Review #498: Way of the Samurai 2

 Not the way of the good sequel.

You'll be seeing red and black often, every single time you die.

 Way of the Samurai was this obscure little gem of a game, which I played and wrote about a few years ago(Review 50-something!), that was unique in its concept: A sand-box style samurai game, with a plot that could be altered according to your choices. Surely a sequel would polish its rough edges and add more characters, better combat, more and better of everything. Sadly, such is not the case.

 The game is set before the first game took place, so the era of the Samurai is still blossoming. Your created Samurai, who can be a girl once you unlock her create-a-character pieces, enters the town of Amagahara and soon gets embroiled, or not, in the war between the Aoto gang and the Magistrate, trying to keep peace... or so it seems. There's also innocent bystanders which you can choose to aid... or not. Does it sound familiar? Yes, it's pretty much the same plot from the previous game: You can side with 'the people'(Sayo the mute girl, for example), you can side with the evil gang(Aoto gang) or with the law-keepers(The magistrate). To be fair, there're more characters this time around, and they had potential if only it was easier to get involved in the plot.

Y'gotta be fast on your fingers, the game wastes no time throwing you into the wolves.

 Y'see, the game might still be a sandbox styled Samurai game, but the execution is much different. The previous game was a short adventure that lasted three days, but now the story takes places throughout 6(sometimes more) days, which sounds really awesome until you realize that most of it is fat. The previous game had a tight story, with multiple choices and ways to get involved, this time around, unless you know precisely when and where to be you'll miss out on most of the story. If you're not playing with a guide at hand you'll be missing out on most of the story. Which is a shame, because the story has potential, but it's so poorly structured that you'll probably miss out on most of it. Heck, take for instance the Sayo storyline, you can be done with the requisites by day 3 and now you've got to waste time until day 6 in order to conclude it. It's a slightly longer game alright, but it's made up of pure fat.

 So what can you do in order to pass the time? Well, you could, and should, partake in repetitive 'jobs' for either Aoto, Magistrate or people factions. There's about 5 different jobs for each, and each job takes a single time slot(Each day has about 6 slots). They are so repetitive and SO boring it's unreal. 'Find the missing worker and convince him to return to work', 'Find the dropped parcel', etc. For every 3-4 lame jobs there's a single assassination or 'quelling' the mob mission involving combat. And the jobs never change, they are so goddamn boring. And it's the only effective way to make money, which you really need in order to enhance your weapons, which are the only things you can carry over from game to game(Unless you die and overwrite your savefile, in which case, whichever three swords were with you and not store in the safe are gone for good). And to add insult to injury, you've got to be extremely swift with this job, you can't just go anywhere but where the location of the job is, otherwise you'll lose your money because the time of the day changed. Fun. Took me a while to realize that you didn't have enough time to do more than 'Get job -> Get to location -> Report back'. It's a terrible design choice that only serves to make progression slower and take up more of your time.

Try to get the Blacksmith's hammer, it's quite destructive.

 On another note, do not be scared to start the game on easy, as the game is pretty much brutal. As soon as you start the game you're thrust into a fight with no explanation whatsoever of how things work. And combat is very tough all the way throughout, there's absolutely no comparison to the previous game. After dying, repeatedly, on my first two attempted playthroughs, I did an Easy playthrough, got new swords, enhanced them and took them to the Normal mode, and then I had a fair game. And keep in mind that the way swords work is kinda... wonky. Every time you equip a new sword you start with a very limited moveset and you have to unlock it by using it. Which kinda sucks if you get a new, powerful sword, yet becomes nigh useless in Normal or Hard since opponents don't really give you a chance to score hits with your limited starting moveset.

 While the moveset thing kinda sucks, the combat has been enhanced. You can block by holding R1 or parry by tapping R1 as soon as you get hit. Triangle does vertical slices while square does horizontal attacks, and the more you use your weapons the more new attacks, combos and links you obtain. You've also got the ability to kick(R1+square) or perform grabs(R1+triangle). The combat feels nice, although I wasn't able to perform some of the wonky, but funky!, juggling you could on the first game. There're more moveset types than before, like the new dual katanas and sheathed katana styles. But don't be too slash happy, every attack you land, be it blocked or not, will raise the Heat bar, if it fills you'll lose a block of durability and if you lose all blocks, out of a possible five, your sword breaks and not even the smithy can repair it.

