Game #1205: YuYu Hakusho - Dark Tournament

  Unlike Yusuke, this one should stay dead and buried.

 I've read Yu Yu Hakusho's manga, and, to be honest, I never cared too much about it, however, I do know that it's a much beloved classic series. Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is a one on one fighting game that came out hot on the heels of Dragon Ball Budokai. Back in the day, I remember actually liking this game. Seems I was an idiot. 

 On its defense, it actually has quite a bit of content. Besides the Arcade and VS modes, you get Dark Tournament, which follows the anime Dark Tournament arc, with anime clips included to boot, Survival, Tag VS(There are loading times when changing characters mid-fight!) and even a bizarre Token Game that has nothing to do with the fighting. There's a training mode that takes you through each character's movesets, but it's not very good. It doesn't tell you the correct timing to perform some moves, and the diagonal moves are presented as "Left/Right Up Button" instead of "diagonal left/right button". And trust me, some attack strings have some weird timing, sometimes you have to input the whole thing before the first hit connects, other times you don't.... It makes no sense.

 I felt that the Dark Tournament was a nice way to relive the arc. There are many fights, and not all of them are straight up one on one fights. While we only get the dub, the anime clips are a nice addition, and there are a ton of them. The character models, while super simple, look relatively nice and there's this very nice slowdown when you land the last hit in a match. And that's all the good things I can say about this game. It's all downhill from here.

 Y'see, the game is broken everywhere. Let's start with just the basic movement, as there isn't a simple step forward or backward, oh no, press right and you'll do a running start towards the enemy, tap back and you'll do a backstep. Combos feel wonky, the timing is all weird. Also, you get full 3-hit or so combos out of Diagonal+Button. Other times you hold down a button and you get "rapid fire punch/kick". It's hard to put into words, but it feels horrible to play. It also seems the game queues your inputs, so if you pressed a button one too many times, you will get that attack after your attempt at a combo. Honestly, playing the game feels putrid.

 And that's not even getting into the nonsensical special move inputs. For example, playing as Yusuke R1 does nothing. R1+ Back does nothing. R1+Forward is the spirit gun.... And then R2 does nothing either unless you press R2+Back. There are no global shoulder button + direction inputs, which is very stupid. L1 does nothing for most characters, but pressing it at the end of one of Hiei's auto-combos it works as a follow up attack? It's very poorly thought-out, it feels like a game made by people who had never played a fighting game before.

 ...so I did some research. The company only ever made three games, two boxing games, which don't count as fighting games, and this one. That's it. Honestly, I'm willing to bet nobody knew much, or cared about, fighting games, and designed it the way they thought it made sense, leaving aside normal conventions of the genre. And the end result is awful, terrible!

 The worst part about the game? Everything surrounding it is decent. A nice variety of modes, anime clips to make the Dark Tournament mode more interesting, a pretty comprehensive character roster considering the arc it covers... but none of that matters when the foundation is so horribly laid. It's easily one of the worst fighting games on the system.

 2.0

Game #1204: SSX Tricky

  GET TRICKY G-G-GET TRICKY!

 SSX was alright, but now I see why so many people love SSX Tricky. Despite how many snowboarding games I have, I'm really not into the genre, however, I can still appreciate why this one is so beloved.

 The game is, at first glance, identical to the original game. You have the same modes: World Circuit, Practice, Showoff(Score the most points doing tricks) and Racing against other snowboarders, it also adds a time challenge(You vs your times). You get a sizeable roster of snowboarders, some returning, some new, who also get alternate outfits as well as other snowboards that change their stats. 

 First of all... I still don't enjoy the World Circuit mode. Frankly, I think forcing you to play the same track many times in order to actually get gold is pure, unnecessary filler. I guess I kinda get it, as there are only 10 tracks, and one of them can only be played in Free Ride and the other one is a Show Off exclusive, but I'd much rather have a smaller game that respects my time instead of one that has you replaying the same thing just because. 

 That said... I loved all the tracks. All the new downward slopes are amazing, and there's a new take on the lapped track from the previous game too. Every track has many shortcuts, signaled by breakable glass, as well as shortcuts you can make yourself if you decide to jump over some sloped curves! Many of the snowboarding games I've played these past few years didn't have many memorable tracks, this game is the complete opposite. And they are very well designed to boot! If anything, I feel as if the 8th track is a bit too lengthy, but then again, maybe that's its whole point.

 The game itself plays pretty much identical to the original game, sans for a few little things, most important of all, you can now turn while holding down X. And you twist and turn in the air by holding down a direction on the D-Pad. It's still not a perfect solution, what's the problem with making it play like in Tony Hawk?, but it makes playing the game much more comfortable than before. There are new UBER tricks, if you fill your Boost gauge, by performing tricks and not crashing or using the boost, you'll enter TRICKY mode. During tricky, all your tricks, done with the shoulder button, change, but the R2+Square now becomes the UBER trick, which instantly refills your turbo/tricky meter. This means that if you manage to keep chaining Uber Tricks you'll keep getting turbo! I like this, it adds a nice risk and reward system.

 Another new feature are alliances and rivalries. As you play events you'll have snowboarders that won't compete with you, friendlies, and others that will try to knock you down, enemies. Adding to this are rivalry cutscenes before and after a race, which adds a ton of flavor to the game.

 SSX Tricky is really good, it might as well be the best Snowboarding game I've covered, and I enjoyed it almost as much as I enjoyed Snowboard Kids. What can I say, Nostalgia weighs heavily sometimes. But I digress, SSX is an excellent sequel, and why I can't say I enjoy the genre, I understand why so many people fell in love with this game.

 7.5

Game #1203: Code Vein

 The Dark Souls of anime boobs.

 Remember God Eater? It was pretty dope, and not content with making an anime entry level Monster Hunter, the developers went ahead with Code Vein, a very anime, entry level take on Dark Souls. 

