Archview #22: Tetris DS

 Better late than never.

 So I´m not really a Tetris fan. I could play Tetris if my life depended on it, but I´m not keen on it. But this version of Tetris is different from all the other Tetris games out there, so I just had to get it. So I got it.
 For starters, there are loads of modes: Standard, which can be played in Endless Marathon, Line Clear(Based on points) or VS the CPU. Then there´s "Catch", where you play as a dot, and tetrominoes fall, so you must catch them, and you can rotate the structure that you are creating as you try to fit more pieces. Every time you form a 4x4 block, it detonates, granting you points. This mode is timed, and every time you fail to add a Tetrominoe to your structure, you lose time, and so does every time your structure hits a falling Metroid(More on this later). In Mission mode, which can be played in Marathon or Time Trial, you are to play Tetris while you are tasked with completing certain tasks, be it making chains, clearing likes, or having a limited Tetrominoe variety.

 There´s Puzzle mode next, in which you must place the correct pieces in the right place in order to fulfill the requirements, there are 200 different puzzles. Touch Puzzle is more of a novelty, it´s kinda like puzzle mode, but using the Stylus to move around the pieces. This mode has 50 different puzzles or you can play Tower mode, in which you must make the balloons at the very top of the tower hit the ground. The last mode is Push, the least interesting one in my opinion, where you place Tetrominoes against the ones of your oponent, and you must drive him down... It´s a bit hard to explain, but it´s not too fun.
 The presentation is simply excellent. Each mode is themed around a different Nintendo character, Mario, Link, Samus, Donkey Kong and the guy from Balloon Balloon! Each mode has remixed music from the character´s franchise, and both screens are themed around him. If you grew up with Nintendo, or are a fan of, it´s quite charming.

 If you don´t like Tetris, this version won´t make you change your mind. But if you have at least a passing interest in it, this game is worth a try. There are loads of modes, loads of things to do, and the overall look is fantastic(Unless you hate Nintendo, in which case it proves that you lack a soul).

 8 out of 10.

"First" Archimpressions: Xenogears

 So far, it´s as good, if not better, than I remembered it.

 I just got captured by Aveh, and I´ve got to say... Holy smokes, this game was so awesome. I got a bit scared when Fei and Elly started arguing, since some of the dialogue was... ehh, but...it was not THAT bad. Not Xenosaga bad. Speaking of dialogue, holy smokes, the NPCs have a lot of flavor to their sentences, for example,  little kids have "cutish" speak patterns. It´s really interesting.

 And gameplay? Oh. My. God. It´s not as... free as, say Legend of Legaia, but it´s not worse, it simply is different. The animations are so fluid, and how they go from move to move... I miss sprite art of this quality. And the 3D graphics? The mechs look amazing, hard to believe it´s a PS1 game! It also has anime cutscenes, and they remind me of 80´s and early 90´s anime, they use light colors, characters have loooooong frames, there´s cryptic sounds.... and they are of the highest quality, so many frames.... it looks better than most anime now a days!(These scenes are kinda short, but all together, they amount to 20 min of anime).

 The best part? I´ve no real complaints or gripes. If I were to nitpick, I´d say that sometimes conversations get a bit too long. Even NPCs have a lot to say. But, it´s an RPG, I don´t mind.

 I LOVE THIS GAME.

Archview #21: Xenogears 3: Also sprach Zarathustra.

 It´s not as bad as Xenosaga 2.

