Game #867: Dead Space 3

 Also known as how EA closed down one of their best, most versatile studios.

 Picture this: You're the lowest of the low, meaning, you are EA, and you've got this amazing, very versatile studio that has been doing a fantastic job at producing licensed golf games, well received James Bond games, the well received Simpsons game, the highly original LAPD Future cop and also the guys that proved Survival Horror sold through their Dead Space series, heck, they even made a well-received God of War clone with Dante's Inferno! This studio knew what they were doing, they had the chops and the experience. So, for the third iteration of their beloved survival horror series, Dead Space 3, you'll cut their budget, expect them to make over 5 million sales(More than DS 1 and DS 2 combined!) and force them to shoe-in microtransactions while also make them go in less scary direction. Of course, the game tanked, but instead of accepting their responsibility they just shut down this fantastic development team.

 So, Dead Space 3... First things first, this game isn't bad by any means. It's the weakest game in the series, probably even below the spin-off, Extraction, but it's still the good. The core gameplay elements are more or less as solid as they were before, even if the game got tweaked in less than desirable ways. It's a fun game, and it's easily the beefiest entry yet, there are plenty of side missions, and there are also exclusive co-op cutscenes that might make a second playthrough enticing... if only the game had offline co-op.

 EA wanted to nickel and dime its players, so the entire weapon system got overhauled for a disappointing crafting system. While in previous games you could carry up to four very different and fun weapons, each one with their own alternate fire, now you can only carry two. Each weapon must be built by combining a frame with two main pieces, which are your two modes of fire. You can create the previous games' weapons, yes, if you find the blue prints and the required parts to build them. I'll admit, you can create some interesting guns, but they lack the personality that the series' weaponry used to have. What's worse, Visceral Games were forced to justify this system by claiming that this was put in the game to combat players relying on a single weapon. Which is hilarious, because building an over-powered weapon isn't hard, and ammo is UNIVERSAL in this game. In DS 1 and 2 I had to use my entire weaponry since I'd run out of ammo for my favorites, or sometimes, I wanted to hoard my favorite's ammo. In this game I only switched guns if I felt like I wanted variety since I got bored of the one I was using.

 RIGs are just cosmetics in this game, your armor, health and Stasis upgrades are obtained by using the same parts you use to craft guns. The game isn't particularly stingy with parts, I think, but the overall system left a sour taste in my mouth. Besides parts you get from fallen enemies or crates, you can also send bots to scavenge for parts through a dumb and time-consuming radar-mini-game thing. Basically, you hold out the radar and follow a signal, once the radar screen turns green it means you'll maximize the amount of parts your bot will have gathered once it finally returns to the work bench. Here's the thing, through microtransactions you can get any part that you need right then and there or purchase more bots. It's idiotic. You don't really need to purchase these microtransactions, but it's hard not to wonder if the pace in which you upgrade your equipment is alright or if it's been made slower due to EA's want for money.

 Another way to earn parts is to go through side-missions. These optional missions are usually a bit tougher than the main game, but I liked a few of them... even if a few of them recycle entire layouts. What really sucks, however, is that a few optional missions are exclusive for co-op. If only it had had split-screen....

 While the horror elements took a step back, although it seems they are more prevalent in the co-op exclusive cutscenes, that said, enemies are tougher than before. They don't flinch as much, so until you get the parts you need to build one of the overpowered weapons, you'll have to rely on this pathetic short roll by double tapping the run button. There's this recurring, four legged boss, that tackles you every now and then. You'd think that the roll would be perfect.... but it's not, if you're lucky you'll dodge 1 out of every 4 tackles. The only way to reliably avoid its attacks... is by running around rocks or stacks of boxes which will interrupt its charge. It's as dumb as it sounds, it almost feels like you are doing and exploit, since the roll should've been the expected way to dodge out of it way.

