Incoming transmission from Ilos

I’ve just completed Mass Effect, and I feel satisfied yet disappointed. I’m struggling to put into words why but the main reasons were hype and KOTOR.

The hype was my own fault, as I heard more about the trilogy, I got more excited about this game, and well, to be frank, I expected better.

To be fair on Bioware, it was a valiant effort and genuinely enjoyable …so long as you kept changing what you were doing.

See, one of the biggest problem was, whilst each of the 3 main parts of the gameplay (Combat, Exploration, and Roleplaying) were interesting and entertaining, they only remained so in small bursts. Spend too long talking to people, or investigating secret areas and I’d find myself wanting to do something else as it became monotonous. Part of this problem is how I play RPGs. I like talk to everyone, search every nook and cranny for goodies, and complete sidequests (and I’d really appreciate it if the game would try and help me accomplish this). This means that I spend extended amounts of time doing one type of activity in particular before moving onto the next. Which just felt draining instead of the usual immersiveness that I normally get from RPGs.

Speaking of immersion, Bioware really did a good job in making the galaxy feel big. From the Milky Way map to each individual solar system, it did feel like a galaxy. I just wish that A) They’d put more work into making it not feel empty and B) They gave you a way of keeping track of all the places you’ve been. It’s hard to tell one star system apart from another visually and there was no indication of whether you’ve visited a system or not unless you find something you’ve already looted, usually on the sole planet in the solar system that you can actually land on. I actually stopped exploration on the galaxy level after I had been returning to a couple of places I’d already cleared out because I realised that I hadn’t been keeping track of where I’ve been and thanks to side quests, I’d covered about half the map in a seemingly random fashion. Retreading your own footsteps is only fun if you’ve got something new and interesting.

On the topic of new and interesting, the team in charge of making the planetside landscapes and terrain didn’t quite grasp the concept of “variation”. All the planets you could land on and explore were mountain ranges. Every single one of them. Sure, some might be hot or cold or green, but a mountain range is a mountain range. After the 3rd one, I just wanted something new, like Prothean ruins! There was this grand precursor civilisation, why couldn’t a couple of the planets have had, like, a village or something! But no, all the same.

As for the Mako, I don’t know where to stand on the vehicle. It’s main job of terrain climbing is only made awkward by the terrain design and how it’s unclear which slopes you can’t climb until you’re halfway up them. The combat makes up for it, mostly. See, combat in the Mako is fun, a cruel evil fun, like turning on God Mode just to mess with your enemies. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as to charge through a group of hostile to run the guy at the back over before turning around and firing a rocket at the sap who thought he was safe behind the barricade. Pity this only works on flat terrain. The Mako’s cannon was designed to only be used at a foe at level height, it can’t aim down. This gets worse if you’re on wall, shooting “up” at your targets, then you find that the targeting reticle is misaligned. This makes trying to snipe some long range Rocket Geth all but impossible as you can’t stay still for too long or get too close. I died a number of times in the Mako because just could not hit the people shooting me, some of which were sat right in front of the cannon as I drove past.

I could continue ranting about the Mako, but I want to move onto my final major complaint: the writing. I wouldn’t say it’s bad but…
At one point, during the romantic subplot, I noticed something. A line, I can’t even remember what it was, just sounded off. It was cliché, cringe worthy. It sounded like it came out of a geek’s wish-fulfilling, shamelessly self-gratifying, self-insertion fantasy. After that point, I kept noticing it, even in normal conversations Shepard had. I pointed this out to a friend, who said that all games with character creation are this. The thing is: other games mask it, you never think that it’s a wish-fulfilling, shamelessly self-gratifying, self-insertion fantasy, as the game manages to keep you immersed or entertained enough for it to become a conscious thought, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It made the rest of the romantic subplot painful to go through, which is a shame, as Bastila’s was fun.

