Motivation + Reward Systems + Feedback

Touhou Series is a dynamic-heavy shooting game. When I play this game, it's the bullet formation that attracts me--- beautiful and brutal. I have mentioned that all the bullet formation are generated from mathematical calculation. Challenge Touhou is like solving math problems that you know how to solve it at first, but the problems keep adding variables to preventing you from solving them.


Like typical shooting game, the game rewards you with point based on your performance. When you get enough point or defeat a certain boss, you will get a life-up item. On story-wise, beat the game on normal difficulty without any continue will unlock the extra mode, which is a stage in Lunatic difficulty with no continue available---a brand new challenge for players. The best I can do so far is probably hard mode clear with two continues.

All the player's info is displayed at the right side of the screen: high score, player score, life, power, and title. Player can get more feedback from the game in visual and audio, too. Player get to hear the sound effect when destroying enemies, getting power-up, using bomb, and getting hit. When fighting a boss, theme music of the boss sync with the beginning of the battle, which give out the intensity within the boss. One player friendly feedback feature is the location of the boss is shown at the bottom of the screen. Without it, players need to look up and confirm the location of the boss while trying to dodge all the bullets.

Motivation + Reward Systems + Feedback

In FF12, as you go along with the story, you can always see the next destination in the dialogs. Well, a good thing about RPG is as you play as the main character, you feel that you are traveling along with the team (of course). Sometime in this game, you know where the next place you are going to go, but it's either the characters are not enough level and they die easily on way, or the puzzle is just too hard to solve alone.

Now getting lost is not a usual case in FF12. You could, but not unless you are not smart. My way of prevent me from getting lost is comparing the mini guide map and the general map constantly, so I kind of know where I'm going even though the mini map is unavailable in some cases. There are several dungeons in this game that can give you a hard time if you don't have enough level or money, now that become one of the challenges for me. I would think: I don't pass this area I suck. Also, rare items, rare monsters, and strong bosses are motivations that drive me play this game. They could be considered some sort of reward when you achieve them.

In FF12, When you beat certain monsters like bosses or rare monsters, they usually reward you a kind rare item. You can use these rare items and combine them into a powerful weapon, which will help you defeat bosses that are much more powerful, such as a boss named "Yazumato".


At the top left portion of the screen, there is a info that tells you what is the next move of your enemy. This info is extremely important. Because your action, such as stealing, teammate fallen, successful or not will be displayed in the section, and so are other actions. Other feedback like miss on attack, blocking an attack, or buff on teammate will be shown on the target of the action or the person who execute the action.

Analyzing the Formal Elements of Touhou Fuujinroku

Game Category
Touhou Fuujinroku (Touhou 10) is the shooting game that requires high level of stamina and mental strength from player (yes, from player). It's not a FPS, but a 1942 shoot-them-all type shooting game which is popular in certain parts of the world as arcade machine.

Formal Elements:
Players
Touhou Fuujinroku is a single player game. The game is totally player vs. computer-created environment heavy.

Objectives/Rule
The goal and objectives of the game is very simple---reach the end of the game without dying. There are several stages in this game. Players must complete the objective like deplete boss' life bar in order to pass the stage. Other option like "play without shooting any single enemies" is available, too.
The rule is simple. you get hit in the hit box, you lose a life. To gain a life, player must reach enough points.

Procedures:
The game flows linearly. The creator has decided to make the game back to the simpleness. Players won't miss anything if they didn't manage to destroy all enemy(or similar things like that). The only point that differs is only in ending; it will depend on whether you continue the game or not to decide if the player can see the best ending. The continue is now not in limited number as previous series, instead continue the game means restart the stage you died on.

Resources:
Player will start the game will basic weapon, but they can gather resources alone the way. The resources of this game all come the enemy. When enemies are defeated, they drop items like power-up and/or point to assist the character. They are also the resource for the bomb weapon which is very critical in Touhou 10.

Boundaries:
Player's character is restricted in a rectangle size area. They cannot move out of it under the script. However, player must dodge the attack from the enemy in this area; and this is the challenge come from.

Outcome:
Well performance equal to good endings. There isn't only one good ending, therefore player needs to try through all the attack formations in the character selection menu to see all the endings.

Analyzing the Formal Elements of Final Fantasy XII

Game Category
FFXII is the RPG that built in with great world setup and costom AI gambit in battle system.
The difficulty of the boss fight and the great music composed in each area created a world that player will travel to every corner of it.

Formal Elements:
Players:
FFXII is a single player game. The AI gambit system is the perfect tool to assist you in the battle. This system allows you to setup how the NPC and/or the character you are controlling is going to act under the condition you specified.

Objectives:
The goal and objectives of the game is as simple as previous series of Final Fantasy--- enjoy the story and beat the ultra hard boss.
For some players, they may different level of their goal. For example, some players will go down to the deepest part of the game which is usually train until the characters' level are at maximum; some players will just idly taking their time and enjoy the story.

Rules:
The rule of this game is pretty much the same as all the normal RPG you can see--- you can travel, kill monsters, and get weapons in the world the game has setup, but your characters died, game over. One major rule though is you cannot use any battle command in the town (the computer won't let you), so players can't screw with the NPCs.

Procedures:
The game flows with the story. The player can train their characters all they want or even walk the entrie world and not connect the main story line until they all reach level 99, the story won't go anywhere unless they talk to a specific person.

Resources:
The resources of this game all come the monsters. Loots from monster such as wolf pelt, grass root, or water elemental gem all meant for sell. The another major source of money is from tresure jars which give player some item, money, or weapons.
Some tresure jars in the game has very low chance to give player super powerful weapon, but they are hidden deep inside the dungeon. So what those jar give player is unlimited reload until they get it.

