Review #624: Yakuza 2

 The Dragon of Dojima soars again.

 Yakuza was great despite its glaring flaws. Yakuza 2 takes everything that worked about the previous game, polishes the combat and makes everything bigger, badder and better, turning it into one of the PS2's most unsung games.

 You still play as Kiryu Kazuma, however, he is more of a passenger in the game's plot this time around... which is for the better, as Kiryu is supposed to be a power fantasy, a badass titan with a heart of gold that's ready to punch through any goon that stands in his way. After the first game, the new head of the Tojo family is fumbling his job and is eventually murdered by the Omi family, what follows is Kiryu getting embroiled in the Tojo affairs once again. He will cross paths with Sayama, a female cop tasked with protecting him, a chance she takes in order to discover just how the Tojo are involved with her disappeared parents, and Goda Ryuji, the Dragon of Goda, a man with tall ambitions which include conquering the Tojo. I wouldn't call the story better than the one in the first game, because it isn't, but I found it to be much better written. Sayama, Ryuji as well as the rest of the new characters, like Kawara, are more and better developed than the cast from the first game, which leads to more poignant scenes and making you empathize more with the cast. I also found Kazuma taking a more Mad Max role in the story a very interesting way to tell the story... but one that makes sense for the character. He is a gentle giant helping everyone he comes across, he is supposed to eternally stand for justice and honor, he is a character that won't grow or change, but dammit, he will help everyone around him accomplish their goals or change their hearts.

 The brunt of the game remains pretty much the same as it was in Yakuza 1, being a story-driven beat'em up set in the open streets of Kamurcho, as you leisurely progress through the story or invest your time on sidequests. And boy oh boy, are there even more sidequests this time around! Joining Kamurcho are two new districts, smaller in size but with a decent amount of sidequests and side activities each. Sadly, you're stuck into whichever district the chapter you're playing demands, but once you hit chapter 16 you're free to visit any district at your leisure, provided you can pay the Taxi fare! Since this game only adds to the activities from the previous game, the cities of Kamurocho, Sotenbori and Shinseicho feel very alive, full of colorful characters and sidequests just begging to be found. I recommend cruising around the cities every time you start a new chapter, so that you may come across them, and, at worst, you'll partake in some random encounters with thugs, and level up, or find keys for the 60+ lockers. If you are into wasting time, joining the batting cages, cranes and slots from Yakuza 1 we get Mahjong, Shogi, Bowling, Golfing and even a silly, but surprisingly fun, first person sword-and-slingshot fighting mini game!

 Combat remains pretty much the same, but polished to a sheen. There are more uses for your Heat gauge, thanks to new abilities such as Heat Counters and powerful Heat actions against gun-tooting thugs, plus, now you can increase your maximum amount of stored heat by watching videos at Sotenbori's video booths! The biggest change of all is that now you can hit different directions mid-combo from the get-go, making combat feel much smoother and not forcing you to hit empty air once you began your string. It's still not perfect, but now I didn't feel like the game was unfair... although it makes up for that by having thugs being even more aggressive, so you'll have to learn how to better manage multiple opponents in a fight. Boss battles now come with Quick Time Events, but, surprisingly, I didn't hate them too much, probably because they are so exciting and don't wear out their welcome. It's not like God of War where even normal mooks might've required QTEs, these are relegated to big, tough bosses.

 Yakuza 2 is fantastic. It's a long, beefy game with a ton of content, optional and mandatory. The main story is lengthy, but not boring, and should keep you busy for a while. The combat is simple, but satisfying thanks to how visceral it is. Returning players might be a bit peeved having to unlock many abilities that they already unlocked in the first game, but getting to see how the whole story pans out is worth it, and getting Kiryu to tip-top shape again and curb-stomp every fool is worth it. Well, onward to Yakuza 3 it is!
 8.5 out of 10

Review #623: Obscure

 Yep, this is one of the PS2's most obscure titles.

 So, you pop in the disc, go through the introductions, start the game and... Sum 41's 'Still Waiting' starts as you are introduced to the students you'll be playing as. Feeling a mixture of bemusement and interest, I soldiered on and got rewarded with one of the PS2's most unknown and engaging Survival Horror games. It's no Silent Hill, but it's pretty darn great.

 The game pits you as any of five students stuck at Leafmore High. As a matter of fact, the game offers a fantastic prologue that reminded me of Silent Hill's introduction, very neat. The dialogue is terrible and the story is very cookie-cutter... but that's exactly the style they were going for, trying to ape movies such as 'Scream' and 'The Faculty', and they aced it. On the other hand, the game knows how to keep the atmosphere tense, with both ominous choirs and fleshy monsters hiding in the darkness. One of the game's novelties, at the time, was its co-op element. The entire game can be played with two players, or just you and a CPU ally... or just you, if you feel so inclined. Each character has a perk that helps in various ways. Kenny can sprint, which sounds really useful, but if you are going to play as a duo that means leaving your partner behind! Josh can tell if there are items waiting to be found in the area, Ashley is good at healing and can guide you to your next objective, Ashley deals more damage and has a special double attack(Which makes her the best character in the game!).

The abilities aren't game-breaking, just offering a bit of help with how you tackle the game. I managed with a team of Josh and Ashley just fine. And there's a reason as to why abilities aren't mandatory... anyone can die. You read that right, your playable characters can die, and it's not a game over until all five students bite the dust, so you can ostensibly make it to the end with just one character left. It's a pretty neat mechanic that added a lot of tension to the game, I forced myself to restart just because I wouldn't allow anyone to die. Plus, you can use characters as extra health, the game allows you to fast travel back to 'Gathering Spots', where you can swap characters if someone isn't carrying their weight. I played the entire game with the AI and it's... serviceable. At times, when I breaking windows with my bat, the AI would shoot a second later with the gun wasting bullets, which wasn't very nice, and it seems like the CPU isn't fond of 'boosting', a mechanic used to weaken enemies, so I had keep at it... but the game is entirely playable like this, just give them a gun and let them provide back up, ammo is pretty plentiful.

 The entire game is set in Leafmore High, and as you progress through the story you'll gain  keys to access other areas, so there might be a bit of backtracking involved every now and then, nothing that Resident Evil aficionados aren't used to by now. For a first in Survival Horror puzzles make sense. Got a scribbled paper? Break a window and examine it under the light. A padlock is blocking your way? Get some pliers and bust it open.

 Combat in the game is a bit janky, if you're going to use melee weapons it seems like there's no way to avoid incoming damage. The game is pretty generous with bullets, even if it doesn't seem so, so eventually I just stuck to using a gun while my CPU ally would use a melee weapon, although by the latter parts of the game I had as both sporting guns. And you'd better, since evading enemies is pretty much impossible.. A big part of the game is 'boosting', magically making your flashlight brighter, thus weakening enemies. It overheats, so you can't do it all the time. This could mean the difference between three bullets and a single one, so it ends up being a big part of your fights. You can tape guns(and shotguns) together with flashlights, but you might want to wait, since tape runs out and you can't disassemble your creating, so don't go trigger happy with sticking everything together, might want to save the better flashlights for the stronger weapons. Healing items are sparse, but I had over 10 in excess by the end of the game. What is lacking, however, are Saving Discs, used to save the game, so think very carefully before you use one. Item management is done in real time, so if you want to heal or change weapons... well, hopefully you learnt how to navigate the menus by then. You can even toggle the CPU's weapon on the fly pressing down on the directional pad. Am I a fan of real-time item management? No... but I think it kinda works in this game's favor in order to make things even more frantic and dire, since losing a playable character is a very real possibility.

  The game lasts a solid 5-6 hours, and upon completion you unlock a new game+ with bonus weapons and alternate costumes for the characters that survived your first playthrough. Obscure was wonderful, I loved every minute of it. Sure, it's not as deep as Silent Hill, or as tight as Resident Evil, but it offers a neat twist on the formula with the 'anyone-can-die' mechanic, in addition to how well they pulled off the Highschool setting and the whole 90s campy horror flick vibe. Obscure is every bit worth tracking before its price goes even higher.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #622: Yakuza

 Just when I thought I had played everything worth playing on the PS2!

