Review #308: Dishonored - Game of the Year Edition

 Where's my honor?

 The best way to describe Dishonored is: Thief meets Bioshock. This is a first person stealth game with varied combat options and a realistic, but cartoonish art direction.

 The story centers around silent protagonist Corvo, bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwall and her daughter. Dunwall is under the ever-growing threat of a deadly plague that turns people into zombie-like beings call Weepers. Back from a trip for information, the Empress is assassinated, her daughter is kidnapped and Corvo is blamed for both. But that's OK, there's a resistance group that knows about the conspiracy and sets Corvo free, in order to use him as an assassin, for the greater good. And it gets better for Corvo, the Outsider, a supernatural being, visits him and grants him powers. It's a cliche set-up, with cliched characters and a plot twist you'll see coming from leagues away. Still, there're a couple of memorable characters, like Granny Rags, that hide more than a few surprises, and so many 'books' and notes to read that enrich the overall lore of the game.

 The game follows a very simple structure: You are given a mission on your hideout, and then you get to prepare and buy all your necessary supplies, sometimes, you might even be given sidequests on that particular mission, which most of the time consists of assassinating someone. There's about 8 different missions, which all take place in different areas(Although, sometimes, they might share starting areas). Missions themselves are decently long, some contain sidequests, and all of them hide numerous collectibles: Bone charms, which can be equipped for bonus passive abilities, Runes, which are used to acquire spells. and all sorts of items from supplies to money. As for the missions themselves, they are fairly entertaining, there's many different ways to tackle them and finish them. There's always a non-lethal route as well. And your choices, whether you do sidequests or not, and how you deal with your targets, will affect the game in various different ways.

 Corvo wields his blade on his right hand, and the left hand is used for spells and long-ranged weapons. Melee combat is elegant in its simplicity. R1 attacks and R2 blocks, blocking right before getting hit will execute a parry. Holding L2 enters a sub-menu where you can equip a gun, a crossbow or the different spells that you can acquire, and are used with the L1 button. It's so simple, but it works so well and it's so much fun that it's a shame the game actually discourages the use of violence! The more you kill, the harder the game will get. There will be more guards and more weepers. As a matter of fact, a couple of sections actually feature endless waves of enemies, so you'd better not be spotted, and if you are, escape! What's more, this will also affect different facets of the game, from the behavior of certain characters, to what happens in the last chapter and how it all ends. Still, you can do away with enemies in non-lethal ways, either creep behind them and choke them until they pass out, or use sleeping bolts. Either way, they won't wake up for the remainder of the mission... but you should probably hide their bodies.

 The bone charms allow for a noticeable degree of customization towards your play-style. For instance, I always opt for brawling(Which also means I got the worst ending!), so I picked the charms that made enemies miss their shots more frequently, the ones that made it so that I would win more blade clashes and another one that made it less likely for my bolts to break upon shooting them, so that I could pick them up after a scuffle. Then there are the runes. There's simply not enough runes in the game to get every ability, so this will also factor in how you develop your character. There's both passive and active abilities, and each can be upgraded once at the cost of even more runes. Now that I think about it, you could probably get every ability, at the cost of not being able to upgrade any. Anyways, passive abilities include having enemies turn to ash if you kill them without them noticing, and its upgraded version, having every enemy that you kill turn into ash. There's extra health, faster movement and even and 'adrenaline' passive that lets you use instakill attacks after crossing a few swords. As for active abilities, there's the mandatory, and always useful Blink, which teleports you a short distance away, possessing enemies(and rats!), having rats eat your enemies and even a wind blast. There's not a huge amount of different spells, but they are enough as to allow you to customize your playthrough. I went with all the passives, and an upgraded Blink, first, since I was always getting into fisticuffs, but had enough runes left over to learn Time Bend and get(And upgrade) the wind blast ability.

 The GOTY edition includes all the DLC as well, of which quality varies depending on each. There's 7 'packs' that grant you bonuses at the start of the game, a ton of extra cash and extra, and exclusive, bone charms. Then there're the 3 major DLCS: The Trials of Dunwall, which has no story whatsoever and is just a collection of challenges and... I didn't care about it. But I know that some people do enjoy these, so there's that. Then there's The Knife of Dunwall and the Witches of Brigmore. These make up one single story, following Daud, a character that appears late into the main game, and run parallel to Corvo's story. These DLCs pull no punches, they expect that you have already finished the main game, and they are tough. As for Daud, he gets a slightly different spellset and arsenal from Corvo. Slightly. They also have a few different enemies, and entirely new environments, missions and objectives, which make them feel like more than just a retread from the main game. Naturally, them being DLCs, these missions don't offer as many alternative approaches as the one from the main game, but there's still quite a few.

 Dishonored is a fantastic game, and I think it's in large part due to how simple it is. It's a very simple, very predictable, but effective story, a very simple, but very tight gameplay that's very easy to learn and understand, but thanks to the alternatives the game provides for you to tackle each mission, as well as the many options you have to deal with your enemies, it doesn't get boring. When it comes down to it, the only reason I'm not scoring it any higher is due to personal taste, I like more action as less hiding, heh!

