Archview 67: Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden

 Best Dragon Ball game since Burst Limit?

 By 2013 there's been dozens upon dozens of Dragon Ball fighting game, and they have ranged from the awful to the really good. Nintendo handhelds haven't fared much better, Taiketsu was terrible, Super Sonic Warriors was really good and Super Sonic Warriors 2 dropped the ball. Here we have the second fighter for the DS, and for reasons unknown, Namco-Bandai didn't see it fit to bring it over seas, shame, as it's really friggin' good.
 The game has 3 main modes: Story Mode, Challenge Mode and Versus(CPU, Player). Story Mode is fantastic, it covers the entire DBZ saga, without the fillers. There are are lot of chapters, plus a lot of what if scenarios(Some of which are hilarious, if you can understand what is happening). This mode is very extensive and can easily run over 10 hours if you watch all the cut-scenes. Speaking of the cut-scenes, they are really good... but only a few key-scenes are voiced. If you can't read japanese, like me, you are out of luck and these cut-scenes may seem a bit boring. If you know nothing about Dragon Ball, you might as well just skip them. Regardless, if you are a fan, you will know what is going on, and seeing classic DBZ moments recreated in 3D is really cool, cut-scenes would be on par with Budokai 1, if only they had more audio.

 After each story-fight, you are awarded with a grade, depending on the grade you will unlock extras. Extras like opening up Challenge Mode sections, hidden costumes, stat boosting customization quotes and  customization items. Yes! Customization, you can add accesories to each character, glasses, shades, caps, the Dragon Radar, Roshi's beard or turtle shell. There are lots of items, and every character can equip them. You also get three different customization slots per character! Besides the clothing items, each slot also allows you to equip stat boosting "quotes", but knowledge of Japanese(Or a FAQ) is needed to know just what you are raising. Most of the customization items require an S grade though, but you can get them on easy of it gets too hard. In Challenge Mode, the game tasks you with defeating a series of harder opponents using a team of characters of your choice, sometimes getting healed after a couple of fights. As for Versus mode, it'd be alright if only it hadn't been balanced after the show instead of trying to be, well, balanced. Weak characters in the show get reduced damage, less Ki levels and less HP than stronger ones.
 As for the gameplay, you get 5 basic functions: Weak hit, which can be comboed if you mash it, eventually leads into an air combo. Smash hit, a stronger attack that knocks the enemy away... or below. Ki blast, throws a little energy ball. Dodge, time it right and you can dodge attacks. And a Throw button. The L button is used in conjunction with Up or Down to raise your Ki Level. A higher Ki Level means stronger attacks and faster movement, at the cost of nor recharging your Ki. Lowe levels means less damage, but faster Ki recharge. Ki is used when you use any of your 3 Special Attacks or the Ultimate Attack. Special attacks can be done with motions, Street Fighter style, or by pressing a button on the touchscreen. As for the Ultimate Attack, it requires the most Ki, and initiates a minigame where you may have to time button presses, press certain button combinations or a few others, both you and your opponent get  to do it, so they made avoid damage entirely. Lastly, you also get Burst Mode by pressing all four face buttons together, it gives you unlimited Ki for a while, can only be done once in a fight and after it's gone, it leaves you with 0 Ki.

 This game has, probably, the best graphics I've seen on a DS. Models are very crisp and detailed, stages are colorful and have a lot going on in them. The audio... well, the music used in the Story mode quickly grows out it's welcome and becomes very boring, but the music during the fights is pretty alright. Voices are used sparingly, but the samples are quite clear, and it's neat to hear the original Japanese voice actors. There are over 50 characters(35 something if you don't count transformations), which is pretty impressive for a DS game. Less impressive is that many characters share basic moves, these being the Weak attack and Smash attacks, still, every ultimate get's it's own unique cutscene, and every special moveset is unique, although quite a few of them share the Kamehame ha, which is to be expected.
 When it comes down to it, this is a very meaty game. There is a lot of unlockables, a lot of story mode scenarios and a lot of characters. Plus, it's, probably, the only Dragon Ball game that lets you outfit existing characters with accessories! I can understand why Namco-Bandai wouldn't bring it over, as there is a lot of text needing to be translated, and they probably thought it wasn't worth the effort, it's a shame, as it's a great game for Dragon Ball Fans. Fighting game fans, however, may be a tad disappointed with characters being so samey between each other, or how unbalanced it gets. Regardless, not knowing Japanese isn't that big of a barrier, it's quite import-friendly.
 7 out of 10

First Archimpressions: Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden

 What Burst Limit should've been.

