Archview #59: Blazblue : Continuum Shift II

 Well, it's better than Guilty Gear Advance. In some ways, anyways.

 Blazblue Continuum Shift II is the 3rd revision of the Blazblue fighting game series. Unlike most fighting games, there's a whole lot of story to Blazblue, and it ain't half bad. It's also a very fast 2-D fighting game with a lot of flash without sacrificing substance.
 The story is a bit too convoluted to go in-depth while avoiding getting mixed up in it's many unique terms, needless to say, it's a popurri of anime cliches and tropes, but for some reason, it has a huge fanbase. The story is not bad, and most characters are certainly interesting, but they are not as unique as Guilty Gears's, this time the anime roots are very easy to spot, with a disappointingly large amount of needless fanservice.

 Firstly, there are loads of Modes, the classic Versus and Training modes are present, then there's the Arcade mode, self explanatory, Score Attack in which you have to defeat Unlimited(Overpowered) version of the characters on the hardest AI setting, a pretty good Tutorial mode that teaches you the basics of the game, Challenge Mode that tasks you with performing combos with each character, Legion 1.5 that is a grid-based affair, in which you add defeated characters to your roster as you beat the stages on the grid and  Abyss which is the Survival mode, with a few perks like leveling up your stats as you go. There's another mode, easily the most time consuming, Story, in which you follow each character's story with branching paths. Be warned, there's a lot of reading involved with little to few visual aides besides the character cut-outs.
 If that wasn't enough, playing through the game scores you points that can be used in the Gallery to purchase various art pieces or unlockable colors and the Unlimited versions of each character. As for the touch screen, it's only use is to display the movelist, and frankly, it's pretty handy. As good as all of this sounds, the game suffers from slowdown, not present in the console version. Playing in 3D is even worse, as the slowdown gets heavier.

 The graphics took a heavy hit, stages are no longer tridimentional, and the sprites lack a lot of detail. While it's hardly a deal breaker, and if you aren't familiar with the console version you won't even notice, as they still look good. What doesn't look too good are the images from the gallery, if you zoom to much they get very blurry. The music is fantastic, and sounds almost as good as the console, voice acting is avaiable in both japanese and english but the quality isn't too sharp. Sound effects also sound a bit off, hits don't really sounds like hits.
 As a whole, it's functional. While there is a lot of content, the slowdown can get a bit unnerving, and the anime-influence may be hit or miss. Frankly, there are better fighting games on the 3DS, and the PSP has a superior version of this very same game, making it a hard sell.
 5 out of 10.

First Archimpressions: Dead or Alive: Dimensions

 .... wow.

 I've been playing fighting games for my entire life, it is my favorite genre after all, but I swear to god, none as stupid as Dead or Alive: Dimensions. For starters, I've never been a fan of their fanservice-centered female cast, they are shallow characters that wear stupid clothes, trying to target various "moe" or fetishes, and the core fanbase that they have developed eat it all up. Seriously, I've been to the Gamefaqs DoA forum and it's filled with perverts discussing the most inconsequential, and sadly, most notorious fanservicey features, like the photos. I digress, why is this game so stupid? Chronicle Mode. It aims to tell the story from DoA 1 to DoA 4 I believe, but it's so bad. Dialogue is cheesy, cutscenes are cheesy, and while the story makes sense, inside it's context, it's really dumb. Characters are dumb and borderline incestuous(Kasumi towards Hayate?), the situations they are put in and how it develops is even sillier. And the cutscenes? Jesus christ, they go from CG to fully animated to... characters standing still over voice overs? There's no transition between fully animated and the "stills", and it gets jarring and annoying real fast real soon.

 Sadly, what attracts me to the series is the gameplay. DoA is a very pick-up-and-play fighter, the strings are much easier than Tekken's and the system is much friendlier than Virtua Fighter, so it's easy to get other people go play and do decently. And the gameplay is pretty spot on, which is really cool. The camera angles on the heavier hits is really satisfying, so props to it. The 3D looks very good, but at the cost of FPS, I dunno about you, but I prefer my games silky smooth, so I won't be playing much in 3D.

