Now Playing: Mario Kart - Double Dash!!

 Prepare for Trouble! And make it Double!!

 I'll make it short 'n sweet since I'm pressed for time

What I liked:
 - Each pair of characters has a unique special weapon
- The 'All cup' sounds cool in theory, I'll have to try them!

What I didn't
- You can no longer hold shells or banana peels as protection!
- Only 16 tracks, and I've already played a few from subsequent iterations of the series!
- No single player 'single racing', you have to play through entire cups!

RPGS and I

 If there's one thing our humble narrator loves, it's RPGs. Ever since I played Quest 64, and later Final Fantasy VII, I've been in love with the genre. So, why not write about them?

Special Mentions(Games that I'd need to replay in order to properly rank, since it's been far too long since I last played them):

 Chrono Trigger: It's a classic, and I've played it countless times, and scored a ton of endings... yet I was so young that I wouldn't know where to properly place it now!

 Final Fantasy VI: Probably the most beloved Final Fantasy game behind VII, it deserves all the praise it gets and more.... Although I will admit that I never properly finished it, something I plan to change, eventually.

The Elder Scrolls 3 - Morrowind: Morrowind is amazing, it was my favorite game at the time of its release actually. It was enormous, huge even, and the amount of freedom was staggering, and after playing for a while, you finally felt like a god among sheep. Problem being... I tried playing it again a few years ago, and I was a bit... disenchanted with it.

 Special-er Mentions(Because if I'd go beyond 10, these ones would follow):

 Seiken Densetsu 3: Easily my favorite SNES RPG. I loved the characters, loved how depending on which party you made, certain events would change, and how it would tie the stories of your three selected characters. And the branching job specializations? I love this game. And it never, EVER received a proper localization, what I'd do to have one. Squeenix, get on it, dammit.

 Tales of Graces F: I've followed the 'Tales of' series ever since Phantasia's fantranslation, and while I wouldn't call'em my favorite JRPGs ever, I've been entertained by them. Tales of Graces F is my favorite among the entire series, it delves into themes no other 'Tales of' games dabbled, the fighting system was a blast, and for a port of a Wii game, it looks gorgeous.

 The World Ends with You: Sure, the story is a rip off from Shibuya 15, and the 'Modern day Tokyo' setting was lifted straight from Shin Megami Tensei, although it took it in an entirely different direction, but it's one of the most original JRPGs out there. The combat system made the most out of the system, without feeling gimmicky, and while the story feels lifted from Shibuya 15, hey, no other game had done it before, or since! Plus, I felt Neku's character evolution was fairly realistic, which I enjoyed seeing all the way through.

 Lunar 2 - Eternal Blue Complete: Alright, so Lunar 1 is decent, but very dated. Lunar 2 improved so much upon Lunar 1, that while it does feel dated as well, it feels more of a 'classic dated' than 'annoying dated'. The story is fun and satisfying, every main character goes through their own story arc, they evolve, they change, they grow. The combat is challenging, but fun, and the presentation is adorable. Lunar 2 is great, amongst PS1 greatest.

 Legend of Legaia: My two favorite genres are Fighting games and RPGs. Now, what would happen if you mixed them both? Legend of Legaia happens. Featuring one of my favorite fighting systems, Legend of Legaia is a blast to play, creating your own combos with special and super moves, the game rewards creativity... well, until you find the Mystic Artes(Ultras), in which case you'll just want to try and score those! The story may not be all that interesting, some may even say that the main character is little more than a secondary character, but hey, this game makes grinding fun. And you will have to grind.

 Wild Arms 3: This one only barely didn't make it into the most favorites. The combat system is amazing, the story is great, the characters are appealing, there's a ton of challenging bonus bosses and the Western setting is very unique for the genre. Plus, Virginia kicks major butt.

