With Heritage Of War being my entry point into the Growlanser series, I was eager to try its sequal but since it never released outside of Japan, it never got released in English. Thankfully though someone who goes by the name of Risae released a translation for the game allowing English speaking individuals such as myself to experience the game’s narrative and understand all of the menus. The translation is as you would expect from a fan translation, it’s pretty rough in spots with some noticable errors but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience as it’s still easy to understand what is being said.
Now the thing about Growlanser Precarious World is that despite being titled “Growlanser VI” it feels more like an expansion pack for Growlanser Heritage Of War, the fifth game in the series. For this reason, I highly encourage checking out my review of Growlanser Heritage Of War and if you haven’t finished playing Growlanser Heritage Of War or want to play it at some point, you may want to do so before continuing on with this review. Much like Pokemon XD Gale Of Darkness, Growlanser Precarious World is a sequel that re-uses almost all of the assets from its predecessor, so you can expect to see a lot of familiar locations and listen to music from the previous game, including the final boss theme of all things which feels really awkward given the fact that it plays so often in this game. There are some new locations of course as there’s a new continent to explore but most of the soundtrack is reused from the previous entry, with even some of the new towns reusing tracks from Heritage Of War. That’s not to say that there aren’t any new tracks as there are a few that were added to the game and the new tracks are enjoyable ones. I particularly like the new dungeon theme they added (titled Left Behind according to the translation), which addressed one of my criticisms with the previous game’s soundtrack having bland dungeon music.
The field music, while not as catchy as the one in the previous entry is also a good one and is quite relaxing to listen to while roaming around, those who prefered the catchier theme of the previous game (titled Daydreaming) will be happy to know that it returns in Precarious World when roaming through the original game’s continent. Visually speaking though, there is absolutely no difference besides the new assets that have been added. So it still looks like a late Playstation 1 game released in 2007, which may explain why this was the final installment in the Growlanser series but Satoshi Urushihara’s artwork is as good as ever.
Speaking of which, the combat system of Precarious World is exactly the same as the combat system of Heritage Of War. Absolutely nothing was changed about this system so all the fun and frustrations you experienced in Heritage Of War will return here. Just like in Heritage Of War, some of the missions are downright cruel while others are an absolute cakewalk. I found the missions that occur during the game’s half way mark to be the most difficult personally as you find yourself doing back to back missions with ridiculous defeat conditions that will certainly test your patience. There are also a few stealth missions thrown in as well which I personally wasn’t a fan of but thankfully the game does give you some leeway by giving you a warning if you are dangerously close to being seen but the signt range is rather ambiguous which makes it difficult when you consider how tight the patrol routes can be. The section where you have to sneak past a bodyguard to investigate some crates was rather annoying for me in particular as even if the bodyguard isn’t facing you, he can still detect you if you are within a certain range of him and like I said before, the range is ambiguous so it lead to some needless trial and error to get through.
While the plate system remains moreorless the same as it does in Heritage Of War, the ability to manually change the plate’s flow has been removed. Instead the flow is dictated by your character’s equipment, which means there are two flows now instead of just the one. This means that you have to be a little more careful when changing your equipment, though you can purchase switcher charms to change the position of the plates to put them into the flow should you wish to and they are reletively cheap. While it may seem like a minor inconvenience, it doesn’t affect the game all that much and having two flows allows you to level up more of your plates at once as well as giving you more bonuses, which is a good trade off.
What I am mixed on however is the new gem synthesis system. While the ability to combine multiple accessories into one is cool and all, I do think that they could have come up with a better way of doing it. It’s tedious having to constantly remove your equipped gems just to add more gems to strengthen them, then reequip them again until you get a new gem, then you have to repeat the same process over and over again, which is tedious as hell. Given the fact that the plate system alone requires a lot of management, keeping up with the gem synthesis on top of that is a huge undertaking that even I found myself unwilling to put myself through. So I spent most of the game with low level gems since I didn’t want to have to go through the tedious process of re-equipping them constantly to synthesize, not to mention that without impact potions, you have to enter battles to create impacts, so you can’t just synthesize immediately without impact potions. On top of this, the game likes to throw gems at you like candy, as well as letting you make gems with materials, which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the goddamn inventory limit. So get ready to have to constantly filter out all of your gems upon acquiring new ones.
Inventory management sucks
It should also be noted that there is a lot and I mean a lot of missable content in this game. Now while the same could be said for Heritage Of War, it’s even more of an issue in this game as even the game’s bonus dungeon can be completely missed if you didn’t finish its side quest prior to certain events occuring and that’s before we even get to the character side quests which also have a crap ton of easily missable stuff in them. If you’re looking to get everything in this game then a guide is an absolute must. Even with a guide, I still failed a lot of side quests and some of the character’s ultimate weapons since I picked the wrong dialogue choices in conversations, which should give you a good idea what it’s like doing them without a guide. Conversely in Heritage Of War, I managed to get absolutely everything on my first playthrough. I cannot stress how much I was kicking myself when I figured out I locked myself out of getting a character’s ultimate weapon, it’s a good thing I’m not a completionist, because if I was, I’d be livid.
Now the story of Growlanser Precarious World is a lot less grounded than its predecessor and this comes at the cost of it adding needlessly generic and crazy concepts to a narrative that didn’t need them to begin with. I wouldn’t say that the game tarnished the narrative of its predecessor but it was a bit of a shame to see the story take such a radical, yet unoriginal turn, especially considering the fact that Heritage Of War’s story was particularly well crafted. It’s definitely not a terrible story by any stretch, just not one that lives up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor. I think the pacing of the story is definitely on point though as it maintains your attention throuhgout, just like it did in Heritage Of War. I think a lot of that is owed to the missions and how their objectives tie in with the narrative as they add a personal stake to your character’s success in their struggle. While it can be annoying to watch that stupid NPC get killed, causing you to fail the mission, knowing that it’s a possibility makes the game feel tense as you are always monitoring the situations closely to prevent casualties or other disasters from occuring and this makes you feel more involved in the overall experience than your average JRPG as it challenges you to do the right thing as opposed to just focusing on beating the enemy while leaving your comrades for dead. The same applies to Heritage Of War also.
You can still be a dick though
The characters are likable enough but I didn’t find them to be as interesting as Heritage Of War’s cast. The good news is that the previous game’s cast will occasionally make appearances in the game and some of them may even join the party temporarily as guests which is nice. There’s also a nice surprise that fans of the previous game will no doubt be happy about but I won’t spoil what it is, let’s just say that there’s no shortage of fanservice in this game. Growlanser Precarious World’s story is rather plot focused and there’s quite a lot of exposition to explain things as the game’s narrative likes to make things extra complicated in order for the plot to make sense, not to mention the fact that the story likes to throw a lot of deus ex machinas at you which kind of cheapens the experience a bit, especially given how grounded its predecessor was. With all that said however, I don’t want to paint a negative picture of Precarious World’s story because it is still an enjoyable story that will at the very least keep your interest from beginning to end. If this was an anime or manga, my criticisms would certainly carry more weight to them but this is a videogame and therefore, the story is sufficient enough to deliver what is expected from a JRPG. Just don’t get your hopes up and expect the story to be on the same level as Heritage Of War’s, because it just isn’t and that’s perfectly fine.
Despite having a few gripes with Growlanser Precarious World, I still enjoyed my time with the game for the simple fact that I enjoyed Growlanser Heritage Of War and Precarious World is basically more of that. I think for that reason alone, I can easily recommend this game to most people who enjoyed Growlanser Heritage Of War. Just don’t go into it expecting it to be as good as Heritage Of War because if you do, you will be disappointed. Just keep your expectations in check and you should enjoy this game. If you didn’t enjoy Growlanser Heritage Of War, I can say for certain that you won’t enjoy Growlanser Precarious World either as it really is just more of the same for better or for worse. At least it’s not a train wreck like some direct sequals, I’m looking at you Tales Of Symphonia Dawn Of The New World. While it may be sad that the Growlanser series ended here, I can at least say that it ended on a good note with Precarious World.
Nice to know the fan translation is in REAL English, not that fake English the Americans use.
Plot/Story: Good
Visuals: Satisfactory
Music: Satisfactory
Gameplay: Great
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Easy – Medium (depends on the mission)
Gogandentess, the greatest swordsman of all demons – Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny (Mcfarlane Toys)Kotaro Fuma – Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny (Mcfarlane Toys)Oyu – Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny (Mcfarlane Toys)Magoichi Saika – Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny (Mcfarlane Toys)Freya (Left) – Valkyrie Profile (Square-Enix Trading Arts) Master Chief (Right) – Halo (Jazwares) Vehicle: Warthog – Halo (Jazwares)Red XIII Tifa & Barret – Final Fantasy VII (Final Fantasy VII Polygon Figures)Collette Brunel – Tales Of Symphonia (Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collectors Edition)Lloyd Irving – Tales Of Symphonia (Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collectors Edition)Gwendolyn – Odin Sphere (Flare)Kratos Aurion – Tales Of SymphoniaAtelier Iris 2 Felt & Viese Music Box (Atelier Iris 2 Premium Edition)Giratina – Pokemon PlatinumWaddle Doo – KirbyLilia – YS Book 1 & 2 Lezard Valeth – Valkyrie Profile 1 & 2Cassara – Two Worlds II (Two Worlds II Royal Edition)Alicia – Valkyrie Profile 2 SilmeriaCliff Fittir – Star Ocean Till The End Of TimeLenneth And Silmeria back to back. I’d have Hrist in the back but sadly she doesn’t have a figure, nor does she have her own game like these two.Nel Zephyr – Star Ocean Till The End Of TimeArngrim – Valkyrie ProfileLucien – Valkyrie ProfileOrc Raider (Riding Wolf) – Warcraft (DC Unlimited Deluxe)Miki Sauvester – Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness (Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness Ultimate Box)Arthas Menethil (Lich King) – WarcraftMedivh – Warcraft (Toycom)Tichondrius – Warcraft (Toycom)Blasphemy – Chaos Legion (Epoch)Malice – Chaos Legion (Epoch)Guilt – Chaos Legion (Epoch)Sieg Wahrheit – Chaos Legion (Epoch)Siela Riviere – Chaos Legion (Epoch)Anduin Lothar – Warcraft (Jakks Pacific)
Well here it is, my videogame figure collection. With game collecting being pretty miserable nowadays as the prices are super inflated, I prefer to collect figures now as they can usually be found for cheaper on the second hand market than videogames where everything is stupidly overpriced. Plus I think having a figure library is nicer than having a massive shelf of games I’ll never play because I don’t have enough time to play them. I also like having them on display as they’re nice decorations. Having run a store selling toys in the past, including action figures, it inspired me to have my own personal collection of figures from things I am into. This is what lead me to collect all these figures. These figures serve to represent my gaming history and some of my favorite franchises. I recommend reading below if you want more details on the figures and my takes on them.
Please excuse the blurryness of some of the images, I am not the best at camera work and I’m using a phone camera without a tripod. Sorry about that.
Goes without saying that this would have to be one of the figures in my collection as it is the only figure of my favorite videogame character in existence and it’s the Valkyrie Profile 1 version of the figure with the green jacket since a Valkyrie Profile 2 version doesn’t exist unfortunately. This is a trading arts figure released by Square-Enix and these figures are rather small but the Valkyrie Profile one’s in particular are kind of bulky by comparison to other trading figures, at least for the guys as they put a lot of attention towards making all of the creases into the clothing. They did a great job in replicating the original artwork with this figure. There are a few errors with this one in particular though as I did get it second hand, the most noteworthy being the brown paint from the boots that somehow ended up on the bottom of his cloak. Nevertheless, while it might not be a figure of the highest quality, I am glad to have this in my collection solely due to the fact that it is my favorite character.
Given the fact that she is the main character of the first Valkyrie Profile and is one of two versions of Lenneth in existence (the other being a statue that goes for around 3 grand), this figure is extremely saught after. Like Lezard I got this one second hand but I haven’t noticed many flaws in this one. The face sculpt is definitely the best of the bunch, though it does help that her eyes are closed, her armor is also fairly detailed too. The pose is based on her original art which is the front cover of the first game but her eyes are completely closed unlike in the artwork, probably so they didn’t have to work on the eyes. The sword and sheath were a little tricky to attach but other than that, this is probably one of the better of the Valkyrie Profile Trading Arts figures.
The dude voiced by Eric Stuart in the original english dub who simps for Lenneth Valkyrie due to her looking like his childhood friend, who just happens to be voiced by Megan Hollingshead… coincidence? For those who don’t know what I’m referring to, Lucien shares the same voice as Brock from the Pokemon anime, while Lenneth shares the same voice as Nurse Joy from the Pokemon anime and those of who who have watched that anime knows that Brock is a simp for just about every woman he enounters, particularly Nurse Joy. Lucien has the same dynamic towards Lenneth but unlike Brock, he doesn’t hit on every woman, he’s mostly just obsessed with Lenneth, sorta like Lezard but in a slightly less creepy way. The shiny red armor makes this figure particularly striking, I also like the chainmail underneath, the face is well… ok, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about it. The figure is considerably easier to put together than Lenneth since the sheath is easier to place and his sword slips in easier than Lenneth’s does. Currently the cheapest of the Valkyrie Profile figures, probably because he is the only one that doesn’t appear in Valkyrie Profile 2 (thats what I like to believe at least).
Ok so let me explain, this is the ivory colored version of the figure, each of the trading arts figures comes with an ivory version which is basically just 1 color. I didn’t mind this personally and the figure is a lot more affordable in ivory than the full color version and I wasn’t really a big fan of the big red lips she had in that version, which isn’t noticable without color. This is actually the chaser figure of the set, probably because she didn’t appear in the original game. She only shows up briefly in the PSP remake during a cutscene and she was the main protagonist of Valkyrie Profile 2, so naturally she doesn’t fit in with the others. The biggest problem with this figure is that it doesn’t have any pins in her stand, hence the reason why I put that white tack underneath, to keep her still. I also put it under her fingers because they look dangerously fragile. This is the shortest figure of the bunch and one of the more sought after ones. There are a few blemishes here and there despite being a brand new figure and these blemishes were on it right out of the box (you can see the card behind show how to put her together). Despite that though, it has all the details that matter, like all the Valkyrie Profile trading arts figures, I like all of the little creases in the clothing. Now for some reason, they gave her double eyebrows, just like the infamous Evil Goddess Silmeria figure that would come with the Artifact Box, I have no idea why they did this. She also comes with a sword but she cannot grip it and it doesn’t fit on the stand so I put it in front of her on some tack. Not the most ideal figure but it’s the only figure of Valkyrie Profile 2’s protagonist in existence so it definitely belongs in my collection.
Ok so this figure was a pain in the ass to assemble, like Alicia this is the Ivory version of Arngrim but his stand comes with pins. The bad news is that not only does his big fucking sword take up so much space but assembling it is a nightmare. The hole that the sword fits into is an extremely tight fit and I managed to get it half way in but as you can see, it got stucked half way and won’t budge, I can’t even remove it. The problem stems from the fact that his sword attaches to his hands which are separate from the main body and there is nothing to support the pressure applied to push the sword into the hilt so yeah, thats why it looks like this. Despite that though, the figure is still rather detailed with the muscle tone, the scar and the creases all looking great. It’s just a shame that the sword won’t fit in. This is another one of the rarer figures, particularly in color, which is why I got the ivory version, I got it alongside Alicia so it was brand new, you can see the card behind him with the assembly instructions.
Ok I know you’re probably confused looking at this but there’s a reason why Freya is riding shotgun with Master Chief. It’s not because she wanted a ride to Valhalla and ended up on the multiplayer map version instead, it’s because the peg in the leg used to support her on the stand is broken and because of that I fixed it together with tack, though it’s temperamental. Because of this, her stand is unusable and I couldn’t just lay her randomly next to the rest of the figures but I purchased this Warthog for this very reason, I wanted to use it as a means of storing additional 2-4 inch figures and given the fact that Freya has the size and stance to fit into the car seat, I thought it would be a good fit. As you can see though, it’s not a perfect fit as she’s not able to sit on the seat, rather she is just laid there with her head sticking out like she’s out for a joyride. Kinda fitting if you ask me. She has a pretty good face sculpt and her clothing has all the details you’d expect, replicating her original artwork rather well but there are some blemishes on her nonetheless. Master Chief looks great by comparison. I feel that the visor paintjobs can very in quality on the world of Halo Jazware lines but this one in particular looks great. Loads of detail on this figure, I never played Halo Infinite so I’m not used to seeing chief look all banged up but he definitely has a lot to like about him, lots of metallic scuff marks really give him that war torn look and he also comes with an assault rifle, which I stored in the back with the turret though you can’t see it in this shot. The Warthog came boxed in with the Master Chief and Assault Rifle accessory, I was shocked that the Assault Rifle was even included in the first place given the fact that this thing has a turret. For a giant piece of plastic, they certainly did a great job with the paintwork and all the metallic scuffs, just like chief this vehicle has been given a lot of attention to detail and even has a decorated interior. You can also see the suspensions behind the wheels and all the framework beneath. Definitely a great addition to the collection for sure and serves multiple purposes.
Kratos Aurion – Tales Of Symphonia (Kotobukiya)
I just had to have this one as Kratos is my favorite Tales character. This is the Special weapon version which comes with the Flamberge, the sister weapon to the Vorpal Sword. I like the fact that it is entirely translucent in the center and was definitely worth the extra money I paid to have it over the normal weapon version as it looks rather striking, especially since it contrasts with his attire. I always liked the design of Kratos’ torso area with the eyes, they have been replicated extremely well here. The cloak isn’t fully attached to him and is softer than the actual figure but it secures under his head nicely, even if it is loose. I didn’t put the peg in on the sheath because it was a bit finicky but it fit into his hand so I just left it detatched.
Cliff Fittir – Star Ocean Till The End Of Time (Kotobukiya)
Star Ocean has 2 lines of figures, the Kotobukiya line and the Square-Enix line .The Square-Enix line are the trading arts figures which are basically the same sort of thing as the Valkyrie Profile figures while the Kotobukiya ones are a lot bigger and come in a display box as opposed to a blind box. There are also play arts figures by Square-Enix but there are only two of them and they were from Star Ocean 4 sadly so I didn’t really care to get one of those. The Kotobukiya line are exclusively for Star Ocean 3 figures only and there are 6 of them in total, I own 2 of them and Cliff is one of them. The reason why I got Cliff is because out of all of the Star Ocean figures that were made, he is my favorite character of the bunch as the rest of my favorite characters never got a figure made for them which is a shame. It’s pretty faithful to his in game look with loads of creases and a great muscle tone too. The pectorials are a little boxy but it’s not that big of a deal, the gauntlet and the shirt are particularly detailed and the face sculpt is pretty solid too, great figure.
Nel Zelphyr – Star Ocean Till The End Of Time (Kotobukiya)
This is the other Star Ocean figure I have from the Kotobukiya line. As you can see, this figure was purchased second hand, the blades are kind of warped which is a shame but this figure actually has articulation in the arms and wrists which is a nice touch, making the warping a little less noticable at certain angles. It’s a very loose articulation though but it’s still nice to have. Being a second hand figure it is a little bit worn in certain areas and was particularly dusty when I first got it so I had to clean it up a little. Nel has quite possibly one of the best face sculpts out of all the figures in my collection, her face looks like it came straight out of a high definition version of the game, I hesitate to say that it beats Gogandantess though, that face is top tier and is much harder to replicate but this is second best for sure. I also like the bleeding rat head underneath her foot, it’s a nice touch that didn’t need to be there but thankfully they added it in for that extra slice of brutality.
Lilia – YS Book 2 (Atelier Sai)
I got this figure bundled in with Alicia, Arngrim and Lucien via shared postage, so I got a pretty good deal on her. This was the chaser figure for the series 1 Atelier Sai YS Blind Boxes and comes with the dress she war in the earlier versions of YS book II with the teal dress and as someone who prefers the PC Engine/Turbografx version of YS II which shows an animated cutscene of her at the beginning, this figure serves as a homage to the PC Engine/Turbografx for me as it reminds me of those versions of the game. I thought it would be a great addition to my collection for that reason. The eyes are a little questionably huge but then again, we are talking about a character that was animated in a 1989 game and reappeared again in the later PC Engine YS games, though only shows briefly in the intro scene for YS III, she also plays a major part in YS IV though her dress is entirely blue in that game, making this her old school YS II appearance mostly. The bird attatched to her kinda reminds me of the bird Karna sends your way in YS IV, making it weird to see in Lilia’s arm but that’s what it reminds me of.
Giratina – Pokemon Platinum (Day 1 Bonus???)
Ok so Giratina I got with my copy of Pokemon Platunim, I don’t know how but I must have got the game on release by coincidence and they handed me him as a day 1 bonus or something, it was in a store, I didn’t order it online or anything so I can’t say much about it other than it was an extra thing that came with the game which was a nice surprise, too bad the game in question was the game that made me lose interest in the Pokemon series. It’s a bit dusty as you can see, pretty hard to get rid of the dust since it’s trapped inside all the clouds. Gonna be honest, I don’t really care that much about this figure, might sell it someday who knows? I got it for free though so I can’t exactly complain.
Waddle Doo – Kirby (TOMY)
Waddle Doo was a TOMY capsule figure, though it was a blind one, I managed to decipher who it was via the holes in the bottom of the capsule. It’s a vinyl figure, a bit tatty in some areas but for the price I paid for it, it’s a good looking vinyl figure. I always liked Waddle Doo and his beam ability the best, so he represents the Kirby series in my collection.
Arthas Menethil (Lich King) – Warcraft (No idea what manufacturer this is, bought it loose in a store)
Ok so there are 3 Arthas figures, the one from Toycom with the Lord Farquad looking face, the DC Unlimmited statue with him holding his sword outward on an icy platform and this one which I randomly found in a store with no box or anything, didn’t know who manufactured it but it looked detailed enough so I picked it up and boy does it not disappoint, there’s clearly a lot of work put into this figure with lots of dents and etching in the armor. The face sculpt, while limited in view due to the helmet, is shockingly great. Frostmourne looks great too, looks just as good if not better than the life sized replica that I own. The chainmail has a nice texture to it and the cloak feels soft too. The only flaws with this figure are the lack of a stand (though he seems to stand up rather well) and the shoulder plate on his left arm is a little bent at the top a little. Other than that though, a rather striking, top quality figure.
Tichondrius & Medivh – Warcraft (Toycom)
Tichondrius was my very first videogame action figure and with it being the only Dreadlord figure in existence, it’s very special to me. The Toycom line of Warcraft figures are kinda hit or miss but Tichondrius was definitely one of the better ones if not the best in the whole line. I love all the little gruesome details on his body like all the veins and warts on his skin to furhter emphasize his demonic appearance. The figure isn’t perfect though as the left shoulder armor is missing its gold trim but the right shoulder armor has the gold trim. This figure was like that the moment I got it out of the box so I’m guessing it was poorly stored by the previous owner. There’s a surprising amount or articulation on this figure. You can adjust the wings, rotate his head, move his arms and legs… though it’s not recommended to adjust his legs if you want him to stand as his hooves won’t be straight enough if you move them carelessly. In fact his hoof will actually move outwards if you move his legs forward too much which looks silly given the fact that he has slanted calves, so it’s important to have him crouching at all times, like all Dreadlords. As you can see, I have him in a pre-chokeslam pose as a referance to the time that Balnazzar chokeslammed an abomination onto a saw. Given that Tichondrius is the leader of the Dreadlords, I presume he too can probably chokeslam one too… or maybe Balnazzar is stronger and Tichondrius needs to lift more. Though clearly as you can see, he has some pretty huge muscles, so he’s not skipping the gym. I mean technically all dreadlords have great physiques (we don’t talk about Reforged Detheroc here). As for Medivh, well he is also from Toycom but he’s from the battle figures line which are considerably smaller and have no articulation (which is a problem since his staff is longer than his legs so he can’t stand up unless you put him on the edge… which I later did, so he isn’t in the same position he was in on the image anymore, now he’s kinda teetering on the edge of the shelf so his staff doesn’t get in the way. It’s the size that mattered most to me since he scales remarkably well with Tichondrius to show just how big Tichondrius is compared to a human, which I felt was appropriate. Sadly though, Tichondrius isn’t the tallest figure in my collection, that would be…
Miki Sauvester – Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness (Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness Ultimate Box)
The fact that Miki of all things towers above Tichondrius is absolutely hilarious to the point that I had to place them side by side to showcase just how absurdly huge she is:
This is the only scale figure in my collection and for good reason, scale figures are absurdly expensive and take up way too much room. The reason why I have her in my collection is because she came with the Ultimate Box for Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness and is the only scale figure ever made for a Star Ocean character, meaning she towers over all the Kotobukiya and Square-Enix trading arts figures. She is also the very last Star Ocean figure ever made up to this point (maybe in 2025 we might get a figure of JJ, who knows?) and the only Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness figure (guess the game flopped so badly that it wasn’t worth investing in a broader figure line). At the very least, Square-Enix didn’t scrimp on this figure. Though collectors edition figures can often be infamous (as we shall touch on later), Miki is actually well designed. I do notice that she comes with the same blue coloured stand as the Kotobukiya line, which leads me to think that maybe Kotobukiya manufactured this figure but it is also possible that Square-Enix manufactured it themselves since they do manufacture figures themselves after all. Maybe it’s a nod to the Kotobukiya line, who knows?
This figure was a surprise gift from my parents which I thought was very kind of them. Everyone loves raiders, I mean it’s the giant statue right outside the gates of hell (Blizzard Headquarters) for a reason. Raiders are the best Orc unit in Warcraft 3 because they can ensnare enemies for fantastic crowd control and annoyance, as well as being able to steal resources from buildings with pillage. Did I forget to mention that they deal siege damage too? Wonderful unit and this orc has both a bloody cleaver and a bloody axe to show Azeroth he means business. Now there’s a few areas which needed touching up with paint (part of which I did myself). I don’t know if that white area around his inner jaw is his bone or is just chipped. Regardless the figure looks fine enough to me, lots of detail on the stand alone, it’s pretty huge too but that puny orc is only half the size of Miki and has to have his wolf hold him up to get close to her size. The axe does kinda make the figure as a whole slightly taller though but not by much.
Evil Goddess Silmeria (Yes that is what they call it in Japan) – Valkyrie Profile 2 (Valkyrie Profile 2 Artifact Box)
Supposedly one of the ugliest figures ever made (I’ll let you be the judge of that), Silmeria is considered to be of bootleg quality and is often compared to the bootleg Saber figure that people in Japan worship like an evil god (hence the name) as well as the Kosmos figure from the Xenosaga 2 Premium Box. So this figure has a satanic cult following or something. In any case, this is the only Silmeria figure ever made and for some reason, the armor is painted in a lavender colour as opposed to the bright purple that her armor is supposed to look like, though all the details are there, it’s still Silmeria… almost. Like Alicia she has double eyebrows but unlike the other Valkyrie Profile figures, Silmeria actually has articulated elbows, so you can actually put her arms in all kinds of poses if you want to. She also has articulated wrists too which is a pretty neat feature for a supposedly cursed figure. She also has her own unique stand that is different from the trading arts line that makes her stand out, not to mention her size is slightly taller than all the other Valkyrie Profile figures as you can see in this image:
Lenneth And Silmeria back to back. I’d have Hrist in the back but sadly she doesn’t have a figure, nor does she have her own game like these two.
I think a side by side comparison shows that despite the fact that one is a so-called bootleg quality while the other one is a saught after figure that is beloved by many, there really isn’t much difference in quality between them. Sure Lenneth’s face is better sculpted and doesn’t have double eyebrows but her eyes are closed, Silmeria’s aren’t. I’d like to have seen a Lenneth figure with open eyes to see if her figure could do better in the eyes department. If anything though, color scheme aside I’d say the main downside of the figure is the shape of the face, it’s supposed to be round but on the figure it’s sorta trapesium shaped with rounded edges and chin. I think that’s what people were mainly complaining about, besides the color scheme of course. Other than that, I can’t really fault the figure at all. I think having her back to back with Lenneth is a good way to showcase her in the collection, because it represents just how different Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2 are due to having completely different protagonists with their own unique perspectives affecting the nature of their respective games.
Lloyd Irving – Tales Of Symphonia (Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collectors Edition)
I should mention that the PAL region of the Tales Of Symphonia Collectors Edition was a disaster, to show you what I mean, take a look at the manual we got:
Pay close attention to the top right, yeah you see how it starts of straight then progressively goes downwards. Someone at Namco Europe can’t use scissors properly it seems
Thankfully the figures that came with the collectors edition aren’t that bad. Sure there’s a few messy paintjobs in some areas but it’s forgivable, unlike the rest of the collectors edition. At least the faces look nice as you can see. I placed him right next to Kratos for reasons… let’s just say you should play the game yourself to find out why I did that. The collectors edition also came with…
Colette Brunel – Tales Of Symphonia (Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collectors Edition)
Easier to assemble than Lloyd, not too much to say here that hasn’t already been said previously, Colette comes in the same package as Lloyd, it’s good to have 2 figures at least. Well technically the Collectors Edition comes with 4 figures… but we don’t talk about those other two figures.
Ok so I don’t have the premium edition for Atelier Iris 2 but I managed to snag the music box from it for dirt cheap and I can sorta see why it’s cheap, not that it’s a dealbreaker. The music box works well, Felt looks great, Viese looks like some random bum that Felt found off the street that sorta resembles Viese but… well, let’s just say there’s a reason why you don’t leave figures out in the sun. her hair colour is mysteriously brown and her outfit is salmon color instead of red. They really dropped the ball on Viese but for the price I paid, it was worth it since it’s a working music box after all and Felt still looks great. Stand is a little tatty but there’s no issues with the color. If I bought the same thing in perfect condition it would have cost me £70. I paid a fraction of that price for it.
Red XIII Tifa & Barret – Final Fantasy VII (Final Fantasy VII Polygon Figures)
There are many figures of Final Fantasy VII characters but they are mostly of the remake. These figures however look exactly like the Final Fantasy characters I remember, blocky with sausage link arms. Final Fantasy VII was the first traditional JRPG I owned, not counting Pokemon and I got Red XIII who is my favorite in the set. Tifa and Barret are a bonus. These were all blind boxes. They’re very small, almost the size of the Tales Nendoroids, Barret is about the same size as them. They look exactly like the original character models which is great.
Cassara – Two Worlds II (Two Worlds II Royal Edition)
This statue is of a character that you see early on and at the end of Two Worlds II but you barely ever see her for most of the game. The royal edition itself was £20 for me so it was a pretty cheap figure when you consider what I paid. Not much to say about it really, it’s good for what I paid and the staff was easier to attach than Miki’s which was a little more cumbersome, the whole thing fits nacely on a pretty tall stand with the game’s logo on the front. I like Two Worlds II so I thought it would be a good thing to showcase the game, very underrated WRPG.
Gogandentess, the greatest swordsman of all demons – Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny (Mcfarlane Toys)
This might quite possibly be my favorite figure in my entire collection, this figure looks absolutely fabulous, look at that face sculpt, it also has a lot of articulation and a stand which is great considering the fact that most of the Onimusha mcfarlane toys don’t come with one. The only downside to this figure is the fact that I can’t get his sword to fit inside his hands, this hands are kinda soft to allow him to sort of hold it but I can’t squeeze it through so he’s just barely clutching onto the pommel because that’s as far as I could put his sword through. I mean you can’t have the greatest swordsman of all demons without his trusty sword. Just like Tichondrius’ wings, his cloak has that cool flesh-like texture and it’s also very soft too. The same goes for his fauld, both of which are loose and not directly added to the figure mold. Unlike the in game model, his armor is a more realistic grey colour as opposed to being pure white which I actually think is an pimprovement. This figure is fantastic and it only cost me £20. Definitely one of my best finds by far.
Ok so this figure isn’t as good as the Gogandantess one sadly. First of all, one of the daggers is missing sadly (it fell into a gap in the floor boards when I was assembling it and is lost forever) so I only have one of them. The shoulder pads are loose but aren’t really attached all that well so I had to use some Miliput to connect them properly. The textures are nice though and the figure still mostly resembles Kotaro so it’s still a decent figure but probably the weaker of the Onimusha figures. Also some of the joints won’t artigulate and are locked in place for some reason. He also comes with shurikens but they won’t attach to him so I didn’t see the point in taking them out, what would you do with them? I suppose if you wanted to make a scene or something where they’re laid out on the ground I guess… but I don’t see the point personally.
Basically the Oichi of the Onimusha series and is way cooler than the one from Samurai Warriors who rights with that stupid cup and ball. The sword has a nice paintjob that makes it look worn and well used. The shield has dents in it from all the blows it has recieved. The face, while not looking exactly like the in game face of Oyu still looks rather nice. Like with Kotaro, the textures on this figure are fantastic too. Had some trouble making her stand so I put some tack under her feet to keep her stable. Some of the articulation joints are too stiff to move sadly so I had to make do with the elbow and wrist joints. Hands down the best part of this figure has to be the sword though, just look at that thing, it’s fantastic, very detailed for an accessorry.
Another Onimusha 2 mcfarlane figure with stiff joints that won’t move… *sigh* at least the figure itself is really nice. I absolutely adore the textures on his jacket, they did a great job at differentiating it from the rest of the textures, there’s some nice muscle sculpt too. The necklace is loose and can move around. His gun is very detailed but unfortunately when I got this figure the gun came with damaged crosshairs. Thankfully I had some milliput which fixed the damage. The gun can attach to his hand but it’s very loose so I just placed it in front of him. He also comes with a knife for some reason, he never uses knives in game, it’s not even an attachable bayonet for his gun, which makes me question why they added it. I didn’t put it on him for that reason but it is in the box.
Gwendolyn – Odin Sphere (Flare)
Ok so this figure is a weird one because instead of a stand, it comes with a stool and it can be hard to get her to stay on the stool. Other than that, this figure is really well made. I like how they used translucent material to make the wings as well as the metallic paint on the plate armor. The face has that chibi look which isn’t usually my thing but it’s a much better size than the other figures of her. The figure is part of this huge maury’s kitchen set and is scaled to fit that but I only wanted the figure so that’s what I got. It wasn’t cheap but it’s definitely a high quality figure for sure. I just wish there was a more reliable stand than just the stool but I managed to get the figure stable somehow.
Sieg Wahrheit – Chaos Legion (Epoch)
The lord of the edge himself. This is one of the many Chaos Legion Epoch Capsule Figures I got my hands on, I managed to get the full set but they’re really small. Sieg was a bit of a pain to assemble, as you can see the hole the stand’s peg goes in is tight so it’s not fully in there and looks silly. The same goes for the peg between the torso and the legs, hence the gap, really tight. The hardest was the sword, I don’t know how they expected us to attach that thing but I have it very loosely connected somehow. The Jacket for some reason is made of a rather sticky material but it isn’t solid. The design on the back of the jacket looks good though. It’s a very basic figure but what do you expect from a capsule figure, you get what you pay for. It’s small enough to be easy to store and that’s what matters to me. Regardless I had to have a figure of Sieg, I mean come on he is the lord of all edge, how can he not be here?
Siela – Chaos Legion (Epoch)
Like I said, I got the whole set, so here is Siela, she was very easy to assemble since she doesn’t have any separate parts to put together, just plop her onto the stand and she fits perfectly. Not too much to say here, it’s Siela, a character who never shows up outside of cutscenes, I suppose the little details on the bottom of her dress are nice but man unless you’ve played Chaos Legion for as long as I have, you probably won’t even know she even exists, it’s shocking they actually bothered making a figure of her. In fact they managed to make the whole cast (except for Thanatos), though many of them were in a different set, which I don’t have.
Guilt – Chaos Legion (Epoch)
Arguably the best of the Chaos Legion Epoch capsule figures, Guilt be looking brilliant here. He wasn’t too difficult to assemble either. His sword is really nice and is attached to his arm, making it an easy fit compared to Sieg’s sword. Getting the pole that holds him up can be a bit tricky though.
Malice – Chaos Legion (Epoch)
Wasn’t too much assembly needed here but attaching the second part of the crossbow was a bit tricky. I forgot that Malice didn’t have a face so when I took him out of the packaging, I didn’t know which way he was meant to stand till I saw a peg, then I realized that he doesn’t have a face just like the characters from The Grandstream Saga. How does he aim when he can’t see? Perhaps it’s supposed to be ironic or something?. The Tales Nendoroids behind him are a good size comparison to show just how small these are.
Blasphemy – Chaos Legion (Epoch)
Ok so I had trouble with this one, you see one of the screws in the bomb fell off while I was assembling him, they’re very easily broken if you apply the slightest bit of force to them, so I had to glue it back on. While you can’t see it from here, I positioned him right in front of the Warthog… because I thought it was funny that Master Chief was going to run over a bomb Legion and cause a massive explosion killing everyone.
Anduin Lothar – Warcraft (Jakks Pacific)
Got this one for £5.00 which was a steal. A lot of people trashed on these figures, calling them ugly and given the fact that the Warcraft Movie wasn’t very popular with the masses, these figures aren’t very sought after but personally speaking, I enjoyed the Warcraft Movie and I like this figure, screw all the collector snobs that trash on this cheap figures. Just because it’s not as detailed as all the huge scale figures you own doesn’t make it a shit figure, especially considering how drastic of a difference the price is to those figures. This figure does have articulation in many areas, the shoulder pad under his right (left from your view) arm is a bit damaged at the top so I made use of the aritculation to put him in a pose befitting of a man about to initiate a charge. The shield issurprisingly flexible too, there’s a bit of neck swivel but not too much because of the hair in the way. The same goes for the leg joints, while they can go back, the fauld acts as an obstacle, preventing you from moving the joints too much. Ultimately though, for what I paid I couldn’t be happier. I wanted to put him on the top shelf initially but I didn’t want to put him near my pricier figures in case he fell over and damaged them, so I put him behind the Warthog. A bit random I know but I dunno, maybe he moonlights as a mechanic or something?
So there we have it, that’s my figure collection as of February 2024. I’m shocked I managed to get everything shelved and that they fill up most of the space. The image above should show the sizes of each figure so you can get a good idea of how they scale with each other. I’d say I’m pretty happy with my figure collection as it is right now, i’ve got at least 1 figure from each franchise I care about (franchises that have figures that is) so it’s good to have some representation of videogames in my living space. I do have some other figures but they aren’t videogame related so I keep them in another area.
As we all know, the 2000’s was a time where seemingly every game franchise tried to cater to broody rebellious teenagers, with even games like Jak 2, Pokemon Colosseum and Shadow The Hedgehog taking their respective franchises in a whole new direction to pander to this crowd. Atelier was no exception, so out with the wholesome innocence and in with the edge! Now somebody at the board meeting clearly took the phrase “we need to give this game more edge” too literally as the solution to this was to simply name the protagonist of the game Edge and boy oh boy does he live up to his name.
Of course it is, JRPG characters get all the cool names.
Now like all edgelords, they each come in different varieties. You have the angry ones, the broody ones, the flamboyant ones, the snarky ones and of course the cool, calm and collected professional ass kicker who doesn’t say a word but you know that they are the coolest motherfucker on planet earth. Well Edge Vanhite is on the milder side of the edgeometer, he’s a dude with a no nonsense attitude and he’s a bit of a dick but deep down he has a heart of gold, you know, that kind of edgelord. He’s kind of like a milder version of Ryudo from Grandia 2 but without the wisecracks and a little broody. Of course hes accompanied with not one, but two hyperactive super peppy happy go lucky girls to balance things out so you can clearly see what sort of shenanagins you’re going to encounter in this game’s story.
Atelier Iris 3 is split into two parts. You have the main story and sort of like an interlude where you do missions unrelated to the story that have their own side stories. As you’d expect, this brings about a lot of padding and you are forced to partake in these “missions” to progress through the story, which may seem kinda tedious, and it is but the game does try to put some effort into them by giving the missions their own side stories revolving around the game’s NPC’s whom you are helping out. While there were occasionally some funny moments, I felt that these missions do more harm than good as they bog the game down needlessly. On top of this, because these missions happen in an interlude between chapters, it’s easy to forget the events that occurred in the previous chapter due to all of the missions being completely irrelevant to it, making it difficult to keep up with the main story, not that it matters because the main story isn’t really all that brilliant to begin with. In a way it kind of reminds me of how Resonance Of Fate handled its progression as just like that game, it feels like a slog getting through each chapter due to the sheer volume of fluff to get through. This is without a doubt the biggest issue with Atelier Iris 3 as a whole and it is the thing that will ultimately make or break the game for you.
Stop being so edgy Edge!!!
Each mission will take you to one of five alterworlds to explore and these worlds are huge, filled with lots of secrets and items to harvest. The weird thing is though that each time you enter one of these worlds, there’s a time limit. I personally never found the time limit to be too taxing but it is a strange design choice nonetheless. The worst case scenario is that you get sent back to town when the timer runs out and while it may seem like a bit of a nuisance, it doesn’t prevent you from revisiting a second time. I find that once you know your way around the alterworlds, it does get a bit easier to traverse through them quickly and upon gaining new abilities you can use your powers to access new areas, sort of like a metroidvania game in the sense that it encourages backtracking. Given the fact that alchemy is the primary focus of these games, getting players to backtrack to find secret recipes and items to create new items is a good idea and with each mission requiring you to backtrack to each area anyway, it doesn’t feel like an additional chore to go off the beaten path to discover something new, even with the time limit in place, I find that the game gives you plenty of time to explore the alterworlds.
One interesting thing about the alterworlds is the fact that there are different colored enemy blobs that trigger encounters. You have blue blobs for easy enemies, red blobs for tougher enemies and white blobs which are kind of the in-between. While attacking white and red blobs will trigger encounters, attacking blue blobs will kill them instantly and may drop materials, this doesn’t give you any experience or money though but it can be handy to bypass all the easy battles. There are also giant red blobs which are kind of like mini-boss enemies but not quite mini-bosses, they’re just enemies that are slightly tougher than the others and typically have a lot more health. There are also some even bigger red blobs that are tied to hunt quests that may show up in certain areas. My issue with these enemies is that the game doesn’t mark their location on the map, only the area that they are in is mentioned, so you have to go looking for them yourself which is a pain. Thankfully these quests are optional and aren’t required to progress through the main story.
One area that Atelier Iris 3 particularly excels in is the combat. Atelier Iris 3’s combat works closer to that of Mana Khemia than it does the previous entry, Atelier Iris 2, which felt more like a Grandia game. There is a turn order that can be manipulated like in Atelier Iris 2 but it works a little differently as you have attacks that have knockback properties that can push enemy turns back a bit. Attacks build up a charge gauge which can be spent on special moves like in Atelier Iris 2, however Atelier Iris 3’s new burst mode not only fills your charge gauge up to max but it also increases the damage dealt by your attacks by an insane amount. Just like the charge gauge, all of your attacks increase the burst gauge and this includes special moves too, encouraging players to play more aggressively to fill the burst gauge. I really like the whole “thinking outside the box” approach to combat that this brings about as it discourages players from spamming the same moves repeatedly and instead consider the situation as well as the amount of charge they have. It should also be noted that weaknesses and resistances affect the rate in which the burst gauge rises, so it may be better to use abilities enemies are weak to to build the gauge up faster. If players fail to fill the burst gauge however, the enemy attacks can decrease it so you can’t always count on getting burst mode but if you do, it will make you absurdly powerful to the point that it pretty much lets you steamroll most encounters.
Given the fact that this is an Atelier game, it goes without saying that there’s a crafting system. Atelier Iris 3’s crafting isn’t too different from Atelier Iris 2’s crafting, you simply combine ingredients together to make an item but can also replace certain ingredients to make completely new items or add another property to the pool of properties available for the item. Properties are effects that are applied to the item such as being able to gain an extra hit with a regular attack if applied to a weapon or the ability to regenerate health as well as stat boosts. It’s a very simple system but the ability to change ingredients and choose properties makes you think a little more than the average crafting system you see in most games nowadays. Those looking to craft absolutely everything will spend an insane amount of time in this game hunting for ingredients and recipes as there’s quite a lot to be found, as well as certain recipes requiring Iris to visit certain places to come up with alchemy ideas.
While the combat, alchemy and exploration may be fun on paper, I feel that the overall structure of the game lets it all down as you spend a lot of time going back and forth between each alterworld doing all kinds of errands, which can get pretty monotonous after a while as they have you visiting the same places constantly. Each time you travel to an alterworld, you have to start in the exact same spot and work your way through to the area you need to be in to do each quest, sometimes the game is generous enough to let you fast travel to places but other times it feels like the game is sending you on a wild goose chase for some mundane errand just to add even more needless padding, expecting you to fight all the enemies and explore along the way. This just doesn’t work for a game this long as you get sick of it after a while. In an era where fast travel is mocked for being the norm, Atelier Iris 3 showcases the exact reason why it has become a staple in gaming to this very day. I do not see why the developers had to needlessly pad this game out, I could have settled for only having 5 alterworlds with all of their subsections as I honestly do not mind the idea of having few dungeons that are vast and full of secrets but for a game this long, it feels criminal. This game should have been 5 chapters long tops, the fact that I had to go through 10 chapters, having to follow the same structure for each and every one of them save for the final one is unbelievably absurd.
It’s a good thing that the game’s soundtrack is nice to listen to, because you will spend the entire game listening to the same few songs on repeat time and time again. While the music does change a little when reaching certain areas in an alterworld, some alterworlds have the same song playing throughout. There are some nice battle tracks too but like the alterworld tracks, you’ll be hearing them a lot, so they should be good. Now that’s not to say that the soundtrack is on the same level as Atelier Iris 2 and Ar Tonelico but there’s still a good mixture of catchy, serene tracks to accompany you as you bop around all of the alterworlds. The voice acting on the other hand is a mixed bag. On one hand you have Kirk Thornton voicing Ash, who is totally not Vergil, on the other hand you have the worst role that Jessica Straus has ever played, Nell. Now anyone who knows Jessica Straus knows that she tends to voice a lot of older characters in games and this is probably why. While her voice work for older characters tends to be pretty good, her voice work for Nell is rather grating.
Me if I have to listen to Nell’s voice ever again
Now this might be a weird thing to say given its age but Atelier Iris 3 might quite possibly be the best looking Atelier game I’ve seen in regards to visuals. I feel that the sprites hold up extremely well and while the landscapes are the usual blocky roads, there’s a lot to love about the aesthetic design of some of the backgrounds and clutter throughout the levels. I particularly love the design of the Grimoire Castle as you enter it, it has that absurd sense of scale that you’d expect from a Vanillaware game. Like the music though, you’ll be seeing the same locations often so it’s a good thing that the game isn’t lacking in the aesthetic department.
I think that Atelier Iris 3 has been widely ignored by the majority of people as while Atelier Iris 2 and Mana Khemia tend to get mentioned a lot, Atelier Iris 3 has been ignored. I think the structure of the game might be the biggest reason for this, that and the fact that the story, while servicable isn’t going to keep you on the edge of your seat, no pun intended. It’s definitely not a game that you’re going to want to binge through. You’ll find it a lot more enjoyable if you only play it for short sessions at a time, doing the occasional quest every so often but don’t expect to finish this game quickly and if you do, brace yourself for some serious burnout because you’ll have had enough of this game by the end, believe me. I think the same can be said for Atelier Sophie as well, though that game has way more problems than this one does and it wasn’t half as enjoyable as this game was. I haven’t played many of the Atelier games so I can’t compare them all but if you enjoyed Atelier Iris 2 and you want more of that, Atelier Iris 3 might be worth giving a try so long as you keep your expectations low. Atelier Iris 3 is still an enjoyable game, it just overstayed its welcome for me.
She might if she accidentally trips and falls backwards off the EDGE.
It goes without saying that Painkiller is my religion as I preach about it whenever I get the opportunity to do so and right now, I feel like preaching about Painkiller but I’ve already done an entire let’s play of the game as well as a review. So this time I will be ranking each and every level in the greatest first person shooter ever made from worst to best so that I can share with you my personal favorite levels in Painkiller. Now of course this list will include all of the levels in Battle Out Of Hell as well, so be sure to look forward to seeing those levels show up in the rankings. So without further ado, let’s begin.
35. People Can Fly HQ
Ok so this isn’t much of a level, rather a bonus developer’s room for beating Battle Out Of Hell on Trauma, there’s nothing exactly bad about it, it’s just that there’s barely any enemies to kill and they don’t even hurt you, the whole level is basically platforming to collect the souls of all the developers so there isn’t much to it really, though it should at least get mentioned.
34. Shadowland
Quite frankly, the final boss of Painkiller Battle Out Of Hell is terrible and is the worst part of Painkiller Black. Unlike in the original Painkiller where the Alastor fight was fantastic, King Alastor on the other hand is not. The fight lacks the spectacle that the original Alastor fight had. Now all you really have is a copy/paste of the original fight’s final phase but with a catch, you can’t actually damage him directly, instead you have to go through a really obtuse sequence, requiring you to take damage within one of the circles of the level, making a no hit run literally impossible for this fight, only then will a golem show up which may or may not make King Alastor vulnerable to damage, it’s purely luck based which is really annoying. Hands down the worst proper level in Painkiller Black for this reason alone
33. Pentagon
Remember the giant spider demon that appeared right at the end of Lab that you just killed? Well now you have to fight another one in what may quite possibly be the most boring level in the entire series, no joke, it’s just a small arena with containers littered around and some cannons, that’s it. At least Shadowland had an interesting aesthetic with all the ruined buildings, Pentagon is just kinda bland. While the boss may not be as terrible as Shadowland’s boss, it’s still one of the worst bosses due to the fact that part way through the fight, the boss gains a shield and you have to use one of the cannons around the level to break his shield. The game doesn’t tell you this of course and the cannon’s don’t always point towards the boss, so it can be a pain to find the correct cannon to lower the shield. To make matters worse, the boss launches homing projectiles which I can’t for the life of me figure out how to properly avoid besides using the containers as cover, to the point that doing a no damage run means you have to stay far back and shoot between the containers or you are guarenteed to get hit. Definitely not one of the game’s highlights if you ask me.
32. Swamp
So now we have our first level from the original Painkiller. Now this is nowhere near as bad as the other two boss fights in Battle Out Of Hell but it can still be really annoying, particularly on trauma. Basically you’re fighting a huge blob that walks around the outskirts of a swamp, you can’t shoot him directly of course, that would be too easy, instead you have to shoot the bubbles next to it to both damage him and eventually make him vulnerable but you only have a brief moment to hurt him before he turns back. When he reverts back to his invulnerable form, the strategy for the fight changes on the fly, now you have to shoot the bubbles in the air when they are near him, which makes him vulnerable again but to spawn these bubbles, you have to shoot the bubbless on the outskirts first, pretty obtuse for a boss fight in a game that’s all about mindless shooting if you ask me. Should you manage to figure all of this out, you will still need to deal with the nigh unavoidable attacks this boss throws at you. It will shoot a white orb that instantly kills you on trauma and tentacles that can kill you in 2 hits on trauma, requiring you to bunnyhop in a circular motion around the outside of the island to avoid them. It’s definitely one of the more frustrating bosses for sure.
31. Ruins
Ok so this boss is a little better since you can actually deal direct damage to his hammer right from the get go, though unless you actually aim for the hammer itself, you may not know this. The level is actually pretty cool, putting the havok physics to good use, trouble is that you can often get trapped in the debris which can be annoying to deal with. Not a bad boss but certainly not a brilliant one, once the hammer is destroyed you can simply shoot him directly and win, not much to it really, all you have to watch out for is the tremor every time he hits the ground with his hammer, since you can only avoid it by being airborne, though you can usually avoid this by bunnyhopping.
30. Enclave
One of the better bosses for sure, Necrogiant is the first boss the player encounters and it’s certainly an intimidating boss. It has quite a few moves at its disposal and has two phases. There’s plenty of ammo to be found around the huge level and there are also additional enemy spawns that show up part way, though they don’t drop any souls. Best of all, you can actually damage this boss directly at the very start so it isn’t obtuse like the rest. Only reason why this is so low on the list is because it’s a boss level and bosses aren’t really Painkiller’s strong point.
29. Tower
Arguably my favorite boss in the entire series. Alastor begins the fight completely hidden from view. As players grab the ammo, they can hear his screams in the background, eventually Alastor will suddenly emerge when the player least expects him to and flies across the tower where players can shoot him. He likes to sneak up on players and breathe fire next to the tower as well. Once his health drops, the fight isn’t over, Alastor smashes the floor beneath him for two additional phases where you fight him on the ground only for one final phase where he is at the very bottom of the tower, surrounded by pillars which he will drain energy from to heal himself. While he is draining, the statues can be destroyed by any weapon, allowing you to deny him of his healing, which lets you deal the finishing blow on him. I really like the build up of this fight, it truly is a spectacle, though the fall damage definitely lets this boss fight down as if you’re playing on trauma, it is impossible to survive all of the falls unless you land on the archways and pillars below, hence the reason why this level is so low on the list.
28. Atrium Complex
Atrium Complex is the first non-boss or developer’s room level to be mentioned on this list and it certainly isn’t a bad level by any means. Pretty much every level on this list from this point onwards is a great level, I just find Atrium Complex to be the least interesting thematically speaking. The level itself has a lot of destructible explosives to make combat more fun and chaotic, plus it still has that gothic aesthetic you come to expect from the Painkiller series, the level isn’t too long either. Definitely a great level for sure.
27. Forest
Now this level is only available to players that are playing on the Trauma difficulty and is without a doubt one of the game’s tougher levels. The atmosphere of this level is great, I really love the ruined archways with all the vegetation growing around them, the ambient music is great too when you’re not fighting, definitely one of the more underappreciated songs in the game. The battle music is great too of course, there’s tonnes of enemies too. The only annoying thing about this level is those damn witches, which are a pain to kill since they fly across the arenas at insane speeds. That and the fact that the level itself is very short, consisting of only 2 large arenas and one tiny corridor linking between them, hence why it’s so low on the list.
26. Underworld
Now there are two mineshaft stages in Battle Out Of Hell and Underworld is arguably the worst of the two as most of it is completely on rails with a really annoying tarot card condition, requiring you kill every single enemy in the level, including all the enemies that show up during the minecart ride which annoyed the hell out of me. The reward was worth it though, giving you a card which gives you 666 ammunition for every single weapon at the start of a level. Thing is though, I just found Underworld to be the less interesting of the mineshaft levels personally as it doesn’t really feel as iconic as its counterpart, Stone Pit, making it a somewhat forgettable level, I suppose you have the second half of the level which takes place in an underground tomb as well as tonnes of secrets to find for those who backtrack through the minecart sections of the level, which is cool and all, I just think that Stone Pit does a better job, which is why this level is so low on the list, that and that irritating tarot card condition.
25. Castle
The interesting thing about this level is how realistic the castle itself is, which is likely due to the fact that the castle itself is actually based on the real life Będzin Castle in Poland if it was coated in snow. The building itself looks dilapidated and run down, with lots of walls smashed inside, there’s also a few huts on the outskirts for storage and another, larger shack outside the central walls. The coolest part is the basement area which features both prison cells and a torture chamber, no oubliette’s though which I found to be quite weird but considering the fact that it was based on a real life castle, it’s possible that said castle did not have an oubliette. Fortunately, the Haunted Valley level in Painkiller overdose features all of the things that this level was lacking in, featuring a more traditional fantasy castle as opposed to a realistic one. Personally I’m more into the fantasy style of castle so I wasn’t really as big into this more realistic style Castle as I was with the Haunted Valley castle but I appreciated this level nonetheless.
24. Snowy Bridge
Yet another snow level and I don’t want to seem as if I dislike snow levels by putting them both on the lower side of the list. I actually like this level a lot and really liked the atmosphere of these alpine mountains which can actually be explored should you manage to get out of the level by accident, which I did. There’s both a brief cart ride and a cable car ride but you don’t need to take either of them if you don’t want to. I just thought it was cool to see these features. The only annoying thing about this level is the slippery ice and if you do take the cart ride, you’re likely to be hit by explosives making it a bad idea to use it. The cable car is also pretty hard to stay still on, so I found it easier to just walk on the cable itself. Certainly not a bad level but it’s not really the most noteworthy one either.
23. Stone Pit
So here we have the other mineshaft level and the moment you enter the second area, if you look up, you will see that you are at the bottom of a huge chasm. Unlike all the other levels in the game, this one has you climbing vertically up the shaft, using both ladders and elevators to navigate through it. The tarot card for this level requires you to find all the secrets and it’s quite fun to hunt them all down as many of the secrets are in caves that you can’t easily reach without a bit of tightrope walking. Trouble is that if you fall, it’s a one way ticket to the game over screen so if you’re afraid of heights, this level might not be the one for you. I just really enjoyed the concept of climbing to the top only to finally see sunlight at the end, for a penultimate level, I found this to be pretty cool, the battle music here is pretty awesome too.
22. Prison
This level is only available for people who play on either nightmare or trauma and takes place inside a more modern prison than the one in the basement of Castle. This level has a great mixture of destructible explosives, tight rooms and open areas, making it a pretty fun level to play through. It’s far from being an easy one though. Players ballsy enough to pick Nightmare difficulty are treated to a huge difficulty spike, featuring enemies with automatic chainguns and tommy guns which can be extremely deadly if they get the chance to hit you. The trick to overcomming this level is its design itself, with it being mostly tight, you can kill most enemies with the shotgun quicker then they can fire a single bullet and you really should since these guys really hurt. It’s all about using the level itself to your advantage to keep all the demonic inmates from escaping their confines and sending them straight to hell, courtesy of a giant sharpened piece of wood being shoved into their demonic ballsacks.
21. Train Station
The Train Station in Zurich is cursed, if you ever arrive there by train, please tell me if you see any world war one skeleton soldiers with bayonets because they are all over this level. Weirdly enough, this level starts off inside of a sewer, with enemies just waiting to be stuck to the wall with your stakegun. Sado and Maso commandos make their debut here and they both have devastating weapons, though the start of this level is more closed in making it easy enough to take them out with the shotgun. Sadly all this changes once you reach the actual station itself where you are finally given the most powerful weapon in the game, the rocket launcher chaingun and suddenly a huge army of world war one skeletons will charge at you, you know what to do, put those rockets to good use and make swiss cheese out of their pathetic corpses. The level gets harder once you reach the interior sections of the station as it is very open and filled to the brim with enemies that fire automatic weapons, definitely a challenging level for sure and the tarot card condition is one of the hardest, requiring you to never pick up a single soul. Quite frankly if you’re playing the black edition of this game, it’s probably recommended to get this tarot card on Trauma difficulty because otherwise it will be a pain in the neck to get. Why all these soliders entered the Swiss capital is unknown, maybe it’s the irony of Switzerland being completely neutral during the war, who knows?
20. Military Base
Now it wouldn’t be a first person shooter if there wasn’t a military themed stage now would it? Tanks make their debut here which is great since wooden stakes make short work of them. I don’t know how a sharpened piece of wood can blow up an armored tank but who am I to question Painkiller’s logic. I can’t help but love this fact though as it just goes to show how little of a fuck Painkiller’s developers give about realism and that can only be a good thing. Throughout the whole level you will hear some weird comm chatter and there’s even a communist flying saucer hidden inside one of the hangars. It’s a huge level too with lots of open space to move around in but it also features some tighter interior sections to mix things up too. There’s certainly some fun to be had here.
19. Lab
The tarot card condition is the best part of this level as it requires you to only use the bolt gun to get kills and considering the fact that the bolt gun is my favorite weapon in Painkiller Black, this is hardly a problem. What is though are the lab commandos that snipe you with hitscan shots from above but you are able to snipe them with ease thanks to the boltgun’s scope which you’ll almost never use since sniping is barely ever required in a fast paced shooter like Painkiller. The coolest part about this level is the techno music that plays during battle, which is pretty damn awesome, there’s also big breasted nurses that try to inject you with something nasty which you have to kill as well as doctors who breathe this weird gas at you. Plus the lab commandos appear to be wearing the EVA helmet from the Halo series… oh wait it’s a fishbowl, my bad, I get them confused all the time. I love the quirky enemies of this level and the area with the portal is pretty cool with all the enemy spawns, making for a great place to unleash the demon morph which thankfully doesn’t cause you to fail the tarot card condition. Right after that though you have to flee from a bunch of demonic piranhas only to encounter your first panzer demon before the level ends. What a level.
18. Colosseum
Colosseum is the ultimate breather level, it kind of reminds me of Blackrock Depths in World Of Warcraft with its atmosphere, maybe it’s because Blackrock Depths was heavily inspired by the roman colosseum? who knows? The interesting thing about this level is that it’s actually spelt incorrectly, that and there are booby traps in certain areas which would have cost it some points if bunnyhopping didn’t avoid most of them. If you are a fan of navigating obstacle courses in games then you’ll enjoy what this level brings to the table. It’s a pretty long one with lots of weak enemies to kill and really doesn’t pose much of a threat, especially when compared to the level before it which is the toughest level in the entire game. I really love the dreary atmosphere throughout this level, showing the darker side to what was a fun, family friendly show for the roman aristocrats to watch back in the day. It’s one of those levels that let you experiment with all of your weapons and just have some mindless fun, which can never be a bad thing.
17. Catacombs
Ok so the only things holding this level back from being higher on this list are the colour scheme and the last enemy of the level which is best described as a puzzle boss which can be killed by conventional means but it takes ages. Other than that I really enjoyed this level a lot, the structure of the level is nice and varied. It has a good mix of open areas and tight areas. The enemies are a mix between melee, ranged and explosive enemies so there’s a good mixture of foes to deal with and they all come together in the final section to make for a pretty tough, yet manageable encounter early on. The best part about this level though has to be the battle music, that guitar solo is absolutely fantastic.
16. Cemetary
The first level of Painkiller is a great way to start things off, I absolutely adore the eerie ambiance and the lighting is incredible, It blends in so well with the fog. It’s a very steady, easy going level for the most part where you are dealing with mostly melee enemies, easing you into the game but also teaching the importance of movement. There’s some nice secrets here too. I particularly love the building at the end with all of the hanging corpses, it really sets the tone for what’s to come. The battle music is also fantastic as well, really gets you pumped to start slaughtering demons.
15. Old Monestary
The penultimate level of the original Painkiller is an odd one. Unlike previous levels, there is no real set path here as it is open-ended. Instead it is a collectathon where you have to collect all of the pentagrams and you can collect them in any order you want. I simply adore the ambient music in this area, it kinda reminds me of Metroid Prime a little. It really gives you that feeling of “the journey is finally over” and kinda acts as the calm before the storm so-to speak as you make your way to the bowels of hell itself. There’s a nice variety of enemies here with a few tricks up their sleeves, some pretty interesting level design too with the whole island being filled with caves and fissures to navigate through, with the ruined monastery on top. It’s definitely a memorable level for sure.
14. Cathedral
This level is simply incredible. I absolutely love the sense of scale this level has, it truly is an incredible cathedral with lots of huge, open areas to fight in and the atmosphere is top notch. I particularly like the ambient music, it’s so hauntingly serene that I can’t get enough of it, it’s levels like this that make me want to take my fingers off the keyboard and mouse for a few minutes, just to take in all the incredible atmosphere, and they said Painkiller was just a dumb shooter, hell no, Painkiller is a work of art and this level showcases both the artistic merits as well as the strong level design of this game so damn well.
13. Docks
Without a doubt one of the game’s tougher levels, though thankfully you don’t have to play through it on Trauma difficulty because if you did, this would probably be the hardest level in the original Painkiller. The nail guns wielded by the hell bikers are devastating if you are unlucky to be hit by one of them but that’s before we even start talking about the rocket wielding hell angels which are even more devastating. Regardless, this level has a rather interesting structure, as you find yourself maneuvering through all kinds of industrial areas, using cranes to traverse between each location. There are a crap ton of secrets to find in this level, so much so that it would take ages to find them all and if you want to do so, you better be good at platforming because you will often have to hop from crane to crane to get to them at the risk of falling to your death. There’s just so much to like about this level but at the same time it can get pretty difficult.
12. Dead City
This level is absolute chaos from beginning to end. So many explosions, so many enemies, large panzer spiders show up to greet you that can take quite a beating, bombs on cars and under tables. This level is literally a nightmare and that’s precisely why I love it. It just about sums up what Painkiller is all about. In a way it sort of reminds me of something out of Hunter The Reckoning with all the hordes of zombies charging at you in an urban landscape, only much more chaotic by comparison. There are quite a few things to see here, ranging from a shopping mall, a car park and a museum. The only thing stopping this level from being higher on the list is the fact that the tarot card requires you to finish it in under 20 minutes which may not sound that bad at first but if you take into account the fact that there are tonnes of enemy waves and that panzer spiders have a lot of health, it’s going to take a while to get through it, so you kinda have to rush through this level in order to get the tarot card which is highly recommended as the tarot card you get is one of the best.
11. Hell
Of course I had to put Hell somewhere on the top of this list because this level may quite possibly be the greatest depiction of hell in any videogame ever. This would be on my top 10 if it wasn’t for the shitty final boss fight because it’s such a fantastic concept for a final level. When most people think of hell, they think of fire and brimstone but in this level, there isn’t really much of that, instead you find yourself in what might as well be a war museum because that’s basically what hell is in this game, it’s a depiction of all of humanities disasters frozen in time and mixed together into one gigantic catastrophe. There’s so much to take in as you roam through this level, ranging from crusaders besieging walls, world war one trenches, plane wreckages, ruined buildings, a sinking battleship and overlooking all of the carnage is a colossal mushroom cloud from a detonated atomic bomb, one of which can be seen lodged into the ground. Throughout the level you’ll hear screams from all the victims of these terrifying tragedies, swords clashing, soldiers panicking through the radio, demonic chants and people screaming for their lives as they try to escape a sinking ship. This level truly deserves its name and is truly a masterpiece, illustrating that no fictional hell could possibly match the terrors brought about by mankind.
10. City On Water
Venice has clearly seen better days, loads of hell angels and hell bikers have taken over the city. There is lots to see in this level and the design of it all is simply gorgeous. There’s loads of secrets to find here and you’ll need to find all of them to get the Tarot Card. You’ll have quite a lot of platforming to do if you want to get them all. There are many famous landmarks featured in this level, my favorite being the basilica of saint mark. I love shooting enemies off the edge and watching them fall into the water, it never gets old. I really love how interconnected this level is, it’s one of the things I always loved about Painkiller’s level design in general and it is at its best in this level.
9. Leningrad
If the final level of Painkiller is Hell, then this level might as well be its sequel, just a few footsteps and suddenly, the soviet national anthem starts playing as an army of russian soldiers, tanks and air strikes are ready to greet you. All the odds truly are stacked against you in this level, heck I’d even go as far as to argue that this level isn’t even fair as all of the soldiers have hitscan weapons that can deal insane amounts of damage per hit without armor. Despite having the urge to just charge in and mow down communists, it’s recommended that you keep your distance and pick them off from afar to avoid getting swarmed. This is without a doubt the toughest level in Painkiller Black by a mile and if you manage to make it to the second half of the levels you encounter suicide bombers who charge at you with c4 attached to their chest, eager to take you on a one way ticket to hell. Everything in this level wants you dead and the level spares nothing to make that happen. While it can certainly feel very frustrating to get through, it feels so satisfying when you finally finish it as you have essentially defeated both the russians and the germans simultaneously by yourself. It really emphasizes just how powerful Daniel Garner has become, showing that he is practically a one man army at this point. Easily one of the most memorable levels in the game for sure.
8. Orphanage
One of the most unsettling levels I have ever witnessed in a first person shooter. The atmosphere in this level sends chills down your spine. The fog, the swamp, it all sets the tone for what’s to come. Your enemies in this level are none other than the orphanage’s former victims, children who have become possessed by demons that set themselves on fire and chase after you, either that or they will try to shank you to death with knives. If you think that’s bad, eventually you will encounter bag babies who were placed into sacks to be used as fresh meat for the Preacher to be butchered. Those that have been stored for years have finally awoken and will detonate whenever they close in on you, intent on killing you. Then finally you have the Preacher himself, the first of many to appear in Battle Out Of Hell who chases you down with a huge meat cleaver, looking for another meal. To make matters worse, the preacher is invincible until every child has been slaughtered. So the only way to stop the preacher is to kill every single child in the entire level. Yeah you heard me, you’re going to kill children and lots of them. Have fun with that. This level is so twisted and sadistic it’s insane how they made it the very first level of Battle Out Of Hell, talk about making one hell of a first impression, for better or worse.
7. The Palace
This level has a ton of open areas and there are tonnes of enemy waves to fight. It’s one of the few levels where I got to use the electrodriver a lot due to the fact that there’s a crap ton of ammo crates lying around, containing lightning ammo as well as plenty of ammo for other weapons too. It’s one of those levels where you can just have fun shooting enemies with whatever weapons you choose, with minimal repercussions since ammo is so plentiful and the arena is so open, you are free to experiment. The level structure is interesting too, there’s a lava fountain that shoots molten rock out at random which can potentially hurt you if you get hit by it, there are also destructible pillars and some statues that shoot projectiles at you which can be destroyed. The enemies offer a reasonable challenge with the introduction of templars who can shoot you from afar and protect themselves with shields but it doesn’t feel too overwhelming, it mostly feels like a laid back massacre. The music for this stage is fantastic both in and out of battle, you have the arabic soundtrack outside of battle which perfectly matches the arabic aesthetic of the palace. I really love the aesthetic design of this level and how grandiose it is, the size and scale of the arenas only serve to make the level aesthetic all the more spectacular. The best part is the battle music which is noticably more laid back than the other battle tracks, it’s the sort of music that you’d listen to when you’re cruising on the highway in the middle of the night.
