PSA

..... Really?
 I just finished Alundra. After the most impossibly complex and sanity-taxing dungeons ever. After a 3-boss gauntlet that anything but easy, all we get.... all we effing get is a long-a$$ anime-cutscene in which, no only does the girl leave Alundra, but it makes no sense. It mixes past adventures with stuff that happens in the presente.
 So, SO unsatisfying. I'm mad.
 Review coming shortly.

Archview #9: Dynasty Warriors 7

 So I don't need an HD TV for this one?(Ed's note: Dat neck)

 Ah, another Dynasty Warriors game, it's the same as the others.
1/10.
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...
..
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 Still here? Good. I'm one of the few that actually enjoy Dynasty Warriors, and one of the few that's willing to give each entry a chance. I'd mention "what's new", but seeing how the last DW game I played was 4, I don't really know, so I'll be looking at it as an stand alone game, which is how most games should be looked at, even if they are sequels.
 What is Dynasty Warriors? It's the evolution of the sidescrolling beat'em up, the kind that was popular back on the SNES days.You play as a general of your choosing, around 60 for this entry, and are to lay havok on thousands upon thousands of grunts(As a matter of fact, there's a trophy for slaying over 3000 enemies on a single stage.). The game is pretty easy to pick up and play, there's a jump button, a normal attack, a charge attack(I like to call it the "modifier", more on it later) and a Musou attack. Normal attacks can be strung together up to 5 times... but press the charge attack in between the string to perform a completely different move, depending on when you use it during the string. The Musou attack is the screen-clearing special attack that requires a certain gauge to be filled.

 The game takes place on big, open areas, filled with enemy soldiers, in which you must usually take care of a certain general to finish the mission, but it's encouraged to defeat as many officers(Stronger soldiers) as possible, since they drop various permanent power ups. There are a few missions that get a bit annoying, specially in the Story mode, in which you must protect an absolutely brain-dead ally as it makes it's way to a certain spot. They tend to get stuck, or choose to engage even when low on health, to say that they need constant baby sitting is an understatement. Enemy AI is a bit dumb too, but if they were to attack you constantly, you'd be dead in seconds, seeing how it's 200 or more vs 1(The allies deal negligible damage when you are close by, so don't rely on them). By the way, enemy archers are overpowered. They deal a ridiculous amount of damage, always attack from behind enemy lines, and if you jump, can stop you dead on your track.

 There are about 62 characters and 31 weapon styles... which means there are a lot of clones. You can have up to two different weapons equipped(And can be changed just by going to the pause menu, even during battle). Each character has different affinities with each weapon, from getting slow charge attacks to being able to get extra gimmicks with a weapon. However, each character has a single EX attack, unique to each general, with his special weapon. This hardly makes it unique, the only things that differentiates characters are the two Musou Attacks and the EX attack, otherwise most characters can be reduced to clones. Sword specialists are specially abundant, and every character is proficient with swords, so if you are stuck with a character whose best weapons you don't like and isn't proficient with better weapons, you can just fall back to the Sword.

 Story mode is fantastic. Unlike previous entry, where each character would get a what-if-ish story mode, each Kingdom gets it's own story mode, and this time, it follows the Romance of the Three Kingdoms more closely. Voice acting is all over the place, some VAs, like Liu Bei's are amazing, but some of the others are decent at best. The soundtrack is fantastic, filled with the synthetic rock the series is known for, while having some excellent pieces, like the song that's played during "sad moments", proof of this, is scenes like Sun Jian's death, while the VAs try their hardest to ruin the scene, the music overcomes all, fitting the mood perfectly. Props to the Cut-scene director, they are incredible too, in spite of some of the VAs.
 The graphics are great, each general looks awesome, with pretty intricate armor designs. The same can't be said for the NPC generals and the common soldiers, housing less polygons than their peers, but they don't look too bad. The stages are a bit on the simple sad, and the props, like scarecrows or boxes can't be broken, which is a shame, but it's probably the cost of having so many soldiers on-screen at the same time. The FX are a bit on the bland side too, many of the sparks look quite bad, and are prone to clipping through the floor. Not a a huge deal, but it's noticeable, particularily on Sima Yi's EX move.



