Review #779: Dragon Quest XI S - Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition

 Where the hell did Square Enix get the money to budget this masterpiece?

 So... I've never been much much of a fan of first-person JRPGs, so I never did quite get into Dragon Quest, not until IX anyways, and I loved that game. I own VIII but never got around to playing it, but for one reason or another I decided to jump right into the Switch version of XI, Dragon Quest XI S - Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition. As the opening line would lead you to believe, I loved this game. Like love-love. It's so big, so large, so beautiful that I simply can't figure out how Square Enix could spare such a large budget to an RPG.

 The story pits you as the Luminary, the reincarnation of a hero of old who is born to save the world from darkness. Sadly, the King of the city nearby doesn't seem to think so, casting the hero as the Darkspawn and sending him to the dungeons. Luckily, the hero manages to escape and sets out to clean his name and save the world. Alongside him is a party of seven different heroes, with their own backstories, personalities and motivations, and absolutely everyone gets their own scenarios and moments to shine. Every character is absolutely endearing, it's hard picking a favorite from among them. I know that Dragon Quest loves to stick to its traditions, but man, the mute hero is getting stale. And it shows, flashbacks to the hero's youth will have him gain a voice and personality, because a mute hero is too limiting, it's a wasted opportunity for yet another fantastic personality to join the adventure. That aside, the game is made up of three acts, the third one being considered the post game and somewhat optional. I'm a bit torn, because the second act has a pretty good ending, and because reasons the third act involves time travelling... and losing a ton of character development. Some characters get a bit of re-development but it's nowhere near as deep as it was during the second act. The third act aims for a happier ending, but undoes a all of the best moments from the second act. At least it's optional and the story is not too bad, but it pales in comparison to Act 2.

 This is as classic as JRPGs get without feeling dated. You have a relatively large world to explore, it's not open ended like Western RPGs, there are set routes between places and you can't make your own routes. You go from town to town, talking to NPCs to further the plot, while partaking in dungeon exploring and monster slaying to fund your equipment and to proceed with your adventure. Environments are pretty large, larger than your average JRPGs, and they are gorgeous. There are plenty of towns to explore too, very different and distinct from one another, from the architecture to the accents their citizens speak with. There are a ton of sidequests to fulfill, although most of them open up on the third act, as well as plenty of bonus objectives that don't count as sidequests but still are worth your time thanks to their rewards. It's very meaty, I cleared the second act after clocking 67 hours, and the postgame/act 3 took me about 10 hours more, and I didn't finish every single sidequest. My hero was nearing level 90 and the rest of my party were averaging 80, I was quite happy with my equipment and the alternate costumes I managed to find and even got to select my bride(exclusive to the Switch version!) so I decided it was time to slay the bigger bad. And I did.

 Combat is your tried and true turn-based affair. Each turn you can attack with physical attacks, abilities unique to your character, spells or items(Remember that each character has their own bag, and if they aren't carrying the item on their bags they can't use them!). There's the Pep mechanic, randomly your character may enter Pep mode which lasts a few turns and enhances a few of their stats, as well as granting them access to very powerful Pep techniques. If more than one character is in Pep mode you may even get to use combined Pep techniques. Regardless, combat is pretty snappy, landing critical hits is made extra crunchy thanks to the slowdown and the white flash on the enemy. Leveling up earns you stat points that you can then spend on each character's unique skill tree. I'm pretty sure that by level 99 every character can learn all their abilities, since my 80ish level characters had their skill trees almost completely unlocked. As for grinding, if you're smart about it, or know anything about Dragon Quest, you shouldn't need to go out of your way to end completely overleveled, just remember to learn Metal Slash on any character that can and try to use multi-hitting abilities on Metal slimes before they flee from battle.

 There's also a simple crafting system, you gather materials(in the Switch version you can purchase them when forging, which you can now do at any time on this Switch version), get a recipe and then try your hand at a very simple forging minigame in which you must bash steel, trying to fill various gauges without going outside their sweetspot. You unlock different bashing techniques(2X2 zone bash, double strength bash, etc) and have to mind the heat of the forge, as a higher temperature nets stronger bashes. It's surprisingly fun once you get the hang of it.

 So, what makes the Switch version the 'definitive' version? Well, the graphics obviously took a hit and the framerate is capped at 30fps. Not that it really matters, because the game is still beautiful, character models look great and textures are fantastic, it's a beautiful game no two ways about it. That aside, we get to ride a few new monsters, nothing to write home about and a few bonus scenarios between Act 1 and Act 2, which total about 2-3 extra hours worth of content, once again, nothing special. But now we can select costumes as a different equipment piece, not being tied to the equipment itself as long as you owned the equipment pieces at least once, which is purely cosmetic but something that adds a lot of charm to the game. Squeenix also integrated the 3DS' 2-D mode, and you can freely swap between 3-D and 2-D at Save chapels. It seems that the transition sometimes may reset a bit of your progress, I wouldn't know since I didn't care about 2-D. It's VERY slow paced and the combat mechanics change to feel more like the retro DQ games. If you're itching for a more retro experience, go ahead, it wasn't my thing. And that's the beauty of it, you can pick whatever mode you wish, and the ENTIRE MASSIVE game can be played in either mode, so in a way, it's almost like 2 games in one. They also added the Retro stages, which are alright and I actually did play. You can only play these in 2-D, but the game transitions between 3-D and 2-D, provided you are playing in 3-D, seamlessly, so nothing is lost and you don't even have to pick to return to 3-D, you simply exit the TickinTock town and you're back to where you were, alongside the 3d dimension.

