Some Other Castle » persona

Some Other Castle, Episode 41: The Legend of BillyTimmy

Leah — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:01:55 +0000

We’re baaaaaaaaack! Did you miss us? We missed you! We’re back with a vengeance this week as we catch up with all the Persona that’s been played since last time. And other stuff too, just…. well, you know, Persona. Also, boobs. If you’ve sent us listener mail recently, tune in for the epic amount that we answer in our third segment!

Linktasia!

Persona 4

Bayonetta

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes

Persona 3 Portable releasing 7/6 in US; we prepare our poopsocks

Bioware says Mass Effect trilogy will not spell end of franchise

Splinter Cell: Conviction delayed until next fiscal year (April) “for more polish”

Majesco reports 6.6 million dollar loss for 2009; plans two Cooking Mama extensions for 2010

December NPDs

Netflix coming to Wii this year; Reggie says Wii users don’t care about HD streaming

NPD says only 10% of games are purchased digitally

Rockstar spouse alleges long hours, bad work environment

Bioware says Mass Effect 2 Day 1 DLC will be free

Crackdown 2 demo before launch

Listener mail makes us smile big happy smiles! Send us more at podcast@someothercastle.com and an angel will get its wings, or something.

Some Other Podcast, Episode 40: Midget Zombie Clowns

Leah — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:23:21 +0000

We hope everyone has had/is having a perfectly wonderful holiday season! We know we are; after all, thanks to this week’s special guests, Dan and Joe, we finally get to gorge ourselves upon the long-awaited Fudgie the Whale! What better way to celebrate the coming of the new year than with chocolate crunchies and talk about (what else?) VIDEO GAMES? Rather than our usual setup, we have a chat about the games that stood out for us in the year 2009. Do you agree? Let us know!

Link the halls with boughs of holly…. (in no particular order and probably missing a few… gimme a break, I was drinking…)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Forza 3

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Pokemon Platinum

Resident Evil 5

Wii Sports Resort

Chronicles of Riddick

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Shadow Complex

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Punch-Out!

Katamari Forever

Gyromancer

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Some Other Podcast, Episode 39: Merry Effing X-Mas

Leah — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:52:41 +0000

During this most wonderful time of the year, we bring to you this podcast. It’s a gift! For you! ….you don’t have one already, do you? I didn’t keep the receipt…. Anyway, pull up a nice warm blankie and a glass of eggnog while we talk to you about more delayed games, the possibility of another money-grab from Sony, and Persona! Persona, Persona, Persona….

Persona 4 team to reunite in 2010 to work on “an even bigger title”

Split Second dated for May 2010

FFXIII launch day sales in Japan exceed 1 million

Brutal Legend “Hammer of Infinite Fate” DLC on XBL and PSN

PSN premium subscription possibly coming; possible features include cloud storage and cross-game chat

Trials HD DLC 12/23 for 400 MS points

LBP accessory bundle references PSP 4000; ad company claims it’s a mistake

Crackdown 2 coming “first half of 2010″

Blizzard to return to console development “at some point”

MS files patent for user health-generated avatars

Capcom delays several titles to April 2010 or later

Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC originally slated to be in the game, but was cut

1 vs. 100 available to Live Silver from 12/24 9AM PST to 12/28 9AM PST in many areas

Music games getting specific music stores on XBL

We love listener mail! Please to be sending more of it to podcast@someothercastle.com.

Some Other Podcast, Episode 38: 8-Bit Porn

Leah — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:03:02 +0000

Oh man. OH MAN. Persona is back on the menu, friends. You know what that means…. yeah, it means you’ll be hearing a lot more about Fox for the next couple of months. For now, though, we really are still playing other games! I promise. So tune in as we chat about the silliness that was the VGAs, tutorials for talking to the ladies, and downloadable goodness of all types.

