available for DS at this time (with maybe the exception of Disgaea DS, but FFTA2 came out before Disgaea DS so...yeah). The only crap part about the game is the horrendously childish story. Its about a kid who gets sucked into a book and is warped to a different dimension where he battles other creatures and meets friends who are different races to people (including moogles... more on moogles later). But yeah you play as Luso (Robinson Cruzo, anyone?), and you go to this world in a different dimension to discover that you need to fill a journal with memories and when the book runs out of pages you go back to your world. That's about as unexciting as a game storyline can get. Its just so boring. There's no diabolical bad guy, you just solve daily problems like escort people around and defeat wanted creatures that are posted up in the local 'pub'. Yeah I said Pub because the game chose not to call them Inns. I know, strange.

This means there's no sense of urgency or there's no real enemy to chase, you just do stuff pretty much to get to your final objective. While eventually you do meet a diabolical bad guy, the game never tells the story in a convincing enough way, that I totally forgot that there even WAS a story. I was just playing because I wanted to make my character kick major ass. The music never sets the mood right in the numerous cut scenes in the game and Luso himself is as shallow a protagonist as it gets. He doesn't have a complex character at all, he's just this kid who wants to have an adventure. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I never got that spine tingling feeling when reading through the cut scenes. That for me is a great story in a game - if it can make my spine tingle at least once, that's good enough for me. This game didn't even come close. If you're over the age of 15, you'll probably feel ashamed at some point for playing a game that is seriously trying to sell such a childish, ridiculous story.

But that's where the criticism ends for me. Apart from the storyline, the game is amazing. The controls work just as you'd like them, (though there is touch screen functionality, it sucks hugely). You take turns moving your characters on a chessboard like map. At the end of battles you earn experience that goes towards leveling characters who took part in battle. After battle, you are presented with your spoils of war and AP points. AP points are what you use to master abilities. Each character in your clan has a job, in other words a class which you choose. The equipment you choose to use determines what abilities which character can use, and if equipped with the right items, allows them to master abilities and advance in their job levels. This all sounds very complicated, because it is. The game has a very steep learning curve. It will take you upwards of 2 hours to figure out just what the hell's going on and how the game works. But when you figure it out, you'll feel like you just learn't how to take a shit while doing the macarena. Yeah, its that great.

So this radical battle system is great and obviously extremely deep. But you get to a point where you need to advance more job levels to get to better jobs, but to do it you need better items (because with certain items for certain jobs, you master new abilities). What do you do then? You go and make your own gear! Well, almost. You go to the 'bazaar' and give up raw materials you collect during battles and turn them into cool items. There is a rather lengthy list of item types you can build, and each item type has 5 ranks of gear, from A to E grade items. If you have the right materials, it is indicated on the chart, and you are able to create that item. But be warned, creating the item doesn't mean you own it! You must then purchase the item as well.

All this is pretty fun but the battles take a long time to complete. Sometimes you just wish there was an auto-battle system and you could get it over and done with. That's where the dispatch system comes into play. You can send clan members to do jobs for you while you go off and do your own quests. This is the optimal way to play the game. As I promised about the moogles. Yes there are moogles who you fight and who fight for you. They make cute sounds and well... they're moogles for god's sake. Pretend for a second you don't know what a moogle is. Moogles are the mascot of the Final Fantasy series and they have appeared in pretty much every FF game after FF6. Allow me to continue now.

Now lets get to deeper elements of the game. The job system allows for really deep game play, posing questions such as: what will my main team consist of? How many of what job? Should I have spellcasters? How many do I want? What abilities should I equip? Which characters should use Items? and so forth. But when you think of it logically, the answers are very very clear.

Take a long hard look at the game after you've sunk 25 hours into it and you see that all that depth is pretty useless. Build a team of 4 ranged units (fusiliers, cannoneers, archers, assassins, snipers you choose) 1 thief and a soldier/parivir character and you've won every battle in the game. Plain and simple. You don't even need that thief, the thief is just to have a little more fun in the game. What's the strategy? Just stay where you are and shoot the shit out of the enemies as they helplessly come to you. When they get close charmshot or sleep as many as you can. Watch the ensuing carnage. If any are asleep, go and steal their accessories (if you like them). Use the parivir to smash the crap out of any toughies. Done deal. Healing, you say. No problem. cannoneers have ether shot and potion shot to spruce up any injured team members instantly from ridiculous distances, for no mana cost.

