Unfinished Business 2016

 Either I failed these games or they failed me.

 Lords of Arcana failed me: This game was terrible. Terrible. I did review it, and I didn't finish it, but I didn't need to play anymore: The game was trash. I am considering beating it at least one, for completion's sake, but man, was this game bad bad bad.

  Corpse Party failed me: I started this game in October, as part of my scary games-athon. It was bad, bad, bad. I'm up to chapter 4-5? And I can't stand this game. It's such a backwards game design, having to retread the same areas over and over and over and over again, hoping that you do something to trigger something in an area you've already been before. It's a bad game, I don't even wanna play it anymore.

 Disgaea 2 and I failed each other: I don't think that Disgaea 2 is a bad game perse, but the story is kinda dull, couple that with the fact that I've kinda outgrown the Disgaea franchise... Yeah, I kinda don't want to play Disgaea 2 because it bores me.

 I failed Resident Evil 6: Despite the bad reviews, I was enjoying what little I played of Resident Evil 6. I started this game in co-op, so I kinda need my sister to be available as well, and I got sidetracked with other games.... Resident Evil 6 is a game I want to finish, I simply got sidetracked.

 Shin Megami Tensei IV failed me: I love the SMT franchise. Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne and Persona are all among my favorite PS2 games. The Devil Survivor franchise was fantastic, and it's never too late to play Raidou's games. Shin Megami Tensei 4 was a game I was kinda hyped for... but it's a bit boring. Character designs don't interest me, the setting is kinda dull, the presentation is disappointing...

 Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen and I failed each other: I really don't know what happened with me and Dragon's Dogma. I was so excited for this one, I thought it was a mixture of Monster Hunter and Kingdoms of Amalur-like western RPGs. And it kinda is, but it's also kinda dull. Climbing around monsters is kind clunky, cities are lifeless and finding sidequests is a bit lame. Maybe 2017?

 I failed Mass Effect: Just as with Resident Evil 6, it's not that I didn't like the game, I simply got sidetracked. I will admit that I wasn't completely sold on what I played of ME 1, but it's a game I'd like to play, eventually.

 I failed Monster Hunter 3: I have over 40 hours in this one, had just gotten meself the Ancient Mask to tackle the big-bad boss from the first part of the game... And I got sidetrack and eventually didn't feel like coming back to it. I think Gods Eater pampered me a bit, so that would explain why I didn't want to come back. Maybe. But I will finish it, I do have Monster Hunter 4 on my backlog after all!

Review #359: Silent Hill - Shattered Memories

 It's back to the icy town of Silent Hill for Harry Mason, but nothing is quite like it was.

 Shattered Memories is more than just a remake, more than just a reboot, it's almost an entirely different take on Silent Hill 1. What I'm trying to say, is that in order to fully appreciate this game for what it is, you have to come to it knowing what it is not: Silent Hill. Besides a few characters, who appear in name only, the main premise and the psychological horror ties, this time taken to its most literal and explicit extreme, this game has nothing to do with Silent Hill 1 or Silent Hill at all.

 The game takes place in two different time-frames, first is the framing device which has you taking part, in first person, on a psychology session in which you are being examined, and another in which you relive Harry Mason's past, after he crashed into Silent Hill and his daughter went missing. Armed with a flashlight and his cellphone, which works as a GPS(Map), Phone(You can call NPCs or may need to call a number to proceed), save your game and other eventualities, Harry Mason sets out to find his daughter. The most interesting part about the story is how your behavior affects the world around you. Besides the ending, changes and differences are superficial, but they add a ton of replay value and make going through the game multiple times a treat. Basically, how you answer questions during the psychology session and how you behave in the game(Examining alcohol, examining erotic objects, being caring and calling characters, etc) will alter how some characters look and behave, major characters having three different possible looks and up to three different personalities, it will also alter how the monsters look, and it will alter how some shops look or are named. And, of course, the four different possible endings. It's far from revolutionary, but damn if it isn't a fantastic idea and pulled off well.

 As previously stated, you can't come into this game expecting Silent Hill or you'll be left massively disappointed. There's no fog, and the town is pretty much alive and well, even if a snow storm is blocking access to most buildings or streets. There's no cult involved in this game, although they made the monsters' looks an active part of the game. There's only one monster type in this game, and their looks reflect how you are playing. Being a pervert will make it develop sexual characteristics, being a pervert will make it get bloated, being uncaring will make its flesh rot, etc. So while only having one monster may seem boring, it makes up for it by having reflect on your playstyle, essentially, becoming the player's inner demon, which is a fantastic idea and is one of the few traditional Silent Hill-ish features in the game.