 The Real List(Because Lists are fun):

 Shin Megami Tensei III - Nocturne: At first I was a bit scared, I absolutely hate the 'mute hero' trope, and what I like the most about RPGs is character development. But Nocturne managed to make the Demi-Fiend(The player character) matter, even if he never uttered a word. The entire world and premise of Nocturne is genius, and it's hard not to empathize with the supporting cast.

 The Legend of Dragoon: When I played this one when I was younger, I absolutely hated it. But modern-day me? Absolutely loved it. For instance, I love characters with alternate transformations, and in this one, well, every character in the game can transform. And I love dragons. And they transform into Dragoons, which grants them dragonic armors. And they look awesome. The Legend of Dragoon is a 4 disc epic, back when JRPGs used to be cool.

 Orcs & Elves: When ID created the first person, turn based RPG 'Doom RPG', they struck gold. They went on to make Doom RPG 2, Orcs & Elves, Orcs & Elves 2 and Wolfenstein RPG using the very same engine... and they are all amazing. Long story short, they are the perfect on-the go games, and I must've played over a dozen times each. But my favorite would be the enhanced DS port of Orcs & Elves 1. It looks amazing, it adds more areas, but is every bit as good as it was on mobile phones. And sure, the story isn't up to par with any other entry on this list, and Story does matter on an RPG, but as far as gameplay is concerned, it's hard to get any more addictive than this.

 Shin Megami Tensei - Digital Devil Saga part 1 and 2: Fun fact, the game doesn't use the Shin Megami Tensei moniker in Japan, instead opting for 'Devil Turner'. But I digress, Digital Devil Saga is amazing. The game is about warring clans on a desolate land, until a sort of 'Virus' breaks out that turns everyone into demons, and they must eat other demons. It's a very dark game, very original as well, and it runs on Nocturne's engine! The game is made up of two halves, while I would say that Part 1 is a little bit better, since I love the setting, part 2 has some very, very poignant moments. The ending can be a bit freaky, but it's the journey that matters, not the end.

 Dungeon Siege: Back in the day when Internet was more of a luxury than a commodity, news about games were a bit harder to come by, games could come out without you ever hearing about them. Dungeon Siege was such a game for me, I just saw a cover with a fire sword and I knew that I had to play it. As far as I'm concerned, Dungeon Siege is even better than Diablo 2. One of my favorite things about the game, that makes me prefer it over Dungeon Siege 2(Even though Dungeon Siege 2 is amazing on its own right) is that you are always moving forward, enemies don't even respawn. It feels like an epic adventure, not unlike Half-Life 2. There are no 'cut-outs', just a one-way trip to the enemy's base. It feels grandiose. Then there's the little details, like the tons of different armor pieces that reflect on the character's model. And there's even a separate Multiplayer Campaign that ends on a huge Dragon boss fight. And then there's the Chicken Level, that rewards you with a Chicken Launcher. I am not making that up.

 Pokemon HeartGold: It's no secret that Generation 2 is my favorite Generation. Scratch that, it's the best generation. Suffice to say, Heart Gold is everything that Pokemon Gold was, but even better. There's not a single change that I'd undo, not a single addition that I'd take away. If I had gotten Heart Gold when I was a child, I think my mind would've exploded.

 Borlderlands 2: If you'd told me that mixing a loot-based dungeon Crawler, like Diablo, with a first person shooter would've made for a great game, I'd have called you a fool. And had you entertained the idea that I would've loved said game, I'd have cut all ties with you. But lo and behold, Borderlands 2 turned out to be almost everything I've ever wanted in a game. Now add proper melee weapons and combos, and I'll tattoo 'Borderlands' on my forehead.

