Month Overview: October 2017

 Tally:
Darkwatch                   8.0
Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick 6.5
Evil Dead - Regeneration 5.0
Galerians                              7.5
Galerians - Ash 4.5
Corpse Party - Blood Drive 0.5
Resident Evil 6 8.0
Raw Danger! 8.5
Bloody Roar 2 8.0
Bloody Roar 3 8.5
Bloody Roar Primal Fury 8.5
Bloody Roar 4 4.0
Spartan - Total Warrior 7.5
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge 6.0


 Finally a proper Halloween! I finally finished Corpse Party and Resident Evil 6, two games I began last year but never finished, either because they were awful or my co-op partner was MIA. Most games were pretty good, which is always a plus, and I finally played the entire Bloody Roar franchise, such a sad ending for a franchise that entertained me so much in my younger years. Galerians too, they were games I played when I was younger but hadn't finished, a thing I corrected this month, which also ends on a low note. Oh well, I guess tragedy is part of Halloween, right?

Game of October:

Hey, guys, you forgot to americanize the characters on the cover too!

 While I haven't found a seller that ships Disaster Report to my country, I couldn't wait to try out Raw Danger!, and I didn't! It was phenomenal, excellent pacing, structure and ambiance. It's a bit lacking in the technical department, but if I'm used to playing brilliant games with clunky mechanics, so the weird movement and poor framerate didn't dampen the experience too much.

 Runner-up:

Even the cover art is similar.

 Bloody Roar 3 and Bloody Roar Primal Fury might as well be the same game, for all intents and purposes. Honestly, I loved all the little tweaks Primal Fury made, sadly, some of the redesigns are a bit or miss. Whichever the case, both games are brilliant button mashers that deserved much better than Hudson's low budget and low effort Bloody Roar 4.

Now Playing: Final Fantasy XII

 Why is everyone wearing so little clothes!?

Everyone loves floating heads.

 No, seriously, not only are characters wearing few clothes, what little they wear is, well, little. Look at Vaan's pathetic child-size vest. But I digress, my Halloweenesque games are done, so it's time I sink my claws into another JRPG, and one I avoided for a while. The reason I avoided XII was the combat system, it looked dumb. Buuuut Xenoblade showed me that MMORPG-style combat can work, sadly, after playing about an hour, and trying to solo Thextera with Vaan(which proved impossible, I can only manage to lure one its two guardian wolves!) I simply aren't having much fun with it. Yay, there's Vaan waiting like an idiot to strike because even though we're not going by turns any more we still have the ATS. I dunno, I'm not feeling the combat, at all. But at least it's not XIII.

 That said, as soon as I popped in the disc and the first cinematic played... nobody does grandiose openings like Final Fantasy, be it our first glimpse at Cecil's wrongdoings, Terra's assault on the snow village, Cloud and Barret taking down a Mako Reactor or even Squall and Seifer's duel, Tidus' big game... Square just knows how to make an opening. And this is no exception, I had no idea what was going on, but it looked cool, goddammit.

 As for the game as a whole... I played about two hours, did some desert grinding and... I think it's alright, but nothing remarkable. The combat system is really bland, I mean, I've only had one-man parties so far, but I doubt it'll get as involved as Xenoblade's various statuses and what not. The setting is kinda interesting... but because it reminds me of Rogue Galaxy, truth be told, I'm not very fond of Final Fantasy's Ivalice setting. And the character designs... they are kinda bad. Ashe's outfit makes no sense. Seriously, how is that skirt thing supposed to stay in place? And what the ******** is she wearing over her midriff? And why is she only wearing armor on her legs? Vaan's not too far behind with his silly vest and weird looking musculature. I can't stand Penelo's hairdo either. Balthier is cool though.

 But look at the bright side, my first impressions and overall expectations are relatively low, so maybe, maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe it can surprise me.





....but maybe not.

Review #487: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge

 Trick or treat?

That's not a booger.

 If you grew up in the 90s you've surely seen, or at least heard, of The Nightmare Before Christmas a classic Halloween movie. Or is it a Christmas movie? It doesn't matter, what does matter is that about 10 years after its release Disney tasked Capcom with bringing the world of TNBC to the PS2. And if Capcom knows one thing it's fighting games... and action games, which is what this game is: A chapter-based hack-and-slash action game with fixed camera angles. And it kinda works.

 The game takes place one year after the movie, Jack Skellington took a trip to find new ways of making Halloween spookier and in that time Lock, Shock and Barrel, Oogie's underlings, managed to stitch Oogie Boogie back together, and now took over Halloween town. But it's OK, because Jack is now outfitted with the Soul Robber, a green ooze-like-thingie he carries on his right arm which doubles as a whip-blade-mace thingie. The game bring backs a few voice actors from the movie, most notably Jack and Oogie's, and it features remixes with new lyrics from the most popular songs. As far as using the license, Capcom nailed it, everything looks the part and it's amazing seeing TNBC's world in 3-D.... that said, the story does nothing to advance the lore of the franchise, in fact, it reuses many plot devices and situations, which is kinda lame.

The Soul Robber can also take the form of a mace.

 While the game is based on chapters, and each chapter has a goal, the game takes place in a cohesive world, so you can backtrack at almost any time if you so wish it, as a matter of fact, Jack can carry up to four bottles that can heal him, and these can only be refilled on the hub-world's fountain, heck, the witch's hut, the place where you buy upgrades, can only be found in the hub. As much freedom as you're given, the game is pretty linear but exploration will be rewarded, be it with health upgrades, bonus coins or crystal skulls, which can be merged into one of the previously mentioned bottles. Although sometimes it's a bit annoying, for instance, 'Hidden Place 5' must be visited 3 times: First to get a collectible figurine(Bragging rights), then later on in a secret mission to get a herb and then, finally, on chapter 17-18 to get a crystal skull. There's no way to know which 'Hidden Place's hide more than one rewards, or that said reward would change a few chapters later, which is kinda dumb.

 As for combat, Jack can attack with the square button or grab enemies, and then throw them or smack them, with the triangle button. There's also a spin attack, by doing a 360 motion on the analog stick before pressing square that both attacks enemies and draws in coins left by fallen enemies The circle button performs a graceful dodge, which looks so neat it feels good to mash the button. Taunts can be performed with the directional pad, which makes enemies stronger but gives you a free charge attack. While it sounds cool and people usually compare it to Devil May Cry... it's anything but. Jack doesn't get any cool new moves besides the square button combo, which starts at a pathetic two-hit combo until you buy the next two upgrades. and dammit, make it your priority to get these upgrades, as playing with the two-hit combo is very boring. And even after you get them, that's all you'll be doing in the game, because the triangle button rarely is as effective as the square attacks, so get ready to repeat the same, single combo over and over and over again, although, frankly, it sounds worse than it really is.

Capcom managed to capture the world of Halloween Town perfectly.

