First ArchImpressions: Dynasty Warriors 4

 "Dynasty Warriors 2 if Dynasty Warriors 2 had aged well" sums this up pretty nicely

 Yeah, it's pretty decent. Actually, two of the issues I had with 2 are still here, namely, how your attacks focus on one soldier at random, when hitting multiple targets, and the fact that you have little control over the camera.  Still, Enemy Officers no longer get power ups every single time they fall, and the visual presentations is quite pretty actually, so there's that.
 The gameplay also had it's first sightings of RPG elements, well, I haven't played DW 3 yet, so I might be wrong on that, heh. I just cleared the game with Xiahou Dun, unlocking every Wei character in the process, and I had fun. Some issues from DW2 remain, but they never bothered me in the past(Back when I still adored DW2 and before getting to play modern Warriors games, so maybe they aren't real flaws) and they didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of this entry.

Archview #56: Genji: Days of the Blade

 It could... it should've been so much more.

 Genji: Days of the Blade is the sequel to the sleeper hit Genji: Dawn of the Samurai on the PS2. While DotS brought an end to the PS2 era, DotB brought the start to the PS3 era, and it was not a bright new day. I won't be comparing both games, as DotS is the superior game by far, however, it's hard to believe how they could've screwed up what worked so well before.
 DotB picks up a couple of years after the events of DotS, and it's not necesary to have played it before as there is a small recap at the start of the game and there's not much you need to know beforehand. As it turn out, the Heishi clan is still alive and kicking, and now they got their hands on a great new power, the Mashogane, who turns men into rampaging demons. It's up to Yoshitsune, the hero from the previous game, Benkei, his trusty sidekick, Shizuka, the priestess who yet again takes up arms and now a playable character plus Buzon, a god who inhabits the body of a past foe, to stop the Heishi, as all four of them wield the Amahagane, a powerful crystal that grant them superhuman abilities.

 Gameplay is very straightforward, you pummel your enemies, go from point A to point B, rinse and repeat. There's an occasional puzzle every now and then, but nothing too complex. Besides the standard Weak and Strong attacks, characters can use Kamui, when they've charge the Kamui bar, that puts you into a timed-press-the-button minigame, if you don't mess up, you will deal massive damage to bosses and kill most enemies. Also, if you press any attack button right before taking a hit, you will counter with an extremely powerful attack. By pushing the right analog stick in any direction, the character will dodge, gaining a couple of invincibility seconds.
 As previously stated, there are four playable characters, and you can switch to any of them at any time, and while they each have their own life bars and Kamui bars, death for one means loading up your latest savefile. It actually makes sense, since each character has unique enviromental skills that would make finishing a stage impossible if you lost the appropriate character. Each character can also collect different weapons, and they each change their basic Weak attack combo. To be honest, most movesets are really awkward, every character is better off keeping their first weapon, which ends up having the most useful and adaptable basic combo, and using their last weapon as back up, all other weapons feel too awkward. Speaking of awkward, every character plays very differently from each other: Yoshitsune is very basic and easy to play, Shizuka is faster and deals less damage, but has a larger area of effect. Benkei has no combos, but deals knockback and has super armor on his basic moves and Buzon is very weird, but his sidesteps actually modify his basic attacks into more normal combos. Needless to say, you will probably play as Yoshitsune the most, with Benkei when you need more oomph.

 There's two different currencies in the game: Amahagane and Mashogane. Amahagane is hidden throught each level, your character will start emiting a light when close by, and if you hit it's hiding place, you will get a piece of it. Mashogane is dropped by certain enemies. Amahagane is used to increase a characters HP or Kamui gauge, while Mashogane is used to enhance their weapons.
 The worst thing about the game, by far, is it's awful camera. You can't control it at all, but rest assured that it will pick the worst angles possible. Many a times, you will find yourself walking towards the camera, and not just when backtracking! If you want to explore, you will have to guide yourself with the minimap, as the camera is no help. It's so awful, that a lot of times you won't see the enemies unless you reposition yourself and try to force the enemy into the camera. And Genji is a challenging game, the camera is just aggravating. The game also has platforming.... bad camera and plataforming? There's only one way this can end... and it's bad. Not to mention that movement and jumps feel very floaty, it's just an all-around bad combination. There's this chapter in particular that takes place inside a ship. There are many platforming sections, failing one means that you are dropped to a room full of enemies, and you must kill them all in order to open the door, and then you have to go through previous platforming sections. And every time you fall, you have to kill the enemies again and get through the first platforming section, just to get to the latter platforming section  where you fell from. Truly, truly, truly vexing.