 Xenosaga 3 is a very complex game, and it assumes you´ve played XS 1 and 2. Sure, there are multiple text-based memory refreshers, but they don´t really get the job done. You can´t just jump in 3 and expect to understand anything. Heck, even if you played 1 and 2, you won´t understand everything, that´s the kind of JRPG it is, the kind the flexes logic or overexplains it to the point of sensesless to be able to tell it´s story, just don´t overthink it and you´ll be fine. While I never liked most of the characters, everyone but one get closure in this game(The other one didn´t really have open issues), and they also get at least a couple of scenes to themselves, so that´s good.
 What´s no so good, is just how linear this game is, specially in the beginning. The further you get into the game, the more chances you´ll get to revisit dungeons(But only the dungeons, cities are gone forever). There´s also loads, among loads of cutscenes, but if you have been playing the past entries, it should come as no surprise, luckily, all of them can be skipped, assuming you grow tired of them or are in a rush. It should be said that most cutscenes look really good, however, the in-game dialogue is a bit jarring, as there is no mouth movement when they talk, but they do move the rest of their bodies. Another oddity, the full cast never, never appears on the in-game cutscenes... maybe it was too much for the engine? you can notice slowdown every now and then...

 They didn´t mess up the combat either! After the trainwreck that was XS 2, they simplified combat, a lot. Deathblows are gone(Boo! This was the thing that I loved the most about Xenogears), so are the Air and Grounded statuses(Thank god). Since shops are back, and so is equipement, character autoattacks are no longer associated to a type, so you can actually choose your party this time around. Characters have three offensive options: Attack, a simple attack, Ether, Magic spells that consume EP and Tech, mostly physical special attacks that consume EP. Why Ether and Tech don´t share a menu? Who knows?, Xenosaga was pretentious since episode 1.
 So, combat, this time around, enemies and allies have a red bar under their health bar, if you fill it up you "break" said enemy/character, which makes them lose two turns. There´s also a Boost meter(Both for you and the enemy), charged by attacking, that allows you to use the Special Attacks or get extra turns. Finish an enemy or a boss with a special attack and you get extra experience points, Skill points and Money. It´s a fun, simple and engaging system, although you´ll never use Boost for extra turns, you are better of storing it for Special Attacks. Combat is really challenging, and for the right reasons(Unlike XS 2). You are encouraged to use EP while fighting random encounters(Which are not really random, since you can see them while exploring), since there are Savepoints before most bosses, and they restore your HP and EP for free.

 E.S. combat is back, and it´s simpler, and flashier, than on-foot combat. E.Ses can be outfitted with different kind of weapons, and each one has a different fuel cost. On your turn you can chain as much attacks as your fuel allows it(Which gets restored every turn, so no worries). There´s no magic, but you can use some items. Instead of boost, you get the Anima gauge, which allows a special attack and makes attacks cost less fuel.
 The graphics in the game are really good, characters have a lot of detail, and the models look quite good. The dungeons are very inspired, exploring them is very entertaining. The cutscenes also look very good. Music was great, though after hearing it a lot(Areas are large) you´ll start to get tired of it. I did. The voice acting is a mixed bag, some are really good, some are bad, however, to add salt to the injury, the dialogue is really bad.

 Unlike past Xenoagas, there´s not a lot of extra content. There´s two optional bosses, and a couple of simple sidequests, but compared to the amount of post-game content from the other 2, it´s a bit disappointing. Guess they though Hakuox, a puzzly mini-game was enough to compensate, heck, they throw that game into your face at every chance they get(You actually have to play it once to further the story at one point!), but I didn´t find it engaging. Unlike XS 2, puzzles are few in number and rather easy, although I didn´t really mind it, I don´t play RPGs for the puzzles.
 All in all, it was not a bad game. It starts off quite weak, but as it advances, it gets better. Most of the 2nd disc is quite good, you just have to endure the first one. And I´m just talking about the story, the gameplay is engaging, even exploring feels good.
 7 out of 10.

