Open your Mine

Tryptifaeris has been in Vana Diel for a week and I'm at level 9 WHM. I meet up with Krogenar the other night and we treked to the Palbourough Mines to get some XP, the Mobs in North and South Gustaberg are coning at easy - too weak to be worthwhile, which means poor XP. As we ran to the the mines, I spotted other adventurers running past us on Chocobo's. The entrance to the Palbourough Mines is tucked away in a nook on the northern section of Gustaberg, we entered and the cold air from deep within the mines rushed over us. We slowly made our way down the tunel, a tunnel hare hoped by, it coned at easy prey, so me moved a little further in and spotted something we had never encountered off in the distance, a funguar, it appeared like a mushroom with the legs of a cricket. I checked it and the funguar registered as a decent challenge so as I stood behind my galka friend Krogenar I cast Dia on it, apparently had friends and this is where I learned about mobs that link. Three funguars came down the path from the dusty shadows, Krogenar stands in shock as the shrooms start beating me to a pulp, as my life quickly departs my body I stare at Krog in disbelief as he bravely unsheathes his weapons (his fists) and begins pounding on the fungai. He died moments later, we HP'd back to Bastok.
Meanwhile our friends BenTidus, Outlaw, Big Will, Fenster, Wolfcry, Dangler, Almightylock, Angel, and Swizz have taken up residence in San d' Oria to the North. Krogenar, Kopernikuz and I are trying to organize a trek to meet them but at our levels the trip would most likely end in disaster...

The Gustaberg Tour

On my 5th day in Vana Diel I was exploring Bastok some more, I went into the Bastok Metalworks, the Smithing guild, President Karst's office, the shrine of Altana and Professor Cid's Lab are all located in this district. During my travels I spoke to to a female NPC who was thinking of starting up a touring company. The prerequisites to doing this quest were you had to be level 5 or below and you needed a party of 5, then we had to trek outside the city to meet The NPC's business partner. My friend Krogenar was nowhere to be seen so I went to Firewater Circle and /sh "Anyone level 5 or below looking to do the Gustaberg Tour quest meet at the Firewater circle, I need 4 people" I sat down not expecting to get a response but I did! Like almost immediately 3 people showed up, we talked a bit and formed a party. We were all strangers and had only been playing for a few days, one guy DarchAngel (sp?) offered to lead the way (I was fine with that...I knew the way but why risk getting a group of people lost) and I told the others how to auto follow ( thanks Krog). On the way we talked and it was very kewl how a group of strangers came together to help one another! Well we got to our destination, at the edge of the Drachenfall, hundreds of feet below I spotted a ravine that was carved through North Gustaberg. We talked to the Galka tour guide and recieved 500 gill then 4 outta 5 of us headed back to Bastok, when we returned we said our goodbye's and disbanded. It was such a kewl feeling teaming up with 4 other people to accomplish a quest! Well I took my 500 + gill and bought a couple things including and much more powerful club. (White Mages are scarce in Bastok and so is their item selection...no wonder there are so many warriors and monks here).After roaming around Bastok a little more I decided to field test my new weapon....going from an average of 3 points dmg to 11 is a great boost....now I can take on more than just hornets, worms, and walking turnips ^^.

Dagger in the Night

The next day Tryptifaeris walked out of his Mog house to a gorgeous evening, stars are begining to shine, as I cross the drawbridge an air ship began it's final approach into the Port of Bastok. I talked to one of the guards at the northern gate and recieve my sigil to represent my nation in the struggle to control the majority of the lands of Vana'Diel. Well once again I went out and hunted for experience and with my new found knowledge about the TP meter I kicked much arse. But FFXI isn't just about leveling up, it's also about community, so far people seem very friendly, helping others when they need it, so last night I was walking by and spoted someone who could use a little boost of health I cast cure on them, later I ran into them hanging out at a campfire so I asked if I could hang out there for a bit, and they obliged, we chated for a bit, then I left to XP off a few river crabs and the occasional Black Wolf then headed back to Bastok to systematically talk to as many NPC's as possible and mark them on the map. I talked to some shady hume in warehouse 2 which triggered an event, I traded my 1 piece of iron ore and was sent on an errand to bring mining paperwork to a Galka in the mine district of Bastok. Well I found the Galka and gave him his paperwork and he gave me a dagger......that a white mage like myself can't use! So I went to my Mog house and put it in my mog safe for a later date when I begin to learn the ways of the Black Mage.

