Xenosaga 3 makes no sense. And I like it.

 It seems they finally realized that making no sense, but having it look cool, works. Hmmm... where to start with? Ah! Yes, my favorite pieces of dialogue:
1) There´s this dying kid, whom you helped before get his balloon back. What are his epic last words? "I´m going.... to the sky.... like my balloon..." Are you trying to be deep? It turned out hilarious.
2) There´s another dying fella, and he gives you something. he says "Now that I think about it, I won´t be needing it". Oh, so you are dying and you have time to think about it? really?
One little scene that I loved, was when a piece of a mech falls, work of past chaos(You travel to the past), and Jr jumps "HEY! Watch out below!", and just as I was begining to start "Seriously? You shouting to a mech high above you?" present chaos says "Sorry.", it made me laugh!
 Speaking of the past, it´s odd how they made the entire first disc be focused on the past. It also made no sense. At the end of the first disc, chaos finally realizes, actually, chaos being chaos, he probably knew from the start, that this is not the past-past but the past from Shion´s subconciousness. It really made no sense. So they didn´t travel to the past? This is a recreation? But that means that there´s a Shion clone now? Even weirder, Shion and co CHANGE the past. They do stuff and affect the era, yet, it seems that this is how everything happened? I mean, Past Virgil would´ve DIED had the party not found him. Virgil met Febronia thanks to the party. Yet Present Virgil knew Febronia? In the end, past Virgil sacrifices himself... yet, had the party not arrived, he would´ve died anyways!
 So, then they reveal that this isn´t really the past, yet when the Gnosis appearance happens, it happens in reality, even though they are INSIDE Shion´s subconciousness? So now there is a Shion and kid Shion? But kid Shion is not Shion? Eh... it makes no sense, but at least it was fun to play through. There were some really cool and entertaining scenes, like when Past Margulis interrogates Shion, and he freaks out when Shion shows just how much she knows. The whole Virgil/Febronia thing didn´t make much sense either, Virgil "Rejected" himself since he could´t feel hate.... so he chose to become a Testament? Eh... It made no sense, but seeing them embrace before passing away together was kinda engaging. Oh! And MOMO got a scene!... except that she was used to give Joachim a... "He is not a complete asshole" scene. YOU DID THAT WITH VIRGIL. THEN WITH KEVIN. IT ONLY WORKS ONCE. ONCE. YOU CAN´T KEEP MAKING "ASSHOLES WITH A SOFTER SIDE". STOP IT.
 I don´t have other story-related gripes. Yeah, Shion´s acting a bit more on impulse than she would, but seeing how this concerns her family and Kevin, it makes sense for her to act like this. It seems Kevin is not really a bad guy. If this guy gets a "He was good all along but he chose the wrong way" scene, I swear I will snap the 2nd disc in half. If you are gonna make a villain in a JRPG, go all the way. It´s already quite unique, him being Shion´s lover, ´till he died, and now he is back as a bad guy. Don´t ruin it. PLEASE, IT´S THE ONE THING YOU´VE GOT GOING FOR YOU, XENOSAGA, DON´T RUIN IT.
 And the Xenogears references keep on coming, I LOVE THEM. After you get back the Vessels of Anima, you fight a Mech boss.... and he looks like Fei´s Weltall 2! And when he opens up his wings? XENOGEARS. THAT´S THE XENOGEARS!. How could they top it? Past Jin´s mech looks just like Citan´s Gear. You spoil me Monolith, you spoil me. Scratch that, YOU OWE ME THIS.
 I hate to love the fact that a lot of bosses come outta nowhere. It´s fun "Oh snap, I wasn´t expecting a boss now!", specially since they are, usually, challenging. I love how the game now feels hard, but fair. You are no longer forced to fight as the characters you hate in order to have a fair chance to win fights. Although the game loves to force Jr. into the party every time the party gets back together. Monolith, I´m not gonna play with Jr. Ever.
 So, here I am. 18 hours in, just got back to the present(Except that it seems I was in the present all along?... who cares), and just began disc 2. I hope this game keeps this up. Keep not making any sense, keep adding references to Xenogears and stop focusing on Jr.

Xenosaga 3 is full of assholes.

