On the day before her 18^th birthday, a young woman named Lyra wakes up to find herself all alone. Surrounded by the empty buildings in what was formerly the merrily bustling town of Wish, Lyra searches for clues to the fate of the vanished villagers. Fortunately for her, she finds help quickly. It turns out that her very considerate (and magical!) grandfather has left her a series of notes explaining that she has been trapped in a parallel “pocket” universe and must find a way to escape. With her grandfather’s fine penmanship to guide her, Lyra proceeds to embark on a quest to find her way home.

How was the Gaming Experience?

In general, the experience of playing Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air was a fun one, and I noticed several improvements over previous games in the series that made it feel new and fresh. The voice acting in particular was a nice innovation. While the general concept of voice acting in videogames is hardly novel, the dialogue in all the previous Dream Chronicles games was purely text-based, so this was a nice change of pace (although I did find myself missing some of the eerie music that had been so crucial in establishing mood and moving the story along in the previous games).

Another plus of the game was its improved graphics. The art design of Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child (the previous installment in the series) was lovely; but in this game, the designers built upon the art style so that the graphics were considerably more sophisticated and less grainy. Some of the animation sequences were really quite beautiful, which is something I always enjoy seeing in videogames.

The most significant improvements to the game, though, lay in the puzzles themselves. Whereas the previous games focused largely on hunt-and-seek games (VERY rough on the eyes), The Book of Air contained more variety, and included puzzles that relied more heavily on logic, spatial reasoning, and creativity. In addition, the dream crystals I collected throughout the game actually served a more useful function than in the previous games, and hunting the crystals allowed me to unlock powers that could then be used to solve new puzzles. The game also contained a challenge mode, which gave the player the option of solving more difficult versions of the puzzles. Considering that I love puzzle games, this was a feature that I particularly appreciated. I seriously doubt I would have enjoyed the game as much if it had been too easy!

Sounds Great! Any Drawbacks?

Well, yeah. Despite its positive attributes, the game was definitely not without its flaws. The biggest drawback was the development of the story itself. Unfortunately, this happens to be the same problem I have had with all of the previous Dream Chronicles games, so I don’t have much hope that it will improve in the future. I did appreciate that they established a narrative distinction between this game and the previous ones (The Book of Air is the first in a new trilogy that takes place 10 years after the events of The Chosen Child). The game also saw the arrival of a new protagonist: Lyra, the half-mortal and half-fairy daughter of Faye. This was a smart move on the part of the developers, as it introduced freshness into the series, and also allowed the developers to play around with some new mechanics that would not have been possible with Lyra’s non-magical human mother as the central character.

Unfortunately, considerably less effort was made to develop Lyra as a character, which was a bit of a letdown. Like her mother, Lyra has no real flaws or virtues, so the result is a protagonist who doesn’t inspire much interest. In addition, the story arc of The Book of Air was an underdeveloped, albeit intriguing, one. As in the previous games, the action began with the inexplicable actions of a non-identifiable being who casts a spell for reasons unknown and thrusts the heroine into a set of circumstances for which she is wholly unprepared, thus beginning her journey into the unknown. (And yes, it really is that nebulous in the game.) Although the story did develop from there, the game never really answered the biggest questions it posed: namely, Who was doing this, and Why? There were certainly no answers to be found in the less-than-satisfying conclusion, although it was less disappointing than the end of The Chosen Child, probably because I was expecting the letdown this time around. As per the formula established by the previous games, The Book of Air ends on a cliffhanger, with a plot twist that prepares players for the next game in the series. It was hard to be impressed by this, however, since I am STILL WAITING for them to resolve the cliffhanger from the last game. I assume they’ll get to that particular plot point in the next game (HINT HINT), but until then, I guess I’ll just have to wonder.

Final Verdict:

Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air is an enjoyable game with some fun mechanics, and I’d happily recommend it for anyone looking to kill a few hours. As long as you don’t expect too much out of the story or characters, you should be fine.