Sometimes defense is the best offense. Counterattacking after a parry does lethal damage most of the time.

 Truly, the game's biggest flaw is the lack of direction. After you go through the initial sequence of beating up the three bullies you'll be thrust into a map with about 10 different areas. You aren't told what the EP gauge is, which is your energy and can be restore by eating certain items or by sleeping and if it falls to 0 you lose five time periods. You aren't told how to restore you're health, which is done by sleeping or buying food. You aren't told where the Smithy is, which is the are that starts with a N. You're not even told how to fight. You're basically thrown to the wolves, and with the terrible structure for the plot... it's not a friendly game, and while I'll admit that I eventually learned to like the game... it was a long process.

 The thing about Way of the Samurai 2 is... while there're even more endings, which is appreciated, and the combat is tighter than before, there're even more areas to explore and more timeslots and there's even the addition of 'side-quests', it failed to capitalize on what made the first game so unique, so special. It was the entire structure of the game. It was how, while it was a short game, there was always some plot-related thing to do, some way to advance the story or get involved in it. Here you'll be stuck doing menial crap for money. Over and over again. The game can be fun once you finally get the hang of it, but it takes a long, long time and the payoff isn't as rewarding as it was on the first game. In conclusion, Way of the Samurai 2 is alright, but it's a very disappointing sequel.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Way of the Samurai 2

 Way of the Samurai got hardcore.

The Capcom logo always means good news on PS2.

 I don't remember if I used to like Way of the Samurai 2 more than the first one back when I was younger, but right now, my impressions after getting reacquainted are that the game is... overwhelming.

 I started the game, three bozos came at me, no tutorial, no nothing. Somehow I survived and the magistrate arrived and I slayed them. I spent the next segments trying to get into a story sequence, trying to find means to heal myself and trying to get into fights with thugs. Eventually, day 2, I got to the magistrate and some bigwig owned me because I was low on health. And then... I came to the depressing realization that I lost all my progress and got nothing out of my short stint.

 Now I tried again, wrecked the three assailants and... was greeted by a new character, Kyojiro, and then.... I came to write this.

 I dunno, I feel like the game is overwhelming me, so many different places, and no direction whatsover of when or where to get embroiled in a storyline. There also seems to be no place to gather healing items, which kinda sucks if my only way to heal is sleeping and thus missing out on story opportunities. I will keep on playing, but I'm not as enchanted with it as I was with 1. And I think, I THINK that I used to like this one more.

Review #497: Psychonauts

 No need for a psychiatrist now.

Let it get inside your subconscious...

 Psychonauts is the brainchild of Tim Schaffer, a platform/adventure hybrid set in a world where weird almost-human-like-beings possess psychic abilities and what not. It's a beautiful game to look at, with a fantastic art-direction reminiscent of Tim Burton, a sense of humor that's as ridiculous as it is funny as well as top-notch gameplay, Psychonauts is quite the marvel.

 The entire game takes place inside Oleander's camp for psychic children, a place where children are trained to use their abilities and eventually become Psychonauts. Enter Razputin 'Raz' Aquato, a kid who sneaks into the camp in order to learn to use his abilities. All's fine and dandy, until it turns out that someone is trying to farm the brains from the children and turn them into powerful psychic weapons. Now it's up to Raz and his friends to stop the conspiracy and, maybe, save his friends. The game has a phenomenal sense of humor and attention to detail, there're ton of different, optional dialogues to find or come across and they are quite a treat. There're so many different optional, hidden interactions that you won't find them all on your first playthrough.

Raz has style. He also has psychic powers.

 You'll be exploring two different realms: Reality AKA Oleander's camp, and you'll also be travelling inside the minds of many other characters. There's a lot of stuff to collect, every mind('level') has figments of imagination to collect, emotional baggage(And their tags!) to collect and memory cobwebs to collect, and they all help to boost Raz's Psychonaut rank. Meanwhile, you can find cards and challenge orbs, as well as a completing scavenger hunt sidequest, inside the camp, which also helps to bolster your rank. Yes, there's quite a lot to find and collect in the game.