 Silent Hill has always worked with two 'worlds', or 'dimensions' or however you wanna call them, and this game is no exception, albeit it works a bit different. On the 'Normal' World you're absolutely and entirely safe from danger, there're no monsters nor jumpscares: You are safe. In this sections you have to make your way towards a certain destination, and you are free to explore your surroundings, in order to capture.. ghosts in film, come across spiritual residues or find collectible mementos. All three of them are merely there to flesh out the story and world of Silent Hill, as your only reward will be text messages or voice mails. While these sub stories were kinda sad, and completely out of place in a Silent Hill game, and while they were fun to find... to be honest, there's not enough incentive to collect them. They don't unlock anything, so while should I bother? I mean, I would bother since I liked the story, but why would someone else need bother if that isn't enough incentive?

 The 'Normal World' is also where most of the puzzles take place, if you can even call them puzzles. 99% of the time, whatever item you need to open a locked door is in the same room as the door itself. Whatever information you need in order to open a door or find a password... is in the room itself. Puzzles in this game are pathetic motion control gimmicks. Find a wallet and open the wallet. Find the drawer and open the drawer. Honestly, it's kinda pathetic.

 Now then, as you progress through the 'Normal World' you'll inevitably trigger the 'Ice World'. In this sections you have to make it to a certain place while avoiding monsters. Light-blue highlights mark doors and climbable ledges, and your only option is to run, since Harry Mason can't defend himself. These sections, in my opinion, were the worst parts about the game. They are repetitive, lack tension or horror, are boring and feel like more of a hassle than anything else. If you fail these sections you are simply brought to the starting area, and enemies lack viciousness, so you don't feel scared or threatened.

 And that was another point of contention for me: The game simply isn't scary. Normal World sections are perfectly safe, and you know where the spiritual residue hotspots are, so you'll be ready for the pseudo-jumpscare they trigger. Ice World sections are too damn boring and repetitive to be scary. What you are left with is a scary game that isn't scary at all. Heck, the shadows projected from your flashlight are so bad that some of those twisted, unnatural shadows unnerved me more than anything the game did to try to scare me. The game is also rather short, I cleared the game in under 5 hours, and I bet someone who doesn't care about collectibles will cruise through the game even faster. I've read about the game being filled with glitches, but I never ran across anything to major, save Harry going through a door without opening!

 I've made it no secret that I abhor motion controls. This game is filled with them. Moving around is done with the nunchuck, while you use the Wii's pointer to move the camera around, which works just fine. That said, you will have to interact in a motion control mini-game like way with almost every interactive object in the game. There's a drawer? The game switches to first person and now you must hold A and B and move the drawer's door. There are cans? Gotta hold A and B and twist the Wiimote around to pour their contents. Wait, you came across a window nailed shut? Gotta hold A and B and get those nails out! In the game's defense, none of these sections are awful, but they are a bit too frequent for someone like me. Monsters in the Icy World will try to cling on to Harry, and you have to shove the nunchuck and Wiimote in their direction in order to get them off you. I didn't have much trouble with them, although I found having to do that annoying, but I read that some people had issues getting them off.

 Earlier in the year I played Silent Hill - Book of Memories and absolutely hated it. Because it wasn't Silent Hill and because it wasn't a good game. Shattered Memories is not a Silent Hill game either... but it's a really good game. It's easy as pie, it's short, it has too many motion controls.... but the story is fantastic and exploring Silent Hill was fun. I finished the game after two sessions because I was so engaged in the story, and as meaningless as all the collectibles were, I wanted to find them. I'm glad that the final game in the Silent Hill franchise I got to play was Shattered Memories, it's a great way to end my time with the franchise.

 8.0 out of 10

 

Now Playing: Silent Hill - Shattered Memories

 It's another cold night in the town of Silent Hill...

 While it was touted as a 'remake' or 'reboot' of the first Silent Hill game, I think calling it a 'reimagining' is more appropriate, as this game feels like Silent Hill in name only.

 You play as Harry, who crashes into the snowy town of Silent Hill after a car accident, and must now find his daughter, and that's where the similarities end. This game removes combat, has simple puzzles(At least so far) and most of its horror revolves around ghosts rather than psychological manifestations of someone's traumas, fears and what not. Kinda. There's a single monster type that changes depending on how you act and behave during the game, but it's nothing to write home about.

 Putting aside how little this game feels like Silent Hill, it's actually really good. I haven't felt much in the way of horror, tension or creepiness, but it's an entertaining game with an entertaining premise. The graphics are top-notch, and it feels nice to explore Silent Hill at this level of graphical quality. All the ghost-stuff is pretty intriguing as well, it's always a treat coming around apparitions or 'unfinished business'.

 The amount of motion controls are a bit too much for me, but its forgivable. All in all, I'm liking the game a fair bit.

Review #358: Pandemonium 2

 I wanted to hate this game.

 Pandemonium 2 is the darkier and edgier sequel to Pandemonium!, a 2.5D platform game feauting the crazier redesign of the Jester and the sexier redesign of Nikki. And we are off to a bad start.