 The game has a lot of similarities with God Eater, and maybe even some connections, and it starts with the character creator. I felt the character creator was pretty decent, and it lets you create the edgiest anime character this side of the sun. Just like with God Eater, while you play as the main character, and you do have special anime powers the other characters do not have, your character is a boring mute hero, and it's the supporting cast that carry the game. Back with God Eater I complained about the fanservice.... and they did it again. Most of the female characters look downright ridiculous, even Mia, who is cute as a button, has her share of fanservicey camera angles when she is introduced. And just like with God Eater, you have a mysterious white haired-girl wearing tattered clothes, although this one has massive boobs, like most of the girls in this game. And, once again, just like in God Eater, many of the monsters and enemies have giant breasts just because. It's definitely not an art direction that everyone will enjoy.

 There's some plot about you and your team being Revenants, which are basically Vampires, but it doesn't matter much in the gist of things, and you are trying to find ways to deal with the Thirst(tm). The game's setting is quite bleak and tragic, which is something I really liked. That said... a large part of the story is told through flashbacks, which is OK, but most of these play out as forced walking sections, in which you walk through dimly lit static scenes and here voices. It feels very low budget, and it succeeded in making me lose my interest in the plot. Eventually I started skipping them because they became so boring. Just give me traditional cutscenes, heck, I'd rather have static cut-outs speaking that I can read at my own leisure and don't have to slowly walk through these scenes.

 As for the rest of the game... You know the deal, stamina bar that governs your attack, defense, rolls, etc, defeat enemies to get Haze(Souls) which you can then use to level up or enhance your equipment, dying means losing your Haze unless you get to the spot where you died and retrieve it, dying again without getting to your Haze means losing it all, and the there are Mistle plants that behave just like Bonfires, healing you completely, restocking your healing supply, respawning every slain enemy and allowing you to teleport to any other Mistle. You can't pause the game, and there's a crunchy backstab move too. In other words, it's Dark Souls, but anime.

 That said, there's one key difference that makes it more accessible, the very same difference that God Eater had in comparison with Monster Hunter: AI Allies. In this game you can take an AI ally with you. I like this feature, you can take one out of six different NPCs with you, and they are quite decent, heck, they can revive you if you die if they are fast enough. And, at least, they'll take some aggro away from you. From what I read, this game is easier than your average Souls clone if you play with an NPC ally, but harder if you don't, as the game is balanced around having an AI ally with you.

 In the game you have two main pieces of equipment: A weapon and a Veil. Veils take care of your defense and your Drain Attack, an attack you can use by holding down X or by performing a backstab. They are called drain attack because they drain Ichor towards your reserves and increase the maximum amount of Ichor you can carry... until you rest at a Mistle plant or die. Ichor is used to perform your special abilities. You can have up to 8 abilities equipped, plus four passives, and these are performed by holding down R2 and pressing any face button or any direction on the Dpad. Besides your equipment, you can also equip a Blood Code, which is pretty much your class, as they change your base stats as well as your skillset.... that said, most abilities can be mastered, by defeating enemies while having them equipped, and once mastered you can equip them on any class, adding a lot of versatility to the game. That said, unlocking abilities costs Haze as well!

 As I stated before, the game is rather easy as long as you do things right. About a third into the game I came to the Cathedral, and I was completely destroyed. I was doing minuscule damage, and I almost dropped the game. Frustrated, I searched 'Cathedral of the Lost difficulty spike' to feel better about myself and there was this comment saying how the game expected you to have a fully upgraded weapon. I had been neglecting those upgrades since I didn't want to invest Haze on weapons I would drop after I found something better... well, turns out there aren't many weapons, and that sword I was using I could've very well taken it to the end of the game. I also learned that I was using Veils wrong. I thought better defense numbers meant it was better, but Veils have stat scaling, so I was hampering my damage output. So I changed my veil, upgraded my sword and veil and voilah! The game became easy again.

 Just like with God Eater, I think that this is the perfect entry-level game into the Souls genre. The addition of an NPC ally adds accessibility, and if you think that's too cheap, just go ahead by yourself and torture yourself, your call. The game is as anime as it can get, which can be a point of contention for some people, but I didn't mind it too much, and I think that fanservice aside, the art direction is pretty good. And very, VERY edgy. Overall, it was fun, I liked it a lot.

 8.0

Game #1202: #Drive

 #HashtagsArentCoolNoMore 

 Upon learning of #Drive I was kinda hyped, an endless driving game? How cool did that sound?! Well, what they meant... was that it was an endless runner dolled up so that you play as a car, and the game, as a whole, is not a whole lot more than a glorified mobile port.

 There's not much to the game, really, it's an endless runner in which you drive a car, constantly moving forward, avoiding traffic, while taking curves and every now and then, going for Fuel or Power ups. Run out of fuel or crash your car and you lose. When there's a gas station, a power up or a donut incoming the game will warn you on which side they'll appear so that you can prepare, you also must be on the lookout for caps, the in-game currency with which to buy new cars. Power ups are few and pretty repetitive, such as a bulldozer blade to destroy incoming traffic, extra coins, a coin magnet, slow speed or making traffic disappear, all of these last for a short while. Donuts are automatically used to run cops off your tail, if you don't have one when they appear they'll just try to tackle you from behind a few times.

 The game is very... monotonous to say the least. There are 8 stages you can slowly unlock, but they get very repetitive as they don't have much in the way of interesting things to see, probably because the roads are procedurally generated. They have a very limited amount of unique buildings or scenery, so they get boring very quickly. Having Day/Night transitions, or weathers, or maybe your run eventually transition into another stage could've been could. But alas, it isn't here, so there isn't much in the way of appealing locales, or even a very interesting game to look at.

 What I'll grant the game is that it has a TON of cars to unlock, and I do mean a TON. Sadly, the game isn't fun enough to warrant the time spent amassing caps to buy every one of them. Every car has a 'cool factor', an optional item you can buy that adds something to the car, depending on the car it can change its very shape or just add some colored lines somewhere. Each vehicle also has 4 color options, which isn't too bad.

 On the other hand... the menus are horrible. They have motion controls enabled, so you can get some weird angles, depending on how you are holding the switch, which isn't a good idea when it comes to menus. And by the same token, they are poorly designed. Toggling options, such as the 'Cool Factor', or the 'Zen Mode', which makes the game easier removing Fuel and most of the traffic, are hard to understand, as there's a tab that moves up and down, over the words "ON" and "OFF". So it doesn't make much sense, is it ON when you can see the word ON or when the tab is over the word ON? Honestly, the menus are SO bad it's not even funny.