 I'm really tired, but before hitting the sack... why is Hayabusa such a prick? Also, slapping Kasumi? Since when did Hayabusa hit women?... Well, all the time, but this was uncalled for, it was not a fight... I think they might've ruined Hayabusa, no wonder the new DoA went in a different direction.

Archview #58: Tales of Xillia

 For a 15th year celebration, it could've been so much more.

 Tales of Xillia prides itself as the celebration of 'Tales of" 15th year anniversary game. It doesn't mean it's a crossover game, as most games in the series, it's a stand alone game, although it had a sequel in Japan that's coming over next year.
 For a series first, you have to choose a main character, Jude or Milla. Altough you can play as any character during the playthrough, the main character decides the point of view the game will take, and you will also have a couple of different events when they split up. You don't really need to play as both characters, while the compliment and flesh each other out, most stuff is conveyed to the rest of the characters when they meet up.

 The game takes place in the world of Rieze Maxia, a world where people and spirits coexist and have symbiotic relationship, where both parts help each other. As per usual, someone is trying to break the balance and abuse spirits, so Maxwell; Lord of Spirits; won't stand for that. He takes human form and decides to protect the sprits from the greedy humans, and along the way he meets up with Jude and together they set out on a journey that will take them all around the world and beyond. The story is very typical JRPG stuff, you will see most twists coming, but side-events really flesh out the world and it's characters, which is pretty cool. Speaking of characters, if you've ever played a Tales of game before, they will seem very similar. Most characters share various traits from previous games casts, so they actually feel a little samey at their most basic.
 The gameplay is, in my opinion, the best a Tales of has ever had. Combat has 4 of your characters against the various enemies. It takes place in real time, so while you take control of 1 of them, the CPU controls the other 3. The game allows you to customize how they will behave during battle, so they rarely get in the way. You can also swap any character that's battling for one the characters that are on the bench at any time during a battle. They reintroduce the CC from Graces F, but now it's called AC, although it functions roughly in the same way. The AC gauge is what limits the amount of stuff you can pull off before you character stops attacking, and unlike Graces' CC, it fully recharges a second after you stop attacking. By pressing the X button mixed with different direction on the analog stick, you perform normal attacks that only consume AC. The Circle button performs your Artes, which double as special attacks and spells depending on the character, and consume both AC and TP, which is basically mana. Characters usually have a big pool of artes, so you can have to set them up on 'Circle+Up', 'Circle+sides', 'Circle+down' and 'Circle' shortcuts, although you can change them at any time, even during combat. The newest addition to the combat is Linking. You can link with any of the 3 other companions that are on the battlefield at any time, and linking produces many benefits, among them, sharing the TP cost of artes between both parts. Each Link partner also has his or her own special gimmick, Alvin, for example, breaks the guards of guarding enemies. Linking also allows you to mix Artes between characters for even stronger attacks, and is the only way to enter Overlimit mode, which grants you infinite AC for a short while.

 While not battling, you'll be exploring the many towns of Rieze Maxia. Just like Graces, there's no overworld, instead, every town and dungeon are connected either by boat or by road, and pretty early in the game you unlock "Free travel", that allows you to warp to any previously visited location on the fly. Roads tend to be very wide areas filled with enemies, touching one gets you into combat, so you can avoid them at will. While it's very colorful, areas also filled very barren, with very few distinguishing landmarks, and feel more like arenas filled with monsters. Dungeons are very linear, with few puzzles, and while not necessarily a bad thing, the final and the secret dungeons where quite a disappointment, when compared to previous Tales of games, definitely showing how rushed the game was. Towns don't fare much better, while they are beautiful to look at, they are a bit on the small side. The worst offenders are the seahavens, they all look exactly the same, even though it's fairly obvious that it was meant to fit the town of Leronde.
 One thing that did not sit well with me was the shops. Instead of each shop having it's own shops, there's a "Expand" system in place. Y'see, throughout the land you will find shiny dots that conceal materials. Monsters also drop materials. While in Graces you could either sell them or use them to craft stronger weapons or items, here they can only be sold or donated. You donate materials to the shops in order to expand their inventory. One of the things I love the most in RPGs, is when discovering new towns, to go straight to the shops for new equipment that's only available there, that feeling? It's now gone, as every shop is the same, regardless of where you are. This also makes it very easy to break the game. The game is quite easy on it's Normal difficulty, and soon enough you'll be able to tackle high level monsters. It won't be easy, but one of the earliest towns has a road to a high level area. This area also has high-level materials, so you can overlevel both you characters and the shops.