 Dragon Quest XI is easily one of the best JRPGs I've played in recent times. The story is engaging, the characters are lovable, the combat is decent... it's got everything you could want out of a JRPG. It also sticks closely to its roots, which makes it stand out from more modern JRPG offerings, which focus more on waifus, and cutesy girls and derpy boys doing cutesy things in a whimsical world that isn't going to fall in peril from a world-devouring monster any time soon. It's a very classic SNES/PS1-era JRPG but with a very modern coat of paint, exactly what I've been looking for. It also has a very simple combat system that isn't bogged down by countless mechanics stacked on top of each other or other popular pitfalls of the genre. What I mean to say, is that Dragon Quest XI does what it does masterfully and proves that classic JRPGs can work really well in the modern day.
 10 out of 10

Review #778: My Hero One's Justice 2(Playstation 4)

 Once again, but with more oomph.

 Aight, so... well, pretty much everything I said about My Hero One's Justice 2 for the Switch still stands for this version, as it's pretty much identical, except for the fact that this version targets 60 fps. Honestly, it doesn't make a huge difference, but the game is very pretty and having it run this smoothly is quite a pleasure. There is, however, one key difference.... in order to use the pre-order DLC bonuses, which includes the extra pretty-much-unfinished-Nomu, you need to download a patch. No patch means no extra character. The Switch version didn't pull those shenanigans...
 7.0 out of 10

Review #777: Final Fantasy VII Remake

 Now with extra belts.

 Alright, let's face it, there was no way Final Fantasy VII Remake could match expectations, especially considering that this is part 1 of what was supposed to be a trilogy until Nomura professed his wish to turn it into a Kingdom Hearts sort of multi-short stories kind of story, which means that this is part of a whole competing against a full game. With this game they turned the entire Midgar chapter into a 30-hour RPG, new characters, new scenarios and even a bit of filler that goes nowhere and we'll have to wait until the next part to see if it led to anything.

 It's a bit of a spoiler, but it's something you should know when approaching this game, this is a sequel, not a remake. Very early in the game you'll start seeing a few events that don't play exactly like they did before until a few Deus-Ex machinae spirits show up to change it. It's part of the plot, and yes, it feels like someone traveled back in time or something. And most stories get ruined when Time Traveling is involved. Everything that concerns this new nuance to the story is absolutely disappointing. We wanted a remake, not a sequel, but Square being Square just couldn't do anything that quaint, they had to add their own pompous spin on it. On the other hand, everything that expands on the old characters is absolutely amazing, they managed to get the personalities of all the main characters right, and added a ton of new scenes for them to showcase it. They added a lot of banter between the main characters, when exploring and walking around, and it's so much fun hearing them play off each other. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie have new personalities, but considering they were paper thin on the original, this suits them just fine, and made them much more endearing. Chapter 4 is entirely devoted to them, as Cloud embarks on a new mission to help Jessie with a personal matter while the other two hang around. It's really good and involves none of their silly plot ghosts. When you meet up with Aerith you get to go around the Slums helping people and the orphaned children that like Aerith so much, and it feels very natural. Even earlier in the game Tifa shows you how to take on missions, and that too was well integrated into the story, expanding on how Cloud's life on the Sector 7 slums would be. Basically, everything that stays true to the original is very, VERY good, the developers clearly understood the characters, even if Nomura went full Nomura with Rufus' design and gave him a few unnecessary belts. Oh, and did I mention they even crammed a fight against Sephiroth? Yes, this early into the game. No gusta.

 That said, in quite a few ways, this game feels a bit more like a beat'em up, like Square's own The Bouncer, than an RPG. Final Fantasy XIII caught a lot of flak because of how linear it was, well... this game is mostly made up of hallways, even the few towns you visit are simple collections of hallways. To be fair, JRPGs are very linear for the most part, and Midgar was the original game's most linear part, but not only are you supposed to move on a straight line from A to B, but you'll do so mostly through cramped tunnels, tight corridors and oppressive hallways. Something that infuriated me to now end was that a few times I wanted to explore, or realized I walked through the right hallway instead of the one that might've had some goodies at the end, but the game would prevent me from going back because I had to keep moving on a straight line to further the plot. A few times, during the out-of-town excursions, the fix would be to walk forward until I cleared a new story bit, and then the game would relent with its invisible walls and let me return to whatever cranny I missed and wanted to check out. Compounding the linearity of this design is that there are very few sections that would count as dungeons, and most sidequests don't require going further away than the road you came from. Chapter 14 opens up a bit and lets you go around most of the game's world. It also marks the point of no return once you proceed through the story.

 Since the game only covers the Midgar chapter... only Barret, Aerith, Tifa and Cloud become party members, with Red XIII fulfilling a guest role in the final chapters. Which sounds a bit lame, but it makes sense, because the developers found a way to make every character feel very different from one another. Cloud's basic square attacks are fast and have decent reach, but you can press Triangle to enter Punisher mode, which slows you down to a crawl, but makes your slashes super strong. Barret shoots with his gun arm(Or has a very slow, and powerful 3-hit combo with his few melee weapons) and you can use Triangle to unleash a short burst of super powered projectiles, however, it has a cooldown period...that you can decrease by finding opportunities to press triangle while on cooldown. Aerith's basic attacks are projectiles too, while her triangle attack is a chargeable area-of-effect attack. Tifa, oh boy, Tifa is a blast. She's very fast, and with a very small health pool, but her basic attacks can be comboed with her special abilities(more on this later) and her triangle attacks depends on how many times you've used Unbridled Strength, an ability of hers. Each character is very different, so I understand that it would've been a waste of resources to make Red XIII a fully playable characters for such few chapters.

