Month Overview: July 2016

 Tally:
Earth Defense Force 2025                                              7.0
Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale                8.0
Liberation Maiden                                                          7.0
Kid Icarus - Of Myths and Monsters                              4.5
Silent Hill 2                                                                     8.5
The Legend of Legacy                                                    5.0
Hot Pixel                                                                         6.0
Stella Glow                                                                     8.0
One Piece - Pirate Warriors 3                         8.5

 July was an annoying month because exams, nobody likes exams, but somehow I managed to play a sizeable amount of games. It probably has to do with my should-be-patented microbreak-study system that involves me trying to distance myself from what I just read and then try to see how much I truly remember. Or stuff.


Game of July:

 Pirate Warriors, man. It's probably one of my favorite Warriors/Musou games. Firstly, it looks amazing, it's not the first Musou game to use cell-shaded graphics, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 for example, but One Piece's incredibly varied and distinct character designs couple with the very colorful cell shading make for one hell of a showpiece that looks unlike any other Warriors games. There's also the tiny details, like Logia users entering their Elemental forms, which look fantastic, and the shading trying to emulate pencil lines? Pure genius.
 Its beauty isn't just skin deep, it's one of the faster paced games in the franchise, movesets are very varied, with different uses( Crowd clearing, Kizuna-gauge builders, boss bashing') so repeating the same move over and over again is not only boring, but not as rewarding. I also liked how characters had very different tools. Luffy was a fantastic crowd clearing character, Sabo, my main squeeze, was more balanced, having a bunch of different uses while Enel was bad at crowd-clearing(At least until you unlocked his second special) but was a beast when dealing with tough enemies, then there was Blackbeard who could place 'traps' around his surrounding, or Nami that could zap enemies after comboing them.
 I could go on and on, but I loved Pirate Warriors 3. As much as I like One Piece's story, and as much as I think they did a good job covering all of it, as condensed as it is, it lacks the... impact? depth? emotion? etc of games like Dynasty Warriors 8. I also wasn't much of a fan of having bosses with three-tiered life bars, it was a bit boring and annoying having to wait for them to get up before I could start damaging them again. Or the Limit Break system... but all these gripes did little to diminish the amount of fun I got out of Pirate Warriors 3.

 Runner-up:

 Silent Hill 2 is something special. I can't stress enough how awe inspiring the amount of care that went into every facet of this game is. How the monster design, how the environment design and how the gameplay was tied around the main character's personality. Admittedly, a couple of the riddles were a bit too tough for me, and while I have no problems with easy games, as a Survival Horror game it could've been a bit more sparing with healing items and bullets, but it's easy to forgive its few shortcomings when you are so engrossed in the game's setting and story.

Ninja Turtles Month 2016

 So, this year TMNT Month will be... on August! Ideally, I'll be playing:

 Mutants in Manhattan is the one I wanna play the most, I've read the mediocre reviews et all, and I'll admit I was a bit overhyped about this one, but I don't care, it's TMNT, made by Platinum Games and inspired, on the most part, on the IDW comics. Basically, THE TMNT game I've always wanted.

 I'll be skipping TMNT 1 on the NES entirely and jumping straight to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - The Arcade Game, since, honestly, TMNT 1 looks too archaic for my tastes. Maybe on TMNT Month 2017. Regardless, I played the Arcade original, but never touched this port, so it might be interesting. Or disappointing. Or both!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 - Manhattan Project is the TMNT game I grew up playing bck in the day. I loved, adored it and spent countless hours beating it over and over and over and over again. This is, probably, the reason I love beat'em ups so much.

 Tournament Fighters will mark the end of my TMNT adventure on the NES this year. This was the other TMNT game I grew up with, and another game I spent countless hours replaying. I guess my taste for beat'em ups and fighting games has been cultivated since my wee years thanks to the Ninja Turtles!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV -Turtles in Time heralds the beginning of the two SNES games and, once again, I'm familiar with the Arcade original, but everyone considers this one a much improved sequel, so it's high time I gave it a try.

 I did play a little tiny bit of Tournament Fighters on the SNES sometime in my life, but I quickly dismissed it as another terrible SNES Street Fighter 2 clone that were all the rage back in the day. But duty calls, and I will give it another chance, but I'm not expecting to change my mind about it.

 Hyperstone Heist is the Genesis' own TMNT 2(Arcade) port, to rival TMNT IV on the SNES. I don't remember the specifics, but I think this game was a slightly remixed version or something like that? Ah well, all will be made cleared later during August!

 And then we've got the last version of Tournament Fighters. I kinda miss how back in the day three different games could have the same name, on different consoles and be different games. But I digress, I've also played a few seconds of this version and dismissed it as an even worse Street Fighter II clone. While I skipped the SNES/Genesis generation(I went straight from NES to N64!) I've always been a Nintendo fanboy at heart, so I'm pretty sure this one will be the one I like the least. It may stand a chance against Tournament Fighters on the NES, but that one has nostalgia on its side, so we'll see.

 Lastly, although I'm considering making them the first games after Mutant in Manhattan, there're the two Arcade Games. I think it makes sense to play them first since they came out first, but I fear the ports not being 'arcade perfect' my rub me the wrong way. Regardless, as recently as 2 years ago I replayed both of them as part of the PS2 games, and, frankly, they don't hold up to well. I think Konami's beat'em ups have aged the worst, games like The Simpsons The Arcade Game and the X-Men game, largely due to how they feel like reskins of each other. Not only that, but one of the things that matters the most, in my opinion, when it comes to beat'em ups, is making the bashing satisfying, since it's the only thing you'll be doing, but Konami's Arcade beat'em ups lack a gratifying feedback from your attacks, it's as if your characters are punching or slashing air, and everything lacks weight and feels very floaty.
 And mind you, these are games that I played and loved when I was younger and had trouble reaching the Arcade's button panel! But as an aficionado of the genre, Konami's Arcade beat'em ups just don't feel very satisfying, so I'm pretty sure I won't like them too much.



