Archview #46: Kengo: Master of Bushido

 'tis pretty decent, but not much more.

 There's no genre that completely adapts to what Kengo is, the closest you can get is, probably, a fighting game, but it's so much more than that. You have life bars, you have combos, you have an energy bar(Ki) and you even have a super move that requires said bar! However, it's far from it, I'd like to call it a "Sword Fighting Simulator", now stay with me, since while the fighting is a big focus of the game, it's not it's biggest.
 For starters, the first mode that's highlighted when you start the game is "Story Mode". Instead of being an arcade ladder of sorts, you are to choose from one of three different characters, and while their initial stats favor different actions, you eventually get to build them up however you like. After choosing a character, you choose an initial style, and then you are to take on the 7 different Sword fighting dojos. For each Dojo you have to use a wooden sword to defeat 10 opponents in a row, with little healing in between and then challenge their master, who you may kill(And earn the ire of his students, having to face them in combat with real swords) or make them surrender and earn their swords. Eventually you are to go into official tournaments and finally earn the mastership of your Dojo.

 Fighting students also reward you, sometimes, with moves from their style. You can use these moves to customize up to four different three hit combos, which you can alternate by hitting the four shoulder buttons. In Story mode you also raise your stats by defeating opponents, up to a certain maximum. Said maximum can actually be increased by performing various minigames. These get old and boring after a while, and you will need to increase your stats if you plan on tackling the harder fights.
 As for the gameplay itself, you have a attack button, pressing it alone executes your three-hit combo, while combining it with directions produce different single slashes. There's also a block/dodge button, a parry button and the triangle that executes your special move, after a very long wind up. There's also a Ki bar, it raises when you shout from afar, successfully hit your oponent or dodge his slashes, and it decreases by blocking or missing. If your Ki decreases to the minimum, you'll get slower and deal less damage. The most interesting feature of the game, is that you fight with either wooden swords or real swords, fighting with real swords can actually produce wounds that make the opponent bleed to his death!.

 The presentation is very minimalist and ugly. The character models look really bad and haven't aged all that well, and some animations look weird. Heck, characters don't even move their mouths when they talk. On the flip side, characters actually get bloodied up when they recieve damage. The enviroments are very simple, some walls actually look textureless, but they are interesting, to say the least. There's barely any music in the game, altough the ending theme is pretty neat. To be fair, the lack of music actually lends itself to the game, so in a way, it's a plus. The sound effects are actually very satisfying, so there's that.
 Besides Story Mode, you have Tournament(Survival) and VS. You can unlock a dozen or so characters by playing Story Mode, and they do have different movesets and stats, you can also import your Story Mode character if you feel like overpowering your opposition.
 Is Kengo a hidden gem? Nope, not at all, but if you are looking for a very japanese swordplay game, you can do no wrong with Kengo, specially if you want more after playing the superior, in my opinion, Bushido Blade.
 5 out of 10

"First" Archimpressions: Kengo: Master of Bushido

 These are some ugly Samurai.

 So I didn't even read the manual, nor anything and rushed towards tournament mode, so that I could give my very first impressions. Well, "First", since I have played it before. For starters, this was an early PS2 game and it shows, characters are SO ugly, animation is pretty smooth thankfully.
 As for the gameplay? I kinda like-ish? There's a guard and an attack button, also an special attack but it takes ages to go off. L1 and R1 seem to change the posture? I will find out later. My only gripe is with the movement, once you close in, the analog stick behaves oddly.... I will have to play more and discover the why and hows I guess.
So first impressions? It's... decent? Feels a bit clunky, but it's serviceable. Now I'ma read the instruction booklet and play a bit more, cheers.

Archview #45: Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition

 Can I have the port of Real Bout 3 for PS1 please? You can keep this one in Japan.

 Lo and behold, one of SNK's earlier 3D fighters! The victim to the 3D treatment this time is Fatal Fury, and while it's not great, it could've been much, much worse.
 The game retains the Punch, Kick, Strong and Evade buttons from the 2D installments, however, the evade button instead of throwing you to the back plane, produces a side step of sorts, more like a roll really. The game has 2D roots so, naturally, it has an energy gauge that allows for special attacks. At the beginning of each match, the gauge starts at 50%, taking damage reduces it and dealing it increases it, however, the gauge will always try to stay at 50%, which means that if it falls below, it will raise slowly, and if it's above, it will decrease slowly, untill you max it out that is. Reaching 0% leaves you dizzy, while having it at "MAX" allows for Super and Overdrive moves. Overdrive moves consume much more gauge, but in turn deal massive damage. By using a bit of gauge, you can also use a counterattack, executed while blocking, and a "Fierce" attack that leaves the opponent dizzy.

