Review #223: Legacy of Kain - Defiance

 Time t'finish the fight!

 This is it! The big pay off, where the four previous games had led to. The final game in the Legacy of Kain series, Raziel and Kain's quests come to an end! Kinda.

 It's hard to talk about Defiance without spoiling stuff, but what really matters is that almost every loose end from previous games is explained, and the few bits that aren't, well, you can search online for Amy Hennig's, the writer, words on these things, stuff like Vorador being alive in Blood Omen 2(Which this game was supposed to answer, but had to be cut), or even stuff that happens in-game. If you've been following the series since Blood Omen, or at least Soul Reaver 1, this game will satisfy you, it gives a more than worthy conclusion to the quest of these unlikely anti-heroes. That said, there was to be a sequel that would offer further insight into what happened after Defiance, but it never came to be. But I digress, unlike the previous two games that ended on cliff-hangers, this one gives us a more... open ending, but an ending non the less.

 The gameplay has suffered a major shift since Soul Reaver 2. Most notorious, now you play as both Kain and Raziel, through alternating chapters. While Soul Reaver 2 was mostly and adventure game, Defiance borrows a lot from Devil May Cry, this is an action game with some puzzles here and there. As a matter of fact, the puzzles have been dumbed down considerably, being mostly of the 'Find X item to open Y door' variety. As a rule of thumb, Raziel's chapters tend to feature more puzzles than Kain's, which in turn make his chapters much longer. Unlike Soul Reaver 2, you are now rewarded for exploring, Health upgrades, TK upgrades and unlockable extras are hidden throughout each level, waiting to be found if you explore. The combat system now allows you to juggle enemies into aerial combos or pull and push them around with Telekinetic abilities, and I really like it. Sure, it's much more limited than Devil May Cry, but I liked performing simple, stylish combos on the enemies. Personally, I like prefer direction over any other game on the franchise... but it did need a few more work.

 Raziel and Kain behave almost exactly the same in combat, their attacks might look different, but on a technical level, it's the same. As you slay enemies you eventually unlock 5 special moves with each character, and they are the same for both characters! Regardless, my biggest issue isn't that these moves are the same, but that they are too few of them. Since the game is now focused on combat and combos, it should reward you for fighting and doing well, particularly since enemies can take quite a bit of punishment. But after you earn these five moves there's little reason to waste time fighting. Late in the game, I avoided fights as much as I could, whereas during the earlier parts of the game I was enjoying trying to come up with different ways to end my enemies!

 Throughout the game, both Kain and Raziel will earn specialized versions of their weapons, and not only are they used for puzzles, but they give their attacks special properties! For instance, Kain's Dimension Reaver makes it so that once the Reaver Gauge is full(By dealing a ton of damage), attacks will spread out throughout nearby enemies, or Raziel's Water Reaver will freeze the enemies it attacks, or the Earth Reaver makes him heavy, so he can walk on water. This sounds very promising, but it's slightly underdeveloped, take Raziel's Light and Fire Reavers, they add nothing to his basic attacks, just a different special move. Don't get me wrong, I liked what they did, but they could've done much more to make each weapon feel unique.

All that said, to say that Kain and Raziel are exactly the same is wrong. The way in which they explore Nosgoth is much different, not only are they 500 years apart, but both possess certain traits unique to each.  Kain has stronger Telekinetic powers, at first, allowing him to break weakened structures or pull enemies towards him instead of just pushing. Metal Bars are not a barrier to Kain, as he can simply turn into mist and walk through them. Plus, Water is deadly to Kain. Raziel on the other hand can swim, and his TK powers only lets him push enemies. And while he can't turn into mist, Raziel is the only one who can access the Spectral Realm.

 With the new style, also come a few quirks to get used to. The game moves much faster than before in every way, except climbing which is slow as molasses. But I digress, I really liked how everything was much faster now, both combat and exploring. A consequence, perhaps, of this is that controls feel much looser than before. New to the series are fixed camera angles, which can be a bit of a pain. There's a very few angles which are terrible and makes you wonder just what where they thinking, plus, it's possible for the camera to sometimes get confused and get stuck on very weird angles, and then you have to move around hoping that you can reset it. Not to mention that as a consequence of the fixed camera angles, sometimes it's possible to get some very unhelpful angles during fights, sometimes obscuring your position or the enemies. But that isn't even the biggest offender of the new camera, it's the platforming. To put it bluntly, the platforming in this game can be horrid. To be fair, few times is the penalty for missing a jump or what not fatal, but as a consequence of both fixed camera angles and the loose controls, jumping can potentially be the most annoying thing in the game. There were some 'simple' jumps that I had to retry over 6 times, and sometimes the issue was simply getting to the platform from which to jump.

 Weirdly enough, graphics are better in some ways, and worse in a very few others, than Soul Reaver 2's. Character models have been stylized, and they look slimmer and cooler than before. All the big players look better than they ever did. But it seems that some detail was lost, easily observed by comparing the backside of Raziel's cape on Soul Reaver 2 with Defiance's, hardly a deal breaker though. The environments are less colorful than before, but much more detailed and intricate, a fair trade off I'd say. Still, the locations visited in this game feel a bit more... mundane, or down-to earth than the more fantastic areas from the previous games. As a whole, I think the game looks fantastic, there's a couple of framerate drops here and then, but they are fairly uncommon. The music is an overall high for the series, you may recognize some of the songs that play, and they manage to set the mood for the game perfectly. Award winning? Hardly, but little to complain about. As far as the voice acting goes... It's Legacy of Kain, of course it's among the best that videogames have to offer, from the major characters to the secondary cast.

 For the final entry in the series, Crystal Dynamics sure went out with a bang. I loved the new direction they took with the gameplay, even if it needed a bit more work put into it, and the story payed off big-time. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best game in the series, but in order to fully appreciate it, it requires one to have followed the story from the beginning.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #230: Jeanne D'Arc

 Viva la France.

 Jeanne D'Arc is an Strategy RPG for the PSP developed by Level-5. It's a loose retelling of Joan of Arc's crusade against the English, Japanese style!

 The story might be based on Joan of Arc's story, but it's set in a widely different universe, one in which Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen and monsters coexist alongside humans. Yep, this isn't your average history lesson. That said, it does follow Jeanne's crusade against the English in order to protect France, except that in this version she gets to have super powers. Mainly the five Heroes, men chosen by the armlets, which are granted special powers and allowed to don a magic suit of armor, henshin a-go-go baby! As for how the story develops, I felt it starts a tad dull, but gets better and better as it goes along, and it can get pretty dark. The characters themselves don't get much development though, but they do get a couple of lines here and there to add some individuality to each of them.

