Now Playing: Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble

 Now that's one badass name for a game.

 Kenka Bancho is a game that will teach you how to be a MAN. It's all about manliness and badassery and being a manly badass and reaching new levels of badassery. Needless to say, this is a game I can get behind.

 I wasn't planning on playing something new this early, but Jeanne D'Arc's infamous 'protect the dauphin' mission kinda took its toll on me(4 tries and counting!), but Soul Reaver 2 hasn't arrived yet, so... Kenka Bancho it is.

 I love the fact that the game is VERY Japanese. In a good way, there's no fan service or pandering, yet it has ridiculous over the top things like the MENCHI BEAM. Because a real man starts a fight with the MENCHI BEAM, which initiates the STARE DOWN. And I love it.

 I can already predict that it will, probably, get a bit repetitive, but so far it's kinda fun. The fighting is a bit too simple, letting you customize your moveset is fun, but it's not like you can pull off anything fancy with the system. At least not now anyways, maybe once I level up my speed further? Whatev's, back to my quest of becoming the TOUGHEST MAN IN JAPAN.

Review #223: Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver

 Because Kain's arrogance is large enough to contain yet another game.

 Remember that old chap, Kain? Y'know, that guy who got killer, then turned into a vampire, and then had to decide either to sacrifice himself, and the vampire race, for the good of Nosgoth, or damn them all and, well, live? Well, he chose the latter. And he wasted no time, he made himself quite the army, with Raziel being his right hand. And then Raziel had to go and evolve before Kain, which made Kain a bit angry and offed Raziel... Or so he thought. Kinda. Turns out Raziel spent 500 years in pain, but a strange voice claims to have helped him. Sure, he lost some weight. And his jaw. As a matter of fact, he lost his physical form, but thanks to this new benefactor, Raziel is now a Wraith. He can consume souls to will himself into the material world if he so chooses you. Raziel is pissed, and now makes it his quest to end his killer, Kain, and the rest of his brethren.

 Soul Reaver is a third person adventure game not unlike Zelda. Y'know how Zelda loves the 'two worlds' mechanics? Well, Raziel gets to travel between the Material world and the Spectral world. As a matter of fact, you can go into the Spectral World at any time, and you are forced into it if you lose all your health. The only way to enter the Material world, however, requires Raziel's 'stamina' to be full, which is done by consuming the souls of the denizens of the Spectral world, and then you must find a blue portal. The dynamic between both worlds is quite interesting, since Raziel has no matter, he can't interact with anything on the Spectral world(Besides ledges and the such), however, the Spectral world is twisted, literally, so a previously unreachable ledge might be easier to get onto through the Spectral world. Sometimes you'll have to move a block, pull a lever or the such in the Material world, so as to be able to reach someplace else in the Spectral world.

 And then comes my first problem with the exploration, which is the lack of directions. The world of Soul Reaver is kinda large, but there's no map or compass to help you guide your way. Whenever you are given hints of where to go, the voice will say 'Go West of X', which would be helpful if only I knew where West was! Speaking of the voice, there are no real 'checkpoints' in the game besides the 'Gates'(More on these later), and while you can save your game at any time, every time you continue your file, you'll start from the voice's abode. This can translate into a lot of walking, and maybe even solving some platforming puzzles again. Then we have the 'Gates' that teleport you to other 'Gates', but the only way to distinguish these gates is from their symbols. So you better remember that the symbol that looks like a 3 takes you to the Swamp. Was it so hard to just write the name of the area below the gate? It's needlessly complicated!

 There were also a couple of kinks with the overall gameplay that are a bit hard to ignore. The camera is a bit wonky, every now and then, it's gonna stick way too close to Raziel's back, luckily you are given manual input over it with the shoulder buttons(Why not the right analog stick?), and you're going to need to use them to get the most out of the camera. The game also has some very noticeable framerate issues, sometimes they can get in the way of your inputs, making you miss actions like jumps. It can get a bit annoying. The game also tried to make away with loading screens, which was a noble endeavor, but you can tell that the game will sometimes slow down in order to allow it to load, and if it gets coupled with the framerate issues... well, you are in for a bad time! And lastly we've got the jumping... some of the jumps demand a bit too much precision, and Raziel's movement really isn't up to snuff.