 Ideally, that's the schedule for this year, which will leave: Smash-up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1(NES), Out of the Shadows and the two-three Gameboy games for the next year. All these games are rather short, so I might be finishing them at a rate of one per day, if not more,

Review #340: One Piece - Pirate Warriors 3

 Gomu gomu no Musou.

 Pirate Warriors is an interesting mix, being a junction of some of Japan's most beloved franchises, Musou and One Piece, yet franchises that have had a mixed reception over seas. Which is a shame, since Musou/Warriors is one of the most cathartic videogame franchises out there, and One Piece is one of the best shonen manga ever written, one that remains consistent unlike its peers, Bleach and Naruto, alongside the fantastic JoJo.

 The game has three different modes: Legend, Free and Dream. Legend is a 22-stage long campaign that covers the entirety of One Piece, from the East Blue saga to the Punk Hazard saga, alongside a bonus chapter with an alternate take on the Dresrossa arc. One Piece is a massive story, so suffice to say, what's presented here is fairly compressed, they crammed entire arcs into single stages, almost every secondary character got cut, but it's a more or less decent retelling of the whole story, even if it glosses over details. While some things could've been explained better, like Whitebeard's relationship with his men and Ace, I think even people not versed in One Piece lore will be able to follow the story. This mode features some phenomenal cutscenes that showcase key moments, as well as comic-book styled, low budget cutscenes to bridge in the gap between stages. For Warriors games, the campaign is rather short, clocking about 11 hours, but every stage is unique, so in a way, they trimmed off all the excess fat.  Free is Legend mode, but you can pick any character instead of being limited to the Mugiwaras or temporary allies. Lastly there's Dream Mode, with an unlockable Nightmare mode, that is made up of a series of simple Stages free of any kind of story, just you, your army, and the enemy army.

 If you've ever played a Dynasty Warriors game, you know the deal, mash Square(weak attack) interspersed with Triangle(Strong attack) to produce combos and kill thousands upon thousands of enemies. It's a very simple, very repetitive approach, but I find it immensely entertaining. In this game in particular I found myself racking up thousands of kills one every stage, so it might have some of the most densely populated stages in Warriors history. As for this game particulars, it follows Dynasty Warriors Gundam blueprint, having areas that produce enemies indefinitely until you capture them by killing hundreds of enemies while inside said area. There's also a 'Kizuna Rush', by killing enemies without getting hit you'll fill a gauge, once you increase its level it can decrease even if you get hit. The higher the level, the more damage your allies will do when you perform Kizuna attacks, which consist of simply tapping Square or Triangle after you finish your attack string, and it will summon your ally to perform an attack of their own. Filling the gauge's level to its maximum will allow you to enter Kizuna Drive, your attacks will get stronger, and in the case of some characters, they'll change modes(Like Luffy's gear second or Sanji's Diable Jambe), and Kizuna attacks will get even stronger. This mode only lasts for a while, and depending on when you cancel it, if you let it deplete or if you end it with a super attack, is how many levels you'll be set back on the gauge.

 One thing to keep in mind, mostly in Legend Mode, is that the AI needs help constantly. Whenever a 'X is attempting to flee', you must stop everything you are doing and rush to their aid immediately, sans you want to redo the entire, long stage again. It can get annoying having to stop pounding bosses or what have you and having to run across the entire stage just to heal them, no other Warriors game has had such needy allies, and the penalty for losing allies wasn't this steep, unless they were the mission's VIP.

 One thing I didn't particularly like was the upgrading system. Personally defeating enemy generals will reward you with their own unique coins, and this coins are used to increase each character's individual stats. If you only main a few characters, you'll get enough coins to upgrade them without having to go out of your way to grind for them, but if you plan on maxing every character, well, I hope you've a lot of time on your hands. But the real kicker are the Gold, or rare coins, which must be earned by doing specific tasks, usually attached to special missions in Legend Mode. You will have to go out of your way for these, and they are required if you plan on 'Limit Breaking' your character, allowing him or her to go beyond level 50.

 Another thing I didn't really like was how long it took to fully develop a character, it takes a while for a character to earn its full moveset, at around level 30 you'll get most of a character moves, but you'll get your final attacks at level 63, so 'Limit Breaking' is a requirement, which means you'll have to hunt for the gold coins. Mind you, the game isn't impossible if you don't grind for the coins, even Nightmare Mode can be finished with a level 50 character if you're careful, but I felt like they could've done a better job with the leveling and upgrading system.

 Worth mentioning, the game looks fantastic. The cell-shaded, colorful graphics add a ton of life to it. As a matter if fact, I'd call this one of the better looking Warriors games.

 I had a blast with Pirate Warriors 3, it's probably one of the better Warriors games out there. One Piece's zany cast of characters, with their ridiculous attacks and powers lend themselves to a Musou game perfectly. There's a lot to like here, whether you are Warriors fan, a One Piece fan or both. For future installments, I'd like to see a more streamlined upgrading system, if anything, at least have the moveset expand at lower levels, because it's the different attack strings and what you can do with them that make the franchise so good.
 8.5 out of 10

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.