Game #1171: Megaman X Legacy Collection 1+2

  The rise and fall and almost-rise again of Megaman X.

 Well, I should've played this one last year, but one thing led to another, and I'm finally getting to Megaman X Legacy Collection 1+2 on the Switch. This is a compilation of all 8 main numbered entries in the series, and just like the Megaman collection before it... it leaves a bit to be desired.

 So, just like the previous collection... for whatever stupid reason it was split into two different games, one with X1 to X4 and the other one housing X5 to X8. Clearly, one collection is leagues above the other one in term of quality. And the Switch version, the North American release anyways, gets gimped as X5 to X8 are download only. In this case, those are the worst in the series, even if X8 is pretty good, so it doesn't hurt... as much. 

 Both collections include the Day of Sigma OVA, which is a neat bonus. There are no savestates and no rewind, which is kind of bare minimum when it comes to old game re-releases. That said, there's a new 'Rookie Hunter' mode that makes you nigh invulnerable in every game, which is a decent alternative. And a welcome one, I love being able to revisit these games and turn my brain off and just enjoy the ride. I had a bit of an issue with the SNES games(X1 to X3) in that you can't map functions to the ZR and ZL buttons, since they emulated the SNES joystick. Lame.

 There's a new mode, the X Hunter Challange, featured in both volumes, and being pretty much identical, in which you play as X, pick 3-2 different powers, and set out to battle bosses from X1 through X6(the 2D games) in pairs. It's not an altogether bad extra... but X dons a new armor, the 'Ultimate Armor'... and it's one of the worst sprite edits I've ever seen in my life. It's so bad I didn't even realize it was supposed to be the secret/code armor from X4-X6 but recolored in white, since they did such a bad job at it.

 As for the games themselves... X1, X2, X3 and X4 are fantastic games. X4 and X1 make this collection worth it by themselves. X2 and X3 are almost as good, but I felt like X2's 'repair Zero' gimmick was a bit annoying. In the case of X3, there's so much stuff to collect that it ends up feeling bloated. Say, you can ignore the four new Chip upgrades, since doing so allows you to access the Gold Chip, which grants you every chip upgrade while making you stronger too, but there are also the four Ride Robots that you need if you want to collect the Heart Containers, Armor Upgrades and Energy Tanks... It's still really good, it really is, but there simply is too much too collect.

 So yeah, volume 1 of the Legacy Collection is top notch stuff. A collection of fantastic platforming games. But then... it's time for Volume 2, and I've got more to say about these games...

 X5 is almost good. Almost. It's clear that it was made on a tighter budget than X4, as the new sprites and backgrounds aren't as good as the ones in X4. The sound design isn't even as memorable. They added new NPC allies for Zero an X, which wasn't an altogether bad idea... but Alia, the Navigator, is constantly bombarding you with unskippable 'hints' on how to do the obvious. Yes, Alia, I can tell I need to hide behind walls when the fire comes. Yes, Alia, I have played the game before, I know I can crouch. Goddamn. Then there's this annoying 'time limit', which means you have 16 attempts playing stages, which is annoying considering there's a lot of upgrades two collect. Two armors for X, meaning 8 capsules, a lot of heart tanks, 3 energy tanks... It's a lot. And the worst part about it is that neither of X armors are as good as X's armor from X4. And you need to find all four parts before you can use either, instead of being able to use pieces as in 4. To sweeten the time limit, to get the Good Ending you need to either succeed in firing the laser, by collecting 4 laser pieces, or launching the shuttle, which needs four other pieces.... and even if you collect every piece of both, there's a chance they will both fail and you'll get locked into the bad ending. Just because. And to add insult to injury? The boss rematch at the end is ridiculous, since bosses gain MASSIVE health bars. There's a reason you can unlock the Cheat armor by normal means in this entry, as the boss rematch is just ridiculous.

 But not as ridiculous as X6. The first stage I played reminded me why I hated this game so much. It has leaps of faith... over SPIKED floors. There's no way to know that there might be an instant kill below you. Thank god for Rookie Hunter mode. It's entirely possible to get yourself stuck on alternate routes/hidden bosses with NO WAY to complete them, as you might need an upgrade part. Upgrade parts that can be permanently lost if an NPC dies since you didn't get to them on time or didn't see them until it was too late. There's a stage in which you have to fight a giant donut four different times. FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES. This game is filled with cheap obstacles. And if the terrible level design wasn't enough, these game features some THE ugliest and most boring Maverick designs in the entire series, and their sprites look awful. Fighting gate is a pain in the rear. Oh! And the two new X armors are even worse than the ones in X5. I hate this game, it's one of the worst games ever made, and the worst Megaman X game. The only good news is that the series could only get better. 

 ...but X7 isn't very good anyways. I used to say that X7 wasn't as bad as X6 because it wasn't as broken, fundamentally, as a game. But having replayed it... it's not good. Unlike X6, you can skip cutscenes, which is neat... but you can't skip most of the completely unnecessary tutorials. There's even a tutorial on how to use the Options menu. Seriously. After every mission you have to sit through the same text guides, you have to sit through the slowest list-checking EVER after you rescued reploids. Oh, and the menus always default to 'No', so try not to mash during the "Save"/"Go to Stage Select". needless text Menus or you'll be stuck in a loop. The stage featuring inverted areas is one of the worst stages in the entire series. But hey! At least the game isn't as broken as X6!

