Now Playing: Rygar - The Legendary Adventure

 That's definitely Britney Spears.

The halo over his head is kinda an overkill, ain't it?

 Since I played a game I hadn't played before from a franchise I used to play when I was younger(Way of the Samurai 1 and 2!), now it's time to play a game I actually used to play when I was younger. I don't remember how far I got, but I do remember defeating the blue-winged guy and getting both Diskarmors. I think I used to like the Skyblue one and hated the yellow one. I think.

 Anyways, I just defeated the first boss and entered the Elysium Shrine(Or something like that) and I kinda like it. Combat is kinda limited, it feels like a mixture of God of War's chain-styled combat(Although this game came first!) with Onimusha's exploration and set-up. I'm also amassing points but the game didn't let me spend them yet.

 It seems like the game will be kinda tough, considering that the first boss killed me once. The first boss! But the stages themselves are easy, at least so far. What really struck me as odd is the fact that there's no dodging, only blocking. Which probably didn't seem weird at the time, but man, it's hard getting used to it!

Review #489: Samurai Western

  Don't bring a sword to a gunfight.... unless you're a Samurai.

Character design and art-direction gets an A+.

 Have you ever wondered who'd win in a fight between a Cowboy and a Samurai? Acquire set out to answer that question, and them being Japanese won't give them any bias towards the winner... or not. Often called a Way of the Samurai spin-off, Samurai Western is a very different game that was clearly made on a tight budget.

 You play as Gojiro, a Samurai in search of his missing brother, albeit on a mission of revenge. His tracks lead Gojiro to the wild, wild west where he'll have to duke it out with gunmen and outlaws and his missing brother, who has forsaken the way of the sword in exchange for a couple of six-shooters. The story is very cheesy, characters are ridiculous and the situations are very over the top. I loved it. Cutscenes preface and give closure to each stage and they are fairly interesting to watch... as ugly as the graphics are.

It looks really cool... most of the time.

 The game is divided into 16 stages, with 5 bonus unlockable stages for a total of 21. Be forewarned, the game is very short. Your first playthrough will take about 3 hours, if you don't skip cutscenes, but as I replayed the game on Hard, skipping cutscenes, I realized how quickly I was plowing through the game. There's a lot of replayability thanks to the many unlockables, a Survival Mode as well as a Hard difficulty setting... that lets you unlock other characters(They play just as Gojiro, but it's still a nice bonus), not to mention the dozens upon dozens of different accessories you can find to customize Gojiro(Or the other characters) as well as different swords. Oh, and there's co-op, albeit with some limitations, the camera follows player 1, the second player must play as Ralph the cowboy and Ralph fights with a gun, which is admittedly lamer than Gojiro's combo-based gameplay.

 Alright, so how does the game play? Square is your attack button, X jumps and circle can be used to either dodge or deflect bullets. Your square attacks can also reflect bullets if you time it right. You can also grab boxes and other small objects and throw them around, but it's pretty ineffective. Landing blows increases a 'master' gauge beneath your life bar, which is used to enter Master mode by pressing L1, which lasts for as long as you have energy on this gauge, depending on your weapon you'll gain different perks and bonuses. But you can also wait for it to fill completely, in which case you can enter Ultimate Master Mode, which makes you invulnerable and grants you one-hit kills on common enemies. There's also a bizarre first person camera by tapping R2 which is... it's something else, but I guess it can lend itself to a few laughs.

Get ready to fend off hordes of identical looking gunmen.

 Swords you earn give Gojiro different stances, like one-handed letting you double jump, or double swords in which case you lose the ability to grab stuff. Honestly, it's mostly minutiae, but at least they put some work in. Playing the game you'll be able to level up your equipped accessories and your equipped blade, which is a good thing since it will give you better stat bonuses. Gojiro himself levels up as you finish stages and you can allocate bonus stat points in either extending your Health, extending your Master gauge, increasing your damage or defense. The accessory system is pretty neat since you can relocate, rotate or change the size of every accessory you equip.

 Sadly the game is simple to a fault. You'll be doing little more than mashing square button as you defeat the same enemies over and over and over again. Even stages are reused, sometimes changing the time of the day. Sometimes. Bosses have very memorable appearances and personalities, but as far as the fights go... they are pretty lame, and Raddo, Gojiro's brother, is a pain in the butt to fight, clearly they should've designed his fight better than to have the player perform 1-2 slashes in fear of getting counter-attacked. The game itself also feels rough around the edges, like the terrible dodging animation or how poor collision detection works with stairs, don't be surprised if you go through them back to the floor, happened to me twice.

