Now Playing: Galerians - Ash

 Pretty Psychic Boys the Sequel.

 Remember how Rion sacrificed himself at the end of Galerians? Don't worry, he gets better and he got a sequel too. I've already sunk 20 minutes into the game and boy, have things changed!

 For instance, enemies now respawn for a long, loooong while. They do stop respawning, but after a while. While resources are limited, you are encouraged to spend them, since enemies drop permanent upgrades as well as supplies! Rion is much more mobile too, with targeting and dodging. It's interesting how it makes you fight Dorothy again, since the game starts in a truncated version of the last game's final moments. It's too early to have better thought-out opinions, but I think the game seems good. Seems.

 Lastly, I used to play this game when I was younger too, even though I hadn't even finished Galerians 1! I don't remember how far I got, but I do know I got to play as adult Rion.

Review #477: Galerians

 Drugs, exploding heads, clones, psychic powers.... it's 90s anime alright.

3 discs, 4 hours. Those pre-rendered backgrounds must be heavy, eh!

 Welcome to Galerians, a survival horror game that trades guns for psychic powers and monsters for psychic loons. It's an interesting angle, and makes resource management even more taxing on the player thanks to the constant threat of 'Shorting'. It's also really short, the game's backcover boasts about 50 hours but I got through in under 5!

 It's a bit tough to make heads or tails from the plot, but what you need to know is that you play as Rion, a kid who's been experimented on and developed psychic powers. As you explore the Michelangelo Hospital you'll start regaining your memories and learning about Dorothy, a super computer that grew sentient and wants to replace humanity with her own psychic loons, the Galerians. Now Rion must find Lillia, a girl with a virus implanted on her that can destroy Dorothy. The story is a bit cliched, the dialogue is stilted and the voice acting is horrible, but the setting is very interesting and the whole psychic powers thingie makes it very different from other games of its ilk.

That oughta hurt.

 If you've ever played a Survival Horror before, you know the deal, tank-controls, pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles, having to scavenge the environments for supplies as well as key items to solve puzzles, etc. The most important thing in the game is learning to manage your resources: Energy for your psychic powers is limited, restorative items are limited, inventory space is limited(although key items don't occupy any space) and some monsters respawn. So you'll need to learn when it's best to avoid encounters or kill enemies, or maybe it's better to trade a bit of health, avoiding enemies, and save up your energy.

 But, that's not where resource management ends, below your health is the AP gauge, or Anger points. This gauge fills up constantly, whether you attack, move around or even breathe, the AP gauge is constantly on the rise. Once filled, if you try to attack you'll 'Short'. When you short you lose the ability to run, being force to slowly walk around, and you start losing health at a steady rate, on the flip side, anything that you look at will die(except other Galerians). The only way to heal the Short status is with a Delmetor. It's a really interesting mechanic, because Delmetor occupies inventory space and is limited, but, the Short status can be really convenient when you are swamped with enemies or must fight tough battles. I mean, it's annoying having to play, basically, under a timer, but it's a mechanic that can work in your favor too, which means it's more fun than it sounds(Except when you're about to short and there's no Delmetor around).

The final stage is brimming with supplies, so don't panic if you are short on them after Stage C.

 You've three different psychic powers: Nalcon(Force push?), Red(Fire blast!) and D-Felon(Manipulate gravity) and they are all useful in their own way. Except, maybe, D-Felon, which you obtain very late in the game and it's useless on bosses, so you get to use it very little. Each of them has their own energy gauge, so they each have their own source of ammo. The controls are very clunky, even attacking is clumsier than in other Survival Horror games, first, you have to aim, second, you have to charge with R1(You can't move while charging!) and finally you have to press X to unleash your charge. Some fights can be downright cruel, since you have to run around enemies, wait for an opening and hope that you have enough time to charge before you yourself are attacked with Nalcon. A few areas in the game almost require you to short in order to deal with how tough a few of the ambush battles can get, battles that you can't avoid.