 Titles, which are usually a bit important on Tales of games, have also been changed up. Each character doesn't have titles, instead, they behave more as achievements, and they take the place of "Grade", which is used to buy benefits for your New Game+. Leveling up is also a bit different, when you level up, instead of gaining preset stat increases, you get points to spend in the "Lillium Orb". Each character has basically the same Orb, and there you can choose which stats to increase, filling certain slots also gets you new Artes or passive skills. Last gameplay-related thing worth mentioning is that you can now move the camera anytime, anywhere, and it feels good.
 Visually, it's a very colorful game, and it has some grandiose vistas, sadly, most of them are merely backgrounds, as hidden walls limit where you can and can't go. The game also relies on the classic stock animations, you know, for example Jude has a "thinking" pose whenever he is supposed to be thinking. While it is reminiscent of classic RPGs, it also feels a teeny bit lazy. Less forgivable is the amount of pop-up present in towns, sometimes you'll just see people pop up a couple of seconds after it finished loading. There is also quite a bit of slowdown on certain battles. Music is really good, and the voice acting was phenomenal. While some people seem to dislike Milla's voice, I felt she was fine, not the strongest performance, but not bad.
 Tales of Xillia is not a bad game. But it was very rushed and it shows, even in it's length, being shorter than your typical Tales of game. And as many shortcomings as it has, it also has, in my opinion, the best battle system Tales has ever had, and that's gotta be worth something. Right?
 7 out of 10.

Tales of Xillia... part 2

 Just finished the Colosseum and the extra dungeon...
 Colosseum? No cameo battle. Every Tales of mothership title has had a Colosseum, and they always put a cameo battle with heroes from other games of the series.... Not this time, a bit disappointing, seems it's a trend in the game?
 And after clearing the extra dungeon, the problem with the game became clear: They run out of money. The whole entirety of the extra dungeon is made up of towns, dungeons or landscapes you previously visited. They use the excuse that it's based on the heroes' thoughts, but that's just an excuse.
 The game was also pretty short, for a Tales of game, I clocked 45 hours and I did everything that could be done. Arguably, being the first game with two protagonists, playing the game as Milla does have it's exclusive scenes, but I really doubt it's over two hours of exclusive content.
 The Archview is coming tomorrow, or rather, later today when I wake up. While I liked the combat system more than Graces, the rest of the game wasn't as fulfilling. The cast of characters is too typical of a Tales game, and since I had played Graces before, it was a bit... reiterative. Casts of heroes between Tales games usually share a lot of similarities, which makes them feel a bit samey. There's always a Traitor, there's always a kid. there's always an older party member, most of the time you get the main character's best friend and when you don't, he usually gets close to another male member, not the oldest one. There's always two worlds or realms too.... My point is, it's easy to know what to expect of a Tales game, so it's probably a good idea not to play two of them in such a short time span.... ah well.

Tales of Xillia....

 That last boss... That last dungeon...
 What a disappointment.
 "Tales of", at least the mothership titles, tend to have long and complicated last dungeons.... Tales of Xillia didn't. It was as simple, straight-forward and short as it gets. And to top it all off? The last boss was such a letdown. Gaius simply powered up, and you had to beat them... Kinda reminiscent of Richter from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, and we all know how I feel about that one(Spoilers: I hate it. At least for the initial 30-40 hours).
 The ending was satisfying though, however, that last stretch felt so... so... rushed maybe? Looking back, dungeons did were on the simpler side, but still... Ah well, I'm gonna tackle the secret dungeon, maybe this one picks up the slack...