 While Dead Space 2 went out of its way to prevent you from fighting humans... That's not the case in this one. You can crouch with the R3 button, or take cover by pressing L1, the button you use to AIM, near short barrier-like objects. The cover mechanics are mediocre, and the bits in which you fight humans add nothing to the game.

 Chapter 13 has some awful, AWFUL, ice-wall climbing sections. The wall climbing mechanic gets used a few times afterwards, but it's not as bad.

 There are a few tougher puzzles than the ones in the previous games, and... I didn't really like them too much. Some aren't even hard, you see three symbols on the screen and you have to match them on a machine, there's no time limit and no punishment if you get it wrong.

 As fun as Dead Space 3 can be, one can't help but feel disappointed. Dead Space 1 and 2 are classics, thanks to their timeless, fun gameplay, as well as their settings, environments and the whole horror atmosphere they crafted so well. This game is the gameplay without the rest of the elements that made it so great, and even so, the gameplay isn't as good, for you see, the crafting system was a huge step backward, and I really think it soured the rest of the experience, since many poor design choices were made around it. For instance, finding a new Power Node felt so rewarding in previous games, here I'm just hoarding resources until I can purchase the next armor upgrade. Universal ammo was a really bad idea. And, y'know, I don't blame Visceral games for what happened, I'm sure they did the best they could under EA's horrible orders.

 7.0

Game #866: Call of Cthulhu(Switch)

  Please stop doing the Switch dirty!

 It's a first person adventure game, it's all about talking with NPCs and investigating objects. The more you investigate the more dialogue options you can open up with NPCs. You also have different stats(Investigation, Strength, Deduction, Medicine, Occultism) that you can spend points in to open up different dialogue choices. Some dialogue choices may open up different routes towards your objectives.

 At the beginning of the game I decided to spend all my point in Eloquence and proceeded to fail every single Eloquence check chapter 2 threw at me. Turns out that anything below the maximum level is just a percentage, meaning, there's always chance involved, which is... interesting. It's interesting because this is a bit annoying, but in a weird way it also adds a certain spice to the game, since you can't really be sure if you're gonna succeed and get a conversation to go your way or even gain access to the routes you wanted. If this was an Action game I think I'd be pretty pissed about this, but since it's an Adventure game I kinda, sorta welcome it.

 Loading times are a bit excessive, but the game loads an entire chapter every time it loads, so it's one big loading screen instead of various loading instances throughout a chapter.

 That said, the game has a HUGE issue on Switch... Chapter 5 is broken. How the game shipped like this is baffling, but I saw other people complaining about the same thing, Chapter 5 can't be completed for some of us. In my case, I wasn't sure about what I was doing, so I triggered both the Gas Leak and Electric sub-objectives, so it got to the point that if I tried to finish either objective the game would crash. Other people managed to get through that part, but the game would crash come the next cutscene. This is absolutely inexcusable. They released a patch, so I did manage to finish the game, but the fact that this game released in with this GLARING game-breaking bug is nothing short of a disgrace.

 The game is pretty much a walking simulator through and through. What's more, its attempts at real gameplay fall short of their mark. The stealth segments are boring, the Shambler boss is boring and annoying, the two-lamps-and-fog segment is dull.... Honestly, the game is at its best when you are talking and investigating. The story is pretty good, and it feels fairly in-line with Lovecraft's works, even if it's probably a bit less subtle.

 I liked the game, I liked the story and I liked delving into its world. While the gamey parts of the game were pretty lackluster, the overall game is very engaging, particularly if you enjoy Lovecraft. That said, EVEN if they did patch it, I can't in good faith recommend a game that has a game breaking bug right in the middle of the game.

 4.5

Game #865: Dead Space 2 Limited Edition

 Isaac speaks! 

 I purchased Dead Space 2 used, so while it claimed to include Dead Space Extraction I thought I'd miss out since it'd be a DLC code. Nope, it's right here IN the disc! That's amazing, so I'll get this little enhanced port of the Wii original first.