 As for modes, there's only: Arcade, VS, Team Battle and Training, not a whole lot to do. For what it's worth, there's a couple of cutscenes during Arcade Mode, reminicent of the original Fatal Fury, plus, each character has an ending... that lasts 5-10 seconds and makes absolutely no sense, most of them anyways. As for the roster, there are 12 default characters and two unlockable ones, of these 14, 2 are new comers to the Fatal Fury Universe(3 if you include Mr.Karate(Ryo)). It's a bit disappointing, since Fatal Fury has a nice cast of characters that skipped this installment, where the hell is Blue Mary or Cheng?
 The game looks very decent, stages are the usual, for the PS1, endless 3D stages with 2D backdrops, at least they look quite nice, albeit a bit boring. Characters look really good, if a bit simple, but some animations feel a bit awkward. Then there's the official art for the game that actuall looks quite cool and unique, specially the loading screens. The music is very dull, and sound effects lack oomph, to top it off, voice samples are really low quality. All in all, the game itself feels as if it lacks... something.

 All in all, it's not a terrible game, and on the flipside, considering other 3D fighters from SNK and the 90s, the game could've been much, much worse.
 5 outta 10.

Archview #44: Dynasty Warriors 6

 Not as bad as they make it out to be, for real!

 Dynasty Warriors 6 is often times considered the black sheep of the series. For this entry Koei decided to change a lot of stuff, and while not all of it was for the best, some ideas were actually kinda good, yet never to be seen again. As per usual, before DW 7, you are to take control of one general and follow their story throught the "Three Kingdoms" era of ancient China, albeit all stories end with a "What if" ending.
 For starters, there are three different modes: Musou Mode(The story mode, only 17 out of the 41 characters get one), Free Mode(Replay any stage with any character) and Challenge mode. Challenge mode is more of a novelty, in which you can take one out of six challenges(Beat enemies without getting hit, collect items while avoiding horses, break stuff, etc) and compare your scores online. Truth be told, this mode is pretty sucky and no wonder it was never revisited again.

 As with every entry in the franchise, each stage is a battle of two armies(Rarely three), and you are a general on one of these armies. Your goal is, usually, to wipe out the main general of the other army before they kill yours, these usually means mowing down hundreds of units. Gone are the charge moves of previous games, here the Renbu system is introduced. You have two independant attack strings, a Square combo string and a more powerful, and shorter, Triangle string. Hitting enemies rises a gauge on the bottom left corner of the screen, and every time it gets full, you go up a level, which makes both strings longer. If you take damage, or don't hit anything for a while, the Renbu level drops. A lot of people made a big deal out the Renbu system, and while I'd take a traditional Warriors game any day, the Renbu sytem is not as bad as they make it out to be. Interestingly, generals now have "Grapple attacks", and by grabbing Tomes(Random enemy drops) you can use special attacks, these two features were, sadly, dropped in later installments. Finally, characters can also evade, Samurai Warriors style, but once again, this was dropped by DW 7.
 As for the stages themselves, now there is an emphasis on Sieging! Basically it boils down to defeating certain enemies, so that engineers can begin building ramming weapons, to bring down heavy gates, and ladders, so that you may climb up the wals and take down ballistas and archers. It's a lot more fun than it sounds, really, although it may wear out it's welcome after a while. Spread throughout the stages there are enemy bases, which spawn lesser enemies, that you can conquer, by bringing down their doors(You can break these by simply attacking them) and then defeating a ser amount of enemies. It's usually a good idea to do so, since inside these healing items spawn regularily and you just might need them.

 Graphically, the game is a bit of a let down. It might've seemed prettier at launch, but DW 7 completely blew it out of the water, regardless, most characters look alright, heck, these might be some of my favorite redesigns, and the models do them justice. Stages on the other hand look kinda cool, until you look closely at some of the textures... also, some of the special effects, like water, are just laughable. On the flip side, I'm pretty sure there are more units on screen than even DW7, but there tends to be heavy slowdown when it gets hectic. Music is, as per usual, fantastic and voice acting, as per usual, is spotty. There are some decent voice acting, but some of it is just awful(In a so bad it's good kind of way).
 There are plenty of characters to unlock, albeit most of them are clones and some of the unlock conditions can be a bit obscure, most of the time it consists on succeeding on some of the targets each stage has(3 targets per stage), but the game won't aid you. While some characters may be clones, their skill trees are unique, thankfully, but raising them to level 50 will take some time, though there are no real rewards for doing so, besides an alternate color pallette awarded at level 25.