 Alright, so the game is trying really hard to appear hardcore and grown up, but what little story there is plays against this new direction. It's something about a comet that grants wishes crashing down on earth and both Nikki and the Jester wanting their wishes granted. Simple, silly, straight to the point and little more than window dressing in the grand scheme of things.

 The game features 19 levels of jumping and running. You can play as either character, Nikki having access to a double jump, her only means of offence being jumping on enemies' heads, while the Jester gets some awkward attacks at the cost of only being able to jump once. I benched the Jester ASAP and never looked back, the usefulness of the double jump makes up for not having any other means to defend yourself, regardless, you can just tap a button at the level select screen to switch characters.

 The game has some rather floaty controls and physics, which I guess is to be expected out of an old 2.5D platformer, but it never manages to feel right. Some camera angles can be downright nasty, closing in on your character a bit too much, or offering you little time to react on some of the vehicle-like sections of certain stages, turning these into little more than memory exercises. Level design is all over the place, there were a few set pieces that I though were ingenious, but then there're some stages that are very mazelike in nature, I just pushed forward hoping I was on the right track and it got me through.

 But what really takes the cake is the mess of a level, but appropriately called, 'Hate Tank', in which you have to control a tank, aiming up and down with the analog stick, as well as shooting to the background or foreground by using L1 and R1 to move around your turret. It's hard to control, it's floaty, it's boring and slow paced... it's the game's lowest point. That's not taking into account the disastrous last level, in which you've to traverse the same areas over and over again, with little changes each time, it's long, boring, dull and repetitive.

 This is an old platform game, so it runs on lives, run out of them and it's back to level 1 for you. While the game can be sorta hard, bottomless pits galore couple with floaty jumping mechanics, the game is rather generous with lives, so you shouldn't have too many problems getting to the end. The developers also decided to do away with game saves, so it's back to passwords with this on!

 All that said, the game has a very 90s charm to it which made it hard for me to hate it. Believe me, I wanted to hate the game, but I couldn't. Maybe at the time the game could've passed off as good, but it's way too archaic for today's standards, and unless you've a soft spot for games of its era, you're better off ignoring Pandemonium.

 5.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Pandemonium 2

 Because who needs to play the first game when you can simply skip right to the sequel.

 So recently, after lurking through the web, I've come across Pandemonium 1 and 2, games I've known about for a while, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that I got interested in the franchise. And while I meant to start at the first game, I accidentally ordered the sequel, so... why not? It's not like the game's story is any good!

 First impressions are... mixed, which is kind of a trend lately. I like the 90s aesthetics, graphics and floaty physics and what not, but... it's too floaty, which makes it too imprecise. The game also moves rather fast, but wants you to perform some timed acrobatics, which can lead to some issues. Still, 3 levels in and I think it's a decent game, but I'm not interested in the first game at all.

Review #357: Guardian's Crusade

 The story about a boy and his blob... wait, wrong game!

 Before Senran Kagura and Onechanbara, before becoming known for fanservicey games, Tamsoft developed a little PS1 JRPG called Guardian's Crusade. Hot off the heels of Final Fantasy VII, this game is little more than another me-too from the era that just wanted to take a slice out of FFVII's pie.

 The story is almost non-existent beyond the main premise: A pink monster, Baby, arrives before Knight and then a mystical old man magically appears out of thin air and tasks Knight with escorting Baby to God's Tower. Knight is a mute hero that has no character development, the fairy that accompanies him has no development, and Baby has little development. There's a few side-characters that do evolve, or rather change due to circumstances, but nothing major or noteworthy. Basically, the storyline, what little there is, is dull and forgettable while characters remain lifeless constants, which makes for a very forgettable JRPG.

 As a generic by-the-numbers JRPG, Guardian's Crusade plays as expected: Traverse the land, explore towns and dungeons, while engaging in turn-based battles. Hidden throughout the lands are 'Living Toys', which double as Spells in battle, and there's over 60 of them to collect. They cost PP(Mana) to invoke, and they work in various different ways: Some are one-off attacks or healing spells, others will stay by your side, using their ability every turn while a few work outside battles, like letting you open up the map or escaping a dungeon. It's a neat idea that adds a speck of personality to the game, as every living toy that can be used in battle gets its own 3D model and animations.

 Amusingly, they went for a virtual-pet-like system for Baby. For instance, in battle he will act by himself, although you can order him to focus on attack, defense or supporting you. While outside of battle, you can feed him different items to raise the invisible 'Happiness' gauge, or feed him Weapons and Armors to raise his defense and attack power. I couldn't be bothered to keep Baby happy, so I just fed him my old armors and weapons to raise his stats, or the few items that exist exclusively to be fed to Baby, like bugs and gum. It's not like an unhappy Baby won't aid you, but you won't be able to order him to transform, a trade-off I was willing to pay.