 Dead Space Extraction

 This light-gun on-rails shooter was made for the Wii in mind, and it shows. You can play this game with Playstation Move, which would probably work fine, but the joystick gets the job done, for the most part. You'll be missing out on a few goodies since the camera will move too fast for you to catch up with the analog stick, and the game uses a surprisingly large amount of buttons, but you can have an OK experience with the joystick.

 The story is AMAZING. The game does have a few small contradictions with the first game, like the fact that the crew of the Ishimura go insane almost immediately while the original made it seem like it was a slow process, but for the most part it gels pretty well. As a matter of fact, you'll visit a lot of areas from the original game, and you'll get to see why the Ishimura was as it was during Dead Space 1, since you'll be directly responsible for a few obstacles Isaac will encounter!

 The game follows an ensemble cast of four main characters, and you'll play as four different characters(Not necessarily the ones from the main cast!) throughout all 10 chapters. The characters are pretty interesting, although I wasn't a fan of Lexine and her... peculiarities, I think it felt a bit too far fetched.

 The first chapter is incredible. You start off in the final area of Dead Space, and get to experience first-hand how everyone goes crazy. And this first chapter is but a taste of things to come. I'd say this game is way scarier than the original game, in no small part due to the fact that your playable characters will struggle against the effects of the Marker.

 You get alternate guns, and can carry up to four different guns. Only the basic weapon has infinite ammo which is why I stuck with it for most of the game. I experimented with a few others, but the basic weapon is just fine. You can also uses Stasis and Kinetic modules to aid you in combat as well as solve some very easy puzzles.

 There are a few annoying minigames in which you must "hack" stuff by tracing lines with the analog stick. I'm sure they weren't too bad in the Wii original, but having to use my old PS3 analog stick proved less than ideal. The few instances in which you must fend off enemies WHILE hacking are just cruel if you aren't using PS Move/WiiMote.

 Overall? I can tell that this game was fantastic on the Wii, and it's probably just as great on the PS3 if you have the Move controllers. I didn't, but even then I couldn't help but admire the game's high production values and top-notch quality.

7.0

Dead Space 2

 As stated on the opening headliner, Isaac speaks now, which is a welcome change that makes for a better protagonist. Screw silent protagonists.

 The game is exactly like Dead Space 1 but more polished. Moving around feels better, the framerate feels more stable(Even if it has a few drops every now and then), the graphics are better... It's like a highly polished version of the already highly polished original game.

 Zero-G areas were re-designed, now you get free movement when you float, just tap L3 to take off the ground, and L3 again when there's a floor beneath you to land. You can even shoot while floating!

 While the Ishimura was fun to explore, this new game has more environments and more variety, since you are not contained to a single ship, but rather, you start off in a civilian space-station, so you'll get to explore an apartment complex, a store and even a Unification Church. It's not better nor is it worse, it's just different, which is a good thing since it makes both games have their own identity while sharing the same gameplay.

 Enemies are deadlier and require different strategies. In DS 1 you could pretty much shoot your way through the game, but in this one enemies seem to have more varied patterns and ways of approaching you, so it's not as simple as it used to be. For instance, the brutes were fairly simple to take out in the original, but now Stasis is pretty much required to defeat them, heck, Stasis is now a vital part of your armament. The game feels tougher as a whole, which isn't a bad thing considering how easy the original was.

 The original game was a Resident Evil kind of Survival Horror, y'know, one in which the focus is more on the action rather than the actual survival. While ammo and healing supplies felt a tiny bit more sparse and the combat was tougher... It can't be denied that there's a lot of combat in this, and the game pretty much expects you to clear every area of enemies. Heck, there are a ton of very action-packed set pieces, such as having to dive into a falling train and a few others, this game is quite bombastic in that regard. And Isaac? He gets a few witty and not-so-witty remarks, as well as a few one-liners worthy of any action hero.

 The story is sorta there, I think the set-up is more interesting than the plot itself, but it's not as endearing as the first game's trope extravaganza, nor is it as interesting as the one in Extraction. At least the game has some great environments.

