Archview #60: Dead or Alive Dimensions

 Officially done with all 3DS fighting games, the ones that reached America anyways.

 Dead or Alive, one of the most sexually gratuitous fighting game series returns, for the first time, on a Nintendo Console. It's biggest draw is that it's basically a compilation of sorts, as it tells the story from DoA 1 to 4, without having a story of it's own. It also has every character and boss from previous entries, as well as stages that come from previous games.
 Usually I like to talk about a game's story or setting on the second paragraph, thing is... the story is really bad. The game's story mode is named Chronicle and it consists on 5 different chapters. Chapters 1 to 4 deal with each DoA game, while the 5th one is focused on Helena, who knows why. It's not like her chapter deepens the story or anything, it's just... there. While the game is touted as chronicling the stories of the games, it's only half right. It does follow the story, but from the point of view of the ninjas. You'll basically play as Kasumi, Ryu, Hayate and Ayane. Even weirder, there are some cutscenes featuring the other characters every now and then, but they seem a bit randomish and out of place, specially if you are new to the series. Even funnier, sometimes you'll have to fight various characters, with no explanation as to why or how they even got there. The story is really stupid, it makes sense though, but it's just really, really dumb. The cutscenes are also a mixed bag, every now and then, the cutscenes will stop animating, and just feature audio over the motionless characters, they don't even move their mouths!. This quickly becomes jarring and annoying, as a cutscene may go from animated to still from scene to scene.

 Besides the awful story mode, you also get Arcade Mode, in which you select from 6 courses trying to get the best time, Tag Challenge that tasks you and a CPU partner with defeating buffed up characters, Survival mode, Wireless mode and Free Versus. There's also a gallery in which you can take pictures of various "figures" that you randomly collect as you play. There are plenty of unlockables, characters, stages and costumes which is really nice.
 Gameplay is the usual DoA triangle of counters: Strikes beat throws, throws beat hold and holds beat strikes. As with most 3D fighters, instead of special moves, you have attack strings. Every attack string is displayed on the bottom screen, and by touching it you can execute it on the spot. The dynamic camera is really satisfying, it gradually zooms in as your combo gets longer, or when you execute powerful moves, it adds a lot of flavor to the game, whithout getting in the way of the player. While the game runs very smoothly, turning on the 3D has a heavy impact on the FPS, so be warned.

 This, being a Dead or Alive game, has fantastic graphics. Animation is smooth, characters are detailed and backgrounds are very pretty. Music is made up from familiar tunes, and honestly, I still like them. Sound effects are satisfying, but the voice acting is awful. I gave up on the english dub midway through chronicle mode, and while the Japanese audio isn't all that good, at least it's more tolerable. All in all, a very appealing package.
 While Tekken is still my jam, Dead or Alive Dimensions is one of the better 3DS fighting games, it's very intuitive and looks really good, instantly lowering the entry barrier from fighters like Tekken or Blazblue, and there's also plenty of stuff to unlock and do, definitely a solid choice, if you don't mind the excessive fanservice and pandering the game provides.
8 out of 10.

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.