 I'd say #Drive is alright for a couple of minutes now and then, but it's not a game I feel like binging over, as it gets old rather fast. I honestly think that a couple of tweaks, such as random weather and day and night cycles could add a LOT to the game, as well as more music and more variety in the environments. Maybe a mode that every now and then changes the environment to that of another map?

 5.5

Game #1201: Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

  A party you won't remember.

 Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is something very unusual when compared to pretty much any other game in the market. It's sort of an adventure game, the classic mouse Monkey Island- esque adventure games, but it also borrows elements from RPG board games, because your character has all sorts of abilities and skills, abilities that will grant him a better chance to actually succeed doing an action the higher they are. There's a lot of reading involved, and pretty much everything you do is talk to people, so... yeah, playing this game is basically the same as reading a Lord of the Rings long choose-your-own-adventure novel.

 Before starting the game you can customize your character. You are given about 10 stat points you can distribute in four sets of skills: Intelligence, Emotional, Physical and Motorics. These points represent two things: Your base starting points on each set of skills as well as how many extra skill points, earned when leveling up, you can put on whichever skill. There are about 6 abilities per skill, for example, Physical has Shiver, Endurance, Pain Tolerance, Half-Light and Physical Instrument. These abilities work in various subtle and not so subtle ways. For instance, if you've got them high enough, they will get in the middle of your conversations, as if they were another voice in your head, to give you extra details, and sometimes, even more dialogue choices. These are done in a super witty way, for instance, if your Perception ability is high enough, the Perception voice might pop in and tell you about a character's gestures, betraying what they are saying. Or Drama, if high enough, will address you as 'My liege' and tell you if it notices a lie. It's brilliant.

 As you talk with people, you'll also come across two types of 'Checks', white and red. White checks, when failed, can be reattempted later if either you put in another Skill point in the pertinent ability, or, if you manage, through conversation or investigation, manage to get a modifier in your favor. For instance, there's a Volition check when talking with a corrupt leader that will increase your odds of passing a check if you didn't take the money he offered you. Red checks, however, cannot be reattempted. Mind you, every check has a numerical chance of either failing or succeeding, and you can very easily save before an attempt and retry until you pass that 22% check, but I found it more interesting to live with the consequences. If I failed a check, I failed it and that's that.... at least with the checks that didn't seem very important! Regardless, it always feels amazing when you pass a sub 50% chance of success check, and crushing when you fail a 80% chance of success check!

 Another thing to keep in mind, when attempting checks, is that your clothing affects your skills, so you might want to dress for the occasion... even if that means looking like a clown! There's flavor text for every piece of equipment, and most of the time it explains, in hilarious ways, why certain clothes add or remove points on abilities.

 Another element that affects your stats are 'Thoughts'. As you talk with other people, depending on your choices, you'll get thoughts in your head. You have about 12 different thought slots, although only 3 of them are free, the rest cost skill points, and each thought takes some in-game hours to develop, once you complete a thought you'll gain some perks... and maybe some negative detriments too. Thoughts like these can help you bypass some of of the weaknesses of your build. For example, failing 3 physical-instrument checks, besides hurting you, will let you develop the thought "Anti-Object Task Force", which, once developed, increases your maximum cap for physical abilities, a godsend, since my first build had very low motoric and physical stats!

 While there isn't any combat to speak of, you have to be mindful of your Health and Morale gauges. Certain actions will cost you health, mostly if you fail them, while others will hurt your morale. If either drops to 0 you lose. You can purchase medicine for both, and it's a good idea to carry a bit to heal yourself with, as the next dialogue could end up unexpectedly hurting your morale.

 And then there's the story itself. It's brilliant. Basically, you play as a detective who wakes up from a night of excessive drinking and partying, waking up with no memories. Who are you? What is a detective? Where are you? Everything is alien to you. And very quickly you meet Lt. Kim Kitsuragi, who'll be your companion through thick and thin, as you try to uncover the mystery of the hanged body. The story is full of twists and turns, as well as a ton of truly hilarious situations. There are a ton of fully voiced NPCs that you can interact with, and there are a ton of optional sidequests that might get you closer to solving the crime, discovering who you are, or just to add depth to the game.

 There's a TON of content here, and whoever wrote the script is one madman, as the amount of lore surrounding the world of Disco Elysium is, frankly, staggering. There's a lot of dialogue and situations that most players simply won't come across with. And there are many different ways to solve the same puzzles, or get the same information, or even different information! The first time we played the game, we were a mostly goody-two-shoes sorry cop, always apologizing, so the Hotel Manager wanted to bill me a ton for my previous partying. On my next playthrough we decided to be a SuperStar cop, so when confronted by the bill... I decided to try to run away, a Motorics- Savoir Faire check we failed, so we crashed into a paraplegic woman as we flipped off the manager! And the manager charged as a little less due to the whole scene! The game is amazing and unexpected that way/

 Most playthroughs take about 6 in-game days. Time only passes as you interact with people and objects, and the game does a neat job of introducing new characters every new day, at least for the first 4 days. For example, it's only on day 3 that a new section opens up, allowing you to get comfortable with the game's first town throughout the first 3 days. Oh, and you don't get to meet the union workers until day 2. It's a well thought-out pace that keeps you from feeling overwhelmed. There doesn't seem to be a penalty for staying up late, although most NPCs go to sleep by 3 AM so there's nothing else left to do besides going to bed afterwards.

 While the story itself is very gripping, the characters were just as amazing. It was hard not to fall in love with the characters, either because I hated them or because I just grew endeared to them. Klassje, for instance, was one of the most interesting characters in the game, and precisely because I hated her so much is why I love her part in the game. And then there's good ol' Kim, he is with you throughout most of the game, and thankfully, he is a great character too.

 As fantastic as the game is, it has a few performance issues that are hard not to notice. The framerate on the Switch version leaves a bit to be desired at times, which is a bit shocking considering it's not a particularly visually intense game. The load times are also rather lengthy... unless you patch the game, which reduces them considerably. Performance aside, some parts of the environment were a bit hard to navigate, as it's not immediately obvious how you should move through them. And, sometimes, highlighting the item you want to interact with was a bit of a pain. None of these issues break the game, but they do rear their ugly head rather frequently.