 Combat is a very simple, one-button affair, but there's some nuance to it. Your enemies in the Material World are different forms of devolved vampires, and vampires just can't be killed by normal means. You must find weapons to impale them with, water or fire to throw them on, heck, even sunlight will do the trick. You'll also need to consume their soul if you don't want them coming back to life! Early through the game you'll earn the Spectral Soul Reaver, which only manifests on the Material World if your health is full, the Soul Reaver makes your enemies explode, so that even if you don't consume their souls, they can't come back, so it encourages you to do well in battle, keep your health and thus keep the powerful Reaver.

 As you defeat the Vampire Generals you'll earn different skills, which can be used for puzzling, battling or both. As a matter of fact, it's a good idea to backtrack whenever you get new skills, as there's a lot of goodies to be found. There's items to extend your health bar in the Material World, and there's 5 hidden 'Glyphs', which are powerful spells to deal with enemies. All of these are optional, and many of them are hidden in optional dungeons! There really is a lot of stuff to see and do in Soul Reaver. Even if some of it is a bit... cryptic. Some of the puzzles I admit where a bit too complex to finish without a guide, there's this one puzzle in particular, a boss actually, that you need to realize, somehow, that you can lure it outside his arena, and then, somehow, figure out to bring him back to a previous room in the dungeon, in which you already solved the puzzle, and activate the mechanism to destroy him. I'd really love to know how are you supposed to realize all of this by yourself.

 The game looks fantastic, no two questions about it. There's not a whole lot of different enemies, but each 'sub-race' looks different enough. Bosses are large and menacing(As menacing as the PS1 can make them look anyways), and then there's Raziel... Raziel's design is incredibly unique, and the in-game model does it justice. While the Spectral World can be a bit dull in all its blues, Nosgoth is a pleasure to explore, and each area is unique enough so that you can easily identify them. If one thing is consistently top-notch in the LoK series, it's the voice acting, and this game is no exception. Kain's Voice Actor is as phenomenal as always, and the newcomer's Raziel's voice actor matches him in quality. The music can be a bit forgettable, there are many different tunes, but I'd be hard pressed to remember any of them.

 I criticized the game a lot, but the fact is, the game is excellent. There are issues, there are flaws and it has a couple of problems, but the game manages to pull through. Exploring Nosgoth and finding all of its secrets was a blast, most of the puzzles were fun to figure out, even if a few can get a bit too complex.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver

 It's a doozy.

 Raziel has to be one of the greatest characters ever conceived. Both in his outward design and the story surrounding him. He loos amazing, mysterious and interesting, his abilities and limitations also play a huge part in what he is, and so is his story and the trials he faces until his eventual fate in Defiance, but I'm getting ahead of myself, ain't I?

 Speaking of 'the greatest things ever', the opening FMV to the game has to be one of the most iconic scenes in gaming, at least of its era. I didn't remember much of the game(Though it came back to me as I payed), but the opening? That one's engraved on my memories for life. It's short and straight to the point, giving you all the information you need to know, it's brutal, and thanks to the accompanying  narration, makes you feel empathy towards Raziel, who is supposed to be a bit of a prick. And then there's the fact that it looks amazing to boot. And it doesn't end there, the game's presentation is top notch as well. Graphics look glorious for a PS1 game, and using the PS3's smoothing options makes it look even better, the voice acting is up to it's usual high standards(For the franchise) and the music completely immerses you in this decayed Nosgoth.

 But looks don't make a game, not that it would matter, since Soul Reaver plays relatively smooth. The camera needs some manual aid, but control Raziel is simple, despite him having a ton of actions under his belt, and disposing of the enemy vampires is a blast. Kain really didn't have the best interest of his kin in mind when he redesigned Nosgoth in his image, so many pointy decorations on which to get impaled? And so many torches on which to get burned on? Kain, you moron!

 You could say that I'm liking Soul Reaver a fair bit, and you'd be right!

Second Time Around: Blood Omen 2 Part 2

 This is what I'd call a Hot Mess.

 Man, where do I start with this one? Maybe by saying that it's a wonky game. Gameplay is wonky, level design is wonky and the presentation is wonky. Take the gameplay, moving and exploration feels OK, with a few quirks, like not being able to glide too far(An invisible barrier will stop you in your tracks!) or how rotating actually rotates Kain, without any leg movement. And the combat? It's slow and clunky. Don't get me wrong, it works and gets the job done, but you'll notice some oddities, like being able to interrupt some enemy combos, or getting stuck in place because the hitbox of their attack actually hit you, even if the animation didn't. Speaking of weird hitboxes, sometimes it feels as if unless you are actually targeting the enemy, your attacks won't register. Sometimes. As a whole, combat feels clunky.