The way of the sword is a deadly one.

 Samurai Western has a lot of soul, but the small budget really hurt it. And you can tell that they tried to make up for what it lacked in substance with extras, like a silly, but functional, two player mode or the copious amount of accessories to put on Gojiro. Samurai Western has more bad things than good things, but the bad is never TOO bad, my time with the game was a fun one but the game needed more work, more variety and a bigger budget.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Samurai Western

 Screams of low budget.

I love the artwork

 You've probably heard of Samurai Western, you've never played it but you've probably heard of it. People either love it or hate it and... I'm up to stage five and I neither love it nor hate it. The game's been called a Way of the Samurai spin-off, but frankly, I don't see the resemblance.

 Anyways, the game feels like a low budget game thanks to its poor graphics, poor animations(Cutscenes and gameplay both) and wonky gameplay. This one time I was going up some stairs and I just fell through them to the floor. The mechanics are also pretty barebones: You mash the square buttons and defeat enemies until the game decides you've killed enough, don't worry, they don't stop spawning. Ever. And that's the game in a nutshell.

 There're a few extras, like customizing your character with accessories and different swords with different stances, but they are just fluff.

Review #488: Final Fantasy XII

 The beginning of the end.

Way too many blonde characters.

 Could you believe me if I told you that at some point in time it felt good to be a Final Fantasy fan? I remember back in the early 2000's when Square just went and announced Final Fantasy IX, X(Featuring a brown-haired Tidus!) and XI. And it was hype. Final Fantasy really meant something. And then XIII happened and it ruined the franchise forever, even XV couldn't fix everything that was broken. But what... what if I told you that everything started falling apart with XII? It was, at the time, the Final Fantasy that spent the most time in development hell, and while it doesn't really show it does still present flaws that would eventually be XIII's downfall.

 The story centers around the Sky Pirate Balthier and the princess Amalia(Ashe), even though the real protagonist is the land of Ivalice. The game's cast is probably the weakest it's ever been, which is surprising considering that there are only 6 characters: Vaan, the guy that you start playing as and is front-and-center on the game's cover but has minimal impact on the plot, Penelo, his friend who is just as relevant and receives as much development(Zero), Balthier and Fran, sky pirates who are the game's most interesting characters, Basch, the soldier who was imprisoned with treachery and Ashe, the princess that wants to stop the, erm, 'Empire' from taking over the land of Dalmasca. People have said that the story is more 'subtle' in this one, and more about politics and... and they are pretty much Rick and Morty fans telling you that FFXII's plot is for smart people. Which it's not. Want a game that gets political intrigue between warring kingdoms right? Play Suikoden. And mind you, I'm not saying the plot is bad, it simply is uninteresting and the main ensemble cast are but tools to move the plot forward and don't get as much development as they could.

There'll be a lot of grinding on your path to victory.

 A little MMORPG game called Final Fantasy XI happened between Final Fantasy X and XII, and as luck would have it, XI performed very well for Square. This translated into making XII borrow elements from MMORPGs. I hate MMORPGs. Which kinda sucks because the entire game plays like a MMORPG with story elements. You'll notice the MMORPG elements immediately, as towns are large and environments are massive.... and it also takes a long while to go from point A to point B. You can unlock a few fast-travel options between orange save crystals or town's aerodromes but there's still a lot of walking involved. And you're encouraged to travel on foot since the game is a grindfest, like pretty much any other MMORPG.

 For instance, take the game's main sidequest repertoire: Hunts. First you have to find a bar and read the notice board. Now, instead of hunting the monster, you have to track down the NPC and then you have to track down the monster, easier said than done, since a few monsters have unexplained spawn conditions. Like clearing the entire area of enemies and waiting for five minutes. FIVE MINUTES. Or sometimes you have to enter-and-exit an area and hope that the enemy spawns. Or enter-and-exit an area until it rains or there's a sandstorm so that the monster might spawn. And after beating it you have to return to the NPC to claim your reward.

Character design is mediocre, but monsters are pretty alright.