 Dragon Ball Butoden series started on the SNES, and frankly, I hate it. It hasn't aged well at all, animation is stiff, gameplay feels wonky and... I simply don't like them. But this? Oh man, oh man. Where do I start? How about... this are, probably, the best graphics I've seen on the DS. And the story mode is fantastic, it's almost as good as Budokai 1's. This one covers the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, with a load of extra "What if Scenarios", the only reason it's not as good as Budokai's is... there's almost no voices. Thing is, there is a lot of text and characters flapping their mouths, but only a sparse few scenes are voices. I understand there's a lot of stuff in the game(The roster is massive for a DS game, and oh so many cutscenes!), but since this is a Japan-exclusive, not knowing what characters are saying kinda takes some of it's charm away. Luckily I'm familiar with the series, so it's easy to follow along.
 As for the gameplay, it's... alright. Thing is, every character feels very sameish, a mashable X combo and you can spread Y(Strong Attack) around. Each character also has 3 specials and a ultimate. While specials and ultimates are different, their basic movesets are very familiar with each other, some characters are downright clones(Minus the specials/ultimate) like Kid Gohan and Gotenks. Still, once has to consider that this is a DS game and a licensced game, and a pretty good one at that. It's easy to pick up and play, even to non-fighting game fans, so it kinda works. I dunno, I like it.
 So yeah, I'm loving it.

First Archimpressions: Risen 2: Dark Waters

 Wow. Not the good kind.

 This game is terrible. And maybe, sorta, kinda fun... ish. I mean, I did spend 3-4 hours in front of the TV playing this game, but I was wishing to turn it off the whole time. But I didn't. Here's the thing, this game is incredibly vexing. Frustrating as it gets. And not the good kind. If I wanted to play Dark Souls, I would. Worst part is, there is NOTHING you can do to enhance your odds of winning a battle, you just mash X and hope for the best, hope you don't get parried much, or countered much, hope you get the opponent stun-locked and what have you. I restarted a fight 3 times before I got it, and I changed NOTHING in between each approach, I just mashed X.
 Oh, and why don't I use skills? They are expensive. You know what else is expensive? Equipment. You can't buy both, money is just too damn hard to get. And the cherry on top? This early in the game, 3:10 hours in(More, since I had to restart countless times) they are giving me quests that require the use of skills I need to buy. With money I can't possibly get. These skills cost, on average, 1000 gold. I earn 200 gold, at most, with each quest. Selling loot is worthless, the most valuable items you can get are pearls, that sell at 50 gold. At least healing items are easy to come by.
 I spent 2:41 hours on Medium before deciding "Eff this" and lowering the difficulty to easy. I still can't get money, but at least I don't get mauled to death so easily. And the partner? They are useless, at least she can take damage for me when facing more than one enemy. And she usually gets lost, which means you need to go back to find her and see how she got stuck on the environment. I hope there's a way to "summon" partners, as if I didn't notice she was gone, I'd probably lose her for ever. Heck, now that I triggered Steelbeard's event, I'm on my own, hope the jungle fellas don't shred me to pieces as they gang up on me.
 And the graphics? There's lots of pop-in. And sometimes the game tries to look cool with Slomo... except that the main character's head looks a bit detached from the neck, resulting in hilarity. On the flip side, the dialogue is fantastic and the voice acting ain't half bad. But while a story can carry a low-budget film, it can't carry bad gameplay.
 This game sucks. But it's kinda fun. Maybe. Sorta? Perhaps? Mayhaps.

Archview #66: Journey Collector's Edition

 One of the finest games I've played this year.

 Who hasn't heard of Journey already? It won several Game of the Year awards in 2012 and recieved even more in accolades and other honors. While initially released as a downloadable game, Sony saw it fit to release a retail package, alongside other thatgamecompany's downloadable games. Presented in this package are Flow, Flower and Journey, alongside 3 minigames.
 The three minigames are just that, minigames. They are visually simple, and their mechanics are even simpler. First we have "Duke War!!!", a multiplayer game in which each player takes control a Duke, as they produce peasants, build towers and gather gold for the king. Everything is done with a single button, and it's actually really fun. "Gravediggers" has you play as a green pixel(Player one) and a blue pixel(Player 2), you have to kill zombies with your weapon(Gun, shotgun, explosives) and trade their skulls for points, if you die, you turn into a zombie and can instakill anything, but you can't carry skulls and must recover your own if you want to revive. Lastly, there's "Nostril Shot", the worst of the bunch, but easily the most visually appealing. Here you play as a very animeish girl, that can turn into a chubbier version of herself as she kills enemies in order to rack up points.

