Now Playing: Def Jam Fight for NY

 I used to love the prequel.

 But for some reason, I never got hooked with the sequel, or rather, I don't have many memories of it, since it seems I've got a 100% savefile on this game! Regardless, I chose to start a new with a fresh new fighter. The first thing you notice, is that the game looks amazing. Lightning is impressive, graphics look incredible, textures are fantastic and the animation is impossibly smooth.

 But graphics mean jack if you ain't got gameplay, and this game aces that regard as well. Combat is a bit simple, and I don't ever see it being played competitively, but man does it feel good. The soundtrack sucks though(I dislike Rap and Hip-hop, sue me).

Review #150: Spawn Armageddon

 This gets to be my review 150? I'm disappointed.

 Spawn hasn't had a good game. The SNES game was ambitious, but ultimately not very good, the GBC game wasn't very good either, and the PS1 game... the least we say about that one the better. There was also a Dreamcast game that looks really good, but sadly I don't own one, so I can't speak about that one. The one I can speak about is Spawn Armageddon, a third-person action game/shooter from Namco that while being on the right track, ultimately falls short of its goal.

 Notice the title? Armageddon. The game takes place sometime after Al Simmons gets betrayed and killed by a former associate, then resurrected as the Spawn by Malebolgia, the ruler of hell. All of this is told in a beautiful FMV cut-scene at the start of the game, one of two(The other one being the ending). After Spawn finishes narrating his origin, a green light engulfs the city, signaling the beginning of the Armageddon. The rest of the story is told via text-cut outs before each stage, or mission as the game calls them, pretty lame. They did borrow this from Devil May Cry 1, but at DMC complimented the text with a ton of in-game cutscenes, and while this game has a very few of those, most of the stages feel very disjointed. I am supposed to believe that "fallen" angels, which never appeared in game min you, led Spawn to another place in the world? I'm not such an easy sell!

  Spawn has plenty of tools to deal with his enemies. Firstly, he gets his axe, but you can't do much with it. You have a basic three hit combo, an airdrop slash and an upwards slash that allows you flip a certain enemy type, and just this one and only enemy type, which makes you wonder why even bother with it, this little nuance does little to alleviate the repetitive nature of the combat. Spawn, having being a former soldier and a contract killer, knows his way around fire-arms, of which he'll get plenty. Sadly, long-range shooting isn't very fun, if you want your shots to hit their mark, you gonna be using the sloppy targeting system that never manages to target the enemy you want to hit, but at least you can cycle through enemies. Targeting also slows down Spawn to a walk, for some reason he can't run and gun while targeting. This needs to be said, the game really needed a block function, Spawn's mobility really isn't up to par with his enemies who will assault him relentlessly. You do get side jumps, but they are very slow and barely move him to the side, it's only useful on certain situations. The last tools on Spawn's arsenal are his Necroplasmic powers, he has five of them, and they are pretty useful most of the time. They run on Necroplasm, which you restore by collecting green orbs. All in all, the action has a very DMC vibe, without the combo system and without everything that made the combat so good in that game.

 The game also borrows the upgrading system from DMC, defeating enemies will provide blue orbs which you can then use to upgrade fire arms, your health bar or your Necroplasm bar before each missions. And that's about all that the game has going for it, the rest isn't any good. Firstly, the camera is atrocious, many a times it feels as if you are fighting with the camera just to get it to look where you want. Once, I moved inside a tunnel before I was supposed to(Not that there's any indication of that, as you are given enough time to enter it when it starts spinning), and the camera got locked in its place, forcing me to restart the mission. Fun. Oh, glitches. At least twice Spawn got locked in the moving animation... without moving an inch from his spot, the first time an enemy was nice enough to knock me out of it, but the second one I was forced to restart the mission. Fun times. Rounding up the flaws, we have the targeting reticule that sometimes likes to glitch out and target thin air, and the terrible, terrible platforming sections that the game forces upon you. The camera wasn't built for platforming and neither was Spawn's movement.

 The game has 23 stages, but they aren't very fun to explore. Most of them are pretty plain, and nothing really stands out. The game isn't very hard if you spam your chains, the only ranged weapon that doesn't use ammo, in order to save up ammo for the bosses. There's a couple of levels that are a bit harder than the rest, one which is incredibly cheap that has lasers falling on you, as claw demons tackle you while you try to kill the lamenting demons which make projectiles spawn over you, and another one that is a very long section of terrible platforming.