 Battles in this game are represented by Ghosts, which you can either avoid or touch if you want to engage in battle. But what's really interesting, particularly for the era, is that weaker enemy-encounter ghosts will actively run away from you, while stronger, green-eyed ghosts will chase you! I think the only other game that did this, at least at the time, was Earthbound.

 So far, I've presented a very forgettable and generic game, but what really kills it is the lack of directions. There's a couple of times in which the game won't give you directions and just expect you to travel around the sea, or air, until you come across the next event. This is not a matter of needing handholding, this is a relatively linear JRPG, and having the player wandering around without hints is beyond stupid.

 Bottom-line is: Guardian's Crusade hasn't aged well. At the time of its release, it was probably a mediocre and unimpressive game, but by today's standards the game shows its age and it ain't pretty. Even JRPG aficionados like myself will have a hard time finding things to like about this game.
 4.0 out of 10

Second Half of the Year Wrap-Up

 So, I'm making this a thing from here on out. It IS fun to reminisce!

 Lords of Shadow 2 was, as a whole, way better than it deserved to be. I'm glad we finally got closure on Gabriel's story. I know Konami sucks, and I know that gamers as a whole suck since they can't stand change, but dammit, I'd love to have both Lords of Shadows and Metroidvanias coexisting with one another.
 When it's all said and done, I've held mostly good memories of this game, it was definitely a fun, if flawed, game.

 It's funny how Danganronpa 2 is considered the better game, but after having time to digest all three games... Danganronpa 1 was the one that stuck with me the most. Navigating the abandoned school corridors in first person just added an extra layer of immersion, of creepiness that the second game's island just couldn't stand up to. Characters were much less anime, and there was little to know fanservice, which made the first entry in the franchise a much more memorable game.
 Danganronpa vol 3 is due next year and I can't wait!

 Digimon Story - Cyber Sleuth was somewhat of a surprise, while I was definitely looking forwards it, I just couldn't imagine how good it would end up being. It has a fantastic, SMT-esque story, the like which Pokemon will never even touch, and much better monster designs. Now, if only we can reduce the grinding a bit for future installments...

 Dishonored was another surprise hit. The game's reputation certainly preceded it, but I knew next to nothing about the game. And it says a lot about a stealth game that manages to arrest my attention and remains in my mind to this day.

 As an oldschool gamer, I hater myself for not having played Megaman X all the way to the end before. There's a reason that game is so fondly remembered, with top-notch level design, tight and simple gameplay as well as a fantastic soundtrack that's hard to forget. The addition of X2, X3 and X5 sweeten the deal that is Megaman X Collection, and then there's also X5 and X6 if you want to the see the franchise's lowest points.

 Ridiculous made-up name aside, Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance was an excellent little game that featured top-notch action mechanics. Sadly, I remember the story due to how bad it was rather than anything else!

 Is it fair to call Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. Force my personal biggest disappointment of 2016? I knew how lacking it would be from the outset since the Japanese audience was as taken aback with this title as most of us western fans were. It lacked Units, it lacked modes, it lacked what made the Extreme Vs. games so much fun. Most of these issues were somewhat addressed with patches, but it was still not enough. For shame, Bandai-Namco, for shame!

  While I think Shinobi was a slightly better game, Nightshade was no slouch. I've still got nightmares, the good kind, from the button gymnastics that the game demanded in the latter levels. I swear, Hotsuma and Hibana are the badassest ninjas ever. Ever.

 I played a bunch of Warriors games this year, but Pirate Warriors, man, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 was something else. The cell-shaded graphics did wonders for recreating the franchise's unique art-style, and it has some of the most creative movesets in Warriors history.

 Pokemon Sun... sorta fell short of what I expected. This is starting to become a trend with Pokemon games, ever since X and Y. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal were an absolute improvement over Red/Blue/Yellow. then came Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and while they lacked the two-region story-mode that pampered us in G/S/C it more than made up for with the new GBA graphics, mechanics such as weather and 2 on 2 and the world of Hoenn itself. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum once again gave us a new engine, substituted bases with Underground(which was rather fun!) and added things like the Vs. Tracker to grind post-game. HeartGold and SoulSilver would be the last games I would play, and it had everything that made D/P/P great as well as what made G/S/C great! It was the best Pokemon game I had played yet. I would go on to skip Black and White and their sequels.
 By the time X and Y came, they added a ton of things that I loved. I might've been a tad too harsh with my review, since I would go on to clock over 300 hours. The game's biggest pitfalls were the issues that had been plaguing the franchise since their conception, namely, HMs. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did away with a ton of the good features from X and Y, but introduced some new, good additions of their own. All in all, they weren't quite as good as X and Y.
 And now, I called Pokemon Sun the best in the 3DS lineup... but I think I jumped the gun. Customization is a pale shadow of X and Y's, the story is as bad as always, and as HUGE as the removal of HMs is... the post game is terrible. If you want to level up your mons, you either do it the lame way, Pokepelagos, or repeat the Elite 4. Lame. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire at least had a dozen of Legendaries to catch in various different ways, in Sun you get lame random encounters in designated areas.

