Review #325: Gravity Rush

 I'm glad it moved on to the PS4.

 Gravity Rush was often touted as the PS Vita's killer ap, so much so that Sony even tried making Kat, the main character, the face of the Vita, and it's an assessment I don't quite agree with.

 Gravity Rush puts you on the heels of Kat, a dark-skinned, gravity manipulating lass that suffers from amnesia, thrust upon a world with towns that float on the sky. The art directions is a bit drab, with towns made up of browns, browns and more browns against green, yellow and red skies. As a whole, it's not entirely uninteresting, but the different 'cities' lack landmarks, or distinctive architecture to make them stand out. The idea of floating towns is not particularly original, but the way you traverse them are what makes it engaging, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. As far as the plot of the game goes... it's lacks focus. Things go unexplained, poorly explained or are just forgotten. There's this bad guy, Alias, who is stealing power sources, and you fight him once and... the game forgets about him and his goal. Later on, Kat has a dream where Alias takes off his mask and... we are never told who she saw. Then there's this character, 'The creator' who says created the world and... that's about it. And then you meet ANOTHER creator, and just what the hell is a creator and why is there more than one!? Then there's the bad guys, the Nevi, and in one chapter one is shown trying to 'protect' a human and... the issue is never picked up again. There's also, without spoiling too much, a sort of timeskip that's never explained too well. Yeah, the plot is all over the place.

 The game features a sandbox world comprised of four different 'floating islands' or towns, but there's not a whole lot to do. There's crystals to collect, 16 'travelers' to find(Technically, it's two of them, which are hidden in 16 different places), challenges to find and tackle and the 22 different story missions. And that's pretty much it. Yeah, there's not a lot to do or find, and the rewards for exploring are crystals that can be used to enhance Kat's abilities. Luckily, the game main's mechanic, gravity control, is a blast to use. Once you level up your gauge consumption and shifting speed, you can easily go from town to town without even touching the ground, and the sense of speed and flight make it a total pleasure to just fly around and absorb the sights(as brown and mundane as they can be).

 The controls are a bit of a mixed bag. Firstly, touchscreen functions are mandatory, dodging is done by swiping on the screen, and gravity sliding is done by touch both the lower right and lower left parts of the screen, and then... turning the Vita itself like a steering wheel. Dodging might be annoying, but you can get used to it, sliding is downright uncontrollable. Every time the game implied I should slide, I just floated instead. The R button is used to have Kat float, and then you can aim by moving the Vita around or using the right analog stick, tapping R again will have Kat fly towards the aiming reticule, or you can just hold X to do it faster, and touching any surface will make Kat stick to it. It lacks finesse, but it's not an issue unless you are fighting, but when it comes to exploring, it's a joy to perform. Lastly, holding the circle button will create and Stasis field that let's you shoot objects such as boxes as projectiles.

 Combat is, sadly, one of the game's weakest components. I understand, the game had full 360 movement, so they felt like they had to tie into the combat as well. Enemies are very, very uninspired. The 'Nevi' are blobs of gooey stuff that resemble animals, like swordfishes or frogs. But you can't simply attack them, oh no, they have glowing orbs on their bodies that you must destroy in order to defeat. This means that Kat's on-ground kick is useless on 90% of the enemies, it also means that you are gonna have to use the imprecise floating-and-flying to get a good angle, and then use a gravity kick towards their glowing orbs. Sounds uninspired? It is. It's also repetitive, and most of the time makes you wish you could simply kick them to death.

 Combat? Boring. Art Direction? Well, the characters are alright, Kat and Yunica in particular look fantastic, but the cities lack personality and color. But even then, EVEN THEN, flying around is a blast. And this is why, while most people felt betrayed that Gravity Rush 2 will be a PS4 exclusive, I actually think it's a brilliant move. The reason the town felt so lifeless was, probably, to keep the framerate from chugging. With more buttons on the joystick, the lousy and unnecessary touch controls and motion sensors can be done away with. I actually think that the move to a proper home console will benefit the game greatly, because it shows a lot of potential, and they nailed their core mechanic just right.