 Disco Elysium is as amazing as everyone says it is. It's not quite a game for everyone, as the game is made up of a ton of endless text-boxes, but even so, it's absolutely worth a look thanks to how well everything works, and how many cool details and interactions the novelty having your skills 'talk' to you add. But then there's the fantastic story its memorable cast of characters and situations, situations that can play out very differently depending on how you decide to roll!

 9.0

Game #1200: The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker

  The Wind Sleeper.

 I consider The Legend of Zelda to be THE most overrated franchise in the world of videogames, and so what better game for entry #1200 than The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, one of the more beloved and controversial entries in the series.

 Well, graphics. People gave it a lot of flak because it didn't look serious enough, but people 'grew out of it'. Not me. I've always loved darker and edgier, so I absolutely hated the art direction for the game. And upon first booting up the game, and seeing these weird proportions with long arms and stubby legs... I decided I hated it. 10 minutes later and I already changed my mind, once you get used to the proportions, the game looks great. It's definitely not for everyone, and the game looks like Samurai Jack, with the borderless-cell-shaded look as well as the proportions, but I still thought it was charming enough. I particularly loved Ganondorf's design, he looks evil and suave, and the dual swords are just icing on the cake.

 The game play like most other 3-D Zeldas, you've got your dungeons, your heart pieces, your tools... but with one key difference: The entire world is submerged in water. This Link has no horse, instead, you've get a sentient boat to sails the high seas. In this game there actually is too much water, as I don't remember the last time I played a game I felt was so barren and yet had so much stuff to do at the same time.

 First of all... the sailing sucks. The sea is enormous, and it takes a long time to get to wherever you want to go. Many times I just dropped the controller and did something else, occasionally looking at the screen to make sure a cyclone didn't change my direction, as I waited to arrive to my destination. It's a bit boring at times. Eventually you can unlock a Melody to quick-travel to a few key locations, but you'll still have to sail towards certain places. Oh, and much like Ocarina of Time before it, you get three slots for items. When sailing, one slot needs to be the sail, another one needs to be the Wind Waker, to play the Song of Wind most times you want to move somewhere, since you can't travel without wind on your sails, and then the third slot has to rotate between cannons and the boomerang, to protect yourself, or the hook to grab treasure.

  And then there are the puzzles themselves... while in pretty much any other Zelda game you solve a puzzle and you get a worthless rupee reward or a heart container... a bunch of times you'll get a treasure chart instead, adding an extra step, so now you must find the island, and then correctly align yourself with the X and then use the hook to, hopefully, fish the treasure. Oh, and you need to spend money on bait, since the only way to keep track of which Island is where, you need to fish that area's fish some bait. And sometimes, admittedly quite rarely, the fish wouldn't recognize the bait. A finite item. That you need to chart the seas, 'cause just visiting the Island isn't enough. It's downright egregious.

 And that's not even getting into the epic Triforce quest. For whatever reason, this Zelda is a bit shorter on dungeons and bosses than other Zelda games, so, in order to pad out more length... you have to find the 8 pieces of the Triforce. This means that you need to travel to 8 different places, at least you get a chart showing which islands contain a Triforce piece. Oh, did I say a Triforce piece? I meant Triforce chart. Yes, you have to search for a chart to know where to search for the piece. But that isn't enough padding, oh no, you have to pay 398 rupees PER chart to have them deciphered. It's downright ridiculous.

 And I didn't even mention how annoying the final three dungeons are. The second to last and third to last feature a 'companion' that you have to take with you throughout most of the dungeon, picking them up and taking them with you, a la Princess Ruto from Ocarina of Time. But that would've been tolerable. Many times you'll have to take control of them, not to say at least once in each room of the dungeon, by playing the annoying Command Song. Every. Single. Time. And the first one, the Temple of Wind, has light that you must reflect, with your companion's harp and the Mirror Shield. Thing is... Link uses his shield with the R button, but your companion with the A button, as pressing R as the companion will revert you to Link, forcing you to play the tune again.... not fun. The dungeons themselves are entertaining. The puzzles weren't half-bad, and they didn't reuse puzzles from Ocarina of Time, they even introduced new tools such as the Grappling Hook or the magic leaf, as well as new moves, such as sliding on walls or crawling... but these two dungeons are just annoying. As for the final dungeon... it features a boss rush. in which you must fight the four main bosses again. Just so that it can waste a little bit more of your time. On the flip-side, the final boss is amazing. And, y'know, the bosses themselves aren't half-bad, it's just that you have to face them twice.

 The combat has been improved since Ocarina of time, Link's combo is longer(About 5 hits), and holding down different directions change how Link swipes, which is mostly cosmetic, but welcome. You can also parry, and it's completely overpowered, just press A when Link's sword glows. You can also pick up weapons from fallen enemies, none are as good as your basic sword, but it's a cute addition.

 Beneath all the sailing and all the water, there's a genuinely great game. It's more cinematic than OOT, in a good way, the puzzles weren't too bad and I adored the new races... but honestly, the amount of times I felt either bored or annoyed due to some seriously dumbfounding design choices.... I don't think I'll be replaying this one any time soon. That said, I read about some of the changes in the HD port, like doubled sailing speed and only three Triforce charts, probably make it a much more enjoyable game.

 6.5

Game #1199: Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

 Alucard is not a girl!! Deedlit, however.. 

 Well, I know next to nothing about the Record of Lodoss War, besides owning one of the light novels which I haven't read yet, however, I do love me some Metroidvanias, and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth looked like a banger so I didn't let my lack of knowledge stop me from getting it. Getting to brass tacks, this is basically a budget version of Symphony of the Night, but there ain't nothing wrong from borrowing from the best.

 You play as Deedlit, an elf that found herself in a mysterious place, lacking the knowledge of how she happened upon this place, but as she explores the place she'll come across mirages of familiar faces. I'm pretty sure the bosses are characters from the franchise, so you'll probably get more out of the plot if you are in the know. I understood the gist of it, but while it tries to be emotional in a few places... I didn't know any of the characters, nor did I care about them, so the plot added nothing to my enjoyment of the game.