Last Xenogasa 3 rant

 Ever since I put on the 2nd disc, the game got so, so much better. For starters, everything that was playable was fun, I had no gripes with the gameplay whatsover. What did annoy me to no end where the nonsensical situations, bad dialogue and the repetitive and dumb characters. Thing is, everything that happens on the 2nd disc is... dare I say, fun? Interesting? It was.
 Well, I did hate the fact that, as predicted, pulled a "Kevin was evil, but he meant well!" kind of thing. Because sacrificing yourself at the last minute completely exonerates you from using Shion all the time? From having the party involved in all these shady bussiness? Right.... Also, What The FUCK, Shion, What the fuck? "Nobody cares about me. Everyone left me but Kevin".... Dudette, two out of three games where about YOU. All the characters are at YOUR beck and call, they never, ever, EVER left you. They were looking out for you since Xenosaga 1, and you say that? I know they had to make Kevin not look THAT bad, but pulling stuff out of your ass doesn´t work.
 As far as combat goes, bosses got tougher, which means I got to fully exploit the Break status on them... it´s a fun battle system. HOWEVER, they completely messed up the last boss. JRPGs tend to have multiple-form last bosses... not Xenosaga, just one form and it´s incredibly easy, I guess they supposed you´d tackle the harder, optional bosses? One of the very few redeeming qualities of XS2 was the last boss, when after you take down it´s first form, you go to the spoils of battle screen and... he shouts "I WON´T LET IT END", cue in the next form. Nope, no such thing here. Another thing I disliked, it how tough random encounters got in the last dungeon. Yes, last dungeon, bla bla bla. Just make them do more damage. It´s boring having to pummel the enemies for so long, and you´ll be using the same strategies, since it´s the same kind of enemies, so there´s no point to dragging combat for so long. Make the bosses harder to make up for it, or something.
 Sidequests... there weren´t many, and I did as many as I found. Except the one for Ziggy´s last weapon. Do they really expect you to gather 99 of a drop from an enemy? And it´s one of those extra damage soaking last enemies. Not fun, so no deal. The other sidequests were incredibly short and simple, surprising, taking into account the 40+ sidequests from XS 2 and how much they boasted of them. Guess since they returned shops and equipment, there was no space on the disc for other sidequests? Heh.
 It surprised me just how linear the game was. Specially during the first disc, the times that you can go back to previous dungeons can be counted with one hand. Cities? Once you leave them, there´s no going back. Ever. As you go through the game you start getting more breathing room, but you´ll be getting dragged a lot. Still, something that surprised me even more was just how good it got. The first disc starts getting better the more you advance, by the 2nd disc it´s all good, not great, but good. It was a decent game, once again, all my complaints are story/dialogue/character based, gameplay was fun, even exploring was fun.

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

"First" Archimpressions: Darkstalkers 3

 Wow, much better than I remembered.

 Confession time: While I thought it was alright, I was never really a Darkstalkers fan. True, I wanted a new Darkstalkers game, but that´s because I love new fighting games. It´s been years since I last touched this, or any other Darkstalkers game, and... Holy cow, this game is much better than I remembered!. It doesn´t animate as well as Vampire Savior, it´arcade counterpart, but it has more characters and even with the lack of frames and white blood, it looks great.
 And my god is it fast! Rounds can end up in less, LESS than 10 seconds. And credits where credits are due, this series introduced the EX moves, which now got so popular that even Mortal Kombat and Injustice uses them! So, yeah, awesome fighter.

Archview #19: Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring

 I adore this game.

 Ehrgeiz, better known as that quirky fighter with Final Fantasy VII characters is a 1 on 1 3D fighting game. This is a game that, before I had a PS2, had always wanted to play. I loved Final Fantasy VII, PC version, and seeing the Magazine ads "He is back, and he is not alone" with a page-sized Cloud was oh so enticing. Yes, the FFVII characters were added since the game lacked any kind of brand recognition, and it needed something to make it stand out from the other, superior, and well-stablished fighting games.
 Ehrgeiz system is kinda unique, for instance, you have free movement around the arenas, some even feature higher places you can jump on to, and the camera does a great job at keeping both characters on the screen, as they run around the arena. Blocking is done by standing still, which blocks highs and mid attacks, or by crouching(Default position when "targeting" the enemy), which blocks lows, there are other defensive options, like interrupts which are done by pressing Special just before an special move hits you(These look really cool) or rolling.