 On another note, the game's presentation is spotty to say the least. Character models are on point, and monsters look amazing, everything else... looks pretty bad. NPCs look very basic and mundane, to the point that every main character, ally or enemy, stands out against them, their lowered polygon count not doing them any favors. But it's the environments that really stand out, they have very, very ugly textures. I hate it when people used to say "Oh, this game looks like a PS1 game", but have you ever played a PS1 game? No, no you have not, otherwise you'd know how dumb you sound. But it's no exaggeration to say that this game has a few PS2-level textures. Things like the door to Cloud's apartment or Aerith's flowers look SO bad, and the game loves to zoom on Aerith's ugly flowers during cutscenes. Heck, even environmental objects don't look quite right, with wheels that aren't even round! And I'd understand if they did it to keep a 60 fps framerate going, but the game caps at 30. A very stable 30, but still. I'll always claim that gameplay triumphs over graphics, but it's quite off putting how much these beautiful character models stick out from the rest of the game, and since the game's cutscenes sometimes zoom in on these ugly objects... makes me think that there might be a bug that prevents the textures from loading correctly. Thankfully, the art direction is really good, and as long as you don't try to stop and admire the details, you'll probably enjoy what you see.

 I've talked about how characters play, but not how the game actually plays. Well, there are two modes: Exploration and Battling. Exploration is pretty self explanatory, you just move around while occasionally going through mandatory modern-day loading devices like small crevices you must slowly cross and the such. Thanks to the previously mentioned banter between characters, these sections are pretty fun. That said, anything that involves moving through hand-rails on ceilings is absolutely dreadful, they are SO SLOW. The final part of the game has a particularly egregious section with Tifa that's slow as molasses, and you don't even get endearing banter between party members. Man, speaking of the final chapters, they feel so bloated. You spend like two hours just walking around while a ton of exposition is dumped on you and you have to move at the game's pace. Walk and watch. Walk and watch. The new Mayor character, Domino, was pretty dumb too. Oh, and there's a glitch if you decide to spy on the air vents that might soft-lock your game, so save before entering the vents. It happened to me and I dug around a bit and it seems to be quite common.

 Combat is quite fun, it runs in real time and you take control of any character from your 3-man party member. It's a bit silly that the party caps at three considering that the game only has 4 playable characters, but the plot will decide your party at all times. Enemies will focus almost exclusively on whatever character you are controlling, so you are more or less expected to swap with the digital pad every now and then. The AI allies are pretty rudimentary, they will only use their basic square attacks and block incoming damage, nothing else, it's not like Tales of where you can tinker with their AI parameters. That said, you can press X(Or R2/L2) at any time to open up the menu and direct them to use a spell or an ability. When you go through your menu the game keeps going in real time, but when issuing orders(Or when selecting a target for your abilities/spells) the game will slow down, allowing you to comfortably make your decision.

 As with the original game, you can customize everyone's spell loadout by equipping Materia on their weapons and armors. Different weapons/armors have different slots, sometimes you'll even get linked slots that let you mix a few Materias for added effect. You can't mix Ice and Fire Materias, for example, but you could link Elemental+Fire on your weapon to add a fire effect to your attacks, or put them on your armor to absorb Fire damage as health. There are a ton of new Materia to play around with, although they mostly have to do with enhancing new mechanics, such as your dodge and block or 'automatic healing' from party party members when someone's health drops.

 Spells, item use and abilities are governed by the ATB gauge below each character's health bar. You have up to two gauges, but most abilities only use one. The ATB raises much faster when YOU play as the character, encouraging you to swap between your playable characters to get the most out of their participation. Limit Breaks return in this game, receive a ton of damage, fill the gauge and then you can use a powerful super move. It seems characters have two different Limit Breaks, and you unlock theirs second one by beating their solo Colosseum fights. That said, the gauge resets between battles, unlike the original, so you'll probably only get to use them during boss fights. Each character can equip a Summon materia to summon a powerful ally for a short while, but it can only be done once a few specific conditions have been met, so it's not something you can rely on, although you'll probably get to use them during most boss fights.

 Dealing damage is built around the Stagger gauge. You'll notice very early on that enemies soak up damage like there's no tomorrow, they are very spongy, so you'll notice that as you land attacks a gauge below their health fills up. If you're lucky you'll see them enter 'pressured' status, in which you'll hurt them harder and build up their stagger gauge even faster. Once full, they'll get stunned for a few seconds and receive extra damage. As you learn abilities with your characters you'll find that some are better for crowd control, some for dealing straight damage and others for building up the Stagger. I'm a bit torn on the stagger mechanic, on one hand, I really, REALLY enjoyed the extra long boss battles, like 5 minutes and upwards lengthy fights, they are very fun because the combat itself is very fun, and during boss fights you get to get the most out of your strategizing. But, BUT, I found that battles against common enemies dragged a little too long. They are too short to get the most out of the stagger system, but they are too long since they can withstand quite a few attacks. That said, bosses have multiple phases, and every single time they change phase... their Stagger gauge you just spent minutes building up resets. Lame.

 The last element regarding combat comes down to weapons. You can find up to five extra weapons for each character, for a total of six weapons each. Each weapon has a unique ability, and if you use that ability repeatedly you will eventually learn it for good, meaning that you can use any ability with any weapon. You learn abilities pretty quickly, thankfully. Sadly, weapons are not progressively better, but rather, each weapon has different pros and cons. A weapon might be weak but boost your magic attack power, another weapon might be weaker in both but allow for more Materia slots, etc. This kinda sucks because once you find a weapon that works you won't ever switch to the other ones, so you'll use the same looking weapon for most of the game. I played Tifa and Cloud as physical attackers, so I used Tifa's second glove and Cloud's third sword for most of the game, only switching weapons to learn abilities. As you level up you also earn Weapon points, and you can upgrade weapons by spending them(Every level up grants you 5 points per weapon, so no weapon gets left behind), which is rather neat. That said, it would've been nice to be able to see what upgrades each weapon has without going into their upgrade menus, which takes a few seconds to load.