Archview #57: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition

 Portables have come a long way....

 My first portable system was a Gameboy Color, and ever since I've been very fond of portable gaming, probably having a lot to do with me liking 2D games. Regardless, back then we got portable games that shared the name of a console game, but were nothing alike. Turok 2, for example, was a great FPS on the N64, yet it was an action-adventure side-scroller on the Gameboy Color. By the time the Gameboy Advance rolled in, the trend was still going on. One of my favorite GBA games is Street Fighter Alpha 3: Upper. A lot of sacrifices had to be made, it only had 4 buttons for example, but I liked the end product. Where am I going with all this? Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is as faithful as it gets.
 As with Street Fighter IV, I won't describe the whole game, but I will mention what makes this port so good without delving into the finer linings of it's mechanics. For starters, keep in mind that this is chocolate SFIV, just the first update. This is before Arcade Edition(No Yun, Yang, Oni or Evil Ryu) and therefore, before Arcade Edition 2012, and with Ultra Street Fighter IV on the horizon, this is a very outdated version of the game.

 Every mode, Arcade, Versus, Training, Online(With less features though), Challenge, Car destruction and Barrel destruction made it in. The challenges where simplified, which makes sense since the 3DS is not the best tool when it comes to fighting games. There's also a new figure collecting mode, where you use points earned through normal gameplay on Slots. These figures are also part of the Spot Pass features, which I totally couldn't use(Welcome to my world), so I can't comment too much on them. There's a new optional camera angle that makes the most of the 3D features, but it's just a novelty. The game is also as complete as it gets, it has every cutscene, ending, intro and rival movies intact, plus, every character gets every costume that was available at the time(1 for the newcomers, 2 for the vanilla cast). However, one thing that it's missing is the dual audio option, you only get English dubs and that's it, it's not too bad, but voices aren't synched to the models, so it might look a bit odd.
 The first time I launched the game, it felt slower or something. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the movement fell odd. Turns out you can't run the game at 60 FPS unless you completely turn off the 3D option at the main menu. While the 3D is alright and is one feature the console version doesn't have, I'd rather have the game at 60 FPS. Graphically, the stages were the most affected. There's no animations whatsoever, crowds are static, which at first is a bit off-putting, but it wears off pretty soon. A lot of background objects are now flat, it hardly affects gameplay, but it's easy to notice when the camera moves around during intros and winposes, hardly a dealbreaker. Models, however, look fantastic, while there's a lot of clipping through clothes(Figure the 3DS can't handle their phyrics), it's not too bad, as the models themselves look very detailed.

 The 3DS was not made for fighters. The game tries to remedy that by offering four shortcuts on the bottom screen. It actually works pretty well, and offers some advantages to charge characters, as it means not having to charge that Sonic Boom. Keep in mind that you will have to set up the controls for every character indivually, which is annoying when you want Hard Punch to be R and Roundhouse to be L. There's 35 characters after all.
 As a whole, it's a fantastic package. They even managed to fit trophies/achievements in, and while they are even more useless than their console counterparts, they are still here. While I prefer Tekken's gameplay, as a package, there's no going wrong with Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, you get an almost console-perfect port, whose only real fault is the graphics, on the go.
 9 out of 10.

First Archimpressions: Blazblue: Continuum Shift II

 Not as bad as they say, not as good as it could...

 I've always been a fan of Guilty Gear, and while Blazblue never clicked with me as GG did, I could still appreciate it for what it was. Well, I had a blast with Guilty Gear X on the Gameboy Advance, a port a lot of people like to put on blast. Not me. I loved the hell out of that game, as gimped as it was. Where am I going? Once again I am presented with a gimped port of an Arksys fighter... and once again, I like it.