 So... a few years ago I got my hands on Yakuza 4 and I fell in love with the crime drama soap opera as well as all the silly humor that peered its head between the story missions. I almost platinum'd the game, even going so far as to defeat the Amon brothers and, surprisingly even to myself, got the Trophy for the hostess mini-game. One of the trophies required watching the recaps of the previous games, and let me tell you, they completely sold me on the franchise. I was gonna play them all. Time passes and Yakuza 5's demo hits the PSN store. It's great, of course, but a certain piece of news comes to me: Digital only. Disappointed, I completely forgot about the Yakuza franchise. But the franchise caught on and every game since has gotten a physical release, and here I am fixing errors past: Not playing through the entire series.

 In this first game you play as Kiryu, an ex-Yakuza who took the fall for killing his own leader, something he did in order to protect his best friend, and actual murderer, Nishiki. Ten years go by and Kazuma Kiryu is out of prison and back to the city of Kamurocho, but while the city hasn't changed the people sure have. Nishsiki is now a ruthless leader of his own group(Or 'family' as they call them) and their best friend, and Kazuma's love interest, Yumi is nowhere to be seen. Just so happens that the Tojo family has been robbed of 10 billion Yen and a young girl, Haruka, is looking for her mom. All these seemingly unconnected events and people come together to make for one fantastic and over-the-top soap opera that's as thrilling as it is exciting. You'll find yourself making your own guesses as to how it all pans out because it's just so interesting! And that's just the main story, you're free to tackle any of 70 side-quests that have their own mini scripts, often delving into the ridiculous. In a good way. The bland voice acting does help add a bit of personality to the game, because it feels like a proper dubbed Asian crime flick. Speaking of the voice acting, they had some really great talent, like Mark Hamill and Eliza Dushku, but even their performances left a lot to be desired.

 The game takes place in the city of Kamurocho, a city filled with side activities. Sure, you can meander about hoping to come across the various sidequests, but you can also search for the 48 locker keys, each locker hiding a goodie for you. You could go to the massage parlor and engage in a silly minigame, you could go visit the hostess bars and try to seduce them or why not hit the batting cages? But, maybe, the crane at the arcade is more up your alley. Busting skulls will be the thing you'll be doing the most, but dammit if they didn't go the extra mile to sell you on the city of Kamurcho! It all adds up to make Kamurocho feel alive, and like a proper district infested by Yakuza and gangs. 10+ for effort.

 The brunt of the game is like so: You watch a long-winded, but awfully interesting, set of cutscenes and get tasked with a goal, such as 'Feed the dog'(Seriously, it makes sense in context) and then... you are free to run throughout Kamurocho. Want to follow the story? Just follow the pink arrow on the radar below. But maybe you want to go to any of the shops and restock on healing items, or maybe weapons, you can do so too! As a matter of fact, I suggest you take frequent walks in-between chapters through Kamurocho in order to try to find side-quests, they really do help fleshing out the city and showing you just how much of a goodie-two-shoes Kazuma is. That said, do be careful, as random encounters are out and about. After a while you'll learn to recognize which NPCs will trigger a fight if you walk close to them, so you can avoid them. At times the encounter rate can be a bit too high, but that's mostly during the last chapters of the game, since each chapter has a level cap, and once you hit it enemies will stop spawning. You can, however, equip a lucky bracelet if it gets too annoying. I don't recommend it, however, as leveling up allows you to develop Kazuma in any of three ways: More Health, better Heat consumption or more moves. You can, eventually, get every area to level 10, but you are free to prioritize however you like. I always kept my Health at the highest level while Heat was a close second, for instance.

 Exploring isn't the only thing you'll be doing, as pretty much any problem can be fixed with Kazuma's fists. Square is your weak four-hit combo string and triangle is a strong attack that can be used to end your combos with. Circle can be used to grab enemies, X is a dodge and R1 can be used to target enemies. You can also pick up weapons from the floor, from pipes to road cones, anything is a weapons in Kazuma's hands... or your enemies'. Landing attacks and keeping on the offensive increases and maintains your Heat gauge. At first you can only use it to deliver powerful Heat attacks by grabbing enemies next to a wall, but as you develop Kazuma's stats you'll gain access to a few more Heat actions, such as Heat attacks on downed enemies or while holding weapons, or even an increase or two to Kazuma's strenght while the gauge is full.

 Look, I loved the game, but one thing is true: Combat is kinda wonky. R1 targeting doesn't work very well and it's easy for Kazuma to lose the target(Although I think it was done on purpose? Since it happens whenever you dodge. Regardless, it's a poor design choice) so often times you'll be having to let go off the targeting, reposition yourself and then press R1 again. Not that that's too easy, since the camera is terrible and you can't move it around with the shoulder buttons or the right analog stick, so mostly you'll be moving around hoping the camera lets you see that one guy that is shooting at you from afar or press the L2 button to shift the camera behind Kazuma's back. Neither option works very well, especially considering that Kazuma's back will be blocking your view from incoming attacks! And once you start your attack string you are committed to punching in that direction, since Kazuma has a one track mind. You can, however, unlock an attack that lets you kick in the opposite direction you are attacking from, but it's not the end all be all to this issue as it requires enemies being at the right distance.

 One tiny issue that my get on people's nerves are the loading times. They are not too long, but they are frequent. Navigating Kamurocho is through fixed-camera angles, and while they aren't intrusive, it takes one or two seconds to load different areas. Add to that that random encounters require a loading screen before and after the fact, so it can get a bit grating when you hit the last parts of the game and there seems to be a miscreant on every corner waiting to get their due.

 I can wholeheartedly recommend Yakuza on the PS2. It's a fantastic action/beat'em up game that while a bit repetitive and clunky in execution has a lot of heart. The script is brilliant and knows the perfect way to deliver both heavy-handed and silly stuff without generating any mood whiplash. Everything flows well together, so much so that it's easy to forgive its shortcomings when it comes to the combat. Yakuza was a fantastic gem in the rough, and I can't wait to delve into the sequels.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #621: Horizon Zero Dawn - Complete Edition

 Also known as Robot Hunter.

 Now this came completely out of the left field! Known for their gritty and bleak Killzone games, Guerilla Games wanted to do something different: An adventure game that blurred the lines with the RPG genre, and on their first ever endeavor of this kind... they aced it with flying colors. Horizon Zero Dawn is an excellent piece of software that shows that taking risks can pay off exceedingly well.

 The game takes place on a post-apocalyptic world, men and women live in tribes, armed with nothing but spears and arrows, fighting against machines that roam the lands. You take control of Aloy, the motherless, raised as an outcast by an outcast, who sets out to prove her worth and discover who her mother was. But it's not as simple as that, as the secret behind her birth takes her through ruins of the ancient world. Our modern world. Finding out what happened to the world that made it devolve into a savage land, and why the machines are out for blood is a very interesting adventure. The story is well told, although to get the most of it you'll have to go through those annoying, but by today's standards unavoidable, audio and data logs. The entire game took me over 40 hours to complete, but I was a very busy bee, collecting every collectible peppered throughout the lands, fulfilling every side-quest I came upon and, of course, finishing the on-disc expansion, the Frozen Wilds, which is very, very worth your while.

 As Aloy you're free to pretty much do everything at your pace. After the 5 or so first hours of the game you'll be given free access to every zone in the game. Want to find every collectible before doing the main story? Go ahead. I was level 29 before I got over the second, and last, 'big' barrier in the game world. Although I took a detour into the Frozen Wilds expansion. Word to the wise, if the Frozen Wilds are too tough don't be afraid to lower the difficulty setting, the DLC expansion is tougher than anything you'll find on the main game... but it also features the strongest weapons in the game and one of the most useful outfits, one that heals you as time passes. If you choose to do the DLC first, which why wouldn't you since it's set before the game's ending, you'll end up overlevelled and overpowered for the rest of the campaign... not that that's saying much, levelling up only increases your HP by 10 and the skill trees are more utilities than anything else. Weapon power rarely goes up by much, so even the strongest weapons won't do much for you if you go into a tussle poorly prepared.

