To rule the Netherworld

My posting frequency has been kind of light latey. Part of it may be that it's summer, what with the heat and battling ants and the mysterious "slow time" that I hear about at work but never see. Summers are usually my busiest time, really, and this last month is no exception. Work work work.

Hard work, and like most Americans, I don't get 30+ vacation days. Of course, if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't spend it in Texas like some people... (And if I had a ranch, it would have horses and cows and livestock on it, that's for sure.)

Anyway, another distraction as of late is this game I've been playing—Makai Kingdom. It's another great tactical RPG from Nippon Ichi, and I adore it. The presentation is a bit... shallow compared to some of their other efforts (the sheer weirdness of cut scenes in Disgaea boggles the mind... talking robots weeping for their lost memories, knife-wielding penguins who punctuate every sentence with DOOD!, angels telling us what ninjas say as they sneak around, etc.) Here we get characters talking against a black background. Sometimes they say stuff like "I'm gonna Overlord your face off," which does break it up a bit.

I dunno, maybe their background and character artists were out on vacation or something. In any case, the non-grid terrain from Phantom Brave is back, tweaked a bit and far more playable. Nippon Ichi ruined me for most tactical games when they introduced the concept of throwing characters back in Disgaea. Ruined me for Final Fantasy Tactics, since it was really fun and really, really funny. The new thing this game is vehicles and buildings you can summon at will. Tanks drive around the map, characters have battle armor, etc.

Doublejump Press does all of the strategy guides for these games, and they're the best guides I've seen since the Versus Press books of a few years ago. The discussion board on the DJ Press site has a thread about art in Makai Kingdom. It's worth a look if you like that sort of thing, though the fanwanking can get pretty deep at times.

(Typing as I watch this. Man, every time I see this Best Buy ad with the Black Eyed Peas, I keep thinking of stuff from Go Fug Yourself. That's probably not be what Best Buy wanted when they commissioned the ads...)