 Of the bigger games, first I'll deal with Flow. Honestly? I didn't like it, at all. It's very boring, although some may call it relaxing. You are a simple micro-organism that must eat other organisms in order to grow. Most of the fodder is harmless, but there are bigger organisms that actually try to eat you back. Eventually you can change into a different organism with a different attribute(The initial one, for example, can boost while pressing any button). The game also has different plains, you traverse "deeper" by eating red organisms, or go one plane "above" by eating a blue one. Still, my biggest beef with this game are the controls, the game uses the motion sensors of the Dual Shock 3, which means tilting and turning. Even after I learned the controls, it still felt annoying.
 Then comes Flower, which is pretty alright. Once again, this is played with motion controls, but this time they nailed it, as it feels pretty alright. In this game you guide the wind and must pass through flowers to collect their petals into your gust. As you go through flowers, you slowly bring back color to the world, plus, there are some surprises as you get to the end of the game. This one is very fun and relaxing, plus, it's nice to look at.

 Then comes the centerpiece of this package, Journey. Going to in-depth about it would spoil the otherwise fantastic... journey the game takes you through. You only have two different actions: Jumping and emiting sounds. Jumping is limited by the size of your scarf, which must be charged by coming into contact with special pieces of cloth. You can increase the size of your scarf by collecting hidden glyphs throughout the game. Sounds are used to interact with many different things throughout the game. There's also multiplayer, in which you are teamed up with a nameless random player(You appear nameless to them too) and the only way to interact is by making sounds. This game is beautiful and the soundtrack is phenomenal, both come together with the gameplay to make for a truly unique experience. This is everyone must play. And hey, it's only 2 hours long!
 Sadly, the package leaves a bit to bit desired. While there are a ton of extras, from trailers, the soundtrack to developer comentary, it has one major flaw... every game must be installed. And even after being installed, you still need the disc to play them. But at least you get Journey on a disc.
 Flow: 2 out of 10
 Flower: 6 out of 10
 Journey: 10 out of 10
 Journey's Collector Edition: 9 out of 10

Archview #65: Dungeon Siege III

  Not like previous sieges.

 Dungeon Siege was, at the time of it's release, my favorite game of all time. Dungeon Siege 2 was excellent too, and worth upgrading my computer for. There was a PSP spin off that I didn't play, since I don't own a PSP. And now, here we are, at the third numerical entry in the series, sadly, not developed by it's creators, Gas-Powered Games, and it shows, as most has changed. While I could write about every difference with it's predecessors, I'd rather focus on the game itself.

 Gameplaywise, it's a Loot-based Dungeon Crawler, not unlike Diablo and it's ilk. DS 3 was built up with a console release in mind, so much has been worked around in order to make it work on a joystick. At the outset, you get to pick one out of four characters, each one being pretty different from each other, although the core of the story is the same for each character, and so are the sub quests. When engaging in battle, each character has two different stances, with different strengths and weaknesses, alongside 3 unique skills per stance, alongside another 3 defensive skills that are used when blocking.

 Mana is a set 100 points, and using skills depletes this gauge. The only way to recharge it is by hitting enemies. There's another "currency" in the form of orbs, restored in the same manner, that allows you to use your defensive skills and empower your other skills and normal attacks. Somewhat new to this kind of game is blocking. As the game was intended for a console release, potions have been done away with, instead, enemies randomly drop healing orbs that are used on pick up. Blocking and Rolling(Moving while blocking) soon become a must, as the game was made around these two features and enemies will rip you to pieces until you learn to defend properly.

 If you play alone, you can have a CPU ally by your side, and they are not too bad. There's offline co-op for two players, which is really cool and online for up to four players. A really small detail I liked, if your human partner is inactive for 10-20 seconds, the CPU takes over until the player presses a button, pretty handy.

 The story is decent, albeit nothing special. They tried adding choices, but they matter little, only changing a couple of scenes in the ending. While you can pick many different responses, everyone reacts to your character all the same, so it's just window dressing. There are a couple of sidequests per town, they are not too involved, but they add stuff to do, which is always fun.

 The presentation is so-so. Every cut-scene is told via still images and voice-overs, and the art isn't very good. Models look so-so, but having the armor show(Even if most are recolors) is a really neat touch, inherited from previous games. The world itself however, looks amazing. You'll traverse through many different areas, from swamps, caves, mines, snowy lands, forests and what have you, they are very colorful and detailed. On the plus side, the game loads very quickly, with very few loading screens, and them being very short. Voice acting is very unconvincing, with many characters having obviously faked accents for the sake of having accents. I didn't really care about the music, but on the last stretch, some somewhat familiar-sounding tunes played, and I smiled a bit.

