Review #339: Stella Glow

 Imageepoch's swan song.

 Stella Glow holds the honor of being ImageEpoch's last videogame before their CEO went disappeared and they filed for bankruptcy. It also holds the distinction of being the true successor to the strategy-rpg series Luminous Arc. It features witches, knights and everything that made Luminous Arc what it was, alongside a gorgeous presentation and, probably, the tightest gameplay in the series.

 The story pits you in the role of Alto, a mysterious, amnesiac, teen who was taken in by Lissete's family in the town of Mithra. After coming in contact with Hilda, the Witch of Ruin, and suffering the entire town of Mithra turned to crystal and Lissete awakening as a witch, Alto and Lissete join the 9th Regiment Knights in order to restore Mithra and stop Hilda. The story is pretty generic for anime standards, characters follow many different anime tropes and.... and I felt the story was the game's weakest front, easily. It also borrows a lot of ideas, themes and even character designs from Luminous Arc 2, albeit anime-fied as much as they could, so you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a remake of sorts. There's little character development or 'shocking twists', you'll see everything coming a mile away. They also deal with certain issues in very anime ways, like instantly forgiving a murderous psychopath who constantly talked about enjoying killing people, but hey, defeat equals friendship in the world of Anime. On the flip side, the game sports gorgeous graphics, and a phenomenal soundtrack.

 The game is divided into ten chapters, and each chapter has two types of phases: Mission and Free Time. During mission phases you can engage in free battles or go to your next destination, while Free Time allows you to talk with your party members and increase their affinity, which unlocks new skills. I'm not entirely satisfied with how it plays out, y'see, Free Time phases are divided into three 'sets', and each set has a different selection of characters for you to pick, so you'll only be able to speak with up to three characters. The problem lies with the fact that you have to 'sacrifice' free time with some characters in order to speak with others. I don't know why they went about it this way, but it's restrictive, and it's a bummer not being able to upgrade mainstays in your party because they share a lot with other party members.

 Speaking of party members, the final party won't be finished 'till Chapter 9, which means that you'll barely get to play with some party members. New Game+ doesn't let you keep your characters either, which is rather disappointing. Especially because all 15 characters have very different roles and styles, Unlike other Strategy RPGs, I found myself experimenting with different party set ups depending on the battle, since some characters were better suited under certain circumstances, which is a huge plus. There's also a certain degree of customization, as you can equip orbs, which confer different abilities, onto every characters' weapons.

 The game plays like most turn-based strategy RPGs. Depending on the units speed is when you, or the enemy, gets to move. During your turn you can move around the environment, which you need to keep in mind, as different characters have different ranges, or even movement types. Most characters will get a reduced walking range when standing on water, while some will float over it, some units can't climb certain heights and others simply teleport ignoring the different terrains or heights. Attacking, either normally or with Special Attacks, must also be planned out, since hitting from the side rises the accuracy, and hitting from the back rises accuracy and increases the damage dealt, plus, special attacks have different Area of Effect, so you have to be careful unless you want to incur in friendly fire! Unique to this game is the Song Gauge. Dealing or receiving damage will fill the 5-level gauge, which can only be used by Witch-type characters and Alto. Witches can use 1 or 2 bars to cast powerful spells, while Alto can use a special ability on a Witch, at the cost of 4-5 bars, in order to cast spells that affect the entire board.

 As cutesy as the game looks, it can get relatively challenging, the last stages in particular are downright brutal. If you know what you are doing, their are certain strategies that can make short work of the bosses, but they rely on you knowing which character's affinity to raise. Grinding free battles for experience points and levels is a fruitless exercise, as there's a rather harsh experience gain penalty on enemies even one level lower than you, a penalty which is removed in New Game Plus. There's a few 'bonus' free battles that offer higher level enemies, but they cost play coins, so I skipped them. I'm not sure if I was just unlucky, but it felt as if any attack with less than 96% accuracy would miss most of the time. I understand that 80-95% chance of hitting means that there's a slight chance of missing, but I missed most of the time. As a matter of fact, I made a suspend save before launching an 80% accuracy attack, and I missed 5 times out of 6. 80% accuracy should mean that it should hit around 4 times out of 6, not 1 out of 6!! Maybe the game just hated me.

 Stella Glow is a neat little game. that sadly fell on the pitfall of being too anime. Neither the story nor the characters have shred of originality to them, there's not as single original character trait, and not a single surprise lying in wait for savvy players. Luckily, as far as gameplay goes, the game is a knockout, battles can take between 30 minutes to an hour, but it doesn't feel that long since they are so much fun. The game is a fitting end to the Luminous Arc series, it may not carry its name, but it certainly possesses its soul.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: One Piece - Pirate Warriors 3

 What Ken's Rage 2 should've been.

 Unlike other shonen manga/anime properties, like Dragon Ball, Bleach or Naruto, One Piece's videogame record has been pretty decent. There were a few average games like Unlimited World Red or Gear Spirit, but you also had the fantastic Grand Battle series, and the underrated Unlimited Cruise. For whatever reason, I hadn't had the chance to dabble into the Pirate Warriors franchise yet, and boy am I pleasantly surprised.

 Firstly, aesthetically, the game is beautiful and runs at least as well as Dynasty Warriors 8. Character Models are gorgeous and animate beautifully, and the bright, colorful direction they went suits the world of One Piece to a tee and makes it a very appealing game.

 As far as gameplay goes, it's rather fun, as Dynasty Warriors games tend to be, although it seems like the character movesets are rather... small? Maybe I need to level them up a bit more(I've cleared the entire first episode already, and Zoro hit level 15) in order to unlock more moves? Hopefully. I mean, I can do with the amount of moves given, but I think Samurai Warriors 4 spoiled me a bit.

 The last thing I think is worth mentioning, and which I find rather interesting, is that this game feels a lot like Ken's Rage 2, if they had gotten it right. The Story Mode is filled with those nasty manga panel-like cutscenes, but, BUT, for whatever reason, this time they look GOOD. I think the cartoony art-direction makes it avoid the 'Garry's Incident'... incidental feel the realistic looking models from Ken's Rage 2 produced, plus, this time around I can press X as soon as I've read the dialogue and get right into the next line. It doesn't waste my time. And even then, I think in these... 8-9 stages, I've already seen more cutscenes than in the entirety of Ken's Rage 2, and I wish I was kidding about that. Killing many enemies with your Musou Attacks freezes the screen for a few seconds just as it would happen in Ken's Rage 1, which they removed in 2, something I felt subtracted to the whole experience. Funnily enough, these freeze-frames don't really fit the world of One Piece as it did Hokuto no Ken, but man is it satisfying seeing all the havoc you just caused!

Review #338: Hot Pixel

 And on this episode of 'Do not judge a game by its cover' we've got...

 One of the, I think best games on the Gameboy Advance is Warioware Inc., a game which was all about random, simple minigames strung together one after the other. While the premise wasn't original, it was the first time a game like that hit mainstream, and it was a hit. Hot Pixel aims to replicate that success on Sony's first handheld, to a mixed success.

 So, what is the game about? At its most basic, you are given three lives, and minigames will be thrown your way. You'll have to figure out what to do out of a single sentence, like 'Eat Pink', or 'Dodge', and you have to fulfill it under a time limit. Failing a minigame will cost you a life and instantly throw you into another minigame, while winning the game will present you with another minigame. It's simple, it's fast paced and it's a blast.

 The game has a decent variety of modes: Episodes, which are 10 and are the game's main mode, playing games in these episodes will unlock them in the other modes. Instant Action which puts you instantly into a random game playlist, there's also Playlist, where you can customize which games to play and the rules under which will you play: Dynamic or static difficulty, amount of games to win, amount of time to survive playing, etc. There's also 'Xtra Games' which consist of 9 'enhanced' versions of some of the mini games as well as an exclusive 2D shoot'em up. Lastly, there's a Multiplayer Mode, but since nobody owns a PSP anymore, I really couldn't try it.

