lonely_hunter (lonely_hunter) wrote in indelible_smile, @ 2009-11-21 18:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | 5d's, gx, video games |
Rambling and whining about video games
While waiting for Tag Force 4 to come out, I had started playing the original Tag Force in the hope of learning the card game. Fortunately, TF1 is like dueling with training wheels; it stops and reminds you when you have an opportunity to play a trap card, for example. I managed to win a few duels despite having no concept of strategy.
But the appealing thing about Tag Force, to me at least, is that it’s a card game crossed with a dating game. In TF1 you have to get on someone’s good side before they’ll agree to be your tag partner. The whole first part of the game is about finding a partner, and I think you have as much as three months of game time to do it. But at the end of week one, Jaden/Juudai was almost ready to be mine.
I’ve seen different recommendations and game tips for TF1. The official guide book urges you to team with Zane/Ryou if you get the chance, a fan site recommended Chumley/Hayato, but Juudai is the easiest to please. I hadn’t decided on a partner yet before serious real life events interrupted.
By the time I felt like playing games again, TF4 was out -- the Japanese version. I bought it because you can hear the original voice actors during duels. But I haven’t made any progress in it. I don’t really know how to duel well to begin with. And now, not only do I have to learn the Japanese names of the old cards, I also have to learn the effects of new cards from the Japanese text. Those things take a lot of effort, but since there’s no time limit on most duels it’s not impossible.
It’s the whole pleasing your partner thing that’s so difficult now. You have to talk to them, and the conversations do have time limits. I can read Japanese, but slowly.
TF4 is out in the U.S. now, so I bought that version too, hoping to learn something about the conversation functions. I don’t know how much one will help me with the other, and I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of the branching-tree style conversation. But at least I found the tutorial! (TF1 walked you through the tutorial automatically, since you play a student going to classes. In TF4, you have to look for it in the menu.) And I’m having trouble with the tutorial. This game is going to be difficult.
I think I should mention the UMD recognition system. You can find this feature in the database, too. If you have the UMDs of the earlier games, you can get bonuses in TF4. TF1 gives you Ra, TF2 gives you Osiris, and TF3 gives you Obelisk, among other cards. You also get 10,000 DP for each of the three previous TF games, up to 30,000 total. I have the U.S. version of TF 1 and 2, and the Japanese version of TF4 recognized them both anyway. But TF3 never came out in the U.S., you say. Never fear! The U.S. version of TF4 gives you the bonuses for both 2 and 3 when it recognizes 2.
At least with respect to cards and DP, that is. The recognition system is also supposed to give access to alternative versions of some of the characters, but since I haven’t progressed that far in the game, I can’t confirm it. TF1 should give a more aggressive version of Mina/Mikage-san, TF2 a version of Akiza/Aki in her Duel Academy days, and TF3 a version of Kalin/Kiryuu from the Team Satisfaction days.