Review #776: Assassin's Creed Chronicles

 They can't hurt you if you see them.

 What's the one era people have clamored for Assassin's Creed to cover? That's right, ancient China. And what about the popular novels/comic books Assassin's Creed Brahman and Subject Four, y'knows, the ones featuring Arbaaz and Nikolai? Well, Ubisoft delivered, with Assassin's Creed Chronicles we get: Assassin's Creed Chronicles China, Assassin's Creed Chronicles India and Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia. Finally we get the Assassin's Creed China we've always wanted, and finally we get to play as some popular characters from the spin offs! But that's too good to be true, for you see, the Chronicles series of AC is actually a series of low-budget, linear, 2-5 sidescrolling stealth games. Honestly, they should've made new throwaway characters for these games, or make them about Assassins we were familiar with instead of wasting these characters and locales on these lower budget enterprises.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles China

 In ACC: China you play as Shao Yun, a concubine turned assassin who sets out for revenge on the Templars that killed the Chinese assassin brotherhood. The story is not very interesting and the characters aren't well developed, but the story is told through some still images and voiced dialogue. The name pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, I kinda enjoyed the art design they went with, many objects look as if they were made out of colored brush strokes. It felt a bit cheap at first, but it grew on me. And while the game plays on a bidimensional axis, there's a lot of going in-and-out of the foreground, featuring twists and bends on the roads you must take, which leads to some very interesting levels.

 The game is very much a 2-D stealth version of Assassin's Creed. Your objective is to reach a certain goal, be it assassinate someone or recover one thing or the other, and most levels have an optional mini-objective worth a few points. Your Assassin can run, jump, climb on walls and ledges, usually painted red to signify you can grab on to it, slide, crouch, hide on the background, hide in crowds, carry corpses(In order to hide them as not to alert other enemies), dash between covers and the such. You get four tools to aid you: A whistle, that can divert enemy attention, a 'noise dagger' that's similar, a firecracker that stuns enemies and a dagger that can be thrown to cut ropes. Something that really helped getting me invested in the game was the fact that you earn new moves after you finish every level, heck, you earn the 'Helix attack', a special stealthy attack that consumes energy, after finishing the game to use in New Game+. Each level also has a couple of upgrades that can be obtained by playing well and earning a certain point threshold. Most of the time the first upgrade is easy to get while the second one is a bit tougher.

 Enemies' lines of sight are displayed as a white cone in front of them, and you're to do your best to keep out of their sight. If seen from afar, or if they hear you, they will start Investigating, while if they actually see you you'll enter Alert Mode, during which you need to hide for 10 seconds straight in order to reset their movement patterns back to normal. Pretty much Metal Gear Solid-lite. When enemies are alert, if they see you they'll go in for the kill. Combat is... passable. It works like Assassin's Creed 3 and 4, in which you have to hit them a few times before you can murder them with triangle(strong attack). You can keep hitting them with Square(Weak attack) but that won't put them out of comission. You can also parry attacks with the circle button, and roll over enemies to hit their backside(or attempt to flee). It feels a bit sloppy, but it's almost fun once you get the hang of it. That said, Shao Jun is very fragile, she can only take a single hit before going down if you don't manage to get any upgrades, and a normal playthrough will get you up to two extra health segments. At least your heals refills over time.

 Each of the 12 missions are divided into mini-segments and you're graded depending on how you played. Ironically for a game about a master assassin, you get the highest amount of points by never getting seen and not killing anyone. I hated the game at first, but it became much more tolerable when I stopped caring about scoring the 'Shadow Awards' and focusing on Brawler or Assassin. I managed to get at least one upgrade per stage, so I can't complain! The game can be very tough if you're going after high scores, but if you don't mind getting lower scores it's not too bad.

 I can't say I liked this game too much, but I'll also admit I'm not the biggest fan of stealth games. There are three 'chase' sequences in the game that I really liked, they were all about split-second platforming while killing enemies on the move, they were very exciting, very fun, and I wish the game had more moments like that instead of being such a slow paced game about waiting and waiting and more waiting.
 6.0 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles India

 The game is pretty much identical to China, so I'll go mostly over its differences and where it's a bit worse and where it's a bit better. This game is set shortly after the Brahman novel, and it's about Arbaaz investigating the Templars that kidnapped his friend. The art-style has shifted into a more defined, colorful aesthetic, and it shows that you can make a beautiful game on a budget. It really is pretty to look at, so at least it has that going for it.

 Arbaaz has gained a few new moves: You can roll after a jump, to conserve momentum, you can use non-lethal takedowns as well as looting corpses for ammo or documents(if the objective requires it). His tools are a bit different from Shao, he can whistle as well and has a sound-bomb that works just like the sound-dagger, but instead of the firecrackers we get a smoke bomb that blinds enemies instead of stunning them and his Chakram takes the place of the rope-cutting dagger, with the added benefit of being able to bounce on walls. Combat is pretty similar, but now you can dash to either side with X and parrying has been made easier since you only need to tap circle instead of tapping circle and hold on the analog stick the direction of the incoming attack. On the other hand, Helix Attack is now more like Helix Time, which lasts for as long as you've got Helix Energy, and basically turns you into a murder machine.

 But what makes the game worse.... is that it's much more frustrating. It assumes you played China already, so even the first stage is challenging. And what makes it challenging is that the scoring system is VERY harsh, you must stick to a style and get perfect scoring on every segment or you won't get upgrades. I had to replay the first level because I really wanted that health upgrade and I couldn't get it on my first try. On the tutorial stage. Enemies are brutal, some of them can take up to two health-segments with a single hit, and there are new Highlander enemies that you need to distract before you can even stealth-kill. Getting upgrades shouldn't be this annoying, which makes the game too frustrating for its own good. That said, we've got Chase stages again and boy are they fun! They are focused more on speedy platforming than anything else, and they've got some of the best level designs in the game. Honestly, this game really shines when it's you against the clock, and thankfully more than half of the game is made up of time-based stages. Sadly, the final stage has a really bland segment in which you have to wait for a vision-circle to move around before moving, turning what was a fun chase stage into a slow-paced slog. While it's two stages shorter than China, it has a few challenge rooms as extras.