 I think Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are equally good, but in different areas. There's a certain charm and magic that the first game had that this one just can't repeat, however, from a technical stand point this game is much better, the controls, the combat and even the explorations feel much tighter and polished. So, yeah, I don't think it's necessarily 'better', but it's just as good and yet another must-play Survival Horror classic. 

9.0

Game #864: Dead Space

 Cut'em 'n' chop'em

 The plot has Isaac enter the USG Ishimura, a ship that requested aid, only to find it infested by zombie like creatures. Oh, and his girlfriend was part of the crew. The game follows every trope and cliche from Horror/Sci-fi movies and games, sharing more than a few plot points with RLK: Run Like Hell. Still, I liked it, Cliche pastiches are not necessarily bad if they are well executed. This plot is simple and doesn't try to be more than what it is, thus ending up being quite solid.

 It's amazing. Just a few minutes of gameplay were enough to realize how great the game was, from the ambiance to the gameplay. I'd put it alongside Bioshock, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 as one of those mainstream must-play games of its generation.

 It's pretty much an evolution of the Resident Evil 4 formula, like Evil Within and Resident Evil 6. It has an over-the-shoulder camera that puts you right into the action, but you can aim and shoot while moving. While it is survival horror, you are pretty much expected to kill and murder everything and anything that comes your way, at least on the Medium difficulty Setting. When it comes to Survival Horror I'm usually a big hoarder, but I had healing and ammo to spare... so much so that I actually started selling my healing supplies for money.

 Money is one of the best thing about the game, alongside Power Nodes. Power Nodes are rare items that can be used to enhance your armor and/or your weapons. The game rewards you constantly for exploring and defeating enemies, either with ammo, healing supplies, money and said Power Nodes, and then you can invest the latter two into getting even stronger. In order to open up most valuable items in the store you need to find Schematics, which will then allow you buy the really good stuff. That said, I spent all my money on Armor Upgrades(Different upgrades than the ones you get with Nodes) and extra Power Nodes. I also purchased a few weapons, the only way to get other weapons besides your basic gun, but I preferred carrying a few but enhanced weapons over getting everything.

 Combat is built around severing limbs, that's the ticket if you want to make short work of your enemies. Also, it seems they are more wont to dropping goodies if you kill them quickly through severance of limbs. Stomping on dead bodies with R2 is sinfully fun.

 You get a few bonus powers, which consume a separate energy gauge, Stasis and Kinetic Pull/Push. Both are used, mostly, to solve some very simple puzzles, buuut they can be used in combat too. I didn't use them too much, didn't need them and the gunplay was good enough.

 The game has two gimmicky areas: Zero-G and Vacuums. Sometimes, they come together. When you exit the ship, or if there's a hole in the room, that creates a vacuum. In a vacuum you must move quickly lest your oxygen runs out. These areas are fairly simple, and if they expect you to explore there are usually unlimited free oxygen refills around. There were a few tense moments where enemies would try to get in my way as I dashed as my oxygen ran out, but nothing to write home about. Zero Gravity areas lets Isaac walk on ceilings and walls, you aim with your gun and press triangle to zip towards the wall you are aiming at. They are a bit clunky, but are decent reprieves from the basic gameplay.

 I love how most chapters end and begin on a tram. On each chapter you are sent to a different section of the ship, with various sub-objectives to complete. Once you are done you return to the tram in order to go into another section. It's very repetitive, but I found it charming.

 The worst part about the game are two turret sections, the first one is surprisingly tough, the other one is just annoying.

 Once I picked up the game I couldn't stop playing it, it's REALLY good and a lot of fun. Beneath its gory and gruesome exterior lies a very elegant game with very polished gameplay and ideas that work well together. I do feel like this is a true classic and a must play of the PS3/X360 generation.

9.0

Game #863: Bravely Default

 Final Fantasy's forgotten brother.