The Night Fire

Today Tryptifaeris started his day by making a special macro greeting for Krogenar. Then I headed out again in search of exp. I ran past a few river crabs grrrrrrrr then off in the distance I spotted a curious little creature, a walking sapling aww how cute....NOW DIE!!! I attacked this little walking turnip in a frenzied fury of elvaan rage. After beating the crap out of that poor sap-ling I went back into Bastok to meet up with Krogenar, we finally met near the drawbridge and I waved at him and greeted him with a warm hello, then we were off to kill little deadly creatures....Krogenar barreled through some beasties that I would've had problems with and I healed him when necessary and offered back up, we both leveled up last night and collected a bunch of crap like seeds, bat wings, flint for making a camp fire!
.Well it was getting late and I bid Krog farewell and headed back into Bastok, I created a few more macros and sold some bat winds and seeds and layed down on the cold hard floor of my Mog House.

Mage Rage

On my second day in Vana Diel Tryptifaeris left his Mog house and made his way through the bustling metropolis of Bastok towards the city gates, I had XP fever and was thirsting for creatures to slay, but I decided to try and seek out this elusive NPC Reeta in order to trade in my adventurers certificate. Well it turns out she was standing right outside the entrance to the residence sector of Bastok! Well Tryptifaeris got some extra spending money, 60 gil total! (I can buy 1 wooden arrow ). Well off I go....my goal, reach level 5 before I go to bed. I exit Bastok through the port gate and find myself in the dry Gustaberg terrain I start attacking tunnel worms and huge hornets like a mad man and casting cure every chance I get. I reach level 3 within a few minutes 1000 exp points to level 4! with worms and hornets only worth 25 exp. I needed to branch out and find newer creatures......tougher creatures. So I see someone off in the distance battling a river crab, I run over to a small bridge and find me one of these little buggers, I scan it to see if I can handle it. I learn it has a strong defense but I should be able to handle it...Well I attack it and the battle lasts a bit longer than I expected but I come out victorious! With no MP left I head back to the city gates to rest up. After kneeling in side the city I head out to get me some more crabs..... I spot my next crustaceon victim, Tryptifaeris attacks but Mr. crab counters with a bubble attack that drops my attack power to 0, now this nice fella Gilmore comes by and casts a cure spell on me (I was all out of MP) and then a protect spell so now I'm trading blows for 0 damage, this 1 crab took 30 minutes to kill! I thanked Gilmore and bowed respectably then took my crippled ass back into town to heal again. OK one more crab I figured that was a fluke and I would try my luck one more time.....well crab #3 wasn't having it! This fella started kicking my arse! so I disengaged and ran...with 9 HP left and one angry crab in hot pursuit I was in trouble! I just ran as fast as I could but was killed in the dusty tundra outside Bastok But now that Krogenar is on the Shiva server we can hunt together!

Bastok: City of Industry

March 19th 2004 Tryptifaeris took his first footsteps in the world of Vana' Diel! Let me begin by telling you, plan to do the installation on a free day. The entire time from installation to taking your first step into Vana' Diel may take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, depending on your connection speed. Also there are multiple servers named after popular FF summons like Shiva, Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Ramuh and Bahamut and you are randomly assigned to a server. But there are ways around that....we'll come back to that later.Typtifaeris the red headed, elvaan mage began his adventure in the bustling metropolis of Bastok on the Shiva server.

My friend Krogenar the hulking Galka monk also started in Bastok but on the Sylph server which means he can do 1 of 2 things....save up 1600 gil (final fantasy $$$) and buy a world pass and get me to his server OR create his character all over again, go thru the intro scenes and see what server he lands on, if it's not the right server delete character and try again and again and again.
After the introductory cut scene I was handed an adventurers certificate and tasked with trading it to an NPC named Reeta. The city of Bastok consists of 4 different districts, Bastok Markets, Mines, Metalworks and Port Bastok, there are ALOT of NPC's as well as players running around. After almost an hour I still haven't found Reeta the NPC I'm supposed to trade my adventurers certificate to.
I've equiped my armor and primary weapon (an onk-like staff) and ventured outside the cities natural barricade of mountain sides. I kicked the crap outta some huge hornets, worms, ding bats and have learned the ever-valuable white spell cure :) So far my first impression of FFXI is this this game is massive and the community is generally friendly and helpful.