 Besides the fact that this game is a sequel, the other biggest problem with the game is the camera. When locking onto enemies it might sometimes get stuck on a very unhelpful angle, and when outside of battle, since most of the game is running around through corridors and tunnels, you might have a few problems seeing your surroundings. Wall Market is particularly bad about it, because it has a lot of mini hallways and the such, and it's easy to get lost due to the camera being so zoomed in on Cloud's back. And mind you, I'm someone that didn't think Evil Within's camera was bad or annoying, so that should tell you that I'm not one to complain about cameras needlessly. Thankfully you have full control over the camera, so you turn it around and twist it around until you can see what's in front of you.

 While the game has given me plenty to complain about, the reality is that the game's highpoints vastly outweighs its negatives. Character interactions are SO good, it's really hard not to fall for these characters all over again. The combat at its best is SO much fun, and at worst its more than decent. The graphics might be a bit lackluster, but dammit, I couldn't stop smiling while I played the entire first chapter, because this IS Final Fantasy VII as you've never seen it before. Every story piece that expands on the original game's plot and character makes for a more involved narrative than before. It's a shame that Square couldn't help themselves and just make a simple remake and had to be all grandiose about it. For the next part, I hope they give us more open-ended environments, like Dragon Quest XI, better and more interesting sidequests, make common enemies less spongy and do something about the camera.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #776: Assassin's Creed Chronicles

 They can't hurt you if you see them.

 What's the one era people have clamored for Assassin's Creed to cover? That's right, ancient China. And what about the popular novels/comic books Assassin's Creed Brahman and Subject Four, y'knows, the ones featuring Arbaaz and Nikolai? Well, Ubisoft delivered, with Assassin's Creed Chronicles we get: Assassin's Creed Chronicles China, Assassin's Creed Chronicles India and Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia. Finally we get the Assassin's Creed China we've always wanted, and finally we get to play as some popular characters from the spin offs! But that's too good to be true, for you see, the Chronicles series of AC is actually a series of low-budget, linear, 2-5 sidescrolling stealth games. Honestly, they should've made new throwaway characters for these games, or make them about Assassins we were familiar with instead of wasting these characters and locales on these lower budget enterprises.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles China

 In ACC: China you play as Shao Yun, a concubine turned assassin who sets out for revenge on the Templars that killed the Chinese assassin brotherhood. The story is not very interesting and the characters aren't well developed, but the story is told through some still images and voiced dialogue. The name pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, I kinda enjoyed the art design they went with, many objects look as if they were made out of colored brush strokes. It felt a bit cheap at first, but it grew on me. And while the game plays on a bidimensional axis, there's a lot of going in-and-out of the foreground, featuring twists and bends on the roads you must take, which leads to some very interesting levels.

 The game is very much a 2-D stealth version of Assassin's Creed. Your objective is to reach a certain goal, be it assassinate someone or recover one thing or the other, and most levels have an optional mini-objective worth a few points. Your Assassin can run, jump, climb on walls and ledges, usually painted red to signify you can grab on to it, slide, crouch, hide on the background, hide in crowds, carry corpses(In order to hide them as not to alert other enemies), dash between covers and the such. You get four tools to aid you: A whistle, that can divert enemy attention, a 'noise dagger' that's similar, a firecracker that stuns enemies and a dagger that can be thrown to cut ropes. Something that really helped getting me invested in the game was the fact that you earn new moves after you finish every level, heck, you earn the 'Helix attack', a special stealthy attack that consumes energy, after finishing the game to use in New Game+. Each level also has a couple of upgrades that can be obtained by playing well and earning a certain point threshold. Most of the time the first upgrade is easy to get while the second one is a bit tougher.

 Enemies' lines of sight are displayed as a white cone in front of them, and you're to do your best to keep out of their sight. If seen from afar, or if they hear you, they will start Investigating, while if they actually see you you'll enter Alert Mode, during which you need to hide for 10 seconds straight in order to reset their movement patterns back to normal. Pretty much Metal Gear Solid-lite. When enemies are alert, if they see you they'll go in for the kill. Combat is... passable. It works like Assassin's Creed 3 and 4, in which you have to hit them a few times before you can murder them with triangle(strong attack). You can keep hitting them with Square(Weak attack) but that won't put them out of comission. You can also parry attacks with the circle button, and roll over enemies to hit their backside(or attempt to flee). It feels a bit sloppy, but it's almost fun once you get the hang of it. That said, Shao Jun is very fragile, she can only take a single hit before going down if you don't manage to get any upgrades, and a normal playthrough will get you up to two extra health segments. At least your heals refills over time.

 Each of the 12 missions are divided into mini-segments and you're graded depending on how you played. Ironically for a game about a master assassin, you get the highest amount of points by never getting seen and not killing anyone. I hated the game at first, but it became much more tolerable when I stopped caring about scoring the 'Shadow Awards' and focusing on Brawler or Assassin. I managed to get at least one upgrade per stage, so I can't complain! The game can be very tough if you're going after high scores, but if you don't mind getting lower scores it's not too bad.