 I´ve kept this blog cussing free, well, I censored the few outbursts I had. Not anymore, Xenosaga deserves no favors.
 For starters, every character is an asshole. Everyone. Young Kevin? Major Asshole. He is disgustingly annoying, they tried to give him a "cute" scene, but it didn´t work. Joachim Mizrahi? Another asshole, and you get bossed around by him. At least it´s better than getting bossed around by Jr. Young Virgil? Well, to be fair, Virgil was an asshole since episode 1, but he was the original Asshole of Xenosaga, so I allow it, besides, they also gave him a scene in which he shows a softer side, and y´know what? His scene actually worked, they pulled it off with him, not so with Kevin. Stop making assholes, only to try to make them have a soft side, it makes your cast samey.
 And Shion? I don´t know what to think of her. In Xenosaga 1, she was mousy, nerdy but a go getter. Her outward appearance was really good, for a JRPG, her clothes, while all the vector employees wore them, didn´t reveal much, and she wore glasses. GLASSES. By XS 2 they said "fuck it", removed the glasses, and gave her more revealing clothes. Xenosaga 3? No glasses, more skin. She actually has a Zettai-Ryuki now. Anyways, they did something else in part 3.... they made her a douche. She still has hissy fits, she had´em since Saga 2, but now she´s also an asshole about it. I seriously can´t stand her now.
 Jr? Jr is my most despised character EVER. EVER. Xenosaga 2 was based around him, getting through that game was quite the struggle. And now? He hasn´t changed. At least the focus is back to Shion(Not that she is that much better as a protagonist). Still, Jr is involved in almost EVERY conversation and/or cutscene. And the first time you see him? He is bossing around the party. WHO MADE YOU THE BOSS? I MADE chaos(It´s spelled like that all the time) LEAD THE PARTY EVER SINCE XS2, YOU ARE THE BOSS OF NOTHING, YOU CONCEITED BRAT. And what annoys me the most, is how he has the most lines, second to Shion. They managed to add him into every single conversation. I CAN´T STAND HIS VOICE.
 Anyways, so what went on last time I played? "We can´t repair KOS-MOS, her black box is damaged". Minutes later? They find plans and repair her.... BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BLACK BOX?. And her new design? It´s as fanservicey as they could get it. Y´know what the very first shot of the new design is? An upskirt shot. A friggin´ upskirt shot. And you want to take me KOS-MOS? Then treat her seriously. Don´t give her clothes that only serve as fetish fuel. Don´t exploit camera angles. When Shion and KOS-MOS stood back to back, ready to fight, it looked really cool. Do more like that and less fanservice.
 Speaking of Shion, just before the Testament attacked, guess what? Ziggy, Jin and Jr are fighting him, Shion appears, and Jr says "Stay back, Shion!". Seriously? If this was XS 1, I´d buy it, maybe Jr. doesn´t know about Shion´s skills.. I love chivalry, and not in a sexist way. But you know what? Shion has been involved in these battles since Xenosaga 1. Not only can she hold her own, but she has been fighting these kinds of threats before, and she needs no protection. At all. That was just stupid. "Stay back"? No, Jr, YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LEAVE THE FRIGGEN´ GAME, YOU USELESS SACK OF SHIT. On the plus side, Ziggy got some scenes and lines!, sadly not with MOMO. Seems that Father-daughter relationship they developed in XS1 was forgotten. And MOMO? Is she gonna be shoved to the sidelines? When is she gonna get some scenes?
 Oh, and funny thing, after the "Let´s repair KOS-MOS" conversation, they said "Hey, you should try out the new game", and Shion said "Yeah, I need to relax, maybe I´ll head to the lounge". They would´t make me play that Piece of Shit minigame, right? They wouldn´t shoehorn it into the main story... right?. So I went into the lounge, nothing happened. "Maybe I need to go to the church and speak with NPCS?". I took this chance to take the long roads and grind a bit, since I haven´t had chances to backtrack. Nope, nothing. They actually expect you to at least turn on the Hakuox minigame. Really? I tried it before. It´s not fun. Making you play it is so, so concieted of them. Maybe they thought "THIS MINIGAME IS AWESOME, IF THEY TRY IT AT LEAST ONCE, THEY WILL SEE". No. It´s not fun. And better yet? The second you leave the minigame, a scene takes place and you are to fight a boss. Gee, I hadn´t saved before... And the boss? He was interestingly hard. And once he placed a Physical barrier? Oh boy. Boss fights in this game are fun, they are challenging. Wish I could´ve saved before though!
 So yeah, I´m enjoying all the gameplay aspects of the game, even those hour-long stretches with no fighting, just walking around. But I can´t stand the main leads. I can´t stand the NPCs. I can´t stand the dialogue. And the story is so bad... On the bright side, the story is not AS bad as part 2, since Jr. isn´t the lead, but man, do they find ways to have him talk... And the battles are actually fun and challenging. Xenosaga 2 random battles were hard because it forced you to play certain characters to face certain enemies. The "Grounded" and "air" mechanics were dumb, the whole battle system was dumb. Xenosaga 3´s system is fun. So even if the story is almost as bad, I enjoy the "playing" part of the game, and in the end, that´s what matters.
I hope Jr. dies in the end.