6. Asylum
Yet another unsettling level, though this time you’re not fighting children, instead you are fighting against brain damaged amputees as well as freaks. I really love the horrifying atmosphere brought about by this level, after playing through more hectic stages like Prison, Asylum is a harsh contrast as it feels considerably more tense. While you may not be dealing with chainguns or tommyguns, the claustrophobic level design brings about an entirely new challenge as you will encounter melee enemies that are kind of tricky to deal with as they can leap at you from off screen at any moment so you really need to keep your eyes peeled and be aware of your surroundings. These enemies like to feign death, only to leap at you when you least expect it. The design of these enemies is gruesome and considering the context of the game’s level, it’s kind of tragic to see them in action. These Amputees are not only brain damaged but they are missing limbs too and considering the blood on the walls, it’s possible that they were mistreated, having their limbs torn off by the abusive Asylum staff. Later on they can be found crawling on the ceiling which is even more disturbing. To top it off, these foes are accompanied with freaks in straight jackets, struggling to escape their shackles, some of these freaks are still undergoing Electroconvulsive therapy even after death and if they get too close to their victims, their heads will explode. These enemies love to hide behind corners just waiting for you to walk through so they can explode in your face for a nasty surprise. One of them is headbutting the door blocking the entrance to the building, clearly wanting to escape the horrors that were brought about in this terrifying level. Truly one of the greatest levels in a first person shooter to date.
5. Opera House
One of the more vibrant stages in Painkiller, the Opera House is without a doubt a visual spectacle with all the red carpets and artwork on the staircases, there’s a lot to see here. The level starts in the middle of an alleyway with several dumpsters, there are no enemies here but there is a secret area over the fence. I don’t know why but I have always liked this area as it feels both foreboding and calming. I don’t know why but an urban landscape in the middle of the night with no people around is kinda relaxing to me. You slowly enter the Opera House from behind the set, there’s a lot to see before actually reaching the main hall but when you do, it looks absolutely sublime. I love the colossal chandelier on the ceiling as not only does it look impressive but you can shoot it down for a massive white explosion. The ambient sound is accompanied with echoing voices, likely representing the crowds of people that would be watching the opera as well as high pitched screams from what could be an opera singer, to top it all off, the entire opera house has been invaded by Ninjas, yes you heard that right, Ninjas. I mean it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but that’s the point. You’d think you would be fighting ghostly actors or something but nope, that would be too predictable, let’s just throw in Ninjas and Samurai into the level because why the fuck not? It’s so absurd that I can’t help but love it. I mean I’m not sure where the connection is but who cares, it just gives me something to shoot and we all know that everything is better with Ninjas.
4. Factory
This is without a doubt the most definitive level in Painkiller, at least in regards to gameplay. While it doesn’t exactly have the gothic atmosphere, there is still a feeling of unease brought about by the ambient music. The biggest highlight of this level has to be the metal music that plays in every single fight. This is my favorite battle song in the original Painkiller by far, it really gets you pumped up for some carnage. There are tonnes of enemies in this level, many of which come armed with long ranged weapons so you have to be constantly on the move, shooting whenever you get the chance. This level is fast paced, frantic and extremely cathartic. Many of the arenas are open and there are countless waves of enemies to deal with in each one, just waiting to be blown to pieces by rockets. If you’re looking for some action packed mayhem, this is definitely the level you want to be playing.
3. Town
This is another level that reminds me of a dungeon in World Of Warcraft. If you’ve played Warcraft 3 then you probably remember the mission titled The Culling where Arthas had to purge the plagued city of Stratholme. In World Of Warcraft, this location becomes a dungeon, showcasing the aftermath of Arthas’ onslaught and this level just happens to be strikingly similar to it. It appears however that this level has more to do with the black plague as the buildings have crosses on the doors. I absolutely adore this level’s aesthetic, not only am I a fan of medieval style buildings but the atmosphere as a whole is top notch, with some fantastic lighting and sound to accompany all of the burning buildings. It appears that the local townsfolk aren’t particularly keen on outsiders so needless to say you can expect a warm welcome in the form of flaming torches and what I presume to be rotten flesh thrown at you. What I love most about this level is the final section, which has you going underground into what appears to be a secret hideout, possibly used by cultists, which leads me to believe that the whole plague might have been the result of a conspiracy, though there isn’t any concrete proof that it was. I just think it’s interesting how the level ends this way, almost as if it’s trying to tell us something. It’s subtle storytelling like this that makes me appreciate this level so much, that and the battle music which has a really good beat to it. Definitely one of my favorite battle tracks for sure. One of the best Painkiller levels ever.
2. Babel
Everything from the starry skybox, the serene ambient music and the gorgeous lighting makes this level an absolute joy to play through. It’s also very challenging featuring a large quantity of powerful foes, with plenty of open space to fight them in. It requires a bit more thinking than previous levels but there’s still a lot of action to be had. The battle music for this level is intense, as it should be because the enemies do not pull their punches here. You’ll be fighting advanced versions of the enemies you fought in the previous levels of chapter 4 and they all have a trick up their sleeve. The Templars fire three arrows as opposed to just one and each arrow is fired in a different direction which can be tricky to avoid. The Executioners now come with a grappling attack which can hit you from quite a distance so they should be dealt with quickly. Beasts are now fitted with explosives so you will want to kill them quickly before they close in on you. You will constantly be overwhelmed in this level but that’s part of the appeal. It always feels satisfying to conquer this level.
1. Loony Park
While it may not be the first depiction of a haunted amusement park, Loony Park is without a doubt the best. The orange lighting throughout the level gives off a demented tone that accompanies all of the grotesque depictions of its attractions perfectly. The very moment you start this level, you are greeted with a massive sign that says Loony Park with the too O’s in Loony being used as eyes for a clown face with fire coming out of his mouth. This sign is so striking that you can’t help but want to know what lies behind it but the moment players attempt to walk through the gate, they are greeted with a pit of spikes, talk about a warm welcome. Those who were smart enough to jump over the spike pit will be greeted with numerous attractions ranging from a helter skelter, two carosels, one with buzzsaws that slash away at anyone misfortunate enough to be riding it, the other with electric chairs for those who would rather die from electrocution instead. There are also two buildings, one is titled Acid Bath, the other titled, House of Pain. While the House Of Pain cannot be entered, the Acid Bath is actually a secret area and inside is, you guessed it, a pool of acid with jump pads to cross over, you better nail those jumps or you’re going get melted. Your reward for making it across is a set of gold armor and a super health, the downside is that you have to make it all the way back and unlike most visitor attractions, there aren’t any health and safety regulations here, that acid will hurt you if you step in it.
Tired from all of that jumping? Maybe you need a snack. The good news is that there’s plenty of popcorn to be found here, the bad news is that it isn’t the edible kind. The popcorn is actually a name of a demon which has a body that consists of many lumps that throws these weird red gas bombs at you and you really don’t want to get near them. There’s also a burger stand nearby but you might want to think twice about ordering one because as the name of the burger stand implies you will most definitely get sick if you eat one of those burgers. In addition to this, there’s a gigantic slide with a ball rolling down it that is likely meant for humans to be placed inside, though on the way down, there’s a flamethrower that will probably burn anyone inside to cinders as they pass by. This is such a colourful level for such a dark game and I really appreciate that change in tone, especially after the previous level. The whole level is so ridiculous and silly that it’s instantly appealing. The ambient music is the usual carnival sounds you’d hear at any carnival and the battle music is best described as a sequence of guitar riffs that I just cannot get enough of, it’s hardcore.
To top it all off, the final section of the level is a rollercoaster ride that has you riding on top of a ribcage with demonic heads attached as you ride through the whole amusement park behind the giant crevice in the ground. Beyond the fissure is a bumper coffin ride, a huge castle floating on top of a pit of flames and a ferris wheel with a pentagram shape in the middle. Now you would think at first that this area is off limits outside of the rollercoaster ride but it is actually possible to cross over the crevice with a well timed jump which clearly wasn’t intended as there are no secrets back there and the benches aren’t breakable, everything is static. Though there are a few cool things you can see including a few shooting galleries and stands. This is such an amazing level and is without a doubt my favorite level in a first person shooter ever. Heck this level is so damn good that it was re-used in Painkiller Overdose. It’s just so iconic that it’s the first thing that comes to mind whenever I think of Painkiller.
I played Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord for over 200 hours, 200 freaking hours and didn’t even get close to conquering Calradia. Meanwhile in Mount & Blade Warband, the first game in the series, it took me 200 hours to conquer Calradia and while it felt like a long, arduous journey, it is nothing compared to the tedious ordeal that is Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Now this might not make sense to you if you haven’t reached the end game of Bannerlord but I will say this. Warband’s end game is tough but fun, you feel overwhelmed, every faction declares war against you… but if you keep at it, eventually you will unify calradia as its emperor.
Bannerlord on the other hand is a completely different ball game, not just in the end game but in general. Despite this however, Bannerlord as an experience isn’t really anything new, you’re just playing Warband again but the way it works is completely different from that of Warband. The immersion and engagement factor from Warband is still there and you will sink a considerable amount of time into this game. Bannerlord will suck you in just like Warband did and you will quickly become addicted to the experience but unlike Warband, the immersion and engagement quickly begins to waver in the end game. The reason for this is due to the fact that Bannerlord is seemingly designed to keep you playing for as long as possible so that the game never fucking ends, while Warband is designed for the player to bring about an eventual unification by breaking the stalemate through their own ability.
Killing looters never gets old
Now there are two types of people who I need to address, those who played Warband and those who are new to Mount & Blade in general. While Bannerlord revolves the same kind of formula as Warband, the experience is completely different and whether you will prefer one over the other will depend on your preferance as a player. Much like in Warband, you will create your own character and give them a banner of your choosing, there are extensive facial options but body customization is minimal with a decent quantity of hair options available to you, as well as face paints. Defining statistics is where Bannerlord differentiates from Warband as it goes through numerous stages of your life where you select events that occured in your past to decide what stats you start with at the beginning. The main thing that sets Bannerlord apart from Warband is the emphasis on clans, which allow you to take ownership of multiple separate parties and the game is built around this. You see in Warband, you just had individual lords with their own band of warriors to command who follow their marshall into battle. In Bannerlord however, marshalls are nonexistant and just about anybody can set up an army at any time at the cost of a new currency called influence.
Influence can be used as a means of pushing agedas which can be handy for vassals looking to get their hands on feifs as well as being able to adjust laws to work in their favor, it sounds good on paper as it seemingly gives players more control over their experience. In reality however, it is quite the opposite, which you’ll quickly realize the moment you become a ruler as Influence governs every single decision you make, even when you are in charge of the whole faction. You can’t just tell people to do what you want for free anymore, now you need to spend influence to get people to do your bidding. The only difference between being a vassal and a ruler is that being a ruler means that there isn’t a cap on your influence expendature, so you can overule anything so long as you have enough influence to do so. If you have no influence however, you might as well not even be a ruler because you have absolutely no control over your faction whatsoever and the AI will make all the decisions for you which is extremely infuriating when you consider the fact that your AI allies are dumber than bricks.
Fuck off Urik!
Much like the influence system, the new clans feature is also deceptively appealing as unlike Warband where you were limited solely to the warriors you command, you now have tha ability to build your own clan consisting of multiple warbands which your companions can manage on your behalf. This is a cool idea in theory as you can have one party act on your behalf, allowing you to multitask… or so you think. You see there is absolutely no way of delegating anybody in this game and I mean anybody. You can only delegate your army and that means that you can only delegate in one place. Each army is completely independant and this includes your clan’s warbands. You cannot give them commands so you can’t really utilize them strategically. The only thing they exist to do is to supplement your army so that you don’t have to lead so many troops by yourself, essentially spreading the leadership to allow for a more managable army. Without an army, your clan’s warbands will spend the whole game travelling around doing menial tasks, often ending in their defeat at the hands of a stronger warband, therefore if you don’t add them to your army, they become completely pointless. You can also have them lead caravans but there’s little point in doing so because they’ll most likely die sooner than they actually turn a profit.
The most interesting aspect of clans however is the ability to marry a noble of the opposite sex and have children. If you’re into same sex relationships then I regret to inform you that they are not in Bannerlord, though it makes sense given that Bannerlord takes place in a time period where homosexuality was frowned upon. Regardless, the point of this is to create your own family tree, which sounds like a really cool idea. Now at first you would assume that you can just have tonnes of children and build up a massive army as the great great great grandparent of a huge family tree made up of countless generations of your descendants fighting alongside you but you’d be wrong, because the downside to having babies is that Bannerlord features an aging system and this completely changes the nature of the game entirely as you are now under extreme time constraints to accomplish your goals before death claims you. If you enjoy the grim reapers company, you can also opt to allow your character to die in battle at any time for an even more tense experience. Now the entire game was built with this system in mind but there is an option to prevent is through the birth and death options feature in the modules section prior to launching the game, which allows you to toggle this off when starting a new playthrough, allowing you to play the game more like Warband.
Rest in peace Torgath, you were a legend among men, you fought countless battles, you deserve your rest.
If you are new to Mount & Blade and have never played Warband before, I highly encourage that you disable the birth system as it changes up the game so much that it brings about a completely different experience from Warband and this is not necesarrily a good thing for newcommers as it makes the nature of the game considerably more frantic and convoluted to the point that first time players ill be overwhelmed and frustrated by it. Those who have played Warband before might take a liking to this new feature, but some players might not, it is all up to preferance. All I will say is that my personal experience with the birth and death feature was not at all great and this all ties to the fact that Bannerlord is an absolute slog to play through for numerous reasons, with battles going on for seemingly ages. This takes up so much time that eventually your character is going to die and when they do, you better hope and pray that you are not in the end game because if you are, you are going to a place that is far more terrifying than hell, you are going to a world of pain, agony and torment that is unending, a world that makes purgatory in Painkiller look like fucking paradise.
You see, the biggest problem with Bannerlord is the skill system because the skill system in Bannerlord is fucking dogshit. Who’s idea was it to turn this game into fucking Runescape!? I hate Runescape and the reason why I hate Runescape besides the fact that it is an always online MMO with microtransactions on top of having subscription fees is the endless fucking grind that you have to do to level up each individual skill and Bannerlord uses the exact same skill leveling system as Runescape but with a twist, unlike Runescape you can actually choose between two perks instead of just unlocking stuff in a linear fashion and these perks range from being extremely useful to barely useful outside of very specific situations that makes you feel as if growing your character feels completely pointless.
Shields are for pussies
In fact, leveling up in Bannerlord doesn’t feel exciting at all like it did in Warband. Leveling up in Bannerlord is lame as all you get is a focus point that increases the rate in which players level up their skills, sort of like the bonus experience you get for runescape skills and this is absolute bullshit. You aren’t even guaranteed to get an attribute point either and if you do, all it does is give you the exact same thing as a focus point but for all the skills that said attribute governs, essentially removing the cap on bonus experience you can gain to make leveling the skill faster. To add insult to injury, when your character dies and you choose an heir, you have to do the whole fucking grind all over again!
So because of the nature of the game’s skill system, this permadeath timer really doesn’t work well with Bannerlord at all but it’s not just the skill system that makes the permadeath timer a problem as the game has yet another problem and that is the campaign. What I mean by “campaign” is the out of battle strategy sections that play out in synchronized time, which has always been catagorized as “campaign” in both Warband and Bannerlord. The campaign in Bannerlord is an absolute pain in the ass to deal with because there is no balance whatsoever. The biggest problem with the campaign balancing is the map itself. In Warband, every faction controls an edge of the map but in Bannerlord there are factions right in the middle of the map that are surrounded at all sides.
All my territories are the ones in dark blue, the rest are my enemy’s
The distance to travel between each faction was more or less the same in Warband, where as in Bannerlord, travelling from north to south takes considerably less time than it takes to travel from east to west. This means that factions on the far east and west of the map have a considerable advantage whereas factions in the middle of the map are going to be at a huge disadvantage. Sturgia in particular is at an insane disadvantage due to having their terrotories spread out horizontally meaning that if somebody attacks from the east and you’re on the west side, you have to mobilize for ages to defend the castle or town that is being attacked. Now the Aserai also have this problem but they have the advantage of having a giant body of water blocking the middle section of their territory, with the only entry points being at the far east and the far west. Sturgia have the misfortune of having their middle portion accessible from the south, making things even worse for them.
Vlandia on the other hand are basically easy mode because their nation is safely protected by mountains and is in the far west side of the map and the only entry points are from the east. With travel from north to south not taking too long, it is very easy to defend this territory from all sides. Khuzaits also have an advantage in this regard due to being on the far east but to a lesser degree due to being accessible from the north and south as well as the west. It’s very difficult to penetrate Vlandia’s territory for this reason because by doing so, you are putting yourself into a dangerous position as there aren’t many escape points due to the mountains surrounding you, so if you go in too deep you can quickly be surrounded and trapped in there. The Western Empire on the other hand is completely unprotected at all sides, making it easy to get away from them and making it easier for invaders to reach their lands.
Those fucking ugly red bastards will pay!
So if you are planning on taking over Calradia, it is usually a good idea to claim either the east or the west side of the map first, which means eliminating either the Khuzaits or the Vlandians immediately, only then will you have a good enough foothold to begin pushing in the opposite direction of the map so that you can easily control your borders. The problem is that by the time you have defeated either Vlandia or the Khuzaits, your character will be so old that you really need to start worrying about them dying in the near future, I kid you not. To make matters worse, you will become too old to actually bring about an offspring which means that you will have to start the entire game all over again. So the game essentially pressurizes you to get married and have kids early in life, something that was optional in Warband is now practically compulsory in Bannerlord if you turn on permadeath as being a 40 year old virgin is a one way ticket to having to start a new playthrough, as if the pressure of males losing their virginity in their early years wasn’t bad enough in real life.
On top of this, unlike Warband where factions would disappear over time after losing all of their feifs, factions in Bannerlord will linger around until they are completely obliterated and by that I mean grinding their armies down to a pulp to the point that they simply cannot affort to purchase units anymore, which is easier said than done. So all it takes is for either you or another faction they are at war with to take a castle and leave it undefended and these factions send their army of 30 men to siege your castle to get back in the game, only for them to become a nuisance once again and believe me, when they get back in the game, they come back with massive armies for you to tear down all over again. So if you think you’ve pulverized a faction by taking all of their castles and towns, think again. This only serves to make conquering calradia all the more annoying as they become a huge nuisance to you, that and it also means that it’s going to take even longer to conquer the whole map due to the game wasting your time by having these fallen factions constantly pestering you by raiding your villages and seiging undefended castles just because they can.
Come at me Vlandian scum!
To make matters worse, making peace with other factions is also problematic as there no guarantee that peace will last long enough for it to be worthwhile. If anything, peace only screws you more as you free up all the enemy faction’s prisoners and make peace with them for a brief moment only for them to declare war on you again soon after. Because of this. during the end game where every single faction will declare war with you at once, you will find yourself in a seemingly endless gauntlet of battles at all sides where even the weakest of factions can sneakily steal one of your unprotected feifs from under your nose while you’re fighting a 5 way war where one faction is completely steamrolling you, while another faction is getting beaten by you. With all this in mind, do you honestly believe you’ll be able to conquer calradia with your created character before they die?
Now you’re probably wondering what exactly happens when you die, well that depends on a few things. First of all you have to choose an heir, now if the heir is in your party at the time, they will keep all of your troops for themselves, if they are not, all your troops are lost. This can be pretty damn annoying when this happens out of nowhere and your desired heir is half way across the map. Not that it matters because chances are that your heir won’t have a high enough leadership skill to command all of your troops anyway so they’ll probably end up deserting in seconds. This is the biggest problem with the birth and death system as lacking in skills during the end game is a disaster waiting to happen as the enemy AI will zerg the shit out of you with massive armies constantly from all sides so if you cannot command troops then you are fucked. Now if you’re considering starting up an army to fight back, you’ll be faced with conhesion issues as well as an insanely high influence cost to maintain said cohesion, which in turn leads to you getting even more screwed over.
Shit…
To make matters worse, your AI lords will constantly be pushing you to make peace with a faction even though making peace will inevitably screw you as you would be freeing the enemy’s prisoners, only for them to declare war with you 2 minutes later with their forces completely restored, only for them to quickly swarm the castles and towns you took, taking them back in a matter of seconds before you can even hope to mobilize against them, then they will proceed to anally invade your territories further, all while you’re fighting a battle on the other side of the map. The only way to prevent peace is by spending an absurd amount of influence to prevent your allies from letting something stupid happen. Also god forbid the enemy lords escape from captivity because if they do, they will regain their armies almost immediately and form an even bigger zerg to screw you over.
Now sure, there is the option of beheading every single lord in the game but there’s a penalty for that as you will lose a crap ton of relation with a lot of people, including your own allies, so it’s clearly not something that you’re supposed to do in the game but it sure as hell makes the game go by so much faster if you can pull it off at the right time and if you’re going to do it, you might as well go all the way and kill every lord you come across. All of this wouldn’t have been an issue if the peace system actually worked properly and enemy factions that lose all their castles and towns disappear from the game. This isn’t the case though so you’re going to have a really rough time if you don’t decide to behead anybody, making playing an honorable character an absolute pain in the ass, proving that Machiavelli’s theory on good people making terrible leaders was right.
So as you can see, most of what I’ve brought up so far has been relevant to the end game but not so much the early game because the early game in Bannerlord actually isn’t all that bad. In fact it’s actually rather fun. Of course it’s not too much different from Warband as you are still playing a wandering mercenary fighting bandits and trading resources between towns but there are few other things to do in Bannerlord such as the ability to take over alleyways in towns and participate in gang wars, playing minigames in the tavern, on top of all the stuff brought over from Warband including quests and arena fights.
The one feature I was most excited for was the smithing feature that allows players to craft their own custom weaponary which I couldn’t wait to try out, until I found out that smithing was the most disappointing part of Bannerlord, not because the crafting system, rather the grind to reach a high enough level to make something remotely useful from the skill. You see, throughout the game you will find all kinds of powerful weapons dropped from enemies and these quickly make the items crafted through smithing obsolete in terms of stats. Now you do eventually learn a smithing perk that increases the effectiveness of crafted weapons to make them more viable to use in battle but to reach that point you’re going to have to do a crap ton of grinding because leveling up smithing doesn’t happen naturally like some skills as you have to spend countless hours sat in towns resting up to restore stamina so that you can keep smithing in one place and if you are a vassal or a king, particularly in the end game, you’re not going to find many opportunities to do this, therefore the only way to truly max out the smithing skill effectively is to make your created character into a full time blacksmith and max out the skill early on, which is surprisingly not all that difficult because the smithing skill in Bannerlord is broken, allowing you to make money with ease without having to do any fighting whatsoever. Who knew that smithing would be used for money making as opposed to actually crafting weapons for your character? For this reason, the skill is certainly not useless but in order to reach a point where smithing can be used to craft your own weapons, you’re going to spend hours doing monotonous grinds and god forbid your character dies before they craft their legendary sword.If you do decide to create your own weapon then you’ll be able to change the handle, pommel, the guard and the blade for swords and resize each part however you see fit. Some weapons have more parts than others which is something to be aware of, it’s pretty straightforward feature wise but there’s enough flexibility to make it interesting enough.
Swords are pretty cool
Now do you see why the permadeath system in Bannerlord is so problematic? If it wasn’t for the grinding and the nature of the campaign, the system might have been fun to deal with but because the game is such a pain in the ass to play to begin with in the end game, losing your character during the end game is the worst thing that can happen and this makes the game a chore to play as you have to start the grind all over again, as if the end game wasn’t aggravating enough. I think that if you disable the birth and death system in the game then you are going to have a lot less hassle to deal with in the long run and it makes the experience feel a little closer to that of Warband, allowing you all the time in the world to conquer Calradia. The thing is though, for the sake of this review, I didn’t turn it off and because of it, I failed to accomplish my goal. The beauty of Mount & Blade is that there really isn’t an end to the game, while the ultimate conclusion may be unification of Calradia, the game is designed for the player to stop playing at any time and after having experienced everything the game had to offer besides conquering the whole map, I decided to end my game with my character’s death because even though I can choose an heir to take their place, I knew that the game would be absolutely miserable to play that way. If it wasn’t for the horrendous end game and the awful skill system, I probably wouldn’t have minded playing as a new character but sadly this was not the case. My Bannerlord journey ended at the retreat, where I took my character’s son to the retreat so that he could retire and bring an end to the long, arduous and painful journey that was Bannerlord.
Now don’t get me wrong, Bannerlord isn’t a terrible game by any means. The fact that the game managed to bring about a similar experience to Warband makes it worthy of praise regardless of its many issues. It really is the next best thing as far as western RPG’s go as there is no game out there quite like Mount & Blade, it is unique and to see it return, even in this state is a dream come true. There’s a reason why I invested over 200 hours into this game after all and that reason is because it is still a Mount & Blade experience. One thing I do appreciate about Bannerlord is the aesthetics, something that Warband was lacking in. Towns are huge spawling mazes of streets to wander around in and castles actually feel like castles and not just a room inside the castle. The minigames were a nice addition as they are both simple, yet challenging. The music is also pretty decent, some of which even pays homage to Warband which was incredibly nostalgic.
Look at this awesome castle, I can’t believe this is my home!
One thing I wasn’t too keen on at first was the town management system but I felt that with the hunting rights law, managing towns became a lot less of a hassle as your people weren’t constantly starving, forcing you to deliver grain to your town manually, because nobody else is going to do it. Once I got over that hurdle, it became a lot less problematic and it allowed me to develop my town in whichever was I saw fit, focusing on developments that were more benefitial to me at the time instead of having the town develop in a linear fashion. It was also handy to have the option to pillage claimed territories to weaken the enemy’s econamy whenever they take them back, a concept taken from Mount & Blade Warband: Viking Conquest.
The laws system is yet another cool idea that also feels like a hinderance, though this system often works in your favor when you are a ruler since you can spend influence to give every single advantage to yourself. As a vassal however, the laws system is an absolute pain in the ass as you can have laws that sap any influence you gain, putting you into negative influence as well as not having hunting rights which can be really bothersome if you own a castle. You need influence to vote to change any of these laws so if there’s a law that constantly saps your influence then you are essentially put into a position where you are incapable of making any decisions which is insanely frustrating in the early game.
Battles are mostly unchanged from Warband but there are a few new features added including new formations such as circles and the ability to kill multiple enemies with a two handed axe which is pretty cool as well as the ability to use the mouse cursor to adjust where troop placements go rather than telling them to move where you are standing. There is also siege weaponary which I never seemed to be able to put to good use as it is difficult to aim them at the target you want to hit, not to mention the fact that they are a pain to set up. If anything, siege weapons are best used during siege preparation as they will fire automatically and break down the walls, making it easy to claim even the most protected of castles. The downside to all this is that it costs time and as we all know, Bannerlord’s end game doesn’t afford the player much time, so you will rarely ever use siege weapons and instead opt to use the ladders like in Warband. It feels like a slightly expanded version of Viking Conquest’s sieges but not quite as interesting as it doesn’t have the random events that make the sieging process unpredictable. One thing that they did add to sieges was the ability to pick up stones and throw them at enemies, you can even use them to break the battlements around towers which is a nice touch. There are even pots which will explode upon breaking, dealing damage to a large area which is always fun to mess around with when you are low on health in a siege and want to bully large groups of enemies.
Ultimately, Bannerlord feels like a culmination of concepts with no thought into how the concepts would co-exist. It’s sad how all the new features that Bannerlord brought to the table only served to make the game worse because of how poorly they all mesh together. Despite all of this however, it still has the same appeal that Warband had and if you took out all the new features, you’d basically be playing a modded version of Warband with better graphics. There are a few features however that didn’t make it into Bannerlord such as the ability to have feasts in castles, the ability to give lords individual orders and the ability to create custom troop hotkeys. This is a bit disappointing but I can live with it so long as the core experience is still there and it is.
Siege Towers make their return in Bannerlord, though this time they are optional in all sieges.
I think the biggest difference between Warband and Bannerlord is the pacing. Because of the peace system and the feasts, Warband plays out at a much slower pace, giving you more downtime to experience all the game has to offer, whereas Bannerlord plays out at such a fast pace that you don’t have time to do anything besides war and thie can get really tiring after a while. Given the fact that Mount & Blade is supposed to be a medieval simulation game, this change of pace just doesn’t fit the nature of the game at all. Warlords do more than just fight, they’re human beings that have lives outside of the battlefield but in Bannerlord they feel like armies of robots, programmed to constantly reproduce and kill, almost like some kind of zombie apocalypse you’re trying to contend with as opposed to actually fighting humans with their own agendas and cultures that are trying to balance a life of war with a life of pleasure and feasting allowed this in Warband, heck it would have been cool to have minigame tournements during feasts but there aren’t any. It just seem that these huge castles you get are pointless to visit as everything important can be done in the menu.
Now for the question everybody wants the answer to. Is Bannerlord a good entry point into the Mount & Blade experience? Well if it is your first time playing and you have nothing to compare it to then so long as you disable birth and death, I can safely say that you will have a fun time in Bannerlord, at least up until the end game but the rest of the game will be fun. The downside is that the only real advantage to playing Bannerlord first is the visuals and the minigames, besides that Warband is better in nearly every other aspect. Those looking to try the game who played either the original game or Warband previously will find Bannerlord to be a fresh new take on the formula but this isn’t necesarrily a good thing. I think fans of the previous entries may find that outside of these questionable changes, Bannerlord plays like just about any other mod for Warband and in that sense, it’s basically just more of the same thing but with better graphics. I think you need to be open to new challenges and be willing to put up with a lot of bullshit because Bannerlord can be an absolute nightmare to play.
Says the guy who looks like he’s ready for an orgy.
The question is, is it worth playing Bannerlord when you have Warband? Well I think that depends on what the modding community can bring to the table because if all you’re going to play is Native, Warband is a more fun experience if you ask me, even though it is lacking in features by comparison, I find that the simplicity of it all makes it considerably easier to pick up and play when you get the hang of the basics and the game feels less stressful, even if it can be a tad overwhelming at times. Bannerlord was just too much for me and I simply couldn’t enjoy it as much as I did Warband but it doesn’t help that my past experiences with Warband have spoiled me a bit. Bannerlord is very much the same game again so I don’t have that fresh new experience that I had when I first played Warband. Nevertheless, I still had fun in the earlier portions of the game so there’s still some value to be had here.
Plot/Story: Make Your Own
Visuals: Great
Gameplay: Good
Music: Great
Lifespan: Forever
Difficulty: Frustratingly Hard (even moreso than Warband)
Would You Replay? Maybe
Overall: Good (but really fucking annoying, stressful and tedious)
Checkmate motherfucker!
I can’t say that Bannerlord is a terrible game but man was this experience an absolute nightmare.
No video for this one folks, sorry but I just don’t feel like recording any footage from this game and I don’t think it would be viable for my channel.
Square-Enix seems to enjoy alienating their fans in regards to how they handle their IP’s, with games like Valkyrie Elysium and the 3rd Birthday both managing to upset long term fans of both series, it’s no surprise that Musashi Samurai Legend, the sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi would also upset a lot of people for the same reason. Now I feel that I need to address this first because I spent a lot of time criticizing Valkyrie Elysium for being a bad Valkyrie Profile game and for this reason, I can truly relate to fans of Brave Fencer Musashi who hated this entry. However I want to point out that there is a huge difference between Musashi Samurai Legend and Valkyrie Elysium and that is the fact that Square-Enix developed Musashi Samurai Legend in house and the game was made by the same guy who made Brave Fencer Musashi, Yoichi Yoshimoto. Valkyrie Elysium on the other hand was outsourced to a company named Soleil despite all of the previous entries of the franchise being developed by tri-Ace. With a completely different company working on a game, it’s expected that the experience will be completely different as each developer has their own approach to game design. With the same guy working on Musashi 2 however, it’s strange to see such a drastic redesign of a concept that people already loved.
On the surface, Musashi Samurai Legend appears to be a clone of Kingdom Hearts but that’s mainly due to its aesthetic style as opposed to the actual gameplay mechanics besides the ability to pick up green orbs to restore health which just happened to make a reappearance here. While the gameplay may appear comparable at first with them both revolving around real time action with a leveling system slapped onto it, they aren’t really all that similar in terms of mechanics. Musashi 2’s gameplay is peculiar to say the least. The controls for this game are truly puzzling as your main attack button, square performs a fixed combo while triangle just swings whatever secondary weapon you have equipped in a slow vertical swipe that is completely useless in battle but is mainly used to open up these circular prison things. You would think that they would utilize the triangle button for something more important like additional moves to mix up your combo or some sort of defensive mechanism but no, the triangle button is completely wasted on some arbitrary move. Thankfully, the game does utilize both L2 and triangle for special moves, giving it some purpose but why do we have to press both buttons to use them? These attacks in particular are connected to your secondary weapon and are used to gain access to certain locations or operate contraptions located in the world, though they can still be used in battle, to varying results. These attacks also consume MP so you won’t be using them too often, which means that you’ll spend most of your time pressing square.
Musashi’s katana can cut through metal
That’s not to say that Musashi Samurai Legend doesn’t have any technicalities of its own as contrary to what one may think, Musashi Samurai Legend does have some mechanical nuance thrown in to keep its combat interesting. The downside however is that the game doesn’t execute them in a way that brings about any real challenge and the awkward controls bring about messy inputs. For example, players can cancel the downtime of their basic 5 hit combo into other attacks such as a stab or a spin attack, unlike Dynasty Warriors however, you don’t cancel into moves with triangle, instead you have to input a command via the game’s analog stick. What this means is that to perform a spin attack you have to spin the analog stick around which can be tricky to pull off when in a pinch. This sort of input complexity could have easily been avoided had the developers allowed the use of triangle for cancel moves but sadly this isn’t the case. There is also a timed counter mechanic similar to Onimusha’s criticals that allows you to counter attacks when pressing the attack button just as you are about to be hit. Unlike Onimusha however, the timing for these attacks is extremely generous, making them so easy to pull off that it’s barely a challenge. These attacks are also not instant death moves either so you won’t get that same satisfaction that you would get in Onimusha but since the timing isn’t half as difficult, it makes sense that you won’t deal as much damage.
On top of this the game also features the ability steal system that first appeared in Brave Fencer Musashi but Musashi Samurai Legend does things a little differently as it functions closer to that of Castlevania Curse Of Darkness’ steal system or Swords Of Destiny’s sword time in the sense that you must lock on to an enemy, bait them into attacking you, then press the button at the right time to bring results. The same is true for the counter system as well but enemies that have moves will have a blue light inside the lock on cursor to indicate that there is something to be learned from them. It should also be noted that to do any of this you must fill up a focus gauge. I cannot understand the necessity for such a gauge but it exists and you need to be mindful of it should you wish to perform any of these maneuvers. Regardless the mechanic is at least interesting and is kind of what sets this game apart from other beat em ups out there. The issue with the combat system is simply the fact that it just does not work as well as you would expect as I spent most of my time cancelling the first combo strike into itself because if your attack is delayed for a second, you are able to strike again with minimal animation frame use which allows for more consistency in terms of damage dealing as the first hit of the combo is noticeably quicker than the last. With that in mind, most of the combat pretty much comes down to just pressing square with a few cancels via complex inputs. This is hardly ideal for a beat em up but the flexibility brought by the ability system does add some more utilities to make the combat a bit more interesting outside of just performing square combos. In a way though, the combat feels more comparable to the combat found in action platformers or action puzzle games along the lines of Legacy Of Kain and Zelda than it does a beat em up, which begs the question of is Musashi Samurai Legend really a beat em up?
You cannot steal moves or counter until the exclamation mark appears.
At its core, it pretty much is a beat em up as you’re mostly going to spend your time slashing enemies with your sword but there are a few puzzles and platforming bits here and there, though the same could be said for the Devil May Cry games, except those games generally have a more technical combat system than Musashi Samurai Legend. Some of Musashi’s abilities do play a part in puzzle solving and getting around the levels which does give them that additional utility but the game clearly doesn’t revolve around this aspect, which to me is a good thing because I’m not a huge fan of puzzles in videogames but this, combined with the lackluster combat mechanics makes the overall gameplay feel rather shallow. One might assume that the game has metroidvania elements with the addition of items and weapons that allow you to access new areas but I found those areas to be few and far between. Musashi 2’s levels are rather linear and tight with the odd side path to find treasure which is ideal for someone like me but isn’t what many people look for in a metroidvania. So the result of this is a beat em up with a messy combat system. Like I said before, Musashi 2 has a leveling system as well as the ability to buy items and equipment but so does Onimusha Dawn Of Dreams and if I was to compare the two, I’d say that Onimusha Dawn Of Dreams is the better game, granted Musashi does let you choose which stats to focus on when leveling up to allow for a bit more freedom but this does very little to make up for the game’s failings in the combat department.
Musashi Samurai Legend strikes me as a game that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be and feels like a mishmash of different genres despite leaning closest to that of being a beat em up. To make matters worse, the lock on, which doubles as the focus ability is very short in range and does not focus the camera. To focus the camera you have to press R3 which as I’ve mentioned before, isn’t ideal. I found myself rarely using the evasive moves for this reason as to use it, you need to be locked on but some enemies have long ranged attacks which you cannot evade from a distance. So much like in Chaos Legion, I spent most of my time jumping to avoid attacks as opposed to actually evading, almost as if I was playing a Napishtim engine YS game. The bosses of Musashi feel like they were ripped straight out of Zelda and function in the same way. They have patterns and a weakpoint to locate. Once you find that weak point, it’s just a case of rinse and repeat till you win. The latter section of the game does mitigate this a little as you fight mostly humanoid enemies but for the majority of the game, this is how many of the boss fights go down. I’m not a fan of this style of boss fight as it feels less about understanding the combat mechanics and more about trying to figure out how to actually deal damage. This once again begs the question of whether or not Musashi 2 is in fact a beat em up because it doesn’t feel like one at all. If anything, Musashi 2 is best described as being a Zelda game but with greater emphasis on combat than puzzle solving. At some point though, you have to draw the line as to what is and what isn’t a beat em up and Musashi 2 goes beyond that line I’d argue. Hopefully this paints a clear picture on the type of game Musashi 2 is.
Musashi 2’s story In a nutshell
The storyline is whimsical and silly throughout. There’s nothing really all that special about it but its quirkiness kept me mildly amused throughout so it did its job well enough. The plot is pretty much the same as The Bouncer, minus the bar and fist fighting of course. An evil corporation deploys ninjas to kill everyone and they steal the tits, you know the usual shit. So like every hero you gotta go and get em back. You’ve seen it all before, but you gotta love how tongue in cheek the game is about it all. Comfort food never tasted sweeter. You have the secret meetings where everybody sits atop a seemingly bottomless pit on an elevated chair to discuss evil matters, you know, like every videogame. On top of this you have a huge whale that just happens to embody a shopping mall that apparently every sane being in the universe lives in with giant robots, ninjas on motorcycles and jet powered surf boards you know, all the stuff every adolescent dreams about. On top of all this you have what is without a doubt the most dangerously based gameplay mechanic known to man, the ability to pick up women and use them as melee weapons. I kid you not this is a thing and you’ll be doing it a lot because apparently the women in this game are insufferably accident prone, either that or they’re just looking for an excuse to be carried by their samurai gigalo, which is arguably more likely given the fact that one of them just happens to be a powerful sword fighter, seriously Musashi even considers charging for this at one point, he be opening up an escort service one of these days I swear.
Musashi 2 brings the best out of Tetsuya Nomura’s art style by opting for cel-shaded character models as opposed to the more realistic looking characters that most of the games he works on tend to have. I think this is the best decision they could have possibly made because the characters look more-or-less the same as their artwork and this allows them to blend in perfectly with the vibrant, colourful levels you explore throughout. I think that Kingdom Hearts would have looked so much better had it opted for this art style choice. The death animations for enemies is also rather neat as they will split into pieces when you hit them with a killing blow and your choice of attack for the killing blow will alter how the enemies are split when defeated, which is a nice touch. The soundtrack has a good mix of intense and relaxing tracks. While not all of the tracks are great, the ones that are more than make up for the ones that aren’t. I’d say that the soundtrack is equally as impressive as the visuals with all things considered, it’s definitely one of the things that gives the game its appeal.
So as you can see, Musashi Samurai Legend doesn’t really have all that much going for on paper in the gameplay department and while it may seem like I’m trashing the game, I actually enjoyed playing through this game a lot. The thing is though, Musashi 2 is such a mess of a game that has a lot of potential to be good. Sadly though the game falls flat on its ass and this frustrates me to no end because I really want to express my adoration for this game but I just can’t, there’s no way I can defend a combat system that is this badly executed regardless of how interesting the mechanical nuances are as I’d just be lying to you. Musashi 2 is a mediocre game that shows promise but fails to deliver the goods, there’s just no getting around that fact. In a way though, the result of this leads it to feel like one of the most definitive 2000’s games out there. The 2000’s was a time of discovery and experimentation. Musashi Samurai Legend finds itself in the midst of all this and this is likely what lead to the game’s negative reception as it really did not stand out at the time but going back to it in the year 2023 has been a trip down memory lane.
Musashi Samurai Legend took me back to a time where I was innocent, a time where games brought excitement to my 12 year old mind, a time where the vast majority of games strived to be edgy and cool to cash in on the counter culture that was prevalent at the time. At the same time, Musashi Samurai Legend presents you with the familiar concept of dumping players into vibrant and colorful worlds to do stuff in, that are considerably more tighter in level design as opposed to the games you see today. Once again, the first Kingdom Hearts comes to mind here. The whole game feels like that raw nostalgic 2000’s experience in its purest form but with absolutely nothing else going for it. Whether you should play it or not ultimately depends on whether or not you enjoyed playing games in the 2000’s, I mean who didn’t? Let’s be honest, it was the best time to be a gamer, the golden age of gaming. How can you not love the 2000’s? There are better games out there but Musashi 2 does have some cool ideas and concepts that makes it worth trying at the very least, if you’re looking for some comfort food. For everyone else, you’re probably not going to care about this game much at all.
Star Ocean The Divine Force is best described as being the best possible outcome for the series. As someone who has played all of the mainline Star Ocean games up to this point, I recognize that each game has its ups and downs. In the comparison article, I brought up the many criticisms I have with each individual game in the series but I managed to enjoy all of them despite their shortcomings and this is mainly due to the fact that I absolutely adore the Star Ocean formula. Star Ocean The Divine Force feels like an attempt to address many of the criticisms I had with the previous entries, while also bringing something new and fresh to the Star Ocean formula.
What makes the Star Ocean formula so appealing to me is how it manages to constantly excite you with its subsystems. Going into a Star Ocean game, I expect to experience a lot of character management and Star Ocean The Divine Force doesn’t disappoint in this regard. The skill books found in previous entries are no more and have been replaced with a skill grid for each character, allowing players to learn skills in any order they like as opposed to having to find skill books or visit skill shops to unlock new skills like in the previous games. This allows for considerably more freedom in regards to how one chooses to build their characters. On top of this, you still have the ability to level up skills with SP acquired from leveling up your character like you can in previous entries, so you still have the freedom to strengthen your character’s skills in any order you please without feeling gated off to anything. I didn’t find the skill grid to be all that restrictive either since each skill you learn connects to numerous other skills, giving you plenty of choice in regards to what skills you want to learn first, within reasonable boundaries of course. Honestly, this may quite possibly be the best skill system in the series as there are very few boundaries as opposed to previous entries and the system is easy enough for newcomers to understand, albeit a tad overwhelming but if it wasn’t then it wouldn’t be a Star Ocean game.
For the first time in 21 years, Star Ocean The Divine Force employs the original item creation system that was used in both the first two entries and Blue Sphere which is a real treat for fans who have sorely missed the simple, yet addictive process of discovering new items at the expense of raw materials. When Star Ocean Till The End Of Time released, this system would be replaced by the convoluted Invention system, which was so terrible that they ditched the system entirely in Star Ocean The Last Hope which instead used a more conventional crafting system that you see in so many games nowadays and while it was considerably less aggravating than Star Ocean 3’s invention, it felt rather generic and uninteresting by comparison to the item creation found in the earlier games. I feared that this system would return in The Divine Force and while the game kind of does bring back the concept of recipes used to craft certain items, it is no longer required of players to follow these recipes when partaking in item creation allowing them to freely make items without having to fulfil a strict criteria, which I strongly prefer over The Last Hope’s more restrictive system. On top of all this, there are a few changes made to item creation. Players can now choose to retry a failed item creation up to two times with each one, which helps to mitigate the need for save scumming when a valuable material fails to produce the desired item.
In previous entries, part of the fun of item creation was visiting all the different kinds of stores in towns to purchase materials and ingredients to create certain items. All but one town in Star Ocean The Divine Force has but a single merchant and while this does make shopping for items more convenient, it is a bit of a shame that there’s no reason to enter different buildings in towns save for story related purposes and finding a few items in people’s houses. The game more than makes up for this however by placing purple crystals around town for players to collect, these crystals can also be found outside of towns too, particularly in field areas which are considerably larger than the field areas in the previous entries, even Star Ocean The Last Hope’s field areas are dwarfed by the ones in Divine Force and that game had some pretty huge field areas for the time. These crystals can be used to level up DUMA, a robot companion which the entire game revolves around. DUMA can be used to get from A to B quickly but it also has an important functionality in battle. By upgrading DUMA, you can learn skills that relate to both field navigation and combat. Much like character progression, you are free to upgrade DUMA in any way you please, giving you even more to manage, as if the character management alone wasn’t good enough.
Mission Failed… We’ll get em next time…
Private actions return and this time upon entering a town you have already visited (so long as it is not connected to the story) the party will automatically disband, leaving you with only Raymond or Laeticia to control. During this time you can interact with your party members like in Integrity And Faithlessness without having to move to the whistle icon beforehand. While most private actions involve conversing with the other character like you would a generic NPC, there are a few that play cutscenes with background music of their own like in The Last Hope. It’s nice to see a good mix of both this time around. One issue I do have with the private actions in this game however is that there is no way to tell how many private actions are available in town. Back in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness, there was an indicator that showed how many private actions you had left to do before you had to stay at the inn to refresh them. This feature is completely absent from The Divine Force which is rather aggravating as you try talking to every single character after every story interval in towns to make sure you aren’t missing anything, only for most of them to repeat the same lines of dialog relevant to the plot at the time of interacting with them. Sometimes it’s easy to tell as they usually have their own spots but these spots tend to change as the plot moves on making it even more difficult to find them. Sometimes you will see characters stood together which makes things a little easier. Fortunately many of the game’s private actions are entertaining enough to make seeking them out worthwhile.
If private actions aren’t your thing, there’s yet another distraction for players looking to kill time in towns in the form of a new minigame titled E’sowa. This minigame has you collecting pawns that represent characters from previous games which is a nice callback. At first the game can seem a bit complicated but upon learning how it works, you realize that at the start of the game, many of the stats do not matter as you can abuse the smaller boards by surrounding as many empty spaces as you can to essentially place your opponent into submission, rendering it impossible for them to place a pawn. The same can happen to you however and it can feel a bit frustrating if it happens because you could have a ton of health but without the ability to place a sufficient amount of pawns, all you can do is sit there and wait till you are defeated as there isn’t usually an easy way to turn things around when things go sour unless you just happen to have assassin pawns, which can be difficult to acquire early on. I did find that later on, E’sowa did become a bit more challenging and fun. The desire to collect all the pawns and reach the highest rank is definitely alluring, so I found myself playing way more E’sowa than I had anticipated. The way this ties into the gameplay is that pawns can be equipped as accessories or be used through synthesis to extract its valuable factors. If you don’t like E’sowa for some reason then you do have the alternative option of crafting the pawns through item creation but I find that approach to be very difficult if you are looking to acquire a particular pawn that may otherwise be easier to obtain by winning an E’sowa match.
All your favorite Star Ocean characters return in E’sowa… but unfortunately so does Lymle.
So as you can see, there’s a lot to do in both towns and field areas, making visiting new locations just as exciting as it is to level up your character to invest skill points in whatever you choose. The feeling of excitement brought about by these two things is ultimately what sets Star Ocean apart from other Action RPG’s as it truly is the core of what makes these games enjoyable. Star Ocean The Divine Force not only maintains the standards set by previous entries in this department, it improves each and every one of them and for that alone, I’m greatly impressed with what this game brings to the table already. There is one thing however that Star Ocean often gets outshined by its competitors in the genre and that is the game’s combat system. While the combat in the series isn’t necessarily bad outside of the third entry, I find that tri-Ace seem to have been fighting an uphill battle against Tales with each and every game in this department and while a few games arguably match their Tales counterparts, most of them fail to reach the standards set by the Tales games released around the time they came out. Due to Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness having a rather archaic combat system for the time, being based on Till The End Of Time’s combat system and all, a major change was needed in order for future entries to stand the test of time. Star Ocean The Divine Force addresses this issue by completely reworking the entire combat system whilst adding something fresh to help it stand out from its competitors.
For starters you now have an AP gauge which governs how often you are able to take actions in battle. The AP gauge may feel similar to that of fury from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time but unlike that game, the AP gauge can be restored when moving, much like in Valkyrie Profile 2. Speaking of Valkyrie Profile 2, the attacks are mapped to the face buttons, much like that game. The only difference is that the X button is used to jump, every other face button allows you to input a sequence of up to 3 actions much like how Valkyrie Profile 2’s characters each have 3 moves of their own that trigger in a linear fashion. There is also the ability to hold down one of the buttons to perform a different action, which is kinda similar to how you could press a direction on the d pad mid combo to scramble attack in Valkyrie Profile 2, letting you mix between the linear combos to make more free flowing combos should you wish to do so. There is a lot of potential to be had with this system and it allows for much greater flexibility than previous entries in the series. The question is, is any of this flexibility meaningful? While I can’t say that the moves aren’t spammable, because they most certainly are, it is interesting to note that many of the attacks learned by each character comes with a unique factor that makes it specialize in certain situations. Some attacks have I-frames while others can deal extra damage to downed enemies to name a couple of examples. I find that this helps to make combat a little bit more interesting than just button mashing because you may be able to find an opportunity to utilize a different move for a better effect.
Sweet Chin Music!
The main draw of the game’s combat lies in your new robot companion, DUMA. With DUMA you are able to do numerous things both in and out of battle but in battle it serves as a means of closing in on enemies at high speeds with a VA attack. You can also use it to provide passive buffs by switching to estery cage mode but you will be unable to use the VA attack, nor will you be able to increase the VA gauge with attacks. This means that you will be unable to utilize blindsides which can be performed by initiating a VA attack and changing directions when facing an enemy that is readying an attack against you, making it very different from how blindsides worked in The Last Hope as instead of evading an attack, you are instead closing in on an enemy with a VA attack. This speeds up the pace of the combat considerably as you are no longer charging up your rage gauge waiting for the enemy to approach for an attack, instead you are approaching them, only to change course to take them off guard. Blindsides not only grant you bonus damage but they will also immobilize the enemy for a brief period of time. It is also possible to blindside multiple enemies at once in this game which can be even more rewarding as your allies can take care of the other immobilized enemies while you focus on the one you targeted. Blindsides also increase your maximum AP capacity in battle which allows you to perform more actions, making it a critical skill to utilize to maximize efficiency in regards to your actions. The estery cage is handy in situations where enemies cannot be blindsided like the worms you encounter in the mines area as it helps to protect the party by giving them a huge defense boost, among other things. It can also be useful when you are in a tight spot and the AI are having trouble staying alive, which will happen a lot in the later portions of the game as there are very few commands available to give to the AI. The only options you have are to split up or focus on a single target, that’s it. There’s no option to keep distance from enemies so if you want to do that, you’ll have to do this yourself by removing all of the chain combos and positioning the character away from the action, which is hardly ideal but sometimes it is necessary.
It is worth noting that there is no MP in this game unlike its predecessors, so you can’t just rely on MP regeneration and repeatedly use healing spells to keep your party alive, you will have to use items if you want a good chance of surviving. Those who choose to place Nina in the party will have the ability to heal and revive the other party members. The MP restoration items now serve to replenish AP instead, though I found that my AP replenished fast enough on its own anyway, plus without the quick usage skill, you will spend a considerable amount of time waiting for the item to trigger, it is highly recommended to equip that skill on your most used character as soon as possible. There is also an auto healing skill that really comes in handy when you’re running low on healing items, equip that skill as well if you have it and be sure to max it out when you can as it makes a huge difference. If you’re finding the pace of the combat to be overwhelming or you need to change targets, you can enter stop mode (which is the touch pad button on the PS4 controller) to stop what you are doing in the middle of battle to change targets, assess the situation, use items and change the AI behaviors without having to do so in real time. It’s a good thing that this feature exists because much like in Valkyrie Elysium, the lock on button is mapped to R3 but with stop mode this is hardly an issue.
If you use a VA Attack on an elevated target, you can reach great heights and can attack foes while airborne
The good news is that most of the inputs for actions in battle and on the field can be customized should you wish to use a more convenient layout. Personally I switched the dodge button to circle and the circle moves to L1 because I found it to be more convenient personally. Having the freedom to change the inputs is always a good thing and given the fact that many of the Star Ocean games use triggers for their special moves, should you wish to play the old fashioned way with the triggers instead of the face buttons, you can. Sadly though you are still unable to change the lock on inputs which is a tad disappointing. Nevertheless there are some other features worth noting such as the ability to break off enemy body parts like in Valkyrie Profile 2 and this often leads towards item drops. Certain larger enemies have different targeting points you can switch between and sometimes it is better to target a specific part for greater effect. It should also be noted that if your inventory of a certain item is full, any of those items that are dropped from enemies will be sold automatically which is a convenient way of dealing with excess items, the same also applies to items made in item creation too, so instead of these items simply not appearing in your inventory despite been shown as being acquired, you at least get some kind of reward for it.
There is a downside to inventory management though and that is the fact that at times certain characters will leave the party and upon doing so, the game will unequip their accessories constantly (Edit: Patch fix incoming for this issue). Now there are a crap ton of accessories in this game, many of which will likely be pawns acquired from the E’sowa minigame so it can be a pain having to navigate through all of them. While there ways to sort the inventory to make things a little easier, if you’re looking for a particular accessory, it can still be a pain trying to find it. I do understand why they did this though since it means that if the characters that left kept their accessories equipped, you would lose those accessories until they came back (Edit: Once again, Patch Fix), so in a way it’s kind of a double-edged sword. It should also be noted that the text size in this game is absurdly small which can make the tutorials an absolute pain in the ass to read. Considering how much different this game plays when compared to its predecessors, this can leave even long term fans confused if they struggle to read the tutorial text. There are also times where enemy encounters become glitched and won’t recognize you, though it’s more of a minor nuisance than anything. Other than that, I really don’t have much else to complain about in regards to the gameplay as pretty much everything else works about as well as any Star Ocean game should.
Now Star Ocean has never been known for having the greatest of narratives so with all that in mind, I was rather impressed with how the story was handled in The Divine Force. It starts off quite slow but in a good way as it introduces you to the world and the characters. Around the half way mark, things start to get a lot more plot heavy and while that’s great and all, it does disrupt the game’s pacing a little as you’ll find yourself in situations that involve constant back and forth between areas to watch cutscenes with very little going on in the gameplay department, which can feel like a slog, particularly for players who want to get back to the action. To make matters worse, during these sections party members will come and go and due to the way accessories are handled, this can get pretty infuriating (Edit: Once again, they’re patching this issue). I get that they were trying to build up to a huge story moment but I think they could have trimmed it down a little and still had the same effect.
The latter half of the game’s story is when things start to get a little complicated as it introduces some new concepts with a ton of exposition to explain them in greater detail which was pretty hard to follow. I did find the concept itself to be interesting however and the way it tied into the theme of the narrative was really well done. Ultimately, the story as a whole was gripping enough to keep my attention, which is all I really need in a Star Ocean game as the meat of the experience lies more in the gameplay rather than the story. It’s definitely more ambitious than the previous entry that’s for sure and is up there with Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s story in regards to how interesting it was to me. One thing that I did find lacking though were the game’s villains as while the story tries to give them interesting motives, they fall completely flat due to the fact that they present themselves in the most generic way possible, making them very hard to take seriously.
The game more than makes up for the villains shortcomings with its diverse selection of playable characters. They even brought in some new races to make things even more interesting. The characters truly are the main appeal of the game’s story if you ask me as while the plot itself is interesting, it’s the characters themselves that make it work because you genuinely care about them, unlike The Last Hope where the characters were so ridiculously absurd that I just couldn’t take the story seriously. It certainly helps that the male lead, Raymond is a lot more cool-headed and mature than many of the other male leads in the series, he can also be rather snarky at times which adds to his likability. After suffering through characters like Fayt Leingod and Edge Maverick, who are considerably more unlikable, playing as Raymond feels like a breath of fresh air, without a doubt the best male protagonist in the series hands down. My favorite character though would have to be Midas since I found him to be the most relatable character out of all of them. Not only is he dapper but he’s also surprisingly swole for a semiomancer in his older years. I greatly resonate with his bluntness, as well as his cynical attitude, even though it brings nothing but trouble for the party, his rebellious nature makes him stand out from the rest of the cast as he is pretty much an anti-hero, which is a very common trope for many younger characters but it’s nice to see an older character embody this trope for once. The rest of the characters are also likable in their own way and bounce off of each other’s personalities really well, which is especially important in a Star Ocean game, given the fact that they tend to have numerous private actions.
The characters not only have great personalities but they also look great aesthetically as well, Akiman definitely made some interesting looking characters this time round. It’s definitely an improvement over the previous entries, even though I did like the artwork for Integrity And Faithlessness as well. He is definitely my favorite of all the Star Ocean artists by far, though I know that not everyone will agree with me on that. What I really enjoyed about the visuals the most in Star Ocean The Divine Force is the environments. I have heard countless people complain about the graphics being outdated for the time but I don’t care what those people think, visually speaking, this game looks absolutely stunning and is without a doubt the best looking game in the series hands down. The level aesthetic absolutely nails the otherworldly feel in ways that other games failed, such as the existence of floating islands in the sky which can be reached by flying to them with DUMA for a better view of the landscape. In addition to this, there are some absolutely gorgeous skyboxes to build on that otherworldly feel with what appears to be two moons in the sky, definitely one of the best skyboxes I have seen in a videogame for sure.
Nice view, wish I had someone to throw…
The soundtrack is best described as being grandiose. I particularly enjoy the music that plays in the more futuristic locations the best as they kinda have this electronic rock hybrid to them which I really enjoyed a lot. While it may not be Motoi Sakuraba’s best work, it’s definitely a solid soundtrack nonetheless, though I wouldn’t say it is my favorite soundtrack in the series. Some songs stand out better than others but the ones that stand out the most are fantastic. Ultimately though, the music does an incredible job at bringing the game’s environments to life and that’s all that really matters.
Star Ocean The Divine Force has everything a Star Ocean fan could possibly ask for. While it may not be a perfect game, it does revitalize the Star Ocean formula and for that alone, regardless of its flaws I find it impossible to dislike this game. The question is however, how well does this game hold up with the other games in the series? In retrospect I kind of released my comparison article too early as I never expected this game to come out but after playing this game and seeing how well it holds up against all of the classics, I’m going to have to change my answer. As good as Star Ocean The Second Story is, I honestly feel that Star Ocean The Divine Force is the better game overall. Sure Star Ocean The Second Story has a lot more item creation specialties and character endings than The Divine Force and is still an outstanding game for its time but I honestly think that The Divine Force beats it as my all time favorite Star Ocean game for the simple fact that it successfully managed to do what no other game in the series could. It is the only game in the series so far that manages to have a great story, the best looking visuals in the series, my favorite cast of characters in the series to date and most of all, the best combat system in the series hands down. In other words, it succeeds in all four areas. If this is the last Star Ocean game we will ever get then I can at least say that the series ended in the best way possible.
With the success of Valkyrie Anatomia, one would think that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring back the Valkyrie Profile series. While many of us expected a tri-Ace developed Valkyrie Profile game, Square-Enix decided against the idea and instead handed the series over to a different developer. Soleil, a company known for making beat em up games was chosen to take over the development of the series in place of tri-Ace and as someone who considers themselves a fan of the Valkyrie Profile games, I found this decision to be completely asinine, given the fact that tri-Ace were the people who made the series so great to begin with, I knew going into this game that it was going to be a disaster. Now one might argue that tri-Ace was too busy working on Star Ocean The Divine Force to work on a new Valkyrie Profile but at the same time, Star Ocean The Divine Force is a Square-Enix game, much like Valkyrie Profile, so they could have worked on Valkyrie Profile 3 instead but Square-Enix being the blithering idiots they are, decided to release yet another Star Ocean game instead. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Star Ocean but the Valkyrie Profile series has always been the pinnacle of tri-Ace’s capabilities, so to see them not working on the latest entry is bitterly disappointing.
So with all that in mind, it’s important to expect something completely different with Valkyrie Elysium as it is a completely different game entirely from Valkyrie Profile. Valkyrie Elysium is not a JRPG like many would be led to believe, it is one of the most unapologetic 3D Beat Em Ups I’ve played in recent years, given the fact that the skill tree in this game is designed specifically to restrict the player’s growth, something that even Devil May Cry doesn’t do. The issue with the skill system ultimately comes down to the fact that to learn new skills, you not only need to learn previous skills but you also need a specific color of gem and those gems can only be acquired upon reaching certain points in the game’s story, therefore they are a barrier for players looking for growth.
The biggest let down with this is that one of the few things carried over from Valkyrie Profile is the crystals that rain from enemies when they are attacked. In the first game and Covenant Of The Plume, these crystals would be converted into bonus experience points as a reward for playing well. In Valkyrie Profile 2, these crystals would not only reward bonus experience but they were also a currency used to purchase sealstones which were very valuable items that players could use to turn battles in their favor. In Valkyrie Elysium however, the gems dropped from enemies can be found just about anywhere and are used as currency to learn new skills, as well as weapon upgrades. The issue is that when you acquire all the upgrades up to a certain point, many of these crystals become obsolete, requiring a different color of crystal and with limited upgrades to spend them on, as well as skills, they just kind of sit in your inventory collecting dust which is such a waste given the fact that the game clearly encourages you to play well to collect them, it completely eliminates any incentive to do so beyond a certain point. Sure, many other games have similar issues but given the fact that Valkyrie Elysium’s skills don’t take many crystals to learn, they’re easy enough to acquire to the point that there’s no reason to farm them, since you’ll have reached the cap… or at least near the cap by the end of the level regardless of how well you performed in battle. Restrictive skill systems is the most anti-tri-Ace thing you can do and this sickens me.
It’s obvious that the developers wanted to focus on the game’s combat above all else being a beat em up and all. The thing is though that while the combat looks visually appealing, I find it to be pretty mindless in execution. Now don’t get me wrong, there is value to be had in watching Valkyrie perform crazy attack strings and there’s quite a bit of flexibility to be had in regards to movesets. For one, you have the cancel combo system seen in the Dynasty Warriors games where you mash square and cancel into triangle for a finisher. Now you would think that you would use this a lot but I found myself using it very little late on in the game upon learning new skills. Once new skills become available, Valkyrie’s moveset becomes a lot bigger and with that you will unlock moves that are heavily abusable, one such move is the soul steal which guarantees that enemies will drop souls upon being hit by it. The lower the enemy’s health gauge, the more souls you will get. This allows players to abuse the einherjar system to rack up insane hit counts and restore the arts gauge faster.
It’s easy to rack up 999 hits with the help of your einherjar.
Speaking of einherjar, it appears that upon summoning them, you have absolutely no further control over them. Despite this however, you are able to learn new abilities for them, though the game never tells you how to actually use them. It turns out that upon summoning them, they will use whatever einherjar attack is set to them, then they follow up with their normal attack for the rest of the fight. I honestly find this to be a wasted mechanic as all you’re doing is summoning them, you’re not inputting commands like you can do in games like Chaos Legion, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness or Nights Of Azure. It would have been interesting to have the option to have them trigger their einherjar skills freely at the cost of soul gauge, similar to Chaos Legion’s assist moves but there’s nothing like that here. It just feels like a waste of an idea that accomplishes nothing besides making the game a hell of a lot easier. At first, prior to getting your second einherjar, the game can be rather tough and bosses will be quite challenging but all that disappears once you have a full roster of Einherjar with the soul steal skill, you’ll be watching your einherjar do all the work while you occasionally dive in and slash at them for souls to keep summoning einherjar to the field. It seems to me that the einherjar could have been removed entirely and the game would be more better off as a result, it’s tedious having to constantly summon them into battle, even though you can adjust the time they are out, you’ll still have to resummon them constantly in long fights, they might as well just remove the summoning mechanic entirely and have them all out on the battlefield by default like the original Valkyrie Profile games did.
Now the einherjar system might not seem like a huge issue at first as you could choose not to use them but the biggest problem with einherjar summoning is that it takes up one of the game’s vital buttons, R1. The problem with this is that R1 is the button commonly used to lock on to enemies in most beat em ups but in this game, players have to use R3 to lock on to enemies as well as reset the camera and this makes combat an absolute nightmare when you’re surrounded by multiple enemies. To make matters worse, there’s no minimap so you will often encounter stragglers somewhere off screen which you have to look for because the camera isn’t facing them. Of course this leads to you getting attacked from behind quite often as well. The problem with R3 is that in order to press it, you need to use your thumb, with R1 you can use your index finger, allowing you to change the camera angle without letting go of the face buttons. Anyone who has played a lot of beat em ups, particularly at a high skill level knows how crucial this is as having to constantly move the camera with the right analog stick just isn’t practical. Fortunately any frustrations brought about this issue tend to occur early on in the game as by the time you start accumulating einherjar, you become so powerful that you can heal yourself constantly by replenishing the arts gauge with einherjar attacks, though I imagine on higher difficulties that this would not be the case so it is still a problem throughout the entire game. Despite all this, the game heavily encourages you to use your einherjar as doing so leads to stat boosts after every mission, so even on higher difficulties, you’ll still want to abuse this mechanic as there really is no downside to doing so besides a brief downtime when summoning them into battle.
On top of Einherjar, you have divine arts which are essentially spells you can use at the expense of your arts gauge. Aside from the aformentioned heal spell, there are several other spells which each have different elemental properties, some of which are AOE spells, others are single target spells. The primary purpose of divine artes is to fill up a stagger gauge a significant amount, letting you freely combo enemies without them being able to move, though you can also increase the gauge slightly by having an einherjar summoned who has the same element as the spell that the enemy is weak to. Later on in the game, some of the spells can fill the screen and this can become somewhat of a visual impairment in the middle of a fight, especially when combined with the einherjar attacks, it can be hard to see what’s going on at times but fortunately all you need to worry about is soul steal spamming and so long as you keep soul chaining, you should be more-or-less fine on lower difficulties but on higher difficulties, this could be a real pain to deal with, as if the game’s lock on controls weren’t problematic enough.
In regards to defensive play, you have a guard and a evade button. Guarding allows you to parry enemy attacks and counter them, while evading gives you I frames during an enemy attack, very generous I frames I might add. Honestly I found little opportunity to make use of the guard or counter moves since so many fights have you fighting enemies that bombard you from all sides, with AOE attacks you have to avoid, it just feels easier to use the dodge since it gives you plenty of I frames and the pay off for guarding doesn’t seem to be worth the effort, at least on normal difficulty. Perhaps people will be able to find some use for it in the higher difficulties but it would be very tricky to pull off, especially when you consider how chaotic the fights are, props to anyone who can manage it though. Some skills allow you to automatically summon einherjar for free with no soul gauge cost by performing these maneuvers but why bother when soul steal makes souls so easy to come by? I suppose it removes the temporary downtime from summoning einherjar into battle but it didn’t really feel as if it was necessary for me to utilize any of the techniques required to automatically summon the einherjar. The one thing that does bother me though is the lack of an aerial dodge. While you do get a double dodge as an upgrade early on (which should be obtained immediately), the lack of an air dodge can make fighting in the air somewhat risky because it could mean landing into en enemy attack. Some enemies also like to grab you which can be really annoying as sometimes the game requires you to spin the left analog stick to escape.
Love at first fight…
There are numerous weapons to acquire throughout the game and each enemy has a weakness to a particular weapon, encouraging you to swap between them. I found myself using the Baleygr the most since it seemed to have great crowd control potential, particularly with its triangle move which was also great at harvesting gems. Each weapon has a proficiency rating which is tied to skill unlocks, you will have to use all of the weapons should you wish to unlock all the skills associated with them. Sadly though you cannot switch weapons mid combo which is a shame because that could have made combat a lot more interesting. You will also find potions from treasure chests to heal yourself but there is an inventory limit and using them decreases your score at the end of a stage, like in Devil May Cry. I found the heal spell to be good enough for the job personally but if you’re having a tough time, they can help. Ultimately if you’re looking for a fun challenge, Valkyrie Elysium will probably disappoint you greatly but if you don’t mind a mindless beat em up, the combat will deliver a moderately enjoyable experience.
Visually speaking, the landscapes look nice and all but I personally consider Valkyrie Elysium’s character design to be a huge downgrade from the character design in the Valkyrie Profile games. That being said however, I do think that the character designs are serviceable and aren’t terrible, I just think that they could be better and being a Valkyrie game, I’ve come to expect the visuals to be top of the line, so I can’t help but be disappointed in that regard, then again it’s all subjective really, some people may actually like the new character designs but they’re just not for me personally.
No shortage of trees and ruins in this game.
The music on the other hand doesn’t disappoint, if there’s one thing that this game does right, it’s the soundtrack, though I wouldn’t expect any less from Motoi Sakuraba at this point. While not his best work in my opinion, I do think that he does a fantastic job nonetheless. Interestingly enough, Valkyrie Elysium handles the battle music the same way that Nier Automata does, in the sense that the area music transitions into a combat variant of the same song and I think that this compliments the nature of the game’s more seamless combat well. I’d like to see more beat em up games do this in the future. It’s very different from the soundtracks that Motoi Sakuraba has done in the past but it does have a few similarities to his past work if you listen closely enough. Funnily enough, the game’s soundtrack probably the only thing that makes you feel like you’re playing a Valkyrie Profile game.
The story is without a doubt the worst part of this game as the characters are as bland as you can get. While it goes without saying that Valkyrie has the personality of a potato, the einherjar aren’t really all that better. I had a really hard time even remotely caring about any of the einherjar in this game, to me they were just sentient elemental attributes to attach to Valkyrie’s attacks. To be fair though, the game does have interactions between the einherjar and Valkyrie over the course of the journey but many of these conversations come across as awkward due to Valkyrie’s lack of personality. By the end, all the einherjar are pretty much singing from the same hymn sheet. The plot is pretty boring too, I mean all you’re told to do is purify souls and find these 4 gifts, that’s pretty much it, the plot doesn’t go anywhere else besides the obvious plot twist that harkens back to the first game which is executed in the most generic way possible. Just about everything in this game’s story feels generic and soulless to the point that there isn’t even a single soul to be engraved upon. Pretty much every location is a barren empty ruin with very few people residing in them and the few that are just happen to be in 1 place. The world feels so empty and mostly lifeless that I really don’t give a shit about saving it. Even Valkyrie Profile 2 had towns filled with plenty of NPC’s, this game has barely any of that. Also where are the rest of the Aesir? You’re not telling me that Odin and Valkyrie are the only gods on Valhalla surely. Where’s Freya? Where’s Thor? Where the fuck is Loki? None of these characters are here and this only serves to make the game feel even more lifeless.
