The Worst: Lunar - Dragon Song

 A collection of bad ideas.

 Lunar is a series I'm quite fond of. I first learned of it during the N64 era, were I would see ads for Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete and would drool as I read through the add, cursing that it was Playstation only. Next gen game and I opted for a PS2, which gave me the means to get into the series. Lunar: SSC I quite liked, but Lunar 2: EBC is one of my favorite PS1 RPGs ever for multiple reasons, the fantastic characters with a main cast that gets a lot of development and their own character arcs, to neat story and gameplay segregation, initially Lucia's AI is very selfish, usually running and leaving you undermanned, slowly she begins to heal other characters than herself and by the end of the game, she prioritizes Hiro even over herself(which is tied to the story since they are the main couple) and, well, the story itself. And I know that I would like Lunar 3 if I ever played it.
 I rarely play bad games because I know what I like so I'm rarely stuck with blunders. Lunar Dragon Song was a game I had read a lot about it and knew about it's many flaws, but I liked the Lunar series, so I maybe I could ignore some of them. I couldn't. This game is like a collection of bad ideas, didn't they have any playtesters to tell them that it wasn't any fun? Even worse, did no one in the design team noticed just how bad these ideas were? It's truly baffling how they could come up with this concept and think it would be fun.

 I'll get the best thing out of this game out now, the main villain is named Ignatius, which is the most badass name one could honor their son with. But then again, rhe main villain isn't even the final boss and you don't even get to fight him. Ever. You just kill his pet, opens up a whole on the floor, Ignatius falls and refuses Jian's help. Oh yeah, spoilers, but it doesn't matter since the game is a torture to get through.
 The big one first: You have to choose if you want to get money or experience points before each battle, and no, you can't get both. What? What where they thinking? So now grinding becomes a two-fold task, since enemies level up with you, which I hate when games do it, since one of the most fun things you can do in RPGs is to go to older areas and see how strong you got(Which is, actually, a bit of a false sense of accomplishment  since mashing the "Attack" button rarely means you got better, heh.). Still, you are gonna want more experience to extend your MP gauges. Speaking of MP, Magic skills are fairly limited, with almost no offense-oriented magic available. Later in the game you get items that change one of Jian's special attacks Elemental affinity, but that means taking away an item slot, and most often than not, they are not even worth it.

 Combat is just the worst. You can't target enemies, that's right, there's a really dangerous monster among the group? Pray that your characters choose to gang up on him, otherwise they'll just go after whoever strikes their fancy. But there's a further annoyance, enemies can and will break your equipment. Bosses too. And this isn't just "Go to town and repair it" or what have you, once it's broken, it's gone for good. You have to go back and buy it again. Fun. Paired up with the fact that if a equipment-breaking enemy comes up with a group you can't even aim at him, makes combat potentially vexing. Scratch that, it's vexing all the time. There is a way to avoid equipment breaking... using the right enemy card. Enemy Cards are dropped at random while in "Get items but not XP" mode. Cards have limited uses and can't be hoarded. Remember how annoying the Draw system from Final Fantasy 8 was? This is worse. You can't possibly get 99 uses of an Enemy Card since you can't accumulate them, and they are dropped at random. Who came up with this? WHO THOUGHT THAT HIS WOULD BE FUN!?

 It can't get any worse, right? I mean, all of this is just incredibly rage-inducingly stupid, how can you get any worse? Easy, running takes away your HP. It doesn't matter where you are, if you want to move around faster than at a snail's pace, you are going to have to hold that B button in order to run. And do you know what else happens? The HP of the entire party drops steadily. After they get to 20% of their HP, it stops dropping.... and you stop being able to run. So now you are weakened and you can't run to avoid enemy encounters. Who the ****ing **** came up with this **!*?! The combat system is a mess and it's infuriating, but this? Who could EVER even ENTERTAIN the IDEA that this could be fun? It's not even challenging, it's just infuriating.

 The story can't even save this game, nothing could have saved this game, not even the Lunar licence. Lunar Dragon Song is a game I wanted to like, I wanted the Lunar franchise to come back, I just... Sigh. Lunar DS is a terrible game, it doesn't have a single redeeming quality, absolutely nothing. It definitely is one of the worst games I've ever played, right alongside Xenosaga II, but that's a story for another day.

Review #88: Two Worlds 2

 But... there's like only one world involved!

 Two Worlds was a terrible game, I didn't actually play since I don't have a 360, but it's reputation precedes it. For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to make a sequel, this time a multiplatform release, and here is the end result.