And now we get to the comparison. I’ve played both KOTORs and loved them. As Bioware made the first, I can’t help but make comparisons, then get disappointed as KOTOR wins every time.
In KOTOR, the equipment menu is ordered and, if I recall correctly, the same items stack. This is something Mass Effect desperately needs. Sorting through your stuff and clearing space is awkward, especially when you aren’t sure if what you’ve contemplating scrapping is better than what a non-present party member has. Seeing as I cycle through about 4 party members, this really got on my nerves.
Another things KOTOR does is tell you about things like hacking or disarming in the character gen. When I asked for advice about which class to pick, nobody, not even Mass Effect told me about the Decryption and Electronics skills. KOTOR even has cross-class skills, in case you didn’t choose a build designed for that.
Overall, after the greatness of KOTOR, I’m amazed Mass Effect failed that bad. I hear the sequels make up for it though, so I still have hope.

At the end of the day, I still liked Mass Effect, but it definitely needs more work.

Also, in case you were wondering, I called him Tarrin Shepard, he was a Paragon Vanguard specialising in Shotguns, sacrificed Ashley to save a squad that seemed dead by the time he arrived, and made sugary love to Liara. How much of this will change by the end of Mass Effect 3, I don’t know.

No pictures this time. Maybe I’ll post more in the next one to make up for it.

Goodnight.

“Anyway, this cake is great. It’s so delicious and moist.”

Update time!
I’m actually using my steam account for once, just in time for the Steam Sales 😀
Got me some good games so far, including the Portal pack.
Portal 1 was a great game, better than what I expected. Though, I don’t understand people’s fascination in the Weighted Companion Cube. For those of you who don’t know what I’m on about, let me explain:
In one of the rooms, you are given a Cube with a heart on it for the next puzzle. When you get the cube, you are told to treat as your friend, alrighty then. GlaDos then spends the remainder of the test reminding you that your cube is just an inanimate object. At the end of that test, you are told to incinerate it. In fact, you must to proceed.
Now, here’s the thing: you only have the cube for one room. And I spent a good portion of that puzzle going: “Right, you need the cube for that. Now, where did I leave it?” And having to lug it around all over the place.
I honestly didn’t care that I had to get rid of it, I knew I probably wasn’t going to be able to keep it anyway.
According to people I’ve been talking to, this mentality makes me a monster

It's just a cube, people!

To be honest, I preferred GlaDos’s curiosity module. Why? It spoke, it attempted to communicate with you. Admitted all it really did was ask questions about everything, but it made me think of a curious little kid, and I thought it cute for it. Plus, it screamed when you killed it, which I thought was horrible.
Why?
Because it made me regret it. I liked that thing, it had personality and I had to destroy it.
If it wasn’t for the more pressing matters of the time limit and GlaDos, I would have tried to find a way of keeping it.

Anyway, I completed the main story of Portal and actually found the whole thing cleverly done. I am curious as to what has been happening Aperture Science and why it was deserted. The combat drones were annoying though, but that just made it more satisfying to “render them inert”  (Read: Knock them over).
Now, I’ll play Portal 2… as soon as it finishes downloading.
See ya

 

A game of love

This month I’m gonna point out: Katawa Shoujo

This is a completely free, in the works, visual novel / dating sim featuring the theme of disability (don’t judge, its actually pretty good). However, before I get any further, social thingies (I forgotten the word I want) require me to point out that the game is going to be an eroge and the final product is going to contain sex scenes, so make sure you are over age / have permission from parents /  guardians (There, now you can’t complain! I warned you).

Currently only the first act is out, which only contains a couple of swear words and a death (Spoiler there, sorry). So I’d say that would be ok, which is good because that is all I’ve played of it and therefore, can recommend.

You play Hisao Nakai (I think that’s right), a normal school boy until his crush confesses to him and in turn gives him a heart attack. He ends up moving to a disabled school because of his Arrythmia.
Think about that for a second: the player character in a romantic game has a heart problem which was found because of a romantic situation. Yeah, this does not bode well.