But I guess half the fun is getting to that 25 hour mark and deciding just which strategy is best for you. Either way, this is an entertaining title that will keep you playing for over 50 hours if you really like strategy RPG's. If you don't like the genre in general, stay far far away as you will bore of it in about 4 minutes (just about when Luso is still in school just about to get sucked into that book). Thanks to you all for reading!

Want to try FF:TA2 for yourself? Well then be my guest! Download here!

Read more...

No$gba : A beginner's Guide

Before I begin, I'm using no$gba version 2.6a

official site: http://nocash.emubase.de/gba.htm

This is by far the most compatible and speedy emulator of the DS system available. It isn't 100% compatibility but its still at a very decent state. So, enough rambling, lets get
to the meat of the tutorial.

• First you need to download the emulator. Grab it here.
• Extract the contents into a new directory named "no$gba". Preferably to my documents or a folder in your local drive.
• Inside the newly formed folder, NO$GBA.EXE and Read me should be found. Run NO$GBA.EXE.

As soon as you execute the file, you see the Insert Cartridge... dialogue box. Point the Dialogue to a .nds file (a ROM file you download either from the DS ROMS NEWS rss feed to the right, or anywhere else.)

Suddenly, your game starts. You'd be surprised to see how accurately most games are emulated, and on decent hardware, how fast. The control scheme is very strange to say the least, so you might want to set that up the way you like. Its simple : hit options controls setup or just the F11 key. If you wont be using a gamepad or a joystick, disable it for an improvement in speed. When a game is being emulated, the number on the top of the screen shows how closely the emulator is emulating a real DS. If its 100%, then you re getting exact DS speed. Usually that number will be lower than 100, but then again this isn't a real DS. Well that's basically how you play all the games you ever wanted to on no$gba.

However, if you want to do more than just play DS games on your PC, then read along because the whole point of an emulator is not only to play games. Say for instance you wanted to rush through a game to a later part quickly? You would need to speed up the emulation speed. Its very simple to do so. Press F11 and adjust it as required. For example, realtime*1.5 means the game will be running at 150% of normal speed (assuming 100% is normal speed). Unlimited disaster means there is no speed limiting, the emulator runs as fast as it can. This i do not recommend.

To milk out more performance, try the following little tweaks:

• Set the sound output to Mono or consider disabling it all together.
• Drop the sample rate of the audio to 22 or even lower.
• Close all other running applications.
• Disable visual themes and the like for your windows operating environment.
• Increase the process priority (i don't recommend this but if you're desperate you can try it) Open the task manager and increase NO$GBA's process priority to Above normal or high.

Finally, when you're happy setting up your emulator, You MUST save your settings so you don't start from square one next time you open up the emulator. To do this go to Options>save options.

Quick Tip: To take a screenshot, press the print screen button.

FAQ:

Q: I want to take screenshots from my savegame on my R4/M3/Cyclo/flashcart... how can I do this?
A: The save files are stored in the BATTERY folder. These directories are automatically created when you boot a game in the emulator. Pop your save files in this folder and make sure the rom you're running has the same name as the save file. Example:

Rom you're trying to run: FFIV.nds, you have the save file named FFIV.sav

Put the FFIV.sav file into the BATTERY directory, then boot up FFIV.nds as usual. It will pick up the savegame.

If you guys have any further questions, do not hesitate to ask. Any comments are welcome! If you liked this post, or any other posts on this blog, why not consider subscribing, you'd be doing yourself and us a favor! Thanks!

Read more...

Veni, Vidi, Vici!

Hello everyone. I am Ravenwoods. Hopefully I shall be co-hosting this blog!

I am quite excited really. We will do everything in our hands to provide you with the all latest news on DS. Many tips and tricks will also be provided along the way. We love this contraption and we would like to share all our knowledge, experiences and hype around it. We believe this blog will help that. Through this blog we can make a bonding with the DS community...So, in my next post I shall run a little personal review of one of the recent releases and then talk about some other stuff again relating DS. Hope to see everyone there :D

Salute, for I came, I saw and I conquered...;)

darkenigma: nice introduction Ravenwoods. Glad to have you on board!