 The game is a fairly standard Strategy-RPG, each battle has two bands, yours and the enemy, and in your turn you can move each of your units, after your turn, the CPU does the same with its units, fairly straightforward. Attacking a unit from the sides or behind confer the usual attack and accuracy bonuses, so positioning is important. In fact, the game's unique mechanics are based around position: Burning Aura and Unified Defense. Every time you attack an enemy, it'll drop a 'Burning Aura' in the opposite tile, and if you place a character in that tile(Or if he was standing over it when the Burning Aura fell), you'll get a damage buff on your next attack. As for Unified Defense, you might think that spreading your units is a good idea, but it might not always be the case here, as leaving your units close together will confer a defense bonus when taking damage, so it's up to you to decide how you want to deal with defense depending on the enemy units.

 This is one of those Strategy RPGs in which you get preset characters and can't create any units. While each unit can equip specific weapons(Jeanne, for instance, can only equip swords), as far as skills go, each character is a white canvas. You get about 8 slots that you can outfit with gems, found by slaying enemies, that confer anything from passive bonuses, to physical skills or spells. I thought it was a pretty neat idea, and you can create some very powerful combos to decimate the enemy. Speaking of decimation, the five armlet-wearing characters get a unique gauge, and they gain one point on this gauge every turn that passes. Using this gauge they can, temporarily, transform into a super powerful state, with exclusive skills and the incredibly useful 'Godspeed' skill, that grants you another turn if you kill an enemy. I swear, having one of your Heroes massacring the enemies in just one turn feels SO GOOD.

 The game lasts about 27 hours, and finishing it unlocks a couple of extra stages. While it is pretty cool, I did have a couple of gripes with it. For starters, the game is pretty slow, not only can the framerate get a bit low, but the way battles pan out is fairly slow. Everything from going through the menus, to the characters moving and executing their attacks feel as if comes with a slight delay, which slowly adds up for a quite a bit of waiting. I think the UMD is at fault as well, as sometimes you can tell that the game is taking a second or two to load the next action. Then there's the fact that you will need to grind. For over half of the game you are limited to only 5 characters on the battlefield, and after hitting the middle point, you'll be granted up to 7 characters. It means that at least two characters will be lagging behind, even though everyone gains a little experience after each fight. As a matter of fact, there's three characters that temporarily leave your ranks, so you might be forced to use even more underleveled characters. As a matter of fact, and this might be a minimal spoiler, Roger leaves the party at some point, and he returns at a set level 47... when most of your main party should be hitting 55. Even worse, I'm pretty sure Roger was 49 when he left.... Regardless, the point stands: You will need to grind the optional battles, and it will get boring when you couple it with how slowly the battles unfold.

 The graphics in the game are colorful and detailed. Character models employ a slightly deformed look, with big heads and smaller bodies, it's a bit off putting at first, but I got used to them pretty fast. Their little bodies hold all kinds of little details in the armors and faces, which I really liked. The game also employs some gorgeous anime cut-scenes every now and then, and they do feel like a treat. Music, as expected of an RPG, is really good, with a particularly memorable main theme. There's not a whole lot of voice acting, but what little there is is pretty good, everyone has fake french accents which I thought was endearingly amusing.

 Jeanne D'Arc is not the best Strategy RPG I've ever played, but it's pretty good. I loved being able to customize my units with the gems, and while it took me a while to get hooked on the story, once it gets good, it gets really good. The slow-pace of the battles did put me off a couple of times, the reason I took so long to finish it was that sometimes I'd get bored of grinding, either for experience or skills, so I took breaks from it. Still, when it's at its best, it's really good, and at its worst it ain't all that bad.
 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Legacy of Kain - Defiance

 Time to finish the fight!

 Ah! Now this one I did finish, and I loved it. I really don't know how I made heads and tails out of the plot, considering I hadn't even defeated Soul Reaver 1's first boss, but I clearly remember having a blast playing it.

 But I digress, what's new? Everything. The moment you start playing, it's like everything is set on Turbo. Everything moves much more smoothly and swiftly. Even things like crossing metal barriers, which used to take 3-5 seconds, now it takes a second at most. I like the speed, I like my games fast after all. It's funny how much it borrows from DMC, but can you blame it? Still, the combo system is, or at least so far, watered down when compared to it, but it's still a huge step up from every other LoK game. Visually, it seems like environments took a hit? I think the textures aren't as detailed? I'm not sure, but on the other hand, the character models now look amazing.

 But the most important thing? After two games, it's back to Kain, and god, has he evolved. He looks like a proper badass, and fights like one as well. I remember them, Raziel and Kain, having mostly the same abilities, but at least the combos look different. Kain has powerful yet swift slashes, unwavering in his posture, while Raziel's slashes in a more acrobatic, loose way. I dig it.

 Not gonna lie, as much as I enjoyed every other game, sans Blood Omen 2, this is the game I've been looking forwards the most, and after playing the short, introductory Kain chapter, my hopes for this game are higher than ever. Hopefully it proves to be the definitive Legacy of Kain game that I remember.

Review #229: Soul Reaver 2

 History abhors a paradox.

 Soul Reaver 1 ended on a cliffhanger, and luckily, it was very well received by the press, back in the day, so a sequel wasn't so much of a 'if' but a 'when'. And so with the shiny new technology that the PS2 offered, Soul Reaver 2 came to be.

 The game picks up exactly where the last one left off. Actually, it recreates the final moments of the last game, which is quite amusing to see the last exchanges between Kain and Raziel, but now with a higher polygon count! While the last game was a story about revenge, Soul Reaver 2 is about time travel. Time travelling Vampires and Wraiths, doesn't get any better than this. It's hard to talk about the game's plot without spoiling the last one, or this one, but needless to say, the story is fantastic, and the dialogue is incredible. To be fair, the story can get pretty convoluted, and you may end up asking yourself more questions, but with a little legwork(Internet), you can make perfect sense of it. And by the by, there's no point in playing Soul Reaver 2 without playing the first, you will get lost, and a lot of the beauty of the series' lore will be lost on you.

 Soul Reaver 2 is an almost-entirely different beast than the first one. While Soul Reaver 1 was a huge game, filled to the brim with secrets and optional areas rewarding those that explored or backtracked, Soul Reaver 2 is a very linear almost on-rails experience. There are no secrets, and exploration isn't rewarded, so there's no reason to veer off the given path, not like there's anywhere else to go mind you. Amusingly, the game now finally adds a compass and the much needed map than the previous game should've had... but in this game, it's impossible to get lost or not to know where to go(Just follow the only path available to ya!) so really, there's no use for either of those.