 As for the difficulty, it's very spotty. Resource Management is the biggest obstacles from Stage A to Stage C, but the final Stage, D, gifts you with all sorts of ammo and health items so it's almost impossible for you to lose at that stage, but going from Stage A to Stage C it's very tough managing your Health, Ammo and AP. Bosses too are poorly balanced, the first boss is the easiest of the bunch, but the second one is easily the hardest, being bombarded with projectiles all over the place and a very small window to counter-attack. The next two bosses, while no run in the park, are easier and then the last two bosses are easy as pie.

Some stage, like B, have a single save-room, so you'll be visiting this place often.

 The puzzles on the other hand never get too complicated. Rion, having psychic powers, can 'Sense', by pressing triangles, an get hints on how to open locked doors or where missing items are, so it's hard to not know where to go next. That said, in Stage C there's a puzzle in which you must knock on a door with a very specific timing which is all sorts of obnoxious, since the game is very particular with your timing. Galerians also has a real-time map, which is very useful although not as detailed as it could've. You'll have to consider the Save Spots too, which are very limited, as a matter of fact, Stage B and Stage C have a single save-spot each.

 Alright, so Galerians isn't the best Survival Horror you'll ever play. Even by the genre's standards the controls are clunky, the difficulty is uneven and poorly balanced and the story could've used a bit more thought put into... but when it comes down to it, it's pretty good. The setting is interesting, the AP mechanic is entertaining and fighting with psychic powers, even if sloppy, is fun.
 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Galerians

 About time I played another obscure game, eh!

A leather choker, injecting psycho-drugs, heads exploding... this game is edgy alright.

 And now, in the spirit of Halloween, let's go with something more survival-ish, Galerians. It starts off brutal, I died twice after starting the game. First I went into Short-mode and died while searching for a Delmeter. Second attempt, I tried shooting my powers to no avail, shorted again BUT discovered that Delmeter was on my inventory from the get go, so I let myself die before starting again. Third attempt went swimmingly and now I'm 22 minutes into the game, on the second save spot.

 The game is original, I'll give it that, but boy oh boy, you've a limited inventory! And unless you're counting you won't know when you hit the limit! And Save points are so sparse, goddamn! And how about the fact that merely breathing increases your AP which makes you Short? And shooting your powers? You have to charge them and THEN press X, charge too little and you'll do negligible damage, charge too much and you lose the charge. It's tough, man!

 I used to play this in my youth, and I think I never got out of the hospital, my last memory of the game is when the Rabbits jump on the bottom floor and crowd Rion.

Review #476: Evil Dead - Regeneration

 And now the king is gone, baby.

Oh, I've a bone to pick with the newest addition to the mythos...

 A Fistful of Boomstick was an alright game, it wasn't the end all be all of licensed games, but it was pretty decent and THQ wasn't about to loosen its grip on the franchise, so then came Regeneration. It's a markedly different game from its predecessor, with a tighter combat system and more emphasis on action than the loose survival horror elements from the previous game.

 A Fistful of Boomstick? Never happened. Army of the Dead? Never happened. After Evil Dead 2, Ash was imprisoned in a mental institute, society thinking him crazy... but not all is as it seems, turns out the director got his hands on the Necromicon Ex Mortis and has been experimenting with it, and when all hell breaks loose it's up to Ash, and his new sidekick, half-human half-deadite all obnoxious, Sam to save the day. The humor, setting and character design is all on point and faithful to the franchise, however, Sam turned out as trying too hard. He isn't funny, him being immortal and thus dying over and over again isn't funny, him being obnoxious isn't funny. Sam's easily the weakest element in the entire game.

If there's a hole in it, you bet you'll have to kick Sam inside.