 The graphics aren't very good, Spawn himself could've used more detail, and while the game is based on spawn, it seems as if you are getting attacked by generic enemies that could've come out of Quake. Animation is passable, but Spawn's three-hit combo looks so off for some reason, must be the way he has to throw his body forward for every motion. On the other hand, the soundtrack is really good, seems it was composed by Marylin Manson? Regardless, it's very fitting and very good. Surprisingly, voice acting is really good... most of the time, Spawn's reaction in the ending wasn't convincing, I almost laughed at how much it made me cringe.

 While it doesn't do anything particularly well, it isn't a terrible game. At times, it can be fun, but for the most part, it feels like it lacks a soul.
 4.5 out of 10.

Review #149: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha VS The Soulless Army

 Name's quite a mouthful, eh!

 Shin Megami Tensei is a series that has a ton of spin-offs, from the massively popular, and sadly over exploited, Persona series, to the more unknown Demi Kids. Regardless, I'm not here to write about either, instead this is about one of the offshoots from the Devil Summoner spin off(Yes, a spin off with its own spin offs!), featuring Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th first adventure. Full disclosure, I had played the sequel before playing this one, and consider the sequel polishes everything about this game, I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I would've had I not played the sequel first.

 The game takes place in the 20th year(1930) of the Taisho Era in Japan, when Japan was in the first stages of westernizing itself. It makes for a very unique setting, both in locales, and the NPCs that populate the area. Raidou in particular is one of my favorite characters in the Shin Megami Tensei Universe, even though he is almost a carbon copy of a famous Japanese villain.... Regardless, you play as the aforementioned Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th, a devil summoner and a trainee detective working for the Detective Narumi, who specializes in unconventional cases. Raidou's adventure begins after meeting a girl asking Raidou to kill her, and then she gets kidnapped by soldiers in red. As much as I loved the locales and the characters, the story isn't paced very tightly. Y'see, the game is divided in 12 chapters, and the early chapters are, usually, about slightly connected cases, they all tie up in the end, and the story does move more smoothly in the latter chapters, but it gets a while to get going.

 Unlike most Shin Megami Tensei games, this is not a turn-based RPG, while it does have Random Encounters(With a, sadly, rather high encounter rate) battles take place in a small arena where Raidou and his demon can move about as they engage the enemies. Raidou himself only has access to a three hit Katana combo, a thrust and a spin slash, or he can use a gun, that while weak, can be used to shoot elemental bullets and stun opposing demons. Hitting an enemy with its weakness will stun then, making any further attacks deal critical damage, or, if Raidou's level is high enough, you can press circle to engage in a mashing mini-game to confine the Demon in a tube and add him to your ranks. Demons level up very slowly, so your best bet is to confine as many new demons as you can and keep fusing them to get better, stronger demons.

 Demons are Raidou's strongest tool, as he himself can't use magic, they are the ones that can heal him with magic or attack enemies with their weaknesses. One annoying thing to keep in mind, is that you have to reissue commands before every fight. Don't want your demon to waste its MP? gonna have to select "Don't waste MP" from the order menu before each and every fight. Demons don't just serve as weapons, there's about 10 different "orders" a demon can belong to, and each order has a special ability that Raidou may need to use in order to advance, or sometimes just to get fun dialogues. One thing to keep in mind is that if you don't have the type of demon that you need for a dungeon, you are out of luck, you are gonna have to go back to town and fuse/hire a new demon. Most of the time, there's a demon of the order that you need in whichever dungeon that needs one, but it is not always the case.

 The game isn't very hard if you exploit enemy weaknesses and keep an updated roster of Demons. While you'll be amassing a small fortune as you play through the game, costs for hiring demons is rather high, so think carefully before fusing a demon or releasing it. It's also recommended to take at least one demon with healing skills, as healing services are very expensive. It's also disappointingly short, with very few, and short, sidequests and only a single optional dungeon(Technically five, but four of them are so short and meaningless...). All in all, I clocked about 20 hours in it.