 The game takes places... after the first game? It doesn't really follow any of the endings from Two Worlds 1, but it features the same three core characters. Regardless, Gandohar, the evil ruler from the first game, has captured the main character and his sister for over three years. Unexpectedly, a party of Orcs, who seem to have been enemies on the first game(The game doesn't really explain much from the first game), rescue the main character but are unable to save his sister. Free from Gandohar, the player must now traverse the land, it's only one world though, in order to obtain the strength needed to defeat Gandohar and rescue his sister. The story is pretty lame, there's a bit of a twist near the end, but you probably suspected a bit by then, and plenty of plot points, from Story-related quests, lead to nowhere.

 Two Worlds 2 follows the blue prints of every other Western RPG ever, you are placed in a very large area that you can travel at your leisure, barring a couple of story-related barriers, taking Quests from villagers, if you want to, or following the story-related quests when you see fit. Sadly, the game is deceptively short, when you are first thrust into the starting area, you'll have a fair share of quests, and a huge island to explore, what's more, there's plenty of areas that the Quests won't take you to, so they are entirely optional and may, or may not, conceal mini-dungeons. When Chapter 2 starts, you are thrown into a new Island(You can travel back to the first one whenever you want, but there's nothing new in there). It's a bit smaller, but there's even more quests than the first Island. Chapter 3 and 4 take you to the third and last Island, which has only a handful of subquests. You can explore it, if you want, but there's nothing to do there, nothing of consequence anyways. I was done with the game, 80% done(About everything but the horse races, more on that later) in less than 30 hours. The game is not as big as it looks.

 As with most games of this ilk, there's three major specialties, Rogue, Warrior or Mage. Combat, for both Rogues and Warriors, is pretty simple and dumb, like with most games of this kind, you get a couple of skills, Rogues can actually set up traps, and you can fight with bows, daggers, Swords, maces, Axes, y'know, the usual suspects. Mages, however, get a massive amount of options, by mixing different magic cards, you can create different spells, and there are hundreds upon hundreds of combinations with different, and sometimes hilarious, effects. Your character is not set on stone, with each level you can spend points wherever you like, you get 4 Points to distribute between Strenght, Endurance, Agility and Intelligence, plus 3 Skill Points to place in skills from any branch you want. As a whole, it's a good system and grants you plenty of freedom to develop your character however you like.

 It's not all good, controls are actually pretty clunky and often unresponsive. It may be due to how bad the framerate can drop at times, it's playable, but it can get annoying. The worst offender is Horse Riding, if you go too fast, the framerate will drop below double digits, making it nigh unplayable. There was this one mission that was a Horse Race on which I gave up since when the framerate dropped, it was impossible to steer the horse, which is a fight in it by itself as horse riding controls are awful, and later I discovered that there's a whole slew of horse-riding sub-missions. Yeah, I'm gonna pass. The Inventory is pretty lame too, you get a couple of tabs: Equipment, Ingredients and Misc(Magic Cards, Traps, Teleporters, etc), placed on a grid. It can get confusing, and while you can have three Item-Sets assigned to the digital pad, the game doesn't tell you which equipment pieces are being used by one of said sets, so you could potentially sell your equipment by mistake, heck, the game doesn't even ask you if you are sure that you want to sell your equipped items.

 Graphics are a mixed bag. Environments look downright beautiful, there's plenty of vistas to enjoy, character models on the other hand are fairly ugly and recycled throughout. It feels as if their proportions are off, the arms might be too short? Probably. At least the armors look pretty nice. Animation too is a bit wonky, some of the attack strings are pretty awkward to say the least. Also, all big enemy types, like Cyclops, share the same animations and it's pretty noticeable that they are just reskinnings of the same model. Even worse, the big enemies can fling you around, and if you fall over uneven terrain, your character will glitch( by stuttering) over the floor instead of getting up immediately, leaving you open for more attacks, not fun at all.  Music is forgettable, I don't remember a single tune from the game, and voice acting is passable, even if the protagonist tries too hard to sound gruff.

   So what do you make of Two Worlds 2? All the foundations of a good Western RPG are set and they are fairly functional, but it's still very rough around the edges. It's not a bad game by any means, but it needed more time in the oven, refining the controls, tidying up the inventory screens, creating more NPCs, toning down the motion blur when rotating the camera and the such.

 6.5 out of 10.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is ruined. RUINED.

 Why would you do this!?

