Now Playing: XIII

 A good XIII?

The Japanese cover is pretty cool, they used '13' in place of a 'B' for 'Your num13er is up'. Cool stuff.

 See? Even if Final Fantasy XIII sucks, there can be a decent game with a XIII on it. I've played a tiny teensy bit, only got past the bank stage, but it's a good one. I love how the game starts with a bang, almost literally, the jumbled memories scenes are great, I loved how frantic it got after XIII wakes up while the lifeguard is calling a doctor and then, after your great escape, you have to escape a bank. And it feels as good as it looks, very exciting stuff.

 It's still taking me a while to get used to the controls, I switch weapons when I want to reload, or confusing the items to take the medikits and switching weapons. It also feels weird not having iron sights. I mean, all these complaints stem from the fact that this is an old First-person shooter, before we had the more uniform control scheme most FPS games use today, so it's weird having to jump with L1 instead of X. I'm sure I will get the hang of it, eventually.

Review #494: Oni

Ohno.

Rockstar's logo is on it, but it's nowhere near as good as most of their games.

 Oni was originally a PC game of which I had very fond memories. It was a fun third-person shooter with surprisingly solid melee combat and cool aesthetics. As of today, now I consider it a subpar third person shooter with clunky controls and a steep difficulty curve.

 Set in a somewhat futuristic world, you play as Major Kusanagi expy Konoko who works for the TCTF, a futuristic police-like entity under the command of Daisuke Aramaki-wannabee Griffin. There's a terrorist named Muro who the TCTF is particularly keen on catching, who has a peculiar interest in Konoko. The story is anime sci-fi dribble that's not very interesting but does have some neat twists and turns, even if the story doesn't flow very well since it seems to lack a few scenes connecting every chapter. No, a hand-drawn image doesn't work well as an epilogue for each.

The platforming, oh god the platforming. At least most of it is optional, only needed if you want some goodies.

 What made Oni stand out back in the day was its mix of third-person shooting with some very crunshy melee combat. Konoko has a vast array of moves, she can run, dash, slide, roll, block, jump, side-jump, back-jump, and flips to her jumps, perform various throws on her enemies as well as mix punches and kicks together to create different combos, and you'll earn new moves as you go through the game. The combat feels great, landing blows feels crunchy and the animation is fantastic. As for weapons, Konoko can carry a single weapon with her, and there're a lot of different kinds to experiment with. There're two ammo types so you can probably stick with your favorite for a while.

 It sounds great, and it is... on a PC. The controls on the PS2 are horrible, there're four different presets and none feel particularly comfortable, although config 2 worked for me. But that doesn't fix how finicky movement is, the game requires a few jumps as well as careful avoidance of lasers, but it's hard to do thanks to how clunky movement is. And the right analog stick, used to aim your guns, is too stiff to work well, so guns, which should be a major help, get relegated to close-range alternatives, most of the time. Sliding, a key-move to disarm enemies, is tough to perform since in order to slide you need to dash, which requires tapping twice on the analog stick, but it can be tough for the game to register your input correctly.

The animations are top-notch.

 Oni is by default a hard game, but the framerate issues and control issues make it a chore on the PS2. I played on the Normal setting and regret it immensely, play on easy, trust me, don't put yourself through needless torture. As a matter of fact, I used cheats. I don't regret it, I'm not even ashamed of it, the game demands too much but the controls are a huge handicap. Near the end of the game there're a couple of laser sections that are just a pain in the ass to nail correctly with Konoko's clunky movement, so I just popped the invincibility cheat and dashed through them and then turned it off. Sue me. Checkpoint placement can be rather mean too, and sometimes enemies will just catch you off guard with overpowered weapons and one-shot you. I swear, it's not even fair how tough the game gets. Play on easy, cheat, do what you will, the game isn't worth the time required to learn where enemies are hiding and in which order to tackle them.