In this edition of The GameCola Podcast, Michael Gray, Michael Ridgaway, Vangie Rich, Paul Franzen, and Elizabeth Medina-Gray discuss Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, the Phoenix Wright spin-off game that was released for the DS earlier this year. Specific topics include:

• What the heck is this game’s official title?
• The characters that we want to see get together (of course)
• Why did they take this game out of the courtroom?
• Kay Faraday as Maya version 2.0
• Is Edgeworth’s hair black, or is it gray?
• It’s not silver, is it?
• The game’s localization/translation
• What about Franziska’s hair? Is it blue?
• Our favorite parts of the game
• The symbolism of Detective Badd’s lollipop
• Grape juice in the Phoenix Wright universe

Also, Michael Ridgaway sings original songs from his version of Phoenix Wright: The Musical.

Enjoy!

GC Podcast #28

You can check the whole thing out here at the original post, or here on iTunes. Enjoy!

(Note: If you previously downloaded the podcast on iTunes, you’ll have to delete that file and download it again to get the full version.)

In this sequel to the “We Are Drama Queens” podcast, GameCola writers Paul Franzen, Mike Ridgaway, Vangie Rich, Matt Gardner, Elizabeth Medina-Gray, and Eric Regan get together to play Charm Girls Club: Pajama Party for the Wii. It’s exactly as wonderful and as terrible as it sounds. Enjoy!

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By Vangie Rich

It’s weird how things change. I was recently looking back over the archives of “Gamer Girlfriend,” which date back to early 2008, and I was surprised to notice a gradual but distinct progression in the way my column has evolved over the years. Originally, it was about the crazy antics and wacky misadventures of Mike, my own dear “Gamer in Residence,” and the trials and tribulations that came from first dating, and then living with him. After a while, it was about my own tentative forays in the gaming world. “Reflections on Grand Theft Auto IV” was followed with a cute story about how I acquired my pink DS and very first game cartridges (Animal Crossing and Cooking Mama). Then came Kingdom Hearts, the first  “real” game I ever played by myself. From then on, my column became increasingly focused on the games I was playing, and somewhat less on the games Mike was into.

Looking back, I’m not entirely sorry for the change. I do kind of miss my “outsider’s perspective”, from whence a lot of the early humor in the strip came; but at the same time, I have come to appreciate and enjoy many of the games that Mike plays; and I truly do cherish the time we spend playing together.

Of course, “playing together” is a relatively loose term, as it in no way implies that Mike and I play competitively. We tried that a few times, and, well. Those of you who know Mike—hell, even those of you who just know him from having read this column—should have a pretty good idea by now of how competitive he can be. (For the record, this is not limited to videogames; he is just as bad with Clue and Settlers of Catan as he is with Mario Kart.) Anyway, we have learned the hard way that we have to be very careful about playing together. Games like Boom Blox and Mario Party have come damn near close to destroying our relationship, and Mario Kart still holds the dubious distinction of being “The Only Game That Has Ever Caused Mike To Swear Directly At Me.”

No, when I talk about the charms of “playing together”, what I really mean is the times when Mike and I sit down to watch while he plays the game. My interest in RPGs and puzzle games notwithstanding, there are still some games that I have no desire ever to play; but that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t want to watch them. My favorite games to watch are the ones that are highly cinematic and story-focused (e.g. Uncharted 2); it’s like watching a movie unfold, and there are times when I almost forget that it’s even a game at all.

So it was that, a week ago, Mike rented the game Heavy Rain from GameFly. I’d heard a little bit about it, and it looked really interesting (and very pretty), so I settled in for what I expected to be yet another enjoyable night of gamer-controlled cinema.

And then I freaked the hell out.

It’s not that the game was intensely graphic or anything…those games I don’t even stay in the room for. But it was terrifying in other ways. Seriously, it felt like watching a nightmare unfold—not the one where you are being chased by monsters, mind you, but the one where you are chasing your kid through a crowd of people, calling his name like a crazy person, and despite your best efforts to push people out of the way you just can’t…quite…reach him.

And that was just the prologue.