 While the back of the game's box boasts 'over 200 games!', that's a bit of a lie. Inside the UMD there's only 130 games, the other 70+ must be downloaded from 'hotpxl.com' and get them into your memory stick via cable. And even then, there's a ton of repeated ideas between games. I can't count the number of 'Eat X' type of games, where you must collect something while avoiding another thing, the graphics may change but the gameplay remains the same. There's also a bunch of Breakout/Arkanoid clones thrown in for good measure.

 But really, the game's biggest downfall is its lack of personality. They went for an urban-hip-hop-ish direction, but it's not kept on every game, some went for simple single-pixel graphics and a few others went for an oldschool Atari-esque approach. It lacks the personality and uniformity that WarioWare minigames had, and it suffers for it. It doesn't help that most of the more urban-looking games also look relatively ugly, in contrast to the more caricaturesque games, which look much more appealing. These minigames won't be remembered by how they looked, but by how repetitive in nature they are.

 Altogether, unlocking every game will take you about an hour, and this includes multiple replays of each episode in order to find every game. You could potentially log in more time if you aim to get Silver and Gold Medals in each minigame, but you'll be rewarded with a couple of lame videos. That said, this game isn't meant to be 'finished', so to speak, but to play in different sessions to waste time, and that's where the game's strength lies. Sure, the lack of variety keeps it from being as addictive as Warioware, but the game's premise will keep you hooked for a while, guaranteed.

 I liked Hot Pixel. It leaves a lot to be desired, but there's not as many games of this kind as you'd think, so any alternative is appreciated. It lacks the staying power of Warioware, but it's still a decent game that fulfills its goal: Fast-paced mini-games at a breakneck speed.
 6.0 out of 10

Now playing: Resident Evil 6

 Michael Bay Edition.

 I don't know why it took me so much time to get to Resident Evil 6, considering Resident Evil 4 is among my favorite games ever, and I loved Resident Evil 5, maybe I was waiting for the inevitable DLC content, that ironically ended up not existing, so I waited. And waited. And waited. But the wait is over,

 It's funny to think that this used to be a Survival Horror franchise, but it's also interesting to see how it changed, it's somewhat like Evil Dead. Evil Dead 1 was pure horror, then Evil Dead 2 became Horror with a few dark humor elements thrown into the mix, while Evil Dead 3 was mostly humor with horror elements. Well, to be honest, and as much as diehard fans refuse to admit it, Resident Evil has always put action first. Resident Evil 2 gave you enough ammo to kill everything in your way, Resident Evil 3 gave you even more ammo plus the option to craft even MORE ammo. Code Veronica was pretty generous with ammo as well, if you could find it. After Resident Evil 1, Grenade Launchers and other heavy weaponry became the norm as well, so... yeah, Resident Evil has always been about the action. Then Resident Evil 4 made it even more actiony, but it still retained the horror elements. And then Resident Evil 5 removed some of the more slower paced scenes from Resident Evil 4, the ones that set the entire horror ambiance, this time around you were put into the brunt of the action from the first moment that Chris stepped out of the jeep. Now Resident Evil 6 adds unnecessary explosions, and helicopter-crashing-into-building scenes worthy of Michael Bay. This time around. the focus is easily on the action, which is not to say that horror has been entirely been done away with, I've been playing Chris' campaign, and I've hurt for ammo, although melee is relatively effective, and the monster designs are pretty gruesome, so, y'know, the horror elements are there, but they take a backseat to the action.

 Anyways, what I liked and didn't like:

 Like:
- Monster design is neat.
- Leon's design. Come on, vests look badass.
- Playing in co-op is always a plus. Always.
- The controls are smooth, I liked all the options, like side or backstepping to the ground, or rolling around while aiming. I also like the melee combat, just mashing R1 produces attacks, which are tied to an stamina bar.

 Didn't like:
- The split screen wastes a lot of screen. It's not unplayable, but it needs some time getting used to.
- I decided to play in the game's vanilla state, and I can see why so many people complained about the camera being too zoomed in, but I didn't really notice it in Split-screen, only when I tried Mercs in single player did it bother me.
- The combat system. I know that I said that I liked it, and I do, but I sorta miss the 'shoot at specific body parts to trigger specific melee attacks' system.
- The A.I. is laughable. I ran across enemies staring at empty air, or running towards walls. It was a bit pathetic to be honest.
- QTEs, QTEs everywhere, all the time, like, come one, they are no fun. I'm tired of mashing buttons or pressing the correct button at the correct time thingies, do 'casual gamers' like these? Because, seeing how hard Capcom tried to appeal to the CoD crowd, this had to be done in order to appeal to them. Regardless, QTEs are bad, and there are a lot of them in here.


 As a whole, I'm pleased with the game.

Review #337: The Legend of Legacy

 If you are tired of handholding in videogames, this is your game.

 There's something that should be known; The Legend of Legacy is the successor to the old 'SaGa' series of JRPG games, that has spanned quite a few entries throughout the years. It seems like they decided to stick close to their guns, which translates into a game the embraces its Nintendo-hard roots, but without rewarding the players with anything of worth.

 The game's story is that there is none. Yes, this is a JRPG with almost no story at all. At the outset you pick a main character from a selection of seven, while they all have more or less the same stats, they have individual weapon and elemental proficiency, hidden away from the players. Regardless, once you pick your hero, you are treated to a seconds-long introduction of their 'quest', and then you are brought into the land of Avalon alongside two other characters. Every now and then, your three characters will spout lines regarding their individual quest, but they don't matter in the overall scheme of things. There's no character development, and the individual stories are inconsequential to the game, you might even forget that each character has a personal goal. If you play JRPGs for the characters or the story, this is not your game.

 The first thing that you will learn, is that the game will explain as little possible as it can. For instance, each weapon type has a ridiculously long set of attacks, and while you do get 'Attack 31' or 'Attack 20', and maybe a short description that maybe tells you, albeit not clearly, if it will also inflict an status effect or a debuff, you won't be told what's the difference between two attacks with the same attack power, and seemingly, equal properties. You also won't be told how the elemental contracts work, you sorta have to figure it out by yourself. As you play the game, you'll obtain three different 'Singing stones', which are crucial to your success. Equipping a character with these will allow him or her to grant either Water, Wind or Fire 'contracts' to the party, which can be taken away by the enemy, or you can take it away from them by casting it again. Being under a contract provides a ton of benefits, either for your party or the enemy, and the game won't tell you what they are, besides letting you cast the magic associated to the contract. For instance, Water will half water damage and grant you a healing buff per turn. Contracts are VERY important, but the game wants you to figure it out by yourself. And while battles are turn based, turns are a bit random as well, since while speed(The 'support' stat) does play a factor in your turn, luck also takes part in the equation.

 Let me digress for a bit, nowadays people complain all the time about how games handhold players all the time, and it wasn't like that back then, yadda yadda. It's true, to an extent, since some games assume its players are idiots, however, games nowadays are ten times as complex as they were back in the day. Compare Final Fantasy 1's rudimentary mechanics to the ton of different systems that run in THIS game. Heck, even the SNES JRPGs were simpler than any RPG during the PS1 era and after. Plus, players seem to forget that they had Nintendo Power and the Nintendo line to aid them back in the day. There's a difference between handholding and telling you how the game works.