 And then comes X8. It's the Megaman X game I've played the least, and last time around... I thought it was pretty good. On this second playthrough.... It's still good, but it's far from the best. I'd probably put it alongside the first four games and say that Megaman X has 4 great games, a really good game(X8), a bland one, in X5, and two trainwrecks in X7 and X6. But I digress, X8 has a brand new, super sleek art-direction that makes the characters look cool instead of dorky, as no longer do they have legs thicker than their torsos! Now everybody gets an official new form: X's Hermes, Icarus and Ultimate armors, Axl's White form and Zero's Black form. And to make it even cooler, you can unlock Alia, Layer and Pallete, the game's Navigators, as alternate skins. Pretty cool! But that's not all, all three characters have been differentiated: X gets sub-weapons, as per usual. Zero gets new moves... but you can also purchase new weapons for him! Such as a hammer or a lance. And Axl now gets different projectile weapons from each boss. X's movement is the most basic, but he can, once unlocked, make his armor a mix-match of both Hermes' and Icarus' armors parts, Zero can double jump and Axl can glide. Pretty darn cool. And you can turn off the Navigators' tips. Thank god. The new upgrade system is really dope, basically, killing enemies makes them drop money which you can then spend on upgrades, such as life-ups, Energy Tanks, Zero's weapons, etc. I love it.

 But there's something that might not be to everyone's liking in X8... every stage is built around a gimmick. There's a stage that is an on-rails, from-the-back shooter. There's a third-person bike stage. There's a super boring, downward-scrolling stage. There's a stage that is made up of multiple 'challenge rooms'. There's one about turning the room to move blocks. There's one in which you are chased by a giant robot. One in which you must try to get your Ride Robot to the end... It's not as pure of a 2-D platforming game as the previous games. And, yes, if you don't like the gimmick you'll end up hating the stage and wishing for something more traditional. Another thing... this is the MMX game that took me the most to finish, by far, because it's very bloated. While you don't need to find Heart Tanks anymore, there are still 8 armor pieces for X, as well as a ton of very well hidden, to the point of needing a guide, chips. And you need to find this chips before you can buy some upgrades, such as Zero's weapons. It's incredible, but this game feels even more bloated than Megaman X3. And some stages can be a bit of a pain, like the Ice-Bike stage, which is super slow, and if you missed a pick-up you need to get through the entire stage again. X8 is a fun game, it's a good game... that can turn very boring at times, and if you don't like the gimmick, it can become a chore. It's a shame it took Capcom this long to course-correct.

 Megaman X Legacy Collection 1+2 is... depressing. The X series starts off SO GOOD, I'd say the first four games are better than ANYTHING the original Megaman put out under its brand. But then you get to X5 and it quickly goes downhill afterwards. While Megaman X and X4 could've easily made me rate this game very high, I'm really not OK with Capcom turning the Switch release into a Physical/Digital hybrid. Thankfully, I also purchased the game on PS4 were I can own it entirely physical. Still, unlike the original Megaman collection, I think I prefer this collection over the one on PS2, as Rookie Hunter mode made it fun to replay these games without having to invest much brain power in them. But, yeah, I wouldn't recommend the Switch version over the other ones, because making half of the game a download is just nasty.

 7.0

Game #1170: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax(Switch)

  Oh, so the Switch gets Arena but still not porting Persona 5?!

 Well, I stand by what I said about Persona 4 Arena Ultimax way back when, so I'll focus on this game as a port more than on it as, well, a game.

 For starters, just like ArkSys has been doing lately, much to my chagrin, even though this game had a worldwide release, even though it was fully localized... the physical release is Japanese only. You can't even change the spoken language to English. On the bright side, now you don't need to go through the painfully derivative and uninteresting story mode, plus, you can navigate the menus without knowing Japanese. On the flipside, well, it's not fully localized so you won't understand most of the written text if you don't know Japanse. 

 Something special about this game is that it contains the final Arcade-only update, which b quite a bit how Shadow versions of each character worked. This will probably only matter to those that play the game at a competitive level, however.

 This port includes all the DLC, which means the three DLC characters are here, no download required, which is pretty cool, and you get 31 colors per character, once again, pretty nice. This also means that I finally got to see the Glasses/Megane DLC in action and.... I can't believe ArkSys and Atlus had the gall to charge for it. Most glasses are barely noticeable on most characters, which makes it yet another testament to just how greedy both ArkSys and Atlus got back in the PS3 era.... and they still are, considering their garbage DLC practices.

 The game was... it's fine, I like it for the most part, but having two attack buttons and two persona attack buttons always made the combat feel a bit limited to me. This game also originated the forced auto-combo mechanic, something that pretty much every other modern 2-D fighting copied. I hate it. Something I disliked about this version is that the game keeps running on Suspended, so be sure to PAUSE the game before suspending it. 

 Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is alright. It's a decent fighting game, but far from ArkSys' best. I do appreciate the existence of this port, as now it's possible to own the entire game in physical form. But yeah, it's alright... but you can also get Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear and Blazblue ChronoPhantasma on Switch which are much better ArkSys fighters, not to mention, games like Under the Night In-Birth or even Street Fighter 3.

 7.0

Game #1169: Atelier Ryza - Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout

  It doesn't get thirstier than this.

 It's no secret that Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout is a giant Thirst trap... and I feel for it. Yes, I admit it, the heroine was sexy, I was way thirsty, and I said 'What the hell, let's check out Atelier once and for all.

 So... it's pretty much what I expected, it's sort of a cozy, uninteresting somewhat girly JRPG. The stakes never feel too high, Ryza is a farmgirl who doesn't want to be a farm girl, and alongside her buddies, Lent and Tao, meet with two mysterious characters, Empel and animal-girl Lila. who teach her the ways of Alchemy. With this newfound passion of hers, she and her friends set up a hideout on a nearby Island, the only area/dungeon/environment you get to explore in this adventure, and find out htat you must fight beings from another dimension to stop them from ransacking her town. That's the story. There's a whole subplot about Bos, an ex-friend of her and her friends, and how he is a big meanie but they used to be so close and.... honestly, the plot lulled me to sleep. It had some interesting beats, like Lent having a father that beat him up... but nobody ever does anything about it, and Lent's resolution by the end of the game is "I shouldn't have let him push me around". Seriously? At first I thought it was kinda interesting, having parental abuse in a JRPG, but they never delve too much into it and the resolution is dumb. It feels like a pseudo-slice of life JRPG, the reason I mentioned that the game feels somewhat cozy is not only because of how small the world is, how low the stakes are, but also the way the story is told. Many cutscenes trigger when you go into different parts of the main town, and they add nothing more than "Hey! This is what these characters are up to!". There's probably an audience for this type of story, but I ain't.

 As you'd expect out of a game in the Atelier series, crafting, called alchemy in this game, plays a big part in it. It's relatively straightforward, find/purchase alchemy books to get more recipes, gather the right elements and then go at it. While the game has plenty of tutorials, at first it felt a bit overwhelming. Different element colors, adding elements on slots to increase the orbs, the quality of the items... it felt like too much, but the more I played and the more I crafted, the more I understood the entire system, and by the end it felt like second-nature, and almost fun to plan out which ingredients to use to get the desired effects. That said, even after spending all 25 hours it took me to beat it, I'm sure I didn't understand every bit and piece of it.

 I found the gathering system a bit tedious. Thing is, when you go out into the Island you can gather all sorts of ingredients from different areas... but you also must carry tools. A Scythe, Hammer, Rod Hammer and a bug net... but different sources may provide different ingredients DEPENDING on which tools you use. That in a by of itself already makes it a bit of a chore to keep track of how to get everything you want, but you must also contend with a very tiny inventory. To make up for that, you can press '-' at any time and fast travel ANYWHERE, so you can quickly return to the Atelier, drop off everything, and then quick travel to where you were, but that still means sitting through two loading screens. And you'll want to collect everything that you want, because you never know when you'll need something again. Later in the game you can unlock the duplicator, letting you dupe anything you own... but it costs gems, gems which you get by turning equipment and ingredients into them... so you still have to gather stuff, and the cost is quite high.

 Oh, and the inventory system kinda sucks. You can have up to 500 items, so the list is quite lengthy, when trying to sell stuff or something. You can use different sorting filters, but none of them is good enough. Grouping items could've helped a lot. The guide, so that you can quickly check where to find ingredients before, is also not good enough, particularly when it comes to items dropped by enemies. You can check what an enemy drops, but not check what enemy drops an item, if that makes any sense. It's counterintuitive.

 And the sidequests that require crafting something? Those sucked! I didn't want to waste my hard-earned ingredients on the paltry rewards you get by completing them. It also sucked when I had to waste good stuff since the sidequest required a "X number quality item".

 The combat system was interesting, to say the least. It's turn based but with an active-time twist to it. For starters, you take control of one character, and the CPU plays as the other characters. You can swap at any time by pressing L or R to rotate between your three-man party. The thing about the CPU, is that you can order it to go on the offensive and waster CC on their special moves, but they'll never opt to heal or use items. In a way, if the game gets too hard, it could be a good idea to take control of your support character. That said, I never really had to depend on that, but I can remember a few tense moments, when fighting the optional Throne bosses, in which I had to desperately swap between characters BEFORE the CPU used them so that I could use items to heal them. It was sorta fun.

 As for the system itself, whenever your characters land basic attacks, you gain AP. After a certain threshold, 10 AP at first, you can spend it all to increase your Tactics level, up to level 5. Each level of Tactics enhances your characters' basic attacks and adds special properties to their AP-consuming super moves! It's an interesting system in which you are always choosing between instant damage or bonuses in the long run. As for consumables, they don't run out, but they must be equipped on your characters. They consume CC, a resource that can only be refilled by resting at the hideout... or by 'sacrificing' an equipped consumable. These sacrificed items are restored when you return to the hideout, so no biggie.

