Archview #64: Fragile Dreams: Farewell, Ruins of the Moon

 This is as depressing as it gets.

 Fragile Dreams is a bit hard to fit inside a definite genre, it has some survival horror elements and some RPG elements. Basically, you could call it a Silent Hill for teens. You have your clunky controls, clumsy combat, weapons that break, the need for a flashlight and creepy enemies from survival horror games and the leveling system from RPGs. It's also got one of the most depressing stories I've played in a videogame.
 The game pits you as Seto, a kid who has lived with his grandfather for as long as he could remember, and he recently passed away. For reasons unclear at the start, humanity was wiped out, and as he is now all alone he sets out on a journey to find other humans. Alongside the way, he will have to fight enemies that range from ghosts to beasts as he explores what's left of the world. Seto will also meet a small, but very unique cast of characters compromised of robots, ghosts and maybe even humans.

 The game is set from a third person perspective, and you use the Wiimote to move around your flashlight. Movement is a bit on the stiff side, what doesn't help is that you need to get used to moving the cursor. Unlike most Wii games that use a cursor, when the you point outside the screen, instead of the cursor locking on the last position, it defaults to the center. Another point of annoyance is that the flashlight points at objects, meaning that if you want to turn left at a corner, but as the cursor gets over the wall or a box on the way, it will point at it, making Seto look at the object instead of turning. On cramped spaces with loads of objects, it becomes annoing.  Getting used to it is a must, as most enemies remain invisible to the naked eye, requiring you to aim your flashlight at them.
 Combat also has its quirks. When attacking, sometimes it's hard to tell if the enemy is in Seto's range or not, getting you to hit thin air. There are two major types of weapons: Projectile and Melee. Melee has three subtypes: Sticks(Swords, Pipes), Rods(Poles, Spears) and Hammers(Axes and, well, hammers); Rods and Hammers behave similarly, you can charge the A button for stronger attacks, while Sticks require timing in order to produce a stronger combo; while Projectile weapons have the advantage of range, at the cost of not being able to use the flashlight. You need to keep in mind that weapons break, randomly, however the game usually waits until you are out of combat before breaking it.

 Throughout the game you will come across many items, but Seto has a limited amount of space in his bag, so you will have to think carefully about what to keep and what to leave. There are also plenty of items that require appraising, which can only be done at bonfires. Speaking of Bonfires, they are the only places where you can save your game, and they completely heal you. Randomly, when staying at bonfires a merchant will come by, allowing you to buy or sell weapons. Among the items Seto comes across, there are "Memory" items, these items come in many from hats, bells, bottles and what have you, and they tell the stories of their owners on their last days. This is a sad game, and these stories, while adding depth to the game and granting backstory, they also paint a very depressing picture.
 Visually it's a mixed bag. Enviroments look fantastic, they are very distinctive between each other and they are depressingly beautiful. Everything is abandoned and worn down, while not resorting to browns and greys and having a lot of color, the first time you come across sunlight is very memorable(Although it's almost completely undermined as soon as you have to backtrack and it get's dark as soon as you enter the forest). Characters on the other hand... Seto's clothes design is so intricate that it makes no sense, while Ren's as simple and dumb as it gets. The rest of the cast, on the other hand, look much better and their personalities make them quite engaging. The monsters are also very creepy, without needing to use blood or gore to get their point across. Still, animations are very simple and a bit dated, but nothing too bad.

 Music is used sparingly, but what few pieces there are, they are haunting and solemn. The sound effects are phenomenal, monster have their distinguishing groans, cries, childish laughter... They are fantastic. Voice acting was pretty good too, even if a few of the memory items were a bit weak, and if you don't like it, the Japanese voice track is included, but the english voice overs are fine. Still, the game manages to convey a feeling of loneliness with it's visuals, audio and story, it works and it's very, very immersive.
 The game lasts a good 10-12 hours, and beating the game unlocks art galleries. There is no game plus and no difficulty settings, so after you are done with the game, there's nothing else to do. The game is not too hard, yet not a total cakewalk, I had around 2-3 deaths, but mostly due to negligence on my part.  Despite everything, I think the game is totally worth it, just don't play it on a bad day, unless you want to cry. It's that depressing.
 7 out of 10.

