My roommate mentioned in passing that he'd picked up a game called "Lost Kingdoms" or something last week. I didn't take real note of it until this week, when I decided to dust off my GameCube (still resting after long sessions of Soccer Slam) and fire up whatever was in there, be it Soccer Slam or Monkey Ball.
I was greeted with this odd little RPG screen, and interested, I dug the manual out of the couch (my roommate, like me, isn't known for his tidiness) and started playing. What I ended up playing was a very bite-size action RPG where you play as a princess, who, instead of ancient magic powers or mysterious bloodlines, has a deck of cards that summons things.
Simple? Yes. Fun? Hell yeah. I spent the next couple hours running around, having good memories of a little-known Dreamcast game named Culdcept II, an odd cross of CCG mechanics and Monopoly that I sunk a good long time into.
There's just something fun about having a limited number of uses on, well, everything, as well as only having access to a few at a time. Final Fantasy VIII's card system was... interesting for about the first two times I hit Draw, but after that I threw away the game. Lost Kingdoms I'm having much more fun with--though I know that it will be all too short, since it's an action RPG, and those things always spend more time on the engine than--well, everything else.
The other reason I like the game is extremely petty, but hey, whatever works. See, the heroine looks rather like my girlfriend, so I want to see if I can get her to cosplay the character. It's easy enough, and is one of the few heroines who doesn't show more cleavage than can possibly be natural.
It's just too bad that the music is the absolute worst I've heard in years. I mean, I haven't heard anything like this since the Master System/Nintendo days, and even then, the Mario themes still managed to be better-sounding than the tinny, half-muted pieces of crap coming from my speakers.
But oh well. The game's fun, it's a reason for me to pick up my GameCube again--though I still haven't gotten Pikmin--and will tide me over until Way of the Samurai and, of course, Neverwinter Nights. If only I could find my copy of Shining Force III scenario II... this would all be irrelevant, but as I said, oh well. I have a fun new toy to play with until the next toy comes along, and when it comes down to it, isn't that what gaming's all about?