 Combat is fairly fun, mostly focused on Aloy's bows and other means of long-range weaponry, like trip-wires or sling-shots. You'll notice that weapons, in shops, barely change their attack power, but the reason you'll want to invest in other weapons is due to elemental ammo. Not every bow can fire the same arrows, and elemental damage is one of the ways you can deal with robot enemies. The other is hitting their weakspots, which you can find out by using Aloy's piece of ancient technology, the Focus, which highlights where your arrows will hit the hardest. Elemental damage comes in three forms: Fire, which deals damage over time, electricity, which stuns enemies and ice, which slows them down and makes every hit do critical damage, lastly there's Tear, which does minimal damage but shaves off armor pieces and weaponry from enemies, which can turn them into a bit of a crutch. Combat is way more fun than it deserves to be, and it feels nice noticing how you learn from every machine so that you can turn them into scrap faster. Aloy also comes with a spear, weak and strong attacks, meant for the smaller robots, but I had a ton of fun trying to sneak in a few hits with it, I've always been a bit of a melee fan after all!

 A large part of the game is crafting, everything and anything from plants lying in the wilds to scrap left by fallen enemies is up for grabs. You have to keep in mind that inventory space is limited, so you just can't carry everything and anything you want, and tons of things have all sorts of purposes, from crafting upgrades for your ammo pouches to crafting the very arrows you use to fight and even to barter with merchants and get snazzy outfits. There are a few skills on the skill tree that will help you with this, enlarging the amount of resources you can carry or even letting you dismantle stuff into metal scraps, the most basic form of currency in the game and also one of the two basic elements to craft arrows. Another type of pick up are modifications, items that can be ingrained into your outfits and bows to give them passive abilities, such as higher damage or better resistance to elements.

 I will admit that after I hit the level 60 cap the combat turned a bit aimless. I didn't require more materials if I wasn't wasting arrows on enemies, and I didn't need the experience points. As far as equipment was concerned, I had settled on a decent pair of bows(The ones from the DLC) and I didn't need anything else, so I would just fast-travel to every location and progress through the story. Mind you, this was around the 39 hour mark, every hour before that I was having a ton of fun fighting enemies just because, tackling huge beasts because they looked mean and I was thirsty for blo... oil. But hitting the level cap meant that fights outside sidequests or quests was meaningless. Even though you'd have completed all the skill trees by then, I think upping the maximum level to 99 would have helped with this. At level 60 you have enough HP to get into fights carelessly, so I doubt even more HP would've made any difference.

 There's a reason Horizon has often been placed among the PS4's finest, because it is a damn great game. It's a great mix styles, adventuring, RPGing and even a bit of Monster Huntering, and it all works so well. The pseudo-sci fi story was a real treat, and discovering the secrets this world held was pure joy. That's not to say it's perfect, as a few tiny improvements could've helped make it even better, like more weapons with a more marked difference in power or upping the level cap so that combat never loses its meaning. Regardless, Horizon is a fun time for anyone willing to give it a try. Oh, and kid Aloy is totes adorbs.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #620: Travis Strikes Again - No More Heroes

 B...but Travis' story was supposed to be over! Suda, whatchoo doin' !?

 It's no secret that Goichi Suda is by far my favorite video-game director, nobody gets the perfect mix of bizarre and surreal just like him. That said, I was a bit scared when Travis Strikes Again was announced since Suda 51 had claimed that Travis' story was over so it felt like they were milking the license for all it was worth, and once reviews came in they pretty much confirmed my fears, not that that would stop me from getting the game. Thankfully, critics get it wrong, once again, as Travis Strikes again is pretty dope... if you're the right audience. And I am the right audience.

 The plot sees Travis attacked by Badman, Badgirl's father, who wants revenge for her murder, but things are never that simple in the assassin world, so both Travis and Badman get sucked into Travis' game console: The Death Drive Mk II. Now both assassins team up to gather the six Death Balls and get their wish granted. Yeah. The story is every bit as good as you'd expect any Suda 51 script to be, although it's lacking on the subtext it's oozing in bizarre. Every Death Ball is a different 'game', and in order to get them you have to go through DOS visual-novel styled story sequences that feature cameos from a ton of characters from Suda's games: Diabolical Pitch, Killer7(In the intro!), Silver Case: the 25th Ward and even Mondo Zappa! As a matter of fact, Shadows of the Damned gets an entire level dedicated to them and it is GLORIOUS. Each of the six games have their own unique boss, and everyone is PURE Suda 51's brand of punk rock. Travis' dialogue is as sharp as ever, even if both Badman and Travis share most of the dialogue(You can play as either character... or both in Co-op). It's a bit too good to be true, and it is. This is a low-budget game, so 95% of the brilliant dialogue is text only, even though the legendary Robin Atkin Downes reprises his role as Travis he only gets to spew a very few lines. It's very disappointing, specially since the voice acting was a BIG part of why I liked Travis so much, but the dialogue is so up to par that I was reading it in Robin's voice.

 Basic gameplay is very simple and both characters play pretty much exactly the same, with Travis being stronger but slower and Badman weaker but faster(And has a better HP growth). There's a weak rush attack in which you simply hold down the button and your character will endlessly slash and dice in front of him. There's a strong attack, a jump button and an evasive roll. This game plays nothing like previous No More Heroes, there's no hidden depth to the combat nor anything, what you see is what you get, but it's meant to be this way. Combat is shallow and slippery, sometimes it feels like it's impossible not to take damage, but it doesn't matter since you are supposed to be able to tank the damage. Heck, the camera is a bit weird, a bit angled from the top most of the time, so it's possible to get hit from enemies off screen. This is not a game you want to master, but one you play just for kicks. You have to mind your energy gauge, however, since your weapon can run out of gas, so you need to find openings to charge your weapon. There's also a Super Gauge that's charged by landing attacks that lets you use power full area-clearing super moves.

 ...but it's not like it's completely devoid of any gimmick, hidden throughout every level are various skill chips, named after Gundams, that can be equipped on your character in order to use powerful skills. There're a few exclusive skills for Travis and Badman, but most chips can be equipped by either character, up to four of them. Don't expect too much out of them, these are not for producing massive combos, but to add variety to the mayhem. There's a skill that lets you telekinetically push an enemy, lay down a skull turret, dash, shoot lightning(One of my favorites), lay down a healing circle or have a massive satellite beam shoot down on the arena. Skills run on an individual cooldown system, so it's just a matter of waiting. I wish there was a little more to chips, but I just stuck with a few of the first chips I found since they were so much better than anything that came later because besides dealing damage they also stunned the enemy, but that didn't stop me from trying out a few newer chips.

 Each 'game' has its own Theme. There's a top-down level in which you must hit switches to rotate tiles and make your way to a mansion. A murder-mystery one in which you must enter sub-stages to collect donuts and coffee to interact with a dead man, one in which you must race against other racers by going through simple motions to shift gears quickly and win, etc. I enjoyed the different themes, but I wish stages were shorter, since are way too long for their own good, trimming about 20 minutes on each would've helped the game be more palatable. On another note, the game takes about 30 seconds to boot up, so don't get scared about your switch crashing.

 There are a few unlockables on each stage, besides the skill chips. You can get Azteca Coins as well as money which you can then spend to buy shirts. Sadly, the selection is very unappealing and pandering, most shirts turn into walking adverts for other indie titles such as Hotline Miami or Brawlhalla. I understand that Suda was inspired by Hotline Miami, so he probably wanted to pay tribute to the indie scene, but it feels a bit lame. I would've like more colors for shirts, heck, there's a single orange shirt! It's also kinda disappointing since you could customize Travis' jacket and pants too in previous games, being cut short to just the shirt is a rather large step backwards.

 When you play a game by Suda 51 or Grasshopper Manufacture you're never expecting the finest gameplay, and this is no exception. What you get, however, is a surreal, endearing experience that other studios just can't capture, and, once again, Travis Strikes Again is no exception. The game is very lacking in mass appeal, graphics are nothing to write home about, gameplay is unimpressive and the stages start off interesting but dull throughout their excessive length. But, but, every other part about the game oozes Suda 51. Bosses are a pleasure to meet, dialogue is as bizarre as you'd expect and every stage feels like something out of an LSD trip. It's amazing. There is an audience for this game, a very limited one, but it's there and if you're looking for something out the ordinary, this is anything but.

 Plus, No More Heroes 3 confirmed. Punk is not Dead.

7.5 out of 10

Review #619: Azure Striker Gunvolt - Striker Pack

 Blue Bomber Megaman called, he'd like to have a word with Inti-Creates.

