Ugh. Shogi is a TOUGH game. It is a VERY tough game. I feel like I have made no progress at all, despite the fact that I'm studying tsume shogi problems, playing many games against Shotest Shogi, and trying to make my way through the Fairbairn book. I get the feeling like Shogi may turn out to be like golf...it's difficult enough to drive you crazy, yet every once in a while you make a good solid shot which keeps you addicted and makes you play another 20 lousy games until you experience the feeling of making that one good shot again. In Shogi, it's not a golf shot...it's a tesuji or, for me, something as simple as finding a pin or a fork.
In Chess, I feel like I've made quite a large amount of progress...certainly enough to beat many humans and weak computer problems. I'm at the stage where I actually can think about why I'm making moves and my game has purpose. Chess isn't *that* much different from Shogi, is it? Well, I think part of the problem is simply that there is no quality learning material for Shogi here in the West. If the Fairbairn "Shogi for Beginners" book was a chess book, I'd have tossed it by now and moved onto another one. I suppose I'll save a full review for some point after I finish it, but for now it's safe to say that there is very little I like about his teaching style or the actual book layout. It's very disappointing.
On the Shotest Shogi XBLA front, I've made a couple friends from the xbox.com forums but have yet to play them online. They're beginners just as I am, so hopefully we'll be able to play at some point and maybe learn a few things together.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
More Shotest XBLA Impressions
I've had the chance to play more Shotest Shogi for Xbox Live Arcade and am still very pleased with the game, especially considering its low price. I've completed the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Tutorials and each was worthwhile, though short. I touched on the Beginner Tutorial in a blog entry yesterday.
The Intermediate and Advanced tutorials introduce four castles (mino, boat, yagura, and anaguma - "bear in the hole" for Hachi-one Diver fans), a handful of tsume shogi, and a couple hisshi ("brinkmate") problems. I plan on revisiting the Intermediate and Advanced tutorials since a lot was presented in a short time and I certainly did not absorb it all. Apparently there will be future DLC (downloadable content) that contains more instructional material. I definitely would pay for more tsume shogi.
I also played a few games versus the lowest ranked (1000) AI. It would be interesting to see how the 16 personalities compare to the PC version since I cannot even compete with the lowest skill level on the PC. It's fun to win every once in a while. :) Like I wrote earlier, the interface doesn't get in the way too much and it works about as well as can be expected with a game controller.
The game is not without its problems, though. As I mentioned yesterday, the piece placement sound is not a wood click as it should be. The presentation is nice, but there's far too much wasted space. On an HDTV, the screen is wider than it is taller.
In the screenshot above, just look at all the space wasted to the left and right of the board. Instead of placing the text somewhere like my artistically rendered red box, they put it at the bottom, which covers the board. That wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that they put the file coordinates there! Why not move the coordinates to the top where they won't be obscured? There's no option to change anything, which is extremely disappointing. I'd love to be able to move the text so that I can fully expand the board and get a better resolution on the pieces. They look so excellent on the PC version, but they don't get a chance to truly shine here because of the layout.
The sound and layout problems are issues that the developers can deal with. However, a much more tricky problem is that there seems to be nobody playing online! Last night around 8pm Eastern Time, I could not find a Ranked or Player (unranked) match at any time settings. Part of my initial excitement about Shotest Shogi on XBLA is that I thought it would become my main way of playing online. I see the Leaderboard is full of Japanese Xbox users so I know that people are playing. I wonder if we in the US are segregated from the Asian users? If so, that is a major problem. There seems to be very little interest in this game here, and posts I've made in the xbox.com forums barely receive any page views, let alone responses.
I sure hope the online situation improves, but for now I'm going to continue to enjoy playing the AI.
The Intermediate and Advanced tutorials introduce four castles (mino, boat, yagura, and anaguma - "bear in the hole" for Hachi-one Diver fans), a handful of tsume shogi, and a couple hisshi ("brinkmate") problems. I plan on revisiting the Intermediate and Advanced tutorials since a lot was presented in a short time and I certainly did not absorb it all. Apparently there will be future DLC (downloadable content) that contains more instructional material. I definitely would pay for more tsume shogi.
I also played a few games versus the lowest ranked (1000) AI. It would be interesting to see how the 16 personalities compare to the PC version since I cannot even compete with the lowest skill level on the PC. It's fun to win every once in a while. :) Like I wrote earlier, the interface doesn't get in the way too much and it works about as well as can be expected with a game controller.
The game is not without its problems, though. As I mentioned yesterday, the piece placement sound is not a wood click as it should be. The presentation is nice, but there's far too much wasted space. On an HDTV, the screen is wider than it is taller.
In the screenshot above, just look at all the space wasted to the left and right of the board. Instead of placing the text somewhere like my artistically rendered red box, they put it at the bottom, which covers the board. That wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that they put the file coordinates there! Why not move the coordinates to the top where they won't be obscured? There's no option to change anything, which is extremely disappointing. I'd love to be able to move the text so that I can fully expand the board and get a better resolution on the pieces. They look so excellent on the PC version, but they don't get a chance to truly shine here because of the layout.