 And you should, because increasing your rank in increments of fives unlocks new abilities for Raz. As a matter of fact, Pyromancy and Invisibility are mandatory to complete latter levels, although I never had to stop and grind for rank, I will admit that I was so engrossed in the game that I was trying to collect as much as I could, so I was never wanting in rank. Another thing, there's a shop and in said shop you can buy the cobweb remover... thing is, the item is mandatory to progress through latter levels as well. My advice? Purchase the arrowhead(currency) dowser ASAP and buy the cobweb remover ASAP, since about halfway through the game the camp gets filled with powerful pyro-wolves that make searching for arrowheads a pain in the butt. Luckily I had the cobweb remover before that happened, but I'm guessing that someone that didn't care about it would be in for a rude awakening come late into the game and needing 800 arrowheads to purchase it.

The milkman conspiracy level is one of the best, and funniest, by far.

 As for the gameplay, it's a fantastic mix of exploration, action, platforming and puzzles. There's a lot of stuff Raz can do, besides the mandatory three-hit combo attack and the ground pound, he can also double jump and equip up to three different psychic powers at a time, although you can swap them at any time by going into the menu. There're a lot of different powers with different uses, a simple psychic beam to attack, a pyromancy power to set enemies, or wood, ablaze, telekinesis to throw around objects and solve a few puzzles, levitation, which lets you dash over a psychic orb or glide with it and a few others. They all have their uses, and characters, friendly NPCs and baddies, have many different reactions to your powers!

 The different minds you visit, each has their own themes and gimmicks, and they are all very entertaining for different reasons. One of my favorites is the 'Milkman Conspiracy', which has you collecting items to fool investigators into thinking that you are one of their own, which is an excellent combination of comedy and puzzles. Another one I really enjoyed was the 'Napoleon War', a stage in which you move around a board, altering your size to either solve puzzles and get more pieces or to move the pieces themselves. I don't wanna give too much away, but there's a lot of variety and ingenious level designs to go through. I've heard and read that the final stage is supposed to be 'very hard', so much so that the Steam version was patched, but.... I found it to be relatively easy. I was rank 90 at the time, so I had an 11-lives threshold, had maxed my HP bar and unlocked Regenerating health, but even then I didn't find the platforming sections too challenging. I had to retry a few times, yes, but it never felt too hard.

Her name is Linda, and she's not happy to see you.

 Lastly, its performance on the PS2... It's kinda bad. The framerate can dip, it can get very ugly, but not to an unplayable degree. The game never crashed on me, although I had to restart the game because all audio stopped playing and the game wouldn't let me proceed, so I saved my game(It was a soft lock) and the loaded the file and... still nada, but quitting to the main menu fixed it. Apparently there're two levels that are prone to crashing, I visited both of them twice, a second time around to collect the cobwebs I missed, and it never crashed. I did come across a nasty sound bug in which the music got stuck, but nothing a quick reload didn't fix. All in all, the PS2 is probably the worst way to play the game, but it's still not too bad.

 Psychonauts is brilliant. The amount of detail and creativity that went into developing the game is nothing short of incredible and you're bound to find at least a couple of levels that you'll love. While the PS2 version is probably the last one you'd want to play, its few technical shortcomings don't take away from the brilliance of the game, so there's no excuse to miss out on Psychonauts.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Psychonauts

 It's mental!

There's a lot of green here, but man, is the game weird.

 Upon poppin' the disc and watching the first cinematic, it's pretty easy to easy: Psychonauts' production values are through the roof. And then you take control of Raz and... everything feels like quality. And let me tell you, quality feels awesome.

 I finished the first level, the camp's counselor's war-brain, and it was a blast. I loved the game's sense of humor, the set-up, the characters, everything! And the gameplay is pretty spiffy to boot. All in all, Psychonauts is shaping up to be a real winner.

Review #496: Bujingai - The Forsaken City

 The Gackt game about Gackt in which you play as Gackt.

I'd be looking at the horizon too, searching for greener pastures and better games.

 Everyone likes Chinese Wushu martial arts movies and everyone who hasn't played Crisis Core loves Gackt, so here we have Gackt doing Wushu fighting in an anime world. Twirly jumps and twirly flying? It's here. Fights in which moves get deflected over and over again? It's here. Gackt? He's here too.

 The story is nonsense. Seriously, it makes no sense so don't try to, just know that you play as Gackt-look alike Lau. By the way, if them having the same face and voice(Not that Lau speaks a full sentence EVER, but still) is not enough, you can actually unlock a costume to play as Gackt. A realistic Gackt, as opposed to anime Lau. Anyways, Lau was betrayed when his friend, Rei, got possessed by a demon, or something, a killed their master, so now Lau is out for revenge. I will give them points for making nonsensical cutscenes, the one before and the one after the Rei fight being the best and most ridiculous, and making a decent parody of the jumping and flying featured in Wushu movies, but the story is just bad and not in a 'so bad it's good' way, which is how most Wushu films are.