 Then there's the level design, which is a mixed bag. Levels look amazing, that's the biggest sell of the game, the gorgeous architecture and artistic design of the world of Nosgoth. But as for the levels themselves, they have some issues. Firstly, I've seen a lot of people call this one an action game, they are wrong. The puzzle-to-slashing ratio favors the former. There's so many puzzles that sometimes they feel forced, or without a raison d'etre. It's easier to make my point with a couple of examples... For instance, there's this stage in which your path eventually leads you into a random house, and said house happens to have a cracked floor and a box. Just because. But why did Kain even consider entering THAT house in particular? Or another stance in which the road forks, on one end there's a gate, and on the other one there's a warehouse. For whatever reason Kain decides to fumble with the controls, there's no hint as to WHY you are doing it, but you happen to free a monster that takes care of the gate. It's like there's puzzles for the sake of puzzles, but they couldn't be bothered to give you a reason to do them, so to speak. Since I mentioned that time in which you must enter a house, sometimes you'll have to open doors, which sounds like something stupid to mention, but the game is full of doors, 90% which you can't open, so if your path ends for whatever reason, you have to approach every door to check if it gets highlighted and you can open it. It feels random. That said, most of the puzzles were actually quite entertaining to figure out.

 And then we come to the performance... This may be exclusive to the PS2(I heard it was the worst port of the game), but the game runs terribly. The framerate is horrid, expect drops at a second's notice. The cutscenes are terrible as well, particularly on the sound department. Sometimes, ambient noise will drown out the voices, which is particularly annoying, or some cutscenes will lack music, or sound effects and sometimes, even both. On the flip side, voice acting is pretty good for the most part, with a couple of exceptions. Kain's VA is still top-notch and completely sells you on the character.

 Speaking of Kain, nay, of the Legacy of Kain, this game feels superfluous. It does little, if anything, to further the lore of the franchise. Sure, we get to see Kain be an arrogant prick, which is entertaining, but it does little for the franchise as a whole. Then there's the fact that it introduces a couple of plot holes. Y'see, Defiance was meant to explain that Kain actually revived Vorador, and Janos' resurrection as well, but as with most Legacy of Kain games, it was rushed and the explanations were never given. The end result, is that this game not only does little for the lore, but it actually introduces a couple of plot holes. Way to go. And as much as I enjoyed the script, the 'love' subplot was executed terribly, Kain never shows any kind of endearment, or even thought about Umah, but we are to believe that he felt something for her?

 Y'know what's the saddest part about Blood Omen 2? That beneath all of its issues lies a good game. There are good ideas, if a bit half baked. With some ironing out, it could've been really good, but as it stands, it is a memorable game, just not a particularly good one.
 5.5 out of 10


 And now comes the part where I re-read my old review, just for kicks... Wow, I actually agree with the me of two years ago, heck, I mentioned things I actually forgot, like the dumb AI or the terrible checkpoint spread. I also mentioned that the dialogue had some particularly bad lines, but to be honest, I can't remember anything to cheesy, except maybe the Seer's pleasure at being bitten but Kain. And I like the fact that I appreciated how the environments looked, since it is a very appealing world.

 This concludes the 'Blood Omen' branch of the Legacy of Kain series, sadly Kain won't be playable again until Defiance, but I'll get to see him quite a bit. Hopefully he is as arrogant as he was(I can't remember much of Soul Reaver's characterization!).

Review #222: Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain

 Why hadn't I played this game before?!

 Blood Omen had a rather... tumultuous development, barred in shady deals and mystery, which wound up with Kain and the world of Nosgoth, both conceived by Dennis Dyack from Silicon Knights, in Crystal Dinamics hands. Luckily the end result wasn't affected by it, even if it's a bit sad that the creator lost his character and the world he had imagined.

 The game is an isometrical adventure game in which you play as Kain, a nobleman, who finds himself without drink or bed, and is killed under an assault by bandits. Luckily, the game doesn't end there, a mysterious benefactor offers him a chance for revenge, in exchange for his humanity. Now a vampire, revenge is everything that Kain cares about, and about 30 minutes into the game, he achieves it.... but that's not the end of it. Kain gets, much to his chagrin, tied up in restoring the Nine Pillars that hold the world of Nosgoth together. The story and the lore of Blood Omen are both very interesting, it's a very bleak, dark setting, with a very deranged cast of characters. Most interesting of all being Kain, Kain is no hero, but he is not a villain either. He is given the option, if he so wants, to feed on helpless victims, as well as kill any non-important NPC in the game, if the player so wants to. You don't have to, but nothing is stopping you, and due to his vampirism, drinking the blood of these poor peasants might be the only way to heal yourself. But that? That's just a facet of his persona tied to the gameplay, Kain has a personality, and he will offer a lot of monologues, in which he always loves to inject his opinion or feelings about the matter. He is a very colorful narrator to say the least, and listening to him is always very interesting.