 Rogue Galaxy has been growing on me. Every now and then I will, randomly, remember moments from the game. Turns out the setting was much more memorable than I gave it credit for! I think that's the game's problem, nobody gave it the credit it deserved, thus, it fell into obscurity, undeservingly so!

 Silent Hill 2 is one of a kind, eh! Whether you admit it or not, there's a reason so many people love Silent Hill 2 above the others, there's a reason the movies and western games  love to borrow from this one. I can't think of a single other game with this much detail poured into its design.

 It was not until I reviewed Homecoming that I realized just how memorable Silent Hill Downpour was. While not perfect, the story was engrossing. While not perfect, the combat was serviceable. While lame when compared with other games in the franchise, monster design actually served this game's purpose. While not the best westerm Silent Hill 'game', I think it's safe to say that it was the best western 'Silent Hill' game.

 It makes me sad to see how much hate Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutants in Manhattan has gotten, even making it into a few 'worst games of 2016' lists. The combat, while chaotic, was fun, and it truly shined when you got to fight the bosses. The environments might've been rather bland, but traversing them with ninja acrobatics was a blast, not to mention that the environments were but a means to an end, kinda like traditional beat'em ups, like Final Fight.

 The Evil Within remains my favorite game I've played in 2016. Not gonna lie, I think it's gonna be the winner of my prestigious Game of the Year Award, but I'm debating if I should give it to Borderlands Triple Pack. While I didn't technically replay Borderlands 2, it was part of the Triple Pack aaaand I did play through the new DLCs.

Review #356: Twisted Metal(PS3)

 The only thing twisted here are the controls.

 Welcome to Sony's oldest original franchise. Featuring over six games, Twisted Metal on the PS3 was the last entry, at this time, to be released. It serves as a sort of a reboot as far as the world of Twisted Metal is concerned, but sticks to its fundamentals where gameplay is concerned.

 While the original series features a bunch of psychos and wackos fighting on their vehicles to have their wishes granted, the reboot axed most characters, so now we've only got Sweet Tooth, Dollface and Mr. Grimm as playable characters(As well as a 'Holy Men' faction) and Calypso as the returning wish-granting NPC. The game's main single player mode, Story Mode, takes you through 18 missions, 6 per character, interspersed with live action cutscenes. I gotta admit, I adored the story, it's dark, gritty, sick and... twisted. It's highly entertaining watching this kind of characters on a videogame.

  As sickly entertaining as the story behind the three main protagonists is, this mode is prone to frustrate players. The combat stages are annoying, particularly on harder difficulty settings, since the CPU will gang up on you and ignore each other. Races are a challenging mess that require memorization, and don't even let me get started on how vexing the second boss is! As far as single player goes, you've also got a pretty good basics tutorial, training modes for the online modes and a challenge mode against CPUs. It's a bit lacking, and considering how frustrating the Story Mode can get... Single player options leave a lot to be desired.

 One thing they did that deserves praise is how unlocks work. Most unlockables are selectable form the get-go in offline multiplayer and challenge mode, but must be unlocked separately for use in Single Player and Online Multiplayer separately. It's a fantastic concept, since you can just pop-in the game and have fun with other local players without having to dabble in Single player. What's not so praise worthy are the local multiplayer offerings. Story Mode can be played with up to two players, which is kinda neat, and there's Deathmatches for up to four players... But only Deathmatch. Other, more interesting, multiplayer modes can only be played only. Lame!

 As far as gameplay is concerned, it's your typical Twisted Metal game. You are thrown in an environment, 9 in all, which can be picked in small, medium and large variations, and must drive around collecting weapons to unleash upon your foes, and thus eliminate them. There's a decent amount of weapons to use, side-arms(Weapons that are equipped by default and have unlimited ammo) as well as special moves unique to each vehicle. While most characters from the franchise are gone, some of their vehicles return, and there's a decent variety, each with their own Special weapon set ups and stats. When the game is at its best, it's a blast. Single Player runs silky smooth, and 2-Player Split-screen works pretty decently.

 But where the game suffers the most is in its controls. You can either opt for classic controls or more modern 'racer' controls. Either one comes with its own caveats, so you will end up fumbling about while you get comfortable with whichever scheme you chose. 

 Twisted Metal has a lot going for it. An interestingly twisted setting, fun and smooth gameplay, huge, destructible environments as well as a decent repertoire of vehicles to choose from. Sadly, unless you plan to play the game online or in multiplayer, most of its virtues are thrown out the window thanks to annoying CPU bots and poorly designed racing stages, not to mention that it can take a while before you finally get a grasp on the awkward control scheme. Basically, you'll probably want to steer away from Twisted Metal unless you're planning on playing the Multiplayer modes.

 7.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Twisted Metal(2012)

 Bullets, tires and clowns.