The threat of week-long insomnia notwithstanding, I really did enjoy watching Mike play Heavy Rain. Interestingly, the real lure of the game actually isn’t its writing (which is phenomenal), its premise (which grips you by the throat from the get-go), its graphics (which are stunningly beautiful), or its gameplay (which is highly innovative). No, the real draw of Heavy Rain is the fact that there are no guarantees that any of the main characters will succeed in their mission, let alone survive the game. There’s no “win” or “lose,” but everything has a consequence, and there is no way of knowing in advance what the “right” choice is or what the consequence will be. To put it succinctly, the experience of this game wasn’t so much that of watching a film noir in progress as it was that of living inside of one; and the game basically forced you to face all of the fears, doubts, uncertainties, and uncomfortable moral gray areas that confronted each of the characters.

It was interesting to play through such a game with Mike. Each choice became its own discussion point: To go forward or hang back? To forgive or reject? To kill or not to kill? What, after all, is the “right” thing to do in any situation, especially when the stakes were so high? We found that we didn’t always agree. Yet we also shared the weight of the decision-making process. Mike might have been the one pushing the buttons, but I was part of it, too. It was hands-down one of the most intense gaming experiences I have ever been through; but it was also a strangely poignant bonding experience. We fought and acted and chose while our characters went through Hell and back. We shuddered, we cheered, we teared up at times (well, I did anyway). We played the game together, and let it be what it was.

Looking back, I guess “Gamer Girlfriend” isn’t what it used to be; but I think the change was inevitable. You can’t have a column about your life and not watch it change, at least a little. Sometimes the humor of the relationship is the thing that matters; sometimes it’s all about the drama. Other times it’s just about finding the unexpected parts of you that are drawn out by what you say, what you do, and—of course—what you play.

In this installment of The GameCola Podcast:

• Paul defends his love of Indiana Jones 4, much to Mike’s chagrin.
• Paul defends his opinions of EarthBound, also to Mike’s chagrin.
• Paul describes his attempts to play Icewind Dale, once again to Mike’s chagrin.

Also, everyone talks about the games they hope to include in the upcoming “Top 50 Games of All Time” feature that Christian Porter is coordinating (I think they forget to explain that this is what they’re talking about—sorry!), the games they’re playing right now, and much, much more.

OK, I’ll come out and say this right up front: I realize that it’s been a while.

Thus far, our bearded taskmaster has been generous (or maybe just forgetful) enough to overlook the fact that I haven’t contributed a new column since last June. Granted, I have participated in various other small ways over the past several months, but they aren’t much of a substitute for “Gamer Girlfriend.” Recording podcasts is fun and all that, but I’d much rather write my own article than riff for an hour with six other people. It’s not that I don’t like the riffing (I do!); it’s just that I do so enjoy a captive audience.

But fear not, gentle reader. Just because I’ve been a delinquent writer for nine months doesn’t mean I’m going to subject you to two pages of talking about how I’ve been a delinquent writer for nine months. Rather, I now seek to turn your attention to my other hobby, in the pursuit of which I have actually been quite diligent over the last year: videogaming. (Smooth segue, right?) Basically, all those times when I was thinking, “I really should be writing my article right now,” what I was in fact doing was playing Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VI, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Shadow Hearts (at least, a little bit), Dark Cloud 2, and the new Ace Attorney game, to name but a few.

"Miles Edgeworth is a god among men. Also, thank you for flying with iFly Airlines today."

Now, the more observant among you may have noticed that (with the notable exception of the Ace Attorney game, which stars Miles Edgeworth, and is therefore awesome), the vast majority of my gaming of late has centered around RPGs. Over the past couple of years, I have come to love the compelling package of storytelling, character building, treasure hunting, and puzzle solving that these games all provide. They are intellectually challenging, aesthetically pleasing, and just generally enjoyable.

Plus, it turns out that I am really good at them.

This last point, oddly enough, has been the cause of some friction between Michael and myself of late. It isn’t that he begrudges me being good at “his” hobby; in fact, it’s quite the opposite! It’s more that he doesn’t always seem to remember that I’m actually good at games. Maybe on some level, he still can’t quite believe that he’s succeeded so thoroughly in turning me into a gamer that I can actually play games without his help. And he does so like to be helpful.