 The game plays like the Castlevania side of the Metroidvanias, which is something I liked, so you'll be getting a lot of different melee weapons to attack with. Many of the swords behave quite similarly, but there are a few weapons that stand out like the Charkrams, which I liked. There are also a few spells you can use to even the odds. Deedlit also has another slot for bows, bows cost mana to use, but a very small amount, so you can use it quite frivolously. 

 There's another wrinkle to the combat, Air and Fire spirits. At the tap of a button, you can swap your affinity to Air or Fire. Some enemies are resistant to Air and others to Fire, plus, some attacks can only be avoided/blocked by changing to the correct affinity. There are a few exploration benefits, for instance, you can glide with the Air affinity or make barrels explode with the Fire affinity, but you'll mostly use it for combat. Defeating enemies using Air affinity increases your Fire affinity and vice versa, to the maximum of level 3, at which point you'll gain regenerating health and your attacks will have more reach. Getting hurt will lower the level of your equipped affinity. I can't say I was particularly fond of this system, but I'll admit boss fights were kept exciting as you'd desperately try to restore your affinity level and keep both affinities at 3 for health regeneration.

 The rest of the game is made up of exploration, like any other good 2-D Metroidvania, you'll come across obstacles that you'll only be able to clear by having the right ability. The game's map is disappointingly small, as the game took me about 3 hours to complete. Mind you, the game has lots of goodies to collect and hidden walls and areas to find, but it feels rather small when compared to other games in the very same style. On the other hand, finishing the game allows you to toggle some options, such as having every weapon from the start or staying at a fixed level 1, which are some neat options to toy around with.

 The controls took me a bit of getting used to. It's hard to explain, but the controls are somewhat sticky, which makes attacking feel a bit stiff when trying to attack and change sides. By the same token, it's easy to attack on one side while moving in the opposite direction, which came useful at times. On another note, I came across about 3 crashes. Thankfully I never lost much progress, but this being a Metroidvania, losing progress and exploration to a crash leaves you feeling miserable.

 I quite liked the game, I just wish there was more of it. Controls and movement could see some polishing, but the game is a fun time. While knowing Record of Lodoss War lore would probably help care about the characters and understand its story... it didn't deter me from following the plot, it simply lacked any emotional impact it could've had.

 7.5

Game #1198: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

 Not the crossover we wanted, nor the one we deserved.

 When SMT X FE was first announced I was both excited and scared. I loved SMT, and trailer showed protagonists from SMT rather than Persona, alongside heroes from Fire Emblem, which, to be honest, I still don't know much about. But hey, more SMT with a Fire Emblem flair! How both franchises would mix was scary and.... it seems Atlus didn't know what the hell they were doing, as this is pretty much a lighthearted take on Persona with names from the Fire Emblem franchise. That's it. You can remove every single Fire Emblem reference, 'cause that's all there is, and it'd be the same exact game.

 The first thing that really sucks about the game is the premise itself... it's set in the alienating world of Japanese Idols. It follows Itsuki, the main male hero, as he aids his friends, all forms of different idols, in their endeavors. Every character has a Persona, I mean, a 'Mirage', a being from another world that looks like a Persona but with a proper personality and a name straight out of Fire Emblem. They don't look too similarly to their Fire Emblem counterparts, mind you.

 Honestly, the stuff about idols is just... lame. I find the idol culture to be extremely stupid, so I bet most of the themes in these game won't resonate with people outside Japan. When the game was first announced, I expected something.... dark. It has Fire Emblem AND Shin Megami Tensei, and yet the game is lighter and softer than even the Persona series. And you can argue that Persona is also centered around Japanese culture, but besides having a character that may be an Idol, like Rise from P4, it's not centered around these characters. It's also kinda icky, considering the original Japanese release had these 16-17 year old girls posing for gravure magazines, in their underwear/swimsuits, for a mature men audience. Which might be normal in Japan, but over here it's just icky. This localized version changed that to 'street wear', which makes the character's embarrassment nonsensical. And this release is based around the censored American release, for good or bad, so no swimsuit DLC or Hotsprings DLC. I really don't mind that.

 Unlike Persona, the characters aren't as deep. You get three unlockable 'sidequests' per party member that delve deeper on their goals.... but the characters and their coals are just thoroughly uninteresting. While Persona, the game this is most similar too, also had Japanese humor and culture, the characters in that game always managed to feel somewhat real. In this one you get anime caricatures, like a character who doesn't understand he feels weak because he hasn't eaten and doesn't understand why he would need to eat. And he is a human. Then there's an ally, an older man, who gets mad whenever you spend time with the... youngest girls in the cast. Because he wants their attention. It's played for laughs, but it isn't funny in the slightest. And then there's a party member who talks about Hollywood pretty much every three lines of dialogue she gets. It's hard to relate to these characters. At least the main character is voiced and does speak, but he adds nothing to the game, as he has the most basic blanket personality possible, no goals or aspirations nor anything. And most of the choices you get to make mostly amount to saying the same exact thing in different ways.

 The rest of the game is pretty much Persona. I've seen some people go "actually it borrows from Digital Devil Saga an--"--and let me cut you right there, that's a lie. This plays like Persona. The simple dungeons, made up mostly of corridors, enemies that are represented by a red shadow, which you can hit with your sword for a chance of having an extra first turn... it's all Persona. The game doesn't use the fantastic "1 more" system from SMTIII/Digital Devil Saga, nor the whole downing enemies, like Persona, but instead, hitting an enemy with an elemental weakness will allow other characters, if they have the right 'Session' skill at their disposal, will jump in with an extra attack. At first it's just the characters in your party who join in, but as you level up your characters you can unlock the ability for them to jump in even if they aren't in the active roster. It's kinda neat, it is, but eventually you can have up to 8 hits in a row, or more if you happen to trigger a 'special session'. You can turn on 'quick session', but even then, it takes TOO long. The original Wii-U release didn't have Quick Sessions, the game must've been unbearable.

 The enemies in the game are very spongy, so using MP to use spells and trigger sessions is pretty much the way to go, which means you are stuck watching endless sessions play out. You'll be wanting to exit the dungeon every time you find a warp/checkpoint to restock your MP, which is fine, since defeating enemies rewards you with items you can then use to develop more weapons for all your characters. 