 9.0 out of 10

Review #307: DmC - Devil May Cry

 Just cry already, dammit!

 This game never really had a chance, did it? As soon as Dante's redesign was revealed, fans got up in arms, and they wouldn't let Ninja Theory hear the end of it. Many of them argued that 'it's not just about the hair'... but isn't it really?

 First, Story and Characters... it's gonna be a while. This game was meant to be a reimagined reboot, so everything's almost completely different. The premise resembles the movie 'They Live', were people are being controlled by propaganda, this time by demons, and the bad guy also uses debt to control everyone. It's not a novel idea, but it's been rarely used in videogames in this way before. I liked the story, Devil May Cry has never, ever had a good story and it made up for that with cool. You saw cool characters doing cool stuff and that was the end of it, and it didn't really matter, because story was never the main draw. What isn't good, and it's something you'll realize during the opening cutscene, is that the dialogue isn't very good. It's funny, because the audiovisual presentaton nails the look they were going for perfectly, very reminiscent of those old 90s action movies like The Crow, and somewhat like the opening scenes of the first Highlander film. But the dialogue comes across as if its trying to hard to be dark and edgy, at times it feels cringeworthy and forced.

 A lot of criticism has been leveled towards new Dante, mostly because he is a 'douchebag'. And he is. Towards his enemies, that is. Y'know, kinda like old Dante. Remember when Rudra and Agni offered their help, and Dante responded by 'No talking', and then smashing their heads because one of them did? Or how about when Lady asked him if he had killed her father, and his answer was 'What if I did?'. Dante's always been a dick towards his enemies. And this Dante cares about his allies, he cares about Kat and even asks her about her past, he cares about her when she is about to get captured. He cares about Vergil, his brother, even when they don't see eye to eye. This Dante hates demons, but when he sees one being harassed by other demons he goes to help him, and then Dante asks him to take him to a certain place, which the demons answers 'I'll help you if you help me first.'. Dante doesn't complain, doesn't hurl insults back, he hears him and helps him. Does this Dante seem like a dick to you? He isn't much more of a dick than Dante, the same Dante that cracked a joke in DMC 4 after Sanctus started laying death and destruction. Something that Sanctus was only able to do because Trish decided it would be a good idea to give them Sparta. But maybe being a dick is only OK if old Dante and his pals do it. And when it comes down to it, Dante has had THREE different personalities already, who's to say that this isn't Dante either? There was a lot of complaints about a joke, when a white wig falls on Dante's head and he says 'not in a million years', some even claiming that this was NT's way of saying 'Our Dante is better than yours'... it's just a joke, particularly considering that, spoilers, Dante's hair ends up white anyways.

 Combat is like a simpler version of previous games. The skill barrier is set lower, not to say that the moveset is limited in anyway, just that making and maintining SSS combos is incredibly easy. On previous games, your combo rank would decrease over time, not anymore, now it only decreases if you get hit. Plus, repeating the same moves over and over again do increase your rank, although at diminished returns. There's plenty of finger gymnastics involved if you want to create combos, but there's a ton of options. Triangle, by itself, uses Rebellion, the sword, and circle performs an enemy launcher. But holding L2 when pressing either will make Dante attack with an Angelic weapon, or holding R2 allows him to use Demonic weapons. There's two of each, and you can switch them on the fly by using the directional pad. Basically, doing large, varied combos is very, very simple, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And it looks cool to boot, as cool as 30 fps allows anyways. It doesn't end there, Dante can use fire arms with Square, or combine it with either L2 or R2 to produce two different chains, one that pulls enemies towards him, and another that pulls him towards enemies, not unlike Nero! I can't stress this enough, there's a ton of different moves and possibilities with the combat system.

 The one thing I did find annoying was the lack of a targeting button. Let's be honest here, the lock-on reticule was serviceable on previous games, but it was there and it was helpful. There's no such thing here. And enemies require different strategies here. Some will have attacks bounce right off them unless using either a demonic or an angelic weapons. Others can't be approached haphazardly since they have super armor on, there's winged enemies that are best dealt with by shooting at them, to break their wings, and then pulling them towards you. There's even shielded enemies! So the combat is not mindless, although much easier than previous games, and a lock-on feature would've done wonders for the game. Plus, as much as I liked so many options in combat, sometimes it's easy to get confused, since there's so many different button combinations,

 Which shows mostly during the platforming sections in the game. These are deceptively simple, 'cause you see, you might have to pull, with the demon chain, objects towards your path, or grapple through certain blue orbs by using the angelic chain. It's not hard to mess up the inputs. That said, these sections look complex, but they are very easy and require little thought put onto them. Jump, jump, maybe do an air dash, pull something, air dash, grapple, air-dash, land, rinse and repeat. They are very mechanics once you properly remember which combinations gets which chain out. Previous games had a small, but existent, exploration element to them. There's none of that here, but, you are free to explore, which will net you keys to open doors(that must also be found!) in order to access different challenges, for health and devil trigger upgrades.