Links in a basket:

Persona 4

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

PixelJunk Shooter

Final Fantasy XIII releases in Japan; receives T rating in NA (mostly for boobs)

Comic service for PSP launched 12/16

Final Fantasy 8 coming to US PSN “soon;” Vagrant Story also coming by end of year

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey dated 3/23; will ship with soundtrack

Rock Band: Green Day will allow songs to be exported

Dragon Age: Origins coming to Mac 12/21

Arkham Asylum 2 and Force Unleashed 2 announced at VGAs

“Don’t Be Nervous Talking 2 Girls” available on XBLA for 80 MS points; be super cool with the ladies

Mega Man 10 tentatively scheduled for March 2010

Borderlands second DLC pack coming 12/29

MW2 Javelin bug patched, spawns STD-like glitch in response

LBP getting two new DLC packs with Pirates and water; $5.99 each on 12/22

L4D2 DLC will feature new campaign; survivors from L4D1

Shatter soundtrack will be $1 until the end of the year

Latest PS3 firmware update makes all of the “minis” work

We love listener mail THIIIIIIIIIS much! Send it to podcast@someothercastle.com, plzkthx.

Some Other Podcast, Episode 30: High Five!

Leah — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:01:15 +0000

It’s our thirtieth episode, and you know what that means: cake! We’re completely on a sugar high from all the frosting we inhaled beforehand, so you’re going to have to excuse the tangents. You know, like you usually do. In between tangents, we do find time to talk about demos (for good and evil), the scariness of hard games, and just what the proper use of those Modern Warfare 2 goggles might be…

LINKFACE!

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Katamari Forever

Wet

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona PSP

Demon’s Souls

Uncharted 2

Sony confirms 250 gig PS3 for $350 to drop November 3

Bayonetta demo available on Japanese PSN

God of War 3 demo coming out in Japan for purchasers of inFamous

Left 4 Dead 2 demo 10/27 for preorder customers, 11/3 for everyone else

Facebook and Twitter coming to XBL in November

WoW film to be written by Saving Private Ryan guy

Daily Star says MW2 goggles will be used for pervy stuff

Black Wii remote and nunchuck coming 11/16

GameStop director drops 2.3 million shares of stock

Magic the Gathering getting expansion 10/21 on XBLA, will cost 400 MS points

Avatar Halloween costumes coming to XBL

Band Hero demo on XBLA

We still love the listener mail! Send it to podcast@someothercastle.com

Confessions of a Backlogged Gamer, Week 36: Stupid Moon

Leah — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:36:24 +0000

Brace yourself, because it’s a landmark week. I completed not one, but TWO games! Of course, I acquired more than that in return, and it’s possible that I put off writing this column until I was done one of them so that I would have more progress to report, but… shhh. It’s the thought that counts. Right?

I probably would have finished Katamari Forever much more quickly than I did if it hadn’t been for the moon. Yeah, that’s right. The moon. The moon has to be of a certain size before the King (well, in this case, it’s actually the Robot King) will allow it to take its proper place in the cosmos, of course, and I had some serious issues getting it big enough (that’s what she said). Twice in a row, I went through the entire 15-ish minute level only to be thwarted at the last second by not being able to get the last 10 meters or so, which was incredibly frustrating. I eventually emerged victorious, though, and completed the game not long after. The penultimate level, by the way, is really kind of disturbing; having returned to his former fabulous self, the true King commands you to roll up the body of the Robot King, bit by bit, until you can roll up his heart (technically his reactor core, but it’s pretty much the same for a robot). See, this is what I love about the Katamari series. It’s SO adorable, but under that adorable, there’s a layer of fucked-up that they can get away with because of all the bright shiny colors. Did anyone else notice that people scream when they get rolled up? What about the massive property damage caused when everything gets lumped together? And exactly what happens when stars and planets get sucked into that ball? Massive destruction has never been so cute.

I continued to love Mario and Luigi as well, although towards the end of the game, there are a few parts that grate a bit. The one that sticks out the most is the fact that the final boss fight took me TWO HOURS to complete. That’s longer than the final boss fight in Persona 3 took (although granted, this one was a lot less perilous than that one). I don’t know whether I was just lower level than I was supposed to be or what, but this really seemed excessive and out of keeping with the rest of the game. Like any other fight in the game, all you really have to do is get the pattern down and then follow along until the enemy falls. This is one of the instances where Mario and Luigi have to work together with Bowser, so of course there’s a different pattern for each battle scene, and after one false start where I died within the first few rounds, I didn’t have a problem with that. I could have continued the fight indefinitely, and that’s what it felt like I was doing. I even consulted an online faq at one point just to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong because it was taking so long. The only explanation I can really come up with is simply that I wasn’t doing enough damage, but given that I wasn’t having any trouble surviving and that I made it a point to fight as many random battles as possible during the game itself, I don’t think that should have been the case…. but what else could it be? Anyway, I did finish the battle and the game, and that fight aside, I was very impressed overall. I hope it isn’t another four years until the next! (Probably will be, though…)