 India is a bit weird that way, the unlock system is made into a chore, and the combat was made too challenging for poor Arbaaz. On the other hand, after you get through the first half of the game you get rewarded with plenty of chase stages, y'know, the game at its best. While I hated the first few stages, I think I the latter half of the game is much better than China.
 6.5 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia

 This one is easily the worst one of the bunch, and I'll get as to why later. You play as both Nikolai and Anastasia, a girl that has become possessed by Shao Jun. I'd like to say that both characters have different abilities, but in truth, they simply divided the previous games' movesets into both characters. Anastasia got the short end of the stick, she can't fight, she can't loot, she has no tools(besides whistling), the only things she can do are: Stealth kill and use Helix Powers. Nikolai, on the other hand, has tools, can fight, can stealth kill but can't use Helix Powers, at least until you finish the game. It's a... it certainly is an idea, that much I will say. The art direction has changed once again, now outdoor sections feature only grays and reds, you can only find color inside buildings. It's a decent idea, and I love red skies, but it makes this game look very boring in comparison to the previous games.

 Nikolai's tools consist of the whistle, a rifle instead of the Chakram/Dagger, which happens to be much more useful since it can easily kill whoever it hits, although it has a slow recharge, the ever useful smoke grenades return, but, instead of the noise dagger we get the Winch, a multi-purpose tool that can be used to pull specific objects towards you, break vent gratings or shoot an electric pulse that can be used to trigger certain machines, break fuse boxes or electrify anyone standing over water. New elements to the basic gameplay include using telephones to distract guards and, remember how ACC:India had a sniping section at the end of the game? Well, hope you liked it, because there are more of those in this one. They are pretty decent, if you ask me.

 So how does this game falter? Well, level design. The same punishing unlock system from ACC: India returns, which sucks, because this is the hardest game of the bunch. What makes it so hard is that many stages seem to be built around trial and error, you just have to retry multiple times until you understand how the guards move and interact with their designated areas. Other parts require very strict and ridiculously precise timing to pull off, the final stage is particularly egregious about it. Remember all the Chase stages I've been gushing all over? They are pretty much gone in this game, instead, a few stages have a Chase segment included in them, which is rather lame. The final level is a Chase stage, but it's so frustrating. After I finish the game I wasn't feeling accomplished, but rather, I felt relieved I didn't have to play this game anymore.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles - Russia was pretty bland, the previous games failed to impress, but this one managed to disappoint pretty well. It's a shame, because it seemed like by the end of India they had figured out what made these games better.
 4.5 out of 10

 All in all, the Chronicles series of games are alright for the most part, but it's a crime that Ancient China and the Russian civil war got covered by these games instead of a proper game on the main series. I don't know why Ubisoft opted to cover new eras under this lower budget banner, but I'd say the end result left everyone a bit disappointed.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #775: Metro Redux(Switch)

 I'm never taking the Metro again.

 Metro Redux is a two-in-one pack containing both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux. Originally I was gonna write about each game individually, but come to find out that Metro 2033 Redux was rebuilt from the ground-up in Last Light's engine, so in the end, both games feel like two parts of one big whole, since they share every single gameplay mechanic, a few assets and even the UIs, the only difference between both games on offer is the story. This was, in my eyes, a bit disappointing, since I was looking forward to seeing how Metro: Last Light would evolve the gameplay, only to find out that Last Light Redux was pretty much a level pack. It was even more disappointing when I did some research on the original Metro 2033, and while the textures were not as good as the ones in Redux, I dare say that the artistic design was much better. In other words, you could think of both games as a single unit with two different sets of levels and storylines.

 So what is Metro? It's a first person shooter with survival horror elements. Taking place in a post apocalyptic world in which the air on the surface of the earth has turned toxic, so people went to live inside the underground Metro stations. Sadly, Nazi and extremist Communist parties formed below, vying for control of the dwindling resources, add to that the fact that humanity has to contend with another problem: Hideous monsters that roam the surface and the underground. You play as Artyom, a ranger with a mysterious connection to the Dark Ones, mysterious beings that humans don't comprehend. In the first game, Artyom sets out with a message to Coronel Miller from a missing Hunter, which takes him through various Metro stations while learning about the Dark Ones. The second one has Artyom sent on a mission to assassinate a baby Dark One, but it quickly goes awry when he gets captured by enemies and must now survive the fascist and extremist parties while trying to fulfill his mission. I liked the story in Last Light a bit more because I felt it was a bit more emotional, I actually grew to like a few of the new and returning characters.

 The games follow a very linear structure, just like Half-Life 2, and this is something I liked a lot. There are very few 'blackout' scenes that teleport Artyom from one place to the next, so it feels like one big adventure that you're always in control of. Something new in these Redux versions is that you get multiple difficulty settings to play around with, as well as two different 'styles': Spartan and Survival. The first is an easier mode, which is built after the original Last Light release, with more ammo and enemies to fight, while Survival works like the original Metro 2033 release, less ammo, less enemies but more firepower. I played both games in the Normal - Survival setting and had fun with them, although I went with the Normal - Spartan setting for the included DLC stand-alone missions, which, by the by, are hidden in the "Chapters" menu of the second game, under the "Play New Missions" sub menu. One thing to keep in mind when playing the North American Switch Version is that Last Light was censored, so that now every girl is wearing a bra. No nipples for Switch, I guess. Graphics are really good, but loading times are fairly inconsistent, sometimes they are short, sometimes they are long, but at least reloading after dying is pretty quickly. For the most part, loading times were fairly tolerable, but a very few times it might surprise you how long it can take.