 Thankfully, the game borrows the best additions from DMC 4: Red orbs and White orbs are different currencies, both are earned by scoring high combos and mission rankings though. Doesn't stop there, just as with DMC 4, white orbs are used to buy moves, which can be refunded as well. Even better, the store shows you a preview video and lets you try them out before you buy them. It might be a bit too much for the system though, scrolling through the different moves makes it feel as if the game is choking, and, as a matter of fact, the game froze on me once while buying moves!!

 The level design is alright. It's made up of a lot of cyans, oranges and blacks, and that's about everything you'll see. It's mostly urban environments, which I guess makes sense according to the story the game wants to tell, but it does make for a bit of staleness. That said, there went a lot of creativity towards certain sections, namely, the boss fight against the news anchor, which is probably the most memorable part in the game, as well as a rather cool sequence in which you must protect Vergil and Kat's car, by pulling and pushing objects around it. It's much cooler than what it sounds like. The game lasts about 6-7 hours, and sadly there's not much in the way of unlockables. There's about 4 difficulty settings, a must for any DMC game, including some rather creative ones, where Dante dies in one hit!

 It may not look like a Devil May Cry game, but it feels like one and that's what matters. There's little things, like how Dante fights like a mixture between old-Dante and Nero. He can pull enemies towards him, like Nero, and even gets his aerial Roulette attack. He also gets Dante's Stinger and Million Stab attack, even the Stinger-to-Million stab move! Remember the Shotgun-fun move Dante had in Gunslinger style? New Dante gets it as well, and there's even a punchy weapon that allows you to charge any of its attacks. This may be a slight spoiler for those new to the franchise, but you get to fight Vergil and... my god, the way he fights is so similar to how he fought in DMC 3. It feels like an alternate take on that fight, as a matter of fact, this game is what it was meant to be: An alternate take on Devil May Cry.

 Do I prefer new Dante over the old one? Nope, the old one is so ridiculously funny that's impossible not to love. But I believe that both series could co-exist, kinda like Marvel's Earth 616 and the Ultimate universe. I want to continue seeing how this story unfolds as much as I want to see Nero and Dante go on. Because it's an alternate take on characters I like, because I can have both characters coexisting without throwing a fit. Because while this game could've accommodated for new and old players alike, like DMC 4 did with Nero, who could do massive damage with few hits, but if you wanted to delve deeper there was always mastering the EX gauge, and Dante, for returning players that wanted to style, instead of pandering mostly to new players, with it's easy average difficulty and easy combos, it's a fun game on its own right.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #306: Devil May Cry 4

 When you gotta save the world, ya gotta save the world.

 And then the DMC franchise made the jump to the then-next-gen and... they made exactly what one would expect of a generational jump. And, considering how much games fail at those, that's a good thing. Instead of streamlining, the game builds upon what the previous game set as foundation, and it uses the power of the then-new consoles to give us stuff that would've been impossible on the PS2.

 What took many people by surprise, was that DMC 4 featured a new hero, and we all know how bad gamers take that, just as Raiden from Metal Gear Solid! Still, I'm always open for a franchise to grow, evolve and expand, so I had no problems with Nero. And NEro is fantastic, he is basically a younger version of Dante from Devil May Cry 1. Speaking of Dante, he's never had a consistent personality before, but DMC 4's Dante is DMC 3's Dante, a totally ridiculously awesome guy, and he is even more ridiculous this time around. As for the supporting cast, they are a bit lame, Kyrie, Nero's love interest and damsel in distress, only exists to smile or look depressed. Those're the only things she does in the entire game. Human bad guys are relatively plain and forgettable, the final boss included, and there's one that's a walking joke, Agnus, however, he and Dante share one of the best cutscenes in the entire game. Then there's Lady and Trish, and... they went full Japan on them. Lady was an amazing character(well, as amazing as it gets in DMC, since characters don't really have much depth, but they make up for it in coolness) back on DMC 3, now she only appears about a minute or so and is only there to jiggle her breasts, plus, her visual design is a mess. Trish looks like she did in DMC 1, and her personality is a neat complement to Dante's, shame she looks ridiculous whenever her breasts move all over the place, since, y'know, Japan. And don't even let me get started on Gloria, one of the worst character designs I've ever seen. And it does matter, DMC has always had cool character that lived and died by the rule of cool, now both Trish and Lady look ridiculous(Not the good ridiculous) in whatever few scenes they get.