What's the Deal in Vana' Diel

"What's the Deal in Vana' Diel" 
Tryptifaeris invites you to share in his adventures through the MMORPG world of Final Fantasy XI's Vana Diel. Join me as I chronical my stories of triumph and failure as I journey across the vast lands of Vana Diel. Follow along and see what paths I choose to follow, will Tryptifaeris master the mystical powers of Summoning avatars such as Shiva, Ifrit and Diablos or follow the dark path of a Dark Knight? Will Tryptifaeris' name be inscribed in Bastokan legend as the greatest adventurer or fall into darkness like the the Shadow Lord?

Long, long ago, an ancient race, descended from the gods, flourished in

Vana'diel. They traveled through the sky, extracted gold from stones, and

gave

birth to grasslands across the world.

But one day, they decided to

build a

pathway to the divine entrance of paradise. Enraged by such a brazen

display of

insolence, the holy gatekeeper destroyed their path and cast

their homes to the

bottom of the sea.

Shortly thereafter, the goddess

Altana awakened and saw

the ruin that had once been Vana'diel. Saddened, She

wept five divine tears.

When the five tears fell upon the earth, they gave

life to the five races of

Vana'diel.

But the god Promathia saw this from

His place in the shadows.

Promathia saw fit to condemn Her work, cursing the

people with eternal conflict

amongst themselves. He created terrible beasts

and spread them across the world,

commanding them to fight the people of

Vana'diel and occupy their minds. Never

again would they think to open the

gate of the gods.The beastmen thrived in the

ensuing era of darkness. But

the demihuman Galka and Mithra, blessed with bodies

powerful enough to

resist the advances of the beastmen, grew in number as well.

They fought

tooth and nail to cast the hordes from their homelands in an age of

unending

battle and chaos.

The Tarutaru race grew weary of the never-ending

conflict, and wandered the world in search of peace. After discovering an

uncharted continent, they named the land Windurst and settled down to build

a

brighter future for their kin.

Several decades after the Tarutaru's

long

journey had come to an end, a young Tarutaru girl lost her way in one

of the

mysterious towers scattered across the outskirts of Windurst. It was

there that

the secrets of magic were revealed to her, and this knowledge

would spread to

her entire race. The Tarutaru worked as one to harness and

understand the

mysterious power that had been given to them. So began the

Great Age of

Magic.Empowered by their expanding magical abilities, the

Tarutaru united

themselves as the Federation of Windurst, and worked to

drive the hordes of

Yagudo beastmen from their lands. The Tarutaru

prospered, unified by their

knowledge of magic and the solidarity of a new

federation. It was a glorious age

for their people.

But revealed secrets

cannot be suppressed, and the

knowledge of magic slowly spread to all the

people of Vana'diel. Within a short

time, other races - and even beastmen -

began to employ magic techniques for

themselves.

Filled with regret, the

Tarutaru entered an era of isolation.

They closed their borders to all but

their longtime friends, the Mithra. And so,

a once-proud civilization became

more and more out of touch with the rest of the

world.The use of magic

brought both happiness and conflict to the other races of

Vana'diel. Perhaps

the most satisfied were the proud Elvaan, who made their home

in the Kingdom

of San d'Oria in the northern reaches of the old continent. With

the

Tarutaru monopoly on magic broken, the Elvaan were able to create powerful

orders of knights who feared no adversary.

Beastmen strongholds and

Tarutaru

villages alike fell before the power of the knights of San d'Oria.

Within a

short time, nearly the entire Quon continent had come under San

d'Orian

control.

But pride comes before the fall.The nation of Bastok,

founded by the

Hume and Galka races, lay on the southern edge of the Quon

continent. Fortified

by the growing economic and intelligence-gathering

abilities of the Hume race,

Bastokan forces crushed the elite San d'Orian

knights at the Second Battle of

Konschtat. Cutting-edge firearms technology

turned the tide of battle and

cemented victory for the people of Bastok.

This humiliating defeat sent the

Kingdom of San d'Oria into an age of

internal turmoil and civil war. Piece by

piece, territories that the Elvaan

had conquered slipped from their grasps.The

fall of the Kingdom of San

d'Oria ushered in an era of prosperity for the

Republic of Bastok.