 Back to Legend of Legacy and how it works, it's a mess, but a mess that will appeal to fans of the SaGa games. Y'see, almost everything in this game is random, and I hate it. The first thing that you should know, is that in this game level ups are random, and you level up individual stats. After a fight you may get an HP level up. Or maybe an Attack level up. Using skills in battle have the random chance to 'awaken' new skills for that weapon or magic type. Awakenings are particularly hilarious, 'cause you may try to cast a healing spell, but you might awaken 'Heal poison', so in that turn you will attempt to heal poison instead of healing, and it may get you killed. Does that sound fun to you? Individual skills also level up, but these level up the more that you use them, which actually makes sense. Oh, and the amounts of health and SP that you may get from random level ups is, well, random. Does this sound like any kind of fun to anyone? It's annoying. Particularly because the game expects you to grind. You can get by just by killing any enemy that you come across, but bonus bosses, and the last boss to an extent, expect you to have relatively high stats in order to deal with their randomness. They may or may not cast their best attacks twice or thrice in a row. I mentioned how turns are a bit random, but you can level up your 'support' stat to increase your chances to go first. Although, truthfully, it's better if your characters are slow, since the last boss loves to take the water contract from you, and if the turn ends with the contract in his possession, he'll heal for 999 damage, so let him take the contract, and then use your slow character to take the contract away from him.

 And by the by, this ties into your party. Y'see, you are forced to finish the first dungeon with your starting party, but afterwards you'll be able to recruit the remaining four characters if you find them in the main town. The thing is, why should you alter your party, since, the guys you've been using have already accumulated random power ups to their stats and skills? Why handicap yourself? And while harder enemies have more chances to reward you with your random level ups, these characters are still behind your initial characters, and always will be. Another point of contention are the equipment pieces. The weapons and armor sold at the shop are more often than not crap, if you want anything worth a damn it's either: Pray to the RNG and hope good equipment drops from enemies, or pay for ships to sail for items. What items these ships you hire return with are, you guessed it, RANDOM, and to add insult to injury, you must wait between 1 to 5 hours for the ship to return with the spoils. Does anyone think this is fun? Does anyone think that good equipment being so reliant on luck is fun? What?! And even better, if you decide to buy from the shop, you can't compare the items with your currently equipped ones. Pure genius.

 A lot of people seem to praise this game for its 'strategic battles', but that's a lie, all the 'strategy' you need is to keep the Wind and Water contract on your side, have at least one tank protecting the entire party, and have two DPS characters doing the damage, and swapping healing or protecting duties when needed. To be fair, some of the bonus bosses do require a tiny bit more thought process, since it's better to spam the Wind Contract and keep the Battle Field Green in order to reduce the damage from their strongest attacks. As for normal enemies, you'll also want the Water and Wind contract on your side, as well as a tank protecting the party, until you are strong enough to take them down easily. It's funny, because random encounters can be harder than some bosses, since the RNG can screw you up and have three strong enemies spam their party-wide attacks and cream you on the spot. To be fair, the 'Run Away' function works 100% of the time, but can't be used on bosses or on a few surprise encounters, but it has two penalties: A) All enemies respawn and B) You are taken to the entrance of the dungeon. Where's the strategy if you will always need a tank, always need a healer and always need a DPS? Take Etrians Odyssey, for example, in which you can have fun making different parties, with different strategies to take down different monsters. That's strategic. This is restrictive. And random. There's also different 'formation stances', but stances can only be gained by replaying dungeons you've already cleared(After selling their maps). I don't normally retread old ground, but by the time I found this out, I didn't care, stances be damned. Plus, the NPCs that populate the map each time you re-enter it are random, and the stances they can give you are random. This game is a blast.

 Another thing worth mentioning is how the HP system works. After each battle you win, or run away from, your health is fully restored, but your SP will not. If a character 'dies' in battle, he or she will take Red Damage, and if he or she is hit while 'dead', it will incur in more Red Damage. Red Damage affects your maximum health, so once the battle is over, or if you revive them, they'll have a lower health cap. This is mended by resting at the inn, or by using some rare healing items, which can only be used outside of battle. To be honest, I thought the red damage thingie was kinda smart, but on the last dungeons, obstacles on the environments will directly deal red damage to you, which isn't very fun. Once enemies stop granting random level ups at a steady pace, you might want to avoid enemies, but there's so many enemies that it's easy to fall to these red damage traps trying to avoid them. If your entire party dies, or if one character's max HP drops to 0, it's Game Over.

 Oh, the Game Over screen... The most important function in the game, is the Quick Save option, which, apparently, WASN'T FOUND IN THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE RELEASE. This turns this unplayable catastrophe into something playable. Y'see, originally, you could only save at the main town, and dying meant you lost absolutely everything. While the 'Run Away' option is very lenient, you have to remember that the game is FILLED with unexpected boss fights. Wandering too far to a seemingly inconspicuous corner might just trigger a boss fight you aren't ready for. A boss fight you can't run away from. Imagine playing for forty minutes, forty minutes of random level ups, and then losing EVERYTHING because there was no way for you to know that there was a boss fight coming. And the only thing you learnt from all those 40 minutes was 'I shouldn't have gone to that corner'. It wastes your time with absolutely no reward. At least in games like Monster Hunter you gain real experience, you learn how to defeat the enemies. There's no know-how like that to be learned here. And this is where the Quick Save option comes into play, you can save anywhere, while not in a battle, anytime, at no cost whatsoever. Quick save made this unbearable game into a decent one. I made it a habit to save after I got any kind of random level up I cared for, since dying after playing with no level ups meant another chance to get random level ups.

 Another retro-styled issue with the game is how it progresses. Usually, you have to buy a map from the shop, and then you can enter a new area, but later down the line you'll be able to find maps, instead of buying them, by finding exits on previously explored maps. You are incited to explore ever nook and cranny, since you'll chart a map on the lower screen, which can then be sold for money. What makes it 'retro' is that there's more than a couple of times of  'WHAT DO I DO NOW!??!?!' For instance, after getting the Shadow Core, nothing in the game, not even the ever-useful king who repeats 'go explore something!', will tell you that you need to go back to the Ship Graveyard and travel back to where you fought the boss. There's not a single hint guiding you towards this place. I'd rather be spoonfed where to go next than this random, obscure crap.

 Still, despite all my complaining, despite all the baffling random design choices, when the game is at its best, it's a ton of fun. When you are exploring maps for the first time, charting the map, it's fun, the game looks great, and while your mileage may vary on the art decision to have objects, like trees or rocks 'pop up' as you come close to them, the graphics are beautiful, even if a bit underwhelming for what the 3DS can do. The combat too can be fun, once you finally figure out how the contracts work, once you start experimenting with the different attacks, and leveling up your individual attacks, or earning new attacks, can be fun. Can be fun, because when you go for hours on end without gaining new attacks, or getting into the late game without enemy group-wide attacks because the game didn't deem you lucky enough isn't all that fun. The late game is a bit tedious as well, since barring some armored-insectoid bosses in mook clothing, random battles and boss battles can take a bit of time to get through. Some of the boss battles can potentially take up to an hour, an hour of repetitive, unrewarding combat. And hopefully the RNG decides not to screw you over with an Awakening during an action you desperately needed or the boss decides to repeat its best attack.

 In conclusion, The Legend of Legacy is a game that will appeal to a very niche crowd, and that very niche crowd only. It has a very unforgiving first part, when you are figuring out things on your own, a great midpoint, when you finally know what you are doing and battles are fair, and a very tedious endgame where you are trudging through long enemy encounters and somewhat unfair boss fights. Unless you are part of the very small niche that this game appeals to, this game isn't even worth a try.

5.0 out of 10

Review #336: Silent Hill 2

 Silent Hill is the world's best therapy course ever.

 Silent Hill 2 is known as one of the best, if not the best Survival Horror game ever made, it's undeniably one of the most important entries in the genre nonetheless. The game is over 15 years old, and everyone and their grandmothers know the big plot twist by now, and even then... it feels as if it hasn't aged one bit.