 The game has a rather subdued color palette, but it fits the game very well. All the different demons look very good, as does Raidou himself, perfectly capturing the artwork's style. The game uses pre-rendered backgrounds coupled with fixed camera angles(Duh), but it's easy to forgive them as the environments are so appealing and different from most other RPGs. As for the music, in typical SMT fare, it's all very good, with some very memorable tunes(Tsukudo-Cho's!, or the Boss Battle theme!), and it manages to be somber when it needs to, for some very fitting music to whatever is happening on-screen. There's no voice acting, sadly, but when important dialogue takes place, 3D animated cut-outs of the characters will jump to the forefront of the screen, and given that there's no voice acting, it looks kinda funny how they gesticulate and move their lips as the text appears.

 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha VS The Soulless Army is a very fun game, with some rather obvious, but minor, issues. And, guess what, the sequel polishes or fixes most, if not all of them, which makes this first game pale in comparison. Regardless, it was a good start for Raidou's adventures.
 7.0 out of 10.

Review #148: Zenonia

 Eh... at least it's cheap.

 Zenonia started its life as a Mobile action RPG, but I never played that version, instead I played the DSi version. Not gonna lie, it's a very underwhelming port that does little to hide its mobile roots, and it's all the worse for that.

 You play as Regret, the adoptive son of an ex Knight named pardon. Yes, every major character is named after a word "Sun", "Charity", "Virulent", etc. Yes, it's pretty dumb and serves no purpose, except maybe one them. As expected of a mobile game, the story isn't a very strong point, but at least it gives you a goal to strive for, and there's two different "paths" you can take(The good ending and the bad ending) depending on which actions you take upon certain objects. Worth mentioning, the game is full of typos and grammatical mistakes, the whole "Red Sword" line is called "Red Swrod", seriously.

 At the start of the game you can pick between three classes, Paladin, Rogue or Warrior, and each one uses their own weapon, their own spells and their own passive skills tree. The game is fairly linear, you go to a town, find the major quest, and then fill your subquest tab with the sidequests from the townsfolk, then you set out to the dungeon, clear your sidequests, and go to the next town. Every time you level up, you earn 3 stat points to distribute among your stats, and a point to spend either on a new spell or a new passive skill. You also get a palette on the lower part of the screen to place four spells or four items, the item and spell palette are actually different and you switch them at the tap of a shoulder button. For some reason, sometimes when trying to use a potion, I'd use the skill associated to that shortcut, which was a bit annoying and weird.

 Still, that's the least of the control's problems. The game is a Mobile game and it shows, movement feels very weird, if you ever played a mobile game you know what I mean, and it takes a little time getting used to. Collision detection is also very off, sometimes missing attacks that should've hit, or getting hit from rather long distances. And don't even try to attack while close to a pushable block, as Regret will try to grab the block instead of swinging his sword, even if you aren't holding a direction. The game does start of pretty decent, you slay monsters, earn money, gather loot from fallen enemies or by equipment from shops, but by the end of the game, it becomes a grindfest. Enemies become too strong, and give off too little exp, you are gonna spend a lot of time grinding in order to be able to survive the latter dungeons, but the worst part is that by that point, every new equipment piece and every new stat point feels negligible. Oh, and by the end of the game you are gonna be finding tons of loot that you probably won't be able to equip, and there's no "personal stash", can't carry it? Gonna have to drop it.

 Another thing you are gonna have to endure is having most of your attacks missing. By the end of the game, I had as many "Accuracy up" items, and a maxed "Accuracy" passive skill, yet only seventy percent of my attacks didn't result in a "miss", just because the RNG hated me. As mentioned before, latter enemies get really strong, and you are gonna have to be on the move, repositioning yourself as you dodge moves in order to minimize the damage, and having a miss is fairly annoying. Particularly aggravated because even with a maxed "Evade" passive skill and tons of "Evade up" items, enemies only missed twenty percent of their attacks, it was pretty annoying. Oh, and if enemies gang up on you, might as well call it quits, as they can end you in a couple of seconds. Pretty vexing. Still, as I said before, this happens in the game's last stretch, early in the way, and a little past its midpoint, it's pretty manageable, fun even.

