Crawlin'

Dungeon crawlers! They're one of my favourite types of games to play, even though they utterly terrify me. Some of the classic RPG series started (and often continued) as first-person dungeon games, such as Ultima, Wizardry, Might & Magic, Pools of Radiance...

On a side note, Pools of Radiance (and its sequels) were just released on GOG for a fair price. I highly recommend you play them if you have a spare... few months.

Anyway, Japan has been inordinately fond of dungeon crawlers ever since they were introduced. Also, their general culture is more accepting of grindy games, so a huge amount of them have been developed since the 80s when personal computing really exploded.

This long introduction is so I can talk about Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl. It's a party-based dungeon crawler set in a reasonably-well fleshed out generic-medieval-with-magic setting, and it's one of the games I wanted the 3DS for originally. Atlus seem intent on remaking every game in the DS Etrian Odyssey series, so I'm pretty sure I'll follow them as they get released. Interestingly, part of the remake seems to be adding a more story-heavy mode along with the 'classic' build-your-own-party mode that crawlers have had forever.

The story is quite well written, with varied (and mostly non-stereotypical) characters and decent voice acting. I can't impress upon you enough how rarely that sentence is true for RPGs. I played on the 'Picnic' difficulty, which really is very easy, so I'm definitely going to have to play through it again with my own party and on Normal or even KICKYOASS or whatever it calls the top one. Monster encounters are usually interesting, the classes are all quite different, and character growth is fulfilling. FOEs are a clever addition to the crawling formula - visible monsters that roam in specific patterns, requiring forethought to get past, or brute strength to beat. Picnic makes them quite reasonable, but on Normal or above they can destroy you at short order.

Overall, a good game, worth the time it took to beat. I definitely recommend playing through Story mode your first time, and not skipping through the cut-scenes or dialogue.

The Nature of Luck

I'm very lucky.

It manifests in a few ways; the obvious but often overlooked things like being a western white male with a job and home, having consistent access to current knowledge and technology, having somehow convinced a gorgeous clever sweet woman to marry me...

One of the ways in which I am currently experiencing my luck is in the quality and quantity of presents my family and in-laws provide me. I never really ask for much anymore as there have been too many times where I've got what I asked for and then never used it, but at Emily's insistence I maintain an Amazon wish list to point her family in the right direction. Here's the haul:

• Lip-shaped soap on a rope
• "Brain bender" wire puzzle
• "Play!" Chocolate gamepad
• Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
• Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs
• The Chanur Saga, C. J. Cherryh
• Nova, Samuel R. Delany
• "We R Igors" Discworld Diary
• "Dragon Wars" Volume 1 Parts 1-4
• Tetris lights
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2
• Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue
• Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
• Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
• Bravely Default
• Suikoden Tierkreis
• The Planet Construction Kit, Mark Rosenfelder

I'll also list my wife's presents, because I'm sure I'll get around to the games and books eventually:

• Pokémon Omega Ruby
• Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
• Rooms: The Main Building
• More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima
• Martin the Warrior, Brian Jacques
• Outcast of Redwall, Brian Jacques
• Mariel of Redwall, Brian Jacques
• The Witches of Karres, James Schmitz
• On the Town
• The Night of the Hunter
• Rock & Roll Music IQ, C. Dismas Burgess
• Dragons at Crumbling Castle, Terry Pratchett
• Mind-Boggling Lateral Thinking Riddles
• Another chocolate gamepad
• Maneki Neko

Now is also the traditional time for retrospective. This year hasn't been great; we've both suffered from illness and Emily has mourned for a long time. Thankfully, we've come out of it alive and ready to keep going, so here's to an excellent 2015.

Next year, I resolve to make better use of my time. On too many occasions have I complained of having nothing to do, or too much to do, or of being bored or directionless. It's making it difficult to achieve any of my goals, and I want to become more efficient. To this end I'm putting together a schedule and attempting to stick to it.