 But hey, there are a bunch of noticeable improvements, most important of them all, the framerate. It's almost glorious 60 fps all the way to the end of the game, with a couple of moments where it could dip, but never below 30. It makes everything run so much better! And the camera is much more manageable than before, it doesn't need constant baby sitting and you can move it with the right analog stick. About damn time! The save system has been revamped as well, now you can only save at certain savespots, and you loading your file starts you back at whichever savespot you last saved. Teleporters are gone, but then again, they are not needed in this game. The way the Reaver works has also been tweaked, now you lose health constantly while on the material realm, but the Reaver can be turned on or off at will. Using the Reaver too much will make it zap your health alarmingly fast, but it's counterweighted by how strong it is.

 Much of the game is spent puzzling, just like the first game, but this time around the puzzles are much simpler. Perhaps a bit too simple, but I'm not complaining, the first one had one or two that were a bit too obtuse. Raziel retains all the abilities he gained from his fallen brethren in the last adventure, but most of the new puzzles revolve around the new Elemental Reavers: Dark, Light, Wind and Flame. As far as I could tell, they don't confer any enhanced damage in combat, but each one has different uses when it comes to traversing Nosgoth. The Wind Reaver is the only one that can destroy doors, while the Dark Reaver can activate bridges, for instance. At the end of the day, I enjoyed the puzzling, they may not have been as hard as the previous game's, but I can appreciate the creativity they spent on them, coming up with widely different puzzles than those seen in Soul Reaver 1, so it doesn't feel like you are treading old ground.

 Combat is the only thing I really disliked about Soul Reaver 2. In Soul Reaver 1, combat was simple, but it was easy to forgive as combat wasn't the game's focus. Enemies in this game aren't vampires, so you don't need to impale or burn them... but they got annoying in other ways. First and foremost, Raziel's attacks are very slow, it doesn't matter if you are using one of the many different weapons that you can find on the material realm, fact of the matter is: Raziel hits slower than any of his enemies. In the previous outing you could make short work of enemies by spamming triangle with the Reaver, not so here. Triangle is an alternate, physical, attack now, an attack that can be blocked. And enemies love to block, and there's no way for you to break their guard, besides using the Reaver(That you really don't want to use unless you really have to due to the new limitations). So, it'd make sense for you to wait until they drop their guard? Wrong. Enemies attack faster than Raziel can sidestep, and unlike Raziel, enemies can and will break your guard. It's a good thing Raziel can't really die, but the combat was dull and boring, to be honest, after the first couple of hours I just decided to skip fighting as many enemies as I could, only stopping by to recharge my Material energy. I guess it's a good thing that the game doesn't have a single Boss!

 The game doesn't look particularly well. Raziel and Kain do look fairly badass and detailed, but the rest of the secondary characters don't fare as well, not to say that they are bad or anything. Common Enemies on the other hand are a bit blander, with fairly forgettable designs and a some rather wonky animations(The 'spin on the air' animation after a 3-hit blade combo is particularly hilarious.) The world of Nosgoth is very pretty, and with the improved draw-distance, it's easier to appreciate the detail that went into designing the game's world, even if it's noticeably smaller than Soul Reaver 1's. It wouldn't be a Legacy of Kain game if it didn't have stellar voice acting now would it? The soundtrack is a bit mediocre for the series standards however.

 As far as I'm concerned, Soul Reaver 2 is an excellent game that only falters in the Combat department. It could've used a few hidden collectibles, boss fights and other elements that the previous game had, but I didn't miss those features as much as I thought I would. The change from an exploration-centric game into such a linear one might throw some people off, but the story was so good, that I kinda appreciated getting to advance the plot much faster.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Soul Reaver 2

 Huh, so we are abandoning the 'Legacy of Kain' moniker?

 I-I'm amazed. From the moment you fire up the game, the improvements are huge and notorious. The first thing you are treated to is a reimagining of  Soul Reaver 1's ending, and then... let's see... The camera, that used to be tied to R2 and L2, is now turned with the right analog stick. Genius. I remember whining about how little information it gave you to orient yourself, not anymore. Not only do you get a compass, which I suggested, but you also get a map, which I also suggested. And the framerate? Silky smooth. With new technology, also comes better graphics, and Nosgoth has never looked better(Well, maybe Blood Omen 2 looks slightly better, but it came after this one), it's very colorful, and the draw distance? You can see EVERYTHING. Remember in Soul Reaver 1 how short the draw distance was? That's a thing of the past.

 If I had one thing to complain about... it'd be that they change how the Reaver works. The previous game rewarded you with it if you did good in combat... now you can use it at any time, but you need to put it in 'cooldown' unless you want it to zap your HP constantly, plus, now the Reaver doesn't sustain your material form, so back to constantly feeding off souls. I dunno, it worked so well on the previous game, why fix what ain't broken? Also, and this is a nitpick, the graphics reek of early PS2, with slightly ugly models, and some wonky animations. The environments fare much, much better though.

 As a side-note, I know for sure that I never got out of the Sarafan Stronghold when I was younger, how do I know that? I don't remember ever getting out of it! I'm pretty sure it has to do with me not knowing how to save the game, probably, since that puzzled me at first. Turns out you can't save the game after well 30-40 minutes into the game. I'm not kidding. Which reminds me, they also changed how you save your game, instead of 'save anywhere', it uses save points, and they seem to be slightly too far apart from each other, but then again, I only came across two of them, so I might be wrong.

 What else can I say? I am completely enthralled by the game. I love the script, love the dialogue and love the delivery. I'm fully hooked by the lore of the series, and can't wait to see how it unfolds... barring the fact that I did finish Defiance back in the day that is.

Review #228: Uncharted - Golden Abyss

 More like 'Unswiped', am I right?

 So, Sony launched the new Vita, and it needed something to sell it, and something that would showcase it's capabilities.  Uncharted Golden Abyss was the answer to both questions(were they even questions?), the 'Uncharted' brand is easily a system seller, and Golden Abyss uses about every single feature of the Vita.

 Golden Abyss takes place before the very first Uncharted, which is probably for the best, and has Nathan teaming up with Sully as well as newcomers Marisa Chase and Dante. The plot is... well, it's your typical Uncharted game, there's a mystery surrounding ancient stuff, Nate is in it for the money at first and then it gets personal. The major villain is caricaturesque, as per usual, but it's the dialogue and the interaction with the supporting cast that really makes Uncharted, well, Uncharted. The dialogue between Nate and Sully is pure gold, and it's great to see Sully before he got 'too old for this stuff', Chase and Dante's is full of colorful banter while Dante and Nate keep taking jabs at each other. Needless to say, the writing for the dialogues is top-notch, up to the series standards, while the plot itself... well, it's your typical Uncharted plot, and as I said before, it's hard to break away from the formula when your main character is supposed to be an explorer.