 When it comes to Gravity Rush, while I felt a lot of it was rather dull and forgettable, I can't stress enough just how good the core mechanic, gravity shifting, feels. Flying around just for the heck of flying around made me forget how bored I felt when going through some of the more tedious parts of the game(Seriously, that spire you have to climb down in order to find a letter... and they make you go through it twice. TWICE!!), it made me forget just how lame I found the combat and the enemies to be. I've already forgotten about how some of the towns looked, that's how mundane they were, but the flying? That stuck with me. And I'm sure they are gonna make a much better game with Gravity Rush 2.
 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Gravity Rush

 It's gooooood.

 Gravity Rush is really cool. No, seriously. I'm loving the Gravity mechanics, shifting and sticking and zooming forwards is all done with a button and the right analog stick(Or you can move the Vita around, if you are into that). and it feels really good to zip around the town. The combat is a bit.. weaker in that respect, as there's no lock-on(Or none that I could find), and it feels a bit too floaty for my tastes. It's not bad by any means, but it's not optimal. Also, dodging by swiping the screen sucks, just give me a button alternative, goddammit.

 I'm also digging the art direction, Kat looks really good, although my Japan senses tell me they are gonna exploit her in some fanservicey way eventually, mostly due to how the cutscene after getting herself a home and showering panned out. The environments look really nice as well, a bit... lacking in detail, but taken as a whole, they are rather neat, if that makes any sense? As in, the buildings, the background and the setting work really well together to set the ambiance.

 Still, my biggest gripe is how long the game went without giving me a save spot!!

Review #324: Danganronpa - TriggerHappyHavoc

 Objection!

 Danganronpa is a visual novel-styled mystery game. Most of the gameplay involves reading, reading and more reading, although it also involves Phoenix Wright-inspired trials where you get to dispel erroneous statements or lies by figuring it which piece of evidence to use and when.

 The story pits you as Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky student, who won the right to attend the Dangan Academy through a lottery. This Highschool only collects the Ultimate students, the Ultimate Gambler, the Ultimate Baseball Star, etc. Regardless, Makoto passes out on his first day of school, waking up surrounded by 14 other students, and the doors and windows have been bolted shut. And then Monokuma, a Bear made up of a white side and a black side, pops up, claiming to be the headmaster and giving the students a choice: Either spend their entire life locked inside the building, or kill somebody and get away with it. After, and if, a murder is committed, the students will get the chance to point the killer in a trial, get it right and the killer is executed, get it wrong and everyone else gets executed while the murderer gets to escape the building. It's a very interesting premise, and it's executed fairly well. And while I grew fond of most of the cast, I always wanted the next murder to happen, to see how the story would develop, to find the next creative death scenario et all. Somehow, the game managed to mix over the top, violent executions and murders with entertaining, sometimes lighthearted dialogue and funny situations.

 One thing that immediately pops up is the very unique artstyle. It's a bit... rough, and a bit quirky, but after a while it grows on you, and its quirkiness adds up to the ambiance of the game. The different rooms of the school are designed in 3D, with 3D objects and flat, 2D characters on top. It's an interesting style, not the prettiest, but I think it fits the game perfectly. Interacting with objects sometimes nets you coins, which are also awarded after clearing a trial, and can be used to buy presents for the characters. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

 Most of the game, you'll be told of what to do and where to go. 'I should meet up with everybody at the Dining Hall', 'A new floor has opened up, we should explore it', which means that the story will only advance when you do whatever the game wants you to do. Although occasionally you'll be given 'free time' to spend with the rest of the cast, and you should. Interacting with characters during free time will slowly fill you in on the characters' individual motivations or backstory. Some characters are certainly deeper and more interesting than others, but it's a good way to enrich the cast, plus, getting 'close' to the characters will award you with Skills that can be equipped to make the trials easier.

 Inevitably, murder will happen, and then you'll have to investigate the crime scene in order to gather evidence. The Trial won't start until you've found all the required evidence, so it's impossible to get yourself screwed. And then come the Trials which... surprisingly, were my least liked part about the game. They work a bit like Phoenix Wright's, but are easier in some ways, yet more convoluted in others. There's a ton of... sub modes, so to speak, in a Trial, and you're always under a time limit. I never run out of time, but then again, I only played in Normal. Most of the time, you'll be pointing out lies or mistakes on the characters' accounts, and you are given a number different evidence pieces to use in that particular instance. As a matter of fact, the game will highlight the suspicious parts in orange, so it's just a matter of finding the right orange sentence and using the right evidence, which makes it easier than Phoenix Wright, where you are always carrying a larger amount of evidence and have to figure out the wrong statements by yourself.