The ‘winnable’ girls in the game:

From right to left: Emi, Shizune, Rin, Hadako, Lilly (Anyone paying attention will notice I did them BACKWARDS!). Note that all the girls, while their paths are separate, have been ‘paired up’. What I mean here is that they will have a friend who you often see them with or talk to them about. These partnerships tend to either have some sort of irony (I guess?) or obviousness to them

And now more details:
Name: Lilly (I can’t remember if its double ‘l’ or not)
Disability: Blind
Notes: Lilly is the sophisticated girl of the options, coming from a private school beforehand. She acts sort of motherly / sisterly towards Hadako, who is her ‘partner’.

Name: Hadako
Disability: Physical Scarring and emotional trauma
Notes: Hadako is your shrinking violet, to the extreme (and who can blame her?). Although considered a hard girl to ‘win’, she was the first I ‘got’. I do find a sort of poetry(?) (god-damn my vocabulary) in her partnership: Physically scarred girl is friends with the only main character who can’t see at her

Name: Emi
Disability: Lack of legs below knee
Notes: Out of all the girls’ paths I’ve seen so far, Emi’s seems the one most likely to kill Hisao (the player) as it seems to follow her path, you have to willing attempt to spark a heart attack. She also lampshades her partnership with Rin: "Someone in accommendation decided to put our rooms next to each other." "Together we have a full set of limbs". Emi is also the Genki girl of the cast as she is easily very active and cheerful, if anything her prosthetics help that as she is now the fastest runner on the track team.

Name: Rin
Disability: No arms from shoulder (Just look at her picture)
Notes: Rin is a very thoughtful person to the point where her response to a kick up the backside to get her to finish her project is: "I shall think harder". For those who are wondering: she does everything with her feet.

Name: Shizune
Disability: Deaf
Notes: Shizune is the first of the girls who you meet and possibly the least friendly depending on your take on her. Student council president, Shizune can appear manipulative and definitely has a competitive streak. Shizune’s partner is her translator: Misha. Misha isn’t mentioned because you can’t ‘get’ her, and doesn’t appear to have a disability (though she does have a problem with volume control)

I’ll also mention the ‘bromance’ option (No incest):
Name: Kenji
Disability: Partially blind
Notes: Misogynistic conspirathy theorist who has his own ending (admittedly its the bad end, but nevertheless). So far the only one who appears nude (though it is censored, so its alright) and can be an entertaining character when you converse with him.

Overall, I like what I’ve experienced so far, so I’m looking forward to the final product.

My gaming stats

Update: I finished Prime 2! Well, the story mode. I love Spider Ball, was glad when I finally killed that damn boss. Got to the ending and received a nasty shock: 78% complete. That’s right, I just squeaked the good ending. I was aiming for 100% but, I got annoyed with looking so I decided to take down the final bosses (those of you who pay attention and scan everything you come across would have been able to work out the last boss). Its nice to know, though, that when it comes to the 100%, I now know how to kill them and will have alot more in the way of ammo and health. Anyway, on with the post!

Recently I came across a forum thread talking about player weaknesses in gaming (Failing to watch your back, focusing too much in one area, etc) and I’ve decided to go over what I think are my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to gaming.

Real-time strategy:
Strengths: I make a handy decoy / back-up when it comes to team battles, spamming units
Weaknesses: Complete lack of micromanagement and co-ordination

First Person Shooters:
Strengths: Decent critical hit ratio (I have this uncanny ability to score impressive shots with complete flukes), short to medium range
Weaknesses: Sniping, Snipers, have a habit of spending more time looking for ammo than attacking

Role-Playing Games:
Strengths: I go out of my way to look for goodies, Focus on healing
Weaknesses: Don’t like using items, will try to minimize MP/SP/PP usage if possible

Racing games:
Strengths: Can drive for small periods of time while attention is elsewhere (i.e. looking behind)
Weaknesses: Have a habit of misjudging corners, don’t use brake

Sport:
Strengths: Persistant?
Weaknesses: General lack of skill

Platformers:
Strengths: N/A
Weaknesses: General lack of skill

Adventure games:
Strengths: Surviving?
Weaknesses: In Metroidvania games I have a habit of getting lost / forgetting where I’ve looked

Action games:
Strengths: Persistance?
Weaknesses: Spamming moves

Fighting games:
Strengths: Surviving?
Weaknesses: Losing controls

That’s all the genres I can think of
I really need to think these through before putting them up
Oh well, its not like people read them

A tale of two worlds

(Cutting it a bit close here)

Recently I’ve gone back to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and I’m glad I stumbled across it in the first place. Out of the Metroid Prime Trilogy I think Echoes was the one least publised, but that’s just my opinion. Finding it in the pre-owned section, I decided to get it based on my experiences of the first one (I don’t have it I borrowed it). And the game has lived up to expectations so far.