Ok roll call, who the hell are you people again?
There are numerous side missions but pretty much all of them are forgettable and many amount to the same thing such as the einherjar quests which are more-or-less the same for each one. much like the story, they are criminally monotonous and only serve to extend what would otherwise be an extremely short game. Despite being a serviceable beat em up, Valkyrie Elysium is a half assed attempt to bring back the Valkyrie Profile series. Soleil were clearly given a mission that they weren’t prepared for and the only people to blame are Square-Enix for getting them to do it instead of tri-Ace. Square-Enix have essentially betrayed the entire Valkyrie Profile fanbase with this game and they should be ashamed of themselves for making this game a thing. As a Valkyrie game, Valkyrie Elysium is an abomination, as a standalone game however, would I recommend it? Well if you like mindless 3D beat em ups then it may be worth picking up for around twenty pounds but if you don’t care about mindless 3D beat em ups, give this game a pass.
Story/Plot: Bad
Visuals: Satisfactory
Gameplay: Satisfactory
Music: Great
Lifespan: Very Short
Difficulty: Easy – Medium (Medium at the start, Easy by the end)
Would You Replay? No
Overall: Satisfactory
My Message To Square-Enix after finishing Valkyrie Elysium:
Please note that written part of this article mess is rough and was originally used as a script for the video, I kept it here in case people would rather read than watch the video but there maybe a few errors in the script as a result since some parts of the script I skipped past for numerous reasons, some I have deleted but I may have forgotten others. I recommend watching the video instead.
Original Script For The Video
Part 1: The Importance Of Ulterior Motives & Lenneth’s Story
By now I feel that enough people have played Valkyrie Profile 2 and because of this, I need to get this off my chest once and for all. Now if you read or watched my review of the game, you might have found the personal side of things to feel a bit shallow and there’s a reason for that, as I was aiming to review the game and not spoil the experience for those getting into it. Now you all know by now that I consider Valkyrie Profile 2 to be the greatest game ever made and while my review did mention a few reasons as to why, I never really delved deep into an explanation of what makes this game better than the rest. To do this, I must go into deeper plot details and explain the events that occur later on in the game so I must warn you all that there will be huge spoilers covered here.
Firstly I want to address a few issues the game has in more detail, if you watched the review then you will know exactly what I am talking about in regards to story but to be more specific, the reason why the game’s narrative is such a slow burn is because of the infamous Chapter 3. While Chapter 1 and 2 act as introductory sections, Chapter 3 presents players with what may quite possibly be the worst macguffin hunt of all time. Now I should clarify that Valkyrie Profile 2 is not the only sole offender here as many other games suffer from this trope but Valkyrie Profile 2 does it in the worst way possible as when you reach the end of Chapter 3, you quickly find out that everything you have been doing up until that point has been a complete and utter waste of time from a plot perspective.
From a gameplay perspective however, Chapter 3 is a very important section of the game as it provides an opportunity for players to invest time and learn the complex gameplay systems that the game presents them with, as well as presenting them with some gorgeous landscapes to explore, each accompanied with an equally impressive musical score. I will be touching on the importance of this later but to sum it up briefly, the written narrative of Valkyrie Profile 2 is definitely not the main attraction here. People who play Valkyrie Profile 2 looking for a deep, engaging narrative are going to be bored to death in Chapter 3 and understandably so, the game doesn’t cater to those people in the slightest. Exploration on the other hand is where the game shines the most and I don’t mean this in the sense of having the freedom to go where you please, rather the feeling of wanderlust that comes from investing in the game’s world, be it gazing at the gorgeous landscapes, enveloping yourself in the sublime music or reading into the lore and backstory of the many einherjar you recruit, piecing together a set of events that occurred in years past to illustrate the worlds historical legacy. All of this is vital to get the most out of this experience as it makes the scale of the game feel so much grander than it would had you just perceived it as a set of cutscenes split apart between battles. Valkyrie Profile 2 cannot be viewed as such, though its incessant usage of cutscenes can feel a little deceptive in that regard. This is why it is so important to take your time with this game, it really isn’t a long one as it has been completed in less than an hour by speed runners which is considerably short for a RPG.
Another thing I want to address is the reason why I suggested that people should probably experience Valkyrie Profile 1 first and the reason for this is how Valkyrie Profile 2 ties directly into the first game and does so in two ways. Both games are completely different experiences that are designed to suit the character who is central to the story. While Lenneth’s story is mostly about exploring an enigma, Silmeria’s story opens up considerably by comparison, expecting you to understand the ways of the world and the situations that occurred in the first game. Players who witnessed the C ending of Valkyrie Profile would know that the gods Lenneth serve are not quite as benevolent as the player was led to believe, those who got the B ending spent over 30 hours only to be told that their work is done, implying that their presence in the game was no longer necessary nor welcome, thrown straight into an anti-climactic credits sequence directly afterwards with a brief hint that the game isn’t over and they have to restart the entire game all over again. Upon finishing the A ending of Valkyrie Profile, the truth is revealed, the gods were using you the whole time but it’s too late to do anything as the world is on the brink of annihilation and you have to stop it before it’s too late, this ending is the one that ties directly into the events of Valkyrie Profile 2 which takes us to the second reason why I recommend people to experience the first game beforehand, the fact that while the timeline Valkyrie Profile 2 takes place in is prior to that of the events of Valkyrie Profile 1, it is very much a sequel as it is not a mere retelling of events that happened, it is a changed timeline, influenced from events of the first game.
So what you see in Valkyrie Profile 2 is essentially a time paradox. Not only that but the entire story of Valkyrie Profile 2 revolves around preventing the events of the first game from ever occurring. If you never played the first game, then you will never understand the importance of this as the events that occurred in the original timeline directly lead towards the devastation of Midgard in the first game, which is a notoriously grim world where humans suffer through miserable lives, begging for death, only to find that death may quite possibly be even worse than life. Valkyrie Profile 1’s story is all about questioning not only the meaning but also the value of life and does so in the most brutal and unapologetic way possible to the point that it might as well be considered to be the most depressing game ever created, as while the game never gives players a definitive answer, it does lean closer to that of nihilism and hopelessness to the point that players experiencing it may even be susceptible to dark thoughts themselves. It’s definitely not an experience for everyone but it is one that is necessary in the realm of videogames, one that I respect greatly as it doesn’t sugarcoat anything. When you consider the fact that the main driving force of the second game is to prevent all of this from happening, players who have played the first game will be considerably more invested in the story as they are emotionally driven to stop all of this misery and bring hope to the world… assuming that hope can even exist in the first place.
Part 2 – The Tragic Princess
Valkyrie Profile 2’s story isn’t centered around Lenneth Valkyrie this time round. Instead you play the role of a human princess named Alicia. At first you would think that it would make more sense for the titular Silmeria to play the role of protagonist, however this isn’t the case and by the time you reach the end of the game, you will soon come to understand why Alicia is the protagonist as she is essentially the character that you the player are going to connect with the most. On top of this, her entire character is the core that links everything together, making her an important character. Before I go into detail on later events, I feel that I should give a brief summery of Alicia’s backstory and the events leading up to the climax of the emotional rollercoaster that is Valkyrie Profile 2.
Despite Odin’s attempts to reincarnate Silmeria into a human to punish her for her rebellious intent, the transmigration failed and Silmeria remained conscious within the human body of Alicia, who Silmeria was originally supposed to be. Silmeria did not stay dormant however, her desire to get revenge against Odin for his misdeeds causes her to take an assertive position over Alicia at times and it is implied that Silmeria’s commanding presence was a threat to the royal family’s authority. Because of this, Alicia was forcibly exiled by her parents and lived a life in solitude for many years. Silmeria continued to assert authority over Alicia’s consciousness leaving Alicia completely helpless, essentially making Alicia a slave to Silmeria. Silmeria was eventually found by Hrist and therefore, Alicia is forced into dangerous situations against her will in order to prevent Hrist from killing her and releasing Silmeria’s soul to be brought back to Asgard. Alicia spends the entire first half of the game doing Silmeria’s bidding and this leads her on a hunt for the Dragon Orb which is where chapter 3 takes place.
At the end of chapter 3, it is revealed that Hrist Valkyrie was masquerading as Leone and after stealing the dragon orb from Alicia, it is presumed that she will launch an attack on Dipan due to her earlier threats. In chapter 4, the group arrives in Dipan to confront Hrist but unfortunately they arrive at a timely moment where Hrist is just about to execute the leader of Dipan’s people, King Barbarossa in front of all of his subjects in order to make an example of what befalls those who oppose the gods. Despite having sent Ull to keep Alicia from witnessing her father’s death, Alicia arrives to stop her anyway but before she can do anything, Hrist gives Arngrim the order to activate the guillotine causing Alicia to witness her father’s decapitation.
To make matters worse, the three mages who were assisting Hrist in the execution out of fear take ghoul power in order to prevent Hrist taking them as Einherjar, this includes Alicia’s childhood friend Dallas, who is forced to drink ghoul powder against his will by Walther. After consuming the ghoul powder, the other two mages leave but Dallas stays behind telling Alicia that her father whom she was exiled from at an early age due to her ties to Silmeria, was trying to separate Alicia from Silmeria using unlawful methods in order to make Alicia free from Silmeria’s control so that Alicia could live as a complete person. Dallas also revealed that the king had to sacrifice many lives in order to do so and that his love for his daughter was his motivation for doing it.
Immediately after this revelation, Dallas begins spazzing out in front of Alicia due to the effects of the ghoul powder as Alicia is forced to watch as her childhood friend loses his mind and becomes a demon. Dylan, who is possessed by Brahms’ soul at the time, forces Dallas to flee leaving Alicia to mourn not only one, but two brutal deaths of people she cared for. This immediately causes her to search for her mother, the last person Alicia cares for who stayed in the castle during the attack. Unfortunately for Alicia however, the Queen’s grief over the loss of her husband caused her to take her own life. After one of the guards reveals this information to Alicia, Hrist appears and tells Alicia that she would have killed her mother anyway causing an enraged Alicia to attack Hrist.
It is then that a pivotal point in the game’s story occurs where Alicia and Silmeria are forcibly separated, Brahms’ soul manifests from within Dylan to try and prevent this from happening but is captured by Freya, Lezard also disappears leaving Alicia and Rufus in the ruins of a fallen kingdom. It is at this point that Rufus decides that he is going to go to Yggdrassil in order to attain the power of the gods and fight Odin to save Midgard.
So Alicia has not only lost her family and friends but she has also lost the person who ruled her entire life. This essentially puts Alicia in a state of desperation, having lost everything that mattered to her and with nobody to lead her, Alicia pleads with Rufus to bring her along. Rufus refuses stating that humans cannot reach Yggdrasil but Alicia insists and Rufus decides to take her as far as she can go.
This is a pivotal point in Alicia’s character. It is important to understand that Silmeria’s dominance over Alicia has essentially removed Alicia’s ability to act for herself. She has grown too used to relying on other people as a result and this is why she chooses to go with Rufus, not because she wants to save the world but because without someone to lead her, she would become as helpless as a dog abandoned by its owner. Alicia is now in a position that she has never been in, now sure many of us face the daunting task of having to choose which direction to take our lives in but this is an extremely difficult task for Alicia in particular considering the fact that she has literally zero independence. This is the core of Alicia’s character and is what ultimately leads to what would be her biggest challenge, the events of chapter 5.
Part 3 The Calm Before The Storm
Alicia and Rufus must traverse through the tranquil Forest Of Spirits to reach the gates of Bifrost, leading to Asgard and thus Yggdrassil. The forests are a land left mostly untouched by Humans and it is home to the elves who’s purpose is to protect the gates of Bifrost from mortals and others who dare threaten the Aesir on Midgard. The song titled “The Wavering Of Another Age” plays throughout this dungeon and it is a very calming song with a catchy rhythm. While the song does befit a tranquil forest that has existed for countless years, its primary purpose is to provide a brief moment of respite to lighten the mood after the events of chapter 4.
Upon reaching the gateway to Bifrost, Rufus enters through with ease, Alicia however finds herself unable to go through with him and this causes her to repeatedly bash the gateway in frustration to the point that her hands turn bright red from all the bruising. This is the first time the player sees any form of emotional response from Alicia since before fighting with Hrist and it heavily emphasizes how terrible her current mental state is but why now? Why does she choose now of all times to express her inner frustrations? Because she has finally seen the reality of her situation and therefore her delusions of purpose are finally starting to fade, Alicia has lost all reason to live at this point and the only thing keeping her going is the mission presented to her by Silmeria because it’s the only way she knows how to live. This scene in particular resonates with me on a more personal level as it kind of reflects my own approach to life, just mindlessly flailing my way through it. I’m sure many others can relate to this as well, that feeling of being completely powerless, yet you keep going despite all the odds being stacked against you, which is precisely what this scene illustrates. Though it is true that life can take its toll on all of us, you can clearly see that the circumstances of Alicia’s life throughout this entire game have been particularly grim, which makes this scene hit all the more harder. It is at this point that Alicia tells Rufus to leave her behind because she finally realizes that she is nothing but a burden to him.
By now, Rufus is aware that something is not right with Alicia and because of this, he decides not to leave her behind because deep down he knows that she is reluctant to leave him. Her actions at the gateway spoke louder to him than her current words. She needs to go with him and he knows it… but it’s impossible. Suddenly they are found by one of Heimdall’s men and are rescued by an elven archer. It is at this point where the elf reveals to Alicia that it is impossible for humans to reach Asgard, unless they were to become an einherjar or turn undead. Upon hearing this, Alicia suddenly proposes the idea of becoming undead and Rufus suggests using his ring to prevent Alicia from decaying since the ring is what has kept Rufus alive this whole time as he should have died many years ago from old age. The player then has to go through the most tedious section of the game which involves backtracking all the way to Dipan’s laboratory to get the ghoul powder and back to the Forest Of Spirits. Which just goes to show that while I consider Valkyrie Profile 2 the greatest game ever made, it is far from perfect, the section afterwards further emphasizes this.
This is where we reach what I consider to be the most memorable section of the entire game and the belly of the whale of Alicia’s story. Despite Rufus’ reluctance to go through with this, Alicia immediately swallows the ghoul powder without hesitation, showing just how reckless her current mental state has lead her to become. This leads to what may quite possibly be the most intense portion of the game where Alicia and Rufus both find themselves on the other side of the gateway. Due to the effects of the ghoul powder, Alicia is in a weakened state and seeing no other choice, Rufus removes his ring and places it on Alicia’s finger to prevent her body from fully decaying but in doing so, Rufus collapses due to the ring being the source of his life energy. Without the ring, Rufus will also begin to decay and die, this leaves Alicia with no other option but to make her way through the dreaded Ravine Caverns in order to save Rufus’ life and make it to the realm of the gods.
Part 4 The Bridge Between Heaven And Hell
Ravine Caverns is without a doubt the most intimidating dungeon in the entire game outside of the Seraphic Gate. It is so infamous that popular youtuber DavidVinc put it on his top 10 worst playstation 2 dungeons of all time list and for good reason, you have 8 minutes to get through the longest dungeon you have encountered so far. Now if you bring up the map for this area you will see a single tiny room, that’s where you are and you will see an icon showing the entrance, on the other side you will see the exit and loads of empty space in between. All of that empty space is filled with small rooms similar to the one you are in and there are multiple layers to this map as there are paths that go up and down leading to other rooms, some leading to dead ends, others leading to treasure chests rigged with traps and others lead to sealstones. Put simply, Ravine Caverns is a huge maze and you are not ready for it. Now I’m sure that there are some people who managed to get through this dungeon first time without a guide but I certainly didn’t, I pussied out because I desperately wanted to get through the ordeal of navigating this treacherous maze in one piece. Thankfully you are able to use photons to bypass most enemies but that won’t save you from reaching a dead end having to backtrack to another path in hopes of making it to the end in time. I hate this dungeon with a passion and the game knows that I hate it because… well, the music.
The Ravine Caverns is certainly a grim place, filled with poisonous swamps that will poison your entire party if you step in them. It’s not exactly the most notable dungeon in the game in the visual department but the music is without a doubt the most fitting song I have ever heard for a dungeon. It’s an intense, emotional piece fittingly titled “Life Which Desires Death”. Considering the nature of the game’s story, this title perfectly describes the context of the game’s story at this point and the song perfectly expresses the emotional state of both the protagonist and you as the player, getting through one of the most painful experiences in the game. Only when you understand the context of the game’s story and have experienced the pain of trudging through this horrendous dungeon yourself will you truly appreciate this piece of music.
So all in all, Ravine Caverns is an intense moment for both the player and Alicia, in fact you could take Alicia or the entire narrative out of the equation and this section of the game would still leave a lasting impression on you. It is an emotional journey that invokes a strong sense of panic and desperation that will stick with you throughout the entire dungeon.
Upon reaching the other side of the Ravine Caverns, a scene plays where Alicia is assisting the crippled Rufus all the way to the exit. The irony of the short and scrawny Alicia dragging this tall elf guy is certainly apparent here but that’s kind of the point. This part of the game shows that Alicia has grown as a character and not a single word has been said since the start of this section but no words are needed as you, the player watched her navigate one of the most treacherous and intense dungeons ever, you could feel her struggles and her will to become stronger just by playing the game and taking in the ambience. Valkyrie Profile 2 shows that some things are best expressed without words and Ravine Caverns is pretty much Alicia’s equivalent of Rocky’s training montage which you, the player got to participate in, which further bolsters the player’s connection to Alicia’s character.
Part way through the cutscene, a new song plays titled “Turning Back Is A Mistake”. If you understand the context of the story then the title of this song is also rather fitting as turning back at this point is impossible. This brings about a massive shift in tone as this song heavily emphasizes a state of tranquility. This is further emphasized by the location itself. Bifrost is the bridge that crosses between the realm of mortals and the realm of the gods and what a sight to behold it is. After the many perils that players went through to reach this point of the game, Bifrost provides the player with a brief moment of respite and while there are a few enemies to fight along the way, the dungeon itself is fairly straightforward. There is also a healing point as well as a save point upon entering this location. My one criticism with this section of the game would be the fact that there are several enemies to fight here as while I do love the combat of Valkyrie Profile 2, I would have preferred to have walked through a combat free zone here. Thankfully you can return to this point in the game and take in all the sights without being interrupted by mandatory battles.
Bifrost is best described as being an aesthetic masterpiece and this is thanks to the phenomenal transitions that create a fantastic illusion that players can easily miss. While Bifrost is a very short dungeon that can be traversed very quickly in game, the clever use of transitions in this area does a fantastic job at showcasing the scale of this gigantic bridge. As you approach from the entrance, the bridge slowly begins tilting upward until you reach this unusually trippy visual effect that surrounds the entire bridge, this visual effect allows for a massive transition to be made as if you look very carefully after entering this section of the bridge you will see a sphere in the background. It took me ages to figure out what that sphere was but then I was amazed to find out that it was actually moon, the entire moon was in the distance and I could barely see it due to the weird visual effects that surrounded me.
Needless to say that continuing further along the bridge caused yet another transition to occur, this transition would be the one that transitions from the center of the bridge to the Asgard side, suddenly you are presented with several floating islands in the distance, many of which have water falling through the edges. It quickly becomes apparent to the player that they are miles away from Midgard and have finally made it all the way to Asgard. Now on a personal note, ever since I started playing the first Valkyrie Profile and seeing Asgard for the first time, I wondered to myself, can you actually go there and explore those islands? Sadly the only time you can explore Asgard is right at the end of the game where it is in ruins. So I personally felt that reaching Asgard in Valkyrie Profile 2 was a dream come true, sure it is only a few screens of nothing but gorgeous landscapes with only a single merchant and two dungeon entrances but the moment I arrived in Asgard, I couldn’t help but stand still amongst the flying petals and take it all in.
The music that plays in Asgard titled “A Stable Float” was the perfect track to accompany this section of the game as it somehow manages to be even more more tranquil and relaxing than the music that played in the previous area. Asgard presents the player with a brief moment of respite before they make their final trek to the top of Yggdrassil and what a moment it is. One thing is for certain however, it is not Asgard alone that made this part of the game so impactful, rather the journey as a whole makes reaching this point of the game feel so damn satisfying. I could stand in Asgard and take in its incredible views forever but the game is far from over. The emotional rollercoaster continues.
Part 5 – The Final Climb & Climax Of Chapter 5
With both the Dragon Orb and Brahms soul in the palm of his hand, you would think that Odin would be content with leaving Midgard alone. This is not the case however, as the Sovereigns Rite used to separate Silmeria from Alicia was a forbidden magic that only gods were permitted to use. Now that humans have gained the knowledge on how to perform the Sovereigns Rite, Odin feels that it is necessary to destroy Midgard and dispose of humanity before they become a greater threat, threatening to slay any einherjar who oppose him in the process. Originally however, this was not the case. In the first Valkyrie Profile, the deterioration of Midgard which led to the poor state of the world was caused by the fact that the Dragon Orb was no longer on Midgard. It is likely that the Dragon Orb provided sustenance to the world and without it, a great famine would be brought about that would cause devastation. The people of Coriander began selling their children into slavery, likely in order to afford the rising prices of food. Orphans turn to thievery in order to make a living and help the struggling elderly. Lack of resources brought tension between nations, meaning the demand for mercenaries was higher than ever as war could break out at any moment. All of this was the result of Odin acquiring the Dragon Orb, though this does not become apparent until the end of the first game. In Silmeria, players are expected to know this and therefore, Odin is already set up to be the game’s antagonist. Sensing Alicia and Rufus’ presence, Odin decides to take matters into his own hands, deciding to slay them himself.
The next dungeon, Yggdrassil is without a doubt my favorite dungeon in the entire game. Unlike the Ravine Caverns it isn’t an ordeal to get through but at the same time, it isn’t a total cakewalk as Yggdrasil makes full use of the game’s photon system, offering some somewhat tricky platforming to mix things up. The whole dungeon feels like a really satisfying excursion that showcases every single aspect of Valkyrie Profile 2’s phenomenal design at it’s best. Part of me considers Yggdrasil to be a strong contender for my favorite dungeon in a JRPG for this very reason. The music that plays in this location is titled “No Knowledge Of Wisdom”, a song so powerful that it quickly invokes an exciting feeling but simultaneously illustrates the struggles the player will face as they carry out the daunting task of making their way to the top of this colossal tree.
Visually speaking, the entire dungeon is a spectacle, not that it should come as a surprise at this point but the visual backdrop of this level in particular is so impressive that there is an entire cut scene dedicated specifically towards acknowledging just how incredible it looks, so much so that it serves as the perfect opportunity for Alicia and Rufus to reflect on their entire journey up to this point, using the wondrous landscapes surrounding them to show just how far they have come throughout their journey, reminding players yet again that they have accomplished feats that no mortal could ever hope to achieve. All of this builds up to the climactic finale of the entire story, where Alicia and Rufus team up against Odin. Those who played Valkyrie Profile 1 will relish in the sensation of finally being able to settle the score for all of the terror he has brought to Midgard in the first game. This is the man who tricked the player into doing his dirty work only to find out that you were working for a scumbag who views humans as nothing more than farm animals. You are finally challenging the lord of the gods in what would have been the game’s final confrontation in the game’s original timeline.
Needless to say, the battle ends in Odin’s favor as his powers vastly outclass those of Alicia and Rufus, though interestingly enough, you can actually win the first battle if you are strong enough. The result is always the same regardless of whether or not you are victorious as Alicia and Rufus get the ultimate reality check in the form of a serious beating. Rufus tells Alicia to run away but Alicia refuses to budge, refusing to abandon the dying Rufus. It is at this point that a familiar face shows up. It turns out that Lezard survived the events of chapter 4 and snuck his way to the top of Yggdrassil and seeing no other choice, Alicia begs Lezard to assist her against Odin but what can a mere mage hope to do against the might of the all father himself?
Part 6 – This Is No Mere Mage
It isn’t uncommon to see videogame protagonists as the underdog as it allows for said character to not only be relatable but it also opens up the potential for character growth. A good example of this would be Alicia’s story up to this point. Throughout the game she has played the role of an underdog and has faced many tough adversaries on her way to stop Odin’s tyranny. However it is not by Alicia’s hand that Odin’s reign is brought to an end.
During the fourth chapter of Valkyrie Profile, one of Lenneth’s spiritual concentrations leads her to Flenceberg where she will recruit a mage named Lorenta into the party. This is a critical point in the game’s story that cannot be skipped over if players wish to complete the A ending. It is here where players first encounter a mage named Lezard Valeth. Now considering the fact that Valkyrie Profile takes place many years after the events of the second game, people may be confused as to how Lezard Valeth exists in this world but all shall be explained in due time, for now I wish to cover the events of Lezard’s past, leading up to the events of Valkyrie Profile 2’s final chapter.
In the first Valkyrie Profile, Lezard is best described as being the ultimate underdog with a trick up his sleeve. At first glance, he seems like a delusional madman who’s threatening presence poses no threat to a goddess like Lenneth Valkyrie. As a human, Lezard’s power is no match for Lenneth’s, much like all the other foes she has face in previous chapters. What makes Lezard stand out from the rest however is that he is fully aware of this fact and thus he presents the first major obstacle in Lenneth’s path. Lezard’s depiction in the first Valkyrie Profile is a far cry from the cool-headed mage that he in in the second game. Instead he is portrayed as a despicable madman with a crude and twisted sense of humor, as is shown by his interaction with the captured elf, twisting her words into an implication of sexual desire between her and Lezard’s homunculus, bringing further upset to the helpless elf. Not only does this scene give player’s a taste of Lezard’s disturbing characteristics and his psychological prowess but it also puts Lezard into a position of power right from the get go, a position that players would be quick to assume to be short-lived. This assumption is immediately crushed when Lezard lures his former teacher, Lorenta to his tower where she would suffer tremendous torment, only to face a bitter end. I simply adore this scene as it shows just how calculated and intellegent Lezard truly is, while further showcasing his twisted nature. Despite his deep understanding of how to manipulate the emotions of his victims, it isn’t directly stated whether or not Lezard truly revels in the suffering of others. While it is heavily implied that he does, his actions actually serve a more practical purpose than one might initially believe. Lezard knew that It wouldn’t be enough to simply kill Lorenta or her husband, he had to make sure that his actions brought him enough infamy in order for him to become closer to his prize. As an underdog, Lezard first has to prove his worthiness as a villain, therefore Lezard does what he does best, in order to attract the attention of the one whom he desires most, a trick to lure the unsuspecting heroine into his clutches. This was never about Lorenta, nor was it about torturing elves. All of these horrific acts were merely a means to an end, Lezard beckons Lenneth into his foreboding tower, where the two would finally meet each other face to face.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun tsu
It is at this point where Lezard reveals his plans to Lenneth, all the while expressing his adoration for her. This is the first foe who shows a deep interest in Lenneth, not as a goddess but as a person. Lezard clearly knows much a lot about Lenneth, and despite beating him in a fight, Lezard manages to get away, leaving her with a single provocative line in retaliation, showing that despite being defeated in a fight, Lezard ultimately got one up on her by showing her that he knows more about her than she knows herself, Lezard has essentially exploited Lenneth’s ultimate weakness, something she has to contend with throughout the game. In addition, this shows just how confident Lezard is in the face of such a formidable adversary because according to the famous quote of Sun Tsu, those who know their enemy and know themselves need not fear a hundred battles, whereas those that do not know themself or their enemy will succumb in every battle. Lezard is essentially the ultimate foil to Lenneth and thus he is essentially her greatest rival, therefore despite his mortality, he has proven himself to be more powerful than Lenneth could possibly believe and as is typical of a goddess who is known to bring evil to its knees, even she refuses to accept that a mere human could be such a threat to her but little does she realize how far he is willing to go to achieve his ultimate dream.
Later on, a character named Mystina, an acquaintance of Lezard is introduced. It’s heavily implied that Mystina is heavily interested in Lezard, whether it be romatic or lustful is unknown, though she decides to use astral projection to explore his tower with the intent of stalking him. What Mystina finds inside the tower not only blows her mind but she is disgusted to find a homonculus of what appears to be a very young girl, leading to her assumption that Lezard is a pedophile. Now Lenneth is far from being an underaged girl, heck she has expsted for countless years so it’s obvious that Lezard clearly likes women of his own age but it is possible that he may have expressed an interest in minors for research purposes… if you know what I mean. This clearly paints a picture of what type of character Lezard is. He is so sick and twisted that you wouldn’t want to know his secrets even his he told you. This disgusts Mystina so much that her opinion of Lezard changes completely. However, Mystina still believes that Lezard can be of use to her as she recognizes his knowledge better than anyone, so she kidnaps the lifeless homunculus in order to blackmail Lezard, showing that despite not seeing any truly despicable acts from her, she and Lezard are both cut from the same cloth, creating an interesting relationship between the two, a relationship of mutual respect, yet distaste for one another. Both Lezard and Mystina recognize the need to rely on one another in order for them to reach their own agendas, though it goes without saying that Lezard is always one step ahead of her the whole way, with the philosopher’s stone’s knowledge, much like Lenneth, Mystina too is vulnerable to Lezard’s superior intellect. Lezard takes great pleasure divulging the truths of the world to Mystina, after all, he is showcasing his knowledgeable prowess which essentially allows him to stroke his own ego, going even as far as to express his ultimate desire to her, leaving Mystina completely baffled at the idea of a man getting to take ownership of a goddess but before she can react, Lezard casts a spell on the machine she is is in, freezing her to death and cackles madly to himself.
Now for players who saw the B ending, this would be the last time they would see Lezard in the game and if they didn’t enter the Tower Of Lezard Valeth in Chapter 4 or exited it for whatever reason, the mystina recruitment scene wouldn’t have been available either, nor would Mystina be recruitable. This means that in order to view the rest of Lezard’s backstory, you will need to make sure to get the A Ending. The A ending is filled to the brim with story which is a harsh contrast to the game at large. What makes the A ending so interesting however is not Lenneth’s characterization that is brought about by the final scenes, rather Lezard’s sudden appearance that shockingly has him working together with Arngrim and his former victim, Mystina in order to restore Lenneth’s boddy after it was taken by Hrist. This leads to several events, once again showcasing Lezard’s crude sense of humor, while also showcasing his knowledge. It is these traits that ultimately makes Lezard stand out from the other villains in the series and in a way it kind of makes him somewhat of a lovable rogue. Not only is he very much an underdog throughout this entire game being a mere mortal and all but he has the charisma in both Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2 that makes him so compelling, to the point that if you ask any Valkyrie Profile fan who their favorite character is, there’s a good chance that many would say Lezard. In fact I would personally consider Lezard to be my all time favorite character in gaming and I’m hoping that this analysis of his character can help you understand why he is my favorite. There are many insane characters in games such as Albedo from Xenosaga, Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 and Mugetsu from The Bouncer but none of them can even remotely compare to the greatness of Lezard Valeth.
Upon finishing the first Valkyrie Profile, right after the world is destroyed and brought back to life under Lenneth’s control, the end credits roll and a screen saying “fin” shows up, making you think that the game is over and it’s time to turn the game off, those who leave the screen on long enough will be treated to a scene with Brahms. This scene is particularly interesting to me as it suggests that Brahms has ulterior motives which could open up the possibility of a sequel perhaps, who knows? What’s really important is that right after this, Lezard shows up. Now you would assume that Lezard came back under Lenneth’s control as she is the creator but you’d be wrong. While it was thought that the Dragon Orb killed ever single being on midgard, only three survived, Brahms, Silmeria and Lezard. How Brahms and Silmeria survived is unknown but Lezard’s cause of survival was the philosopher’s stone, by destroying it, he was able to protect himself from Loki’s Dragon Orb, allowing him to survive the armageddon that everyone else was crushed by. With his memories in tact and without Lenneth’s hold over him, Lezard is free to do whatever he pleases but as horrifying as that may seem, he is still a mortal human, surely he can’t subjugate a powerful goddess like Lenneth, especially now that she has the power of creation in her hands, what could he possibly do accomplish his dreams?
It is at this point that the primary antagonist of the entire series has been replaced with the true antagonist of the series. Finally after all of the buildup from the first game, Lezard takes up the moniker of main antagonist, from the previous main antagonist no less. I love this as not only has Lezard’s entire backstory built up specifically for this moment but it just goes to show just how meaningless this entire fight was, as you have merely replaced one evil for another. Thus a whole new arc of the story begins and immediately after, the situation is bleak with Alicia not only losing her ring but also Rufus thanks to Lezard’s soul transfusion spell infusing Odin’s soul into Rufus’ body before his death. Luckily for Rufus he is able to communicate with Alicia as a soul, though he requires materialization to become alive again. So from this point on, Alicia is on her own, much like Arthas was when he was separated in Azjol Nerub, Alicia now has to brave the perils of Yggdrassil by herself as she tracks down the ring used to sustain her life back on Midgard so that she can use it to materialize Rufus. Upon doing so, the game presents a brief moment of triumph as a new song plays in Yggdrasil titled “Start Up From Prolonged Darkness” which is full of energy and pumps players up for the second arc of the story, vanquishing the treacherous Lezard once and for all.
Part 7 – A New World Awaits
By the time players reach the final section of the game, Lezard has taken center stage as pretty much everything revolves around him. Alicia, who barely had any of the story revolve around her, save for chapter 4 and 5, finds herself once again as a third wheel in the conflict as Lenneth appears to resolve her differences with her old nemesis. With the power of Gungnir in his hands, Lezard creates his own utopia in the form of a new world tree, proclaiming himself as god and what a utopia this is. The Tower Of Lezard Valeth, which was an important dungeon during the mid portion of the first game serves as Valkyrie Profile 2’s final dungeon. While its appearance is drastically different to that of the first game’s dungeon, it is heavily implied by Mystina that the tower is capable of moving between dimensions and with Lezards new found powers, its likely that he is able to completely alter its appearance to his liking. The Tower Of Lezard Valeth consists of 4 layers, each with its own unique backgrounds and battle arenas as well as different music for each layer. One might argue that the tower is a reflection of Lezard’s subconscious thoughts or his desires and as twisted as he is, this wouldn’t surprise me. While each song that plays inside the dungeon is a different variant of the same song, the tone in both the visuals and the music is so drastically different for each layer, making for a truly unique final dungeon in terms of conceptual design. Each of the four landscapes are gorgeous and the music that accompanies each of them is especially powerful. Both of them help to invoke feelings of terror, dread, sadness and pride, with each layer representing said feeling.
The first layer features a shattered world, full of debris and rubble. Within its background lies a gigantic dragon shaped statue amongst the chaos. The music titled Climax Comming From The Abyss invokes a strong sense of urgency which is somewhat familiar of the first game’s soundtrack in tone but in Valkyrie Profile 2’s style. Being the first layer of the tower makes the feeling of urgency fit all the more because there are three other layers to get through and Lezard isn’t going to wait around for you, this layer may also reflect Lezard’s destructive nature in regards to how he handles his victims.
The second layer, features a vast barren landscape, neighboring a dying woodland with a river flowing through the foreground. the music titled “A Pile Of Griefs” is considerably slower in tempo but many of the notes are considerably more emphasized by comparison, bringing about a foreboding, tense and intimidating atmosphere. This layer likely reflects Lezard’s unwavering confidence and the fear that comes from dealing with a confident adversary envelops you in this layer. Both the music and the landscape capture a feeling of hopelessness, with all the dying fauna unable to thrive in an environment consisting of both extreme heat and water. This is a land where nothing survives but despite this fact the landscape is still gorgeous to look at.
The third layer is a huge contrast to the previous layers, now you are above the clouds and there are several floating islands with waterfalls, accompanied by a gorgeous starry sky in the background, this area has a noticably more tranquil, yet melancholic tone to it, which is further emphasized by the music that plays which is titled “weakness”. This song is arguably one of the game’s more definitive tracks as it carries a feeling of gentleness throughout, which is a feeling that I find the game itself revolves around as a whole. This feeling of gentleness is quickly followed by a more somber tone, hence the melancholy. This layer possibly represents Lezard’s inner frailty as a human, a reflection of the underdog he once was, completely powerless before the goddess he wished to own.
This is fittingly positioned just beneath the fourth and final layer which plays my favorite song in the game titled “ascend into the true faith”. This is hands down the most epic and grandiose piece of music I have ever heard in a videogame, so much so that it was at this moment that I realized that Valkyrie Profile 2 would become my all time favorite game. The landscape appears to be considerably more ornate than the previous layers as both the platforms and the trees are draped in golden nectar with glittering gold particles fluttering from the sea of clouds below. While the music kind of speaks for itself with its sheer epicness, the landscape further emphasizes Lezard’s narcissism, as this is after all his utopia so of course the very top of the tower where he resides is going to be as regal as possible, befiting the coronation of this new god perfectly.
At the very top of this incredible world tree the three Valkyries confront Lezard, only to be completely outmatched by his newfound powers, rendering the once powerful Valkyrie sisters into crystalized toys and I say toys specifically because that’s pretty much what Lenneth is at this point which is evident upon entering Lezard’s inner sanctum where the epic music fades to silence as you are forced to bear witness to Lezard’s moment of triumph as you run through the hallways surrounding the center of the room with nothing but Liam O’Brien’s legendary voice acting to accompany you. This is such a powerful moment in the game as you finally get to see Lezard get what he wants, showcasing not only his colossal ego but also further showcasing his mad obsession with Lenneth as he gloats to her about her being unable to stop him, while simultaneously fawning over her. This follows the final battle of the game where Alicia, Rufus, Arngrim and Brahms team up to free Lenneth from Lezard’s clutches. I should note that there are some plot holes brought about by some of the game’s dialogue at this point with both Lenneth and Alicia claiming that Lezard has destroyed worlds which we never see happen, however this narrative flaw can easily be overlooked when you consider the fact that Gungnir is responsible for the world’s stability and eventually the world would face annihilation is kept away from Asgard, which is enough of a reason to confront Lezard.
Upon releasing Lenneth from her crystal, Alicia absorbs the souls of the 3 fallen Valkyries and undergoes a huge change. Not only does Michelle Ruff completely change her tone of voice to reflect this change but Alicia’s appearance changes also, making Alicia noticeably taller than she once was, showing that she has finally taken control of her life, therefore, it is finally her time to shine so that she can save the lives of others. Now Lezard Valeth, the big bad that had already taken over the entire universe and created his own utopia, is thrown into a state of panic at the sight of this new threat to his reign. These two underdogs who have received ultimate power shall now enter what is quite possibly the most epic confrontation in a videogame ever to decide the fate of the universe. The final boss fight of Valkyrie Profile 2 is simply put phenomenal. Not only does Liam O’Brien deliver some of the hammiest lines you will ever hear him say in any videogame but you also get to listen to the fittingly titled “Unrestrained Struggle” throughout the entire boss fight, a song that is both intense and playful in tone to perfectly match Lezard’s twisted nature, as well as an evil laugh that could even rival that of Joker himself. All of this makes for the greatest final boss battle I have ever experienced in my life and if you happen to lose the fight, Lezard will take great pleasure in detailing the agony that he will put you through as punishment for stealing Lenneth away from him which is a neat little touch. Let’s just say that you really don’t want to lose this battle but you probably should just to witness more hammy voice acting from Liam O’Brien.
Unfortunately however, your reward for beating Lezard is a remarkably bittersweet ending, where Lezard unleashes a final blow that causes Alicia to disappear along with him. Not only that but the game ends with the three guys that were left over as they discuss what to do next. It is a shockingly uneventful ending as the only highlights are the deaths of Alicia, Lezard and Brahms, the other two take the remaining two treasures and head off through the water mirror. It is then that the credits roll and the game is over, that’s it, there’s a brief epilogue after the credits, but it’s nothing substantial. The question is, underneath all of this, what does Valkyrie Profile 2 mean to me?
Part 8 Finale – What Valkyrie Profile 2 Means To Me
It’s important to note that Alicia’s death happens as a result of the reckless pursuit of her desires. Alicia’s fate was sealed the moment she consumed the ghoul powder, she committed a suicidal act and did so without any hesitation or fear but her willpower prevented her from dying until she accomplished what she set out to do which is why she made it clear near the end of the game that she would become the vessel of the 3 valkyries, knowing that she would die in the process. Even with Brahms insistence on becoming the vessel himself, Alicia insisted that she had to be the one. In truth, Alicia’s situation was no different from Brahms’ as she was already undead, just like him, she merely continues to live through willpower alone. Alicia and Brahms death at the end of the game symbolizes that the mission was complete and that both of them could finally accept their fate. The truth is, Alicia wanted to die the whole time as she literally had nothing left to live for but much like Broxigar Saurfang in Warcraft’s War Of The Ancients trilogy, Alicia wasn’t going to just throw her life away for nothing, she wanted to devote the remainder of her life towards saving midgard and was more than willing to die for that purpose, heck she specifically wanted to sacrifice herself for a good cause, even though those around her tried to stop her from doing so. It is here that Alicia’s suicide mission would finally end and the result of this is a world where “man etches fate anew”, hence the subtitle in the logo of the game. So to answer the question, Valkyrie Profile 2 is the retelling of a tragic story, painted in a sublime facade of beauty. Unlike the first game which paints its world in a more transparently grim tone, Valkyrie Profile 2 does not. The narrative themes strongly contrasts with the beauteous presentation of the game but the emotions brought about said presentation heavily reflects the tone of the narrative to the point that you can’t help but feel connected in Alicia’s experience regardless of whether or not you care about written narrative in games. While the same could be said for the first Valkyrie Profile game, I appreciate the second game so much more simply because it told its story a more interesting way due to it’s slightly lighter tone acting as a facade.
It is also important to remember that in the original timeline, it is likely that Alicia’s journey ended at the top of Yggdrassil, failing to accomplish her mission, which leads into the events of the first Valkyrie Profile where the world is dark and grim as a result. Valkyrie Profile 2 is best described as being in a neutral state, which is strongly conveyed by the visual style of the game as unlike other games which use a vibrant colour scheme to bring their environments to life, Valkyrie Profile 2 relies solely darker colours to blend in with its gritty atmosphere. To makes up for it’s lack of vibrancy, Valkyrie Profile 2’s impressive usage of shading, lighting and detail brings the best out of its limited colour scheme, bringing about a rather unique tone, a realistic depiction of a world where everything is neutral, nothing more, nothing less. Valkyrie Profile 2 is not a lighthearted game, nor is it a depressing game, it is set in an imperfect world with a brutal history that just happens to be in a state of tranquility around the time the events of Valkyrie Profile 2 take place. If you bothered to read the biographies of the various einherjar you acquired over the course of the game, you would be well aware of this brutal history and the visual style carries this feeling too, albeit a lot less potent than what the einherjar backstories depict. This is due to the world’s tranquil state, a world that is trapped in a constant state of tension and terror is enjoying a brief moment of respite before the impending doom that would later be seen in the first Valkyrie Profile. This is why experiencing both games back to back is vital to truly appreciate the Valkyrie Profile series as both games work in each other’s favor to create one of the most interesting worlds in videogame history. That being said however, there’s a strong separation between the world and the story. I think that the visuals do a fantastic job at conveying this as its neutral tone feels completely distant from the events of the narrative, save for the Ravine Caverns of course. There are some gorgeous looking landscapes in this game which feels strange when accompanied by such a somber plot but surely there’s a reason for this harsh contrast, one might say that it brings about a depiction of apathy. While the first Valkyrie Profile’s world is clearly in turmoil with its dark tone, the apathy brought about by Valkyrie Profile 2’s atmosphere is far more brutal as it makes Alicia’s suffering feel all the more isolated as the world around her does not express the same amount of pain, whereas the first game’s world does, as everyone is suffering. In that regard Valkyrie Profile comes across exaggeration of bleakness, whereas Valkyrie Profile 2 comes across as the grim reality of isolated suffering in a world where many remain content. Sure the citizens of Dipan suffered the loss of their home but the people of other nations are completely unaffected by the events of chapter 4, continuing on as if nothing ever happened, turning a blind eye to it all in the selfish way that we humans typically do. This also explains why Alicia and Rufus have a strong connection as while his situation is nowhere near as grim as Alicia’s, Rufus goes through struggles of his own, dealing with his own anxieties which is heavily amplified by the death of Rousallier, who appears to be connected to Rufus in some way. By sharing in each other’s pain, they are able to combat the apathy surrounding them. This brings forth a thin layer of hope in their nigh hopeless situation.
What makes the Valkyrie Profile series so great is the fact that it is one of the few JRPG series that actually challenges you to think for yourself rather than have the game tell you what is right and what is wrong. The value of humanity truly is subjective and while the game doesn’t push a negative stance in the main story, the conclusion, coupled with the einherjar backstories strongly suggests that the answer is no. Unlike most JRPG’s whish have a happy ending, Valkyrie Profile 2’s ending is fiercely neutral, in fact the entire ending of the game is spoiled by the game’s subtitle on the logo of the game “The Destinies Mend Rifts In Time As Man Etches Fate Anew”. What does this actually mean you ask? Well it means exactly what it says, mankind shall decide the fate of the world now, it is in their hands since the gods are no more. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well if you read all of the einherjar backstories that occur prior to the events of Valkyrie Profile 1, you will clearly see that even at the height of Midgard’s prosperity, humanity has always suffered and history has a habit of repeating itself, so when you consider that fact, Valkyrie Profile 2’s ending is not a happy ending at all, quite the contrary. It was all for nothing. Sure you killed both tyrants… but it won’t be long before another tyrant shows up. Were the sacrifices worth it in the end? Alicia sacrifices her life for nothing but a pipe dream, and considering the fact that every single playable character in the main story dies at some point, were any of their sacrifices worthwhile? My answer is no. Does this mean that humans are destined to be miserable forever? Well that’s not an easy thing to answer because there’s so much nuance involved. Some of the game’s NPC’s appear to be content with their lives, so you can’t answer with an absolute yes or no. All you can say for certain is that virtually nothing will change and for that reason, the sacrifices were worthless because the real enemy is and always will be humanity. Valkyrie Profile 2 deliberately detaches players from it’s world, sure you can talk to NPC’s to get an understanding of the state of the world but you never truly feel connected to the world because you are constantly getting distracted by the mission presented to you, a pointless suicide mission that would inevitably fail. At the same time however, you can’t help but feel that the journey is worthwhile. Valkyrie Profile 2’s world is absolutely gorgeous for a reason, it is a reflection of our own world. Many of us forget this as we are too distracted by our daily lives to notice just how gorgeous the world truly is. The true value of life comes from the bounties that the world presents to us. The trouble is that many of us never find those bounties because circumstances separate us from the world. If you take all the supernatural stuff out of the equation, instead focusing on the game’s themes as well as the state of the world, it is an accurate reflection of reality, hence the reason why Valkyrie Profile 2’s realistic art style is so fitting as it is suppose to reflect the beauty and harshness of reality, though with a tad of polish and shine to reflect the supernatural aspects that make the game’s universe more interesting. I find the 2d perspective really helps to amplify this as each of the locations are created in separate layers that are blended together, much like a painting in the sense that it is an illusion crafted from a paintbrush where all the layers blend into each other to create a landscape as opposed to a 3D game where the goal tends to be to make the game look as close to real life as possible which doesn’t give off the same feeling that Valkyrie Profile 2’s visuals do and that, along with the games gritty, yet striking art style is what makes Valkyrie Profile 2’s visuals so special to me, hence the reason why I call it a work of art in motion, because it’s environments literally come across as an animated painting.
At the end of the day though, Valkyrie Profile 2 is just a videogame, it’s not supposed to truly mean anything and a lot of what I say here is subjective but the game is thought provoking enough to make me say all of this stuff and ultimately, that is what matters. The Valkyrie Profile series as a whole left a lasting impression on me, particularly Valkyrie Profile 2 and I wanted to share it with you all just so that you can understand just how passionate I am about this game and why it is and always will be my favorite game of all time.
Yet another double review and you might be thinking, why am I reviewing two completely different games here? Well you see there isn’t really all that much that differentiates the two save for a few nuances. Spiderman 2: Enter Electro is like a standalone expansion in a way, it adds the ability to shoot web balls in mid air, as well as an alternative kick animation but besides that it’s moreorless the same as the first game so I’m going to be reviewing both of them together for this reason. Spiderman 2: Enter Electro is a childhood game of mine that my mum game away to some other kid, eventually I picked up both the first and the second game to relive those memories and experience the first game for the very first time.
First of all I have to address the biggest issue with both of these games and that is the fact that they both fail on the basic fundamentals of action games. First of all, the melee combat has two main buttons, square to punch and circle to kick. The problem with this is that they both kind of do the same thing really, though I find punching to be far more reliable personally so I mainly use square. This means that circle is completely useless in this game as it does the same thing square does but with a different animation, sure there are a few differences besides that but nothing important in the grand scheme of things, they’re both attacks that yield similar enough results, just pick one and spam it, you sadly cannot mix them up as you are locked to either one combo string or the other which makes the melee combat feel sterile. Thankfully there is an aerial attack that I found to be far more useful as it lets you approach a locked on enemy from the air with a diving attack, given the fact that this is a Spiderman game, you will be attacking enemies from above a lot and it’s often the best way to engage in a melee combat situation as it’s kind of like Ninja Gaiden’s Flying Swallow attack, an ever abusable diagonal strike that covers a great distance very quickly.
The downside to this though is that if you want to follow up with a melee combo, good luck because I can’t for the life of me figure out how to cancel out the recovery time of Spiderman’s landing after his aerial attack. I tried many things and the results varied. Sometimes it would cancel the recovery time, other times it wouldn’t, it just felt random, perhaps there is a mechanic that I don’t know about that allows me to cancel attacks but even if there is, the melee combat is so shallow that the difference it would make would be insignificant since even if you do manage to cancel, the combo ends after 3 punches anyway which may not even be enough to take the enemy down. My point is that this recovery time leaves you wide open to be attacked and this can be incredibly frustrating as it can happen seemingly randomly. Sometimes you will jump attack and be unable to move for a brief period because Spiderman is in the middle of his landing animation, where he can be attacked, other times you will jump attack and go straight into a combo, it’s so inconsistent that it’s hard to rely on melee combat alone but sometimes there is little choice but to do so. There’s also a grab attack you can perform which can be useful in some of the few stealth missions the game has which are surprisingly the best missions and these missions are mainly found in Enter Electro which gives it some bonus points. They can’t be used on bosses though so don’t bother trying to grab Sandman, they of course can grab you though because double standards. You can however grab objects and throw them at some of the bosses though this can be pretty tricky to do when you’re getting chased by a boss, what makes this even more annoying is that the button to pick up objects is square and this means that you will find yourself punching the object instead of picking it up sometimes.
Thankfully you can always fall back on your web techniques to deal with certain foes but doing so consumes web cartridges which you have to replenish by finding items littered throughout each level. The good news is that unlike the melee combat, there’s a good array of web skills at your disposal, you can shoot a line of webbing at your enemy directly to tangle them up, though this only works against non-boss enemies, you can shoot web balls at enemies that act as projectiles which can be used on bosses and is arguably the most useful web skill in Spiderman’s arsenal, especially in Enter Electro as you can use it in mid air which could be handy for speedrunners to utilize in certain sections but sadly it can only be used while on the ground in the first game for some reason. There’s also the web gloves that increase your melee damage if you want a little bit of extra power to your attack at the cost of webbing, then there’s the web grapple which you can use to trip people up or bring them up close for a melee combo. Finally there’s the web dome which costs a lot of webbing to use but is arguably the most useful as it protects you from attacks for a short period of time as well as dealing damage to multiple enemies around you.
You should have called for backup!
The downside to all of this is that the controls for these web moves are tied to directional inputs which are the same buttons for movement and it doesn’t work in the same way as Devil May Cry where you can only perform them when the lock on button is held since in these games, the lock on is toggleable. Speaking of which, the lock on in this game is absolutely terrible since it unlocks the moment that you turn so you don’t get the same strafe stance that you do in Devil May Cry. It certainly shows how far action games have come over the years but it doesn’t do these games any favors. If they released this game today, people would laugh, like it’s an absolute joke of a lock on system, arguably one of the worst lock on systems in the history of lock on systems and because of this, doing any of the web moves is an absolute nightmare since you might accidentally move in a direction instead of performing the necessary directional input with triangle to execute the move. Talk about a massive pain in the web balls.
To add insult to injury the camera in these games is really bad. Now thankfully there is a camera focus button so moving the camera manually isn’t an issue. The problem is that whenever you turn around, the camera will automatically face the position that you are facing and while this may seem intuitive, like I said before, the lock on will disappear because the character you are locked on to is no longer in view because the camera just turned away from them. Thing is, the camera is somehow at its worst when it is fixed. I swear the stages that have fixed camera angles in this game are the absolute worst since the camera angles are horrendous. For example there’s a mission in Spiderman 2: Enter Electro where you have to catch a train, now you would think this would be a simple fixed vertical camera angle but nope the camera shifts to a diagonal view when standing in certain spots which annoyed me to no end as I would end up swinging diagonally by accident instead of forward because the camera angles fucked with me so goddamn much.
Obviously there’s more to these games than combat, there’s a heavy emphasis on platforming as well and this is handled a little better as you can web swing across buildings with ease. The only downside is that Spiderman can be very difficult to control when upside down because the controls feel as if they’re inverted since pressing forward doesn’t move him forward in the direction of the camera, rather it moves him forward in the direction he’s facing and this can be a real nuisance. Spiderman moves rather slow when climbing which can make climbing walls feel a bit tedious at times, though I can’t really complain too much as the camera focus button also doubles as a camera control button, yes you can actually move the camera with the left analog stick or d pad, not the right analogue stick though, this is likely due to the fact that the PS1 didn’t originally come shipped with a right analogue stick but it would have been so much easier if it did since you could do all of this on the fly. The camera movement can feel a bit slow and clunky but it gets the job done, you can zipline with the press of a button, letting cancel your webswings with a simple jump into a zipline which feels surprisingly good.
Now there are many different levels in each game, some of them are timed chase sequences, others are platforming sections with a few baddies along the way, then you have the combat focused levels where there are a bunch of enemies in a room to fight, usually with an objective to deal with along the way and of course you have the boss fights. Some of these take place indoors but others take place atop skyscrapers. The only thing each level has in common is that they feel more like a wrestling match with the horrible controls, camera and lock on as opposed to fun challenges. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty cool ideas such as stopping a plane from exploding and escaping from police helicopters but these levels can be very frustrating to deal with as well, no thanks to the controls of course. Seriously Spiderman really can’t catch a break at all in this game, though quite frankly it’s quite fitting for our friendly neighborhood hero to be put in all of these bad situations. I can’t help but love all of his one-liners in this game and how snarky he is, it’s almost as if the games are self-aware about how aggravating some of the levels can be since Spiderman never ceases to comment on all of the ordeals that await him, in fact I’d argue that this is probably the best part of both games.
This visuals are absolutely shocking
Another great thing about these games is the visuals, now sure, the facials are absolutely horrific for the human characters but I find Spiderman and some of the less human-like villains to look pretty well designed for a PS1 game (Enter Electro even adds a layer of webbing under his armpits which is a nice touch), though they did come out late in the ps1’s lifespan to be fair. I think the city skyline feels a bit empty though, you can’t see any city beneath you so you feel like you’re jumping across floating platforms at times. There are moments, particularly in the second game where you get to move around on the city streets which is nice I suppose. I personally found the final few levels of the second game to be the most interesting in terms of aesthetic, while the first game for the most part I found to be pretty forgettable by comparison in terms of level concept.
The music in the first Spiderman is done by everybody’s favorite advocate Intellevision Amico advocate, Tommy Tallerico, while the other was done by Todd Masten, so it goes without saying that both soundtracks are completely different. The first game has a mix of electronic and rock while the second game is mostly electronic music. Now considering the fact that I played the second game as a kid, the soundtrack is somewhat memorable to me, however I can’t really say that either soundtracks are particularly noteworthy personally, I’d say Tommy Tallerico’s soundtrack in the first game is a little better than the second game’s soundtrack overall but not by much. Some tracks are just short loops that repeat over and over again seemingly endlessly and that’s likely what makes them so memorable since they are so unbelievably repetitive that they get stuck in your mind. I wouldn’t say that either of the soundtracks are terrible though, I mean it’s not as bad as say Crazy Bus but it’s still nothing special either.
Meanwhile, at the Dreadlords’ Citadel somewhere in the Twisting Nether… oh wait wrong game.
The story of Enter Electro takes place right after the story of the first game, so they are loosely connected. You don’t necessarily have to play the first game to understand the second game but the game’s ending does have a reference to the first game that players might recognize if they played the first game. Ultimately the story is best described as being your typical day in the life of Spiderman as you unravel a conspiracy and stop the big bad at the end. Both Spiderman and Venom are the highlights in terms of characters, though some of the villains are so absurd, you can’t help but love them. It’s just dumb fun throughout and you can’t go wrong with that.
Honestly I’m bitterly disappointed with these games as a whole, perhaps it’s a sign of aging but they just suffer from too many issues for me to recommend. I found both games to be incredibly frustrating to play which is a shame because it could have been so much better had it not been for the terrible controls, camera and lock on. It’s hard to go back to these games nowadays after having experienced so many legendary games over the years and quite frankly, I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy, they are that annoying to play. The sad thing about all of this is the fact that these games have a surprising amount of replay value as you can hunt for comics and unlock costumes for Spiderman, some of which can give him cheats that can be used in game to make the game slightly less annoying to play. It sucks to have to be so negative about a game that I had such fond memories with but I have to be honest with you all, don’t waste your time and especially your money with these games, they really aren’t worth it in this day in age. They are nothing more than a relic of the past, which may have been fun back in the day but have aged like horseshit.
Story/Plot: Satisfactory
Visuals: Good
Gameplay: Mediocre
Music: Mediocre
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Play on Kid Mode and save yourself the ordeal, because it’s frustratingly hard otherwise due to the controls
So You think you have what it takes to master the greatest racing game of all time? Well I hope you’re ready for the most adrenaline pumping, extreme intensity of F-Zero GX, the game that makes Forza fans cry themselves to sleep at night because they can’t beat Chapter 7 on normal difficulty, the game where the AI racers risk their lives to murder you and cause mayhem on the most dangerous race courses mankind has ever seen. In F-Zero there is only one rule, cross the finish line. It doesn’t matter if your ship is in pieces or if you had to kill every single racer on the track to get there, if you are the first across the line then you will win, no questions asked. In F-Zero GX, there are no disqualifications, no penalties and in some cases no railings which means that if you drive too fast you might find yourself falling off the track to your death. This is hardcore racing people, the ECW of racing games and I mean that in ever sense of the word because that is exactly what it is.
F-Zero is like sports entertainment and it is important to understand this before getting into the game. Much like in professional wrestling, every single character is a caricature. Not only does every character have their own theme song, they also have a backstory detailing who they are and their reasons for entering the F-Zero Grand Prix. There are also interviews for each racer for those fortunate enough to actually finish a grand prix which is similar to that of a wrestling promo. All of this serves to bring the game’s universe to life which is a far cry from the usual empty feeling racing game universes that many other games have which makes it all the more compelling by comparison. Everything in this game is exaggerated to the point that it is hilariously cheesy to the point that it’s hard to take anything in this game seriously but once the racing starts, it’s serious business, one mistake and you are dead. Put simply if you’ve ever played Shinji Mikami’s God Hand then you will feel right at home with F-Zero GX because it is the racing game equivalent of that game in the sense that it is goofy as all hell but will give you an ass kicking you’ll never forget.
You can even ask for autographs
Unlike God Hand however, F-Zero GX has better controls which is why F-Zero GX is my second favourite game of all time and God Hand isn’t. Navigating through tight corners may appear to be intimidating at first but by pressing the L and R buttons simultaneously, you can drift around them with ease. Want to straighten your machine out? That’s simple, just press either the L or R button to slide into position with greater accuracy at the cost of speed. These simple maneuvers are so effective that you will rarely ever use the brakes, making F-Zero GX surprisingly accessible for just about anyone but if you think that starting with the game’s standard difficulty is going to be a breeze, then you’re in for a shock. F-Zero GX requires you to learn the tracks and learn how your machine works. Every machine is a learning experience as they all feel very different from one another. Some machines slide more accurately than others, some machines struggle to drift until they reach a high enough speed to do so, others slide very loosely, making it harder to line them up with the track. This is where the biggest appeal of this game comes into play in terms of mastery. You might be an expert at driving the Blue Falcon, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to handle the Mad Wolf. So if you decide to try out a new machine on expert difficulty, you might find yourself struggling more than usual. Mastery over your machine is crucial if you want to survive the higher difficulty levels and some machines are better than others, so you will want to experiment with each machine to find out which one is right for you.
Thankfully the game offers a practice mode to test out your vehicle on either a free run or an exhibition race. In practice mode, you start out with boost power so you can immediately test the speed potential of your machine as well as how well it handles before you head into the grand prix. I highly recommend that everyone who is new to this game starts on novice class regardless of how good you are at racing games because doing so will not only teach you the tracks but it also unlocks a set of parts for you to use in the garage mode which can be used to make one of the best machines in the game. Eventually you will reach a point where novice difficulty isn’t challenging enough. Once you try the higher difficulties, you can never go back to the lower ones. It just doesn’t feel the same because the thrill of achieving those close victories is no longer there on the lower ones. This is where the AI starts to become more aggressive and cutthroat so hanging around the other racers for too long will be detrimental. It is important to get as far away from the crowd as possible, ideally ahead of them as being near them puts you at risk of being rammed which can damage your machine. Some of you might be tempted to give the AI a taste of their own medicine by performing a slide attack which can be performed by pressing the X button and either left or right to attack whatever is in that direction. A successful slide attack will kill an opponent instantly but at such high speeds it can be difficult to achieve these kills, however it is extremely satisfying when you kill an opponent during the boost phase. Getting a total of 5 kills will net you an extra life which makes all the difference when racing on higher difficulties where you only have 1 life for a total of 5 races in a row.
There are numerous tracks to race on and they each offer a unique challenge. While the first two tracks in ruby cup are very wide and allow for continuous boosting, Surface slide is a little more complicated as you don’t have as many pit strips, making boost management more important than it is on the previous two tracks. Some tracks take place on pipes and require you to slide your vehicle into boost pads and stay inward for as much as possible, as well as trying to stay grounded to prevent speed loss. These tracks help to keep the racing experience fresh and can be quite tricky depending on what machine you use. Later on in the game you will encounter more challenging tracks that have sections without guard rails where you need to drive really carefully to avoid falling off and dying, whilst maintaining a strong position in the race. The feeling of intensity of racing on these tracks is unlike any other. A single mistake can cost you the race but you have to keep boosting to keep ahead of the crowd. It’s a tricky balancing act that is challenging in itself but it feels so rewarding to pull it off. Of course this makes the later cups a nightmare on higher difficulties where lives are a lot harder to come by as you’ll find yourself falling to your death more often than actually losing a race. You really need to be careful on these tracks or you could cost yourself the entire grand prix if you lose all of your lives. The sense of speed and danger brought about by the game’s overwhelming difficulty will keep your eyes glued to the screen for hours.
Those of you thinking that you’re tough enough to challenge store mode will be in for a nasty surprise, story mode will destroy you, no one is ready for story mode in F-Zero GX. Some would be led to believe that a mode titled “story” would be the easiest part but that couldn’t be any more further from the truth, if you want to experience the full story of F-Zero GX, you have to be good, no, you have to be better than good. You have to be able to beat all the first 3 grand prix modes on at least Expert difficulty if you hope to stand a chance in story mode since it’s relentless. The good news is that if you fail a mission, you can simply retry it from scratch so you don’t have to worry about losing a ton of progress. The thing is, making any progress in story mode is difficult. The first mission seems straightforward enough, just win the race and collect the capsules and it is… on Normal difficulty. What if I told you that Chapter 1 is actually the hardest mission in the entire game on Very Hard mode? Because it is. The missions start getting considerably more challenging in Chapter 2 and onwards, you will fail over and over again until you lose your sanity. The moment you win though, you won’t see it comming, it will come when you least expect it. Story mode is the ultimate test of patience in an arcade racing game.
The story itself is goofy as all hell and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Thankfully it’s very short and is very simple. You play the role of Captain Falcon during the events leading up to and including the F-Zero Grand Prix. The cutscenes are very well made and as goofy as they are, they really do a great job at bringing the F-Zero universe to life, making it feel so much greater than your average racing game. It’s very hard to take the bad guys seriously but Captain Falcon is such a badass throughout that it balances out the goofiness. Put simply Captain Falcon is surrounded by a bunch of idiots, A bunch of idiots that will kick your ass… repeatedly. The ending is not something you would expect but it is very satisfying nonetheless. Overall it is best summarized as being the greatest fast and furious parody of all time, because it is.
Visually speaking, the game is absolutely stunning though considering the fast paced nature of the game, it kinda has to be since you don’t have time to sit back and take in all the gorgeous track aesthetics when you’re racing at high speeds. The gigantic whale bursting out of the sand in Sand Ocean and the huge ass R.O.B in Port Town are great examples of how the game’s aesthetics are striking enough to be noticeable. What’s crazy is that on tracks like Mute City where you’re surrounded by skyscrapers around the track, if you fall off the track you’ll see the entire cityscape down below, which makes you wonder why these huge skyscrapers are in the sky anyways. How the hell did the Mute City council afford to build all of this stuff and what practical reason does a sky city even serve? Oh wait I forgot this is F-Zero GX, logic doesn’t matter in a game where you can drift around corners at 1000 km/h. The thing is, if none of this stuff was there, the tracks would feel kinda bland, a bit like how F-Zero X had a lot of really bland looking environments, even for a Nintendo 64 game. F-Zero GX alleviates this problem and then some.
The soundtrack is equally as impressive as it does a fantastic job at building up the adrenaline that gets players in the zone. While F-Zero X opted for a purely metal soundtrack, the soundtrack of F-Zero GX is more of a mixture of techno and rock, leaning closer to the techno side of things. Now I know that a lot of people would see this as a downgrade but honestly I’d argue that F-Zero GX’s soundtrack is just as good if not better than the one in F-Zero X, however I am aware that I am biased for thinking this because I enjoy both techno and metal equally and the techno music in F-Zero GX synchronizes to the fast paced nature of the game so damn well. What makes F-Zero GX’s soundtrack even better is that the music changes the moment you reach the final lap which helps to build up the intensity for that final stretch of the race and I absolutely adore this. Of course there is a bit of metal music to be found in F-Zero GX too but there is considerably less of it than there was in X. The cover tracks you can unlock for Mute City and Big Blue are fantastic metal tracks in their own right but the same can be said for their techno counterparts. Plus you can’t forget the theme songs for each character, some of which are also metal as well which is also fantastic. Ultimately I can safely say that regardless of your biases towards music, F-Zero GX’s soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and does its job exceedingly well.
Those looking to relax after all the intense racing may find some appeal in the game’s garage mode, which not only allows you to apply custom emblems made in the game’s emblem creator onto any machine in the game, but it also lets you create a machine from scratch using a combination of parts. This adds a layer of personalization to the experience that I can’t help but appreciate as I love being able to make stuff in games and it’s rare for a Nintendo branded racing game to allow for such options, so it kinda took me by surprise to see this feature in the game. Now if you played the expansion kit of F-Zero X then you may have experienced this feature before already but many of us didn’t and it’s really cool to see it return. I love how the music in the garage mode is such a harsh contrast to the rest of the game’s music as it’s so calming and relaxing to the point that you forget that you’re playing the most adrenaline pumping videogame ever made.
Before I played F-Zero GX, I didn’t really think much of it, I came in expecting a generic arcade racing game that just happened to feature a character from Super Smash Bros, I didn’t expect it to be one of the greatest games ever made. There’s so much to this game that it greatly exceeded my expectations to the point that I was absolutely blown away. So many people compare this game to games like Wipeout and the Fast Racing series but honestly those games are nothing like F-Zero GX, in fact those are the games I expected F-Zero GX to be because that’s exactly what they are, just another generic arcade racing game that will hold my attention for about 5 minutes then I’m bored. F-Zero GX is so much more than any of those games ever will be and I do not think enough people truly understand this. Everything you could possibly want in a futuristic racing game is here, to the point that I feel the game has already perfected what the series set out to do. What more could you add to the F-Zero experience that isn’t already there? Sure A lot of people would argue that online functionality would be great but honestly I think having 30 people simultaneously snaking and shift boosting in races wouldn’t be fun to deal with because you know for a fact that’s what it would devolve into. I don’t consider F-Zero GX to be a multiplayer focused experience in the slightest, it’s more of a challenging single player experience. Sure there are tons of gimmicks and other features you could add to the game but let’s be honest here, are any of these things even necessary? To tell you the truth, all I want is more of the same and to me, that’s a sign that F-Zero GX is truly the swan song of the series, because it did exactly what it set out to do, perfect the futuristic racing formula.
With all of this is mind, F-Zero GX is nothing short of a masterpiece that should be cherished by every gamer out there, though if you’re the type of person who gets easily frustrated then perhaps this game isn’t for you because it is ruthlessly difficult but very rewarding. In a way its unforgiving difficulty truly is its only flaw and to fix it would be detrimental to the experience as a whole since the whole game is build around it. Like I said though, there is a novice class difficulty that I think everyone should start with and honestly it is considerably more forgiving than the other difficulties, so if you’re on the fence I’d at least suggest giving it a go just to experience the thrills that F-Zero GX has to offer.
Story/Plot: Absolutely Ridiculous (in a good way)
Visuals: Excellent
Gameplay: Masterful
Music: Excellent
Lifespan: Varies (Story is Quite Short, Grand Prix mode is Decent Length)
Difficulty: Hard (you will die a lot… yes I said, die not lose the race, you’ll find out when you play it)
Would You Replay? Hell fucking yes!