 Xenogears: This game does exactly what Legend of Legaia did, mixing fighting game elements, like different attacks, combos and specials, with RPG elements. But unlike Legend of Legaia, it has an amazing story to boot. Sadly, the second disc crams three discs worth of content into one, with a lot of stuff having gotten cut. It's very rushed, and the game suffers for it, putting a blemish on the phenomenal game that is Xenogears. And despite that, against all odds, it manages to be cohesive, if a bit hard to follow at times. At the time, it had one of the most thought-provoking stories on an RPG, and while it's not as 'WHOA' as it was back in the day, it's still a fun romp. By the by, the Xenosaga series is terrible, but Xenoblade is a fantastic reboot of sorts!

 Persona 4: Alright, so the way in which Atlus has, and is, milking the series is downright disgusting. But Persona 4, on its own, is still amazing. With a supporting cast that is both appealing and interesting, manage to feel very realistic at times, it's easy to empathize with the trials and tribulations even tertiary characters go through. The fact that it uses a revised version of Nocturne's combat system is a plus as well.

 Final Fantasy VII: Some would call it dated, and I'd say it has aged like fine wine. Some would call into question the original sloppy translation, but I'd strike back claiming that it has been revised for subsequent releases. Some would say that it looks like crap now a days, and I'd say that it's still charming, and that I can't play graphics. There's something to be said for a game that started a trend, I'd call it the Street Fighter 2 of JRPGs, the Modern Warfare of JRPGs. The impact the game had on the industry is undeniable. Many would go on to try to be Final Fantasy VII, to try to be the next Final Fantasy VII, but none managed. There's something to be said for a game so old, with a story that has been dissected, told and spoiled all over the internet, and yet the plot twists still manage to shock and awe. There's something to be said for the materia system, so simple, so elegant and so functional.
 There's something to be said about Final Fantasy VII...

 Notable Mentions(Because they lack something, some oomph, but yet are noteworthy in some regard):

 Chrono Cross: It was, for a while, my favorite game of all time. There's a reason my I made my E-Mail address after it! I replayed it a while ago, and.... it's not a bad game, not at all, but the PS1 has so many other RPGs, so much better RPGs, that this one just feels a bit unremarkable.

 Parasite Eve: While I wanted to play this one for the longest time, I wasn't expecting to fall in love with it. The fighting system is very similar to Quest 64, which I actually enjoyed, the story and setting were pretty original, even by today's standards, and Aya Brea was a great character. Buuut.... the RPG elements are very few, it feels more like an action game than an RPG!

 Quest 64: The very first RPG I've ever played, I loved it then and I love it today. Turns out the Internet hates it! A couple of years ago I tried to give it another go, to see if I was so wrong... I played about 3 hours straight, turns out I love this little bastard. So, leveling up can be a bit tedious, I'll grant you that, but the combat system is fairly original and entertaining, you gotta give it that!

 Wild Arms 2: So, Wild Arms 2 is REALLY good, and I do mean, REALLY good, buuuuuuuuuut everything this game does, Wild Arms 3 does better. Really, that's it's only shortcoming. Ingenious puzzles, which WA3 does better. An excellent combat system, which WA3 does better. A highly original setting, that WA3 got better.

 Okage - Shadow King: So, Okage is fairly mundane as far as RPGs go, dated as well... but it's incredibly original and appealing. The story is hilarious, and it has a ton of genius little moments that are so subtle that you may not even notice them and consider them flaws, and explaining them would be entering spoilerific territory. It's a quirky little RPG, that's way more style than substance, but when your style is so unique, it's easy to ignore it's bigger flaws.

 Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning: So the game is anything but original. The settings is your very generic dwarves and elves magical medieval setting, the art direction feels like a WoW wannabe, and the story is nothing to write home about, not that I'm calling it bad... but they got the combat right. Most western RPGs tend to be great in stories, but lame in combat, KoA is the other way around. A forgettable story with a few good moments, but a fantastic combat system. It feels very dynamic, partly with how agile your hero is, and how you can switch weapons on the fly! It's a shame the developer went bankrupt, and we were left without a sequel.