 For offensive options you have Low, Mid, High and Special attacks. Special attacks consume a non-chargeable gauge that starts full every round, after it´s wasted, you get a different attack. One really neat feature, is how most characters have totally unique Special attacks, Godhand can place mines or shoot, Cloud pulls out his sword(And gets a new moveset!), Jo becomes a Werewolf, etc. There are two other buttons, Targeting, which targets your enemy, and the jump button. Attacks are very responsive, but moving around can be a bit cumbersome, it´s not too precise which will make you miss some attacks, unless you are targeting.  The game also has plenty of extras. There are 4 different minigames, although I didn´t find them too fun. One of them is just survival mode though, but there´s an Othello clone, a racing mini game and a Beach flag catching thing. they are passable at most, but they are there. There´s also a really cool extra: Forsaken Dungeon. It´s a mini-RPG of sorts, there´s some semblance of story, but it´s just there as window dressing. The game itself however is very engaging, it plays more like a rogue-like than anything, and you are to challenge a 21 floor dungeon as one of two characters. It may sound short, but it´s really challenging and incredibly fun. If you want to save, you are charged a lot, and money is quite hard to come by, and you´ll need it, for repairing your equipment to potions, which are a must and are expensive, unless you want to try your luck with monster drops. And like any good Rogue-likes, there are traps, you might find yourself trapped into a room with no healing items and broken weapons.... If you die once, you get to rescue your character with the 2nd character(Which you must level up individually, and there´s no storage, so no items, unless you care to buy from the expensive salesman). Die before you get to your partner? Game over. And there´s also the fact that stat growth is affected by what you eat... yes, this "mini-game" is surprisingly deep, engaging and fun.

 The graphics are very good, with exceptionally good animations, the movements are very fluid and look great. The music is nothing special, but it´s worth noting that there are remixed versions of FFVII´s main theme and victory theme, so I can´t complain. The character designs range from odd to strange. There´s a Taekwondo fighter whose leg dissapeared(Yup), so he outfitted his stump with a robotic leg that shoots rockets(I´m not making it up), a guy with a prosthetic arm, which conceals a gun, and he even removes the arm and bashes his enemies with it! While all the characters are really unique, in both design and moveset, most Final Fantasy characters are clones. Zack is a clone of Cloud, Yuffie is a clone of Sasuke, Vincent is a clone of Godhand and Tifa might be a clone of Prince Doza, but I´m not too sure.  I think that Ehrgeiz is not a good fighting game, but it is a great game, it´s very  fun and fast, and it has a bunch of extras, including an amazing mini-RPG.
 It´s a 9 out of 10.

Progress Report.

 It´s not a good fighting game, but it is a fun game. I´ve unlocked all characters, most costumes and cleared Arcade Mode with everyone, so I decided to tackle the Forsaken Dungeon... Holy Ess! It´s incredibly hard and fun, it feels like a Roguelike, with al those traps and the need to eat. And you have to eat right. It a balanced diet(Carbs, Lipids, Proteins, etc) and you won´t raise stats as you level up, you have to focus on something, since focusing on one stat, means that another one won´t get raised.... it´s quite challenging. And if you die you get a second chance... to rescue yourself, with your partner character, and with no way to store equipment, s/he will have to do a "naked run" to get the soul of the other character. Challenging, and fun, wish I could stream this! It´d make for a fun romp.

 This is the most fun I´ve ever had with Tetris. All the extra modes are great, and I´m trying to clear them all before marking it down as done. Some of the puzzles get devilishly hard, and puzzle games are not my style, so.... it´s gonna be a while.

 I did not forget about Megaman Starforce, I´m on part 3 now! I just hit a slump since Starforce 2 got so damn boring, it´s easily the worst in the series. It was such a drag that I decided not to do the post game and jump right into Starforce 3, and what a good choice it was. Megaman Starforce 3 is as great as I remembered it, but I´m still 5 hours or so into it. I really don´t know how I managed to 100% Megaman Starforce 2 on my first go through the game, going through the Skylines is such a drag, specially when sidequesting and forced to go back and forth, back and forth.

