Month Overview: Game of May

 Games completed in May:
Xenosaga 3      7
Tetris DS          8
Destrega           5
Xenogears        9
Dragon Valor   7.5

 May was a slow month, not many games. I finally slew my personal demon: The Xenosaga series, and as a bonus, got through Xenogears. It´s a bit of a stretch to include Tetris DS, since I did most of it during april, but I felt it would be a barren month without it, shucks!.

 Game of May:

 Easy. I´ve adored this game since I saw an Xpert Gamer article years ago and I learned of it´s existence. I have played this game many times before, and reached Deus(The last dungeon) at least once, but this was the first time that I´ve ever finished it. The ending did not dissapoint. What did dissapoint was the 2nd disc, it makes one wonder just how much better it could´ve been, and even with such a rushed 2nd disc, it still manages to make sense(Kinda) and be an all-around fantastic game.

Runner-up:

 It didn´t have much competition, but even so, Dragon Valor stands as a criminally underrated game. It´s not a "hidden gem", but it is above the par. It is a fun game, a bit repetitive, but it´s fun. And hey, it makes more sense than Xenosaga!

First Archimpressions: Injustice: Gods among us.

 It´s good. Really, really gooooooood.

 Just finished story-mode, it was great, albeit the comic implied a different... direction, the story was pretty good, despite some oddities(Superman shooting down cars, passenger included? Aquaman would fight Insurgency Superman but not Regime Superman?). As for the game itself, I love it. It´s fast, like, really really fast, much faster than Mortal Kombat, and I dig the speed. Other things I liked, is that Throw and Interact are button combinations, makes it easier to do on an Arcade Stick(seriously, having a separate button for throwing and enhancing in MK 9 was annoying, and MK VS DC? The horror...).
 The game´s most impressive feat, personally, is how they reworked the characters from MK VS DC. MK VS DC had awful and stiff animations and stupid attacks(Don´t let me get started on the stripper that cosplays as Wonder Woman...). Well, Injustice remade all the characters movements, and the animations are even better than MK 9. There´s still the one odd looking kick or punch, but they are the exception, heck, some animations, like getting hit by Aquaman´s trident, look incredibly fluid.
 So, yeah, awesome game, gonna keep on playin´, on tandem with Chrono Cross!

The Sendoff: Chrono Cross

 So, the Uruguayan goverment is a piece of shit, they changed the importation laws, again, which means I won´t be able to get as many old games as before. Because Uruguay is known for selling original old games, right? It´s my fault that Shopping Center´s sales dropped by 6% since I been buying these easy to find(sarcasm) old PS1 games. Right. Fuck you, Uruguay, fuck you.
 Anyways, what better way to send off PS1Archile than with the game that inspired my first E-mail adress. A game I adored, which, at one point, held above Final Fantasy VII, of course, I speak of Chrono Cross.

Xenogears and Chrono Cross:
 I read that some of XG´s staff worked on Chrono Cross, and holy molly, how did I not notice before? Right from the start, check Fei´s or Serge´s bed, and he´ll take his "savings"(Called like so on both games) which amount to 200g. On both games. Combat? Up to 7 AP or 7.0 Stamina, with three different attacks, one that consumes 1 AP or 1.0 STA, one that costs 2 or 2.0 and another one take takes up 3 AP or 3.0 STA.
 And what about the fact that the fathers of both heroes turned into the personal antagonists of both, Graf and Lynx. And both of them saved their childs once, taking them to the village. "The" Village? Yup, both characters live in small villages, with a very rural look to them. There are probably many more similarities and shouts-outs, and I can´t wait to find them.

First Impressions:
 I´m not gonna lie... I wasn´t too impressed. I mean... I held this game so highly in my mind, but... it´s not as awesome as I remembered it. Maybe as I play more and unlock the special techs and get to customize my spells, maybe... but so far? Mediocre.
 Oh and the enemies look so silly. I remember feeling it back then too, on one of the many, many playthroughs I did through the game. Most enemies look pretty silly and harmless. Not a deal breaker, but I´d like meaner enemies.