 With Uncharted on the Vita you get the usual third person shooting and platforming the series is known for. There's a fair amount of shooting segments, platforming segments and even a few puzzles here and there, whether you prefer the shooting or the platforming, I think there's enough here to satisfy both. Now then, there's a few things I liked and a few I disliked about this particular entry, both tied to the new buttonless controls. Every optional feature is OK in my book. You can aim with the right analog stick or by moving the Vita itself, and believe it or not, moving the Vita actually makes precision aiming a bit easier, to fine tune your aim after using the right analog stick. You can also swipe your finger across parkour obstacles to have Nate do them by themselves, it's amusing at first, but I stuck with the buttons for the most part. You can also tap on the back of the Vita to climb ropes, instead of using buttons, which I didn't care for, but it was optional, so I didn't mind. Another cool thing, is that the game has a ton of collectibles, and many of these have touch based mini-games. Like rotating and object and cleaning it by swiping it, or rubbing charcoal over paper, and even a couple of literal puzzles, in which you have to rotate and accommodate the pieces, which is cool, because they are optional. All in all, I'd say this is the Uncharted game with the most collectibles of them all.... but then again, Uncharted 1 and 2 rewarded you with points to unlock cheats, there's no such thing in this one!

 But then there's the mandatory gimmicks. While walking over planks, Nate will most likely lose his balance, requiring you to tilt the Vita sideways to regain it. It wouldn't be an Uncharted game if it didn't rework the melee, and on this fourth iteration, after pressing Square a bunch of times, a touch-based QTE will take place. This was annoying and I could've done without. Also, during some platforming sections Nate will lose his grip and... yes, Touch-based QTE. There's another segment, only one thankfully, that has Nate drop through falling rapids, and you have to move Nate by tilting the Vita. Then there's the much-talked about moment in which you have to hold the Vita against a light source to make letters appear on a parchment. Yeah, it's cute, but say you are on a car, at night, playing... now you can't advance in the game because there's no flippin' light source strong enough nearby! And grenades must be thrown by touching the screen, but this I can forgive since they probably run out of buttons, heh! I'm sure that some people won't mind all of these, but I did. This is supposed to be a handheld game, a game you should be able to play anywhere, but forcing you to tilt around the Vita like a dolt doesn't sound to me like something I'd want to do in public. Everything optional about touch controls is great, but when they become mandatory, that's an issue, at least as far as I'm concerned.

 As far as the game itself goes, it's a blast. It lasts between 8-10 hours, which makes it pretty lengthy. The set pieces aren't as amazing as, say Uncharted 2, but that's not to say that the game doesn't have exciting moments. A lot of the shoot outs are very intense, with some great level design. There's also some great platforming segments that keep the action going even though bullets aren't flying... most of the time. It also keeps the series' trademark bullet sponge enemies, makes you wonder how they can keep moving after having 5-6 bullets encrusted on their bodies! I also suffered a few moments were Nate just slipped out of my control into his death, which once again, kinda comes as a given with Uncharted games. One point of contention is that there's much extra stuff. All the collectibles are neat, and many have descriptions which tie up into the game's story, but there's no cheats, unlockables or multiplayer mode. As if I haven't made it clear, the game is pretty much in-line with the rest of the series, the scope may be a bit smaller, but it's as faithful to the franchise as possible.

 Golden Abyss is gorgeous, plenty of times I found myself, mouth agape, in awe at the beautiful environments and vistas. It's a beautiful game. While the textures aren't as great as Uncharted 1's, I'd say the character models look even better. The polygon count is definitely smaller, but at least they don't look as if they were made out of wax. Music and voice acting are up to the game's usual standards, it sounds just as good as any other Uncharted.

 The most surprising thing about Uncharted: Golden Abyss is that you wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't made by Naughty Dog if you weren't told so. Everything about the game reeks of quality, in which it matches the main entries of the series. That said, while I feel this is a great game... I also feel like it's not a good portable game. Tilting the console itself, or having to rely on a light source for that one moment just isn't my thing when it comes to a handheld. If I were to rank this one, it easily surpasses Uncharted 1(But then again, I disliked that one) and it almost reaches Uncharted 2.
 8.0 out of 10

Archile's Grab Bag: Turtle Month Confirmed Edition

  New package yadda yadda yadaa...

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Arcade Attack: This game's reception was a bit... bad, but I ain't gonna lie, it seems decent.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I played a little bit of this one back in the day, it was fun, but nowhere neat as fun as the PS2 version.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - Battle Nexus: I think I actually gave this one a try as well, but it's so similar to the first one, on the outset, that I wouldn't remember clearly!

 Gravity Rush: The only Playstation Vita game worth having at the moment, or so they claim. It seems awesome.

 TMNT: Ah! I gave this one a go as well, the reviews were coming in and all were so good, that I just had to play it. I remember liking it, but I never got around playing as anybody but Raph, guess I didn't make much progress! Fun fact, finding this game Complete in Box is about 100 dollar hard. This one had a smashed box, but hey, it was only 20!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I don't have much to say about this one! 'Nother day, 'nother TMNT game!

 Soul Reaver 2: Guess we are just gonna throw away the 'Legacy of Kain' moniker, huh. Yeah, it does say 'The Legacy of Kain series', but it doesn't count! Ah well, I'm looking forward to this one, I already skimmed through the insctruction booklet and it seems like they added a compass and more checkpoints, almost as if they had gone back to the past to see what I disliked about the first one. IT'S A GAME ABOUT TIME TRAVELLING AND I DID A JOKE ABOUT IT.













 And as if it were not clear enough, Turtle Month is happening again this November, and there's quite a bit of games planned for it....

Now Playing: Uncharted - Golden Abyss

 There's STILL uncharted territory, goddamn!

 It's good, IT'S GOOD. So, Soul Reaver 2 can't arrive soon enough, and Jeanne D'Arc kicked my butt(Mission 33, Roger's subconsciousness killed my spell caster), and I needed a break from studying and... and... well, Uncharted was laying by, so why not?!

 I'm on Chapter 3, and it's really good. Game looks gorgeous, the dialogue and voice acting are as sharp as always and it feels just like the Uncharted we know and love. They even changed the melee again, because changing how melee works is an Uncharted staple. This is, probably, my least favorite melee, as it involves swiping on the screen. Yipie. All the optional touch controls are fine, because they are optional, but I'm disliking the mandatory 'tilt to balance' and 'swipe to machete' moments in the game. I understand they wanted to showcase the Vita capabilities, but I could do without. To be fair, they aren't overly annoying, but if it was up to me, I would've taken them away.

 Still, it's a solid game so far.

Review #227: SoulCalibur Legends

 Because every fighting game needs an action spin-off.