 Sure, the graphics are much simpler. The sound is really bad(Remember how GGX Advance sounded like a Gameboy Color game?). There's quite a bit of slowdown too... yet I can still see myself having fun on the long run with this game. What little I played, I like, mostly due to how good Blazblue is in itself. The simpler sprites are also kinda charming, although the slowdown is not welcome at all. The sound effects are hilariously bad, punches sound like whiffed hits.

 So yeah, that's it. Don't wanna give too much away before the Archview, heh. Speaking of Archviews, I finished SSFIV:3DE, so I will probably write it after I wake up. I never wrote part 2 of my  First Impressions on Tales of Xillia, but all that needs to be said is that it's a pretty good game, and I'm liking the combat a tiny bit more than Graces. And that means a lot.

First Archimpressions part 1: Tales of Xillia

 YOU CAN MOVE THE CAMERA.

 I've put less than an hour in the game, hey time constraints, so I didn't get to battle, hence part 1. So very very very first impressions? It feels like Graces, but better, and that's a really good thing. For starters, you can move the camera, and it feels good, actually, it's a bit loose, but I didn't mind too much. Movement also feels similar to Graces, and so does costume/accessory switching. I didn't check if titles worked the same, but I'm betting yes.
 Visually it's... it's not all that better than Graces. Characters have individual fingers now, which is cool. Still, something about the models rub me the wrong way, maybe their emotionless faces and their realistic looking hands coming from simpler arms? I dunno. Music.... I only heard one track, but it sounded really nice, and very different from Graces. Graces musical pieces felt like previous Tales games I've played, so this sounding different is pretty nice. Voice acting so far is... decent, there hasn't been a whole lot of situations or voiced scenes, but they've been alright. I wasn't too fond of Milla's voice, but I heard very little of her.
 I dunno, I wanna play more, I'll try to sneak some Xillia during the month.

Month Overview: Game of September

 Games completed in September:
 Street Fighter IV                                     7
 Zone of the Enders HD Collection          10
 Dragon Ball Budokai HD Collection        7
 Tales of Graces F                                    8
 Dynasty Warriors 2                                 4
 Forever Kingdom                                    5
 Genji: Days of the Blade                          5

 Eh... Well, at least I got to revisit Zone of the Enders 2 and remind myself why I loved it so much. Genji 2 wasn't really a letdown since I knew how mediocre it was. Forever Kingdom on the other hand.... I knew Evergrace wasn't too good, since I had played it, but for some reason I expected something really good out of FK(In the coffee?). Dynasty Warriors 2 was also awful, I loved it as a 11 year old boy, but after playing the newer installments, there's no going back. Ever.

 Game of the Month:

 I could've gone with ZoE 2, I could. But I knew that game, as good as it was, I was already familiar with it. Tales of Graces  however, was something completely new. I spent over 60 hours on this little game, and grew closer to it's cast of characters. Hubert interested me the most, and after Richard became playable, all the skits became hilariously good. The Mask of Barona, need I say more? The gameplay was pretty good too, I wasn't too fond of the CC, but it wasn't bad, simply not my cup of tea.


 Runner-up:

 I played ZoE 2 three times from beginning to end. And I loved every second of each. That's how good ZoE 2 is, that's how well it has aged. Since this is the HD Collection, you also get ZoE 1, which isn't even half as good as 2, but it's there, so why complain? I don't know how bad it was before the patch, but after the patch it was as good as it needed to be.

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.

Tales of Graces may be my favorite Tales of Game yet!

 And here I'll explain why.

 Characters: I loved Tales of Phantasia, but there's no denying that the cast is a bit on the flat side. The GBA version added all sorts of scenes that expanded on them, but it didn't do a whole lot. Tales of Symphonia has Lloyd Irving, one of my favorite characters of all time, but I didn't care much about the rest of the cast. Heck, I didn't care much about the cast of Tales of Destiny. I won't dwell too much on Tales of Symphonia:DotNW, but Emile is my most despised character of all time. Lastly, Tales of the Abyss, while Guy was interesting, everyone but Luke were real a$$holes. They blamed Luke for the massacre, while some of them knew that something odd was up. One of them at least had suspicions that Luke may be 7 years old, meaning he was a bit naive. Even worse, one character is later revealed to have been aiding the antagonists, and she is let off scott-free. And she was among the ones that went harshest on Luke. 