 Are you missing the Megaman Zero games? You're in luck! Megaman Zero's developer, Inti-Creates, decided to create their own 2-D sidescroller jump-and-shoot action game, Azure Strike Gunvolt. It is a ripoff, it is, but Inti-Creates know what they are doing after spending years developing 2-D Megaman games for the GBA and the Nintendo DS. Striker Pack on the Nintendo Switch is a compilation of the first two games.

 The story is a whole lot of anime nonsense, the first game has Gunvolt rescuing a futuristic Japanese Idol songstress from a group of... 8 villains, while the second game has Gunvolt and his rival Copen take different routes at stopping another set of 8 villains. It's not entirely like Megaman, bosses in these games are called Adepts, being with super powers like Gunvolt, and Gunvolt doesn't earn powers from defeating enemies. As a matter of fact, in Gunvolt 1 you can take out 6 of the 8 adepts in any order that you want, the other ones being preset, while in Gunvolt 2 you only get a pick of 4 out of the 8. The games are fairly short, and finishing each should take about 5 hours or so. Both games are pretty much identical, save for the second playable character in 2, so everything I'll say is true for the duology.

 Jump and shoot, that's the name of the game, but it does offer its own twists and mechanics to set it apart from the other blue bomber. Gunvolt, GV for short, can be equipped with five different items to boost his stats or grant him abilities such as dashing on the air, as well as equipping up to four different super moves that run on a 3-stock meter, which refills as you dole out damage. GV, by himself, can jump, dash, shoot and walljump, but his Adept ability, or his Septima, is the FlashField. By shooting at enemies you can 'tag' them, and then you can use FlashField to electrocute them. You can tag multiple enemies at the same time, and using Flashfield to take out multiple enemies becomes the name of the game. There's another mechanic, Pervasion, which makes you invulnerable as long as you aren't using your Flashfield. Sounds too good to be true, and it is, Flashfield runs on an energy gauge that refills slowly over time or instantly if you double tap down on the control pad. Dodging attacks by Prevasion costs you energy from this gauge, and if you run out you have to wait for a while before you can use Prevasion and Flashfield again.

 It's all very fun, Gunvolt is built for speed, and the mechanics help in making stages fun to go through. Prevasion sounds like it'd make the game too easy, but it isn't and if you rely on it, as opposed to manually doing everything, costs you points, which in turn hurt your rank and in turn means less rewards after finishing a stage. And you want rewards so that you can synthesize equipment pieces. One BIG flaw with the games is the Challenge system. Challenges are small goals that you can complete to earn materials for synthezing, the problem being... Challenges are on a per-stage basis and they only open up after you finish a stage. And every time you clear a few challenges others pop up, basically, meaning that you must reply every stage a handful of times to clear every challenge. It's quite dumb, and it meant that I relied on very few pieces on equipment on each game since I wasn't too keen on replaying the same stages over and over again. The games are a blast to play, they really are, but I'm not one for unnecessary padding.

 The second game adds Copen as a playable character, and he is pretty darn fun. He can only tag one enemy at a time, and he does so by dashing into them. Once tagged, his bullets will zone in on the tagged enemy, and his EX weapons will shoot directly towards them. EX weapons! Taking yet another page from Megaman, Copen gets a new EX Weapon every time he defeats a boss. These weapons consume energy from a limitless energy gauge that runs on cooldown. His prevasion is tied to dashing, both share a 3-stock gauge, both evading damage with prevasion and dashing consumes a stock, however, landing your dash and thus tagging an enemy instantly refills it. You can also double tap down on the control pad to instantly refill  your stocks. Copen has equipment too, but it's tied to a numbered limit rather than a five-piece limit, and while he has all this funky EX-Weapons, he only has two supers, which run on cooldown, one that heals him and another one that deals damage. Copen is an absolute treat to play, but he is certainly stronger than Gunvolt, expect to score a ton of As and Ss when playing as him!

 The games are relatively challenging, but all in all, they are easier than Megaman X. Gunvolt 1 is certainly harder than the second one, but infinite lives makes retrying a zinch. Plus, whenever you die there's a small chance you'll get a full revive and a buff(Limitless Flashfield) to boot, at the cost of your rank. There's no excuse for not beating these games. That said, you might be hardpressed to aim for the true endings. Gunvolt 1 requires you finding seven hidden jewels, which probably will require you to replay stages. It's a bit annoying, but stages go by fast and you can take the chance to finish a few challenges, plus, you get to fight the true final boss and unlock 5 Gauntlet stages, remixed sections with tougher enemies and bosses! In Gunvolt 2, in order to fight the final boss you simply need to finish the game with both characters and then replay their last stages. The true ending, however, requires you finishing 80% of the challenges with both characters. No thanks. They are easy, but you're not gonna make me replay every stage upwards of three times, no way. That said, both Copen and Gunvolt share every boss, but only half of the stages, having a nice amount of unique ones each.

 The game's most pervasive flaw is how the script is designed. Dialogue plays as you go through a stage and even while fighting bosses. This huge letters alongside some obnoxiously large portrait show up whenever characters, usually Gunvolt/Copen and the boss, talk with each other. And this CAN obscure the screen and whatever is going on. Dialogue is in Japanese, so it's not like you can just trust your ears(Although, to be fair, Gunvolt 1 has an English voice over option... but the script was mangled, so it's better to go with subs) to know what they are talking about. Gunvolt 1 offers the option to toggle these annoyances On and Off with the X button, and you can select to turn dialogue off before starting a Stage in Gunvolt 2. My advice? The script is horrible and uninteresting, turn it off all the way and just enjoy the game. Another minor gripe comes with Gunvolts supers, you have to press R3 to use them, but it's incredibly easy to tilt the analog and use the wrong super move. It can be annoying when you're trying to use a healing super and waste the stock, but you can learn to cope with it.

 Forget about Mighty Number 9 and Megaman 11, Megaman never went away, he simply changed into Azure Strike Gunvolt! If you are up for some bite-sized 2-D Sidescrolling actiong, Striker Pack delivers in spades. Even if you take into account the fact that it's two games in one, the entire package is a bit on the short side, relying unashamed padding to lengthen the experience. That aside, Striker Gunvolt is everything fans of the Blue Bomber would want and then some.... provided you can stomach the whole generic animu designs and script.
8.0 out of 10

Review #618: Assassin's Creed Liberation HD(Assassin's Creed The Americas Collection)

 Liberate me from this.

 Assassin's Creed Liberation was a Vita game... and it shows. Seeing how the Vita was a sinking ship, and with Assassin's Creed there's always money to be made, Ubisoft ported the game to the then last-generation of consoles so that more people could experience the game. Sadly, it might've been better for the game to sink with the Vita.
 The story pits you as Aveline de Grandpre, a socialite born to a businessman and a slave, during the end of the French and Indian War, in Louisiana. Aveline had potential, but the story is poorly told. You never get to see Aveline become an Assassin, which is something that really needs an explanation, and only get a few pieces of information of how it happened near the end of the game. There were a few interesting bits, like Aveline's Mentor growing untrusting of her, but the explanation of how it happens isn't very convincing. He had a dream? She spared someone? Big flippin' deal. The setting had some real potential, as Aveline tracked the Company Man, a man taking black people into slavery, with nothing but empty words. The game's reveal and ending are the story's highpoint, and it somehow manages to close the story in a high note, despite how unremarkable the rest of the script was.

 There are no modern-day segments here, although there is a modern-day framing device in the form of Abstergo. The whole game is supposed to be a product by Abstergo paint Assassins in a negative light, and does a poor job at it, but 'someone', an unspecified character, hacks into the game and lets you see 'the truth'(5 truncated cutscenes + the real ending) if you can find all "Citizen E" NPCs and, well, murder them. Besides hunting down the Citizens E, the game offers the usual busywork every other AC game does: Collect every Alligator Egg(which may require killing an Alligator), finding every diary page, stealing every Voodoo Doll, collecting every Assassin Coin, collecting every gem, synchronize with every vantage point... there's a lot to gather, and a lot of side-content to partake in, a somewhat complete run of the game took me a little over an hour, which is more than respectable for a game born on the Vita.