 Graphics are very colorful, and have a certain charm to them, but animation is pretty lame, moves consisting of as little as one frame. I know it's a mobile game, but they could've dolled it up a little. Music is just as bland, and the sound effects aren't very good, for some reason Critical Hits do not produce a sound.

 Zenonia might've been a good game on Mobile phones, but on the DS it's a very lackluster, underwhelming game. But for five bucks, it's alright.
 4.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Blazblue - Chronophantasma

 It continues.

 Yes, Devil Summoner 1 is finished, but I'll be writing about it after I return home. So, Blazblue Chronophantasma.... I loved Guilty Gear, it had fantastic designs, fantastic music and fast paced gameplay. Blazblue was always the little brother that tried so hard to be as good, but never got there. So, what can you expect? even more fanservice, with Bullet having one of the most awkward stances ever conceived just so that we can get a look at her breasts, a trap because we needed a Bridget, and two new guys that sport too many belts, just because. Now we have Hazama who wears two belts, Azrael who wears two belts, Kagura who wears THREE belts, and I'm like, yo, bring back Ishiwatari, he knew how to make belts look cool(I mean, just compare the way Sol Badguy wears his belts and straps against Kagura, one looks very stylish while the other one looks like he tries too hard.)

 Anyways, I've completed about 10 chapters of the Story Mode, it moves sooooo slowly, it's incredible. Why so much attention to detail? There's so many lines of useless dialogue, I appreciate the effort, I do, but when I play a game I want to PLAY or at least watch, not read hundreds upon hundreds of lines of text with little to no gameplay in-between. And it's not like the story is particularly good, as the character designs themselves, it's a potpourri of as many anime tropes they could get a hold of.

 Still, at the end of the day the gameplay is very solid, and they introduced a couple of new mechanics that seem fairly interesting at first glance(I don't know their name yet, you press all four buttons and you enter a special mode, Jin for example freezes everything he hits). Speaking of Jin, they have changed him oh so much. He lost a ton of moves(Like the Weak and Strong variation of the ice car, the Medium and Strong variations of the Ice Dagger, the Mash on Strong attack...), but he got a couple of new ones, like the air Iai-strike which is actually useful, still, he feels VEEEERY different, hopefully I can get used to him. Know who I didn't feel had changed as much? Rachel. I dread to play as Rachel, her style is not my style.

Now Playing: Spawn - Armageddon

 I used to think this game was hella good, turns out it's hella bad.

 No, I did not give up on Devil Summoner, in fact, I just cleared a chapter today and plan on clearing one chapter per day(Assuming I don't get homework or stuff like that). And Spawn Armageddon was taunting me, I had to open it.... only to realize that my memories were rose-tinted, and the game actually blows.

 Grab Devil May Cry 1, now imagine if Dante had the mobility of a slug, only had one melee combo and a launcher and the neat combo system was gone, that's Spawn Armageddon in a nutshell. They even copied the "Splash image before each mission" thingie were you can upgrade before setting out. It's Devil May Cry without what makes Devil May Cry fun.

Month Overview: August

Games finished in August:
 Darksiders 2                                                                        9.0
 Crash Bandicoot                                                                  6.0
 Mario Kart 7                                                                        8.0
 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back                               9.0
 Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped                                                 9.0
 Crash Team Racing                                                              8.0
 Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex                                 8.0
 Crash Nitro Racing                                                               6.5
 Crash Twinsanity                                                                  6.5
 Crash Tag Team Racing                                                        6.0
 Crash of the Titans                                                                7.0

 I played through most of the Crash home-console games in one month. In one month! And classes started this month(Which is why I didn't have much to study or stuff). I DID IT. It was a great month, tons of great games and tons of good games, I don't really have anything to complain about.

 Game of August:

 A worthy sequel to one of my favorite games of the last generation, Darksiders 2 added a ton of new(and borrowed) features, and for the most part, they work really well and spice up the gameplay. I kinda like the older game's setting a little bit better, but that's just a matter of personal preference.

Runner-up:

 To think that Crash 2 used to be my least liked Crash game back in the day! To be fair, I never really gave it a chance. Crash 2's greatness took me by surprise, it's sooooo good, fixes everything Crash 1 did wrong and fleshes out the formula pretty neatly. It is another antropomorphic animal platform game, but it does its own thing, and does it so well. SO WELL.