Archview #25: Dragon Valor

 This is the most underrated PS1 game I´ve ever played. Ever.

 Dragon Valor is an action-adventure game which puts you in the role of a Dragon Valor, wielder of a magic Sword and slayer of Dragons. The game´s gimmick is that the story takes places among multiple generations of Dragon Valors. On paper it sounds kinda cool, but it could´ve been handled a bit better, but I´m getting ahead of myself.
 The game is divided in five chapters, each one has it´s own hero, the offspring of the previous character, and a dragon to defeat. Although the first chapter has alternate levels, as in, choose one stage over another, it´s the only one like so, the rest of the chapters offer no choice at all, bah, sometimes you can go to a shop before going to the next stage. One thing to keep in mind, is that you cannot backtrack at all, so be sure to collect all that is there to collect on a level before finishing it. Furthermore, you cannot return to the shops either, and these ones offer different services. They may buy your items, sell you items or trade items, but not  more than one service. Wether they buy, sell or trade, they only stock 3 different items, and you have to go through each one. Want to sell a harp? You are gonna have to say "No" to the previous 2 items, assuming it´s in the last slot, it´s very time consuming, which makes visiting shops quite a drag.

 Like the game itself, stages are very linear. There are a few forks every now and then, but probably puzzle related. There are puzzles, but most of them are pretty easy, and are a mixture of block pushing, switch pressing, lever turning and key finding. There are also numerous traps to avoid, from spikes to explosive mines. While you have 3D movement, the camera can´t be moved, but it rarely gets in the way, heck, a lot of items are hidden behind objects. Your hero has a deceptively long moveset. You have a basic 3 slash string, jump and double jump, 3 types of jump attacks, rising slashes, launcher slashes, a backstep that can be followed with a flying kick(really) or another backstep and a couple of variations to the 3-slash combo. You also have access to magic, there are 8 different spells, which range from offensive magic, like Fire or Ice to support magic, like Heal and Stealth.

 The game has a few RPG elements, namely numerical stats. You increase these buy buying certain items or from random monster drops. There are two types of stat-increasing items, those that have a green name and those that have a blue name. The green-named ones provide minimal increases, but they are hereditary from generation to generation, blue-named items however, provide larger increases, but only for the duration of the chapter. It can be quite annoying to have to go back almost to scratch every time you go to the next chapter and having to grind the random drops.

 The game is moderately challenging, but nothing too hard. Bosses are the kind that follow a certain pattern, learn it and you deal the most damage. Funnily enough, sometimes you can get the bosses stuck in a pseudo-loops, enabling easy damage. There´s no real punishment to dying, besides a small coin-loss, and if you die on a boss fight, you restart on it, fully healed. Die during the stage, and you are back to the beginning of it, but they are pretty short, so no biggie.

 Visually, it looks surprisingly good. Models are blocky and simple, but they look good. The stages themselves offer a nice variety, and they are pretty interesting. The music, while fitting and decent, it´s pretty forgettable.

 The game lasts a good 7-8 hours, but there are 3 different branches. During chapter 1, Clovis may marry either Celia or Caroline, which takes you to two completely different different chapter 2s. One of these chapter 2s has another branching path, for a total of three completely different chapter 3s. Chapter 4 and 5 however, are very similar between the three branches. Two of the branches have the same leads, Anna and Mihaile(Their fathers do marry the same women, and they do have the genes from the same Dragon Valor), but you play them in different orders(Mihaile on Chapter 4 and Anna on Chapter 5 on one branch and vice versa on the other), As similar as they are, they at least bothered to change the puzzles and the enemies(not the bosses), so it´s not completely identical. Sadly, all three endings are basically the same, the dialogues are almost the same, which is dissapointing.