 Nero and Dante are the only playable characters, and they each get their own missions, kinda. But first onto what matters, the combat system feels even better than it did on DMC 3. EVEN BETTER. Not even gonna bother mentioning how much better it feels to land hits, thanks to the audiovisual feedback, although I kinda just did. But then there's the fact that Nero and Dante are completely different. Nero only has two weapons, Red Queen, his sword, and Blue Rose, his gun. The gun is about as as useful as long-range weapons get in the DMC series(Read: useless), but he also has a Devil Arm, the Devil Buster, which is used with the circle button. The circle button can be used to use powerful attacks on enemies, and even on bosses if you know when to use it, it can also be used to pull enemies towards you, or in the case of big enemies, pull yourself towards them. When using Nero there's no downtime when it comes to fighting, it's fast, furious, and you force enemies to come towards you. And the Devil Buster grabs look so visceral that it makes it very satisfying to land, heck, on each boss he performs a unique grab. And then there's the EX-gauge, Nero can rev up his Sword to land stronger attacks, or even EX versions of some of his attacks, problem is, revving up his sword, normally, takes a while... but there's a time-window after each slash that, when pressing the rev up button, will instantly fill the gauge. It's not as easy as it sounds!

 And then we have Dante. He plays very similarly to how he did on 3, retaining the 'Style' system. But this time around, Dante has all four basic styles(And later down the line, a fifth) at the same time, toggled by tapping different directions on the directional pad. On DMC 3 you could only change styles before a mission, or on save spots, which was a bit of a downer since certain styles where much better for certain bosses or situations, that's not a problem any more, tap a button and BAM, switched styles. Dante only gets three fire-arms and three melee weapons this time around, but much like Vergil, he carries all six at the same time, and you can switch between them in real time. A few of them are predictable, Rebellion, the sword, and a new 'punching' weapon, his guns, Ebony and Ivory, and a shotgun... but the third new weapon of each is crazy amusing. The melee weapon throws arrows towards an enemy, and if they stick, you can make them explode by throwing a rose(Back+Attack), which, trust me, is much better than it sounds, and Pandora is... Pandora is a lot of long-range weapons in one, including a floating sphere with cannons all over its surface.

 It sounds too good to be true, and it kinda is. There's not enough game to make the most of either character, sadly. A lot of people made a lot of fuss about Dante's stages being 'Nero's in reverse', but that's not quite right. Y'see, while you could play the entire DMC 3 as either Dante or Vergil, this time around, Nero gets 13 chapters to himself, while Dante only gets 7. To add insult to injury, Dante's stages are quicker, gimmicky versions of Nero's levels, 'Now there's poisonous gas!', 'Now there're portals so exits take you to different places!', 'Now you can't sit in place, else a monster takes you onto an enemy arena!', etc. There simply isn't enough game to make the most out of Dante, which is a shame since he's got an incredibly deep moveset, and the way you have to use him is different from Nero's. 

 There were also a couple of sections I could've done without, involving a die. This is an action game, and while there's some exploration, you are constantly moving, It's a fast paced action game, with some adventure elements here and there. And then you get to the die room, in which you must hit a die, and then wait for a board piece to move, depending on where it lands, you'll either get showered with red orbs, or have to fight some enemies. This section brings the game to a halt, and its so very boring that it sticks like a sore thumb from the rest of the game. Hilariously, Dante comes across the same die, but he cuts it in half. 'Oh! So maybe it was worth it to endure that part, since that was really funny, considering how boring it was'... except that they bring it back for the 19th mission. And this time around, unless you hit the exact number, the board piece is gonna do rounds around the board. Fun. But what's even worse, they brought back the only part I didn't like in DMC 3: The boss rush at the end. And this time around, it's tied to this annoying die-mini game. Oh boy, it's gonna take a while. And this makes it so that most bosses are fought three times. THREE TIMES!! And there's not much in the way of unlockables, no characters, no costumes, just more difficulty settings and some art.

 It's not all bad though, the game runs at a very consistent 60 frames per second, which looks beautiful in motion. They really took advantage of the new hardware, most bosses are huge, and it's a joy to fight them, up to the second time as Dante anyways, the third time, again with Nero, was just pushing it... And they did away with most fixed camera angles, there's a few here and there, but usually not where monsters are, now the camera is under your control, which is about damn time! The currency used to buy skills and items has been divided into two: One for items, the red orbs, and one for skills, the Proud souls, which are earned upon completing a mission. This... this is pure genius, no longer having to decide between more moves or health/devil trigger upgrades. Proud Souls are refundable as well, so if you don't like your new moves, or want to try others, you are free to do so.

 DMC 4 did so much good for the franchise. The combat is as tight as ever, Nero was a cool new character, the little enhancements to the camera, the way you buy items and skills from the store, it's a shame that, whether the budget ran out or Capcom rushed the development, Dante wound up having too little game to himself. Still, I can't help but love the game, but part of me wonders just how much better would it have been had Dante gotten his own levels and bosses.

 8.5 out of 10

Review #305: Devil May Cry HD Collection

 A Devil never cries.