 Disgaea - Hour of Darkness: For a while, it was my favorite game at its time(It's a bit of a recurring theme, c'mon, kids change their minds all the time!), it was funny and deceptively deep! As the series went on, it would go on to get more and more ridiculous, and them being SRPGs with hours upon hours of content, and me having shorter and shorter periods of free time.. I kinda fell off the Disgaea train.

 Tales of Phantasia: I still remember the first time I played this game, I was blown away by the real-time combat system, and how good the story was. The... 'spicy' fan translation also helped make the game more appealing for a growing teen! Eventually we got a GBA localization, which was, sadly, very bad, but in spite of it, I clocked over 50 hours on the bastard. It's a great game, and while it has been left in the dust by subsequent games in the series, it still has a place in my heart.

 Darksiders 2: Darksiders 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, and while I feel it's superior, as a whole, to its sequel, Darksiders 2 did some things I really, really liked. Namely, adding RPG elements. If there's one thing I'd hold against the game, is that at times it feels too much like Kingdoms of Amalur, a more badass Kingdoms of Amalur, but very similar non the less.

 Arcanum - Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura: This game has my favorite setting for a game ever, mixing steampunk with medieval fantasy elements, like orcs and magic. This is a very old isometric RPG, that luckily isn't as dated as, say, the Tower of Elemental Evil, so it's still easy to play without much hassle.

 Fable: Many called it 'disappointing', I called it great. The difference being that I knew better than to fall for Molyneux's hype. I loved Fable, the combat was simple, yet entertaining and watching your character grow and changed depending on you played was a neat touch as well, although growing older was not much fun(Particularly when you could be older than your mother if you sidequested a lot before rescuing her!), so, protip: Don't do the 'Fountain of Youth' quest until you are very, very old.

Review #254: X-Men - Next Dimension

 So... which one is the Next Dimension?

 If there's one thing I love, it's fighting games. X-Men Next dimension was a successor of sorts to the Mutant Academy series from the PS1 era, featuring 24 characters from the world of X-Men duking it out on the then-next gen.

 The game offers a healthy selection of modes: Story, Arcade, Versus(Player), Practice, Team, Survival and Time Attack. All of them are pretty much self-explanatory, but 'Story Mode' bears special mentioning. Story Mode is made up of several cut-scenes spread out throughout several fights, while some sections allow you to pick a character, the outcome is always the same. As far as the story goes, it's pretty dull and uninteresting, with Bastion kidnapping Forge and the X-Men coming to his aide, but hey, at least it actually has a story mode. Funnily enough, only about half of the character roster makes an appearance on this mode, and even less can be picked to play as.

 The fighting is surprisingly solid for a western Fighter, and it has a few original ideas that I really liked. Your basic tools are: two punches and two kicks, light and heavy for both, blocking by holding back, a throw and a counter, not unlike DoA's, albeit it can't be used while being comboed. The game featuress aerial combos, by tapping up after popping the opponent up into the air, cancels into the supers and specials and even juggles. Sometimes I felt as if the collision detection was a bit off at times, particularly against the large characters. 

 Each character has access to about 5 different specials, spread throughout 4 tiers. Y'see, the energy bar is made up of three Segments, and while each special has a different tier, it only consumes one segment of the gauge, except tier 4 specials which consume all three segments. Say, you use a a Tier 2 special, in this case only the second segment will be spent, while the first and third segment remain intact. But there's a rather interesting mechanic, in which you can 'move' energy from the other segments into one of your choice. For instance, having all three segments full allows you to: Pull a tier 4 special, two tier 3 specials(By moving energy from Segments 1 and 2 into the third one) or many uses of tier 2 and 1 specials! It's done by holding Z on the control and then whichever button is assigned to each segment. While gimmicky, I found it unique and interesting. On the other hand, one thing I did not like about the specials was the way they were used. Usually they involve pressing A+B or X+Y plus different directions. If you are gonna have simple commands for specials like these, make them universal amongst the entire cast! It's annoying going from one character into the next, and now A+B+Left is a tier 2 special instead of a tier 4, and in no way does it help in making characters 'feel different', if that was their intention.