 Ah! Twisted Metal, a franchise as old as the Playstation itself, this franchise has accompanied Sony's consoles ever since the original Playstation. I will admit, however, that I've only played one game in the franchise: Black, and while I wasn't particularly fond of it, I still had a fair bit of fun with it, enough for me to consider, and eventually getting the 2012's reboot. After going through Sweet Tooth's story mode, I've come away with mixed feelings.

 What I did like: The game runs smooth as butter, environments look phenomenal, the action is fast and furious, split screen! A lot of stuff to unlock, and most of it is unlocked by default in Multiplayer, brilliant.

 What I didn't like: As little as I know about the franchise, I know that it's missing a ton of classic characters, and one of the missing characters is (free)DLC. And even then, there's only 3 returning characters, as well as the 'Holy Men' faction. Single Player rounds can go on for a bit too long, the CPU is annoying to fight. They love ganging up on you! The controls are also a bit hard to get a hang of, I might get used to them after a while. There might be too few stages to play in.

 After clearing Sweet Tooth's story mode... I'm a bit iffy about Twisted Metal. I think it's an alright game, but the concept doesn't lend itself for a fun time if you are playing by yourself. Multiplayer might be where it's at.

Review #355: Pokemon Sun

 Two step forwards, one step back, as per usual.

 It's amazing how even when Pokemon changes, it doesn't really change. What I mean to say is that Pokemon Sun is yet another Pokemon game that improves on the previous game... yet removes a few features that really did wonders for the franchise. While GameFreak excuses it as 'wanting each game to have its own personality/features', in the end, no Pokemon game will ever be completely superior to a previous game, at least when they belong to the same platform.

 Y'know the drill, you, an 11 year old kid, moves to a new region, Alola in this case, and must defeat the 8 Gym Leaders and then tackle the Elite Four.... except not, not this time. Gyms and Gym Leaders are gone, instead you must traverse the four islands that make up Alola and clear the Pokemon Captain's Trials as well as the 4 Kahunas, and then tackle the Elite four. To be honest, the Captain's Trials are pretty much Gyms, except that instead of clearing simple puzzles, fighting trainers and then the Gym Leader, you must now clear simple puzzles, fight a few random Pokemon and then fight a powered-up Pokemon. Basically, same old, same old but under a new coat of paint. I will grant it that the Trials are a decent change of pace, but Gyms were much more entertaining, and I'd rather have them back, that said, I won't hold this little experiment against them, since The Pokemon Company finally tried something slightly different. The rest of the game is pretty much the same, explore towns, battle in turn-based combat, collect all the different Pokemon, yadda yadda.

 The game looks drop-dead gorgeous. The new Alolan region is a breath of fresh air thanks to its tropical theme as well as the huge amount of variety present in the different towns and areas. It's a beautiful game the whole way through. Pokemon battles have also received a few graphical tweaks, with better special effects and I think they increased the color saturation a bit, which is a good thing. That said, battles run kinda janky on the old 3DS models. Frame drops are common, and fights featuring more than two Pokemon will lag considerably, it will even take a few seconds to process your move selection... It can get pretty ugly on 2 vs 2 battles. An option to turn off the Trainers on the battle arenas could've done wonders for these issues.

 Now, let's get into the brilliant new additions to the formula. Firstly, one of my chief complaints, you can now check the typing of any Pokemon you've already fought while in battle, and it will also tell you how effective your moves will be. Fantastic. And now the biggie, HMs are finally gone, now replaced by rideable Pokemon that can be called at any time and don't require you to have a Pokemon on your party with the required abilities. Sadly, Soaring is gone, which was one of the funnest parts about Omega Ruby, what's more, the Map is a bit of a pain to understand, which makes using Charizad to 'fly' to other areas a bit of a hassle. I've never had trouble understanding previous games' maps, but this one is hideous to look at and zooming in is anything but useful.

 Customization is back! Hell yeah! AND YOU CAN FINALLY TAKE OFF THAT UGLY HAT!!... but it's a bit limited. First and foremost, colors are divided between versions, Sun gets the Yellow, Red and Oranges while Moon gets Blues, Purples, Greens etc. You can dye a few clothing items in the Online Hub(more on this later) though, but it's an unnecessary annoyance. Clothing options are also severely lacking when compared with X and Y, for instance, there's no long sleeves or long pants for the Boy character. Seriously? There aren't many different styles besides shorts, tank tops and short-sleeved shirts. Disappointing. There's a few more hairdos and hair colors, but you can's see how they look, so you have to pay and then look at the result, once again, disappointing. So yeah, two step forwards, one step back: You can take off the hat, but there's little variety in clothes.