Aside from being a Metroidvania game (an adventure game that lets the player find their own way at the own pace, emphasis on exploring), the main feature is a Light / Dark theme which presents itself in two, linked, forms.

The first is the Dark world, which is like a mirror of the light world, except it isn’t. The layout changes, inaccessible areas are now open and paths that are open in the ‘light’ world are now blocked off. Rooms that contained say a save station, now are ammo depots. Even the atmosphere is trying to kill you. Although this is a neat idea and I like it, you can’t help shake the feeling that you’re retreading previously explored areas as you explore the dark world. The layout hasn’t changed drastically and most ‘rooms’ look similar between both worlds, so it feels like the staff were taking short-cuts when it came to level design.

The other form is the light and dark beam weapons. They act as a sort of reverse polarity weapon, creatures that are weak to light beam are generally resistant to dark, though this isn’t always true. This inverse polarity only really comes into effect in the dark world. Seeing as the light world is supposed to be a normal world, that means that most weapons will work anyway unless the game is being horribly specific. In the Dark world, the light beam is your saviour for the most part as most creatures are weak to "bright light" and it can super charge the safe areas so that they are deadly to most creatures as well as open doors and power system crystals. Dark beam, not so useful.
The light beam fires beams on intense light which burn most enemies when you charge up, dealing more damage. The charge up shot fires a spread shot which can incinerate Ing (main bad things) if you persist.
If the light beam is ‘fire’ then the dark beam is ‘ice’. The charge shot homes in one what you are locked onto and freezes it. While not very useful against Ing, it has the same effect as the ice beam on Metroids.

I could go on but meh, feeling lazy and its hard enough trying to work out what to say next. So I’ll end on the final note: I do not like any aspect of morph ball.

Space: The Penultimate frontier

Been playing Infinite Space recently, its a great game, I’d recommend it to any sci-fi fan, or just anybody who’s had the dream of owning their own space fleet.
I  haven’t finished and I won’t spoil it

You play as Yuri, a teenage who dreams of going into space. You don’t directly control him, instead controlling the fleet as a whole and making various decisions for him.

I’m gonna say now: All the hype and various info about is likely to exagurate the content:
Yes, it is customisable, but only in certain areas. You don’t get to choose the colours of your ships for example
Next, yes you do control a fleet… of a maximum of Five ships, of which Yuri needs to ‘learn’ how to ‘control’. This means that the maximum number of ships in your fleet slowly increases as the game goes on
Next, yes there are 100s (probably, I’ve been looking and been picking up as many as I can, I think), but you will end up finding that you will have more crew than positions, somewhat destroying the illusion that everyone has a certain job

The Battle system is simple, (oh, is it just!) and I’m gonna fail at portraying that but I’ll try: You start with 3 options, (well, 6 if you count movement as well): Barrage, Normal, Dodge.
Normal: All your ships fire a single volley of shots at the target, does double damage against Dodge
Barrage: Simply put- 3 ‘Normals’ in a row for the cost of 2, fails against Dodge
Dodge: Your ships ‘dodge’ until you pick a different command (except from Movement and Anti-air)

There are 6 more commands that you’ll learn as time goes on: Melee, Fighters, Anti-air, Special (1, 2, 3):
Melee (Not aplicable to all battles): Use this to board an enemy ship in a Rock-Paper-Scissors style fight. Winning the fight ends the battle, retreating (either side) returns you to the battle.
Fighters (Requires Specific Ships): Sends all Fighters in hanger (not all Fighters on ship) to attack selected ship. If enemy launches fighters, then the two will fight and the winner will continue to the enemy ship. Note that if any ships are attacked by fighters then fleet cannot move.
Anti-air: Fires anti-fighter weapons, is ended similar way to Dodge
Special: Activates whichever special ability is attached to that command. Effects vary depending on ability

