Zephyrus of the Anemoi

.the ramblings of a radman.

Tag: RPG

Happy Chaos Rings II Day! — Also, The Ides of March

March 15, 2012 /

It’s the Ides of March, and you know what that means! It’s time to open our Ides of March presents! Hey, wait… why did you get me a sharp, stabby thing? Ow! That really hurts!

Wait, I get it. You’re trying to draw a parallel to the most important Ides of March gift of all: SQUARE-ENIX releasing CHAOS RINGS II ($17.99 for iPhone/$19.99 for iPad)!

CHAOS RINGS is a series of JRPGs (that’s a role-playing game in the Japanese–rather than Western–style, such as FINAL FANTASY or CHRONO TRIGGER) exclusively available on iOS. While the original was not as robust as most traditional SQUARE-ENIX RPGs, it had an engaging story, beautiful graphics, incredible music, and a rather intelligent combat system the focuses on pairs of heroes taking on monsters individually or as a duo, inflicting (and receiving) damage based on if they were paired up or not. It is actually a very fun system that requires players to decide if they wish to do one action on their turn with significant performance gains (at the risk of taking more damage, as attacks will hit both characters), or take two separate, but weaker, actions and potentially split the attacks between the two characters.

Since CHAOS RINGS was initially released, SQUARE-ENIX has followed it up with a prequel that delivered much of the same gameplay as the original, but with (mostly) new characters and a larger campaign that was added to over time via regular updates. CHAOS RINGS Î© ($11.99 for iPhone/$14.99 for iPad) was an excellent little taster to hold over fans of the series while they waited for a true sequel. Well, that time has arrived. Late last night, CHAOS RINGS II was released into the App Store. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but considering how excellent the first two games in the series were, I’m expecting great things. I highly recommend fans of the series scoop this up quickly.

Also, to celebrate the death of Julius Caesar (and probably the release of CHAOS RINGS II), SQUARE-ENIX has also put the original CHAOS RINGS on sale for the day. Pick it up for the iPhone for $3.99 and the iPad for $4.99.

UPDATE (3/16/12): CHAOS RINGS Î© is now also on sale. You can grab it for $4.99 on the iPhone and $5.99 on the iPad.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance

February 13, 2012 /

Anyone that knows me well knows that I have a very sincere love for the hack n’ slash genre. Perhaps love is not a strong enough word. I have a rabid obsession with the genre. From Diablo to Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance to X-Men Legends to Torchlight (also available on Steam). I’ve spent many, many hours in the genre, which has both bolstered and been bolstered by my love of dungeon crawler board games (Warhammer Quest and HeroQuest being the two biggest culprits).

So when the iPhone first got the ability to run 3rd-party applications, I waited impatiently for a Diablo clone to appear. Eventually, several did. Unfortunately, in the beginning, they were severely lacking in both controls and visual appeal. Then, along came Gameloft’s Xerox process, bringing the very best of the genre to the iPhone. The controls left a bit to be desired at first, but were improved soon after release. Once I got used to the idea of using a virtual joystick on the iPhone, I flew through the campaign.

Soon, a sequel followed, and brought with it multiplayer features. My oldest son and I played it quite a bit and loved it. When it was announced that the original Dungeon Hunter was coming to PS3 as a downloadable title, with 4-player coop, I got a little jealous of my PS3-owning brethren. But, thankfully, the game made its way to the Mac App Store.

And now, to the meat of the article: it’s currently on sale for $0.99. If you love the hack n’ slash genre at all, or even if you just want a fun Mac game to pass the time, you should definitely use that $1.08 (tax will, of course, vary) that’s been burning a hole in your digital wallet and pick it up.

UPDATE 2/13 (11:16 am CST): It would appear that the pricing on this may have been in error. I’m already receiving reports that others are getting an error when attempting to download the game. Perhaps Gameloft priced it at $0.99 in error. Anyway, if you managed to pick it up while it was on sale, congrats. If not, keep trying until the price officially reverts.

UPDATE 2/13 (3:16 pm CST):The first person to inform me of issues with purchasing has confirmed that he was able to download it just moments ago. So, the sale is apparently still available.

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