 About 2-3 hours into the game, Jack is reminded that he is the Pumpkin King, so now he gains access to the Pumpkin King transformation, by pressing L1. I know what you're thinking: Devil Trigger. But it's not, Pumpkin King runs on a limited fire-soul ammunition, and can either spit fire or, well, cause an explosion around him. It's pretty powerful, but it's useless for comboing, which is rather disappointing. I only used the Pumpkin King to burn down barriers... And then, later on, you get the Sandy Claws transformation, by pressing R1, and you'll only use it to defeat concealed enemies, as its uses for comboing are nil.

 Bosses offer an interesting change of pace: As you deal damage they drop musical notes, grab a bunch of them and you'll initiate a dancing mini-game. It's a neat idea, and probably the gameplay element that makes the most sense for The Nightmare Before Christmas, but... you'll be so busy looking at the incoming button prompts that you'll be missing out on the cool animations!

You'll be fighting a lot of skeletons. A lot of them. The Belmonts would be proud.

 While Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge is not bad by any means... it's a very by the numbers game, and it's simple to a fault. Honestly, the entire combat system feels like a wasted opportunity to make it more like Devil May Cry and less like a one-button pony. The story was nothing special, and while it feels like a retread of the movie, one that teases players with the other Holiday Worlds but doesn't do anything with them, it's still nice getting to see all the familiar characters from the movie, and kudos for managing to put the ever-important songs into the game.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge

 Devil May Cryoween?

Jack's back baby!

 I've heard a lot about Tim Burt.... Erm, The Nightmare Before Christmas' game, mostly that it played kinda like a dumbed down Devil May Cry. It doesn't. I'm hoping that Jack will get more moves, because at the moment I'm stuck with a silly 2-hit combo and a twirly spin attack as well as a grab... it doesn't exactly lend itself to comboing, even though there's a combo counter.

 As mediocre as the combat is, at least so far, I kinda like the game. Kinda. The atmosphere and setting is a dead ringer for the movie, which makes it very appealing to look at. Hopefully it'll end up being just as fun to play through.

Review #486: Spartan - Total Warrior

 Totally not God of War, but close enough!

The cover is butt, but the game is anything but.

 Spartan: Total Warrior is a hack and slash beat'em up spin off of the Total War real time strategy games. It has some similarities to the God of War games and to Dynasty Warriors, but it's its own beast.

 The game pits you as The Spartan, a spartan(D'oh) aided by Ares to defeat the forces of Crassus and Tiberius while fighting under Leonidas.... yeah, it's a fictional story that mixes a few historical figures with myths and legends, you'll meet Medusa and fight a Minotaur too. There're flamethrowers and ballistas for good measure too. The story is pretty meh, the voice acting is atrocious and the conclusion is given away by the first act's narration. No, you won't be playing this game for its story.

From zero to hero, The Spartan's armor will change as you beat stages.

 As The Spartan you'll be aided by the gods in your enterprise, wielding various weapons and magics. There're two attack buttons(weak and strong) and a jump button, while all four shoulder buttons are used as 'modifiers'. L1 makes The Spartan aim with his bow, L2 is your block button(that can be used with the attack buttons for single or radial shield bashes), R1 lets you use Rage attacks, when the rage bar is full(two varieties too, single target or radial) and R2 is the Magic button(Once again, Single target and radial). It sounds like a handful... and it is, many a time I found myself wasting magic when I wanted to use rage attacks, or aiming with the bow when I wanted to block. It took a while before I got comfortable with it, and even then I messed up occasionally.

 The directional pad can be used to switch between your weapons: Gorgon Shield and Sword, Athena's Blades(No, not those), Achilles' Spear and the Deathbiter(The Hammer). Every weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own two unique magic spells. Mind you, while you can swap weapons at any time, you must be standing still, it doesn't matter if you're blocking or not, just don't be touching the left analog stick. Yes, it's a bit annoying, but you can manage. Do be careful with Checkpoints, however, as they'll restore you with the exact same amount of health you had when the game saved, which could potentially leave you in an unwinnable state. It didn't happen to me, but it could happen.

There's plenty of enemies and allies on-screen at the same time

 The game is based on chapters that play out in a very linear fashion, although there's room for exploration if you want some extras, most which affect the Arena mode. There's a little bit of everything in here, there're some very basic puzzles every now and then, there're a few escort missions(One's infamously tough, although I didn't have trouble with it) but most of the time it's all about you and your army against the Romans. Battles can take epic(As far as the PS2 goes!) proportions, with dozens of troops on-screen at once and a very steady framerate to boot. The combat is relatively fun, but sometimes it can get a bit repetitive, with you mashing the shield-bash move until you can get an opening and land some hits. And after each stage you'll be given stat points to even the odds, while you can spend them on Health, Damage or Magic, by the end of the game everything will be maxed, so don't think too hard about the 'perfect build'.

 The game can get VERY tough, but it's always very, very fair. You're given a lot of tools, and as long as you can figure out which ones to use on every occasion, you'll be fine. Sometimes you'll be alone against hundreds of soldiers, so you'll have to make do with the Gorgon Shield's magic and petrify them, and then use Athena's blades to quickly make mince-stone out of them, or perhaps it's better to use Achilles' invulnerability spell and lay waste to the enemy? Assassins can be tough if you go at them with Athena's blades, so equip the Gorgon's Shield and Sword and take them out against the walls. Or maybe the best way to deal with the enemies in the sewers is to bash them down to the abyss with your powerful shield bash. The only weapon that felt useless was the hammer, while it's the only weapon that can ignore shields... it's too slow, so for every hit that you land you'll be receiving three. It's very tough, but make good use of your tools and you'll be A-OK.

The Spear is a fantastic weapon to deal with most constricted enemy-infested areas.

 But the game's biggest offender is... fall damage. WHY?! Since when is fall damage a good thing!? WHY OH WHY IS FALL DAMAGE IN THE GAME?... well, it's not a huge issue, but do be careful when going up-and-down multi-leveled stages. The game is pretty lengthy, probably 6 hours long, and there's an Arena mode if you are so inclined, which tasks you with defeating various waves of enemies.

 Spartan - Total Warrior is a total blast to play. It's got a few technical flaws that keep it from greatness, but most of what it does it does it well. It might be a bit too tough for some, but there's an Easy option and I'm guessing it might be more lenient on players. Regardless, the challenge on Normal is just right and I loved how it made you work with what you had in order to come out victorious.
 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Spartan - Total Warrior

 Not a Halloween game, issit?

Say no to photorealistic depictions of people in videogame covers.

 Well then, the Halloween Extravaganza is over, but there're still games to be played! Like Spartan - Total Warrior, of which I just finished the fist missions and it was great.