Besides Story-Mode, there's also Conquest mode. Sadly, for the first time in the series, as far as I know, Free Mode is absent, but Conquest mode is a better alternative... mostly. Conquest Mode provides over 100 different stages, of varying difficulty levels, and different goals. Escort Missions, conquering missions, dueling missions.... it all boils down to killing thousands of soldiers. One thing I like about the mode, is that it incorporates the What If stories from previous games into "Legendary Battles". Each general has a different set of Legendary Battles, they range from historically accurate to ridiculous, with Sima Shi being mad at Sima Zhao for eating his food.
 In both modes, you will amass gold, which is used to buy more weapons. This weapons come with built-in seals, that provides different bonuses. Defeat enough enemies with the weapon, and you'll master it, allowing you to use it's seal on different weapons. Each weapon has a different ammount of open slots, so you can customize your weapon to better suit your style. Grinding for stats is as slow as ever, with enemy general leaving +2, +4, +6, +8 or rarely and only on harder difficulties +16 strenght or defense power ups. Seeing how most generals start with 200-300 base stats, it's gonna take a while. There's also a relationship system with other generals, but it's a very shallow affair, and consists on taking them to you on battles for no rewards what so ever besides some dialogue lines.



 So, how do I feel about Dynasty Warriors 7? A game with untapped potential. Story mode is fantastic, graphics are great, for this type of game, but... characters feel replaceable with each other, they don't have enough differences between each other. Luckily, it seems DW 8 adresses it, since they made a different weapon for each character! And the few that share weapons, use them in very different ways, and the graphics look even better than now... oh yeah, I'm hyped. But enough about 8, this is seven.
 And DW 7 is a 7 out of 10.

Progress Report

 Oh boyo...

 Dynasty Warriors 7: Almost done with Conquest Mode, just a few more stages, and I'll review it. It's really good, and the most involved I've gotten in a non-spin off DW since 2. Near the end of April, I'll get DW 1 and start going from 1 to 7:Empires. Just hope I don't get burned out from all the repetitiveness. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

 Alundra: 20 hours in, just got inside Murgg woods, don't know how much longer 'till the end. Alundra is fantastic, but some of the puzzles are nerve-wrecking, and the platforming is a mess, the latter which is probably what kept it from becoming a classic.

 Megaman Starforce 2 Zerker X Ninja: Oh boy... My interest in this game is fading. Starforce 1 was almost, almost as good as I remembered it. This one is... dissapointing... I mean, it's more of the same, but the story is not as engaging as the first game. Gameplay-wise? It's better. Graphically? A little bit better... but the Skyline is such a tedious affair... I'm 10 hours in, and I can't wait to wrap this one up.

Sequels that got it Wrong: Shaman King: Master of Spirits 2

 I'm so cool, I've got a sister featurette to STGIR.

 On the other end of the spectrum, we have sequels that got it wrong. The kind of sequel that fixes nothing, maybe even makes it worse(Yes, I speak of Xenosaga episode 2, but there are other such sequels, albeit not as impossibly bad as that one). I'm not gonna start with Xenosaga 2, no, that'd be too easy. Instead, I'll save it for a... day in which I'm with a crappier mood, that game deserves no sympathy. So today, dudes and dudettes, we be talking'bout:

 Yay! Metroidvanias! I love me some Metroidvanias. Wait, it's also made by Konami? The Metroidvania creators themselves?!(You could argue that Nintendo were, since they did make Metroid, but I'm more fond of Castlevania romps), just what could go wrong?! Eh, a couple of things. Shaman King: Master of Spirits was a good game. It wasn't amazing, and it had some very tedious mechanics, but it was fun. A tad short, clocking in at around 5 hours(With 92% complete to boot). Then came the sequel...
 Most "good" sequels(Not the ones that "got it right", I'm referring to the lesser, but still good kind) simply tend to be "more of the same". On their defence, most games that get sequels are usually good enough to warrant and allow a sequel to be greenlit. Not in this case. All Konami did was add more of the same, while fixing nothing.
 Annoyance number 1: Travelling. Master of Spirits 1 wasn't your average Metroidvania. It was divided in many short sub-stages, but like every Metroidvania worth it's salt, they were filled with areas that you couldn't reach unless you had the right power up. This also means loads of backtracking. However, you couldn't just go from point A to point B, oh no, you had to go through EACH substage in between A and B. Yeah, near the end of the game you get an ability to bypass the stages, but you still have to enter the stage, then wait as the Dragon takes it's sweet time to get into the screen. And then you have to wait for it to carry you out of the screen, while taking his sweet a$$ time. Again. What did Master of Spirits do? They added a few Warp Zones here and there, not nearly enough to alleviate it. Even worse, it still takes a long time to get the Dragon again.