Last thing I’m gonna say about this game is the mood: It starts as a fairly bright and naive atmosphere which gets darker and darker, before a big event happens and it goes from sad and depressing to almost morale-raising… which is about as far as I am

And that is all I’m gonna say on this, if you wanna know more, play the game!

Wii Fit in a box!

Before I start, I’ve decided that I’m gonna update this a minimum of once a month, when will vary but I will try to make sure that posts aren’t consecutive (I can’t remember if that’s how its spelt). Now, on with the show!

Very much earlier this month, we got Nintendo’s updated "Lets try to grab as many people into gaming by aiming it at families" game (I don’t care if it wasn’t aiming it at families, I still don’t like the idea of it): Wii Fit PLUS.

This game seems to be largely based on making act like a complete twit while giving you the delusions that you’re getting better. Granted we haven’t had it a month and I haven’t been able to use it for a good portion of that because of revision (I HATE exams!) so I’m not expecting much.

The game seems rather pointless, and I really doubt that its paying much attention to whatever it is you’re trying to do on it short from acting like a futuristic pair of scales.

Then you got the various characters who act as trainiers or your mirror-self or something like that. The game expects that you can do whatever it is doing onscreen, and then grades you based on where your balance was. Except I really doubt that half their target audience can realistically do what its asking them to do, at least with injuring themselves. To be honest, that was the highest my foot has been up my body with having to move to a side and it screwed up my balance because it didn’t want to be there. "Yoga Novice" oh, screw you game.
My major problem with the trainers is that the don’t move their mouth, c’mon Nintendo! CG people have been doing that for years, so it can’t be that hard. I find it rather off putting to see the teacher try to encourage me when they aren’t actually communicating to me like anybody else would. There’s subtitles, so sign language would work… except for the parts where you have to put your head down, but you get the picture.
Finally: the board, oh god. He/It (voice doesn’t sound very feminine, not to be sexist) has a voice designed to amuse 6 year olds and parents (I want to categorise them further but I’m not sure how) and I fit neither category. This means that I find it annoying and what it says somewhere between "****ING STOP IT NOW" cute and offensive. It says "ow" when you get on in a horrendously cute way. "Keep still" I am still, I centred my balance about two seconds after I got on and haven’t moved enough to worry you. "See you again tomorrow (or something to that extent)" STOP WAVING YOU ****! You’ve just gone and told me that I’ve (somehow) put on weight and I’m bouncing between getting weaker and in peferct health!

…Yeah I don’t like that thing

Finally note, and this isn’t just this game. I don’t like games which want you to play everyday, I have other things to do, my attention and mood don’t work like that. Some days I feel like playing Animal Crossing, other days its Star Wars or watching the Matrix, take your turn and be happy that I bothered to come back to you!

…I’ll stop now

I feel this needs to be said: Realism in Gaming

Before I begin, I’d like to go completely off the point and say that I have played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 ( Idon’t care if that’s not its name, that’s what I’m calling it), and to be blunt, I don’t like it. To be fair, I have only played the offline multiplayer but I feel that I got enough of the gameplay to get a reasonable opinion of it, and that is that it is biased. It feels geared towards the experts at the game, giving them all the options, leaving the newbies trampled in the dirt.
I have played COD4: MW (again, multiplayer only) and I didn’t think it was too bad, but in making it better, it was made worse. Quite simply, unlocking everything: sounds good, but falls flat when the only way to get them is to go up levels, and the only way to do that is get exp (see where I’m going with this). And it doesn’t help that the makers decided to add in death streaks. This, again, sounds good but… scrap it. The people who need (and are likely to use them) most are the ones who can’t stand up to the people who think its normal to be able to get twenty headshot killis in a row, ‘no scoping’. This means that they need to be gamebreakers to so that the newbs can learn how to fight back. Except, they are nowhere near gamebreaking. I managed to get around a fifty death streak against the two other people I was playing with to temporarily have more health… and that’s it, I couldn’t get anything better than giving them a short time in which to kill each other or just use one of their good kill streaks against me!

