The DLC Report: Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid Season 1 Jen Scott, Gold Zeo Ranger

 Now we've got a proper game!

 Well, then, the first two characters from the 3-character season pass are here, alongside a few quality of life tweaks here and there. Besides the individual characters' buffs and nerfs, they added Power Rangers-style sparks whenever a weapon hits a character, which is a pretty neat touch. You also get a blue/red shine whenever a player switches characters when tagging, which is alright by me.

 As for the new characters, we've got the Pink Time Force Ranger, she's a rushdown character that's pretty fun to use. Plus, she wields two swords which instantly made me love her. On the other hand, we've got the Gold Zeo Ranger, and he is a blast to play. While I'm not a fan of his staff, they added little flourishes to most of his basic moves and even to his backstep, making him a very fun character to control. His super move is a delayed 'rain from above' type move, like the Green Ranger's, but you can swap him out and the attack will still come out, so it might do for some shenanigans. Overall, both characters are pretty good.

 I'm happy to announce that after this patch I can say that this is a proper game. The 14 character roster is acceptable and the gameplay is good fun. It still needs a bit more polishing, like a few extra single-player modes(Survival, anyone?), at least 10 more characters and a few more options, like letting players change the difficulty setting. But the game is on the right track.
 7.0 out of 10

Entry #669: Time Commando

 An antique of times past.

 Time Commando is one of those games I used to play a lot when I was younger, and I thought it was just as good after I played the first few levels only to discover that it has aged as tastefully as milk as I got further ahead. Time Commando was probably one of the games I played the most growing up. I first heard about it when a friend of mine talked to me about it before eventually getting to play it at his house. A few years later I would end up purchasing the game on PC for myself and having a grand old time. About 10 years since I last played it, here I am, revisiting on PS1, and boy oh, boy was this game best left off in my memories or what?!

 I'll describe the game pretty much like it was described to me back when I was a wee lad: It's an action game in which you go through different time periods beating up enemies, each period having its own set of weapons. I bet that sounds awesome, and I still think that the concept is brilliant. The game has 18 stages, divided through 9 different time periods, and you get 5 different weapons per era. You start during the prehistoric era, fighting cavemen and bears using clubs, stones and a basic spear, then you move on to Ancient Rome, peaking up a dagger, a sword or even a trident, eventually making it to  the Conquistadors, when you'll be using a rapier alongside a flintlock pistol. There's a lot of variety, both in enemies, stages and weaponry, making it very hard not to anticipate what'll come next.

 Sadly, age hasn't been kind to this game, and it's as clunky as clunky gets. Firstly, while backgrounds look pre-rendered, they are actually a pre-rendered cutscene that 'advances' as you walk forward. It doesn't look as bad as it sounds. Combat is when it gets choppy, you get a backstep and two sidesteps, but attacking is done by holding the attack button and pressing different directions on the D-Pad. Combat is pretty bland, but passable throughout most of the game. Once you hit the middle ages you'll start noticing that enemies start soaking up too much damage. But as soon as you hit the second half of the game, starting with the Wild West, the game takes a nosedive down, down, down as most weapons from then on become guns. Melee combat was sloppy, but projectiles are cheap. It's incredibly easy for enemies to lock you in place once they get a single shot in. You also have to keep in mind that aiming is harder than it should be, particularly at a few choice enemies that use height to their advantage, and you can actually run out of ammo, essentially spelling your doom.

 That's not to forget about some of its terrible ideas, like the 'corrupting memory', y'see, the story involves some Virus-thingie, so the time machine's constantly corrupting. You have to collect chips which you can then spend on Terminals to 'fix' the corrupted memory. If the corruption gauge fills completely you'll lose a life. I actually lost a few lives to this stupid mechanic, aided by the fact that sometimes you'll have to interact with very specific background elements, and if you don't interact with it at the right pixel you'll get a big 'Nope' from your character as you aimlessly explore the environment not knowing that you had the right idea, just that poor programming  led you astray. And losing a life sucks because it'll also remove a segment from your maximum HP, which you can increase by collecting batteries, very rare pickups. So not only do you lose a life, you also get penalized for it. Fun.