 Sadly, the game is also very short, 8:30 hours long, and that includes doing everything, heck, the level cap is a mere 30. It leaves you want more, a lot more. This, coupled with the somewhat lame cut-scenes and plain character models, make it feel like a downloadable game. Clearly, the budget wasn't too large. I played the game on Normal, and the difficulty was just right, I lost a couple of times, but after learning what I did wrong and approaching the battle with a different strategy I cleared them without hassle. Basically, not a hard game, it's just right. Beating the game doesn't unlock anything, sadly, but there's a 10 dollar DLC that might be worth it.

 Lastly, and it has to be said, this is not your average Dungeon Siege game. The mechanics are very different from previous, numbered entries. Some enemies are made to resemble classic enemies(Like the gargoyles and their green energy-javelins), and some areas carry the names of towns from previous games, plus, allusions to characters from previous games. Heck, the type of areas you visit also borrow heavily from previous games, specially Dungeon Siege 1. But it doesn't feel like a numbered Dungeon Siege, the moment I stopped dwelling on it and considered it more like... a spin off, it didn't bother me as much.

 I ain't gonna lie, the game left me wanting more. I enjoyed it a lot, combat was fun, looting enemies was fun and seeing where the game would take me was always a plus, but it was just so short. The presentation felt a bit lackluster too, maybe somewhere along the line they decided to go from Downloadable to Retail. But despite everything, it was a blast, and that's all that matters really.

 8 out of 10.

Month Overview: Game of August

 Games completed in August:
 Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition                    9
 Tales of Xillia                                                    7
 Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2                               5
 Dead or Alive: Dimensions                                8
 Bakugan: Rise of the Resistance                        5
 Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D                   5
 Dynasty Warriors 4                                          6
 Fragile Dreams: Farewell, Ruins of the Moon    7

 I finally played every 3DS fighting game, released in USA, yay! Know what? I think I actually prefer DoA to Tekken. I mean, I prefer Tekken when it comes to gameplay, but on the go? DoA provides a lot more entertainment, and it's almost as fun. BB is fun too, but the port is a bit shoddy. Regardless, Xillia finally arrived, yay times two, and I started it as soon as I got it, it was pretty good. But when it came to shockers, Fragile Dreams was phenomenal. It was so sad and depressing, but it left a lasting impression, how many games can claim that?

 Game of August:

 I admit I may have been a tad harsh on it, but only because I'm so invested in the Tales series and expected a tiny bit more. Regardless, it was pretty good and an easy recommendation. What makes it shine a bit more, is the lack of JRPGs during this generation, this kind of game is a dime a dozen, and it's actually a great game.

 Runner-up:

 There's three reasons I buy games: A) I think I will enjoy them, B) Curiosity or C) It's dirt cheap. I bought this one cause of A, but despite it being the reason, I'm not too keen on survival... which is why it surprised me how much I enjoyed this game. Part of it is it's depressing story, I love tragedies, and it seemed Seto couldn't catch a break. Probably a bit of style over substance, but I think it's bizarre charm carried the game beyond it's combat. I loved this game, I just wish I could've scored it more than a 7, but the math wouldn't add up. Still, on a personal scale, it's an 8 and not a 7. Just sayin'

First Archimpressions: Dungeon Siege 3

  Just as I expected.

 Dungeon Siege is a franchise I love. Dungeon Siege 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, with Dungeon Siege 2 coming really close. They have slight differences, while DS 2 lost a bit of it's personality by turning into a bit of a Diablo 2 clone, it was a much better game. Regardless, I love the franchise, and I was incredibly excited once DS 3 was announced. And then I learned that Obsidian, rather than Gas Powered Games was developing it, and my bubble was burst. I played the demo, and my judgement since then still remains: It's a good game, but a Dungeon Siege game in name only.
 Party members have been brought down to two, but the pay off is that it has multiplayer, local at that, and that's very awesome. The game also tries adding conversations with multiple trees and outcomes, but it's a bit meh, Voice acting is hilarious. Potions are completely gone, probably in an effort to make it console-friendly, so it's... eh. Another change is that the game got more involved, insted of the "Your character develops according to how you play it" mechanics of the previous games, each character is now set in an archetype with two different styles. It works, it's fun, but it's no Dungeon Siege. And that completely sums up the game: It works, it's fun, it's not Dungeon Siege.