The sound and layout problems are issues that the developers can deal with. However, a much more tricky problem is that there seems to be nobody playing online! Last night around 8pm Eastern Time, I could not find a Ranked or Player (unranked) match at any time settings. Part of my initial excitement about Shotest Shogi on XBLA is that I thought it would become my main way of playing online. I see the Leaderboard is full of Japanese Xbox users so I know that people are playing. I wonder if we in the US are segregated from the Asian users? If so, that is a major problem. There seems to be very little interest in this game here, and posts I've made in the xbox.com forums barely receive any page views, let alone responses.
I sure hope the online situation improves, but for now I'm going to continue to enjoy playing the AI.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Shotest Shogi Now Available on XBLA
I checked as soon as I woke up, and thankfully it's here. I didn't have too much time, so I completed the Beginner Tutorial to get it out of the way. As it turns out, the Beginner tutorial ends with a full match that is nicely annotated. It's not quite as detailed as the games in "Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Chernev, but it's well done and I definitely plan on reviewing it again. It *may* be a bit too difficult for a true beginner, but I could be wrong.
As with the PC version, the graphics are outstanding and the pieces (which default to Western style) are nicely detailed. The environments (inside and outside) add to the feel of the game and the music, to my taste, is somehow more appropriate and pleasing than the PC version's (which I've turned off). The controls obviously will not be as easy and intuitive as using a mouse, but they don't get in the way too much and I can't really think of a way to improve them at this point.
The only problem I noticed with the XBLA version so far is that the piece placement sound has changed from the nice substantial wood click sound to a softer chess-like felt on wood sound. I don't understand why they would have made this change and I hope a future update addresses this.
Easily worth the $10. :) I look forward to playing the game later!
Shotest Shogi on XBox Live
As with the PC version, the graphics are outstanding and the pieces (which default to Western style) are nicely detailed. The environments (inside and outside) add to the feel of the game and the music, to my taste, is somehow more appropriate and pleasing than the PC version's (which I've turned off). The controls obviously will not be as easy and intuitive as using a mouse, but they don't get in the way too much and I can't really think of a way to improve them at this point.
The only problem I noticed with the XBLA version so far is that the piece placement sound has changed from the nice substantial wood click sound to a softer chess-like felt on wood sound. I don't understand why they would have made this change and I hope a future update addresses this.
Easily worth the $10. :) I look forward to playing the game later!
Shotest Shogi on XBox Live
Monday, September 08, 2008
Shotest Shogi on Xbox Live Arcade This Wednesday!
shotest on wednesdayyes it is finally here
i will be happy
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Shogi Blitz Deathmatch
I've had a couple warts on my toes for quite some time and I've had them treated by a doctor for over a year. No matter what he has tried (including a painful surgery to cut them out), they've made their way back. Searching again over the internet, I've found a new process that I have not yet tried. The first step involves soaking the area in hot water for 15 minutes. The problem is, what should I do for those 15 minutes?
Well, inspired by the 24 hour 1 minute blitz "deathmatches" in Hachi-One Diver, I've decided to do mini deathmatches every day with Shotest Shogi 3D. :) The quickest blitz setting with Shotest is, unfortunately, 10 second byoyomi, so I've had to settle for that. I've completed my deathmatch session today with a final result of 0 wins and 6 losses. I wonder if I'll ever notch a win?
September Shogi Open at BrainKing
I've registered for the September Shogi Open tournament over at BrainKing. There is a maximum of 15 players (currently 13) and the time setting is 10 days per move. That's awfully slow, so I'm sure this will take a while. The major problem with a slow tournament is that I won't be able to join another one, even if all my games are completed since unpaid players on BrainKing can only be registered for one tournament at a time. Either way, the players don't look to be rated too highly so hopefully I'll be able to compete a bit.
It should be fun!
Friday, September 05, 2008
Slow Week for Shogi
Nothing much has happened in my Shogi world lately. I did start reading the Fairbairn book "Shogi for Beginners" and I've also progressed through more of the tsume shogi book I purchased at Mitsuwa. Surprisingly, the Fairbairn book is going slower because the first set of problems are much harder than anything I've come across in the other book. It's definitely not what I'd expect from a "for Beginners" book, but that's probably a good thing. Glancing through the other chapters, it looks like there's a lot of great material.
I also purchased a basic wood folding shogi set with plastic pieces from an eBay seller in Japan, but that has not shown up yet. The EMS tracking number I was given indicates that it left Japan on August 25, but I still have not received it. I'm not feeling all that great about this at the moment and I suspect I'll never see the board. When a seller's first email states that he won't refund the cost of shipping if it doesn't show up, my instinct is to say he's not going to send it. I hope I'm wrong about this one.
I also purchased a basic wood folding shogi set with plastic pieces from an eBay seller in Japan, but that has not shown up yet. The EMS tracking number I was given indicates that it left Japan on August 25, but I still have not received it. I'm not feeling all that great about this at the moment and I suspect I'll never see the board. When a seller's first email states that he won't refund the cost of shipping if it doesn't show up, my instinct is to say he's not going to send it. I hope I'm wrong about this one.
Update: The EMS tracker now shows that the package left Osaka on September 5. I wonder what they did with it for the past 11 days...perhaps they like Shogi.
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