  The first chapter is done and done with, and I loved it. The combat is simple, but fast, and it feels good. I love the huge amount of troops in the stage, made everything feel epic. And the framerate is pretty smooth despite it! What I didn't like was having fall damage, seriously?! Still, it's so good that I can't wait to play more of it.

Review #485: Bloody Roar 4

 Bloody whimper.

That's not witchblade, it's the newest focus on fanservice!

 Primal Fury's place as a sequel is often contested by people that consider it more of an upgraded port, which is funny considering this game feels even less as a sequel than it... kinda. If you come to BR 4 from BR 3, which would be understandable considering Primal Fury/Extreme were never released on the PS2, this game will feel fresher and newer, but if you come from PR/E... well, it'll feel like a remix or enhanced port of sorts. Yes, Bloody Roar 4 is another lackluster effort from Hudson, but changes made to the core mechanics made this game a blunder.

 Modes in this game are: Arcade, Time Attack, VS Player, Training, Survival, Sparring(VS CPU) and Career. Most modes are self explanatory but Career Mode, which was a good idea on paper. In it you have to travel through a grid, fighting monotonous one-round fights against random opponents in order to earn points with which to customize your characters, with passive abilities(More strength, higher jumps) or even new moves or moves from other fighters. It's also the only mode in which you can unlock the secret fighters.... which are made up of Long(What.), Shina(Why?!), Kohryu(Plays just like he did in 3 and Primal Fury, and is still an unlockable), Uranus(Same deal as Kohryu) and another version of Ryoho. Lame. It boggles the mind as to why the made Long and Shina unlockable now, they look and play just like they did in Primal Fury, and they don't have any special plot relevance or what have you.

Lions and Tigers... there surely were a lot of felines in the franchise, huh?

 Let's start with changes to the gameplay, first of all, as long as you're in beast mode, you won't receive damage but rather lose beast energy. It's a weird change, and one that makes Human form all but useless, and it's hilarious because you start every fight with a full health and beast gauge, and there's no reason as to why you wouldn't morph right then and there, why lose health needlessly? Turning into beast can be done at any time, if you don't have any energy on the beast gauge you'll simply trade a bit of your health. Trading in a certain amount of health will initiate a toned down version of Hyper Beast form from previous games. Lame. These changes also mean that after you lose all your health you'll be forcibly changed into beast form, and a round won't end until both gauges are depleted. It's lame, it's dull, it's boring and it removes a lot of strategy from previous games, just spam that beast form. Beast Drives do much less damage than before and only cost a bit of Beast Gauge, but in turn now deal damage to both health and beast gauges at the same time. The game's engine has been tweaked a bit, and now landing hits doesn't feel quite as good as before and the game, as a whole, feels slower. Lame.

 Ganesha and Chronos(And Fang, if you played Extreme) are gone, alongside their movesets, and characters only have 2 costumes(8 of them have a new third costume though.), movesets haven't changed a bit as far as I noticed. There're a few new stages, but you'll notice that a lot of them are rehashes or asset flips from previous stages. There're some unexplained invisible barriers around stages that make a few arenas very small and cramped until you break them(By smashing your opponent against it) which is... odd? The smaller stages are too small, which makes fighting a bit cumbersome.

The newcomers are not very appealing.

 As for the new characters, we've got Nagi the Spurious, a design that put fanservice first, but she's kinda fun to play as, which is understandable since she is related to Xion, and both are masher-friendly characters that have a lot of flash and simple inputs. There's Reiji the Crow, his beast form is really cool, but his human form looks like a generic enemy NPC Thug. Lastly, Ryoho who comes in two flavors: Ryoho and Mana the Ninetails, which is a bit wonky, circle makes Mana attack while Ryoho fights with punches and kicks, and Ryoho the Dragon in which Ryoho fights by himself and gets a wonky, but kinda neat, dragon form. As for Ryoho, he is a bit dull, gameplay-wise, and looks like a generic Japanese Martial Artist Monk design. Basically, besides Nagi, the other new characters aren't worth it. And Reiji's beast form makes a few stages drop frames like there's no tomorrow, do not use him in the sewers stage, for your sake.

 Finally, let me go in on the Career Mode and its flaws. First of all, fully clearing the entire and needlessly convoluted to explore grid you'll be left off with 96000 points... but you need 100000 in order to unlock Ryoho, problem is... every fight from then on only gives out 50 points. Yes, you have to fight 80 boring rounds to unlock Ryoho. If you equip damage boosts on your character you can finish each fight in two combos(The game pushes you back when a character transforms after losing all its health), so you can probably do this in 30-40 minutes. It's not really all that tedious, but its very boring. Then there's the fact that a savefile only has room for 8 customized characters. 8 out of 18. Brilliant.

There're two Ryohos, two tigers, two moles and Uranus is supposed to be a clone of Uriko....is this rise of the Clones?

 And don't you worry, not only does the game fail at a gameplay level, it also fails in the presentation. I know that the Gamecube was a stronger console, but these character models, which should be the ones from Primal Fury, which should look better than the models from BR3... managed to look even worse than 3. I can't quite put my finger on why the game looks worse, but it does. I think the characters are missing some polygons and worse lighting effects in order to bring back blood particles and make the game run smoothly while providing very short load times. It's just a theory, but BR 3 had rather long load times, which are gone now. Thanks? And then there're the ending cutscenes to Arcade Mode. The dialogue is bad, the subtitles have typos, the stories contradict each other and the voice acting is horrible, the delivery is abysmal and there's no lip synching. Did someone even care?

 And this marks Bloody Roar's end. In a sick twist of fate, no other Bloody Roar game is as hard to find, or expensive, as Bloody Roar 4 and none is as bad as it is. If you're like me you probably want to play as the new characters, but believe me, they aren't worth it. The new mechanics are horrible and only Nagi manages to be fun to play as, you're better off with Chronos and Ganesha in Primal Fury.
 4.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Bloody Roar 4

 Kind of a sequel? Kinda? Maybe?

 Bloody Roar Primal Fury has a contested place as a sequel, but nobody seems to doubt Bloody Roar 4's worthiness to the number... despite it recycling character designs and models from Primal Fury. And we lost Ganesha and Chronos for series' newcomers Ryoho, Nagi and Reiji.

 Regardless, I started career mode with Bakuryu and... everything feels off. I still don't quite get how to enter Hyper Beast mode and everything feels slow. The feedback you got from landing hits is also gone, and everything feels floatier and... looser. Not good.

 The new system that makes both Beast Gauge and Health bar needing to be depleted is garbage, seriously, human form is nigh useless and you can just spam Beast Mode by expending a little health.

 All in all... I'm not feeling it. I don't think it's quite as terrible as people make it out to be, but I wouldn't call it great either.

Review #484: Bloody Roar - Primal Fury

 Is it a port or is it a sequel?

Not a good cover, not at all.

