Now Playing: Tales of Destiny II

 'Salright.

 Seems the copy I've got had one scratch too many, as plenty of Farah's lines would skip... so I migrated to the PS3, and the PS3's reader did the trick. Technical issues aside, so far it's alright. Maybe I hyped myself for this game too much, as it's the Tales game that always eluded me, but I dunno, I like it, no doubt about it, but it wasn't "WHOA OMFG THIS IS AWESOME". Hopefully it picks up, I mean, I only invested about one hour...
 Voice acting is hilarious(In a bad way), graphics are plain, although some of Farah's sprites' expressions are very endearing. As for the engine, I like the new sprite style, Phantasia and Destiny used Super-deformed sprites, but this time they have more appropriate proportions. Combat itself is very Phantasia/Destiny-like, not a bad thing per se, but the new 3D Tales of have evolved oh so much. Reid, like the protagonists from all the classic 2D Tales of games, can use Axes, Lances and Swords, but I found it funny how people kept referring to him and his sword, yet his starting weapon is an axe.

Review #97: Wild Arms 2

Oh boy, another game from my youth. And it's another RPG to boot.

 It's no secret that I adore Wild Arms 3, it's one of my favorite JRPGs out there, but my first dip into the Wild Arms series was the second entry. Truth be told, I had never finished Wild Arms 2, but I finally put an end to that, I have finished it and am ready to write about it.
 This game is set on the Spaghetti-Western inspired Filgaia, you have your gallows-like-bars, cow boy styled NPCs and the music is very cowboy-ish, there's plenty of firearms and the main character's last name is Winchester. However, that's about where the influences go, the rest of the game features plenty of out-of-place technology and a bayonet wielding main hero! Just like in Wild Arms 3, at the start of the game you get to pick from one out of three characters, even though you have to go through all three of them, which will have you play through a small introductory chapter. When all three characters finally join together, ARMS is formed, a team of warriors that seek to bring down the evil group Odessa, that aims to place the world under their rule. There's a lot to the plot, and like every JRPG ever holds plenty of twists, all while seeking to answer the question of what is a "Hero". Sadly, the game's translation is pretty darn awful, at times the dialogue will be making sense, and bam, a totally dumbfounding line follows that makes no sense what-so-ever. Liz and Ard, two secondary characters, are a particularly bad example, as in the Japanese version they'd speak in proverbs.... which were translated in a very literal way, needless to say, their dialogue makes no sense, and it gets worse when the party follows suit. You can get the gist of the story, luckily, but be prepared to go through plenty of lines that make no sense in their context.

 Gameplay is easily the best part about Wild Arms 2, in a sea of me-too JRPGs, Wild Arms does it's own thing both in-battle and while exploring. For starters, towns and dungeons in the overworld are hidden at plain sight, you must douse your surrounding area and hope to find it. It sounds annoying, but you always get plenty of hints, and the places where things are usually have a slight decoloration, it hardly ever becomes an issue. Plus, later in the game you get a radar that shows nearby hidden items and town. When it comes to braving the dungeons, they are filled with puzzles. Each character gets three different tools that they must use in order to fulfill certain tasks or solve puzzling, tools range from Throwing Knives to Kicking Boots, Bombs, Fire Rods, Dashing Boots and a Grappling hook, among many others! Solving puzzles is very fun, and sometimes they can be quite the headscratchers.
 Combat is also very entertaining, as the are many factors to it. First of all, every character attains their Skills in a different way: Brad and Ashley must find cartridges that bestow them with new skills, and these skills consume bullets that must be replenished at stores or via-items, however, they can upgrade these skills. Lilka gets hers by finding hidding Crests and then engraving them with spells for unlimited use, Tim must slay a certain number of enemies while wearing the corresponding Guardians, Kanon's are unlocked as she uses her skills and Marivel must steal them from certain enemies. Furthermore, in battle there is a gauge called Force Points, which rises as you hit and get hit, and starts at the level you are in(Say Ashley is level 31, then at the start of every battle, his FP will start at 31). These skill require you having a certain FP, but do not consume it. However, each character has 4 unique Force Powers that do consume FP. Finally, bosses usually have different parts to them, defeating each part grants bonus experience points and gold, plus, disables some of their attacks(Not necessarily their strongest's). All these options make combat pretty entertaining, getting into fights was just fun.