 I can't say I liked this game too much, but I'll also admit I'm not the biggest fan of stealth games. There are three 'chase' sequences in the game that I really liked, they were all about split-second platforming while killing enemies on the move, they were very exciting, very fun, and I wish the game had more moments like that instead of being such a slow paced game about waiting and waiting and more waiting.
 6.0 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles India

 The game is pretty much identical to China, so I'll go mostly over its differences and where it's a bit worse and where it's a bit better. This game is set shortly after the Brahman novel, and it's about Arbaaz investigating the Templars that kidnapped his friend. The art-style has shifted into a more defined, colorful aesthetic, and it shows that you can make a beautiful game on a budget. It really is pretty to look at, so at least it has that going for it.

 Arbaaz has gained a few new moves: You can roll after a jump, to conserve momentum, you can use non-lethal takedowns as well as looting corpses for ammo or documents(if the objective requires it). His tools are a bit different from Shao, he can whistle as well and has a sound-bomb that works just like the sound-dagger, but instead of the firecrackers we get a smoke bomb that blinds enemies instead of stunning them and his Chakram takes the place of the rope-cutting dagger, with the added benefit of being able to bounce on walls. Combat is pretty similar, but now you can dash to either side with X and parrying has been made easier since you only need to tap circle instead of tapping circle and hold on the analog stick the direction of the incoming attack. On the other hand, Helix Attack is now more like Helix Time, which lasts for as long as you've got Helix Energy, and basically turns you into a murder machine.

 But what makes the game worse.... is that it's much more frustrating. It assumes you played China already, so even the first stage is challenging. And what makes it challenging is that the scoring system is VERY harsh, you must stick to a style and get perfect scoring on every segment or you won't get upgrades. I had to replay the first level because I really wanted that health upgrade and I couldn't get it on my first try. On the tutorial stage. Enemies are brutal, some of them can take up to two health-segments with a single hit, and there are new Highlander enemies that you need to distract before you can even stealth-kill. Getting upgrades shouldn't be this annoying, which makes the game too frustrating for its own good. That said, we've got Chase stages again and boy are they fun! They are focused more on speedy platforming than anything else, and they've got some of the best level designs in the game. Honestly, this game really shines when it's you against the clock, and thankfully more than half of the game is made up of time-based stages. Sadly, the final stage has a really bland segment in which you have to wait for a vision-circle to move around before moving, turning what was a fun chase stage into a slow-paced slog. While it's two stages shorter than China, it has a few challenge rooms as extras.

 India is a bit weird that way, the unlock system is made into a chore, and the combat was made too challenging for poor Arbaaz. On the other hand, after you get through the first half of the game you get rewarded with plenty of chase stages, y'know, the game at its best. While I hated the first few stages, I think I the latter half of the game is much better than China.
 6.5 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia

 This one is easily the worst one of the bunch, and I'll get as to why later. You play as both Nikolai and Anastasia, a girl that has become possessed by Shao Jun. I'd like to say that both characters have different abilities, but in truth, they simply divided the previous games' movesets into both characters. Anastasia got the short end of the stick, she can't fight, she can't loot, she has no tools(besides whistling), the only things she can do are: Stealth kill and use Helix Powers. Nikolai, on the other hand, has tools, can fight, can stealth kill but can't use Helix Powers, at least until you finish the game. It's a... it certainly is an idea, that much I will say. The art direction has changed once again, now outdoor sections feature only grays and reds, you can only find color inside buildings. It's a decent idea, and I love red skies, but it makes this game look very boring in comparison to the previous games.

 Nikolai's tools consist of the whistle, a rifle instead of the Chakram/Dagger, which happens to be much more useful since it can easily kill whoever it hits, although it has a slow recharge, the ever useful smoke grenades return, but, instead of the noise dagger we get the Winch, a multi-purpose tool that can be used to pull specific objects towards you, break vent gratings or shoot an electric pulse that can be used to trigger certain machines, break fuse boxes or electrify anyone standing over water. New elements to the basic gameplay include using telephones to distract guards and, remember how ACC:India had a sniping section at the end of the game? Well, hope you liked it, because there are more of those in this one. They are pretty decent, if you ask me.

 So how does this game falter? Well, level design. The same punishing unlock system from ACC: India returns, which sucks, because this is the hardest game of the bunch. What makes it so hard is that many stages seem to be built around trial and error, you just have to retry multiple times until you understand how the guards move and interact with their designated areas. Other parts require very strict and ridiculously precise timing to pull off, the final stage is particularly egregious about it. Remember all the Chase stages I've been gushing all over? They are pretty much gone in this game, instead, a few stages have a Chase segment included in them, which is rather lame. The final level is a Chase stage, but it's so frustrating. After I finish the game I wasn't feeling accomplished, but rather, I felt relieved I didn't have to play this game anymore.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles - Russia was pretty bland, the previous games failed to impress, but this one managed to disappoint pretty well. It's a shame, because it seemed like by the end of India they had figured out what made these games better.
 4.5 out of 10

 All in all, the Chronicles series of games are alright for the most part, but it's a crime that Ancient China and the Russian civil war got covered by these games instead of a proper game on the main series. I don't know why Ubisoft opted to cover new eras under this lower budget banner, but I'd say the end result left everyone a bit disappointed.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #775: Metro Redux(Switch)

 I'm never taking the Metro again.

 Metro Redux is a two-in-one pack containing both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux. Originally I was gonna write about each game individually, but come to find out that Metro 2033 Redux was rebuilt from the ground-up in Last Light's engine, so in the end, both games feel like two parts of one big whole, since they share every single gameplay mechanic, a few assets and even the UIs, the only difference between both games on offer is the story. This was, in my eyes, a bit disappointing, since I was looking forward to seeing how Metro: Last Light would evolve the gameplay, only to find out that Last Light Redux was pretty much a level pack. It was even more disappointing when I did some research on the original Metro 2033, and while the textures were not as good as the ones in Redux, I dare say that the artistic design was much better. In other words, you could think of both games as a single unit with two different sets of levels and storylines.