 If I had to say what the Devil May Cry franchise is all about, I'd say it's about a white haired half-demon dude that must defeat enemies, trying to score huge combos, in order to earn more red orbs and then use them upgrade his skills, all while traversing gothic locales. This collection bundles together the three first games in the franchise, the PS2 games, in one neat little package with a few bonus art pieces.

 Right off the bat, I have two small gripes with the package: A) You must unlock every difficulty setting, which isn't so bad, but seeing how most people are gonna be replaying these games, it would've been nice to have all difficulties from the get go. Mind you, I don't want the rewards, just the option to start off on the higher difficulties from the start. Which might be a bit silly for the uninitiated, since these games let you carry over your upgrades from difficulty to difficulty. Speaking of rewards, these games do an absolutely fantastic job with the difficulty settings, as clearing the game on each will unlock another difficulty setting and a new rewards, from costumes, to alternate character modes... if you don't mind replaying a game, these games will keep you busy. And hey, future playthroughs when you want to replay them, will yield new rewards if you dare play it on a higher difficulty!
 And my other issue is that there's no way to change games, or discs in the case of DMC 2, without exiting the game entirely.

 Devil May Cry 1 has aged, it has aged a lot. Originally meant to be Resident Evil 4, it shows a lot. The game follows the serious, but fun-loving Dante as he follows his mysterious client, Trish, to defeat Mundus. It's a silly story, with silly dialogue and silly delivery, but it's gameplay where the game shines.

 What made this game stand out from other action games was the focus on combos. Depending on how you timed your triangle presses, or which direction you held on the D-Pad, you'd unleash different attacks, tying them together into big combos, that could even end with you juggling your opponent and even following them up into the air. And you want to do big combos, since the better you do, the more red orbs enemies drop when defeated, which in turn can be used to get more moves or more health, and even healing items if needed. There's two different weapons, Alastor the sword and Ifrit the gauntlets, and both have widely different styles. There're also about 4 different fire-arms, while these don't contribute to the combo rating, you can use them to zone enemies, or alter your hang time on the air in order to avoid attacks. There's a decent amount of depth to the system.

 It's loads of fun, but it has aged, and it's mostly due to its Resident Evil roots. For instance, you can't shoot without first targeting an enemy, and there's fixed camera angles, lots of them. It's not unusual to come across enemy-infested areas with multiple angles that mess you up and your controls, as well as sometimes allowing for hits to come off-camera. For whatever reason, and its something that stuck throughout the series, the game is divided into missions. It's a bit weird since everything is interconnected, and you can actually backtrack, as a matter of fact, backtracking may sometimes find you into secret sub-missions!

 I heard that the game is supposed to be hard, but it ain't so. I mean, at the start of the game, Dante can only take very few hits, but when I went into the store, I found that most of the moveset upgrades were unappealing, so I mostly invested on health. Afterwards, I invested on a few moves, among them, 'Air Raid'. Air Raid absolutely wrecks bosses, if you get that ability there's no excuse for not finishing the game.
 8.0 out of 10

 Devil May Cry 2 gets a lot of undeserved flak. As a matter of fact, back when I was younger, I actually preferred this game to the first one! Anyways, chronologically speaking, this is the last game in the franchise, even after DMC 4, and it sees an even more serious Dante, but with the occasional cool moment, team up with Lucia, who is basically another take on the concept behind Trish, to take down a new bad guy. The story, what little there is, is forgettable. The game's gimmick is having two playable characters, Dante and Lucia(And Trish, if you finish the game on Hard with Dante. But that means finishing the game twice(Dante and Lucia) to unlock Hard, and then a third time with Dante on hard, and I just wasn't too keen on playing this game so much), but to be honest, both characters are basically the same. The weapons are different, the animations are different, but when it gets down to it, they are basically the same. Their levels are more or less the same as well, think Resident Evil 2 A scenario and B scenario, enemies and objects might be on different places, there might be an exclusive stage or two, and a few different bosses. Dante gets more 'missions', but both playthroughs last about 2:30 hours each.

 Here's the thing about DMC 2, most things have been simplified. There's a designated dodge button, that can be used to run on walls, shooting can be done without aiming and the such... but the combo system has suffered, there simply aren't as many moves as there were on the previous game. While DMC 1 had lots of tight corridors and mostly small areas, which facilitated combos, most areas in this game are huge, which makes maintaining combos a chore. This time around guns(And knives, in the case of Lucia) can be used to maintain, but not increase, a combo rank, so they are not altogether as bad as they used to be.

 A lot of people took issue with how easy this game is. I don't care how easy, or hard, a game is as long as it's fun. And that's where DMC 2's problem lies, it can be a bit boring at times. There's a particular stage, which both Lucia and Dante have to go through, in which you have to run around searching for four orbs. While enemies respawn indefinitely on designated zones. And as much as you enhance your weapons raw damage, it feels as if taking down enemies takes ages. It's not hard, it ain't, it just can get a bit... boring. And that has to do with the direction this game took: This is all style and no substance. The game looks fantastic, animations in particular are sublime. The way Dante and Lucia run, or run on walls, the way Lucia shoots her knives, everything about this game looks cool, but when you get into the nitty gritty, you discover that there isn't depth to the combat.