 There's also a bit of customization in the form of Personal Skills. Every time you gain a level, you also obtain a point to spend on Personal Skills. Points invested can't be taken back, so you have to think carefully. Spoilers: HP UP is the most important skill in the game, and you must start spending points on it as soon as possible, as it makes you earn more HP per level up, this will mean the difference between surviving an attack or dying in one hit, it's easily a must for the optional bosses. Then you have about 12 different Guardians, some earned as the story progresses, but most must be found on optional dungeons. These guardians provide a passive boost to characters stat and grants them a unique special command to use in battle. Did I mention optional bosses? The game has a ton of secrets and hidden sidequests, plus eleven really tough optional bosses, these are incredibly challenging and fun to battle, and they, in turn, grant you the best items in the game.
 Graphics are pretty decent, on the overworld and dungeons, the characters are 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds. The backgrounds are alright, but the sprites are fairly plain with not a whole lot of expressions to them. Battles are fully in 3D, and while character models are quite chubby, it makes them quite charming. Monsters look quite good, and there's a lot of variety to them, you probably won't see them all in your first playthrough, even after trekking through the optional stuff. Music is nothing short of great, and while I wish that there were more tunes, what's in is really good, and used in all the right places. The last boss, for example, is extremely memorable thanks to the music that plays alongside the context and what happens during the battle.

 RPGs aim to rich and involving narratives, and maybe the original version had it, but thanks to the translation, the story and dialogue is one of the things that would put you off playing this game. The gameplay is so rewarding and fun that it pulls through, and there is a lot of hidden things to find and do, the dialogue may be terrible, but the gameplay is not.
 8.0 out of 10.

Review #96: Soul of Darkness

 For five bucks, you could do much worse.

 Gameloft is a Company known for their Mobile Phone games, which rip of various, often popular, games. Such is the case with Soul of Darkness, it's a Castlevania rip-off through and through, and isn't even ashamed of it. While Mobile Phones were the home of this game, it received a DSI port, which is the one I'm gonna be tackling.
 Remember how Dracula loves to take the Belmonts' betrotheds into his castle and having said Belmont get to the Castle, then taking him down? Same deal here. Except that the main character is named Kale and the Vampire is named Ritter. The story does pull a bit of a twist later on, but it's no biggie, story isn't the focus of the game, and it's just a means to an end. Curiously enough, you can actually take pictures and place real faces on the character's portrait, to often hilarious results.

 Soul of Darkness plays like a simplified, watered down Metroidvania. The game is divided in eleven, very short, stages. Even if the stages are pretty small, you do get a Metroidvania styled map on the bottom screen, but you won't really need it. Each level houses a couple of hidden Life and Magic Orbs, collecting four of either extends your Health and Magic bars respectively. The variety of stages is pretty nice, and puzzles while not hard at all, are decently entertaining, they usually involve using Magic, like the Ice Spear to create footholds or the Fire Sword to destroy fragile platforms. The game is pretty easy, as a whole, and the checkpoint system is very generous, it saves after you enter each room, and dying makes you restart at the room's entrance, with refilled health and magic bars. It's also a bit of a necessity, the game failed to load an event after clearing all the monsters, thankfully you can choose to "restart" from the checkpoint at any moment, after restarting and clearing all the moments again, the game proceeded as intended.
 Kale has access to two different weapons, an Ice Lance and a Fire Sword. You can switch weapons at the tap of a button, and each one has it's own combo and magic attack. As previously stated, Magic Attacks are usually used for puzzling, but the affinity of each weapon can sometimes deal extra or less damage on certain foes. Furthermore, defeating enemies or breaking certain objects produces purple orbs that can be used to upgrade your weapons. The game is fairly exploitable on this regard, as you can exit/enter rooms and completely make everything respawn, so that you can farm more purple orbs.

 While the game looks quite pretty on screenshots, the animation is actually quite choppy. The style they used is very Castlevania-like, which is a huge plus in my book, but in motion, it just doesn't look too good. Music and sound effects sound... cheap, as if not much care went into them, which makes sense as this game has roots on the Mobile Phone. Lastly, the game lasts 2 hours at most, with an unlockable hard mode. The presentation is easily this game's weakest aspect, luckily the gameplay makes up for it, as simple and shallow as it is.
 What can one make of Soul of Darkness? It's not terrible, it's fairly functional and at times entertaining, but there's nothing that sets this game apart from other Metroidvanias, it's also fairly short and uninvolved. But hey, for five bucks you could do much worse!
 5.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Soul of Darkness

 For a rip-off, it's halfway decent.