Xenosaga 3: Mixed feelings

 So I kept playing, just finished chapter... 4, if I´m not mistaken, and am about 8 hours in. So far, the game is VERY linear, I´ve only had a chance to go back to previous dungeons once. Funny how I mentioned that Shion hasn´t changed... she has, she is an a$$hole now. Miyuki, who often messes up, is victim to Shion´s verbal abuse, heck, even when Jin defended Miyuki "It´s not her fault", Shion didn´t even apologise.
 Funny thing I noticed? On most scenes, the whole cast is never on screen at the same time. It gets a bit jarring when only three characters are talking, since the whole party is supposed to be with them. Ziggy and MOMO, the most interesting pair, get shuffled to the side, they haven´t gotten many lines yet. Speaking of which, Jr is in almost every scene, and he always gets the most lines, holy S... I can´t deal with this. Jr is one of my two most hated characters ever, I don´t know if I will survive so much Jr.
 What annoys me the most, is that even the side characters are annoying. I just met Mai, first thought? "Oh, she looks like Mariah from Xenogears, cool". Seconds later? What an annoying character. I suppose they tried to be funny with the whole "Thinks they are with U-Tic but they are not", but both the Voice Actress and the Dialogue itself is bad. Really, really bad. It´s hard to root for the main characters: Shion is plain and boring, and now you can add douchy to the list. Jr is just plain annoying, specially his personality, his squeaky voice doesn´t help.
 One thing that still annoys me, is Juli Mizrahi. When she first found out that KOS-MOS was up for scrapping, she didn´t even care. Once she found out she needed KOS-MOS, now she cared, but what grinds me, is that then she tells Shion "KOS-MOS is unique, she has a heart bla bla bla". Seriously? You didn´t even care that she was gonna be disposed of, and now you care? Really? And what does Shion answer? "You think she has a heart?"... Seriously? You´ve been treating her like more than a robot, and you question the existance of her "heart"? REALLY?
 For what it´s worth, the gameplay is actually fun. Seems they heard my "Bosses are too easy" complaints from part 2(They predicted I´d think that), so now bosses are actually hard. And I mean REALLY hard. Not SMT hard, but hard. It´s nice. I tend to prefer ES combat, since it feels faster and looks cooler, but on-foot combat is not bad, just a tad generic. Exploring is fun, the fact that the enviroments look SO good makes it even more engaging, you always want to see what comes next. It´s a shame the story, dialogue and characters are so bad. At least the Xenogears references make me quite happy.

Of Xenosaga 3 and stuf....

