Now Playing: Wild Arms 2

 "V for victory, suckah!" Lilka's the man... erm, woman.

 I finished Grandia II, cue in a congratulational orchestra, which means it's time for another JRPG, cue in Wild Arms 2. I just finished both Lilka and Brad's introductions, Wild Arms series(At least the ones I've played) have you play as each of the main characters, individually, before they join up, and left Ashley's for last. I'm happily content, the game is as fun as I remembered it too, and I just love how chunky the characters look in the 3D engine.
 Still, I remember being annoyed to no end by the Search function. Y'see, Wild Arms 2 wasn't gonna be like other JRPGs, oh no, they had to innovate, how? On the Overworld there is nothing, you have to press Square to have a circle cover the area around you, if you hit a town, dungeon or hidden item, it's permanently added to the map and the overworld... but you have to find it first, and I remember it getting quite annoying. Ah well, I was younger back then, and Wild Arms 3 kept this mechanic, and I don't remember having much trouble with it(Heck, Wild Arms 3 is one of my favorite JRPGs ever) so who knows?
 Oh, and Lilka is just the best "V for Victory, Suckah!".

Review #92: The Legend of Zelda - Four Swords Anniversary Edition

 If you ain't about multiplayer, just skip it.

 Four Swords Anniversary Edition is an "enhanced" port of sorts of the Multiplayer component of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Advance. Be warned, there is no online, and Multiplayer was the way the game was meant to be played, even if Nintendo did add some Single Player stages. But hey, at least it's free(And only available for a limited time!). As I had no one with the game nearby available, as I'm sure will be the case with more than a couple others, I was only able to play the Single Player mode and it's worth it, trust you me.
 Four Swords is not your typical Zelda game, the story is very barebones, but has Link coming into contact with the Four Sword, which divides him in four Links, and to top it off, Zelda gets kidnapped so the Links must team up and defeat the Wizard Vaati. There is no overworld here, instead the game is divided in many stages that, even though they contain Puzzles, Chests, Keys and items such as Bombs or the Bow, as one would expect from  Zelda, the focus is on gathering more Rupees than your opponent, Rupees here do not serve as currency but rather as points.

 In Single Player mode you'll be restricted to two Links, the Green one and another one of your choosing. You play as both Links at once, however, you'll always be in charge of the Green one as the other one follows you along, but won't attack or do anything else than following you. Actually, there are a couple of actions that require two Links, in which case the other Link will automatically help you. Pressing R or L let's you take control of either Link, as the other one sits down, he can't take damage but he won't attack either. You can press the X at any time to make the other Link warp right next to you, in case you need him. Honestly, it's pretty lame. Taking care of two characters is a drag, movement speed is pretty slow, and it would've been better if the other Link at least attacked when something came close to him, or to be able to select another Link as your main character.
 Unlike other Zelda games, you don't carry all your items, instead you'll find items on Pedestals that you can take, however, each Link can only carry one item, so you'll have to keep that in mind as well. See how it starts becoming a drag taking care of two Links, one of them always being dead weight, more or less? Items are your favorites, the Bombs, Bow, Boomerang alongside a couple of oldies, like the Cape(Behaves like the Roc's Feather) or the Pegasus Boots and the new Magnet. Puzzles are a bit simpler than your standard fare, and it makes sense as it's a Score-based Multiplayer game, but doing all of them by yourself makes them pretty lame. They look as if they would be fun alongside other human characters, but by your lonesome they become lame.

 There are four main levels, with about seven unlockable ones. Most of the main levels are pretty short, 10-15 minutes each, but some of the unlockables can take quite a bit more. Unlockable levels also tend to be much harder as well, however, unlocking some of the levels in Single Player is pretty annoying, as you need to amass huge quantities of rupees(5000+) on each stage by yourself, and this means abusing respawning enemies, a grindy and annoying task. Some of the unlockables, luckily the easy ones, are pretty neat, being throwback levels to the GBC(A Link to the Past), NES and SNES versions of Zelda, and the Links get the appropriate make overs!
 The Legend of Zelda - Four Swords Anniversary Edition is probably a good Multiplayer game, but the Single Player portion is both annoying and lame, even if it's free, it's hard to have fun with it.
 3.5 out of 10.