 The game tries a lot to be like Devil May Cry: Your guns have infinite ammo, you've a small variety of chaisaw combos, a few which involve pausing your button presses, and Ash even gets a Devil Trigger in the form of Evil Ash. Sadly, it falls flat on its face. The game doesn't have a strong combo system, there's no canceling, no juggling(And I tried, even with the harpoon gun, the most you can do is shoot or perform a simple combo after shooting an enemy it into the air), no nothing. Every single combo has pretty much the same outcome, whether it ends with a slash, a jumping slash or a blast, except the five-button chainsaw combo which usually ends in an instakill so there's no reason to use any other combo but that one.

 Ash gets three different guns and three different arms. The pistol, the shotgun and the bomb-lance have their different uses, but as soon as you get the bomb-lance the other two will become a bit redundant. As for his arms, there's the chainsaw-arm, the harpoon-gun and the flamethrower-arm. The last two don't have any combos and while they can be used in combat they fall short of the chainsaw, so you'll mostly be using them to solve stupidly easy puzzles, like burning gas or harpooning doors. Kind of a waste really, and it's not like you can buy new combos for the chainsaw or anything. What it all amounts to is a ton of potential, but a very lackluster execution.

Weapons have infinite ammo now, so have fun.

 And then we've got Sam, the small midget that can't be killed. Well, he can, but he'll respawn immediately. He'll aid you in combat, and he is not half-useless, but you can also kick him towards enemies, in fact, some enemies and bosses can only be beaten by kicking him into them. You can also kick him towards objects in order to solve simple puzzles. In some instances you'll also take direct control of him to, you guessed it, solve simple puzzles in order to open up a way for Ash to proceed. These moments aren't too obtrusive, but his sections aren't particularly memorable even though they are so repetitive, usually having you searching for a monster to ride so that you can destroy a wall and they always end with Sam dying in the unfunniest of ways.

  Speaking of Sam, you know how beloved escort missions are? There's four different escort sections in the game. FOUR. And you have to repeat the procedure 3 times each. Y'see, sometimes you'll come across a cyclops that must be fed, so you must find 3 souls, 1 at time, have Sam consume it, protect Sam until he gets to the cyclops and then kick him into the mouth, because that's supposed to be funny...? The game is about 10 stages long, and four of them have these dumb sections. No bueno, no bueno at all.

Bosses are easy to figure out.

 The saddest part about Regeneration is that the developers really tried. I mean, just going over the visuals you can tell that the game had a pretty decent budget, and Bruce Campbell brought his A-game, as always, to voice Ash. Even in the game's basic gameplay you can tell that they wanted to make something Devil May Cry-ish but simply ran out of budget or time to add substance to the combat. Evil Dead - Regeneration is a bit half-cooked, but if you're into the franchise it's worth a look, provided you're willing to suffer Sam.
 5.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Evil Dead Regeneration

 Ash is back in business.

Sam the Deadite is voiced by Ted Raimi, the director Sam Raimi's brother....

 I just finished the first level and first boss, and dang, it's good. They managed to get the humor just right, I haven't checked if it was made by the same dev team, but kudos. As for the gameplay, it's a bit more focused and less chaotic, we've got combos, infinite ammo and a Hulk version of Ash! You've also got Sam, the Deadite sidekick, but I just found him so I haven't seen how his puzzles work yet.

 I'm diggin' the gameplay, I am, but... is there a point to having different combos? Why would I want to use a combo over another one? There's no juggling system, and the damage-stun doesn't seem to lend itself for fancy combo-making, so I dunno. As for the unlimited ammo, I don't know if I'm gonna like that. At first I thought 'Why would I use the gun over shotgun???', but the first boss proved that it was easier to gun him down with a fast-shooting pistol than the slow-as-molasses shotgun, so maybe the different guns will have different situations so as not to make any one gun obsolete. And it was kinda cool how chainsawing the boss while he had electricity coursing through him instantly killed me, I hope the rest of the bosses have details like that.

 Last thing I wanna mention is... oh boy, we've got a budget now! This game looks TOO good for a licensed game, even facial expressions are well animated. I dunno, judging from the first level, this game looks pretty friggin' good.

Review #475: Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick

 This is ma boomstick!

Yeah... the cover art isn't very good.