 For all intents and purposes, Bravely Default is pretty much Final Fantasy. The names of the spells and items, the job system, the four crystals... everything is here sans the FF title.

 It's really fun. The Bravely Default system offers some interesting opportunities, by using Default you 'lose' a turn, although it's more like picking 'Defend' since your defenses raise, but you get a Bravely Point(BP), up to a threshold of 4. You can then use BPs to get extra turns, up to three extra turns since each turn costs 1 BP. You don't need to stockpile BPs, you can simply use your future turns, which means you'll be left with negative BP and must rest up to three turns. This makes grinding fast, and boss battles quite fun. Oh, and battle animations can be sped up, pretty nifty!

 The game looks beautiful. At first it's a bit quaint, with what seems to be hand drawn backgrounds, but they are actually made up of both 2-D art as well as a few 3-D assets. This is one of the very few games that actually look better with the 3-D on, everything pops and looks quite pretty. That said, it has a very grey and brown color palette, not unlike Final Fantasy IX or Vagrant's Story, and I'm not much of a fan... but turning on 3-D seems to liven things up a notch, making 3-D even a better sell.

 Back when the game first released, during the PS3 and X360 generation, microtransactions were pretty much in every game, so of course you can pay to win. By pressing Start during battle you can act at any time, yes, even during a boss' turn. The catch is that you need SP, one per action, and you get SP by leaving the game in sleep mode, 8 hours a pop, or.... by paying with real money, which is ridiculous.

 The job system is your standard Final Fantasy fare, every character can pick any job, each job has a separate level, and you can equip a sub-ability from another job. Say that you want a White Mage that can defend himself? Put Black Magic as the character's alternate ability. Each job must be leveled up separately. Going back to Final Fantasy, all the classics are here, and if they aren't you can probably find an analogue. Every characters' outfits change with each job, which is pretty cute.

 The job system is very robust. Besides the secondary job ability, you also get a passive-ability system, initially you only have 1 slot, but the more crystals you save, the more slots you gain. This made it so I would find myself gaining new abilities and thinking "Hey! This could synergize really well with this other ability from this other job!", so it makes you want to use various jobs to min-max your perfect class.

 Levels up don't matter, not really. Leveling up only increases your HP and your mana, your stats depend on your job level and your equipment. This kinda sucks because if you want to try out a new job it means starting out with a really weak version of your character.

 There are Tales-styled 'party chat' optional events every now and then, and they are pretty neat, it's fun seeing the characters interact between each other. Edea is adorable, Tiz and Agnes are cute and Ringabel... is a generic anime 'pervert' cliché who I didn't really like. I think it's possible to pull off the pervert stereotype right, but in this case they failed.

 There's a 'rebuild Norende' mini-game of sorts you can access at any time, you send villagers to rebuild and strengthen shops, which can then allow you purchase bonus goodies. Problem is... you need to go online every day to get new villagers, otherwise the time requirements get ridiculous, there are at least 3 99-hour events, and the only way to get it done faster is by using more than one villager. For my playthrough the servers were still online so I managed to get a tiny workforce, but a few years down the line this mini-game will be pretty much useless unless you take long, long breaks from the game.

 The game did get a bit boring midway through chapter 4. The encounter rate is pretty high, although admittedly you can lower it on the options menu, as well as the difficulty setting. But even then, it got tough because the escape rate isn't very high, and enemies swarm you. By the lava dungeon it was impossible to keep my mana, I had to use mana to heal and to deal optimal damage, even though my Tiz and Edea Swordmaster combo was dealing a ton of physical damage. Random encounters just got too taxing. And while you don't need to grind since what really matters is your party composition, that's a bit of a lie, because you have to grind each job level to get your abilities and make them useful, and if you want to try out a class it might mean investing XP and time into a class you don't like or won't give your character the abilities that'd match the way you want to build him. Keeping your equipment and your spells updated, as well as mana potions if you need them is very expensive, so you have to grind for cash. What you get is a very slow paced game, that also turns into a rather large time investment. Maybe I should've switched the difficulty setting down to easy....