 Still, this is not a bad game. It's an average game, that can be a bit boring at times, but it can also be fun.
6.0 out of 10

 Devil May Cry 3, man oh man, Devil May Cry 3 is amazing. It takes the best bits from DMC 1(The combat, the level structures, the feel of the attacks, all its substance) and the best bits from DMC 2( Simplified controls, all its style) and delivers an amazing game. So far Dante has had two distinct personalities, well, now he's got a third, this time around he is a cheesecake. And the story is as unremarkable as before... but this time it's got style, man does it have style, if you think about it, everything that happens is rather silly... but it looks so cool that it keeps you invested. You want to follow these characters, this goofball Dante, his no-nonsense brother Vergil, the amazing Lady(Who's the best counterpart to Dante there's ever been, and unlike Bayonetta, she doesn't need to take off her clothes) and the mysterious Arkham. And finishing the game unlocks Vergil as a playable character, who is completely different from Dante, even though he gets the exact same levels(And gets to fight a red-coated version of himself!). It also boasts the most unlockables, with various costumes for both Vergil and Dante, this is a game that can keep you busy for a long, long time.

 So what does this game get so well: The combat. It's incredible. For starters, now there are styles, there's four to start with, and you unlock another two later down the game, and Vergil gets his own unique 7th Style. Styles basically affect how your circle button behaves, for example, Sword Master gives all your weapons new attacks, and as you level it up, because styles can level up, you get even more attacks by mixing the circle button and directions on the analog stick. Gunslinger gives your hand guns new abilities, and Tricksters lets you dodge or run on walls, like DMC 2. This adds a lot of depth to the game, and lets you play how you like to play. Me, I liked SwordMaster, since it greatly expanded on my comboability. Keep to things in mind, Styles can only be swapped before starting a mission or on a Save Point, plus, Dante gets six melee weapons and six guns, but he can only take two of each, which again, can only be swapped before a mission or on a savepoint.

 Speaking of weapons, every weapon gives Dante an entirely different moveset, and you can change between your two selected weapons in real time, even mid-combo. Vergil himself only gets three weapons, but he has all three of them at the same time, and even though he shares a weapon with Dante, the Beowulf, both characters use them in entirely different ways. As far as Dante goes, his moveset is now akin to the one in DMC 1, depending on your timing, and which direction you hold, your attacks will change, and this holds true for all six weapons. Vergil doesn't have as many variations(Timing doesn't affect his blows), but he deals waaay more damage than Dante.

 Alright, so the game keeps the fixed camera angles that plagued the previous games before it, but, you can actually rotate them on certain areas, and, the camera angles are much better this time around, not one time did I felt as if the camera angles screwed me over. Environments are smaller this time around as well, as to encourage comboing. And boy, is making combos fun. The combat system has so much depth, so many possibilities, between the Styles and each individual weapon. One thing that I thought was rather neat is that enemies will go down faster as you go through the game. But here's the thing, you can't upgrade a weapons raw damage, they go down faster because you, the player, learn how to make better combos, learn when and how to dodge. It feels great.

 Regarding the difficulty setting, it's just right. This is actually the rerelease, Devil May Cry 3 special, since Capcom thought it'd be funny to make the Japanese 'Hard' our 'Normal' on their first release. Y'know, the difficulty setting that you unlock after beating the game, and on which you can bring over your strengthened character? Yeah, fun times. But regardless, this is not that version, Normal is Normal here. And look, many bosses actually took me down the first time, but that first time was enough for me to learn and take'em out on the second try. Oh, mind you, there're two ways to play, 'Gold', which has a ton of checkpoints, and 'Yellow', in which death means restarting the entire level. I played on Gold, but even then, if you need even more help, you can always buy healing items.

 It's hard for me to convey just how good Devil May Cry 3 is. Everything it sets out to do, it nails right on the heard.
 9.0 out of 10

 Basically, Devil May Cry HD Collection is a fantastic way to re-experience all three games. If you already own them on PS2, there's no need to get this version, as the new 'extras' are rather lame. One last piece of advise: Don't play them in chronological order. As that would mean going to DMC 1 after DMC 3, and... yeah, it's gonna be hard to get used to. It's not like the story is particularly good anyways as to warrant a 'chronological playthrough'.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #304: Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins(Virtual Console)

 Ain't that a descriptive title!

 Now this, THIS is a sequel. I had a bunch o' problems with the first Super Mario Land, and it seems as I was not the only one, since this game was made from the ground up, doing away with most of the things Super Mario Land introduced. This game is bigger, better and longer than the previous game, and while I'd be hard pressed to call it a Gameboy Classic, it's a decent entry into the Mario Franchise.