 The story follows James Sunderland, who receives a letter from his diseased  wife, telling him to meet her at their 'special place' in Silent Hill. On his trek through the misty, and apparently abandoned, sans monsters, town, James will come across a few individuals who have issues of their own. It's hard to delve into why the story is so good without entering spoiler territory, but there was a lot of detail put into James interactions with these characters, heck, into his interactions with the ways in which he must proceed, that mirrors James psychological state and personality. A lot of care went into designing the monsters and environments of the first four Silent Hill games, heck, even in Silent Hill 0rigins, but this one shines the most in this regard. It's nothing short of awe-inspiring. The voice acting could be considered bad, but once you learn more about these characters, you'll see that it fits them perfectly.

 The game progression can be somewhat divided into two 'phases', firstly you explore the Town of Silent Hill, while using a map that shows you where you should go, but you are free to explore, and you should. While the town is infested with monsters, it's also filled with supplies for you to find, so going out of your way to explore every street and locale pays off in the end. Once you are done exploring and decide to go to your objective, you'll initiate the 'second phase', which is exploring the building of interest. While avoiding enemies on the street is relatively simple, buildings offer dark environments, with stretch corridors, and corners that may hide enemies, alongside a plethora of riddles and puzzles to solve. And that's the basic flow of the game, you 'clear' your objective, and it's back to town for more exploring before going towards your next objective, etc.

 Before starting the game, there's two difficulties to select: Combat and Puzzle. I played the game on the Normal difficulty, for both of them, and I found the 'combat' to be way too easy. I had healing items and hundreds upon hundreds of bullets to spare. I had over 20 healing medikits that I never even touched, heck, I didn't even used the health ampoules, I simply relied on the health drinks and I even had a few of those to spare. The Riddles, however, kinda kicked my butt. I'm not gonna lie, some of those stumped me and I had to go online to get some help.

 Controls are what you'd expect from the genre, tank-controls(Although you can change this on the options menu) and clunky and slow combat. There's a strafing feature, but the couple times that I tried to use it ended up with me taking damage, so I just forgot about it altogether. One major mechanic is the use of the flashlight, without it, James can't interact with some objects, or even pick up some items, since he can't seem them(Even if you, the player, can). But having the flashlight on will also alert enemies of your presence. It's an interesting concept, since you can sneak past some enemies by turning off the flashlight, but you won't be able to use the map in the dark, or even open some doors.

 I played the vanilla PS2 version of Silent Hill 2, but it's missing some content that was added into the Xbox and PC port, and the PS2 Greatest Hits rerelease down the line. What it changes, it adds a new prologue where you play as one of the secondary characters, which lasts between one and two hours, adds a new ending, albeit a 'joke ending', for a total of six, as well as making enemies hit harder. Honestly, I don't think the 'Born from a Wish' prologue nor the joke ending are worth it, but if you can get more content at the same price, why not? Plus, the game lasts about 5:30 hours, probably less if you know what you are doing, so having more stuff to do might not be an unwelcome addition.

 While Silent Hill 4 remains my favorite, the amount of care and detail that went into this game's story is absolutely incredible. The story and characters are memorable, and I'll admit that the game managed to make me jump a couple of times. Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic game, and deserves all the praise it gets.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: The Legend of Legacy

 It really is as bad as they say.

 Wow, this game... where, nay, what to start with?

 I know, what's the one thing I absolutely abhor in RPGs? Randomness. It's what ruined Crisis Core for me. Well, 'unlocking' skills? Random. Leveling up? Random. And you don't level up, you level up stats. Individually. Randomly. I spent like 30 minutes having my party members leveling their Attack and HP, while my main character got nothing, I was actually starting to worry if the main character would get anything. This mechanic is as dumb as it sounds.

 Oh, and there are no savespots outside of town, so if you die, you lose everything. I spent 20-30 minutes grinding, actually having some semblance of fun, when I accidentally triggered a boss fight. Turns out just because it's on the starting area doesn't mean you can tackle him, because he destroyed my entire party in one turn, and I lost aaaalll those random level ups. You've no idea how much fun that is. At least now I get to spend another 30 minutes grinding, hoping to unlock the skills I unlocked and getting my stats back. Randomly. Explain to me how did anybody think this was any kind of fun?

 Quest 64, often ragged upon and treated like a 'bad game', a game that I actually enjoy, got this right. You want more HP? Get hit, even if on purpose. Want more MP? Use magic. Want more strength? Hit the enemies with your staff. You see, whatever you wanted to strengthen, you had to use. It made sense, even if some people found it tedious. This system is tedious and doesn't make any sense, and the randomness makes it stupid and annoying. And no save spots on a dungeon? Seriously? Want to have challenging bosses on early areas? Fair enough, but at least give me a chance to save, at least midway through the dungeon, give me something, dammit. Let's compare this with a modern challenging game, Dark Souls. If you die, you are given the option to get what you lost. There's also checkpoints spread throughout, it's punishing but rewarding at the same time. This game is only punishing, with the added 'random' factor as the cherry on top.

 And there's also not enough information, how is 'Cheap shot' stronger than 'Wild Swing'? Both attacks claim to have an attack power of '2', except that one of them has a higher 'support', whatever that is, than the other.

 And what's the point of having formations if I will have to abuse 'protect' most of the time? Enemies deal obscene amounts of damage, so you need somebody to tank it with guard. Take another challenging game, Etrian's Odyssey.
A) Bosses can be seen on the map, so it's up to you if you want to avoid them, or risk trying to avoid them. This applies to FOEs, but even bosses are clearly marked on the map. So even though
B) You can only save on the town, you are given enough information as if to decide if you want to risk your progress or not. And even if a FOE catches you off-guard, unless your back is against the wall, you can try to escape from the battle.
C) You level up through experience, and upon level up, YOU, the player, decide what to upgrade. There's no randomness, you can have proper character builds deviced by yourself. And, tied to this, we have
D) Character classes, where even the Paladin, the class specialized on tanking, shines. You don't need to tank every battle, because not every enemy is obscenely strong. Formations have more freedom, there's more tactics to be had than 'Have your tank guard the other two, and the other two either attack or heal'.

 See? Those are retro-styled games, but taking into account modern sensibilities. This game is stuck in the past just because. Things were acceptable back then because the standards were different, because we didn't know how good it could get.

 The Legend of Legacy is absolutely terrible. The faux difficulty I could live without if only the level ups weren't random. If I knew that replaying the 30 minutes I lost would get me the same results, I wouldn't half as much. But for all I know, I could spend upwards of an hour without getting as much HP or Attack as I managed, ENTIRELY THROUGH LUCK,  on my main character. This is punishing for all the wrong reasons. The game is terrible, if you want a retro-styled, nintendo-hard RPG, get Etrian's Odyssey. Get The Dark Spire. Get anything but Legend of Legacy.

Mid-Year wrap up

 Sometimes, a dude just wants to write, but he has nothing readily available for him to write about, in which case, why not resort to what I've been doing the past six months? What lingers on my mind, what did I like, what did I hate, why was The Evil Within so good?

  It's incredible just how well Chrono Trigger has aged. It truly was a 'Dream Team' that was brought together to work on this game. While the characters aren't particularly deep, they are memorable, the plot is memorable, and the music, man, oh man, the music! I liked the game a lot before replaying it, but after the fact, I realized that I loved it.

  I remember being piqued by curiosity regarding Danganronpa, I wanted to invest on the entire franchise, but I wasn't too sure, so I opted to play D1 first and then see where it goes. It was fantastic. I mean, I think the gameplay was too convoluted to be any fun, and the sequel got even worse in this regard, but the story was fantastic. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was engaging and kept me hooked until I finally finished it.