 Buuuuuuuuut, you also have to time it. Evidence, in the game, is turned into 'bullets' which must be 'shot' at the statements. Shooting white text, or not hitting the orange text in time will make you miss, and you'll have to wait(You can fast forward it!) while the characters repeat themselves. And then the game adds 'noise', which is made by characters doubts or chatter during the testimony. Noise are purple lines that will block your evidence bullets, but you can shoot them down with the X button, or simply avoid them while shooting your evidence. And then the game introduces absorption, sometimes the evidence bullets you are given will not be enough, so you'll have to absorb an orange statement, and then shoot it against another orange statement.

 Then there's also the 'hangman gambit', where you have to shoot the correct letters to complete a word, because making a normal choice would be too passe. And then there's a rhythm mini game, which is engaged whenever a character refuses to listen to your reasons. And then, after finishing a trial, you have to reassemble the entire crime in a 'fill in the gaps' comic thingie, which I actually liked. I understand that they wanted to make something more interactive than Phoenix Wright, but I thought it was way to convoluted. Most of the time I just wanted to get through the trials in order to continue with the fantastic story.

 The game took me little over 14 hours, but it felt shorter than that... because of how good it was. I wanted more. More murders, more executions, more game! This also means that I'll be getting the sequel ASAP, but that's neither here nor there. Regardless, finishing the game unlocks 'Schoo Life', which is a small management game. It's made up of 50 days, and every week you are given the task of constructing a different Monokuma back up. So each day you get to order characters to collect materials in different places. It can be replayed indefinitely, and stats carry over from playthrough to playthrough. Probably, you won't be able to finish all the concepts the first time around, but it gets progressively easier as you learn what to do and your characters grow more effective at gathering. This mode also lets you complete the 'Free Time' conversations with the cast, as well as having a different, 'what if' ending.

 I loved Danganronpa. Sure, I wasn't too big on the Trials, but the payoff was worth it. It's not a game for everyone, the reading-to-playing ratio favors the former, and as great as I found the story to be, it's also very Japanese, with relatively over-the-top characters that certainly won't appeal to everyone.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Danganronpa - TriggerHappyHavoc

 Alright, alright

 I'm running on borrowed time, seeing how I've a test in a few hours and ANOTHER one on Saturday, so I could only put a few minutes into the game. I'll be honest, I've watched a few videos about it, but I never understood much what it was, it seemed like a Phoenix Wrigh-ish game? Ah well.

 The art isn't particularly good, but after a while it grows endearing, I'm also liking the diverse cast of characters, hopefully they aren't as stereotypical as they look as they look at first glance.

 All in all, the few minutes I played, I got interested. So... yeah.

Month Overview: April 2016

 Tally:
Senran Kagura - Estival Vs                          6.0
Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance                     8.0
Valkyrie Profile - Lenneth                          7.0
Silent Hill 0rigins                                 7.5
Silent Hill Downpour                                7.0
Silent Hill - Book of Memories                      3.0
Toukiden Kiwami                                     9.0
Samurai Warriors 4-II                               8.0


 It was an interesting month. A lot of Silent Hill, which was really neat, except for Book of Memories. I also started Mass Effect, but tests started as well, so... Yeah, it'll be a while.


 Game of April:

 Toukiden Kiwami is badass. As a matter of fact, I'm still playing it, instead of studying, to this very day. And it looks as if I might spend a chunk o' May playing it as well. It's hard to sell a Monster Hunter clone to somebody who isn't into the series, I mean, let's be honest; they are games about defeating the same 5is-30ish minute long bosses over and over again, in order to carve their parts, and make new equipment pieces, only to get to the new Boss and do the same things all over again. But part of the excitement comes from the fact that the biggest deciding factor in these fights is skill and not your equipment. This game is a lot easier than Monster Hunter, so the feeling isn't as pronounced, but it feels so good when you defeat a Monster by the skin of your teeth, and then on subsequent hunts, you, the player, learn to defeat them more efficiently. It's incredibly rewarding, both thanks to how badass the new armor pieces and weapons are and how good it feels to get good. Althoughbattlesinthisgamereallyaren'tthathardbutstill.