 Oni has some fantastic ideas, and some great mechanics, like the melee systems. But the difficulty is too unfair to be any fun when you're fighting the controls as much as you are fighting your foes. It doesn't help that the PS2 is too busy dropping frames! If you want the proper Oni experience, one not hampered by horrible controls, go with the PC version and play Oni the way it was meant to be played.
 4.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Oni

O-Yes-i.

And they thought Scarlet Johanson's movie was the first attempt at Ghost in the Shell 'Murica Edition.

 Why stop the trend now? Oni is yet another game I used to play when I was young, but one I used to adore, almost as much as Final Fantasy VII. Except that I played it on PC... which was the way I played Final Fantasy VII. Anyways, just playing that first level was kind of a nostalgia overload, I wasn't expecting all those memories to come flooding in I just...

 ...wanted to cry.

 Well, maybe not that far, but it felt good. I don't think I ever got very far in the game, although I do remember I got to see Konoko in another outfit. I either got stuck at the Airport level(I think it was an airport?) or the level that came after it in which you met your... nemesis, I think? A guy with an egghead and red pants or something like that? I dunno, I've a lot of jumbled memories, pleasant but jumbled memories about it.

 ...what I didn't have memories of, but I will now, were the terrible controls. Thing is, I remember that the game felt so natural on the keyboard and mouse, but on a joystick it's... it's too finicky, too imprecise. Moving around doesn't feel right, and it's hard to aim at enemies with melee attacks. If it gets too hard I might consider dialing down to 'Easy', since the controls are clearly sub-optimal. Pro-Tip: Go to the controller scheme in the options menu, before starting or loading a game, and change the configuration to B. You're welcome.

Review #493: God of War

 To be fair, there's no single 'god of war'.

Two blades means twice the carnage.

 When people talk action hack-and-slash games three names come to mind: Devil May Cry, for all combo enthusiasts out there, Ninja Gaiden, for people that prefer honing their reflexes and pattern recognition and then there's God of War, which mixes a little bit of both but does its own thing.

 You play as Kratos, a spartan who used to serve Hades but now works for the other gods, Zeus et all, to take him down. By now everyone's familiar with the plot twist, but the game does deserve praise for how they slowly reveal the backstory and why Kratos is doing what he is doing. It's not the deepest or smartest script, but it's pretty good for what it is, although I'm betting you'll forget about the story bits as you go from room to room mowing down hundreds of monsters. As for Kratos, he is fairly interesting since he's not your average hero or anti-hero, since he doesn't have a heart of gold, he is just a prick. The entire game lasts about 7-8 hours, but finishing it unlocks a bunch of extras, like the 10-room challenge of the Gods that unlocks bonus costumes!

The game puts up the spectacle.

 Something the game gets very right is how perfectly action, adventuring and puzzle solving are mixed together. While combat is obviously the focus, there's a fair amount of very decent puzzles that must be solved in order to progress, as well as a good amount of good, ol' walking, exploring and platforming. And it does work very well, because everything is paced so well you'll get breathing room just as soon as combat starts getting too repetitive. It's a good thing that the game is filled to the brim with hidden chests rewarding the savviest players that take their time to explore their surroundings.

 At the start of the game Kratos comes equipped with the Blades of Chaos, twin short-swords embedded to his skin by chains that work wonders at short or long distances. While they'll be your main means of attack, and why wouldn't they since they are so useful, you'll get a great-sword later in the game, which is very slow and has a short reach, but comes with its own moveset and each attack packs quite the punch. Mixing weak and strong attacks you'll be able to pull off some neat combos, there's a decent juggling system and you're encouraged to with the large amount of aerial attacks at Kratos' disposal as well as the fact that enemies can't interrupt your attacks while being juggled.

Calling the game violent is an understatement.

 Kratos is aided by the gods, which means he has access to four different spells that consume magic points. To be honest I spent most of the game just using my three blades, but there were a few occasions in which magic helped immensely. There's a third gauge, the rage of the gods, by pressing both analog sticks(L3+R3) that makes you extra strong for a few seconds that saw more use in my playthrough. Combat feels very solid, very smooth and everything flows very well. While Kratos' has all the means to cause carnage, he's also got many defensive maneuvers, you can block attacks, parry attacks(By tapping block just as you get hit) and dodging by pushing the right analog stick in any direction. There're a lot of options to accommodate for everyone. And it helps that your four spells and your two weapons can be upgraded by spending souls from fallen enemies, so it's in your best interest to slay as many living, and unliving, beings as you can.