  Devil May Cry 4 is, in a lot of ways, what I would've expected of a HD successor to a game franchise. It was, when stripped to the bone, DMC 3 but prettier. However, the fell short on some fronts. Namely, playing as both Dante and Nero feels fantastic, heck, I'd say that at times it feels even better than DMC 3. But that's as far as the mechanics are concerned, the level design was.... It had some slow-paced sections that really brought the game down, like play with the razor top-spins in the ice palace, or the absolutely terrible dice sections. And, y'know what? I didn't really mind having to play both levels twice, but, BUT what I did mind was how little game was for either Nero and Dante. Sure, it's a blast to play, but there's so little to play in! If we could've at least played both versions of each level with both characters, then at least it would've given us more to play with. It's a shame really.

  DMC 1 has aged very, very gracefully, I think I wasn't able to appreciate it back in the day, as I don't remember caring too much for it. DMC 2 on the other hand, for whatever reason, I loved it... nowadays, while I wouldn't go as far as to call it terrible, as most people do, it was an undeniable step back for the franchise. DMC 3 however, it's so flippin' good. The combo system is phenomenal, pummeling on enemies feels fantastic and there's a lot of different weapons to play with, there's a ton of costumes to unlock, and then there's Vergil who comes equipped with his own style. And unlike DMC 4, you can play the entire game as both characters, and sure, Vergil doesn't get his own story or exclusive levels, but he doesn't need them, his own particular style is all he needs to offer a different experience from Dante.

  Cyber Sleuth was a pleasant surprise. I really liked how much it felt like a Shin Megami Tensei game, since I love that franchise. I've always felt that Digimon had better monster designs than Pokemon, but worse games, well, Cyber Sleuth manages to put Pokemon Y/X/OR/AS to shame, but I remain ever hopeful for Sun and Moon, since they've already had time to play with the 3DS' specs. But I digress, I loved Cyber Sleuth, but they reaaaaaaaaally need to tone down the grinding.

 DmC never had a chance. Never. Most gamers are very abhorrent to change, which is a shame. Look at Marvel and DC comics, they never manage to leave their status quo because of this. Sure, Doc. Ock might take over Peter's body, but you know that it's gonna revert back to Peter, because that's what the mainstream knows, and that's the only audience that they care about. 'Oh noes, the new Iron Man is a black girl!' Well, I'd care if only I didn't know that Tony will be back as Iron Man eventually, and this new lass will be given a new codename. Man, Marvel and DC comics suck. But I digress, and it wouldn't be an original of mine if I didn't, cause that's, like, my staple. And there I go again.
 Anyways, as soon as the new Dante was revealed, the game lost any chance of ever being successful. 'Fans' may argue that it's the 'braindead combat' that turned them away, but I'd argue that most people had already passed their judgment based on Dante's look alone. Fact: Old Dante was a bigger prick than New Dante, at least New Dante didn't get any innocents killed. Fact: The new game is easier than previous games. But it doesn't mean it's bad, 'easy games' are not bad by default, as if being 'easy' is a detriment to a game. And even then, there's multiple unlockable difficulties, like one-hit kills, if you really need to challenge yourself. And need I remind you that the only reason vanilla DMC3 was hard was because of Capcom USA thought it smart to turn 'Normal' into 'Hard'?
 But you can argue time and time again, it won't make a change, 'fans' hate this game, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. And, honestly, it's their loss.

 Megaman Powere Up and Megaman Maverick Hunter X were two amazing remakes. They aren't exact 1:1 remakes with the previous games, although level design was kept relatively faithful, you can tell that the 'physics' aren't the same. Regardless, most of the differences of this ilk are inconsequential to the enjoyment of either game, and in the case of Megaman 1, it makes it even better, damn, Megaman would skate all over the place on his first outing!
 But Megaman X was downright amazing, and Maverick Hunter X follows suit, adding a ton of extras to make the deal even sweeter. Not only do you get a fully animated Ova, Day of Sigma, which I will fully admit to not caring in the slightest about, but you also get Vice as a playable character. Vice's game is really good once it gets going. You see, when you start playing with Vice, he sucks. He is fragile, he has little firepower and the stages feel harder. Heck, I even died on the introduction stage, and I know I wasn't the only one. I almost quit since I couldn't get through Chill Penguin's stage, it was that hard. But I soldiered on, and it turns out that the more you play, the stronger Vice gets, and the more weapons he gets. By the end of the game, Vice is more versatile than X could ever become, and packs firepower to spare. It's so rewarding going from zero to, erm, villain.

 I'm done singing Megaman X's praises, but then there's X2, which managed to be almost as good as the original. As a matter of fact, I think that people who play X2 before X1 will like X2 the better. And after you are done with X2, there's X3, which... isn't quite as good, but it's still a great game on its own right. And then there's Megaman X4, which was all sorts of fantastic, featuring an entirely new, gorgeous spriteset and some of the best bosses Megaman X has ever had. And then you can jump right into X5 and... it really went down hill, didn't it? But at least it's a decent game. You want more? X6 is waiting for you!.... And X6 sucks. It has terrible level design, with a couple of obstacles that are unwinnable by design, or unless you managed to get the proper equipment, which can be lost forever. It features some of the laziest spritework yet seen in the franchise, joined by the worst bosses in the series.
 But at the end of the day, you got four fantastic games, a decent one and only one stinker, that's a knockout on my book!

  Extreme VS Force, you disappointing little game you. Gundam VS Gundam Final Plus on the PSP is one of the finest games you can get on that console, and Extreme VS is one of my favorite games ever. Now, imagine being able to take Extreme VS on the go with me, how amazing would that be? Particularly since these games lend themselves to handhelds pretty well.
 The initial release was a total clunker. You had about a third of the total amount of suits available on Full Boost on the PS3, and only one mode, 'Extreme Force', which while relatively decent, showed that the engine really didn't lend itself to that type of game. And, compared to the previous outing on the PSP, had less characters, less stages and less modes. Absolutely unacceptable. Subsequent patches had added a few more mobile suits, and finally a VS mode, but I think it was a little bit too late. And, while I can now acknowledge it as a great game, I haven't played it as much as I thought I would. While we have over 40 suits now, it still feels bitter when you think that you could be playing with even more characters on the console version.

 Back when I was younger, I decided that I didn't like Survival Horror, but I had at least dabbled into Resident Evil 1 and 3, and much later Code Veronica. Regardless, even though I hadn't played REvil 2, I still wanted to try it out, for whatever masochistic reason, and had already decided that Leon and Claire were my favorite characters of the franchise.
 Well, I finally got to play Resident Evil 2 this year, and it was great. I still like Leon and Claire the best, but at least now I have reasons to do so besides 'they look cool'. The movement is very clunky 'n all, but I really like it, dunno why. Maybe, maybe, eventually, this year, I might try my hands at Resident Evil 1 again, and get Resident Evil 3. Maybe.

 The Evil Within is still my runner for my favorite game of the year, this year. So far, since I discovered that I like survival horror, I prefer Resident Evil's gameplay(Both classic and modern), but prefer Silent Hill's story and monster design. Resident Evil games are fun to play, but Silent Hill games are fun to play through.
 Now, mix Silent Hill's psychological horror with the more organic enemy designs with Resident Evil's now trademark over the shoulder camera and you get The Evil Within. And I love it to bits. Interestingly, the other day I was thinking about it, I couldn't remember anything about the main characters, I didn't even remember that Sebastian was called Sebastian, which shows just how unremarkable they were. But the set pieces? The environments? The monsters? Those I remember very, very clearly. That moment when you finally get through the gate during the early parts of the game, and very organically, you realize that you've awoken dozens of enemies, and by that part it's impossible to have much ammo, so you instinctively choose to run. 10 outta 10 moment right there. What about the set piece with the rotating razor in the middle? I remember dying multiple times there, but it was fun nonetheless. There's also the caves, when you meet locker-head, and he kills himself in order to respawn near you. Awesome. By the end of the game, the horror elements kinda got a bit diluted and it turned into an action game featuring monsters, but it made sense, since the entire city had gone to hell, and now it was killed or be killed..
 The Evil Within is a top notch game, I've been contemplating replaying it every now and then, but then I remind myself of my backlog and how I should be making some progress on those games instead. Regardless, The Evil Within is, so far, my favorite game I've played this year.