 So what is Metro? It's a first person shooter with survival horror elements. Taking place in a post apocalyptic world in which the air on the surface of the earth has turned toxic, so people went to live inside the underground Metro stations. Sadly, Nazi and extremist Communist parties formed below, vying for control of the dwindling resources, add to that the fact that humanity has to contend with another problem: Hideous monsters that roam the surface and the underground. You play as Artyom, a ranger with a mysterious connection to the Dark Ones, mysterious beings that humans don't comprehend. In the first game, Artyom sets out with a message to Coronel Miller from a missing Hunter, which takes him through various Metro stations while learning about the Dark Ones. The second one has Artyom sent on a mission to assassinate a baby Dark One, but it quickly goes awry when he gets captured by enemies and must now survive the fascist and extremist parties while trying to fulfill his mission. I liked the story in Last Light a bit more because I felt it was a bit more emotional, I actually grew to like a few of the new and returning characters.

 The games follow a very linear structure, just like Half-Life 2, and this is something I liked a lot. There are very few 'blackout' scenes that teleport Artyom from one place to the next, so it feels like one big adventure that you're always in control of. Something new in these Redux versions is that you get multiple difficulty settings to play around with, as well as two different 'styles': Spartan and Survival. The first is an easier mode, which is built after the original Last Light release, with more ammo and enemies to fight, while Survival works like the original Metro 2033 release, less ammo, less enemies but more firepower. I played both games in the Normal - Survival setting and had fun with them, although I went with the Normal - Spartan setting for the included DLC stand-alone missions, which, by the by, are hidden in the "Chapters" menu of the second game, under the "Play New Missions" sub menu. One thing to keep in mind when playing the North American Switch Version is that Last Light was censored, so that now every girl is wearing a bra. No nipples for Switch, I guess. Graphics are really good, but loading times are fairly inconsistent, sometimes they are short, sometimes they are long, but at least reloading after dying is pretty quickly. For the most part, loading times were fairly tolerable, but a very few times it might surprise you how long it can take.

 The world of Metro is a very interesting one, because high-grade bullets are your basic form of currency. These bullets can be traded for new weapons, customizing your old weapons, buying health packs and air filters or to buy low-grade ammo for your weapons. Heck, if you're carrying any sort of automatic rifle, these high-grade bullets can double as powerful ammunition, provided you are OK with shooting money. Playing both games in Surival - Normal I can guarantee you that there's more than enough high-grade ammo to restock on everything on every visit to a Metro station, and I never found myself needing to use those bullets as ammo. That said, from what I've heard, the other difficulty settings are a bit tougher, so if you want that authentic survival horror-ish feeling, go for it.

 What will get a bit tense would be any time you have to go up into the surface, because a gas-mask alone just won't cut it, you need to change the filter every now and then, unless you want to die, which turns surface outings into timed missions. You also have to be careful, because enemy attacks will slowly break your mask, and if it breaks you're done. Of course, you can savage more masks and filters from corpses or even from fallen human enemies, if you happen upon them, so it's not too bad. While it may sound annoying, the surface parts of both games weren't bad at all, and the ruined vistas you get to traverse are actually a pleasure to look at. In that way, the game offers a very distinct atmosphere for the surface and the underground. The surface is ripe with enemy monsters, but it's brightly lit and the environments are more open, while the underground features more corridors and tight environments in which you'll fight more humans than monsters, they are also very dark so you have to rely on light sources to scavenge supplies.

 Unexpectedly, the game has a strong element of stealth, and since you want to conserve your ammo, it will be your tool of choice when battling human enemies. There are fun little things you can do like turn off light sources in order to conceal your presence, while also being wary of having your own flashlight turned off, as not to alert them. In both games you'll eventually get night-vision goggles which will make your stalking much easier. The AI is pretty dumb too, so it's not too hard to cheese them with stealth, at least on the normal difficulty setting.

 I enjoyed Metro Redux a lot, even if the fact that Metro 2033 Redux feels like a Last Light level pack miffed me more than I care to admit. I mean, I would've liked the real Metro 2033 experience, with the original graphics and mechanics, but I'm happy I at least get to play both games. It's also rather neat how well they got these games to run on Switch, while it's capped at 30 fps, the framerate feels very stable and the graphics look great. In other words, a great port of a great game.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #774: Fist of the North Star - Lost Paradise

 Yakuza goes Mad Max.

 Yakuza and Hokuto no Ken are things I really like, so it should be no surprise that Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, a Yakuza game with a Hokuto no Ken coat paint would be something I'd enjoy. You get a small city to walk around in while partaking in the usual Casino minigames and even a hostess minigame, it's Yakuza it had to be here, while punching enemies to death. A lot of voice actors from Yakuza reprise similar roles here, it's a bit surreal hearing Yakuza voices under Hokuto no Ken skins, and lemme tell ya, Takuya Kuroda(Kiryu) does a fantastic job as Kenshiro.

