Game: Eternal Poison

Name: Eternal Poison
Developer(s): Flight-Plan
Publisher(s): Banpresto (JP), Atlus (AN)
Console(s): Playstation 2
Genre: Strategy RPG, Single Player

I bought this game a little while ago and finally started it. At the start of the game, you'll play through a Prologue of sorts that acts as a basic tutorial. The main character for the Prologue is Thage. She's the blonde girl standing in the center of the cover dressed in black with ribbons in her hair. You'll go through a ridiculously easy battle and then see Besek's gates rise up from the ground. Besek is where Majin (the monsters in this game) are from.

Afterwards, you'll be asked to select a path. There are three to choose from. I don't know if there are more you can unlock after you complete the current paths but anyways, I chose Thage's path. So far, her goal has been unclear. She travels through Besek in search of the Eternal Poison which is rumored to possess great powers. In her hands, she carries a thick book called a librum. The librum she carries is a legendary one called the Vespera. She can use it to capture Majin. She also practices the forbidden magic of Zalis. Her lone companion is a Wolf Majin named Ranunculus or Raki for short. ...And then she enslaves some poor kid she comes across in Besek. That was so unexpected, I couldn't help but stare at the screen in dumbfounded surprise.

After the first real battle, you'll be escorted to a town inside Besek. Surprisingly, this town is safe from Majin. You'll be able to recruit members for your party here, stock up on equipment and items, play a game or two, rest and save at the Inn, as well as sell off any Majin you've captured.

The battles are fun! And a lot more complicated than most games. You'll see that Majin are not only strong and weak against certain elements (that's normal), but against certain type of physical attacks too! There are three types of physical attacks: strike, slash, and piercing. There are weapons that correspond with each one.

Piercing: bows and rapiers
Slash: Broadswords, Claws
Strike: Staves, Tomes, Maces

Oh, you'll also do considerably more damage if you attack Majin from the side or back.

After every battle, you'll end up back in town. So take the chance to stock up on supplies. You'll also need to get new equipment since characters level up pretty quickly. Yeah, equipment have level requirements.

Extras:
Voice Acting! This game has surprisingly good voice actors. I was pleasantly surprised. Most RPGs have really crappy ones so I wasn't exactly expecting much. But I was blown away by how well done it was.

Music! This game has...very unique music. Fits right into the whole gothic medieval theme. In fact, I love it! If anyone's familiar with Shadow Hearts, it's quite similar in style.

Cutscenes! The cinema scenes take some getting used to. The style is rather different. But overall, they're done pretty well.

Battle Animation! This doesn't really count as an extra, but this part is one of the most annoying parts of the game! There's a long pause of a few seconds after you select your attack command. Basically, you'll see a white screen. And THEN the battle animation starts up with some rather creepy music. The music's the only good part. The battle animation has been crappily done. Every time Ranunculus attacks, it looks ridiculous! No one (animal or human) would attack like that! So just turn battle animation off. Unless you happen to actually like it...

Notes/Tips:
1. Remember to equip any items you get at the Inn! Believe it or not, you'll need to equip items in order to have them available to you during battle. It's really annoying when you're bleeding all over the place only to realize you forgot to bring bandages with you.

2. It's more useful to capture majin than to kill them. You can get skills and PP from them. You'll also get more money by selling them than killing them.

3. If you like pretty pictures, play the games at the bar. =) You'll unlock them in the Extras on the Title Screen.

Harvest Moon DS

That's the cover for Harvest Moon DS. It's a fun game, and I rate it a 8/10. It would be a 9/10 if there weren't so many glitches in the game.

Music: The soundtrack for the game has gotten a lot better. I never tire of hearing it. New and refreshing and a bit nostalgic because some tunes have only been remixed a little.

Game play: It's what you can expect from a farming game. As usual, there are the mines, assortment of vegetables (and trees too), and fishing. You go around gifting the villagers to befriend them. What's great about this game though, is your rucksack's size! It's huge! Each slot can carry 99 of the same item.

As you can see, there are three pages for the rucksack! And each page has 18 slots. Each slot can hold a maximum of 99 per item. Pretty neat huh? You also still get the basket. ^^ You only get one page when you start, but you can always call up the Supermarket to get the upgrades. The first upgrade only costs 2000G.

Note: There are no Power Berries in this game. Sucks, huh?

Something else is new about the game though. In order to get Harvest Sprites to help you, you must find them. To find them, you have to do various every day tasks, search every nook and cranny, or just happen to be at places at the right time. Even after you find enough to help you, you need to earn medals by gambling at the casino. Hahaha! That's right, kiddies! Pull out your chips for a round of Poker! Anyway, there's Poker, BlackJack, and a Matching card game.

Moving on!

Animals: You get the chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, dog, cat, and horse. Right now though, I don't see what purpose the cat has. It does nothing as far as I know. To care for the animals, you brush them, talk to them, feed them, and shear/milk them. This time, there's something called a Touch Glove. To use it, you need to use the stylus. It's pretty nifty.

Farming: Nothing really changed. There are new seeds for trees though. You don't need to water trees. Just wait until they fully grow, for the right season, and then you can pick the fruit. Easy. Oh, but you can level up your seeds for better crops. The leveled up crops cash in a lot more income once shipped.

Mining: There are a total of FOUR mines. The third one contains a possible wife candidate. To gain access to the first mine, you must visit the Excavation site past 9PM. Walk in with your Hammer equipped and a short little scene will play out with you smashing a new tunnel. Unlike Friends of Mineral Town for the Gameboy Advance, you don't NEED to dig for stairs to progress through the levels. You just walk around until you fall through a hole. However, there are dead end floors. To get to the next floor, dig for the stairs. Then go back to falling through holes again. The first mine which gives you ores is the easiest to get through. It has a total of 10 floors. There's a dark chick on the last floor which you need to defeat with one of your tools. Then you've completed it! Finally, you can get the second mine. This one, there are quite a few dark creatures for you to defeat on every level. So be careful! Once you get to the bottom of this mine, you can get the next mine. Repeat.

Wives: There are a total of 14 girls you can choose from. Flora, Celia, Lumina, Muffy, and Nami are the normal candidates. Then there are the special girls; Witch Princess, Harvest Goddess, Keria (a princess), and Leia (a mermaid). After that, if you connect either of the GBA games to the DS, you can get the Mineral Town girls; Ann, Elli, Karen, Popuri, and Mary. However, if you marry one of the Mineral Town girls, it's game over.

I'm sure you can discover the rest on your own. ^^