"First" Archimpressions: Ehrgeiz - God Bless the Ring

 Since I´m on gaming fire today, here´s one more

 Control is a bit odd. Characters are a bit odd too. The controls are a tiny bit odd too. But I like it! A lot. Ehrgeiz is fast, and... better than I remembered it to be! However, unlike the last time I owned this game, I will do the Forsaken Dungeon RPG minigame, and I will clear it. And I will review it. Yes.

Archview #18: Street Fighter EX 3

 What a shame...

 I´ve always been a fan of the awfully underrated Street Fighter EX series. Why? They tend to be faster than the regular SF games, and they have some badass characters like Kairi and Garuda, owned by Arika, reason as to why they haven´t appeared outside the EX series. Street Fighter EX 3 skipped arcades, a first for the series, and it was a PS2 launch title. As with most launch titles, this means the game was rushed, and it shows even in the boxart, which is just a picture of Ryu model´s face, it even doubles as the instruction booklet´s cover, a sign of things to come?
 For starters, it has less characters than EX 2 Alpha Plus. There are no new characters either... actually, there is a new character, Ace, but he is a "template" character, destined to be outfitted with moves from other characters, that means that he looks generic and his moveset is not unique to him. Gameplay-wise, they removed the best feature of EX2: Excel combos, and it was substitued with mechanics that seem more like an afterthought, like the "Surprise Attack"(Mid Punch plus Mid Kick) and some tag non-sense.

 For some reason they decided to make Tag the default mode of play, heck, 1 vs 1 can only be done by going to Team Battle and doing one-man teams, baffling to say the least. Besides Tag battle, there´s also "Dramatic" battle, where you can go 1 vs 3 at the same time, or 2 vs 2, amusing for a couple of times at least. The game does have a clear lack of modes, theres Original Mode, read "arcade mode", however after beating each oponent you can add him to your team, then Arena Battle, where Dramatic, Tag, Team and Multiplayer is located, finally there´s Character Edit, where you edit Ace´s moves and accomplish missions to earn points in order to buy more moves. My One gripe with the missions is that you are told what to do, not how to, so it can be a bit challenging until you have learned what a Surprise blow is and how other mechanics are named.
 The presentation is lackluster, graphics are blocky and simple. Some models just look awkward, like Guile or Sagat, and some of the animations lack oomph. All the stages look incredibly generic and boring, and the music didn´t win me over, I felt it didn´t fit the game, but to each his own. The endings are just a tiny text window, and none of them are satisfying. There´s also a bizarre "mini-game" during the credits, where you get infinite HP and infinite energy bars, and you get to pummel loads of generic thugs, it´s midly amusing, but gets boring after the tenth time!
 Despite being a letdown, the basics of the game are sound, it is a fun game, but it could´ve been so much more, SF EX 2 Alpha Plus ends up being a better alternative.
 5 out of 10

"First" Archimpressions: Street Fighter EX 3

 Eh.... At least now I can see it´s flaws.

 I like it, I really do. It´s fun and fast, just the way I like my games. However, as a sequel to EX 2, it is a letdown: Less characters, less modes, less mechanics... less everything. And as a launch title? Even worse, graphics are blocky and ugly, there´s a lack of everything, it´s pretty clear that it was rushed to meet a deadline.

First Archimpressions: Tetris DS

 It´s gooood.

 I´m not a fan of Tetris or puzzle games for that matter, but this version is quite good. The Nintendo inspired look is a big plus, for me, and it has loads of modes which are Nintendo inspired. I just tried all modes and they range from fun to amusing. I was not planning on tackling this one so soon, but I kinda tried standard mode, and cleared it, so now I kinda have to commit to it. Curse my 1337 Tetris skills!

Archview #17: Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia

 Could´ve been much worse.