It was around the time that I was playing Final Fantasy IX that we both realized this was going to be a problem. I was happily playing the game, and Mike—very helpfully—pointed out that while I was on the road to Lindblum, I should go look for this hidden item because it was “totally cool,” and it would yield in some neat power ups for one of my characters. I politely thanked him for his advice and promptly fetched the item. Then, while I was exploring the woods around Treno, he suggested that I take a quick side trip to visit an optional area that had some really neat character development scenes. I protested slightly, because I had some other business to attend to, but in the end I went. Then, while I was preparing to battle the monsters in Oeilvert, he strongly recommended that I use a particular set up of characters because that was what he liked to do, and he had found that it worked out well.

By this point, I was beginning to give myself tension headaches from all the gnashing of teeth, so I soon came to the conclusion that something must be done. First, I tried subtle hints, then stronger ones; but try as I might, the dear boy just didn’t seem to be getting the hint. Finally, I just outright told him that I appreciated his concern, but that I really did not want his help and I would be very grateful if he would stop treating me like I was an inept gamer and LET ME PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME.

This did not go over well.

After a few rounds of yelling, some tears, a little bit of pouting, and a peace offering in the form of letting him play the “Chocobo Hot and Cold” minigame for me, Mike admitted that his overzealousness wasn’t actually because he thought I was a poor gamer. Rather, he just had a hard time staying quiet because I was playing a game that he had loved as a child, and he got really excited about sharing his knowledge and experience. We both agreed that I needed to be allowed to play the game for myself; and after that point, he was a lot better about staying out of the way. Mostly.

A dramatic re-enactment of our dispute, with Mike played by Dagger and Vangie played by Guard #2

It’s weird to say, but I think that my interest in RPGs has marked a turning point in my career as a gamer. I feel that I have graduated somehow; that I am now playing the kinds of games that “real” gamers play. And—as an added bonus—as I develop as a gamer, so my relationship with Mike develops, too. Occasional “helpfulness” notwithstanding, I have noticed a shift in his manner of late. He still loves to share his Experienced Gamer Wisdom; but at least now (more often than not) he backs off before I have to tell him to shut up.

It’s quite gratifying, really. After three years of dating, I have finally earned a new level of respect in his eyes. In many ways, it is not unlike leveling up in a videogame. I move through the stages—Girlfriend, Best Friend, Lover, Future Wife, and now Fellow Gamer—and our relationship gets stronger (and smarter) as I go. It is an odd progression, to be sure. But then, when did anyone ever accuse us of being normal?

…That would be great, right?

A “bonus scene” from The Goonies in which our heroes are attacked by—no, seriously!—a giant squid.

That’s kind of what GameCola does with the Off-Topic Podcast, the difference being that these clips weren’t cut out because they weren’t good enough for our podcast—they were cut out because they’re too good

Actually, no; that’s not true either. As you can probably guess, these clips were cut out because they didn’t fit the theme of their podcasts; they were “off-topic,” as it were. For example, in one recent podcast, the topic of discussion was Phoenix Wright…and, somehow, our staff got side-tracked into arguing about whether Disney Land was cooler than Disney World. That segment is in Off-Topic #2, along with many, many others that are totally worth listening to, we swear.

Enjoy!

Off-Topic Podcast #2: Giant Squid Scenes

0:00 – 1:52: Introduction

1:52 – 7:22: Bonus Clips from Podcast #20: Something New, featuring Paul Franzen, Michael Gray, Nathaniel Hoover, Justin Luschinski, Vangie Rich, and Michael Ridgaway

• Podcasting from the ice planet Hoth
• Weather similes from the Star Wars universe
• PAX East, and the love lives of the GameCola staff
• How every edition of The GameCola Podcast is all about making fun of Paul

7:22 – 13:51: Bonus Clips from Podcast #21: The YouTube Podcast, featuring Paul Franzen, Michael Gray, and Nathaniel Hoover

• The podcasters’ thoughts on alcohol (Spoiler alert: Yucky.)
• Made-up Phoenix Wright spoilers, and the game that’s banned from GameCola
• Will our YouTube page survive the apocalypse?
• The fall of PWNorDIE
• Nathaniel’s voice acting career

13:51 – END: Bonus Clips from Podcast #22: Grab Bag, featuring Paul Franzen and Michael Gray

• Pending changes to the Disney World ride Star Tours
• Disney World vs. Disney Land
• How fangirls of any story always want the two lead male characters to get together
• Phoenix Wright fanfiction
• Boy Meets World/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover fanfiction
• Why Paul owns a DS
• Phoenix Wright’s staffing woes
• Phoenix Wright’s motivation

GC Podcast #22: Grab Bag

0:00 – 1:18: Introduction, wherein I try to make these two disparate segments fit together naturally.