 I'm not the biggest Dragon Ball fan, but I've always had a soft spot for the games. One of the in particular, I loved, Dragon Ball Z: Legends, released for the PS1 and the Saturn, only in Japan. Dragon Ball Z: Legends had you play in a team of 3 against other 3 characters, or you could handicap yourself if you so wished it. The game had a fairly short, but fun, story mode, but after you were done with it, you had Multiplayer which was unbelievably fun. Even though dozens of Dragon Ball Z games have been released since, none has played even remotely similar to it.
 It's 2014, the latest DBZ games have been awful to say the least. Ultimate Tenkaichi, while it looks very nice, it basically plays itself and Dragon Ball Z Kinect is... it's a Kinect game, need I say more? Ever since Battle of Z had been announced, I've been hyped for it, it sounded very similar to Legends, and after playing the demo, I was looking forwards to it. It was different, but it shared some elements, and the gameplay was actually fun. Dragon Ball Z fans cried foul, though, they just couldn't stand no in-game transformations, but I couldn't care less, due to limitations(probably), Legends didn't have in-game transformations and it was awesome. Regardless, I was gonna buy this game at release. Was.
 So what has killed this game for me? For starters, Pre-Order DLC. And the worst kind, every retailer gets a different DLC, so you are gonna have to choose between the awful Naruto costume(A fairly inoffensive piece of DLC, which is the right kind of Pre-Order DLC, if you really must absolutely have it because your Publisher is a F***ing D****e.), Super Saiyan Bardock and Super Vegeto. Super Saiyan Bardock doesn't bother me nearly as much as Super Vegeto, 'cause y'see, Super Vegeto is a fairly vital part of the story. In the anime, Vegeto goes Super Saiyan to continue his battle with Buu, but in the manga, Vegeto is in his base state for a mere ONE panel, that is to say that Super Vegeto is a much bigger part of the story than Vegeto. And he is pre-order DLC. REALLY?.
 But DLC bullsh!t is not a deal breaker(Unless you pull a Capcom). Y'know what is? No offline multiplayer. In the words of the angriest nerd that you'll ever meet, what where they thinking?! Even worse, it seems that the only offline mode will be Story Mode. Who was in charge of this game? You do know that gaming evolves and changes formats, right? Alongside this transformations, SERVERS DIE, which means that at some point in time, a huge part of this game will be dead and unplayable. The game has no shelf life what so ever.
 Taking all of this into account, Battle of Z is no longer a day-1 buy for me, but a it's a day-it-costs-20-or-less buy. This game looked promising, heck, it's probably a good game at it's best, but it's a game with a death sentence.

Now Playing: Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning

 So far, pretty nice.

 Since I finished Two Worlds 2 a couple of days ago, it was time to start a new game. I didn't have much to choose from, but I figured KoA was long overdue. I've played little past getting out of the Mines, meaning I would still be playing the demo if this was the demo(Which it's not), but I figured it's time for my initial impressions. The game is pretty sweet. Combat is smooth and fast-paced, feels really good and the art-style is fantastic, reminiscent of the Warcraft Series. As for cons, not a single one but a few nitpickety things, like the avaiable faces for character creation being a bit ugly or not being able to sell stolen goods to common NPCs.

Review #87: Saint Seiya - Brave Soldiers

 I hate myself for liking it. I do.

 First things first: This game is a rip off. Most of the content on the disc comes from the previous game on the PS3(And according to some people, a lot of assets were from the PS2 version, but I can't really attest to that). Animations, camera angles and stages? Loads from the previous game. I dare say that it's the same models but with a shiny new coat of cell-shading. Special attacks, down to the same camera angles come from the previous game. Even better, the game boasts 50 characters, but most of them are clones with one or two different attacks(Two Sagas, Two Kanons, FIVE Seiyas, Four Shiryus, Four Hyogas, Three Shuns, Three Ikkis, Two Shuras, Two Camus(Camuae?)). To add insult to the injury, ALL of the DLC is already on the disc, and what's the DLC? Another Shion, Odin Seiya(Who was DLC on the previous game and, by all means, should've been on this game for free), Leo Ikki and Virgo Shun, kinda odd how all the other bronze Saints get their armors but them, huh?. Even better, only Seiya gets his God cloth(That's why there's Five Seiyas). Then there's costumes that range from alternate colorations to un-clothed versions which, by the way, WERE ALREADY ON THE PREVIOUS GAME. What's more, the gameplay is more-or-less taken straight from the older game, but adapted to make it more "fighty". This game was made on the cheap, but with the object of reaping as much money as possible.
 Luckily, that's the worst part of the game, and with it out of the way, let's go on. Saint Seiya - Brave Soldiers is a fighting game based on the popular franchise by the same name. The game's main attraction is the Story Mode which follows the story from the Sanctuary Arc to the Hades Arc, skipping the anime-only(filler) Asgard saga(Still, they will charge you for Odin Seiya). The story mode is told entirely through dialogue between character cut-outs, with the occasional frame from the anime every now and then, it's kind of lame but to be fair, it's fully voiced. Also, a little neat thingie, that only people who are familiar with the manga will notice, when characters deliver some of their important lines, a black bubbly text bubble with white text will appear, like on Kurumada's manga. The problem with this mode, is that it feels artificially lengthened by forcing you to fight an opponent twice or thrice. Many a times, it would go as follows: Dialogue, then fight two rounds against your opponent, more dialogue, two more rounds. Sometimes your opponent will gain some boost(Like 10% boost to their attack power), but it does little to make it feel different. Story Mode quickly becomes a drag because of this, it could've and should've  been streamlined a bit more, maybe making each fight last only one round?