 In this game, characters learn skills by having turns using a weapon. That's right, if they don't get to participate they won't get Weapon XP. And learning skills takes FOREVER. The best way is to use and abuse, you guessed it, sessions. To be fair, this rerelease grants you access to grinding maps, and in one of these maps you can amass Skill Tomes, that pretty much lets you learn the next skill immediately, so I'd say abuse this feature, because the game doesn't respect your time.

 The best bit about the game is easily the music, I loved all the vocal tracks in the game. Most songs are coupled with a 'videoclip' of the idol-character dancing alongside it, and some of the movements feel unnatural. These cutscenes use higher quality 3D models, probably for a cheaper way to animate them. You can argue that they did it in order to make the movements more fluid, but... the cutscene before the last boss, when all your characters come together... only four of the seven playable characters get 3D models, the other characters are show as plain 2-D anime. It looks super weird and very cheap.

 It's sad but this game feels like a lower budget Persona ripoff. The game plays fine, the combat is decent, but the Sessions are poorly thought-out as they take too much time. Learning skills from weapons is a great idea, but it takes SO long that it's not even funny. But the worst part about it... is that this was supposed to be an epic Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei crossover, but the Fire Emblem elements are superficial and add nothing of value to the game, while the SMT elements are just... Persona elements, but without the budget or its soul. I'll admit at some points I found myself enjoying the game, but even so, this is an RPG, and the game just didn't manage to make me care about ANY of its characters.

 6.5

Game #1197: Project Snowblind

 I don't remember any snow in this one.

 It feels like Deus Ex, which makes sense, as Project: Snowblind was born as a spinoff, but then turned into its own thing. It's still in first person, you've got augmentations, and called as such, as well as some light hacking elements and other bit, but it's pretty much a linear first-person shooter, and a pretty fun one at that.

 And that's pretty much it. You get a decent assortment of weaponry, all of them with alternate fire functions, and you follow a pretty straightforward campaign heavy on the military bro-vibres. I honestly didn't really care too much about the story, but, hey, you get a pseudo gravity-gun!

 Stages are pretty simple to navigate, but there are usually alternate and/or optional routes you can take towards your objectives. Exploration is rewarded with permanent Health and Energy upgrades, both which come quite handy considering there's no regenerative health and using energy to use your Augmentations is pretty useful. Shooting is how you'll go through most of the game, but some stages may benefit from a more stealthier approach, and you can hack some panels to turn automated turrets on your side, provided you have ammo for your hacking gun.

 The game plays really well, and controls feel very natural. While you can't customize them beyond selecting from a few presets, it has the shoot functionality on the shoulder buttons, as modern shooters do. You can also zoom in a bit with R3, which isn't quite exactly like aiming down the sights, but it gets the job done.

 Augmentations are pretty cool, and you slowly get them as you get through the game. You can use them for abilities such as infrared vision, a temporary shield or, my favorite, Reflex, which slows down time. I very rarely used anything other than Reflex, but it felt amazing to just walk up to my enemies and shotgun them to death while they tried to fend off for themselves very slowly. The gunplay is definitely a highlight in the game, as firefights in the game feel pretty good.

 Something I found interesting is that there's no real final boss. There are two bosses, and the one that sort of acts as the big bad is fought, and defeated, by stage 14. Afterwards you get a few more stages left in which you must fight the remainder of the enemy, which was... it certainly was different. Not necessarily a 'bad' different.

 Project: Snowblind is a pretty solid effort by Crystal Dynamics. Playing the game feels pretty darn great, as the controls are tight and the shooting is very satisfying. I kinda understand how it went under the radar, as the game really doesn't have any flashy hook or much of a personality, but what it does, it does pretty well.

 8.0

Game #1196: 300 - March to Glory

 This is NOT Sparta. 

 Imagine, if you will, a hack and slash game set in the world of 300, and not adding the 'This is SPARTA!' as an attack move. That should tell you all you need to know about 300: March to Glory.

 Back in my edgier years I used to love Frank Miller, and y'know, even as I realized that he really doesn't get Batman or Superman, I still thought that his original work, namely Sin City and 300 was pretty dope. So you could say I have a sort of soft spot for 300. This game follows a truncated version of the plot from the comic book, omitting all the additions the movie added but adding a few of its own. The story is told via narrated comic book-inspired illustrations, and to be fair, they look pretty similar to Frank Miller's own artstyle, so I'll give it a pass.

 The game is a pretty linear beat'em up in which you play as Leonidas and murder your way through the Persians. You have two small movesets, you can fight with a sword and shield or a spear and shield, and later, you unlock a double-sword style that trades blocking for dodging. In any weapon style, you get three attack buttons: Weak Slash, Strong Slash and a shield attack, the latter works to stun enemies. The sword is fast, while the spear is the only weapon that can destroy enemy shields, which is a decent idea, although the spear is kinda weird, because you need to time your button presses if you want the full four hit combo. It's annoying, since you can simply mash buttons with the sword. On another note, the heavy attacks are just too darn slow, I pretty much used the weak attacks throughout the entire game.

 Dealing damage fills your rage meter, which can be used for rage attacks(R+Weak slash or Strong slash) or for one of four abilities: Bonus strength coupled with life steal, healing, auto-defense and slo-mo. The first two are the only ones you really need. Then there's the crouch block, performed by holding down L+R, you'll need to get used to this, because every now and then the screen will darken, indicating a flurry of arrows, which you must block like so. Something that annoyed me quite a bit about this, is that these arrow volley will hurt your enemies, potentially killing them... and robbing your of XP! Oh, and you are usually forced an ally, and these allies just LOVE to sneak in the killing blow on an enemy and steal your XP. Incredibly annoying.

 At first the game was fun, a bit simple, but a nice time waster. But then the game starts adding unnecessary complexities. Some enemies can only be killed by stunning them first. Sure, you have a SINGLE attack combo that stuns them, but fair enough. Then others need to be knocked down, which is when it starts getting annoying because unless you purchase the knockdown combo, you need to use RAGE+Weak attack. Others need to be kill with Rage +Strong, which requires even more rage, and then, for others, you need to use the Blood Lust rage ability. It's so annoying, and if you don't have enough rage... you need to mindlessly hit these enemies until you have enough rage. Horrible game design.