 The game has no memory card support, which is interesting to say the least, and you only get a few seconds to write the level password before it fades into oblivion. You'd better pause the game as soon as that bastard pops up, and good luck understanding the password's font. Don't even let me get started on the music, at first I thought I had a faulty disc, but I found a Longplay on youtube that had the same audio issues: The music begins and stops seemingly at random. It's incredibly jarring.

 While I had fun revisiting my childhood, at least during the game's first half, there's no denying that Time Command is a pretty bad game. While I think its time travelling ideas, and how they pulled it off, were great, there really is no point revisiting this game unless you have some form of nostalgia for it.
 3.0 out of 10

Entry #668: El Shaddai - Ascension of the Metatron

 Gives a whole new meaning to Divine Intervention.

 El Shaddai - Ascension of the Metatron is quite the experience, the biggest praise I can give it is that it almost feels like a Suda 51 game. Almost. This is a 3-D hack-and-slash action game that mixes in platforming as well as 2-D sections alongside some very surreal imagery to create a weird, inviting beast.

 The plot is hard to completely grasp, but it has you playing as Enoch, a heavenly scribe turned warrior, as he is sent back to earth to defeat 7 rogue angels. And then a ton of nonsense happens. While the story is quite simpler than anything Suda 51 would ever do, it still feels like a very surreal experience, with a ton of stuff that doesn't make sense or never gets brought up again. That said, most of the story is plaid straight, so no hidden symbolism or what have you, just amusing stuff like Lucifel(Not a mistranslation, since he is still an Angel his name ends on L) talking with a worried god about Enoch. The graphics are cellshaded, but it's the dream-like design of the levels that really makes the game stand-out. It's weird and very unnatural, which fits the theme of the game so much. Every new area is a feast for the eyes.

 Sadly, gameplay isn't up to snuff. The rhythm-based combat is innovative enough, but there are only three different weapons in the entire game, and only so many things you can do with them. There's no point to styling on enemies either, since there's nothing to upgrade. The purifying mechanic was also kinda boring, after using a weapon for a while it'll corrupt, making it much weaker, so you have to wait for an opening to tap R1 to 'purify' your weapon and restore it. Alternatively, you can just hit an enemy until it gets dizzy and then steal his weapon, purifying it in the process. A lot of the time the best strategy seemed to be to just disarm every enemy and then pulverize them with whatever weapon you ended up with. Honestly, the combat was decent at best and boring at worst.

 The platforming was also pretty bland, be it the less than precise 3-D platforming sections or the floaty, slippery 2-D platforming sections. Either way, platforming wasn't much fun in El-Shaddai. Mind you, it's not like platforming is completely horrible, it's just passable, forgettable even.

 While El-Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is definitely lacking as far as its gameplay goes, the unique audiovisual presentation alongside its Suda 51-like script made me really enjoy my time exploring El-Shaddai. I don't think I'll be replaying this one anytime soon, but I am glad I got to play it at least once.
 7.0 out of 10

Entry #667: Super Dragon Ball Heroes - World Mission

 Gotta catch'em all!

 Known as that game with the badass commercials depicting what-if forms for a ton of characters, Super Dragon Ball Heroes - World Mission finally made it outside Japan, so we can finally see Super Saiyan 3 Vegeto duking it out against Gold Cooler. It's amazing.

 Dragon Ball is no stranger to weird games, so World Mission is nothing out of the ordinary. Based on an Arcade game that featured real cards, this port on the Switch makes everything digital. You don't play as the characters themselves, but rather, you make 7-card decks featuring known and unknown characters from the world of Dragon Ball and fight against another 7-card deck, in a five-turn mini-game extravaganza. It's not a game for everyone and it's definitely not a game for your average Dragon Ball fan, but it's quite fun all things considered.

 You won't find yourself out of things to do with this cart, as there is a lot of content packed in this little cart. The story mode is made up of five different chapters, with various sub-chapters contained withing, and most sub-chapters even contain 'alternate dimensions', which translate as another map full of fights. You can also fight in tournaments, 'puzzle fight's and even fight against other players(Sadly no single-console multiplayer), and if you are up to it, you can even challenge Arcade Mode, which is sort-of like Story Mode but without the story and less customization. Add to that that there's about 1000 different cards, and about 350 different characters depicted among those. The amount of combinations and strategies you can build around this massive stack of cards is staggering.