And now I go onto: Realism
I have seen people ask for this, in games, on the internet, which I know is going to be bad. It is my firm belief that making a game (I’m excluding simulators from this) that works like stuff in the real world will be a complete flop because its based on stuff in the real world! Realism and games don’t mix, for one specific reason: escapism. That’s what games are for, in fact that’s what most entertainment is: a means to forget about the trials of real life for a bit and enjoy oneself, not replicate it in a game.

Alright, that’s not the only reason. Most games feature a lack of realism in one form or another:
FPSs: Damage. I don’t care what hollywood films you’ve watched, getting shot means you die, most of the time by blood loss. You see when a bullet enters the body, it leaves two holes, entry and exit, with me so far? The exit hole is much bigger than the entry hole because of pressure, meaning that being torn to shreds by bullets isn’t as hard as it sounds. This also means that every fps is automatically an 18 and crazy hard as getting shot will kill you. Another thing is one man army. I don’t care what you say, no man can stand up to the army of whatever and come off victories, its insane because he is one person. This works with the commando squads as well. Training and experience may get you far, but you will kick it before you win, I guarantee it.
RPGs: Stats, turn based battles, need I say more?
RTSs: If only war did work like this, it would be alot easier, oh and people don’t have health bars.
Action / adventure: Again, one man army!
Racing: Depends whether its Burnout style (fast, stylish crashs), Mario Kart (Items / Weapons) or ‘realistic’ (F1, Rally). The first one will suffer because physics will stop you flying about as if someones playing with the gravity and police will be a lot smarter and more dangerous. Second type: I’m not even gonna bother. 3rd type: Making it realistic means that it’d probably be better that you just do the real thing, than just play the game.
Sport: As long as it isn’t one that delibrately throws logic out the window, they actually want realism, so I’ll let them off
Simualtion: Alright, these guys are aiming for realism

As you can see, I’ve covered most types of games and most of them won’t like realism, so lets just stick to fantasy, sci fi, and almost realism.

(I wrote more on COD4 MW2 than I planned and less on the realism, oops)

I don’t believe I’m doing this…

Maybe I’ve been watching too much Zero Punctuation but I have this urge to review a game, so I’ve decided that seeing as I am currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that I’d do the direct sequel, Majora’s Mask (Who saw that coming):

First things first: Yes, its a sequel, meaning its never going to be as good as the original. Doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be bad… just not as good.

Those of you that have played Ocarina of Time will immediately notice that most of the characters in this game have the exact same character model as characters from Ocarina of Time. This may seem as cheap but the plot can technically be seen as separate, so it doesn’t matter.

Next, the plot! Nintendo isn’t reknown for amazing and original plot, (see Mario series for more detail), and seeing as the game is mainly sidequests then the plot is simple: You play as Link (or whatever you want to name him), who starts off looking for a friend of his when he comes across a new area of the world which is the setting. After a brief chase involving a troublemaker, you end up turned into a wooden creature. After that you come across someone who agreed to turn you back on two conditions: 1. You get an item that was taken from you when the troublemaker set upon you and 2. the mask the troublemaker was wearing (which happens to be the name of the game). While doing this, you end up learning that the troublemaker has decided to bring the rather creepy moon down onto this land, destroying the central place and presumedly killing the friendly man who helped you. I won’t spoil the rest of it, but not much really changes over the timespan of the three days in which you have to complete this task. Its different and won’t get in the way of what you’re doing because of restricted areas. But that is because of the game’s main gimmick which I’ll do next.