 While I'm sure that at launch it was hailed as gorgeous, nowadays it looks average. Mind you, average this generation is pretty beautiful, but it's nothing special. Still, the animations are very lifelike and smooth, they are pretty neat to look at. However, the game as a whole feels pretty slow, many attacks, as cool as they look, also seem to lack oomph behind them, Shizuka's in particular. Stages look beautiful though, but they are a bit boring. Still, a special mention is deserved to the boats level. It's one of the most gorgeous levels I have ever played. You must travel from boat to boat through a golden sea and yellow sky, it's quite the sight.
 The music is fantastic, it's very Japanese and appropriate, while still feeling a bit modern. It sets up the mood pretty nicely, and some tunes are memorable thanks to how haunting they are! Voice acting on the other hand... It's not necessarily bad, but it's not good either. Voice Actors have a very noticeable accent, and while it's sorta fitting, since it's a very Japanese game, it's also a bit jarring. Plus, the English subtitles don't match the English voice acting... and yes, you can switch to Japanese audio, which I highly recommend you do.

 The game lasts around 8 hours, which is pretty respectable for this kind game( And hey, it's prequel was really short), but once you are done, there's nothing else to do, but the game is challenging, so you might actually have to retry some parts until you get them right. The game is very linear too, so no backtracking to previous levels.
 All in all, it's not awful, I've certainly played worse(Xenosaga 2...), but it's not good either. The camera issues are a dealbreaker, they also shoehorned some needless platforming sections, while the game is at it's finest when it's just brawling. Sadly, even to people that enjoyed Genji on the PS2, this game is a tough sell.
 5 out of 10.

Archview #55: Forever Kingdom

 It certainly is... different.

 Forever Kingdom is a third-person action-adventure game made by the same people that made the Dark Souls/Demon's Souls games, and it also serves as a prequel to Evergrace. You are to follow the adventures of Darius, Ruyan and Faena(Who came up with these names?) who are cursed with the Soul Bind during the game's opening cinematic. The story is very bland and very, very bad, I want to believe that some of it's coherence got lost in the translation.
 The Soul Bind curse is how the villain saw fit to punish these three friends for meddling in his affairs. It just means that if one of them feels pain, all three of them do, if one of them dies, all three of them die. It's just a way to explain why they share one life bar, but seriously, what kind of punishment is it? Why not kill them or something worse? The storyline at it's finest, ladies and gentlemen.

 During the game you must handle all three characters at the same time, while you are in direct control of one of them, the CPU will take over the other two. You can swap characters at will, regardless, even when unattended, the AI is not too dumb . That means that they will block almost 98% of every enemy attack, and only attack when it's 98% certain that their attack won't put them in harm's way. Basically, they won't be too much of a burden. You use the X button to attack, and the three other facebuttons are used to execute Palmira Attacks with each character. Palmira Attacks are the game's magic, and instead of running on MP, they run on stocks, which can be recharged by dealing or taking damage.
 Movement feels very clunky and slow. Attacks are very deliberate, and there's a noticeable delay before the attack actually goes off. Weapons have different combos and are used differently by each characters. Ruyan and Feana can perform up to 2-hit combos, while Darius gets and extended three hit combo. Performing the combos actually require timing, so if you mash X you will get nothing. The game also has a couple of puzzles, and some can be mind numbingly obtuse, so you might want a guide close by.