 To be completely honest, Dynasty Warriors 6 is not a bad game, and while I can see why people consider it the black sheep of the series, I also believe that it did a lot of awesome things that were never revisited again, like sieging. Worth mentioning, this is the fastest I've been done with a Warriors game, there's not a whole lot to do. Casual Dynasty Warriors fans and haters will want to stay away, but fans should at least give it a try, the Renbu system is not as bad as people make it out to be. The game is not as bad as people make it out to be.
 6 out of 10.

"First" Archimpressions: Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition

 It ain't that bad.

 SNK never had much luck with their 3D adaptations, specially when it came to fighting games. Their worst victim was, probably, the Samurai Shodown series, however, unlike SS, Fatal Fury seems like a better fit since they've always toyed with foreground and background fighting, and the end result is quite serviceable.
 The closest thing to this game would be the King of Fighters: Maximum Impact series on PS2, it has endless stages, string combos and dodging, like a 3D fighter, but it also keeps the jumping physics, command moves and simpler "mash that button" combos from 2D fighters. All in all, it feels good, which is what matters the most, and the gameplay is not bad. Animations feel a bit weird, but nothing too major.
 Basically: I like it. The CPU is a bit of a bastard, specially Geese, even on easy. I wish myself luck unlocking Mr.Karate, but I reckon I will be able to outcheese Geese.

Month Overview: Game of July

Games completed in July:
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword                                            8
Star Fox 64 3D                                            7
Tekken Prime 3D Edition                                            6
Samurai Warriors 3                                            7
Kid Icarus Uprising                                            7.5
Kirby's Epic Yarn                                            5

 Decent month. The really "big" thing was me getting a 3DS, the console itself is pretty nice, but the three games I played are nothing special. Kid Icarus is almost completely amazing... except in the controls department, it makes it drop from a 9(It's THAT good) to a 7.5, I'd have gone lower but I really enjoyed it, whenever I wasn't wrestling with the controls that is. Also: Samurai Warrios 3, that was the biggest time sink of the month, 30 story modes, each one taking at least an hour to complete, and I tried to rush through the latter ones, since most of the cut-scenes and stages were repeats from other story modes...

 Game of the Month:

 I consider the Zelda series to be the most overrated videogame series ever. But for some reason, Skyward Sword trailers really hyped me up, luckily, the end result was almost as good. This could've been my favorite Zelda, but Nintendo overdid the motion controls. For starters, it will take a while before you get comfortable with them, and even then, they tried to shoe-horn it everywhere they could: Swimming, Rope-walking, Free-falling, flying.... it was obscene and unneeded. Despite that, I've never enjoyed a Zelda setting more, the NPCs were all unique(!!) and interesting, the art style was fantastic(Not as overly grim as Twilight Princess, not as Cartoony as Wind Waker, it mixed the best of both worlds!).... So yeah, it's tied up with Twilight Princess as my favorite Zelda. Twilight Princess has the controls, Skyward Sword everything else.

 Runner-up:

 One of the lowest rated games on this month, second only to Kirby's Epic Yarn, it's the most content-starved Tekken I've ever played.... and I can't stop playing it. With a portable Tekken 6, now I can play Tekken in short burts whenever I'm bored. It's much faster than going through console menus and loading times, and while modes are lacking, every single moveset is complete for each character featured in Tekken 6. So yeah, a bad Tekken game is still a great game, fancy how that works, eh!

First Archimpressions: Dynasty Warriors 6

 AKA "What the EFF is goin' on?!"

 So, I pick Lu Xun and go into his Musou Mode, my first reaction? "What the eff is going on?!". This game starts off quite confusing, with loads of units popping up out of nowhere, eventually you get used to it, but the first impression is quite disorienting.
 Graphics are all over the place. The models are not too pretty, but they get the job done, however, some of the special effects are quite laughable. Surprisingly, I've a feeling there are more soldiers on-screen than on DW 7, although it comes with heavy slowdown... but when slowdown is NOT present, it actually moves quite faster than DW 7!. The animations for the attacks are fantastic though, and speaking of animations, I like how cut-scenes are presented in-engine, they look silky smooth!
 Now onto the gameplay.... Renbu doesn't deserve as much hate as it gets. Don't get me wrong, I prefer vanilla DW system, with the different charge attacks, but Renbu is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Sure, it's annoying how it's constantly dropping, but it's not such a huge deal. I'm enjoying the "capture the base" approach quite a lot, wonder why they took it out on 7, hmm....
 On summation: It's decent, Samurai Warriors 3 or DW 7 seem, at the moment, better choices, but who knows, I might end up liking this a bit more.