 Runner-up:

 I may have scored a few games higher than this one, heck, I think even Silent Hill 0rigins was a better game. Buuuut, on hindsight, after getting to digest this game a bit... I think it was really good. I've learned to appreciate the mechanics, like having Silent Hill open for you to explore, filled with sidequests to finish. It's definitely a different take on Survival Horror, and I don't think I quite appreciated it when I first played it. I helps that the game places a heavy emphasis on water, particularly rain, and I decided to play the game when it was raining, so the parallels between the game and when I played it made it all the more... delicious.
 Bottom line is: I think I've learned to like it more after finishing it. As a Silent Hill game, it leaves a little to be desired, particularly in monster design, but it has a few interesting ideas that were executed well enough

Review #323: Samurai Warriors 4-II

 And now, for an actually decent Musou game...

 After Ken's Rage 2's poor showing, I was scared; was I finally getting tired of the Musou genre? I mean, I've probably played more of these games than most people on the west, and while they are not as similar between each other as people make them out to be, the basics are the same: Mash that square button, with the occasional triangle tap, and mow down hundreds upon hundreds of runts. Well, Samurai Warriors 4-II has its fair share of new ideas, and they work out pretty well.

 The game's story is... if you care about story, you're better of playing vanilla Samurai Warriors 4. 4-II's story is divided in 13 campaigns, made out of 5 missions each, although there's a few repeats here and there, some being identical repeats at that. These stories seem to be noncanonical, with a few even contradicting each other, so I must insist, if you care about a more faithful representation of the Sengoku period's history, you'r better off with vanilla SW4. Speaking of vanilla, I didn't play the original release, so this is my first, and only, taste of SW4 and.... some of the character designs are atrocious. Naotora Li in particular is unbearable, with one of the worst personalities in a Warriors game EVER, and Koshosho.... what... what the beep where they thinking? Another thin to keep in mind, is that there are no alternate costumes or colors, barring towell outfits for Naotora and Chokosho, because Japan and Fanservice go hand in hand, god forbid they forget about pandering.

 The first, and best, new addition is the Hyper Attacks. Warriors games always give you a single chain of attacks, done by pressing square, while you can use triangle to finish these combos in different ways, which is why I like to call the triangle the 'modifier button'. Well, Hyper attacks are dashing, high-speed attacks chained by tapping triangle, with square giving you different ways to end the hyper attack combos depending on when you press it. Hyper attacks are a blast to pull off, and allow you to cover a lot of terrain, quickly, while scoring dozens of kills. That said, enemy generals(The enemies that have proper names instead of being cannon fodder) will reflect hyper attacks, and trying to use them in high-morale enemy areas(Areas displayed in red in the minimap) will result in them doing less damage. It makes sense, they are rather overpowered, but the thing about the morale system... is that characters are divided into types: Power-oriented characters get multi-triangle finishers, Normal-oriented characters get longer square chains, Special-oriented characters get different unique skills, while Hyper-oriented characters get longer Hyper attack chains. The problem lies with the morale system.

 Y'see, sub-missions are back. These absolutely ruined Samurai Warriors on the 3DS for me, since they kept bringing the game to a halt. Luckily, now you can turn off the game-pausing notifications n the options menu. Anyways, successfully clearing them will lower the enemy morale, and thus decrease their red areas. Problem being that it's rather easy to screw yourself out of these missions. Maybe you killed someone right before the mission told you not to. Maybe you went in a different direction and you are now too far away to complete it. In these cases you will have to deal with red areas, which can really handicap Hyper oriented characters. Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of sub-missions, since I don't like being told how to tackle the stage, but it's downright annoying having to deal with red areas just because you decided to venture too far away from the next objective. For what it's worth, on the easier difficulties, red areas aren't too bad.