Overall: Masterpiece
No Video Review this time but I did make this video
It sucks that the only game in the Growlanser series to make it to PAL territories was the fifth game but at least the story of Heritage Of War appears to be completely standalone, requiring no knowledge of the previous games in the series, so I was able to dive straight in. Now I have seen gameplay of previous entries before and it seems somewhat different from what Heritage Of War has to offer, however I am unable to judge which has the better combat system, all I will say is that Growlanser Heritage Of War is best described as being an enjoyable mess. The game has a lot of great moments for sure but there are numerous problems that can make the game somewhat aggravating at times. I will say though that most of them are minor issues that don’t really ruin the experience for me, though I can see them being quite bothersome for some.
I think the best thing to cover first would be the game’s combat because it truly is a double edged sword in so many ways. Unlike previous entries where you had to input commands for every character, you can now freely move your main character in real time, giving the illusion that you are playing something along the lines of Final Fantasy XII, however your other party members will either act on their own or require commands to be input by the player and the result of this can be a mixed bag. Sometimes characters will be unable to move when told to because there is an enemy in the way that interrupts the move command, forcing them to auto attack, other times they will be staggered, which means you are unable to give them commands at all, including having them move, this can not only make them completely unusable for the rest of the fight if the staggers stack but it can also mean that they are unable to move away from danger, leading to them getting killed very quickly. In situations like these it is often better to revive them just so they can start with an empty stagger gauge which sounds counter intuitive but in these situations it really is better to let them die than waste heals on them. Sure you could move your main character to attack the enemies that are hurting them but that isn’t always possible in certain missions. Ultimately though, I didn’t really find this to be too much of a nuisance personally as I was able to find ways to circumvent these issues.
Other things that can be considered a bit of a nuisance at times is being blocked by certain enemies… or allies, though on the plus side, you can use this to your advantage to block enemies too. The whole combat system is rather unintuitive in how you are expected to utilize its mechanics but if you can get over this, there’s a lot of fun to be had in regards to coming up with interesting, albeit unusual strategies to complete certain missions. Speaking of which, pretty much all of the major fights are classed as missions and these missions have certain conditions that can lead to varying results. Sometimes you can fail a mission and get off scott free, other times you will be greeted with a game over screen. It’s difficult to know which conditions will lead to a game over and which will simply let you carry on after a failed mission. There are also the mission clear and mission complete conditions. Mission Clear is what you get when you don’t fail a mission, whereas mission complete yields more bonuses to experience, money and character affinity but to get a mission complete you have to satisfy additional conditions on top of merely preventing a failed mission.
This is where things get kind of complicated because there is no indication of what conditions are required to get a mission complete and one mission in particular requires you to prevent an object from being thrown twice which is an absolute ball ache. The thing about this mission that sucks is that the conditions for reaching a mission complete are unknown to just about everyone, even the guide on GameFaq’s doesn’t tell you how to get it. That being said however, if it wasn’t for a guide, I would have no hope getting any of the mission completes because there is no way of knowing how to acquire them. There is a conditions section in the main menu which details the conditions required for victory as well as the defeat conditions but that’s it. For this reason I highly recommend using a guide for this game just to find out what the mission complete conditions are before a fight, that way you can set yourself up for a greater challenge with greater satisfaction upon completing a mission. You don’t have to read the boss strategies if you don’t want to, I mean it’s more fun to come up with your own after all so don’t feel like you’re cheating by using a guide because if you skip past the strategies section then you’re not spoiling the challenge for yourself.
It’s always satisfying to see this show up on screen
The missions themselves are a mixed bag, some are laughably easy, some are really challenging and satisfying to overcome, while others are cheap, frustrating ordeals which can be quite bothersome, especially for those not following a guide, particularly the mission where you have to prevent the object from being thrown twice, fuck that mission. There were many times where I had to follow a guide just to figure out how to complete a mission after failing it previously and found out that it was actually a lot easier than I originally thought. For example, the very first mission requires you to save all of the allied soldiers on the map, at first it sounds like the hardest mission ever since the number of enemies on the field are so overwhelming that by rescuing one of them, another will likely die. Upon reading the guide, I found out that you can simply walk up to them and grab the item on their corpse which apparently counts as “saving” them. It felt like a slap in the face after I had spent hours trying to come up with an effective strategy to rescue them all whilst preventing a mission failure. There are many other missions later on in the game that have this problem and it can be extremely aggravating to deal with.
That being said however, some of the missions are actually quite fun to do. There’s a great variety of missions available to you throughout the game, some of which are made considerably easier if your characters have certain skills available to them but can be quite difficult if they don’t. There’s quite a bit of freedom to come up with your own strategies to deal with situations and this is where the main appeal of the game’s combat comes into play. I found the huge scale battles to be the most fun missions personally as you felt like you were completely overwhelmed, these missions can take seemingly ages and can often feel like a battle of attrition at times but this makes it all the more satisfying to see a mission complete appear on the screen after a long struggle. The ability to move around freely with your character while your allies obey your commands makes for a more dynamic experience than your average strategy game and this does wonders for the game’s pacing as regular battles on the field go by so quickly you’ll barely get to hear the battle music play out. This carries over to the missions as well as while they do emphasize strategy, they don’t feel like a slog to get through like your typical tactical RPG since every character moves and acts quickly. If you’re looking for a fast paced strategy RPG then Growlanser Heritage Of War might be the game you are looking for but if the issues are too bothersome, it may be better to play a synchronized time strategy game like Valkyrie Profile 2 or Resonance Of Fate. Of course Growlanser doesn’t suffer from the same issues real time strategy games suffer from as there are only 4 characters to manage as well as the fact that you are able to pause the game whenever you want, so you can take your time to plan things out. Overall, while the system works well enough, you kinda have to accept the messiness of it to be able to enjoy it.
I hope you like character management, because there’s plenty of it to do here.
Now another thing that may seem daunting at first is the plates system. Now I absolutely adore this system since it allows for so much freedom in how I can customize my characters abilities, the downside is that it can be rather tricky to get used to and can feel quite overwhelming at times. Characters will learn skills so rapidly that it can feel like a chore changing your plates every 5 minutes. Thankfully any knack points received after killing enemies will not be wasted if you forget to change your flow from a maximized plate path and they will carry over when you change flow to another plate path, filling in all of the plates that aren’t maximized in that path. So there’s no pressure to constantly fiddle around with the plates. Later on you can buy items which allow you to swap and replace plates as well as the ability to change the direction of the plate’s path, so if you make a mistake, you can always correct it later. It should be noted though that it’s important to stack multiple plates in order to maximize the potential of a skill, though it’s important to be aware that there is a level cap for each skill, so be sure not to waste too much space by placing too many of the same plates. Any plate that is currently in the flow receives a buff, which can make the moves located in that plate considerably more powerful than others and this can make certain missions a breeze if you exploit them, that being said however, once you change flow to another set of plates, these buffs will disappear and will make the skill considerably less useful, so it’s important to change the flow to reflect the strategy you wish to utilize in a fight. With all this in consideration, I think that the plate system shouldn’t prove to be too troublesome for people who are well versed in the deeper JRPG character management systems out there but newcomers may be turned away by the complexity of this system, though I would argue that it’s nowhere near as complicated as Valkyrie Profile 2’s rune system and so long as you don’t focus too much on figuring it out, I don’t think it’s a huge deal, especially since the difficulty of the game outside of a few missions is surprisingly easy.
Visually the game looks like an early 2000’s Playstation game which may be off putting to some but i honestly didn’t mind this personally. Now sure, I get that many people prefer to have character sprites over these dated looking character models but as someone who grew up with Playstation games in the 2000’s, it doesn’t really bother me. Some of the locations can feel a bit grimy but I suppose it fits in with the gritty nature of the game’s narrative. While the visuals may be dull for the most part, the anime artwork more than makes up for it as it has that 90’s anime vibe that is so incredibly striking, you forget about all of the bland landscapes and dated character models. Honestly though, I wouldn’t say that the visuals are terrible as a whole, though outside of the anime artwork, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about them.
The music is one of those cases where it gets the job done but doesn’t particularly excel in any way. There are some catchy tracks to listen to throughout the game which is nice and all but some of the music is kinda bland, particularly in dungeons, my god, those dungeons have such boring music. Thankfully the towns have some much nicer tracks. The field area music in particular has an insanely catchy song, probably the catchiest song in the game, which is good because you’ll be hearing it a lot. Much like the visuals, I can’t exactly say the soundtrack as a whole is terrible but it doesn’t particularly stand out as being something special.
What surprises me the most about Growlanser Heritage Of War is how the game handles its story. It’s always great when a game’s story is told from multiple perspectives and Growlanser Heritage Of War manages to do this so damn well that I honestly found it to be the most engrossing aspect of the game. Not only does this allow for so much world building, but it also allows players to become attached to all the major characters prior to the events of the main role to make the experience of the main story so much more impactful. There’s so much nuance to these characters in how their values shape their actions, as well as the emotional responses they present in each situation. It really makes the characters feel human, in the sense that they are both morally ambiguous and flawed. Even the villains, as despicable as they may be can be somewhat sympathetic with their ideals, despite their horrible actions. I really like how the game doesn’t shy away from letting the player make their own judgments as opposed to pushing for a biased stance on things, especially since it all ties into one of the most thought provoking plot twists I’ve ever seen which may or may not cause you to rethink your judgment. On top of all this, the story never drags for too long and is broken up evenly with gameplay sections. There are also a lot of choices you can make in the game that can affect your affinity levels for each character and this ultimately affects which endings become available to you.
There’s some choice words in the translation, which are always nice to see.
I should also note that there are numerous side quests, some of which are completely missable which is yet another reason why I recommend using a guide because I found myself having to reload saves due to being unable to get certain character’s ultimate weapons due to missing a certain event or item. Early on this can mean a lot of backtracking is required but later on there is a fast travel option that comes in handy. The side content is definitely worth doing as you can get some great rewards for doing it, plus some of them involve side stories that can be interesting to see too.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Growlanser Heritage Of War despite having a few minor frustrations with it at times. It’s definitely a game you need patience for in order to fully appreciate what it brings to the table. I think you kinda need to go into this game expecting something a little different, if you’re looking for a more conventional JRPG experience, I don’t think this is the ideal game for you as it clearly caters to people who want something fresh. Then again, if you are looking for something fresh and aren’t bothered by the game’s messy design, it may be worth a shot.
They just had to throw that in there didn’t they…
Plot/Story: Excellent
Visuals: Satisfactory
Music: Satisfactory
Gameplay: Great
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Easy – Medium (depends on the mission)
There are a lot of noteworthy weapon based combat games in the 3d beat em up genre but aside from God Hand, most hand to hand combat games tend to get ignored by a lot of people. It’s weird how hand to hand beat em ups used to be really popular in the 90’s with games like Streets Of Rage and Final Fight but when they became 3D, people lost interest for some reason. Now I’ve played numerous 3D beat em ups and I can safely say that Urban Reign has the greatest hand to hand combat in a 3D beat em up I have ever experienced and yes I even think that this game manages to surpass even God Hand in this department, yet unlike God Hand which has a dedicated cult following, Urban Reign gets ignored. Maybe it’s because the story of Urban Reign is so forgettable due to the fact that there are barely any cutscenes, just a narration before every fight to explain the context but who on earth cares about that, I wanna see some action!
So let’s cut to the chase and get straight into the combat mechanics, they’re so simple that anyone can pick up and play the game with ease but believe me, you’re gonna need to learn them fast because this game doesn’t pull its punches in its difficulty. You have a decent variety of strikes and grapples on offer as well as an evasive maneuver to avoid enemy attacks but utilizing these abilities properly is essential if you want to survive in the later portions of the game. At first you may find the game to be pretty straightforward in difficulty but after about 5 missions, the difficulty escalates a ton and you really have to start thinking more carefully about how you want to approach enemies. The good news is that there are plenty of tools at your disposal and crowd control isn’t as difficult as you may be led to believe as when you’re surrounded by multiple enemies at close range, the grapple attacks you perform will differ from attacks you perform against a single target to allow you to better control the crowd with a double attack. These crowd control moves are very flashy and satisfying to pull off but you have to time them well because if you do happen to get surrounded, it’s likely that you’re going to get beaten down quickly. So you can’t just button mash your way through this game, you have to strategize when and where you perform your attacks.
Face rearrangement is on special offer, buy one get one free.
Some stages have environmental objects that you can knock enemies into for extra damage so you will usually want to position your enemies around them. You can also run up walls to get behind enemies quickly or follow up with an aerial attack to take them off guard. You can pick up weapons and batter your worthless enemies till they can no longer walk. This is just the beginning of the intricacies that make up the game’s wonderful combat system. Eventually you will unlock new abilities like the ability to perform grapple attacks against airborne enemies and these are my favorite moves to pull off as they are considerably more rapid that the usual grapple attack, plus there’s nothing quite as satisfying as powerbombing an enemy after an uppercut juggle combo. It’s important to take note of what moves you are using in battle as certain moves will damage certain body parts, kind of like in some of the modern wrestling games out there.
Damaging each body part makes it easier to deal more damage when hitting that body part, so you are encouraged to attack the same body parts over and over again to further weaken them. I can’t say that I’m personally a huge fan of this since it encourages you to use the same moves over and over again but believe me, you’re going to need to do this a lot because certain missions require you to damage a specific body part until it is red. These missions are the worst part of the game and really get on my nerves. Fortunately this system can be overlooked for the most part, I mean if you want to exploit it then by all means do so, however I find that mixing up my moves is not only more fun but is also necessary since depending on where your enemy is and what they are doing, certain moves may be favored over others. For example, an enemy attacking you with high attacks will miss you if you hit them with a low strike. Low strikes do not deal half as much damage as middle strikes though as they don’t allow for air juggling. High strikes tend to knock enemies further back a bit but other than that, I don’t find them to be too different from low attacks and can be harder to connect. Ultimately with grapples, none of this matters, just pick one and stick with it, just be mindful that enemy body parts have varying levels of resistance so you will need to vary up which regional attacks you use for maximum efficiency when fighting against numerous enemies and it’s important to pay attention to which body parts have received the most damage so that you can use the correct move against them.
Somebody set us up the bomb
What makes Urban Reign so challenging is that enemies are capable of pretty much everything you can do but they often outnumber you which can make for some tricky engagements. I often find that mixing up a combination of low kicks and short regional strikes is a good way of keeping the enemies at bay at first but eventually they’re going to overwhelm you and at this point you will need to utilize your special attacks. By pressing triangle and circle simultaneously with any directional input you will perform an attack that gives you temporary I frames at the cost of some of your special gauge which charges up as you receive or deal damage, this is a great way of getting back up off the ground when surrounded but can also be fantastic at dealing heavy damage to enemies. You do have to be aware however that enemies can do this to you as well and they often start with more special gauge than you at the beginning of a fight, which can be a tad aggravating as it can be hard to punish them when they have the clear advantage since they can counter you with a special attack at any time. If you see the enemy glowing white then you know that they’re going to counter you so it can be a good idea to move out of their way, though this can be difficult to do, especially when you are surrounded. The evasion system isn’t exactly the easiest to get used to as deflecting attacks requires you to press the direction that represents the region of which you are being attacked, though if you time it well you can instantly evade an attack with the single press of the square button. This can be tricky to do however when faced with numerous enemies but it becomes essential when fighting a single enemy as they will relentlessly bombard you with attacks which is why crowd control is so essential. The good news is that most attacks in Urban Reign do not completely stagger you, allowing you to deflect at attack right after being hit and this has a huge impact on the defensive play, you rarely ever feel as if you don’t have control of what’s going on in game which is one if the game’s biggest strengths.
Later on you will find yourself tagging along with allies who will help you against overwhelming odds. Therefore you will want to assist them as much as you can. I find that spreading out isn’t often the best strategy, especially since you can perform unique attacks with your partner when they are close by. Using low strikes to crowd control definitely helps in these fights, as they usually hit multiple enemies at once, giving your teammate more breathing room and giving you an opening to assist them by further damaging whomever it is they are fighting. Of course you still have to be aware of the enemies you have knocked down and be ready for when they come back. Depending on the mission, you may want to focus on just one of the enemies but in a lot of missions, you will want to spread out the punishment, particularly missions where you have to take everyone out since you don’t want to get attacked from behind. It’s all about trying to get that vital opening to begin delivering heavy damage to an enemy and hopefully wipe them out before the others catch up to you.
Who ordered a second helping of Diamond Cutter?
As you can probably tell by now, the combat is extremely frantic but the combat is so buttery smooth, responsive and flexible that you never feel too weak. There is always a way to bounce back and unlike God Hand, you won’t find yourself fighting any health sponges in this game, plus the controls are vastly superior. Sure the game lacks the flexibility and customizable aspect of God Hand’s combat but it feels considerably less clunky and more polished by comparison. I was so engaged by this game’s combat that I played 30 missions in a row none stop and had to force myself to stop playing, this rarely ever happens in most games and unlike God Hand where I get disengaged due to fatigue, Urban Reign never gets tiresome, you just keep wanting more and part of that is due to the fact that it is considerably less button mashy.
The controls aren’t perfect though and do require a bit of getting used to. If you’ve played any of the older wrestling games released in the 5th console generation then these controls may seem familiar though I personally dislike how the strike button is on the opposite side of the evasion button and while there are different button configurations in the options, none of them are intuitive but over time you’ll get used to them. It should also be noted that the game doesn’t have fixed camera angles so you may find yourself being attacked from off screen at times. While it can’t always be helped in team fights, it’s often a good idea to lock on to enemies in one on one encounters to keep them on screen at all times. The pacing of the game’s combat is so fast that you barely get the chance to even touch the right analogue stick but at times you may want to if you are at a safe distance, just so that you can get your bearings when your back is turned to your enemies. Sometimes running away is your best option as it can not only give you breathing room but you may find a dropped weapon on the ground nearby that you previously were too close to the enemy to pick up. Some enemies also drop items that restore your health and special gauge so bear that in mind as well.
During the games later missions, you’ll often find yourself in seemingly impossible encounters against multiple strong opponents. In addition to this, some boss fights from previous stages may end up returning with a buddy to give you a hard time. While some of these missions let you bring in a teammate, others do not. At times I found myself in situations where I had to play dirty, spamming dash attacks on a single target just to stay mobile and knock them away from their teammates who would otherwise maul me to death with their weapons. The enemy AI often do a fantastic job at working together to take you out and when you’re on your own, this can be a real pain. Thankfully, upon completing a mission you are given skill points to upgrade your character however you please, allowing you to increase damage from certain attacks as well as regional resistances to protect you from certain attacks. Because of this, you are always growing stronger but so are the enemies, so it doesn’t really feel like you are getting stronger. Therefore the skills you choose to increase will ultimately impact what your strengths and weaknesses will be in later fights.
Urban Reign pushes players to their limits and this makes performing cool combos and well-timed maneuvers all the more satisfying. Even though the combat does suffer from some minor flaws, the flexibility and challenge of the game’s combat will keep you coming back for more. You will get beaten up a ton in this game and will often end up doing the same mission 5 or 6 times till you get the win but the game is never unfair in its difficulty, after all, the enemies you fight are only as capable as you are and while they do occasionally get a head start in some missions, once their special gauge runs out, they will be just as vulnerable to a beat down as you are. It can be pretty damn satisfying to toss around that one guy who kicked your ass so many times.
Say hi to the floor for me
Every mission can be restarted at any point, including after failing a mission, so the game never feels too punishing, nor does it waste your time. There’s never a moment when you aren’t fighting people in this game as there’s no emphasis on exploration in this game whatsoever and since the story is just a brief narration before each mission, you probably won’t pay any attention to it. This strangely makes the game feel all the more engaging as there’s never a moment where you aren’t doing anything and after every fight, you just want to get back in the action. The pacing of Urban Reign is so damn good that you just can’t put the game down.
Visually speaking, the character models and the environments are exactly what you would expect from a 2005 release. They look detailed enough for the time but don’t stand out as being amazing. The animations are arguably the best part of the game’s visuals as they look fantastic. Many of the game’s attacks have that cinematic flair to them which makes you feel like you’re playing out a scene in an action movie. It’s hard to find hand to hand combat that looks as intricate as this in a 3D Beat Em Up.
The music is best described as being hardcore. I hope you like metal because there’s no shortage of it in this game. It fits the nature of this game so damn well that I honestly cannot imagine it having any other soundtrack. It certainly does a fantastic job at keeping players engaged in the action. While it may not be the sort of soundtrack you’re going to listen to outside of this game too often, it certainly does a fantastic job at getting you pumped for the action.
If you are a fan of any kind of action game then you are going to absolutely adore Urban Reign. It is without a doubt the most definitive beat em up experience there is as it is just raw combat throughout. If you are a fan of classic wrestling games then you will definitely feel right at home with Urban Reign’s control scheme and movesets. It’s a game for people who just want to get straight to the action as it cuts out all the fluff that other games in the genre have, for better or for worse, allowing the game to focus exclusively on its combat. Now because of this, many would compare this game to fighting games and quite frankly, they aren’t wrong to think this way as the game was developed by the people who worked on the Tekken and Soulcalibur games. Unlike those games and other fighting games however, Urban Reign doesn’t rely on adding needless input complexity to add artificial difficulty to the game, essentially making it the greatest fighting game ever created and will always be the greatest fighting game ever created because game developers are still continuing to make fighting games needlessly complicated.
Everything that makes fighting games fun is here in Urban Reign, the challenge, the mind games, they’re all there. The only difference is that the game is arguably more accessible than any fighting game ever will be and yes it does have a multiplayer mode to enjoy with friends. This is why fighting games are full of DLC nowadays, because fewer people buy them nowadays due to the fact that they are too complicated and are stripped down due to developers pandering towards the e-sports community, so they need to recuperate the sales losses each year. Perhaps if they made another Urban Reign instead of Tekken 8, it might actually appeal to a broader demographic, while still being just as fun to play. You don’t need a billion moves to have a fun experience and Urban Reign proves this. This is the biggest reason why I have grown to dislike fighting games, they’re focused too much on their competitive nature, not enough on their fun factor. They need to play more like Urban Reign. Heck can we just eradicate the entire fighting game genre from history and direct these people to Urban Reign so that developers can actually learn what good game design is?
As you all know by now, I enjoy a good mindless beat em up, therefore it’s natural to presume that I enjoy musou games. Demon Chaos, known as Ikusagami in Japan is one of the more niche musou games out there which is likely due to the fact that it was only released in Japan and Europe, so this is yet another one of those beat em ups that America never got. Many musou games are known to take place in historic time periods and Demon Chaos is no exception. Like Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara, Demon Chaos takes place in the sengoku period, though as is evident by the game’s title, there are demons involved, which makes it similar to Onimusha in terms of setting. Unlike Onimusha however, the way the demons are handled in the story feel more like an afterthought as the game’s story is centered primarily on the events of the sengoku period. Despite this however, you spend the entire game completely detached from the conflict amongst men and are mostly concerned with the demons that flood the battlefields. This can make the story feel a bit dry at times since the demons themselves are pretty bland and uninteresting, despite taking center stage in all of the missions. I’d argue the events of the sengoku period are far more interesting but they don’t really play a huge part in the game’s story which is a shame. Those of you who are familiar with the sengoku period will be glad to see many historical figures and some of them look very similar to their Samurai Warriors counterparts, particularly Mitsuhide and Nobunaga but before you get your hopes up, you don’t play as any of them in this game. Demon Chaos has you controlling the most badass musou character in the history of musous, Inugami, a wolf man who would crush Lu Bu, Tadakatsu Honda, Orochi and even Keiji Maeda in a matter of seconds, possibly by accident due to the fact that the combat in this game is absolutely insane.
If there’s one thing I have to praise about the combat of Demon Chaos, it’s that it may quite possibly be one of the most empowering experiences I have ever had in a 3d beat em up. The satisfaction of mowing down thousands of demons in seconds never gets old. The moment you see a large clump of red dots on the minimap, you can’t help but feel excited because you know that you’re going to build up a huge hit count. Initially, Inugami is pretty weak since he uses a basic 4 hit combo with square and a finisher which can be activated with either triangle or circle. The circle finisher consumes part of Inugami’s spirit gauge so it’s often smarter to use the triangle finisher to conserve your spirit. The reason for this is that you can press r1 to go into rage mode which sends Inugami into a rampage, slaughtering thousands of demons in seconds. You will constantly use this ability throughout the game as it is the most efficient means of eliminating demons, of course you won’t be able to stay in it for long since rage mode consumes your spirit gauge and once it is depleted, rage mode will end so you will want to be careful where and when you trigger it. The regular combos don’t really do much outside of building up your spirit gauge so you won’t be relying on them that much, especially when enemies drop items that fill up your spirit gauge, allowing you to continue your rampage. Put simply, it’s a very bare bones, simplistic combat system that is drizzled in visual carnage to cover up the fact that you are doing the same thing over and over again, making it the most unapologetically musou experience you can get and this is what will ultimately make or break Demon Chaos for you.
So much carnage, you can barely see anything on screen
Like many other musou games, Demon Chaos involves working together with AI controlled armies to complete certain missions and during these missions, you will need to protect your troops to prevent them from dying. What differentiates Demon Chaos from other musou games is that the primary purpose of the player’s character is to protect the armies, not themselves and while Inugami can certainly die, it’s mostly a rare occurrence due to the fact that most enemies can barely harm him. Because of this, you are encouraged to be as aggressive as possible, so long as you aren’t recklessly mowing down troops on the opposite side of the map while your army is struggling to survive against the hordes you left behind. The good news is that you never have to worry about being comboed to death like in the early Dynasty Warriors games but the bad news is that your AI companions are excrutiatingly weak and frail, so you have to babysit them in every mission. In a way though, it’s not too far off from the average musou experience in that regard, except the core of Demon Chaos’ gameplay is mostly the tactical aspect of completing missions with as few casualties as possible and this is ultimately what maintains the longevity of the player’s engagement.
Most missions involve you escorting the armies to a blood crystal in order for them to destroy it and eliminate the demon spawns in that area. Other missions however require you to escort them to a specific location before they either die or the time runs out. Thankfully you do have partial control of your AI companions as you are allowed to lead the armies by pressing R2, having them follow wherever it is you move to. Now in theory you may wish to deactivate the lead command when clearing out the large waves of demons to prevent casualties and while you can, should you wish to lead them a second time you have to be in the proximity of the army to get them to follow you which I found to be rather aggravating, so it’s often better to keep leading them at all times. Later on, you get access to the stop command which has all the AI troops move to the closest pillar without you having to deactivate the lead command which comes in handy should you wish to go out and break through a few clumps of enemies, as well as finding some hidden weapons in containers laid around the map without your troops getting killed trying to follow you.
Now thankfully, the game does offer some utilities to assist you in protecting your pathetic soldiers in the form of pillars. Pillars can be placed just about anywhere on the map so long as the terrain isn’t man made. Of course you cannot place them amongst a horde of demons but you can place them near your AI companions. Once you place a pillar, they must be constructed by the AI first before they can be utilized, during this time you will need to protect the area around the pillar, since demons can destroy the pillars if they aren’t protected. This is where the circle ability comes in handy. It causes an explosion that annihilates a ton of enemies in a small area for a small portion of your spirit gauge. While it may not be as useful as a finisher, I found it extremely useful on its own due to the fact that it’s the best way to protect nearby pillars when you have low spirit. Now of course you could use rage mode if you wanted to and eliminate everything but chances are, you won’t have enough spirit to activate it.
The pillars come in 3 variants and are all used to support your AI companions efforts. The first of which is the life pillar which heals all of your companions. The second being the fire pillar which helps deal extra damage to blood crystals in order to destroy them quickly, saving you time when you have to destroy several of them (which you will). The third and final pillar is the bow pillar, which acts as a turret to use against nearby demons in order to help you destroy them. There will be times where you will be attacked from different angles and this is when the pillars come in handy as you can only be at once side of the battlefield at a time, so while you’re mowing down enemies on one side, the pillars will help protect your armies on the other side. Constructing pillars does costs EP though so you cannot build limitless pillars but I found that the game gives you plenty of EP, so it’s worth constructing as many pillars as possible, without wasting your EP by letting demons destroy them before they can be of use. This adds a minor tower defense aspect to the gameplay that is more important than you would initially think as being the unstoppable badass that you are, you’d likely presume that you can eliminate all the enemies before your troops can be harmed and while that may be true for the first couple of stages, in later stages it isn’t quite that simple as the difficulty goes up a ton, as does the enemy count, so the more you play, the more you kill and the more pillars you’ll be placing. It gets pretty frantic at times but that’s kind of what makes the game so engaging to play, though it can get a tad frustrating, particularly due to the fact that failing a mission will get you sent back to the title screen, so you have to restart the entire mission from scratch. There have been times when I reached the end of a mission, only for all of the AI troops to die at the end, thus failing the mission, which was annoying as hell.
Speaking of frustrating, you will occasionally encounter greater demons throughout the game and these enemies exist as the game’s equivalent of officers in Dynasty Warriors, though there are considerably fewer of them. These enemies can be extremely deadly if you don’t take them down quickly as they can kill a lot of your soldiers. they can also pose a huge threat to Inugami himself since their attacks can take away soul power. Soul power is essentially Inugami’s health and he can only sustain up to 5 hits from a boss before he dies, sometimes even less depending on which weapon he is equipped with. Now he can be healed by the priestess Aoi but she is also vulnerable to these attacks and you have to be careful not to let her die as well. Of course there is the possibility of finding soul recovery items too which can come in handy if you can get them but if you aren’t fortunate enough to find these luxuries and Aoi is dead, all you can do is mash square and pray that they die. There is a guard button which awkwardly has Inugami crouch and unable to move. This can be activated by pressing triangle, it’s hardly useful due to the fact that you are completely stationary when using it. It’s not practical to go in and out of guard to protect yourself from enemy attacks, let alone the fact that pressing triangle after an attack has you performing the finisher move instead. It’s a waste of a button if you ask me, as it could have been replaced with an evasion ability or something. Honestly the greater demons are the worst part of the game since they do not blend in well with the game’s mechanics. Every fight against them just feels sloppy as your entire moveset is built around mowing down hordes of enemies rather than a single health sponge. This is particularly noticeable when you enter rage mode as you’ll suddenly start sliding around the battlefield, making it hard for your hits to connect to the greater demon.
It goes without saying that having numerous enemies on screen takes its toll on the visuals, though the fact that they managed to fit so many enemies on screen is such a technical feat that I think it’s fair to overlook the bland level aesthetic. Surprisingly enough however, the character models are actually somewhat decent. It does help that Inugami’s character design really makes him stand out, with his huge white hair that kinda makes him look similar to the Samurai Warriors’ depiction of Shingen. I’m kind of a sucker for crazy hair like this in games. In a way he also kind of resembles a white haired version of Brahms from Valkyrie Profile but if he was a wolf instead of a vampire. The soldiers and demons look decent enough though the demons remind me of the insects you fight in the Earth Defense Force games for some reason, albeit not as big and in greater quantities. The game features numerous CGI cut scenes and while they’re serviceable, they don’t hold a candle to the animated cutscene that plays when you boot up the game, which is absolutely stellar. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised by the game’s visuals as a whole, of course I would never consider it to be one of the most visually appealing games on the PS2 but I would certainly commend it for being able to render so many enemies on screen and still look presentable.
The game’s music is decent enough, I mean it’s not amazing but it gets the job done. Many of the tracks have an oriental vibe that fits the setting pretty well. I particularly like the relaxing song that plays in many of the cutscenes when Aoi and Inugami are present, but I found that many of the other tracks didn’t stand out as much. It’s certainly not a bad soundtrack though I can’t see myself looking up any of the songs any time soon. The voice acting is entirely in Japanese which isn’t surprising considering the fact that the game was never released outside of Japan and Europe. It’s not really a huge deal though since it does fit the setting of the game, though it would have been nice to hear an English dub, even if it was terrible, at least it would give me something to laugh at.
Ultimately, I think the best way to describe Demon Chaos as a whole is that it is overly simplified and messy but that’s kind of why it works. It’s definitely not trying to be a refined or technical action game, rather it plays to its strengths by keeping things simple, yet offering enough utility to get players to think about what it is they are doing and strategize their maneuvers in order to complete each mission. It’s certainly not a game you can fall asleep playing, though it can certainly feel that way if you aren’t a fan of musou games. The same could be said for other musou games honestly. Part of what makes these games engaging is the fact that you are under constant pressure due to the mission objectives and Demon Chaos elevates that to the next level thanks to the pillar system, since you have to think more. On the downside however, this comes at a severe cost of flexibility which is ultimately what will turn most people off from this game and honestly, I don’t blame them. Even I come to expect more flexibility from action games than this and I’m usually quite tolerant of mindless beat em ups but at least Demon Chaos manages to do what it sets out to do and does it well enough that outside of a few minor issues, it’s actually strangely enjoyable for me. I think that if they added too much complexity with the pillars, it would probably get on my nerves but the careful balance of simple combat and simple tactics blends together surprisingly well. You could say that Demon Chaos is a guilty pleasure of mine as I can’t imagine many people enjoying this game due to its overly simplified gameplay. Even musou fans will likely be turned off from the lack of characters and varied movesets but who knows, maybe there is someone else out there who will enjoy this game despite its flaws. I hesitate to call Demon Chaos a hidden gem but at the same time I think it may appeal to a few individuals, particularly those who enjoy mindless gameplay like I do so if you are one of those people then you may want to give this game a shot.
Swords Of Destiny, AKA Tian Xing: Swords Of Destiny is yet another 3D beat em up that never got localized in the US but somehow managed to make it to PAL territories. Needless to say, the game was quickly forgotten as a result but does it hold up better than The Sword Of Etheria or is it yet another missed opportunity to give us something unique? Well Swords Of Destiny is nowhere near as ambitious as The Sword Of Etheria, though that’s not to say that it doesn’t bring its own twists to the usual beat em up formula. One thing that should be noted though is that Swords Of Destiny was developed by Artoon, a company infamous for the godawful Vampire Rain, so I went in not expecting much from the game but honestly, there really isn’t much to dislike here, albeit a few minor gripes.
The story takes place in what appears to be a fictional china but with demons, so it’s kind of like what Onimusha would be like if it was set in the romance of the three kingdoms universe instead of the sengoku period. There isn’t really much of a story here, just a few cutscenes with some terrible voice acting that tell you that bad guys have appeared and you have to go and get them, that’s about all there is to it really which is just enough to justify the player’s murderous rampage throughout the game. It’s pretty forgettable, even for beat em up standards but it’s better than nothing I suppose.
Clearly the meat of the experience lies in the game’s combat and if you’ve played other 3D Beat Em Ups before then you will probably be familiar with most of the mechanics, particularly if you’ve played games like Onimusha, Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden. The most interesting aspect of the combat is its sword time mechanic which requires you to attack enemies when the lock on cursor turns red, sort of like the steal mechanic in Castlevania Curse Of Darkness in the sense that you need good timing to pull it off. You could say that it’s similar to the issen technique in Onimusha but nowhere near as powerful, plus I find that it gives you a considerable amount of leeway by comparison. Once you activate sword time, you will launch enemies into the air and can deal heavy damage to them.
This is where another mechanic comes into play, the dash maneuver which not only lets you home in on enemies from any angle but can also be used in platforming too to reach areas that are too far away to reach via jumping. You can also perform a dash attack by pressing the attack button right after dashing which lets you knock enemies back a bit which comes in handy when trying to get rid of bothersome enemies from afar. When in sword time, if you press the dash at the right time during an attack, you can continuously juggle a single enemy as well as reach enemies from afar to continue attacking them with sword time. For this reason it is important to master dash cancelling to maximize your efficiency in sword time and deal tremendous damage to both regular enemies and bosses. Those who do however may find the game to be rather easy but if they don’t then they may have a tougher time in the later portions of the game. Thankfully the game is generous with healing items so you shouldn’t have to worry about dying too often making Sword Of Destiny the perfect entry level 3D beat em up for people who want to start with a more obscure title in the genre.
There are a few other abilities in the game worth noting such as charged attacks and special attacks. Charged attacks are mostly used for breaking through cracked walls, I never found them to be useful in combat though they work similarly to ultimate techniques in the Ninja Gaiden games but aren’t half as useful by comparison. Special attacks are basically the same thing as magic attacks from Onimusha or ninpo from Ninja Gaiden except it costs dragon power to perform them, there’s no difference at all really. Enemies may occasionally drop health and dragon power in a similar way to souls in Onimusha except they are automatically absorbed in this game. There is of course a dodge button and you will find yourself using it a lot as there are numerous enemies in some very tight areas which makes it difficult at times to avoid them without it. You can also perform a dodge attack as well though I didn’t find myself using it all that much. Finally there’s the spells you can throw at enemies which stun them, leaving them open for sword time attacks. These can come in handy in a pinch, particularly if you aren’t very good at performing sword time attacks. There are other spells you can get as well such as shield spells which can protect you from enemy attacks.
One thing that I found to be hit or miss is the camera. On one hand, the camera is zoomed far back enough to see enemies from behind, which can be handy in large open areas, however many of the later areas are tighter and the camera suffers in these sections. It certainly isn’t the worst camera I’ve seen but it can be a nuisance at times. The lock on can also be problematic at times as moving past pillars can deactivate the lock on which can be irritating at times since it means that you have to press the lock on button again. There are also quite a few hit point sponge enemies later on in the game in sizable quantities which can be a pain at times, especially if you haven’t mastered the sword time mechanic. Fortunately these issues weren’t too problematic for the most part and are mostly minor issues. At least they actually bothered to implement a lock on and camera controls, showing that the developers actually did their homework unlike the developers of Seven Samurai 20XX who seemed to think that camera controls and lock on systems weren’t important enough to be included in their game.
Given the fact that the game’s title suggests that you will fight with multiple swords, certain enemies will drop their own weapons which you can collect. While the weapons themselves cannot be used in battle, they can instead be used to augment the 3 elemental weapons you acquire throughout the story, giving them unique properties. Some of these properties can have crazy effects like draining you health for more damage but others can also heal you when you attack an enemy and this comes in handy when you are fighting against tougher enemies. It’s a bit of a shame how you can’t actually equip the weapons themselves though as there are some interesting ones, many of which aren’t even swords. It would have been cool to see several different fighting styles on offer but the three weapons you can swap between are adequate enough. Regardless, I do find it cool that you can apply effects that can make the game easier or harder for you. Each weapon has a durability though so you have to be careful not to overuse them. I did find the health stealing weapons to be the most useful personally as it allowed me to conserve my healing items. Speaking of which, many of the game’s healing items are hidden in breakable objects so you’ll want to break everything you see. It should be noted that permenant health/dragon power items can be hidden in there as well and if you miss them, you can never backtrack to previous levels so you will have to make do with what you have.
Interestingly enough, there are certain points in the game where you are able to choose the order of which levels you play, as well as some bonus stages that are completely optional. The game is rather short so it doesn’t take too long to get through it. There are 18 stages in total, some of which are just boss fights, so the game doesn’t overstay its welcome. I found the stages to be varied enough in terms of aesthetic though some stages are the same aesthetic as the previous stage. The level design is very much arena based though some arenas are very small and tight which can be a pain to fight in. The more open arenas tend to be much better. There are some hazards to avoid though such as spike traps which appear when you walk past 3 black holes in the wall as well as fire that comes out of the walls. While you can dash through these, I did find them to be annoying at times, especially the spike traps, fuck those things. Thankfully they only show up in 2 of the game’s levels (the mausoleum section) and the rest of them are just empty rooms with the occasional breakable pot, it’s pretty basic stuff. At least from a visual standpoint it looks decent enough, it’s certainly no Bujingai though that’s for sure.
The music, while not terrible isn’t particularly memorable. That’s not to say that there aren’t any decent tracks, it’s just that none of them stood out to me. I suppose having some background music is better than none and the music never got on my nerves. Most of the music is calming oriental tracks which don’t really fit the nature of the gameplay at all. I think the biggest issue with the soundtrack is that it lacks that intense adrenaline pumping vibe that other games in the genre have which makes it feel weird as I’m cutting up demons to music that would better fit that of a town area in a RPG than that of a combat scenario. There is a battle song in the game that shows up every so often, though it’s pretty average at best, especially when you compare it to other games like Bujingai where the soundtrack is full of energy. Swords Of Destiny’s soundtrack feels lethargic and while that wouldn’t be a problem in any other game, it just doesn’t fit the nature of a 3d beat em up.
Ultimately Swords Of Destiny is a pretty bare bones experience for the most part, you can tell that it’s trying to be like some of the more popular beat em ups and it does what it sets out to do surprisingly well. That being said however, I was left wanting more from this game. It’s lacking the flair and energy that other games in the genre have such as Bujingai, heck even Dynasty Warriors has an energetic soundtrack to match the fast paced nature of the game. It certainly isn’t a terrible experience though and quite frankly it’s better than a lot of Beat Em Ups out there, plus it’s a very accessible game for newcomers to the genre which makes it easy to recommend to someone who struggles with these types of games. Swords Of Destiny is a game that most people should probably pass up on but if you crave a simple, mindless 3d beat em up experience and have played all the greats or are looking for an entry point, you can’t really go wrong with this game. There really isn’t much else to say about Swords Of Destiny, it’s just one of those games that exists that nobody seems to care about, so I thought I might as well cover it just to give it a bit more exposure as I think it deserves at least some credit for managing to be a competent 3d beat em up, something that some games of the time fail to do due to being too ambitious, I’m looking at you The Sword Of Etheria. In a way, you could say that Swords Of Destiny is the polar opposite of The Sword Of Etheria in that regard.
Oh boy here we go, time for the comparison to end comparisons, which Star Ocean game is the best? Despite being a huge fan of the Star Ocean series, even I have to admit that it isn’t the most consistent series out there in terms of quality and quite frankly, just about every game in the series has its fair share of flaws, some of which can be extremely aggravating to deal with.
Thematically speaking, the Star Ocean series is supposed to be a hybrid of both science fiction and fantasy. Though I would argue that it’s more of a fantasy setting with a bit of science fiction sprinkled on top as opposed to a perfect blend of both science fiction and fantasy. So if you are expecting this game to be Xenosaga levels of science fiction then you may be disappointed but for me, this is the perfect setting as I’m pretty mixed on science fiction since as much as I love the idea of space travel and space ships but fighting with guns, not so much. I’ve always been more of a swords and sorcery kind of guy. Star Ocean essentially mixes the two together and that’s part of the reason why I love the series despite its flaws, granted it’s not the only series to do this as Chrono Trigger mixed science fiction and fantasy together before Star Ocean was even a thing. Final Fantasy IV also had space travel near the end of the game and Final Fantasy V had the multiple worlds idea before Star Ocean did.
While each game’s story is its own self-contained saga, they all take place in the same universe during different time periods. In a way it is kind of like the Devil May Cry/YS series in the sense that the order of release isn’t the order the story is told. While the order the games are played isn’t important, it is highly recommended to save Star Ocean Till The End Of Time for last since a certain event in that game will spoil the rest of the series for you to the point that it will change the way you perceive the other games if you play it first.
What truly stands out in the Star Ocean series besides its thematic setting is its emphasis on invested empowerment through the game’s many sub systems such as item creation and specialties. Leveling up in Star Ocean is always exciting as you are presented with a lot of choices when it comes to developing your characters and each level gives you skill points to invest freely in anything you choose. If you’re looking for a game which makes leveling up fun, the Star Ocean series is for you. In addition to this, there are also private actions which do a great job at breaking up the gameplay by letting you interact with the characters and these interactions tend to influence an affection variable which decides what ending you get when you finish the game. I thought this was a nice touch as it kinda allows you to personalize the ending you get so that everyone gets their own unique ending based on their interaction with the game’s private actions. On top of all that, each and every Star Ocean game has a fantastic soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba and features gorgeous visuals for the time. Every single mainline Star Ocean game has successfully delivered in all of these aspects and it is for this reason that I love the series.
With all of my lavish praise out of the way, it’s time for me to get critical. The Star Ocean series has its fair share of ups and downs as a whole but each game varies in overall quality so unlike my YS comparison where every game mentioned got its fair share of praise, this comparison will be brutal and I won’t hold back on my criticism, ultimately at the end of all this, a favorite will be chosen and my choice may or may not surprise you. So without further ado, let’s start with the very first Star Ocean game for the Super Famicom.
Star Ocean
Star Ocean 1
Original Super Famicom
Remake (First Departure) Playstation Portable, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Star Ocean came to be thanks to disagreements during Tales Of Phantasia’s development and if you have played Tales Of Phantasia, the first Star Ocean will feel strikingly familiar to you for that very reason. Star Ocean is essentially tri-Ace’s attempt to compete with the Tales series which was ironically their own creation originally, though due to Namco’s ownership of the series, almost everything was changed and tri-Ace abandoned the Tales series and formed their own company in opposition of Namco.
Because of this, at times you’ll feel like you’re playing a romhack of Tales Of Phantasia as it shares the same menu windows, the same art style and many of the abilities in the game are very similar. Both Star Ocean and Tales have the meteor swarm spell for example and two of the stat boosting herb items in Phantasia also return in Star Ocean, only this time they are a compounding ingredients, so are a lot easier to come by. So I can safely say that if you enjoyed Tales Of Phantasia, you’ll feel right at home with the first Star Ocean. Conversely if you couldn’t tolerate Tales Of Phantasia’s outdated mechanics, Star Ocean likely isn’t going to win you over.
I know I should be comparing Star Ocean with other Star Ocean games but Tales Of Phantasia is technically the step brother of Star Ocean, so I consider it a part of the series in spirit, even if it isn’t in name and since Star Ocean is the very first game in the series, it’s not really fair to compare certain aspects with the newer games so let’s talk about what Star Ocean does better than Tales Of Phantasia.
First of all the combat technically allows for the freedom to move your characters anywhere on the battlefield, the catch however is that you cannot simply move around with the d pad, instead you have to press the Y button on your controller to bring up a cursor, select where you want to go with A and your character will move there. Yeah it’s not exactly practical but it has its uses, mainly in one of the boss fights later on in the game where you want to get behind them to avoid a laser beam attack. Other than than however, I never found any use out of this feature so I don’t know whether I should count this as an improvement or not since it accomplishes basically nothing, on the plus side, the characters are no longer stacked in a horizontal line which is a lot less aggravating since you are able to move vertically now, which means that you no longer get trapped when your other party members are casting like you do in Phantasia so in a way it is kind of an improvement in a way.
The next thing that was changed is the attacks, in some cases, the attacks were dumbed down in Star Ocean but there were improvements made also. Star Ocean introduces the link combo which allows you to combine two attacks into each other seamlessly on the spot. This is an improvement in my opinion since in Tales Of Phantasia, I found my character moving backwards after every long range attack, sometimes even with short range attacks, making it difficult to chain attacks together. In Star Ocean, this never happens, characters always remain stationary after an attack and the link combo means that a single button press can continue the attack. Star Ocean also removes the slash and thrust system from Phantasia which meant that there is only one kind of attack as opposed to two. Some might argue that this is a negative but I personally never saw the point in this system anyways as it didn’t add anything to the experience which is probably why it was dropped in later Tales games. Put simply, the combat in Star Ocean is more simplified but not necessarily deeper than Phantasia’s combat. I see this as a good thing because complexity without depth is just a nuisance. It does show its age though, particularly when compared to the more modern Star Ocean games.
One aspect of the game that I did find interesting was how you acquire ougi moves. Ougi moves are special attacks that are learned at random during battles. Acquiring ougi’s requires leveling up each individual’s school skill, other than that you basically have to keep using certain special attacks until they show up. Some ougi’s can only be acquired after certain conditions have been met in the game so it can be tricky to get them all. Part of me likes this system as in concept it’s a really cool idea and since you learn them during battle, it’s kind of like the Tales series in a way. Unfortunately though due to the luck required to learn them, it can be quite annoying when you’re trying to learn a certain ougi. It sure feels good when you finally learn a new move in the middle of a battle though. Not all of your attacks are learned this way however as many of the moves in this game can be learned by simply leveling up and while ougi’s do reappear in a later entry, the first game is the only game in the series where you learn special moves both ways.
Star Ocean’s item creation isn’t like modern crafting systems where you have to gather specific items to make things. All you need is a single raw material to make something. The result often depends on the character making it, their item creation level and their talents.
Item creation’s debut in Star Ocean has aged rather well. It’s almost identical to Star Ocean The Second Story’s system in a way though considering the fact that it is the first game in the series, the item creation is a lot more primitive by comparison. Put simply, Star Ocean’s item creation set the foundation for Star Ocean The Second Story and has all the essentials like cooking, compounding, authoring etc. It’s a good start and is still fun to experiment with though nowhere near as expansive as Star Ocean The Second Story’s item creation. The skill learning system in Star Ocean is very much the same thing as it’s very similar to Star Ocean The Second Story, the only real difference being the school skills which are used to learn ougis, these were completely removed in Star Ocean The Second Story.
Private Actions debuted here too, though there aren’t nearly as many as there are in later games. There are still some good ones though, particularly in the remake, First Departure. While the Private Actions themselves work more-or-less the same way as they do in Star Ocean The Second Story, the endings do not as unlike Star Ocean The Second Story where you get a pairing at the end, in the first game there is a special ending which is very difficult to get and requires you to have certain characters in your party to acquire. There’s not much information as to how you’re supposed to get this ending but many assume that having a high affection value for every character helps. I cannot say how to get it myself though as I have never got it but I have seen the scene on Youtube before. There are still scenes for the characters individually though they aren’t necessarily “pairing” endings.
The story of Star Ocean is also somewhat similar to that of Tales Of Phantasia as it involves time travel, though this time, you’re accompanied by beings from another world with more advanced technology. Thankfully the macguffin plot is nowhere near as prominent in Star Ocean as the goal for most of the game is to reunite with your friends and obtain a serum to save your friend from petrification. Now there is a brief portion of the plot that does revolve around a macguffin hunt but it’s very brief, whereas Tales Of Phantasia revolves almost entirely around collecting macguffins in the form of summon spirits, which totally wasn’t inspired by Secret Of Mana which did the exact same thing. Ultimately though, Star Ocean’s story is very simplistic, though it does present some interesting ideas to the table.
Unlike Tales Of Phantasia which had only 5 playable characters on the Super Famicom version, Star Ocean would feature many party members, some of which require certain conditions in order for them to join you. You only have up to 8 slots for your party and some characters won’t join you if you have another character in the party which means you will have to play through the game multiple times to get them all. I personally find the cast of characters to be underrated in Star Ocean. While I can’t exactly consider them to be the greatest cast out there, I personally liked some of the characterization with some of the cast. Ronyx and Ilia in particular have an interesting dynamic, Cyuss is also a pretty likable character with some funny dialogue, especially in the dejap translation. I do think that the remake, First Departure did a better job at fleshing out the characters as it has a lot more private actions than the original game. I will say though that the main villain’s characterization is a lot more interesting in the super famicom version than it is in the PSP version.
You tell em Cius, you get em told!
Star Ocean’s soundtrack is very similar to Tales Of Phantasia and that’s due to the fact that both games were composed by Motoi Sakuraba. I have a hard time comparing the two soundtracks because they are both amazing in their own right. What I will say though is that the first Star Ocean has one of my favorite soundtracks in the series and is one of my favorite soundtracks on the super famicom. The track titled Ambition is absolutely stellar and there’s some really catchy tracks in here too like Ancient Ruin, Dancin’ Sword, Tense Atmosphere and of course the main battle theme, For Achieve. Those are but a few of the great songs this game has to offer. The PSP remake, First Departure didn’t really do the original soundtrack justice if you ask me, it’s just not the same without those old school snes sounds and while they could have modernized it the right way by finally making dancin’ sword a metal track, they didn’t. The First Departure remake lacks the energy the original game’s soundtrack had and quite frankly the worst soundtrack in the series. They should have just re-used the original soundtrack instead if you ask me.
Visually speaking, Star Ocean is a massive improvement from Tales Of Phantasia, there’s a lot more detail in the environments and the sprites look more detailed as well. Despite this, most of the artwork remains the same, everything from the buildings to the character’s hair appear so similar. Heck if you look at Cless and Ilia from behind, you can barely tell the difference since they both have very similar hair. One thing that is noticeable though is that the visuals no longer look as washed out as they do in Phantasia which makes the game a lot more appealing to look at if you ask me. Honestly Star Ocean may be one of the better looking games on the super famicom and if you ask me, I’d even go as far as to say that the game looks better than Suikoden does on the PS1, which begs the question as to why Suikoden wasn’t released on the super nintendo since it clearly wasn’t designed for a 5th gen system. Regardless, Star Ocean may be the most gorgeous sprite based JRPG without pre-rendered backgrounds I’ve ever seen and quite frankly I personally prefer Star Ocean’s entirely sprite based visuals to it’s sequel’s pre-rendered backgrounds, which kicks off the contest between Star Ocean and Star Ocean The Second Story.
Star Ocean doesn’t have a conventional overworld like most JRPG’s instead the world map is a maze of areas that connect the world together. I personally prefer this as it makes the world feel more detailed.
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Star Ocean 2
Original Playstation 1
Remake (Second Evolution) Playstation Portable, Playstation 4, Remake (Second Story R) Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Switch
Considered by many to be the series’ magnum opus, Star Ocean The Second Story was the first game in the series to be localized outside of Japan so it was many people’s first entry into the Star Ocean series. Star Ocean The Second Story is the first game in the series to allow free movement controls with the d pad, though there is also an option to move by holding the square button and using the d pad to change targets. I found the latter to be more useful personally. The free movement doesn’t really impact the early game sections though it does come in handy in certain fights, particularly against enemies with deadly melee attacks and just about any attack that can be avoided. Early on, your running speed is quite slow but once you get the bunny shoes, it’s a lot easier to avoid attacks. Unfortunately, magic is completely unavoidable in Star Ocean The Second Story so you can’t use it to avoid AOE magic which is a shame.
One thing that is interesting about Star Ocean The Second Story is that it combined shockwave swirl and air slash together so that performing a short range air slash will cause you to do a shockwave swirl instead and vice versa. This is also the only game in the series to do this for some reason which I find to be strange as it was a really good idea and I wish other games in the series would allow for more varied attacks based on their range since using most long range attacks tend to cause you to run towards the enemy since they do not have an alternate long range function. Honestly, I’d rather they did something with the distance system instead of the whole light/heavy attack thing they implemented later as it would have made the combat a lot more interesting if they did. What a shame.
What Star Ocean The Second Story lacks in terms of combat improvements, it more than makes up for it in other areas, namely the item creation and specialties. Unlike the first game where item creation is character specific, Star Ocean The Second Story introduces super specialties which can be acquired when a combined amount of item creation skills reach a certain level. Super specialties also have a level which is based on the combined levels of each character’s individual specialties. This means that you are actually encouraged to max every single character’s item creation levels out as opposed to having a dedicated cook or a dedicated artist like in the first game. On top of this, Star Ocean The Second Story added 4 new specialties which are: machinery, survival, pickpocketing and reproduction. Machinery and reproduction are both item creation specialties, one of which lets you create items to be used to make certain items ranging from equipment to battle items, the other allowing you to duplicate an item in your inventory which can be quite handy if you have rare items in your inventory that you want more of.
While the private action system works more-or-less the same as it does in the first game, the way endings work is very different as you get two different pairings, a friendship ending and a relationship ending. Private actions give you points for both friendship and relationship this time which influences what type of pairing you’re going to get. It should also be noted that the protagonists (Claude and Rena) are not necessarily going to be involved in this pairing, it can happen with any of your party members which means that there a lot of match making possibilities to be had. This was the game’s biggest selling point at the time and it is still impressive to this day how they managed to include an ending for each pairing.
Depending on choices made in Private Actions, you will gain or lose either friendship points or relationship points so you have to be really careful with your choices if you are looking for a particular ending.
Star Ocean The Second Story is also the first game in the series to have two different protagonists to choose from. While they both follow the same path for most of the game, there are a few differences between the two as certain story events only trigger depending on which protagonist you choose. In addition, there are two characters that will only join you if you are playing as a certain protagonist so you can’t obtain all the characters in a single playthrough, much like the first game. I found the character acquisition to be somewhat vague in this game and as a result, I found myself missing out on a lot of characters on my first playthrough which meant that I wasn’t able to experience some of the game’s private actions which was a shame. I found the cast of characters to be likable for the most part, particularly Ashton and Dias. The two characters that I wasn’t too fond of however were Leon and Noel. Noel was a pretty bland character that didn’t bring anything to the table, granted so were Tinek and Perrichi in the first game, though at least Tinek was actually useful in battle, Noel is absolute trash by comparison. Leon on the other hand is even worse, not only is he also trash in battle like Noel but his personality is so unbelievably obnoxious to the point that he really gets on my nerves every time he speaks.
The story is relatively hit or miss for the most part. While there are some great moments in the game’s story, the pacing leaves much to be desired. Disk 1 in particular consists of mostly filler and can feel like a slog to get through at times. Disk 2 on the other hand feels rushed as it introduces a ton of characters and lore but fails to properly flesh them out, something that disk 1 should have addressed but sadly failed to deliver. It’s a shame that the story turned out to be so poorly paced because there are a lot of interesting ideas presented to you in the later portion of the game that would have made for a pretty amazing story. Honestly I think that disk 1 should have been rewritten from scratch to give some foreshadowing and build up to the events of disk 2 because as it stands, it’s a complete waste of time if you ask me.
Star Ocean The Second Story introduced both pre-rendered backgrounds and a traditional overworld map. While I can certainly see the appeal of this, I personally have a soft spot for the original’s aesthetic, therefore I consider it to be better by comparison. Regardless, I still enjoyed the aesthetic of Star Ocean The Second Story a lot. The towns in particular look gorgeous and are extremely detailed. What did bother me though was the fact that many of the technologically advanced areas of the game look modern as opposed to actually looking futuristic. This was a huge problem for me as I expected a science fiction fantasy hybrid but the aesthetic felt more like a fantasy meets modern day look as opposed to a futuristic fantasy look that I came to expect from a Star Ocean game. This is without a doubt the most disappointing aspect of Star Ocean The Second Story and it is the one thing that holds it back from being my personal favorite in the series.
The music on the other hand doesn’t disappoint. There are quite a few standouts in Star Ocean The Second Story that I really enjoyed like Field Of Expel, Endlessly, KA.MI.KA.ZE and We Form In Crystals. Interestingly enough, many recurring tracks throughout tri-Ace’s legacy debuted here such as Mission To The Deep Space, Mighty Blow and of course The Incarnation Of The Devil which has played in every single Square-Enix published tri-Ace game since with the exception of Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean Blue Sphere. Some of the boss themes were later reused in Valkyrie Profile such as Beast Of Prey, Shiver and The Climax At The Tower. It goes without saying that Star Ocean The Second Story has one of Motoi Sakuraba’s most recognized soundtracks and it’s certainly deserving of praise for that alone as Motoi Sakuraba has put out a lot of great music over the years and this game’s soundtrack still stands out as being one of his better ones. It’s by no means his best soundtrack though, I do think that the first game’s soundtrack gives Star Ocean The Second Story a run for its money but it’s a solid soundtrack nonetheless.
So while Star Ocean The Second Story improves the formula that was pioneered by the first game, it isn’t without its flaws. Regardless, I do think that Star Ocean The Second Story is the definitive Star Ocean experience… despite the lack of a futuristic aesthetic for its technologically advanced areas. The combat system hasn’t aged the best but its item creation and character management are second to none. The story has its rough moments but it does pick up later on. I think that to truly enjoy Star Ocean The Second Story, you really have to set your expectations low but if you can deal with its flaws, it is a worthwhile experience. There’s so much attention to detail in this game compared to the other games in the series which is likely the biggest reason why it is hailed as being the best in the series.
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere
Star Ocean 2-2
Original Game Boy Colour
Remake Mobile
Taking place right after the events of Star Ocean The Second Story, Star Ocean Blue Sphere brings back the entire cast of characters for one more adventure, which is strange considering the fact that characters like Opera and Ashton are impossible to recruit together in the original game but are both available to play as in Blue Sphere. Sadly though, Star Ocean Blue Sphere would never get an official English release but thanks to fan translations, the game is now playable in English which means that I can finally cover it.
The combat in Blue Sphere operates in a similar fashion to that of a Tales game in the sense that it is purely side scrolling and primarily revolves around a timing mechanic similar to that of Legend Of Dragoon where tapping the button at the right time allows you to extend your combo. There are also special attacks you can perform by pressing the B button as well as the ability to manually guard against enemy attacks by pressing down on the d pad which reduces damage taken, sort of like the earlier Tales games. It’s a very simplistic combat system which isn’t surprising considering the fact that the game was released on a console with very few buttons but unlike previous games, the combo system and guarding make battles feel a lot more technical. One other thing to note about battles is that the game is paused whenever items are used in battle, this can be a lifesaver in certain situations as the effect is instantaneous unlike the previous games where the effects of items occur in real time and that can often make the difference between life and death, so the game is more forgiving in that regard than previous entries. What isn’t forgiving is the fact that there are times where an attack that you would usually survive can kill you instantly. This happened to me numerous times in the game and it can get quite irritating sometimes. Another thing to be aware of is that attacks consume stamina, there isn’t any indication as to how much stamina you have but if you attack too much, your character will become immobile for a brief period until they are hit. Certain moves drain stamina more than others so you may want to think twice about using attacks that drain all of your stamina in one go.
Unlike the previous two games, each enemy in Blue Sphere has multiple health bars, one for each body part, destroying a body part can yield different outcomes, sometimes immobilizing enemies or even killing them entirely.
On top of all this, Star Ocean Blue Sphere removes the random encounters present in the first two games, instead having enemies roam around each area, meaning that battles can be manually triggered simply by walking into them. One unique aspect about Blue Sphere is the ability to attack at any time on the field. You can attack roaming enemies to get an early advantage but that’s not all you can do, there are objects around each area that can be broken by attacking them and those objects may even have hidden items or monsters inside them. Speaking of which, Star Ocean Blue Sphere’s dungeons feel very different from other games in the series. In a way they’re kind of reminiscent of the early Zelda titles in the sense that you have rooms with all kinds of things to interact with, some requiring you to use certain actions to progress that may require certain party members to perform, kind of in a similar way to how Link uses many of his tools to progress. I personally find this to be a bit of a hassle myself as It can be difficult to figure out what to do at times. You kind of need to have a balanced party that can not only be effective in battle but can also navigate through the many obstacles presented to you with their unique abilities. I suppose it gives you a reason to try all the characters instead of sticking with the same party throughout the entire game.
Speaking of party members, Star Ocean Blue Sphere only allows you to pick 3 party members as opposed to the previous games which let you select 4, this can make it even more annoying when it comes to picking your party because every time you hit a roadblock, you have to backtrack to swap to a different character when you could have just put that character in as your 4th party member. The good news is that there’s a huge selection of characters right from the get go and you can choose any character to be your main character throughout the game. The game defaults to Precis as your lead character but after the intro, you can put whomever you want in your party and whichever character you control is the one doing the talking to the NPC’s. You can switch lead characters on the fly by pressing the select button which comes in handy when you need to perform a certain field action. It should also be noted that skill points obtained from battles aren’t distributed to party members individually so you will have to spread them out evenly if you want all of your party members to be of use in battle. Since you are unable to level up in the traditional sense, this means that most skills are acquired in the same way ougi skills were in the first game, though some of them can be learned through the new psychometry item creatiion skill. You may also notice that enemies in Star Ocean Blue Sphere do not drop fol and for this reason you need to be extra conservative with your items. The only way to get fol is by getting enemies to drop items you can sell at shops so you better hope to get some valuable drops from enemies if you’re a big spender.
Much like in Zelda, you can use bombs to blow up suspicious looking walls to reach new areas. So in the words of Peppy Hare always remember to “Use bombs wisely!”
Due to the fact that Star Ocean Blue Sphere is a direct sequel to Star Ocean The Second Story, private actions do not influence the game’s ending and there are considerably less of them than there were in the previous game but they are present. Unlike Second Story, you don’t have to enter private action mode when entering a town. Instead the characters the player isn’t using will appear in towns and other areas for you to interact with. Since you are no longer forced to use Claude or Rena in this game, you can interact with any character you want and you will need to pick certain characters to have these private actions appear. Additionally the character whom the player interacts with must not be in the party so it can be difficult to find them. While private actions don’t serve much of a purpose in this game, there are certain private actions that you can do to acquire certain items, so they aren’t entirely pointless to do.
Item Creation works a little differently this time around as while it still revolves around the same concept of the first two games, you now have to complete a minigame associated with the creation specialty. While many of these minigames are simple tasks, some can be excruciating such as the psychometry minigame which requires you to move a hand around to locate and learn special moves from a specific item, which is a pain in the neck as not only do you have no indication of where it is but at the same time, the hand is difficult to control. Most of these minigames aren’t bad thankfully and allow you to control what items you get which is so much better than the previous two entries in that regard, though on the flip side, it can be a bit of a pain to have to play a minigame every single time you want to make an item. That being said, the minigames do make the process feel more interactive which makes you feel as if you’re actually making the item as opposed to just pressing X on the menu and watching an item appear like in the previous two entries.
Various tasks such as crushing herbs and soldering electronics involve player interaction, some are simpler than others but the item you get is decided by the number of points the player accumulates in these activities.
Star Ocean Blue Sphere’s story starts off in a similar manner to that of the first game in the sense that the plot revolves around locating your missing comrades for the first half, whereas the second half has you dealing with the planet’s problems. There isn’t really much dialogue in the main story compared to that of previous games though this is mainly due to the fact that the character you control is the one doing all of the talking, therefore there isn’t much interaction amongst the cast themselves outside of private actions which is kind of disappointing in a way. Where Star Ocean Blue Sphere shines best is in its world. Edifice is a mostly an ocean planet, home to the aquatic race known as the Edifians who reside underwater. There are also humans here though it’s unknown whether they’re colonists from another world or have lived here since the start. What is interesting about exploring Edifice is that it features many ruins of what are presumably ancient, technologically advanced civilizations that became monster nests, despite being considered an underdeveloped planet. This blends in the sci-fi feel with the more primitive fantasy setting well as it is all in one place. There are plenty of interesting locations to visit in this game, so much so that a modern remake would be amazing to see (the mobile game doesn’t count, I want a proper remake in 3D like Trials Of Mana for PC). Sadly though we will have to make do with the visual limitations of the Game boy Colour which thankfully don’t look too bad all things considered.
Considering the fact that Blue Sphere is a Game Boy Colour game, the audio is entirely 8 bit, this means that the music is even more old school sounding than the first Star Ocean which is funny to think about. I can safely say though that Blue Sphere probably has the weakest soundtrack in the series, it’s not bad but even for 8 bit standards, I feel as if it could have been a lot better than it was. That being said there are a few songs that I did like such as Civilization Keeper, Forsaken Wastes and Legacy From The Past. After all, Motoi Sakuraba did compose the music so it goes without saying that there are some good tracks here, I just find that it struggles to keep up with the other games in this department. It certainly doesn’t help that many of the songs repeat a lot so you’ll be hearing a lot of the same stuff over and over again.
Anyone up for a game of Jenga?
The best way to describe Star Ocean Blue Sphere as a whole is that it tries to do the most it can with the limitations of the Game Boy Colour by being considerably different from other entries. Instead of being more of the same, it turns the Star Ocean formula in a new direction, staying faithful to its roots while presenting the ideas from the previous games in a completely new way, essentially creating an entirely new experience. I think that long time fans of the series will appreciate the similarities and differences found here, though I personally find that many of the changes do not fit my tastes as the puzzles and platforming could be quite troublesome at some points as well as the navigation of each of the game’s dungeons. The game even has a mapper skill to help with this but even then I would strongly recommend a guide for this one, particularly one that shows the maps for each dungeon because the dungeons in Blue Sphere feature a ton of rooms, treasure and hidden areas. If you’re patient enough to endure the personal gripes I had then Star Ocean Blue Sphere is definitely worth a shot if you are a fan of the series, particularly Star Ocean The Second Story.
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time
Star Ocean 3
Original – Playstation 2
Director’s Cut – Playstation 2, Playstation 4
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time may have been the most successful game in the series in terms of sales numbers but in retrospect, I’d argue that it brought about a turning point that would later cause the series’ downfall. This game is the biggest reason why the Star Ocean fanbase is so divisive as while some people consider Star Ocean Till The End Of Time to be the best in the series, other people hate the game with a passion. I myself stand somewhere in the middle, though as a fan of this series, I tend to be extremely critical of this game as I consider it to be the black sheep of the series. Despite this however, I do kind of have a soft spot for this game as I felt that out of all of the Star Ocean games, this one I felt had the biggest potential, so in a way I have a love/hate relationship with this game and quite frankly, I cannot bring myself to dislike it. This however does not prevent me from ranting about this game’s many issues.
When I said that Star Ocean Till The End Of Time was the black sheep of the series, I’m not saying that because it is objectively the worst, I say that because it is objectively the least faithful game in the series and for that reason, it deserves all the hate it gets. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time changed everything, the combat, the private actions, the spe… wait where’s the specialties? Where’s the item creation!? That’s right, Star Ocean Till The End Of Time thought that it would be a good idea to remove many of the systems that defined the series to begin with, which is enough of a reason to call it the black sheep of the series as it doesn’t feel like much of a Star Ocean game at all. The only thing that remains in tact is the sci-fi/fantasy concept that the series has always been known for.
Now of course change isn’t always bad and this is evident by the fact that many people enjoyed the game and consider it to be the best in the series, however I personally think that many of the changes made in this game leave a lot to be desired. Let’s start with the biggest issue with Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and the biggest reason why this game deserves so much hate, the infamous combat system. Now I totally understand the theory behind this system, I really do. The idea is to alleviate the stagger spam tactic that many players used to beat bosses in Star Ocean The Second Story, so that you can’t just spam the same attacks over and over again constantly so that they become locked in a bombardment of staggering, unable to perform an action through the use of the fury gauge which allows both the player and the enemy to auto guard light attacks once the gauge is filled (which requires standing and doing nothing to fill). The fury shield can only be broken by strong attacks which in theory would prevent people from spamming faster light attacks to stagger lock enemies. The issue is though that Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s fury system doesn’t really accomplish this at all and for one huge reason, the light/heavy system does not apply the same properties to special attacks as it does to normal attacks. This means that you can start by holding down the circle button to break the enemy’s fury shield, then begin alternating between holding down X then circle, rinse and repeat. That is the combat system of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time in a nutshell, heck the game even incentivizes you to break it by rewarding you with a damage multiplier for repeating this maneuver.