 The story is a very loose retelling of the Raoh arc but framed inside a bigger storyline concerning the city of Eden and the King of Ruin. So while Kenshiro will meet Rei, save his brother Toki from the prison of Cassandra, battle his impersonator and brother, Jagi, fight Thouzer and eventually attempt to settle things with Raoh, you'll also be embroiled in the story of Eden, assisting Xsana, the governess in defending the city of Eden and its secrets from the King of Ruin. Alright, I'm gonna be completely honest here... I hated what they did with the original storyline. Hokuto no Ken has a massive bodycount, both allies and villains, and while the early cutscenes in the game fool you into thinking the game will follow suit, barely any character dies. They might've done it in case they ever made a sequel, but it makes events such as the fight with Thouzer kinda lame. Rei is my favorite character in the series and they did him dirty, he loses to both Kenshiro and Thouzer and doesn't even manage to scratch either, which is quite infuriating, but he also gets turned into a damsel in distress by Jagi. Lame. That said, I absolutely adored the new cast of characters, Xsana, Jagre, Lyra and the King of Ruin are pretty interesting characters and have neat designs. The final boss is a bit disappointing, both for Yakuza standards and because the game itself had much cooler fights before it. It has one of the most epic uses of the "Omae wa mou... Shindeiru" line though.

 On another note, the tone of the game is quite different from the original manga. Not only do we have a ton of surviving characters, Kenshiro isn't as lethal as he used to be. Plenty of times after a cutscene Kenshiro will let the enemies live because reasons, heck, when you first fight Targa, Kenshiro says that he 'doesn't want to fight him'. That's not Kenshiro, Kenshiro forgives no one. The sidequests have plenty of silly, humorous moments, but they are pretty clearly written with Yakuza's brand of humor and not Hokuto no Ken's. Does any of this impair the game in any way or form? Not really, but I think they could've done a better job writing Kenshiro as Kenshiro and not as Kiryu.

 The game runs on Yakuza 0's engine rather than the Dragon Engine, so while the graphics aren't cutting edge, it runs at a smooth 60fps. Besides, it has a gorgeous cell-shaded look that makes everything pop and look straight out of the manga, albeit with colors. Getting used to Kenshiro's proportions may take a while though, he is one thick, beefy boy with thick, beefy limbs and the tiniest of butts. If they did something right with Rei it was giving him a proper butt. But I digress.

 Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect out of Yakuza, you walk around town engaging in both main story quests as well as side quests, or 'sub stories' as the games call them. Most of the things you'll do involve punching enemies, a lot of enemies, as they died in gruesomely delicious explosions of blood, since Hokuto Shinken is invincible and the style revolves tapping pressure points on the body in order to make it explode. Or heal itself. Or cure blindness. Or whatever the plot demands. The game goes a bit overboard with this, not unlike the filler anime episodes, so Kenshiro can heal random citizens by pressing their pressure points and get rewards out of it.

 Combat is fairly simple, square produces your basic attacks, triangle are your strong attacks, X is your dodge and circle is a bit special. Pummeling enemies will fill a skull icon next to their health bar, once full you can press circle to put them in the Meridian Shock state, which allows you to use a super move by pressing circle again. Or you can press circle again with the correct timing in order to hurt them before putting them in the Meridian Shock state, assuming they even survive it. The combat is quite fun, and dancing around the battlegrounds while tapping circle to make everyone explode is quite fun. The battle system is a bit more fun than Yakuza, since it allows for bouncing enemies around and hitting them while they are on the air, you can even use the circle presses while they fall. That said, there are no weapons, aside from solidified Hidebu screams left behind by fat enemies(I know) that you can pick up and use as a weapon for a few swings, and it can take a long while before you get any useful way to deal with crowds of enemies. And even then said tools are a bit lackluster. If you are lucky you'll face lower level enemies that you can spam circle on(Enemies that are about 10 levels or so below yours have their skull icon filled by default), or you could use Toki's technique to deal with two enemies at a time.... or if you are feeling naughty, you can use your Burst Mode in order to send everyone flying and crashing against each other. Burst Mode can be used once its gauge is full(By defeating enemies and using super moves) and grants you access to a few exclusive moves as well as extra power. Ken rips his shirt when entering burst, although just as the anime(And the manga, to a much lesser extent) it returns as soon as you exit burst mode.

 There's a fairly decent upgrade system in place here, every time you level up you earn a basic orb that you can spend on any of four branches: Body, Technique, Skill or Talisman, and every orb space on each branch has different benefits, from plain health or damage upgrades to extra Burst time, new super moves, new burst techniques or what have you. You may also randomly, or by defeating bosses, receive specific orbs that can only be used on their specific branch. As much as I enjoyed upgrading Kenshiro.... there's no way you'll be getting the most out of the upgrade system without playing the minigames, for you see, there's another, consistent way of getting these orbs: Trading points earned in the Casino, the Colosseum or Races for them. The grind is not as harsh and annoying as it was in Yakuza 0, but boy if I didn't spend an unnecessary amount of time playing the Colosseum in order to max my Body and Technique skill trees. If you are smarter, you'll trade your money for Casino chips and then trade those chips for the orbs. While there are no weapons in the game, you can craft Talismans to give yourself extra attacks(Such as a field of fire), benefits(such as healing over time) or utilities(Such as a free fuel refill for your buggy) but... most of the time I forgot about them. They have long cooldown times(Like 30 minutes or so) so it's not like they were something reliable or what have you.

 As with any Yakuza game there are tons of activities for you to do. There's Bar Tending, a Hostess manager, buggy racing(With a customizable Buggy!), a Rhythm doctor Ken minigame, Casino(Black Jack, Roulette, etc) as well as Baseball Batting.... with living enemies as the balls. Most of them are decent. The Racing mechanics are pretty slippery, and I think that them being so bad actually makes racing, and even driving outside of Eden, kinda fun. I know the buggy controls like hot garbage, but dammit if it isn't fun to drive around the post-apocalyptic dessert. On the other hand, we have the bar minigames.... You absolutely need to do the bar tender minigames if you want to completely every substory in the game, but while these minigames are fun on paper, the more difficult tasks(Rotate Right analog stick, Press the four face button in a certain order, Shake the controller), specifically the hard versions of the Analog Stick or Button pressing ones are quite tough and annoying, to the point that I think it might ruin your joystick. Their execution leaves a lot to be desired. I want to play the game, not break my joystick because I have to put pressure on the analog stick due to a dumb minigame.