 When talking about Primal Fury one question usually arises, is it a port or is it a sequel to 3? No place seems to agree, but after having played both games back to back, the truth is somewhere in the middle, leaning towards full-blown sequel. Y'see, while it feels like the same game, the art-direction has shifted completely, the storyline is completely different, every character sporting new designs and a few changed moves(But only a few, and only some characters), the mechanics have been tweaked a bit and there're about two new stages... reusing the rest from 3 and there're two new characters. Basically, it's more like a very meaty expansion pack than a true sequel.

 BR 3 was a bit light on modes, and Primal Fury set out to remedy this by offering an Arcade Mode, VS Player, Time Attack, Survival, Team Battle and VS Team Battle. 'Extra Modes' has been swapped with 'Cheats', which works like 'Custom VS' from previous games, only that it affects every mode. Cheats, basically, let you tweak a few things, like walls on stages, playing as super deformed characters(It returned!) or fighting at a higher/lower speed. The new characters are fairly interesting, Ganesha the Elephant and Chronos the Penguin... who's Hyper Beast Mode is a Phoenix. Enjoy these new characters, because as fun to use as they are, they won't return in the next, and final, game.

The new designs are hit or miss, but characters only have two costumes/colors now. Lame!

 The game plays pretty much the same as 3, on which I expanded on the previous blog entry, but Hyper Beast Mode has been change a lot. You no longer need to wait for a full beast gauge to unleash it, instead you can trade health in order to use it at any time. It lasts only 12 seconds, but you can use it as many times as you wish, and why wouldn't you, as much health as it costs to use, you can just use Beast Drives, which will heal you a little whether they hit or not. Hyper Beast does seem to do less overall damage than before, probably to make up for how easy it is to access it.

 Balance... is still pretty bad. A few characters have been tweaked a bit, mostly in order to add new counter moves, and Long does seem a bit toned down, but Uranus is still too strong when compared to the rest of the cast. Chronos too is pretty tough, but not because of his Phoenix Mode, not because he can actually rob you of Beast Gauge energy, but because his Penguin Form is so short that it's hard to hit him!

C'mon Xion, make those devils cry!

 The new art direction is very... animu, to say the least. There's an anime opening, and there are hilariously mute anime endings for every character, save for Kohryu and Uranus who get the short end of the stick here too. Character designs are a bit softer, some characters have been getting edgier and grittier by every game, but here they just... started wearing normal clothes? Look at Yugo, he went from an anime fighter, to a hardcore pugilist to a leather-jacker sporting Jin Kazama wannabe to a... skater dude? Well, to be fair, it's a bit hit or miss, Long looks better than ever, while Shina doesn't come off as badass as she did before, while in turn Alice doesn't look as animu as before. Your mileage may vary depending on the character.

 Primal Fury is... pretty much Bloody Roar 3 with a few new bells and whistles. While I think that BR 3 had the better art direction and Hyper Beast Mode worked better too, I can appreciate the efforts taken to balance the rest of the characters... even if making Hyper Beast Mode something so easy to cheese. Overall? A different flavor of the same game. Not necessarily better and not necessarily worse, just... different.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #483: Bloody Roar 3

 Xion was Dante before Devil May Cry was a thing.

The art isn't as dark as it used to be, but it's still neat.

 Bloody Roar 2 was pretty dope and took the series in a bold new direction with the grittier art-style and cooler character designs. But then came the PS2, and thus a new game was bound to happen harnessing the power of the new consoles. Bloody Roar 3 is everything a fan of the franchise would've wanted.

 As far as modes go, we've got Arcade Mode, now with hand-drawn prologue and ending stills, VS Player(No VS CPU, which sucks), Survival and Practice Mode. Fulfilling certain conditions, most of them involving Survival and Arcade Mode, you can unlock Extra modes, which are hidden beneath the options screens and have the series staples like No walls or everything-cancels-into-everything. Kids mode, big arms and big head modes are gone. The selection of Modes is alright, but man does it suck not having VS CPU. As for the character roster, every character returns, with a few new moves and new designs. There're three new characters, Xion the Unborn(A cockroach looking thing), Kohryu the Iron Mole(Bakuryu from the first game, plays very similarly to the new Bakuryu) and Uranus the Chimera.

Characters have three different costumes and/or colors to pick from.

 The gameplay remains the same, two attack buttons(Punch and Kick) as well as the beast button that turns you into a beast as well as doubling as another attack button while in beast mode. Beast Drives, AKA Super Moves, return, but now with universal motions for every character as well as two of them for each. Sidesteps are turned on by default now, and the game plays way faster than before, something I welcome quite a lot. The biggest game changer is Hyper Beast mode, once your beast gauge is full, press R1+O+Square to enter Hyper Beast Mode, which lasts 12 seconds and once time runs out you lose your beast gauge, but makes you incredibly overpowered for 12 seconds, letting you spam Beast Drives non-stop, yes, the supers that normally should turn you back into a human and heal some of your health back.

 While Hyper Beast Mode makes every character overpowered, there's no escaping the fact that the game, as a whole, isn't very balanced. Long, Xion and Uranus are simply too strong when compared to the rest of the cast, although I've heard that every character has access to some very simple infinites...

That's not Guyver... I think.

 Bloody Roar 3 is the culmination of the beautiful mess that the series is. Any attempt of being a balanced fighter is gone out the window in favor of offering fast-paced button mashing action. It's the most markedly unbalanced it's ever been, but it's also the most fun it's ever been. The series will never appeal to some people, and that's fine, because there's definitely a place for this game.... but it'd be nice if they could tone down a few characters, yes?
 8.5 out of 10

Review #482: Bloody Roar 2

Furries rejoice!

Hey, there, Gado, I heard you are the new final Boss now?

 Bloody Roar 1 was a very original fighting game back in the day, I mean, you could turn your humans into furries versions of themselves. It was definitely a button masher, not much depth to it, but it was fun to play thanks to the long combo strings each character had and the simplicity of it all. Bloody Roar 2 is exactly the same in that regard, it's not deep, it's very simple... but it's also a load of fun.

 The game offers these modes: Arcade, an 8-man ladder, Story, a 6-to-8 fight ladder accompanied by fantastic hand-drawn stills, Survival, self explanatory, VS Player and Custom VS. Custom VS can be played against another player or another CPU, and it's a mode in which you can alter a few mechanics, like turning on side-stepping, making everything cancel into everything or having characters look super deformed, these options must be unlocked, however, by fulfilling a few conditions like clearing Arcade without using a continue. As for characters, Yugo the Wolf, Alice the Rabbit, Gado the Lion and Long the Tiger return, Jenny the Bat takes Fox the Fox's place, while Stun the Insect and Busuzima the Chamaeleon borrowed some moves from Greg the Gorilla and Mitsuko the Boear, then there's a teenage Bakuryu the Mole, the successor to Bloody Roar 1's Bakuryu. There're three other new charactes with new moves, kinda, Shina the Leopard, Uriko the Half-beast and Shenlong the Tiger, who actually uses Long's BR1 moveset. It's a neat 11-character roster

This game's aesthetics are fantastic.