 There comes a point in every fighting game franchise's life in which it needs an action game spin off. You've got Death by Degrees for Tekken, Virtua Fighter Quest for, well, Virtua Fighter, and Mythologies/Special Forces/Shaolin Monks for Mortal Kombat and Guilty Gear 2 for Guilty Gear, and then there's Legends for SoulCalibur.

 The story... is not worth it, on many fronts. First and foremost, even though it claims to tell the story between Soul Edge and SoulCalibur, the game is actually non-canon. An even if the developers didn't claim so, the fact that it contradicts many things from the numbered iterations would make any point you had in favor of this... loose retelling, void. Basically, it's a superfluous entry into the series that doesn't add anything to the franchise. But let's say you don't care, after all, what matters is that a game is fun to play, not that it has a good story(Unless it's an RPG or a visual novel, that is), is the story in this game worth getting into? No, it is not. The script is very poorly written, there's so much foreshadowing that it's impossible not to predict what's gonna happen. And you don't even get to feel smart about figuring it out, since the game is basically screaming the plot twists at the top of its lungs! It's also one of those Japanese games that want you to feel empathy and sorry for the villain... but you just can't help but laugh at how poorly written he is.

 This is a third person hack and slash, with the occasional puzzle every now and then, but it's solved by slashing stuff with your blades. You are allowed to take two characters into each stage, each with their own life bar and special gauge. You can swap characters at almost any time, which can be a life saver. First strike: The only way to attack is with motion controls, which means that precision is thrown out the window. And you will need precision if you want to make combos, as there's five different types of attacks: Upwards slice, downwards slice, left and right slashes and thrusting. You can adjust the sensitivity, and what attack you'd rather the sensor favor, which is a nice gesture, but you'll never get to a point where you can trust the game to read all of your moves correctly. And the saddest part about it? There is some depth to the combo system, you can juggle enemies, there's even some attack strings that change if you wait a little before your next input, but relying on motion controls means you won't get the most of it. Dodging is also tied to motion controls, the nunchuck more precisely. At the end of day, I opted to forgo dodging and rely on avoiding attacks by moving around or just blocking what can be blocked. It's a better alternative than hoping it reads your nunchuck input right in the heat of battle.

 Strike numero dos: The targeting system is flawed. Firstly, every time you kill an enemy and the reticule moves to another enemy, it takes a while for the camera to catch up to it. Even worse, you switch between enemies by tapping A... but sometimes you need to get closer to an enemy, even if it's inside your view, so that he becomes targetable. Strike three:The level design is atrocious. Levels are made up of tunnels that lead into bigger arenas, of which you can't exit until you slay every monster inside. Sure, the decor or the surroundings might look different, but it's the same design all the way through to the end. Every now and then there'll be simple death traps, but the game loves to place rolling boulders next to corners, so that it's impossible for you to see them coming until it's to late, since the camera is so bad. Very cheap.

 I may be out of strikes, but the game isn't out of flaws! There's only 8 different stages(tilesets, if you will), and you play them multiple times. The enemies may change, but the areas are the same, the puzzles are the same, although slightly altered every time you go through them. And then you reach chapter 5, which is halfway through the game, and you are to visit every single stage for the umpteenth time. And it gets better, you have to fight every single boss up to that point again, even better, they recycle their cutscenes. I'm not kidding. Some bosses are fought over 8 times, they may change their colors, but not their patterns.

 The game offers 7 different characters, while the back claims 'Play as your favorite characters', so, hopefully Siegfried, Taki, Sophitia, Astaroth, Mitsurugi or Ivy are among your favorites. The seventh character is the guest, Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia, I love Lloyd, so I approve of his inclusion... even if he uses Raphael's weapons. Ah, weapons! Each character gets 4 weapons, which you unlock by playing through the game, and, as far as I could tell, they are just cosmetic. Some of the latter weapons confer extra special attacks to the characters, but as far as damage and attacks go, they are the same. You can also strengthen your weapons by finding fire swords throughout each level, but the enhancements are negligible until you max them at level 3, in which you'll notice a slight damage increase. For what it's worth, all seven characters play differently, their speed and attacks are different, as well as the properties of most of their moves.

 After you are done with the game, you'll unlock New Game+, which allows you to retain your weapons and their levels. It took me about 6 hours to finish it, which is fair for this type of game, but I've heard of people taking up to 7-10 hours to finish it. Then there's a 2 player mode, 'Party mode', that has about 15 different 'quests'. Five of them are simple versus arenas, five of them are small co-operative stages, and the other 5 are 'collect more items'/'slay more enemies' competitions. It's a neat addition, although the frame rate takes a hit, but it's still playable. The game is definitely barebones. The length could've been just right, but most of the game is spent replaying the same stages, defeating the same bosses and enemies, so just 6 hours doesn't cut it in this case.

 Visuals have their ups and downs. The character models are top notch, playable characters and bosses all look great, enemies look pretty decent as well. The stages look good, but the poor level design makes them look dull and lifeless. I think if the assets would've been given a better architecture, the stages could've looked better. The music is phenomenal, which is a no brainer when you take into account that it's all lifted from the main games, as well as a remixed song from Tales of Symphonia. Voice acting, what little there is, is pretty good as well, but the script is so bad that it's hard to care.

 SoulCalibur Legends is as by the numbers as it gets, but it's also plagued with terrible level design, repeated stages and bosses and motion controls. And the kicker? The game is not canon as far as the developers go, so the game adds nothing to the franchise. Which is a shame, as the combat can be fun every now and then.

 4.5/10

Review #226: Touch my Katamari

 The king's bad day.

 You thought Katamari was gone, well, you thought wrong. Touch my Katamari is the latest, and last(so far), installment of the Katamari Damacy series, and it actually introduces new mechanics into the mix!

 As per usual, the King of all Cosmos is up to his usual antics, this time around people have made him feel as if he isn't what he used to be, so he is gonna prove them wrong. How? By sending his son, the Prince, roll up stuff into his Katamari and turn it into stars. There's also a sub-story surrounding Goro, an otaku trying to improve himself. The art direction has changed a bit, it's a bit rougher and looks like a hand-drawn cartoon. All in all, I liked it. The art and the dialogue mix very well into some truly hilarious cut scenes, I actually found myself laughing out loud!

 For the uninitiated, in the Katamari Damacy series, you play as the Prince as he rolls around his Katamari, rolling over stuff smaller than the Katamari will make stuff stick to it, eventually increasing the size of the Katamari and allowing him to roll up bigger stuff. This new game actually has a couple of new things that I really liked. Firstly, controls, you can either play with the classic dual-analog rolling controls, or the new, simplified controls that relegate moving to the left analog stick and the camera to the right analog stick. The new settings make rolling around the Katamari a breeze, it's gonna be hard to go back to the classic setup! There's also optional touch-screen controls, but they are imprecise, so I didn't even bother. The one, one thing I had issue with was jumping, which is done, supposedly, by tapping on the upper half of the screen. I couldn't get it to work consistently, but at least it never was a necessity.