 It bears mentioning that the camera loves to freak out. Many times it will get stuck on walls, or even on the floor while you pull off some of the flashier movies. Eventually you get used to it, but it can get pretty bad... One of Betsy's specials is unwatchable on the ceiling stage, since the camera will always glitch. And on some of the busier stages, like jungle stage with all the water, can suffer from a bit of slowdown every now and then, nothing major.

 The character roster is fairly decent, featuring most of the then popular X-Men.There's 24 characters, 22 out of them being entirely unique, while there are two semi clones(Phoenix and Dark Phoenix, Psylocke and Betsy) and I loved how characters come in all shapes and sizes, from the enormous Sentinel, the beefy Juggernaut or the short Wolverine. Each character also has 8 different colors, although there was an off putting amount of red alternate costumes. Unlocking stuff(About 6 of the characters, and 6 of the alternate colors) can take a while, particularly the ones requiring 1900+ rounds or spending 20 hours in the game, but there's a code to fasten the whole process... or just clock 56 hours into the game.

 The game's visuals are downright ugly and there's no two ways about it. Character models are ugly, some characters being oddly proportioned or even built, while the animation ranges from really good(Beast) to very spotty(Gambit). As for the textures, they are muddy and blurry. And the CG cutscenes present in the Story Mode? Hilariously fugly. No, this is not a good looking game. As for the music, forgettable at best, I can't remember a single tune from the game!

 X-Men - Next Dimension is more than a sum of its parts. The graphics are ugly, the camera is buggy, collision detection feels spotty at times... and yet the game is a blast to play. I can also admire some of it's original ideas, like the way the energy gauge works, or the different shapes and sizes combatants come in! It's probably not a fighting game you'll want to take super seriously, but one that's fun to play.

 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Soul Sacrifice

 It's cool, it's cool.

 I love Monster Hunter, well it's not like I played any other MH game besides Tri, but hey, I liked Tri. And I liked Gods Eater Burst, so I decided it was time to play another MH Clone(Or how the Vita Fanboys would rather call them, 'Raid game').

 The concept is relatively original, you partake in the memoirs of Magusar, the Wizard that keeps you in captivity, and by doing so, you grow stronger and more powerful, so that you can eventually challenge Magusar himself. I liked how you can challenge Magusar at any point in time. I managed to break off one of the seal rings around his barrier, not too shabby!

 As for the hunting, I'm not particularly a fan, but I think I could get used to it eventually, basically, you can have two three-spell loadouts with you at any time, and are used with Square, Triangle and Circle respectively, while R is used to toggle between load-outs. I mean, I guess it's sorta nice to have these many tools available, but I also like having in-depth movesets with one weapon... still, this is just a matter of preference. Plus, I still haven't gotten access to the 'Sacrifices', apparently you can sacrifice body parts(Health I'm guessing?) for one time boosts, or something like that, so there's always that.

 What I didn't like: the tutorial, it's pretty much bare bones. Like the Saving/Sacrificing mechanic, were the boosts permanent? Turns out they are, but it didn't tell me at the time. I wish there was some sort of in-game document, since Vita games don't carry instruction booklets, detailing the inner workings of the game. I mean, I managed to get the hang of everything I was told by the third mission, but I still feel as if the game could convey information in a better way.

 Ah well, onwards, I've body parts to dispose of.

Review #253: Tales of Hearts R

 R stands for 'reimagining'. Japan, why you gotta be so presumptuous with your titles?

 While the 'Tales of' series of JRPGs is pretty big in Japan, it's not so the case overseas. As a matter of fact, the Nintendo DS had three installments of the series, which were never localized. As luck would have it, two of these games were remade for the VITA, and one of them even made it here! While I'd love to compare both versions, I didn't play the DS one, but suffice to say, stuff got taken out, stuff got added and stuff got changed, and the general consensus is mixed, so I'll have to do with the game as is, without knowledge of the previous game.