 Bloody Roar 2 plays pretty much exactly like the previous game, there's a punch and a kick button, while circle is used to turn into your beast form, and then acts as a third attack button. Beast Mode lasts as long as your beast gauge has some energy in it, but you lose it as you get hit, once out of Beast Mode you must fill the entire gauge again, by landing hits, in order to transform again. Beast Rave has been removed entirely, and in its place are Beast Drives, devastating super moves that drain your gauge completely and turn you back into a human. Beast Drives are much better than Beast Rave, if you ask me.

 Bloody Roar 2 looks much better than the first one, animations are smoother and the character models are prettier. Moves flow much better into each other, and it feels like a faster game. The character designs are much better too, I don't miss any of the characters that didn't return since their successors are much cooler or interesting.

Japanese fighting games don't tend to have this much blood in them.

 Bloody Roar 2 is so much better and polished than the first game that it makes it hard to go back to 1. Sure, it's missing a few characters, but I'd rather play as any of the newcomers from the sequel, plus, Beast Rave didn't work too well while Beast Drives are an interesting new mechanic. The game is still a button-masher, however, so people looking for something deep should look elsewhere.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Bloody Roar 2

 How can a roar be bloody? You spit blood as you roar?

Gado looks just like Rugal now.

 I don't know on which game I spent more time playing back when I was younger, Bloody Roar 2 or 3, but dang, is 2 good.

 Apparently, the game's reception was... lukewarm to say the least, people said that it was the same game but with more characters... but it isn't. Kinda.
 First of all, they got rid of the sillier characters(Fox, Greg, Old Bakuryu and Mitsuko(Which I think was the only interesting design of the four)) and replaced them with newer, cooler characters like Bakuryu 2, Jenny the Bat, Shina the Leopard(Quite badass), Stun the Insect and... well, Uriko is kinda cute and Buzusima is weird, but the game needed a weirdo. The artstyle is so much better, the game looks so much better, moves flow into each other much more smoothly and the game feels much faster.

 Like, the game isn't so different from the first one, but all the little enhancements and tweaks do add up for a much better game. And, by the by, this game totally fits into my October Halloween Extravaganza, I mean, I've braved Vampires, Skeletons, Deadites, Ghosts and even Natural Disasters, now I have to take on werewolves.

...and werelions. And wereleopards. And weremoles. And insect people.

Review #481: Raw Danger!

 Open the floodgates!

Just so you know, the Localization Team made everyone blonde because 'Murica.

 Welcome to Raw Danger, a survival game in which you must survive a flood catastrophe. It's a very original and unique game that's pretty much one of a kind on the PS2, barring the original game of course.

 The story takes place in an Island City, in which a dam breaks and the whole city starts falling apart. There're 6 different scenarios and 6 different characters, all of them intertwined and taking place throughout the 24th, 25th and 26th of December. What really makes this game special is how choices you make affect the subsequent chapters. Each chapter has a ton of choices for the player to make, some are merely cosmetical or superfluous, while others can either impact how the present chapter pans out or things about the remaining stories. Heck, there're a couple of different endings for every chapter as well as the overall ending, and depending on what you do on the first chapter, you will get an alternate chapter 6 with an alternate character. Frankly, the story itself gets sillier and generic-er as the conspiracy starts unraveling but, but the way the game treats your choices makes it very enjoyable to go through, it's always fun seeing how something you did before is affecting this other character. Which also means that there's a very high replayability factor here.

There's rarely a dull moment in Raw Danger!

 What you should know before taking the plunge is that the game is very wonky at a technical level. The game is very, very ugly but to its merit, it completely nailed the atmosphere it wanted, everything looks and feels cold, damp and wet, so bonus points there. But even setting aside how ugly character models are, the clunkiness extends to the gameplay, as you'll notice that collision detection can be a bit off at times. The game is very forgiving, and the poor collision detection can either work in your favor or against you. Oh, and pushing objects around is horrible, luckily it's not something you'll be doing very often. And then there's the framerate, which can get pretty horrid pretty often, all the rain and water effects do take a toll on the poor, ol' PS2.

 But if you can look aside its technical flaws, you'll discover a very enjoyable survival/adventure game. There are no enemies to be beaten, although villains are involved, you don't have any means of offence, instead, your main objective is surviving. There's no traditional health meter in here, but rather, you must keep your Body Temperature(BT) in check, as the rain and/or the flooded streets will dampen your colds, in turn making your BT decrease faster. As it lowers you'll lose the ability to run, and eventually, fall unconscious(Meaning, Game Over). Luckily, the game is very forgiving, at least on the normal difficulty setting. Savepoints are rather frequent, and they can dry all your clothes and fill your BT gauge to the top, hassle free.

Water's your biggest in the game.

 There're a ton, and I do mean a TON of items laying around that you can pick up, but do be careful, carrying capacity is limited. Heck, often times you're better off leaving items on the ground, as you'll come back to a few places with the other characters, and you don't want to leave them without supplies, now do you? There're a few Trash Containers in which you can deposit items for other characters to pick up if they come across the same container, or drop them with a recurring NPC. As for the items, they come in a wide variety, you've got the mandatory key items require to handle obstacles, there's food that can be cooked for a temporary BT protection, as well as heat pads or energy drinks that also prevent your BT from lowering for a while, as well as various clothes. Clothes are either cosmetics or some do offer some extra protection from the water and cold.

 Overall, Raw Danger is a fantastic, unique game on the PS2. All the choices you can make, all the items there're for you to collect and the interesting mechanics make for a very engaging experience that makes no two playthroughs the same. That said, you've got to be willing to forgive its technical shortcomings.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Raw Danger!

 And not it's time for natural disasters.

Look at their hands!

 It's still October, and I've fought Skeletons, Vampires, Psychic nutjobs and zombies, but there's one type of horror I haven't delved in yet.... Natural disasters. I actually wanted to play Disaster Report first, but it's a bit hard to find, so the sequel will do for now.

 I just spent 30 minutes, a few more if you count the tutorial, and damn boy, where has this game been hiding all my life? The entire set-up was brilliant, the whole party thing, having to act like a waiter, a ton of different decisions(Some that alter how things play out!), attention to detail(I grabbed the bag before the game told me so, so guests asked about it!) and then, the arrival of the flood. The pacing and the setting make for a sublime first impression.

 Movement is a bit clunky, to be fair, and moving stuff around(That step ladder!) is an absolute nightmare, but I think the game's charm and originality will pull through its technical problems.

Review #480: Resident Evil 6

 It only took me, what? About a year?

That's the ugliest 6 I've ever seen.