 The new features, which seem like gimmicks at first, are really fun and a great addition to the series. By using the touch screen or the touch pad behind the Vita, you can stretch or squeeze the Katamari. Besides covering more area, they also have different speeds, stretched Katamari is slow but covers a huge area, while the squeezed Katamari is very fast, at the expense of a lower, ground-level coverage. Using these mechanics is never a necessity, but not only are they fun, they are useful.

 As much as I liked the new controls and the new mechanics, the game has a handful of drawbacks that really play against it. For instance, cousins and presents are back, but these only appear on a level after you replay it once and twice it respectively. In previous games, both the Cousin and the present would be hidden on a level from the get-go. It seems like a minor nitpick, but they used this to pad the game. I finished the game, and then immediately, because it was so fun, played it again to unlock every cousin and then.... I immediately played through the entire game again to unlock every present, because it was so fun! Where's the problem? These three playthroughs, some that had repeated attempts on certain levels since I couldn't find the present... totalled to 4 hours. FOUR. HOURS. And on these four hours, I came across just 9 Fan Damacis(More on this later). It's a short game, there's 12 stages, which also amount to only 12 other Cousins. And since I'm on the topic of Cousins, there's no way to know if you found a level's Cousin and/or present, so I hope you have a good memory.

 The game has two forms of currency, Candy and Fan Damacis. Candy I approve of, you earn it after every successful level, and it can be used to purchase Eternal(no time limit) and Katamari Drive(Sped up!) variations of every stage, as well as music tracks or clothes for the King of all Cosmos(If that's your thing). Candy is a good way to add replay value to the game. But then there's the Fan Damacis.. these may, or may not, spawn on a level, and they are used to access the 'free' DLC. There's about 10 DLC missions, and from what I saw the add new areas and what not, but in order to open up these levels you need 10 Fan Damacis. Yeah, I couldn't be arsed to grind these bastards, particularly when you can buy them for 0.99 a piece. Microtransactions in a handheld game, no thanks. Maybe one day a tenth Fan Damacy will spawn and I will actually try one of the many DLC levels, but I'm not gonna encourage this practice. On the other hand, there's paid DLC for old music tracks, that DLC on the other hand is a better practice, it's optional and it's just aesthetic, and fans of the older soundtracks will get a kick out of it.

 There's a few other things about the game that bothered me a bit. The draw distance is a bit... short. You'll see objects pop in and out of view fairly often, and fairly close to the Prince. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's something that's hard not to notice. Other Katamari games would feature a 'Collection' book, that would catalog every single thing that you rolled into your Katamari, that has been reduced into the 'Curio Book', that only accounts for rare items. And lastly, and more personal, levels feel a tad smaller than what I'm used to. I liked how there are no loading times for when the Katamari grows, but no stage reaches the huge scale that Me & My Katamari would reach on later levels, heck, it doesn't even get as small as Me & My Katamari would get on the earlier levels!

 As far as the presentation is concerned, it's top-notch. This is the best looking Katamari game I've ever played(Not that it matters in such a minimalist game!). The Cut-scenes deserve to be mentioned again, they are gorgeous. The soundtrack isn't as strong as the other games I've played in the series, but even then, it's still really good. Voice acting is excellent as well, what little there is.

 As a whole, Touch My Katamari is disappointing. The new control scheme, the lack of loading times when transitioning sizes and the new mechanics are all welcome additions to the series, I'd say that they make the game even more fun that it's ever been... but it lacks in content in which to make use of it. The game is over before you know it, stages aren't as impressive as previous games, and the microtransactions are plain disgusting. At least, even at its worst, a Katamari game is still a pretty fun game.
 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: SoulCalibur Legends

 Did you know? It's actually called 'SoulCalibur' and not 'Soul Calibur'.

 I'm not done with Terrible Wii Games(tm) just yet! Next(and last) in line is SoulCalibur Legends. First thing I gotta ask: Why? Why does this game exist? It says it tells Siegfried's story... but they also say that it's not canon to the series... so... what's the purpose? Was the Waggle to much a temptation as not to try to cash in on it?

 Regardless, it's not too bad. Using the nunchuck to dodge is nigh impossible, for me anyways, and every now and then it'll get one of my slash/thrust/slice inputs wrong, but not a big deal. There seems to be some combo system in place, you can knock enemies upwards and continue slashing, which is kinda neat. I think that if they had swapped the waggle for buttons, it could've been better, because there is some semblance of depth.

 But the rest of the game is a bit half-bakes. The targeting systems is decent, but y'know you are doing something wrong when Ocarina of Time's then-novel targeting system is better than yours. The issue comes from how much time it takes for the camera to catch up to the reticule every time you kill an enemy, or merely decide to target another one. As for the stages, they all follow suit, they are a collection of small 'arenas' connected by tunnels. The decor might be different, sometimes the walls might be made of bricks, dirt or metal, but it's the same thing over and over again.

 Still, it can be fun at times. It certainly shows more promise than Bleach - Shattered Blade!

Review #225: Bleach - Shattered Blade

 It's shattered alright.

 You know the deal, a shonen series gets popular and it spawns a simple fighting game. It's like a rule, something that will happen because it's the way of the world. Back when Bleach was in its heyday, it actually spawned quite the amount of fighting games. You had the amazing but ignored DS fighters, the simpler but fan service-er PSP fighters and then there were the PS2 arena fighters and the even more obscure Gamecube ones. Shattered Blade it's a pseudo-rework of one of those Gamecube game, but they swapped buttons for waggling, and it works about as well as you'd expect.

 As far as modes go, it offers the usual suspects: Episode Mode(Story Mode), Arcade Mode, VS(CPU or Player), Training(And tutorial!) and the Shop where you can buy items for the Gallery. The game's gimmick was Arturo Plateado, an original character designed by series' creator Kubo Tite exclusively for this game. His story is terrible. Basically, about 8 characters get an Episode Mode, which is more or less a retelling of the same story from their point of view, and them getting to fight Arturo Plateado in the end. The plot revolves about Arturo Plateado being sealed, but somehow being able to create duplicates of certain characters that coerce other characters into collecting all the shards of the Sokyoku. How can he create duplicates from within the seal? Who knows. Why not have these duplicates collect the shards incognito instead of trusting someone to defeat everyone else and collect all the shards? Who knows. Basically, the story is bad. As far as roster goes, it features 32 characters, 2 'guest' Arrancars as well as Arturo Plateado, while the other 29 come from the Soul Society arc. I thought the character selection was pretty good, and covers all the major characters from the arc.