 It says a lot that guides recommend turning off encounters in order to conserve MP and HP. I shouldn't have to tamper with something as basic as the random encounters for the game to become fair.

 A bit of a spoiler, but needs to be said... after you hit chapter 5 you get to do everything again. A sort of world reboot happens, and now you can do everything in any order, with things having changed slightly, alongside the fact that your party remembers what happened. It's padding, and the worst kind. And after you defeat everyone again?.... you have to do it all over again, once again, with a few minor changes. And then... you guessed it, all over again. TO be fair, on every repeated cycle you only need to defeat 5 specific bosses, the others being optional, but fighting bosses again helps makes sense of what's going on. The fifth and sixth cycles get a bit more interesting because these bosses come at you in groups, but by then it was too little, too late, I was already uninvested.

 You have to awaken the same four crystals like five times, right? Well, every time you need to engage in the dullest minigame of mashing X. But you can't just mash X while you look at something else, because characters will chime in, and you have to press A to advance the dialogue. Jesus christ.

 The penultimate boss is incredibly cheap. It can deal humongous amounts of damage with little effort, so if you didn't level up the right jobs... boy, are you in for a surprise. And not a fun surprise. As of this point in time, I haven't defeated this boss yet, but I'm not gonna give up yet. I've seen 95% of the game already, so I felt comfortable writing this.

 I really wanted to like Bravely Default, I really did. I love turn based RPGs, so this was right up my alley, but I can't say I did. I don't like forced grinding in my games, and while you can tamper with the difficulty it doesn't change the fact that some of the end-game bosses are downright cheap, even on the easiest difficulty setting. And having to replay so much of the game? Dude, that just ain't right. Square can do better, and should've done better. And this game was so promising that I'm gonna dive into the sequel shortly.

 5.5

Game #862: Jump Force Deluxe Edition

 Well, they can jump pretty high.... 

 Jump Force Deluxe Edition is the latest, although not bestest, anime arena-fighter from Namco. Originally released for PS4 and XOne, this version takes a hit in the graphics department, as expected, but includes the first season of DLC in the cart.

 As I said before, it's yet another 3-on-3 arena fighter like One Piece Burning Blood, One Punch Man or J-Stars Victory before it. While there are three fighters per team, they share a life gauge and the energy gauge, so there's not much point to swapping characters around. You have your basic weak attack strings and a strong attack string, super moves, grabbing and the whole gamut.You can use a stamina gauge to chase down an enemy or evade an attack when getting hit. There's an Awakening Gauge, Awakening being a temporary super mode that usually changes how your hero looks, plus passive buffs. Each character comes equipped with three super moves, and an ultimate that can only be used with the Awakening Gauge, and Ichigo no longer kills himself with his Ultimate move.

 This is one of those games, like Xenoverse, that have a boring HUB town instead of quick and simple menus. If you want to fight another player or fight the CPU at your leisure you have to go to the right counter. I wish this trend would die, it's not immersive, it's just a waste of time, like developers working with the Wii, making abilities and functions that would've been perfect for button presses require waggling the Wiimote around.

 The artstyle really is something else. It bothered me back when the game was first announced on PS4/XOne, and it's still creepy. Characters keep their original artstyles, like, say, huge eyes, spikey hair and/or sharp chins, but they are rendered with realistic cloth and skin textures, making for some incredibly weird looking characters. They also keep their proportions, which means that characters like Hitsugaya and Deku, who should look about the same, look completely different. Heck, Deku, a young teen, is BIGGER than friggin' Kenshin Himura, a young adult. It looks awful. A cellshaded filter, alongside simple and colorful textures would've looked much, much better. 

 Cutscenes run very poorly, the first cutscene in the game struggles to reach the double digits, and the character models have some weird glitches, but as far as the game plays? It's very smooth for the most part, and while the framerate can tank when it gets hectic, it quickly reverts to 26-28fps, so I'd say it's pretty stable and plays pretty well. The game was made with the PS4/XOne in mind, so downscaling the graphics will obviously end up making everything look blurry and jaggy, but it's not too bad. Honestly, I think the game survived the downport quite well.