 The story pits you as Kor Meteor, or Shing Meteorite as he is called in the Japanese track, who at the start of the game earns his 'Soma' weapon, and a few seconds later comes across a mysterious girl, typical, Kohaku and her brother. People have these things called 'Spiras', which is a sort of material psyche world of sorts, long story short, Kohaku's Spira gets broken into many pieces, and Kor vows to collect them all. Eventually their journey takes them over to the moon and against a villain who meant well, but through the wrong means, and is confused and.... is a walking cliche of any piece of Japanese media. I'm gonna be blunt, the story is dull, and filled to the brim with cliches, even for a Tales game. You've got your traitor, as per usual, the girls that can't cook and care a bit too much about their figures, as per usual, the hot springs scenes, as per usual, the dumb, never-say-die main character and the power of friendship, who also happens to be the host of some powerful being, as per usual, yadda yadda. There's not a single original or remarkable plot point to talk about, with some things being a bit too familiar to Tales of Graces... I'd say this is the anime-est the series has EVER been, with those all-so familiar Japanese lines you've heard hundreds of time before, like 'I HAVE MY FRIENDS TO HELP ME!' or 'WE HAVE WHAT YOU DON'T, THE POWER OF BONDS!', 'Humans are fools, but they are courageous and strong' and the like, so make of that what you will. Lastly, and worth mentioning, is that the game only has Japanese audio, and the translation is very... liberal. Even if you know nothing about Japanese, you'll notice that two-three word sentences have been extended into longer dialogue quips, so a lot of flavor has been added. Some characters even got their names changed, for whatever reason, like the protagonist. It didn't bother me too much, but I felt the dialogue was a bit too over-the-top and overdone for my taste.

 As with any other JRPG, the game progresses in a very linear fashion. Go into a town, talk with NPCs, accept sidequests, buy consumables or equipment and then venture into the next dungeon. Something that made me extremely happy was the overworld, it's been so long since I played a modern-day JRPG with a proper overworld, and it felt soooo good! On the flip side, it's the first 'Tales of' in a while to use Random Encounters, and while the encounter rate might be a bit on the high side, it's only really bothersome on the latter dungeons, when you are trying to solve puzzles as battles pop all the time. Leveling up in this game is fairly interesting, besides the mandatory increases to your stats, you also earn 'Soma points' which can then be spent on five different 'Soma pools', each pool increases different stats, but each pool can be leveled up, and this is how you earn different Artes(Spells or battle skills), Skills and weapons(Since your Weapon is a 'Soma', you obtain different forms of this Soma). I liked the customization, and the fact that you have to think how you want to develop each character, as there's no going back. There's a bit of a flaw to this mechanic, probably so that you don't overlevel and get the strongest skills and weapons early, the maximum level of each pool is capped by story progression, however, you are never told so, so at some point I assumed I just had to max everything in order to unlock the next tier of levels... wrong, I just had to hit the next plot point.

 Battling is the meats and potatoes of any 'Tales of' game, and I'm happy to report that it plays as well as any modern Tales of game, being particularly similar to Xillia. Basically, when a Random Encounter pops out, you are taken to a circular arena, and while you take control as any one character, the CPU will take over the other three. You can set their AI with rough parameters, but you can pop the menu at any time by pressing triangle and issue them orders directly. As for the character you play as, X is used for basic attacks, while Circle is used for TP(Mana)-consuming Artes. The beauty of the combat system is that it plays in real time, and it's very fast paced, at times reminiscent of a fighting game, due to all the comboing. Unique to this game in particular are the countering and follow up mechanics. Bashing an enemy for a while will make a blue marker appear over them, and using certain attacks on them will 'mark' them. While marked you can press Square to instantly teleport next to them and continue attacking them. As for Countering, after sustaining damage, enemies will turn red and use a souped up attack, pressing Square(Block) at the right time, will parry the attack and counter it with an attack of your own.

