076 - Complicate Me
Thursday, August 9th, 2007In which Puddifoot's flair for the dramatic is revealed. There are ten strips left in the saga (I think we can safely call it that) of young Dallas and Leona; this complication represents the transition from Act II to the Very Dramatic Act III, in which plot threads are tied up, and secrets, I dare say, are revealed.
So, I've been playing Etrian Odyssey a lot lately. I had purchased it when it came out, as I do with quite a few Atlus games. Classic dungeon crawling on the DS sounded like fun. Initially, the game devoured my free time, probably to the tune of 20 or more of your Earth hours in the honeymoon phase. The game very cleverly doesn't keep track of time spent playing, allowing the exploration of the ever-maddening mazes of forest to take up a relativistic amount of time in our consciousness. That is to say, I was having fun and time flew accordingly.
I hit a wall, though. The beasties were very difficult at Level 4, and I often had to (quite literally) farm Level 1 for sellable items (monsters don't carry wallets in this game). I had two teams: one for exploring, and one tuned specifically to chop down trees and collect fruit. It had become a job to make money to play the game.
So I put it down for several weeks, unable to muster the enthusiasm to work a second, virtual job in order to pay for my virtual fun. But the cravings came again, when my commute extended to about an hour, 45 minutes of which were spent on one bus crossing suburban terrain. It turns out that 45 minutes is exactly the length of a good exploration session through four or five floors of the labyrinth, and the coincidence became the perfect excuse.
This is probably the least relevant review for the game, but if you are caught in a situation similar to mine, know this: Its worth exploring through Level 4. The meat and potatoes of the first 1/5 of the game becomes apparent there. Missions you have taken on with youthful enthusiasm will be finished finally, their rewards rich in cash money. Your explorations will begin to pay for themselves, at which point the game becomes fun again.
Kind of like the comic over the last few weeks. We're getting through the chore part, and into the reward part.
~Matt
August 9th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
so he goes form being the master mind to being the fall guy and after that he becomes the conspirator with all the prior evidence point to him being guilty? … i may never understand what goes through the heads of headline hungry lawyers.
August 9th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
…or the hacks who write them.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Of course in real life you can’t just charge someone in court in the middle of a trial.
Otherwise you could blind side people and suddenly have them on the stand without having any chance to prepare a defense.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Yeah, it was only a matter of time before a lack of research showed itself. Thank goodness the story involves talking animals, so I could claim an element of un-reality anyway. That said, I do apologize for this error, which I think will be the only (last?) major one.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
maybe maybe not. my first thought when i read the begin of this strip was law and order but then total i may have seen enough law and order and previews for 3 episodes not counting the one episode i intentionally watched.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Actually you could motion to charge her right then and there in the court room if the witness incriminated her since it’s not blindsiding her, she couldn’t be called to the stand again to testify against herself in that case (and the 5th amendment protects against that), she would just be motioned to face a new trial or be placed as a co defendant against Dallas. But since this trial is actually against our rabbit friend (I feel terrible I can’t remember their names yet. >.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:57 am
I got cut off mid-way I realized something, being the defense attorney she would have just motioned for the mistrial with prejudice and let the prosecution go after the girl who made the comment on corporate sabotage which is basically hearsay but it could be enough if you can prejudice the jury by it.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Something that should be mentioned is that this “trial” is not based off any semblance of reality, but rather off the Phoenix Wright video games. It’s supposed to be silly and melodramatic.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
:S SILENCE YOUR REALITY!
Sadly I never got to play the Phoenix Wright games but I have had friends who seem to have enjoyed them………As strange as they are… >.>