 The world of Metro is a very interesting one, because high-grade bullets are your basic form of currency. These bullets can be traded for new weapons, customizing your old weapons, buying health packs and air filters or to buy low-grade ammo for your weapons. Heck, if you're carrying any sort of automatic rifle, these high-grade bullets can double as powerful ammunition, provided you are OK with shooting money. Playing both games in Surival - Normal I can guarantee you that there's more than enough high-grade ammo to restock on everything on every visit to a Metro station, and I never found myself needing to use those bullets as ammo. That said, from what I've heard, the other difficulty settings are a bit tougher, so if you want that authentic survival horror-ish feeling, go for it.

 What will get a bit tense would be any time you have to go up into the surface, because a gas-mask alone just won't cut it, you need to change the filter every now and then, unless you want to die, which turns surface outings into timed missions. You also have to be careful, because enemy attacks will slowly break your mask, and if it breaks you're done. Of course, you can savage more masks and filters from corpses or even from fallen human enemies, if you happen upon them, so it's not too bad. While it may sound annoying, the surface parts of both games weren't bad at all, and the ruined vistas you get to traverse are actually a pleasure to look at. In that way, the game offers a very distinct atmosphere for the surface and the underground. The surface is ripe with enemy monsters, but it's brightly lit and the environments are more open, while the underground features more corridors and tight environments in which you'll fight more humans than monsters, they are also very dark so you have to rely on light sources to scavenge supplies.

 Unexpectedly, the game has a strong element of stealth, and since you want to conserve your ammo, it will be your tool of choice when battling human enemies. There are fun little things you can do like turn off light sources in order to conceal your presence, while also being wary of having your own flashlight turned off, as not to alert them. In both games you'll eventually get night-vision goggles which will make your stalking much easier. The AI is pretty dumb too, so it's not too hard to cheese them with stealth, at least on the normal difficulty setting.

 I enjoyed Metro Redux a lot, even if the fact that Metro 2033 Redux feels like a Last Light level pack miffed me more than I care to admit. I mean, I would've liked the real Metro 2033 experience, with the original graphics and mechanics, but I'm happy I at least get to play both games. It's also rather neat how well they got these games to run on Switch, while it's capped at 30 fps, the framerate feels very stable and the graphics look great. In other words, a great port of a great game.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #774: Fist of the North Star - Lost Paradise

 Yakuza goes Mad Max.

 Yakuza and Hokuto no Ken are things I really like, so it should be no surprise that Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, a Yakuza game with a Hokuto no Ken coat paint would be something I'd enjoy. You get a small city to walk around in while partaking in the usual Casino minigames and even a hostess minigame, it's Yakuza it had to be here, while punching enemies to death. A lot of voice actors from Yakuza reprise similar roles here, it's a bit surreal hearing Yakuza voices under Hokuto no Ken skins, and lemme tell ya, Takuya Kuroda(Kiryu) does a fantastic job as Kenshiro.

 The story is a very loose retelling of the Raoh arc but framed inside a bigger storyline concerning the city of Eden and the King of Ruin. So while Kenshiro will meet Rei, save his brother Toki from the prison of Cassandra, battle his impersonator and brother, Jagi, fight Thouzer and eventually attempt to settle things with Raoh, you'll also be embroiled in the story of Eden, assisting Xsana, the governess in defending the city of Eden and its secrets from the King of Ruin. Alright, I'm gonna be completely honest here... I hated what they did with the original storyline. Hokuto no Ken has a massive bodycount, both allies and villains, and while the early cutscenes in the game fool you into thinking the game will follow suit, barely any character dies. They might've done it in case they ever made a sequel, but it makes events such as the fight with Thouzer kinda lame. Rei is my favorite character in the series and they did him dirty, he loses to both Kenshiro and Thouzer and doesn't even manage to scratch either, which is quite infuriating, but he also gets turned into a damsel in distress by Jagi. Lame. That said, I absolutely adored the new cast of characters, Xsana, Jagre, Lyra and the King of Ruin are pretty interesting characters and have neat designs. The final boss is a bit disappointing, both for Yakuza standards and because the game itself had much cooler fights before it. It has one of the most epic uses of the "Omae wa mou... Shindeiru" line though.

 On another note, the tone of the game is quite different from the original manga. Not only do we have a ton of surviving characters, Kenshiro isn't as lethal as he used to be. Plenty of times after a cutscene Kenshiro will let the enemies live because reasons, heck, when you first fight Targa, Kenshiro says that he 'doesn't want to fight him'. That's not Kenshiro, Kenshiro forgives no one. The sidequests have plenty of silly, humorous moments, but they are pretty clearly written with Yakuza's brand of humor and not Hokuto no Ken's. Does any of this impair the game in any way or form? Not really, but I think they could've done a better job writing Kenshiro as Kenshiro and not as Kiryu.

 The game runs on Yakuza 0's engine rather than the Dragon Engine, so while the graphics aren't cutting edge, it runs at a smooth 60fps. Besides, it has a gorgeous cell-shaded look that makes everything pop and look straight out of the manga, albeit with colors. Getting used to Kenshiro's proportions may take a while though, he is one thick, beefy boy with thick, beefy limbs and the tiniest of butts. If they did something right with Rei it was giving him a proper butt. But I digress.

 Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect out of Yakuza, you walk around town engaging in both main story quests as well as side quests, or 'sub stories' as the games call them. Most of the things you'll do involve punching enemies, a lot of enemies, as they died in gruesomely delicious explosions of blood, since Hokuto Shinken is invincible and the style revolves tapping pressure points on the body in order to make it explode. Or heal itself. Or cure blindness. Or whatever the plot demands. The game goes a bit overboard with this, not unlike the filler anime episodes, so Kenshiro can heal random citizens by pressing their pressure points and get rewards out of it.