 This game doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's a bare-faced rip-off Castlevania. From the style of the sprites themselves to the environments. However, beauty is only skin-deep, as the animation is pretty choppy, from what I could gather, it's a Mobile game port. Gameplay, however, is actually pretty freakin' decent, I had quite a bit of fun, all twenty minutes I invested. The game is also pretty easy, infinite lives plus the game saves every time you enter a room, so you can restart at the start of the room, but it's also a must, as once the game failed to trigger an event, so I had to restart that section. Exploiting the levels for orbs, to enhance your weapons, is pretty easy as well.
 Well, for such a shameless copy, it's pretty alright, no where near as good as a Castlevania game, but a nice diversion.

Now Playing: Gundam Extreme VS - Full Boost

 THIS GAME IS SO GOOD.

  Finally, I've been waiting for so long, and... so far so good. Impulse Gundam was the one I was looking forwards the most, and he is so fun. Surprisingly, the Gian, a Mobile Suit I don't particularly like, is so much fun to use. Arcade Mode seems to be harder, I raged so hard, yet loved it so much. I love this game. Melee, as a whole, seems to have received a small boost, as the window for the melee combos seems much more generous. I spent over 3 hours on this beauty, and of the new suits, I tried: Impulse, Gian(I didn't buy the DLC, so it's a new unit for me) and the Zeong, the Zeong... I didn't like too much, he seems a bit technical and long-ranged, both attributes that I dislike.
 Speaking of dislike, I have a couple of issues with the game as a whole. First, let's start with the thing I hate the most about last gen: DLC. There were a bunch of DLC units leaked pretty soon after the release, and while they are 100 yen cheaper than Vanilla's DLC, they are all clones. Yes, clones, they took existing units, swapped the pilot, altered it's stats(Usually weaker versions) and called it a new unit. There is one or two completely new models, but they are the exception. Vanilla EVS had more expensive DLC, but you could tell work went into it, they were completely new units and they brought a new season of DLC units a year after the game was released, work went into this DLC, even if the second batch of DLC were units from the then Arcade-Only Full Boost. Also, Single Player, Vanilla Extreme VS had over 100 different missions, this game has about half of them, and people are saying many are copy paste from those. True, this game thrives on Multi-Player, but the other game tried! One thing that didn't sit well with me, is how you don't earn medals anymore on the Arcade Route, getting a Gold always felt so good.
 Regardless, I am loving this game, and two out of the three new Unit I tried were extremely fun to play with. Definitely loving it.

Archile's Grab-bag : Early, lazy Saturday!

 DEMASHITAA~A

  I've been waiting for this package, waiting endlessly... AND IT'S HERE.

 SNIKT.

 GUNDAM EXTREME VS FULL BOOST IS HERE! YES. Context: Gundam Extreme VS is one of my favorite PS3 games, second only to Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Lollipop Chainsaw and Journey(Yeah, maybe not "second", but pretty high up there). AND NOW IT GETS EVEN MORE UNITS, 95 OUT OF THE BOX PLUS 3 FREE DLC UNITS. Still... Well, I'll save opinions for the First Impressions, heh.

Review #95: Naruto Powerful Shippuden

 Ain't nothing powerful about this one.

 Naruto is a popular franchise, so popular that it spawned it's own spin off, Rock Lee and his friends. So popular in fact, that the spin off spawned a video game of it's own, developed by Inti Creates, the people that developed Megaman Zero and ZX, sadly, the result is not as stellar.
 The game lets you play as either Naruto or Rock Lee, you'll have to play as both in order to progress however, and it more or less follows the story up to the Pain arc, with a couple of extra stages featuring latter events. Regardless, it's a very loose retelling, in a more "humorous" fashion, however, it falls flat on it's face most of the time. Gags are very formulaic, usually one of the boys will act in a ridiculous manner and one of the girls will explain why it's supposed to be funny, but it's not and rarely ever is. This is supposed to take after the Japanese humor routine of the "Funny guy" and "Serious guy", the girls always taking the Serious guy's place and the boys the Funny guy's, but the game is rarely ever funny. There's a lot of crossdressing humor and the kind of jokes they'd pull on filler episodes to retain their younger audience. Still, there are a couple of jokes that might make you smile, but they don't make up for the rest of the game.