 As if that wasn't enough, yet another enemy in the game is the camera, as there's absolutely no control over it, and the angles the games decides to grace you with aren't very useful. Oh, and the bosses? They aren't particularly hard, but they take forever, but because you both very slowly chip their health away and, sometimes, waiting for their vulnerability frames takes forever.

 There are also Phalanx sections, in which you move forward very slowly as a group of Spartans, spearing enemies to death. It's kinda wonky, because arrow volleys will happen, and if it so happens that both enemies AND arrows reach you at the same time... the enemies will break your defense and push you away, and there's nothing you can do to prevent that damage.

 One thing I liked was the upgrade system. While there are not many combos available for purchase, you can, however, upgrade your equipment which changes how they look, which I felt was pretty cool.

 300: March to Glory is a very passable beat'em up. It's a bit fun, at times, but the shortcomings just keep on piling up, making for a rather dull time.

 5.0 

Game #1195: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

 One licensed game to rule them all.

 I've always felt like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was something truly special when it came to movie tie-in games. I remember when the game first came out, it felt like actually playing the whole movie, I mean, sure, it only follows the Argorn/Legolas/Gimli trio, but still! It made excellent use of movie clips and the gameplay was fairly solid. The sequel is even better, but let's start off with this one.

 

 While it's a tie-in to the Two Towers, this game actually covers the first two movies, albeit only the side of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. It makes sense, as they were the ones who saw more blade-on-blade action, so their side of the adventure makes more sense for a hack-and-slash game. The game is made up of about 12 stages as well as a bonus stage, and 10 of those stages can be played as any of the aforementioned characters, and Isildur, once you unlock him. He is just an Aragorn reskin, mind you.

 One of the things I love the most about the game is how it uses brief movie clips that brilliantly transition into in-game cutscenes. There's not as much movie footage as it felt like when I was younger, but it's still a very smart use of the licensed content. All things considered, the game is not a substitute for the movie, as neat as the cutscenes are, you are still missing the hobbits' side of things, plus, the game glosses over a ton of stuff. Why does Frodo break away from the fellowship? No way to know, as you are never shown Boromir succumbing to the ring, and while in the stage in which Frodo goes his own way, while you hear Boromir's horn, you don't really know why he is sounding it. You definitely won't get much enjoyment out of the plot unless you've seen the movies, or read the books.

 The game plays fast and loose, you get a quick slash, a strong slash, a kick, a parry move you can spam as well as access to a projectile attack. R2 is used to slay fallen enemies, and it's SO satisfying. The game isn't overly deep, parry incoming attacks, defeat enemies with your attacks, if they have a shield hit'em with strong attacks until they break, etc, but it feels very arcadey and fast paced, which is quite enjoyable. As you defeat enemies without getting hit your score multiplier goes up, which means more XP, but you also fill a gauge, which, once full, powers you up for a short while, making you stronger and granting you more XP per kill. XP can then be used to purchase new combos or boost the strength of your attacks. Most combos are shared between characters, but they have different speeds and animations, so they are not completely identical.

 I'm happy that this game has aged so well. While it's not the best movie adaptation out there, the game plays very well and makes great use of the license.

 8.5

Game #1194: Inuyasha - Feudal Combat

 Seems Inuyasha isn't the goodest of boys.

 While far from the best anime fighter, Inuyasha's PS1 fighting game was a rather interesting game thanks to its pretty graphics. Inuyasha Feudal Combat takes things into the third dimension for a more by the numbers anime arena fighter that are all too common nowadays.

 The game has about 14 characters, which is rather lackluster for an anime fighting game, and it gets worse when you consider that 3 of those characters are Inuyasha, Human Inuyasha and berserk Inuyasha. To be fair, all three version of Inuyasha are fairly different from one another. The other characters are your usual suspects, Miroku, Sango, Kikyo, Kagome, Seshomaru, the wolf guy, Sango's brother, Shippo, Bankotsu, Kagura and Naraku. I think I read about 200 chapters of the Manga and it's not like I remember any other character, but I'm sure they could've pulled a few other faces, but alas, this is what we get.

 As previously stated, this is an arena fighter, so you get full 3-D movement. While you can do 1 vs 1, the game is actually meant to be played as 2 vs 2, which is an interesting twist. You get a weak and a strong attack button, and different characters have different attack strings, but you usually have four basic strings: Weak attack x 3, run + Weak attack x 3, Strong attack x3 and run + Strong Attack x3. Interestingly enough, characters are actually quite different from one another. Miroku, for example, puts a trap talisman with his Strong Attack or produces a a sphere-shield-attack with run+Strong. His only real combos start with run + weak attack. Shippo was the only character I felt was downright unplayable, as he is a horrible joke character that has awful recovery and startup on most of his attacks. Lastly, there's a Super attack button, a co-op attack, a jump, a block button and you change targets with another button.

 The objective of each battle is to take away every life from the enemy, with fights consisting on 2 extra lives for each team. Overall, the fighting in the game is passable. Combo potential is pretty nil, and the attack strings feel very limited. It's not very exciting, it's not very flashy either but it could've been a lot worse.

 The game has four main modes: Story, Mission, Battle and Practice. There are four fully voiced story modes, one for Inuyasha, one for Sango and Miroku, one for Sesshomaru and... a three-chapter short chapter for Shippo, the awful joke character, which you need to finish in order to unlock Human Inuyasha. Mission Mode has a stage selection map and different challenges, such as defeating two enemies with a single character, as you develop your character's stats. It's alright.

 I have played better anime games and I have played worse, which means that Inuyasha Feudal Combat is fairly middle of the road. I mean, it's not like Inuyasha fans have anything better than this!

5.5

Game #1193: SSX

 Gonna leave'em cold.

 I don't know why, since I'm not particularly fond of Snowboarding, but somehow... I own quite a few snowboarding games. Trick 'n' Snowboarder, Snowboard kids, CoolBoarders, Dark Summit and, now, SSX. I know that this game received plenty of high scoring reviews back in the day, unlike the other Snowboarding games I own, so how did I end up feeling about it?