 As for Tales of Graces, most characters are very cliched, but Hubert is fantastic, and once Richard becomes a playable character, skits become hilarious. And as under-developed as Cheria and Asbel were, Cheria actually deconstructed her "childhood friend in love" archetype, actually calling out Asbel on leaving her and everyone behind. And Sophie was adorable. Tales of series always tries to shoe-horn kids(Suzu, Genis, Anise, etc), and they tend to be a bit annoying(Especially Annise), but Sophie was disgustingly adorable, you just can't hate her, even if she is just another "Mysterious waif who may or may not be human".

 Story: The story of World Regeneration(Symphonia) is probably my favorite setting and story on a Tales game, but Graces' is not far behind. Phantasia's story was alright, the big shocker being that the party may have been the bad guys, from the bad guy's point of view. It was smart, and new, but the rest of the story wasn't anything special. Symphonia 2's story was bad and really, really dumb, with the premise that Lloyd was killing people, they just copped out and "Nope, just some guy transformed as him". Seriously? Either go all the way, or don't pull that just to garner interest. Destiny's I can't even remember, so it was probably forgetable, still the Swordians were interesting. Tales of the Abyss story was actually pretty interesting, if only the characters weren't so mean.

 Then comes Graces. I've to say that it was pretty interesting, and they had a couple of twists on their twists. And I played Graces F, so I've got to mention Legacies and Lineages too, which deals with some more original themes, Asbel even becomes a parent! Graces, as a whole, was pretty darn interesting.

 Gameplay: The fighting engine I felt needed some polishing. For instance, on paper, the CC mechanic is sound, but in practice, unless you are sidestepping at the right time, you are going to be waiting for the CC to charge, and if you wanna pull longer combos, you are gonna want it to be filled. I felt it ended up feeling a bit to slow. The amount of Artes, and how titles held benefits was really good though. As a whole, it's not my favorite fighting engine, probably Symphonia 2 (Yeah...) or Abyss' is my fave.

 But where it really stands out is it's length. The main game took me around 50 hours, and the L&L epilogue added 10 more. But what's really cool, is that you are never truly backtracking, unless you want to. Abyss lasted 70-80 hours, but the later 20 hours were dragging badly, making you backtrack through dungeons you've already been too. Maybe even twice.

So, all in all, it's probably among my favorite Tales of games. Yeah. I'm gone. Whatever.

First Archimpressions: Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

 So, I asked myself "Yo, what haven't I played in a while?". Street Fighter was the answer.

 So, the first thing that shocked me? Even the cut-scenes are in. When I first booted up this game, I expected the cutscenes to be left out. They were not. The character models look, as expected, downgraded, but they still look very impressive. The stages did take a massive hit though, no animations and many 2D objects that used to be 3D.
 And while that sounds awesome, it does have a few setbacks, namely, the console itself. The 3DS isn't friendly with fighting games, and when they use as many buttons as Street Fighter, you are screwed. It's still playable, but don't expect to pull off the same combos as you could on the console. The other big issue is that it's slow. If you've played the console version you'd know what I mean, the character intros feel on slow motion and the fighting feels a bit slower too. It's not too bad, but if you are used to it's console counterpart, it might be offputting at first.
 And that's it! Off I go to study some more.

Unsung Marvels #4: Spectrobes Origins

 A Disney's children game is what we have here.