 Combat is fairly simple, square produces your basic attacks, triangle are your strong attacks, X is your dodge and circle is a bit special. Pummeling enemies will fill a skull icon next to their health bar, once full you can press circle to put them in the Meridian Shock state, which allows you to use a super move by pressing circle again. Or you can press circle again with the correct timing in order to hurt them before putting them in the Meridian Shock state, assuming they even survive it. The combat is quite fun, and dancing around the battlegrounds while tapping circle to make everyone explode is quite fun. The battle system is a bit more fun than Yakuza, since it allows for bouncing enemies around and hitting them while they are on the air, you can even use the circle presses while they fall. That said, there are no weapons, aside from solidified Hidebu screams left behind by fat enemies(I know) that you can pick up and use as a weapon for a few swings, and it can take a long while before you get any useful way to deal with crowds of enemies. And even then said tools are a bit lackluster. If you are lucky you'll face lower level enemies that you can spam circle on(Enemies that are about 10 levels or so below yours have their skull icon filled by default), or you could use Toki's technique to deal with two enemies at a time.... or if you are feeling naughty, you can use your Burst Mode in order to send everyone flying and crashing against each other. Burst Mode can be used once its gauge is full(By defeating enemies and using super moves) and grants you access to a few exclusive moves as well as extra power. Ken rips his shirt when entering burst, although just as the anime(And the manga, to a much lesser extent) it returns as soon as you exit burst mode.

 There's a fairly decent upgrade system in place here, every time you level up you earn a basic orb that you can spend on any of four branches: Body, Technique, Skill or Talisman, and every orb space on each branch has different benefits, from plain health or damage upgrades to extra Burst time, new super moves, new burst techniques or what have you. You may also randomly, or by defeating bosses, receive specific orbs that can only be used on their specific branch. As much as I enjoyed upgrading Kenshiro.... there's no way you'll be getting the most out of the upgrade system without playing the minigames, for you see, there's another, consistent way of getting these orbs: Trading points earned in the Casino, the Colosseum or Races for them. The grind is not as harsh and annoying as it was in Yakuza 0, but boy if I didn't spend an unnecessary amount of time playing the Colosseum in order to max my Body and Technique skill trees. If you are smarter, you'll trade your money for Casino chips and then trade those chips for the orbs. While there are no weapons in the game, you can craft Talismans to give yourself extra attacks(Such as a field of fire), benefits(such as healing over time) or utilities(Such as a free fuel refill for your buggy) but... most of the time I forgot about them. They have long cooldown times(Like 30 minutes or so) so it's not like they were something reliable or what have you.

 As with any Yakuza game there are tons of activities for you to do. There's Bar Tending, a Hostess manager, buggy racing(With a customizable Buggy!), a Rhythm doctor Ken minigame, Casino(Black Jack, Roulette, etc) as well as Baseball Batting.... with living enemies as the balls. Most of them are decent. The Racing mechanics are pretty slippery, and I think that them being so bad actually makes racing, and even driving outside of Eden, kinda fun. I know the buggy controls like hot garbage, but dammit if it isn't fun to drive around the post-apocalyptic dessert. On the other hand, we have the bar minigames.... You absolutely need to do the bar tender minigames if you want to completely every substory in the game, but while these minigames are fun on paper, the more difficult tasks(Rotate Right analog stick, Press the four face button in a certain order, Shake the controller), specifically the hard versions of the Analog Stick or Button pressing ones are quite tough and annoying, to the point that I think it might ruin your joystick. Their execution leaves a lot to be desired. I want to play the game, not break my joystick because I have to put pressure on the analog stick due to a dumb minigame.

 The game is pretty lengthy. I managed to finish over 60 out of the 80 sub stories and it took me almost 30 hours to finish the game. I feel like gating so many sub stories behind minigames was a bad idea, for instance, I really don't care about the hostess management, but I know it has a few sub stories that can only be done by advancing through that mode. They also went back in how sub-stories work, as they are no longer marked on the map, which, in my opinion, is a step backwards. Now you are supposed to run aimlessly through town, entering and exiting stores and what not checking to see if the new chapter you are in or if whatever sub story you just finished granted you access to new sub stories and you happen to come across them. Having a single playable character again also stings a bit, Hokuto no Ken has a huge roster of side characters, most of them die throughout the course of the story but hey, and by this time Yakuza was already giving us multiple playable protagonists, so.... I would've expected at least to have Rei playable. Did I mention Rei is my favorite character in the series? Alright....

 Fist of the North Star - Lost Paradise is probably one of the best Hokuto no Ken games out there, and I think the developers did a fine job at mixing it with Yakuza's gameplay. That said, I think they took a few missteps here and there that keeps it from reaching its full potential. Considering how they made most characters survive the ordeal, I wouldn't mind the Yakuza Team taking Hokuto no Ken in a new direction, with a playable Rei as an alternate character. Or Shu. Or anyone from the Nanto Seiken school. Just... stay away from Shura, nobody unironically likes Hokuto no Ken after the Raoh arc.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #773: Saint Seiya - Soldiers' Soul(Playstation 4)

 Guess I'm gonna keep this double dipping trend goin', huh?

 A few years ago I was a current-gen hating kinda guy, so I got Saint Seiya - Soldiers' Soul for the PS3. It was fine, lest for a few performance hiccups, but since I'm the kind of guy that hates to let a good deal pass him by I somehow found myself with a copy of the game for PS4, and here we are.

 While my original write up is all kinds of bad, I really don't feel like treading over old ground, so I won't go into much detail. As a whole, this is an arena-based 1 on 1 fighting game. It has a decent amount of modes and a large cast of characters, even if it has a ton of clones. Characters like Saga and Kanon or Bud and Syd share a few moves as well as their appearance. There's no reason as to why SeaDragon Kanon and Gemini Kanon shouldn't share a slot, the God Cloths are basically moveset clones of their basic counterparts.... so it is a decent roster, but there's a lot of fluff on the character select screen. Character models are very simple, but they are also very colorful and crisp, while the armors every character sports are very shiny, all in all it's a beautiful game. On the other hand, unlocking everything takes a long time. A looooooooooooooooong time. One way or another you'll be grinding for money. Spamming Shion's R2+Square on VS CPU battles in "First Strike" mode is the easiest way, or you could attempt Survival Mode endless times or try your hand at the second Soul of Gold board. Whichever poison you pick it's gonna be a bit of a drag.