 This is a more or less straight forward action game, you have your standard life bar and energy bar(Chakra), and you get your typical attack, jump and block buttons. If you press block right before getting hit, you'll actually dodge the attack, at the cost of some Chakra, and there are a couple of unblockable moves that must be dodged this way. The X Button serves as the special attack that consumes a little chakra, pressing it on it's lonesome executes an special attack, but stringing it during weak attack combos produces different effects, like a pop up or a knock down attack. You also get Super Moves, like the Rasengan that are pulled of by pressing Block and Special at the same time, and these cost a little more Chakra, both Lee and Naruto also have access to special forms that boost their stats. Finally, you can bring up to three support characters, when allowed to, with you that have their own unique attacks and effects.
 First, let's go over the good things about the gameplay, experience points. Beating each stage grants you Experience Points, and before each stage you can actually take "Personal Challenges", there's about six per stage, but you can only attempt one per go, that multiply the experience points gained, and there is no penalty for failing them. Now, these experience points can be spent on a pretty nice variety of parameters, be it your level(raises HP and attack power), resistance to status effects(Poison, paralyzed, etc), skills or even one-time use bonuses. Even better, you can reallocate points however you see fit, except the ones you spent on one-time use, those are gone for good.

 As for the bad... the game is incredibly repetitive. They tried to alleviate it with different kinds of stages, there's the straightforwards go right and beat anything on your path stages, as well as "defeat every enemy" survivals, stages in which you must find a certain number of a certain item or find a certain number of certain enemy and defeat it, but they all feel very, very repetitive. Even though Rock Lee and Naruto have different storylines, the stages feel very samey between both characters. What adds to the repetition is the combat itself. You see, human enemies like to dodge or block a lot of your attacks, so you have to wear down their Chakra, by forcing them to Dodge until they run out of Chakra, this doesn't make the gameplay any tougher or deeper, it just makes really slow and boring, it isn't even all that hard, just tedious. The game is at it's best during boss fights, as the draining the enemy's Chakra does make sense then, and it's much more fun against this one, tougher opponent. And you'd better enjoy them, as there is a total of 6 stages for each Boss: The original stage, a Harder version, Easy and Hard Boss Challenge versions for Naruto and Easy and Hard Boss Challenge versions for Rock Lee. Did I mention that missions feel very samey? They do.
 The game's best feature, by far, are the graphics. Animation is pretty smooth and charming, and the characters look impossibly cute. The style they used for the sprites makes them look as if they were ripped straight from a TV show, this game is pure eye-candy, plus, turning the 3D on doesn't affect the framerate in the slightest. Sound is alright, music is the usual filler music they use for this kind of licensed games, and each character has a couple of voiced lines, and that's about it.

 The game lasts a solid 6 hours for the core content, then you unlock Endless Battle(Read: Infinite Boss Rush) and the Boss Challenge stages for both Rock Lee and Naruto, clearing these unlock a couple of newer stages. There is plenty of content in the game, it's a shame it's such a drag to unlock it, and not worth it, as the game is not much fun. As with most games that look pretty, the gameplay is pretty lame, unless you are a hardcore Naruto fan, just skip this one altogether.
 4.0 out of 10

Review #94: Kirby Super Star Ultra

 A whole lot of Kirby in one!

  Kirby Super Star was a very popular SNES Kirby game that held many "sub-games" instead of one big Kirby adventure. And now(Actually, a couple of years ago), Nintendo decided to port it to the DS, adding Ultra to the title, and a couple of new extras.
 In the original game there was no real story to the game, besides a short, simple description of each activity, but now we get 3D cutscenes that kinda tie everything together, very loosely mind you. They are heavily compressed, but they look kinda neat, still, they add nothing to the overall experience.

 There are a total of 15 different "Sub-Games", 5 of them are minigames(Three which use the new Touch Screen capabilities). The other ten behave more like Kirby games but with specific conditions or goals. You get The Arena, in which you fight all the bosses, The Great Cave Offensive that focuses on the exploration aspect that Kirby games usually include, but instead of opening up new levels, you find hidden items, Dyna Blade which behaves like a normal Kirby game, without the exploration or The Revenge of Meta Knight that has many timed stages. Basically, they are all Kirby games that focus on different elements of your usual Kirby games, so to speak. It's an interesting take to say the least, and while none of the activities lasts too long, you can pick what you want, want to play as Meta Knight? You can do it. Wanna have fun exploring? Pick The Great Cave Offensive, want something more frantic? Revenge of Meta Knight it is.
 Gameplay is just as every other Kirby game, you eat enemies and gain their powers, if they have one. Each power has a nice variety of skills, so that's pretty nice, and exclusive to Super Star Ultra, you can create an AI-Helper(Or player, if you are playing in Multiplayer) from the power you currently have. The game is, overall, pretty easy, but there's plenty of replay value, Kirby is just fun to play, plus there's plenty of optional goals in some of the games. Plus, the unlockable True Arena isn't easy at all.