 The character creator is surprisingly fun. You get a lot of hairs, tattoos/scars and clothes from the characters in the game, as well as a few original clothes only your created character can wear, so you can create some pretty cool characters. A few cloth pieces are not compatible with others, like most pieces from Saint Seiya, but it's not too bad. You can equip most super moves from most characters in the cast, although a few abilities can't, for instance, anything that requires a Stand(Jotaro, Dio), a Sharingan(Like Kakashi, Sasuke or Madara's Susanoo) or summoning a tailed beast because you don't actually have a tailed beast inside you. It gives you a lot of variety when selecting your super moves.

 There are a few wasted slots in the roster, for instance the three original villains. On the plus side, they were designed by Akira Toriyama... but that doesn't mean they are good designs, I mean, this is the guy that was scolded by his Editor twice because his Androids weren't threatening. I think they should've stuck to Jump's properties exclusively when picking the true villains for the story, because these guys are lame and I would've much preferred more characters from more series. Not that the story is particularly good, I really didn't like the theme about Manga heroes and villains duking it out in the real world. Having the characters deal with their own worlds colliding would've been much more interesting I think, and it wouldn't get in the way of you getting to create an avatar.

 I'm a bit conflicted on the character roster. On one hand, we get a lot of really cool characters from some of the series I like the most in Jump. But, and it's a huge but, this game covers about half as many series as J-Victory Stars did. As far as a Celebration of all things Jump go... the other game did it better. This game is pretty lacking as far as 'weirdos' go, and, mind you, I prefer having THIS roster made up of mostly cool character, but I can't help but feel like the game's scope got reduced and this isn't as much a tribute to Jump as it is a giant appeal to fans of the popular series.... like me. And the DLC is only adding to the series already featured in the game. Why don't you give me Kinnikuman(And maybe Kinnikuman GREAT or Phoenix, although that might be asking for too much), Allen from D.Gray-Man, Gintoki from Gintama, Toriko from, well, Toriko, someone from Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn... y'know, the classics, the oldies and the ones that were popular a few years ago.

 To be honest, the story mode feels bloated. There are a ton of story missions, plus the DLC missions that came bundled in for free, plus tons of Free missions. The problem is... the gameplay is very basic, so there's not much in the way of creativity when it comes to fighting. There are too many battles to take part in, and every single battle feels the same. Except that sometimes, maybe, enemies are so overleveled they can take huge chunks out of your life bar with a few moves. But even in the harder missions, baiting the CPU into making mistakes is fairly easy and you can pretty much apply the same strategy in every single fight.

 They went a bit too far with attention to detail. Dio can't fight in Daytime stages and Sanji can't deal damage to female fighters... and this is to the game's detriment, making Sanji useless against a few characters is incredibly stupid, not the kind of details that make for a fun game.

 A few battles got stuck on the post-battle loading screens at 84%. Luckily the game is very generous with auto-saving, so quitting the game and then reloading lets you continue right after the fight. Doesn't excuse the fact that the game gets stuck during loading, but at least you don't lose any progress.

 Eh... Jump Force is alright. It's functional, and you get a lot of popular characters from a a decent amount of popular series. But, the art-style is really off-putting, and I really hate how they didn't go for uniform proportions with the characters, which in the end makes everything look really ugly. The fighting itself is nothing to write home about, but for an anime fighter it's serviceable, you have your flashy attacks and your simple combos. Still, the story is very uninteresting, which is a front I'm sure they could've done better in, and while I usually prefer a game having lots of stuff to do, in this case it's just fat with no substance.

 4.5

Game #861: Streets of Rage 4

  Ah! I missed invisible walls.