 Then there are special orders. Sometimes, the CPU allies will tell you something like "Land a physical special attack!" or "Hurt them with Ice!", if you do as they say, they'll follow up with an even more special move. The system is alright at first and in the end game, but when you are around the game's midpoint... it gets a bit ridiculous. Take Lent, he gains access to a thunder move at level 40, but before that... CPU allies may order you to deal Ice or Lightning damage, and you won't be able to unless you have Lent equipped with an Ice Elemental or Lightning elemental item. Midway through the game I was pretty much ignoring orders since I couldn't fulfill them. But by the end of the game, you not only gain more special moves, but also more items slots for everyone, so you can finally fulfill most conditions.

 Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout was alright. It felt pretty decent, and at times it was actually fun, but the gathering aspect was a bit too boring for my liking, and the plot... oh god, the plot was so incredibly lame. That said, I'm sure that there's an audience for this kind of game, and in that respect, I can appreciate it for what it is. That said, my first impressions of the Atelier series were right on the money, and I can skip the next ones... if only my thirst hadn't been so strong as for me to also buy Atelier Ryza 2.... plus, I've purchased Escha and Logi back in the day.

 7.0

Game #1168: Flynn - Son of Crimson

 Featuring the goodest of boys.

 I didn't know anything about Flynn: Son of Crimson. Out of the blue, I get Super Rare Game's Email "Hey! Check out this new release!", and it was fine, but meh... then as the days before the actual release went by, my interest grew, and then, the day before it went up on sale I checked out the trailer... 'Hey! This looks pretty good!'... and thus, here we are.

 This one is a pretty neat 2-D platformer that feels like a game out of the SNES era, albeit with simpler sprites. Flynn can attack, dodge-roll, shoot magic and jump his way to victory. As you go through the game you'll unlock two weapons to compliment Flynn's sword, the Axe and the Claws, one favoring strength and the other one speed. For the most part, I stuck with the sword, although some latter flying enemies were better taken care of with the claws. As for spells, you can obtain Ice, Thunder and Fire damage. Ice freezes enemies, Thunder is necessary to deal with electrified enemies and then there's my favorite, Fire, which deals damage over time.

 The magic system felt a bit half-baked. Flynn's basic spell is a red projectile that deals damage, and elemental attacks must be charged, changing the selected element with ZL. It feels a bit off. Ice is used to freeze floating water bodies, something that I know realize makes no sense, to turn them into platforms. Freezing enemies is pretty worthless. Fire is neat in combat, but you just use it to turn on torches. As for electricity... you'll be merrily on your way until you see a green enemy, and now you must start charging electricity in order to get the electric aura off them. I dunno, electricity being necessary to fight some enemies feels off considering it has no use outside of battle. As for the other two spells, their exploratory use felt a bit tacked on, and freezing enemies wasn't very useful. I think taking the charge out of the elemental benefit would've been better, although maybe not giving the elemental side-effect unless you charged it, that way dealing with electrified enemies on the fly wouldn't feel like a hassle.

 Combat is pretty simple, mash Y and win. As enemies take damage you'll notice that they'll blink white, that's your cue to get ready to dodge out of an incoming attack. Most enemies have a secondary orange bar beneath their health bar, this is the stun bar, once you fill it, by pummeling the enemy, they'll get stunned for a few seconds. Taking a page from more modern games, there are no healing items, instead you have a limited resource of healing: Healing orbs. These are automatically refilled upon entering a boss arena or by smashing blue crystals.

 Later in the game you get your very own Crimson Gauge, which you can then use once its full by pressing ZR+ZL by entering a RAGE MODE in which you deal tons of damage. So much so that pretty much any boss fight, at least on normal, is over as soon as you get your super mode off. There's a reason this gauge gets sapped before each boss fight. You can unlock some special techniques that consume blocks from this gauge, such as a downward stab with the sword... but I never felt like using any of these techniques. Why would I, considering the super move is infinitely more useful?  

 In some stages you'll get to ride Rex, the goodest of boys, a giant dog that you can ride and it can walk over spikes, and dash, and it can also hit enemies with his tails and bite them with his fangs and he is super fluffy and he is the best. He appears in about 4 or 5 stages, so he never wears out his welcome, and its a nice change of pace. 

 Every level has a ton of red crystals for you to grab, be it from the environment or fallen enemies, and most levels have a golden trinket to find. The golden trinket can then be traded for more red crystals. Red crystals are important because later in the game you unlock a trainer that works as an upgrade tree, and she requires red crystals to gain her boons.