 Back when the DS first launched, Disney wanted to try their hand at a Pokemon-style franchise not based on any of their IPs, thus Spectrobes was born. Spectrobes is set in the future, and you play as a very anime-style hero named Rallen whose catchphrase is "Iku-ze", which means "Let's go" in Japanese. Seriously. Rallen could command up to two spectrobes at the same time, and he'd better, as his attacks were incredibly weak. In order to get more Spectrobes, Rallen had to find fossils, with a clever touch-based dig mechanic, then clean up the fossils, once again touch-based, and then he could revive them. These mini games were actually kinda fun, although by the end of the game they got a bit repetitive. Spectrobes could also be evolved by feeding them minerals, which also raised their stats.
 All in all, I didn't like the game, but it seems children did, as it got a sequel: Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals. The fighting was completely overhauled, and now you played as any of your two spectrobes, Rallen sitting out of the fighting. While it was a better game than it's first iteration, I still didn't like it much. And somehow, it got another sequel. On the Wii.

 And once again, the fighting was completely overhauled. Rallen once again takes part in the fighting, or you can play as Jeena, his sidekick since the first game. Both characters play the same, and can equip the same weapons, so it's just a matter of preference if you want to play as the boy or the girl. And yes, weapons, there are many types, from Swords and Blasters to Gauntlets, and each weapon of every type looks different! While you can carry about 5 Spectrobes, if I remember correctly, with you, only one is on the battlefield, but you can swap it whenever you want. And you will want to, as enemies and Spectrobes have different elements, some being stronger or weakers to others. Oh! And it can be played with a second player, him taking control of your Spectrobe.
 The story is pretty basic as simple, the main focus are children after all, and it has you going from world to world as you take down different bosses. This is one of the few games I haven't completed, as after finishing the game you are to battle harder versions of the bosses, and since healing items are random drops, getting ready to fight another of these challenging beasts would involve grinding. A lot of grinding.

 Fossil-related minigames return, and they are as fun and engaging as they used to be, now taking advantage of the Wiimote. Most of the popular Spectrobes return, alongside a couple of new ones. Their designs are alright, and have an style of their own, it's easy to tell them apart from Pokemon and Digimon(At least at the time they were released, before Pokemon hit the 600th creature....), and their third evolutions are usually on the badass side.
 Spectrobes: Origins was a nice little game that never got the credit it deserved. The fact that it was a Disney game, and it was another Pokemon clone probably didn't help. The fact that the two previous games weren't too good(Although they were a financial success for Disney) didn't help either. Regardless, Spectrobes: Origins completely eclipses previous outings from the franchise, and delivers a neat little package to whoever gave it a chance.

Unsung Marvels #3: Spyborgs

 I think there's gonna be many Wii games....

 Spyborgs was originally planned as a bit of an adventure game with a very cartoonish look, Capcom decided to do away with that, and completely redesigned it, with a darker, grittier tone, and shift the genre to beat'em up. The visual makeover wasn't well recieved, and I can't blame the critics, it turned into another "me too" victim of this generation.
 Regardless of how it looks, what matters is how it turned out... and I think it was great. This game is a throwback to beat'em ups of the past, games like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, and the dozens of clones that were so popular in the 90s. As such, you must move throughout the stages, beating up baddies, and every now and then the screen will lock in place until you beat every enemy on the screen.

 You can play as one of the three Spyborgs, and just like games of olde, you have the all-around male hero, the female speedster and the slow brute that packs a punch. You must also pick a character for the CPU to use, or a second player, so you are always fighting alongside an ally. Gameplay is very simple weak/strong attacks, and you can upgrade your character stats as you go along, which also changes their appearance. The game itself is just long enough, it ends right after it gets a bit boring. There are many collectibles and challenges that award you with unlockables, from concept art to cheats.
 It's not without it flaws though. Like every beat'em up from the 90s, beating up on the same thugs over and over again will get repetitive after a while. The colision detection feels a bit odd, and with certain attacks, the enemies won't even flinch, so you don't know if you are actually damaging it. Oh, and some of the achievements are bugged, so no unlockables for you.

 While it's a flawed game, it's also very underlooked. While not a masterpiece, it's a competent game. If you ever liked the Final Fight-type games, this game is right up your alley, and it came out at a time where games of it's ilk were not being made.
 So yeah. That's it. I've no idea how to end this. So yeah. Bye.