Read more...

A new challanger approaches!

I have some great news for you guys, I've spoken with a close friend of mine and he's agreed to write on our young Blog. He's going to be writing soon, keep an eye out for him. I know our blog is still young but me and any future writers are looking at this very professionally and we strive to provide the highest quality articles. Thanks for your support and for reading us!

As of now, I, darkenigma and Ravenwoods are administrators of this blog. I am sure you will welcome Ravenwoods, he's a great gamer and a great writer!

Read more...

Fire Emblem Love

Today I'm posting about my love of the Fire Emblem series. If you don't know what Fire Emblem is, its a series of games developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It was one of the first turn based strategy games ever made and unlike others of its kind, a large portion of the storyline revolves around very charismatic and memorable characters.


Basically, the game mechanic is this: There is a battle map divided into squares, most of which are traverse-able. There are your forces and enemy forces (and in some battles, ally forces). You begin by moving each of your numerous units around the map and bringing them adjacent to enemy units. Then a battle takes place depending on weapons you chose to attack with, and damage is given and taken. Stats and levels are gained and thus its a strategy RPG game.

Unlike other games of this genre, when a unit dies, it dies for good. This vastly increases the difficulty of the game(s) and keeping your favorite characters alive becomes imperative.

Most of the games are just so darn addictive I've played through most in the series. There are a total of 12 FE games, on consoles from the humble NES to the Wii. Recently, the latest in the series, Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Ken was released for the DS in Japan. It is a remake of the original Fire Emblem game on the NES, with enhanced graphics and both local and online Wifi. A localization has not yet been released but its likely that there will be, as the protagonist of the game appears in Super Smash Brothers: Brawl (Marth..) so English speaking players will have an incentive to buy the game.


I guess the FE series could be considered a niche genre, but I like that fact. Most people find the game pace to be too slow and the difficulty too punishing, but that's what i love about it. There's that feeling of critical decision making that makes the game very cut-throat. You've been playing for an hour and a half, trying to beat that one map, and BAM! your favorite character dies. Do you restart or abandon your favorite character? It was always the former for me, so I sunk much more time than is normal into the games. But hey, that's what I like, and if you haven't tried it yet, so might you.

Now, I'll pop up a few of my favorites from the entire series (they're all great games, mind you, but these are my personal favorites):

1. Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu
   
   Wow, this is the one that started it all for me. Great charismatic protagonist Sigurd, and my personal favorite, Holyn (swordmaster, gotta love this guy). Some very unique things happened in this one compared to the rest of the games in the series like 2 generations of characters (the second generation consisting of characters from the offspring of the previous generation (who you pair up by making them fall in love)).
   
   

   download: here. This is the english patched rom, just boot it up in zsnes or any emulator of your choice.
   get zsnes (super nintendo emulator): here.

   
   
2. Fire Emblem (GBA)
   
   The first FE on the GBA, this has a different art style. I prefer Seisen no keifu's style, but this game is a great portable FE experience. Highly recommended. The story is watered down compared to the SNES titles, but this is to be expected since the GBA was a very child oriented console (in western countries, anyway).
   
   

   download: here.

   
   
   
3. Fire Emblem : Path Of Radiance
   
   This game was an awesome experience from start to finish. Its a GC (Gamecube) title that was admittedly hard to find, but was well worth the hunt. If you guys drop a few comments, I'll dig up the links for it and hey, you can enjoy the game for yourselves. You play as Ike, a mercenary's son, who finds himself in a complicated war in which he is helplessly entwined. Highly recommended.
   
   comment if you want me to dig up the links for this one, guys!

Well, I know its been a long post, if you've survived this far, good for you and happy Fire Embleming. If you want to take the new DS FE game for a spin, try out this link: HERE. If you want me to sum up what i think is good and bad about it, comment away!

Happy Gaming Guys!

Read more...

Valkyrie Profile: Toga wo Seou Mono : Hype!

Now I'm a really big fan of Valkyrie profile on the PSX and I admit I am really excited about this title. I keep a close eye on it and I wanted to vent that out to you guys.

I'll give you a load of scans and what is currently known about the game (currently). The game is dated for release in Japan October 2, 2008.