 Super Training has been removed, substituted by PokePelagos. In PokePelagos you can leave Pokemon to raise their Evs, levels and even gather items. It's... It's a decent substitute to Super Training, but I didn't really care too much for either. But the biggest blunder is that you can't look at your EVs anymore. Although you can tap Y in the stats menu to get the EV spread, it's not as precise as the gauge that you'd get on the DexNav. And that useful feature that let you know if you were missing Pokemon from an area added in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? Gone, because Gamefreak just doesn't want us having nice things..

 Now let's get into the mediocre new additions, starting with the Z-Moves. Actually, let's start with MegaEvolutions, it seems like Nintendo gave up on them, which kinda sucks since I grew fond of the feature. You do get the Mega Ring after clearing the Story Mode, but they didn't add new MegaEvolutions, and they've been banned from Official Tournaments, Basically, Nintendo doesn't want you using MegaEvolutions. In their stead we get Z-Moves, a super powerful move that can only be done by a single Pokemon and only a single time in a battle. It's... dull. There's a Z-Move per type, albeit a Pokemon can only be equipped with only ONE type of Z-stone(Each Z stone has unlimited uses, so you could have an entire team sporting the Z-Fire move), as well as a few exclusive Z-Moves for a select few, namely the starter Pokemon and Pikachu, because even though he is a poor choice for any team, the game's Mascot needs to one-up the rest of the 'mons. Z-Moves look powerful, in contrast to the ridiculous poses your character adopts when using them, but I'd much rather have more MegaEvolutions.

 And now let's get into what they broke: The online features. X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire got online right by making it a menu you could access at any time by tapping the lower screen. It worked well, it was fast, it was efficient. Now you are forced to go into this 'Festival Plaza' hub town before accessing any online feature. It feels so... unnecessary, why tweak what previous games had gotten right so well? Hub Towns acting as menus never, ever work. At least the GTS and Wonder Trade work exactly like they used to, even if you've got to go through extra steps to use them.

 And now, let's get into what the got wrong. The first thing I need to mention is the slow pace, this is easily the most cinematic Pokemon game yet, so your adventure will be interrupted by superfluous chatter and needless exposition all the time. The game's beginning is particularly bad about it, it takes a loooong while before you are actually let to your own devices, and even longer before you can finally start fighting Pokemon in the while. And once again, the capturing tutorial is mandatory. Are they serious? Who hasn't played Pokemon yet? And in that case, why not ASK me if I want to suffer it? Like, goddamn, Nintendo. This 'everyone is an idiot/everyone is a new player' philosophy permeates the entire experience. You'll be reminded of where to go every time you get a new objective or turn on the game, as well as having markers on the map(The latter one isn't a bad thing by its own, but as a part of a whole...), and your Pokemon will be healed up pretty frequently by various NPCs, so it's pretty hard to feel danger at any time. Now, I don't mind easy games, and it's true that Pokemon's main demographic are children, but, BUT, at least let me play the game instead of forcing me through vapid dialogue so frequently.

 Then we have SOS Battles, substituting Horde Battles. Certain Pokemon may randomly call for aid during battle, so a 1 on 1 could turn into a 1 on 2. I think that on paper this sounded like a good idea, but in theory, these are boring. The 'asking for help' animation/cut-scene takes a while, and keep in mind that the game starts slowing-down once a third pokemon enters the fray. And you can't try to capture a Pokemon while there's two of them for whatever reason. Now then, imagine you are trying to capture a Ditto, and it keeps constantly calling for aid from other Pokemon. You waste a turn killing the new fighter, then you have to sit through the 'asking for help' animation, and then a new monster appears, rinse and repeat. You've no idea just how boring these can get. Oh, and we've over 800 monsters already, yet it seemed like the first three island were populated by the same Pokemon, there's a depressing lack of variety in Pokemon species at first, and it doesn't help that there's a few Pokemon that may only appear as back up, so good luck wasting turns until they are called for. The cherry on top being that it seems like the newest Pokemon are the hardest to come by!

 After clearing the game you'll have access to a few new sidequests, like capturing the elusive Ultra Beasts, an option to turn night into day and vice-versa and the Battle Tree where you can find a few returning faces and do battle with them. Honestly, it's a bit lacking when compared to previous games, even the amount of Legendary Pokemon available for you to capture is paltry. If you're not into competitive fighting, this might be the most disappointing post game since Red/Blue. And to add insult to injury, X and Y had the best leveling with the Battle Chateu. ORAS gave you the Island, which wasn't as good but reseted every day. Sun and Moon have... Pokepelagos. And there's also a facility in the FEstival Plaza that levels up your mons. Leveling up your mons is a bit slower this way, and not as fun as battling your way through levels, which was mighty disappointing. Bring back the Chateau please. At least the Island! Just give us normal trainers we can rematch for XP!

 In short, Pokemon Sun is your typical Pokemon game. There's some fantastic new features, there's some horrible new features, they kept some great things and they got rid of some great things as well. When it's all said and done, Pokemon Sun is the best Pokemon game available on the 3DS, but it's far from the best it could've been,
 8.0 out of 10

Final Fantasy VIII Demo Disc

 In which I partake in one of Square's fabled demo discs.