 The game has often been called a 'Dark Legend of Zelda' and the comparison is valid, but it's also so much more. Kain is a vampire, which I mentioned like three times already, and this confers to him a wide variety of spells and abilities, all of which must be found around the world of Nosgoth. He can transform into Bats, Wolf or Mist forms, not unlike Castlevania's Alucard, as well as disguise himself in order to be able to enter towns without having guards trying to slay him or be able to speak with NPCs. Bat form is a glorified teleportation method, it allows Kain to automatically fly to certain marked locations on the map. Wolf grants him speed and allows him to jump over small obstacles, while Mist lets him walk over water or other harmful floor obstacles without a hitch. Finally, Kain can strengthen his basic form by equipping different weapons or armor, all of which have nice secondary effects. For example, his basic armor provides protection from fire, but there's one that automatically sucks the blood out of his enemies, so that he can simply hack away, one that deflects some of the damage back to his enemies and another one that divides damage between his life bar and the mana bar. Then there's the weapons, the club can't kill, so you can feed without accidentally killing an enemy, as well as destroying certain boulders, and the axes are fast and deal a lot of damage while also being able to cut down certain trees, or a fire sword, that is just awesome and burns down your enemies.

 Then there's spells, of which there are many. You have a boring bolt of energy, which is quite useful, the Repel spell, which is the best spell in the entire game, it makes Kain invincible for a while as well as deflect any projectile that comes his way. There's also one spell that makes enemies fight each other, one that lets him possess an enemy, and another one that sucks the blood out of every nearby enemy. Options, there's many of them. As you've probably guessed, the game has many puzzles that involve all of Kain's abilities. Some are as easy as stepping over a tile or a switch, but you'll also need to use your spells and forms in order to get around. And just like Zelda, the game takes place on a rather large overworld, and it has a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of optional content. The game actually keeps track of the 'secrets' you find, there's 100 of them, and finding all of them without a guide is quite the task. The rewards do vary though, sometimes you'll get just a couple of items, but a few of them house items that increase your life bar and mana bar, as well as a couple of spells that are pretty easy to miss( And you don't really need, but they are nice to have!).

 And despite how awesome it sounds, it does have a fair amount of flaws, but I chalk them up to its age. The combat, while offering a lot of choice, isn't all that good, it's a very simple 'mash square' affair, no dodges, no blocking, no nothing, but the worst offender being the hitboxes. Sometimes they work on your favor, sometimes they don't, basically, you'll see a lot of slashes, both from you and your enemies, that should've hit but didn't. Take your energy blasts, a lot of times I knew that I hit thin air, but it still registered as a hit(Not that I really cared, since it made my job much easier!). And as soon as you get the Repel spell, the game becomes noticeably easier. As a matter of fact, couple the 'reflective armor' with Repel, and enemies kill themselves while attempting to kill you, without damaging you, and since they deal little damage to themselves, they end up on the 'sway animation', allowing you to feed. The camera is also a bit... unsatisfactory. You can zoom in or out, but the zoomed in camera is atrocious, you can't see anything coming up ahead. And the zoomed out camera doesn't always have Kain on the center, so it can be a bit disorienting until you get used to it. Still, you can zoom out even further(So much that Kain becomes invisible and an arrow has to point at his location), which is useful for scouting out the area.

 But the most annoying part of the game? The loading screens. There's a loading bar for every menu that you enter or exit, any area that you enter or exit. Oh, and you need to enter these menus to change your equipment. They tried to accommodate for this by forcing you to use 'quick menus', basically, you have to go to the 'Start' menu, and put four spells on a 'quick menu' and four items on another one, then if you want to use any of those, you press R1 for spells or R2 for items, and then you select them, so that you can press X to use them. But even in that case, the quick menus have a very quick loading in and out, at least it's much faster than going to the start menu. But weapons? Nope, gonna have to get used to the loading times. It's pretty annoying in certain sections in which you need to use the axes, to cut down trees, but want to use spells or items. Y'see, equipping the Axes doesn't allow you to use spells or items, so if you are low on health or want to use magic, you are gonna have to go in and out of the menus, to equip and unequip the axes, and then back again. There's only a couple of these areas, but you are gonna hate them.