 The game has a fair amount of stages, a few having 'alternate exits', which usually means that, once you find the key you can unlock a enemy-wave arena bonus stage. It's not like Super Mario World, so there are no obscure alternate routes that need a guide to discover. One complaint about the game, is that every now and then 'THE SCOURGE HAS APPEARED' will appear on the stage-select screen, blocking you from going to the next stage or revisiting an older stage. Now you must 'find' the source, which is an older level, and play through a harder, truncated version of an older stage. This happens about 5-6 times throughout the game and it felt like needless padding. Brought the game to a halt, as I just wanted to play new, fun stuff.

 All in all, Flynn: Son of Crimson was a pleasant surprise. It features a nice mix of combat, puzzles and platforming that keeps it from getting stale. Most of the things it tries to do it succeeds in them, although a few elements felt a bit misused. Regardless, I'd quite interested in a sequel. 

 8.0

Game #1167: Stranger of Paradise - Final Fantasy Origin

  Oh, you thought Final Fantasy I wasn't convoluted?

 Remember how Squaresoft used to make the classic-est of classic JRPGs back in the 90's and early 00s? And how ever since they got into the HD generation they decided that everything had to be convoluted and make no sense, so they started expanding on their standalone Final Fantasy games to make them make even less sense? Enter Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin in which they decided to make the simplest Final Fantasy convoluted. And, surprisingly, Nomura didn't write or direct this. 

 Well, the story... is a story. It's a prequel to the original Final Fantasy, which recontextualizes the time-loop, the fiends, Garland and the Lufenians. Necessary? Not in the slightest. I'll be frank, the five Heroes of Light are a bit shallow, and the way the story is told is a bit of a mess. Just like Final Fantasy VIII, it deals with Amnesia. On the same token, if you find an outside source to explain the story... it's not half bad. Some things, the whys, the hows, don't really make much sense, but it has a few interesting concepts... that aren't well conveyed, neither in cutscenes nor through optional text-logs. Sometimes, I don't understand why Final Fantasy just can't tell a story straight anymore. Oh, and there's blood. A lot of blood, your party will end up soaked in it after fighting living monsters.

 Thankfully, I found the game to be quite fun. It's a sort of Diablo meets Dark Souls kind of thing. You play as a party of three, although you can only take control of Jack, as you go through dungeons, earning and obtaining an obscene amount of loot. No, really, you'll end up with about 40 different pieces of equipment per dungeon run, and you've five characters to outfit with it. Jack is the only character that can equip any weapon, any armor and any job, while CPU allies are limited to fewer choices. As Jack you can also have two jobs equipped at the same time, swapping them with the triangle button.  Oh, and, by the by, equipment changes how every character looks, which is awesome.

 Combat is quite simple: Weak attacks and Strong attacks that consume MP. Strong attacks can be customized, as different jobs unlock different attacks per weapon that you can the slot on different combo-routes(Such as R1 R2, R1 R1 R2, Hold R1 - R2). There are quite a large amount of Strong attacks per weapon, and every weapon type plays quite differently, which was pretty neat. MP starts capped off at two stocks every time you enter a dungeon, but defeating enemies with SOUL BURSTs, by bringing down their Stun Meter, will increase your maximum amount to a total of six. Some spells actually bring down this cap, and dying also lowers it. For defense, you can roll and guard, or use the Soul Shield, which can 'steal' some spells from enemies, which you can then use. The Soul Shield can block pretty much anything, but will sap meter from your own Stun gauge, making it risky unless you use it to parry attacks.

 You can tell that combat takes after the Souls series, there's even a healing item that replenishes on savespots... which also respawns every enemy nearby. Thankfully, it's got a 'Story' difficulty setting that takes it down a notch, and you can even turn on Casual mode to play it in full Journalist Mode. It's what I did after I got stuck on a boss on Normal and I didn't care about 'gitting gud'. The AI is adequate for the story mode, but if you plan on tackling the CHAOS difficulty, which is the only way to get your Job levels beyond 30, you'll start noticing just how dumb they are. Still, as far as the main game is concerned, they get the job done.

 I had fun with the combat system. It's pretty fast paced, and looks and sounds vicious. Battling traditional Final Fantasy enemies in real time was exciting, and it helps just how badass you characters end up looking as you get them better armor and weapons. The Soul Burst mechanic was a cool addition, as Jack's finishers are brutal and feel SO good to pull off, so you are constantly trying to work towards them, to increase your maximum MP AND to style on your enemies.

 The game plays pretty smoothly. PS4 can be played in either performance or graphics mode, I went for performance, and while supposedly it strives for 60fps... it barely reaches it. I few times it even felt as if I was playing underwater for a couple of seconds. That said, it's perfectly playable, however, the game looks quite blurry, at least in Resolution Mode. I didn't care too much, I'm used to playing on the Switch, but it's something to keep in mind. It also crashed twice on me, but considering I spent a ton of hours in it, even getting the Platinum Trophy, I'd say that's acceptable. Going back to the difficulty, I felt that the post-game content was a bit unfair, as it becomes quite hard to get good equipment. Even with end-game level 300 weapons I was doing scrap damage to a few enemies, enemies that could cream me in a few hits. Thankfully, it was entirely optional.