 But do you know what's the biggest draw to this game is? Wario made his first appearance here! Oh boy, he took over a Castle, protected by a gate that can only be opened by collecting six golden coins(Title drop!), and it's up to Mario to stop him. Super Mario Land didn't really feel like a Mario game, and it seems they took notice, as now you'll come across Goombas, Winged Goombas, Koopa Troopas that behave like Koopa Troopas, and Mario even gets his block-breaking spin jump from Super Mario World. Even then, the game does its own thing, which makes it stand out against other Mario games. There's six 'Zones', each one with its own theme, made up of 3 to 4 levels each, and you'll do stuff that Mario's never done before, like trekking inside a whale, wearing an astronaut suit on his adventure through the moon and even do battle against the three little piglets and coming across giant ants. This is not your average Mario adventure.

 Being so different was something I held against Super Mario Land, but why am I so unconcerned with it this time? Because the previous game had wonky physics that made it rather annoying to play. If you don't get the jumping right on a platform game, you are doing something wrong. Physics-wise, this game doesn't feel like traditional Mario either, but at least it's fun. Some things might throw you off, like the game not freezing for a second when you get a power up, but it's something you get used to. Jumps feel looser than on traditional Mario games, but it's nothing you can get used to. Graphically the game was made from the ground-up, featuring large sprites that make jumping not feel like a chore, and it's not a walk in the park either, the final level can get quite nasty! And you know what, the game even brings its own ideas to the table. For instance, you can travel to any of the six zones at any point in time, so you can clear them in any order you wish, and it has its own original obstacles, like floating pools of water to aid you, or hinder you, through gaps. Or a stage in which you can use a bubble to float... but must avoid birds that want to pop it! It's a very different Mario game, and this time around, it's a good thing.

 There's three different power ups in this game: The mushroom, that makes you grow large and lets you take an extra hit, the fire flower, represented by a feather on Mario's hat, that lets you shoot projectiles and the radish, represented by bunny ears on Mario's hat that lets him hover. Interestingly, I felt as if each power up was akin to different difficulties. Small Mario can have a tough time, since he can only take one hit, and even Large Mario will have some trouble clearing stages. The Fire Flower lets you do away with most enemies, so you need only concern yourself with jumping, while the Radish turns most stages into a joke. Luckily(Or unluckily) Radishes aren't all that common. That said, the game isn't particularly hard, the only time I somewhat struggled was during the last level, previous stages don't really prepare you for the new obstacles you must deal with. Still, it was a fun stage!

 The game lasts little over an hour, probably even less if you are good at it. I wasn't expecting much of this game, but taking into account that it's a handheld game, and one that improved on its sequel in so many ways... It's a really decent Mario game that's worth giving a try, even if just to check out Wario's first videogame appearance!
6.0 out of 10

Month Overview: February 2016

 Tally:
Mega Man Anniversary Collection                       8.0
Megaman X Collection                                         9.0
Megaman X 7                                                        4.5
Megaman X 8                                                       7.0
Megaman - Maverick Hunter X                            9.0
Megaman Powered Up                                          8.5
Clock Tower 3                                                       7.0
Nightshade                                                             8.5
Extermination                                                        6.5
Naruto Shippuden - Ultimate Ninja 4                    5.0
Chocobo Racing                                                     6.5
Short Peace - Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day     8.0
The Evil Within                                                      9.5
Katamari Forever                                                    8.0
Vitamin Z                                                                5.0
Tomb Raider                                                           8.0
Super Mario Bros. 3                                                9.0
Samurai Champloo - Sidetracked                            3.5
The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time 3D            8.5
Resident Evil 2                                                         8.5
Custom Robo Arena                                                 6.0

 Holy chiplote, I've no idea how I managed to cram so many games, seeing how I was busy, both by studies and holiday-life. My daily literature did suffer a bit though...
 Ah well, I played a ton of survival horror games this month, and I actually liked them! Megaman too, I finally got through most of the games. And for the first time ever, a Suda 51 game let me down

 Game of February 2016:

 I fell in love with this game. It was a blast from beginning to end, and I just couldn't stop playing it. This is what I feel survival horror should be. There's item management if you really want to make it through, but it doesn't limit the player with cheap fixed camera angles or stiff controls. Everything is up to your skill as well as to how you manage to make the most of your ammo and healing items. That said, if you play your cards right, it's very possible to make it to the latter chapters with ammo to spare, but the shooting mechanics feel so good that I didn't even care.

 Runner-up:

 I... I just couldn't decide. On one hand, Megaman X is phenomenal, it's amazing, and guess what, X collection includes X2 and X3, which are really good, as well as X4 which is just as good as X. There's also X5 which is good and.... just ignore X6. But then there's Maverick Hunter X, the remake hits all the right notes, and for what little it got wrong, it got so much right to counterbalance it. And the new Vile Mode is a blast and offers an alternate way to play same ol' fantastic Megaman X. Technically, X Collection 'should' win since it offers the same quality, but it also offers quantity, but you just can't write off Maverick Hunter X, which is the perfect example of a remake done right.