 Ar Tonelico is your typical Japanese overly complicated RPG, with an unnecessary amount of Moe. The story is set in a world populated Reyvateils, songstress that can craft magic out of songs, and humans. As expected of any JRPG, there are a bunch of corporations, the Tenba, the Teru, the Church and the Knights of Elemia. Of course, being a JRPG that has a unique type of creature or female(Or both), in this case Reyvateils, there are bad guys that seek to exploit the Reyvateils, surprising(I´m being sarcastic, by the by), regardless, the story centers on Lyner, one of the Knights of Elemia, who fell from Platina, a place a top a giant tower above the blast line, a zone no space ship can cross, who fell to a Virus invasion. Now Lyner has to return to Platina, and on the way, find a way to destroy the viruses and save the world.

 What makes Ar Tonelico different from other JRPGs is it´s combat system, now stay with me, ´cause this is extensive: When battling, your party consists of 3 warriors and 1 Reyvateil. Warriors take turns with the enemies according to their speed, the Reyvateil however, you can press Triangle at any time to issue her orders. Reyvateils can only attack using magic, which they must charge up. Warriors can´t deal as much damage as Reyvateils, but they can take much more damage than them. When enemies target Reyvateils, you can have your warriors protect them, and you usually must, since they will probably die.

 It doesn´t end there. Below the combatants, there are two gauges. The first gauge increases as you use spells. It can go up to 3 "stocks". How do you charge those stocks? That´s when the second gauge comes into to play. It has two bars, a blue one that goes from left to right and a purple one that goes from right to left. Every time they meet, the stock goes up by one. The blue bar increases as the warriors deal damage, and decreases when they take it. The purple one increases as the Reyvateil charges songs. Charging these stocks allow the Warriors to use HP-consuming techniques, which I found to be quite useless, and the higher the stocks, the better the enemy drops. While I enjoyed the combat system, later in the game, enemies get loads of HP, and you have to charge your spells longer, so Random encounters will become a drag.

 Ar Tonelico has two other distinguishing features: Grathmelding and Diving. Diving has you go into a Reyvateils subconscious and partake in a visual-novel like mini adventure, which is how you unlock costumes for the girls. Some of the levels in their subconscious can be kinda entertaining. Then there´s grathmelding, which is, basically, Crafting. Find the recipie, the ingredients and then craft your items or equipment. The process is quite streamlined, so it´s quite easy to do it.

 One of the better features of the game is it´s customization. By finding, or crafting, crystals, you can add extra effects to the Reyvateils spells and equipment. Perhaps add a chance to paralyze? 100% chance to crit with a spell? You can do it.

 Graphically, it´s quite ugly. The sprites are simple, and the animation feels stiff, and lacks some frames. The music is a bit too cheery for my tastes, but it has some really good pieces, specially the reyvateils songs. Voice acting is fantastic, shame the dialogue is not too interesting. It´s filled with double entendres, so your milleage may vary.

 While I did enjoy grathmelding, I was not too keen on the forced grathmelding. There are a couple of times where you are forced to grathmeld something in order to move on with the story, which means you have to find the ingredients, it´s no fun and it may force you to backtrack in search for the ingredients. By far the biggest blunder of the game are the loading times. The game will stutter a bit during combat, specially when too much stuff is going on, it makes the already slow combat even slower. The loading issues are verywhere though. Going to the menu to pick a spell? The game has to load a lot of information of each spell, that you don´t really need, when all you want to do is go down the list to use a friggin´healing spell

 All in all, it´s a better than average JRPG, but it´s nothing special. I will admit that I enjoyed it though.

6 out of 10.

Book Quickie: The Fifth Child

 What a letdown.

 This book, man, this book.... It starts off really good, it´s paced quite nicely, and for 3/4ths of the story it´s really good. This initial three fourths of the book are really creepy, telling you of Ben, the fifth child. Since his conception, he has been kicking in the uterus, with such force that he would break his mother´s ribs. He behaves creepily, and has been stablished to be unusually strong and unusually big. So, it´s a really good horror story.... untill the last fourth of the book begins, after what I consider it´s climax, and then.... the horror book turns into some kind of drama. I kid you not, it was most baffling, it has such an unsatisfying ending!
 Conclussion: It´s a great horror story, until the last part of the story, when it turns into such a huge letdown...
 5 out of 10.