In his homeland, Link is known as the Hero of Time, so that has been carried on to this game, but instead of jumping backwards and forwards through seven years, you reset back to the start of the three days in a sort of time-loop. This means that you actually have three days which is represented by a counter and when day three is up, you’d better remember how to reset the loop. Whenever you do reset, you don’t have to worry about starting from scratch because although you lose the collectables, you keep all the key items. This is an interesting idea, and it allows for inter-linking stories and events from the various characters you see around.
The other main gimmick is the masks. The game is full of them, and each one doing a different thing. The masks allow you special abilities which are required for certain sidequests, bonus items, etc. All the masks are gained by doing various sidequests, which I’ll go onto now.

Sidequests, the game is full of them. These are ranging from something simple to be at a certain place at a certain time to being a long and complex ordeal which spans over the three days ending mere minutes from game over. The sidequests are normally out of the way of the plot, making themselves known whenever you talk to the right person… at the right time. Unfortunately, they have a habit of leading you away from the plot for one reason or another.

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say. Gameplay hasn’t changed much from the first: you open dungeon, find item in dungeon, kill boss using either item you gained in dungeon or gained opening dungeon, move onto next. The ‘help’ system has changed in that it no longer has an audible ‘voice’ as such and is a lot less helpful.

Overall, interesting idea and worth playing if you’re the sort of person who likes to explore and 100% complete games and are willing to ignore the fact that most of the characters are from the game before, otherwise you may feel that the game is too short. Also if you want to see what Tingle should have stayed as.

There we go, could be made longer but I’d need to be able to think a bit more straight. It is rather **** but it is my try at a review so… I’ll do better next time?

Navi? Nah, Tatl’s worse

Recognise these two? They are the N64 Fairy Guides in the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and its sequel, Majora’s Mask.
Because Ocarina of Time is the more reknown of the two, that means that more people are aware of and recognise Navi… and the hate of her.

For those of you who don’t know what I mean by this: In both games, You (Link), were accompanied by a Fairy who would allow you to target things like enemies and NPCs. They also provided assistance and helped you forward. Except you didn’t need help and they weren’t always helpful. And then there’s their way of getting your attention. This is what Navi is known for. All the voice acting in both games revolved around laughter and various screams… and Navi’s three words: "Hey!", "Listen!!, "Look!".
At first you think its a neat trick to get your attention, after the second hour: you’d wish she’d shut up, and anything past 3 hours leaves you on the edge of quitting so that you don’t have to "Listen!".

I believe that Tatl is worse.

Tatl doesn’t have any voice acting, she instead has a little bell jingle, which means that you see her more as a machine than a living creature.

And then there’s the advice…

Navi’s advice shows that she is trying, and often provide helpful clues. Tatl’s is vague and often just insulting the player’s intelligence.
An example for Tatl is a puzzle in the Canyon temple, the fourth dungeon: In one room, you have to reflect light onto a big block to make it disappear, as a basic Mirror shield task. Except that, there is no beam of light to reflect. Tatl notices a tunnel in the ceiling with the end blocked and says: "I wondered why there was any light in here. What? You haven’t figured it out yet?!". Seriously, no clue. It took me a long while to figure out that you had to place a bomb on a certain part of the floor in the room above to make the necessary hole. That was after trying everything possible in the first room.
Another one is an monster: There is a monster outside the entrance to Milk road, it is a bird. A big one too, not boss size "big" but fairly large for a bird. If it touches you, it will nick an item of yours, regardless of what it is (Sword, bow, rupee) and you can find it for sale in town that night. This generally means avoiding the bird or killing the bird before it nicks anything to save you from going out of pocket. But, it can take one hell of a beating and still be flying. Tatl’s advice for it revolves around: "Run! You can’t kill it! Just Run!" Wrong! You can kill it, it gives you a lot of rupees (A large orange rupee) for doing so.

And when you consider why they join you:
Navi has been appointed to help you by the village elder and guardian, the great deku tree. Tatl, on the other hand, joins you so that she can be with her younger brother again. Therefore Tatl should be of more assistance because she wants to return to a loved one while Navi is just following the wishes of a character that dies after the first dungeon.

So why is it that Navi is hated more? In either of the two examples given for Tatl, she would have at least handled the situation better