 The game itself has 15 major dungeons, each dungeon themed after a numbered Final Fantasy game, although you'd barely be able to tell that one dungeon is themed after FFVII's Mako reactor and another one after FF VIII's Ifrit's cavern. This theming was tied into the game's lore too, and I don't know what to make of that, because if you delve deeper into the ramifications... it ties into Dissidia. Which means Dissidia's whacky story is can be cannon. Oh god, no. There are also side-missions, taking place in the same dungeons. There's no overworld, instead, you pick locations from a map. You pick side-missions by pressing R1 or L1 on a location. They are not too involved, kill X amount of an enemy, kill an enemy or find something. They are alright. 

 I really liked Strangers of Paradise. I really don't understand why the game got such a lukewarm reception. The looting kept me hooked from start to finish, as comparing numbers to number never got old, and, thankfully, the combat never stopped being engaging, as brutalizing enemies AND getting rewarded for it was very satisfying. The story is a mess, really, but I don't feel as if that was ever a selling point.

 9.0

Game #1166: Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

  What Borderlands 3 could've been.

 While I liked Borderlands 3, I really did, it didn't really wow me as much as Borderlands 2. The fact that I didn't wait for a GOTY edition, which actually never came out on Ps4, probably didn't help. Enter Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, a spin-off that had the opportunity to become the best entry in the series, as they tried a lot of new stuff, stuff I've wanted since the second game.

 So... this game is set as a Dungeons and Dragon game, with Tiny Tina as the Dungeon Master. I love Ashly Burch's sense of humor, while a lot of people hated it, I loved 'Hey Ash, whatcha playin'?', and I love Ashly Burch's work as a VA... but I have never liked Tiny Tina, the character. How you'll feel about an ENTIRE game featuring her personality is... well, something you'll have to take into account. Bojack Horseman is here too, as the villain. Still, the story here, as usual, takes a backseat, but Tiny Tina's grating personality will be there, in the background, the entire way through. Just somethin' to keep in mind.

 The first change I liked... character creation! Borderlands is the series that made me realize how important a character creator could be, as in some cases some characters looked like something I'd like to play, but this being a first person RPG... I'd still want male grunts and yells to better gel with my character. Well, worry no more, as you can pick from any of six different skill trees and edit your character any which way you want. Top-notch. Oh! And midway through the game, you unlock a secondary class! Every class comes with two ability skills and a passive ability which is always on. It was actually kind of a waste, as you Action Skills are used with R1, and you can only have one out of four possible skills equipped.

 I mentioned in my Borderlands 3 entry how much the level 50 cap hurt.... here the maximum level caps at 40. Which sucks, because it's obvious that they are gonna slowly up the cap through DLC. I'm starting to dislike just how much they milk Borderlands through DLC, specially because BL3's full edition didn't come out on PS4. Regardless, 40 levels is not enough, so be mindful when spreading your stat and skill points. And, if you try to complete every sidequest, you'll hit the level 40 mark long before the game is over. Still, once you hit level 40 you start working towards Myth Ranks, which are pseudo-stat points you can invest in various passive upgrades. It's honestly a brilliant idea, although.... the sound bugs out, and you start hearing this gong sound every time you earn XP once unlocked. Incredibly annoying, and an issue that is impossible not to notice. What the hell, quality assurance?

 Going back to the good stuff... There's something I have wanted ever since Borderlands 1: Melee combat. It's finally here, baby! Mashing R3 nets you melee attacks that flow into each other, and you will find equippable melee weapons such as hammers, axes and swords. I love it. It's a small addition, but it feels so great to finally be able to waltz towards my enemies and have my melee attacks be worth a damn. Grenades were axed, in their stead we get spells. Which are basically grenades, but they take funny properties, such as magic projectiles or the ability to summon an elemental meteorite. Pretty cool. 

 Instead of a large interconnected world, now there's an overworld which you traverse in an isometrical viewpoint. Walking on grass can trigger random encounter, which you can just melee to avoid. In this overworld you can find goodies, such as dice, which can also be found in every dungeon, that permanently increase your loot quality drop chance. There are also Shrine Pieces, collect all four of a specific shrine and you get a nice permanent buff. The game offers a decent amount of optional stuff to do. Besides encampments and ruins, which behave like small 1-to-3 round survival arenas that reward you with plenty of loot and XP, there are a few areas that are fully-fledged dungeons that are 100% optional and you don't need to visit to finish the game. Still, most of the optional content are just survival arenas, which to be fair, reward you with so much stuff that you don't really mind how they are just simple fluff to pad the game. Still, even if most side-content is like that, one's got to admit that most of the dungeons in the game are pretty large, and there are at least 5 very long sidequests that are more than just survival arenas.

 That said, for as many great additions as the game has, there are some choices that are a bit baffling to me. For instance, when selling stuff there's no clear divide between what's in your inventory and what you've got equipped. In other Borderlands games both lists were clearly defined, in this one... well, hope you either marked your stuff as favorite or are keeping track of the inventory number below the list. Either way, not ideal. For this entry, we've also got more control functions than before, to the point that there's no direct shortcut to each weapon. I had to sacrifice Pings, who needs them anyways? and a few other secondary functions so that I could map each gun to the D-pad, like in previous games. Otherwise you are forced to press triangle to swap to the next weapon, which is quite frankly, ridiculous. I'm sure they could've done something better, like radial menus for pings or something.