 As far as gameplay is concerned, it's pretty much like every other Assassin's Creed game, set in an open-world and having to complete missions, albeit on a smaller scale. The Templars are out to get you, so doing shady things in public raises your notoriety, etc etc. There are three different areas: Louisiana, which is nothing special, Mexico, which is so small it might as well not count and, lastly, the Bayou, and area completely unique to this game, since no other AC game has featured a bayou before.

 There was a clear effort to distinguish this game from the others: Aveline can don different outfits, and I mean more than the costume recolors, each 'outfit' is actually a Persona: Slave, Lady and Assassin. Each Persona has different attributes and sidequests, for example, the Lady can't parkour, has the smallest health bar and access to the least amount of weapons and it's harder to get notoriety with it, however, lowering it requires you to murder witnesses. The Assassin has the most health, the most available weapons and the notoriety is always at 1. The Slave is in the middle, an average health bar, access more weapons than the Lady but nos as many as the Assassin and it gains notoriety very easily, it only takes for someone to watch her climb onto anything. It's an interesting idea, and some missions even let you take different approaches. Will you parkour your way in as the Assassin or bribe the guards as the Lady? It's such an interesting concept, but used so little!

 So... what's the problem with the game? It runs like hot garbage. Moving around feels jittery, it's hard to describe, but the way Aveline interacts with buildings, water and stuff she can climb feels off. And I'm pretty sure, but can't confirm, that this is an issue on the HD port only. Not only that, the game is a bugfest, reminded me of Revelations a lot. Just to name a few issues, during the Mine Escape, one of the falling rocks would fall onto a platform and stay there, preventing me from climbing up, forcing me to restart the checkpoint. Or the fact that some chests don't count for your chest % total, preventing you from 100%. And it's entirely possible to get stuck in an infinite loop, say you start a sidequest that requires you not to be spotted, well, if your notoriety is at max level and the game decides to respawn you next to a guard... well, get ready for and endless loop of losing, until you manage to run just fast enough for the guard not to see you. It sucks. And then there's the hood, for whatever reason the game loves to just unequip your Assassin's hood just for kicks whenever you reload your file.

 Assassin's Creed Liberation is a completely skippable entry in the franchise. I applaud them for giving us the first playable female Assassin, a-then-exclusive Vita game that felt like a proper Assassin's Creed game and the concept, but no the execution, of the three Personas. Sadly, the story is poorly told, the game itself can be a bit of a bore and it's full of glitches. There really is no good reason for anyone to play the game save for fans of the franchise.
4.5 out of 10

Review #617: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Eyes of Heaven

 Certainly, Giorno does have heavenly eyes.

 A few years ago CyberConnect2 graced us with the fantastic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle, a phenomenal piece of fanservice that, while pretty barebones when it came to modes, was a massive loveletter to fans of the franchise, with all sorts of neat details and finely-tuned animations that stayed true to the source material. Honestly, had CC2 added a bunch of characters, a better story mode and called it a day I would've been just fine and would've loved the game. But they decided to change what wasn't broken, and the end result is.... well, your mileage may vary on this one.

 As opposed to ASB's traditional approach, Eyes of Heaven is a 2 on 2 arena fighting game. The camera is placed behind your character's back, and you're free to roam around medium-sized environments, filled with traps and a few interactive objects, such as boxes you can throw or place a trap on. Square is your basic weak attack string and you can use triangle to end the string with a stronger attack. Circle is used for sidestepping, X jump and R2 dashes towards your targeted enemy(If you aren't targeting one, you'll just dash), R1 is a unique function depending on your character and, finally, L1 is a modifier. Holding L1 and then pressing Square, triangle, Circle, Square, R2 or L2 produces different special attacks. L2+R2 can be used to cancel your attack string(Up to two stocks, recharges over time) or to Burst out of an enemy's combo(Up to one stock, recharges over time). Getting the hang of the controls can take a while, but it's doable, plus, you can turn on Easy Beat combos, which makes you Square mashing automatically end on a special move. Special Moves run on cool down, but they are fairly quick, so you'll never feel like you are out of options. Lastly, the game is 2 on 2 at all times, so super moves have been tweaked to work as two-parters... which means a lot of detail was lost, like the faces characters would make when hit by Gold Experience's punch. R1+L1 is your super move, which can only be done when the gauge is full, and the touchpad can be used to enter 'Double Combo' mode, which runs on a separate gauge from the Super, and lets you cancel special moves into each other for a short while, as well as ending with a finisher if you land enough hits on an enemy.

 Fights end once an entire team has been wiped out, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Each combatant has 3 life bars, and once they lose an entire one they'll drop on the spot, a few moments of mercy invincibility. That said, Dual Combos and Super Moves can go through that mercy invincibility. Once a team member is down, the survivor will get a bonus health bar and buffs to aid him against to enemies, but, trust me, it's not completely over-powered and is entirely manageable by two fighters. The entire roster from the first game is back, save for guest Baoh, which is a bit disappointing, but a fair amount of fan-favorites made it in: Trish Una, SpeedWagon, Weather Report, Diego Brando and even Petshop. The game has almost no DLC, which is a huge plus and most costumes can be purchased on the in-game store. That said, Part IV Jotaro and about 5 costumes(Towel Giorno and Taco Joseph included) are first-print DLC only. 

 Once again, the game falters on the Modes front, but not for the same reasons as the previous game. There's no offline VS or offline Co-Op, which is absolutely inexcusable. There is a Free Battle against CPUs, though, so it's alright. Where the game really shines, though, is on it's phenomenal Story Mode. It's a lengthy story, told via in-game cutscenes, that have all the JoJos and their allies team up against Dio Over Heaven, a souped up version of Dio that can trash Giorno and Jonny Joestar. The first few scenes are a recreation of Part 3's ending, and it was so good that it kinda made me wish we would get a faithful retelling of the manga, but this new original story isn't half bad. That said, the game focuses mostly on Jotaro, which sucks if you favorite character is someone else, at least my boy Giorno got a few more lines than other JoJos. The game does present a few interesting interactions, like Teen Jotaron with his daughter, but most of the REALLY interesting interactions, like and old-but-not-senile Joseph meeting Josuke, or heck, even old Joseph telling Caesar and Lisa Lisa who he is. Basically, it's a GREAT idea, with a good implementation but with quite a bit of sweet, sweet juice left to be extracted.  

 Not only is the Story fairly interesting, but there's a ton of it, it even features bonus battles. Every fight in this mode, mandatory or optional, rewards you with money, for the in-game shop, or unlocks costumes, colors, quotes or victory poses from the store for free... if you fulfill special conditions or earn a high rank. In this mode you'll also earn experience points so that you can level up and develop your characters through skill trees. Pretty neat!

 The gameplay is a bit give or take, at first I hated the game, like, honestly thought it was very bland. But I started warming up to it as soon as I stopped thinking about the game as a Fighting game, but instead treated it like an action game. You are playing this game to experience its surprisingly good story, you're playing it to have fun with all these JoJo characters brought into the third dimension with a gorgeous art-style(Although character models seem a bit simpler than they did in ASB, understandable since there are more of them on-screen at the same time) so it doesn't matter if the game is competitive or not, all that mattered was bringing JoJo to life. And they succeeded. Again.

7.0 out of 10

Review #616: Hyrule Warriors Legends

 A legendary example in how not to make a Warriors game.

 Nearly 3 years ago I started Hyrule Warriors Legends full of hopes and reams. At the time, comments ran amok about how poorly it ran on the vanilla 3DS. I tried the game for a few minutes and told my friends 'Hey! It's not as bad as they say!'. Three years later, I still stand by my words, it's not that bad. It's worse.

 The game follows an uninteresting plot about a girl that wants to destroy Hyrule, so Link, Zelda and Impa team up with another newcomer waifu to defeat her. Along the way they'll travel to different dimensions, meeting different allies from The Legend of Zelda, Darunia, Ruto or even Agatha, the bug collector. The story is dumb and boring, with tons of text but no voice acting, making it a chore to go through. I don't mind the lack of voices, but if they wanted to stay THAT true to the series, at the time anyways, they should've made the script more concise and digestible. As you beat stages in this mode you'll be able to play them as any character in the game's Free Mode. There's a new mode, Adventure, in which you travel through a grid made up of various different type of Battles, such as defeating the correct enemies. Adventure hides a lot of rewards, but it has this obnoxious system in which you collect item cards and then must use them on the right tile in order to earn the right to earn the rewards. Dumb and needlessly convoluted... which pretty much describes the entire game.