 There are a couple of RPG elements, but instead of leveling up each character, it's the equipment pieces that alter your stats. Said equipment can be enhanced at the shop. A neat touch is that every equipment piece reflects on the character model, but the really cool armor comes late in the game, and the early armors look a bit silly. The game offers a decent challenge, while not too hard, if you run out of Revive Gems, which later in the game can't be bought and only found, you will have to restart from your last save. The game also loves to have booby-trapped chests, and in the early game, it means instant death. You also have to keep an eye out for what armor you are wearing, as getting hit by a weakness will deal massive damage. You've also got to be quick on your feet, as money dropped by enemies disappears very quickly.
 The presentation is awful. I hate when people say "X Game looks like a Console Y game", since they exaggerate, however the CG cutscenes do look like PS1 CG cutscenes, complete with the awkward character models and even more awkward animations. Character models are very basic, with armors lacking detail, which is a shame since the official art is pretty cool. However... the stages are very colorful and inviting, while the characters and enemies are hideous, the stages feel full of life, and are a joy to look at. The music is a bit of an acquired taste, it's very unique, and I found it quite fitting. The indoors music, however, will get irritating pretty fast, as it loops way too frequently. Oh, and the voice acting... In the 55 games I've reviewed in my blog, I hadn't heard worse before. Cheers, Forever Kingdom, you posses the worst voice-acting I've had to endure this year, even worse than Dynasty Warriors 2. I went there.

 Forever Kingdom is not a good game. It's very flawed, and the best way to describe it as a whole is 'awkward'. Yet, despite all that, I never got bored. I wasn't having a lot of fun mind you, but I wasn't bored. So yeah, despite all it's flaws, despite not having a lot going for it... I still had a bit of fun, enough as to award it a...
 5 out of 10.

First Archimpressions: Genji: Days of the Blade

 It's surprisingly mediocre.

 Y'see, Genji for the PS2 was a bit of a surprise. It wasn't a popular game, probably due to it's late release, but it was really good. As in REALLY good, albeit a bit on the short side. If I had gone to Genji on the PS3, without playing it's demo or reading reviews, I would've been shocked at how average it is. The combat, that was so satisfying in Genji 1, now feels floaty and very very slow. Movement all around feels like it could use some oomph behind. And the camera is atrocious. You can't move it, and it chooses the worst possible angles. A lot of times you'll find yourself walking TOWARDS the camera, only having the minimap as aide, and even if you know an enemy is up ahead, you don't know what he is up to.
 Ah well, I just finished the first mission, and I'm a bit underwhelmed. A bit, since I knew what I was getting into....

First Archimpressions: Forever Kingdom

 Oh golly, where to start?

  Since it's first impressions, I guess how it looks? It looks... alright? Character models feel very dated, and are choppily animated. Oh, and the CG cutscenes? Playstation 1 worthy, with awkward faces and movements, and really stiff animations. On the flip side, the world itself is very colorful and actually makes you want to explore it. And the voice acting is laughably bad.
 Gameplay is... eh. The game is very unforgiving, there are traps that outright kill you if you trigger them. Oh, and you don't want to die, you can only save in certain spots, and death means restarting from your last save. There are also puzzles, and they are Castlevania 2 obtuse. "He who wields the Spear of light can open this". Certainly it means that I have to find said weapon, right? Nope. You have to equip your starting weapon on Ruy and interact with the door. The starting weapon being a Sword that has NOTHING to do with light. Or with a spear. I spent 30 minutes going round and round, searching, until I decided to consult a FAQ. I had sold that weapon, so I had to go back and rebuy it. What. The. ****?
 Basically? I'm not impressed.

Archview #54: Dynasty Warriors 2

 I didn't plan on doing this so soon, yet here I am.

 Dynasty Warriors 2 was the first true 'Warriors' game(Pun intended, since the japanese name is "Shin Sangoku Musou"(True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms, roughly), and the game that introduced me to the series that I now love. I used to love this game, and was kinda annoyed that most publications disliked it, yet I'd always defend it. And 12 years later, here I am...
 DW 2 has you take control of one out of 20+ generals, most of them falling inside one of the Three Kingdoms in which China was divided a great many years ago. You are to go through 5 stages as you slay hundreds of enemies. Hundreds of enemies per stage. Besides the historical background, there's not much story to the game. You can read the background of each fight before you go to battle, and there are some short CG cut-scenes before each, but they do little to fill you in on the overall story.