1:18 – 27:24: Gamer Girlfriend, wherein Mike and Vangie talk about, among other things:

• Whether Vangie is going to change the name of her “Gamer Girlfriend” column following her and Mike’s recent engagement.
• The fights and the tears that were caused by Grand Theft Auto IV (read more about that here).
• How Mike often needs a hug from Vangie after particularly emotional scenes in games.
• How good videogames can elicit the same respones as good books or good movies.
• The game that made Mike think about whether he’d make a good dad.
• The storylines in games that Mike and Vangie can relate to the most.
• “They killed that girl?!”—Vangie’s reactions to Valkyria Chronicles.
• Their arguments over who’s the cutest videogame character.
• How we’re moved by videogames that speak to our experiences and our current life situations.
• People who dismiss people who get weepy over videogames.
• EarthBound’s ending. (I didn’t listen to this part, because I haven’t finished EarthBound yet.)

27:24 – 27:45: Bridge, wherein I try to make these two disparate segments fit together naturally.

27:45 -1:07:32: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Case #4, Turnabout Goodbyes.

This is the latest in a series of GameCola Podcast segments about the individual cases of Phoenix Wright. (Case #1, Case #2, Case #3.) In this segment, Paul and Michael discuss:

• Case summary. It’s the one where Miles Edgeworth is the client, Manfred von Karma is the prosecutor, and we finally learn the truth of the DL-6 Incident.
• The relationship between Edgeworth and Gumshoe. Do they have a mutual trust? Why on Earth do they work together?
• The relationship between Edgeworth, Phoenix, and Larry Butz—how they were BFFs when they were little, and how they…kinda aren’t now.
• Are there homosexual undertones between Phoenix and Edgeworth? (Michael: “Yes.”)

• Why Phoenix and Edgeworth decided to become lawyers.
• Why was Misty Fey discredited as a fraud following the DL-6 Incident?
• Why does the Judge let himself get pushed around so much by the proscutor? Is he a bad judge?
• Why did von Karma mentor Edgeorth when he held such a grudge against Edgeworth’s father? Does it have anything to do with The Lion King? (Michael: “Yes.”)
• Cross-examining the parrot. Did von Karma manipulate this witness, too?
• If Edgeworth did murder his father when he was a child, should he be held accountable for it?
• Why aren’t there more videogames about Christmas?

1:07:32 – 1:08:23: Closing.

Oh, wait. I meant Drama Queens. To play the Nintendo DS game Drama Queens. My lame cat pun still stands, though.

Paul, Matt, the Cap’n, Vangie, and Michael steal each other’s boyfriends, work dopey jobs, buy fabric, go to the opera, do their hair, and are generally prissy and competitive. While playing Drama Queens, I mean. At least, that’s what they’d have you believe; this little get-together was originally recorded as two video-free podcasts, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they were just talking about their everyday lives, pretending they were playing some made-up game. After all, have you ever seen the game Drama Queens being sold at your local hardware store?

No? I rest my case.

In lieu of real footage of this “gaming session,” these videos cycle through pictures of whoever is talking so that you can recoil in horror whenever Capt—erm, so you can match faces to voices. It’s not all mugshots, though; the slideshow also includes occasional quirky text comments and shots of the fake game’s clearly fabricated “box art.”

If these videos sound at all like something you’re not embarrassed to be associated with, go ahead and watch the first two below. Not enough drama for you? Watch the complete playlists of Podcast #14: We Are Drama Queens and Podcast #15: We Are (Still) Drama Queens on the GameCola YouTube channel. If you do, I’ll be your BFF.

Oh, and to clarify: The pun was lame, not the cat.