 The game plays like any other Musou/Warriors game but worse. Y is your weak comboable attack and you can end that attack string with X for a stronger attack. A does super moves and B jumps, L is used to guard. You know, the usual. But this game wanted to be unique, so it introduced 'Tools', like the Boomerang, the Bow, the Bombs and any characters can use them. Did I say can? I meant must. Generals in this game are incredibly sturdy unless you are way above their level, to take them out quickly you have to wait for them to expose their weak points and then hit them, once you 'break' the weak point gauge you'll use a finisher that deals a lot of damage. Problem? Waiting is a chore, and in some cases you'll have to PAUSE the game and use the correct tool. It's so dumb. I want to smash thousands of enemies, and having to pause to switch my tool is so dumb. But at least you can chip away at their health bars.... Something you can't do with bosses. King Dodongo, Gomma and a few other Giant Bosses are here, and they are a chore to take out. You must wait for them to expose their weak points and then use the correct tool to fell them so that you can hit them for a short while and, hopefully, use your finisher. Bosses are dumb. One time I picked up the game after a while and I had completely forgotten what tool I had to use for Gohma, so I went one by one. It was so dumb, and having to pause to switch tools breaks the immersion. Having to choose between chipping an enemy's health away or circle them aimlessly waiting for them to expose their weak point is so stupid. This is a Warriors game, a fun and frenetic action game in which I can go on a power trip and demolish mobs and this game fails at achieving that.

 There are other mechanics that I found completely and utterly dumbfounding. Heart container and pieces must be collected by finding them on maps in order to increase your characters' life bars. Mind you, your life gauge does increase as you level up, but there are 10 heart containers per characters locked behind needless busywork. Having to comb the stage for a suspicious looking rock or what have you is idiotic, particularly because by the end of it you'll have gone over the same maps over and over and over again. In such a repetitive game like Musou/Warriors you have to keep things fast and fresh, this is the opposite of that. Another addition to the game were AI Characters you could swap between, like Fire Emblem does, but these characters have pretty much no AI of their own, so you have to constantly pause the game to direct them to move somewhere else. It's kinda useful, since you can move other characters towards objectives and then swap when necessary, but I wish you could give them some kind of basic AI so that you didn't need to micromanage their movement... like they did with the much superior Fire Emblem Warriors.

 That said, these characters won't be much use if you don't upgrade them, and it's a bit of a hassle. You have to collect materials from fallen generals, but sometimes they take a unnecessarily long time to disappear and drop their material, so you have to wait aimlessly for the drop. It's so much of a chore! It doesn't help that the vanilla 3DS version runs so poorly and it can be tough to find fallen objects when it's full of enemies. Speaking of how it runs, the FPS is butt, but you can get used to it... but the game still has problems showing enemies, so you'll see endless amounts of enemies just spawning out of thin air, heck, sometimes it'll take a while for the Keep's general to appear on the screen, so it means you have yet another instance of aimless waiting. There are Enemy Outposts that you can capture, to stop enemies from spawning, but it feels useless since enemies can recapture these without too many problems.

 There's a new 'Fairy' mechanic, a Fairy that you can customize with clothes and foods and then you can summon her to use an spell on the battlefield, but it feels so unnecessary, I don't know why this thing is in the game, or how it's supposed to add any fun or depth. Why not fix how you lose your locked-on enemy when you use a super? That is something that needed fixing. On the other hand, I can praise how the game offers various weapon styles on some characters, Link with the Sword and Shield is completely different from the one with the magical rod, or Lana(The newcomer waifu) can either fight with a spellbook  or a lance. On the other hand, and this is personal, I really disliked the character selection. You know you're grasping for straws when Agatha and Tingle make it into the game, but it's not like I can blame Tecmo, The Legend of Zelda doesn't have many 'cool' characters besides Link, Zelda, Impa, Shiek and Ganondorf. That said, people that like playing with Weirdos and Freaks won't take issue with this, and, on the flip side, this is the coolest version of Link ever. Ever.

 While playing the game often times I wondered... would it be better if I played it on a home console? I mean, there has to be a reason so many people consider it to be the best Warriors game. I even thought about buying the Switch Port... but there are design choices, nameless Tools and Bosses, that just don't work well and even a better performance can't fix that. In two words, this game is excessively convoluted. In one word: It's just boring. I just can't understand why people like this game so much but dislike the Musou series... well, maybe I can, this is one of the best examples of how NOT to make a Musou Game, and maybe that's why critics love it so much.

 3.5 out of 10

Review #615: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Torna the Golden Country

 500 years ago before Xenoblade 2... it's almost like going back to the '90s!

 Torna - The Golden Country was the last piece of DLC released for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and it was so big that it also received a physical release. You don't need to own the original game to play it, but it's better if you do, considering this release is pretty much a prequel, detailing what happened 500 years before Rex met Pyra. Originally supposed to be fit between chapters 7 and 8, The Golden Country is an excellent companion to the original game, and considering how much it spoils, it's better played after finishing the main game, at least on your first playthrough.

 Told through bits and pieces of flashbacks in the main game, Torna follows the story of Lorna and her Blade, Jin, as they get embroiled in Addam's quest to defeat Malos. Lora, Addam and Hugo are much more entertaining characters than the ones from the main game... even if they are still walking anime tropes. Jin, Brighid, Mythra, Minoth, Haze and Aureon are the only blades in the game, so they receive much more focus and development than they got on the first game(Well, except Jin and Mythra I guess) so they feel much more like characters rather than just tools. All in all, it's a fun cast of characters, and the story is a bit more interesting than the one in the original release. That said, it's a much shorter game, clocking around 20 hours or so, as opposed to the massive 100 hours of the first game. Character development isn't hampered by that, as they focused on more meaningful exchanges. As a whole? The story lacks the grandeur of the first game, but I felt it followed a more interesting cast of characters, so I'd put it a notch above XBC2.

 The game plays pretty much identical to the first game, but it received a few tweaks and additions that make it a much more fun experience. The lootbox-Blade mechanics have been scrapped entirely, now you get three Drivers with a set two blades each. Developing characters works just as it did: XP to level up, WP to strengthen your attacks and AP to upgrade your affinity charts in order to obtain passive abilities, while Blades' Affinity Charts are filled by fulfilling certain goals. Combat, however, is more dynamic and fun than it's ever been.

 At its core it's the same as it used to be, auto-attacks recharge special moves which in turn recharge super moves, you can inflict Break, Topple, Launch, etc on enemies and you can link together Super Moves in order to produce even stronger super moves. What has changed... is that now you can take direct control of your blades. When the Cooldown expires, you can swap between driver and blade, thus restoring lost 'red' health on your health bar, and tagged-in characters land with an special move and have their basic special moves completely cooled down. This way you are encouraged to switch between characters mid-battle... or you could just sacrifice your read health to use the new Talent Arts, which trade recoverable red health for buffs! What's more, all 9 characters now have 3 other special moves that they automatically use when they are in a support role. Combat is faster than ever, and requires more input, it's a blast! It's also a bit more strategic, in the previous game I just had Nia played by the AI constantly swapping between her three healing blades in order to heal the party, that won't work here. You are coaxed into performing the full Break-to-Smash cycle in order to make Health potions appear, and since I was playing as Team Lorna(Jin, Haze) I had to double as DPS with Jin and Lorna, but toggle to Haze in order to heal when it was required, which was a necessity since Haze is the only healing blade in the game. If you enjoyed battling in the main game, you'll love it here.

 The game's size has been understandably reduced, you'll only visit two Titans in this game: Gormoth and Torna. Gormoth is a bit smaller than it was in the main game, while Torna is as large as the largest Titan in the main game, like Uraya or Mor Ardain. Spread throughout the land are new Campfires, in these you can spend XP earned through sidequests, talk between party members, for character development, and craft various foods or accessories with the material you've gathered. These are a neat commodity, since they are more plentiful than inns, so that you can spend all the XP you've earned from quests and overlevel your party.