Now there is a catch, you see the problem with spamming special attacks is that by doing so, you consume hit points. Wait what? Hit Points!? Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re going to say that this makes no sense aren’t you? Well to be honest, as inconsistent as it is with the rest of the series, many games in the Shin Megami Tensei series do the exact same thing with some moves and the first Ar Tonelico game does it will all the special moves. Plus in a way, the concept makes sense if you consider your HP to be your character’s energy and to be honest, you might as well consider it so because HP is only consumed by using physical attacks, so in a way it is kind of a character’s physical energy. Once it is drained, your character becomes tired out and therefore vulnerable. Sounds kinda smart when you put it that way. The bad thing is that MP is treated the exact same way, what I mean by this is that you consume MP when using magic. Well then why not just spam magic? Well I have terrible news for you. Your MP gauge is actually your second HP gauge *gasp*! I know, it took me by surprise too, especially when I made it to the Urssa Lava Caves and enemies suddenly started dealing heavy MP damage to my characters out of nowhere and because I never thought to level up my MP (which I will get to later) I died in seconds. Talk about a massive difficulty spike… and an ordeal, which reminds me, we haven’t gotten to the other problem this game has, the dungeons.
You’ll be seeing this screen a lot once you reach the Urssa Lava Caves…
My god the dungeons of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time may quite possibly be some of the worst dungeons in JRPG history. The vast majorty of them are either forgettable or downright infuriating. Now sure there are a few decent dungeons in the game that aren’t that bad but those are very few and far between. One dungeon forces you to play an annoying mini game where you have to navigate a mineshaft via mine cart tracks on what it called a hauler. This minigame was an absolute nightmare, especially if you weren’t using a guide and have no idea where you’re meant to be going. I swear I spent hours trying to figure out where the hell I needed to go to get to the end of this awful place, sadly though, I would inevitably find an even worse dungeon, the Shrine Of Kaddan, full of annoying hazards and traps I had to navigate through, heck one of the treasure chests blows up in your face, just to rub it in. It’s almost as if it’s taking a page out of Valkyrie Profile’s book where all the treasure chests are satan’s minions who want to obliterate you in the most humiliating way possible. Of course it’s not over, by the end of disk 1, you will encounter what I consider to be the worst dungeon in JRPG history that I ever managed to beat, the Urssa Lava Caves. Now a lot of people say the penultimate dungeon of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time is the worst and honestly, I can’t blame them for thinking that but I personally think that the Urssa Lava Caves is far worse and I will explain to you why this is.
First of all, to get to the Urssa Lava Caves you first have to make your way to the Bequeral Mountain Path, which leads to the Barr Mountains, which takes you to the Barr Ruins, which finally takes you to the Urssa Lava Caves. That’s 3 dungeons in a row with no towns in between and these dungeons feel so much longer and so much more tedious than they need to be but when you get into the Urssa Lava Caves, you suddenly hear the most unnerving dungeon theme in the game and rightfully so, you are now in hell, there’s a reason why there’s lava everywhere after all. Now it could be argued that the boss just outside of the door to the Urssa Lava Caves is the first time you encounter heavy MP damage moves… but that’s just a boss fight, surely the regular enemies can’t possibly do the same thing… oh wait they do? Brilliant, now my entire party is wiped in seconds the moment I enter any fight in this godforsaken cave. Now the enemies aren’t the only obstacles you will have to deal with. Of course there’s lava everywhere which can hurt you if you step in it, there’s also an item that is hidden somewhere that you need to find, if you don’t use a walkthrough, you’ll spend hours looking for it but to get it you have to go behind a stone statue (if you just examine the front you just get some text and that’s it) and press the X button. The game gives you no hints or clues that you have to go behind the statue, it just wants you to buy the strategy guide and look it up. Thankfully I saved my money and used GameFAQ’s to figure it out.
That doesn’t look very friendly…
If you thought that was all, think again, the next part of the dungeon requires you to navigate through an infuriating maze, be sure to keep the guide with you because if you don’t you will become lost in this maze for hours like I was. I really wish I followed the guide the whole way through because this maze has forced enemy encounters which mean more chances for my party to get wiped by MP damage dealing monsters. The worst part about this maze is the camera, it is fixed right behind you at all times and the entire room is full of steam so you can barely see where you are going. It’s a very tight maze so enemies you encounter here are impossible to run past. Once you manage to get through this horrendous ordeal… or you just turned left at the start and went up like I should have done (damn you tri-Ace!!!) then you will end up in some kind of forge with this bunny man. It is at this point where the game requires you to backtrack all the way back to the entrance to the goddamn sealed cavern (the dungeon that leads to the Shrine Of Kaddan). This means you have to go all the way back through the maze (which is easy if you have a guide), back through the Barr Ruins, back down the Barr Mountains, back to the Bequeral Mountain Path, through all the towns and field areas leading up to Aquaria (there’s a lot), then you go through the palace till you reach the entrance to the Sealed Cavern where an NPC will give you hammers (edit: I found out that you can get the disintegration hammers earlier if you just happened to talk to the random NPC at the entrance to the sealed cavern before you went through the Shrine Of Kaddan. Now if I was closely reading a guide, I probably wouldn’t have missed this, though I am pretty sure that most people will not so my point still stands. The hammers are not essential to get through the Sealed Cavern/Shrine Of Kaddan but you will need them to get through the Urssa Lava Caves which is why I had to backtrack for miles. You could argue that this is my fault for not talking to that NPC earlier but you would think that if the hammers were so important to progress that they would just give them to you at the Urssa Lava Caves anyway instead of requiring me to backtrack and get what wasn’t an essential item at the time, but now is). Then you need to go all the way back through all the field areas and towns in order to reach the Airyglyph Aquaducts (though you can fast travel there at the bequeral mountains). There you have to use the disintegration hammers to get an item, then you need to go all the way back through the mountains, ruins and finally back to the goddamn Urssa Lava Caves so you can finally finish disk 1! Unfortunately before you can do so you have to fight one of the hardest bosses in the entire game who, like the enemies in the dungeon will wipe your party in seconds with MP damage unless you cheese it by picking Maria and spamming Scatter Beam at him from a safe distance like I did, which became my strategy for the rest of the game.
Now do you see why I hate Star Ocean Till The End Of Time so goddamn much!? I hope so, but I’m not finished yet, I have even more issues to rant about with this game, one of which is the godawful invention system. Invention is essentially the replacement of item creation and specialties. Instead of putting items into a pot and seeing what you get like in previous games, Invention has you consume not only items but also Fol. Basically it’s the same system sort of, just considerably more infuriating due to needless complexity and other bullshit. Where do I even start with this horrendous mess of a system? For starters your characters have pre-set item creation skill levels which are static throughout, you can’t level them up in this game (nor can you level up any skills with SP for that matter), so what do you do? Travel across the world in search of other people to do all the work for you. This defeats the entire point of creating items, it was there to show that the characters you play as aren’t just fighters, they have other skills that have their uses throughout the game and this was great. Now we are stuck with a main cast of characters who are absolutely bloody useless at item creation so it’s just pointless to have this feature in the game, heck it isn’t really a crafting system, it’s an invention system which means that you’re inventing new items to be sold in stores, sure you do get a free prototype item for yourself but in a way it’s just a needless ordeal you have to go through in order to unlock all the items sold in stores.
Quality dictates the fail rate, the longer you spend inventing, the higher the chance of failure making it pointless to keep going if you fail the first time.
Now lets actually talk about the invention process. First of all you assign multiple NPC’s (or playable characters if you don’t mind failing all the time) to a slot and then start a timer. Depending on the amount of fol randomly selected for you ultimately decides what item you get so you won’t have a clue until you get it. So if you want a certain item, you need to constantly change the fol cost in hopes that you get a different fol cost for a new item. Every single time you fail at creating an item, you lose that much fol and you will fail so many goddamn times it’s ridiculous unless you bothered to get the best NPC’s who can create stuff easier. Once you succeed then you will get an item that was invented and it can be just about anything though it is decided by the fol cost so it is possible to manipulate the RNG a little even though it clearly wasn’t intended for players to do so. Every item you create gets a rating from Welch and while this rating doesn’t matter in the slightest, it is dumb because there are many good items that you need in the game that have a very low rating for some reason. I actually have a video demonstrating the colossal losses you get when you fail constantly at making items to the point that save scumming is the only way if you want to get the items you want. So if you want to lose money fast then be sure to do a lot of invention, it will get rid of it faster than a lootbox/gatcha addiction. Put simply, Invention sucks, it only serves to alienate fans of the earlier games and the entire series for that matter. It’s the perfect example of how depth and complexity are not one and the same. Invention has no more depth to it than item creation but it has a considerable amount of complexity by comparison and that is a bad thing. They also introduced synthesis, allowing the ability to customize the properties of your equipment in a similar way to Final Fantasy X’s customize but as cool as that may be believe me, this does not make up for the catastrophe brought upon us by this shitty invention system.
Another thing I want to complain about is the absurd CP capacity that is available to you. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time is the first game in the series to implement the CP mechanic which is not to be confused with the CP in Valkyrie Profile but would later reappear in Valkyrie Profile 2 and Covenant Of The Plume. It can also be comparable to the magic stones used to set skills in Final Fantasy IX. While those games give you plenty of capacity for skills, Star Ocean Till The End Of Time does not. Now while it may offer more CP than Valkyrie Profile 2, the CP cost in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time applies not only to passive skills but also special attacks too and the cost of these attacks quickly add up to the point that you won’t have any room to add any skills should you use all 4 slots for your special attacks. To make matters worse, certain skills actually take up your special attack slots such as the MP damage skill on top of having an absurd CP cost. This usually means that players are encouraged to limit their attacks and spam the same move over and over instead of having a variety of moves in their arsenal which is pretty lame if you ask me. If you choose not to equip any special attacks then you will lose the ability to cancel attacks, therefore losing the insane 300% damage bonus that comes with it. So be sure to enjoy spamming the same attack over and over again because it is arguably the most effective strategy in this game. While the same can potentially be said for other games in the series, they do not actively try to prevent players from mixing up their moveset in the same way Star Ocean Till The End Of Time does. On top of all this, Star Ocean Till The End Of Time is the only game in the series where you can’t learn/level up skills with skill points gained from leveling, all you can do is level up your base stats which is kinda lame if you ask me, since it makes the personalization less fun. This is made all the more aggravating when you realize that MP death is a thing since if you didn’t know beforehand and never bothered to level up your MP, nice knowing you.
Get the hint? I hope so because if you don’t by now then you never will.
One thing that also bothers me is how the game handles private actions. Now in previous games you would be able to interact with your party members around town to trigger private action events and they were usually either interesting or silly distractions, here the private actions are so unbelievably bland for the most part to the point that it wonder why they even bothered adding them in. Many of the private actions involve you interacting with various NPC’s and making dialogue choices, you can barely tell if what you’re doing is a private action or not but if the player is presented with a dialogue choice then there’s a high chance that it is one. What bothers me the most is the lack of interaction with the party members themselves, it just feels pointless since you’re not actually getting to see another side to the characters nor are you getting any comic relief, you’re just talking to random people and making dialogue choices that have nothing to do with the characters in your party.
Now here’s the funny part, after doing a bit of research into this system, I found out that every time you make a choice, every single obtainable party member in the game’s affinity for Fayt is affected regardless of whether or not they are present in the party yet. So you can make a dialogue choice right at the start of the game and one of the party members you get later on in the game magically overheard that conversation and their opinion of you is magically affected by it. This really takes away from the believability that the characters are actually bonding which is what makes private actions a colossal disappointment in this game. Sure there are occasionally private actions you can do with your actual party members but they are very few and far between and still affect the relationship values for every single member of the party which is stupid. In a way, the private actions in this game feel more like an afterthought than an actual feature. Sure you could argue that Blue Sphere doesn’t have many private actions or any relationship values but that game is a direct sequel with the exact same cast as the previous game so those characters already have ending pairings, therefore they didn’t need to bother with the private actions at all but they somehow managed to have a better ratio of private actions with the actual party members (as opposed to random NPCs) than Star Ocean Till The End Of Time which is outrageously absurd.
But how else am I gonna get the best ending!?
By now you’re probably thinking that I hate this game with a passion, which I most certainly do. However that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to love about this game. For starters, I really enjoyed the scale of the game’s story, though I’d expect nothing less from the series’ finale. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s story may start out a little slow but around the game’s mid point is quickly starts to pick up steam. I’d argue they did a better job with the story overall compared to that of Second Story as it spends considerably less time getting sidetracked and does a better job at keeping the player’s attention. The half way point is where everything goes completely nuts and will completely change your perception of the rest of the series, it will either make or break the series for you. I personally enjoyed the direction they took with this game’s story as it actually had the balls to challenge the player’s perception on things. Plus I would argue that the major twist that the game throws at you was foreshadowed in previous entries. Now many have argued that it was not handled brilliantly and while I do agree that the story did feel a tad rushed by this point, I do think they explained it well enough to the point that it was an acceptable plot point. Personally I found it to fit the nature of the series really well and I enjoyed the interesting concept it introduced to the game’s universe in regards to how people live their day to day lives.
The cast of characters are a mixed bag though. While some of the characters are likeable enough, many of them are just along for the ride and feel out of place, I get that much like the first two games you have optional characters but those games had private actions to flesh them out. Many of the characters in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time join the party just before the plot goes nuts and by that point any opportunity to develop them is cast aside in favor of the plot. It’s a bit of a shame but at least some of the characters are decent. I found that Cliff and Maria were the two most interesting characters personally though the rest of the cast I was pretty mixed on. I found Sophia to be kinda pointless, almost as if they were trying to set her up as the lead heroine but she got forgotten about somewhere in development only for the devs to shove her in the second half of the game where she spends the entire time standing around wondering what is going on like some spare part. Adray is both worthless in battle and in the story which makes me wonder why they even bothered adding him in. Then there’s Roger who feels kinda out of place, he kinda reminds me of Jack Russell from Radiata Stories and would have probably fit in that game better.
One thing I did enjoy about this game was the fact that is delivers one hell of a soundtrack, not that I’d expect any less from Motoi Sakuraba but I personally consider this to be one of his better soundtracks. There’s a nice mixture of metal, jazz and electronic music on offer and I found that it did a fantastic job at accompanying the story to make the epic moments really stand out. Some of my favourite tracks would be: The Divine Spirit Of Language, Expiration, Moon Base, Twisted Base, The Virtual Image, The Desolate Smell Of Earth and of course Highbrow which is one of the most epic final boss themes ever composed. There is also another track called Fallen Leaves which I never actually heard in game but it does appear on the soundtrack and it’s an amazing song. If there’s one thing Star Ocean Till The End Of Time manages to do right it’s the presentation and the music is a huge part of that, though the visuals also help with this. The only gripe I have visually is the character’s faces as I found them to look a little weird personally, everything else is fine in the visual department. It’s certainly a colossal step up from the previous entries and holds up way better than Tales Of Symphonia which was released a year later. It’s not surprising that it just happens to be the best selling game in the series when you consider this fact since there were very few 3D Action RPG’s out there at the time that managed to offer visuals as good as this game’s.
Even with its flaws, It was worth suffering through the awful gameplay and combat just to see the story play out, explore its world and listen to the amazing music. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time is a game brimming with potential and I would really like to see this game remade with a much better combat system and an actual item creation system that doesn’t suck. This game could have been the best in the series but it sadly missed that opportunity due to the fact that the overall gameplay was such a disaster. The saddest part about the disastrous combat is the fact that the directors cut version of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time features an unlockable versus multiplayer mode but why would you want to play it? It’s such a shame that the only Star Ocean game to feature multiplayer is the one with the worst combat. In any case, I look at Star Ocean Till The End Of Time the exact same way I look at Devil May Cry 2, it’s a game that infuriates me with how flawed it is but somehow manage to still like it somehow. You could say that it’s a guilty pleasure of mine in a way and to be honest, I kind of get a kick out of ranting about it. I will never ever understand how anyone can possibly defend its systems though. I mean by all means enjoy this game but you will never convince me that MP death is justified because it’s not, it’s stupid as it only manages to bring about artificial difficulty spikes and exploits. Plus the invention system needs to be erased from existence.
I’d prefer to be unemployed, if that’s an option.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Star Ocean 4
Original Xbox 360
International Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PC
At a glimpse, Star Ocean The Last Hope appears to be the game every Star Ocean fan wanted from the start, an adventure that spans across numerous planets with your own space ship to take you anywhere you want, alongside a crew of space travelers to accompany you to the ends of the universe. Some might even say that Star Ocean The Last Hope is the Japanese equivalent of Mass Effect (if you replaced the third person shooting with hack & slash action that is) but when I say Japanese, I do not use that term lightly. This is one of those games that clearly caters to the otaku demographic and it does so in the most cringe worthy way possible, to the point that it makes what should be everyone’s dream Star Ocean experience into what may quite possibly be their worst nightmare.
The cast of characters are as ridiculous as one would expect from such a game, you get your typical anime hero, the bitchy childhood friend, two bland dudes that seemingly spew technobabble every 5 minutes, a cat girl loli wearing as little as a 12 rated game allows, some slag with huge ears, an edgelord, a ditzy angelic girl with the most obnoxiously high pitched voice of all time and the worst offender, the emo loli with the most monotone voice you could ever imagine to the point that it will haunt you in your sleep every night. You know you’re in for one hell of a crazy experience with this cast and you most certainly are. This game is absolutely nuts and will destroy your sanity, some of the private actions in this game are beyond ridiculous and may quite possibly involve some of the dumbest, cringeworthy shit I have ever witnessed in videogame history.
Did we forget to tell you that you’re not coming?
Now the formula of private actions is a little different here, unlike the previous game, your actions don’t affect party members that haven’t joined you and many of them involve interacting with the main cast like in previous games, only this time almost all of them take place during space travel on board the calnus. This is fitting since space travel takes a long time so why not throw some character bonding in there? Sounds great right? Well considering the fact that Star Ocean The Last Hope’s idea of character bonding is questionable, no it’s not great, it’s not great at all. Private actions are horrible in this game, just simply horrible. They’re the sort of thing that somebody walking in on you watching these scenes is going to judge you for and rightfully so, it’s like insanely otaku to the point that even I, a person who plays plenty of Japanese games feels uncomfortable watching. I’m sorry but if your idea of character bonding is watching the protagonist wake up next to a half naked cat girl loli and accidentally groping her then I don’t want any of it thanks, I have enough traumas as it is, let alone the ones this game put me through.
Now you are probably wondering if the main story itself is as cringeworthy as the private actions, well I can safely say that it’s a lot more tame by comparison and while it does have its good moments, I feel that the biggest issue with the story is how it connects together. While the games finale does connect a few events, certain sections of the game don’t really add much and many sections exist solely to pad the game out. Since the game has you exploring a multitude of planets this time around, each planet has its own self contained story which is a pretty cool concept but it does cause the issue of the story feeling disjointed. I suppose it’s a double edged sword in a way when you consider the fact that this is the first game in the series to heavily emphasize space travel between multiple worlds, there’s going to be a sacrifice made somewhere down the line. Plus Star Ocean The Last Hope isn’t the only game in the series that is guilty of this as Star Ocean Till The End Of Time also had its own moments like this but I found that it executed things far better than this game did and that’s mainly due to the fact that each planet doesn’t feel as if it revolves entirely around its own self-contained story since the story transitions more naturally in the sense that there is a greater sense of urgency present which I found The Last Hope severely lacked until the final section, making the story feel like a slog for 75% of the game. Add to that the fact that the characters are either annoying or uninteresting and you have a storyline that is very hard to get invested into, especially when things get serious as it is very hard to take this game seriously as it is due to its horrendous private action sequences.
Don’t worry, you’ll be joining them in hell soon enough
It doesn’t help that the voice work isn’t too brilliant either despite featuring big names like Matthew Mercer and Laura Bailey. A lot of people complain about the voice acting and honestly I find it to be a much lesser issue… save for perhaps Sarah’s voice. I think the writing is so horrendous that the voice cast likely had a difficult time delivering their lines in ways they were intended. Many say that this was a voice direction issue but honestly I think the material itself is what is at fault here, the characters are just so unlikable that the very thought of hearing them actually talk sends shivers down your spine no matter which way you look at it. Nobody wants to hear Lymle, Meracle and Sarah talk regardless of who is playing the role, they are just obnoxious characters period, that’s before we even start talking about the godawful Welch who also manages to have more screen time than necessary. So it’s easy to see why The Last Hope gets so much hate by fans of the series and while that hate has started to mellow over the years (mainly due to the game afterwards taking all of the negative attention from it), the issues in regards to the overall narrative are still damaging to the overall experience.
Those who aren’t bothered by the game’s narrative issues will be glad to know that The Last Hope offers arguably the best combat in the entire series and considering the fact that Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s combat was a huge disaster, this is a pretty big deal if you ask me. Star Ocean The Last Hope’s combat harkens back to the original game’s combat system, essentially being an evolution of Second Story’s combat but with considerably more depth and technicality. The biggest addition to the combat is the blindside system. Blindsides are essentially an evasive maneuver similar to that of the flip skill used in Second Story but it can now be triggered manually by evading an approaching enemy. Upon executing a blindside, the targeting enemy will be stunned temporarily allowing you do deal critical hits to them more easily. It isn’t always that easy however as some enemies can counter the player’s blindside which may be countered by a double blindside once you unlock it. I also find that if you blindside an enemy just before they hit you, you may be able to bypass their counter attack entirely. It’s a really cool system that is easy to utilize whilst also being extremely rewarding and satisfying to pull off.
Another new addition is the rush gauge which is the replacement of the previous game’s fury gauge. Instead of the gauge depleting with each attack, it instead increases with attacks and any damage you receive, once maxed out it can be activated to prevent staggering which can be a huge help when you want to maximize aggression. The enemies also have a rush gauge too and upon maxing it out they will become immune to staggering, this however doesn’t make them immune to blindsides so if faced with such a foe, a successful blindside can turn the tide and give you an opportunity to dish out damage during their rush phase. You can also use up all of your rush gauge to perform a rush combo by pressing any of the trigger buttons during the activation of your rush phase. This will allow you to perform a chained combo of moves with other characters without any interruption from other enemies, essentially allowing you to pile on tonnes of damage at once which can be extremely handy in boss fights.
As great as these new additions are, the game is far from perfect as there are a few downsides, the first being the fact that the controls are pretty awkward at times considering the fact that you have to press the start button to change targets. This could be performed by pressing the d pad left or right after selecting an attack in the first two games but in the original version of The Last Hope, changing targets manually was not possible and this was a huge problem at the time. While this issue has been fixed, the fact that I have to press the start button to cycle between targets isn’t really ideal. The mechanics as a whole while simple to perform for the most part (outside of rush combos) aren’t really all that difficult to master. Pulling off blindsides is easy to do most of the time and there’s barely any skill required in the process, put simply it’s nowhere near as demanding as Issen timings are in Onimusha. Rush combos can also be spammed should players hide in a corner and charge up their rush gauge safely which is sometimes the easiest way to win against tough adversaries. Put simply the game is far from being the most skill demanding game out there, it is easy to abuse the systems presented to you but does that mean that the combat is bad? Well that depends on the player’s perspective. While I wouldn’t say that the combat is entirely mindless, it is still very easy to play and quite frankly that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it can be quite satisfying to pull off cool maneuvers with ease. It helps that the controls do make for a much smoother experience than that of Till The End Of Time as all it takes is a single press of the trigger to perform a special move, you don’t need to hold the button down or anything making chaining combos so much easier to do by comparison. Sometimes a smooth, satisfying experience is all you need in a game’s combat, it doesn’t have to be Ninja Gaiden Black levels of difficult to be fun to play.
That’s not to say that The Last Hope isn’t punishing as it is still a tri-Ace game, therefore you are bound to expect some deadly status effects that can wipe your entire party if you aren’t careful. You will also have plenty of tough enemies to deal with and if you play too aggressively you may find yourself taking a boatload of damage quickly. The combat is built around passive aggressive gameplay, encouraging players to wait for the right moment to strike as opposed to diving straight in, while there’s still plenty of opportunity to be aggressive and the rush system helps with this. It all depends on the player’s playstyle. This is where the beat system comes into play. Those looking for a more technical experience will be able to change their beat to strike, whereas those who want to be as aggressive as possible will much prefer setting their beat to rush. I personally find that setting my beat to strike works best for my controlled character while putting everyone else on rush. This defines how your character grows in regards to blindside or rush maneuvers depending on which beat style you pick. There is also a neutral one which provides different stat boosts but has no growth effect which could be handy for some caster characters.
Star Ocean The Last Hope brought back the ability to level up skills with skill points which was missing in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time because of course it was, this is Star Ocean Till The End Of Time we’re talking about. This also involves the ability to level up special attacks as well, making them stronger. You will also be glad to know that while the CP capacity returns, it is nowhere near as infuriatingly restrictive as it was in the previous game, plus you are not given the luxury of being able to set up to 6 special attacks, that and passive abilities no longer take up special move slots so you don’t have to worry about that either. Not only are the special moves more flexible but they are also easier to chain together since you don’t have to hold down X first to start a cancel chain, you can instead alternate between the triggers in any order you please, just like the old games. So no longer do you have to worry about accidentally performing the wrong move because of how hard you pressed a face button which was a huge problem in the previous game. Ultimately the combat feels way more accessible and smoother than the previous game but is no less technical than any game in the series, in fact some would argue that it is the most technical and I would agree with them. Fuck Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s clusterfuck of a system, this is what it should have been from the very beginning because even with all of its flaws, Star Ocean The Last Hope’s combat system is fiercely competent by comparison and deserves way more credit than it gets for making such a colossal improvement.
You can launch enemies into the air by pressing the analogue stick towards them, you can also follow that up with an aerial attack. You will automatically perform aerial attacks on enemies that are above you.
Of course with the ability to level up skills with skill points comes the ability to level up your character’s item creation skill. Now unlike previous entries, you can no longer learn item creation skills with everyone as they are tied to specific characters this time round. This also means that super specialties haven’t made a return since they first appeared in Star Ocean The Second Story which is sad. What has returned however is the invention system from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and while this may sound bad at first, it’s actually not that bad in this game, nor is it all that great either. It’s basically a more simplified, streamlined alternative which uses SP instead of FOL with no possibility of failure. The SP cost is so minimal that you won’t even notice your SP go down so it’s likely that you will learn most of your recipes in one go, though sometimes you will need to rearrange your invention groups to unlock different items. Basically you just sit there and watch as they learn stuff then when they run out of ideas, you’ll get the recipes for that item.
The recipes gained from invention are used in item creation which has unfortunately devolved into a generic crafting system, you know… the ones you see in every RPG that has a crafting system. Now I can’t say that there’s anything wrong with it since it at least works well enough and isn’t a chore to do like Invention was in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. Plus the ability to synthesize also returns from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, which does make the item creation more interesting as a whole and in this game it makes all the difference since the item creation system as a whole is competent enough. This just adds another layer of fun to item creation and that is never a bad thing. On top of item creation, certain characters also have the ability to harvest from harvesting spots in order to find materials to use in item creation. The materials you harvest are dependent on the character’s harvesting skill level and the location, so if you want to harvest specific items then you will need to backtrack a lot until you find them.
You will be traversing through some huge, open landscapes in Star Ocean The Last Hope and they are a treat for the eyes. Now I have recently played the 4K HD version on PC and the visual improvements made to this game are astronomical and due to the fact that the Xbox 360 original looked fantastic for the time, the remaster’s visuals will make you think that you are playing an 8th gen game just because of how crisp and clean they look, while simultaneously having considerably more detail than the 360 version had. It is very hard to rank the visuals for this reason alone because while the 360 original still looks very nice, I wouldn’t personally consider it to be the best looking game in the series overall but the 4K HD version of this game definitely takes the top spot for me personally. The only thing holding this game back visuallly are the character facials as while they did improve the character models considerably, they still look very doll like. Lymle’s face still terrifies me to this day and while the international version added anime portraits, this does not make up for the awkward looking characters. However the improvements made in the 4K HD remaster more than make up for this single flaw making the game look absolutely breathtaking… not Valkyrie Profile 2 levels breathtaking but breathtaking nonetheless. If anything it still goes to show that tri-Ace still has artistic talent but their facial designs have always been hit or miss for me.
As for the music, while it is great and all, I found it to be just above average for Motoi Sakuraba’s standards. Now while it is certainly better than many of his Tales compositions and Resonance Of Fate tracks, I don’t think it holds a candle to the previous Star Ocean games, except maybe Blue Sphere but that’s not really fair since it’s a game boy game. I still think that there are some good tracks here though, namely Silk Road In The Sky II, Awakening and Night Of The Chase. There’s a lot of piano and synthesizer here so if you’ve heard anything from Motoi Sakuraba before, you won’t really be shocked to hear some familiar tracks. Speaking of which, I do like the remixed tracks from the first game that appear in this game, they’re pretty damn good. Overall, it’s a pretty solid soundtrack… but I expect better from Motoi Sakuraba, not that I was disappointed, certainly not, it’s far from being the worst he’s composed and if you’ve never heard any of his music before then I can easily recommend Star Ocean The Last Hope’s soundtrack as a good entry point as it is probably one of his more defining works, for better or for worse. If you like it then I can assure you that you will absolutely adore his other works for sure.
Star Ocean The Last Hope is a very divisive game in the series and considering the fact that it is basically the polar opposite of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time in almost every aspect of its design, this really isn’t all that surprising. I mean if you aren’t bothered by a game’s story and just want to sink your teeth into the gameplay then this is probably going to be your best bet, especially for those who enjoy games that feature tones of content because you are going to have to play this game a lot if you want to get all of its trophies. The story is not the worst I have seen but I don’t think it’s gripping enough for me to consider it a selling point. While the game does have its epic moments as well as some great ideas, the overall tone of the game’s Private Actions ruins any serious scene that this game presents to me. I simply cannot ignore the cringeworthy dialogue this game has, it is very hard to watch and for that reason I do not recommend this game as an entry point because I fear that it would scare people away from the series. I get that tri-Ace have a weird sense of humor but I think they took it way too far with this game.
For those who are curious, I made a compilation featuring several of the game’s private actions for your displeasure
You are not prepared.
Star Ocean: Integrity And Faithlessness
Star Ocean 5
Playstation 3, Playstation 4
So here we have the final Star Ocean game that isn’t a mobile gatcha game. Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness was dealt an unfair hand, not only was it released in what appears to be a rushed, low budget state but it was also the victim of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s success. Needless to say, the game sold poorly and is almost universally hated by the fans of the series. If you ask me, the fanbase brought this upon themselves for allowing it to follow in the footsteps of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, limiting its potential considerably.
Despite this I would argue that the combat system if Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness is in many ways an improvement from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s combat system as it fixed almost all of the issues that the game had. The problem is that they spent so much time fixing it that there wasn’t enough time to actually improve it. So essentially, the developers shot themselves in the foot by pandering to the fans of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. When the game released, both Star Ocean The Last Hope and Till The End Of Time fans were furious with the game’s combat system. Fans of The Last Hope hated the fact that the combat felt considerably downgraded when compared to The Last Hope’s combat system, whereas fans of Till The End Of Time complained about the lack of staggering against bosses. Considering the fact that stun locking has been an issue the series has had for a while, removing staggering did make a lot of sense, however I would argue that the rush system was a better idea overall as it did allow for some level of stun locking to be performed. Ultimately though it was the Star Ocean Till The End Of Time fans who got what they asked for, not The Last Hope fans and what they got was a fixed version of Till The End Of Time but what they wanted was the exact same battle system without the improvements.
Unlike previous entries, the maximum party size is 7, because of this there are no reserve party members and you can swap between 6 of them at any time in battle. Needless to say, battles can get pretty chaotic at times with so many characters performing their attacks at once.
There are a few notable additions to the combat including seamless transitions, the return of manual guarding and a new counter attack ability that you can perform after successfully guarding enemy attacks which was a cool addition to the game if you ask me. Much like the blindside ability in The Last Hope, manual guarding allows players to cancel the AI’s run up after switching, something that was really problematic in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. You can also move while guarding as well as cancel it into an evasion if you need to, though the evasion isn’t nearly as effective as the blindsides in The Last Hope. On top of that they also added a reserve rush attack which acts as some kind of finishing super attack which was yet another cool addition. Other than that though, it mostly plays the exact same as Star Ocean Till The End Of Time but without the MP Death, fury system, anti-attack shield (replaced with manual guarding) and the insane 300% cancel bonus. Plus you are also able to cancel anything into anything this time around so you don’t have to spam special attacks over and over again to maximize damage potential. Overall, it feels a lot more polished by comparison to Till The End Of Time though there’s no denying the fact that the combat isn’t without its flaws. Attacks can still be spammed over and over again without any repercussions and the light/heavy system still doesn’t work as there’s no punishment to using heavy special attacks whereas there is when using light attacks. Once again, this is the exact same issue that Star Ocean Till The End Of Time had so be sure to thank the Star Ocean Till The End Of Time fanbase for bringing it back to this game.
Thankfully there are also some notable improvements made in the game’s item creation as you are now able to perform item synthesis which is a new form of item creation that lets you transform items into new items. In a way it feels like a different approach to the item creation in the first two games. Of course the item creation from Star Ocean 4 returns too where you craft items that require specific items to make. Like I said before, I don’t have an issue with this system even though it’s used in countless other games, at least it works well enough unlike Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s invention system which is completely absent from this game which is a plus. The specialties also make a return too which a feature completely absent from Till The End Of Time though this time rather than developing specific character’s skills, you learn skills for your entire party which I find to be a more accessible approach to learning skills compared to that of the earlier games. In a way you could say that they found a good balance of accessibility and flexibility with both systems, though they could certainly be improved upon.
The biggest and best addition to Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness is the role system. What the role system does is allow you to fine tune the AI of your characters as well as giving them statistical bonuses in a fight, allowing you to make characters behave and specialize in whatever way you choose. The one caveat to this is that the roles system can be difficult to understand as it isn’t very well explained to the player, on top of this there is a certain role that can completely break the entire game. I think that the role system had a lot of potential and I really want to see it return if they ever do make another Star Ocean game but I do think that they need to work on it to make it work better. Ultimately though, I think that they should do what YS VIII did and allow the AI to automatically avoid enemy attacks so that you don’t have to babysit them all the time because there are still many times where the AI is in the wrong place at the wrong time and you need to rescue them. The lack of a taunt ability doesn’t help things either which was a feature that was in Star Ocean The Last Hope that sadly didn’t make it to Integrity And Faithlessness. Put simply, the gameplay department is a little rough but still enjoyable so long as you don’t expect too much from it. I myself enjoyed it despite its flaws.
The private action system is slightly different in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness as to trigger a private action, you first need to go to the whistle icon in each town to split the party. Unlike the first two games where you had to enter and re-enter a town to trigger a private action, in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness you can rest at the inn to reset the whistle icon and do more private actions without having to leave town. On top of this, unlike other games in the series, many of the game’s private actions take place in field areas too. I find that they tend to trigger in the same places most of the time but you never know which one you’re going to get. It’s pretty hard to keep track of how many private actions there are left to do in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness since there are a lot of them and you can probably spend hours doing them all at once if you like though I personally find it better to do them in between side quests, that way you can travel back and forth between towns and enjoy a private action after completing your errands.
The story as a whole is a lot more simplistic than the previous entries as it harkens back to the style of storytelling that the first game had in the sense that it’s not really large in scale and takes place on a single planet for the majority of the game. Some might even say that Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness is a reboot of the first game since it does feel very similar at times, especially when you consider the fact that you once again play as a character from an underdeveloped planet this time around. While the story may not be as exciting as the other games, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and it isn’t terrible. It has some interesting moments at certain parts but it’s definitely not the main attraction here.
Thankfully the characters are nowhere near as annoying as the previous game’s cast and I’d say they’re likeable enough for the most part, that being said however some characters are better than others. Emmerson and Victor are arguably the strongest of the cast if you ask me since their quirks stood out the most. The rest of the cast are just kind of just there, it’s almost as if they were trying to play it safe with this cast since they aren’t unlikeable in the slightest but there’s not really much I can say besides the fact that they are a colossal improvement from the previous game’s cast. I would say that on the surface, the cast is about on par with the cast of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, though given the fact that at least there are plenty of private action interactions in this game it provides more opportunities for the cast to flesh out a little, though the results vary greatly. Despite all of this, I found that the characters tied into the story really well as opposed to feeling like they don’t belong, which is a problem this series has had since the start.
Cutscenes in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness are few and far between and are reserved for important events. Most events are portrayed in a similar way to the field private actions in the sense that they occur while you are walking around. When a scene starts, a red boundary shows up and you can move anywhere in that boundary. I think that when I describe it this way, it sounds like a really stupid idea and while it’s debatable whether or not it is, I believe that developers were trying to alleviate the lack of player interaction in cutscenes, even going as far as to add emotes for Fidel to perform in cutscenes. Ultimately though, the result of this is that these scenes are not skippable and therefore you will have to wither move around aimlessly or sit around waiting for the boundary to disappear as the characters natter on about stuff and that’s hardly ideal when you are replaying the game a second time.
The visuals are certainly a strong point for this game, there’s a lot of detail in the character designs and aside from Miki, their facials are a significant improvement from the previous entries. The environments also look great too and there’s a lot of draw distance too. Ultimately though, when compared with the 4K/HD remaster of the previous game, it doesn’t really look like that much of an improvement though I do prefer the art style of this game a lot more since the characters look so much better and have some really interesting looking designs as opposed to being generic looking like in the previous game. Fiore might look sluttier than Myuria but at least her design is conceptually interesting as opposed to her just wearing a generic outfit which solely exists to emphasize her breast size. Victor’s armor looks absolutely stunning, heck his character design is arguably one of the best in the series from a visual standpoint. I also really like Fidel’s attire too, his jacket in particular looks pretty cool. The only character that I didn’t like design wise was Miki, it was almost as if they took Estelle from Tales Of Vesperia and just dyed her hair purple and said “This will do”. I suppose she doesn’t look as bad as some of the characters from previous entries like Meracle but that’s not saying much. Regardless, the characters as a whole look fantastic overall, honestly the only game in the series that rivals this game in terms of character artwork is the first Star Ocean.
Be sure to bring popcorn, because you can’t skip these sequences.
Now before I address the overall quality of the music, I need to address the fact that many of the songs that play in this game are taken from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and Star Ocean The Last Hope, therefore it is unfair to pass judgment on the soundtrack overall. This leaves the new tracks and sadly there aren’t really that many of them but thankfully the few that are there are pretty damn good. Some of my favorites include Beyond The Clear Sky, Decisive Warriors, Mortal Combat, Incursion and Absence Of Light. When you consider the fact that it also features great tracks from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time like The Divine Spirit Of Language and The Desolate Smell Of Earth then you could argue that it has one of the stronger soundtracks in the series but it would be unfair to say that so instead I will say that the soundtrack, while far from being the best is also far from being the worst.
Ultimately Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness is probably the most well rounded game in the series to a fault. It doesn’t stand out from other games in the series and I honestly think that might be its biggest issue. Then again, it is far from being the worst JRPG out there like some would claim it to be. Honestly this game is underrated and I think that it deserves more appreciation, though it is important to be aware of its faults and to keep your expectations low should you choose to dive into this entry. That being said, I would certainly recommend this game to people who are new to the series as it is not only one of the more accessible games but at the same time, you likely won’t have lofty expectations after having played the previous entries. Plus unlike Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, Integrity And Faithlessness is unapologetically faithful to the series formula so if you like what you see then the series is certainly worth investing in, plus it is very cheap considering the fact that it received so much hate from the masses so you can easily find yourself a copy. The only downside is that to play it you will need a PS4, which is satanic… I know, just get a second hand PS4 if you have to… or wait for the PS4 emulator to be released… you might need to wait a while though.
While the writing and voice direction is a colossal improvement from the previous game, they still managed to screw up some parts.
So we have finally finished covering all six Star Ocean games, now comes the hard part. It is finally time to see which Star Ocean game is the greatest. Here’s the thing though, unlike the previous comparison which had 3 solid titles, Star Ocean is nowhere near as consistent in its quality by comparison, therefore I will need a new system for judging the six titles. This system will reward points based on the position the game is on the ratings. The higher the rating, the more points are given to the game (5 points for 1st, 4 points for second, 3 points for third, 2 points for 4th, 1 point for 5th and no points for last place). This will keep Star Ocean Till The End Of Time from winning because spoiler alert, it has already lost because I said so. Ultimately I will be the judge of which game is better or not so screw the rules, I have the final say, even if logic dictates that I am wrong, my choice for the best Star Ocean game will be a personal one.
Combat
It goes without saying that Star Ocean The Last Hope has the superior combat system as not only is it the most technical but it’s also very flexible as well due to having 6 slots for special attacks. While Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness does come close, it is held back by Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s horrible framework. The rest are pretty archaic by today’s standards, though Star Ocean The Second Story’s combat is the better of the archaic ones. Star Ocean Blue Sphere barely edges out against the first game in terms of combat as I found it to have some more interesting quirks to it, of course the first game’s combat is going to be one of the least technical combat systems as it is the first game, therefore it is going to be primitive. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s combat however is dreadful, I would rather play the first game because as primitive as it is, at least it makes sense. MP death is such a stupid idea and the whole combat system is a mess, whereas the first game accomplished what it set out to do, which puts Star Ocean Till The End Of Time in last place, where it belongs.
Star Ocean The Last Hope: 1st – 5
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness: 2nd – 4
Star Ocean The Second Story: 3rd – 3
Star Ocean Blue Sphere: 4th – 2
Star Ocean: 5th – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time: 6th – 0
Best Combat: Star Ocean The Last Hope
Item Creation
Item Creation was perfected in Star Ocean The Second Story with the addition of super specialties which allowed for even more possibilities. Blue Sphere’s minigames do a great job at spicing things up but not quite enough to compensate for the lack of super specialties. The first game pioneered the system that was later used in both Second Story and Blue Sphere so needless to say it is up there with the rest of the original item creation systems. Sadly Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness featured the inferior item creation system of The Last Hope but the inclusion of Item Synthesis gives it some bonus points. Unsurprisingly Star Ocean Till The End Of Time is the worst of the bunch as while Star Ocean The Last Hope’s item creation was generic, Star Ocean Till The End Of Time removed item creation entirely, replacing it with invention which is a convoluted chore.
Star Ocean The Second Story: 1st – 5
Star Ocean Blue Sphere: 2nd – 4
Star Ocean: 3rd – 3
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness: 4th – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope: 5th – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time: 6th – 0
Best Item Creation: Star Ocean The Second Story
Story
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s story had that epic feeling that I found the other games were lacking, there’s a lot of interesting stuff that happens alongside many big reveals. The first game, while considerably more simplistic in its storytelling managed to be cohesive as well as having some interesting ideas presented closer to the end. Blue Sphere’s story while not as interesting as the first was very cohesive and I did like the concept of it a lot. The Second Story’s first half felt a bit padded out while the second half felt rushed. A lot of the story involved the player getting sidetracked a lot which is why I put it below Blue Sphere. Then we have Star Ocean The Last Hope, a story which takes you from one planet to the next, each with its own story, some being dull, others being a repeat of the previous planet but with a few nuanced differences, barely any of the events directly connect to the game’s finale. There are a few interesting moments closer to the end of the game which puts it ahead of Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness, a story that feels like a retelling of the first game at times but isn’t half as interesting. While it may not be a bad story, there really isn’t all that much to say about it, at least some interesting stuff does happen in The Last Hope, barely anything interesting happens in Integrity And Faithlessness’ story.
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 1st – 5
Star Ocean – 2nd – 4
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 3rd – 3
Star Ocean The Second Story – 4th – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 5th – 1
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 6th – 0
Best Story: Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
Characters
Now we move on to the characters and this is going to be extremely subjective given my tastes but I personally find the first game’s cast to be the strongest overall. Not only does it have Cyuss who is a pretty cool dude but I also liked Ilia and Ronyx a lot too. I really liked to see the interactions between the cast in this game a lot, particularly between Roddick, Cyuss, Ronyx and Ilia. The Second Story is a close second as Dias is equally as cool as Cyuss, plus you have Ashton who is a rather quirky character, the only thing that lets the cast down is Leon because he’s an annoying unlikable brat. Emmerson and Victor are interesting enough to put Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness in third place. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time has Cliff but that’s about it, Blue Sphere has the exact same cast as The Second Story but they barely even talk so they aren’t half as interesting as they were in The Second Story. Still, I’d rather have no talking than have to listen to Lymle, Sarah and Meracle, which puts The Last Hope at the bottom since it has the worst cast of characters in videogame history and they should all be crucified for existing.
Star Ocean – 1st – 5
Star Ocean The Second Story – 2nd – 4
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 3rd – 3
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 4th – 2
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 5th – 1
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 6th – 0
Best Characters: Star Ocean
Private Actions
Star Ocean First Departure’s private actions are hilarious, hands down the best in the series without a doubt, Star Ocean The Second Story is a close second as it also has some funny private actions but not as funny as First Departure in my opinion. Integrity And Faithlessness added private actions on the field and changed the way they work in towns, the private actions themselves are a mixed bag, some are pretty good, others are pretty bland. The Last Hope’s private actions also work very differently and the developers clearly put a lot of effort put into them, however I find them to be repugnant. Blue Sphere barely has any private actions at all and none of them even influence the ending but it makes sense given the fact that the characters already had their endings in the previous game. This puts Star Ocean Till The End Of Time at the very bottom because the Private Actions with the characters themselves are few and far between, you can barely tell whether or not you’re actually doing a private action considering the fact that many of them are just random scenes with NPC’s and not actual character interaction.
Star Ocean – 1st – 5
Star Ocean The Second Story – 2nd – 4
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 3rd – 3
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 4th – 2
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 5th – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 6th – 0
Best Private Actions: Star Ocean
Soundtrack
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s soundtrack is fantastic, some of Motoi Sakuraba’s best work. The first game on Super Famicom has a pretty banging soundtrack, I really like the battle music in this game a lot, it’s definitely the next best soundtrack after Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. Star Ocean The Second Story’s soundtrack is so good that many of its tracks were re-used in other tri-Ace games, I enjoyed the soundtrack a lot but it didn’t stick with me like the two I mentioned before. Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness features songs from both Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and Star Ocean The Last Hope, on top of its own tracks which I enjoyed a lot. The Last Hope’s soundtrack would have been the least impressive soundtrack if it wasn’t for Blue Sphere’s soundtrack which isn’t terrible but isn’t half as memorable as the other games in the series.
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 1st – 5
Star Ocean – 2nd – 4
Star Ocean The Second Story – 3rd – 3
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 4th – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 5th – 1
Star Ocean Blue Sphere 6th – 0
Best Soundtrack: Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
Visuals
In terms of visuals, considering the fact that Star Ocean, like most tri-Ace games offer visuals that are consistantly good with each installment it’s pretty easy to tell which games are going to be better than others in this department. Obviously The Last Hope is at the top due to the 4KHD Remaster elevating it above Integrity And Faithlessness while Blue Sphere is at the bottom due to the hardware limitations. Other than that, the older the game is, the worse it’s going to rank for obvious reasons. Nothing against sprites or pre-rendered backgrounds but I actually want to see as much detail as possible, particularly in a sci-fi game. I want to see all the metallic colours glimmering on screen, not just some grimy sprites to represent a futuristic setting.
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 1st – 5
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 2nd – 4
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 3rd – 3
Star Ocean The Second Story – 4th – 2
Star Ocean – 5th – 1
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 6th – 0
Best Visuals: Star Ocean The Last Hope
Total Scores:
Star Ocean: 23
Star Ocean The Second Story: 23
Star Ocean Blue Sphere: 11
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time: 15
Star Ocean The Last Hope: 15
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness: 18
Winner: It’s A Tie!!!
But it’s not over…
So the first Star Ocean and The Second Story are tied for first place, well I can’t say that I’m surprised since I love them both equally. Still there can only be one winner and there’s only one way I can make that decision. The deciding factor ultimately comes down to Star Ocean First Departure. On one hand, Star Ocean First Departure has the same combat system as The Second Story, it also has some amazing private actions. The caveat however is that the music and visuals took a nosedive from the Super Famicom version and because of this, it is hard to recommend one version over the other. Whereas Star Ocean The Second Story on PS1 is the definitive version of the second game in my opinion. It took a while for Star Ocean The Second Story to grow on me. I first played Star Ocean Second Evolution and missed so much content since I didn’t read a guide. On my second playthrough, after figuring out how to get access to certain characters, I found myself enjoying the game a lot more than I did the first time around, so much so that I recently managed to beat the cave of trials, the survival arena and the final boss without the limiter. It was at that moment that I finally realized that Star Ocean The Second Story might actually be my favourite game in the series but at the same time I still have a fondness for the first game in the series that gets considerably less attention by comparison, so it pains me to say that the first game doesn’t win, even though it has every right to win. Star Ocean The Second Story takes the podium which isn’t really surprising since it’s the one and only game in the series that just about everyone agrees is good, while the rest are fiercely divisive.
Winner: Star Ocean The Second Story
Now here comes the fun part, the part that I have been waiting for this whole time. Which is the worst Star Ocean game? Well statistically speaking, Star Ocean Blue Sphere is at the bottom, however I’m willing to overlook that fact simply because Star Ocean Till The End Of Time exists. Now don’t get me wrong, I do like this game, I really do but that doesn’t stop me from hating it with a fiery passion. Star Ocean Till The End Of Time single handedly killed the series, had it not been for Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, Integrity And Faithlessness would have been a better game and would have sold better, it is because Star Ocean Till The End Of Time sold so well despite being in such a pathetic state that Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness’ combat system isn’t as good as it should be. As a Star Ocean fan, I cannot say that I didn’t find any enjoyment out of it, however it is clearly the worst game in the series for countless reasons so it goes without saying that it is the loser…. well it would have been if it wasn’t for Star Ocean Anamnesis, fuck that heap of dog shit, it should be deleted from earth, fucking gatcha trash games should be illegal.
Loser: Star Ocean Anamnesis
Sorry Edge, but your face perfectly represents my thoughts on Star Ocean Anamnesis
So now that you have all been blessed by my factual opinions, I hope you will be able to figure out which game is best for you. For those who have already played the games, I am certain you have your pitchforks ready, give me half an hour to build by fortifications before invading the comments, don’t worry, I won’t throw burning oil all over you when you enter, just don’t expect anything you say to change my mind on this matter. You can however state your disagreements and they will be recorded in the comments as a second opinion as a means of helping people understand that different people enjoy different things. Ultimately though, the future of this series isn’t looking too good. Here’s hoping tri-Ace will get another chance to make an amazing Star Ocean game that isn’t mobile trash. Though with the way things are going now, that isn’t li-
Edit 08/11/2022: Everything after this point was written after the original comparison, with the release of Star Ocean The Divine Force, I need to update the scores.
Star Ocean The Divine Force
Star Ocean 6
Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, PC
Timeline: S.D. 583: After Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – Before Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
So now that Star Ocean The Divine Force has been released, I naturally have to cover it here but I’ll be brief, though if you want to know more about the game, I highly recommend checking out my review. There are a lot of new features added to this game and it also brings back the dual protagonists from Second Story as well as bringing back its item creation system. The biggest new addition to the game is DUMA as it changes not only the way you move around but it also plays a major part in battles. With DUMA you can reach high places that would otherwise be unreachable in previous games such as the roof of a building or a floating island in the sky. DUMA also has such a huge influence over the game’s combat system that it’s hard to imagine playing it without it. Not only does it allow you to quickly fly towards an enemy at high speeds but if they are targeting you, you can blindside them by tilting the analog stick left or right, meaning that you no longer need to charge up an evasive maneuver to pull off a blindside like in The Last Hope, this greatly speeds up the pace of the game as triggering a blindside is near instantaneous as opposed to requiring players to wait around for the evasion charge to fill up. This may seem like a small difference in regards to cost of time but it is actually a colossal one in the grand scale of things. Put simply, DUMA truly is the most innovative addition to the series so far and is the most definitive aspect of Star Ocean The Divine Force as a whole.
There is also the addition of E’sowa, a minigame which you can play when talking to NPC’s in towns. It’s a cool distraction from the main story and rewards you with accessories. Previous entries had bunny racing as well as an arena. There was also runic chess in the third game which has a similar presentation to this game but it worked completely differently. Esowa replaces all of them which may be a good or bad thing depending on whether of not you enjoy the game itself. Personally I don’t mind it, though an arena would have been nice to see. Speaking of removed features, the cooking skill was completely removed from item creation, instead players have to stay at inn’s to eat a meal. This may seem like a downgrade at first but after having replayed Star Ocean The Second Story on Universe difficulty, I can safely say that the cooking skill was the one I found to be the most useless overall and even though they have tried to improve upon it in later installments, I think removing it entirely and making food an inn exclusive feature is for the better personally, that way it focuses on all the other IC skills which makes them equally as important to one another but I can also understand how people may be let down by this.
There is a new AP system that may appear to be similar to the fury system but it works slightly differently as you can move around to regenerate AP as well as increase your maximum AP capacity by performing blindsides or surprise attacks, it also replaces MP entirely. There is also a VA gauge that affects the properties of blindsides performed, altering the stun rate, which can allow players to stun both enemies and even bosses for longer in order to pile on heavy damage. Increasing the VA gauge can be accomplished by not only attacking but also by performing a well timed dodge. A full VA gauge can turn the tide in even the toughest of boss fights with a properly executed blindside. Normal attacks have been removed entirely for the first time in the series and now every single attack has a name associated with it, though this comes with the flip side of not having the characters scream their attack names in battle. While item creation works more-or-less the same as the first two games and Blue Sphere, there is a FOL cost like in Till The End Of Time’s invention but they also added the ability to try again up to two times without losing any materials but it will still cost FOL to try again.
Fast travel can now be performed anywhere, so you no longer need to use the transporter on the ship like in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness. Any dropped items that you can’t pick up due to having a full inventory are converted into FOL. A skill tree has been added which allows players to choose the order of which skills and abilities they learn as opposed to only being able to access the skills found from skill books, skill shops or in Blue Sphere’s case, leveling up other skills to a certain level, though I consider it to be more of a grid than a tree because it is presented on a grid which lets you learn any skill connected to any nodes you have unlocked as opposed to choosing between strict branches like in Valkyrie Elysium for example. Upgrading skills works the same way as previous games though, by spending SP to improve individual skills which can be done in any order you please. You can also do all of this stuff in the menu mid fight, including item creation. This may have been unintentional but it’s still a unique feature that greatly impacts the gameplay.
Despite its differences, the game remains somewhat faithful to the series. The question is, how does it compare with the other games? Well in terms of combat it is unrivaled thanks to the additions brought by both DUMA and the AP system which replaces MP entirely. It is very hard to compare it to the other game’s combat for this reason because it is so drastically different in this regard. The closest to it would have to be Star Ocean The Last Hope, which also has blindsides as well as chain combos that let you input a sequence of moves, similar to how you can perform up to 3 moves in a sequence in this game. Some might say that it has similarities to Star Ocean Till The End Of Time due to the AP system being similar to fury but they work so drastically differently and honestly The Divine Force’s AP system works so much better simply due to being able to move while regenerating it as opposed to standing still like fury. There are also no light/heavy attacks in The Divine Force which makes it feel very different from Till The End Of Time and Integrity And Faithlessness, I will place it at the top just above The Last Hope.
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 6
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 5
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 4
Star Ocean The Second Story – 3
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 2
Star Ocean – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 0
Best Combat: Star Ocean The Divine Force
Visually it’s a no brainer, I don’t care what people say, this game looks absolutely gorgeous, the locations are vast and the skyboxes are a sight to behold I also really like the art design for the characters. Once again, this beats Star Ocean The Last Hope for top position.
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 6
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 5
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 4
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 3
Star Ocean The Second Story – 2
Star Ocean – 1
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 0
Best Visuals: Star Ocean The Divine Force
Star Ocean The Divine Force uses the same item creation as the first three entries (and by that I mean up to Blue Sphere, not Till The End Of Time) and I consider this to be the best system. While it may lack the super specialties found in Star Ocean The Second Story, the ability to try again after a failed item creation is still a nice touch. I put it just beneath Second Story because while it is a very good item creation system, the lack of Super Specialties drops it down a notch.
Star Ocean The Second Story: 1st – 6
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 5
Star Ocean Blue Sphere: – 4
Star Ocean: – 3
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness: – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope: – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time: – 0
Best Item Creation: Star Ocean The Second Story
Star Ocean The Divine Force has my favorite cast of characters in the series by far. Midas, JJ, Elena, Albaird and Raymond are the standouts for me, though the others are great too like Malkya. I really can’t fault any of the characters here and their interactions are all great.
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 6
Star Ocean – 5
Star Ocean The Second Story – 4
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 3
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 2
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 1
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 0
Best Characters: Star Ocean The Divine Force
The Private Actions of Star Ocean The Divine Force are great and all but the first two entries are still the best if you ask me as I found those games to have some better stand out ones, I do think that they are better than the other private actions though so I’ll give it third place.
Star Ocean – 6
Star Ocean The Second Story – 5
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 4
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 3
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 2
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 1
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 0
Best Private Actions: Star Ocean
Soundtrack is always going to be subjective, It’s hard to put The Divine Force at the top for this one since many of the earlier titles have some really fantastic tracks. Integrity And Faithlessness puts up a good fight with the music it has, but since many of its tracks are re-used from previous games, I put The Divine Force above it. That being said however, I’ll have to put The Divine Force in the middle position sadly, despite having some amazing tracks like the one that plays in Larcasse Weald, the ones that play in futuristic locations and in the Aucerius Plains. Still a fantastic soundtrack nonetheless, it just needed more catchy tunes like in previous entries for me to rate it higher.
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 6
Star Ocean – 5
Star Ocean The Second Story – 4
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 3
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 1
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 0
Best Soundtrack: Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
Finally we have the story, I have to say that Star Ocean The Divine Force has one of the more interesting stories in the series, I liked how they explored the new concepts and the scale was much larger than most of the games in the series, albeit not as large as Till The End Of Time. I definitely give it a close second personally, though I can understand why people would consider it their favorite if they didn’t enjoy the plot twist of Till The End Of Time.
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 6
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 5
Star Ocean – 4
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 3
Star Ocean The Second Story – 2
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 1
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 0
Best Story: Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
So let’s total them up again and see how many points they have:
Star Ocean – 25
Star Ocean The Second Story – 26
Star Ocean Blue Sphere – 11
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time – 17
Star Ocean The Last Hope – 15
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness – 18
Star Ocean The Divine Force – 35
Final Results:
1st – Star Ocean The Divine Force
2nd – Star Ocean The Second Story
3rd – Star Ocean
4th – Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness
5th – Star Ocean Till The End Of Time
6th – Star Ocean The Last Hope
7th – Star Ocean Blue Sphere
It appears that The Divine Force’s inclusion broke the tie between the first and second games by one point and after close examination, it appears that this is due to its position in the Item Creation category, knocking Star Ocean down 1 extra point from Star Ocean The Second Story, not that it matters since Second Story won in the end anyway but who cares about that when Star Ocean The Divine Force wins by a whopping 35 points, talk about a land slide victory.
New Winner: Star Ocean The Divine Force
Let’s Celebrate With A Nice Warm Cuppa!
Now I want to talk about Star Ocean The Second Story a little as it was my favorite in the series prior to Star Ocean The Divine Force and given that it’s such a landslide victory over Second Story and the fact that Second Story got a remake recently, I feel that I need to address a few things about Star Ocean The Second Story. Now I did another article not long ago here which goes into more detail in regards to how Star Ocean The Second Story handled its story. If you notice, the rating I gave for story is rather low and given that it’s an old game now, its combat is pretty dated by today’s standards, even with the improvements made in the remake, I feel that it was a system that was acceptible back in the day sure but not now. I feel that the remake didn’t really do enough to truly modernize the game and ultimately felt like a cheap cash grab that only served to further highlight the game’s flaws.
I really want to go back to what I said about the story in Star Ocean The Second Story being hit or miss as this has a huge impact on my decision to put Divine Force above it. Now given that it was my favorite game in the series, it goes without saying that I am still very fond of it and still consider it one of the best in the series but even back when Star Ocean The Divine Force wasn’t a thing, I always felt that Star Ocean The Second Story recieved way more praise than it deserved. I think part of this has to do with the fact that it was a PS1 JRPG as those tend to get a lot more praise than PS2/SNES RPGs do for some reason, even though generally speaking, most PS1 JRPGs were unbelievably bloated and slow paced. Another reason why I feel that it geets so much praise is because it’s the first Star Ocean game to be released worldwide as the first game was only released in Japan and I feel that there’s a lot of bias towards the game as a result of that also. This is why it makes perfect sense for Square-Enix to remake Second Story because it’s an easy cash grab since it’s the game everybody seemingly worships.
Now I don’t want people to get the wrong idea and see me as a hater of the series as I love this series, even before Star Ocean The Divine Force I loved it. I love all of the games in this series (besides anamnesis), even 3, despite me also hating it with a passion. The feelings these games give me are insane, there’s no other franchise like it, a franchise that I can bitch and moan about as much as I can absolutely adore and indulge in. That’s what makes Star Ocean truly special and why I have so much passion for it, because these games are flawed and I love them for it. The thing is, Star Ocean The Second Story is far from perfect and few people call out its flaws so I want to make it clear right here and right now, Star Ocean The Second Story is unbelievably overrated. I swear to god the amount of people who go on and on about how amazing this game was and how they consider it a masterpiece is absolutely insane. People ride Second Story’s dick so much that it’s beginning to make me wonder if these people are actually fans or not. Now sure some of them might be but others I feel might actually be following the herd and singing its praises just because everyone else around them is. I ain’t about that shit, I’m all about challenging that mentality of following popular opinion and forming your own opinions.
Star Ocean The Second Story is a game I cherish but it is by no means a masterpiece of game design, nor is it the pinnacle of JRPGs and it could never be the pinnacle of JRPGs because its combat system is utter shit by todays standards. It’s not timeless like Valkyrie Profile 2’s masterpiece of a combat system, it’s an old, archaic combat system with an archaic isekai storyline. Now that’s not to say that the game is bad, if that was true, I wouldn’t cherish it as much as I do today. The things that make the games stand out are its sub systems and those are the things that keep me returning to it. The combat and the story are merely the sugar dusting, the meat is in the sub systems, which sounds weird to say but it’s absolutely true.
What made Star Ocean The Second Story such a good game to begin with is the fact that it was the most unapologetically Star Ocean game in the series… until Star Ocean The Divine Force came along. The fact that it took this long to bring back that pure, unfiltered Star Ocean experience is because of the trainwreck that was Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and that is why I hate it so much but even then, I still love it because Star Ocean Till The End Of Time absolutely peaked in terms of scope, no game in the series comes remotely close to being as ambitious as that game and that means that even with The Divine Force being my favorite game in the series, it has sort of given me a whole new appreication for Till The End Of Time that I didn’t know I had. Though disaster it may have been, the flames of hate that were brought about by Till The End Of Time’s terrible design have been put out by The Divine Force’s greatness. This series is absolutely insane, so insane that I wrote all this shit… and if you read all of it then you’re probably just as insane as I am for writing it but that’s what passion does to a person. It turns them into fucking maniacs.
It’s inevitable for games to take ideas from their predecessors, since the foundations that have been established by older games can potentially be re-used. Why spend time trying to come up with a foundation of your own when you can just take what somebody else has done and use it to build an entirely new experience? Derivative game design is certainly a valid strategy for making games, however I feel that most game developers these days see it as the only way to make games and to be honest, I kind of see why. We live in an era where publishers refuse to take risks on new, unproven concepts and expect everything to be derivative. Then you have indie developers who want to make the next Metroid or the next Zelda game, it’s all the same really. The only difference between these two types of developer is that Indies are far more likely to base their game off of niche franchises whereas AAA developers are more likely to use popular franchises as influences. Both developers suffer from the same problem however and that is what has lead to an era of what many call “spiritual successors”.
Now it’s no secret that I am a fan of the 6th console generation of gaming, back then we had all kinds of games for different tastes, many of which took risks, some paid off, some didn’t. It was a very exciting time to be a gamer back then and it is because game developers were all trying to make focused games. Back then, publishers were willing to consider the opportunity for those games to thrive in the market. Nowadays however, publishers have reached a point of complacency. Now there’s no reason for them to take risks since the pay off isn’t worth it like it used to be since game publishers didn’t have the luxury of microtransactions back then, so they had to make sure that the games were good or fans would stop buying games from them. Back then, many of us didn’t have the internet, so finding out about new games was considerably more difficult. If you wanted to get a new game, you had to go to a game store and judge a game based on the cover and what was advertised on the back of the box, either that or word of mouth influenced what games were worth playing and what weren’t. Word of mouth was the biggest deciding factor for many, therefore it was important for developers to make the games not only eye catching, but fun to play so that people would recommend them to friends.
Nowadays we live in a world where the media is constantly in your face and information is easier to consume than ever. Companies have taken advantage of this by overmarketing their game to the point that people can’t not talk about it. I mean how many Raid Shadow Legends advertisements do you see nowadays? Sure it’s considered a joke at this point for being overly marketed but that hasn’t stopped people from talking about it and when people talk about it, people get curious, it’s human nature to want to see things for yourself to experience what everyone else is talking about so that you can be a part of the discussion. This is why games today are generally dogshit, because publishers know that you can easily make a mediocre product then shove trailers and other marketed related tat in people’s faces then let the consumers themselves do most of the marketing for you by hyping the game up on your behalf. Just give a twitch streamer a free game and they will not only tell their viewers about it but both they and their viewers will broadcast it on social media, which goes through a huge web of followers. I see it all the time people, everyone I follow on Twitter retweets and likes stuff that gets sent to me. Why does twitter have to show me all of this crap? I don’t need to see people talking about Monster Hunter Rise all day but unfortunately, since it’s the biggest thing to come out recently, that’s all people talk about. You cannot escape it, it’s literally all over the internet everywhere you go. The only way to escape is to turn off the internet but if I did that, then I couldn’t be doing what I do now.
My point is that game development strategies have changed over the years, we have to accept that we are never ever going to have another console generation as good as the sixth console generation. So with that in mind, please stop trying to bring back those games with your “spiritual successors” because all it will do is make people compare your game to the game that it is based on and it is almost certain that people will consider the game to be inferior to the game they played years ago. The only way we can solve this problem is by looking back to how derivative game design worked back in the day. The best example of this would be Painkiller, a game that to this day I cannot find any other game in the genre worthy of being anything close to the same experience, yet its mechanics are clearly derivative from other games in the genre. Those games being Quake and Serious Sam. It goes without saying that the director of Painkiller is a huge Quake fan and naturally that led to his game being heavily influenced by Quake. Unlike Quake however, the game also featured large open arenas willed with large groups of enemies as opposed to Quake’s more maze-like level structure. This is something that was previously seen in Serious Sam. However Serious Sam did its own thing and isn’t really comparable to Painkiller outside of this one thing. Despite the movement of Quake and the level design of Serious Sam, Painkiller managed to distinguish itself from other games in the genre.
How did it do that you ask? Well that’s simple, in the behind the scenes video of Painkiller’s development, the developers talk about how fans were displeased with the lack of weapons available to them, the director claimed that from an abstract standpoint, there were actually more than just 5 weapons, they just combined them into other weapons. The reason for this likely has to do with the hotkeys and ease of use, something that developers back in the day weren’t thinking of. Thanks to this fantastic design choice, there are only 5 hotkeys that players need to cycle between, though Battle Out Of Hell added two more weapons, making that 7, they still had multiple functions, making the weapon cycling a lot easier than it would have been if the weapons were all separated. This one design choice alone greatly differentiated the experience from Quake and Serious Sam as it felt considerably more tighter and easier to pick up and play as a result, without neglecting the importance of flexibility. That is why Painkiller is the absolute best of the three games if you ask me, because it managed to neutralize what was needless input complexity. Any game that can minimize the amount of buttons needed to play the game, while still maintaining the flexibility necessary to make the gameplay varied enough to be fun is deserving of praise as that is what all game developers need to strive to achieve and it is one of the many problems that game designers are meant to solve. It’s how game designers manage to circumvent these problems that ultimately makes games so fun and interesting to study and what can ultimately make them stand out from other games. Of course there are many other factors such as theme and pacing that come into play too but all that is for nothing if game developers fail to solve the problems presented to them.
When games are entirely derivative, the desire to solve becomes nonexistent because an entirely derivative game strives to solve nothing. It is important to take inspiration from games of old but it is also important to have a good understanding of what it is you wish to achieve with those ideas as opposed to doing the exact same thing, just because it worked for that game, so it will work again for this game. It’s this mindset that is stagnating our games and it’s partially due to how Publishers treat games like throwaway swag toys that are made to cash in on impulse buyers and the games of the modern era that many indie developers have completely forgotten the ability to distinguish their own games from others, the ability and the willpower to solve problems and bring games to life through a web of solutions is what game designers are meant to do, not create dream worlds and make similar experiences to older games. By doing that, videogames can never truly evolve. When we, the consumers play games, we look for the the dream worlds, we look for the thematic style because that’s ultimately what catches our interest. Game developers should never look at their own games the same way as we do, they should only see things on an abstract level and I think this is ultimately what separates the men from the boys when it comes to game design because believe me, if I was capable at designing games at an abstract level and was skilled at programming, I wouldn’t be wasting my life away making this content, I’d just be making games myself but the reality is that there are people out there that are better than me at that. The thing is though that there are countless people who have learned coding, learned how to make assets and know how to use game engines but they haven’t got a clue about what game design actually is. Yet we see these people making games all the time and while it’s great and all that they’re willing to put time and effort into these things, the results generally don’t leave a lasting impression on people and this is the reason why.
So to summarize my point, derivative design has its place, but it is not the be all and end all of game development. I’m not telling people to make their games entirely unique because I am well aware that it is not only difficult to do but it also isn’t viable. You should come up with your own vision first, a vision that is both pragmatic and is able to see games from an abstract standpoint. Then you need to come up with methods to make things work, even if it means taking design ideas from other games to do this. Just don’t take design ideas for the sake of it and actually think about the implications of such a design choice before you choose to add it. Of course coming up with your own methods is always encouraged but if an older game found an easier way to do it, use that method instead.