 The other big change comes in the game allowing you to pick two different characters for each stage, and you can change characters on the fly by tapping the select button. And you can also give them simple orders by tapping up on the directional pad. They work well, and it's fun being able to cover more ground at the tap of the button, just keep in mind that if either character dies, it's game over. Musou Attacks have been changed as well, previously(At least in SW3 and Chronicles), you had to hold the Musou Button to pull of the attack, now you simply tap it and the character executes it... but there's also a Rage mode. There's a 5 tier gauge that can be used to dodge certain attacks, break enemy guards, or when filled, activate rage mode. You do more damage, and you get a different, stronger, Musou attack. Lastly, defeated generals may drop weapons, horses or tomes. Weapons and Horses are enhanced by 'fusing' them with other weapons or horses of their type, but tomes are used to enhance your character, by spending them on a grid. There's a ton of different passive and active skills to earn, and I actually really liked the grid system.

 Lastly, after you are are done with Story Mode, or replaying stages in Free Mode, there's a new mode, Survival. Survival is made up of two different towers, which you must climb in order to gain loot, unlock a few characters and... bragging rights. I rather liked the mode, each tower has different 'challenges' or goals, and it gets harder as you go along, and dying means losing your loot, which is why after clearing every floor you get the option to turn tail and keep your spoils. There's also a fairly decent create a character mode, although you can only use your character in Free and Survival Modes.

 The Vita port runs surprisingly well. When there's a ton of units on the screen, a few may disappear, but it's not too bad, and the framerate is decent. It can struggle a bit in stages with water, but it's fairly consistent 30 fps or so most of the time. I mean, it's not perfect, but it's playable, and it's great to finally have a decent Warriors game on the go, after Chronicles left such a sour taste on my mouth.

 Samurai Warriors 4-II takes a lot of steps in the right direction for the franchise. It's a fun game to play when all you want is mindless action. That said... what's up with some of the character designs? And what's up with Naotora? Do we really need waifus in Samurai Warriors? I guess the poor story is excusable considering this is a side game.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Samurai Warriors 4-II

 What the Japan happened to the characters?

 So I finished Naomasa's campaign and played the first one in the Yukimura brothers', so I've more or a less a clear idea on where I stand with this one.

 What I did like was the gameplay. Hyper attacks? 10/10. It's a fantastic, satisfying way to traverse the battlegrounds while shredding away through normal enemy troops.
 I hated how Samurai Warriors 3DS worked, stopping the action every single time a sub objective popped up. It really ruined the overall experience for me. They are still here, but you can turn off the game-stopping notifications on the options menu. Thank god.
 I've played with a few of the new characters, and I like the new movesets. It never ceases to amaze me how Koei can keep up pumping new movesets for every single Warriors iterations. Sure, they are not particularly deep or extensive, but they manage to feel different. Well, they Hyper Attacks are a bit more homogeneous across the board, but it feels nice to use them, and the square strings are still unique, so it's forgivable.

 What I didn't like were the character designs. W... where do I start? Character designs in Musou games have always been anachronistic, but they still felt as if they belonged together while feeling feudal in nature. Now we have this:
                                        
 What. The. Flying. Beep. Is. This. Thing? No, seriously, explain that thing to me. It'd be one thing if it were an alternate DLC costume, but it's her main costume. I'm... I'm at a loss for words. And then there's Naotora Li, and she's a mess. He design is fine the way it is, but it's her personality where it falls apart. She's the clumsy, shy waifu type. In real life, she was supposed one of the very, very few women who rose in power in feudal Japan, she was a woman to be respected. Here she is a laughingstock of ridiculousness. Every single time she opens her mouth makes me want to drive my head against a granite column. And let's not even get into the fact that she looks way, waaaay younger than her son, Naomasa Li, and more immature than him. For a Japanese developer, the Musou games have never been too pandering, a few designs might've been a bit questionable, but nothing too ridiculous, but it seems they went full Japan with this game. And then there's Kiyomasa Kato, he was my favorite character in Samurai Warriors 3, but for this game he went Super Saiyan, and he looks stupid. I can't stand to use him because of how dumb he looks. At least there's a character creator.

 All that said, thankfully, I don't really care that much about character designs here. I never cared much for the Samurai Warriors/Sengoku Musou characters, since I never found a character that I really liked. As long as these type of designs don't find their way into the Sangoku Musuo/Dynasty Warriors, we're going to be just fine.

 Basically, I like the game a lot. I dislike most of the character designs, yes, but at the end of the day, it doesn't affect the gameplay, where some of the changes they made I felt were fantastic. I wan the Hyper attacks on Dynasty Warriors, because it feels so good to charge around mowing down dozens upon dozens of enemies.