Archile's Grab Bag: Sick Friday Edition

 So I'm seriously under the weather, damned flu, but no flu or sore throat would stop me from retrieving my games. So I went and fetch them, like a badass.

  Package package package!

  CUT IT OPEN, YEAH BABY.

 Dem goodies, today I didn't get much stuff, but the first game I retrieved was unbelievably expensive.

  Tales of Destiny II: You... you expensive piece of...... YOU BETTER BE GOOD. YOU BETTER BE GOOD. It's a Tales game, it has to be good. Please be good.

  Wild Arms 2: A game I liked quite a bit in my youth, time to give it another whirl.

 Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy: I don't even own a PSP, yet, but I needed this game.

 Castlevania - The Dracula X Chronicles: I'm a Castlevania fan and this game, Rondo of Blood, has eluded me for years. The Remake and SotN port are nice bonuses though!

Review #91: Code of Princess

 Your experience may vary.

 Code of Princess is a beat'em up game, think Final Fight, in which you, as Solange de Lux, warrior princess, must save the world and kick a whole lot of butt while doing so. It's a simple game, with simple mechanics and a lot of different ways to play it.
 The game Single Player's component is made up of three different options: Story Mode, Free Play and Bonus Quests. Story Mode has fully voice cut-scenes during each of the 31 different acts(They are quite short) and has you play as one out of four characters, Free Play lets you play those 32(There's a scenario exclusive to different pairs in story mode) quests as any unlocked character and Bonus Quests which has 40 plus different quests for you to tackle. It seems like a lot, but each stage is only a couple of minutes long, barring a couple of lengthier ones, but they are the exception not the rule. The Story Mode is especially short, rounding up about 2-3 hours not skipping the dialogues, but it's a blessing in disguise. Finishing Story Mode allows you to use any character on the Bonus Quests, so you can play as the rest of the cast as soon as possible. Multiplayer, on the other hand, has a Versus Mode and a Co-Op both offline and online, but I won't delve too much into them(I couldn't really play them, but I don't care much about them).

 And you do want to play as the rest of the cast, because you might not like any of the four heroes. Y'see, characters vary a lot between each other, and have completely different styles. Ali, for example, doesn't get a Strong Attack string, but instead a lot of Skills, Zozo is a mage, so most of her moveset uses Magic and you can't just attack willy nilly. Characters are VERY different, and you may end up with a completely different opinion on the game depending on who you play as, so play around with the cast until you get a character that you like. Each character can be further customized as you level them up, you get points to spend on whatever stats you want, plus, there are loads of items with special effects to personalize you characters even more.
 Battles take place in multi-plane stages, usually three but they tend to vary, and you can change plane at will by double tapping up or down while blocking. Double tapping left or right while blocking produces a dodge. For offense, you get a Weak Attack and a Strong Attack. Some characters get strings on each button, some get special attacks done by imputing commands with the directional pad before pressing a button, and what have you. Every character plays very differently so buttons may produce different results, and while there are tons of characters, only the more human ones(And those that play a part in the story) get fully developed movesets, the rest feel like filler. You can increase the damage you deal by locking onto the enemy, by executing a lock attack(Y button) or by using Burst, which makes your mana drop at a steady pace, but you regenerate red health and gain double attack damage. Couple a lock on with Burst mode and your damage increases exponentially.

 As expected of this type of game, it can get repetitive, so they tried to spice things up by adding escort missions every now and then. They are impossibly vexing as the AI is borderline stupid, and very much suicidal. They tend to run straight to the enemies with no regard to their health, and you can't heal them, Ali is a must on this stages as she can taunt the enemies and draw aggro towards herself. Some stages can also get pretty hard, on the outset, so you'll have to mix and match your equipment to gain an edge, I actually liked this, made it pretty satisfying to get a character build that could deal with a once impossible mission. Funnily enough, once you level up your character to the late 50s, you can create some very powerful builds, the weapons that grant health regeneration while bursting are quite good.
 Don't let the cover of the game fool you, while the main character looks all kinds of stupid, the rest of the cast are more or less tasteful, even if the designs are nothing special. The graphics use pre-rendered sprites, think vanilla Donkey Kong Country, and they look pretty dang good, with pretty fluid animation. The backgrounds are a bit on the lame side, but they aren't hideous, at least. Don't bother with the 3D as the FPS will drop to unplayable levels. On the sound front, it gets the job done. Voice acting is surprisingly good, every scene is voiced, mind you, while the music is pretty serviceable.