Hume

tradesmen spread across Vana'diel in an

unprecedented era of economic

development. Bastok's fortunes grew as Humes sold

products forged from the

precious metals and rare ores extracted from their

mines. The trend only

accelerated with the appearance of the engineering genius

named Cid. Ever

practical, the Humes set about creating another nation-state:

the Grand

Duchy of Jeuno. Jeuno had long been a tiny fishing town on an isolated

island between the two continents. The construction of great bridges

transformed

the sleepy village into a teeming metropolis of trade and

industry.The one known

only as the Shadow Lord appeared without warning, and

his name remains

synonymous with terror to this day. Consumed by hatred of

all living things, he

enlisted the beastmen and employed them in

simultaneous attacks against the

nations of Vana'diel. So began the Crystal

War.

After years of peace and

prosperity, the nations fell one after

another, unable to halt the relentless

onslaught. The nightmare spread

across the lands of Vana'diel like

hellfire.

In response to the

seemingly unstoppable beastmen assault, Grand

Duke Kam'lanaut of Jeuno

convinced the people of San d'Oria, Windurst, and

Bastok to unite as the

Allied Forces of Altana - and defeat the beastmen once

and for all.

A

stalemate ensued for some time. Finally, at the legendary

Battle of Jeuno,

the Allied Forces of Altana were able to gain the upper hand.

They claimed

total victory over the beastmen at the merciless Battle of

Xarcabard.Finally, the heroes of the five races cornered the Shadow Lord in

his

stronghold of Castle Zvahl, where Volker, champion of Bastok, delivered

the

final coup de grace.

Thus the Crystal War drew to an end, with

victory marred

by the uncountable corpses scattered throughout the

devastated lands and cities

of Vana'diel.Although the war had ended, the

long-suffering nations of Vana'diel

pledged to maintain their alliance. Each

nation built a consulate in their

sister countries. The Duchy of Jeuno

unveiled enormous airships based on ancient

technology, bringing the nations

of Vana'diel closer together, and promising a

new era of peace and

prosperity.

Or so the nations of the world had hoped.In

reality, the

beastmen had regrouped and continued to construct strongholds

throughout the

world. Although they lacked the organization of previous eras,

they launched

a new campaign of looting, plundering, and terror against the

people of

Vana'diel.

Still, the three great nations continued to mistrust one

another. Rather than dispatching their own forces to deal with the beastmen

threat, they began to employ a new generation of independent youth to deal

with

the situation on an individual level.

These stalwart people are

called

adventurers. They are intrepid souls who follow their own beliefs,

moving freely

from city to city in spite of their own national

allegiances.Truly, it is the

dawn of a new era in Vana'diel history.