Review #335: 3DS Download Kid Icarus - Of Myths and Monsters

 It hasn't aged very well.

 Kid Icarus is one of Nintendo's oldest franchises, yet one that has been severely underutilized. 'Of Myths and Monsters' was the second entry on the series, released exclusively on the Gameboy, and while, at the time, it was praised for smoothing over some of the first games rough edges, I'd venture to say it hasn't aged very well at all.

 The plot is a bit silly and entirely inconsequential to the game itself; basically, Goddess Palutena has a dream about Orcos invading the heavens, so she sends out Pit through a series of training challenges. And, spoiler alert, as soon as you finish the training, Orcos attacks and it's up to Pit to save Palutena. The game is divided in 4 stages, the first three with four sub-stages each. The first three stages would be Pit's training, and and on the fourth sub-stage you are thrust upon an annoying maze-like environment that concludes with a boss fight.

 Most levels are relatively linear affairs, either go from left to right or get to the top of the stage in order to beat it. But you'd better not, as spread throughout them are different doors that will take you to stores, healing springs or bonus stages. Currency is earned by killing enemies, and you will need to go out of your way to grind for enemy kills, which spawn infinitely, if you want to buy anything, as everything is plenty expensive. Among the bonus stages are 'survival' type affairs, in which clearing them awards you with one of three weapons. These weapons only work when you have a determinate amount of health on your health bar, but you'll need two levels at least to use the first one of this weapons. Your health gauge is increased by amassing a certain amount of points, and after clearing a level, if you managed to get enough points, Zeus will upgrade your health to a maximum of five. 

 Honestly, I thought the entire game was a waste of time. You are expected to sit near enemy spawners and kill them ad nauseaum to amass currency and so properly equip Pit for the different stages. However, to say that the game was devoid of any fun would be wrong, as some of the platforming in the latter levels was decidedly enjoyable, and seeing Pit get stronger as you get more life upgrades and weapon upgrades felt pretty satisfying. Once you are fully equipped, it becomes even more enjoyable, as you try to avoid damage in order to keep your upgrades activated.

 Bottom-line is, I think Kid Icarus is a victim of age. And while the game starts off very boring, once you've amassed a small fortune and are well on your way upgrading Pit, it becomes relatively enjoyable.

 4.5 out of 10

Now Playing; 3DS Download Kid Icarus - Of Myths and Monsters

 Blegh

 When playing older games one has to take into account that back when they were released, it was a different time. Games were made artificially harder in order to extend the game's life and either incite multiple rentals or directly purchases. I grew up with a joystick in my hands, so I can put up with a lot of archaic mechanics, if the game is good.

 Kid Icarus of Myths and Monsters is a drag. You jump and shoot on the most boring of stages. 'But it was a different time! They only had two buttons at the time! And the gameboy's screen was small!' Yeah, well, look at Mario Bros classic, that game is even less complex than this one, and it's still a lot more fun. Look at Megaman, you jump and shoot, except that it's fun in those games.

 But what makes it so boring? The fact that it's a grindfest. Climbing to the top of each level is relatively easier, but if you want to buy power ups, you are gonna have to abuse the endlessly spawning enemies to make a fortune. Which takes time. And stuff is expensive. Heck, the only way to increase your life bar is to finish a level with a high score, which means... going out of your way to kill as many enemies as you can. It's not fun, it's a waste of time.

 I just defeated the first boss, and man was that boring. It wasn't even hard, it was simply boring, I had level 3 fire arrows, and kept pumping and pumping arrows but the thing wouldn't go down.

 And that's my initial impressions with the game: It's a waste of time. I don't like it.

Review #334: Liberation Maiden

 Because Suda 51 is god.

 And here we have another small, semi-experimentational game part of the 'guild' series that, for whatever reason, wasn't deemed worthy of a full, physical release over seas. In Liberation Maiden case, it's a 3D shooter by Suda 51 in collaboration with Level 5.

 The game doesn't do a good job of explaining the setting, but what you need to know is that you play as Shoko, new Japan's president, who must protect her country from invading enemies by piloting her humongous mecha. It's Suda 51 alright. The game is divided into 5 stages, which mostly consist of doing three missions and a sub missions before tackling the boss. It lasts about 1 hour on the Normal difficulty setting, but there's also an easy and hard mode, as well as an Stage Attack mode, if you care about any of those.

 On each stage you are dropped on a medium-sized area filled with enemies, and then you are told your first objective. While you can go fulfill it at any time, you are free to explore and destroy enemies, although the only reward will be more points, so there's no real rewards for exploring. The left analog stick is used to move around, holding the L button allows you to strafe and the Stylus takes care of combat. If you bought Kid Icarus, you'll probably want to use the Stand it came with, since I struggled with a few hand cramps as I played along.

 Interestingly, your offensive means are also your defense! There's two weapons, the Laser and the Gun/Missile. To use the gun, you hover the reticule, with the stylus, over the enemies and then let go, it can also be charged for extra damage, while the laser fires constantly as you move the reticule around. The 'ammo' for these weapons is also your shield, so depleting your ammo, which recharges once you stop touching the screen with the stylus, will leave you open to take damage. Still, getting hit while the gauge is fully loaded will penalize you by reducing its total capacity, which means less ammo for your weapons. You can recharge this capacity by defeating enemies. I don't usually play shooters, so I don't know how original of a mechanic it is, but what I do know is that I found it rather fun.

 There's not a whole lot of story to the game, but Suda 51's flavor can be felt on the gameplay. It's hard to explain the why or how, but you can tell that Suda 51 had to something to do with it, even the HUD feels very Suda 51. Still, it's far from his best endeavors, but I think that can be attributed to the game's original nature: This is a single part of a whole package. It wasn't meant to be a 'complete' game, which explains its simple premise and very, very short duration. Still, there's something to be said about them managing to make the gameplay so engaging when it was meant to be something so simple.

 As it stands, I feel the same way about this game as I did with Attack of the Friday Monsters: It's a great, small game considering what it was meant to be, but I'm sure it would've worked much better alongside the other two games it was released with, as a compilation of multiple games from multiple directors. Still, the small fee of admission is worth it, and it does have a broader appeal than Attack of the Friday Monsters.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #333: Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale

 It's so beautiful!

 Attack of the Friday Monsters! is... a bit hard to classify, but I guess 'a slice of life adventure game' fits the bill relatively well.

 You play as Sohta, the new kid on the block, who is sent by his mother on an errand to deliver the clean laundry to the baker's... something that Sohta forgets about very early and is never brought up again till the 'true ending'. Before leaving his home, his mother warns him to be careful, since Friday is the day monsters come out. And this is the game's first peculiarity, the nature of the monsters, of the town, is never made clear. Are the monsters real?  Are they partially real? Is this an elaborate prank by the adults? Is it a movie stage? The answer is left pretty ambiguous. The game is divided in 26 episodes, but they are more like 'tasks' or 'mysteries', they don't follow a numerical order, and you'll advance each at seemingly random intervals. To be honest, the story is relatively simple, but the cast of characters and the situations were incredibly charming, more often than not I found myself making the largest, dumbest grins as I advanced the plot.