 The presentation is unimpressive, character models look decent, if a bit too simple, and some animations look a bit stiff, like running around. For what it's worth, the game maintains a solid framerate throughout, without any slowdown during battles, so that's a plus. As for the music, it fares as well as the rest of the game: It's decent, albeit unremarkable.

 So what's my problem with Tales of Hearts R? It IS a good game, probably among the best I have played on the Vita... but nothing about it makes it stand out from the rest of the 'Tales of' series. The story is dull, filled with cliches, and it even shares ideas with Tales of Graces, such as going to the moon, and that the 'important NPC from the moon' is green haired. As for the characters, they are cliched anime stereotypes to a fault, I think this is the very first 'Tales of' game in which I didn't like any of the characters. As for the World itself, not a single town or dungeon was memorable, it's pretty generic 'Tales of' stuff. The combat while fun, is exactly what I would've expected of a 'Tales of' game. What about the 'two styles' from Tales of Graces? Xillia's linking system? The follow-up mechanic is fun and all, but it does little to make it stand out.
 And that's Tales of Hearts R for you, it's a console JRPG on the palm of your hands, it's fun and functional... but less than impressive as a whole.
 7.5 out of 10.

Review #252: Shinobido 2 - Revenge of Zen

 Move aside, Phantom Pain. Or not.

 Shinobido 2 is a third-person action/stealth game for the PS Vita. It has the distinction of not only being the third Shinobido game, but the first one released in the USA!

 The story is terrible. At first, I thought that the reason everything was explained so poorly, and that it seemed as if I was missing some information was because I should've played the previous two games. I was wrong, I just did some reasearch, turns out the only returning character is on a support-only role. But what's the gist of it? You play as Zen, at the beginning of the game his girlfriend, Sen, is killed while Zen survives, albeit not without a scar. Early on, it is discovered that Sen is alive, she is on the game's cover after all, kinda, seems like there are these mirrors capable of creating 'mirror people', thus Kaede, San's 'reflection', was born. She has as much personality as a cardboard. As far as the main villain goes, his motivation is very dumb. The there are the three Daimyos vying for control of the land, and you must pick from missions sent by them. The game suggests serving only one Daimyo, but you are given no information about any of them, besides one line each explaining why they want control. There's the evil looking woman, the evil looking kabuki dude and the unreliable looking guy, so just pick whoever looks most appealing. Everything about the story is dumb. You shouldn't play this game for the story.

 The game progresses by having you doing missions by these different Daimyos. Basically, just complete missions until a cut-scene triggers letting you know that the next story mission is available, not that you need to tackle it immediately, as you may complete missions ad-nauseaum in order to level up Zen or Kaede. Zen and Kaede play exactly the same, but you must level them up separately, so you could potentially raise their stats(Stamina, Strength, Defense, Hook Length, Special) in different ways. There's also an Alchemy system, which is kinda convoluted to explain, but easy to use, in order to create tools out of items you may find on missions or earn as rewards. Or you can just buy them. There's a decent amount of tools, from healing items, to Shuriken, caltraps and mines, but, playing on Normal, I never felt the need to employ any item. I just let my Katana and hook do all the ninja-ing.

 Zen and Kaede are Ninja, so they're pretty nimble. They can dash, crouch and jump, which isn't very surprising, but they've also got a hook to grapple onto buildings or ledges(Which doesn't always work very well, the clinging can be a bit spotty), a cloth to glide and access to a special insta-kill move. This Special move consumes 'energy bars', but will kill any enemy(as many as energy bars you've got, although stronger enemies require more Special bars) in a nearby vicinity, without moving you from the spot(Although you can opt to stay on top of the corpse instead of defaulting back to where you were when you initiated it). Or you can just sneak behind them, or above them, and instantly kill them with triangle, your choice. If seen, you can either run for dear life, or engage them in swordplay. Square produces a three-hit combo, but combat is a bit... clunky, enemies always seem to be able to avoid your third hit, even if they got hit by the first two, however, roll around, while they block, and hit them on their backs and they won't be able to do a thing while you mash Square. It works on the last boss.

