Archview #26: Chrono Cross

 Not as incredible as I remembered it....

 Chrono Cross is a game I remembered fondly. It was one of the first PS1 games I bought, and if I remember correctly, even before I had the means to play it. I was so hyped, Squaresoft, the creator of FF 7 and 8, which I loved as a kid. The magazines were being so kind it... and when I played it? Let´s just say that my first, and to this day favored, e-mail adress was based off the title of the game. Yes, I loved Chrono Cross.
 This game is a follow up to Chrono Trigger, it´s set 20 years after it, but you wouldn´t know it, since the setting, El Nido archipielago, wasn´t featured in Trigger. Regardless, mentions to beings and characters to that game are everywhere. Instead of travelling through time, Serge and his party get to travel through two opposite worlds, opposite in the sense that different decisions were made, for example, in one world a certain NPC chose to focus on doing what he wanted for a living, thus, he is poor. In the other world, however, the very same NPC veered towards what made money, instead of what he loved, thus he is rich. It´s a very interesting premise, and an excuse to reuse dungeons, but further into the game it takes a turn for the convoluted. It goes all Sci-fi with black hole generators, computers that control humanity and the such.

 The game plays like most other JRPGs, you go from town to town talking to NPCs while tackling the usual assortment of dungeons. But it does have a few distinctive features, for starters, equipment is not bought but made. Actually, you need the materials to craft it and the money to pay for it, this means that you will have to grind to get these materials. Funnily enough, the game touts that it does away with grinding, which is quite false. There are no "levels" in the straight sense, instead, you collect Growth Stars from most of the bosses. With each Growth Star your stats increase a bit, however, any character that is KOed won´t get any stat boost. After each Growth Star you can go into 5-6 encounters, which are not random, monsters roam the dungeons and you can avid them, and get minimal stat boosts from them. Get another star before completing the 5-6 encounter cycle? Too bad, those bonuses are gone forever.
 The combat system is actually kinda interesting. It´s a bit like Xenogears, you get 7.0 Stamina, and you can choose to use a Weak Attack(Consumes 1.0 Stamina), Medium(2.0 Stamina) and Strong(3.0). The stronger the blow, the easier it is for it to miss, however, if you pummel the enemy with weaker attacks, the accuracy rating for the other attacks increases. Enemies can break out of your combo before you use up all your stamina, so if you were building up the accuracy percentage for a Strong Blow, but get interrupted, it´s all gone. Sometimes, sometimes it´s not, it´s odd. There are no conventional Turns in the game, instead, you can interrupt a combo whenever you want and have another character attack. The party recharges stamina as other members or enemies attack. Every time you hit an enemy, besides boosting the accuracy, you also increase your "Element" level, which allows you to use "Elements"(Magic).

 Elements are made up of three objects: "Items", "Spells" and "Techs". There are 3 unique Techs per character, but the one-use elements(Items) and the "Spells"(Which can only be used once per battle) are completely customizable by the player. Each character has their own grid upon which to place the elements though, some may have lots of slots on the earlier levels, while some have a lot on the latter, etc.
 Each character and each enemy has a elemental affinity(Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black and White). Red opposes Blue, Yellow opposes Green and Black opposes White. Characters of opposing elements deal and recieve double damage from the opposing element. Also, during battles, on the top left corner there is a circle made up of three circles, which represents the elements of the enviroment, each time an element is used, the color of the element gets put on the inner circle, pushing out the other elements outwards. By filling the circles with a certain color, you make Elements and characters of said color stronger, and weaken the ones of the opposite color. Yeah, the combat is pretty nuanced, but it´s actually quite fun, even if the lack of experience points make it feel a bit hollow.

 The game is very colorful, from characters to enviroments, the game oozes color everywhere. There are over 40 playable characters, and the designs are very hit or miss. As for the enemies, most of the bosses are alright, but most of the common non-human enemies look very silly and harmless, a bit of a bummer. The music is... amazing, right up there with Xenogears. There are loads of tunes, and each piece is very unique and memorable, some tunes are still stuck up on my mind!
 There is a problem with having so many characters... some get almost none character developement. Most of the Acacia Dragoons get their fair share of screen time(If you recluted them!), but the rest of the other characters are lucky if they get a little scene with their other world counterpart or when they find their third tech. There´s a bunch of endings depending on when you tackle the last boss, like Chrono Trigger!, and there are 2 forks during the game. Sadly, both times all roads lead to the same conclussion, it only changes what characters join you and which dungeon you tackle, which is a bit of a shame.
 Chrono Cross is a great game, but the PS1 had lots of great JRPGs, so that´s not saying much. It is quite interesting, and worth at least one playthrough, but I think Young Archile was victim to the hype...
8 out of 10.

"First" Archimpressions: Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2

 Yes, this means Chrono Cross is finished and awaiting judgement.

 I remember loving this game as a kid, so of course I had to get it. Just cleared chapter 1, controls are kinda wonky, but they are serviceable. Combat is a bit blander than what I remembered, but it gets the job done. One thing I love is drinking blood, they made it oh so satisfying, it feels so good you kinda don´t care about the inocents!.
 It feels very... early Ps2ish with a mix of PCish port. It´s hard to put into words, but it definitly feels like that(I´m not crazy). Two big dislikes? No subtitles, not that I mind since the voice actors are pretty good and deliver their lines very clearly, but with my TV(It´s crazy, I swear) who knows.... I also hate how the Right Analog stick camera control is inverted, and there is no option to change it. Not cool.

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....