I remember playing a bit of the original Seiken Densetsu 3 and it was a colossal improvement from its predecessor, Secret Of Mana. The game still shows signs of age however and while it definitely aged better than Secret Of Mana, it would certainly benefit from a remake. Fortunately such a thing now exists and it is known as Trials Of Mana. For the record, I will only be covering the remake of this game, not the original so if you want to play the original game, don’t expect the same experience as the one from the remake as they play very differently.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Seiken Densetsu 3, it is a somewhat unique JRPG for its time as it allows you to choose your own path through the story by selecting a protagonist of your choosing from 6 different characters. Because of this, Trials Of Mana’s story feels rather shallow a lot of the time due to the fact that it has so many possible character combinations that telling a complex narrative would be difficult. Instead you are given an introduction to your character of choice and are sent on a mission to hunt down a bunch of plot devices to, I don’t know… save the world? Put simply, you’ve seen it all before, in a way you could argue that Trials Of Mana is the Dragon Quest XI of the Action RPG side of things in the sense that it is a modern adaptation of a classic style RPG so if you’re looking for something fresh in the narrative department, Trials Of Mana may disappoint you.
Yeah it’s the same shit you’ve seen before, only prettier looking
While it may not be as polished as the modern YS games, Trials Of Mana’s combat feels strikingly similar to modern YS but with a little bit of Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness sprinkled in there. If you’re familiar with any of those games then you will feel right at home with this combat system. Each character comes with both strong and fast attacks that can be used together to form a combo, much like in the Dynasty Warriors games. Unfortunately however, the combos can only be unlocked via class change and initially you are stuck with only a single combo attack which can make the combat feel a little too simplistic at first but if you managed to stomach the original game’s combat then this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for you. On top of all this you can do pretty much everything you can do in YS VIII aside from the flash maneuvers and the extra skill. What this means is that you can jump, dodge and perform special attacks by holding down a button and pressing the corresponding face button, these attacks consume the CS gauge which can only be filled up by collecting crystals left by the enemy upon being hit or defeated so in a way it’s similar to the way SP acquisition works in YS VIII. There is also a charged attack that you can perform which is useful for breaking the enemy’s guard as some enemies are shielded, decreasing damage dealt to them by fast attacks. Put simply, the combat isn’t particularly groundbreaking but it’s definitely a lot of fun if you are into simplistic action.
While it’s difficult to find many faults in the combat, there’s one thing in particular that I believe could be improved upon and that would be the game’s AI. Now don’t get me wrong, the AI aren’t the worst out there as they do seem to dodge attacks every now and again but there have been many times where AI controlled characters end up walking into enemy attacks or just stand in them. While this does make sense considering the fact that healing magic is involved in the game, it still feels like you’re babysitting the AI at times, throwing heals at them constantly each time they screw up. Now of course Trials Of Mana isn’t the only action RPG that suffers from this issue, it’s been an issue with the genre entirely but since YS SEVEN managed to circumvent this issue, I don’t see why other games can’t follow in its footsteps. There were many times playing Trails Of Mana where I thought I was playing YS VIII and I was shocked by how often my AI companions were receiving tons of damage and dying. Perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by the modern YS games I don’t know but I still think that this should become a standard that all action RPG’s need to follow as babysitting idiotic AI companions is never fun.
What I did find fun however is the game’s character management which completely blows YS out of the water by comparison. I found that the biggest appeal of this game lies in the class system, though I’d argue the class system is a double edged sword mainly due to the way the game handles the class change system. What I can say however is that most of the classes feel really well balanced and they each come with unique skills which can be handy for fine tuning each of the character’s traits to suit the player’s play style. Each character has a light and dark path which dictates which classes they get at class 4. Once on either the light or dark path, players lose access to classes on the opposite path so the first class change is really important. Fortunately changing your class for the first time is a simple task as you merely have to be level 18 and interact with a mana stone to change your class. The issues with the class system become more apparrent when you are going for the more advanced classes later on as you will have to acquire unique items to learn each class. Now while there are treasure chests that do give you these items, by the time you have gotten all of them, you’ll have just about reached the end game, therefore if you want to experience those classes early you will have to grind… a lot and pray to the RNG gods that you get an item which gives you the class you want because the class items are all randomly generated by a seed. If you receive a class item from a seed for a class you don’t want then too bad, you have to find another. While farming these seeds may be easy enough later on in the game, farming them early can be a real pain in the ass, especially if you didn’t pick Hawkeye for his drop chance bonus skill since the drop chance for these items isn’t particularly high. This is without a doubt the most agonizing part of the class system and honestly I wish they made the class system more straightforward. I get not wanting players to gain access to powerful classes too early but relying on RNG to delay the player’s class progression is not the best approach if you ask me, especially when it’s the game’s most distinguishable feature.
On top of the class system, with each level up you acquire training points which can be used to learn new abilities and increase stats. Each ability and stat increase is separated between attributes, though these are not the attributes tied directly to the character’s base stats so if you’re playing as a melee fighter, don’t think that stats like intelligence are useless as it may come with some handy abilities. I found this system to be executed a lot better than the game’s class system as it is not only well balanced but it makes leveling up feel a lot more rewarding. In a way it kind of gives me Star Ocean vibes and that’s never a bad thing. I’d argue that out of all the features, this is the one that stands out to me the most and while it might not be as involving as Star Ocean’s systems, it still has the same appeal that made those systems so engaging to begin with. The only downside to this is that each attribute is capped by the character’s class level and the ability slots required to equip the skills are also capped depending on the class. So the class system governs all of the character growth and this means that there will be times where you may have to stockpile skill points until you reach a new class just so you can develop a character’s stats further if you don’t want to learn certain abilities. On the plus side however, upon reaching max level, you will have enough training points to max out all attributes but depending on your class will depend on what abilities will be available to you in each attribute, so you won’t be able to learn everything in one playthrough.
This brings me to the replayability of the game and quite frankly, it’s a huge selling point. Since you can only pick 3 of the 6 characters to play as you will inevitably want to start a second playthrough in order to experience the game to its fullest so that you can experiment with new characters and new classes. The good news is that the game comes with a rather generous new game + feature which carries over all your levels and items from a previous playthrough which is pretty sweet. The only thing that isn’t carried over is the character’s class but in a way that kind of makes sense as you are encouraged to try a new class the second time round. There are also new difficulty levels that can be unlocked upon completion if you are looking for an extra challenge, though if you just want to get through the game, a second playthrough on normal with maxed out characters will be a breeze. In a way I’m kind of bummed out that the game doesn’t allow for co-op multiplayer like the original did because that was also one of the game’s biggest selling points, it would be great to be able to replay the game co-op with a friend and let them use the beefed up character while I level up a new one or vice versa. It’s a shame that this feature wasn’t included because that’s what the mana series was all about back in the day, you didn’t play these games alone… well you could but it wasn’t the same as playing with a friend. Having local co-op would have been excellent and would have nullified the whole AI issue as I’d have a friend controlling another character so they wouldn’t run into the enemy attacks as often.
Lack of co-op aside however, Trials Of Mana stays faithful to the original Seiken Densetsu 3 in the audio department, many of the the new songs don’t sound too different from their Super Famicom counterpart so if you missed out on the original game, you don’t have to worry about the music being overly remixed in this version and for those that are such as nuclear fusion which received a metal remix, you can toggle between the remake and the original OST if you prefer the original version of the song. The soundtrack itself isn’t exactly the most noteworthy, even for its time there were games with better soundtracks out there if you ask me but it has some catchy tunes nonetheless and I can’t say that I was disappointed in the audio department, it did its job well enough but I can’t say that I’ll be looking up its OST any time soon, except maybe for nuclear fusion, that song is amazing. I do think that the soundtrack is a considerable improvement over Secret Of Mana though so if you liked that soundtrack, you’ll probably enjoy this one even more, it just doesn’t tickle my tastebuds as much as other soundtracks personally.
One thing that has garnered a lot of controversy is the voice acting. A lot of people can not stand the voice acting of Trials Of Mana and while I do see where they’re coming from with Charlotte’s voice, I don’t think it’s an issue with the voice itself rather the direction and the dialogue. I personally had no issue with the voices except for Charlotte but even then, it’s the script that’s the problem. For god knows what reason, Charlotte doesn’t use the letter L in her dialogue and instead replaces all L’s with W’s, possibly to sound more childlike but it is really annoying to hear her voice actress actually speak those lines because they are so unbelievably dumb. Other than that, they’re absolutely fine to me, I think Hawkeye’s voice is good, Kevin’s voice might sound a little odd but it fits his character, Duran has a decent enough voice, Reisz’s voice sounds like she is reading off a script sometimes but for the most part, it’s tolerable, Angela’s voice sounds like a rebellios teenager which kind of fits her character so it’s fine. There are games that have far worse voice acting out there like Star Ocean 4 for example, I don’t know about you but I’d take Charlotte over Lymle any day of the week.
The art style feels very reminiscent of Dragon Quest XI and Star Ocean 5 in the sense that it is very colorful with some nicely detailed locations. You can tell that they didn’t scrimp on the visual department this time around like they did with the Secret Of Mana remake. This game is up there with the big boys now. It’s hard to believe that it’s a remake of a Super Famicom game at times, heck it amazes me how they managed to keep the same layout for many of the game’s locations despite them looking so modern. It really is a faithful remake in that regard and quite frankly, that can only be a good thing if you ask me. Now if you’re expecting groundbreaking next gen graphics, you won’t find them here but they meet the standards set by current gen games and for a remake of a Super Famicom game, it’s pretty impressive how the game has a fully controllable camera for once, especially when you consider the fact that most remakes of these older games tend to stick to having a fixed top down camera angle throughout, there’s also a lock on to help out in battle too if the camera proves troublesome to control.
Ultimately whether or not you should get Trials Of Mana depends on what type of experience you want out of an action RPG, if you want a modern style game with an engrossing story then I definitely wouldn’t recommend this game but if you are looking for a modern take on an old school action RPG, Trials Of Mana will certainly deliver in that regard. While it may not be the best at what it does, Trials Of Mana is still an enjoyable experience nonetheless and I think that it is one of the better Square-Enix developed titles out there. If you enjoyed Seiken Densetsu 3, getting this game is a no brainer really. Just be aware that it’s not for everyone, I have seen a lot of people complain about this game and I think that they missed the point. Trials Of Mana is a comfort food game for people who want to play something they are familiar with that doesn’t try to break the mold. If you expect anything else, you’re going to be disappointed.
Story/plot: Mediocre
Visuals: Good
Gameplay: Good
Music: Good
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Easy
Would You replay? Yes
Overall: Good
Value: £40.00
Gameplay Video:
I should note that on the PC version of Trials Of Mana I have had my controller disconnect numerous times while playing, usually after getting hit or after a cutscene so I have to reconnect my controller each time, it’s kinda annoying. This is the only game I’ve experienced this issue with so far and it happens somewhat frequently so I just thought I should mention it.
Sometimes when I play a game, I feel completely turned off by the game’s design choices simply because they aren’t my cup of tea. Bujingai is the opposite of this, it’s a game that caters specifically to my tastes as it’s a dumb, mindless 3D beat em up that goes out of its way to deliver a kinetically empowering experience. Bujingai is the definition of raw kinetic engagement in videogame form, it is the core of this entire game’s design, it’s all style over substance and quite frankly, I don’t mind, so long as the combat is playable. Speaking of which, the very moment you load up the game, you’re immediately thrown into the combat before you even get to the main menu screen allowing you to get a good feel of the game’s mechanics within the first few seconds of loading the game up. I really wish more games did this.
In any case, once the custom intro sequence is over, we can finally dig our teeth into the game’s story, if you consider watching the protagonist surf on a comet towards earth to be a gripping narrative that is, because that’s basically how Bujingai’s story starts and this cutscene alone defines the overall experience of the game’s story pretty well. Now most people would watch this cutscene and question the logic behind it, but I personally think that this is the perfect way to start any videogame because real life logic can never apply to videogames ever. So whenever I see shit like this at the start of a game, I know that I’m in for a real treat. Right after that epic introduction sequence, the game throws you right into the greatest tutorial ever created, if you’re playing the US version that is as your fully voiced tutor will teach you how to play the game in the most overly acted way possible to the point that you can’t help but burst out laughing during every second of this tutorial section. By the end of this tutorial, I had a firm understanding of the controls and I was ready to dive straight into the game.
The combat in Bujingai revolves around swinging your sword like crazy in both offence and defense. What I mean by this is that you have a guard meter which governs how many attacks you can parry and you don’t have to worry about guarding because you guard automatically by facing the enemy. Eventually though your gauge will run out and you will get hit, some of the enemies also have gauges which allow them to defend themselves from your attacks too which can make for some pretty intense fights. During a clash, you are able to cancel into either a counter attack or an evasion. The effectiveness of each maneuver ultimately depends on the situation, so it’s important to analyze the enemy’s guard meter as well as checking your own to see how many attacks you can withstand.
On top of your basic slashes, there are a few other attacks you can perform, the most notable move is your spin attack which you can perform by pressing Y, this is handy for dealing with crowds of enemies that surround you from all sides since you can’t guard from behind, only the front, so positioning is key. You can also perform magic attacks with the circle button which consumes your magic gauge. On top of this you can cancel your basic attack string into these two abilities at any time by first pressing the triangle button and following that up the corresponding button of the move you wish to use. This includes the launch cancel by pressing square and if you press the X button, you will perform a rapid barrage of kicks to finish off your enemies in style.
Finally, upon finishing a successful combo, if you hold down a certain button right afterwards you may perform a pose which gives you stylish action points, these points affect your score at the end of each level so if you want a high score then you’ll want to do as many poses as you can. There is also the ability to counter certain magic spells that are casted by enemies. You can do this the same way you guard a regular attack. Upon receiving a spell, you can restore your magic gauge and if the gauge fills up completely, you can unleash a powered up spell of your own towards the enemy for massive damage. This attack is extremely effective in boss fights and because of this, most of the regular magic is kind of rendered obsolete which could be seen as an issue but quite frankly the counter spell ability feels cooler to pull off anyway. That’s not to say that the regular spells aren’t cool because they are, it’s just that you won’t find yourself using them all that often.
So what you’re left with is a very basic but surprisingly addictive combat system. Clearly the biggest appeal here is the stylish animations of each of your attacks and that alone makes me want to experiment with all that the combat had to offer. Like I said though, it is all style over substance so don’t expect Devil May Cry 3 levels of depth here, it’s all about mindlessly cutting enemies up and in that department, Bujingai delivers a near flawless experience.
One thing I absolutely adore about Bujingai is how the game handles the player’s movement. There are so many ways to move around and traverse areas, heck I’d go as far as to argue that Bujingai gives Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox a run of its money in this department as unlike Ninja Gaiden, you are not only able to wall run and wall jump but you can also glide in the air. Unlike Ninja Gaiden however, the controls can be tricky to get used to and much like Ninja Gaiden, some of the platforming sections can be rather aggravating to say the least but considering the fact that Bujingai pre-dates Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox (at least in Japan), these are some pretty noteworthy features that you didn’t see in many beat em ups at the time. If you’re a fan of games like Prince Of Persia, you’ll probably appreciate the movement of Bujingai a lot.
All of Bujingai’s stylish action is accompanied by an energetic soundtrack featuring a mix of both glam rock and electronic music. Each song has that oriental vibe that you’d expect from a Chinese action film which is clearly what Bujingai is trying to emulate. The music does a fantastic job at both fitting the oriental setting, as well as the nature of the game’s stylish combat and fast paced movement. It’s just as pumping as you’d expect a 3d beat em up soundtrack to be but the oriental vibe gives it a very unique feel that distinguishes its soundtrack from other games in the genre. Still, be sure to expect the same level of energy you have come to expect from most games in this genre because Bujingai delivers in every aspect in that regard and then some.
Bujingai features a variety of different levels ranging from an urban city full of rooftops to ancient tron inspired ruins. I think the level variety brings a lot of flavor to the overall experience, though some of them can be quite aggravating at times when it comes to the platforming sections. Visually the environments look about what you’d expect from a 2003 PS2 beat em up in terms of detail but the character models are extremely detailed and hold up extremely well, particularly the protagonist Lau Wong, who has quite possibly one of the most noteworthy character designs in gaming history. Not only is his appearance based on Gackt but he is also motion captured and voice acted by Gackt as well. The problem is that outside of a few grunts and battle cry’s, Lau Wong is mostly a silent protagonist, which implies that the devs weren’t able to keep Gackt working on the project for very long, possibly due to the costs of hiring him to work on the character in the first place.
Despite this, I think that the little time Gackt spent working on the game definitely paid off in the motion capture department as the animations of Bujingai are absolutely stellar. Everything from the movement, jumping and swordplay is strikingly intricate in the animation department to the point that the gameplay is a visual spectacle that few games at the time could even hope to match, which kind of explains why the intro of the game is literally just clips of the player’s gameplay because who needs cutscenes when you can showcase the flashy combat of Bujingai in the intro instead and have the player play it out? I love watching the action on screen in both the combat and the platforming, it’s so damn satisfying to watch Lau Wong jump and spin through the air as his clothing flutters around him.
The English voice acting on the other hand is hilariously terrible, which fits the nature of this game so damn well. I do think that Gackt did a pretty good job with Lau’s battle sounds though so it’s not all bad, it’s just the English voices in particular that are terrible but quite frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Naguri’s voice in particular is hilarious to listen to, especially since he narrates the entire tutorial sequence. Thankfully there’s barely any dialogue in this game anyways since the game focuses more on the choreography as opposed to written narrative. For this reason, the story of Bujingai is mostly nonexistent to the point that if you removed all the context of the game’s story, most of the cutscenes would remain in tact.
One thing to note is that if you’re going to play the PAL version of Bujingai titled Bujingai Swordmaster, do bear in mind that there’s no voice acting in the tutorial and that the names of the enemies are all in Japanese so in a way, you’re kind of playing a watered down version of the Japanese release which is kind of a shame. Other than that though, Bujingai is what you expect from an early 2000’s 3d beat em up. It’s another one of those niché games that appeals mainly to aficionados of the 3d beat em up genre though I can safely say that it is one of the better ones out there and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you’re into this sort of thing. As for everyone else, you’ll probably turn on this game and get bored within the first few minutes when you realize that most of the game is just pressing square and occasionally pushing other buttons, but if Dynasty Warriors gets away with it, so can Bujingai.
Don’t try this at home kids, Lau’s a professional comet surfer
It’s come to the point that it’s nearly taboo to even talk positively about Devil May Cry 2 due to the amount of hate it has received and while it is certainly deserving of criticism, I find that Devil May Cry 2 is overhated, to the point that a post like this might seem like satire on the surface but it really isn’t. The truth is that I do have a lot of gripes with both Devil May Cry 1 & 2 but I believe that every game deserves a second chance. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir proved that a terrible game can be made amazing when completely overhauled and I think that Devil May Cry 2 could benefit from such an overhaul.
1. It’s a shit stain on the Devil May Cry series that needs to be cleaned.
Look I know that there are a few people out there who do enjoy Devil May Cry 2 and I can understand the appeal, believe me but we can’t ignore the fact that this is a heavily flawed game that is hated on by a lot of people. Devil May Cry 2 has a bad reputation and this harms the series as a whole because it makes the overall quality of the series appear inconsistent. If the Devil May Cry brand is to have any real value in my eyes, Capcom needs to prove to us that Devil May Cry 2 can be a good game and personally I do believe that it can be, it just needs a lot of work to fix its issues.
They need to rework the guns to make them less powerful against bosses and they also need to redesign some of the bosses. Keep the concept in tact but change the way they are fought to make the boss battles more interesting. Incorporate the style swap system from the modern games and maybe change the sword devil arms into something else. Perhaps they could make Merciless into a lance with a completely different move set from Rebellion for example. Also they could work on improving the amulet system, there’s a lot of potential with the amulet system that could allow for some interesting playthroughs. Perhaps there could be a gem that saps Dante’s health over time but increases green orb pickups or a gem that increases damage at low health but decreases it at high health, similar to the Unlabored Flawlessness in Ninja Gaiden Black. Of course they would also need to change the enemy behaviors as well to make them more threatening.
2. The current Devil May Cry lore doesn’t make sense
In Devil May Cry 2, Dante starts out with Majin Devil Trigger right from the get go, in Devil May Cry 5, he acquires Sin Devil Trigger part way through the game which appears to be his Majin Devil Trigger form. Despite this fact, Devil May Cry 2 is still considered canon, the developers just moved it between Devil May Cry 1 and 4 on the timeline, instead of after 4 like it originally was which makes no sense since Majin Devil Trigger existed before Devil May Cry 5, so how does Dante not have it already in Devil May Cry 5 if Devil May Cry 2 takes place before Devil May Cry 5? Now sure you could argue that it’s not canon anymore but I just see that as a cop out by Capcom who want to dodge responsibility and run away from their failures instead of tackling them head on like they should be doing.
I say they re-write the story, kinda like a reboot but still make it as close to DMC2 as possible but with some changes, maybe explain how Dante gets back to the human world after the events of Devil May Cry 5 after so many years and how the world has changed since then. The melancholic music of Devil May Cry 2 really makes me feel as if Dante has been through and seen a lot and that his demon hunting has kind of tormented him somewhat, to the point of total apathy, as he is portrayed in Devil May Cry 2. However, I think that the music would also fit in a completely new story where Dante returns to the human world after so many years and it’s completely foreign to him, all of his former companions have passed on and here he is, in the future, a completely new world with new characters and in a way, you could say he kind of misses the old times of battling his brother Vergil, without feeling a sense of responsibility but now he is the renown demon hunter that he is, the world needs him and he feels committed to fighting demons, even though he has no personal attachment to the task at hand, it’s just what he does now.
I think this would be the perfect way to end Dante’s entire story arc as you could already see signs of it in Devil May Cry 5 with him becoming fed up of hunting demons but Devil May Cry 2 would take that to the next level, perhaps have Dante question why he is still fighting after all this time and perhaps it could lead to him pondering whether or not humanity is worth saving. It would be an interesting way to end his character and who knows, he could end up turning heel, or he could remember the reasons why he fights and the true value of humanity and that would be the thing that makes the entire story gripping. Of course there would still be plenty of action and choreography mixed in as well but I find that Dante’s story needs to end properly and I don’t think Devil May Cry 5 did a good enough job ending Dante’s arc.
3. We get to play as Dante for an entire game one last time
Let’s not kid ourselves, the future of the Devil May Cry series is in Nero’s hands now and I personally am not keen to play the next installment for that very reason as I am not a huge fan of Nero, but thanks to the ending of Devil May Cry 5, I see no other possibilities. I think bringing Dante back right after that ending would be absolutely nonsensical and if he does come back it would make more sense to bring him back many years after the events of Devil May Cry 5. Devil May Cry 2 is the only game in the series that would make sense to do this as it was originally meant to be the end of Dante’s story. I want to experience 1 more game as only Dante with all of the gameplay improvements of the modern games.
Since Devil May Cry 5 barely had any Dante sections at all and Devil May Cry 4 only has him backtrack through Nero’s levels, I think that Capcom owes us another Dante game with the improvements made in Devil May Cry 5. I mean sure, you have Devil May Cry 3 on switch with the style switching and while that’s great and all, it’s the only game in the entire series that lets you play as Dante throughout with all the modernized features. Why not have another game to let us play as Dante once more at his best for an entire game instead of having to slog through Nero and V sections to get to the sections we really want. Go ahead, make the next game about Nero only but don’t abandon Devil May Cry 2, give Dante 1 more game to himself and I will be happy.
4. Devil May Cry 2 had potential to be great, why not make it great?
One of the coolest looking bosses in the Devil May Cry series… too bad the fight against him sucks.
Now I know this is subjective and all but Devil May Cry 2 isn’t entirely bad. There are still things to like about the game, the first of which being the music. Honestly I find the ambient music throughout each level in Devil May Cry 2 to be absolutely breathtaking, the levels themselves are nice and varied too, ranging from a Latin American cityscape, a modernized metropolis, a factory, ancient ruins that have underwater sections and of course the demonic offices of Arius. I really loved all of these locations and the atmosphere is on point with every single one of them. Add to that the battle music which is arguably the best in the series in my opinion and the design of Dante which is my favorite out of all of his designs in the series as he looks like a badass in Devil May Cry 2.
I also really liked the enemy variety which was kind of lacking in the first game. In Devil May Cry 2 you had evil wizards and some really unique looking enemies like the caged monsters and the golems that shoot spikes out of their chests and can regenerate. While these enemies aren’t very fun to fight, I can’t deny that their designs are really interesting and I would really like to see them remade with modern day graphics. Finally there’s the Devil Trigger customization which was a really cool idea and could be a nice addition to a more modern game in the series, allowing us to cater our Devil Trigger to reflect our play style, in addition to this, give us our Majin Form but make it work like it does in Devil May Cry 5 but with the same appearance as the Devil May Cry 2 Majin Form with the arm blades instead of Devil Sword Dante and give it some of the same moves that were in Devil May Cry 2 but rework them to make them less overpowered. Finally make it so that Majin Form actually saps your health on top of expending Devil Trigger to make it a risk/reward thing, that way people wouldn’t be able to cheese the game with it.
5. With the success of Devil May Cry 5, it’s the perfect time to remake Devil May Cry 2.
Devil May Cry 5’s popularity has caused a boom of interest in the series as it has attracted a lot of newcomers who are unfamiliar with Devil May Cry 2, that and its success in sales means that it is viable for Capcom to make it. This is the chance to revive a failed game and make people who weren’t aware of its failure grow to love the game. Devil May Cry 2 already has plenty of wasted ideas and concepts that are ready to be used, all Capcom needs to do is to put them together in a new game that will breathe new life into Devil May Cry 2 and make it a game to remember as opposed to a game people prefer to forget. It would also introduce Lucia to the story as well which could make things more interesting in later installments if they decide to include her again.
I know I won’t be able to convince most of you that a Devil May Cry 2 remake is worth doing and I know that Capcom will never do it because they’re cowards, like all AAA companies are nowadays, the only reason why Devil May Cry is still relevant today is because it has a vocal fanbase who continue to consume their products but since Devil May Cry 2 is hated on by the community, Capcom wouldn’t have the balls to risk making a game that people may not buy into day 1 because as we all know, it’s all about the money. Doesn’t stop me from making posts like this though.
When I think about the sixth generation of gaming, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Devil May Cry series. It goes without saying that Devil May Cry had a huge impact on the beat em up genre and became the game that all other beat em up would be measured up against. However, I found that Devil May Cry 1 suffered from an identity crisis and Devil May Cry 2’s combat system suffered from some serious flaws, because of this I would argue that the series didn’t really start to flourish until Devil May Cry 3.
Devil May Cry 3 took the formula of the first two games and improved it drastically. The most notable improvement being the style system which allowed for multiple different playstyles for players to choose from, slightly altering their moveset to enhance their capabilities in whichever way they choose, bringing more flexibility and depth to the combat. There are 4 styles to choose from at the start and two more can be unlocked later on in the game.
If this doesn’t sell the game to you, nothing will.
Trickster is without a doubt the most useful out of all the styles as it improves the player’s movement capability and allows for snapper evasion which can be extremely useful against certain bosses. I find that the standard evasion used in the presious entries felt awkward to use at times as dodging forward or backwards causes Dante to become airborne which isn’t always ideal. Trickster alleviates this issue making it possible to move in any direction grounded and even evade in the air. Swordmaster grants players a more flexible moveset to utilize for each devil arm the player has. This is a very fun playstyle to use and it is my favorite as some of the moves made available with swordmaster are really fun to use and brings more variance to close range combat. Moves like Aerial Rave and Sky Dance in particular are extremely handy for staying airborne which can make it a viable alternative to Trickster in situations where air time is more important than evasion.
Then you have Gunslinger and Royal Guard which I didn’t really mess around with all that much. I find that Gunslinger is mostly pointless to use as unlike Devil May Cry 2, shooting enemies is typically not favored in Devil May Cry 3. It is basically the same as swordmaster but for guns, therefore while it does add a lot more flexibility, I don’t think is is meaningful as swordmaster by comparison simply due to the damage potential that swordmaster has which makes it a pretty poor trade off by comparison if you ask me. Royal Guard allows you to parry enemy attacks which requires really good timing, this style is clearly aimed towards skilled players and can be really effective if used well. It kind of works similar to issens in Onimusha though unlike Onimusha, guarding alone does not make you immune to enemy attacks and you can store your issens and release them for massive damage. It’s a bit more challenging to use though if you suck at timing your guards, it won’t be of much use to you, hence why I didn’t mess with it much myself.
On top of styles, Devil May Cry 3 offers 5 unique devil arms for players to use which can be acquired over the course of the game, unlike previous games you can swap between these weapons on the fly which allows for even more combo potential as well as the convenience of being able to swap to a new weapon without having to enter the menu. There are also 5 firearms for you to acquire as well which can also be swapped between. The only catch is that you can only equip 2 devil arms (and firearms) at a time, meaning that you can only swap between two of them in battle. I think the reason for this was to make it easier to cycle between weapons at the push of a button, though since the special edition version of the game allows you to play as Vergil who has 3 devil arms equipped at once, I don’t see why this couldn’t have been applied to Dante as well. Other than that, Devil May Cry 3 added some new abilities that were never brought back in later games such as the ability to body surf on top of downed enemies and spin on nearby poles to kick nearby enemies. I really enjoyed these abilities as they brought a lot of stylistic flair to the game that really made the game stand out from its competitors at the time.
While Devil May Cry 2’s combat felt sluggish, Devil May Cry 3’s combat is both fluid and snappy, making the gameplay loop feel tremendously satisfying. This also means that devil arms are useful again like they were in the first game as their damage output is enhanced by the attack speed increase. One thing that Devil May Cry games don’t get enough credit for is their simple controls. Being able to use a single directional input to perform different moves, completely nullifies any input complexity from the game and makes for a considerably more accessible experience. Don’t think that this makes the game easy though as the enemies all have different behavior patterns for you to learn which can be quite overwhelming in situations where mixed groups of enemies are present. On top of this, enemies tend to take off a large chunk of your health if you are unlucky enough to be hit by them, so being alert and carefully utilizing your styles is the key to victory here.
One thing that is somewhat bothersome is the way the camera is handled. Unlike Devil May Cry 1 and 2, Devil May Cry 3 offers limited camera control in some areas as opposed to just strictly fixed camera. This can be a nuisance at times as you’re not only forced to adapt to this change but at the same time there’s no designated button for camera fixing, forcing you to use the right analogue stick to adjust the camera’s positioning which can be really awkward when you’re in the middle of combat. This can sometimes make certain arenas difficult to fight in as they clearly insist on you utilizing the camera controls to get a better vision of the enemies around you. Not all areas are impacted by this issue so it isn’t a major flaw, though it is certainly one worth noting.
Devil May Cry 3’s story follows the philosophy of actions speak louder than words and this plays to the game’s strengths as the impressive choreography ties into the nature of the game extremely well due to the fact that it showcases the potential of Dante’s capabilities, encouraging the player to play in a way that mimics the action seen in cutscenes which makes them want to play better in order to create their own choreographic masterpiece in combat. On top of this, the rivalry dynamic between Dante and Vergil does a great job at pushing players to keep bettering themselves to overcome any tough foe that stands in your way. It’s a very simple, yet effective story that will leave a lasting impression on anyone fortunate enough to experience it. I really like how Devil May Cry 3 wants to make players of all skill levels feel welcome so long as they have the willingness and dedication to learn as opposed to games like God Hand which goes out of its way to punish and humiliate you for playing bad. I wish more games followed Devil May Cry 3’s example in this regard.
Let’s be honest, Dante surfing on his enemies is all the game’s plot really needs
Of course the story isn’t only method used to empower players, the style gauge returns from previous games and has been enhanced to allow for even more rankings. The style gauge doesn’t punish players who mindlessly button mash but it does reward players who perform different attacks by increasing the gauge, the gauge depletes over time so if you button mash then you will lose it all. The higher the style gauge, the more red orbs are given to you after each fight which can be used to purchase enhancements at statues. Simply the act of reaching a stylish rank in Devil May Cry 3 is satisfying in itself because it shows that you’re playing at a high level and this builds up the player’s momentum, causing their playstyle to become more varied in order to maintain their rank. In a way, it’s kind of the opposite of what would later be God Hand’s leveling system which makes the game more challenging for playing well as opposed to actually rewarding players for playing well, both systems kind of act as a foil to one another though I personally prefer Devil May Cry 3’s style system simply because I enjoy being rewarded as opposed to being challenged. I want to feel encouraged to keep playing better as opposed to being discouraged from doing so by making me have to go through tougher adversaries as a consequence of playing well. You can make a solid argument for both systems so don’t think that I’m downplaying God Hand’s leveling system, it’s just a matter of preference. I want to be rewarded for playing well because that’s how I am personally encouraged to play well and Devil May Cry 3’s style gauge is so damn encouraging that it changes the entire nature of the entire game for me.
The music on the other hand is not so encouraging as the lyrics of the main battle song “taste the blood” constantly berates you as you play. Despite this huge contrast to the atmosphere the rest of the game has, it kind of works the same way as the rivalry dynamic with Vergil. By making the player feel weak, players feel more satisfied upon overcoming obstacles. This only works due to the welcoming and encouraging atmosphere that this game creates because despite the odds stacking against you, Dante’s confidence in the story rubs off on the player and the accessibility of the game makes everything possible. The fast paced techno soundtrack really builds on this too as it creates an energetic atmosphere for players to synchronize with the actions they perform on screen. It’s a very careful balance that no other game manages to get right. Due to the insane difficulty that the game brings to the table, it’s easy to see how someone can give up quickly but Devil May Cry 3 goes out of its way to make damn sure you stick with it until the end by offering one of the most kinetically empowering experiences of all time.
Visually speaking, the animations are absolutely stellar, as is expected from a Devil May Cry game. I personally didn’t care much for the enemy designs in the first and second Devil May Cry games but Devil May Cry 3 does a fantastic job at illustrating them. A lot of creativity went into designing both their behavior patterns and their aesthetic appearances. There are some really unique enemies like the Blood-Goyles, the Dullahan and the Soul eater which each require a completely different approach to deal with compared to that of the hell variant enemies and their appearance does a great job at illustrating what they do and when they are vulnerable. The majority of the game takes place inside a huge tower called Temen-ni-gru which has a dark gothic appearance throughout. Despite this however, each and every section of the tower feels unique while still feeling as if it is still a part of the tower. While the levels do generally consist of a lot of the same greys and browns early on, I find that the game does a great job at mixing up the colour scheme in the later levels, keeping them fresh.
Some of the levels feature puzzles and platforming sections for players to navigate through. While this bothered me in the first game, I find that Devil May Cry 3 does a far better job at spacing them out with combat sections in between them to the point that they don’t stand out as much as the combat does. I never found any of them to be particularly aggravating personally, though there are a few tricky ones like the part where you have to jump across numerous moving blocks to reach the higher floors of the room.
Now you may be wondering about the differences between the original game and the Special Edition. The biggest difference being the difficulty as the original Devil May Cry 3 suffered from the usual Capcom difficulty shenanigans where normal difficulty was actually hard difficulty in disguise. The Special Edition rectifies this by making normal difficulty actually normal and adds some new difficulty levels for players to test their skills. As I mentioned before, you also get Vergil as a playable character who has 3 devil arms of his own as well as the dark slayer style which allows for teleportation. He plays almost exactly like he does in the boss fights against him. As useful as dark slayer is, I find that Dante’s trickster style is a lot easier to use and I also prefer Dante’s devil arms over Vergil’s personally. Nevertheless, Vergil is still a lot of fun to play as and if you aren’t playing the Switch version, the inability to switch styles isn’t real an issue with him since his Yamato aerial gives him air time and is arguably his most useful attack if you ask me. Vergil playthroughs are considered separate from Dante’s since you do not carry over anything from Dante’s playthrough so you have to start from scratch with him. Finally there is an optional boss fight which you will encounter 3 times over the course of the game. There’s not really any point to this fight unless you just want an extra challenge but it’s a pretty fun fight regardless.
As you can probably tell by now, Devil May Cry 3 is an exceptionally focused game that goes above and beyond what is commonly accepted in the genre. There isn’t a single thing that isn’t congruent with Devil May Cry 3’s vision, it is a game that is so off the wall that it single handedly established a trend, one that it still reigns over as the greatest of its kind today and that is why Devil May Cry 3 is the greatest 3D beat em up of all time. So grab your pizza, pick up your controller and play this fucking game already!!!
After playing through Need For Speed 2015, I never thought I’d do another review of a modern Need For Speed game but here I am reviewing yet another Need For Speed game. The question is, will Need For Speed Heat manage to live up to the greatness of the PS2 era Need For Speed games or is it yet another cash grab by EA? Before I talk about the game itself in more detail, I need to address the elephant in the room and that’s EA and their anti consumer practices.
What bothered me the most about Need For Speed 2015 was the always online DRM and how you needed a constant internet connection to play the game. Need For Speed Heat on the other hand does not require a constant internet connection, however there have been issues where actually connecting to EA’s servers can cause a bug that can potentially delete your progress so I highly recommend not playing online should you care about your save data. Regardless of this, I have to give them credit for removing the DRM and letting us actually play the game after the servers shut down.
As for the microtransactions, it seems that Need For Speed Heat is doing DLC car packs and a useless map that reveals all of the collectibles. Why anybody would buy a map that shows all of the collectibles I have no idea, just look it up on the internet people… jeeze. In any case, the car packs are not a new concept, they have been done in many games. What bothered me the most about how they handled car packs in the series was how they were implemented into Need For Speed Most Wanted 2012 where you didn’t buy cars, rather you found cars by exploring the map. So imagine exploring the map only to find a Mclaren F1 parked up, sounds great huh? Only problem is that to actually drive it, you have to pay money to EA. So essentially the game got your hopes up only to be crushed by the fact that it was paid DLC.
Need For Speed Heat has added black market missions which appear as a marker on the map and they essentially reward you with a car but to unlock them, you have to buy the car pack DLC. The good news is however that most of the cars in Need For Speed Heat can be purchased with in game money from the car dealership so you don’t have to deal with the disappointment of finding a car on the map only to be presented with the store page, therefore I can tolerate them this time around.
Speaking of the cars, there are tonnes of them available to you early on. Unlike earlier games where you would have to drive around in your starter car for a while, in Heat you only need to do a couple of races and you’ll have enough to buy a new car early on and I highly recommend doing so because if you decide to drive around in your starter car, you’re going to have a really hard time with some of the early races and this is where I get into one of the game’s biggest problems, the AI difficulty.
Now while I will say that basing the AI’s difficulty on their cars and giving each AI their own individual difficulty level is a good thing, the game doesn’t really do a good job of informing you of how difficult each race is going to be. Before you start a race, there is a number which represents how high level the cars you will race are, the problem is that this number is kind of misleading as you can start a race with a recommended car level of 200 and be racing an AI with a level 275 car and it can seem impossible to pass them simply because your car isn’t fast enough. This was quite frustrating to me as I didn’t feel like I had a chance to catch up whatsoever because the enemy AI is just way too fast. The good news is that by the end of the game you’ll be racing level 400 cars and 400 is the highest car level, you won’t have to deal with the ridiculous spikes in difficulty due to having an inferior car to the AI. If the game told the player the highest level car in the race as opposed to a recommended level, this could alleviate this issue. Sadly this is not the case as you only find out after the race what each individual car level each racer’s car is.
With all this aside, the racing itself isn’t all that bad. When you do race against evenly matched AI racers, it can be quite fun. By default, you can release the accelerator and press it again while turning to perform a drift. This is quite handy early on since many of the cars are quite slow so you need all the speed you can get, later on though you’ll need to use the handbrake to make those corners. There is a break too for those who need it though I found myself relying mostly on the drifting/handbraking mechanic for most of the game and while I found it to be quite satisfying to play this way, I still prefer Need For Speed Carbon’s handling mechanics since I find myself utilizing the brakes more in that game. In Heat the brakes aren’t really all that useful by comparison. It is a more arcady approach to handling that is easier for players not used to playing racing games though people who are used to the controls of earlier Need For Speed games may feel a bit puzzled at first.
One thing that does bother me however is the cops. This is where the game fails in just about every aspect. Cop chases in Need for Speed Most Wanted and Carbon were adrenaline pumping and empowering, part of that was due to the physics. You could crash into a roadblock and send cops flying up in the air which made you feel as if you were some unstoppable god in a race car. At the same time however, the cops were challenging and there was a constant tension throughout the pursuit as the cops employ tactics to box you in and slow you down which kept players on their toes. In Need For Speed Heat this isn’t the case at all, cops are nothing more than a nuisance that the player has to deal with during night time races and they aren’t really any fun to escape from. Early on they can be very frustrating as your car isn’t very fast but later on they can be easy enough to outrun so long as you aren’t playing on heat level 5.
While Heat level 5 cops in heat are difficult to escape from, I find that a lot of it comes down to luck and this is due to the damage system that has been added to the game. If you just happen to have wrecked your car before going into a heat level 5 police chase, you are screwed, there is no chance to get away. On the other hand if you have plenty of repair kits and are in a location filled with jumps, you can get away pretty easily. It’s all situational and feels unfair at times since the cops can appear at any time. It all depends on your location and the damage on your car. You can repair your car at fuel stations but you have limited repairs so don’t expect to be in any long chases like in Most Wanted or Carbon, you either escape early or get busted, that’s it. The cop AI isn’t as aggressive as they are in Most Wanted and Carbon but they don’t need to be since the damage system makes it easy for them to take you out just by weakening your car over time. Ramming into cops is a terrible idea as it causes damage to both you and the cops. The only reliable way to escape cops is by taking jumps and you better be heading in the direction the ramp is facing or you’ll have to turn around which may cause you to get caught. There are no pursuit breakers and no speedbreaker so good luck escaping from high heat pursuits.
Vehicle customization is back and it’s more-or-less the same as it was in 2015 which I can’t complain about since the vehicle customization was the only good thing 2015 had to offer and without the always online DRM, you can keep your customized vehicle designs for as long as you want. Each vehicle has a customization rating which states how much the car can be customized. Some cars offer a lot of customization options while others not so much though I’d say that the vast majority of the car selection in this game offers plenty of customization options. Sadly autosculpt is still absent from Heat which isn’t really a big deal but it’s worth noting. Also like 2015 there are no full body vinyls, in fact you can only put vinyls on each part of the car’s body so you essentially have to create the full body vinyls from scratch yourself. While this may not be an issue for me, it may be for some people. The good news is that if you have an online connection, you can download other people’s vinyl wraps to put on your car if you just want to slap on something quick. Performance wise, you can not only upgrade the parts themselves but you can also replace the entire engine which is an interesting feature that is new to Need For Speed Heat as not only does it adjust a car’s performance potential but it also changes the engine sound too.
Need For Speed Heat is set in Palm City which is based on Miami. It has several different locations spread out across the map offering a nice variety of locations to race in. Thankfully unlike the older Need For Speed games, there’s actually quite a lot to do in free roam as there are collectibles to find along with many other challenges spread across the map and completing them unlocks new cars and cosmetic upgrades. It’s a great way to take a break between races and encourage players to explore the whole map. Palm city looks gorgeous in dry weather, the problem is that it tends to rain way too often and there’s no way to toggle it which is a shame. Also one problem with the world is that there’s a lot of open fields that you can drive through but there’s no way to reset your car to the track so you have to somehow find your way back up a hill if you fall off which can be really annoying.
While Need For Speed 2015’s story was laughably bad, Need For Speed Heat’s story is serviceable. I think the acting is vastly superior in Heat than it was in 2015 and there is a more interesting plot this time around, revolving around the police as opposed to a rivalry between racers. I personally think that a rivalry would have been more engaging but sadly there really isn’t any tension between the racers themselves which is the biggest let down with the game’s story. The game needs a heel racer like Razor or Darius to make the player feel more driven to win against all odds. The issue with having the police as the sole antagonist is that the racing kinda takes a back seat in the story and just feels pointless as a result. Still, I do think that what they tried to do with the story worked and it was decent enough, though it was rather short.
There are a few side stories you can participate in, one of which revolves around legal racing, another revolves around drifting and there’s also a story that revolves around off road racing. I do like the fact that Heat encourages players to race off road as opposed to racing in road cars all the time. Even Need For Speed Underground 2’s SUV races didn’t really compel me to tune up a Hummer, it just felt like a minor diversion in that game whereas Need For Speed Heat makes it feel more meaningful to tune up and drive a SUV.
One of the few letdowns is the soundtrack, though I may be a little biased here since the music is all modern licensed music. I turned the music off when playing the game since it just isn’t my cup of tea. I could cope with some of the edgy punk rock/metal tracks from Most Wanted but this game’s music really wasn’t my thing. I think having licensed music in games isn’t really the best idea personally as I find that music made specifically for a game tends to be built more around enhancing the experience of the game whereas licensed music doesn’t really serve this purpose as it was made solely to be listened to.
This car was painful to make, I think I might have cut myself in the process
Need For Speed Heat was what I expected out of a good modern Need For Speed game, it’s nowhere near as good as the originals but is it worth playing? Well that depends on how thirsty you are for more arcade street racing games since this is pretty much the only one left and even then, there are signs that the “underground racing” setting has moved on but at least Need For Speed Heat manages to deliver a competent arcade racing experience. Chances are, this will be the last Need For Speed game to impress me for a very long time but at least it exists and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. I’d say if you can find a cheap second hand copy, it’s worth a try. If you’re not interested in playing another arcade street racing game though then you may want to pass on it.
Story/Plot: Satisfactory
Visuals: Great
Music: Forgettable
Gameplay: Satisfactory
Customization: Great
Licensed Cars? Yes
Lifespan: Quite Short
Difficulty: Varies from easy to hard depending on your vehicles level
While I can’t say that I know a lot about the YS series, I did dabble in a few of the games and the three games I finished were the modern style YS games in the sense that you control multiple characters as opposed to just Adol. While these games have gotten a lot of flak from die hard fans, I personally had a lot of fun with all three of them. Having tried a few of the older games, I’m glad that these changes happened because I absolutely despise the gameplay in some of the older games and I actually prefer having party members as opposed to just a single character for the entire game.
Now that I have played all three of the modern games, I feel the urge to do a comparison of the three so that you can get a good idea as to what each game’s strengths and weaknesses are as well as my personal thoughts on each one and which one is the best of the three. So for starters I want to talk about the earliest of the three games, YS SEVEN.
YS SEVEN
YS 7
Playstation Portable, PC
YS SEVEN was the second game I played in the series and was the first game in the series to have multiple party members. This was a colossal change from earlier YS games and because of it, the game had to incorporate a lot of new features to accommodate this feature to the point that it became a completely different experience. In a way, that kinda makes YS SEVEN the Castlevania Symphony Of The Night of the YS series as it completely reinvented the formula and was the first game of its kind.
One thing I noticed immediately was the ability to charge up your sword to perform a stronger attack that fills the sp meter up faster, this is the only game of the three that has this feature as the other two games have the sword charge automatically whenever it is not used. Because you could charge the sword manually, this meant that you would often have the X button held down wherever you went just to make sure that your first hit on the enemy would be a strong attack. I can see why they automated this feature for that reason, however I can’t deny that the act of charging up your attacks was pretty satisfying in a way.
YS SEVEN introduced the three attack modes that players had to be aware of when fighting certain enemies to exploit weaknesses. Because of this, players will usually prefer a party that has one of each attack mode and since you have a maximum of 3 characters in your party at a time, you would need to make sure all of them have different attack modes. This is a problem in later entries as it essentially presents several false choices in the form of party compositions, where certain party compositions would be objectively inferior to others. In YS SEVEN however, this isn’t an issue as Adol can equip different weapon types, allowing him to use all three attack modes, making certain party compositions that would otherwise handicap the player a viable combination. The downside however is that YS SEVEN is the only game of the three to prohibit players from removing Adol from the party, meaning that you only get to choose 2 party members to tag alongside him.
The story of YS SEVEN is pretty straightforward and is arguably the most generic of the three, not that this is an issue. There are a few interesting twists here and there but the story mostly revolves around your typical macguffin hunt for most of the game. While this isn’t inherently an issue, it’s certainly nothing we haven’t seen before. If you’ve played any Zelda game or Tales Of Symphonia, you know what to expect. Go to the elemental dungeon, get the macguffin, go to the next elemental temple, rinse and repeat. It is literally chapter 3 of Valkyrie Profile 2 but for the entire game so if you hated chapter 3 in Valkyrie Profile 2, you will be bored to death by this game’s story. I personally didn’t mind this however as I personally play these games for the adventure, not the story, I enjoyed all the temples as they each had their own distinct characteristics that brought a lot of flavor to the experience though I did notice that I spent most of the game confined to dungeons as opposed to travelling outside.
Next I want to bring up the skill system. In order to learn new moves, players have to equip certain weapons and by using those weapons, they will eventually learn the skill. After that, the skill must be used over and over again to further level it up. This encourages players to swap weapons and keep using old weapons to learn all the skills. This means using all 3 weapon types, encouraging players to change their party continuously. I personally see this system as a double edged sword. If you’ve played games like Final Fantasy IX, Atelier Iris 2 or Tales Of Vesperia then you’ll probably be familiar with this system and if you liked it in those games, you probably won’t mind it here as it encourages you to spend more time in the menu, those who hate having to bring up the menu too often may see this as busywork. I personally don’t mind it as I am used to playing games that implement this system.
There is a crafting system but it’s a pretty conventional one. It’s your typical, gather specific components to make the item crafting system, the one you see in most RPG’s these days. I don’t mind it though as it encourages me to gather components from enemies.
The cast of characters are a mixed bag. While Adol, Geis and Dogi are great, the rest of the cast are pretty bland and just serve as the representative of each elemental temple you go to and they barely ever play a major part in the story outside of their own scenarios.
While I did enjoy the music of YS SEVEN a lot, I found it to be the least memorable of the three games, I found the three most standout tracks from the game to be Mother Earth Altago, Sanctuary Of Meditation Breeze and Crossing Rage, those three tracks were amazing, though the rest of the tracks, didn’t stand out as much to me as the tracks in the other games personally but it’s still an amazing soundtrack nonetheless.
So that’s YS SEVEN, a fiercely unapologetically conventional Action RPG for better or for worse, if you go into it expecting that, you’ll be well catered for but there are no frills here. Difficulty wise, YS SEVEN isn’t too hard but it is probably the hardest of the three as you have limited healing items so you can’t just mindlessly mash buttons, you have to carefully avoid the enemy attacks and counter them when the opportunity presents itself to conserve your health.
YS: Memories Of Celceta
YS 4 (Remake)
Playstation Vita, Playstation 4, PC
Next up we have YS Memories Of Celceta, a remake of YS IV and the last of the three games that I played. Memories Of Celceta made some noticeable improvements to the combat system from YS SEVEN, implementing the flash move system that rewarded players for avoiding the enemy’s attacks at the right time by making them temporarily invincible. The game also removed the manual charging and replaced it with an automatic charge so you no longer have to run around with the X button held down all the time. All of this made the combat feel a lot more involving and this increased the fun factor for me.
Unlike YS SEVEN where skills are learned from weapons, Memories Of Celceta’s skills are learned in a similar way to that of the Tales games in the sense that you learn new moves as you fight. It’s difficult to pinpoint what triggers this exactly though it seems that fighting stronger enemies makes it easier to learn new skills.
What did bother me about Memories Of Celceta were the underwater sections. In the other two games, the underwater sections had you sink to the bottom and you could fight as normal. In Memories Of Celceta they added swimming, sure this does make the game more realistic but is that really important in a game like this? Plus it makes combat an absolute nightmare since your attacks are so slow and limited while in water, yet there are enemies to fight underwater. It really boggles my mind why they made this design choice but thankfully this is the only game where this is ever an issue.
Unlike YS SEVEN where you had to gather specific items to craft new weapons, YS Memories Of Celceta features an equipment enhancement system, allowing players to synthesize their equipment with just about any component in their inventory. This allows for so many more possibilities and it is a lot more fun to use whatever components you like to enhance your weapons as opposed to just crafting new ones with specific materials, because it means that no material feels wasted. It is similar to that of Star Ocean 4 and 5’s weapon augmentation but it works a little differently in this game as there are no factors so to speak of, rather there are stats for a multitude of effects that are applied to the weapon which are increased by adding components. Of course there’s a limit to how many components you can add to a weapon so you can’t just stack all of your components onto a single weapon, you have to choose your components carefully and because of this, it’s a really involving process.
On top of this, you can even upgrade the key items needed to traverse certain areas in the game, giving them special properties. This was great as it gave you a reason to use them even if you didn’t need them at the time, whereas in the other games you would only swap between them when they were needed as they otherwise felt kinda meaningless. I never was a big fan of these items in the other games as they just felt like keys to access other areas so that you couldn’t just go wherever you wanted, essentially breaking the illusion of openness in the same way a Zelda or Metroid game would.
While the other two games had completely original stories, Memories Of Celceta is a retelling of YS IV’s story. I personally enjoyed the story of Memories Of Celceta a lot more that YS SEVEN’s as it was no longer just your typical macguffin hunt throughout. There were some interesting plot ideas in this one and I found it to be the most grounded of the three games overall. I really liked the premise of being sent into this huge forest to map out uncharted territory, it felt like I was on a real adventure as opposed to being on a quest to save the world, though naturally such a quest does present itself later on in the game. If you play JRPG’s for the adventure as opposed to a deeper, more complex narrative then you’ll be right at home with Memories Of Celceta’s story. I personally consider it to be the best of the three games overall.
Like all great party members… am I right?
The Characters on the other hand I didn’t care for one bit, sure you can’t go wrong with Adol but every other character didn’t really appeal to me at all. Now don’t get me wrong, the characters aren’t terrible, heck I’d actually go as far as to say that the female cast were the most interesting of the group but that’s not saying much. Duren is pretty much a clone of Dogi and while they do try to make him an interesting character, I can’t help but see him as an inferior version of Dogi, don’t get me wrong, he isn’t terrible but he also isn’t breaking down walls any time soon. The other male character, Ozma is so bland that I had to look up his name because I completely forgot about him. Karna pretty much fits the outgoing spirited girl role to a T but she never goes anywhere beyond that. Then there’s Calilica who is just some really annoying little bratty kid and finally Frieda who is a completely new character that didn’t appear in YS IV there’s not much to say about her besides the fact that she is essentially the cool big sis trope given sentience.
Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack grew on me the more I played of it. While the music at the start didn’t capture my attention in the same way the other games did, the music later on more than made up for it. Burning Sword was great and all but it didn’t blow me away in the same way Mother Earth Altago and Sunshine Coastline did. Ultimately though I consider Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack to be a colossal improvement from YS SEVEN’s, not that YS SEVEN’s soundtrack was bad, it certainly wasn’t, I just felt that Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack was better overall. My personal favorites are Crater, The Morning After The Storm, Gust Of Wind and Forest Of Dawn.
I personally found Memories Of Celceta to be the easiest of the three games as you could carry as many potions as you want. Also the flash move system made bosses a lot more manageable. There are still some tough sections but nothing too bothersome. It should be noted though that you’ll occasionally encounter some powerful enemies on the field that are a higher level than you, which can be tough to take down if you don’t run away from them but besides that you shouldn’t have any problems. I recommend this game for people who aren’t very good at Action RPG’s as it’s a lot easier to pick up and play than the other two games.
I really enjoyed my time with Memories Of Celceta a lot more than I did with YS SEVEN overall, it brought a lot of gameplay improvements to the table and the story was a lot more interesting. The only major downside for me was the cast of characters, other than that I’d argue it’s one of the better of the three games.
YS VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana
YS 8
Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
Finally we move on to YS VIII Lacrimosa Of Dana, this was my first YS experience and it’s the only game of the three that I have actually reviewed so expect to see a repeat of what I said in my review. As it is the most recent of the YS games so far, with the exception of YS IX Monstrum Nox which is only available in Japan as of now, the most noticeable change is the fully three dimensional camera. The draw distance is also quite impressive and does a good job at establishing a greater sense of scope when you’re exploring the island. This does wonders when it comes to keeping the player engaged in exploration.
The combat however is surprisingly not all that different from the other two games, though it does have the automatic charge up as opposed to manual charging of YS SEVEN. Put simply, it plays mostly the same as Memories Of Celceta but with the ability to jump and use aerial attacks which was absent from the previous two games for some reason. One thing to note however is that flash move is a lot harder to pull off in YS VIII than it was in Memories Of Celceta as you have to time your evasion perfectly. This makes pulling off a flash move feel more rewarding though the fact that it’s harder to pull off might be a turn off for some though I personally prefer it this way. In Memories Of Celceta you could perform a flash move during the attack which felt quite weird to me after having played YS VIII beforehand.
What I did like about YS VIII was the inclusion of raids, these involved protecting the village from hordes of enemies and were a lot of fun to do and could get quite chaotic, beast hunts on the other hand I wasn’t a fan of as I found that they could become a bit too chaotic and were more complicated than they needed to be.
One thing that I did notice about YS VIII in particular after playing the other two games is how linear many of its systems are. Learning new moves is as simple as leveling up in most cases, though there are a few exceptions. What did bother me however was the weapon forging system, unlike the previous games which had more in depth weapon crafting, YS VIII’s weapon crafting system is extremely linear as you can only have 1 weapon per character which can be reforged and upgraded up to 3 times. Reforging is essentially replacing it with a new weapon and you don’t really get to choose what you reforge your sword into, it just moves up to the next tier, there’s no new weapon types to choose from and no properties you can apply to your weapons. It’s just a really bland crafting system when compared to the other game’s systems.
The story of YS VIII is the complete opposite of YS SEVEN for better or worse. Sure the story is arguably more complicated but that doesn’t necessarily make it better. One thing is for sure though, the story will constantly keep you guessing and will make you want to keep playing to see what happens next. The problem with the story is Dana and literally everything related to her character, I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling the game but it involves time travel and it handles it very poorly to the point that you really have to willingly suspend your disbelief at times. I did enjoy the twist at the end though. All in all, it’s a bit messy but it will certainly keep you engaged for the journey.
Thankfully the cast of characters are very well rounded and likable, except for Dana. I really enjoyed Sahad’s character in particular, though the rest of the cast are just as likable and well written with the exception of Dana of course, who is the blandest character in the game. Even the non playable characters were more interesting than Dana. Interacting with these characters was a real treat as they all have great arcs, even if some of them are a bit generic, it was fun to learn about all of these characters and where they came from and see how they adapt to their new life as a castaway. It’s just a shame the game had to include Dana as a playable character and that they made her an important character, seriously I would take any of the characters from the other two games over her, she really felt like the black sheep of the group in this game.
I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack of YS VIII a lot, there’s a good mixture of high energy and calming tracks and there are many standouts, my personal favorite would have to go to Next Step Toward The Unknown, that song couldn’t have played at a better time, I cannot even begin to express how much this track got me psyched up for what was to come. Other notable tracks are Woods Of Elevated Coral Reef, A Footprint In The Wet Sand, Overcome The Rocky Path and many more. Honestly this is hands down one of if not the best soundtrack of the decade.
Overall, YS VIII was one hell of an experience. It felt like they really put their all into this one. Difficulty wise I’d say that it’s kinda somewhere in between YS SEVEN and Memories Of Celceta. If you found Memories Of Celceta too easy, you might prefer this one, if you found YS SEVEN too hard, this one might be a bit easier. What makes YS VIII harder than Memories Of Celceta though is the bottle limit since you can only carry a limited amount of healing items, unlike YS SEVEN however, you can gather extra food items that can heal you should you need it so if you run out of potions, at least you have those to fall back on.
So what do I consider to be the best of these three games? Well let’s compare them and then I can tell you my personal favorite of the three.
While the combat systems of Memories Of Celceta and Lacrimosa Of Dana are more-or-less the same, Memories Of Celceta’s weapon upgrade system is vastly superior to Lacrimosa Of Dana’s, so I would say that Memories Of Celceta is the best of the 3 in terms of gameplay.
Gameplay – Memories Of Celceta
Story is always going to be subjective and I can totally see why someone would choose Lacrimosa Of Dana over the other two games but personally I would have to say that Memories Of Celceta’s story was better simply due to the fact that Lacrimosa Of Dana’s story, despite being greater in concept, went a bit too crazy with the whole time travel thing. While it may be smaller in scale, I think Memories Of Celceta’s story was handled better overall as it was tighter and didn’t drag for too long, that and it was more interesting than Seven’s story.
Story – Memories Of Celceta
The characters in Lacrimosa Of Dana are vastly superior to the characters in the other two games. I find that the characters in the other two games weren’t half as memorable by comparison. Ozma is like a carbon copy of Mustafa, heck I’d argue he’s actually less interesting than Mustafa. I’d say that SEVEN’s cast is better than Memories Of Celceta’s cast overall but it saddens me that many of the characters in SEVEN were just there to represent their local temples and nothing more. Characters like Sahad, Laxia and Hummel on the other hand each have their own pasts explored and have distinguishable traits that make them memorable, that and they also receive a lot more character development by comparison.
Characters – Lacrimosa Of Dana
In terms of music, while all of them offer amazing soundtracks, I think that as great as YS SEVEN’s soundtrack was, many of the songs didn’t stick with me as much as the other two games did. Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack had quite a lot of noteworthy tracks and honestly, part of me wanted to give Memories Of Celceta the win here but Lacrimosa Of Dana’s soundtrack gets the win simply because out of all three of the game’s soundtracks, I find the quality of the music more consistent throughout, that and the fact that Lacrimosa Of Dana has more of it than the other two games which is probably due to the fact that the game is longer. Put simply the music in Lacrimosa Of Dana never falters, whereas the other games have a few songs that I just didn’t care for.
Music – Lacrimosa Of Dana
By now, you can see that Lacrimosa Of Dana and Memories Of Celceta are both tied but which one do I personally enjoy the most? Well that would have to be Lacrimosa Of Dana. It was a close call between these two games as they both offer their own qualities but Lacrimosa Of Dana wins simply due to the fact that it is the visually superior game, that and the fact that they added the raid minigame. I know that it’s unfair to compare an older game to a newer game visually but it was the biggest reason why I prefered Lacrimosa Of Dana over Memories Of Celceta. Heck, the story of Lacrimosa Of Dana might have its problems but the story is far more ambitious than that of Memories Of Celceta’s story and is still thoroughly engaging so there really isn’t much between them in that department. Regardless on what I consider to be the best of the three games, I can safely say that I enjoyed all three of these games regardless, so just because YS SEVEN didn’t get a mention in any of the categories doesn’t mean that I think that it’s a bad game, it certainly isn’t. I just felt that the other two games were better personally.
It’s not often that you are able to talk about a game that was never localized in the US but managed to be localized in Europe. Usually it’s the US that get the localization and not Europe, probably due to the fact that to localize in Europe requires you to translate a ton of different languages so that every country can enjoy the game. The Sword of Etheria, otherwise known as Over Zenith in Japan is one of the few games that we got that America didn’t and because of this, the game kinda flew under the radar.
At first glance, The Sword Of Etheria appears to be Konami’s attempt to make a 3D Beat Em Up that distinguishes itself from other games in the genre with its juggling mechanic which involves knocking the enemy back and forth between 3 different characters. In a way it’s kinda similar to Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s metagame but unlike Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, in Sword Of Etheria your teammates can only be controlled by the AI. While having to manually control these characters would have been difficult, it would have arguably allowed players to feel more involved like in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time but unfortunately the biggest issue with the game is that there really isn’t that much involvement at all.
The Sword Of Etheria is primarily a 1 button game, though there is another button for a musou esque finisher called a deathblow that requires what is called the tension meter to be filled to a certain amount in order to use it, using the attack consumes all your tension but the attack differs depending on how much tension you have built up. To build up tension, you have to knock enemies back or into the air and keep hitting them, using your teammates to assist you by having them hit the same enemy. Put simply, you have to utilize this juggling mechanic to use the deathblow. One thing that bothers me though is that the tension meter slowly decreases over time so you can pull off a great combo only to have nothing to use your deathblow on and it gets wasted. Also performing deathblows on enemies gives you more yellow etheria so using them is kinda important.
There really isn’t much else to the combat system, there’s a knockback and launch attack you can perform by pressing forward and back though I find it easier to button mash in most cases since it knocks the enemy automatically with its finisher, there is also a button you can use to tell the AI to target a specific enemy but I never really found it useful outside of boss fights where I used the AI to deal the damage while my controlled character keeps out of the way. You see if you die in The Sword Of Etheria, you have to button mash your way back to life but if everyone dies it’s game over. Therefore it’s easier to just let the AI take all the punishment while you stand far back, sure you don’t get a good score at the end for doing so but it’s enough to get you through the game.
Ultimately the issues with The Sword Of Etheria have less to do with what the combat system actually is and rather how it actually works, The combat system is brilliant in theory and the whole idea of juggling enemies between multiple characters is something I’d like to see in more games. The thing is though, The Sword Of Etheria isn’t the only game to do this as tri-Ace have made two games that completely thwart The Sword Of Etheria in this department, those two games being Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria, both games arguably do a better job at executing this idea than The Sword Of Etheria does. The silly thing is that The Sword Of Etheria has a lot in common with games I like as not only does it have the juggling of those games but it also has a similar design format to that of Chaos Legion in the sense that you are moving between arenas and fight tonnes of enemies at a time. Heck it even has a similar intermission screen at the end of each stage, it’s like a perfect combination in theory but unfortunately it doesn’t really work as well as it should.
First I want to address the fact that the combat is excruciatingly sluggish and while I do understand that making the combat any faster would make juggling too easy, the problem is that the recovery time for every single action is insanely long to the point that simply missing an attack can really screw you over big time as you are left wide open to be attacked. Add to that the fact that you are surrounded by countless enemies that often knock you down with their attacks and you are in for a world of hurt. Sadly the only viable method of crowd control is to utilize the deathblows but they require players to build up tension. The problem is that you have to be constantly on the move to avoid getting hit by enemies and by doing so, your allies will have a tough time knocking enemies towards you. There are times where the AI knocks the enemy miles away from my location with the intention of that enemy reaching me and before I can reach the enemy, the combo ends.
I think what they should have done is given the player the option to automatically swap to the receiving character and also added the lock on system from Curse Of Darkness so that the juggled enemy would stay locked on without having to hold the button down. Also I find the lock on in general to be really difficult to deal with at times and this is due to the AI constantly attacking everything and knocking enemies to you without you even knowing about it. The only way to stop the AI from fighting by themselves is by pressing triangle to tell them to come to you. The problem is that they will go back to auto fighting the moment they reach you, therefore there’s no way to effectively manage the AI, which can make the combat an absolute nightmare at times, especially when there are tonnes of enemies on screen. It’s particularly aggravating when you launch a locked on enemy, expecting the AI to go after it; only for them to launch a different enemy towards you instead of going after the enemy you were locked on to. The AI targeting doesn’t really help much either, in fact it can actually hinder you as they will rush to attack an enemy you’re about to launch, causing them to be unable to chase the enemy due to them recovering from an attack animation.
Unfortunately, that’s just the beginning of the game’s issues. It seems to me that the developers realized that their combat was lacking, so they decided to bring more variance to the levels in order to prevent players from becoming bored due to the game’s repetitious nature but this only ended up making matters worse. Some levels have objects known as “ords” that you have to break using deathblows, other levels have hungry wall monsters that try to eat anything nearby, including the player, players have to knock enemies towards these hungry wall monsters in order to finish them off. Then there are levels where you have to protect certain objects from being destroyed by enemies. One particular level has you fighting fake enemies that don’t have shadows and to kill them you have to kill the real enemies that have the shadows, these fake enemies will still attack you though which is really annoying. Finally there’s a level where you are chased by a black void that hurts you if it catches up to you so you have to rush through as quickly as possible.
These things really drive me up the wall…
These gimmick levels turn what would be a tolerable 3D Beat Em Up into a huge ordeal, it’s bad enough that the combat isn’t brilliant but having to deal with all this unnecessary bullshit on top of that is ultimately what made my overall experience with The Sword Of Etheria a frustrating one. I’d love to point out some redeeming qualities to the combat system but there aren’t many, the characters movement speed is fast enough to keep things moving I guess, also the camera is pulled back far enough so you can see what’s going on which is a plus and I suppose the AI aren’t the worst I’ve seen, it does manage to send enemies my way most of the time but it doesn’t always work out that way. I find that its easier to launch enemies and let the AI build up tension rather than receive enemies and usually that’s what I do in order to build up tension because the AI are really good at building up tension, especially when you equip them with tension gaining gear. Speaking of which the yellow etheria gained in each level can be used to buy equipment and power ups for your characters in the intermission screen, so there is an element of growth in the game but sadly there’s no new moves to learn like in Devil May Cry.
I will give the combat one thing and that’s the fact that it’s quite fun to watch, even if it isn’t all that fun to play since seeing the AI beat the living crap out of enemies is satisfying and some of those deathblows look pretty cool, particularly the level 3 deathblows… if you can get them. The problem is that there’s no real feedback satisfaction to be gained from actually interacting with the combat, sure you get to watch the AI do cool stuff but all you are doing is mashing square each time they knock an enemy towards you only to finish with circle, that’s it.
Now you do get the ability to block though it’s kinda pointless in a game like this as you are rarely in a situation where guarding is worth doing. In the first stage of the game where you fight the first boss, you will need to block a lot since you’re the only character and the fight consists of blocking attack strings then mashing square till you win. Later on though, you’ll be so preoccupied with juggling enemies that you won’t have time to guard attacks. It should be noted that if a player performs a perfect guard on an enemy, the enemy becomes dazed but considering the fact that you only need to hit an enemy a couple of times to daze them, there’s no point in performing a perfect guard. It would have been better had the perfect guard given tension and perhaps changed the player character’s regular attack into a unique counter move that would automatically launch an enemy towards the other characters right after performing the perfect guard, further encouraging the use of the guard system. Sadly the guard system feels like an afterthought which is a shame.