 As far as the missions are concerned, there's a lot of variety: Assassination, in which you must kill a specific target. Obliteration, in which you must slay every enemy. Transportation, in which you must take something from one place to another. Scouting, which is self explanatory. Kidnapping, in which you must find a target and carry them to the exit. Stealing, in which you must find and steal certain something. Transportation, in which you must transport a person from one place to another. Rescue, which is like 'kidnapping' but the target doesn't fight back. Duel, which are one-on-one fights, Assault in which you must destroy an Oxcart, and Guard in which you must guard one. Variety, there's a lot of it, buuuut... there's only about six different levels. The goals might be different, the enemy layout might be different, but you'll be Ninja-ing through the same, few stages all the time, so it gets repetitive anyways. On it's defense, there's 'New Game+', which also you to unlock skins, like a Bear, to put over Zen or Kaede, as well as a harder difficulty setting... but then again, it's a four-hour long game.

 Still, one of my biggest gripes with the game are the controls. For example, rolling is done by: First, Targeting the enemy(Hold L), then hold R(Crouch) and the press X+the analog stick. It would've been much easier to do away with having to hold R. Speaking of crouching, for whatever reason, the right analog stick turns YOU around while crouching, instead of moving the camera, which is endlessly annoying. While the hook predicts correctly where you'd want to grapple most of the time, so you can just press down on the directional pad, sometimes it won't come out, so you need to manually aim(X+O) and then shoot it. None of these are too cumbersome, but they do get in the way.

 I don't usually care about graphics, and it's not like I expected Uncharted - Golden Abyss-level graphics, but Shinobido 2 is a bit... lackluster. It looks like a PS2 game, a very sharp PS2 game, but a PS2 game non the less. During cutscenes there's also a ton of graphical bugs over Zaji and Zen's armors. The game could've used more 'instakill' animations, as seeing the same stab every single time gets old after a while. The music was fitting, but unremarkable, while the voice acting was passable at best, seems only Zen was decent, but even then it felt a but phoned-in.

 Shinobido 2 is a decently fun game. It has a few flaws and shortcomings here and there, but overall it's a decent game to have on the go.

 7.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tales of Hearts R

Random Encounters?!

 When was the last time a Tales of had Random Encounters?! Phantasia? Nay, Destiny?! Regardless, y'know what the blog was missing? A honest to goodness JRPG, and since I'm done with Shinobido 2(Turns out it's only 4 hours long), why not? The tests are over, so....
Yeah....

 What I liked:
 The combat, feels very Xillia like, I like that.
 The leveling system, it uses a stat-spread system, but it's a bit unique in that each of the five 'pools' raises multiple stats, and 'leveling up' one of these nets you skills or Artes. Very neat.

 What I'm iffy about:
 The translation, now then, I don't profess to know Japanese, but I'm pretty sure Kor is called Shing, and I can tell, thanks to years of watching anime(of which I'm not proud in the slightest) that what characters say don't always match the subtitles. Basically, they added a lot of flavor to the translation, and I'm still not sure if I like that. It feels very over-the-top, and I usually like over-the-top, but on an generic-anime-looking game like this? I dunno...

 What I didn't like:
 The graphics, while they are pretty enough, some of the animations feel a bit... stiff. As a matter of fact, a conversation actually played out like a skit, using 2D cut-outs! I hope that they are the exception and not the rule....


 I could be wrong, but it feels like you average, run-of-the-mill Tales of game, which isn't necessarily bad, but the Vita could really use a heavy hitter.