 One of the game's biggest selling points is how its story mode covers the entire anime, all four arcs including the filler(Which in a surprising turn of events wound up being the only saga in the series I could consider passable) Asgard Saga. The cutscenes are very low budget, being made up mostly of characters standing around while flapping their lips, but thanks to dynamic camera angles and top-notch voice acting it's far more lively than boring anime cut-outs. Since Saint Seiya was kind of a big deal in Latin America, this version of the game gets both Portuguese and Latin American dubs. At least the LAS version managed to get most of the original cast back, so kudos for that, I replayed the entire thing with Latin American voices and sans for some iffy Japanese-to-English-to-Spanish translations it was pretty dope. The Sanctuary, Asgard and Poseidon arcs are well told, however, the final arc, Hades, doesn't fare as well. The early parts of the saga are missing a ton of characters, so it makes for a very haphazard retelling, events like being told that Seiya got sent to Cocytus and moments later that he got back, ignoring his fight against Valentine, or Eurydice not getting a character model, so Orphee's story is glossed over in a very unfulfilling manner. The later part of the saga is just as bad, even though they finally have all the characters needed. For instance, Seiya is the one that defeats Hypnos instead of the other Bronze Saints, and the other four don't even get to awaken their God Cloths in a cutscene, they just show up wearing them in time to watch Athena fight Hades, instead of helping in the fight as it happened in the manga. Saint Seiya's story is pretty bland, full of plot holes and poorly explained shenanigans, but the Hades' arc gets the short end of the stick.

 Thankfully, what really matters, the combat system, is more than adequate for an anime fighting game like this. Extending combos is built around dash-cancelling(L2+X), and while it doesn't really fit the series, taking fights into the air is quite fun. It's not quite as exciting as, say, My Hero One's Justice, but it gets the work done. That said, Special and Super moves are kinda iffy because not all of them can be comboed into, it feels like the only way to use some attacks is to get the enemy to whiff their basic attacks and try to hit them then. Heck, it seems that only the overpowered God Gold Cloth-wearing Saints are able to combo into their Super Moves, something that makes them undeniably better than any other character in the game. So... it's a decent combat system, but it's not perfect.

 Well, I'll say that I agree with my initial assessment of the game. It's decent, it's fun, but it could use a lot more polishing. The PS4 version has faster loading times, and the 60 fps framerate is quite a boon, but otherwise it looks and plays the same.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #772: Fantastic 4

  Has no right being this fun.

 Alright, alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Fantastic 4 is pretty darn mediocre, but considering how movie tie-in games in the era used to fare... that's a good thing. This is an isometric beat'em up game in which you play as the Fantastic 4, in teams of 2(Fantastic 2? Fantastic Duos?) as you go through the movie's storyline as well as a few extra chapters. The game looks like vomit and sounds like garbage, but there's a surprisingly fun beat'em up hidden beneath. Funnily enough, I actually purchased this game by accident, I thought I was purchasing Flame On!

 The game is about 6 stages long, divided in multiple substages each. About 30% of the game follows the plot of the movie, which would've made for an incredibly short game, so they beefed it up adding some villains from the comics, such as Anihilus and the Molemen. Each sub-stage has you playing as a team of two, pre-selected for you, so it's not pick-and-choose. Bosses, however, allow you to play as the entire 4-man team. Stages are mostly about defeating every enemy in the vicinity, but sometimes there are some very light puzzle elements involved, like using Reed as a bridge for his partner to walk through a gap, or breaking walls as The Thing. Very simple.

 A and B are your basic attacks, and sliding your button from the A button to the B button produces another basic attack. R is used to block, L is use to swap between the available characters, the AI taking control of the other character. And yes, they can and will cost you a few lives. Double tapping on the control pad lifts objects, which is pretty much useless since most enemies either rush you or attack from afar, making  throwable objects a hazard on your lifebar. There are two super moves that cost energy: R+A and R+B, and they get automatically upgraded as you advance through the game. Sue Storm has an exclusive move, by double tapping R she can go invisible. There's no involved combo system, however, bashing enemies was surprisingly fun. A few enemies are a bit too annoying for their own good, mostly the projectile-based enemies, but it's not too bad. The only glaring instance of horrible game design would be a section in which you have to turn invisible in order to go through laser walls. The problem being.... you might not tell in time that you need to turn invisible and you might grab the energy crystal with your other character, and if Sue is out of energy... well, you'll have to kill Susan in order to respawn with a full energy bar. Exiting and Entering the room won't respawn the energy crystal.

 This is not a hidden gem, not by any means, but considering I thought this game was gonna be horrifying after looking at it.... well, it's a surprisingly fun beat'em up. It's not a very involved game, or a very deep one, but it's not a horrible way to waste a few minutes of your time.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #771: Disney's Lilo & Stitch(Gameboy Advance)

 It's Heavy Machine Gun time, yo!

 Full disclosure, I never watched the original film Disney's Lilo & Stitch is based on, nor have I ever cared about it, if anything, I always thought Lilo and Stitch were kinda lame. That said, during my Emulation days I remember coming across this game, and lo and behold, it was a Metal Slug clone. Who came up with that? Don't care, give'im a medal. That said, I never played past the first stage, otherwise I would've discovered that the game's got a bit more variety than that, something that becomes a bit of a detriment....

 I'm pretty sure it doesn't follow the plot from the movie, although it might follow an episode from the TV Series, I don't know. What you need to know is that Mosquito aliens kidnap Lilo and Stitch ventures out to save her. The game is made up of 7 stages, only 3 of them play like Metal Slug, as Lilo gets two stealth missions, Metal Gear style, finally, there are two tube-ship shooting stages, y'know, those pseudo 3-D on-rails forward-scrolling shooters. And yes, I did just look that up on Wikipedia, since I didn't know how they were called. On another note, the game looks gorgeous, character sprites are incredibly faithful to the source material, like something out of a SNES era Disney game.

 The Metal Slug stages are the best part about the game, and if those were the only stages in the game it could've been an easy 8. Stitch can jump and shoot, as well as chuck grenades, limmited ammo, with the R button. You can tank up to 4 hits before losing a life, and you can come across gun power ups that give you 50 wall-piercing super powered bullets. These parts can get a bit tough, but shouldn't take you more than a game over to conquer. The final boss is a bit cheap, with very unfair hitboxes, but that's the only bad part about Stitch's sections. The ship sections are passable and very, very forgettable.