 While the game's tutorial is pretty bad, leaves a lot untold or poorly explained and does it in a very weird order. Honestly, you'll learn more about the game by partaking in puzzle fights and by experience alone. The gist of it is like this: Each of your seven cards/characters can fall on any of three classes(Berserker, Hero, Elite) each with different properties, and on each turn you can place your cards on different areas of the playing field, the furthest away from you the more damage they'll deal and the more stamina they'll consumer, while the closest area to you is the 'support' lane, in which characters can restore their stamina or trigger special abilities. Afterwards whoever player goes first gets to attack first, and attacking/defending is all about timing minigames. If the attacker wins the game he'll deal extra damage and, if available, perform a super move. If the defender wins, they'll receive less damage.

 Yeah, gameplay is pretty limited here. As a matter of fact, I kinda disliked having to go through timing minigames on every single turn. I mean, I learned to accept it on the long-run, but this is not my kind of game mechanic. That said, the game really shines in the strategy department, as characters come with all kinds of abilities and what not, smart players will be able to craft some really smart moves. For instance, you can even form your deck around a 'Round', like, for example, a deck surrounding Ultra Instinct Goku allowing him to win the game right on the first turn if you win the timing minigame. Since a few abilities can be use AFTER a certain round, you can even build a deck based on surviving the first four rounds and then laying waste to the enemy on the fourth. It's a simple game, and it's actually quite simple to understand after a few matches, but I felt awe at how deep creating a deck can get.

 On the other hand, the game desperately needed more animations. Every character shares the same 8-9 basic attack animations, and you'll see them play out over and over and over and over and over and over again. I know, it's crazy to expect them to create different animations for every single character, but they could've gone with different 'sets' of moves shared by different groups of characters, that alone could've gone a long way into making fights look more dynamic. Or at least add more animations, so that you haven't seen every single basic move by the fourth battle you fought.

 As for how you actually get your cards, that's done by winning fights and earning Gacha tickets. Those can then be used on the store to randomly get cards. Yes, it can take a while before you can get every character or card that you can, but I was using my most wanted 7 characters by the ten hour mark, so that's not to bad. And while there are rarer cards than other, the game does a good job of making cards useful in some way or another. You could make an entire deck built around Yamcha and still win because some of his cards can increase the speed of the timing minigame for your enemies, tied to the fact that 'weaker' cards have a lower cost for their super moves, so they can start using them earlier. Honestly, no card is entirely useless and there are a ton of ways you can play. You can also build your own card by collecting 'pieces'(The character, the aura, the abilities, etc) through playing the game and then use mix them together in the card-maker. There's a lot you can do in this game, trust me.

 If there's one major 'flaw' with the game is how Story fights completely break the game mechanics. Say, you build an entire deck built around depleting the enemy stamina? Too bad, most CPU enemies have unlimited Stamina. By the end, pretty much every enemy has a timing mini-game speed increase on you, and they seem to time their 'perfect's, well, perfectly.

 Here's the skinny: Super Dragon Ball Heroes - World Mission is good fun. There's a lot of tools you can play around with to create various different strategies, and there're a lot of different Dragon Ball characters you can toy around with. It's a bit lacking in spectacle, and a few CPU fights are a bit too cheap, but it's a fun game. Fights are so short(Less than 10 minutes each!) that, for a portable game, lends itself quite well to playing in a few bursts. That said, as fun as it was, now I wish Namco would take all these character models and make a new Tenkaichi game on the Switch.
 7.0 out of 10

Entry #666: Samurai Shodown(2019)

 No Gen-An Shiranui, no buy!

 Samurai Shodown is back, baby, and it's back in style! While I've always enjoyed the series, I never considered myself a fan. As a matter of fact, I always preferred SNK's other Samurai game, The Last Blade(When are we getting a physical release of both games? SNK, get on it!) but I think I might be changing my mind any time now, since this game is pretty darn brilliant.