 The last Evil Dead movie, at the time, released at around 1992 or so, so why would it get a videogame in 2004 is beyond me, but where there is a franchise there is money to be made, so THQ was quick to bring it to the PS2 era consoles. A Fistful of Boomstick is an action-adventure game taking place after the Army of Darkness, in which you, as Ashley Williams, must stop the Deadite invasion.

 There're two modes of play Story Mode and Arcade Mode. Story Mode puts Ashley in six different zones or areas, which you must traverse as you fulfill goals from your 'To-do list'. Ash can equip two different weapons, his Chainsaw arm can be outfitted with two types of saws, a flamethrower and even a minigun, while he carries another weapon, mostly guns but a few melee weapons like swords and shovels or even dynamite. X uses your Saw-arm while Square uses your other weapon, hilariously enough, you can only target enemies when you have a gun on your left arm, but you can't aim if you are holding a sword but have the minigun equipped!

You'll be visiting the woods throughout different eras, so get used to it.

 There're various spells too, that consume energy from a green gauge, that range from making you stronger to allowing you to possess enemies or even summon Deadite dogs to aid you. You fill this green gauge by defeating enemies, and you shouldn't be too lavish with your casting since many puzzles require spells in order to proceed and if you lack the magic points, well, you gotta go around town and defeat enemies until you can cast it. Most puzzles and goals are fairly easy to figure out, but there're a couple that are impossible to figure out on your own. How was I to know that I had to throw a dynamite stick on the strip club's courtyard? Everything hinted towards me needing a key to enter through the back. how was I supposed to know that I had to throw a Dynamite stick to get out of the room I entered with Dog Possession? Absolutely nothing hinted towards that object being destructible. There were a few other poor design choices, quite a few times I had to go around the entire stages again to see if something new triggered after talking to a new NPC or what have you, which is pretty lame.

 While this is mostly a very simple action game, there're a few survival horror elements in place. Ammo for your guns is limited, but to be fair the game is fairly generous with it, and medikits are limited as well, not to mention that the game doesn't restore your health after clearing a stage or a boss. Saving can only be done by collecting save tokens or clearing a stage. It's a bit weird having these elements in the game, but they aren't intrusive nor add anything to the game.

I think the State of Emergency engine worked well for this game.

 The game is relatively short, but you unlock all six areas in Arcade Mode by beating them, Arcade Mode being a mission-mode of sorts which tasks you with doing silly, self-contained missions and aim for a high score. Yay? As for the game itself, as bland, simple and sometimes poorly designed as it is... it's kinda fun. The combat is clunky, but tearing deadites apart is fun sporadically. Still, the game's biggest draw is how true to the franchise it is... well, to Army of Darkness anyways, the humor, dialogue and setting feels very natural and faithful to it. There's time travel involved, and Ash even gets to meet his ancestors, on most games this plot device would've been meh, but here they knocked it out of the park. What I mean to say is that it actually feels like I'm playing a continuation of Evil Dead 3.

 Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick is nothing to write home about but as an Evil Dead game it passes with flying colors. Even if you're not familiar with the franchise, I think the game might be entertaining since the humor, setting and Ashley Williams himself are very entertaining on their own. That said, as far as gameplay goes, it's nothing special, just your average, everyday third person shooter.
 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick

 Evil Dead of Emergency.

A fistful o' shovel considering how good that weapon is.

 There were three Evil Dead games released, or at least three that really did matter, Hail to the King on PS1/Dreamcast and A Fistful of Boomstick and Regeneration on the PS2-era consoles. I was familiar with two of them, HttK which was an awful, awful survival horror game and AFoB which ran on the State of Emergency engine and thus played a bit similarly.

 I just finished the first... mission? World? Stage? Whatevs, it's pretty alright. I mean, it runs on the State of Emergency engine so there's only so much you can do. The game is a bit flat, so I hope we see stages with more verticality, although considering white men can't jump and Ash Williams seems to be no exception... I'm not too hopeful.