 I tried. I really did, I wanted to like it... but my god, it sucks. As I was playing, one of the first things I saw today was a Fei Fong Wong look alike, aptly named Abel, my first thoughts? "Oh yeah, more Xenogears references, I LOVE IT".... But then it went to hell.
 Shion "talks" to KOS-MOS and tells her... "You still do your best. What would you say if you saw me now?" She´d say nothing. She has no personality. This line makes no sense. At all, KOS-MOS DOESN´T CARE ABOUT YOU, Jesus. 2 Games later and you have the same one track mind focused on friggin´ KOS-MOS. Someone should count the amount of times Shion says "KOS-MOS" per game. Seriously.
 She also says "I feel as if everyone left me behind". You kidding me? YOU ARE THE ONE THAT LEFT EVERYONE. YOU, YOU left them behind, dammit. And when Vector gets told that they must dispose of KOS-MOS? "Oh no, why would they do this? Ok." no effort to fight the authorities, no nothing, and we are talking about the robot that has twice aided them in stoping big threats. The same robot that Shion treats like a lover, granted, Shino wasn´t there, but Allen was, and Allen has tagged alongside the group since part 1.
 Another issue, everyone keeps talking about "That man", or "That which is important to him" or about "She will bla bla", seriously? Still shrouding the object of your conversations in mystery? This is the last game, cut it out, it´s annoying, there´s so many mystery people that you can´t keep track of who refered to what and/or why.
 I´ve played for 3 hours now, and the last 2 hours barely had any gameplay at all, just walk from place to place and read tons of dialogue or watch cut-scenes. I don´t really mind, I like RPGs, but when the story and the conversations are so bad, it begins to drag.
 Truth be told, I´m beginning to get scared. These people made Xenogears, and there´s plenty of look alikes. Abel? He looks like Fei, and Fei was one of the many reincarnations of Abel. Nephilim? She looks like Elly. Elly and Fei have loved each other through each incarnation, and what does Abel draw? Nephilim´s face. Or Jin UZUKI who looks just like Citan Uzuki and even fights with a Katana! Even the Zophar itself appears, and the story uses elements of reincarnation, corrupted religion and other, more philosophical themes, just like Xenogears.... So... what if Xenogears´ story is just as bad? Maybe I just liked it ´cause I was a kid, and didn´t completely get the story. Oh god, maybe one of my favorite games ever is... Oh no.

First Archimpressions: Xenosaga 3: Also Sprach Zarathustra

 It´s time to settle the score. It´s time to play Xenosaga part III.

 I went in with an open mind, it´s been 4 years since I had the displeasure of playing Part II, and even though the foul aftertaste isn´t completely gone, I feel ready to tackle this game. Monolith completely killed it with Xenoblade, so maybe, just maybe, they got it right before with Xenosaga III, and hey, it can´t possibly be worse than Xenosaga II!. Where to start... Hmmm.... I´m about 2 hours in, cleared the Prologue and Chapter 1, and so far it feels like Xenogears 2nd disc, not a good omen, since I´m being led cut-scene after cut-scene, heck, Shion even had a pretty long monologue, kinda like when the characters in Xenogears would relate their stories!.
 Also, another thing I disliked, right after the first "mission", what happens in the next scene? Shion in a bikini, ´cause she is on a beach. For no good reason. Right, fanservice is Monolith´s most recurring trend, sigh. They also managed to completely ruin a plot twist, by having a flashback, featuring a character long been dead... and the very next cutscene, set in the present, features one of the Testaments, masked characters, who has the exact same voice, no effort whatsoever to mask the voice. Worth mentioning, but it didn´t affect me at all, characters are using Xenosaga´s lingo, and mentioning places and organizations left and right, so it´s not a good idea to play this one without having played the other ones.
 Now, as to what I liked? The graphics. The models look pretty nice, but what I dig the most are the enviroments. They look really cool, backgrunds are specially good looking. Breaking open objects is back, and it´s satisfying, like in Xenosaga 1!. Voice acting is pretty good too, but I still can´t stand Junior´s voice. Or his attitude. WHO MADE HIM THE LEADER? WHY IS HE BOSSING EVERYONE AROUND?! Please, let Shion be back as the main character... actually, Shion is just as she was in Xenosaga 1 and 2, she only ever thinks of KOS-MOS. Why are the two leads so annoying and plain? Jesus, it´s been two games already, get some character developement, for crying out loud. It has to be said though, that seeing all these characters again, after three years, was kinda.... Until Junior had to show up and boss everyone around, that is.
 Last element I want to mention, combat. Grounded and Air statuses are gone, thank god. However, they did away with the "Combo Attacks", so now you just get a generic attack option, I don´t like this change. Instead of Air and Ground, there´s "Break" status, if you, or the enemy, recieve too much damage, you enter into Break, which leaves you unable to take action for two turns, I didn´t really care for this, so meh. There´s three types of special attacks: Ether, which consume Ether Points, Techs, which also consume Ether Points(Why could´t they share "Ether" menu? Guess I´ll find out) and then there´s... Special Attacks, which consume Boost, yes the boost mechanic is still here and works just like it used to, and if you down an enemy with this attack you get extra XP. Gear battles....erm, E.S. battles are back, and now when attacking you chose from your weapons, instead of Break gauges, you have an Anima Gauge, once charged you can go into Anima Mode and unleash your Anima Attacks. I´m ok with E.S. combat, it´s not as good as Xenogears´, but then again, Xenosaga is not as good as Xenogears.