Wushu means 'Get ready for a lot of spinning'

 The best way to describe this game would be a fusion between Shinobi and Devil May Cry, except that it sucks. It tries to borrow the combat from Devil May Cry, but you've a single combo with square button, a strong attack with triangle and you can sometimes press X mid-combo to use a kick. There're also 9 spells that can be used with circle, albeit I barely used them, except the passive spell that increased your attack power, that one was useful. Now then, the game's main mechanic is deflecting, simply look at an enemy and don't press a button and you'll automatically start deflecting anything that comes your way, provided you've enough charges on the deflecting gauge. Enemies have a deflecting gauge too, and both parties can interrupt a deflection with counter attacks or sidesteps. Honestly, the system is just a gimmick, some enemies you simply have to mash square until their gauge drops to zero and you can actually attack them, some enemies recharge their gauge much faster than you, so mashing will get you killed and instead you must sidestep behind them and pummel them then, etc. It's a very formulaic game, with repetitive combat and little variation. You'll quickly figure out the best ways to take down the very few enemy types. A few bosses are recycled too, but bosses are pretty easy, and most of them simply require you to take a more defensive approach. All in all, combat is alright if... predictable. As with most games of its ilk, defeating enemies rewards you with points which you can then use to strengthen Lau's abilities.

 If there's something to be praised is that the animations are very smooth and look very cool... even though you'll be seeing the same moves over and over and over and over again. And I understand that that may come out as hypocritical coming from someone who loves beat'em ups, but this is a combo-based game, you are supposed to build combos, ergo, try to juggle enemies, but it's kinda boring when you are cycling through the same attack animations over and over again. It doesn't help that by stage 3, out of 7, you'll have seen every enemy type the game can throw at you. Level design is pretty boring too, mostly consisting out of dull looking corridors and square arenas, at least until you get to level 7...

Enemies look inspired by Shinobi's repertoire.

 The game also seems to borrow from Shinobi on the PS2, as enemy design and environments look as if they came straight out of that game. The ruined city landscapes, the ruined floating floor/platform things, the caves... they reminded me of Shinobi a lot. And that comparison is fitting since they tried to add platfoming. Lau can fly/glide through the air, he can wall-run, he can jump from walls and then do the glide.... and you could possibly climb on a straight line through a wall up to the top of the stage if the level design allows it. The thing is... it's very clunky. Lau will stop his wall runs every now and then so you must press X again to continue your acrobatics. The camera is very annoying when the game demands you jumping to the opposite side from a wallrun since it can't keep up with you. And, y'know, most of the time I didn't care about it since platforming was mostly required for collectibles, until you get to level 6 and 7. Level six has an area that has you platforming to escape lava, which isn't too bad, but it's when you'll start getting frustrated with the camera and sloppiness of the platforming... but then comes level seven, which takes place throughout a series of platforms and then you'll hate the game. The platforming doesn't work well, having an entire level based on platforming was a terrible idea that made the game end on a low note.

 The game is 5 hours long, made up of 7 levels. You don't get new weapons or new combos, and there's a single alternate costume to unlock as well as 9 different spells. And yet... the game occupies 1 megabyte on a memory card. This simple, barebones excuse of a game requires more data on a memory card than 60 hour RPGs like Final Fantasy. How the hell did that happen? And I realize it's just a nitpick, but when I have to endure a game this boring it'd better not take up 1/8th of my memory card.

Like any other PS2 hack-and-slash, there're gates locked by red barriers that demand blood. Or fallen enemies.

 I'll be honest, the PS2 is home to hack-and-slash classics like Devil May Cry and God of War, you also have other gems like Onimusha and Genji, and if what you want is platforming with your slashing, there's also Shinobi and Nightshade. There's no shortage of fantastic action games on the PS2, so why settle with Gackt's lackluster venture into the genre?
 4.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Bujingai - The Forsaken City

 Gackt - The Forsaken Gackt. Gackt's in it. Did I mention that Gackt's in it?

That guy on the cover? That's Gackt. The Japanese cover is even more egregious.