 And boy, are in you in for a treat if you want to get the ultimate equipment. These weapons can only be bought after selling certain amount of certain loot. Oh, did I mention that enemies don't carry money enemy more? You have to hope that they drop valuable loot, instead of pebbles, and then sell it for money. Anyways, you have to sell certain amount of very hard to find loot. This loot might require you to exploit one-time elite enemies, making them spawn(They have something like 40% spawn rate), stealing from them(6% chance of success every time you use the steal command!) and then run away, make them de-spawn and then return and make them respawn, doing this until you have enough material. Other times you might have to hope for 6% drops out of 40% spawn chance enemies. You'll be grinding. A lot.

 Which is kinda OK, since in order to do anything in the game you need License points. Want new techniques or spells? Buying them is not enough, you have to buy their license. Want to equip anything? Gotta get the correct license. Even the Gambit system, of which I'll talk later, has you acquire slot-by-slot on the license board. It's gonna take a while to max your characters. And while eventually every character will be able to do everything, their stats do push them in certain directions. Vaan's good at everything, while Fran is bad at everything. No, seriously, Fran has the worst stats in the game. And, as if it was a cruel joke, Balthier comes equipped with a gun and Fran with a bow, but they have slower animations than any other character with those weapons. Absolutely brilliant.

Making it like a MMORPG probably was the wrong direction to take the series in

 And now let me talk about other quirks, like chests. Chests have different spawn rates, and even after they spawn, they have a chance of having Gil or an item, and even then, there's only a couple of different weapons they could contain. It's a very weird design choice. Heck, the game's best weapon, the Zodiac Spear, will probably be forsaken by most players, since it requires a few very specific, very easy to find chests to be kept closed. And did I mention that there're invisible traps on the ground that could kill your characters or inflict status effects? There're accessories that make you immune to them, but why waste your only accessory slot? You could also cast Libra on any character and be able to see them, but that's annoying. In the end I kept Ashe equipped with her bangle item, that put her in a permanent state of Libra. Dumb. And even though you will dodge traps, even though you can see them on the floor... the AI companions love stepping on them and taking down the team with them.

 And, this being a MMORPG-styled game, how does it deal with the player going where he or she isn't supposed to? By making everything based on your equipment. It doesn't matter how overleveled you are(If you go after hunts you'll be overleveled pretty fast), it doesn't matter how good your strategy is: You will receive a ton of damage and deal negligible amounts of. That's because your equipment sucks, so if you can't handle an optional boss just advance the plot further and unlock the next tier of equipment and watch that bastard burn.

If there's something to be praised, it's the graphics, Square has always been meticulous on that front.

 Alright, let's finally delve into the combat system. Random encounters are a thing of the past, now enemies will be roaming the environments and most of them will engage you if they see you. Combat is in real time, albeit autoattacks are automatic. You can press X at any moment to halt the battle and issue commands to any of your three party members. It feels too automatic for my taste, and the game implements the ATB(You have to wait for a gauge to fill before your actions go through) which makes it look kinda silly when your characters stand around doing nothing while they wait for the ATB to fill and finally use their autoattack. Characters on reserve don't receive experience points, although they do gain License points, and you can switch characters almost at any time. As a matter of fact, if your entire party falls, you can switch to the other three and keep going.

 On their own, CPU allies will do nothing unless instructed, which is why you can customize Gambits. Gambits are the game's way of not having to program a smart AI, you can issue 9 different instructions and lay them in a priority order. You select an object(Ally: Any, Ally Health < 40%, Ally mana < 30%, Ally: Poison, Enemy: Protect, Enemy: Highest HP, etc) and an action(Attack, Heal, Magic Spell, Item). Back in the day many people praised it since 'Eventually you can just put the joystick down and watch everything happen'. And it's because of them that Final Fantasy XIII was such a disaster that played itself. Thanks for nothing. And the best part about this system? Gambit slots must be unlocked with license points, unless you want to be restricted to a useless pair of slots, and the different Objects and Actions must be found or bought. Which means that it's not until late in the game that you can finally make in-depth strategies. Ridiculous.

Fret not, Bombs aren't as lethal as they've been in previous games

 Limit breaks are here too, called 'Quickenings' and each one consumes a third out of your entire mana(Actually, every time you learn a quickening on the license board(Of course) you get a new segment of mana, up to three) and can be chained together with other quickenings. Chaining quickenings takes a long time, because you can't skip them, they are visually unimpressive and how many you can chain together is pretty much dependent on luck. They are pretty much only useful to finish off a boss since you'll be left without mana afterwards. Speaking of bosses, high-level bonus bosses and final bosses will start using Perfect Defense when near death which makes them invulnerable for about a minute. IT'S SO MUCH FUN HAVING TO WAIT FOR IT TO RUN OUT.

