Mortal Kombat!

To be frank, it pisses me off. I love the series, but it pisses me off. And this opinion comes from my previous play experience with the Midway series that accumulates to today.

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down and started playing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the PS2 again. It's been sitting on my shelf for at the least several months, and I never did finish it. On a whim I decided to go back to it and what resulted was me in my "angry gamer" mode: pissed off, slamming my fist on the desk and just about roaring about the bullshit the game was giving me at the time.

The whole gameplay aspect of MK:A is good, but the AI is a bastard. For some of the mandatory one-on-one fights I had to do in the game's Konquest (story) Mode, the computer was relentless, not even allowing me to input a command to do something. It would sit there and either counter-attack or juggle me to my death despite my attempts of hitting - and even smashing - at buttons, trying to do anything.

Plus, the "Parry" and "Breaker" systems didn't help either. Breaker is where you press Block (R2) and Toward the opponent at the exact time they hit you with an attack, and you counter-attack, knocking them down. Problem is, it was stubborn as hell to actually work for me, and it only allows you to preform a Breaker three times between all of the rounds of combat you have (So 3 times in a best-of-3).

Parrying almost never worked either. It's the reverse of Breaker: Away from the opponent and Block. It's suppose to deflect the attack and turn the opponent around, and you have infinite uses of it, but seeming as how Hell would freeze over before it worked, I could barely defend myself against the cheapass juggling sprees and counter-hit frenzies the AI worked itself into.

And let's not forget the "air combos": the moves that take up half of each fighting style's roster. Apparently you can only do them after using a pop-up move to knock the enemy in the air. I tried practically everything, but I could never find the proper pop-up move for Taven, because anytime I would hit them into the air, they'd sail out of range of any move save a fireball or something. So if I hit, it was either [Direction] + [one of the four buttons], or Square-Square-Triangle. That or gratuitous spammage of the special abilities.

The storyline was good though, as ambiguous as it was. And like usual, the ending was a cliffhanger that resolved practically nothing. Figures. I spend all that time running around as Taven, trying to stop Armageddon, only for it to leave off with him winning his godhood (what did you expect?) and attempting to hold off Armageddon until he could find a way to stop it period.

Maybe I just suck at Mortal Kombat games, but the AI went to even "cheap" lengths at times, and was merciless. I did manage to beat it though, and collected all sixty of the "Konquest Relics", unlocking EVERYTHING in the Vault. Kinda funny how they give you all of those music clips, alternate outfits, movies and concept sketches for free when you manage to somehow acquire an item from every person's repetoir. Seriously, how could Kano run around without his mask, and why would a dead Lin Kuei ninja have Liu Kang's wristbands? It makes no sense.

I don't believe I'll go back to it now that I've finished and completed it, but I'll keep it around. Having just about every character in the series playable is something worth holding onto.

I've also made progress in Final Fantasy V Advance. Stupidly, I didn't realize that when the spikes turned into holes in one of the lower floors of the Waterafall, all I'd have to do is jump down and grab the Tablet. I then spanked Leviathan with Rapid Fire + Thundaga Spellblade (moronically easy win), and sprinted right through the Underwater Magma Chasm. Last Tablet in hand, I finally managed to get three of the four new classes: Oracle, Gladiator and Cannoneer.

I've got mixed feelings about them. Oracle seems to have potential, but the Predict and Condemn skills either don't have enough of an effect, or are too slow to even work well. But the ABP Up skill (150% ABP gained per battle), and gaining the highest base Magic stat for Freelancer/Mime by mastering it does seem worth it. It just has to be slugged through.

It's crap that the whole appeal of Cannoneer - Combine - isn't acquired until you master the damn class. When it's proclaimed that the core of the class is mixing "Shot" materials together with other items to hit all enemies with damaging effects, why make it the final skill you get from the damn thing? As such, I have had no chance to even experiment with Combine. I just had to deal with "Open Fire", the class's core skill.

And Gladiator? Finisher is ok, and having that many different weapons available to equip is nice, but it just seems like a mash-together of different traits of Knight, Berserker, Ranger and Dragoon, with a new core skill (Finisher) that doesn't work half the time. Hopefully Necromancer is actually worth the effort.

Oh well. With just Odin left as an extra before I tackle the Cleft of Dimension, the game's going smoothly. I just wish my stomach was as filled as this playing experience is turning out to be.

Until the next save point, Sobou's out.