 This game set the foundations for future Dynasty Warriors games. You have a 5 hit Square button combo, a pressing Triangle during the string produces a different, stronger move, usually with crowd-clearing properties, that ends the chain. There's also your Musou Attack, used with the Circle button, that can only be used when the Musou gauge is full, filled by hitting enemies and getting hit, but it doesn't feel very powerful. You can also mount horses, if you steal them from the enemies, but if you unmount it and get too far, it usually disappears(Probably stolen by an allied officer or an enemy). This entry also has Bows, I don't know when this feature was removed, but it's not very useful and feels rather cumbersome. Holding the R1 button switches you to first person, and you can aim and shoot arrows, but it's really slow, so it's not very useful.
 The gameplay is very flawed, specially when compared to future entries(Unfair, I know, but I am playing it today). For starters, you have no control over the camera, besides pressing L1 to strafe and put the camera behind you. The Right analog stick does nothing, so it's a bit baffling as to why they didn't let you move the camera around. Then there are the attack strings. Whenever you hit many enemies, your character will lock on one of them, you can't choose who, so the next attacks will aim him. If you are hitting an officer, and accidentally hit a normal thug at the same time, your character may switch locks to him, allowing the general to get away. Very annoying. Speaking of generals, almost every time they hit the floor, they will gain a bonus. Maybe double attack power for thirty seconds, though it's usually healing. There's nothing, NOTHING, more annoying than when they get completely restored. Specially when you are also surrounded by other enemies, and the general gets completely healed. It's by far the most annoying thing in the game. Oh, and the Minimap is no help at all. Sure, you can see allies, enemies and the enemy that you must defeat in order to win, and the ally that has to survive, but it doesn't distinguish Gate Captains or Generals from common enemies.

 The presentation hasn't aged gracefully at all. A lot of the playable characters look very generic and could pass up as non-playable Generals. The stages themselves are very barren, with short draw-distance and muddy textures. To be fair, when it was released, it actually looked pretty nice since there were so many enemies on-screen at the same time with no slow-down, but nowadays it doesn't impress. The music, on the other hand, is as fantastic as it once were, easily rivalling tunes that would later be used in the series. There's not a whole lot of voice acting, but the little that is, is pretty bad.
As for replay value, there's plenty of characters to unlock, but... there's only 8 stages, which means it gets repetitive very fast. There's also a unlockable "Opening Edit", in which you can edit which characters appear in the opening, and it's actually rather fun. Otherwise, there's not much, and there's only two modes: Musou, the story mode, and Free Mode, where you can play any of the 8 stages as any character.
 I won't deny that when it was released, it was really good. I loved this game. But nowadays, it's very dated, and I'm willing to bet that every sequel outshined this entry, and what is left is a curiosity, a game that shows just how much the series has evolved.
 4 out of 10.

Archview #53: Tales of Graces F

 Probably my favorite Tales of game...

 I've no idea as to why we got this game. Namco was never too fond of localizing 'Tales of' games, and we usually got the first iteration of the game, instead of the enhanced sequel. This time, however, Namco skipped on the Wii Version(Wii players everywhere, like me, cried a little) and after the HD port to PS3 came out, they decided to bring that version overseas(Wii players who also had a PS3, like me, celebrated).
 In Tales of Graces you take control of Asbel Lhant, son to the Lord of Lhant, alongside his very cliched party members. You have you veteran with the mysterious and tragic past, the childhood friend who the main character sees as a sister, the mysterious waif who is obviously not human, the crazy but impossibly smart engineer, the villain who is always one step ahead or arrives slightly after the party, in search of a certain collection of items, etc. To be fair, there are some sparks of originality, like how the childhood friend reacts when Asbel returns from his seven years of training, and the relationship between Asbel and his brother Hubert, heck, his brother might be the most interesting member of the cast. You see, the first 4-5 hours of the game are spent in the "Childhood chapter", were you get to know Asbel, Hubert and a couple of other characters. Some may scorn at how long this part is, as the battle system is pretty limited at this time, but I actually liked how you get to know the cast as children and how they changed in seven years.