 I don't think Final Fantasy XII is a good game, but, BUT even though I've nothing but complaints, even though I don't think the game does anything well... I still had fun with it. It has that grandiose Final Fantasy-ish feel to it that makes it feel special, that makes it feel unlike other JRPGs. So while I can't say that I liked it, while I can't say that it's a good game... It's still somewhat fun to play, whenever you aren't grinding or wasting your time that is.
 6.0 out of 10

Month Overview: October 2017

 Tally:
Darkwatch                   8.0
Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick 6.5
Evil Dead - Regeneration 5.0
Galerians                              7.5
Galerians - Ash 4.5
Corpse Party - Blood Drive 0.5
Resident Evil 6 8.0
Raw Danger! 8.5
Bloody Roar 2 8.0
Bloody Roar 3 8.5
Bloody Roar Primal Fury 8.5
Bloody Roar 4 4.0
Spartan - Total Warrior 7.5
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge 6.0


 Finally a proper Halloween! I finally finished Corpse Party and Resident Evil 6, two games I began last year but never finished, either because they were awful or my co-op partner was MIA. Most games were pretty good, which is always a plus, and I finally played the entire Bloody Roar franchise, such a sad ending for a franchise that entertained me so much in my younger years. Galerians too, they were games I played when I was younger but hadn't finished, a thing I corrected this month, which also ends on a low note. Oh well, I guess tragedy is part of Halloween, right?

Game of October:

Hey, guys, you forgot to americanize the characters on the cover too!

 While I haven't found a seller that ships Disaster Report to my country, I couldn't wait to try out Raw Danger!, and I didn't! It was phenomenal, excellent pacing, structure and ambiance. It's a bit lacking in the technical department, but if I'm used to playing brilliant games with clunky mechanics, so the weird movement and poor framerate didn't dampen the experience too much.

 Runner-up:

Even the cover art is similar.

 Bloody Roar 3 and Bloody Roar Primal Fury might as well be the same game, for all intents and purposes. Honestly, I loved all the little tweaks Primal Fury made, sadly, some of the redesigns are a bit or miss. Whichever the case, both games are brilliant button mashers that deserved much better than Hudson's low budget and low effort Bloody Roar 4.

Now Playing: Final Fantasy XII

 Why is everyone wearing so little clothes!?

Everyone loves floating heads.

 No, seriously, not only are characters wearing few clothes, what little they wear is, well, little. Look at Vaan's pathetic child-size vest. But I digress, my Halloweenesque games are done, so it's time I sink my claws into another JRPG, and one I avoided for a while. The reason I avoided XII was the combat system, it looked dumb. Buuuut Xenoblade showed me that MMORPG-style combat can work, sadly, after playing about an hour, and trying to solo Thextera with Vaan(which proved impossible, I can only manage to lure one its two guardian wolves!) I simply aren't having much fun with it. Yay, there's Vaan waiting like an idiot to strike because even though we're not going by turns any more we still have the ATS. I dunno, I'm not feeling the combat, at all. But at least it's not XIII.

 That said, as soon as I popped in the disc and the first cinematic played... nobody does grandiose openings like Final Fantasy, be it our first glimpse at Cecil's wrongdoings, Terra's assault on the snow village, Cloud and Barret taking down a Mako Reactor or even Squall and Seifer's duel, Tidus' big game... Square just knows how to make an opening. And this is no exception, I had no idea what was going on, but it looked cool, goddammit.

 As for the game as a whole... I played about two hours, did some desert grinding and... I think it's alright, but nothing remarkable. The combat system is really bland, I mean, I've only had one-man parties so far, but I doubt it'll get as involved as Xenoblade's various statuses and what not. The setting is kinda interesting... but because it reminds me of Rogue Galaxy, truth be told, I'm not very fond of Final Fantasy's Ivalice setting. And the character designs... they are kinda bad. Ashe's outfit makes no sense. Seriously, how is that skirt thing supposed to stay in place? And what the ******** is she wearing over her midriff? And why is she only wearing armor on her legs? Vaan's not too far behind with his silly vest and weird looking musculature. I can't stand Penelo's hairdo either. Balthier is cool though.

 But look at the bright side, my first impressions and overall expectations are relatively low, so maybe, maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe it can surprise me.





....but maybe not.

Review #487: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge

 Trick or treat?

That's not a booger.