 After you are done with the Story Mode, you have Battle Mode. Battle Mode has your usual Versus and Training modes, plus Galaxian Wars(Tournament) and Survival. Versus has a couple of "sub-modes", like "first strike wins" or whoever throws down the opponent three times first wins, they are not very fun, but they are there. Galaxian Wars gets a special mention due to their fidelity to the source material, you have an announcer(with individual quotes for each Saint, but shared between versions of each Saint) and after each combo, a "Power gauger" gauges the damage inflicted, just like on the show, nice little detail. Lastly, there's a Feature called Orb. By clearing challenges in the Story Mode, you unlock Orbs(That must be bought with points earned on every mode) that you can equip to customize your character, but they can only be used in one of the sub-modes in battle mode, so it feels very under-used, optional and like a bit of an after thought, or the developers trying to add some kind of depth?
 As for the fighting itself, there's not a whole lot to it. You get a weak and strong attack that can be linked together for 5-6 hit combos, a jump that doubles as dash if you press it twice and two special attacks. The game takes place on 3D arenas in which you can freely move about, this also means that blocking is done by pressing a button. There's three gauges involved, the life bars at the top, and the Cosmo and 7th Sense gauges. 7th Sense is charged by receiving and dealing damage, and activating it granst you a power boost for a short while. Cosmo is charged by damaging your opponent or charging it with a button, Cosmo is used to use your special attacks, home in towards your opponent, unleash one of two burst attacks(weak/strong attack+Cosmo button), teleport behind your opponent if you press R1 as soon as you are hit or unleash you Ultimate Big Bang Attack. It may sound a bit overwhelming, and there are more buttons involved than expected, it's easy to get the hang of it.

 Gameplay is pretty shallow, but it's not too bad. Personally, I found that basic attacks deal to little damage while special attacks deal too much damage. Fighting games based on anime rarely have balance as one of their priorities and it shows, some characters, like Shaka, have special attacks that are way too situational as to rely on them consistently, then you have someone like Ikki who's Phoenix Flight is good in every kind of situation and can hit airborne enemies with ease.
 The game's strongest suit are the graphics by far. The are shiny and look fantastic, armors are colorful and bright, they are a joy to look at, and the characters themselves are fairly faithful to their anime counterparts. The Cosmo beams and special FX for attacks look amazing as well, there's color EVERYWHERE. Stages are a bit blander, specially the ones that return from the older game, seems they didn't get the same updated treatment the models got. Music, on the other hand, is generic and bland, guess music from the show was too expensive to get, and we know just how little money Namco spent on this game. Voice acting is Japanese only and it's pretty decent, even if they use the new voice-cast, and while most of the cast is pretty alright, Seiya's voice doesn't really fit him).

 I've criticized this game plenty. I reckon it's a rip-off of epic proportions. But despite everything, it is a fun game. I had fun with it, heck, I am having fun with it still. So what's my veredict? If you are a Saint Seiya fan, get it but don't pay a dime to unlock stuff on your disc. For people that don't like the show, don't bother, it's a shallow game whose biggest strength is just how beautiful it looks.
 8.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Two Worlds 2

 Because I've been wanting to play a Western RPG for a change.