 The game's presentation deserves a special mention because the sense of scale is incredible, you'll be traversing beautiful and huge landscapes, and the entire half of the game takes place inside a dungeon that's located upon the back of a Titan. The game feels like an epic adventure. There're many different enemy models as well, although I did feel that there weren't enough proper bosses. Speaking of bosses, while Shenmue created QTEs it was God of War that made them popular and... honestly, they weren't as bad or as pervasive as I remembered them. I mean, would I rather them not being in the game? 150% yes, but I wasn't too bothered by them.

Kratos is standing upon the back of a Titan right there and then. Epic is underselling it.

 The game's tough but fair, although there were three areas that caused me, and others as you would know if you're internet savvy, grief my first time around... but I didn't have troubles with them on this second playthrough. There's an infamous spiked floor area in which you must kick a box, but I cleared it on my first try since I now knew to let Kratos fully charge his kick(And that him finishing his grunt didn't meant that the charge was full). The other infamous area, Hades, in which they forgot to play-test a climbing pole... I also cleared on my first attempt, although I clearly remember being stuck for a while on my first time through. And then there's that 'protection' mission which I cleared on my second attempt with a smart use of Hades' spell. What I mean to say... is that I was ready to claim that the game had a few poorly implemented sections, but they are not. It might take a new player by surprise, but trust me, it's nothing you can't handle.

 God of War is 12 years old and it hasn't lost a speck of its luster. It's still a polished, well-crafted little masterpiece that carved its name into the history of hack-and-slash games. It's not perfect, because while the game blends many elements together, to a surprisingly successful result, the combat can get a bit tiresome at times, and there's also the fact that I have a personal vendetta against QTEs and this game was the one that made them popular... but it's still one of the finest games available on the PS2. And the PS3. And the PSVita. And the PS4... Yeah, Sony loves rereleasing this game, can't blame'em!
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: God of War

 God of QTEs

Kratos is always fun at parties.

 Believe it or not, while God of War is over 10 years old, it was not but a few years ago that I first played the games, and I did so in chronological order(Chains of Olympus, 1, Phantom of Sparta, 2 and finally 3. Ascension hadn't been released yet.) and I remember being very impressed right after finishing Chains of Olympus... twice. I liked it so much that I played it twice in a row, since Hard mode held some unlockables.

 But ever since I played those games something has changed... from not liking QTEs I grew to actually hate them, which is gonna be interesting since God of War is 70% QTEs. I've played about an hour, got to the Road to Athens and... I don't hate it, I'm having a blast actually. I've read that David Jaffe, the director, claimed that God of War was so simple that had it not had so much spectacle, thanks to the high budget, it wouldn't have performed as well as it did... but I disagree so much with that statement. The combat is very fluid and everything flows so well into everything else that it makes fighting feel very responsive and gratifying. The core mechanics are simple, yes, but solid, and the juggle system, while not as diverse as what you could achieve in Devil May Cry, is light years above and beyond what most PS2 action games could offer, and considering how I've played quite a bunch already this year, I know what I'm talking about.

 Basically, I'm enjoying what I'm playing despite the QTEs.

Review #492: Brave Fencer Musashi

 Half a man, complete hero.

I miss the days when Squaresoft meant Quality

 Remember Square's golden years? They really knew how to create gold back in the SNES and PS1 eras, and Brave Fencer Musashi is no exception. This is an adventure game in which you play as the half-pint hero Musashi in his quest to empower his sword and save the town.