 Resident Evil 6 was very polarizing to say the least. Back when it first released, it was subject to either very high scores or very low scores, Destructoid's Jim Sterling even gave it a brutal 3 out of 10. After playing through the game.. I think it's high time people realized that Resident Evil was always about the action first and stop being so harsh on 4, 5 and 6!

 The story... is divided into 4 interwoven, 5-chapter campaigns. First we've got Chris and Piers', who you are told is the most action based... which is a lie, it's got as many chase sequences and vehicle sequences as the rest, and it even has its slow, horrory moments. Then there're Sherry and Jake's, who's campaign follows Resident Evil 3 scheme... except not, the Ustanak, this game's 'Nemesis', is just another element of a bigger setpiece, always appearing when the script says so, and there's always one way of taking him out or avoiding him. There're chase and vehicle sequences too. Leon and Helena have the next campaign, touted as the one focused on horror... which is not true either, the first two chapters are glorious, yes, but the next three feature just as many vehicle and chase sequences as the rest. The final campaign is unlocked after finishing the other three and is the plot dump campaign in which the 'why' and 'how's are explained. There're vehicle and chase sequences too. What I mean to say is... the idea that all four campaigns are focused on different themes or gameplays is a lie, all four campaigns are pretty much the same. As for the overall story.. it's pretty silly, although it tries to take itself more seriously than ever before, there're no crazy scientists, mad dragqueens or weird, pale midgets. Overall, the story was entertaining enough, but not something that moved me or hooked me.

The chaos had never been this much wide-spread before. The stakes are higher than they've ever been in REvil.

 I think that dividing the game into four campaigns was a mistake though. I would've much preferred a more focused campaign, and one that didn't move in a breakneck speed. Y'see, something that will probably turn off quite a few is the fact that the game advances in a set-piece to set-piece fashion. There's never a dull moment, and if the action slows down is because something is about to happen soon. Even Leon's first two chapters, which are rather slow-paced, are like this. Sidenote, the first two chapters in Leon's campaign are exactly what a story-driven Zombie game should be like. Overall, the game is rather lengthy, chapters take about an hour to complete, Leon having the longest chapters(Some going as far as 1:30) while Ada has the shortest(Most shouldn't break an hour).

 As far as gameplay goes, it's pretty much an evolved version of Resident Evil 5's over-the-should third-person shooting mechanics. There're a ton of new maneuvers, not only can you move while aiming, you can also dodge to the sides or even jump back. You can lay on the floor or roll on the floor as you aim and shoot! While characters are as heavy to turn and as agile as a sack of sand, the new abilities do make for more frantic action. Melee can now be performed at will by tapping R1, although the really strong melee moves are reserved for dazed enemies, by hitting their limbs. There's a new stamina gauge that governs how much you can use your melee attacks, so you can't just spam them. Overall, I adored the new additions to the gameplay.

For as many complaints as the camera received, I felt it was just fine.

 One thing I really liked were the new enemies, the J'Avo. These monsters will mutate in different ways depending on where you harm them. Hit their torsos? They might develop an armored body. Hit their legs? Now they turn into half-man-half-flesh-grasshopper-thing. While there's not a huge amount of variety, there was enough to keep things interesting. Leon and Helena get exclusive enemies in the form of zombies, which may mutate into red zombies, as well as fat and screaming zombies, but I didn't care too much about them, same old, same old.

 There's a new Skill system in place too, sometimes enemies or boxes may drop skill points when felled, which can then be used on different passive skills. While you can only have three at a time, finishing the game lets you have up to eight different, three-skill sets to switch around mid-gameplay. A ton of people disliked the new system since 'you may be running out of ammo or health and get skill points instead', but... how the hell did you run out of ammo? Health is restored to full upon dying and restarting on a checkpoint, so being low on life is no excuse, and as for ammo... if you are using your melee attacks, which if you've been playing REvil since 4 you should know how strong and useful they are, you shouldn't be hurting for ammo. I will admit that ammo is limited, but I never, EVER found myself without ammo. EVER.

Some setpieces are shared between campaigns, if you play online, you can have four different players together at times!

 I've heard horror tales about AI Sheva's uselessness in REvil 5, but I found AI allies to be pretty darn useful. They've removed their inventories, so the will never pick up stuff, which is good news for people that play in Single Player, although the real-time menu remains, which is kinda annoying in my opinion. They've tweaked how herbs work, and you must now store them in your pellet case and then eat them as individual pellets? It's kinda cumbersome, since it involves going through a second inventory(Directional pads switches weapons, triangle is your entire inventory) just to put them inside the case. It also doesn't make much sense what your maximum capacity of pellets is, since sometimes it wouldn't let me store them even though I shouldn't be hitting the max. Weird.

 Still, the worst returning offender is, or rather, are... the QTEs. There're way too many QTEs, and they are incredibly annoying, as per usual. And you CAN turn them off... if you set the difficulty to amateur. Seriously??? I read some complaints about the camera, and while it is true that I felt that your character took up way too much screen time, it never got in my way. I always knew what was going on and didn't have issues figuring out where to go, and no, I didn't have the patch that let you zoom-out the camera. My only issue with the camera is during the way too frequent chase-sequences. which have you and your partner escaping from different things while the camera does its best to disorient you. Speaking of disorienting, Capcom thought it'd be cute to give all four couples a different HUD, which can be a bit of a shock until you get used to them.

The game looks amazing, and the framerate is pretty stable to boot.

 Mercenaries return, although there are only 3 scenarios. Mercenaries is a mini-game, unlocked from the start, that has you trying to defeat as many enemies that you can while under a time limit, which can be extended in various ways. There're unlockable costumes for every character, but the guys get stupid, joke costumes and the girls get fetishistic slutty cop costumes, basically, none are worth it. There's a new, online-only, mode, 'Agent Hunt', in which you can invade other people's campaigns and play as the monsters, trying to kill the players. I didn't get to try it out, but it sounds amusing.

 In an era where games had already started to be released incomplete, Resident Evil 6 is quite the package, featuring a very lengthy campaign, with a few neat extras. Look, if you're a die-hard Classic Resident evil fan, this game won't sway you, and the new setpiece-to-setpiece pace will probably alienate a few, but as someone who likes this brand of third person shooters, with heavy and slow characters and the horror elements.... I can't help but like the game a lot. That said, I think I prefer Resident Evil 5 for the simple fact that it had a more focused campaign, and one that had much better pacing. Look, the setpiece-to-setpiece approach makes for a very exciting game, but there's not much build up, and as such, these epic, semi-scripted moments lose a lot of their impact. And as much as I adored the new gameplay elements, the campaigns get very repetitive with the multiple tacked-on vehicle and chase sequences. And the QTEs need to follow in the way of the dinosaurs.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #479: Corpse Party - Blood Drive

 This game is a corpse, but there's no party to be had playing it.

Damned, tempting extras at a low price!