I briefly began Persona PSP this week as well, playing just long enough to get through the intro movies and get a quick look at the battle system and setup. I’m not sure what I think just yet; it doesn’t feel quite the same, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and as I said, it was a short amount of playtime, so I’m hesitant to give impressions just yet. I’m not a big fan of the first-person wandering, though. The battles aren’t difficult to grasp, but they really do just dump you into the middle without any sort of tutorials or anything. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this, and it’s not a huge complaint now, but with things like demon negotiations, it would have been nice to at least have the option to hear what exactly I’m supposed to be doing there. I guess I’ll just have to mess with it some more and see what happens.

Current backlog total: 108

Now playing: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP); Wet (360)

New games added: Demon’s Souls (PS3); Halo 3: ODST (360); Wet (360); Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)

Games completed: Katamari Forever (PS3); Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS)

Some Other Podcast, Episode 29: Drinking For Two

Leah — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:21:28 +0000

We know how much you missed us, so to make it all better, we’ve included large doses of extra awesome this week. After a very special announcement, we continue on to chat about assorted TGS news, Elaine’s need for yet more plastic peripherals, and more Japanese games than you can shake a wang at…

Linktastic!

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Katamari Forever

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Halo 3: ODST

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Rock Band: Beatles

Nier Replicant/Gestalt look frickin’ sweet

Super Street Fighter IV announced, coming spring 2010

Naughty Dog pulls Twitter integration from Uncharted 2 because it’s annoying as hell

Set list confirmed for DJ Hero

Alpha Protocol pushed to next year; Sega pretends like they know nothing

Firmware 6.10 tethers PSP Go to cell phones

DSiWare locked to hardware… really, Nintendo?

PS3 outsells Wii in Japan for September

Trine finally coming to PSN 10/22

EA trademarks “The Ripper”

2.2 million DSi sold; Reggie says Walmart is their biggest customer

U2 wants their own music game, fails to notice they are not the Beatles

Dragon Age getting Day 1 DLC

LISTENER MAIL! It goes here: podcast@someothercastle.com

Some Other Podcast, Episode 28: Wang Factor

Leah — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:48:38 +0000

Hey, you know all those awesome games that have been coming out for the past couple of weeks? Yeah, they sure are awesome. Unfortunately, we’ve both been dying, so we haven’t gotten as into them as we’d like. We do have a few things to say about some of the releases, though, and while we’re not joyfully splashing through a veritable swamp of listener mail, we’re blabbing about a lot of sales stuff, speculating on Scribblenauts’ next big leap, and making a lot of that’s what she said jokes. I don’t know why, but they were particularly heavy this week… and that’s what she said. CURSES!

Linklinklinklinklink!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Scribblenauts

Guitar Hero 5 outsells Rock Band Beatles in the UK

Rumored $50 price cut for the Wii (confirmed)

Skate 3 dated for May 2010

802.11 N Wifi adapter in the works for the 360, sure to cost many dollars

Clay Fighter coming to WiiWare and DSiWare summer 2010

Dutch retailer “Nedgame” boycotting PSP Go

Bioshock 2 dated 2/9/10

Scribblenauts Facebook page teasing “special announcement”

NPD planning to track sales of downloadable games

HEY! YOU! How ’bout you email us, huh? Send your questions to podcast@someothercastle.com.