 If you grew up in the 90s you've surely seen, or at least heard, of The Nightmare Before Christmas a classic Halloween movie. Or is it a Christmas movie? It doesn't matter, what does matter is that about 10 years after its release Disney tasked Capcom with bringing the world of TNBC to the PS2. And if Capcom knows one thing it's fighting games... and action games, which is what this game is: A chapter-based hack-and-slash action game with fixed camera angles. And it kinda works.

 The game takes place one year after the movie, Jack Skellington took a trip to find new ways of making Halloween spookier and in that time Lock, Shock and Barrel, Oogie's underlings, managed to stitch Oogie Boogie back together, and now took over Halloween town. But it's OK, because Jack is now outfitted with the Soul Robber, a green ooze-like-thingie he carries on his right arm which doubles as a whip-blade-mace thingie. The game bring backs a few voice actors from the movie, most notably Jack and Oogie's, and it features remixes with new lyrics from the most popular songs. As far as using the license, Capcom nailed it, everything looks the part and it's amazing seeing TNBC's world in 3-D.... that said, the story does nothing to advance the lore of the franchise, in fact, it reuses many plot devices and situations, which is kinda lame.

The Soul Robber can also take the form of a mace.

 While the game is based on chapters, and each chapter has a goal, the game takes place in a cohesive world, so you can backtrack at almost any time if you so wish it, as a matter of fact, Jack can carry up to four bottles that can heal him, and these can only be refilled on the hub-world's fountain, heck, the witch's hut, the place where you buy upgrades, can only be found in the hub. As much freedom as you're given, the game is pretty linear but exploration will be rewarded, be it with health upgrades, bonus coins or crystal skulls, which can be merged into one of the previously mentioned bottles. Although sometimes it's a bit annoying, for instance, 'Hidden Place 5' must be visited 3 times: First to get a collectible figurine(Bragging rights), then later on in a secret mission to get a herb and then, finally, on chapter 17-18 to get a crystal skull. There's no way to know which 'Hidden Place's hide more than one rewards, or that said reward would change a few chapters later, which is kinda dumb.

 As for combat, Jack can attack with the square button or grab enemies, and then throw them or smack them, with the triangle button. There's also a spin attack, by doing a 360 motion on the analog stick before pressing square that both attacks enemies and draws in coins left by fallen enemies The circle button performs a graceful dodge, which looks so neat it feels good to mash the button. Taunts can be performed with the directional pad, which makes enemies stronger but gives you a free charge attack. While it sounds cool and people usually compare it to Devil May Cry... it's anything but. Jack doesn't get any cool new moves besides the square button combo, which starts at a pathetic two-hit combo until you buy the next two upgrades. and dammit, make it your priority to get these upgrades, as playing with the two-hit combo is very boring. And even after you get them, that's all you'll be doing in the game, because the triangle button rarely is as effective as the square attacks, so get ready to repeat the same, single combo over and over and over again, although, frankly, it sounds worse than it really is.

Capcom managed to capture the world of Halloween Town perfectly.

 About 2-3 hours into the game, Jack is reminded that he is the Pumpkin King, so now he gains access to the Pumpkin King transformation, by pressing L1. I know what you're thinking: Devil Trigger. But it's not, Pumpkin King runs on a limited fire-soul ammunition, and can either spit fire or, well, cause an explosion around him. It's pretty powerful, but it's useless for comboing, which is rather disappointing. I only used the Pumpkin King to burn down barriers... And then, later on, you get the Sandy Claws transformation, by pressing R1, and you'll only use it to defeat concealed enemies, as its uses for comboing are nil.

 Bosses offer an interesting change of pace: As you deal damage they drop musical notes, grab a bunch of them and you'll initiate a dancing mini-game. It's a neat idea, and probably the gameplay element that makes the most sense for The Nightmare Before Christmas, but... you'll be so busy looking at the incoming button prompts that you'll be missing out on the cool animations!

You'll be fighting a lot of skeletons. A lot of them. The Belmonts would be proud.

 While Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge is not bad by any means... it's a very by the numbers game, and it's simple to a fault. Honestly, the entire combat system feels like a wasted opportunity to make it more like Devil May Cry and less like a one-button pony. The story was nothing special, and while it feels like a retread of the movie, one that teases players with the other Holiday Worlds but doesn't do anything with them, it's still nice getting to see all the familiar characters from the movie, and kudos for managing to put the ever-important songs into the game.
 6.0 out of 10