Later on in the game there’s an ability to transform your characters into their Lex Armor form which gives them magical armor resembling that of a mech suit. the symbol on the left hand side of your health bar needs to be maxed out in order to do so which requires blue etheria. Lex Armor form didn’t really seem to be that much different from the regular form other than the fact that it lets you perform a unique deathblow when maxed out so it’s not really as interesting as it sounds. Seems like a missed opportunity to me. If nothing else, this feature really emphasizes the fact that The Sword Of Etheria favors style over substance when it comes to gameplay.
“It’s particularly aggravating when you launch a locked on enemy, expecting the AI to go after it; only for them to launch a different enemy towards you instead of going after the enemy you were locked on to”
So what we are left with is a hollow combat system and large arenas and annoying gimmick levels. The visuals don’t really look all that impressive for a late PS2 game either, I mean they’re decent enough but they’re not exactly striking. Since you’re mostly fighting in empty arenas, there’s not much to say about to levels either other than they’re just kinda there. There are a few interesting looking levels which resemble a somewhat twisted version of the Jabu Jabu’s belly dungeon in Ocarina Of Time but those levels are also quite annoying, especially the first one where you start with none of your party members and have to deal with the annoying wall monsters that try to eat you and acid falling from the ceiling, making the arenas a pain in the ass to fight in.
One thing that should be noted though is that The Sword Of Etheria is surprisingly heavily story driven for a 3D Beat Em Up. There’s even an affection variable which changes which characters team up with you at certain points. The story itself is basically a retelling of The Wizard Of Oz but in the most anime way possible. All the characters are supposed to represent the characters from The Wizard Of Oz but to me they resemble characters from other videogames. The protagonist of the game and the character you control for most of the game’s stages is named Fiel, what kind of a name is Fiel!? Anyways his design seems to resemble that of Wylfred from Valkyrie Profile Covenant Of The Plume, which came out a few years later on the DS. He’s voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch who plays the hot headed heroic role as usual.
Eventually you meet a character named Leon who is voiced by Dave Wittenberg and while this character was clearly inspired by the Leon from Castlevania Lament Of Innocence (due to the fact that he shares the same name and can wear Leon’s outfit as an unlockable), his appearance and personality resemble that of Cliff Fitter from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time who is also played by Dave Wittenberg which is hilarious, especially considering the fact that they’re both fist fighters. On top of this, Leon’s level 1 deathblow is similar to Cliff’s fiery tackle. He also has the tendency to call Fiel “kid” all the time much like how Cliff likes to call Fayt Leingod (the protagonist of Star Ocean Till The End Of Time) “kid” as well. Just thought I should bring this up for I personally found this to be amusing. I will say that the voice cast does a decent job overall (with the exception of Dorothy’s voice), though Dave Wittenberg was the real standout for me here.
Despite all this however, the story as a whole isn’t really all that remarkable, there are a few interesting ideas explored but it doesn’t really go anywhere. The cast of characters do their job but they aren’t really fleshed out, not that you’d expect this to be the case considering the nature of the game. All I will say is that I hope you don’t mind reading through dialogue because there’s quite a lot in this game, you can skip most of the dialogue but you can’t skip the dialogue choices that influence the variables. For an anime version of The Wizard Of Oz, it kinda gets a bit crazy and can also get a bit dark at times which kinda took me off guard.
Is there any saving grace to this mess of a game you ask? Well actually, there is. The Sword Of Etheria has an amazing soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane, the same person who composed the music for many of the Castlevania games. I personally consider The Sword Of Etheria to be her best work as there are some really awesome metal tracks to enjoy in this game and the soundtrack as a whole is full of energy, it really gets you pumped up to kick tonnes of ass. If nothing else, I highly recommend listening to the game’s amazing soundtrack because it’s absolutely brilliant. It is such a shame that the rest of the game fails to live up to its incredible music. For this reason, it’s impossible for me to hate this game, that and the fact that the concept as a whole is really cool.
So to all of you who never got to play Sword Of Etheria in the west, hopefully this review has reassured you that you haven’t missed much, though I do recommend giving the game’s OST a listen to. I can imagine that there will be a few people who actually like this game for its idea alone and to those people, please keep enjoying it. The Sword Of Etheria could have been so much more but it’s far from the worst 3D Beat Em Up I’ve ever played, it just isn’t all that good to me and I can’t recommend it to anyone unless they have to play every 3D Beat Em Up ever made, in which case you might as well. There are so many better games out there but there’s no denying that Sword Of Etheria is one of the more interesting 3D Beat Em Ups out there and people deserve to at least know of its existence even if they aren’t going to play it. Heck you never know, one of you may even be tempted to try it and by all means do so if you feel like it’s something you might like. Just know that as much as it pains me to say it, I couldn’t get any enjoyment out of the experience outside of the music. The Sword Of Etheria is kinda like Zone Of The Enders to me in the sense that it’s a Konami game with mechs that I really want to like but can’t despite their amazing soundtracks.
When it comes to 3D beat em ups, the first thing people usually think about is Devil May Cry and while the Devil May Cry series did manage to bring a lot to the genre, it’s predecessor, Onimusha Warlords is basically the father that Devil May Cry never knew it had as it was Capcom’s first attempt at melding the survival horror genre with the beat em up genre which is ironic considering the fact that Hideki Kamiya would do the exact same thing with Devil May Cry. Onimusha was released around the time where games like Dynasty Warriors 2 were the highlight of the genre. Unlike Dynasty Warriors 2 however which emphasized fighting massive hordes of enemies with over the top attacks, Onimusha instead focused on fighting fewer enemies in tighter environments with a fixed camera and a combat system that required more finesse compared with that of Dynasty Warriors 2 which mainly revolved around mindless button mashing.
It was this contrast that gave Onimusha it’s identity at the time. It was one of the first 3D beat em ups on the PS2 to give the player a feeling of unease. Despite this however, the game’s critical system allowed players to feel equally as powerful as that of a Dynasty Warriors character but that power demanded greater skill from the player to pull off, as players would have to counter the enemy’s attack with near-perfect timing and by doing so, they would kill the enemy instantly. Those who were unable to get to grips with this system however relied on a basic combo attack as well as a magic attack that felt very much like a musou attack in Dynasty Warriors 2 in the sense that not only does the attack provide invincibility frames but it also delivers incredible damage to enemies. With this simple, yet satisfying system, Onimusha would begin a legacy of it’s own, a 3D beat em up that catered to those who enjoyed the slower pace of Survival Horror as well as a more technical combat system.
While Devil May Cry later emphasized a more aggressive, faster paced combat system with the same idea of having fewer enemies in tighter areas. Onimusha 2 decided to stick with the passive aggressive, slower paced combat of it’s predecessor. Unlike Devil May Cry where jumping around to avoid attacks was the only way to defend yourself, Onimusha 2 brought back the guard system from the first game which could be held down to prevent enemies from dealing damage to you. I find that that the guard system offers a much more reliable method of defense than Devil May Cry’s clunky jumping/evading as it allows players to remain stationary and prevent damage as opposed to praying that there is enough space for you to move around like in Devil May Cry.
This is why I personally consider the earlier Onimusha games to be vastly superior to earlier Devil May Cry games and considering the disappointment of Devil May Cry 2, Onimusha 2 didn’t just surpass the series at the time, it humiliated it. Now I’m not going to deny that Devil May Cry did bring a lot of great ideas to the genre, the original game suffered from an identity crisis and I personally found it to be incomplete due to the fact that it is a game that emphasizes flexibility yet only has 2 melee weapons and one of them doesn’t even have unique delay combos, sure there’s a third weapon but it is pretty much a copy/paste of another weapon with longer reach and without devil trigger but at least it’s not as bad as Devil May Cry 2 where all of the melee weapons are clones of one another, therefore only having 1 weapon type as opposed to 2. Onimusha 2 not only has more weapons than its predecessor, it provides additional functions to each weapon so while Devil May Cry got worse, Onimusha got better.
The first functionality each weapon is given in Onimusha 2 was originally introduced in the Xbox version of the first Onimusha but was completely absent from the ps2 version of the game. By holding down the R1 button, the player’s weapon begins to glow. Upon doing so, the player can press the attack button to perform a charge attack. These charge attacks play a massive role in the combat, especially for those who struggle at performing critical’s as they are extremely effective against the larger, sturdier enemies in the game as they not only deliver more damage to the enemy but they also provide greater knockback than regular attacks. Much like criticals, charge attacks reward the player’s patience as unlike Devil May Cry where you are encouraged to chain multiple hits on enemies to build up the style gauge, Onimusha encourages players to take their time and wait patiently to unleash their attacks so that they can take the enemy off guard.
In addition, each weapon has what is known as a “secret technique”. By inputting down, up and square, players can perform a different attack unique to that weapon. The Buraitou in particular has a secret technique which performs a swift 3 hit combo, you can use this move to cancel out a basic 4 hit combo on the third hit to perform a 6 hit combo. I thought this was a pretty nice touch to the game that made the combat feel more involving than just mashing square. The secret techniques are different for each weapon though and can only be used once players locate the scroll which unlocks the secret technique. I found secret techniques to be pretty handy in a pinch as they can stagger some of the larger enemies, allowing you to break out of situations where you are pinned to a wall by buying you time to re-position yourself. It could be argued that secret techniques can be abused however and there is no denying this as the stagger potential makes them far more useful than the regular attacks, though the fact that they can be chained with regular attacks encourages players to utilize them more as a combo extender instead.
There is also another returning feature from the Xbox version of the first Onimusha where you can collect up to 5 large souls to trigger a state of invincibility state only this time the souls are coloured purple instead of green and by collecting them, not only do you become invincible but you also transform into an Onimusha. Your Onimusha form is kind of like Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry in the sense that you become more powerful but unlike Devil Trigger, you are completely invincible in this mode and do not regenerate health. The problem with this however is much like Painkiller’s demon morph, it will trigger automatically once you acquire the last soul so being able to manually trigger it is difficult though you can stock up on 4 souls and wait till you’re in a bad situation to pick up a fifth soul to trigger your Onimusha form.
As for the Onimusha form itself, it does come with a ranged attack instead of conventional magic which decreases time spent in the Onimusha form for a bombardment of magic missiles that can clear away groups of enemies effortlessly at any range which is extremely useful. It’s just a shame that it cannot be manually triggered but perhaps that’s the intention, to require players to risk leaving themselves open for an attack by absorbing the souls before they can transform so that players can’t just trigger it effortlessly. Of course there’s the issue of accidentally absorbing it while trying to get other souls wasting all of your collected souls but thankfully the purple souls are a lot harder to draw in than regular souls.
Other than this, the combat is basically exactly the same as the first Onimusha game, to the point that it still has the awkward tank controls and this is arguably the game’s weak point, as tank controls are never ideal in a 3D beat em up though to be fair there were very few parts of the game where it proved to be a hindrance. The only time I can think of is during the last form of the final boss fight and I’m not going to disclose why for spoilers sake but it does prove a nuisance in that fight. Ultimately though, it’s something you just end up getting used to over time and if you’ve played survival horror games before then you should already be familiar with these controls. Thankfully due to the fight stance, moving around during combat is never an issue and the ability to guard against most enemy attacks by holding down the block button makes defending yourself a trivial matter.
With all things considered though, all the improvements made to Onimusha 2’s combat makes it arguably better than the first game by comparison. I still believe that there is merit to the simple, yet satisfying combat system of Onimusha 2. It may not be as flexible or as flashy as Devil May Cry 3 and other modern 3D beat em ups but it is still quite satisfying, especially when it comes to mastering the critical techniques. Onimusha 2’s combat is pretty impressive for an early PS2 3D beat em up and is arguably the most fun I have had in a beat em up released during the early PS2 era.
Of course you’ll be doing more than just combat in Onimusha 2, much like in the first Onimusha there are some puzzles to solve as well, though they are nowhere near as brain tearing as the infamous water puzzle from the first game, however there are still certain parts of the game where you will find yourself needing to do specific things to avoid getting a game over, usually with a time limit and while they aren’t half as annoying as the water puzzle, they can still be quite a pain to get through and often feel like a cheap way to kill the player. This is especially irritating if you are doing a no save run as you could be doing well in all the combat sections only to screw up in one of these annoying sections.
Puzzle boxes also return from Onimusha Warlords requiring you to slide panels to form a circular symbol resembling a target. Though I’m not usually fond of puzzles in games, I do have a soft spot for Onimusha’s puzzle boxes as they aren’t compulsory and can be skipped but provide a rather nice change of pace from the combat. Some of the puzzle boxes are pretty straightforward though others can be quite challenging to figure out. You will feel stupid when you finally figure them out though. Still I do have to admit that figuring out these puzzle boxes was quite fun and that maybe I do actually like puzzles in games, just as long as they aren’t mandatory puzzles.
We know, we can tell by the size of your belly.
One feature that separates Onimusha 2 from other games in the series is that you can influence certain events in the game’s story through the game’s gifting mechanic. During the early portions of the game, you will find yourself in a small mining village, here you can buy items from the local shop and interact with people in town, kinda like a RPG. It is here that you will meet up with the characters Oyu, Ekei, Magoichi and Kotaro who are all based on real historical figures if that interests you. What is more interesting however is that these characters act as your companions throughout the game and assist you in battle. At times you will even have to control one of these companions yourself for a short time. While this could be an issue in theory due to players having to constantly adapt to playing as different characters, they all play similarly enough to Jubei to be easy enough to get to grips with, though they do have some nuances that allow them to stand out from one another.
It’s important to note however that much like with Valkyrie Profile 2’s einherjar, it is impossible to play as every single character in a single playthrough. This is where the gifting mechanic comes into play. Whenever you acquire a new item that seemingly does nothing, chances are that it’s a gift and can be gifted to one of the four characters. Depending on the item gifted to them, you will get different results. For starters, each gift can impact a variable which affects numerous things in the story as well as what characters you’ll end up playing as during certain sections of the game. On top of all this you’ll also get gifts in return which can range from other gifts to give to a character of your choice or a useful item like a medicine or a power jewel. There’s a surprising amount of depth to this system as there are some unique items that are only available if you gift a particular item to a particular person, some of the gifts required may be gifts received from another person who you previously gifted. They clearly put a lot of thought into this system and as someone who’s a sucker for these systems, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable diversion.
Story-wise, I think that Onimusha 2 lacks the sense of urgency that the first game’s story had and the early portions of the game are pretty slow, though this could be seen as a good thing as you get to interact with the characters more in this part of the game since in the second half of the game, it’s mostly on rails and you barely get to interact with other characters at all, heck you lose access to the shop completely so you can’t even buy gifts for them anymore making your gold completely useless. I think the story does its job well enough though even if it isn’t the primary focus of the game, it is mildly entertaining at times, particularly when you encounter Gogandantess who I found to be quite an interesting villain. If you’ve played any Capcom game before that isn’t called “Breath Of Fire” then you should know what to expect from the story by now, it really is nothing special.
One thing people will be glad to see in Onimusha 2 is the gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds it has. There’s a great variety of locations ranging from mountains, ruined villages, caves and many more. I find that the pre-rendered backgrounds do a pretty good job at building up a tense atmosphere too as do the fixed camera angles since you never know if there will be an enemy around the corner until you go there. Fans of survival horror games will love this, however there are a few areas where the camera leaves much to be desired, particularly in small, cramped hallways where there are 5 different camera angles and 2 of them zoom the camera in further which only serves to hinder the player, making it difficult to tell how far away you are from an enemy, which can be quite annoying at times. If you played the first Onimusha game then you should be prepared to expect more of the same in Onimusha 2 and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They even brought back the castle area from the first Onimusha which looks strikingly similar to it.
Onimusha 2’s soundtrack does its job, it compliments the visuals well enough to build an atmosphere but aside from a couple of tracks here and there, nothing particularly stood out to me as memorable. Perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by the later games in the series which have an arguably superior soundtrack by comparison. Still I do think the soundtrack fits the setting really well, even if it’s not something I’d regularly listen to.
I can safely say that fans of the first Onimusha will feel right as home in Onimusha 2 and though it isn’t without its flaws, it’s easily one of the best 3D beat em ups of its time. If you’re looking for a 3D beat em up with survival horror vibes, this is definitely the game for you. Personally I do not consider myself to be a fan of survival horror games but I still enjoyed this game nonetheless. I think out of all the Onimusha games, Onimusha 2 offers the best of both worlds, so both fans of beat em ups and survival horror will get something out of it. It should be noted however that Onimusha is still an action game at its core and therefore I can’t recommend it to people looking for a pure survival horror game as I find it lacks the fear factor that survival horror games are known for mainly due to the fact that you’re playing as a badass samurai.
What happens when a racing game gets a story featuring cutscenes with real actors and fast paced police pursuits where the cops drive corvettes against your tuned up supercar? You get one of the greatest racing games ever made… according to most people that is. As somebody who started with Need For Speed Underground 2 and loved the whole concept of racing it brought to the table, the thought of a new Need For Speed game filled me with excitement, I couldn’t wait to get straight to tuning up my own personalized ride to compete against other wannabe racers to be the best in the city.
The game starts out with a sizable introduction sequence, which is nothing but race after race with some cutscenes in between in a car that feels completely foreign to you. You didn’t customize this car, it was just given to you, like the Nissan 350z at the beginning of Underground 2 but thankfully you only had to put up with it for a short time. This is where the biggest problem with Need For Speed Most Wanted starts to show, the absolutely abysmal amount of padding and this is just the start of the game’s padding. In Underground 2, the moment you brought the 350z to the car lot, you get access to your first car, from then on the world’s your oyster, you have the freedom to go anywhere, heck you can even freely roam the map right from the get go in the 350z if you want to. You can’t do this in Most Wanted until you finish the introduction sequence.
I hope you like the BMW M3 GTR E46 because you’ll be driving it a lot at the start of the game.
Once you actually get your car and access to the world map, you are presented with a task list. Now In Underground 2 you had something similar but these were just a list of race events you had to finish. In Most Wanted, not only do you have to finish so many race events but you also have to complete milestones and grind bounty to a certain amount before you are allowed to race the boss. While these requirements are somewhat trivial at first, later on in the game they become a real pain in the ass since the bounty requirement is so unbelievably high that you have to start grinding for it. This is not fun, it’s just sloppy padding.
To make things worse, vehicle customization in Need For Speed Most Wanted is insultingly bare bones compared to that of Underground 2. Now you can only apply a single vinyl and individual body parts have been removed, leaving you with only one of 4 wide body kits to add your car. They did add some new things such as custom gauges but was this really necessary? It doesn’t add to the cosmetic appeal of the car, it just changes the game’s UI aesthetic which is pointless to me. On top of all this, countless things have been removed, there are no more spinners, neons, headlights or any of the ridiculous, yet awesome things you could apply to your car in Underground 2, it just really feels watered down by comparison.
Only two body kits!?
What did interest me about Need For Speed Most Wanted is its broader range of cars compared to that of the Underground games since you aren’t stuck with mostly import tuners. As is evident from the player’s flashy BMW M3 GTR right at the start of the game, Most Wanted adds some flashier car brands such as Lamborghini and Porsche. The problem with this is that it can create some ridiculous matchups. Unlike Need For Speed Carbon which later added a tier system, pitting higher tier cars against each other for more believable races, in Most Wanted there is no such thing so have fun watching the AI rubberband you in Fiat Puntos when you’re driving a flashy supercar. I get that tuning up a home grown ride is the whole point and all but I can’t help but find this pretty jarring since much of the appeal that comes from these supercars in real life is their performance, It really diminishes the value of your car.
Now at first, I was a bit disappointed by what Most Wanted had to offer, I came expecting Underground 2 and what I got wasn’t what I expected. This all changed when I got involved in some of the heated pursuit events that were not in Need For Speed Underground 1/2 though apparently harken back to older Need For Speed games like Hot Pursuit. Now before I start throwing praise at Most Wanted’s pursuits, I really should emphasize that police pursuits are a double edged sword and are ultimately the game’s Achilles’ heel.
Somebody give that cop a raise…
What I mean by this is that while Underground 2 allowed me to take a relaxing drive around the world map to break up the intensity of the racing. In Need For Speed Most Wanted, any attempt to roam the world map leads to getting into a police pursuit. Not only that but aside from going to the car lot/customization shop, there’s no other incentive to explore the world map. In Underground 2 you had collectibles hidden around as well as secret races and outruns to do. Most Wanted has none of this and it makes travelling around the world map seem not only pointless but annoyingly intrusive. You can’t drive around at your own leisure without a cop spotting you and it’s a real pain to deal with. Luckily Need For Speed Carbon allowed you to lower the heat of certain districts you conquer which makes encountering police happen far less often than it does in Most Wanted, allowing you to roam freely without worrying too much about police. In Most Wanted they are everywhere and it’s so annoying.
Once you do get into a police pursuit however, the meat of the game begins. This has to be hands down one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had in a racing game. Unlike Midnight Club 3 where the cops just push you around and are merely a nuisance, these cops work together to take you out and they will use several techniques in order to do so. Initially, evading police is a trivial matter, you can just turn around and drive backwards to confuse them or smash into them causing them to roll over and become immobilized. There’s also pursuit breakers laid out all around the map to immobilize cops that are following you, breaking up the crowd and allowing you to escape easier.
Smash everything to win!
Of course things start to get tougher the longer you are in a pursuit. Eventually you will start encountering roadblocks attempting to slow you down. It’s always fun to watch police cars getting T boned and roll over each time you smash through them. There are many ways to approach a roadblock and some will have an opening allowing you to maintain your speed, be careful though as once you reach heat level 4, police will place spike strips on the road to destroy your tyres. Should you be misfortunate enough to run into one of these, the pursuit is pretty much over and you will likely get busted so watch out for them. They are usually placed in openings though they can occasionally be placed in front of the police cars themselves. On top of this there are helicopters that will appear later on which will track you down, informing police of your whereabouts. These things are just annoying as they force you to either keep driving till they disappear or go under a bridge or something to avoid detection.
In any case, there’s plenty to keep you occupied in police pursuits and your face will be glued to the screen each time you get into one. Pursuits are definitely the main draw to Need For Speed Most Wanted without a doubt, everything else feels like an afterthought by comparison. I will say though that if it wasn’t for the races and everything else, pursuits would have less meaning to them. It’s the weight of your accomplishments and the risk that comes with pursuits that makes them so engaging, granted you can save scum to avoid losing your car/paying a fine (which I did) but the option of playing legitimately and potentially losing your car is there which adds a heavy consequence to failure.
The question is, aside from being exhilarating, are police pursuits rewarding? Well some people may be interested to know that there’s a rap sheet which challenges you to reach the top in every category of pursuits. This is optional but it can be a pretty fun challenge for those looking for it, there’s nothing to get for doing it other than having your name appear at the top of the list. Other than that though, police pursuits are nothing but a progression wall. You have to acquire bounty and reach milestones to progress. Unlike races, there’s no money to be earned from finishing them, nor is there anything unlocked in the customization either. It just feels pointless to do all of the milestones unless you are a completionist but you’ll probably end up doing most of them anyways as you may end up getting several milestones in a single pursuit or you may not even get any at all.
To make things worse, if you managed to trade paint with 50 cop cars in a police pursuit early on in the game and the milestone only told you to trade paint with 5, you will still have to do the trade paint with 50 cop cars all over again later on in the game. Seriously this is what I mean by the game’s incessant padding, they should have let you acquire all of the milestones early on in the game instead of having to wait till later on to do the same thing you may have done ages ago. Now I get that the heat cap increases the further you get in the game to give an extra challenge to these later milestones but it sure feels like you’re doing the same shit over and over again at times and it can get quite tedious. Once you reach heat level 5, one mistake can screw you as the cops are extremely competent to the point that they are an absolute pain in the ass to evade, let alone trying to get milestones from them. Should you fail, you have to do them all over again and this can sometimes be half an hour of progress down the drain.
At higher heat levels, police will begin to employ new tactics to try and take you out. Sometimes they will try to box you in, other times they will try to ram you with SUV’s to slow you down. The worst however are spike strips which are laid out in roadblocks, watch out for these because if you hit one, you recieve a one way ticket to the back of a police car.
So now you can clearly see why Police pursuits are both the game’s greatest strength and their greatest weakness, the game clearly focuses heavily on them and while this is not inherently an issue, it can be problematic for those looking for a straight up racing experience. Those who are looking for a Hot Pursuit style Need For Speed experience however will be right at home with Need For Speed Most Wanted. It feels like they tried to mix Hot Pursuit and Underground together and the result is more Hot Pursuit. I’m not saying that Underground’s influence tarnishes the game, it just doesn’t live up to Underground 2’s standards. So many things were removed that were in Underground 2, even Carbon didn’t manage to bring back all the features of Underground 2 but at least Carbon managed to bring back the more important things such as drift racing, individual body parts for cars as well as limitless vinyls. While it may be a shorter game content wise, Carbon feels like a more complete, well rounded Need For Speed experience than Most Wanted. The only thing memorable about Most Wanted’s gameplay is the police pursuits and if they don’t win you over, the rest of the game isn’t going to save it.
The issue with the racing isn’t the races themselves, it’s the fact that the time spent racing will be pitifully low compared to the time spent in police pursuits, mainly due to the amount of bounty you have to grind in order to progress. You can clearly tell that the game really pushes you to get involved in the pursuits and this might be a major turn off to some people. The race events themselves are plentiful and they added an interesting new one called speedtrap along with a not so interesting one, tollbooth which is basically just a fancy name for time trial events. Speedtrap changes the rules a little, encouraging you to drive faster past certain checkpoints in order to get the highest total speed score at the end. Of course it’s still a race and if you are too far behind you will start to lose points but even if you get passed by the AI right at the end, you can still win if your speed score is higher than the enemy AI’s speed score, take that you filthy rubberbanding scum!
The goal of tollbooth is to reach the next toll booth before the time runs out, by doing so you are given more time to reach the next one. Therefore, the only difference between time trial and tollbooth is the fail condition, in time trial you fail only at the end, in tollbooth you fail part way through. To be honest though, this is a good idea as it gives the player constant feedback on how well they are doing throughout the track which is handy for players to see if they’re doing a good run or not.
Speedtrap is an excellent idea as it offers a personal challenge to the player on top of having to deal with the AI, so you can’t just play dirty or get a lucky pass, you have to use skill, same goes for the AI. Sadly however, many of Need For Speed Underground 2’s events do not feature in Most Wanted, while I can’t say I’m all teary-eyed at the loss of street X (fuck street X with a passion) but the lack of any drift events is disappointing to say the least. The drag events do make a return however but I hate drag events almost as much as street X and am glad to see that they were removed in Carbon.
Ultimately the racing itself can still be quite fun, especially if you enjoy the sense of speed that comes from driving at 200 mph on long straights, that is if you can get past all the usual rubberbanding that you should expect from the series by now as well as being able to appreciate a more arcade style of handling. I always found the Need For Speed games to have a nice weighty feel to their cars as opposed to being entirely floaty like in Midnight Club. Crashing into traffic is also a lot less aggravating than it was in Underground 2 as you no longer have to watch a cutscene of your car flipping all over the place every time you make a collision. Sure the traffic slows you down but it doesn’t completely bring you to a stand still.
If you hit a traffic car in drag events you will become totaled and automatically lose the race. The game makes things worst by making the traffic appear at the worst possible time, like this truck you have to drive under.
To make things even less intimidating for newcommers, Most Wanted adds a new speedbreaker feature which is similar to the Zone ability in Midnight Club 3. Speedbreaker allows you to steer in slow motion so you can make more precise corners. It’s a handy tool for newcomers but many people may find that it makes the game too easy. Still if you’re in a heat level 5 police pursuit, you might be glad to know that speed breaker can be used to apply more force when colliding with other vehicles, an extremely useful tool for breaking through those pesky roadblocks.
Now I’m going to bring up the visuals of the game and this is going to be subjective but I’m not a big fan of the aesthetic of Need For Speed Most Wanted, at least compared with Underground 2. The biggest reason for this is that Most Wanted’s Rockport feels bland and dull when compared to Bayview’s neon lit cityscapes from Underground 2 which I felt brought a lot of flavor to the game’s world. Rockport is a shithole and it makes no secret of it. You have your run down, muddy caravan park, a dilapidated coastal boardwalk, several industrial areas and a city completely devoid of character to the point that the only notable things about it are that there’s a police station, an open air theater and a football stadium on the outskirts.
Sure there’s the rural upmarket area of Rosewood but not even that can cover up the fact that Rockport is a declining city. Then again, what better place is there to organize illegal street racing? The grimy colour palette may not be pleasant to the eyes but that’s the whole point. You’re not here to go sightseeing, you’re here to cause chaos in an urban playground, this is partially what lets down the free roaming aspect of the game as I enjoyed driving around the gorgeous cities of Bayview and Palmont just for that alone. Rockport, not so much which does take away some of the game’s appeal to me personally but it is understandable considering the game’s theme and there may even be some people who prefer it.
If you’re going to play any version of this game, make sure that it isn’t the PS2 version as the visual improvements made in later versions are staggering. Unlike Underground 2 and Carbon which aged rather well on older systems due to the incredible lighting that covers up would would otherwise be bland textures, Most Wanted has none of that. In fact if you want to see how little lighting there is, go and download the Rockport mod for Need For Speed Carbon and you will quickly realize that night time Rockport is almost completely pitch black (particularly on the lower settings), save for the few lights in the middle of downtown Rockport which stick out like a sore thumb. That’s because Rockport was designed to appear in the daylight, not at night so there’s minimal lighting besides the orange glow appearing from the sun every now and again. Ultimately you’re going to either appreciate how appropriate the visuals are or you’re going to find them bland and uninteresting. Personally I think the visual appeal of Burnout 3’s daytime tracks is a lot better and that game was released before Most Wanted.
The cars themselves look pretty good for the most part. When compared with the cars of Underground 2, I’d say that while they do look a little better, the lack of neons and coloured headlights really takes away from the visual flair that Underground 2’s cars had which is somewhat disappointing. Despite this however, I think the cars have held up better than the cars in Midnight Club 3 which is a pretty big accomplishment if you ask me, particularly the cars that are painted in metallic/chrome paint. I will say though that Carbon has definitely aged better than Most Wanted when it comes to the cars themselves and that is mostly due to the light reflections on the cars being more apparent, courtesy of the game’s night time setting.
The music fits in perfectly with the game’s setting. Lots of punk rock in here to add that extra thick layer of edge to the game as well as some fast paced electronic music to mix things up. It’s all licensed music so be sure to expect music that was popular in the mid 2000’s. Bands like Bullet For My Valentine and Disturbed are some particular notable ones for bringing out the edge in every single race. I will say though that the music does make the gameplay experience feel more exhilarating regardless of whether you’re into that kind of music so it does its job really well. I do prefer Carbon’s emphasis on electronic music though.
If you thought the series couldn’t get any edgier after Underground, think again.
For better or for worse, Need For Speed Most Wanted was a departure from the Underground series. A lot of people swear by this game and I can kind of see why, the story is cheesy fast and furious style nonsense and while it may not be anything special, it does a pretty good job of motivating the player to make their way through the game. I think the fact that Most Wanted was the first game in the series to focus on the story is the reason why so many people enjoyed the game as well as the pursuits. The game isn’t without its shortcomings though, the lack of customization options, drift events and the game’s ridiculous padding will leave fans of Underground 2 disappointed. I would argue that there are better racing games out there but Most Wanted is definitely one you shouldn’t ignore. The police pursuits are definitely a good reason to play this game as they are definitely worth experiencing. If you’re looking for a game that focuses on the racing itself however, I would recommend Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition over this any day. Nevertheless, as critical as I am of this game, I still think that it’s a solid entry in the series and enjoyed it quite a lot.
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Visuals: Satisfactory
Music: Good
Gameplay: Good
Customization: Satisfactory
Lifespan: Quite Long
Licensed Cars? Yes
Difficulty: Medium
Would you replay? No
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Overall: Good
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Value: £20.00
Sorry for the lack of a gameplay video, I had trouble getting good enough footage to make one. However if you do want to see the game in action, I did do a live stream of the game a while back so be sure to check it out:
On another note, I have recently started playing Need For Speed Heat and so far I haven’t noticed any Microtransactions or Always Online DRM so that’s good news. Could this be the return of the arcade racing genre?
Holy shit it’s that time already? We’re more than half way through 2019 and it’s not long until we reach 2020? You know what that calls for don’t you? Time to take a look back at the past decade of gaming and see how games have improved since the 2000’s… oh wait, they haven’t. They’ve just been getting worse and worse since 2007 and in 2011, gaming hit an all time low.
Before we talk about how terrible this decade has been for gaming as a whole, we first have to take a look at what I like to call the videogame drought. The videogame drought took place in the year 2011 and ended in the year 2014. What a pathetic 3 years of gaming that was, A time where JRPG’s were almost nonexistent, save for a few budget titles that overloaded on fanservice out of desperation in order to cater to a smaller demographic. Aside from the Tales series, finding a JRPG was like looking for a needle in a haystack and because of this, I had to turn to other genres such as FPS and open world action games because that is pretty much all there really was for the most part. Sure there was the odd exception such as Kirby’s Adventure Wii which breathed some life into the dying Wii but aside from that, 2011 was barren and dead.
After 2011, things didn’t really seem to get much better, games like Farcry 3 were the highlight of this year but those types of games were not fulfilling to me. Sure they gave me stuff to do and the gameplay was admittedly fun but I felt that the games lacked the hand crafted feel that games of previous generations due to their overly formulaic design, making them soulless and hollow by comparison. It was as if game developers had completely run out of ideas and were desperately clinging onto formulas and praying that they would maintain our interest.
Of course we all know by now that this isn’t the case, the real reason why games are clinging to these formulas is not because developers have run out of ideas, rather it is the publishers that are the problem, because they are too big for their own boots, they know this and because of this, publishers have to take fewer risks to maintain consistency in their sales, they have to target a broad demographic that can guarantee success and pump tonnes of money into marketing to make sure that everyone knows about it, at the game’s expense.
Now of course there is a lot of good that has come from this terrible 3 years of gaming… for me that is. For starters, the state of gaming was so bad that I decided to focus primarily on playing games from the precious generation, the sixth generation. The PS2 and the Gamecube are without a doubt the pinnacle of my gaming experience and if it wasn’t for the terrible state that gaming was in at the time, I wouldn’t have found out about games like Valkyrie Profile 2 or Grandia 2 as I’d be too busy playing newer games instead, causing me to be ignorant about the existence of those games for what could be the rest of my life. For that reason, the videogame draught was kind of a blessing in disguise, it has helped expand my knowledge on games and has allowed me to experience something wonderful that I would have otherwise missed out on.
Eventually we would reach 2014 and this was the beginning of the current console generation of gaming. For many, this was a time of uncertainty but for me, it was a time of extreme cynicism, gaming was so bad at the time that I wasn’t really expecting much from the next generation of consoles, in fact I had already made the decision to convert from a console gamer to a PC gamer as consoles just didn’t seem worth it to me anymore. I will say however that 2016 was a pleasant surprise for me. With games like Star Ocean 5, Exist Archive and Odin Sphere Leifthrasir all being released in the same year, it felt like gaming was starting to return to form.
As much as I enjoyed this game, there’s no denying that it was a low budget title that could have been so much better than it ended up being.
2017 on the other hand was not quite as impressive. Aside from YS VIII which I wouldn’t play until 2018, and Nier Automata, nothing really managed to catch my interest in that year. While Nier Automata certainly tried, it failed to live up to my expectations mainly due to its lack of focus. Nier Automata tried to be a bit of everything and nothing really stood out as a result… except maybe the music and the design of its semi-open world which while not the best I had experienced, definitely stood out from many other games in the current decade (see my review for more details). Still, it had nothing on the Odin Sphere Remaster and YS VIII which were more focused games that knew that they wanted to be and focused on being the best in their field as opposed to being an all rounder like Nier Automata. YS VIII was pretty much the only thing 2017 had going for it if you ask me.
What of 2018 then? Well to be honest I didn’t really play many games released in 2018, the only games that I can think of are Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon which I enjoyed and Warriors Orochi 4 which I have only recently played in 2019. It was a pretty “nothing” year for me, much like the drought. You could argue that I was still catching up with 2017 and playing other games from the sixth generation. There have been quite a few announcements made in 2018 that caught my interest, but many were delayed until 2019/2020.
So here we are in 2019. So far I have played two games released this year, those being Devil May Cry 5 and Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night. Devil May Cry 5 was a game I never asked for but was mildly interested in because it is Devil May Cry and I was curious as to whether or not the series could remain relevant in the current generation. Sadly, despite keeping the same combat as Devil May Cry 4 with a few minor adjustments, the game was pretty disappointing for me overall. Like I said, I never asked for a new Devil May Cry game, I knew that nothing could ever top Devil May Cry 3 for the simple fact that the dynamic that made Devil May Cry 3 so great could never be done again and any attempt to do so would backfire. Devil May Cry 5’s story felt like a mediocre fanfiction written by the fans of Devil May Cry 4 who wanted Nero to take center stage, I hated Nero, I hated having to use him again and I hated how the game made me switch between multiple characters, fucking up my muscle memory and forcing me to relearn the entire game from scratch which was fucking annoying.
Thankfully though, Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night did not disappoint though it didn’t exactly exceed my expectations. I enjoyed the game quite a lot and it maintained my engagement for quite some time. So I would argue that 2019 was a better year than 2018 for me, though not by much. Still I would like to shed some light on these two games and the companies behind them. While Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night was developed by a renegade development team with the goal of bringing back a series that was beloved by fans, Devil May Cry 5 was developed by a AAA publisher’s development division.
Just to be clear, I don’t think Devil May Cry 5 is a bad game. After all, the game brings back the exact same combat system Devil May Cry 4 had, so there’s still quite a lot of fun to be had in the game… when it isn’t annoying you by changing up your entire moveset every so often. They should have just stuck with 1 character or maybe given each character separate stories rather than having them constantly switching throughout the story.
This may seem like a pretty biased correlation but my interest in AAA titles is growing more and more distant with each passing day. It feels like every time a AAA game comes out, it ends up being either disappointing, bland or absolutely dreadful. While I am glad to see Capcom recognizes the value of their IP’s again, I don’t think they or any company can make those games the way they used to. Devil May Cry 5 was full of fanservice and throwbacks to previous Devil May Cry games to the point that beating it only ended up making me want to go back and play Devil May Cry 3 again, because it is better.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Devil May Cry 3 was a masterpiece and the very thought of a game like Devil May Cry 3 being released today is mind-blowingly awesome but deep down I realize that such things are too good to be true. If a game were to come out that could match Devil May Cry 3, it wouldn’t be a Devil May Cry game, why? Because it’s already been done. We need something new, something that can go beyond what the Devil May Cry formula allows and for a Devil May Cry game to do this, it would have to sacrifice it’s very identity, therefore I believe that Devil May Cry has run its course and quite frankly, I was always mixed on the series as a whole to begin with. I do hope that Itsuno can bring another 3D Beat Em Up to the table in the future, just one that isn’t Devil May Cry and only has me playing as one character instead of being forced to change character every few stages.
Bloodstained on the other hand is very much a Castlevania clone as it was intended and what we got was a game that offered a lot of great new ideas but as a complete package, didn’t manage to reach Castlevania Symphony Of The Night’s level of greatness, causing many to be disappointed and to be honest I expected this to be the case, it was just another metroidvania in a sea of metroidvanias. The genre has expanded greatly since Symphony Of The Night and Metroid and with the rise of the indie market, more metroidvanias would enter the fray, creating a new standard for the genre. While Bloodstained undoubtedly met that standard, it felt like just another metroidvania game, for better or worse. Still it was undoubtedly an enjoyable experience and gave me a bit of hope for the future of gaming.
Now as of writing this, there are still games coming out in 2019 but it seems that the ones I care about are being delayed to 2020 (or in Descent’s case, released right at the very end of 2019). Therefore I think I can safely say that based on how few games I have enjoyed in the past decade, this is arguably the worst decade that gaming has ever had, for me at least. Sure the 70’s and 80’s were primitive but that’s kind of to be expected, gaming was in its infancy back then so it isn’t really fair to pass judgement on that era of gaming. Though the industry may have crashed back in the 80’s, it was a learning curve which led to better games in the future.
Nowadays however, there is no excuse. After having experienced so many incredible games in the previous two decades, this one is an absolute joke by comparison. While there have been some great games like I mentioned previously, there’s nothing compared to what we had in the previous decade. To give an example as to how terrible this decade is compared to the previous decade, I will pick out two of the best years in each decade and list all of the games that I enjoyed that were released in that year.
2005
Devil May Cry 3
Starfox Assault
Castlevania Curse Of Darkness
Atelier Iris 2
Midnight Club 3
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Pokemon XD Gale Of Darkness
Shadow Hearts From The New World (yes I enjoyed this despite the crappy story)
Tales Of The Abyss
Grandia 3 (I enjoyed this as well despite the crappy story)
2016
Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness
Exist Archive The Other Side Of The Sky
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
Now to be fair, I haven’t played every single game released in either years and the list is biased towards my personal tastes but there are many other games released in 2005 that don’t interest me and that many other people love that I don’t such as Shadow Of The Colossus but I played these games for a reason, it’s because I am interested in them to begin with. So many games in 2016 do not interest me so I didn’t bring them up but based on the ones that do interest me that I played, you can clearly see a massive difference between both years and I haven’t even played all of the games that interested me in 2005 yet, I have played every single game that interested me in 2016 though.
You could argue that I may be pleasantly surprised if I try something else in 2016 but you could argue the same for 2005. The point is that there were numerous games I was interested in, played and enjoyed in 2005, in 2016, there is only 3 and that is pretty much the best year of the entire decade if you ask me, 2005 is one of the best but I cannot say for certain that it is the best unlike 2016 because it has a lot to compete with other years in terms of game releases. Heck we haven’t even talked about games like Painkiller, Valkyrie Profile 2, Grandia 2, Warcraft 3 or Mount And Blade Warband, all released in the previous decade and are my favorite games of all time. Only one game released in this decade managed to get on my top 10 list and that’s Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, a remake of a game that was originally made in the previous decade, kinda sums it up really.
So what’s the problem? Why has this decade been so awful for me? Well the answer to that question is something I have been trying to figure out for years but I have a rough idea as to why this is the case. For starters, the biggest thing that I believe has had a negative influence on gaming in recent years is the internet. Sure the internet has been around for years now but it didn’t have as big of an influence on gaming as it does now, mainly because publishers and the media in general did not know how to properly utilize the internet to influence consumers. Nowadays however, the internet is arguably the biggest platform for videogame marketing as it allows for information to reach countless people.
The popularity of online gaming has caused split screen to be removed from most modern games. I miss the days of playing games together with friends in the same room on the same console. Online gaming just isn’t the same, now both players need to own a copy of the game to play with each other. Sure game sharing is a thing on PS4 but it’s just not the same as playing locally with a friend in the same room.
Previously, if you wanted to know about the latest releases, you had to purchase a videogame magazine. These magazines came with reviews, previews and sometimes a demo disk for the price of around £6.00. Nowadays you can access all of these things for free via the internet so why would you waste money buying a magazine filled with information that you can already get for free? Publishers have certainly taken advantage of this luxury, as have consumers. It has come to the point that information on new releases is thrown in your face at every opportunity to the point that it becomes overwhelming. It is nigh impossible to avoid gaming news these days and personally I tire of hearing about the latest games on social media as it’s obnoxious hearing about the same games time and time again just because they are new releases.
Sure I’m just as guilty of releasing the occasional news article every now and again but I try not to make a habit of it and only do so to express my thoughts on something that is coming out (plus I never front page my news articles because I consider them to be filler). Mass media outlets on the other hand throw out news articles all the time, this can get really annoying to me and I’m sure it’s equally as annoying to others. It shoves the games in people’s faces, teasing people with inside information. This encourages more discourse about it which inevitably serves to build up more hype. Because of this hype culture, publishers can sell games more efficiently by throwing money at marketing to attract impulse buyers as opposed to building loyalty by investing in the game’s development to make a strong brand that consumers will support over time. The result of this is lackluster games due to underfunding.
Then there’s games like GTA 5 which had a lot of money invested into the development but most of the money invested was put towards gimmicks, graphics and pretty much anything they can show off in trailers as opposed to investing in a more focused project with more refined gameplay, hence why the character/vehicle’s movement feels so slippery and it blends really poorly into the gameplay because they don’t want to invest in reworking the movement from previous games as despite being such a vital feature to get right, it doesn’t help sell the game so they leave things as they are.
Consumers are partially to blame for all this as they are ultimately the ones who purchase these products but I can’t completely blame the consumers as they are being misled by the media. I’m sure there are those that are deeply passionate about certain games and want to buy them day 1, that’s fine. The problem is however that many people purchase a game day 1 just for the sake of buying games day 1 to be in with the cool crowd and this is a massive problem, most of which is caused by games becoming overhyped.
Microtransactions such as this wouldn’t exist if people stopped buying the games that have them. They will continue to exist so long as game sales continue to generate income. So stop buying games from publishers who put microtransactions in their games!
It doesn’t help that the consumer base for videogames is becoming broader and more divided with each passing day. I did a video discussing this a while back, breaking down each side of the consumer base and how their priorities differ. When discussing politics in gaming, many people think of censorship and journalists expressing offense over controversial social ethics in games. While this may be a problem, it’s pretty insignificant to the real politics surrounding the gaming industry. The real political battle revolves around the business practices in games and the type of games we have today. Games as service models for example have claimed a massive chunk of the consumer base and that chunk of consumers are the opposition to my political agenda. As for me being an opposition to their agenda, I really don’t see how that can be possible but it certainly appears that there is no reasoning with them and they will continue to be in opposition.
There are many arguments made by the opposition claiming that publishers need to implement microtransactions/day 1 DLC because the costs of game design are going up and that always online DRM allows for a more seamless multiplayer experience which is somehow beneficial to people. My arguments are that publishers invest the bulk of their money into marketing, pushing games to be gimmicky and eye catching in order to attract sales. This makes sense from a corporate perspective but from a consumer’s perspective it is a waste of resources that could otherwise be spent on designing something truly ambitious that focuses on being the best in it’s field. A focused, handmade game that is built for the purpose of giving players a refined experience that leaves a lasting appeal on them. This is what the industry badly needs.
YS VIII is one of the few games this generation that delivered a focused, refined experience without the budget issues of an indie title. This is possibly due to the fact that Falcom is not a publisher like other companies such as Square-Enix, Namco and Atlus.
Now a lot of you may be saying “but these games still exist in the indie market”. This is only half true. Yes handmade games do exist in the indie market, there is no denying that. Focused games also exist but to a lesser extent, however the budget of these games is so low that it’s difficult for indie developers to bring the best out of their games which is a shame. To make matters worse, there is also a big problem concerning the indie market. This being the oversaturation of indie game developers. Now of course it’s natural that making indie development more accessible is going to attract a large quantity of amateur game developers looking to create their dream games. The problem is that your “dream game” isn’t necessarily a game the industry needs right now. This is the very reason why I started my Theorycrafting series, to show the pragmatic side of game design in order to empower and inspire indie game developers to create something valuable that people will want to play. Of course this alone is not enough to help indie developers gain the success they need to take over the industry as no matter how great their games are, so long as publishers continue to shadow them with their excessive marketing, indie developers will fail to receive the exposure they are entitled to.
Many would argue that mass media outlets have made attempts to cover indie titles but it’s pretty obvious where their priorities lie, as with the priorities of consumers, AAA games. You see it’s easy to point fingers at the media and publishers but without the consumer’s support, these companies would either be forced to adjust or cease to be. Gamers want news on AAA games, not because they need it, because publishers have conditioned gamers to feel like they need it. E3 is the centerpiece of publisher propaganda, it is a major event that is highly anticipated by gamers, allowing them a sneak peek as to what new games are coming out. It’s the publishers way of saying “This is what you could have, now submit!” and people do so immediately without question, all because of a single trailer that only showcases the product at its best with all of its gimmicks on show.
I can tell you right now people, the hype is never worth it, all it leads to is disappointment. I know this from experience. The hype built for Final Fantasy XIII was so immense that I pre-ordered a Japanese copy for £60.00 to get it early, needless to say, I paid dearly for this mistake so do yourself a favor and avoid watching these E3 conferences, avoid listening to other people on social media hype these games up and wait patiently until year after release to see if the game still holds up and read up all the reviews you can on it to figure out if it is for you or not. Now of course if you have personally been anticipating a game for years and it has absolutely no scummy business practices related to it, feel free to risk a day 1 purchase. If it does have scummy practices and you really want it, wait for a second hand copy. I purchased a second hand copy of Devil May Cry 5 not so long after release on Ebay so you can too. That way you do no damage to the industry, only to yourself… possibly.
By avoiding E3 and all the hype, you liberate yourself from the wants/desires that you feel obliged to purchase and by doing so, not only do you free up time in order to get through the backlog of games you’ve built up through the years but you also save money. Your purchase is more impactful towards publishers than you think. Each time you purchase a game day 1, you are giving publishers your consent to keep doing all unethical business practices associated with it. Sure 1 purchase isn’t going to make or break a company but if enough people condition themselves to be cynical and to willingly abstain from purchasing games day 1, they will cripple the publishers responsible for all of these unethical business practices and slowly help Indie developers work their way up the ladder of influence.
Remember when this game got announced? Remember how hyped and excited you were for it?
Of course supporting Indie developers is highly encouraged though I don’t think you should do so for the sake of supporting indie developers (not saying that you can’t if that’s what you strongly desire to do), rather you should support the games that interest you. Indie developers have a responsibility to cater what isn’t being catered. It is the responsibility of Indie developers to provide quality hand made games for the consumer. Should they fail to do so, they too should be removed from the industry (I’m looking at you Digital Homicide).
It’s not just games that are suffering, consoles are becoming worse and worse every year. Why is this you ask? Well I think that partially has to do with the lack of a wow factor due to graphical differences from a previous generation’s games and that cannot be helped sadly. By the sixth generation, games already had the ability to render smooth 3D models in detailed environments. Take a look at Valkyrie Profile 2 for example, a side scrolling game that features highly detailed 3D environments. It is truly a monument to what the sixth generation of gaming is capable of in terms of graphics and few games can match it, even today.
This is what a 9th gen game should look like.
However this does not excuse the fact that console manufacturers enforce the use of their own services to all users and in doing so, charge for things that users should not be charged for. I’m talking about online paywalls and the biggest culprit for this is the company that single handedly ruined console gaming, Microsoft. Microsoft are hands down the worst of all three console manufacturers as they successfully pioneered this method of exploitation now used by all console manufacturers. That’s not to say that Sony and Nintendo are saints as they are just as bad nowadays but Microsoft instigated the whole thing so they deserve most of the blame for all this bullshit.
So what is the argument for having an online paywall then? Well apparently it is to pay for server maintenance but I call bullshit on that. For starters, PC games do not have an online paywall yet their servers manage to survive just as long as they do on console. Why should console gamers have to pay for something that PC gamers get for free? Well the good news is that there is a simple and effective solution to solving this problem that benefits everyone, it’s called transitioning from console to PC. Don’t let all of these “PC master race” stereotypes deter you from making the best decision you will ever make as a gamer, now is the time to invest in a PC! Start saving up all your money (which should be easier if you stop spending money on games day 1) and get either a pre-built or custom made PC, I don’t care. Just make sure you know what is inside the thing and you’ll be good.
Despite the fact that many PC games are ported to consoles nowadays, there are still many great games out there that are only available on PC.
Once you have a PC, not only do you have access to free online with every single game you purchase (that isn’t a MMO) but you also have access to many different storefronts. I recommend GOG and Humble as I believe they offer the best services but it’s up to you. You might notice that PC parts can be expensive to purchase but you need to realize that PC offers backwards compatibility or just about anything… and if it doesn’t, there’s usually a way to get things working with a bit of know how, just ask around. Seriously it’s time people stop being scared of the expense and complications of PC gaming. It might be tough at first but once you get used to it, it’s not that big of an issue, you don’t need to upgrade every year, you’ll still be able to buy all the latest indie games every year so long as you have a 750TI (or better) and an Intel I5 (or better) because they are not as demanding to run.
On consoles though, if you don’t buy the latest, you miss out on these indie titles as they will be exclusive to only the latest console. If that doesn’t convince you, then the prices of games will. Now obviously the fact that PC is predominantly digital may seem like an issue to those who want to boycott these publishers but there are other ways of getting their games without handing any money over to the publisher. For starters you have sites like G2A, a platform for people to sell their unwanted codes. Nothing harms publishers more than buying their games off of G2A, just don’t make a habit of it and certainly don’t buy indie games from there or games that do not have any unethical business practices associated with them, by doing so, you are only causing harm to ethical companies which is not a good thing. Also you do so at your own risk because if your key was stolen, then you are not only funding illegal activity but your game may be deactivated on Steam and that’s bad.
Videogames are no exception.
Of course there are also those who will choose piracy over actually purchasing games and quite frankly i’m not going to tell you not to do it but I’m not going to advocate piracy as a whole as I believe that pirating indie games from genuine indie developers is unethical. Those people shouldn’t have to work their asses off and not get paid for their hard work. If everyone pirated their games, it would prevent them from paying their bills and discourage indie developers from making quality products as a result. Do what you have to do, that’s all I’ll say. I’m not one who judges those who commit piracy, to me you are just as much of a gamer as the rest of us. All I will say though is to be aware of what you pirate and the harm it does to companies.
So now you know how to boycott publishers, you should be able to take action against them. All it takes is a little self-discipline and the knowledge that by doing so, you are making things better for not only yourself but for everyone… except those publisher scumbags. Before I conclude on my anti-scummy publisher tirade, I should also address another argument that has come my way “what about all the people who lose their jobs as a result of these publishers going bankrupt?”
“Each time you purchase a game day 1, you are giving publishers your consent to keep doing all unethical business practices associated with it.”
To those of you who work under these scumbags, I strongly suggest getting out as soon as you can. You need to have a plan B. I get that you have families to feed and bills to pay but it’s better to leave prepared than to be made redundant later and believe me, whether the company goes bankrupt or not, it will not save you from redundancy, you mean absolutely nothing to these companies, all they care about it money and if you are a needless expense to them, they will strip you of everything (look at what Activision has done to its employees). You absolutely need a backup plan. Companies that do unethical business practices are dangerous to work for as consumers do not tolerate bullshit… at least in the hospitality industry. If you have ever worked in the hospitality industry then you will know that unhappy customers leads to guaranteed failure. The same should apply to all industries and gaming is no exception. It’s always sad to see people lose their jobs but that’s just reality, it sucks but you can’t expect us consumers to keep paying for your wages when the company you work for screws us over. Don’t go down with a sinking ship!
Either ways, the only hope we have of improving the gaming industry is to get shut of all these massive publishers who hype up hollow products designed to exploit their audience and empower the small indie developers who need our support better than anyone and if this means that they are to go bankrupt then so be it. No doubt they’ll be bought out and then if they continue the same bullshit, we force them to go bankrupt too until indies manage to overtake the AAA. Take a look at how seething games journalists are today due to the popularity of Youtubers taking away their influence. The same could happen to videogames, we just need to stick to our guns and not let scummy publishers take our money.
Publishers are far from being the only problem with the industry though. Like I said before, consumers are also an issue. Even if we get shut of publishers, we would be digging our own graves if we carry on being the way we are. What am I talking about you ask? I’m talking about impatient videogame consumers, you know… the people who have demanded Mount And Blade II Bannerlord to be released early. These people are becoming a big problem as they have helped cause countless games to be released in a poor, buggy state due to their own impatience. Now It’s been 15 years since the last F-Zero game, a series I love and want to see more of and sure I have brought up the desire to play another F-Zero game but quite frankly it’s not a big deal whether I do or don’t. Why? Because I have countless other games to play, that’s why!
The same goes for Valkyrie Profile. I want Valkyrie Profile 3 more than I want a new F-Zero game, I honestly do but Valkyrie Profile 3 moreso as I believe there is more potential in the series. The chances of getting a new Valkyrie Profile game are like the chances of getting hit by a lightning bolt in a rubber suit. It just isn’t happening, at least not right now. I accept it and am willing to move on so that I can play other games instead. You know, I’ve just about had it with people who want everything now. Don’t you have better things to do in the meantime? I mean sure there are people like Biophoenix who have played countless games and I respect that they have fewer options compared with someone like me who has yet to play all the hidden gems of 6th generation but I’m betting that many of you are in the same boat as me, in which case you should focus on finishing the games you have or finding games you missed out on back in the day and trying them out. What do you think I’ve been doing for the past 10 years?
I’ve been too busy having fun to care about modern games…
You see, as pathetic as this decade has been, I’m grateful that it has given me a chance to seek out these hidden gems and give them the appreciation they deserve, I am thankful that I have saved a ton of money from not buying games, I’m thankful that I haven’t had to fork over money for a Nintendo Switch since it has no F-Zero on it. It feels liberating to be in control of what I can’t spend money on, I know it sounds silly but it’s true. By avoiding purchasing something, I am making a meaningful decision, a decision to not subject myself to a tedious slog of a game or to make a stand against publishers. It’s so easy nowadays for me to avoid purchasing games, so much so that the gaming industry as a whole feels completely foreign to me. I have barely played any games released in this decade compared to the amount of games I have played in the previous decade and in doing so I have saved so much money. In the worst case scenario that I do miss out on an amazing game, I can get it cheaper later on anyways since games don’t maintain their value nowadays.
I’m not gonna lie though, it does sadden me to see many of the series of previous decades die out. In fact, if we look back at the sixth console generation, there were entire series of games that started and ended in that console generation.A few notable examples being Shadow Hearts, Onimusha and Baten Kaitos. What happened to those games after the sixth console generation? Why did they die out? That’s not including series that had been going on since the fourth and fifth generation that died out in sixth gen. What is with Sixth generation marking the end for so many game series? Do publishers not have the balls to bring them back or are developers simply unable to make more of these games? Perhaps these games were perfected and didn’t need a sequal? Regardless, I can safely say that I enjoyed these games back in the day and it’s kind of sad to see them go, many of those games make a mockery out of the games we have today which is an even bigger shame.
Onimusha got a remaster of the first game but that doesn’t count, it’s the exact same game all over again and still has that god awful water puzzle section that should have been cut out. I’m so sick of people hyping up remasters.
It’s not nostalgia that has blinded me, that’s for sure. Many of these games I experienced in the recent decade due to the lack of good game releases and I noticed that these games were simply better in quality, generally speaking of course. Sure there are some games that have aged badly but some that did age badly, improved and spawned better sequels in the sixth generation. What bothers me is that publishers are pushing for games as service and games that follow the same bland open world formula. Sure there are games like Devil May Cry 5 that tried to breath new life into its series but all of its issues aside, it felt like it was nothing more than a throwback that only served to make me want to play the older Devil May Cry games.
I’m starting to think that game companies have completely lost their way nowadays. Either they release games that harken back to the good old days with barely any identity of their own or they don’t release new games in a series at all. This further strengthens my desire to see AAA publishers disappear from the industry since they clearly aren’t bringing anything of value to the table regardless. Even if a Valkyrie Profile 3 were to come out, the reality is that it won’t be half as good as Valkyrie Profile 2 (prove me wrong please), why? Because it will be poorly funded due to the fact that Square Enix doesn’t see any value in the Valkyrie Profile brand.
It’s up to indie developers to pick up the pieces now and start again. I have hope that gaming can continue but Indies need to be empowered to do so, not just with finance but with knowledge as well. Now is the time where intellectual discourse about videogame needs to happen the most and we need game developers to understand what made the games of the previous decade so enjoyable. It’s not throwbacks, it’s not having the same gameplay with a few minor gimmicks to help stand out, it’s good game design and I don’t think a lot of Indie developers understand this, they are too busy in their own little fantasies and I can’t blame them.
On a slightly related note, what has happened to the Arcade racing genre as of late? It seems that AAA publishers only want to make simulation racers now and any arcade racers they do make are being ruined by microtransactions and always online DRM. I mean there are some indie racers out there but it does hurt to know that this means we won’t ever see a good arcade racer with licensed cars aver again. I know it might sound like a silly thing to complain about but I enjoy the fact that I get to pick from many different real life car brands and race in cars I would never be able to drive in real life, in an arcade racer.
Ironically, many of my favorite racing games just happened to have been published by EA… which explains a lot. Such a shame.
Nowadays it is impossible to do that and it really pisses me off. Need for Speed has been crucified by EA, Midnight Club is nowhere to be seen, F-Zero is dead, Burnout is dead (and if it was still alive EA would ruin it) and all we have left are games like Forza, Asseto Corsa, I Racing and Gran Turismo. These games just aren’t fun to me, I don’t want to have to hold down the brake before turning a corner, there’s no satisfaction in slowing down to turn a corner. I want to drift around corners at high speeds not slow down because “realism”. This is a videogame goddammit!
It seems that now that technology’s capabilities have improved over the past few years, many games have been aiming towards being more realistic. The racing game genre isn’t the only genre to suffer from this issue. Now we have games with hunger meters and games where you have to sleep or become fatigued. The biggest offender of this would be Kingdom Come Deliverance. The game throws way too many needless features for you to manage on top of being a open world medieval themed RPG and all it does it make the game feel tedious. I also hate the combat system in the game for being extremely unintuitive and the fact that the character starts off swinging his sword really slow.
Unfortunately because Kingdom Come Deliverance is the worst game of 2018, the only screenshot I managed to get from the game is of the loading screen because I waited for ages and it was still loading. Anyways this load screen hint tells you all you need to know. Even if you aren’t caught, everyone knows you did it and will be an asshole towards you. Also guards are magically able to detect stolen goods in your inventory because they are magically branded with the word “stolen” on them. Seriously it’s a carrot, how can you tell that this carrot was the one that was stolen? It looks no different from any other carrot but it’s got a red mark on it in the menu so the guards automatically know that the item was stolen, realism my ass. Fuck Kingdom Come Deliverance, it’s a retarded game.
I get it from a thematic standpoint but this just isn’t fun to play for me. I don’t want to have to block in all directions, heck even Mount And Blade has an auto guard feature which makes it easier to guard. Kingdom Come Deliverance doesn’t have such an option so to someone like myself who has little patience/willingness to invest their time learning ridiculously complicated gameplay mechanics, the game is unplayable and I dropped it only a few minutes in despite paying $39.99 for it. Fuck me. I love the setting of the game and how it’s like realistic in its narrative but I don’t need that shit in my gameplay. I don’t want to live the life of a soldier in the middle ages, I want to play a game that is set in the middle ages with a gritty storyline. The sad thing is that the story of Kingdom Come Deliverance from what I played seemed to be quite interesting.
Now another thing that I am sick and tired of in games is elitists in the gaming community who complain that gaming is too easy and that easy modes shouldn’t be allowed in games. Because of this, we have games like Dark Souls that are marketed solely as being a “hard” game. Some idiots seem to have it in their heads that challenge is the core of what makes a good game. Those people have no idea what they are talking about. Sure challenge is an important component but it isn’t the core of what makes a game.
It’s not the challenge that attracts me to F-Zero GX, it’s the feeling of adrenaline you get when you’re navigating complicated race tracks at high speeds, it’s very satisfying.
The core of what makes a game is presenting players with a goal with obstacles for them to overcome in order to reach that goal. Sure challenge can add to the appeal of this but it isn’t everything. There are many other factors that games need to consider and those factors are the rewarding elements I brought up in my theorycrafting video. People need to realize that people prioritize rewarding elements differently and I personally prioritize mastery the least. I couldn’t care less if the game is challenging, I just want it to be fun to play, it’s the same reason why people play the Dynasty Warriors games, they aren’t challenging (though some of them can be frustrating) but they sure are a lot of fun to play. If games like Dynasty Warriors exist and sell well enough to stay alive, how can challenge be the core of what makes a game? Dynasty Warriors games (at least the modern ones) are easy, you just button mash your way through and mix things up if you like with charge attacks. That’s really all there is to it. Yes you can die/fail but it’s uncommon to do so in most cases.
I’m sick and tired of people telling players not to play a game just because they want an easy mode. I’m tired of people saying “git gud” whenever someone complains about games being hard. People have a right to complain about these things, especially if the game lacks an easy difficulty. Being good at games isn’t a vital life skill people. Some people have other priorities in life, clearly by telling them to “git gud” you have no respect for anyone with a full time job and a family. Even if you have a full time job and a family, you need to respect that everyone has different priorities and that’s one thing that the gaming community fails to do. They have zero respect for anyone who wants something different from them and that’s why we are in the situation we are in. Gamers are too busy bitching at one another to unify against all the bullshit these publishers are throwing at us. It disgusts me and we all should be ashamed at the state of the gaming community. It’s a joke.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Gaming community aside, I think when it comes to the games themselves I do have to acknowledge the fact that the developers of the previous decade aren’t going to last forever. Sooner or later we’re going to need some new blood in this industry and that new blood will shape the future of gaming. The problem is that because of the state gaming is in now, I don’t know if this “new blood” will be able to out perform the industry veterans of today. Maybe they will surprise me who knows? All I know is that 2010 was the end of an era. I hope that 2020 can mark the end of this terrible era of gaming and that a new era can begin, an era where great things will happen in the industry but let’s face it, so long as EA, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are around, the chances of that happening are very low. Perhaps I just have to accept that gaming will never be as great as it once was and I should stay cynical, miserable and pissed off about it for the rest of my life till the point that I’m screaming at a brick wall.
One thing is for certain though. One of these days I’m going to get old, when that day comes, I don’t think I will have the energy, nor will I care anymore about the state of the gaming industry. Perhaps I’ll be one of those people still playing SNES games only for kids to think that I’m weird and uncool for doing so. Gaming makes me feel older than I actually am and it’s kinda bothering me. Am I really getting that old? Or is gaming just an absolute joke now and people refuse to admit it? I don’t know but one thing that’s for certain is, the gaming industry is abysmal and I am ashamed to be a gamer right now.
I remember being mildly interested when I first saw this game in a magazine, only to find out that it had the SEGA logo on the front of the box, causing my interest to disappear in an instant. Fast forward many years later after having experienced countless tri-Ace games and enjoying them, I eventually found out that Resonance Of Fate was not only developed by tri-Ace but it was also directed by the same person who directed my favorite game of all time, what could possibly go wrong? When I heard that a PC port of the game was on the horizon and that it was going to be self-published by tri-Ace themselves, I decided that it was finally time for me to give Resonance Of Fate a go.
I’ll start by saying that Resonance Of Fate doesn’t really feel like a tri-Ace game… but it most definitely feels like a Suguro game. It’s as if Suguro left tri-Ace to work with Square-Enix or Mistwalker and carried over some of his ideas from Valkyrie Profile 2 in order to make a game that feels isolated from other tri-Ace games. What I mean by this is that while Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean have completely different tones, they both follow a very similar formula. Both of them being action RPG’s with an emphasis on character management and growth in the sense that you are encouraged to interact with a variety of different systems outside of battle, in order to make the process of grinding levels/items to make your characters more effective in battles more interesting.
Other tri-Ace games tend follow this formula as well but Resonance Of Fate is the odd one out in the sense that it is not an action game, it is a synchronized time strategy game that lacks the fun factor of character management that other tri-Ace games are known to have. Resonance Of Fate kinda feels as if it is trying to cater to a completely different audience by employing its own formula as well as its own thematic direction which feels quite alienating to a tri-Ace fan such as myself
Now don’t get me wrong, Resonance Of Fate does have character management but it all feels different to Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile in the sense that you’re not actually managing your characters specifically (for the most part at least), rather you are customizing guns which can be equipped on any character. I suppose this could be considered to be Resonance Of Fate’s item creation/weapon synthesis as to customize guns, you will have to craft the individual attachments using parts looted from enemies but this is literally the bulk of the game’s character management so you better love guns because every facet of this game revolves around them. Leveling up only serves to increase your weight capacity (allowing more attachments to be placed on a weapon) and the character’s maximum HP, as well as acquiring skills depending on which weapon you have equipped in a linear fashion.
At first glance, the gun customization seems quite interesting. You get to place attachments wherever the hell you want. Sadly none of this is cosmetic so don’t expect Serious Sam Double D levels of gun stacking on the weapon aesthetic but do expect to mount multiple scopes on your SMG because tri-Ace logic dictates that more scopes makes enemies easier to see when in reality having more scopes on a weapon only ends up making it heavier and therefore more cumbersome to use with only the first scope being of any use but this is a JRPG so who the hell cares, go crazy with gun crafting, put those multi-barrels on your gun, it may look ridiculous but you’ll regret it later if you don’t. Gun customization is so important in this game that neglecting it might as well be a one way ticket to the game over screen so you’ll have to do it a lot.
By the end of the game, gun customization becomes less of a cool distraction and more like a bloated weapon synthesis that is more complicated than it needs to be and since it is such an integral part of character growth, gun customization can often feel like a slog to get through at times which is a great shame to be honest, especially once you realize that the guns you create aren’t cosmetic. I suppose the game makes up for this by allowing players to buy clothes for the characters to wear and unlike most games these days, not a single piece of clothing has been sold separately as DLC, they’re all available to buy in game. This is quite the feat if you ask me considering the state of the industry these days. There’s a surprising amount of features available in the character customization, even going as far as to change a character’s eye colour, giving player’s lots of ways to personalize their own distinguishable character at no extra cost, remarkable!
What isn’t remarkable however is the game’s story. Resonance Of Fate has quite possibly the worst story I have ever seen in a tri-Ace game and that’s coming from someone who managed to beat the cringefest that is Star Ocean 4. While Resonance Of Fate may not be as cringeworthy as Star Ocean 4, the story is so incredibly boring that I’m amazed at how I managed to stay awake throughout the whole thing. The plot is pretty much nonexistent for more than half the game as you are merely doing odd jobs for the tower’s nobility and by tower I mean the world because much like in Ar Tonelico, the entire game takes place on a massive tower that soars above the clouds. This means that you will spend ages going from elevator to elevator in order to reach a certain floor of the tower and complete quests be they main story quests or side quests, this gets tedious very quickly as there’s no easy way to travel from a to b in this game.
Speaking of travelling, I forgot to mention that the entire world map screen is covered with hexes. What I mean is that instead of watching your character walk around in an overworld, instead you have a cursor that moves on a top down isometric grid filled with hexes that you need to break through in order to progress. How do you get hexes you ask? You get them from battles. You know what that means don’t you? If you want to progress through the game you’re going to have to farm these hexes which means grinding, lots and lots of grinding and believe me, you will want to do more than just simply progress through the game, you will want to fill in all the hexes to get access to all the loot littered around including bezel shards which I will get to later.