 Annoyance number 2: "Get the Dragon again". Yup, all the old abilitiees are back. Master of Spirits has a total of 90+ different spirits(Equipable power ups or skills). Guess how many of them are new? A measly 24. They are mostly overshadowed by the old spirits, however you likely won't get to use them, because...
 Annoyance number 3: Cumbersome abilities. Y'see, you can only take about 2 "Field abilities". You can have 4 presets, interchangeable with Select, but y'know what's fun? 8 slots are not enough. There are more than 8 types of obstacles, and you also need a combat setup, to fight bosses or enemies. These problems were already present in Master of Spirits 1. This means going to the menu, to swap spirits quite often, everytime you fail to predict what obstacle is next. Now couple this with the obnoxious amount of backtracking. Going through so many stages, and you will also need to change abilities accordingly, so that you can proceed. Other Metroidvanias don't have this problems, since they integrate your new abilities into your exisiting moveset. Maybe a second jump just by pressing jump again? How about sliding by crouching and pressing jump? No, that's too easy, Master of Spirits 1 and 2 want you to go through as many menus as possible. Fun.
 Annoyance number 4: If you clear the game, you can fight any boss, either from MoS 1 or MoS 2. Pretty cool, huh? A nice extra? Ye...no. During the Story-mode, you face 17 out of the... 19 or 20 total bosses. You copy me? 17 out of 19 or 20. Yup, you(probably/hopefully) guessed it... bosses are recycled from the first game. There are only 9 new bosses, and the returning bosses? Behave exactly like they did in MoS 1. Even in Castlevania, known for recycling most of the common enemies, they have the decency to make new bosses. Not here. But what's even better? You have to get the SAME abilities to get throught the SAME obstacles from MoS 1. It's basically the same game!
 Annoyance number 5: All the equipment pieces are from MoS 1. Yup, you go through the same 3 swords, which you must find again. You must go through the same 4-5 same armor pieces, which you have to find again. Did they even try....?

 For what it's worth, they did add a couple of new abilities, done with button combinations. There's also a couple of new enemies(Just a few). The stages are all brand new(As far as I remember) And there might be new music, I'm not much of a music guy, and I don't really remember.... Also, the game looks pretty good, it does use the Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow engine, but then again, most of the assets are reused. Back when I played Cardinal Syn, for as bad as it was, at least I could tell that the developers tried. Konami didn't even try with this one. Shaman King: Master of Spirits 2 is a sequel, a Sequel that got it Wrong.

Sequels that got it Right: inFamous 2

 Could it be...? An actual feature?

 So, umm... yeah, a feature, pop the champaigne and bring forth the trombones. Oh, and don't forget the confetti. As the name implies, here I will write about sequels that I feel almost completely overshadow the previous installment of the franchise. I'm not talking about a good sequel, say, God of War 2, Onimusha 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's chest(It was good), but something that goes beyond what one would expect of a sequel. Something that most people would agree that puts the previous installment to shame.
 And what better way to... debut this feature than to mention a game that surprised me...

 Ah! inFamous 2, probably my favorite PS3 exclusive so far. What makes it so much better than the prequel? It's actually... hard to say. It has a certain je ne se quois that makes it feel so good... but I will try to dissect some of the improvements.
 For starters, the city itself. inFamous 1 was set in a very urban area, comprised of three big areas. The whole game was very heavy on greys and browns, and while each area had a couple of distinguishing landmarks, be it the seaport, the park or what have you, it felt a bit samey. Then came inFamous 2, with a much more tropical look to it. The game uses many more colors, and it looks amazing. The city feels alive, and it's a joy to explore. Not to mention, that while still consisting of three big areas, each area is completely different, one is a normal town, with a few jungles on the outskirts, the second area is a flooded town, which means Cole has to take to the skies and rooftops, lest he wants to die, and finally, the third area is an industrial one, with power plants and what have you.
 Another thing they did right, Cole's powers. While Cole gets de-powered at the start of the game, he gains his old powers back shortly, and then some. See, in inFamous 1, the unlockable powers were mostly little gimmicks. Like the electric missiles, if you were Good Cole, you could direct them by shooting electricity close to them. If you were Evil Cole, you'd get two mini rockets alongside the big one. Oh yeah, being Good Cole sucked, you'd mostly get precision upgrades, and Evil Cole would get destructive ones. Here, while Cole doesn't upgrade his powers, and doesn't get "new" powers... he gets new variations. For example, instead of a Shockwave, you could use a slimmer one, but that'd travel further. Or one that would make the enemies float, instead of pushing them back. And Good Cole can get an ability that makes electricity do minimal damage to innocents, alleviating the need to be careful that one had to have in inFamous 1. It doesn't end there, the idea here is "expanding", midway through the game, you get a choice for Fire powers or Ice powers. For example, remember the shockwave? Now you get an ice version, in which Cole produces various ice shards and blasts them with a shockwave, not only is it as awesome as it sounds, it feels oh so satisfying.