 The game does have replay value, as stated, three different paths, with different storylines(Even if the conclusion is the same), and it´s very interesing seeing just who will be the successor. While all the Dragon Valors play mostly the same, with very slight differences, each chapter lasts about 1 hour, the latter ones a bit more, so it´s not a huge drawback. You also unlock an art gallery, and the art is pretty good. Heck, even the concept and unused assets are very interesting!

 Notably, I came upon a game-breaking bug, where an item would not spawn. It only happened once in my 16 hour, 3-playthrough run through it, but it´s worth mentioning. Lastly, the game has it´s way with details, for example, each character has their own answers to the shop owners! While Anna might refuse with a "Why no", Mihail has a more shy "Um no" and after every chapter you are presented with a family tree, and the biographies of the ancestors might change depending on how you played. Favored magic? It will mention how his magic was feared by the demons, favored sword fighting instead? He was an expert swordsman then!

 Dragon Valor is a criminally underrated game. Currently, it holds a 56 on Metacritic and I can´t fathom why.  It´s simple, yes, but it´s also very good, not quite great, but a very solid action game.

7.5 out of 10.

"First" Archimpressions: Dragon Valor

 Eff the critics.

  Seriously. Currently, this game holds a 57 on Metacritic. Effing really? Really? I don´t care if it came "late" during the PS1´s life so that made it have to be awesome. This game is solid, it´s simple and, above all, it´s fun.

 So, I used to love this game. And I love it now, almost 2 hours into the game. I´ll leave the details for the review, but the mechanics are pretty interesting. One thing I can see myself hating is having to get the stats back up for each generation. I do hope there´s new game+, since I don´t really remember....

Archview #24: Xenogears

 Stand tall & Shake the Heavens.

 Xenogears is a very ambitious, highly compromised, RPG. It has an excellent first disc, but a borderline mediocre second one, rumor says Squaresoft saw fit to move staff and money to FFVIII, it´s a shame, as the
game could´ve been so much more.
 It´s hard to describe the story without spoiling stuff, but basically, the game is set in a somewhat post-apocalyptic world. All the high-end technology and futuristic stuff are actually remnants of a civilization long gone. The story follows Fei, an amnesiac hero who´s been living in the rural town of Lahan after he was brought to the town, heavily injured, by an stranger. Eventualy the plot twists and turns, and has you overthrowing an evil king, exposing a religious sect for what it is, invading an empire and a lot, lot more.

 Like other Rpgs of yore, there´s a large world map for the player to explore, and like said rpgs, there are random encounters. There are two types of Combat: On-foot and on Mech. On foot you have the usual Item, Ether(Magic), Defense and escape commands, however, Attack is anything but usual.Here, you have 7 Ability Points, which allow you to attack with three different attacks: Weak(Consumes 1 AP), Medium(Consumes 2 AP) and Strong(Consumes 3 AP). Some combinations produce Deathblows, read special attacks, which deal a lot of damage. Mech Combat is similar, but it has it´s own nuances. Here, you get the same basic Item, Defense and Ether commands, with the addition of Booster, which consumes fuel per turn, that makes your turns come up faster. Attacking is slightly different too, instead of AP, you use fuel, and deathblows don´t use more than two buttons. Fighting on Mechs is also more challenging, as you can´t restore fuel with magic or items, it requires special vendors that are, sometimes, placed on towns or dungeons.
 The graphics are a mixed bag. The 3D used for enviroments and mechs looks amazing, specially for a Playstation game, but the 2D sprites, used for characters and small enemies, are heavily pixelated. However, as pixelated as they get, the animations are very smooth and movement from move to move is very fluid. Music is fantastic, while some tunes get used a bit more than they should, it sounds great, and there are many pieces, ranging from epic to depressing. There´s also a tiny bit of voice-acting, used during the cinema scenes and a couple of events, but it´s not too good. Speaking of the anime cut-scenes, they were made by Production I.G, and it shows. They scream of quality, the animation is top-notch and is heavily reminiscing of 80s anime, with clear colors, cryptic sounds and angles... quality stuff.