 The beat'em up genre is one of the most repetitive there are, and yet, I've always enjoyed them. I've always been more of a Final Fight guy, having only ever finished Streets of Rage 1 and not quite so long ago, but that wouldn't stop me from giving Streets of Rage 4 a fair shake.

 The graphics are very interesting. Usually I hate this non-pixelated sprites that look vectorized... but in this game they look REALLY good. The artstyle is good, the animation is good and the spritework is very appealing. That said, the proportions with background characters are all over the place, it's incredibly offputting when your characters look tiny in comparison to the characters that work as background decor.

 Can't say I particularly liked Axel's beard, it really doesn't fit him. Blaze looks great, but Adam is the returning guy that looks best, he had a very basic design in 1 before he disappeared from the series forever, but this new reimagining is pure class. The two new playable characters, Cherry and Lloyd are boring. You can unlock the classic SOR 1, 2 and 3 versions of most characters(Roo and Ash are missing, the latter is surprising since the game is quite woke(in a very non-annoying way, so I'd say it's well done)), but they retain their original sprites, so they look out of place in the game. It's not a bad extra, but I can't stand playing as these pixelated entities on this newer, crisper backgrounds and fighting crisper enemies. Characters retain their abilities from their origins, albeit tweaked to work with the new mechanics, which is pretty neat.

 The gameplay is interesting to say the least. As far as offense goes, it's a winner. They added juggling to the game, you can continue combos if you hit an enemy before he touches the ground, which opens up a lot of possibilities. Landing hits feels really good too. Special Moves are a bit weird, you get three of them: X, Move anywhere+X and jump + X, and instead of costing you health, like most beat'em ups, or having a cooldown before costing health like SoR 3, it instead consumes recoverable health. This is marked in green over your health bar, and it means that you can recover this health by landing hits, but if you get hit you take the damage and the green health is gone for good. I didn't really like this system, particularly because what SoR 3 was so much better. There are also Super Super Moves that use Stars, items that can be fought throughout the stage.

 On the other hand, the game offers you no defensive options. You can't block, you can't dodge and most characters can't run or dash. Pretty much exactly like the original Final Fight, but in Final Fight most enemies weren't as mobile or had as much super armor as they get in this game. A lot of times I'd get hit mid combo while I tried to jump cancel or something, and trying to walk away from incoming damage is almost impossible because everyone is just SO slow. And don't get me wrong, the game isn't impossibly difficulty, but you almost have to play in a very cheesy way for it to be fair. Enemies have a lot of super armor? Abuse diagonals and throw them. Or don't commit to a full combo and walk away if you didn't trigger an enemy's hitstun because he had super armor. The higher the difficulty the more boring it gets. There is a way to avoid damage, but it's risky: Press X and use a super move. Super moves have invincibility frames, so you'll avoid damage...at the cost of turning some of your health into green health. I can't say I like that, it feels like I'm getting punished because I don't have the right tools to avoid incoming damage. And don't get discouraged after the first couple of bosses, those are the worst as far as super armor goes, the next bosses are much fairer.

 The game is hardly impossible, and if it gets too hard you can just take a blow to your score and use an Assist to get extra lives and/or Star moves. Story Mode is fairly lenient too, infinite continues and you start every level with 2 lives, at least in the Normal difficulty setting.

 The game is just the perfect length, having 12 different stages. You get split-screen co-op, a player vs player fighting mini-game as well as an unlockable Boss Rush and Arcade difficulty setting that limits your continues to 1.

 At first I finished the game on Normal, while using Assists to help me clear the game, with Axel. Then I played it again, but on easy, with Blaze and, then, I played it again but with Adam back on Normal to see how much improvement I made. And the game did get progressively more fun each time I played it and got used to how it worked. I think it also helps that Adam can actually dash forward, one of the only two SoR4-type characters that have faster means of mobility other than walking.

 In the end, I think Streets of Rage 4 is really good but not without flaws or things I think could've been done better. Regardless, it's the perfect game to scratch that never ending Beat'em up itch I'm a victim to.

8.0