"Valkyrie Profile: Toga wo Seou Mono" is about a Soldier whose father was taken by the Valkyrie to become a warrior for the gods, and the soldier wishes to become a warrior himself to take revenge on the Valkyrie for taking his father. I'll be keeping a very close eye on this one, so check often for the latest news on this one!

Read more...

New Colors of the DS Lite

You cant be a DS gamer without having a DS. If you don't have one, now's the best time to get one. Nintendo have announced that DS'es will come in an additional 3 colours.

Just thought I'd post. If you want to buy a DS, try www.playasia.com. Great prices and great service.

Read more...

Pokemon Platinum (J) Impressions

Sigh...new Pokemon game. Basically the third of Diamond and Pearl, there are apparently minor differences between the three. New Pokemon evolutions and a few new Pokemon to catch. I was into Pokemon when I had a GB Color, and back in the day Pokemon Blue was the shit. Now I'm pretty over it, though I recently picked up Pokemon Pearl to make a powerful army to crush my friends in wifi battles (utilizing cheats, of course). Man, you should have seen their faces with my full team of Legendary Pokemon!

As promised, I'll pop up a few screenies here.


official page: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/cpuj/index.html

Psst... go to the bottom of the page for the latest and the greatest!

Read more...

No$gba : DS emulator

Here we go guys, No Cashing for all screenshots from now on. Sure maybe you'll see some glitches, but ultimately better screens for your viewing pleasure. I'll soon up some better screens of Dragon Quest and A few of Pokemon Platinum.

Oh, if you want the latest no$gba, then follow the rapidshare link below. Don't worry its really small. Don't have to donate if we don't want to! (wink wink)

http://rapidshare.com/files/86223195/NO_GBA_2.6A.rar
pass: iurkin

mirror: http://rapidshare.com/files/133872868/No_gba-w_2.6a-iFeather.rar
no pass.

mirror 2: http://cachefile9.fs2you.com/zh-cn/download/0ab759c613121cdbcfb02fc68531432a/No_gba_2.6a.rar

Want some help setting up the Emulator? I'll be posting a no$gba essentials article this week, be sure to check it out.

Read more...

Dragon Quest The Chapters of the Chosen Impressions

Big news people! The much anticipated Dragon Quest title has been released in English! And more importantly, its a Europe release.

Now, I'm going to test this badboy out on my M3 and see what its all about. If you want to know what an M3 is, check my post on Flashcarts.

I'll report my initial findings on this title. I've been really anxious waiting for this game, I played the fan translation on the super Nintendo but... lets see!

Update: Ok, all I can say is I have a new obsession. I've snapped a few screenshots for your viewing pleasure.



Impressions: The gameplay runs smooth and feels very solid. The battle animations are very smooth and the camera moves very nicely. To be completely honest with you, I could never get into dragon quest games because well the battle system was just so oldschool. I always preferred the style where you see your guys and the bad guys. This new detail in battle, I loved.I will surely play this game.A little more on the aesthetics, the game's camera can be rotated 360 degrees and the world is rendered in 3d while all characters are nicely colored sprites.

After smashing a whole bunch of boxes, I talked to a frog (wont post any spoilers here...hehe) and continued to fight my first battle with...wait for it...you guessed it...a SLIME! Oh, I'm excited. Now to post on Pokemon Platinum... what a great night!

Read more...

The Flashcart world: Which product is for you?

First of all, lets make sure we're on the same page here. If you have a DS, you owe it to yourself to purchase a Flashcart. Why, you ask? Well, a Flashcart will enhance your experience with your DS tenfold. With almost any Flashcart, you are able to listen to music, watch videos, play games, read text files, and most importantly use homebrew. Heck, homebrew alone would make a Flashcart purchase worthwhile!

So what is a flashcart you ask? A flashcart is a device which allows unsigned software to run on the DS. This in turn opens up all the doors. You cant illegally download games onto your ds with ease, you can utilize homebrew and so much more.

So which Flashcart is for you? In a sea of products, there is actually a very few products you must choose from. First, lets start from my personal favorite - the M3 Real.

Now, you can read much more about the M3 Real at gbatemp.net, but I'll give you a quick summary. With the new sakura firmware, the M3 R has the best user interface hands down. It has a perfect compatibility with all commercial roms working. It supports SDHC, so up to 32gb of roms can be rammed into your ds. Oh lordy!