Confessions of a Backlogged Gamer, Week 33(ish): Milestones

Leah — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:39:22 +0000

I sort of abandoned this column for a while, and for that, I apologize. Rather than bore you with lame excuses, though, I’ll start off with what spurred me to come back to it: after 120+ hours and plenty of both enjoyment and frustration, I have finally completed Persona 3, including the FES content! I’d stalled out for a while, mostly due to the fact that, as I’ve noted before, the FES stuff just wasn’t as engaging to me as the main P3 storyline was, but I recently went back to it and began making progress again; with Persona PSP looming ever-so-close, I made it my goal to complete this particular odyssey before it came out, and I have succeeded.

I kind of wish I’d just stopped playing Persona 3 when I finished the main storyline. No, scratch that. I *really* wish I’d stopped. The FES content really didn’t add much, and the fact that it didn’t have any of the social linking that was such an integral part of the main game meant that it came off as little more than a glorified dungeon hack. It’s touted as being of a higher difficulty level, which it certainly is, but the things that make it so–lack of a Persona Compendium, for instance, or fewer save and warp points within the dungeons–appear to be there simply for the sake of making it harder (and we all know how I feel about that). Coming up with strategies for victory just isn’t as important as grinding, and that, to me, loses the general appeal of the game. Regardless, I plugged on through to the end, conquering the final boss on my third attempt. I’d say that I’ll be taking a break from Persona for a while, but you know… the PSP version comes out on Tuesday….

Since I last wrote, I’ve also been playing a great deal of Dissidia: Final Fantasy. I was braced for this game to be terrible, and to smile and play through it anyway, because my fangirl status was dependent upon it. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when I found that the game is actually good. Quite good, in fact. Now, I definitely am coming at this from a skewed perspective, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to talk with anyone who’s played it without being a raging FF fan, but the fights are accessible enough that I haven’t gotten frustrated while being skill-based enough that I haven’t gotten bored. The storylines are, as one might expect from a fighting game, and a fighting game featuring JRPG characters at that, not exactly original. HERE ARE GOOD GUYS! THERE ARE BAD GUYS! WE FIGHT NOW! …and so forth. Whatever. It’s fun, and there’s a ton of content, and that’s what matters. If you are a Final Fantasy fan, I’d definitely recommend it, and if you aren’t, you still might enjoy it; I’d say download the demo and give it a shot.

I’ve also played a fair amount of Pokemon Platinum, and though I have not (to Elaine’s dismay) caught them all, I think I’ve got a pretty sweet party going on, including a kickass Monferno. Yeah, that’s right. I tote a flaming monkey, bitches. It’s a nice little game to get into when I just have a few minutes, or when I’m on a conference call at work…. I mean, I would never do that. Never.

Oh! And not only did I finish Halo 2 since last time, I also started AND finished Halo 3. Yes, I know, welcome to 2007. At least I’m caught up now, and ready for ODST to come out. I failed to get any actual achievement points in Halo 3, because I took the easy way out and played on… well, on easy. Don’t you judge me! I’m not very good at shooters. I feel at least a little accomplished now, though, because I’ve at least gone through this whole series without putting a controller through any glass surfaces. Baby steps, you know.

Current backlog total: 106 (stuff came out since last time!)

Now playing: Pokemon Platinum (DS); Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP); Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)

New games added: Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP); Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS); Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii); Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (PS2); Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3); Sly Cooper and the Thievous Racconus (PS2); Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS); Scribblenauts (DS); Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360)

Games completed: Halo 2 (XBox); Halo 3 (360); Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES (PS2)

Some Other Podcast, Episode 27: Stranger Danger

Leah — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:59:36 +0000

Be prepared for an epically inappropriate podcast this week as the ladies reunite post-PAX (and post-Hamthrax as well). Then again, if you aren’t usually prepared for such things, we’d be pretty surprised. You HAVE listened to us, right? This week we chat about Scribblenauts’ problems with genitalia, what we would do with EA’s $200 check, and zombies. Aren’t there always zombies? We also want your suggestions on a few things, so listen in to find out what they are.

Return of the links!

Rock Band: Beatles

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Scribblenauts

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Persona 3

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Halo 3

Batman: Arkham Asylum sells 2 million units, is getting 2 free DLC packs on 9/17 and 9/24

Toys R’ Us will be taking ALL video game trade-ins; get your Atari 2600 games ready

Music games down 46% in sales from last year

US PS3 sales up 300% now that it’s actually at a non-absurd price