 Throughout the entire ordeal you'll be doing three things: Walking from place to place, talking with NPCs and battling other kids with cards. As you walk around town, you'll come across shining spots, called 'Glims', collecting about 7 of them will grant you a card. These cards represent different Kaijuu, Japanese giant monsters like Godzilla, and they each have their own unique flavor text accompanying them, which makes collecting them a reward in itself. But cards are more than mere collector's items, they are used to play a game card game against other kids, by facing five of your cards against five of them. Initially each card has one of three symbols: Rock-Paper-Scissors, but later in the game you'll come across dual type, like Cutting Rock. After selecting your five cards, you'll be given two to three 'hints' on whether your card loses, wins or draws against the enemy card directly in front of it, and you are allowed to switch to cards. Who switches cards first depends on who's got the 'winning set up' at the start. I didn't much care for the game itself, but you'd do well to collect as many cards as you want, as there's a relatively challenging mandatory match near the end of the game.

 After you clear the game you are free to search for missing glints, complete unfinished episodes and challenge a new kid to the card game. If you want to 100% the game you are going to need to collect every card, which means challenging the new kid. Not only is she the hardest opponent in the entire game, but the chances of her dropping the glints you need are entirely random. This was the only thing I found annoying in the game, and honestly, the ending you get after getting every card isn't really worth it, so after you clear the game just finish every episode but the fourth one(The one that requires all cards). Unless you really enjoy the card game, in which case you've a reason to keep playing it!

 And that's all there is to say about Attack of the Friday Monsters! It's a simple, but wholly charming game, filled with entertaining moments to keep you smiling all the way through. And as with any game of this kind, it's not for everyone. The card game is almost entirely optional, there's no puzzles whatsoever, so the only thing you'll be doing is walking around and talking with NPCs, which probably doesn't sound very appealing, and it certainly will only appeal to a few. But for those few, the game is incredibly worth it. The game was originally released alongside four other games in Japan, as 'guild 02' or something like that, but all us westerners got was a digital release of each game individually. Regardless of how cheap you may get it for, if the game doesn't sound like something you'd be interested in, then chances are you probably won't like the game at all.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #332: Earth Defense Force 2025

 EDF! EDF! EDF!

 It's been, what, about four years since I played Earth Defense Force(USA) back in the day? Often lauded as the worst in the franchise, it was an american take on the series, and I liked it a lot, but then again, it was the only EDF game I had played. Earth Defense Force 2025 was the last EDF game released on last gen consoles, now left obsolete by the PS4 enhanced rerelease. Regardless, current-gen still hasn't managed to pique my interest, scummy DLC practices and incomplete games(I believed in Street Fighter V, and it failed me! DAMMIT, CAPCOM.) doesn't help, so this'll have to do.

 The game's story is as follows: Giant alien insects invade the Earth, Storm Team is the Earth's mightiest defense against these evil aliens, so they do battle with the aliens. And that's it. There's a tiny bit more to the story, which progresses through audio communication while you play the 85 missions, which last about 15 hours, but it's not meant to be taken seriously. You'd do both yourself and the game a disservice if you played it for the story, Shakespeare this is not.

 The game is a traditional third person shooter, so no fancy 'over-the shoulder' aiming, in which you have to kill giant ants. And then giant spiders. And then giant Bees. And then flying space ships. And then alien bipedal robots. And then H. G. Wells-inspired robots. And then dragons. And it's as fun, chaotic and ridiculous as it sounds, and it's amazing. Most of the missions take place in city-like arenas, filled with buildings and bridges that probably won't survive the whole ordeal. As fantastic as it sounds... the game runs like crap. The framerate in single-player is acceptable, it dips a lot, but it can be tolerated. But when playing split-screen... it's awful. But it's also when the game shines the brightest, I played the entire 85 missions in split-screen co-op, and it was a riot, so much so that it was easy to ignore how frequently the framerate went into the single digits. It's that bad. But it's also so much fun.

 There's four different classes, each one with specific weapons and attributes. Honestly, if you are gonna play by yourself, you are better off sticking with the average, all-around Ranger. The Wing Diver is fun, but it's a bit too fragile, the Fencer packs quite a punch, and the only class that wields four weapons, but it's very, very slow, unless you bring a melee weapon, that allows it to dash, so it'll be an eternity as you move from area to area, and the Air Support class is built around co-operation, which makes it a terrible character for solo play. And it's a shame, because the other classes are so much fun to play, in a co-operative environment! Each character also gets dozens upon dozens of different weapons. Sure, a ton of them are simply higher-level versions of other weapons, but there's probably 12-20 different weapon models for each different class, which translates into a lot of weapons and a lot of set-ups.

 And I bet all those weapons sound oh so appealing, don't they? It's a bit of a double edged sword. Weapons are found on green crates, randomly dropped by enemies. What weapon you get is entirely random, and it may even be a weapon you already own. This also means that if you like a particular set of weapons, you may be stuck with low-level weapons until you finally get weapons that suit your style. Since I was so fond of my Fencer's 900 damage cannon, I wound up with 3 different level 15-20 weapons and my level 10 cannon, since I couldn't find its enhanced version or a weapon that could take its role in my arsenal.

 Another issue with the game, besides the terrible framerate, are the long, looooooooooong loading times. And then there's the camera... Sometimes it tends to get stuck on debris behind you, or for whatever reason, your character itself. It's not unusual to be aiming at something only to suddenly get a close-up on your character's behind. Now couple this with single-digit framerate moments and it can get quite annoying.

 Despite being such a technical mess, the game is undeniably fun. It can get a bit repetitive, sure, but trying new weapons is always fun. That said, the game is obviously meant to be played with other players, going at it solo is decent, but when you've got different character classes co-operating with each other, there's were the game shines... and it's also when the game runs the worst! It's definitely not a game for everyone, it's a very campy game, and it knows how ridiculous it is, and it makes the most of it. It also runs like garbage, has a ton of technical issues, so it takes a special kind of person to put up with them and appreciate the game for what it really is.
 7.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Stella Glow

 Because Luminous Arc isn't dead. Kinda...ish.

Imageepoch had a little franchise, Luminous Arc, on the Nintendo DS. It was a trilogy of quirky Strategy RPGs that were pretty decent. As a matter of fact, I remember getting 100% on Luminous Arc 2, which meant a lot, and I do mean a LOT of playthroughs. Sadly, we never got Luminous Arc 3 over here.

 We did get Arc Rise Fantasia, though, which was amazing, and I covered on this blog a couple of times already, and putting it over Xenoblade on my favorite Wii games. Actually, there was a fourth Luminous Arc game on the Vita, but it looks nothing like previous games and was developed by another company...

 ...'Cause, y'see, Imageepoch went bankrupt after releasing this game, and their CEO went missing(True story). So what we've got here is Imageepoch's very last game, and while it doesn't carry the 'Luminous Arc' name, it very much is in spirit.

 So, the good, the bad and the ugly:

The Good:
- Production values are through the roof. 2-D character portraits are very crisp and clear, the anime cutscenes are fantastic and the 3D in-game graphics are gorgeos.
- Gameplay is very simple, and works just like any other SRPG, but why fix what isn't broken?

The Bad:
- The story... It's as anime as it gets. Childhood friend-romantic interest-who can't cook? Check. Her food even turns purple, like 90% of every female love interest ever. The mysterious voice-power benefactor that appears mysteriously when the situation gets dire and offers the main character powers? Check.
- It also rips off from the Luminous Arc franchise itself! This Hilda witch seems to have the exact same role as the Twilight Witch from Luminous Arc 2. She's the game's 'mascot', featuring heavily on most official art pieces, wields a scimitar-like weapon, wears black and has white hair, is evil but will obviously join the good guys. Then there's the Knight Klaus, who looks almost exactly like Luminous Arc 2's token blonde spearman.
- And it's also very predictable. The fact that Lisette would discover her witch powers so early and in that manner was incredibly obvious.
- The first chapters also reminded me a lot of Jean D'Arc. Having the main characters start off as villagers, having one of the characters being accepted into the village after having been found suffering from amnesia/not knowing who he was. Even the early hunting missions and visual style, not to mention having the village attacked. And I know that it's a very common set-up seen in many games, but it reminded me of Jean D'Arc the most due to the visual style.