 And then there's the quest journal. In previous games, whenever you started a new chapter, the Quest menu would show you that you had undiscovered quests, and the quick travel stations would show very clearly which maps had available sidequests. That's not here. Maybe you decide to backtrack to a previous map or somethin' and discover that a new quest popped up. Maybe. Why did they remove this? It makes no sense. And a few times the quest-log got bugged and I couldn't swap my highlighted quest, so I had to exit and re-enter town. Oh! And remember how dice increase your dropped loot quality chance? It won't update until you go through a loading screen. They removed gun customization too. While I love character customization, this is a first-person game, I'd rather customize the looks of my guns, the stuff I'm actually gonna be seeing.

 But easily, the worst part about the game... is how often it crashes. I stopped counting at seven 'cause I got tired of it. It's not as bad as BL2 on Vita, you can probably get at least two hours of gameplay before a new crash, but from what I've seen on forums, this is quite common on every console.

 Crashes aside, this one could've been my favorite Borderlands ever. I definitely liked it more than 3, and I swear, if the game didn't crash as often... I would've liked it more than 2. I was liking it more than 2 until the crashes started happenin and didn't stop comin'. What this entry made me realize is how undercooked Borderlands games are at release. Borderlands 3 had notorious inventory bugs, and this arbitrary level cap that is just gonna be removed through DLC is just ridiculous. I'm sad to say, since I used to love Borderlands, that it seems as if these games are only really worth all the hooplah once they release in a complete state, otherwise you're going to have to sit through limited gameplay and glaringly obvious bugs that should've been patched before release. If I ever decide to upgrade into the future generations of game consoles, I'll go back to waiting for GOTY editions. But even then, those editions continue getting gimped more and more as time goes on....

 8.5

Game #1165: Granblue Fantasy Versus Legendary Edition

 Waste of time edition. 

 So, earlier this year I played Granblue Fantasy Versus, and it was pretty darn good. And then I found out that ArkSys would rerelease it as Granblue Fantasy Versus: Legendary Edition, including all the DLC. Just like they did with Dragon Ball Z Fighterz + Season 1 DLC, it's an entirely new SKU, so it's entirely and exclusively in Japanese. 

 Oh, and the DLC comes in a code. So you have to update the game and download the DLC. Absolutely unacceptable. Here's my thoughts on the game:

 I had to create a new Japanese account, and I was getting an undecipherable error when inputting an email address. One hour later, it fixed itself and it allowed me to use the address I wanted to. Fine. After enduring that, I downloaded the DLC and... the DLC characters were still locked. I searched everywhere for help, turns out I had to "restoring the licenses". FINALLY! The DLC characters were playable. So I went to play the game with my main account and... DLC was inaccessible. Even after restoring the licenses. This has never happened to me before. I can play my non-American game releases and their DLC, as long as I downloaded it, on my main account. But not this one. Bollocks to that.

 This rerelease is an absolute waste of time, at least if you can't read a lick of Japanese, and having the characters locked behind a DLC code plus a patch download beats the purpose of this rerelease. Absolute garbage, ArkSys should be ashamed of themselves. But of course, they aren't, they have always pulled off shady garbage like this. 

 1.0

Game #1164: Eragon(Nintendo DS)

  Eragon is most definitely not a Dragon.

 You can say a lot of things about Eragon on the Nintendo DS, but it lacking ambition is not one of those. This is a 3-D adventure game that feels straight out of a PS1 game. No chibi-proportions here, proper character models with human-like proportions. Open fields to explore as well as towns... It's ambitious, very much so, however a few annoying flaws keep it from being as good as it could.

 In Eragon you play as, you guessed it, Eragon, and the game follows the plot of the movie, kinda, as some parts were extended or tweaked, to make room for more game, as well as adapting some scenes that never made it into the final cut, such as a few scenes with Katrina. And this is something I know because midway through my playthrough I decided to watch the film itself!

 The adventure is fairly linear, every map has a single entrance and a single exit. Some of the field areas are rather large, but also, rather empty. To pad out the game, there are a fair amount of sidequests, but most of them reward you with useless concept art. They are also fairly silly, usually a checkpoint race, finding a specific area under time constraints or collecting a certain amount of a specific item that is just lying around. There was a single instance of having to collect bracelets, dropped by enemies. For the most part, they are just filler. There are two optional Dragon Towers that feature some of the hardest puzzles and challenges in the game which are more interesting and reward the player with spells.

 There are a few collectibles that you can find hidden around the world of Eragon, even lying inside bushes, which are red candles and blue gems. Every five candles you get a dragon tooth, and for every three dragon teeth you extend your life bar. The blue gems turn into MP extensions, so it's in your best interest to explore as much as you can, whack every bush and defeat every enemy. Defeating an enemy with your dagger/sword/sword and dagger, your bow or your spells will work towards leveling up that specific object. Leveling up your bow and spells makes them stronger, while leveling up your bladed weapons will grant you new moves. In fact, once you get the Sword, it will then evolve into the sword and dagger, which is much stronger and cooler.