Boundaries:
Even though players can walk around the world, but they are still limited within the map which is a restriction that make player walk in a fix route. The world itself is very huge. But the closed map is something they can improve on.

Outcome:
The game end when you reach the end of the story (of course). But for some player, the end is reached when the player beat the "super boss"---Yazumato.

Touhou Fuujinroku

What is it?

This game is the 10th installment of the Touhou shooting game series (Touhou means "oriental" or "eastern" in Japanese). People may refer this series as Touhou Projects or simply Touhou. In this game, player play as one of the two heroine---Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa to solve the problems of the Gensokyo (meaning "imaginary world") through the battle of "danmaku" (In Japanese, Dan means "Bullet", and Maku means "Veil". Two words together, and we have "Veils of Bullet").

Most of the Japanese Kanji pronunciation is kind of hard to some people, so I will refer this game as touhou10 in this blog.

Mechanics and Dynamics:

As you play as one of the two playable characters, each of them 3 different attack pattern, which can be homing attack, front laser, or wide angle spread. The main goals for this game is just the same as the other shooting games: finish the game, don't die, and see the best ending. The game comes in 4 difficulties, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. Once finishing Normal without continues, you can unlock the Extra Mode.

Words can never describe a shooting game for its difficulty; video replay is the only way. This is one of the stage in Lunatic mode in Touhou10:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uic04v7Chvc

For each enemy you defeat will drop items for point and/or power up. If you sense that you are in danger of getting hit, the bomb mechanic will create a circle that convert bullet into point, and also make you temporary invincible.

Well, this replay video may look impossible, but deep inside of every touhou game, it's all about study the pattern and BURN YOUR LIFE INTO IT TO PASS IT!

In several previous Touhou games, you have only limited number continues. No more continues mean game over and bad ending. In Touhou10, player has unlimited times to continue, but each continue will make player restart that stage he continued on. This adds the dynamic that player would want to pass that stage and don't have to worry about restart the entire game.

Aesthetic:

Touhou10 and other Touhou installments of this entire series is huge and great on art and creativity. All the game programming, character design, and music compose is created by one single person named Zun. The series itself was nominated for Japanese Digital Media Culture Award of 2007, along with Wii and others.

Fantasy:
Everything happening in this Gensokyo is all about imagination of Zun. This series have never been officially published in business; meaning Zun never signed any contract with any production company. This allows the creation of Touhou doujin (products that made by fans of this series), which includes custom manga, novel, and music remix. The essence of this entire series is just imagination.

Sensation:
Almost everyone, when I introduce them this game, they all stunned by the attack pattern and saying OMG, wtf, or any other exclamation adjective. The graphic has come a long way from "not so great" to production quality. The music in the video above, is also considered one of the best touhou music. Colorful bullet and beautiful music will give player a mesmerizing experience.

Challenge:
My personal opinion, the best part of the game itself. The difficulty is the part that makes this series fun. I'm at the level where 1 or 2 continues to pass Normal. Lunatic? No, don't even think about it. That level is for Japanese only.

Final Fantasy XII

What is it?

This is a role playing game where you play as the main character named Van, a young adventurer who dreams of commanding an airship. The story begins with Van's country, Dalmasca is invaded by other country for its tactical value. You will encounter other characters through out the game. The final goal is help the former princess of Dalmasca to revive her country.

Mechanics and Dynamics:

In this game you directly controls the character from a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies. Unlike previous series, you are able to rotate the camera 360° with right analog stick to view your surrounding environment.

In FF12, the major navigation method are by airship, teleport crystal, chocobo, or foot. So far, in my opinion, chocobo or foot traveling is probably the way that can make player have the most realistic feeling on traveling around the world.

In the battle system, FF12 has got rid of the random encounter system while traveling. The transition animation between battle and walking no longer exist. Player can now start the battle with ADB (Active Dimension Battle) system, which happens in open world field instead of separate battle screen and in real time instead of turn base system, with menu window available to player.

Player still level up by gaining experience and skill point from defeated monsters. FF12 introduces a different character developing system called License board. The license board is a array of panels that contain "licenses"—the permission that allow a character to perform certain actions. To use an ability or piece of equipment, the character must obtain its corresponding license by spending the required amount of LP (License Points) to permit its use.

Aesthetics:

Fantasy:
The setting of FF12 is in the age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magical mineral, is commonly used in magic spell and in powering airships. The game developing group visited Turkey to study the Mediterranean-style setting which influent the architectural styles in the game.

Challenge:
On the Dynamic side of this game, since the battle is now in open field, there will be chance where a group of monster helping the group you're fighting. This may somewhat increase the difficulty of the game. There are quests available for player accepting NPCs' request to defeat some certain boss monsters and get rewards from them. These rewards will become very helpful in the later part of the game. I have played this game for total 110 hours and all my characters has reached level 90. But there are still some bosses that are impossible to beat unless with some strategies.

Narrative:
The voice acting of FF12 is using old English! It's a perfect fit in the age setting of the game. The game itself also contains a great story, a princess of invaded country meets a young man who dreams to be a skypirate; they found out the truth behind the invasion.

Sensation:
In most of the previous series of Final Fantasy, player walks through the entire world and often see the building are in miniature scale. In FF12, the world is rendered proportionally to the characters in it. As the player walks around the world of Ivalice (the name of the world), look at the beautiful rendered landscape and listen to the well composed music is also a wonderful point of interest of the game.

This blog will have the critique of the 2 game for the 1 st assignment.

The 2 game I have selected is Final Fantasy Xii (ps2) and Tōhō Fūjinroku (pc).

Iat 312 Game critique blog

This blog will have the critique of 2 game for the 1st assignment

The 2 game I have selected is Final Fantasy XII (ps2) and Tōhō Fūjinroku (pc).