 So there I was, browsing Play-Asia for a new purchase and I came across Corpse Party Blood Drive's Everafter Edition at 20 bucks. 20 bucks. It came with a fancy box, an artbook and a soundtrack CD, of course I had to buy it. I had to. Plus, it was a franchise I was looking to get into, even the 3DS re-release of the first game was on my sights. Was. After playing through Blood Drive I've no intention of ever dabbling in it again. Ever.

 I came at Blood Drive knowing NOTHING about the previous games... which is a big mistake. Blood Drives assumes you've played previous games, even the ones that never made it outside Japan, and if you want to get the full experience, it's better if you've dabbled in side material too. Still, while I got half the plot, what little I got I despised. Where should I start? There're overly long drawn-out descriptions of things that happen all the time, which are so boring to read. And this comes from someone who adores visual-novel styled games like Phoenix Wright, Danganronpa and Lux Pain, to name a few. The dialogue and script are very poorly written, it's hard to take anything that's happening seriously when everything sounds so... like it's trying so hard to be 'cool' using profanity and expletives, which has the offset of coming out as very cringey since the game uses a super-deformed style for the 3-D graphics, and the 2-D art is so childish and looks like your average, generic anime. And it tries so hard when it comes to describing gory stuff, it tries SO hard, but it's so hard to take seriously. And the characters? Every single character is a walking anime trope. You've even got Magari who represents everything wrong about anime, walking in a glorified string bikini while inside a zombie infested, decrepit and rundown school. It makes no sense and looks so stupid that makes it impossible to take anything that's going on seriously. As for the plot itself, EVEN if I knew the series' background I would have found it boring and cliched, ending with the characters having to save the entire world. I'm not kidding.

Ayumi is an idiot, coming back to Heavenly Host was a big mistake, and so was joining her in her quest.

 And when the game isn't boring you to tears, you'll be walking around the Heavenly Host high, a rundown highschool filled with zombies, ghosts, fleshy red things on the walls and broken floors. The entire gameplay portions of the game takes place in here, and all you'll be doing is running around, collecting items, solving puzzles(all of them are of the 'put the correct item in here' variety) while avoiding pursuers and traps on the ground. But nothing works well, nothing.

 Let's start with exploration: You've no map and everything looks the same. Seriously, there's no way to know where you are because there're no unique landmarks or what have you to guide you. And you have to go round and round and round searching for objects that need to be used in different places in order to proceed. The game is divided in 10 chapters, and every single time you'll have to retread old ground since for whatever reason objects appear out of thin air from chapter to chapter. It doesn't make sense. It's particularly egregious in a few chapters that after triggering something, new stuff appears in rooms you've already been to, with no hint whatsoever, so you are expected to go round and round and round and round again, examining every single room, again. It's so boring.

It looks scary, but it isn't. Trust me, I was deceived too.

 You are given a flashlight, which runs on batteries, but.... by pressing Select you can make batteries unlimited. Just like that. Your character also seems to run out of stamina pretty fast, which is supposed to make it so that you simply can't run away from pursuers, but... it makes exploration a drag, since you walk oh, so slowly. Plus, every now and then you'll be given choices 'enter the hole or 'do nothing', 'trust her' or 'ignore her', and if you choose the wrong answer... you lose. Just because. It's not fun, these 'bad endings' are interesting either since you don't even get a CG, just a boring, over-drawn description of what murdered you. Hopefully you saved earlier, because it's always fun to lose because of a random event that has a 50-50 chance of survival.

 As mentioned before, there're pursuers in the game, usually black ghosts. Once one tracks you, it will pursue you until you die or you run an absurdly long amount of time. You can hide in closets, but every single time I tried it I got caught, or... you can run towards a save spot, save and reload. Bang, the pursuer is gone. That's what I did, once I figured it out, since pursuers are relentless and once one spawns there's basically nothing else you can do, unless you have a Talisman which will instantly kill it. It's particularly bad because you also lose health from various traps laid on the floor, such as broken glass or splinters, which are hard to avoid when you're running away... which is probably why save spots heal you completely.

As dangerous as a super-deformed mannequin can be.

 Alright, so the exploration is boring, the chases are a drag and the visual novel parts put you to sleep, what else could the game screw up? Well, it runs like hot garbage. There're load screens everywhere: Open the menu? Loading screen. Use an item? Loading screen. Enter a room? Loading screen. And these are pretty long, 4-5 seconds affairs(Sometimes more) and they pile up because they are so frequent. The framerate is particularly pathetic, but once you turn on the flashlight, oh boy, does it get bad, hopefully you like playing as if your characters were underwater. Pro-tip, turn Flight Mode On, it makes it run a tiny bit better. I heard that the game was also prone to freezing, but I didn't come across any, albeit I did use Flight Mode most of the time I played the game.

 There's a bunch of extras to collect, like extra chapters, which are entirely in visual-novel form, and 'Name Tags', from dead alumni, and each tag comes with a colorful description of how the person died. And that's about it.

The game is probably more enjoyable if you can't understand the drivel they are spewing.

 Corpse Party - Blood Drive is a bad game. It is. Even, even if you liked the story, maybe you've never watched anime before so everything seems new to you, or maybe you're a hardcore anime nut and don't care that anime recycles tropes and cliches, even then... the game runs so poorly, it's an absolute dredge to play through. There's not a single redeeming quality in Corpse Party, and I usually like to find redeeming qualities. But there's none here. This game should've stayed in Japan, alongside the other games in the franchise that never made it through.
 0.5 out of 10

Review #478: Galerians - Ash

 Pretty Psychic Boys return, now with more Aliens and less Friday the 13th.

Now with more sci-fi and less horror.

 Remember Galerians? You probably don't, it was this obscure PS1 survival horror game featuring kids with psychic powers. But that's OK, the game uses footage from the movie, Galerians - Rion, to provide a lengthy recap... or you could read the game's instruction booklet for an even lengthier recap. The game spoils the original, so I will do so as well.

 Six years have passed since Rion gave up his life in order to stop the evil super computer Dorothy, however, Rion, being an AI, got stuck in a loop fighting her inside the data world. Lillia accesses the data world and managed to pluck Rion right out of it and download his conscience into his body, which she preserved after that faithful fight. Everything would be honky-dory, but the last remaining humans are now trapped in a building as the Last Galerians are making their way up, and guess what, only Rion can stop them. Remember how creepily eerie the first game could be? That's done, Galerians - Ash went towards the sci-fi route, specifically, Aliens. You're still fighting psychic loons and the such, but the ambiance and setting have much less horror in them, and it's more about surviving alongside the group of soldiers that distrust Rion. As for the plot itself... try not to think too hard about it.

Even the monsters lack a je ne se quoi that made the menagerie so much more creepy in the first game.