 It has to be mentioned, while the first disc last more than 30 hours, and it´s incredible, there´s a noticeable dip in quality on the 2nd disc. You don´t get to move throught the overworld until the very end, and you get dragged from event to event through narration by the main characters set to some screenshots. Playing the 2nd disc is incredibly vexing, because the story is really good, and some set-pieces that could´ve been amazing to play, were reduced to mere events, sometimes, just to a couple of dialogue lines. Luckily, the story is interesing enough as to keep you hooked, but some of the hour-long exposition scenes on the 2nd disc tend to drag oh so much.

 Despite a dissapointing second disc, the game itself is fantastic, it´s fun to play, it has an interesting story and the presentation, ranging from graphics and sound to the colorful translation, is top notch, but one has to wonder about what it could´ve been.
 9 out of 10.

Archview #23: Destrega

 At least, you can say it´s interesting.

 Destrega is a 1 on 1 arena-based Fighting game that focuses on long range fighting. It´s original, that´s for sure, however, it ends up not feeling quite like a fighting game. There is close ranged fighting mind you, but it´s a very shallow 2 button affair. When fighting in close quarters, you have a Weak attack, a Heavy attack(Which can be comboed into) and a "dodge attack" that circles around the oponent. Put some distance between you and the enemy, and those three attacks become Tidu, Est and Foh, which translate into Fast Magic, Strong Magic and Spread magic. There are three universal moves that don´t change regardless of distance: Dash, Jump and block.
 The game is a lot deeper than that though. For starters, magic can´t be blocked, you can only dodge it, by moving, repel it, by timing the Block button, place a barrier, which consumes your magic gauge or countering with the aproppiate counter: Tidu beats Est, Est beats Foh and Foh beats Tidu. Below your life gauge lies the Magic gauge. Using magic consumes this gauge, but it regenerates quite quickly.  Whenever you press a magic button, the character charges up for a few seconds, during this time you can initiate a Barrier, a Charge Dash which homes in on the oponent, a charge jumps that allows you to unleash loads of magic attacks for a small cost or use higher level magic. Higher level magic is executed by pressing more magic buttons as the character charges the spell.

 There are four different magic levels; Level 1- A basic spell, Level 2- Two spells used together, FohEst, EstFoh, FohFoh, etc, Level 3- Three spells, using one twice, like FohFohEst, FohFohFoh,EstFohTidu, etc and Level 4, which unleashes the Special move for your your character, by pressing each spell once. There´s another "Rock,Paper, Scissors" triad, Magic beats Melee, Melee beat Charge Dashes and Charge Dashes beat magic. So, yeah, it´s a pretty deep game, sadly, I´d have wished the melee fighting would´ve recieved the same care. Also, sometimes it´s a bit hard to gauge distances, as to know if you will get a melee attack or a spell by pressing square. True, the magic gauge turns red when you are in melee, but in the thick of battle, is not advantageous to keep track of it if you move in close.
  The graphics are passable. The respectable 12-character roster is pretty diverse, but most designs are passable, forgetable or just bad. The models themselves are pretty bland, but they do have their fare share of detail. The arenas look pretty good, and there´s nary a hint of slowdown. Voice acting is in the realm of "So bad it´s good", the awful dialogue doesn´t help it´s cause one bit, but I found myself laughing at some of the story scenes, so that´s a good thing. Maybe. Kinda. There are not many unlockables, but each character has a 2nd costumes(which is just as bad or worse than their normal outfits) and unlockable Dynasty Warriors  skins, and sadly, they tend to look better than most of the cast of the game.

 The game has all the modes that fighters tend to have, Arcade, Survival and Time Attack. It also has a hilariously bad Story Mode. It´s really boring and dumb, but at least it´s there. The game itself isn´t bad, but it´s not a great game. It´s just... average. It tries something different, and it works, but it´s not my cup of tea.
 5 out of 10.