With the slot 2 expansion ram, you can also play ALL GBA roms on your DS and also use the Opera web browser. This is a huge advantage and the sole reason I prefer the M3R. The price is reasonable considering the features.

Now lets move to a cheaper alternative. The Acekart 2, a great product, solid build, nice features, SDHC support, good skinnable UI and respectable compatibility list. This product is the poor mans Flashcart, but is in no way a dud product.

Finally, we have the rich mans Flashcart - the CycloDS revolution. This is the premier flashcart, with better compatibility than all others, premium build quality, SDHC support, in game slowdown, Real time save and an active community. The only reason i prefer the M3 over this is the Ram expansion pack (ie GBA rom support).

Finally, a warning to those looking for a Flashcart. STAY AWAY FROM R4! I'm serious, this product is pretty much out of commission and you can pick up a Acekart 2 for much cheaper most places i looked (online, of course.).

Where to buy (only aussie sources, sorry guys):
www.ozmodchips.com.au
www.acegamestore.com.au

For further information, look at the reviews section at gbatemp.net.

Read more...

Tales of Innocence Translation Projects News

Tales of Innocence is, for those who don't know, a very ambitious game developed by Alfa Systems and published by Namco Bandai. The game was released on December 6th 2007 in Japan. There has been no word on an English release, much to the distress of the English speaking world.

If you haven't seen this game, do check it out. Its amazing. The game features voice acting in key scenes, multiple characters, a complex storyline which is not childish, amazing graphics considering the DS'es limitations, and great gameplay.

Basically the game could be described as an action RPG, and a quick play of the game shows how addictive this can get. You don't slug through menus choosing attacks and watching the show, you actually take direct control of any of your characters in a 3D battlefield and are able to guard, attack and perform special abilities. But I'm not here to review the game (not this time, anyway) so lets get to the meat of the problem. Lets just say Tales of Innocence received a 9/9/9/8 (35/40) score from Famitsu. Nuff' said.

So we cant play the game if we don't know Japanese. And when I say know Japanese, I mean it. This game is literally swimming in text. The storyline is an important element of the game and is pretty much necessary to enjoy the experience. So you have 2 options right now: Learn Japanese, or Wait for a translation patch (provided you have a Flashcart /or plan on playing on an emulator).

I don't know about you, but I'm currently learning Japanese. I don't think I'm getting very far very fast, but I'm moving. At this point in time, I'm waiting for which comes faster. Now, lets get to what has been done and whats being done.

There are 2 projects that I know of working on Tales of Innocence. The first patch to appear was by a guy called psycoblaster. He's released a fairly low quality patch at the moment and he's changed the main thread of his translation over at gbatemp.net to a new location. Here's a slice from his post:

"Current Progress:

Main Menu - Done
Options - Done
Sub menus - Done
Skills - Started
Style Skills - Started
Items -
Stats - Done
Item captions -
Skill captions -

Known Bugs:

Because I've changed the font, many things are misplaced, especially in the character stats menu. The name is misplaced, and the stats (ATK, DEF, etc) are misplaced due to the font height. (check screens)

Many graphic glitches on the Emulator. Hope this doesn't happen on a DS.

Crashes everywhere. Hope this is also only because it's an emulator."

Quite an unspectacular patch but considering this guy knew pretty much nothing about romhacking before he started this project, its a good achievement.

Now lets move to a more ambitious and 'serious' project. The brilliant team of translators at zettaizero have announced that they are taking on Tales of Innocence. These guys have done Tales of Phantasia on the PSX and its an awesome product. Extremely professional. If you want to see some screens on how these guys are going, jump into their site here.

In short, they've completed the item names, some menus and some dialogue. They are not disclosing a completion date for the project but the lead translator throughhim413 said:

"We're talking about this project being done in months, not in years." Link.

They have also disclosed that their project will be released only when it is 100% complete and ready to be enjoyed by gamers. They have also stated that there will be a CLOSED beta phase.

In any case, their project is extremely professional and I for one believe that they will provide us a full patch soon.

I will keep you guys posted on the developments for these patches and any others that crop up.

Read more...