 Code of Princess caught me by surprise. When I first started the game, I found it pretty lacking, as Ali was the only character whose design I liked among the main four, but her style just didn't mesh with me. Then once I started playing with one of the bonus characters on the Bonus and Free Quests, I started having fun. A lot of fun. So even if your first impressions are disappointing, just wait until you get to play around with the rest of the cast, characters play so different from one another that you are bound to find one that suits you.
 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Kirby Super Star Ultra

'salright.

 I finished Code of Princess! Yay! But I've yet to finish every Bonus Quest, so the review is still pending. Regardless, since I gotta spend time at the hospital, I decided to play something different. Something Pinkier, and Kirby just fit the bill. I'm awfully tired, so this will be kinda short too.
 I'm up to the Great Cave Offensive with 40/60 treasures so far, it's quite fun. I love how the Arena-type area is entirely optional, yet awfully confusing, I've two lives left to get every treasure, but I swear I will get it. Still, it's cool how it's optional, I'm gonna go through it since I'm that kind of guy, but it's neat how there's an entirely optional area.

Month Overview: January

 Games completed in January:
 Castlevania: Lament of Innocence                          8.0
 Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers                                    5.5
 Two Worlds 2                                                       6.5
 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate        6.5
 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning                            9.0

 Overview:
 Eh, Kingdoms of Amalur was fantastic and Lament of Innocence was a fun romp through Dracula's castle, but the rest was just so... so... average. Brave Soldiers was deceptively awful. I initially gave it 8.0, as I was having fun, despite how shallow it was, but the more I played, the more I realized that it just wasn't any fun. At all. Two Worlds 2 had the heart in the right place, but it just needed more polishing. Mirror of Fate tried to achieve a happy medium between Castleroids of old and the new LoS gameplay, but it didn't work as well as it should have. It's not a bad game, but it should've sticked to it's original formula.

 Game of January:

 Kingdoms of Amalur was the kind of game I've been yearning for a while now. Open ended and with a really good combat system. The main story was surprisingly good, specially when it comes to Western RPGs, and while some of the many sidequests got a bit repetitive, it always felt as if you had stuff to do.

 Runner-up:

 Lament of Innocence was really, really fun. Gameplay wise it was fun to play, with plenty of attacks to try out thanks to the orbs and the many sub weapons, and their combinations. But what was even better was just how well it captured the whole Castlevania essence, this game truly felt like a Castlevania in 3D. And it was done right to boot!

Now Playing: The Legend of Zelda- Four Swords Anniversary Edition

 It's not much fun when you only play Single Player.

 One of the first games I got on the GameBoy Advance was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and I always felt curious towards Four Swords. Y'see, this mode was multiplayer only, and I didn't know anyone else who had the game. Still, I could watch the starting cutscene and marvel at the new graphics. And now, about 10 years later, I get to experience the game which eluded me for years... somewhat.
 For this freebie, Nintendo added a Single Player mode(You can still play the older game... only in wireless mode, no online, sadness undying) which is what I will be tackling, and after completing the tutorial... this ain't looking good. At the outset, you can choose a partner of any color, which I thought was kinda cool, even though I wanted Red Link as my main Link, I still get to play as Rink. You play as both characters at the same time, however, Green Link is always in the lead(Godammit) while Rink(Or Bink(Blue Link) or Pink(Purple Link)) follows around... except that he only follows, he doesn't attack nearby enemies or step on nearby switches. He does help you when you lift enemies that must be thrown or pulled from both sides to be defeated, or when you push big blocks, he automatically helps you, however, in order to step on switches you have to press L or R in order to control either Link or Rink individually. When you take control of one of the Links, the other Link will remain motionless, he can't be attacked nor can he attack, pretty disappointing.
 I just got through the tutorial, and the game seems a bit boring. Seeing all the items and their possibilities, I'm sure that Multiplayer must be a riot, however, me and I'm sure plenty other people don't have a way to play it. Quite disappointing.