 Well... It's alright. The game has a fairly simple control scheme, hold down X to jump, like Tony Hawk, and then use the shoulder buttons to perform grabs, you can hold down more than two to perform different grabs. The right analog stick can be used to smack nearby boarders. Landing tricks nets you adrenaline, which can be used with the square button to go even faster. The square button can also be used as a trick modifier while on the air. Something that never felt very comfortable with me was that as soon as you start charging your jump you lose the ability to move left or right, so once you hold down the button you have to commit to the jump. The spinning was also rather odd, as you must hold down the direction you want to spin in before jumping. This probably felt so alien to me because I'm so used to the Tony Hawk games, and this just didn't feel very comfortable to me.

 There are two ways to play the game, World Circuit and Single Event. World Circuit is sort of like the single player campaign, in which you try to earn Gold Medals to unlock stuff. There are 8 racers total, and you can unlock two alternate costumes and boards for each, as well as six different courses. There's an alright training mode that teaches you how to play, and you can play in three different ways: Race against other boarders, Show Off, which is based around doing tricks and Free Run, which lets you play for fun.

 Well... I can't say I found the game to be amazing, and I don't think I agree with how popular the game was. Honestly, it's pretty similar to all the other snowboarding games I've played! What I'll give it is that the tracks are probably the best I've played in a snowboarding game... yet.

6.0

Game #1192: X-men Origins - Wolverine Uncaged Edition

 The one in which they massacred Deadpool. 

 Wolverine Origins was a garbage movie, and yet... X-men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Editions quickly earned its place as one infamous licensed game, thanks to how gory it is. The developers were just flexing when they came out with all sorts of damage to Wolvie, that could even expose his bones, and you get to watch it regenerate in real time. It's glorious.

 Sadly, while it does its own thing and follows its own plot... it seems it was turned into a movie tie-in later in its life, as they do take some beats from the movie. Hugh Jackman reprises his role, as does Sabertooth's actor. Half of the story is told via flashbacks to a jungle mission, and the other half after Wolvie gets his bones coated in Adamantium. You can try to follow the plot, but it's an exercise in futility, as it never makes much sense and some things are poorly explained. Oh, and the Baraka-Deadpool idiocy is in this game.

 Thankfully, the game itself is a blast to play. It's a hack and slash action game, you get your mandatory weak and strong slashes, which can obviously be mixed together to perform different combos, there's a grab button and then there are four special abilities that can be used by holding down R2 and pressing any of the face buttons, at the cost of some Rage Energy. The game is deliciously brutal, as Wolvie regularly maims and dismembers enemies with his claws. The grab button can also be used to perform executions if you are close to a spike or something of the sort. You also get a pretty fun Lunge attack, by holding down R1 and pressing L1 to leap towards your enemies.

 Combat is very loose, but fun, akin to God of War, as there's no lock-on, and aerial combos are pretty limited. That said, the game has too many giant enemies, in the form of Magma Golems(What the hell??) and "prototype Wendigos". They are boring to fight, as most of the time you have to wait for them to lower their guards, lunge on top of them and mash square, usually a minimum of three times each.... making them repetitive and, honestly, not very entertaining.

 As you defeat enemies you earn XP which can then be used to power up different attributes: Maximum Health, Maximum Rage, Attack Damage as well as passive enhancements to your Rage movies. Exploration is rewarded with Dog Tags, which grant you bonus XP, Mutagens, which grant you passive benefits and you can equip up to three at a time, and Wolverine Action Figures, which lets you unlock three different costumes: The classic Yellow and Blue, the old brown and orange as well as the Black and Grey X-Force costume. They are alright, but I don't think they fit the more realistic look the game went for. That said, the character-model damage applies to them too which was pretty cool.

 This is a game that would probably not come out now, as Disney is trying to keep a squeaky clean image with their Marvel properties, which sucks as this game proves that their licenses could be used in so many other ways. It also helps that the game is a blast to play, as the developers understood what the Wolverine fantasy is all about. And they nailed it. 

 8.0

Game #1191: Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy

 And with this, I complete the PS2 platformer trio's first outings.

 I think my pirated copy of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was messed up because I remember giving it a try and the world was pretty much empty. I'm also pretty sure the first copy I purchased didn't work, so we went back to the flea market and exchanged it with Okage. I got lucky. Not to say that Jax and Daxter wasn't, or isn't, good, but Okage has stuck with me to this day.

 But I digress, after Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog came out with yet another collectathon platforming game, using the power of the PS2 to make something quite special. The game looks really good, and sounds really good too thanks to some pretty good voice acting, although Jak, our main hero, is a heroic mute. Part of the appeal of the game is that there are little to no loading screens as you seamlessly traverse its world. To be fair, there are two loading screens, one for Misty Island and another one to Snowy Mountain, but they are marked via transition screen as you sail a boat o ride a cable car. Smart. The game's size and flow reminded me of Banjo-Kazooie, as it's a pretty decently sized world, and there's pretty much no tutorial. You enter a level and pausing the game lets you see the objective of Power Cells, the main item you are collecting, you have interacted with. Besides power cells, each stage has 7 fleas, which turn into a Power Cell once all of them have been found, as well as a number of Precursor Orbs, which can then the traded for Power Cells.

 As is to be expected, the game locks progress besides X amount of Power Cells. You need about 72 of them to finish the game, which is quite fair considering there are 100 of them. I really liked the game's open design, and you can pretty much finish every stage when you get to it. 

 Jak, who is joind by his transformed friend, Dax, have a rather decent moveset. You can dash-punch, spin attack, jump, roll, roll jump, crouch jump and double jump, which can be extended with a spin after your second jump. If you find colored Eco, energy, you gain temporary benefits, but nothing game-changing. Of note is that the animations look pretty neat, and fairly animated, for lack of a better word, making it feel almost like a CG movie. Almost.

 While the game is pretty good, it does have a rather big flaw... the double jump sucks. I don't know how, considering Crash had a double jump, but they messed it up, as there's a very small window in which you can press jump again and actually get the second jump. Most of the time you can get it right, or press Spin to try to save your missed jump, but during more tense segments, such as bosses, it's easier to screw up the timing and thus unfairly lose a life. Honestly, is rather surprising just how much they borked the second jump mechanic, but in a platformer game... that's inexcusable.

 I expected Sly would be the one I liked the most and Jak and Daxter the one I liked the least, but I was only right about Jak. Regardless, it's still a really great and interesting platforming game, provided you are willing to forgive its wonky double jump.

 8.0