 But the thing that really pushes the game down are Lilo's stages. They are boring and annoying, I must've lost over 20 lives on the first part alone. Just getting twice by most enemies will murder you, and there are some annoying slime-aliens that can insta-kill you by capturing you in a bubble. Some parts are downright unfair, in her second level there's a section of the stage you might enter running only to wake up a slime alien you just couldn't predict was gonna be there who will encase you in a bubble the moment you take a step to the left. There are alos green-tentacle aliens that are tough to avoid, eventually I figure the best way to do so was by running towards them and as soon as Lilo's arms touched them, jump over them. It worked quite well except for the few times they'd actually turn around and murder me. These parts have no checkpoints which only add to the tedium, losing on Lilo's stages means doing every single puzzle again, having to hold R to walk very slowly on some parts or having to wait for enemies to move so that you can ride while they have their backs towards you. I hated these parts.

 I wish I had better things to say about Lilo and Stitch, but then again, I also wish the Lilo stages weren't in the game, so there's that. The worst part about the game is how solid, if a bit too simple, Stitch's stages are, if they had spent more time developing those gameplay elements instead of biting more than they could chew it could've easily been a better game. In other words, the great parts about the game last too little and its worst parts feel like they last for too long.
 5.5 out of 10

Review #770: Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[CL-R]

 Be careful what you wish for....

 5 yeas ago I played this weird little Japanese fighting made by the creators of Melty Blood. Nothing in that game made sense, but it was amazing. Well, that weird little game with its weird long title got an even weirder and longer title and is back as, um... Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[CL-R]. Yeah, don't even try to make heads or tails of it, what you need to know is that it's an anime 2-D fighting game that looks like Guilty Gear but plays more like Street Fighter Alpha, if that makes any sense. In any case, it's really good, alright?

 As with most 2-D fighters published by ArkSys, the game offers a healthy plethora of modes: Arcade, Chronicles, Versus, Online, Score Attack, Time Attack, Survival, Training, Tutorial and Mission. Most are pretty self explanatory, Mission mode being a set of combo challenges unique to each character that get tougher as you go down the list, tutorial is a very in-depth guide in how to play this game and could help you with any other fighting game. Chronicles could've been exactly what I wanted from the last game, but my wish was twisted into a boring facsimile. Y'see, it's a 22-chapter long visual novel style thing. There are no fights in these, just story and story and more story, and it's SO BORING. It's written like Blazblue, so there's a ton of inane dialogue that dwells on the small stuff and goes on and on and on. I'm no stranger to visual novels, and I enjoy text-based games, but this is just exposition with no gameplay, and they go for a very purple prose styled narrative, dwelling on what the point-of-view character is feeling or thinking all the time. I wanted a proper explanation to what was going on with the first version of the game, but not like this. Not like this. As for the Arcade Mode, the few story tidbits cover the same story that the first iteration of the game covered, although the 6 new characters get their own new bits, for what it's worth.

 When I first played the game, it had 16 characters. Since this is it's third iteration I would've hoped we'd be on 24 or 25, but no, we just hit 21 characters. 20 characters is more than fine for a competitive fighting game, but considering this is an additive series, I expected more. The five new characters that have joined the roster are great, save for Maki who seems to have lost her way from a waifu-fighter like Asuka 120% or Arcana Heart. Each character starts off with 20 different color schemes, and you can unlock 20 more for each, for a grand total of 40 color palettes per character, not too shabby!

 Little has changed as far as the game goes. There are a couple of new things you can do with your energy gauge, it received its mandatory balance changes, but the brunt of the game remains the same, and that's just fine, because the game is fantastic. You get four buttons A-B-C-D, the first three being attack buttons and the D button can be used for your ultimate attack or a veil-cancels. The game is fast, but not as fast as Guilty Gear, and there's a lot of freedom when it comes to making combos. It feels good and it looks good. It's definitely very easy to play, since connecting moves is simple, but it's got a very high skill ceiling if you want to really get good. Plus, if you're lazy you can just mash the A button for an auto-combo, but making your own combos is really fun in this game, so I'd avoid it.

 The game's key mechanic is the GRD gauge. As you deal damage you'll fill a gauge that lies next to your energy gauge, and every few seconds the game will buff whoever had the highest GRD by the time. This means that the player that's doing better will get a few advantages. It's not so huge an advantage that whoever is losing will lose even harder, but the GRD is a good reason to do better. I like this momentum-based gameplay a lot, I thought it was a great idea back then, and it still is.

 There's a very weird quirk with this game, any time you suspend the game, it will make you lose whatever you were doing. Had a good winning streak in Survival mode? Hope you didn't suspend the game, because the game will force you into the Lose screen. Heck, this goes on for Arcade Mode too. I don't know why this happens, but I don't like it.

 I really like Under Night In-Birth, if you ask me, it's one of the best modern fighting games out there. I also like the fact that it's one of the very few completely new fighting game IPs that's been made in decades. Regardless, 5 years since I played the original release, I'm somewhat disappointed that so little has changed or been added to the game. I would've been quite happy just with more characters, but two iterations later and we've barely gotten to 21 characters, it's kind of a letdown, y'know?

 9.0 out of 10

Review #769: My Hero One's Justice 2(Switch)

 Slightly more Plus Ultra than the previous game.

 Last year's My Hero Academia game was, I felt, a fairly decent base for future MHA games to expand upon. My Hero One's Justice 2 is more of the same, but in this case, it just might be a good thing.