 So... I character creation is awful. It actually has a fair amount of options, but they are all so ugly. And the torso-to-arms proportions seem a bit off. Matters not, create a character I did, and then.... awful framerate, even if lips were correctly synced, the drops make them out of sync. Then came the introductory sequence in which you break out of the prison, it was a tad too long, too long without action, too long without earning experience even when you finally got to kill enemies... it lasted for a bit too long. Still, after the introduction was out of the way... the game was so clunky. Menus are bad. Animations are awful(The attacks look so hilariously bad). Voice acting, specially for the main character, is bad. Armors, on the other hand, look pretty neat. And despite it all, it's a bit fun.
 I just spent two hours questing and exploring(Until I defeated every enemy I could beat and only the so-strong-that-they-can-off-me-in-two-blows remained and finally started the first chapter. I'm not impressed, but I'm having a bit of fun.

Review #86: Castlevania - Lament of Innocence

 This is Castlevania in 3D done right.

 Castlevania doesn't have the best track record when it comes to going 3D. "3Dvanias" are often divisive, some people like them, some people hate them. Castlevania 64 is either a pretty decent attempt at bringing the series to the third dimension or a really bad game. Castlevania Lords of Shadows is either a great game or a God of Warrior clone that is Castlevania in name only. Good news, Castlevania Lament of Innocence(LoI) is not only a great game, but a great transition to 3D for the series.
 The game would take place at the start of the Castlevania timeline. Leon Belmont's beloved is taken away by Walter, an evil vampire count. Leon rushes to her aide and comes across Rinaldo, a man that lives on the outskirts of the castle and lends him the Alchemy Whip, a weapon capable of damaging vampires and related demons. The story is nothing special, but it gets the job done... the writing is really bad though. Dialogue falls under the "so bad it's good" category, so at least it's not a total train wreck.

 Lament of Innocence is an adventure game that borrows most of it's elements from the "Metroidvania" branch of Castlevania games. Your goal is clear from the very beginning, defeat the five monsters that guard the five orbs that are needed to open the path to Walter's throne. The Castle is divided in six major areas, and you can tackle the initial five in any order. As with any Metroidvania worth it's salt, there's a huge map to explore, and some areas are not readily open for Leon, so he might need to find items in other zones in order to open them up. Luckily, most backtracking is completely optional if you wanto 100% the map and get every item, still, the game could've used some sort of warp system to make it more palatable.
 Combat is very straight forward: Square performs a weak, but fast, swing of the whip, while triangle performs a stronger and slower attack. There's a fair amount of combos that you can perform, and as you defeat enemies you'll earn new ones, don't be mistaken though as there is no leveling up system, you just earn new moves every now and then. Leon also has access to all the classic sub-weapons, the Axe, the Knife, the Holy Water, the Cross and the Crystal, which consume hearts that are obtained from breakables. Each of the five orbs, plus two hidden ones, alter how sub weapons behave, so there's a huge amount of different sub-weapon attacks. Rounding up his arsenal, Leon's enchanted gauntlet can absorb MP by blocking enemies magic attacks, and can then use MP to activate Relics that bestow many different abilities. So far so good, but for some reason they decided to make menus work in real time. You can't pause and use items or equip items, instead, you have to use the right analog stick to navigate menus, using healing items during boss battles can be very annoying.

 

 Graphics are top notch, the game runs at a silky smooth 60 fps and looks beautiful. There's plenty of different enemies and they all look very nice, the castle itself is very dark, as it should be, but each area has it's own distinct theme. There are a couple of corridors that look very samey and seem to hold no purpose, but I guess that this being Metroidvania 'n all, it's expected for them to be in the game. Music is downright phenomenal, Castlevania is a series that never disappoints when it comes to music. Lastly, voice acting is... it's actually pretty decent considering the awful lines that they must deliver.
 Lament of Innocence lasts a solid 6 hours, and that's what it took me to 100% it, every item and hidden boss found and defeated, but, finishing the game unlocks plenty of extras: Crazy Mode(A harder game), All Skills(Get all skills from the start), Joachim(An alternate character that plays NOTHING like Leon), Pumpkin(A character that shares only the basic moveset with Leon, he gets his own exclusive sub weapons and playing as him actually feels different) and a couple of others. Suffice to say, what it lacks in length it makes up in extras.

 I never had a problem with Lords of Shadows, what's more, I actually loved it. But after playing Lament of Innocence I can understand why fans disliked Lords of Shadows, while in LoI you get to explore a giant castle, like most Metroidvanias, you get to fight classic enemies(Mermen, the floating Eyes, the Doppleganger, Golem, Succubus, Skeletons, Blood Skeletons, the zombies... I can go on),  LoS has NOTHING tying it to Castlevania besides the Belmonts and the name. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is a game that I can recommend both to fans of Castlevania and people looking for a decent action-adventure game.
 8.0 out of 10.