 The game lasts about 20 hours, but, sadly, it's due to a terrible design choice. You can't finish the game without completing over 50% of the sidequests in the game. Locking the main story behind optional content has been a deemed a poor design choice since times immemorial, this game released in 2018, they've no excuse. There's a lot of sidequests, and that's great, but not when you are forced to do it. The story moves swimmingly until you get to a point where everything is brought to a halt, end of the world be damned, and you have to 'calm the population' by fulfilling sidequests. I was having fun doing as many quests as I could as I went along, but this forceful stop to the plot is so jarring, putting a nasty blemish to a game that was proving itself to be such a nice addition.

 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Torna the Golden Country is an excellent companion piece to the first release, but it also works great as a stand-alone release. The fact that it lasts 20 hours, as opposed to the 100+ of the original game makes it more replayable and manageable. I'm confident recommending the game, just be forewarned that you'll be forced to spend a few hours doing menial tasks if you plan to see the story all the way to the end.
8.0 out of 10

Review #614: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

 Feels like it's been ages... but it's Rex time now!

 Xenoblade Chronicles was one of the Wii's swansongs in America, a belated game from Japan that we got thanks to the Rainfall operation, a movement I partook in myself. And it was worth it. It was so popular that it got an spiritual sequel in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii-U. And now, we've got Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a more direct sequel to the first game. MMORPG-styles combat mechanics, huge expanses of lands to traverse... it's all here, and in HD.

 The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is quite original: Huge beings, Titans, live over the Sea of Clouds, a quite literal sea of clouds, living in a symbiotic relationship with humans that live on top of them. Every Titan is a country of its own, although smaller Titans are employed as ships too. There's a third type of being, not counting monsters, Blades, beings, most of them human-like(and most of them waifu-like....) that come out of 'Core Crystals' and are bound to whichever human opened it. Yeah, Blades are anime as hell. In this world, Rex, the main character, is a Salvager, someone who dives into the Sea of Clouds for treasure and scavenge, just your every-day average joe, until he gets a job to aid a few nasty-looking people in finding some treasure. This treasure being the Aegis, a super-powerful Blade. Pyra, the Aegis, bonds with Rex and both set out to find Elysium and save humanity, along the way joining up with other colorful characters that want to help. The story is quite decent, albeit nothing to write home about since it uses too many anime tropes, but Monolith-soft have always been great at crafting beautiful fighting choreography for their cutscenes, and this game might have some of the best they've ever made. On the other hand, character designs are... a bit bleh. They went far too anime so a few characters, like Pyra, look completely stupid because their designs are all about fanservice. Rex looks stupid too. Among Blades, they had popular Japanese artists design one each, so expect to see some jarring artstyle clashes, heck, Tetsuya Nomura designed Jin, one of the villains, and he looks nothing like the generic anime designs the heroes have.

 One big issue with the presentation is the awful voice acting. It's really, really bad.... at least for the first 10 or so hours. Then I realized something: The Scottish accents all characters have is gorgeous, and the voice actors know how to emote, the problem being that they weren't given proper directions. Couple this with the fact that the audio isn't lip-synched, so it feels like the voices aren't coming from their mouths. On the other hand, the graphics are drop-dead gorgeous, this game is full of scenery porn waiting to be explored. And there's a lot of exploration, the game is MASSIVE, environments and towns are huge, it might take you over 10 hours to fully explore a single titan, if you are thorough. There are a lot of sidequests to go through too, so your work is cut-out for you. Beating the game took me nearly 100 hours, and I did as many sidequests as I could.

 Just like Xenoblade Chronicles before it, Xenoblade 2 is a JRPG that borrows a lot from MMORPGs. You can take up to three different characters with you, you'll directly control the party leader while the CPU controls the two other members. Going over every single mechanic in the game would be an endless endeavor, so I'll cover the basics. Combat takes place in real time, just like an MMORPG, and once you engage an enemy all three characters will auto-attack the targeted enemy. You can move your character around, to reposition him or her, or cast 'Driver Arts'. Each character can be equipped with up to three different Blades, which you can swap mid combat, and each Blade can have a different weapon, depending on the weapon and your player character will give you different Driver Arts. There are four driver arts for each weapon, but you can only equip three, so you'll want a good balance of damage and utility.

 There's no mana, only cooldowns: Auto attacks recharge the cooldown on your driver arts and driver arts charge up your super moves. Super Moves have different elements, depending on the equipped blade, and you can chain them together for even MORE damage. When a link is possible, you can press ZL or ZR to instruct your teammates to use their super moves, if its charged. Combat is fun, and it has a few neat nuances: You can cancel an auto-attack by using a Driver Art the moment it hits, for bonus damage, faster execution and an extra charge on your super move gauge, and you can cancel Driver Arts with Super moves. If you unlock the right mastery you can even cancel Driver Arts with other Driver arts. That said, it suffers from the SAME problem Xenoblade 1 had... battles take too long. Even an enemy 10 levels below you might take you over a minute to take down, and it's not even a hard battle, just that they soak up damage like there's no tomorrow. It might be an incentive as not to overlevel, but a few enemies can call upon other enemies making it a bit tough to avoid.

 Regardless, grinding is a bit important, as taking down an enemy a few levels above you might be nigh murder, particularly early on in the game before you had the time to upgrade your stats. It's funny since enemies with a higher level than you will target you as soon as you come in front of them. Just as with an MMORPG, there are high-level bastards roaming the lands, and if you come near them they will make a bee-line towards you and murder you in one or two hits, making exploration a hassle. Dying has no penalty, thankfully, you're simply sent back to the last checkpoint you hit. A patch released later allows you to turn down enemy aggressiveness, so you might look into that. I decided to go for the purer experience and dealt with it, sneaking when necessary. If you're anything like me, be ready to have higher-level enemies just join in on your fights, to help their buddies.

 There are no armors are weapons, but there is character customization. Firstly, you can buy or find Chips which you can spend on a Blade to upgrade their weapon. These chips may add passive abilities depending on the Blade, for instance, the Pentagon Chip makes Dromarch's Arts heal for more, but if equipped on another blade, like Pyra, it does nothing besides alter the attack power. Each Blade can equip a different number of accessories, for passive abilities, and each Driver can equip up to two accessories for boosts or buffs, such as recovering health every time you cancel an auto attack. Lastly, both Drivers and Blades have 'Affinity Charts' that work in different ways. For Blades you have to fulfill certain conditions in order to fill the Affinity Chart and earn its bonuses. For Drivers, well, defeating enemy grants you Experience Points, WP and SP. Experience points are self explanatory, WP are used to strengthen your Driver Arts and SP is used to unlock bonuses in their Affinity Charts. Bonuses can be anything from bonus HP to letting you cancel Driver Arts with other Driver Arts. Affinity Charts sound great on paper, but they are very small. Plus, earning WP and SP takes a long, LONG time, so be ready to grind a lot.

 Besides being your weapons, Blades have a secondary characteristic: Field abilities, abilities required to explore. Field abilities are the worst part about the game because they are mandatory to finish the game and complete a few quests. For instance, you might come across an updraft, but to use it you need 'Wind Mastery Lv 4" and "Leaping Lv3". This means that you need to get Wind Mastery Level 4 and Leaping level 3 with your equipped blades. Yes, even if you have the requirements they don't count unless the blades are equipped. This is particularly annoying because the game also wants you to send your Blade on 'Merc Missions', during which time they are unavailable for use. It's incredibly annoying to come across a literal road block because you don't have the necessary level or amount of blades to clear the threshold, or be forced to call back your blade from the Merc Mission, those ridding you of your XP rewards.

 I've talked about Blades a lot, but how do you get them? Lootboxes. Ingame lootboxes. They are an entire world of their own, so I'll probably forget a few things, but I'll do my best. As you play through the game you'll come across Common Crystal Cores, Rare Crystal Cores and Legendary Crystal Cores. Which blade you get is entirely random. While you get a ton of Rare Blades at first, eventually it'll come to a point where you'll be swimming in trash Blades. Rare Blades are the Blades designed by popular Japanese authors, and THESE are the ones you want: They have exclusive, necessary Field Skills, they have a larger Affinity Chart and thus are WAY stronger than the other Blades and, thirdly, you can only complete their Affinity Chart by fulfilling secret conditions. The last part is a bit of an annoyance, but you can go online and figure out the conditions. I recommend you do.