The ugly:
- You can't turn the camera during battles! Although to be fair I didn't really need to.

 Basically, it's really good, at least so far, with the only shortcoming being the story. Sadly, Japanese RPGs aren't just what they used to.

Month Overview: June 2016

 Tally:
999 - Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors                         7.5
Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney            8.0
Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye Despair                                         8.5
Danganronpa Another Episode - Ultra Despair Girls             6.5
Lord of Arcana                                                                        2.0


 Now that's a lot of visual novel-style games! Not that I mind, they were pretty good. Even Danganronpa AE was good at what it wanted to be, although it wasn't too good at what it was. Anyways, 999? Pretty good, although I disagreed with a few design choices. Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright? Now that's a crossover. Danganronpa 2? It starts of very disappointing, but it turns around on its second half and becomes amazing. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied.

 Except with Lord of Arcana, that game can burn in hell for all I care.


Game of June:

 Man, I had a tough time scoring Danganronpa 2. The first 10 hours of the game I was feeling so let down. Fanservice was rampant throughout the entire game, the cast just wasn't very likable, and while the story behind the trials was pretty good, the gameplay was even more annoyingly convoluted. And then I got into the second half, and man, does the game pick up. Most of the fanservice is gone, by this time you've invested more time into the surviving characters and you realized that they had hidden depths, and the story gets SO good. SO. GOOD. I wanted to score it above Danganronpa at times. But there was my issue: Danganronpa 1 was consistently amazing, while Danganronpa 2 does get better than Danganronpa 1, the first half is rather bland. Still, it's a solid game, but lacks the consistency that made the original so good.

Runner-up:

 Alright, so the trials weren't as in-depth as they normally are, but it was understandable considering the target audience. Besides, it made up for it with the addition of Layton's puzzles. The end result is a Phoenix Wright game AND a Professor Layton game at the same time, without one franchise overshadowing the other in terms of presence. Although, y'know, I felt kinda sad that Pheenie was the butt of the joke the entire time, while Layton got nothing but praises. Which makes sense considering that's how both characters are treated in their respective universes, but still!

Review #331: Lord of Arcana

 Ooooooooooooooooooh boy...

 You know what I like? A good Monster-Hunter clone. Monster Hunter Tri? Loved it. Gods Eater Burst? Adored it, and pre-ordered the sequel. Toukiden Kiwami? 9.0 outta 10, still playing it nowadays on my spare time(The sequel, at least on Vita, isn't looking so hot though). Do you know what I also enjoy? Games in which Swery65 worked on. And you're telling me that Swery65 worked on a Monster Hunter clone? Sold. And then I played and.... full disclosure, I did not finish the game, and frankly, I'm not planning on doing so any time soon. Lord of Arcana is terrible, terrible.

 So, story, seven beasts are sealed in coffin-like things, and as you hunt stuff the seals break and you have to hunt these beasts. That's it. There's no memorable NPCs, no memorable moments, no nothing. I mean, I only got up to the third sealed monster, but it's pretty much just like Monster Hunter: The story is just an excuse to have you hunt things with your created character, who is pretty much a blank slate, personality wise. As per the norm for these games, you have a small town-like hub were you can craft items or equipment using pieces you've scavenged from monsters and accept quests. There's also a store, but they don't sell anything useful.

 And then we get to the gameplay, and where to start with... So, you created your character, picked a weapon, equipped an special attack, and you are ready to do some hunting, right? Well, the first surprise coming your way is how the hunting pans out. In these games you are usually let loose on an area, search enemies and fight them in real time. Here... you will come across enemies on the field, but these represent enemy encounters, as if it was an RPG, meaning that touching them shifts the action to a round arena in which the actual fight takes place. It's as annoying and time consuming as it sounds. Now, you know how these type of games can get very grindy very fast, as hunting for specific enemy parts can get grueling, it's not unusual to have to fight the same enemy over ten times in order to get that specific thing. Well, this game manages to make it even more tedious. There's certain enemy parts, 'cores', which are required for almost everything worth a damn, that can only be harvested at specific times.

 And this works very... randomly. After you've been on the field for a while, the game will randomly pick a specific area, and killing enemies in that specific area lets you harvest the cores of fallen enemies... if you are lucky. You see, there's an RNG to the RNG. You see, you might want Goblin cores, but the game will suddenly decide 'Hey, see this area filled with Skeletons and not a single Goblin? YOU CAN HARVEST CORES HERE NOW. ENJOY'. And killing enemies grants you the chance to get the core, more often than not you'll get nothing. And bosses, the strongest, most time consuming enemies? They might not even drop their cores as well. SO. MUCH. FUN. And the enemies are so lame, and their animations are lackluster as well. The first boss looks laughably dumb, at least the Bahamut was kinda coolish.

 The combat is simple and boring. You have a normal attack, on square, and a special attack on the triangle button. X is used for blocking and rolling. The combat feels very clunky and stiff, it simply isn't a fun game to play. But the cherry on top? Boss encounters. Do you know the best part about them? In order to kill them you have to engage in a sequence of QTES, and QTES are SO. MUCH. FUN. I can't stress enough just how lousy this game is, it's filled with baffling design choices, lame enemies and lame combat. There's dozens upon dozens of Monster Hunter clones out there, something this horrid just won't cut it.

 Now then, when I play Monster Hunter or Gods Eater, and a boss annihilates me, my immediate thoughts are to claim revenge. Revise my strategy, maybe even my equipment, and I try to tackle the boss again as soon as possible. In Lord of Arcana, Bahamut creamed me and... I just didn't want to try again. About a week later I tried again, and lost again, so I searched for Bahamut online, turns out he is kind of a roadblock for some of us, but, apparently, there's a spear-type weapon that completely wrecks him. But... I just couldn't be bothered to get that weapon. I wasn't having fun with Lord of Arcana, the game is tedious, is clunky and is anything but fun. There's so many other, better, more competent games, so why bother?

 For what it's worth, I looked at Lord of Apocalypse, a Japan only sequel that was released on both the PSP and the Vita, and it looks leagues and bounds better than this game. For instance, Agni, the first boss, while he is a tiny, pathetic creature on Lord of Arcana, in Lord of Apocalypse he is four times as tall, and both of his arms sport the flame gauntlets. His animations and patterns are just as pathetic, but at least he is looks imposing. They got rid of the 'encounter'-based combat, so that you engage enemies on the field itself, as it's meant to be, and you get CPU allies as well, which are bound to make the Single Player campaign more tolerable.

 Lord of Arcana is a terrible game. It's kinda sad, because it's not broken buggy. But the game is undeniably boring and tedious. The game is dull to the point of soullessness, and it makes me incredibly sad to say that, because if Swery 65's games have something, it's a soul, as derivative as they are. They tried to change the Monster Hunter formula, but change for the sake of change is not a good thing, which is why all of its original ideas fell flat on their face, which is why they got rid of them on the enhanced sequel, Lord of Apocalypse. The Monster Hunter-clone market, while still relatively niche, has dozens of fantastic alternatives: The PSP and 3DS have the Monster Hunter franchise, the PSP and Vita have the God Eater franchise and the Vita and PS4 have Toukiden. There's absolutely no reason to play this game.
 2.0 out of 10