 The game offers a passable amount of modes: Story, Mission(Based on clearing maps made out of different fights, as well as 'recruiting' characters and leveling them up), Arcade(Three routes per character, although you can select the order of the fights), Training and Customization. I'm sad to report that the story mode is just as bland as it used to be, it covers the story from where the last game dropped off(rescuing Bakugo) up to the fight against Chisaki. Once again, finishing the story mode unlocks the Villain Side. What makes the Story Mode so awful? Well, the fact that it's told through static comic-style panels, and I'm pretty sure it won't make much sense if you aren't familiar with the storyline. The previous game had about three cutscenes, this game has 6 or 7, and they are pretty good, so good that I hate it that we don't get more cutscenes instead of the boring comic panels. Weirdly enough, most cutscenes only play on the Villain Side, which makes no sense considering the actual storyline is the Hero Side. Oh, and they also filled the story with filler fights. Oh, and the credits go on and on and on and on and you can't skip them. Remember when Bakugo beat up Hideki for money? Well, it's a full-fledged story fight now because why not.

 Well, the game plays pretty much exactly the same. You've got a basic combo string, two Quirk buttons that can be altered by flicking the analog stick in any direction before pressing either button, which means about 4 different Quirks(Special moves), dash and dash cancelling, which consumes energy, two super moves and the ability to summon Sidekicks to come in for an attack or to push back an enemy that's comboing you. The game looks slow on videos, but it's anything but, although the Switch version caps at 30 fps, so it doesn't look as smooth as the PS4 version. I thought the gameplay was pretty fun back then, and it still is. Zipping through the air, fighting on walls, knocking enemies around and causing destruction all around you looks and feels fantastic. That said, this is pretty much the same exact game, although I'm pretty sure it has been tweaked to flow a bit better, in the previous game sometimes I had trouble connecting with Deku(Shoot Style) attacks, but it seems like they tightened the tracking on his moves or something, regardless, the combat does feel better, but I'm not sure exactly how they made it better.

 Still, what makes this game so much better is the fact that it doubled the game's roster. The first game had 20 character(23 if you count the DLC), and this one has 40, which means you get at least 17 new characters to play with, even if three of them are alternate versions(Deku 100%, Shigaraki v2 and an alternate version of Chisaki). There's actually a 21rst character if you preordered, like I did, a boring Nomu that doesn't even get a Level 2 Super Move. It's a horrible bonus character, so if you didn't get him, trust me, you ain't missing out. The customization element is still fairly good, there's a good amount of accessories to put on your character, although most of the accessories return from the previous game if I'm not mistaken. What really sucks are the color schemes, I think they added only 1 or 2 new schemes, and schemes are shared between characters, which really sucks, each character should get unique color schemes if only to add more color variety. I'm also not a fan of having to set a customized preset(3 per character) in order to use alternate costumes or colors. What if I really like the many alternate colors of Bakugo and costumes? I need to enter the customization mode and alter a preset in order to pick it, which is rather lame.

 I heard some pretty horrible things about the first game's performance on Switch, but this game runs pretty well all things considered. A few characters like Todoroki are more likely to make the framerate dip, since they have more intense particle effects on their moves, but most of the time it's very playable. I mean, framerate drops are frequent, they really are, but this is an anime fighter, it doesn't really matter. That said, the final boss in Story Mode is a giant monster-thing, and... well, the framerate does sink very, very low during that fight. The loading times are fine, although it feels like this game murders the Switch's battery.

 My Hero One's Justice 2 is what I expected the first game to be. It has a respectable 40-character roster and fun but simple gameplay that makes it very easy and fun to play. Considering it's not a competitive fighter, it's surprising how fun cancelling attacks into each other and making long combos by dash-cancelling feels. All the chaos and destruction you can cause on the environment is just the cherry on top. Hopefully we can start getting proper storymodes on future games.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #768: The Yakuza Remastered Collection

 Finally, Yakuza 5 has officially seen a physical release on the West.

 I've written at length about the Yakuza series, so with The Yakuza Remastered Collection I'll take a slightly different approach. There's no need to delve into what are these games, as every Yakuza game is basically the same, for good or bad. Contained in this box are Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5, and as far as I can tell, Yakuza 5 is the only one that hasn't been changed in any way. Which is just fine by me, since this is the Yakuza game I've waited years to play.

 Yakuza 3 Remastered

 This is the one that has changed the most, although just for us Westerners. A few spicy sub missions involving a crossdresser got completely axed, which no great loss there since they weren't all that fun or funny. On the other hand, most of the minigames that didn't make it into the original localized version were restored.... which doesn't really change how much I like Yakuza 3 since I didn't care too much about those in the first place.

 That said, Yakuza 3 is fantastic, I liked it a lot, although it has a much slower beginning than other games in the series. Everything I wrote last year about this game holds true to this day.

 Yakuza 4 Remastered

 Ah, Yakuza 4, the first Yakuza game I ever played, purchased it at release too! It was the first game to include other playable characters besides Kiryu. While a lot of people still mock it for the Saejima-related plot twist, I'm sorry, but I found the climax of the story to be incredible, and every now and then I still talk about it with my friends. The game's biggest change is also it's only change, Tanimura got completely redesigned and his lines are now read by a different voice actor. It has to do with the original voice actor being found guilty of possession and other shenanigans which is why he didn't return for 5.

 You've no idea how much I loved this game. I was just shy 1 trophy away from Platinum-ing the game before my hard drive got corrupted. And I went into the "Flashbacks" section just for the trophy... only to find every storyline prior to be amazing, it completely sold me on the series. So... yeah, coming back to this game was quite a treat.

 As previously mentioned, this was the first Yakuza game to offer more than one playable character, 4 in fact, an each character gets their own set of chapters, their own moveset, a master to train with, sub-stories and goals: Kiryu has to defeat a gang, Tanimura has to attend to police matters, Akiyama has a Hostess Maker minigame and Saejima has a Fighter Maker minigame. It's not as dense or as lengthy as Yakuza 5, but it's definitely a step above previous games in terms of length.

 I replayed this game after playing 5, and it was interesting how this game actually runs on a slightly different engine, combat feels a teeny tiny bit stiffer but also crunchier, and it's much more gorier. I mean, enemies can end up drenched in blood, and it's glorious, I actually wish they would've kept it like this.