 I'll get my complaints out of the way first, starting with the poor character roster. There's a scant 16 playable characters. We get 10 out of the 12 characters from Samurai Shodown 1, because pandering, 3 newcommers(Darli Dagger is alright, Ruxieng is the dumb 'ditzy big breasted animu waifu' stereotype and Karasu, which might be my new favorite) as well as a few choice picks from the rest of the games: Shiki, from 64(Brilliant pick, even if her in-game reason for being present is incredibly dumb), Genjuro from II and Yoshitora from V. It's missing a lot of fan-favorites, including MY favorite Kazuki. You can get the season pass for free for a few days which will turn the game into a physical/digital hybrid with four extra characters: Basara from III, Wan-Fu from I, Kazuki(THANK GOD) from IV and Rimururu from III. The roster leaves a lot to be desired, sadly, but at least all 16 characters are very different from each other: There's no filler here. Although that might change once Rimururu makes it in.... My other gripe comes in the form of loading times, they are a bit longer than they I would've liked, making for a lot of dead time whenever you play.

 Now then, I'm not one to judge games solely on graphics, but by the gods is Samurai Shodown pretty. Everything in the game is extra colorful, and character models are incredibly detailed with beautiful animations to compliment this new oily, inky style they went for. As a matter of fact, everything has a slight parchment-like texture applied to it, making it look like a Ukiyoe painting. Super moves makes the texture more notorious for added style. I can't stress this enough, this game is gorgeous. It might not have the most realistic looking character models or environments, but they went for style and they knocked it out of the park.

 But let me tell you WHY Samurai Shodown is SO darn good, because it's not just its incredible graphics, but its gameplay. Samurai Shodown is unlike most fighting games, while there is a combo counter here, combos are not the norm but the exception: This game is about landing precise attacks when you see an opening. This means that matches can go by very quickly, if you land slow-but-strong attacks, or very slowly if both opponents can't find an opening. It's not a game for everyone, and that's fine.

 Complimenting its simple design its got equally simple game mechanics. You have lots of them, for instance, for defensive options you've got: Blocking/Just-Blocking, Deflecting, Parrying and disarming. All those actions are fairly simple to pull off: Tap backwards to block(Tap just as you get hit for a quicker just-block), perform a just-block and press quarter-circle-forward+LS+MS to deflect. Press LS+MS to dodge on the spot or Quarter-circle-forward+LS+MS before getting hit to disarm your enemy. Every mechanic is very easy to pull off, and you've got tools if you want to predict an attack or if you want to react to one. For attacks you have 3 Slashes(Weak, Medium, Strong) and a kick, special moves, a one-time use super-special move, a rage-explosion as well as a rage-super move that disarms your enemy. Plenty of those will give you options in how you want to manage your Rage gauge. This means that this is a feature-rich game, with just the right amount of mechanics and tools for anyone to pick up the game fairly quickly and master it at their own pace.

 Samurai Shodown(2019) is the fighting game I didn't know I wanted. It managed to bring the series into the present day with a high degree of success. A more robust character roster as well as more extras(Like unlockable color palettes) could've made this great game into an even better one, so it'll be interesting to see how it develops as more characters get released. Not that I want to encourage DLC, but what can I do? On the other hand, I can't wait to get this game on Switch and take it out with me anytime, anywhere.

 8.5 out of 10

Entry #665: Dungeon Hunter - Alliance

  Gameloft strikes again, for better or worse.

 Gameloft is a company I've learned to appreciate in the last few years. Yes, they make knock-off mobile games based off console games... but they always make GOOD knock off games for a mobile market. That said, they make mobile games, so whenever a game of theirs gets ported to more mainstream consoles, well, they tend to not get such a good reception. Dungeon Hunter - Alliance had it tough, it was already outdated by the time it released(Dungeon Hunter 2 was already a thing) and it was a 40$ re-release of a game you could get for a fraction of that on mobile.