Archview #63: Dynasty Warriors 4

 It's way better than 2, that's for sure.

 This is like the 5th Warriors game I've covered in this blog. In this year. Which means I will be a bit vaguer on it, sue me. What matters is that this game certainly takes after Dynasty Warriors 2, it's clearly the same engine but much more polished.
 At the outset, individual Musou modes have been taken out, instead, each Kingdom has it's own Musou Mode, and you can switch characters, as long as they are part of the kingdom, whenever you want. Other factions, like Dong Zhuo's or Yuan Shao's get shorter musou modes as well. Interestingly, each kingdom has about 4 different endings, and on Shu, Wu and Wei's Musou Modes you can actually take different routes, which lead to different chapters by fulfilling certain conditions.

 Gameplay is just like Dynasty Warriors 2, which means you get the usless bow weapon, if you so choose to use it. What's new, however, is that you can equip your character with multiple items, found when killing generals or secret bonuses, that grant bonus stats! While you increase your stats by enemy drops, you do level up your character(And his weapon), that grants access to 5 extra costumes, per character. Another new feature is dueling, every now and then, an enemy general will introduce him/herself, and you can challenge them to a duel, which boils down to a 1 on 1 in a cage. As for the rest of the gameplay, it's just like DW2, you kill generals and capture enemy gates. The minimap got enhanced, now you can spot important generals as bigger, shiny red dots.
 As for other modes, you get the Free Mode, in which you can play any stage as any general, Challenge mode that has multiple activities(Like killing 100 soldiers in a certain amount of time, breaking crates, etc) and, lastly, a character creator. The character creator is pretty basic, but it's a neat addition, although he can't be used in Musou Mode.

 Visually, it's pretty decent. The draw distance is on the short side, but stages now have a lot more detail and different structures that make them visually appealing. Generals themselves sport a bigger degree of detail, and even the enemy soldiers look a bit better. The voice acting is terrible for the most part, but it's a Dynasty Warriors game, what were you expecting?. Music is still one of DW's best aspects, although the new pieces from this game are not as good as DW 2's or latter games, the ending theme, however, is a winner. And also very cheesy.
 The game can get a bit challenging, specially if you try to take low level generals on higher difficulty stages, heck, the Nanman Campaign is hard even on Easy with a high level general! There are many endings to unlock, although many are very similar between each other, and a total of 42 generals with a few clones. My issue with the combos "locking in" a certain enemy still remain, but it feels "smarter" this time, usually locking onto the generals themselves. Generals no longer get special bonuses when they drop to their feet, which was my biggest annoyance with 2, truly a godsend that makes this game much less frustrating.
 Not my favorite Warriors game by a longshot, but if you want oldschool Warriors games, this is a good choice with few annoyances, although it can get a bit long in the tooth when you realize just how many stages are repeated on every Musou Mode.
 6 out of 10

First Archimpressions: Fragile Dreams: Farewell, Ruins of the Moon

 It's pretty... different.

 The setting reminds me of Shin Megami Tensei. I just had to get that out of the way, and by the by, it's a pretty neat thing. As for the game... it's certainly aced the presentation front, it's very depressing and I totally bought it. There's a certain scene where Seto buries an AI companion, and it'd be ridiculous until you put yourself in Seto's shoes, that AI was his only companion on his journey, his very own Wilson, it makes sense and makes the scene so much more touching. Enemies are also of the creepy variety, while the dogs feel a bit generic, the first time I came across the hands on the walls, I was completely creeped out. Very awesome.
 Then there's the gameplay, and... it's passable. Movement is a bit clunky, and something I didn't like is that when the Wiimote gets out of focus, Seto defaults to the center. Games usually "lock" the cursor to where the cursor was before the Wiimote got out of range, and initially it's very off putting, but I got used to it by now. Combat is even clunkier, you have to time it, but it's a bit hard predicting weather the enemy is in range or not. Fragile Dreams also makes heavy use of the speakers on the Wiimote, and while it adds ambience, the Hide and Seek scene was very, very annoying. I easily spent around 15 minutes on that damned scene.
 So far the game gets a pass, the setting is very depressing and very fun to explore. Enemies are creepy, and the enviroments look worn out and crumbling, I love it. Basically, the game as a whole makes up for it's clunkier gameplay.