 Remember that one time Gackt almost single-handedly ruined Final Fantasy VII? I do. Sure, I could blame the writers for creating such a ****** character. I could, but I won't. I could also blame the game's director for creating such a horrible luck-based system. I could, but I won't. I'd rather blame Gackt. Sure, he's made some pretty neat songs(Kamen Rider Decade's song was pretty badass), but I will never forget the day he dared sully the brand of Final Fantasy VII.

 ANYWAYS, here comes Bujingai the most boring game you'll ever play. I was surprised to find this game often listen among 'hidden gems' and what now, but after playing 2 levels... I wanted to go back to Seven Samurai 20XX. The game... seems like a fusion between Shinobi and Devil May Cry but with clunky movement and boring combat. Even the art-direction is a blend of both. Also the story makes no sense. 3000 years ago GacktLau was alive? And he is still alive? And he is seeking revenge for what? Nothing makes sense, and honestly, I don't care to make sense of it.

 In case you haven't noticed... I'm not impressed. I should've started Psychonauts instead....

Review #495: XIII

 A living comic book.

Unlike journalists we do know how to pronounce the game's title, thank you very much.

 What is XIII? It's the codename of the hero from the comicbook of the same name, XIII. It's also the name of a videogame based on said comicbook. Incredibly unique, XIII is a first-person shooter with a fantastic comic-book inspired look, a design that makes it so that comic book bubbles pop when characters talk, comic-book styled panels appear onscreen to highlight certain actions and onomatopoeias appear on screen, like 'Tap tap' for steps. It's truly a sight to behold, and its beauty isn't just skin deep.

 The story follows XIII after he wakes up on the beach, heavily wounded. It's not too long before thugs attempt on his life, and following the only leads he has goes on a quest for his identity. Initially, because he discovers who he is pretty early in the game and is soon tasked with stopping the conspiracy of the XX members. The story is relatively interesting, and there're a ton of black and white, playable flashbacks that not only look stylish but add a lot of personality to the game. Sadly, being based on a on-going comic book(to this day!) means that it ends on a cliffhanger... and one that happens after a brilliantly set-up plot twist. I finished the game feeling both praise, for how well they pulled it off, and frustration, because it will, probably, never be resolved! Not in videogame format anyways.

The art-direction is truly a sight to behold.

 The game is divided into 30-something missions. It sounds like a lot, but most of them are relatively short. That said, some missions are connected, so your inventory, life and armor carry over to the next. While I was a bit turned off at first, the set-up works relatively well, and some missions are a bt longer than others. Missions themselves offered a nice variety of objectives, there was stealth, shootouts, boss fights and other one-off objectives like turning off a missile launch while under a time limit, and you even get nifty spy tools, like a grappling hook and a long-range microphone. The checkpoint system was a bit lackluster, since a few missions would have you replay somewhat tedious segments if you died or screwed up. You see, the game is a bit slow-paced, so having to sit still while conversations take place or what not isn't very fun, so it was a bit annoying having to sit through those unskippable 'playable' cutscenes until I got it right.

 The game is unlike most modern shooters, because stealth plays a big part in it. Some missions require you to go through unnoticed, others will result in failure if you fail to stop an enemy before he turns on an alarm, etc. Sometimes you'll even have to hide bodies and what not. Stealth is very important, and while I don't think they got it quite right, it was overall relatively fun. On the other hand, full-on firefights where a blast, circle-strafing around baddies while unloading bullets felt really satisfying. It's probably thanks to the shooting feeling very tight, while the art-style makes everything pop and as fun to look at as to play it.

The online servers are dead, but you can play split-screen multiplayer!

 The game is old, so there's not regenerating health here, either you find healthpacks and armor or go bust. It also came before 'Iron sights' aiming was a thing, which will probably take a bit of time getting used to, as well as a suboptimal control scheme, another victim of its age. I found it a bit hard to grab ammo and items, it seems like the collision detection is a bit off, so if at first you don't grab it, try moving the camera around until XIII picks up whatever's lying on the table. Another quirk was with fallen enemies, who don't drop their weapons immediately so you have to wait a few seconds before you go fetch your newly found source of ammo.

 I don't know how faithful the game is to the comicbook, but what I do know is that it's a fantastic game on its own right. The gameplay is tight, even if there's a few issues here and there, and while I wasn't a fan of the stealth sections I can appreciate the variety. Its artstyle is something completely unique, I don't think any other game took the comic book aesthetics this close to heart. XIII is worth every second, even if the game ends on a cliffhanger.
 8.0 out of 10