 Much has changed, but much also remains the same. Let's go over combat first: Rion now has 180 degrees of freedom when it comes to fighting, tank controls are gone, you can lock-on enemies, strafe around them, dodge around them(Circle button) and even guard by holding R1. Whereas in the previous game you had different levels of charge for your attacks, in here you have to charge the entire gauge before attacking, Nalcon being the only power that can be used with a single tap(But it's better if you charge), which takes a while getting used to if you come directly after finishing Galerians. Nalcon, Red and D-Felon, you psychic powers, return, but there're two new drugs, Bustanor, homing energy boomerangs of sorts, and Breakaron, devastating lightning. Bustanor is incredibly useful and Breakaron is incredibly powerful but you'll rarely get to use them since they come in very small supply. Also, I think you can accidentally skip them if you don't talk to the right NPC when they become available. Speaking of skipping, the Skip drug returns and now it can permanently boost any five of your powers and your shield, up to level 3, you usually get them after finishing a boss, but there's four hidden ones.

 The combat is much more fun than before, that's for sure. Each power takes a different time to charge, and you get rooted to your place when charging, but you can cancel it at any time by dodging. It's faster, and you gotta consider that every enemy is particularly susceptible to different powers: Bio-Plants fall faster to Red, human-like enemies get wrecked by D-Felon and robots can't do a thing about Bustaron(But you'd better save it up for the final bosses), and while Nalcon isn't particularly effective against anything, a few enemies resist it rather well, a tradeoff for being so plentiful I guess. There're RPG elements in place here too, every single enemy you defeat will drop a supply item or a permanent upgrade, either to your HP, AP or your maximum capacity for every drug, which means that the more you kill, the more each drug refill will last you and the more damage you'll be able to resist. Nalcon, Red and D-Felon are plentiful enough so that you can take a break to grind for stat upgrades or hope for recovery items and don't be too concerned about running out of ammo, just don't take it for granted. And the game sorta wants you to do it, enemies will respawn for a long, long while before stopping, heck, one of the hidden Skips requires defeating 600 enemies in a particular room. Yes, this means that the game went Resident Evil 4(Focusing on Action, and making ammo more plentiful) before Resident Evil 4, fancy that eh!

And you thought the Arabesques from the first game were tough!

 The AP gauge returns, for the uninitiated, AP is a gauge that once full will make Rion go berserk('Short'), he becomes invincible and every non-boss enemy dies by just looking at him funny... but it constantly saps your HP, you're reduced to a very slow walk and can only get out of it by taking a Delmetor or getting to one of the very rare, only two in the entire game, 'glowing lights' that restore your HP and AP. The system has changed a bit, for instance, you AP threshold can be extended by defeating enemies and how fast your AP rises depends on the 'radiation' of the zone you're in, other factors that make it rise higher is taking or receiving damage, shielding and dodging. While you'd think that Shorting would be beneficial for grinding, enemies defeated while Shorted drop smaller stat buffs.

 By now you probably think that the game is a banger, since the combat system is so much better. But it's not. The exploration aspect of the game is absolutely horrid. Let me tell you how the game works: You're stuck inside the top floors of a building, you are briefed at the top of the building(Floor 4) and must now find your way to floor 1(Lots o' walking and loading screens) to do whatever you need to do, many times you'll have to travel between floors doing busywork before being allowed into floor 1, afterwards you complete the mission and... must go all the way back to floor 4 and be told of some new development which has you... going down to floor 1 again, but probably taking a new route since the previous one is now blocked because reasons. That's the entire game. Well, there's another area, the Uranium Depository which must be visited twice, and the Data World which must be visited three times, and you have to repeat the same puzzles all three times because you're interrupted the previous two. But of course, you have to reach the place that you were at during your last visit and then do some more busywork. LAME. It's incredible how the got away with that one.

You make their head spin right round and round like a record baby, ro....

 Not that the puzzles are any good either, let me show you how the first 'big' puzzle in the game goes. You start off on floor 4(of course) and must get to a Warehouse. You try to open the door and it's a no go, of course, so you need to turn on the Power Generator. The next thing you have to figure out is that you have to interact with a door's button and not the door itself, otherwise it will appear as 'locked' in the map and you won't be able to open it. Fun. Now you are in floor 1, and there's no explanation as to why. Well, maybe you came across a certain key when you first came here, but since you didn't need it the game didn't let you pick it up, so hopefully you remember where it was. Alright, whatever, you're a psychic so you figure out that you need a key and that the key is here. you fetch it and go back to Floor 2, which isn't as simple as climbing a stair, you have to go from floor 1 to Laboratory 2 to Floor 3 to Floor 2. Fun times, I tell ya. Alright, you get to the generator, you enter the Start menu go to the Item label and use the key. You think you're done so you go back to the warehouse and... still no power. You go all the way back to the generator, but now you spot a broken cable. Maybe you came across a spare cable that the game didn't let you pick up because you didn't need it back then, but you remember where it was, somehow, so you go fetch it and... nothing. You actually have to examine the goddamn broken cable, because even though you aren't blind, Rion is, so unless you interacted with the broken cable you can't pick up the new spare cable. Alright, you interacted with it, got the spare cable and now you go into the menu and.... you can't use it. You have to turn off the generator, use the cable and then turn it on. You think you are done, you really think so, but... nope, now someone is standing in your way towards lab 2. So now you have to figure out that you have to talk to the dude guarding the stairs to floor 1 because NOW he feels like letting you in. I wouldn't blame you if you gave up during this entire waste of time.

 The game is very obtuse in telling you where it wants you to go next, or how to get there, so if you want to use a guide feel free to, the game loves to waste your time, be it having you retread old ground in the Data World, having you go up and down the same four floors or having incredibly annoying puzzles. Scratch that, use a guide and don't waste your time.... which is not to say that the game is devoid of fun ideas, there's a very fun mindscrew 3/4ths into the game, and it features a very WTF ending, although, all things considered, the ending is rather unfulfilling. And don't try to think too hard about some of the things that happen, or you'll find out that they make no sense or aren't properly explained. And as an added note, the game loves to be cheeky, so items only appear when you get annoyingly close to them, forcing you to comb areas if you want to find supplies.

These psychic-plants reminded me of REvil 2's zombie-plants.

 Galerians - Ash is a bit of a mess, but a mess I liked. Kinda liked? Sorta-somewhat liked at times. I liked having a bunch of new Galerians to fight and I somewhat liked a few of the characters, like Cas and grown-up Rion. Combat was fun too, thanks to the audiovisual feedback, it feels so good to shoot giant waves of fire, or have your enemies spinning up on the air. That said, Galerians Ash is for hardcore fans of the original only, and even then I'm sure that the it won't satisfy everyone, a lot of the horror elements are entirely gone, and the plot will be very hit or miss depending on your sensibilities(Yaoi fangirls rejoice), finishing the game I was left feeling unfulfilled, and the more I thought about the plot... the less I liked it.
 4.5 out of 10