Archview #62: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

 The ultimate cashgrab?

 Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is based on the Mercenaries minigame that can be found on REvil 4 and 5. Actually, it's not "based off", it's more of a remix of said unlockables. In the Mercenaries, any and all survival horror elements are forgone, Mercenaries is an action game through and through.
 First of all, there's no story nor anything, this is as arcadey as it gets. The initial missions are more of a tutorial than anything, but as soon as you get to the third "chapter", the real game starts. You must pick from one of eight characters, each one with his own unique weapon load out, and try to survive as long as possible while scoring the highest amount of points possible. Each stage has a couple of healing items, time extenders and items that grant you points as you score combo kills, ammo for your weapons is randomly dropped from enemies.

 The game plays like most modern Resident Evil games, with an over-the-shoulder point of view. Hitting the enemies on certain spots(Arms, head, knees) let's you score free, and powerful, melee blows. Melee blows have a lot of advantages, invulnerability, extra time on kill and most of them hit a wide area, plus, you conserve ammo, so using and abusing them quickly becomes the name of the game. Time is limited, so finding every time extender becomes a must, as scoring kills in quick succession as it grants bonus points. The whole point of the game is obtaining the highest amount of points possible.

 The controls work well for the most part. The touchscreen is only used to change your weapons(If you don't fancy the digital pad), but it's also used to look around your surroundings. Honestly, looking around with the touchpad doesn't work too well, so you'd better get used to the over the shoulder camera. A new feature to the resident evil games, is moving while shooting, which is done by holding L and R at the same time. It's not too handy, but it's there, just keep in mind the aim is locked.

 There are lots of unlockables, from costumes, to skills. Yes, skills, there are dozens of them, and you can equip three of them at a time. They offer passive abilities, from better healing to higher critical chances. Beating all 5 chapters unlocks the EX missions, which are way harder than the rest of the game, usually having to deal with two or more monsters with instakill attacks at the same time. Still, unless you like beating your own high scores and what not, the game won't last you that long. Disappointingly so, every stage comes from Resident Evil 4 or 5 mercenaries mode, there's not a single new stage. Also, there are no new monsters. Time extenders and Combo items are in the same places as it's console counterpart. However, stages do have different monster set ups, usually a mix of REvil 4's Ganados and REvil 5's Manjini. The only new thing found in this game is Clair Redfield, who has been missing since Code Veronica.
 Graphically, it looks fantastic, with the added bonus that even with the 3D at it's max it still looks great. The music is all recycled from the console games, and so are the sound effects. As a whole? The music is nothing special, but it fits. Besides the voice overs before each mission, there is no voice acting, at all. My biggest issue with the presentation are the menus, they are very cumbersome. For example, in order to set up skills, you have to go back to the character select screen. Picking missions are also a different screen all together, with the big "Start Mission" button being on the default menu screen. A lot of times I found myself re-starting the mission I had played, having to wait for it to load, just to get back to the menu and then go to the stage select menu, then back to the default menu to start it, pretty annoying.

 Back when it was released, one of it's selling points was the REvil: Revelation demo... and it only lasts 3-5 minutes at most, it feels pretty pointless. I also ran across a bug were an enemy would go through a wall. He got out of it by himself, but it was still bothersome. There's also an online multiplayer mode, but I didn't get to try it.
 Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a game made out of a minigame, and that should tell you all you need to know. It's functional, but a time waster at most, and it doesn't help knowing that every asset but Claire is recycled. Skills are a nice addition, but hardly make it the definitive version of any mercenaries minigame.
 5 out of 10.

Archview #61: Bakugan: Rise of the Resistance

 This game has no right being as good as it is.