 The game received a graphical overhaul, most sprites were replaced by their GBA counterparts(Not a bad thing, they were really pretty) and some new ones were created. The end result is a much more visually pleasing game than the SNES version, colors are brighter and Kirby is rounder. On the sound front, you'll come across plenty of familiar tunes and a couple of new ones, and while I'd hardly call them classics, they can get quite catchy.
 Kirby Super Star Ultra is a fine little game to have on the go, but truth be told, I'd take a normal Kirby game over this one any day of the week.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #93: Grandia II

 Who let this port through quality testing?

  The Dreamcast had a somewhat small library, but full of quirky and unique games, and more than a couple of cult classics. Grandia II was born on the Dreamcast, and was later ported to the PS2, 2 years later. Spoiler alert: The port is atrocious, it wasn't a launch game and there was no reason to rush the port, so why did they mess it up so badly?
 In the JRPG you take control of Ryudo, a Geohound, a mercenary basically, who by some twist of fate wounds up involved in the resurrection of Valmar, god of Darkness. The story is nothing new, but what it does, it does pretty well. The game touches some interesting subjects, like not all Evil being bad or all good being, well, good, but it doesn't delve to deep into it, sadly. While the dialogue isn't bad by any means, heck it can be pretty colorful at times, some of it, particularly during the romantic scenes, can get pretty corny, I found myself laughing during them more often than not.

 As with every other JRPG of it's ilk, you are to go from town to dungeon to town, ad nauseam. There is no overworld, instead you pick a location from a map and travel to it. Even by JRPG standards, Grandia 2 is a pretty linear game, there are tons of points of no return, luckily, there are no valuable missables... which also means that there are no real valuables to be found. Some of the field areas can be pretty expansive, and some hold weapons or equipment pieces, but they'll get outclassed pretty quickly, which means that exploration isn't properly rewarded. Why explore if the next town will sell better equipment? Even more disappointing, there are no sidequests or secret bosses. There is an optional area later in the game that holds the worst equipment in the game(seriously), so why even bother?
 Combat is engaged by touching an enemy. The combat is, at it's core, turn-based, but it does offer a couple of nuances that make it much more interesting. On the lower right corner of the screen there is the action bar, when the icon of a character, or enemy, comes into contact with the red area of the bar, his or her turn begins and you can select a course of action. After selecting what to do, the character icon will travel to the edge of the bar and then execute the command, defending is instantaneous, attacking takes a very short while and magic or items take a lot of time. Now then, there are special attacks that you can use, so that if you hit an enemy while he is on the red area of the bar, you'll cancel their action(They can also do this to you!). It's a fairly interesting mechanics that adds strategy to the game, however, special attacks and magic are really strong, so the game doesn't really pose much of a challenge, outside of a boss or too. And as fun as it is, sometimes the CPU can be really dumb, and make to of your characters walk against each other, this can make you effectively waste a turn, as the character gets "tired" and won't reach the enemy. There are instances where they'll defeat an enemy and then hit the air for who knows what reason. It's understandable when you have two characters hitting the same enemy and one kills it while the other is attacking, but sometimes they'll perform the combo attack on the air. Not cool. And you have no control over either of these.

 When you win battles, you earn experience and three types of currencies: Magic Points, Skill Points and money. Money is used to buy items at shops, obviously, but the other points are used to tailor them to your liking. There are two special equippable items, Mana Eggs and Skills. Mana Eggs are items that grant your characters spells, there are about 8 different mana eggs, with different spell combinations, that you must level up with your Magic Points. Skills come from Skill Books, each Skill Book holds plenty of different skills that you level up with Skill Points or Mana Points, and these provide passive buffs to the wearer. Skill points are also (better)spent on the Special Moves of each character. Rule of the thumb is to max your Cancel-inducing single-target special and multi-enemy hitters. Cancel inducers to limit the damage bosses can deal and multi-enemy hitters to farm easily, as most of these can 1 hit KO them. It may sound like a hassle, but it's actually fairly engaging, and it's neat to be able to customize your party!
 As for the presentation, here is where it all comes apart. The graphics are awfully dated, even for Dreamcast standards. Environments lack detail, and character models are fairly simply and low-poly, they don't even have mouths. For what it's worth, the art-direction is really good, so you don't really mind it... until the frame rate drops. Frame Rate is awful, all the time. How this game got past quality assurance is beyond me. Walking around towns or most of the dungeons is done while under 30 FPS and can get pretty annoying. Battles too present framerate issues, and some of the worst moments are when you enter new towns and the camera pans around. So. Frigging. Slowly. These scenes last way more than they should thanks to this, and it quickly becomes vexing. This too applies to every single in-engine cutscene. Speaking of cutscenes, they present plenty of clipping issues, sometimes characters will even be missing parts of their faces during them. How did they let this through? At least the music is pretty good, and the voice acting is surprisingly decent.