 Say what you will about 'that' plot twist, I still think the story in this game is amazing and ridiculous in all the right ways. Plus, adding more playable characters felt like the best addition to the series since being able to change the direction of your attacks in Yakuza 2.


Yakuza 5 Remastered

 The one that got away, Yakuza 5, considered by many one of the best games in the series. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's definitely the biggest Yakuza game by far. You thought 4 characters was alright? How about 5. Tanimura is no more, in his place comes Tatsuo Shinada, an ex-baseball player accused of cheating and Haruka Sawamura who.... well, let's say I disagree a lot with what they did with her. Since each character is pretty much their own world, I'll write briefly about each.

 The developers must have taken to heart a few of the criticisms from 4, because now you start playing as Kiryu right away, now taking the alias of Suzuki. He gets the city of Nagasugai. Kiryu is a balanced fighter with a ton of different Heat actions for different situations. He lost the Red Heat ability, but now you can press R2 to enter a Super Mode for as long as your Heat gauge lasts. His story revolves around him trying to keep away from Haruka's dream while getting embroiled yet again in the Tojo/Omi Alliance affairs. He gets Taxi driving sub missions, which are really fun, you have to give good advice to your passengers, while respecting the traffic code. You also get to partake in racing against the Devil Killers, a gang of speed racers. You can customize how your taxi looks as well as the music that plays during races.

 Saejima returns for the second set of chapters, beginning his story in prison but it's not soon before he starts getting harassed by other inmates. Eventually, he gets to escape in order to find out who killed Majima and what's going on with the Tojo. Saejima is a power house that can charge his Triangle attacks and is the only character capable of lifting the heaviest objects. His style is now all about bouncing enemies on the ground in order to grab them and spinning them around. Saejima's story takes place in Tsukimino as well as a small village, his side missions being about Hunting. You have to take food into the wilderness, aim in first person and shoot in order to hunt deers and bears. It's surprisingly fun.

 Akiyama is the third chapter, well, half of it, for you see, he gets the short end of the stick and has to share his chapter and city, Sotenbori, with Haruka. He doesn't even get side missions.... but at least he gets 15 sub-stories like everyone else, I guess. His story is tied to Haruka's, as you'd expect, since he returns to recover the missing money that he lent to Haruka's producer, but it's not as simple as it sounds.... Akiyama is fast and nimble, but he is a bit weaker and has less health than the other guys. Now he can press triangle to juggle enemies into the air and keep hitting them by mashing square.

 Tatsuo Shinada is the final chapter before the Finale begins, after being framed for cheating at Baseball he has been making ends meet by writing smut for porographic magazines... as well as borrowing money from loan sharks. An eternal loser if you will, he gets contacted by a not-so-mysterious figure to discover why he was framed. He gets the city of Kineicho. At first I hated Tatsuo, but I grew to like him, just like Akiyama, he isn't a legendary Yakuza power fantasy like Kazuma or Saejima, he gets tired and he gets pummeled by characters other than the big bads. He is fun, he is different from the others. His fighting style is quite different too, he is built around grappling enemies, so he can interrupt his square combos with circle to grab enemies or press triangle when in hit mode after a finisher attack in order to tackle enemies into a grapple. He is also a weapons expert, so he wields weapons in his own unique way, and he is able to find unbreakable, but weak, versions of the Knife, Katana, Pole and Rod. His side missions are about Batting and meeting up with his old team mates.

 Haruka... oh boy, Haruka. Let's start with her story, it makes no sense. Anyone who's played Yakuza 2 knows that she hated the idea of becoming an idol, so in Yakuza 5 she decides to become an Idol. Which, fair enough, people change, but she does so at the cost of Kiryu having to abandon the Orphanage which makes absolutely no sense for her. What about the fact that the producer, Mirei Park, is a bonafide jerk who gets portrayed in a very sympathetic light. She manipulated Kiryu into leaving the Orphanage and his kids, for "Haruka's well being since paparazzi would flock to discover her origins' and then she'd threaten Haruka that if she didn't perform well she'd stop paying for the Orphanage. Yet everyone is always saying good things about her and making her dream a reality. No, no way, screw her. Then there's the way Haruka is portrayed, in previous games she's always been a headstrong character, but now she's very submissive and docile, letting her rivals put her down because she's now a 'soft spoken waifu' type character. As a whole, I really didn't care about the trials and tribulations of an Idol, so I found her story to be completely boring, even though I grew to really like her supporting cast, Yamaura, Christina and Yoko, but her story as a whole just didn't do it for me.

 The worst part about Haruka is that she doesn't even 'fight' in the traditional way, instead she has 'Dance Battles', which are basically rhythm button-pressing affairs. How awesome would it have been to see Haruka perform some of Kiryu's staple moves? But, whatever, Japan feels very strongly about gender roles, I can understand that, so why not give her Tanimura's defensive style? That could've worked too. I actually liked the different songs Haruka got to sing, but this isn't really what I want from a Yakuza game. He side-missions are about Idol duties, like giving handshakes to her Otaku fans or picking the right answers during interviews. I won't go as far as to claim that Haruka ruined Yakuza 5, because I didn't hate her part, but I hate what they did with her character, and I found her part of the story to be the most dull.

 If you couldn't tell by now, Yakuza 5 is HUGE. There are five different towns, each with a ton of side activities to partake into. Each character has their own set of Side-Missions(Except Akiyama), their own 15 sub-stories, their own fighting styles and their own Masters they can learn from. If I had one gripe, it'd be that until you get to Kamurocho you can't go above level 20, which sucks because a lot of experience points earned from Sub Stories might get wasted. For a completionist like me, each character took me about 10 hours to complete, so I was about 40 hours in before the Finale, the fifth chapter in which all characters meet up in Kamurocho, and then I cleared the game after hitting the 57 hour mark. It's a massive, MASSIVE game and it's pretty fun to boot.

 The Yakuza Remastered Collection is one amazing deal, and its release means that now you can experience the entire story of Kazuma Kiryu on PS4. That said, Yakuza games are pretty samey and repetitive, so you should take a breath before starting up Yakuza 5.
 10 out of 10