Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1 - Game finished, Nits picked

I finished Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1 last night, as I thought I should at least clear one of my backlog games out before moving onto Braid. Over all I enjoyed it, although wasn't blown away with it and had a few minor issues with it.

First of all, although it sports JRPG style combat, there aren't really very many different ways to play. The item set is very specific and fairly limited, there's no wearable armour, only defense buffs and you keep the same weapon (albeit with 2 upgrades available). I don't think the game needs Diablo levels of item droppery but it would be nice to be able to have more options to customise the characters.

Secondly, the block mechanic in the game is really difficult to get the hang of and rather unforgiving, particularly considering that by the final boss, getting this right is more or less crucial to success or failure. I think it could stay about as timing-sensitive as it is now, if they added in a bar to let you know when the moment to pull the block trigger is. The enemy's health bar flashing for a split second just isn't enough. Perhaps something like the speed-reload mechanic in Gears of War would work, where a line moves across a little bar, and you have to hit the button when the line passes through a sweet spot. That would have been perfect for this game's blocking mechanism.

Finally - and more nitpickingly - the controls are really fiddly when trying to look at or select a particular item. I can be standing right in front of someone flailing about like a man posessed as the little icon flicks quickly on and off to talk to them, because I keep on turning too far to the left or right to activate it. I can't see how any playtester could have not been annoyed by this, so it should have been improved - no excuse.

There may be one or two other things, but those are the main ones that struck me. Apart from those issues, I found it fun, mostly funny and much more game than I am used to in other episodic titles like, say, Sam and Max. I'm not convinced that there's enough game in there to justify the 1,600 rather than 1,200 point price tag - I really don't see myself playing this again anytime soon. Then again, I can't honestly say I feel ripped off by the price either - it seems a decent enough reflection of the care that went into the game.