 Good news: Despite all it's technical issues, it's not unplayable. The bad news? You won't have much fun. Technical issues aside, the game is fairly good, it's not fantastic, but it's an alright JRPG.
 5.5 out of 10.

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.

In defense of Lords of Shadow

 Because someone's got to do it.

 Being a fan of something is alright, we are all fans of at least one thing. Fanboys, on the other hand, are disgusting close-minded individuals who believe they speak for the majority and that their word is gospel. Fanboys hate change, fanboys hate it when someone speaks ill of something they like, and they derive pleasure whenever a competing brand messes up.
 Castlevania Lords of Shadows was released a couple of years ago, and it was a damn fine game. It didn't really feel like a Castlevania game, but it wasn't bad by any means. Castlevania fans hated it even before it was released, since it was different. I understand hating reboots, but these people pass judgement before trying the end result first-hand. This is what happened with DmC, it didn't matter if it was a good game, Dante had black hair so it was garbage. Haters will claim that "If you think this is about the hair, you are an idiot", but their problems can be boiled down to: "It changed, therefore it sucks". Dante's hair is black, therefore it sucks. Fanboys need to understand, that just because it's new or different, it doesn't make obsolete previous entries in the franchise, the older games will be there for them, forever. Don't like it, don't buy it, but don't judge it until you get it in your hands. But I digress, this is about Lords of Shadows and why it ain't so bad.

Art

 The character redesigns are fantastic. When I played Lords of Shadows, I instantly fell in love with Gabriel's brotherhood robes, and later, Zobek's. And when Mirror of Fate finally introduced the classic characters into the mix, once again, I fell in love. Many fans cite Simon being a ginger or a barbarian ebing stupid, but Ayami Kojima herself made Simon a redhead in Chronicles(Which is my favorite Simon design, by the way) and the Belmonts were, initially, presented as barbarians. Remember the NES games? Simon and Trevor were fully decked in barbarian armors, Simon's redesign in the SNES game was a barbarian too. It was not until Ayami started doing the art for Castlevania that the characters started wearing more elegant threads.

 And one has to remember that Ayami Kojima wasn't always the norm. She only became the official Castlevania artist after Symphony of the Night, but by Dawn of Sorrow Konami went for a awful generic anime direction. Luckily they went back to a more gothic style for Order of Ecclesia, the art wasn't as good as Ayami's, but it was pretty similar. Lords of Shadows goes for a different direction than any of the previous artists, and the designs mesh pretty nicely with the new darker, grittier direction for the series. Try as you might to deny it, Castlevania was always sorta goofy. Finding perfectly roasted chicken hidden behind walls, for example, or how about the colorful armor suits throwing weapons at you? Later in the series, Skeletons became a bit of a joke and they started introducing multiple variations of them, for comedic effect. Dawn of Sorrow had Maids with Vacuum Cleaners, and if you used their power against them, they'd hold their skirts as not to have them blown by the wind. Castlevania never took itself too seriously until Lords of Shadows, which is also the reason as to why so many of the enemies look so generic. I admit it, most enemies in Lords of Shadows were incredibly generic, but Mirror of Fate finally reintroduced many of the classic enemies, like the Fleamen/Hunchbacks, Meremen, Armors and Skeletons. They still lack the personality of their Classicvania counterparts, but that's alright, Lords of Shadows is a game that takes itself seriously, Castlevania is not.

Weapons

 The Combat Cross is pure genius. Let's level for a moment, a whip is not a very threatening weapon. I'm not saying it's a bad weapon, I'm saying that a whip is made to inflict pain, but not to kill. Lords of Shadow still had to pay homage to the classic weapon wielded by most Belmonts, so they got a fine compromise: A chain. It makes sense, in most games that allowed the Whip to be enhanced, it would eventually turn into a Chain-whip. The Combat Cross starts off as a chain already, and when the chain is stored, the weapon takes the shape of a cross. A holy item to fight foul beasts. The Combat Cross is a fantastic addition to the Castlevania mythos, it looks fantastic and it makes sense.

 Mirror of Fate also reintroduced many of the classic sub weapons, but used the Nintendo-censored versions. The Holy Water became the Oil Flask and the Cross was changed for the Boomerang, which makes sense since the Whip is now the Cross and in some of the older Nintendo games, the Cross was called the Boomerang. The Axe returned, as well as Alucard getting his Bat subweapon back. It was great seeing the classic weapons back.