 Well, in true Gameloft fashion, Dungeon Hunter - Alliance is your generic dungeon crawling loot-based RPG modeled after the good ol' classics, like Diablo. You've got your passive and active skills you can develop as well as bonus stat points you can allocate on your various different stats every time you level up. You've got your basic classes: Warrior, Mage and Rogue, with equipment reflecting on your character model and what not. It does little new or original, with a fairy companion that acts like a free spell every minute. It's a bit barebones, and simple, but it's also competent and lasts a solid 10 hours or so.

 The game is kinda tough, I'm sure I couldn't have gotten all the way to the end of the game without investing on the potion capacity upgrade skill.... and I've played with a Warrior. I've read a few complaints that other squishier classes are even tougher, which probably means they balanced the game with multiplayer first. Online is dead, and good luck finding another person with a Vita and this cart, so you are on your own!

 On the other hand, the game has a few technical shortcomings that really hurt the overall experience. The biggest problem of all, and rather common in a handful of Vita games, are the exasperating long loading times which are very inconvenient on a handheld game. Then there are the mandatory touch controls. Using a fairy spell requires tapping the screen twice, which works relatively well except when the game thinks your double tap was you pinching the screen to zoom in. Very annoying! Then there's the shaking, when your character gets stunned you have to shake your Vita. Cumbersome, yes, but you have to shake the console while keeping track of your tiny health bar so as not to waste a potion because you weren't sure if you were at death's door yet!

 I'm gonna go on a limb and say that, for all its unearned bad rep, Dungeon Hunter - Alliance is a good time for anyone interested in the genre. It's not perfect, it's not original, it has its technical shortcomings and you can get it cheaper on, probably, any other console. But it's still a competent, meaty game that can get you your dungeon-crawling fix on the Vita.

 6.5 out of 10

Entry #664: Tales of Vesperia

 Tales of crashes and freezes.

 Tales of Vesperia has long been THE Tales Game, you know, the one stuck on X360 that a lot of long-time fans, such as myself, never got to play. I was hyped for this port, like, a lot, but in pure Namco-Bandai fashion... they screwed it up. It's sad, because it looked great on paper: Both English and Japanese dubs alongside all the extras from the enhanced Japanese-only PS3 version, just what could go wrong? Well, nobody tested this dumpster fire it seems, because every version of the game is prone to crashing, but the Switch version is EASILY the worst one. Reports for PS4/XOne crashes are very few, but one needs not look very far to find just how many people suffered this game. Namco-Bandai released a couple of patches which do make the game more stable, but I had the game crash once during my post-patch playtime, and I've heard reports that the post-game is still pretty unstable. As for me, I finished the main game, what I cared the most about, and had my fill with the game, and after reading so many reports about its crashes... I decided not to play it.

 As for the game itself, it's certainly very overrated, or maybe it has simply become yet another victim of its own age. The story is a mixed bag, every thread regarding Yuri's vigilantism and Yuri and Flynn's friendship was fantastic and fresh, even if the resolution to Yuri's solo-activities felt a bit underwhelming. On the other hand, a lot of the story has to do with 'Guilds', and it was just so... dull and boring. This makes the story have a lot of ups and downs, as far as my interest went, sometimes I was invested in seeing how the story would develop and others I was just going through the dialogue waiting for something interesting to happen. The rest of the story is made up of generic anime tropes, as per usual, as well as the repetitive Tales of tropes, so you have your Traitor and also your mandatory annoying kid character. This version of Vesperia also adds ANOTHER annoying kid to the party

 The combat in the game is pretty decent, but it's not as fun as I've had with other Tales of games. Customizing the CPU felt a bit more limiting than I expected, and the Healer would fail to use the most appropriate spells for the occasion. That said, I've always liked Tales real-time combat, and this is no exception. The Skill system sounds great on paper: Learn skills from weapons by using the weapon for a certain amount of time, but it translated into quite a bit of grinding, since it took a far too long to learn a few skills. As for the environmental puzzles, they are pretty simple affairs, nothing too memorable.

 Tales of Vesperia is alright. The story has its moments and the gameplay is alright. I think I would've enjoyed the game more had I not been scared of crashing every few minutes or so. As it stands, this is a bland port of a good game.
 6.5 out of 10