 Long-story short, Musashi is the reincarnation of the Brave Fencer Musashi, and he gets summoned to a Kingdom in order to stop the Thirstquencher Empire(You can already guess that the game doesn't take itself too seriously!) while at the same time collecting all five scrolls and unlock his sword's Lumina's true power. The story is nothing special, but it gets the job done. I wasn't a fan of the game's humor, but I think it might get some laughs from a younger crowd. Supposedly the game was criticized for its short length, but it lasted me about 9 hours, which is par for the course on the genre.

Rescued villagers must be visited inside the Castle to get their boons.

 The village below the Castle acts as your HUB, being placed at the center of pretty much everywhere you'll have to go. You can also buy supplies, save your game or interact with NPCs in here. The game experimented with 'time' mechanics, as there's a day-and-night cycle that's permanently running, and there're stores that won't open or certain days, and NPCs that have specific times of availability, heck, the bar only opens at night, for example. Musashi himself needs to rest frequently lest his overall performance decreases to a walk, although he is blessed with the ability to sleep at any time he wants, so don't be surprised if you need to sleep while inside a dungeon to restore your energy or even your HP gauge. Overall, I though Musashi getting tired was kinda lame, and giving shops holidays or closing at certain hours was kinda annoying, but I can appreciate the idea.

 Musashi is equipped with a jump and two different swords: Fusion and Lumina. Lumina can be equipped with the five different scrolls, once you find them, to gain new abilities, which are mostly used to solve puzzles, while Fusion's special ability allows Musashi to 'assimilate' an enemy and gain its power. Most powers are used to overcome obstacles, and what makes this ability little more than a gimmick is that every obstacle that requires one of these abilities has the appropriate enemy close by, so there's no much thinking involved, nor have you the need to collect a power from a certain zone to gain something in another one. In combat Lumina is slow but powerful while Fusion is fast and weak, but it's in your best interest to use both, as both level up individually and get stronger individually, and both are useful for different enemies.

The day-and-night cycle is alright, but I found it more meddlesome than anything.

 There're two main sidequests: Finding the Minku beasts, which only come out at night and extend your HP gauge and rescuing the 35 villagers, which extends your Binch gauge(It's used for special abilities, mostly). Villagers may also reward Musashi with new abilities or combo attacks, one even enhances Fusion into a Gold version of itself, so it's always a good idea to try and find every NPC. Some NPCs are mandatory to progress the story, but I never had to backtrack in order to gather them, so I'm guessing that they are hidden in plain sight so as to make it hard to actually miss them.

 Getting new scrolls or new pieces of the Legendary Armor is always very rewarding because it feels so good to gain access to new areas that you previously couldn't access. That said, a few times it can be a bit hard to figure out where to go, either because you haven't talked to the right NPC yet or because you forgot about that cave that required the fire scroll before you got it, but this being an old game... it kinda comes with the territory. There're a few mini-games here and then that break up the action, but the only one that really bothered me was the one in Steamwood.... which is the only one you must perform twice. It's a waste of time, and it's the only minigame that has you restarting from a checkpoint or your last savepoint if you lose.

Musashi is just adorable.

 What more can I say about Brave Fencer Musashi? It's a fun little adventure game that has decent combat, fun platforming, a lot to search and find and plenty of different obstacles to clear as you find new abilities. It's a game that feels fresh all the way to the end. I wasn't a fan of a few things it experimented with, but even then they weren't intrusive, but you gotta give it props for trying.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Brave Fencer Musashi

 And yet another game from when I was younger.

It's so cute!

 Because why stop now, y'know? Let's go deeper down memory lane and replay Musashi, I game I first learned about from a Gamepro magazine. I had a N64 at the time so I had to wait until I got a PS2 to finally play it and... I never spent much time on it. Not sure why, since I'm sure I liked it... probably a case of having too many games too play and too little time.

 As of my recent acquaintance with the game, I'm digging the overall artsyle of the game, everything looks quite cute. The gameplay is alright-ish, I think Musashi's range is pathetic and the method to steal abilities is unnecessarily involved, like, you have to charge a gauge, which locks Musashi into a strafe, and then you have to mash square. It's not too bad, but it's a bit unnecessary, y'know? Otherwise, it's been fairly entertaining.