 There's no way around it, the game is ugly. The game employs a rather muddy color palette, and the character and monster sprites are rather ugly, you can actually make out some details on them when zoomed in, but losing sight of your surroundings isn't worth it. And the FMVs? They are animated quite awkwardly, and the characters are rather ugly(Particularly Kain)... however, I kinda looked forward to them, due, not in small part, to the fantastic voice acting. Every character in the game sold me on their performance, as a matter of fact, listening to Kain was quite delightful! And it'd better, guy's really talkative! The music was also really good, it set up the dark, mysterious mood that Nosgoth promises.

 At the end of the day, I put up with all its quirks, because the game is so damn good. As a matter of fact, I'd say that the game was a bit ahead of its time. Having an anti hero as the playable character, a day and night cycle, that strengthens Kain at night, and sometimes it requires a particular night(Say, full moon) to access some areas, and the whole, big overworld with NPCs that could be killed in a whim... It certainly was ambitious, far more than what the developers could harness on the PS1 at the time. It's a dated game, one with personality, with great ideas and a good execution, bar some limitations at the time.
 8.0 out of 10

Second Time Around: Blood Omen 2 Part 1

 Kain's back!

 I did finish Blood Omen 1, but since writing about it would take longer than writing a 'Now Playing' thingie... here we are, I'm dead tired, sue me.This is the thing... Not only have I played BO 2 before, but I also covered it on the blog(In a very cringe worthy way). Which is why I'm gonna be a lot more loose with this one, it's more of a... 'let's see how it stacks up now' kinda thing. After I 'review' it again, I'ma check back on my previous piece and compare if I had the same issues as before, or if I found new ones or whatever. And another thing, since I'm replaying it, I used the Soul Reaver cheat, and I'm not even ashamed!

 So, things I like: The graphics. I like the environments, the architecture, I love it, it makes Nosgoth comes to life. Sucking the blood out of your enemies(Or victims) feels so flippin' good, it oughta be one of the most rewarding things in gaming ever.

 Then there's the things I don't like... like losing health constantly, I understand WHY they did it, but I don't like it. And the controls? Who though tank controls were a good idea!?

 All in all, I like what I played.

Now Playing: Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain

 And thus begins the Legacy of Kain-athon.

 So, what does the Legacy of Kainathon entails? There's five games in the series, with two 'branches' that merge into the fifth, final game. There's the Blood Omen branch, which includes Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2 and the Soul Reaver branch that includes Soul Reaver and Soul Rever 2, and then there's Defiance, the last game that ties both narratives together. Kinda, since it picks off from Soul Reaver 2. Regardless, there's two ways in which you can play these games, if you care about chronoligical order that is: Blood Omen, Blood Omen 2, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and finally Defiance or Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2 and Defiance. Why is that? Blood Omen 2, technically, takes place on an alternate timeline created during Soul Reaver 2. But the way I see it, Blood Omen 2, whether it's what actually happened or what happens after fumbling with the timeline, it follows Blood Omen, so it makes sense to play it after Blood Omen. And yes, I did review Blood Omen 2, but I will give it another look and see how I feel about it two years later.

 Thus begins my journey with Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain. It's... it's surprisingly fun. I mean... it's an isometrical adventure game, with a very dated, muddy look and the combat is simple to a fault... and yet something about it sunk its claws on me. At the outset, the game looks massive. There's 9 pillars that require fixing, which involves killing its keeper, and I gave the map a look... and it's kinda huge. I like how it seems that the game will give you a ton of abilities, I read the instruction booklet, so I know that I will get an axe at some point, and with it I will be able to chop down trees! Not only that, I got the wolf form and now I can jump over small ledges! I can't wait to see what the game throws at me. That said, I'm cautiously worried about bosses, just how much fun can they be with these simple mechanics? Combat involves mashing on Square and hoping for the best, no dodges, no defense no nothing... although I found out that it's pretty easy to move around enemy attacks before slashing them a couple of times and then rinse and repeat. Still, there's no depth to the combat, so... let's see what the game pulls off.

 All in all, it feels like a great way to start the franchise, and this style of gameplay won't be revisited by any of the subsequent games! That said, I noticed that there seem to be a rather obvious focus on puzzles, which is what the other games focused on as well... except Defiance... But I'm getting ahead of myself, and my memory of Defiance and the Soul Reaver games might fail me. There I am, digressing again! All that matters is that Blood Omen led me off to a great start!