 The combat system is where the game starts to falter a bit. Melee combat is decent enough, you have a lock-on system, you can roll around enemies to dodge attacks, can mix weak and strong attacks for different combos. It works decently... at first. Eventually enemies and bosses just gain the ability to enter a counter-stance, EVEN WHILE you are hitting them, and if you hit them in this state they'll counterattack and deal a sizeable amount of damage. It feels very unfair. Later in the game, there are two bosses that, once halfway through their HP bar, will start RUNNING AWAY, and you must hit them to direct them towards your dragon, since only she can harm them. It's very tedious and boring, and takes too much time for something so mindlessly easy. Using the bow is decent enough, you stay rooted to the spot, but can shoot in third person if locked on to an enemy, or freely aim in first person otherwise. It's serviceable.

 But magic and items? Oh boy, you must draw silly symbols on the touchscreen. At least the healing herb symbol is usually registered correctly, but sometimes you'll draw the symbol and the game either won't register it or give you something else. You can temporarily freeze time, mid combat, to help you, but it's not all that great, since a spell symbol, once properly inputted, will net you a rune that you must aim by throwing it OUTSIDE the touchscreen, by rapidly dragging it with the stylus. Super cumbersome, to the point I didn't even bother with spells. This slow-time mechanic was also annoying because every time you pick up something or talk to an NPC the game will close the bottom-screen map, and many times, trying to bring it up again, and I accidentally triggered time freeze MANY times instead of opening the map. Very annoying.

 Oooh, but let me tell ya about the game's most innovative mechanic... During cutscenes in which Eragon communicates with his Dragon, Saphira... you have to draw symbols on the touchscreen. These goes on and on and on, and if you get it wrong you'll have to sit through this a few more seconds. Why? Honestly, WHY? Such a dumb waste of time.

I think that if Eragon didn't try to use gimmicky touchscreen inputs.. it could've been a decent game. But as it stands, it's an ambitious game, and y'know, even with a limited budget it still did a decent job in many respects. It's a shame its clunky combat and unnecessary and unwanted touchscreen gimmicks just drag the game down so, so hard.

 5.0

Game #1163: GoldenEye 007(Wii)

 Bond, Call of Bond.

 Back in the 90s, every new FPS that released on the N64 had to compete with GoldenEye, and as someone who didn't really like said game... I hated it, as publications always sided with GoldenEye, even though Turok 2 felt way superior at the time. In hindsight, Turok hasn't aged very well, if you ask me, but I've yet to give GoldenEye another go. Regardless, instead of going back to the classic, I decided to try out Activision's remake, GoldenEye 007 on the Wii. And let me get this out of the way, this is more than a remake, this is more like a complete overhaul, as this game is more Call of Duty than GoldenEye. 

 Well, for starters, the game offers a ton of control options. I went for the Gamecube controller(Well, I was too lazy to disconnect it from my Wii, and the game takes it as the default over the Wiimote) and it was relatively fine. It had a few quirks, such as melee being performed by holding down Z and pressing B, and not the other way around, which I found out the hard way. There are some slight stealth elements, if you're into that, but the game plays like Call of Duty. Aiming down iron-sights, the ability to snap-aim  onto enemies as well as regenerating health. For purists of the original, this is pretty much sacrilege. As for me, I decided to play this game pretty much like Call of Duty, going guns blazing laying down every enemy that came my way. It was fun.

 And for a game about a spy... there's certainly a ton of bombastic action to go around. Lots of explosions, shootouts, even a bike segment! And it helps that the game looks fantastic, leaving most Wii games in the dust. It's a shame the Wii never got more games like this one.

 The final nail in the coffin, for those hoping for a faithful remake, is that not only was Pierce Brosnan replaced by Daniel Craig, but pretty much the only level that somewhat resembles a level from the original is the first one. The rest of the game is pretty much entirely original. And, I get it, fans of the original will probably feel super irked by that, but me, as someone who didn't care about the original... I liked the new stages, the new gameplay and the new script.

 Every stage has a few side-objectives to complete on every difficulty but the easiest. But here's the catch... while the game is always pushing you forward, it doesn't really highlight side objectives in the map, so it's up to you to go off the rails and explore and try to find them.  The game is a bit nasty about this, as stages have numerous auto-save checkpoints, and its possible to get locked out of a side-objective. Miss a side objective? No worries, you can still complete stage... but for the remainder of the game you'll be demoted to the easiest difficulty setting, unless you replay the stage and complete the necessary objectives. I won't lie, I wasn't sure how side objectives worked and I finished the first stage without fulfilling the side objectives... and I didn't really care to. I just played the game as a linear shooter and had fun with it.

 It's not a good remake, far far from it, but I liked the game for what it is. As long as you don't mind that the game isn't really faithful to the character and the source material, I think the game works great as an arcade-like shooter.

 7.5