 I've no idea how the battles pan out in the Bakugan series, but what I'm sure of, is that it's not in a Tower Defense-like manner. Yes, this game is a Tower Defense game with a layer of Bakugan paint, towers are Bakugan, enemies are Bakugan and your avatar is a Bakugan, except when you explore, were you play as a human.
 The story is about some robot-like entities invading the earth, and it's up to Dan and his friends to stop them. The story is very plain, very straightforward and things work out in the most convenient way. Yes, it is a kid's game, it'd be wrong to expect otherwise, but this also means that the story will not engage an older player. Not in the slightest. Luckily, the gameplay makes up for it.

 At the outset, you will play as Dan or any of the five other characters, there's not a whole lot to do while exploring. You can only interact with story-related objects, although there are coins littered about that grant you money. There are also various obstacles that need a specific character to clear, most involve just pressing the A button, so they are little more than barriers. There are also a very few amount of puzzles, but they are very easy to solve. There's also no way to get lost, as the bottom screen always tells you where to go and what you need to do.
 There are no random battles, instead, battles are initiated when the story calls for them. Before each battle you get to pick a Card, which can be found or bought with money, that grants you passive abilities(Like reducing damage to your replicator) and choose your avatar Bakugan. Each playable Bakugan has a different Trap(A special attack of sorts that requires charging a gauge before being able to use it), a different attack and a different passive ability, which range from slowing down nearby enemies to increasing the attack speed of nearby Turret Bakugan. Battles play out like normal Tower Defense games, you have to survive a certain amount of enemy waves, and to do that, you place Towers(Bakugans) alongside the roads that enemies will take to your base. There are six different Tower-Bakugan, each one with different range, Attack power and attack speed. These "towers" cost DNA, which is acquired by killing enemies, and sometimes they drop chunks of DNA which grants you even more of the currency. Each Tower-Bakugan is associated to a different character, and leveling each character up allows you to upgrade the said Tower-Bakugan during each battle. Leveling up each character also enhances their playable Bakugan, granting it more strength.

 The graphics are very minimalist, there's not a whole lot of animations and the sprites themselves are very mediocre. I suppose they look like the anime-portraits, but I wouldn't know. Environments are also very plain, not a whole lot to them. The music is nothing special, I didn't really care for it, and the sound effects are passable. There's a couple of voice clips, but very few and far in-between, makes you wonder why even add them at all(There's less than 10, probably). The game is very short, 5 hours or less, and very easy. I only lost a battle once, the last fight, but I cleared it on my second try. Finishing the game unlocks nothing, but you can replay every battle either from the main menu(Quick Battle) or going to the training Module on the ship.
 All in all, it's not a bad game. The story is really dumb and so is the exploration, but the Tower-Defense portions are actually, really fun. While hardly recommendable to older players, it's not a bad buy at 10 bucks or less.
 5 outta 10.

First Archimpressions: Bakugan: Rise of the Resistance

 Not as bad as it should.

 I don't like Bakugan. Let me rephrase that, I've no idea what Bakugan is, besides the fact that it's obviously a marketing ploy devised to get parents to buy toys for children, who need to collect them all. Basically, this game should've been bad. But it's not. Also, it was 10 bucks, so I just had to buy it. I had to.
 This is a, surprisingly, a tower defense game, and it's not half bad. The game is fan, visually it's very unimpressive and I didn't care at all for the music, but the gameplay is solid, if predictable. So, yeah, caught me by surprise, not bad.

First Archimpressions: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

 It's alright.

 I just finished the first two missions(1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3), and.... it's alright. Really, I don't know what else to say, it's really nothing special. Stages seem to be ripped out almost entirely from REvil 5, and as someone that played that game, this feels a bit lazy. I'm not liking the character selection either, I've been a fan of Leon since REvil 2(And I didn't even like Revil 2), why Barry or Wesker got chosen over him baffles me.
 I also don't know how I feel about this game, it's like they ripped out the Mercenaries minigame, added some bells and whistles and called it a full game. Capcom even wanted to charge 50 bucks for it and you can't erase your savefile, which sucks. What surprises me most, is that I love arcadey games, and this one fits the bill perfectly... Ah well, maybe I'm just too tired to enjoy it.