 Unlocking new Blades sounds kinda fun, but there are a few caveats, for instance, you need a Driver to open Crystal Cores, and then the Blade gets locked on them. It sucks, since you might get one of the epic Healer Blades, which work great with Nia, on your DPS character. You might get Agate, one of the best DPS Blades on your Tank. There are a few 'Overdrives' that let you swap Blades between drivers, but they are extremely rare. If you have the DLC you get a few freebies, which kinda sucks, but then again, I bought the physical release of Torna so I had said DLC. All in all, the Blade system is decent, but it could be better: Let players switch Blades freely between Drivers and don't have the dumb secret conditions for their Affinity Charts.

 Playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a massive undertaking. The game's world is enormous, there are a ton of sidequests to complete, a ton of Blades to find and a ton of optional superbosses to find. Even if you decide to focus strictly on the main storyline it'll take you a while before you're done with it. The story is not as philosophical or as interesting as the one in the first Xenoblade game, but if you like anime and their recycled tropes you'll probably enjoy it more. I had fun all the way throughout, even if I grew a bit bored with the combat once I hit the 80 hour mark, it didn't stop me from finishing the game. That said, once you're done with Xenoblade 2 you'll probably want a palate cleanser or two.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #613: Tekken 7

 Neat game mate, now where's the rest of it?

 It's Tekken, yo! This latest installment of the long-running fighting game franchise is a bit of a gamechanger: Finally we've got new designs for returning characters, something that seemed stagnant since Tekken 3, finally we have a fresh cast of characters, some old, some new, as opposed to bringing everyone back and, finally, we've got a completely new spin on the same old gameplay. This Tekken feels a bit like 3 and 4 since it dares change the status quo, unlike 5 which went straight after Tekken 3's coattails and 6, which was content at simply expanding upon 5.

 First of all, the new story mode, and staple of Tekken. Tekken 3 had Tekken Force, which was alright, Tekken 4 also had Tekken Force, which was better, Tekken 5 had Jin's beat'em up mode, which was the right direction but not the best execution, and, lastly, Tekken 6's Story Mode which was a souped up version of 4's. Tekken 7 brings us 'Story of the Mishima's', which should've been renamed to 'Story of Heihachi', and I hope you like Heihachi, because he is the main character. By the by, I hate Heihachi, so by the end I grew tired of how hard Harada, the director, was shilling his pet. They tried to make him more 'sympathetic', but it doesn't work, he is evil and he sucks. There's a handful more characters involved in the Story Mode, a few which you get to play as including Street Fighter's Akuma, but for the most part, it's only about Heihachi VS Kazuya. The games' boss, Kazumi, plays only a very, VERY small part. As a matter of fact, this mode is rather short and feels like it's just the prologue for Tekken 8, once I got to the credits I exclaimed aloud 'That's it?'. It was. It's a bit of a Spoiler, but the fact that Jin Kazama spends the entire story mode asleep should tell you just how bland this mode is. The rest of the characters get a 'Chapter' which is made up of a text-prologue, a single fight and a lazy ending. Characters tend to be paired, like Steve VS Nina, so Steve's Chapter is you beating Nina and Nina's chapter is you beating Steve. What a letdown, and wasted potential too, since characters are sporting all these new duds and goals, yet we get pretty much nothing but window-dressing. The endings are particularly bland, Nina beats Steve and then enemies arrive and she escapes. That's it. Bryan wins the fight and then sees a helicopter, so he throws debris at it, destroying it, and then laughs. And that's it. These 'chapters' feel like an afterthought, they did the bare minimum and called it a day.

 As for the rest of the modes... it's a very barebones offering. You get Online VS and local VS Player, but there's no local VS CPU mode. Why they continue to omit that mode is beyond me. There's a practice mode, but there's no tutorial or anything, so newcomers are screwed, and veteran players are on their own as far as understanding the new mechanics go. There's Treasure battle too, an endless string of battles against CPU enemies, and each fight rewards you with at least one new customization item as well as Fight Money. This is the offline mode you'll play the most. Finally there's Arcade Mode, which is pretty much made unnecessary by Treasure Mode. There are no endings, no exclusive unlockables, nothing that would make you play Arcade Mode over Treasure Mode. Customization is back, and it feels much more limited than before, but at least you can dress up a few characters with some of their vintage costumes, including Tekken 2 and Tekken 4 King, heck, you can even have Kazuya in his badass Tekken 4 suit!

 The new characters are a mixed bag. Tekken has been slowly trying to get a piece out of Dead or Alive's pie, and it's never been more apparent than before. We have Lucky Chloe, a ridiculous idol character that panders to the Otaku fanbase, at least they tried to play with the trope a bit: She's a nasty person playing the part of a sweet, innocent girl. Katarina, is yet another seductress character archetype, because it seems Anna didn't have that part covered already. Josie Rizal is... is a mess. She's a big breasted crybaby that cries even when she wins a fight. She's supposed to be a tribute to a Filipino hero, but she makes a mockery out of him. Speaking of breasts, this is the bounciest the Tekken girls have ever been, and it looks a bit silly. Male characters aren't safe though, Gigas is one of the blandest and most uninspired designs the series has seen, bring back Marduk, dammit!(They actually did!... via DLC). Shaheen and Kazumi, however, are fantastic new additions and both Master Raven and Claudio are... they are alright. I enjoyed the new redesigns too, Feng, Asuka, Jin, Kazuya, Miguel... everyone looks great, and it's about time they got new clothes. I think the only redesign I disliked was Nina, the bride dress is dumb.

 Alright, aesthetics are but superficial, what matters is the game, and boy, oh boy, it's GOOD. The core gameplay remains the same: each of the four face buttons is tied to a different limb. Each character has widely different attack strings, so button mashing will get you nowhere, a combination that could be a three hit combo with one character will result in an easily punishable single blow with another. Bounds are a thing of the past, say hello to 'Screws', attacks that make an airborne opponent plummet spiraling down into the ground, head first. During this time, as they are 'screwing' on the air, you can follow up with a combo. Screws, just like Bounds, can only be done once in a combo. 

 With this game they've also put their focus on Super Armored moves, attacks that go off even as you're getting hit, you'll receive the damage, but your move will go off anyways. There are two new special moves that showcase this: Rage Arts and Rage Drives. As their name implies, these can only be done once you enter 'Rage', which is done by losing over 70% of your health bar, and is a state during which your attack power is increased. Rage Arts are pretty much Ultras, moves that can only be used once per match but deal a TON of damage, it's not even funny how many matches I undeservedly won thanks to these. These can be comboed into, and you should, they can be blocked and you really don't want to fumble them, because landing or fumbling a Rage Arts costs you your Rage bonus. Rage Drives, on the other hand, are much weaker, but much more useful than Rage Arts. These are powered-up moves that also have Super Armor, but instead of landing a super powerful move, can be used to extend your combos, plus, if they are blocked it won't leave you at a disadvantage. Just as with Rage Arts, these can only be done once, and either landing or fumbling them costs you the Rage buff. Veteran players will probably stick to Rage Drives, while newbies will stick to Rage Arts.

 There's an in-game gallery which people have called it 'great fanservice' since you can unlock every intro and ending from EVERY previous Tekken game. I call it fluff, do you know what was great fanservice? When Tekken 5 included the Arcade versions of Tekken 1, 2 and 3. THAT was great fanservice. Or when Tekken Tag Tournament 2 brought back Tekken Bowl, bigger and better than ever. Mind you, it's not like I hate the gallery, I just wish we had more playable fluff, y'know?  Maybe I'm being a bit tough with Tekken, but only because I love it so much. The graphics are a bit rougher than what I had expected, but it is the best looking Tekken game to date. The lightning and hit effects are extraordinary, and they added this satisfying, dramatic close-ups, where the music goes out, as two attacks are about to collide. It looks SO good and adds so much tension to the match!

 I like this bold new Tekken. The new character designs leave a lot to be desired, but returning characters look great and feel fresh, something desperately needed since Tekken was starting to hold on a little too tight to Tekken 3's legacy. The gameplay is as good, nay, better than ever, which is why the game is so enjoyable, but... I just can't pretend that the game is very lacking when it comes to content. Great gameplay, decent character roster, but where are the modes? Survival? Team Battle? A proper arcade mode with proper endings? A complete Story arc? It's a tasty cake, but where's the cherry on top?

 8.0 out of 10