 The first thing that you should know is that the game only supports the Wiimote+Nunchuck combo, and that you can only attack while waggling. There's three types of attacks: Normal, Critical and Special, and all three of them come in three varieties, depending if you thrust the Wiimote, flick it to the sides or up-and-down. It works about as well as you'd expect. But here's the thing, you can actually have a bit of fun with the game if you don't take it seriously. You can't take a fighting game that relies on imprecise motion controls seriously anyways. You can perform some simple normal-into-critical or normal-into-special combos, but nothing fancy Sadly, the novelty does wear off, and then it just gets dull. It doesn't help that the game is designed around a Stamina meter, because having to wait in order to attack again is always fun. It's not like having infinite stamina would've allowed you to spam your enemy to death, y'see, you can input Critical attacks WHILE receiving damage, not only will you break their combo, it will actually negate a ton of the damage you would've received, as a matter of fact, more often than not, breaking a normal combo attack with a critical attack will deal more damage than what you receive. It's not a deep game, and even if there were optional joystick support, buttons couldn't save this game.

 There's a few other mechanics at play as well. Z button is used to block and C is used to dash faster. The game plays like a 3D Arena fighter, which means full 8-directional movement is supported, although you can't jump. There's also a Bankai Gauge, and it is called that even for characters that don't have a Bankai, that is filled by dealing or receiving damage, or by waggling the nunchuck. Once it's full, waggle the nunchuck once more and you'll enter Bankai/'Super' mode. It increases everyone's attack power, and in some cases, it actually changes how they fight. Plus, one of the Special attacks becomes a Super Move. It only lasts for a while, so make the most of it. There's this one mechanic that really annoyed me though, Clashes. If two critical attacks clash, you will be subjected to a mini-game, in which you must play a best-out-of-5 rock-paper-scissors match... except that it's a stab-slash-slice mini-game. These bring the game to a halt, they are slow and boring, and worst of all, the game loves to mess up your inputs. Not that it matters since it's pretty much a luck-based affair, but knowing that if the sensor had read your move correctly would've netted you the win can be pretty vexing. Here's the thing, during normal attacks, it really doesn't matter if it reads your inputs wrong. If it reads your Critical Attack wrong, it doesn't matter either, they behave mostly the same. When it reads your Special moves wrong, it shouldn't be a big deal either since you should be using it to end a combo. Regardless, it doesn't seem to happen often. But when it comes to clashing, it seems that it will never get your inputs right, it's hilarious really. These clashes happen way more than you'd think and they only get more and more annoying.

 If one good thing can be said about the game, is that it looks pretty decent. Character models are more reminiscent of the manga than the anime, which I really liked, and they look pretty good. They aren't very detailed, but Bleach's designs are very simple to begin with. That said, there's a lot, and I mean a lot of clipping issues that kinda take away from them. The game also employs a very washed out color palette, something the Wii is infamous for, and I think it kinda plays against it. It's an anime game, make it colorful, make it pop! The music was pretty as well, although not memorable. The voice acting is good, but only the American dub is available. Newcomer Arturo Plateado is the worst of the bunch by far, his 'I'm disappearing!' line is hilariously terrible. 

 Bleach is a bad game. The combat offers no depth, and the clashes are infuriating, however, I do admit that some fun can be had by waggling, until the novelty wears off anyways. Even for fans, it's better to stay away, Arturo Plateado isn't worth it, and he makes a reappearance on the much better 'Bleach: The 3rd Phantom'.

 3.5 out of 10.

Now Playing: Bleach - Shattered Blade

 Let's play some terrible Wii Games!

 Whenever people talk bad about the Wii's library, I usually get defensive about it, like 'Screw you, dude, the Wii has great games, like No More Heroes, Xenoblade, The Last Story or Arc Rise Phantasia!(And if you skipped on this one due to the voice acting... you missed out.)'. But then I realized my problem... I cherry pick what I play, most of the time, so I know that I'm gonna play something decent. It was time to change that, so I decided to buy some terrible Wii games. Plus, Soul Reaver 2 hasn't arrived yet, so I can't finish the fight, and Jeanne D'Arc can only hold my interest during my breaks for so long...

 So, Bleach used to be good, remember? Soul Society is one of my favorite arcs in a shonen series EVER, yet it only went downhill from there. But let's go back in time when the DS was all the rage and I was in love with the Bleach fighting games on the DS. They were awesome, and I had a tiny bit of interest in Shattered Blade, but I knew that it was crap, so I opted to skip it, and wait for Versus Crusade(Which never arrived!). Which is why today I'm trying out Shattered Blade, and guess what? It ain't so bad! I mean, as a fighting game, it's terrible, and even, even if the game allowed for traditional joysticks, it would still suck. But as a game? It's not THAT bad. I mean, making a fighting game around waggling is all kinds of dumb, but the moment you stop taking the game seriously, you can have some fun with it.

 I mean, waggling the joystick around translates to dozens of slashes, thrusts and slices in a matter of seconds. It looks ridiculous, which makes it awesome. No, really, if this was anything but a fighting game, it could've made for a more interesting... something else. Basically, it boils down to this: It's a terrible 1/10 fighting game, it's probably the worst Bleach game out there, but as a game... I've played worse. But then again, I'm only done with Renji's story mode, so there's still time for it to get worse.

Month Overview: April 2015

 Games finished in April 2015:

Haunting Ground                                          8.5
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS                          8.5
Red Faction 2                                                7.0
Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain                      8.0
Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver                       8.0

Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble                   7.0

 Rather slow, but solid month. I was busy studying and playing Team Fortress 2 and getting stuck on that one mission in Jeanne D'Arc which kinda halted my progress. It's also a teensy bit early to close the month, but I very much doubt I'll be finishing any game before April ends, so it's appropriate, if hasty. The Legacy of Kainathon has begun and it's been a solid series so far, not counting Blood Omen 2, but seeing how little it adds to the LoK mithos... why count it in?

Game of April:

 'Tis true, Soul Reaver was not the game I rated the highest... but I just couldn't. I wanted to, I really, really did, because I enjoyed the characters and most of the gameplay oh so much, but there were glaring flaws that I just couldn't turn a blind eye to. That said, Raziel is probably one of the greatest characters ever created, and quite probably,a kind of protagonist that we won't be seeing any time soon. Freaky things like Raziel just don't sell as much as bald soldiers or underaged, oversexualized japanese girls do.