 Back in the 90s/early 00s, Square devised a fantastic idea to sell their more... monetarily risky games, y'know, their one-off all-new IPs like Brave Fencer Musashi, Parasite Eve, Tobal, etc. While these game turned out great on their own right, Square just wanted to make sure that they would recoup the budget they spent, by coupling these releases with demos for their hottest upcoming games. Fast forward to the present day, and these demo discs have become somewhat of a collector's item, many times ending up being more expensive than the complete games they came bundled with!

 Unsurprisingly, these discs have eluded me, not that I care since I'm not into demos... but not this time! The Brave Fencer Musashi copy I tracked down came with FF VIII's demo disc! And having just played it... it's surprisingly unsurprising! I was expecting some interesting changes, but it's mostly minutiae:

 - NORMAL CLOTHES: The demo takes place during Seifer, Squall and Zell's first mission in Dollet. However, Squall and Zell are wearing their casual clothes instead of their SeeD duds.

 - MUTE RINOA, NO SELPHIE: Your party is made up of Squall, Zell and... Rinoa. All she says is '...', but it's rather interesting getting to play as Rinoa on a sequence where she is unavailable in the full game! Selphie is missing from the entire ordeal, not even making an appearance near the satellite tower.

 - HARDCORE BOSS BATTLE: This was rather surprising, the game's first boss, the creature that does in Wedge and Biggs at the top of the tower is really tough. It took me a rather long while to take down, whether it's due to the fact that you only get Leviathan or because he got buffed is beyond me. Still, ultimately it was fun, it would've been interesting to get a 'hard mode' on Final Fantasy games back in the day.

 - SQUALL AND SEIFER SEEM FRIENDLY?: I might be remembering things wrong, but Seifer and Squall seemed rather... friendly. I recognized a few lines from the final release, and Seifer even mentioned his 'romantic dream', but a lot of the dialogue felt different, and I didn't notice much antagonistic banter between these two. Their talk near the Radio Tower with Squall talking about 'a subject I don't like' doesn't seem to ring a bell at all, for example, and there's a few added lines about the characters ages too.

 - ALTERED CG SCENES: The Dollet CG scenes have been entirely remade to feature Squall and Zell on their casual wear as well as Rinoa. Plus, Quistis' scene at the end has her replaced by a generic high-poly soldier.

- LIMIT BREAKS - DIFFERENT NAME. FUNCTION AND ACTIVATION: I only managed to trigger Zell and Squall's Limit Breaks, they seem to activate veeery rarely. They have different names and work differently than in the final fame. Zell's just a single special move while Squall's R1 trigger function rhythm bar has been changed.

 - THE OBVIOUS: The magic you can draw from enemies is different than the one features in the full game, there's no Draw Points or Save Points, which is to be expected.

 All in all... it was rather unimpressive. I was expecting different enemies in these places and maybe some tweaks to the objectives. It's easy to tell that the game's development was progressing smoothly when the demo was made.

Month Overview: November 2016

 Tally:
Tony Hawk's Project 8           6.0
Silent Hill - Homecoming                                7.5


 November came and went. It was a rather eventful academic month, yet rather uneventful as far as my gaming went.


Game of November 2016:

 Interestingly, while I think I liked Homecoming more than Downpour... when I think about it, I think Downpour was one of the most memorable games I've played this year, and I think it has to do with theming. Downpour went for two themes: Prison and Jail as well as Water and Rain. Everything around the environment, and even the monsters, reflected on these two themes. Sure, the monster design was lackluster, but when you judge the game as a whole, it was fantastically designed around those two concepts. The streets of Silent Hill felt wet, the walls of the buildings looked humid, monsters either looked as if they were soaked or as prison escapees. The we had the Otherworld's environments, which had jails and cages allover, while looking very damp

 I do feel like Homecoming is a better game, but, but it lacks the same focus. Monster design is fantastic, but in a franchise that prides itself behind adding meaning to the monsters, it falls rather short. The Otherworld environments were scary, yes, but they lacked the same level of personality that Downpour had overall. Regardless, Homecoming was my favorite game this month(Not like there was much to choose from!)

 Runner-up:

 I'm not gonna lie, Project 8, if judged on its own inside a vacuum, is a really good game. Skating around felt great, there's dozens of different mechanics and trick as well as a decent amount of missions to complete.
 But I just can't ignore previous games in the franchise that I've played. I can't ignore how much I preferred the more arcadey physics from the previous games, the more creative objectives from previous games, but above all else, the fantastic, creative and ridiculous skate parks that made it a joy to skate around. In Project 8 you get different types of skate parks or similar looking streets, with only the Factory and the Fun Park standing out from the rest.
 Overall, I'd call it a successful jump into the HD generation, but far from the best that the franchise could over.