 Cole got a new voice actor. Yup, they recasted the main character. I can't remember the reason why, but it proved to be good. Old Cole seemed to be trying hard to sound gruff, dark and tough. New Cole sounds a bit... dorky, initially, but eventually it grows on you. Not only does New Cole have a better voice acting overall, the voice ends up fitting him quite nicely and has some very badass boasts, taunts and lines, and as a result of his new voice, he becomes much more relatable.

 inFamous 1 story wasn't really all that amazing, but it had some great moments and an amazing plot twist at the end. While inFamous 2 doesn't have such a plot twist, the overall story is much better. There's more side characters involved, and they are much more than just "voices". Cole directly interacts with them a lot more, and the dialogues are quite interesting.
 So everything got better. Graphics? Prettier. Sound-design? Better. Gameplay? Better. Story? Better. But topping all those additions is... controlling Cole. Yeah, it's part of the gameplay, but something that shocked me was... how much better it felt. Parkouring in inFamous 1 was just a means to an end. In inFamous 2, I can't pinpoint why, maybe the fact that the city is much more interesing? Dunno, thing is, controlling Cole feels better. Tighter even.
 inFamous 1 was a good game. inFamous 2 is an amazing game. In fact, inFamous 2 is so good, it makes inFamous 1 worth playing, just so that you can get the full gist of the story. inFamous 2 is a Sequel that got it Right.

What is wrong with my Dynasty Warriors 7? Part 3

 It's 6 AM, just came back from the hospital. I'm shaking, I'm too scared to go back to my room and I don't know what to do. My friend came home to play this "cursed DW" as he mockingly called it... We booted up the game, and it skipped al cinemas and got right into the game itself. My friend doesn't play DW, so he didn't find anything odd, meanwhile, I knew something was gonna happen so I... I smiled. I didn't know this was gonna happen, I feel... I feel so stupid, so bad. I was such an idiot.
 Let's see if I remember it right, my mind is still a bit foggy, and I'm getting goosebumps all over. Heck, I just locked my room's door, just in case... Anyways, I think my friend was made to play as Xiahou Ba, and it was on one of the jungly stages. Everything was fine, allies weren't attacking him nor anything, so I went into the kitchen to fetch food, and when I came back.... My friend he... he was  convulsing frenetically on the floor, and I could tell he was bleeding from the nose.
 I called an ambulance, and while it got here, I unplugged the PS3, while the Cao Cao-Lu Bu on the screen was laughing in the creepiest, most hollow-like voice I've ever heard in my life.  Once in the hospital, the doctor started questioning me, and I didn't know what to say. My friend had never had any problems with convulsions, as far as I knew, and if I told them "A videogame did it" they'd think I was some kind of idiot, so I just stuck to "I don't know, we were just watching TV".
 Thing is, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm scared. I'm too scared. Every now and then I peek into the doorway just to check. Please, help me. Help me.



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What's wrong with my Dynasty Warriors 7? Part 2

 I tried to play again after a good night sleep, and... oh man. I picked a random mission, and selected my tuned up Cao Pi. As soon as the mission started, my allies started HITTING ME. I tried hitting back, but my moves would go through them. I figured the game glitched, so I paused the game, to pick "End Mission" but as I went to pick the options I noticed... the game wasn't paused at all and I was getting hit!. Worst part? After I picked End Mission, the game just... unpaused. I tried again and same deal. I figured I'd just kill the enemies and be done with the mission, right? Wrong. Both enemies and allies were had it in for me, and  I was managing pretty well, untill I noticed... whenever I killed one of the enemies, my Kill counter wouldn't go up, and their HP would refill.
 It gets weirder. I started running from them, and Cao Cao appeared on top of a Black Red Mare. Weirder yet? It was Cao Cao's face on Lu Bu's body. He signaled at me, the PLAYER, with his sword and emitted a sound... the same sound from the glitched room from yesterday. Then a "Failed" popped up and I was allowed to exit the mission...
 Guys, I don't believe in supernatural stuff, but I'm pretty weirded out right now. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about this. Should I keep playing or throw away my disc?

UPDATE: Koei's response:
Dear Ignacio,
 Thank you for purchasing DYNASTY WARRIORS 7, we recieved your inquiry, and this is the first time any of us at the offices had heard of anything like it. I asked the translation team and they said that no such line was recorded or even put into the script. My co-workers at QA said that your console might've overheated, and you probably thought that you had heard it. If problems persist, send us your disc, and we will send you a new one.

                                                      Chip Soon Sun, Community Manager at Tecmo-Koei

 

 Right, 'cause sending them my defective disc is totally posible from where I live. Regardless, I'm sure, SURE that I heard what I heard. Since my friends kept egging me on, and just to prove Koei wrong, I will play again tonight, when one of my friends comes over to check this out.