 Runner-up:

 Smash is Smash, and if you've a problem with it, better... Settle. It. In. SMASH! But yeah, it's everything I hoped it'd be. And there's really little else left for me to say!

Review #224: Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble

 How to Man 101.

 Are you a man? After playing Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble, you will be. A Bancho is the manliest man you can ever become, and one can only reach this status by being a complete and total badass. And this is what this game is about, becoming the baddest of the bad.

 After naming your Bancho, which can only be a guy, you are thrust into the town of Kyouto, and you make it your one goal to become the Baddest Bancho around. Not an easy task, there's 46 other Bancho with the same goal as you, plus, this is a 7-day school trip, so you are always running against time. As expected, there's not a whole lot story to the game, not that it needs to. The supporting cast is made up of your few school mates, which get a bit of development if you don't ditch the school activities, and the other Bancho, all which have their own distinct looks, but only get a few lines of dialogue. For what it's worth, the dialogue is excellent, they made it both funny and badass, and just like the setting itself, it's very Japanese, with lines such as 'Blame your own weakness!'. It's awesome.

 The game is about managing time. Every morning you are given the option of following the schedule and spend the morning doing the school touring, or ditching the class and hunt some Banchos. The town is made up of about 10 different districts, but moving around town will take up time. Besides your own two feet, you can use Buses, the subway or cabs. Cabs can take you anywhere, are faster than your own feet, but cost a lot, subways are cheap and fast, but there's only about 5 stops, while buses have more stops than the subway, but are very slow. The town of Kyouto is decently sized, but there's not a whole lot to do besides pummeling dudes. Sure, you can occasionally find 'secret' events, but they are just cutscenes, that may or may not trigger a fight or a decision that will slightly alter the ending dialogue.

 As a respectful Bancho, there are rules to follow if you want to be truly respected. For instance, while punks may use weapons(all behave the same though!), you shouldn't pick'em up. And while you can just sucker punch an enemy, the proper etiquette is to engage them with the MENCHI BEAM. The MENCHI BEAM is done by holding R, and it will 'challenge' whoever is in front of you. Most NPCs will cower in fear and run away, but if you use the MENCHI BEAM on punks, they will either bow down to you, fall down in defeat or challenge your MENCHI BEAM with their own MENCHI BEAM. That initiates a Stare down, a phrase will pop up, and a button-pressing mini-game will start in which you must press the correct buttons to form that phrase. It's funny the first couple of times, but it grows old. Fast. That said, if you fail the mini-game, you'll take damage, and failure to engage fights with the MENCHI BEAM will result in a drop to your Bancho rank.

 So, you just successfully insulted your enemy and got the first hit in, then comes the fighting. It's rather simple, Square is for weak attacks, Triangle for strong attacks and circle to grab your enemies. There's a few other mechanics like blocking, charging energy and your Super Attack, but they do little to flesh the system. Fighting is fairly... loose. The camera isn't too bad, you can move it around with the digital pad, but there's no way to lock on to your enemy, so you might have to slightly direct your attacks with the analog nub. The thing is... there's not much to the combo system, you won't be pulling any fancy 10 hits combos or anything like that. Simple is not necessarily bad, but it goes a long way into making it get a tad repetitive. There's no nuance, nothing to keep the fights interesting. But hey, defeated Banchos join your ranks, so you can call them to aid you in battle!

 That said, you can customize quite a few aspects of your Bancho. In Kyouto there's a barber shop and a clothes store, so you can make yourself into a Badass of your liking. Keep in mind that what clothes you wear affect the number of pockets in which you can carry items! But more interestingly, leveling up grants you stat points that you can manually slot on your attributes, and new moves. While travelling on wheels, or at the hotel's room, you can actually edit every single move in your moveset. They have different speeds and attack power, but it's still not a system that lends itself to creativity, as far as combos go anyways.

 I think it's clear by now that the game's biggest flaw is how repetitive it gets. Every day boils down to the same routine, fight random punks, which all fight the same even if they wear different clothes, until they drop an itinerary, then use that itinerary to find a Bancho and defeat him. Sometimes a Bancho will only appear on certain days, so you might have to find another itinerary. Fights never really change, once you find a strategy that works, you will continue to use it all the way to the end, because there's no need to change it up! Another issue is with the Town itself, there's no real map to tell you how to go from place to place, even while entering the Bus, which opens up a pseudo-map, there's some locations that aren't shown in the map. Lastly, the game is rather short, I beat it in about 6 hours, but if you rush through it, you could probably do it even quicker.

 However, the game does have some replay value. You probably won't be able to see everything on your first way through. Either you hunt all the Banchos, and will probably miss some, go to every School Tour, or dip one feet in both. There's many ways to go about each day, and the events on each day are different, which leads to many decisions on what to do! There's New Game+ in the game, and you keep everything but the items you had on your inventory, but you can choose to beat the Banchos you already beat, not that you need to. There's also a 'Night Out' mode, which can be played offline with another player, and while you don't level up in this mode, you can find souls that can be used to increase your stats.

 While it's not a particularly good looking game, it gets the job done. Animations are a bit on the stiff side, but not terribly so, character models are simple, but are easy on the eyes. Kyouto is a fairly simple looking town, but for such a mundane setting, they really needn't go crazy on the backdrops. Plus, it's a PSP game with no frame rate issues and a decent loading times, that's badass. There's not a whole lot of different music tracks, and what few there are aren't particularly noteworthy, but I guess they do fit the game.

 Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble is a good game. It's fun, and while it's a bit short, there's plenty of replay value. There's not a whole lot of depth to the game, but I'm pretty sure they weren't aiming for that. For a portable game, it gets the job done, it's like a... Yakuza Lite.
 7.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Kenka Bancho - Badass Rumble

 Now that's one badass name for a game.

 Kenka Bancho is a game that will teach you how to be a MAN. It's all about manliness and badassery and being a manly badass and reaching new levels of badassery. Needless to say, this is a game I can get behind.

 I wasn't planning on playing something new this early, but Jeanne D'Arc's infamous 'protect the dauphin' mission kinda took its toll on me(4 tries and counting!), but Soul Reaver 2 hasn't arrived yet, so... Kenka Bancho it is.

 I love the fact that the game is VERY Japanese. In a good way, there's no fan service or pandering, yet it has ridiculous over the top things like the MENCHI BEAM. Because a real man starts a fight with the MENCHI BEAM, which initiates the STARE DOWN. And I love it.

 I can already predict that it will, probably, get a bit repetitive, but so far it's kinda fun. The fighting is a bit too simple, letting you customize your moveset is fun, but it's not like you can pull off anything fancy with the system. At least not now anyways, maybe once I level up my speed further? Whatev's, back to my quest of becoming the TOUGHEST MAN IN JAPAN.