Story

 Spoilers: Gabriel becomes Dracula. Story is a pretty subjective thing, unless you are a fanboy, in which case you already think it sucks. Regardless, I actually liked the story, and I loved the sequel hook at the end. I understand why many would call foul, as Gabriel was presented as Dracula, with no explanation as to why or how, but I think that it was a great sequel hook. I liked the story, so I wanted to know more. I wanted to know how. And I felt it was a fantastic twist to make a Belmont become Dracula.

 Mirror of Fate finally reintroduced Simon and Trevor Belmont, and the way they introduced Alucard was really smart. Alucard was Dracula's son, so it only made sense for Gabriel's son to become Alucard, and who is Gabriel's son? Trevor. Why Alucard fights against his father also makes more sense now than before, why he curses his existence too, as we get to see how it all happens, instead of being told(as is the case with Classicvania's Alucard).

 Regardless, this is pretty personal, I could tell you why I liked the story, but other people may dislike it for the very same reasons I do. And they are all valid opinions. Unless you are a blind fanboy. As to how it stands against the rest of Castlevania, it certainly is the Castlevania with the most depth and story thrown into the game, but Castlevania was never really about the story. I think that Rondo of Blood was the very first time we got more than and introduction and an ending, afterwards, Castlevania games began placing stronger narratives on their games. I'm not sayin that Lords of Shadows has the best story in any Castlevania game, but it's definitely the one that placed the most thought into it.

Gameplay

 Arguably the games' worst feature. As much as Mercury Steam hates the comparison, Lords of Shadow was very similar to God of War. They are different games, with different mechanics, but the way Gabriel and Kratos fight is very similar, at least on a visual level. What has no excuse, however, were the Colossus battles, which felt very out of place in the game. I think the only one that made sense within the world of the game and the story, and was fun, was the last one. What makes it even worse is that there are only three of these, so why even bother? Mirror of Fate toyed with the formula a bit more, and tried to mix Castleroid gameplay with Lords of Shadow gameplay to... rather mixed results. Mirror of Fate, by Castleroid standards, was not too good, but otherwise, it was fairly decent, just don't expect it to be a Castleroid.

 How does it fare against older Castlevanias? Well, the first Castlevania games were very original, but then again, the NES era was were most of the classic games were born, at least the ones that we remember fondly. What Castlevania did, few games did like it, there were similar games, sure, but none quite like Castlevania and it's sub weapons. But when people talk about Castlevania, they refer, most of the time, to Castleroids. Know where the name comes from? Castleroid or Metroidvania is the result of mixing Castlevania and Metroid together, this is a genre that was born after Super Metroid(Even if Metroid was technically the pioneer). Castlevania: Symphony of the Night borrowed all the elements of Metroid while adding new ones, like equipping different weapons or using items. What I'm getting into, is that some of the most beloved Castlevania games borrowed heavily from other games, specifically Metroid. Calling Lords of Shadow crap because it's a God of War clone is really stupid when Castlevania stopped being wholly original after Symphony of the Night. If Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a bad game for being a clone, that makes most Castlevania games bad.

 Castlevania Lords of Shadow and CV:LoS:Mirror of Fate are not bad games, they have a lot of room for improvement, but they are not bad. It's OK to like or prefer older Castlevania games, it's perfectly fine to hate them after playing them, but to hate them for being different without even trying it? How stupid is that? And did you notice how the moniker Lords of Shadow is kept in every entry? This are not meant to be full reboots, but rather an alternate timeline of sorts, one that is not heavily burdened with entry after entry of adding or retconning stuff into the timeline. This is a fresh start, a different take on something you like. And if you don't like it, that's alright, your black-vested Alucard will live on forever in Symphony of the Night, and there's nothing Konami can do to undo it.

Review #90: Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning

 Unravel their fates, turn them into a hammer, and pummel them with it!

 I'm sure that by now, everyone has heard this game's story. Apparently, 38 Studios went way over budget, acquiring a loan from the State of Rhode Island, and needed to sell over 3 Million units in order to make a profit, which they didn't. Now both 38 Studios and Big Huge Games are gone, and the state of Rhode Island possesses the legal rights to KoA, which no one wants to buy. After all the hassle to get the game done, it'd better be good, right? Or is there a reason as to why no one wants to own the IP?
 Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning is a Western RPG in the same vein as The Elder Scrolls or Neverwinter Nights, but whereas most WRPGs have very shallow excuses for combat, KoA boasted of having a much more involved combat system. The game pits you as The Fateless One, a player created character that resurrects very early in the game, he knows nothing of his past, but having already faced death, he is the only person in Amalur that Fate has no control over. He writes his own destiny, and he can alter other people's as well. The story is very engrossing, and the game has a very engaging lore to discover. You have the Fae, elves if you will, that have a very different concept of death than humans, or the Gnomes, think dwarves, who strive for machinations and arcane-technological advancements.

