Phantasy Star Revival

Magicians Quest Mysterious Times

Magicians Quest Mysterious Times has been sitting on my shelf far to long. This is going to be next big long hours title that I start playing. This game is alot like Animal Crossing but with quests and and some quirkier townspeople than AC. Think of it as Harry Potter meets Animal Crossing. You go to school, learn spells, then use the spells to solve mysteries. The game also has online play up to 4 players and allows you to decorate your dorm with various items for sale in the shops. While playing today I took the pic above. I started this by choosing an option whistle, while whistling these 2 were walking by they whipped out instruments and joined in the tune I was whistling lol. I thought it hilarious. I may or maynot permanently retire from PSZ. Ive put in enough hours and don't know if its at all possible to get 100% unless you trade items or cheat and I don't either so that might be that. Anyway for those of you who know me I may just disappear into magicians and the only way to catch me might be to join me :P

Did Some Late Night Gaming with some new Members

We've made some new friends in the past few days and things have been pretty lively at SGS. Hopefully we can continue to stay active with games like PSZ, PSP2, Blue Dragon Awakened Shadows (Hint Hint Nudge Nudge), Valhalla Knights (wii) and Monster Hunter Tri (wii). Pictured above is me and Pogi playing PSZ last Night just hanging out at the Guild window Begging passer by's for jobs.

Desktop Wallpaper Contest for PSOW members

****CONTEST ALERT*****

BTW boys and girls it's time for a new Contest I was messing with the theme maker last night for Damn Small Linux on my powerhouse Pentium 166 laptop LOL well it got me thinking. Starting today Through March 1st Make a desktop Theme on your pc or Laptop or even handheld device Upload it here to the group page like i've done in the upper left with my Nights into Dreams theme. You can do any theme Videogame related or anime related. Themes will be judged on originality and also did you make your own wallpapers design your own bars, icons or graphics. Of course you don't have to design all your own graphics. You can throw it together any way you wish. If you think your the desktop theme master submit the screenshot here. I will anounce another prize later in the day but I have a copy of Disney Meteos which I think would make a nice prize for DS. If you Don't have a DS I will Throw out that New copy of Pangya for PSP. Hmmmm maybe a Wii game prize...Muhahahahaha. So start submitting desktop themes for the contest. Only 1 entry per member on this contest guys so make sure your entry is the one you want to submit. March 1st at midnight will be the end of the contest.

***UPDATE***
Prizes will be as Follows

Nintendo DS- Choice of R4 card fully configured or Disney Meteos (considered Rare already)

Sony PSP- Pangya

Nintendo Wii- New Copy of Valhalla Knights

Valhalla Knights By Nightmare from Amazon

The negative press on this game is overwhelming and it has probably kept some people from buying this game. I am going to address some of the "problems" frequently discussed regarding Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga and set the record straight.

1. "The graphics are horrible and too dark! I can't see anything!" (one critic even went so far as to say he could barely see the outline of his character while playing the game)

Don't believe this rubbish. Sure, the graphics aren't as good as Super Mario Galaxy, but they aren't horrible either. Just check some screen shots and you will quickly discover that your character is very easy to see. There are some rather dark colors used for the scenery, but they don't interfere with the game. Some enemies do camoflage in the grass and dark colors, but that's not a problem. It's just part of the game and it gives you incentive to pay attention to your surroundings (just like in real life). The only time the screen gets overly dark is when it becomes nighttime, it rains heavily, or both. Doesn't that make sense, though? If you walk outside in heavy rain or in the dark your visibility is limited. Valhalla Knights just tries to be realistic in this regard. I have no need to increase the brightness of my TV to accomodate Valhalla Knights (as another critic claimed was necessary), so I can only assume that critics are playing on 30 year old tvs or they are blind. It's one thing to say that you prefer bright colors to the darker shades of Valhalla Knights, but to say that you can't see anything and that you run into walls on accident as a result is just ridiculous.

2. "The controls are slow and clunky! Fighting is a chore because of the poor fighting mechanic!"

At the beginning of the game this is true to a certain extent. You miss your enemy as much as you land a hit because you attack very slowly and your accuracy is in the dumps. Combos are executed very slowly, and enemies can land several hits before you even get one. However, as you level up your stats (you get skill points to allocate each time you level up) this "problem" is solved. Increasing Dexterity raises accuracy and increasing Speed raises attack speed. It won't be long before you land a hit almost every time and attack at an improved rate. Furthermore, equipping longer weapons gives you better range and different attack styles (thrusting swords use fencing moves, knives use short swings, etc.) and shields give you a good chance of guarding against your enemies. Patience will lead you to being a formidable opponent for virtually any monster.

3. "Boring quests keep the game from being interesting! Killing rabbits and fungi is a joke!"

I've heard multiple people complain about these two quests. Well, guess what. Those are the first two quests in the entire game and are used to make sure you are ready for the bigger quests that open afterwards. One has you meeting up with a mercenary--one of several that you can later hire to accompany you in your adventures (one mercenary at a time, of course)--and getting to the top of one of the mountainous areas in the game (no small challenge considering how weak this guy is when you first meet him). Another sends you looking for a troll that killed the father of a young boy. Trust me, there's plenty of variety and more than enough interesting monsters to fight--Ogres, Dragons, Zombies, Fairies, etc.

4. "The sound effects are annoying (specifically the sound of your footsteps) and make it difficult to enjoy the game!"

I didn't think anything was wrong with the way my footsteps sounded when I started playing. In fact, after reading these complaints I figured I would go back and listen to see what I was missing. Naturally the footsteps weren't annoying to me at all. And if they are annoying to you then just turn down the sound effects volume in the options menu.

In my humble opinion, I really think the people that are bashing this game didn't even try to give it a chance. The longer you play the better the game gets, and I loved it from the very start. The only real problems I have come from the incomplete instruction manual. Several semi-important features don't seem to be explained and required lots of experimentation on my part to figure out. For example, in order to access more than one item from your belt (items that can be used by pressing the "1" button rather than by going through the inventory screen, which doesn't pause the game BTW) you have to HOLD DOWN the "1" button which lets you see all items in your pockets, then you let it go and hit the "2" button to switch which item is available to be used with the "1" button (normally "2" is used to change the camera view). Also, to switch to your secondary weapons you have to hold down "B" (normally to attack) and hit the "-" button. There are also some items I am unable to equip and I don't know why. I'm still trying to discover this issue.

Otherwise I love this game to death. You can choose classes, learn skills, customize stats, customize appearance, master physical and magical combat, use bows (haven't tried this yet), and fight cool monsters. The story may not be anything spectacular, but it doesn't need to be. Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is a great game without it.

EDIT: I now know why I couldn't equip certain items. Armor is devided between females (Red triangle) and males (Blue triangle), so that's not a problem. Now that I have beaten the game I can also say that the experience is truly wonderful. There's a classical feel about Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga, and it kept me hooked. Hopefully more RPGs like this one will come to the Wii in the future.

Hidden Little Gem

BTW guys especially anyone who owns a wii. Since it's been kind of hard to hookup with peeps on the DS games I started playing alot of Valhalla Knights on Wii. What a hidden little Gem. Fun and Easy Quest system done through a in town guild system and also has an on going storyline which you can stick too or just freely roam about and level yourself and your mercenary NPC partner up. Graphics aren't near Monster Hunter 3 Quality but they aren't bad. Really the only thing I have found to be bad about the game is all the mispelled words in the storyline text driven scenes. It doesnt bother me much I get the story and the point but I gotta say its got more mispelled words than any game i've ever seen. But great pick up if your Wii owner and......It has online play Cheap at amazon 13.99