Game Review: SSX3

Back when the PS2 assumed the throne from it's predecessor there was one game from Electronic Arts BIG that snuck under the industry radar. SSX yet another Xtreme sports title for an already flooded market, this gem was judged prematurely though, touted as "yet another addition to the extreme sports genre". Well when SSX fell into the hands of reviewers they sang a different tune, no longer was the genre confined to ultra cheese 1 liners and horrible B band music, SSX broke the mold and created uber un-realistic terrains with gorgeously animated surroundings, fun characters and a fitting sound track with a DJ with witty commentary.Boost forward to Oct 2003 and EA BIG does it again, and not a simple sequel either but in some respects a brand new BIGer game! With SSX3 you no longer travel around the world from one venue to another, now you live on one mountain with three peaks! This new system makes the whole experience more cohesive and adds a new exploration aspect to the game (much like GTA3) which is fantastic with the absolutely breath taking environments that seamlessly flow together from section to section. And this mountain is BIG, seriously, unlike SSX1 just freeriding from the apex of peak 2 to the bottom of metro (mercury) city will take a good 30 minutes! And the width of the mountain means more variety and freedom to choose your own path. Another nice addition to the environment is the occasional avalanche, strong gusts of wind, collapsing glaciers, and falling trees. With all of these effects the game still runs as at a smooth 60 fps even with our favorite character (Elise) going for the gold.Now to the characters of SSX3, this game is a veritble family reunion for all EA BIG characters! All of the boarders from SSX1, Tricky, and the noobs from 3 are in this game along with some fan favorites like strech from NBA Street. SSX3's characters are a tad more realistic this time around but retain all of their personalities..... Elise is still an uber hotie-self absorbed border X bitch, Mac is still a punk, Kaori is still a bubbling wok of cheeriness, you get the point. With all these varying personalities EA BIG still found room for some new editions like Griff (based on a real life pint sized protege), Allegra (the fiery red head out to de-throne Elise), Nate Logan (brawny man on a board). And if you really want to get every character there's even a cow that rides a fence, a sumo wrestler who rides reeds of bamboo and a snowman who rides a flexible flier sled! I love the way EA BIG has taken the unique music style and boosted it to the next level, before you had tracks interlaced with sound clips from a DJ, now you have a full time radio station show hosted by DJ Atomika! You get weather updates, music, event updates, music, town announcements, music, SSX competitor updates, more music, commercials, and more music. This new system lends itself heavily to grand theft auto in this way and it does just as good a job at adding another layer of emersiveness. While riding off line and boosting your characters stats DJ Atomica spins and talks like a real life radio station host, helping add to the feeling you're really at the mountain. And the selection of tracks is BIG (sorry ), varied and well worth a CD release of it's own!But why should you bother completing all the BIG Challenges and going back to defend your title and go freeriding all over each of the three peaks in search of $nowflakes? To win money of course! And what you do win your cold (pun intended) hard cash is up to you, buy new gear for your rider like:gloves, beanies, baseball hats, helmets, tops, bottoms, new boards, brown paper bags, tiaras, halos, butterfly wings, angel wings, bunny ears, new boots, googles, sunglasses, bandanas, collectible cards, toys figures of the SSX characters, posters, videos, music collections, and character attributes which will help you later when you challenge someone online!Ok here's the payoff for all that hard work I mentioned before.....You've maxed out your characters attributes offline to 11 and hooked him/her up with some sweet threads (your choice) and hot accessories, now go represent your bad ass self online baby. This is the real payoff in my mind, being able to play others with your own unique character in all the levels that are available to you offline from Freestyle comps like slopestyle and half pipe, to racing anything from the "Throne" to "Happiness". I only have a few gripes with the online setup, first, after completing a challenge you can't simply play again, you have to back out to the lobby and send that person another challege. Second, why bother letting the 56Kers play? They lag soooooo bad it's impossible for a BB or DSL player to win! Third, why only 2 per challenge? I understand the half pipe but why on a race on such a BIG mountain?OK those are my gripes, here's my kudos for what was included in the on line game, the buddy list (now featured in SOCOM2) this handy dandy tool lets you find your snow buddy anywhere in the game. It will tell you if your friend is offline, challenging someone, or in a specific lobby, and the use of the mic. Nice to see support for a "cool" peripheral! Talking trash never looked so good!

10/10 offline and 9/10 online

Game Review: SOCOM II US Navy Seals

Some times a quality game sneaks by you, this was the case for me with SOCOM. I forget what game I was all wrapped up with when SOCOM was released but thankfully my friend CJ picked it up, when I came over to check it out I didn’t know what to expect….after playing just once was hooked! This game has single handedly lead the PS2 online gaming revolution.Zipper Interactive’s little G.I. Joe simulator has taken online console gaming to a new level, very few games have spawned such a fervent following which can been seen all over! Do a google search for SOCOM clans and you’ll have at least 10 pages to sift through. SOCOM II took all the great aspects of the first game, gave them a makeover, then read the suggestions/criticizims from us (the ones who “made” zipper a top tier publisher) and went to work. The result…..a worthy sequel to great game. The online levels truly show that Zipper Inc. listened to what we said and that they have a great deal of pride in their flag ship title. Each new level is jaw dropping in the sheer scope of detail and vastness. For example Enowapi (a breach level) has the Seals trekking thru a swamp, across some of the most lush landscapes with an abundance of plant-life. These new levels are simply amazing, and Zipper has added nice little touches like the ambient sounds of various wildlife, tall brass blowing in the wind, the thundering of a waterfall, and the sound fades and grows as you move further away OR if someone or something moves in front of you! All these additional effects truly add to the overall “covert ops experience” and in effect transforms the style of game-play away from run and gun to a more tactical one. Aside from the aesthetic upgrades, there are also new additions to the Seal/Tango weapons cache such as the infamous PMN mines (the gift that keeps on giving), shotguns (do I hear birds chirping), rocket launchers, and few new assault riffles. It also seems that Zipper has tweaked the guns to reflect their real life counterparts more realistically and now offer optional attachments such as therm-optics and the M203 grenade launcher. Zipper has also given players more incentive to play off line by rewarding good players with additional goodies to use online, just like SSX3. Other worthy additions to the online game are the friends lists, which allow you to find your buds easily, this is a great feature more online games have adopted.....unfortunately not all your requests make it to the intended person. Personalized taunts....nice little extra feature....funny if not abused.S2 also has assigned clan tags which show in orange, the new clan system gives more power to the clan, but only the leader has the ability to "clan" someone. The new clan system is another way to find the people you play with on a regular basis, which is very useful when trying to find 1-8 people out of the average 15,000 a night in the North American Universe! As great as this game sounds I'm actually a bit disapointed. There are problems in this game that we never had problems with in S1, like the mics! I can't figure why we're having problems with this since they worked fine in SOCOM1. The only thing I can think of is perhaps some security firewall is affecting the mic functions. At first I thought it was affecting only people utilizing routers....Then we have the abundance of glitches poping up each day like invisible players, disapearing hostages, super speedy players, etc.Another headache is the frequency of times I've been booted.....twice as many times as S1. Last but not least is the ranking system for this game. Just when you think you've unraveled the mystery of the ranking system a new aspect enters the equation! Overall the game is great, but I feel it could've benefitted from a few more weeks of beta testing.