Month Overview: Game of April

Games completed in April:
Alundra                                                    7
Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters                  6
Strider 2                                                  8
T.R.A.G: Mission of Mercy                      7
Tekken Tag Tournament 2                        10
Alundra 2                                                 7.5
T´ai Fu                                                     8
Ar Tonelico Memory of Elemia                 6
Street Fighter EX 3                                  5
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring                      9
DarkStalkers 3                                         8
Megaman Star Force 2 Zerker X Ninja    Unrated

 April was a fun month, many good fighting games, even though Street Fighter EX 3 was a 5, I had loads of fun with it, much more than with Godzilla, which was, arguably, the better game. I also got to play T.R.A.G and T´ai Fu, games I´ve held interest on for the longes time, and neither dissapointed. For the Game of the month, TTT 2, Ar Tonelico and Megaman Starforce 2 are unelegible, since I started them months ago, in the case of Ar Tonelico, years.

 Game of April:

 It was short, but my god, T.R.A.G was an amazing game, terribly underrated and unknown. It´s the game that had the biggest impact on me this month, the one I want to replay the most

 Runner-up:

 It´s a fun game, while movement is a bit on the clunky side, the game looks and plays great, it´s one of the most unique fighting games ever.

Archview #20 : Darkstalkers 3

 Number 20? They said I´d never get here. But I did.

  DarkStalkers 3 is a 1 on 1 2D fighting game from Capcom. It´s commonly referred to as "Street Fighter with monsters", but I disagree, DarkStalkers 3 is nothing like Street Fighter, heck, later Street Fighter games took elements FROM Darkstalkers. For instance, there are no rounds, not in the traditional manner, instead, you get two life bars, and once one is depleted, there´s about a second in which neither character can attack, but can move, and then the second "round" starts, and the winner doesn´t get a health refill.
 What it does share in common with Street Fighter is the six-button layout, consisting of Jab, Strong Punch, Fierce Punch, Short,  Forward and Roundhouse. Just like Street Fighter, special moves and EX are done by imputting motions with the direction pad and pressing attacks. Something that Darkstalkers had, before SF 3 and 4 borrowed it, are enhanced attacks, by using some meter and pressing two attack buttons, you can enhance your special moves. Darkstalkers also introduced the Advancing Guard, years before Tatsunoko VS Capcom and MVC 3 used the mechanic. There´s also "Dark Force", you can choose between Change or Power(Both with different properties), and by using one or two energy bars, depending on what type you picked, you can use them in battle, bestowing upon your character special gimmicks and access to new attacks. Interestingly, unlike other fighting games, you can accumulate an infinite amount of energy bars, which lends to the faster speed of this game. Rounds can end in less than 10 seconds, even white health recovers extremely fast, if you don´t get hit.

 There´s 18 different characters, and around 5-7 secret "variations" of some characters, which is a decent amount of characters, specially taking into account how different each character is from the others. From their special moves, to all their different animations, characters in Darkstalkers are full of personality. However, there are few game modes, there´s Arcade, Training, VS and Original Character. Original Character allows you to edit the name and color of a character of your choice, and enhance him as you fight dozens of enemies. This mode is how you unlock the art gallery and the special options... and the special options are worth it, you can make the game play like Vampire Hunter or Vampire Hunter 2, besides allowing other game-changing options. They are worth it.
 The graphics are colorful and vibrant. While the animation isn´t as good as the Arcade version, it still looks good, except Pyron. Pyron got the short end of the stick this time. Regardless, there are loads upon loads of animations and unique "states", like Cut in Half, Burned, Under Demitri´s Attack, under Jedah´s inflation, etc. The music is not my cup of tea, but it doesn´t sound bad, but I´d wish they had harder-sounding tunes to fight with. The translation is a bit iffy at times, but it doesn´t get in the way of the gameplay.

 Darkstalkers 3 is a solid fighting game, it´s only real drawback is the lack of modes, but you can toy around with the ES and DX option in order to shake up the gameplay, so it´s not a bad trade off.
 It´s an 8 out of 10