 The game is pretty lengthy. I managed to finish over 60 out of the 80 sub stories and it took me almost 30 hours to finish the game. I feel like gating so many sub stories behind minigames was a bad idea, for instance, I really don't care about the hostess management, but I know it has a few sub stories that can only be done by advancing through that mode. They also went back in how sub-stories work, as they are no longer marked on the map, which, in my opinion, is a step backwards. Now you are supposed to run aimlessly through town, entering and exiting stores and what not checking to see if the new chapter you are in or if whatever sub story you just finished granted you access to new sub stories and you happen to come across them. Having a single playable character again also stings a bit, Hokuto no Ken has a huge roster of side characters, most of them die throughout the course of the story but hey, and by this time Yakuza was already giving us multiple playable protagonists, so.... I would've expected at least to have Rei playable. Did I mention Rei is my favorite character in the series? Alright....

 Fist of the North Star - Lost Paradise is probably one of the best Hokuto no Ken games out there, and I think the developers did a fine job at mixing it with Yakuza's gameplay. That said, I think they took a few missteps here and there that keeps it from reaching its full potential. Considering how they made most characters survive the ordeal, I wouldn't mind the Yakuza Team taking Hokuto no Ken in a new direction, with a playable Rei as an alternate character. Or Shu. Or anyone from the Nanto Seiken school. Just... stay away from Shura, nobody unironically likes Hokuto no Ken after the Raoh arc.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #773: Saint Seiya - Soldiers' Soul(Playstation 4)

 Guess I'm gonna keep this double dipping trend goin', huh?

 A few years ago I was a current-gen hating kinda guy, so I got Saint Seiya - Soldiers' Soul for the PS3. It was fine, lest for a few performance hiccups, but since I'm the kind of guy that hates to let a good deal pass him by I somehow found myself with a copy of the game for PS4, and here we are.

 While my original write up is all kinds of bad, I really don't feel like treading over old ground, so I won't go into much detail. As a whole, this is an arena-based 1 on 1 fighting game. It has a decent amount of modes and a large cast of characters, even if it has a ton of clones. Characters like Saga and Kanon or Bud and Syd share a few moves as well as their appearance. There's no reason as to why SeaDragon Kanon and Gemini Kanon shouldn't share a slot, the God Cloths are basically moveset clones of their basic counterparts.... so it is a decent roster, but there's a lot of fluff on the character select screen. Character models are very simple, but they are also very colorful and crisp, while the armors every character sports are very shiny, all in all it's a beautiful game. On the other hand, unlocking everything takes a long time. A looooooooooooooooong time. One way or another you'll be grinding for money. Spamming Shion's R2+Square on VS CPU battles in "First Strike" mode is the easiest way, or you could attempt Survival Mode endless times or try your hand at the second Soul of Gold board. Whichever poison you pick it's gonna be a bit of a drag.

 One of the game's biggest selling points is how its story mode covers the entire anime, all four arcs including the filler(Which in a surprising turn of events wound up being the only saga in the series I could consider passable) Asgard Saga. The cutscenes are very low budget, being made up mostly of characters standing around while flapping their lips, but thanks to dynamic camera angles and top-notch voice acting it's far more lively than boring anime cut-outs. Since Saint Seiya was kind of a big deal in Latin America, this version of the game gets both Portuguese and Latin American dubs. At least the LAS version managed to get most of the original cast back, so kudos for that, I replayed the entire thing with Latin American voices and sans for some iffy Japanese-to-English-to-Spanish translations it was pretty dope. The Sanctuary, Asgard and Poseidon arcs are well told, however, the final arc, Hades, doesn't fare as well. The early parts of the saga are missing a ton of characters, so it makes for a very haphazard retelling, events like being told that Seiya got sent to Cocytus and moments later that he got back, ignoring his fight against Valentine, or Eurydice not getting a character model, so Orphee's story is glossed over in a very unfulfilling manner. The later part of the saga is just as bad, even though they finally have all the characters needed. For instance, Seiya is the one that defeats Hypnos instead of the other Bronze Saints, and the other four don't even get to awaken their God Cloths in a cutscene, they just show up wearing them in time to watch Athena fight Hades, instead of helping in the fight as it happened in the manga. Saint Seiya's story is pretty bland, full of plot holes and poorly explained shenanigans, but the Hades' arc gets the short end of the stick.

 Thankfully, what really matters, the combat system, is more than adequate for an anime fighting game like this. Extending combos is built around dash-cancelling(L2+X), and while it doesn't really fit the series, taking fights into the air is quite fun. It's not quite as exciting as, say, My Hero One's Justice, but it gets the work done. That said, Special and Super moves are kinda iffy because not all of them can be comboed into, it feels like the only way to use some attacks is to get the enemy to whiff their basic attacks and try to hit them then. Heck, it seems that only the overpowered God Gold Cloth-wearing Saints are able to combo into their Super Moves, something that makes them undeniably better than any other character in the game. So... it's a decent combat system, but it's not perfect.

 Well, I'll say that I agree with my initial assessment of the game. It's decent, it's fun, but it could use a lot more polishing. The PS4 version has faster loading times, and the 60 fps framerate is quite a boon, but otherwise it looks and plays the same.
 6.0 out of 10