online: 7/10 Offline 9/10

Game Review: CastleVania: Lament of Innocence

Welcome back to the 12th century, time to go to work cracka Belmont! Konami brings us the next instalment....the supposed origin of the Belmont legacy. Leon Belmont surrenders his title as knight and disobeys the church mandate in order to rescue is kidnapped love Sara (coughsupermariobroscoughcough). News of her kidnapping is given by long time friend Mathias Conqest (sp?) who has gone bedridden after the loss of his love Elizabetha. Our hero to be sets off to a castle said to be cursed by a Vampire (lets lay it all out in the first 5 minutes and leave no surprises for later) to slay the Vampire.....Ok I have around 50% of the castle explored and I have only fought 1 boss! Either Ikuaragii has a SOTN surprise up his sleeve (50%=25% ) or this game is seriously lacking in the boss fight department! I guess since this IS the true begining of the CastleVania Legacy Drac hasn't recruited to many beasties yet I remember back when the original CastleVania came out I was in 8th grade and some kid had a graduation party at his house, later in the evening we slid the cartridge into the 'ol NES and played till the sun came up! We played till we died then passed the controller to the next guy, we finally got to Dracula at like 3am! Back then the 2 sprite Simon Belmont was amazing! The castle seemed enormous and the bosses were tough! Next to SOTN the original castle was like a Burger King play pen for the kiddies! Each new CastleVania has outdone the prior in size and depth. So how do you outdo SOTN?! You go where no Belmont has gone before..........the 3rd dimension! This isn't the first time CastleVania has entered the 3rd dimension, Konami ventured there years ago on the N64.....but lets try and forget those dark days Lament of Innocence is a tremendous first step into the 3D realm for the series which feels so right in 2D. The environments are alive (so to speak) with all the aspects that make this series so great, the ambient sounds, the haunting soundtrack, the attention to detail for each of the hundreds of minions, and the authentic look and feel of the castle. The game plays smoothly and control is tight and responsive, but there are a few problems with the control setup in my opinion. First off using the right analog stick to bring up an items menu doesn't work well, I don't know how many times while in the middle of a fight against hordes of badies I accidently opened a real time menu. Being that it's a RT menu I'm still being attacked while I fumble to close the menu and not use an item by mistake. Then we come to the relics and orbs.....hard to find? yes! Confusing interface? Yep. Fun to toggle while playing in RT? Nope. To set your relic (I've only found 2) you use the R2 button in RT to bring up the window then the right analog stick to rotate to the relic of choice, and for magic orbs the R1 button.... There is no doubt in my mind this castle is enourmous, and that even though it says I've explored 50% of it, I expect to find plenty of secret areas once I've collected the remaining relics and orbs. Now this may have me returning back to previously explored areas, and slaying hordes of lizardmen and skeletons, which in the past wasn't an issue. But now that the castle is broken up into "levels" thru a central hub you lose the feel of exploring one enourmous castle but that's really a minor issue. Lament of Innocence is a great game that may be dismissed prematurely by hardcore Vania fans looking for the next Symphony of the Night, beautiful environments, spectacular soundtrack, classic gameplay in a new 3D realm done well.


7/10