 As with most WRPGs, you are given a huge open world to explore at your leisure, bar you encounter enemies way beyond your level. The game takes a few cues from World of Warcraft and Fable, as even though the world is pretty large, and you can go anywhere, there are set paths from place to place, and you can't jump, so no forcing your way through mountains a la Two Worlds 2. As you go from town to town, you can talk to NPCs in order to discover more about the place you are in or accept new sidequests. There are tons of sidequests, around 200, and early in the game you'll get swamped by them if you accept everything you come across. At times, you'll go from place A to B, in order to fulfill a quest, and when you get to place B, you'll come across even more sidequests! Kingdoms of Amalur is a game that just keeps on giving!
 Enemies are plentiful, your get Wolves, Giant Spiders, Two-headed orcs, Trolls, Skelletons, Mermen and a bunch of others, and The Fateless One can equip many weapons in order to handle them. You can equip two weapons at a time, one on the Triangle Button and another on the Square button. While you can mash your way to victory, you can swap weapons mid combos or perform special moves, both features unique for every weapon type, and perform better combos. Maybe use the Long-Sword launcher, which is pretty fast, and use the Daggers to juggle them while they are helpless in the air, and before they fall, use the Grapple skill to get them closer to you, again. Even mages and their Staves get pretty cool looking attacks! For defense, you can either roll out of harm's way or block attacks, in order to reduce the damage taken. If you are feeling daring, press block just before getting hit in order to parry their attack, and counter with yours! Right between the HP and Mana gauges, you have the Fate gauge, which increases as you defeat enemies or mix your many spells, skills and moves. Unleashing Fate makes everything slow down, and you gain a huge damage boost, defeat every enemy while under Fate and Execute the last one in order to gain a experience boost. It's pretty handy, although if you save it for bosses, you can cruise through the game pretty easily.

 Every time you level up, you can allocate one point into one of many different talents: Blacksmithing, Sagecrafting, Stealth, Mercantile, Persuasion and many others. These offer plenty of bonuses, from being able to easily persuade NPCs, displaying enemies, traps and hidden doors on the radar, crafting better weapons and armor to buying from merchants for less and selling for more! Then you get 3 points to allocate in any of the three branches: Might, Finesse and Sorcery. You can place all your points on one, or put point here and there, you get different Destinies according to how you spend your points, and all offer bonuses, so there's no penalty to building your character the way you want it.
 As fun as sidequesting is, most of them can get pretty repetitive. Go to point A, kill B, profit. Or maybe kill a certain number of enemies, go to point A and kill the boss that spawns. Almost every quests involve killing something, there are exceptions, but there are not many. The NPCs and situations are not very memorable either. Faction Quests, on the other hand, are worth following through to the end, you'll get nice bonuses and they present fairly interesting narratives, usually with different outcomes according to your choices. Oh, and glitches. I came across my fair share, including: Getting stuck in a spot. I could attack all around me, and tried using moves that relocated or made the character dash, but just couldn't get out of. Another one in which I couldn't open the door that led outside the house, leaving me stuck(Luckily, saving and loading cleared the issue) and once the game froze once I initiate a Fate Execution, so tread carefully and save often, luckily, the auto-save feature is pretty smart.

 The game is very colorful, and looks great. There are many different locales to explore which all look very pretty. Character models are not as good, hair looks like plastic!, but they are not awful by any means, and monsters look great. The armors and weapons are very cool looking, even if there could've been a few more of them. The art-direction is a mix of World of Warcraft and Fable, I quite liked it, it's a bit cartoonish but still holds some degree of reality. A bit. Voice Acting is pretty alright, with a game this huge, it's expected to have a wide range of performances, but most are pretty decent. Music is not bad, pretty fitting actually, but nothing you'd go out of your way to listen to.
 Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning was the kind of Western RPG I was looking for. A game with a large world to explore, the freedom to do what you want when you want, and a fun combat system to boot! The glitches I came across were very annoying, but I only suffered about 4 of them in over 40 hours of gameplay, I think that's not bad. Not bad at all.
 9.0 out of 10.