 As with other Tales of JRPGs, it does away with combat by turns. Instead, when you touch an enemy while exploring, you initiate a battle. In battle, you and three of your party members(Controlled by the AI) are confined to an area, where you can move towards or away from an enemy, you can also use free movement or sidesteps to move to the sides, but these cost CC. CC is the new mechanic introduced to the battle system, and it's used for attacking and sidestepping. This gauge has a set maximum per character, that can be increased or decreased depending on the equipment you are wearing, and every action for every character has a different CC cost. You can restore this meter by staying still or be sidestepping right as you are hit, evading the attack and restoring a bigger amount of CC. As for this new system, I'm alright with it. It's certainly different, since there's no TP(MP in the 'Tales of' games), so you'll never run out of mana, but sometimes I found it a bit boring to stay still as I awaited the CC to recharge.
 Something that I found very cool was that every character has two different Arte styles. A-Artes are performed with the X button, and are, usually, the basic physical attacks for every character. The Circle button, however, performs B-Artes, and these change from character to character. Asbel, for example, unsheathes his sword and can't flinch for a couple of seconds, pressing X again unsheathes the sword and heals him a bit. Hubert instead has Gun artes as his circle attacks, which are a mix of spells and instant attacks, etc. It certainly makes every character feel different. Titles also return, obviously, but now there are hundreds of them, and they can be leveled up too. Leveling them up grants you new Artes or permanent stat boosts, so it's in your best interest to master as many as you can.

 Other gameplay features include Dualizing, in any store of any town, you can, by paying a small fee, combine two different items to produce a new one. These can be sold at stores for money, or sometimes you may have to dualize new item for Inn requests(more on this later). You can also imbue weapons and equipment with Shards from fallen enemies, and thus enhance their attributes. Then there's the Mixer. Inside the Mixer you can put a certain amount of items, and the Mixer will sometimes produce one the items inside, as you walk around. Every now and then, after an item is created, the amount of slots in the mixer will increase. You can also put inside Books that grant passive effects, or Food that is used during a battle, once, to heal you. You will learn to like the mixer, you are not forced to use it, but it can be handy.
 As with every modern 'Tales of' game, Skits return. Skits are little scenes, played with 2D cut-outs of the characters, that have them interacting with each other, usually with funny results. They really do help on deepening the characters, and are completely optional. Depending on your tastes, you may be surprised yo know that there is no world map. Every town, dungeon and road are connected, if you can't reach it by foot, there's a port that can take you there, but otherwise, no world map. Near the end of the game you gain access to free travel, though, and you can choose any place, from a list, to revisit. Speaking of travelling, it starts very linear, with many invisible walls preventing you from backtracking or exploring, as Asbel mutters something alongside "There's no time for this now", and it can grow a bit annoying when you want to go back.

 Finishing the game, that should last around 50 hours, unlocks Lineages and Legacies, a completely new epilogue that wasn't included in the Wii-version. Something I really liked is that this chapter deals with different themes and issues than the main game, so it actually feels like something new. There's also new dungeons that try different things, like splitting the party, which is kinda nice, although the very last dungeon is on the tedious side. There's also a new seventh playable character, and the Skits he is involved in are hilarious. This chapter should last around 10 hours, it's nothing special, but it's a nice expansion to the main story.
 The game also has many sidequests and Inn-requests. Inn requests are requests, obviously, that can be found on every Inn in the game, and they task you with fetching items, usually found by dualizing other items. Sidequests, however, are usually triggered by stepping over Stars that are hovering over places, more than a couple of these can be missed if you don't trigger them in a certain time frame. There's also a Trials of Graces mode, where you can take your party and challenge certain battles. They reward you with items that you can take on your game.
 Graphically, it shows that it used to be a Wii game. There are new textures, sure, but they are still very simple. Character models have some sharpish edges, and saying that they look from a PS2 game wouldn't be too far off. Still, it is a pretty game, it's not a technical marvel, but it's a very bright and colorful game, it is pretty. The music is very fitting for the genre, while the only song that may get stuck on your head is the fantastic localized intro song, the rest of the score is alright, nothing special, but not bad. Voice acting for the main characters is pretty good, but the rest of the cast are not as good, passable at worst.

 All in all, it's a very meaty game, there's plenty to do, and plenty to see. It's presentation may not be the sharpest, but I'm the kind of guy that doesn't measure a game by it's presentation, and the game as a whole is more than a sum of it's parts. Ah! It has to be mentioned that I came around a game-stopping glitch, and many others came across it, where a scene with a certain buttler would get stuck as he game into scene. It can be fixed by deleting and reinstalling the game, but it was still pretty annoying and a bit scary, heh.
 8 out of 10.