 So instead of choosing between them, I picked both of them. It's my blog, I can cheat if I want to.

Review #303: Custom Robo Arena

 Pokemon with robots. Wait, Robopon?!

 Y'know, Custom Robo makes me sad. It makes me sad how underutilized the franchise is. There's been 5 games in the franchise already, of which we only got two localized overseas, and even then, this was the last game they released. It's not like the game is fantastic, far from it, but it has untapped potential.

 The Story... the story is the game's only mode if you don't have anybody else to play offline VS with, although there once was online battles, but it went away alongside the Nintendo DS servers. So, the story mode... it's a total drag. It starts with you getting your own Robopon, and one thing leads to another, and you join a Custom Robo battler team. And everyone admires how good you are even though you just started. There's also this girl that's supposed to be 'the best support ever' and, supposedly, she helps you a lot, though in-game she does jack all. It's a very generic anime story , heck, the 2-D cut outs, for when special NPCs talk, are downright terrible, they look as if they had been drawn at the last minute with little to no effort. And it's so slow paced, so repetitive(The game is divided on 'days', and every day starts with you going to breakfast and ends with you going to dinner with your family, and they repeat the same lines when the scenes end), sometimes you'll ever wonder why they say 'I'll stay here and show X the place, you go on ahead', only for these characters to arrive as soon as you get to where you had to go. What was the point? Immersion? The script is so lame it adds nothing to the game. And characters are very anime, but anime for kids, most characters have this one trait that defines their entire personality.... which makes it surprising how dark the story can get, dealing with themes of revenge, murder and even 'using your friends', makes me wonder just who they were aiming for with the script. Adults will grow bored, fast, and kids won't even care.

 Alright, so everything regarding the story mode is dull, it's the opposite as far as battle are concerned. While the Story Mode is completely 2D, battles are full 3D, in which you must annihilate the opposing robot. You do this by... customizing your robo. Custom Robos are made up of six pieces: A Body, which defines the type of melee charge attack. a gun, a missile launcher, a grenade pod and legs that affect how you'll move around. While you get full 3D movement, your robot automatically aims at the opponent, no matter how far you are, so you can just shoot your projectiles at a distance. Keep in mind that missile actually have to be aimed, by holding the R button, while grenades alter their course depending on how you move the analog stick(Or directions on the digital pad if you are using a Nintendo DS). Movement around the arena can be done by either running, d'oh, or jumping and air-dashes. Depending on which leg parts you are using you might get more aerial dashes. Lastly there's the melee charge attack, that makes you invulnerable while you charge ahead, making it a viable move to protect yourself from incoming projectiles, if you time it right. I found combat to be rather fun, even if the CPU has somewhat inhuman reflexes. There's over 30 different robot bodies and over 40 of each type of weapon, although not as many leg parts. And no set-up felt particularly stronger than the others, so I think it's safe to say that it's relatively balanced.

 But do you know what really, really sucks? You start battling with the Ray Mark II, which is a really cool robot. And then they start teasing you with the 'Ray Mk III', so you start looking forwards to this robo. And then you get it early in the game, and it SUCKS! Sure, it's slightly stronger and sturdier than the Mk. II, but it's also slightly weaker and has a worse charge attack. It will throw you off if you made your strategy about closing in to mash that charge attack. Luckily, by the time you unlock 'Grudge Matches', the open-ended post-game, you can get it back. And it feels so good.

 The Grudge Matches are really interesting, you can fight against many NPCs, as well as unique NPCs, over and over again, as well as collect secret Robos and.... extra powerful 'illegal' parts. The one problem I had with the post game is that you'll require a ton of money, which translates into a lot of grinding. You've no idea just how much grinding you'll have to do, with about 6 robots costing $500 each(That's a lot in this game). And a grudge match with a prerequisite of giving her $500... and illegal parts costing about $300 each. Then there's the many grudge matches with prerequisites of owning(buying) a certain amount of parts... it's gonna take a while and not for the right reasons.

 This game was made when people were still going ga-ga over the touchscreen, so of course they had to tack on some touching mechanics to it. This time around your Robo will get dirty as you use it and it takes damage, and if you don't clean it, it's performance will suffer. Cleaning is done by rubbing all of its individual parts(Head, Chest, Forearms, arms, legs, feet, crotch(Yes) and Pod). At first its cute, but it grows old. Supposedly you can find better, consumable, cleaning clothes that make it faster, but I didn't find any, and even then, it's not like they would prevent it from getting dirty.

 The thing about Custom Robo, is that as good as the battles and how fun customizing your robo is, the story mode is a real drag. And it's not like you can avoid it, even if you found another person to play with, you have to go through the story mode to find the different robos and pieces. Mind you, the Story Mode isn't all that bad, it simply is very boring. But if you are willing to endure it, you'll find a little rough gem of a game that Nintendo just isn't exploiting enough.
 6.0 out of 10