See all those hexes? Once you fill all of those in, random encounters become completely pointless.
Put simply Resonance Of Fate has you spending a good portion of the game following the same formula over and over again. Before you even begin doing the main story you will want to head over to the local guild and do all the sidequests, yes all of them, do not leave a single one unfinished before finishing the main story or it will be gone forever and the rewards for finishing them are a pretty big deal as they give you a lot of vital customization parts that will make battles more manageable in the long run. Plus completing quests gives you hunter points which gives additional rewards upon completing so many and there’s a final reward for completing them all which adds another incentive to do them.
Once you have accepted all of the side quests, now you have to start grinding hexes. It is recommended to grind hexes as early as possible so that you get items that would otherwise be inaccessible early on to make some of the earlier fights a lot easier than they would be otherwise so you’ll spend the next part of the game filling out all accessible areas of the map. Once you do that you will want to start doing all the side quests, travelling back and forth between floors as you do them. Finally you want to start the main quest and once you’ve finished that, you go to your home base, save and move on to the next chapter.
Why am I telling you all this you ask? Because the game is ridiculously hard if you don’t know what you are doing… and I mean ridiculously hard, to the point that you will quickly get burnt out if you don’t pick up on the basics fast. A lot of people recommend heading to the arena to learn the combat system before you even start the very first story mission but even if you do that, you will not learn the combat system because the tutorial does a terrible job at explaining things to the player. You can’t just jump into Resonance Of Fate expecting it to play like any other JRPG you have ever played because if you do, you will be seeing the game over screen a lot.
First things first, the most important thing to realize is that there are two types of attacks, standing attacks and hero attacks. Standing attacks cost nothing to do but during these attacks, enemies can attack you. As Resonance Of Fate is a synchronized time strategy RPG, you will want to spare as much time as you can to outmaneuver the enemy. Therefore it is often favored to use hero attacks in the latter half of the game. It is important to note however that hero attacks cost 1000 hit points to use (1 bezel’s worth of hero gauge). This isn’t immediately obvious however but once you become better acquainted with the game you will come to realize this. Of course I’m going to help you dodge all this needless inherent complexity by telling you that hero attacks use hero gauge which requires bezels and guess what? Bezels are basically your total hit points, your hero gauge is the hit points you have left.
What about the actual hit points you ask? Oh that’s different, running out of that kills you then you get a game over but get this, if you run out of bezels/hero gauge, not only do you lose the ability to perform hero attacks but you enter critical condition where you become severely crippled to the point that you are almost guaranteed to be greeted by a game over screen every single time you see it. Therefore it is very important to watch your bezels carefully because if you run out of them… you’re done.
So what happens when you are attacked? Do you lose bezels/hero gauge? Nope, you take scratch damage (unless you get poisoned which I’ll go into later). Scratch damage accumulates over time and once you lose an entire health bar of scratch damage you will lose bezels for every 1000 health your character has in order to fully restore your scratch HP. Those bezels will become littered around the map requiring you to pick them back up in order to bring your maximum hero gauge back up, if you don’t pick them up, enemies will and they will heal enemies, plus you are unable to gain hero gauge if you have no bezels left to hold it.
Defeating bosses will often reward you with bezel shards, you can also find bezel shards while filling in the map and by fighting enemies in flashing red areas on the map. Collect enough bezel shards and your maximum hero gauge will go up 1 bezel.
Because of all this, it is absolutely vital that you do not level up too much too early. If you have even slightly higher than 1000 health, you will lose 2 bezels every time your health runs out regardless of how much health is actually restored. Of course later on in the game you will need to have more health as enemies will deal more damage but until you have enough bezels, you should try to avoid leveling up too much in order to prevent your characters from having way too much hp or you’ll get a nasty surprise (you level up individual weapons, not characters but with each level you gain a boost in HP for the character). Despite all this you will still have to farm hexes anyways so don’t think that you can escape the monotony of grinding, you will still have to do it… early on at least. By the latter half of the game you should have filled the entire world map with hexes, therefore fighting random encounters becomes completely pointless. Does this all sound like fun to you? I hope so because this is what you’re in for when you play this game.
Don’t think I’m done scaring you away from this game because I’m not. Performing hero attacks not only consumes a single bezel of hero gauge (which we all know by now is a very valuable resource) but it also has you moving forward in a straight line as a circle begins to spin. This circle represents your weapon’s charge and you usually want to keep it spinning in order to improve the effectiveness of your attacks. Once it stops spinning, you have to press the x button to execute the attack. You can also jump in the middle of these attacks and this allows you to hit multiple enemy parts at once. You’ll want to do this often as breaking off enemy parts restores hero gauge one bezel at a time (not the bezels themselves), killing enemies also restores hero gauge so be sure to KO the enemy if you choose to perform a hero attack for maximum efficiency.
Another thing to note is that if you collide into anything in the middle of a hero attack, your character will stop in your tracks causing your hero gauge to go to waste. I swear this has happened to me so many times it’s ridiculous. Some of the larger enemies are especially problematic and while you might think that you could run under a giant golem’s legs are under their massive cannon that’s miles above your character’s head, think again. Ideally you want to be as close to the enemy as possible to increase your charge speed (another reason to use hero attacks).
There’s also multiple levels of terrain to be aware of as well as hazards littered around the map such as barrels and even land mines that are planted by enemies. You can (and usually should) shoot and destroy them to deal damage and possible status ailments to anything near them. Don’t worry about running into landmines with a hero attack, they will blow up and do nothing to you (you are invincible during hero attacks)… but running into barrels is not a good idea, nor is it a good idea to run into walls.
Use the jump ability to circumvent these walls when they appear and be careful when you perform tri attacks in case your other characters are in awkward positions to prevent them from running into walls during these attacks. Try to have them jump as soon as you have access to them, even if it means cancelling one character’s charge. Oh wait I forgot to explain tri attacks didn’t I… they’re basically hero attacks but every character performs them simultaneously for the price of 1, using them costs resonance points as well as bezels, the more resonance points, the more laps around the triangle each character makes, allowing for more attacks.
Did I forget to mention that status ailments in this game are devastating? Be sure to avoid getting inflicted by them as much as you can because if you do get inflicted by status ailments you’re going to have a very hard time. Thankfully you can inflict status ailments on enemies pretty easily as there are no immunities like in other RPG’s. Surely you know what that calls for. I should also point out that the poison status completely bypasses your bezel barrier and deals direct damage to your character’s health so you can die from poison even if you have maximum hero gauge… ouch.
“You can’t just jump into Resonance Of Fate expecting it to play like any other JRPG you have ever played because if you do, you will be seeing the game over screen a lot”
To make things worse, if you want to heal status ailments or scratch damage, you need to use the character with the first aid kit. If the character with the first aid kit is frozen… you’re screwed, prepare to get your ass handed to you very quickly. Each characters can equip two items, either a handgun, SMG, Grenade, ammo box or first aid kit. Handguns deal HP damage but not much of it, they’re pretty worthless tbh, at least if you have plenty of grenades. When fully charged, the damage they deal doesn’t increase so don’t bother charging them up unless you want to get a higher chance of gauge breaking.
Gauge breaking splits the enemy’s health gauge into segments and when a segment is depleted, players are rewarded with an extra bezel of hero gauge. This can be handy against enemies who lack breakable parts but it isn’t always needed. SMG’s deal scratch damage and while they cannot kill enemies like handguns, you will use them a lot because they are your main DPS. Fully charging the gun apply’s damage multipliers to your attack so be sure to fully charge your SMG as soon as possible.
Once you gain a second SMG (new weapons are very rare and hard to come by in this game), it is highly recommended you replace someone’s handgun with it. You only need one handgun user. Grenades deal both scratch and HP damage in an AOE. Grenades are very handy later on in the game and it’s recommended to have someone use both a grenade and a SMG. Finally there’s the ammo box which changes the properties of the attack you are using. Some bullets apply status effects while others apply additional damage, you’ll need a gun to use them though, grenades won’t work.
The goal of the game is to lower the enemy’s health with scratch damage then finish via SMG’s/grenades then finish with either the handgun or a grenade which converts all the scratch damage delivered to enemies into HP damage, much like Final Fantasy Dissidia’s brave damage is converted into hp damage, the difference is that scratch damage heals over time, this applies to you as well, however enemies cannot deal direct damage to your hp unless they poison you.
Did you bother to read this far without being scared off? If so then you may actually enjoy this game… fancy that! For those that are wondering why I told you all of this information instead of actually critiquing the game’s combat is because I want to illustrate to you all just how goddamn complicated this game is. Now that you have read all that, you never have to do the tutorial of Resonance Of Fate as I have saved you so much precious time that you probably won’t appreciate as much as you should. As for my thoughts on the combat, Resonance Of Fate is basically Valkyrie Profile 2 if you removed all of the action, attack areas and the dash ability was replaced with hero attacks, with layers upon layers of inherent complexity dumped on top of it. Does it need to be this complicated? Of course not. The question is, is there enough depth to make up for the game’s ridiculous complexity?
Well let’s just say that by the latter half of the game I found an exploit, if you can read between the lines of my explanation on how the combat system works you can probably figure it out but for the sake of keeping the experience as fun as possible for you, I shall not spoil that exploit. Let’s just say that finding this exploit made the latter half of the game a lot easier. Don’t get me wrong I still had trouble with some sections but the boss fights in particular became considerably easier once I figured out how to deal with them. In fact I’d even go as far as to say that the fewer enemies on screen, the easier the battles get later on. Ultimately the answer to the question I asked at the end of my last paragraph is both yes and no. Does it have a lot of depth? Yes, does it have enough depth to outweigh the level of inherent complexity? No.
Resonance Of Fate may require an encyclopedia of information to play but once you finally figure out how to play it, it’s not really all that difficult, heck I found the final boss to be an absolute joke compared to some of the earlier encounters in the game simply because by that point I had learned the game’s combat system well enough to know the best way to win. There were some tough fights in the final dungeon though so I wouldn’t say that the game became an absolute cakewalk by the end, rather it became considerably easier to the point that certain sections became a joke. In other words, expect a lot of difficulty spikes. One group of enemy encounters may not be as tough as another group of enemy encounters and vice versa, regardless of where you are in the game. Some enemy encounters are going to be a pain in the ass whereas others are monotonous to get through because you already know exactly how to win against them.
I will say though that learning the game did actually feel quite satisfying, even if most of it is inherently complex. I think RPG’s require a certain amount of inherent complexity in order for them to be somewhat cryptic for the sake of keeping things interesting, just not as inherently complex as Resonance Of Fate. To enjoy this game to its fullest you are going to need patience and a lot of it. The gameplay can be enjoyable if you’re willing to invest time into mastering it but it takes a special kind of gamer to do that and quite frankly I’m not one of those people. I still enjoyed it to a certain degree though. I wouldn’t say you need to be a hardcore JRPG fan to be able to enjoy this game, anyone can jump into it so long as they have the patience to learn something new as hardcore JRPG fans will have just as much to learn as people who don’t play JRPG’s, old methods won’t work here.
Leveling up is pointless, especially early on as you don’t have many weapon attachments available to you. Later on you’ll likely have gained so many levels anyway that you won’t need to grind at all and there’s barely any benefit in doing so, especially if you have filled all your weapon slots.
I think if the story was better, the learning curve of the gameplay may have been more tolerable but sadly this is not the case. You’re probably wondering if the story picks up in the latter half of the game. I’d say that it picks up in the final quarter of the game but I’d also argue that by the time the story picks up, it feels a bit rushed. Unlike Valkyrie Profile which had a similar problem with its story but made up for it with its excellent world building, Resonance Of Fate’s world building is severely lacking which is devastating considering how ambitious the game’s setting is.
I would have liked to learn more about the poorer areas of the tower and maybe have the lower level inhabitants involved in the game’s story but sadly they’re kinda just there, there’s nothing to truly distinguish rich and poor except one side of the tower has sewage and debris everywhere while the other is more opulent in its appearance. There is a bit of dialogue from NPC’s that give a few more implications of poverty but there’s not enough to truly make the world valuable, it just feels empty and I think this is what ultimately lets the game down the most.
Could you get any less nuanced than this?
On the plus side, the game has the tendency to throw in quite a few gags in between some of the earlier missions and to be honest these gags are the best part of the game’s story even though they aren’t really relevant to the story at all. The story appears to build up to something big at first but you’ll be surprised to find out that the story is actually very simplistic. Put simply Resonance Of Fate’s story is at its best when it doesn’t take itself seriously, when it does take itself seriously, it falls flat on its ass. Even Star Ocean 4 ties its story together better than Resonance Of Fate and that’s saying something considering how many times the story gets side tracked in that game. I swear there is so much needless bullshit in this game it is unbelievable.
The characters themselves are a mixed bag… and there’s only 3 of them. You have the edgy teenager, the funky middle aged dude and the chick. The only character worth noting is the funky middle aged dude, Vashyron. I found Vashyron’s characterization to be the most diverse of the three as he has a pretty well rounded mixture of seriousness and goofiness that makes him somewhat unpredictable. He’s a pretty laid back character for the most part and often acts as the voice of reason for the group.
Leanne is quite odd in the sense that she is written as a fiery, strong-willed and likable character but at the same time some of her lines express a lack of confidence in her abilities. It’s pretty jarring to watch her kicking ass in battle only to beat herself up by saying that she’s an amateur. To make matters worse, the other character’s beat her down as well by making out that she’s a novice, even later on in the game. I find that this ruins what would have been a pretty refreshing character. I’m not a feminist or anything, I’d just rather they written her into a stronger, more confident character considering her traits and all.
Finally there’s captain edgelord, Zephyr. Every single time I look at this character a linkin park song starts playing in my head. He’s almost always moping, so much so that he could give Cloud, Squall and even Sieg Wahrheit a run for their money. In fact he is so unbelievably emo and edgy that i dyed his hair red and dressed him in white just so that he could look as close to Sieg Wahrheit as possible. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for these types of characters most of the times, mostly because I find them amusing and Zephyr doesn’t disappoint in this regard, his character is so unbelievably edgy it’s laughable. I can’t say that his character is any good though… unless you’re into edgy shit I doubt you’ll give a shit about him.
Would it kill you to smile?
I also regret to inform you that the music, while not terrible is pretty sub par for Motoi Sakuraba’s standards. Usually he shines in most tri-Ace games but Resonance Of Fate is arguably his weakest tri-Ace soundtrack. There’s some nice prog rock tracks here and a few good ambient ones but nothing particularly stood out to me as being memorable. I’d say the boss theme is probably the most memorable of the bunch. Ultimately I’m disappointed by the soundtrack of this game, maybe it’s because Motoi Sakuraba focused more on his prog rock this time round which didn’t appeal to me as much as his more mixed approach of orchestral/prog rock. I suppose it’s a matter of taste but this is no Valkyrie Profile 2.
Voice acting on the other hand is pretty good compared to that of most tri-Ace games. While the main cast of characters have surprisingly natural voice acting, some of the cardinals in particular have some really hammy voices, so you get the best of both worlds in this game. I think the voice acting for the main characters in particular was the best part though, especially since the game revolves around the three of them and you hear them talking to each other a lot. They feel like actual conversations, not forced lines that feel misplaced like in Star Ocean 4. It really makes the world feel more natural and believable even though it’s clearly ridiculous and surreal like other JRPG’s.
Visually the game looks pretty decent, Valkyrie Profile 2’s art style seems to linger a bit here though there’s a lot of brown and grey sadly, possibly due to the game’s steampunk setting which lets it down a bit if you ask me. I think the character designs offer a nice contrast to this however. Put simply, Resonance Of Fate is very grungy yet somewhat refined in the visual department. I suppose you can’t expect too much from a giant tower now can you… regardless I do think the visuals meet tri-Ace’s standards of quality so that’s something I suppose, I just think that the grey and brown really isolates this game from other tri-Ace games as there is a clear lack of vibrancy by comparison which I find to be rather bothersome.
Resonance Of Fate is a very difficult game to recommend. You are going to need both patience and tolerance to get through this game but if you can cope with the game’s complexity and the story doesn’t bother you, I believe that you can find some value out of this game. For everyone else this game is a tedious slog that should be avoided. If you plan on picking this up, I recommend the PC version if you can, it is a pretty solid port and the only thing you’re missing is SEGA outfits since SEGA aren’t part of this game anymore. The graphical quality of the PC version is vastly superior and all of the issues have been fixed. Support great PC ports people, the industry needs more of them!
Back in the 90’s we didn’t have digital games, all we had were cartridges that were designed to only work with a specific console so we kinda just accepted exclusivity because of the complications that came with creating different physical formats for each system.
Nowadays we have digital games yet there are still so many games that we cannot access unless we own the platform it is exclusive to. With PC having emulators that can play games from all previous consoles as well as having support for all controller types, there’s no reason these games shouldn’t be on there. Every single game ever created should be playable on PC/Mobile. Enough of this exclusivity bullshit!
The genre widely known as “metroidvania” has been very popular in the indie market. Many metroidvanias tend to follow in the footsteps of the original Metroid but Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is not one of those games (not directly at least). For those of you who don’t know, Bloodstained is a spiritual successor of the Castlevania series, particularly Symphony Of The Night which was directed by Toru Hagihara and Koji Igarashi, a game that changed up the Metroid formula to pioneer a completely new take on the formula. Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night continues the legacy of Koji Igarashi’s revolutionary Igavania genre.
What is an Igavania you ask? Is it just a fancy name for metroidvania? It is… sort of but not really as Igavania defines a game that has all the tight, methodical exploration of the Metroid games but with more emphasis on RPG elements to spice things up. I love this as it allows me to grind levels and farm items while I find my way around the confusing levels in order to make progress. Put simply there’s always something to do in Igavania games and Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is no exception.
Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night doesn’t just give you content, it overwhelms you with it. Right from the get go you are introduced to the game’s shard mechanic, similar to Aria Of Sorrow’s soul mechanic only this time you can upgrade your shards and each shard in your inventory stacks with other shards of the same type to amplify its capabilities. On top of all this there’s crafting, cooking, sidequests and tonnes of secrets to find. I hope you have plenty of time on your hands because this game will keep you up till the early hours in the morning.
Like other games of its kind, Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night’s gameplay functions very much like a platformer but with an emphasis on combat. What I mean by this is that the combat is very over simplified in these types of games as most of the time you will only be pressing the attack button to do a basic attack over and over again rather than building up combos like a beat em up would have you do. Despite this, Bloodstained adds an extra layer of flexibility in the form of special moves that require input commands to pull off. This likely harkens back to Symphony Of The Night’s magic system where you had to input commands similar to that of a special move in Street Fighter. Special attacks are unique to certain weapons but can be mastered in order to be used by all weapons of its type, therefore encouraging more experimentation with the combat.
As for the shards themselves, you can equip 1 shard of each type. You have your red shards which are used for a multitude of things including summons, then you have your blue shards which drain your mp over time, triggering certain effects, purple shards are directional, therefore you can adjust where they are fired using the right analog stick. Passive shards are special as maxing them out permanently applies a weaker version of their affects to Miriam even if they aren’t equipped. Finally you have green shards which can summon familiars, not to be confused with the red shard summons which are temporary, these companions will stick with you and level up in order to become stronger, much like the familiars in Symphony Of The Night.
With all this in mind, there are a lot of things to be mindful of in this game and there are a lot of things that may easily be missed on a first playthrough, particularly if you get well acquainted with your setup. Fortunately the game has a new game + feature which allows you to carry almost everything over from your previous playthrough allowing you to experiment further with everything you have acquired. There is so much experimentation to do in this game and much like in Symphony Of The Night, certain setups completely break the game’s difficulty, making you feel like an unstoppable god. Then again, what do you expect from a game that has such diverse flexibility? There’s just something quite satisfying to see and experience Miriam going from a frail shardbinder to a savage beast by the end of the game making Alucard’s shield rod exploit look like a freaking joke by comparison, if you can think it, chances are you can probably do it in this game, though the game does have its limits sadly.
The platforming is as straightforward as you would expect from a metroidvania but it is a lot of fun. Miriam has countless movement options at her disposal which can be very useful in all kinds of situations. With the help of shards she can pull off some insane maneuvers that would make even the most athletic videogame characters gasp in amazement. I’ve set to play a game that features platforming as loose as Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night, the freedom and awe of Miriam’s movement is liberating and exciting which does wonders for the game’s pacing. The level design is strongly reminiscent of Symphony Of The Night in a lot of areas but it also has some interesting ones with a few nice platforming sections along the way. It never feels to overbearing though and is accessible for those who suck at platformers.
Like in Symphony Of The Night, you are inevitably going to come across certain progression barriers which require certain items (usually shards) to progress. While I was never a big fan of these progression barriers, I think they are spread out just enough to avoid being a nuisance. One issue I have with the game however is that while Dominique offers hints on how to progress through these areas, these hints are never repeated and if you miss them, you may end up not knowing where to go at certain points because there are certain parts of the game that are quite vague, requiring the use of a guide. The good ending is especially notorious for being incredibly vague, there’s no way I would have figured out how to get it without a guide. While I get that back in the day this sort of thing was used as padding to keep you hunting for things you may have missed, nowadays it’s just a nuisance, especially when the 2 bad endings are literally game over screens, they make Valkyrie Profile’s B ending look phenomenal by comparison.
“I hope you have plenty of time on your hands because this game will keep you up till the early hours in the morning.”
The visuals are noticeably different this time around, putting a heavy emphasis on vibrancy over detail. Some areas are better than others and those that are highly detailed tend to be the ones that stand out the most. Bloodstained is clearly going for a different tone to Castlevania as it lacks the feeling of melancholy that the Castlevania series was known to have. Instead, Bloodstained opts for a colourful, vibrant look which completely demolishes the tone of the Castlevania games, making Bloodstained’s visual representations look more comical by comparison. While the Castlevania series has always had its comical moments such as finding chicken hidden in walls, Bloodstained just goes all out with it and in doing so, sacrifices some of Castlevania’s appeal as a result.
What Symphony Of The Night did well was melding different aesthetic themes together such as the lava filled catacombs, the transition from the castle cellar into icy tunnels that flooded with water and Olrox’s Quarters which melded stately architecture with a gloomy dungeon. The latter of which is one of my favorites as the contrast between the two themes not only has a sense of irony but it makes sense as it illustrates the darker side of the castle while also illustrating the majestic feeling of the castle. Now Bloodstained does have a few areas that mix in multiple themes such as the Libre Ex Machina but some areas are lacking such as the Forbidden Underground Waterway and the Infernal Caverns which feel rather uninspired compared to their Symphony Of The Night counterparts which is a shame.
Some of the 3D backdrops look gorgeous, they remind me of Valkyrie Profile 2 a little
Ultimately if I was to judge Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night as a Castlevania game, I’d argue that the visuals were a massive disappointment but as a standalone game, I’d say that the visuals are pretty good for the most part as the vibrancy is dazzling in many areas. I think that the visuals are going to be something you’ll either love or hate depending on what you expect from them, it’s kinda how Diablo 3 completely changed the tone of the visuals from Diablo 2 but Bloodstained isn’t a Castlevania game in name, so it gets away with it.
The music, while enjoyable to listen to, felt a bit sub par for Michiru Yamane’s standards. I think she did a much better job in Curse Of The Moon and other Castlevania games than she did in this. Now don’t get me wrong, the game does feature some great tracks but I find that they lack the majestic and melancholic feel of Symphony Of The Night’s soundtrack. Another complaint is that there are a few areas that have no music playing whatsoever, granted those areas are short but I think not having music in them is a bit of a shame. Much like the visuals though, if you never played any of the other Castlevania games or heard any of Michiru Yamane’s work before, you will probably enjoy the game’s soundtrack a lot as it is really good, just not as good as her previous work.
There are a few issues in the game to note, the biggest issue is that the game has the tendency to crash every now and again. It should also be noted that Miriam’s death animation doesn’t always occur when you get a game over and getting knocked down to 0 health merely transitions to the game over screen. While this isn’t a major issue, it can make the game look a bit sloppy. One thing that did bother me about the game is that while you can skip dialogue, you can’t skip the in game animations during all the dialogue, forcing you to watch characters move around awkwardly with no context should you wish to skip through the scenes.
Speaking about scenes, the story isn’t really anything special, then again neither were the Castlevania game’s storylines. There’s quite a lot of dialogue in the game and quite a few people to interact with but there really isn’t much to say about it. There are a few scenes that made me chuckle though. I think the biggest problem with the story is that the characters you interact with don’t really have anything interesting to say, they try to give a little backstory on things but there isn’t any strong connection between the characters, even though the game clearly expects you to care about them. I don’t think this is a big deal though and is easily overlooked considering the fact that you’ll be too invested in the gameplay to care about the story.
In any case, regardless of its shortcomings, Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is a highly engaging experience to the point that the game’s issues aren’t likely to become bothersome to anyone craving a solid metroidvania experience. Those that are expecting Symphony Of The Night will find this game to be a poor imitation but the same can be said for all spiritual successors. On its own Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is a solid game that is a great entry point for newcomers and an enjoyable throwback for veterans of the genre. There’s something for everyone here and I think it would be wise to pick the game up and give it a try if you are on the fence, just don’t go in expecting it to live up to Symphony Of The Night or you may end up disappointed.
Plot/Story: Mediocre
Visuals: Good
Gameplay: Great
Music: Good
Difficulty: Medium
Lifespan: Quite Short (To beat)/Quite Long (To do the side stuff)
I hate making blog posts like this, I really do. I like to assume that my readers are smart and know a lot about videogames, therefore I don’t like to waste their time on articles like this because I find it to be an insult to their intelligence. However I have reached the point where I feel the need to speak out about this because the ignorance of some people out there frustrates me to no end and the only way to solve this issue is to educate people on what should be common sense because I am sick and tired of people who are so unbelievably gullible that buy a game in a series day 1, complain about it post-launch, then proceed to buy the next game in the series day 1 expecting it to be better. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? It is and that’s why something has to change, right now, hence the reason why I wrote this article.
Anyways it is time we discussed the Final Fantasy series, a series I barely ever talk about surprisingly enough. Back in my youth I was a huge fan of the series to the point that I believed that the series could do no wrong. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, having the name “Final Fantasy” on the box was like a seal of quality, a symbol of a truly amazing JRPG experience. Nowadays, while the brand continues to thrive, recent titles in the series have received a lot of flak, a lot of which I find is deserved, though others would argue that much of the backlash given to recent games was blown out of proportion. Personally I’m not too fond of the newer Final Fantasy games myself, not that my opinion amounts to anything in relevance to this topic, just be aware that I’m not writing this to express my personal bias, rather I am writing this to express why opinions are so divided on the latest installments in the series.
This isn’t Final Fantasy
With the release of Final Fantasy XV, many people were disappointed and quick to hate on the game. Others were satisfied with the game and praised it. Put simply, the game had a mixed reception, something that I predicted would happen many years before its release. In fact the exact same thing happened with Final Fantasy XIII, a game that many were anticipating for quite a while, only to be bitterly disappointed upon release. I was one of those people. I imported a copy of Final Fantasy XIII before its regional launch because I was so excited to play it, heck I even paid £60.00 for it, no joke. This would have been my most regrettable purchase of all time… if it didn’t shape me into the gamer I am today.
You see, it was after playing Final Fantasy XIII and Dissidia Duodecim that I gave up on the series entirely. After that I vowed never play another Final Fantasy game ever again and stuck to my words ever since, hence why you rarely ever see me talking about this series. The only reason why I’m even bringing up this series to begin with is because I believe that it is the perfect example of what I shall call a “brand facade” and I think such a topic is very important to discuss, because it greatly affects the industry as we speak and is starting to become a major issue with games in general. It’s about time I expose this once and for all so that people can finally understand what truly matters in gaming, it’s the very reason why I started blogging in the first place and it’s about damn time I lived up to the name “Cynical Gaming Blog”.
Now I’m not necessarily trying to imply that branding is inherently a bad thing, rather I wish for people to realize that branding can potentially be a bad thing. I want people to understand that Final Fantasy is nothing more than a brand name and that brand names are inherently meaningless to consumers. So why do we have branding? That’s simple, publishers of course… why else? After all, the whole point of this entire site is to point my finger at publishers every time there’s a problem with the gaming industry because 9 times out of 10, they are the ones to blame for all the bullshit.
While branding is not inherently a bad thing, I believe that Square-Enix have misused the Final Fantasy brand name, essentially taking advantage of Hironobu Sakaguchi’s legacy for the sake of maintaining their sales numbers. From a corporate perspective, this is perfectly understandable, after all they are a business and making money is essential for businesses to thrive but I’m not here to talk about a corporate perspective, I am a consumer and I wish to speak from the perspective of a consumer for the sake of other consumers so that I can hopefully empower other consumers with knowledge, knowledge that I believe everyone needs to know right now. Therefore, ever since Sakaguchi’s departure from Square-Enix, I believe that every single Final Fantasy game released since then has been a lie.
Now don’t misunderstand my point, I am not saying that modern Final Fantasy games are bad, rather I am saying that they are not truly Final Fantasy games. Why? Because Hironobu Sakaguchi himself was the core of what made Final Fantasy what it was, without him, Final Fantasy is nothing but a hollow shell, he was the creative mind behind it, therefore the credit should go to him, not the “Final Fantasy” brand name and certainly not Square-Enix. Eventually, Sakaguchi would release a game called Lost Odyssey, a game many considered to be the true Final Fantasy XIII. One could even consider it to be the true Final Fantasy XI, however I personally believe that Lost Odyssey was not meant to be a Final Fantasy game, rather it was meant to be Sakaguchi’s attempt at creating something new and fresh.
It’s common to make assumptions, especially when the information given to us is enigmatic but rarely does one make assumptions about something that people are well-informed on. Thanks to the power of the internet, information is bountiful, to the point that it can feel somewhat suffocating at times, to me at least. Due to the objective nature of gaming news however, much of this information is enigmatic. Because of this, people feel more inclined to view things at face value and this is ultimately the biggest issue with the brand name “Final Fantasy”. The name holds so much power and influence now that the name itself holds more value than any videogame ever could. After all, a videogame is nothing more than a bundle of code and assets melded together, surely there isn’t any value in that… oh wait, that’s the very thing that we are getting when we spend out hard-earned money on these brand names.
Put simply, Square-Enix needs Final Fantasy because shareholders expect consistent sales figures (ideally going up), if they didn’t continue to release Final Fantasy games, they would start to lose face in the industry and eventually they would lose their value as a company as a result. They need to prove that they are still the face of Final Fantasy in order to maintain the consumers trust because without Final Fantasy, their value as a company would be drastically lowered to the point that they wouldn’t be able to please their shareholders, thus the downfall of Square-Enix would be inevitable, hence why they refuse to let go of this IP.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to realize why the Final Fantasy series didn’t end with Final Fantasy X, it’s not because the developers are passionate about the series to the point that they want to see it continue, nor is it because they are trying to improve the series (well at this point I’d be more inclined to say that they are trying to reinvent the series), it’s because the series is valuable and generates a shit ton of money that the company needs to maintain stability. To take Final Fantasy away from Square-Enix would essentially cause the entire company to collapse like a Jenga tower, because Final Fantasy is the central pillar that holds the company together.
This isn’t Final Fantasy either
Sure, Final Fantasy is known for mascots such as the moogle and chocobo but let’s be honest here people, how important are those mascots really? Star Ocean has giant bunnys which serve exactly the same purpose as chocobo’s (there are even bunny races which are totally not inspired by chocobo races), Grandia has carros which might as well be considered moogles because they are trying to be the same thing, a cute looking furry thing that is easily identifiable, isn’t that the whole point of a mascot? The truth is, aside from their aesthetic design, these mascots have no real value to consumers and their aesthetic design is merely an attempt to give value to the brand, which is why you see moogles littered all over Square-Enix’s games these days.
The point is that none of this matters really, all Final Fantasy games are completely different from one another, just like how all Grandia games are different from one another. The difference is that Grandia is pretty much dead at this point and rightfully so as the creator passed away a while back. Final Fantasy on the other hand is still alive and Square-Enix are milking the series for every last penny. Heck I wouldn’t even say that Final Fantasy is even alive at this point, rather the series has been inflicted by the zombie status ailment where healing it only ends up damaging it. Final Fantasy isn’t alive, nor is it dead, it is undead, much like how Sylvanas is undead in World Of Warcraft in the sense that its presence has become a nuisance.
This is Final Fantasy
Sure you could just ignore it and move on and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for years but it’s very hard to ignore it when people continue to talk about it. Like I said before, information on the internet can be suffocating to me at times, that includes anything related to Final Fantasy… it’s suffocating to constantly hear people talk about the series and I believe that I can’t just ignore it anymore, I really have to make it clear to people that the Final Fantasy series is no more. You have all been lied to by Square-Enix, modern Final Fantasy is an impostor and nothing more.
As for the games themselves, Final Fantasy XII has more in common with Vagrant Story than anything XI and XIV are MMORPG’s that have more in common with World Of Warcraft and XV is just your typical open world experience that could have quite possibly been received a lot better if it wasn’t titled “Final Fantasy” but Square-Enix don’t care about that, they already got your money and they’ll get it again with the next installment, because you’re blinded by the brand name “Final Fantasy”. Sure I realize that this does not apply to all of you and I realize that many of you that follow me are smart enough to know all of this but there are many who are still blind to the truth and those people need to know the truth for the sake of gaming’s future.
Why is this so important you ask? Why can’t we just simply ignore all of this? Because publishers need to recognize that they can’t succeed on brand names alone, they need to ensure that the product itself is top quality so that people who buy it will not be disappointed, therefore trust in the company’s products will grow… as idiotic as that may sound but hey, that’s the system we have to work with I’m afraid, it’s called capitalism and I’d certainly prefer that over communism.
Instead of complaining about these corporate entities for milking these games, why don’t we instead take control of the system? We as consumers have the power to shape the future of this industry as we are the ones who are essentially giving these big CEO’s their paychecks and keeping the shareholders happy. How do we do this you ask? It’s called keeping your wallets shut and boycotting on principle. I’m not saying that you should stop playing Final Fantasy just because it’s a lie, I’m just saying that you need to be more skeptical of the brand and base your purchase on reviews, not on trailers or on brand names. Wait for the reviews to come out and then decide whether the game is for you or not. Do not pre-order any more Final Fantasy games should you wish to avoid further disappointment. This is my message to all of you who continue to blindly support this series. Once again, I am not hating on the series and I am not saying that you cannot enjoy it, nor do I say that the modern Final Fantasy games are Inherently bad. This applies to all brand names, not just Final Fantasy, remember that.
Now that I have made my point clear, I believe I should talk about the positive side of branding. Let’s look at Valkyrie Profile for example, a brand that is unknown to many but beloved by many of those that do know it. Now bear in mind that when I say the word “brand”, I’m not just talking about the name, I’m talking about all rights associated with it, much like Final Fantasy’s moogle mascot. Unlike Final Fantasy which is a different game each time for the most part, Valkyrie Profile is set in the same world with the same lore, same characters, same mythological setting with a combat system that emphasizes the timing of button presses to perform combos via the face buttons with each face button representing a character. This is something people have identified with for a long time and while Exist Archive brought many of this back, due to copyrights it was unable to truly be a Valkyrie Profile game despite wanting so badly to be one.
Needless to say, tri-Ace gave Exist Archive a completely different setting with completely new characters for they realized that trying to make their own take on Valkyrie Profile would be futile because people would be unable to take a game that is too similar to Valkyrie Profile seriously, hence why they made Exist Archive’s universe completely different. Regardless, it is the closest thing to Valkyrie Profile 3 we will likely ever get, therefore I respect it for what it is.
Then there are games like Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon which is pretty much the latest Castlevania game, just without the name “Castlevania” in the title. It has the same director, same composer and even the same visual style with a very similar setting and almost identical gameplay. This game was well received but this was likely due to Castlevania’s absence. Had it not been for the absence of Castlevania, Bloodstained would never have been as successful as it was, though it would probably still have a cult following.
So I do see the value in branding, it gives a series of games an identity, something that people can recognize. When I see the name “Dynasty Warriors” I know exactly what I’m getting into (well I should… but the first game is a fighter and the earlier titles are insanely hard to the point of frustration), a dumbed down 3D beat em up that lets you mow down armies of enemies with minimal effort which thrives on visual spectacle to give players a feeling of catharsis. That information is important to me and many of us but is a brand necessary to present that information? Not necessarily. There are other ways to present this information but publishers continue to shove brand names in our faces because it’s the easy way for them to make money. Just don’t fall for it people, don’t buy into the hype!
Edit (As of11/07/2022): I thought I should mention that the recent announcement of Valkyrie Elysium is the biggest example of everything mentioned in this post, another example of Square-Enix selling us a lie.
It pains me to admit that I never really got into the YS series back in the day. The whole idea of playing as a single character in an action RPG with overly simplified combat seemed a bit too archaic for me. Now I realize that the YS series is one of the pioneers of the action RPG genre and truth be told, I did want to give the series a chance but I just never knew where to start. It wasn’t until the release of YS VIII Lacrimosa Of Dana, that I decided to give the series a try.
It appears that YS VIII opted to follow in the footsteps of more modern action RPG’s such as the Tales and Star Ocean series as it features 3D camera controls as opposed to its top down/side view predecessors. It is also worth noting that recent YS entries have started incorporating a party system into the games and YS VIII is no exception. I personally appreciate these changes to the series as I believe having a more modern 3D look does wonders for the aesthetics and the party system offers multiple play styles to keep the gameplay fresh.
What makes YS VIII stand out from other RPGs of its kind is its premise. The story starts off with the protagonist Adol, who gets shipwrecked on an uncharted island filled with dangerous monsters. Along the way he is reunited with some of the ship’s passengers and crew but many of them have gone missing and it’s up to Adol to track them all down. As simple as it may appear on paper, the simplicity of this premise is quite refreshing as rather than throwing you into a deep and intricate save the world story right from the get go like most games do, YS VIII tells you to go out and explore the world in search of other castaways… and that’s pretty much it really, at least early on in the game.
While this might sound off-putting to those who seek a deeper, more intricate storyline in their games, the game moves at a very quick pace and you will soon realize that there is more to the island than meets the eye. Put simply, the story does get deeper and more intricate later on. That being said however, YS VIII feeds the story slowly to you and doesn’t exactly present its more intricate details particularly well in the game’s early sections but you’ll probably end up ignoring it anyways as the game’s premise is exciting enough for you to keep playing regardless.
God forbid I ever get stranded on an Island then…
I really find that playing the role of a castaway in the search of other castaways on an uncharted really gives off a feeling of adventure that not many modern JRPGs seem to offer nowadays. Back on the SNES, this was common as many JRPGs were lacking in the writing department and the characters you played as were simple and the plot usually revolved around hunting down macguffins in order to pan out game time. For this reason, it was important for developers to create a world that players would want to explore by designing interesting levels in order to keep the games from stagnating. I feel that most modern games focus way too much on their storytelling that they forget how important it is to design intricate dungeons.
The dungeons in YS VIII are some of the best I have seen in a long time, as are the locations themselves. I find that many of the dungeons put a heavy emphasis on verticality which makes them way more interesting to navigate compared to most JRPG dungeons these days. It is also worth noting that YS VIII doesn’t try to throw too many annoying gimmicks at the player, sure there are a few puzzles and there are sections which cannot be accessed until you acquire a certain item, but there isn’t too much of it to the point that it bogs the game down.
The YS games are also known to have had environmental hazards in the past but they are mostly absent in YS VIII. I personally see this as a good thing since I find that environmental hazards often get in the way during combat and serve no practical purpose. All they seem to do is annoy the player. I find that the verticality and the aesthetic design of YS VIII’s levels as well as the abundance of items to find more than makes up for the lack of gimmicks present in previous YS games.
Speaking of the aesthetics, generally speaking I’d say that they are pretty solid for a vita port. While the graphics may appear to be somewhat dated for PS4/PC standards, I’d say that the vibrant usage of color masks this really well. I’d also like to point out that while the visuals themselves may not be as detailed as they are in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness, the field of view in this game is equally as impressive as that game which does wonders for the game’s exploration value which is a big deal considering how important exploring is in this game.
Check out that view…
The character designs appear to be very similar to that of the Legend Of Heroes Trails series and Tokyo Xanadu. So if you like the art style of those games, you’re probably going to enjoy YS VIII’s art style as it pretty much inherits the same style. YS VIII’s character models are celshaded, much like Tales Of Berseria/Zesteria, however the environments have a very vivid vibrancy compared to that of the Tales series and I find that this greatly contrasts with the celshaded design of the character models. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is for you to decide.
Ultimately, the main appeal to the YS series isn’t so much the story/visuals, rather it’s the fast paced gameplay that the series is known for. YS VIII takes the Action RPG genre to the next level, proving that Falcom’s long running series isn’t just a relic of the past. What makes the gameplay of YS so enjoyable is its simplicity and YS VIII does not stray away from this. That being said however, YS VIII improves the mechanics of the combat considerably, allowing for more flexibility in the combat system, giving other ARPG’s a run for their money.
Those who are looking for a more technical, combo-centric battle system may be disappointed by YS VIII as the combat doesn’t really offer any of that, in fact you can spam the same moves over and over again to get through pretty much every single battle, though this is nothing out of the ordinary for an ARPG. YS VIII chooses to instead focus on the defensive aspect of gameplay, rewarding players for avoiding enemy attacks and severely punishing players for getting hit. Sure you can spam the same moves over and over but it won’t save you from getting hit.
Dodging attacks with perfect timing rewards players with flash move. This makes the player invincible for a short period of time allowing them to freely attack without worrying about getting hit. You can also parry attacks with a flash guard but it requires perfect timing to pull off, doing so makes all your attacks stronger for a short period of time. These features allow players to approach battles differently and rewards players for their dexterity in defensive play.
As far as aggressive play goes, players are able to map up to 4 special skills to each of the face buttons and they can be triggered by holding the R1 button and the corresponding face button, while regular attacks, dodges and jumping can all be performed by pressing their corresponding face buttons without R1. This allows for the game to have that little extra flexibility which is important as without it, the game would be pretty bare bones.
By attacking enemies, a skill gauge is accumulated, using special skills consumes the skill gauge requiring you to manage your usage of special skills carefully. On top of all this you have the extra gauge which is filled by using special skills, therefore it is recommended not to conserve your skill gauge unless you need to. Once your extra gauge is full, you can perform a finishing blow which can deal devastating damage to enemies.
It is important to remember that Adol is not on his own in this game, now he has AI partners to help him out. You can switch control of characters at any time with the press of a button and unlike Star Ocean, they will instantly swap to manual control and vice versa once they are switched. This alleviates one of the biggest issues of the Star Ocean series, switching characters could get you killed fast if the AI uses an attack during a switch.
Speaking of AI, the AI in YS VIII is hands down the most competent AI I have ever seen in an ARPG. You rarely ever have to worry about the AI taking damage in a fight as they will avoid attacks automatically and will receive considerably less damage than the player if they are attacked. Of course the player controlled character cannot do this but they are ultimately going to be stronger in terms of damage dealing to the point that you cannot really rely on the AI to fight for you as the AI tends to respond to the player’s actions, acting accordingly so if you pull out of a fight, so will they.
“YS VIII takes the Action RPG genre to the next level, proving that Falcom’s long running series isn’t just a relic of the past”
Put simply, if you lose a fight in YS VIII it is never the fault of the AI, it is always the player’s fault, as the AI never holds the player back, nor does it do all the player’s work for them. This is what I love the most about YS VIII, the fact that the game doesn’t force you to babysit a bunch of incompetent party members by constantly spamming healing items. For this reason, I think more ARPG’s should adopt this style of AI controlled characters.
All in all, YS VIII has a very simple, straightforward combat system and with no battle transitions to worry about, battles can end in a matter of seconds. This is very much a run and kill kind of game much like its predecessors, you never feel at a standstill and this does wonders for the game’s pacing as you are constantly on the move, quickly progressing through the game. This is what YS VIII excels at the most, therefore if you’re the type of person who wants to get from a to b as fast as possible, then this is definitely a game that is worth your time.
For the most part you’ll spend your time traversing the world in search of refugees. Some refugees grant you access to certain facilities while others just act as NPC’s to talk to in town. There is also a gift giving mechanic similar to that of Onimusha 2 which allows you to improve Adol’s relations with the other refugees. Doing so rewards the player with stat boosts for each character involved in the gift giving process. While it may not be as open ended as the gift giving mechanic of Onimusha 2, it’s still a nice enough distraction that can give you access to some extra scenes should you choose to partake in it.
There are also side quests to do which allow you to improve your relation with refugees and usually come with a reward. There’s a great variety of tasks on offer to keep the sidequests fresh and they never become bothersome for completionists. The only issue is that sidequests are missable so they must be done as soon as they are available should you need to complete everything the game has to offer. The game doesn’t feature too many of them though, therefore it’s never a slog to get through them.
YS VIII also offers a couple of combat related minigames in the form of raids and beast hunts. This is where the refugees you have gathered over the course of the game are put to good use as they provide various buffs to assist you in battle. In raids, players must defend the refuge from monster attacks, while beast hunts require players to lure out and hunt certain monsters. Both of these minigames can get pretty chaotic as there are usually tonnes of enemies on screen making for some pretty exciting battles. If you’re a fan of musou games, you’ll probably love these missions and if you’re a completionist then you better enjoy these diversions because it makes up the bulk of the game’s end game content.
Personally I’d argue that while raids are a lot of fun, beast hunts are a bit too chaotic and can kind of feel a bit too overwhelming at times due to having so many needless features such as having to take over territories, destroy nests etc. I think beast hunts could have been simplified a little to make them a bit more fun. Raids on the other hand are a lot of fun and are really exhilarating to experience. The goal of raids is to defend your fortifications and bait by pushing enemy groups away from them. The more fortifications you protect and the better your battle performance, the better your rewards. As for beast hunts, there are a lot more factors to be aware of and this can make getting high ratings pretty complicated. Also unlike raids, in beast hunts you have a limited amount of time to finish them and this can be somewhat irritating at times.
On top of all the other side content, there’s also the obligatory fishing minigame that every game has to have these days. It’s surprisingly pretty decent though.
Needless to say, the refugees you’ve gathered are essentially the only other characters besides the playable cast that you ever get to talk to for the most part. On top of all this there is only one settlement in the entire game which basically acts as the main hub. This could be a turn off for people looking for a more traditional JRPG experience where you visit multiple towns and cities to buy items and interact with NPC’s. That being said, many of the refugees are surprisingly interesting characters that you want to get to know and connect with.
Speaking of characters, the story of YS VIII revolves around two characters, Adol and Dana. Adol is pretty much the player’s persona in this game in the sense that he is more-or-less a silent protagonist, occasionally saying something after the player makes a choice. Based on his choices, he appears to be somewhat confident and well mannered. You could say that he is a typical heroic character, which makes sense considering the fact that this isn’t Adol’s first adventure and as a result, he shows a level of competence that is respected by the rest of the group. Despite all this, he still fits the protagonist trope of being a bright-eyed do gooder but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Dana on the other hand embodies pretty much every single issue I have with the game’s story, not to say that the story is bad or anything, rather the flaws in the narrative all tie in with Dana and how the role she plays affects the entire course of the game’s story. I don’t want to go too much into detail for the sake of spoilers but the game’s story takes a crazy turn during the second half where players may have to willingly suspend their disbelief should they wish to continue investing themselves in the game’s narrative. Put simply, the second half of the game leaves itself vulnerable to many potential plot holes due to the complications of what happens and as a result it can be difficult to accept how things play out as a result.
The second half of the game’s story plays out somewhat similarly to Richard Knaak’s War Of The Ancients trilogy in the sense that it focuses on events of the past but also ties in with events in the present. If you have read any of those books, you know exactly what I’m talking about, if you haven’t then I’ll let you all find out for yourself as I wouldn’t want to give too much away. I will say however that if you’ve been finding the story up to this point to be bland and uninteresting, the second half of the game might change your mind. With all of its flaws considered, the story does start to get more interesting in the second half and in some cases it gets better even.
As for Dana herself, I honestly cannot find anything to say about her character other than the fact that she is a mary sue who is gifted with powers that are vaguely explained. She also has a strange connection with Adol which is explained later on in the game. That’s about all I can say about her character. She’s pretty much a walking talking plot device. The problem with this is that the game clearly wants to make the player care about her character despite her not having any distinguishable traits. Sure she isn’t a completely unlikable character but even Adol manages to express more personality than she does and he is mostly a silent protagonist.
This made me feel a bit turned off from the latter half of the game but despite all of its shortcomings, I would say that the narrative is still enjoyable for what it is. I think it handles some interesting themes and aside from Dana, the cast of characters do their job well enough to maintain the player’s investment. Laxia develops surprisingly well, Hummel’s unpredictability keeps him interesting and while Ricotta isn’t the greatest of characters, at least she has a distinguished personality. None of them can hold a candle to Sahad though, Sahad’s personality is simply magnificent. It’s great to see such a cheerful, yet crude character with such a modest composure. Why can’t more games have characters like Sahad? He’s such a refreshing character. I do dislike how many of his lines were censored due to people whining about the so-called bad translation but it didn’t bother me enough to make me like the character any less though.
Regardless of your own personal take on the game’s story, one thing that will stick with you throughout the game is its soundtrack. Falcom are renowned for having great music in their games and YS VIII’s soundtrack doesn’t disappoint. There are a lot of high energy tracks here as is expected from a YS game but at the same time there are also some calmer tracks that offer a nice contrast. The music adds a lot of flavor to the game, particularly in its dungeons but that’s not all, I’d argue that the music is the main driving force of YS VIII as it synchronizes with the game’s pacing, helping to enhance the player’s adrenaline to provide a thrill factor.
Ultimately, while people expecting YS VIII to offer a strong narrative may be disappointed, those who do not may find themselves to be pleasantly surprised by the game’s story. Regardless of how you feel about the story, it’s important to remember that the crux of what ultimately makes YS VIII so enjoyable is the game’s combat. If you do not enjoy fast paced, simple and somewhat mindless action, then this game may not be your cup of tea. Those that do however are going to love YS VIII regardless of its flaws as it is one of the few modern action RPG’s to succeed at doing away with battle transitions, essentially perfecting what Star Ocean 5 and Tales Of Zesteria attempted to do.
Story/Plot: Good
Visuals: Great
Gameplay: Excellent
Music: Excellent
Length: Decent Length
Difficulty: Medium
Would You Replay? Maybe
Overall: Excellent
Value: £40.00
Note for PC players: For those misfortunate enough to own a copy of YS VIII on PC who are intent on playing with a gamepad, I have bad news for you. You’re going to be fighting to toughest boss in the game right from the get go:
The Descent games deserve more love, not only did they pioneer the 6DOF genre but they were also quite advanced for their time. Neither of these games are perfect but they are definitely worth experiencing, especially Descent 2.
I could talk more about the games but the video pretty much covers everything so for people who want the gist of it, I will list the pros and cons of the game:
Pros:
Lots of weapons
Enemy AI is really smart
Great visual style
Music is awesome
Cons:
Enemy placement can be bad at times (Descent 1 only)
Easy to get lost in the game (Descent 1 only)
Here’s hoping that the reboot will be just as good.
Apparently Heretic also had verticality, can’t know for certain since I never played it, I only watched someone else play it.
Difficulty burnouts are essentially the result of players getting frustrated by a game’s difficulty and this leads to them quickly becoming disengaged from the game.
It is pretty common for games to suffer from this issue and it is usually due to careless design. However, many games manage to circumvent this issue and in this video, I’m going to explain how they do it.
Now it goes without saying that game theory and player empathy is important when designing a game but what many developers seem to forget is the importance of giving players control, as a lot of games have the tendency to take control away from the player in varying quantities and they do so for various reasons.
One example of how a game takes control away from the player is the act of reloading a weapon. This disables the player’s ability to shoot temporarily until the animation of reloading has been completed. Other examples of how games take control away from the player are recovery time, staggering, delays and stun effects. When these are applied to the player, players feel powerless against their adversary and this can become one of the many causes of difficulty burnouts.
Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that some games require the implementation of stun effects and recovery time for balancing reasons and to prevent them from performing exploits. As for staggering, I believe that games use it as a means of making the impact of hitting a target more satisfying and more effective to give players a sense of power.
When applied to the player however, it can prove to be somewhat irritating as players lose control completely when this happens. Therefore It is recommended that developers cut down the amount of time these effects occur to the player, in order to maximize speed. This is very important, especially in a real-time game where time is a resource, as players who are unable to control themselves, have to spend time for the ability to do so and if this causes them to get a game over, they are far more likely to blame the game rather than themselves.
Personally I find that delays and reloading are completely useless, as their only purpose is to take control away from the player. The only reason reloading exists is because of realism and as we all know by now, realism should never be applied to game design. As for delays, I find it hard to see a reason to implement them. Perhaps they are implemented for balancing reasons but even so, I still think that there are better ways to balance a set of abilities.
Regardless, these are but mere examples of how games take control away from players and why it is so frustrating. The purpose of this is to help developers understand why players are being frustrated, not to tell them to avoid it completely, just to be aware of it and take action where it is necessary, because taking control away from the player, essentially takes them away from the game itself, as if they aren’t able to control anything, they aren’t playing a game. Remember that frustration is the cause of most difficulty burnouts and this causes players to become disengaged from your game.
Another thing to note when it comes to difficulty burnouts is fatiguing due to the brutal nature of difficulty curves. Now a lot of people advocate for the idea of a difficulty curve and I’m not one of those people. Sure the difficulty in games should go up as players progress but for the sake of engagement, I think it is important to ease the difficulty down a little at certain points. This is what I like to call breather levels and to explain what a breather level is, I’m going to use one as an example.
In Painkiller, there is a level named Asylum. Asylum is arguably the best example of what makes a successful breather level. It is important to remember that the idea of a breather level, is to give players a chance to recharge without compromising their momentum and Asylum does this perfectly. In fact, Asylum goes above and beyond what a breather level should, as it encourages players to approach the level slightly differently than the previous levels, since the level is a lot tighter than previous levels. This means that players will not have as much freedom to move around like they did in previous levels, forcing them to manage their movement more diligently.
However, unlike the previous level, Opera House where players are forced to contend with projectile based enemies and deadly melee enemies, Asylum only has melee enemies to content with. This drastically alters the player’s method of play, as now they no longer have to avoid projectiles with timed movement, allowing them to essentially take a break from dealing with projectile enemies. Despite this however, the enemies in the Asylum level aren’t as simple are the ones fought in Cemetary. The amputees found in the Asylum level may not have projectile attacks but they have a deadly leaping attack and they can leap at players from a surprisingly long distance. This means that players need to be constantly aware of what is around them, therefore the intensity of the gameplay is maintained, despite the lowering of difficulty.
This allows players to recharge after the previous level, whilst giving players something new to learn so that they can play the game more effectively later on. On top of all this, the Asylum level is noticeably darker and eerier than the previous levels to create a tense atmosphere, making players feel uneasy despite the level being considerably easier than the previous two levels. This is why the Asylum level in Painkiller is such a masterpiece of level design that few people appreciate.
In any case, the point is that through the use of what I like to call “difficulty waves”, games can provide a difficult challenge without being too overwhelming. Put simply, the wave should start out at the bottom end of the difficulty scale, slowly go up then slightly go back down, then slowly go back up and so on & so forth. Over time, the waves will gradually rise up higher, much like if you were to swim out into the open sea and this is where the game would offer the challenge that players yearn for, without being too overwhelming for the player. I believe this design theory is overlooked and is very effective, Painkiller executes this theory extremely well for the most part.
Finally should a player be defeated, go easy on them. Don’t punish them too harshly and always leave a window of opportunity for the player to bounce back. When players are defeated in Mount And Blade, they are taken prisoner and lose a few items, along with many of their men. They will eventually be released from imprisonment and will be able to continue playing, as well as keeping the levels that the player has accumulated over the course of the game. This punishment may be harsh but it still makes it possible for players to bounce back should they build their army back up and try again.
In addition, make sure that there are checkpoints after overcoming a major obstacle in a game. Do note that this does not include break points as break points should be provided as a means for players to pull out satisfied. There needs to be checkpoints in between break points so that players maintain some of their progress, that way they do not feel as if their time has been wasted. It amazes me to this day how so many games fail to offer checkpoints.
Now a lot of people look at gaming today and see it as being too easy. The truth is that game’s aren’t getting easier, they’re becoming more accessible and players that consider games to be too easy were brought up in the arcade era of gaming, where games were designed around coin operative machines that required players to spend real money if they ran out of continues. This caused developers at the time to make games harder for the sake of making more money.
Nowadays games need to be accessible, not just to attract a wider audience like many people claim but also because accessibility helps prevent players from becoming disengaged and prevents them from wasting time failing at a level, time that could be spent elsewhere. If players aren’t making progression, they will want to disconnect themselves from your game. Videogames are more than a means of challenging players, they are an experience and players want to enjoy their experience, not be frustrated by it.
Being of the last JRPG’s to be released on the Playstation 3, Ar Nosurge is one of the many games that fell off the radar due to being released at the latter end of a console generation. To make matters worse, Ar Nosurge just happens to be part of the Ar Tonelico series despite not being named Ar Tonelico which could have also been part of the reason many forgot about its existence. While the Ar Tonelico series has a cult following, Ar Nosurge barely has a following at all, in fact it is actually the sequel to a game titled Ciel Nosurge, a game that was never released outside Japan which caused a lot of confusion over in the west upon its release… to those that bothered to look into it that is.
Those of you who have played the Ar Tonelico games before will likely find Ar Nosurge to be somewhat familiar, yet different. It feels like a spiritual successor in some ways as it carries over many of the gameplay elements of the Ar Tonelico series but it continues the story of Ciel Nosurge and brings back its established setting. As such from a narrative standpoint, Ar Nosurge doesn’t feel like an Ar Tonelico game at all. Despite this, it turns out that Ar Nosurge is actually a prequel to Ar Tonelico and takes place many years before the events of Melody Of Elemia which you would never have guessed if you hadn’t reached the latter end of the game’s story.
The first thing that caught my eye about Ar Nosurge was its premise. After the destruction of the planet, people inhabited a space vessel known as the Soreil and have lived on it ever since in their journey to find a new world to call home. Over time however, people forgot about their search for a new world and transformed the ship into a huge colony in which two races battle for dominance over the vessel. Now if that isn’t an interesting premise, I don’t know what is. While the first Ar Tonelico also had a pretty ambitious narrative concept, it had a more conventional cyberpunk/fantasy setting whereas Ar Nosurge throws the fantasy out of the window and feels more like a sci-fi game which is ironic considering the fact that it is a prequel.
Upon hearing that Ar Nosurge has a sci-fi setting, you’re probably expecting lots of space travel and futuristic aesthetics. While there is plenty of the latter, space travel isn’t exactly the main focus of the game, rather the story focuses on the conflict between the two races. In addition, the environments in the game are pretty varied, offering the more traditional bright and colorful grassland in addition to the futuristic aesthetic of the ship’s interior. As for how grassland appears in a game that takes place predominantly on a space ship, Lets just say that you’ll have to willingly suspend your disbelief for most of the game.
Unfortunately however, the level design itself is pretty bland for the most part. Each of the locations you visit are usually 1 or 2 screens large, even the dungeons/field areas (aside from a few pointless secret areas that are accessible later on). I personally believe that this was partially due to budget constraints but also due to the way the game is designed as each dungeon/field area serves no other purpose than to give players a place to fight enemies and considering the way Ar Nosurge handles random encounters, there would be little point in panning out the levels. Nevertheless I personally believe that many of the game’s design choices stem from budget constraints and that the developers goal was to do as much as they could with what little they had. This is the impression I got while playing through the game.
In terms of visual aesthetic, the levels look nice enough for what they are even if they seem a bit dated for 2014 standards. Yet another sign that the game was designed on a budget but nevertheless I didn’t find the visuals to be unappealing or bland, they were just ok. Like the Ar Tonelico games, towns are navigated via a menu which isn’t surprising but just like in Ar Tonelico, you do get to walk around in tiny areas inside each town but don’t expect too much. Ultimately if you’re looking for exploration, you’re going to be bitterly disappointed with this game and it definitely isn’t going to be for you. While Valkyrie Profile 2’s environments may have been limited by side scrolling, the game made up for it with its highly detailed aesthetic design which this game lacks. I strongly believe that Ar Nosurge would have been better suited as a side scroller rather than trying to have full 3D movement as the freedom to move in all directions doesn’t really add anything to the game.
Speaking of Valkyrie Profile, the combat in Ar Nosurge is similar to it in the sense that it is a turn based action RPG where each of the attacks are mapped to a face button. The similarities end there however as Ar Nosurge has a rather unusual battle system that can be pretty overwhelming at first but is actually pretty simple once you grasp the mechanics. Before I can talk about Ar Nosurge’s combat in more detail, I need to explain the game’s most distinguishable feature. One thing that has always bothered me in JRPG’s is the monotony of fighting one random encounter after another. Ar nosurge circumvents this issue by allowing you to use powered up song magic to defeat every single enemy in the dungeon at once, in fact the entire combat system revolves around this feature making it important to explain it in detail.
The way this works is that all the enemies in the dungeon are separated into waves. By defeating a single wave of enemies, the player is then introduced to a completely new wave of enemies to defeat. The player has a limited number of turns to defeat as many waves as possible. Turns are consumed each time the number of available attacks are reduced to zero. Now you are probably wondering how you manage to defeat 10 waves of enemies with so limited attacks. This is where breaking attacks come into play. By breaking/defeating all of the enemies that are preparing to attack on each turn, the number of attacks replenishes to maximum meaning that you essentially skip a turn but the enemies do not and thus some of the remaining enemies will prepare to attack in the next turn.
This forces the player to think carefully as to how they approach battles as they have to not only consider the harmo gauge boost for chaining together attacks but they also want to consider which attacks they use and who they are targeting. Once the burst gauge reaches 100%, the player may activate a song to automatically end the battle, killing every single enemy in the dungeon, doing so rewards you with an experience multiplier which allows you to level up your characters insanely quickly should they manage to dispatch all enemies in a single battle by properly managing their turns and abilities. I love how the combat manages to keep players on their toes at all times with this system as it makes battles quick, yet exciting. This is something many JRPG’s need to learn from when it comes to fighting standard enemy encounters.
Of course there are some flaws to this system. For starters, I personally think that there aren’t enough enemies to fight in each dungeon. As such, while the idea is great and all, I find that it is a bit too easy to dispatch every single enemy in dungeons, at least on the lowest difficulty. This means that the game offers barely any combat at all when it comes to standard progression. Thankfully once you leave an area, enemies will respawn, this allows players to grind for as long as they desire but in doing so, it kinda diminishes the challenge of the game. This didn’t bother me though as I love power leveling in games, especially when I can do it quickly. If you’re the sort of person who is looking for a challenge however, playing on hard/veteran difficulty is an absolute must, fortunately they are available at the start so you do not need to unlock them.
I also find that many of the game’s boss fights are pretty underwhelming due to the fact that the battle system is designed around fighting waves of enemies and since bosses are generally just a single wave, sometimes with only a single enemy, you will often find yourself repeating the same strategies against them making boss battles feel a bit tedious at times. That’s not to say that all the bosses are like this as some boss fights include multiple enemies which can spice things up a bit and can be pretty fun to fight. I think the issue ultimately lies in the wave based battle system as the combat is designed around killing waves of enemies as opposed to a single enemy.
In addition to this, I also found quite a few spikes in difficulty at times. This is likely due to the encounter system since fighting a single battle can level you up a ton, making certain boss fights a lot easier. That being said, if you didn’t fight any enemy encounters, you are going to have a very hard time against certain bosses, at least on the higher difficulties. This happened to me at the beginning of phase 2 where following the main story quickly threw me into a boss fight. This boss fight kicked my ass a ton of times but that was because I didn’t realize that there were new synthesis items available to craft at the beginning of phase 2 and as such I had to beat up more enemies to farm experience and items to do synthesis. Upon returning, I defeated the boss very easily.
Thankfully farming experience isn’t such a chore, especially if you get a high score.
Equipment in Ar Nosurge is also a bit unusual as there aren’t any weapons or armor in the traditional sense. Your front line fighter can equip cathodes and your song mage can equip bios. Cathodes are used to modify the properties of the attack associated with the face button it is equipped to. Up to three cathodes can be equipped to each of the face buttons allowing for multiple modifiers to be applied to your attacks. Bios are used to enhance song magic at specific harmonics levels. Like cathodes you can equip up to 3 bios for each harmonics level.
Unfortunately there appears to be a bug associated with bios which renders the level 1 slots completely useless, this bug causes the bios to be triggered one harmonics level higher than the current harmonics level. As such at harmonics level 1, you will activate level 2 bios and at level 2 you will activate level 3 bios. Put simply it is impossible to trigger level 1 bios for this very reason and as such the level 1 slots should be ignored. Both characters can also equip RNAs which are used to increase base stats as well as offer additional effects.
Now you’re probably thinking that you can purchase new equipment from shops but aside from the most basic of equipment, most of it is acquired through synthesis. On the surface, synthesis is just your typical crafting system, which it is. However, like in Ar Tonelico’s grathmelding, every new item that is created through synthesis triggers a conversation between characters. In Ar Tonelico, this was perfectly fine and all as the crafting materials were obtained through fighting multiple battles but since the battles in Ar Nosurge have you fight against every single enemy encounter in the dungeon simultaneously, you will likely have all the materials you need to synthesize a ton of items after a single battle, making synthesis a tedious ordeal to acquire new items for people who are uninterested in the conversations that revolve around each one, as a single enemy encounter can give you enough loot to make several synthesized items, usually to the point that you end up synthesizing all of the available items in one sitting.
As a result, synthesis feels somewhat tacked on and only serves to add more dialogue to the game. While the additional dialogue that comes with it isn’t necessarily terrible and can be comedic, it tends to take up a lot of the player’s time. If you aren’t content with reading large amounts of dialogue in bulk, I can safely say that synthesis is going to be one hell of an ordeal for you. Conversely, those who are looking for a more dialogue heavy experience can rejoice as Ar Nosurge inserts dialogue into every nook and cranny to the point that you are literally drowning in it. It’s pretty easy to tell what the developers were trying to do with this game as everything from the random encounter system, to the synthesis system and more is designed to get players out of the action and into the dialogue as quickly as possible. If you ask me, this is where Ar Nosurge takes focused game design a bit too far.
Speaking of taking things too far, every time you create something, weeb shit happens… Thank god for the skip function at the bottom right.
Sure, there is an audience for what Ar Nosurge is attempting to cater to but the question is, is the material itself worth all the hassle of reading layers upon layers of incessant dialogue? That’s a good question. While Ar Nosurge’s world is a very ambitious concept, the story itself is actually quite straightforward for the most part, at least early on in the game. I think that while Ar Nosurge doesn’t have a terrible story, it does get a little bit ridiculous later on and whether or not you enjoy it will ultimately come down to how you handle the game’s plot twist because Ar Nosurge may have the craziest plot twist I have ever seen in a videogame.
Ultimately though, despite not having played Ciel Nosurge and not having any understanding on what went on in that game’s story, I personally found that the story of Ar Nosurge was decent. I wouldn’t say that it was groundbreaking but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it was completely terrible. It definitely has its weird bits in there to help spice things up a little and I think the game handled its themes rather well. Still, as much as I don’t want to believe it, I think that most of the story was just an excuse to ship the characters which is a little sad but then again I could say the same about the first Ar Tonelico so it’s not like it’s all that surprising.
In addition to the main storyline, the cosmospheres from Ar Tonelico return but this time they have been renamed to genometrics. Genometrics are a little different from the cosmospheres in Ar Tonelico as you are able to dive into multiple characters as opposed to just one. I also noticed that there are a lot more multiple choice branches in the genometrics which gives players an illusion of choice. Perhaps this is what the developers meant when they were calling their game an “A Deeply Immersive 7th dimension RPG” but I think that’s a load of bollocks to be honest. As I’ve mentioned before, immersion is about making meaningful choices and these choices are anything but meaningful. Sure some choices award you with crystals which can be used to… uh, I’ll get to that later but most options just eject you out of the dive session and force you to restart the dive all over again.
Thankfully all of the dialogue is skippable in genometrics which is a life saver because had I been forced to read all of the dialogue all over again due to picking the wrong choice, I wouldn’t even be writing this review right now, as I’d still be struggling through the ordeal of mashing the X button to skip through it all to this day. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little but I want that thought imprinted in your mind, because it certainly feels like an ordeal at times to get through the layers upon layers of dialogue just to unlock song magic. Speaking of which, there aren’t any support song magic to be found in this game, pretty much all of the song magic is used to nuke enemy waves, probably to befit the nature of the encounter system. As such you can only acquire one piece of song magic for completing a character’s genometrics as opposed to acquiring multiple songs within the cosmospheres themselves.
Some choices require dive points to select them. Dive points are accumulated by winning battles and you will rarely be short on them. Regardless, it is recommended that you pick the cheapest possible choices first as it saves you from having to farm DP to access more events later on but be careful as some choices will eject you from the dive session.
The only other reason to do genometrics aside from experiencing a visual novel within a game is to acquire crystals and this is where the game gets weird. Once you have dived enough into your partner, you are able to perform purification. Now truth be told, I didn’t experience purification myself, mainly because the game makes it pretty obvious as to what I would be getting myself into should I end up experiencing it myself. Let’s put it this way, purification is cringeworthy to the point that I’m not going to go into too much detail on it. Put simply it’s just another excuse for the game to shove more dialogue down your throat as well as being able to equip crystals in an unusual manner. Talk topics are acquired though exploration but considering how simplistic the level design is, they are often very hard to miss.
Now with that aside, lets talk about the characters of the game. Considering the fact that Ar Nosurge prioritizes narrative above everything else, you’d expect to have a strong cast of characters. Well I’d argue that the characters are kind of a mixed bag in this game as while some have interesting personalities and are well-developed, others are just dumb anime stereotypes that get kind of annoying after a while. For starters I want to talk about Delta and Casty. These two characters are completely pointless and did not need to exist at all in the game. Not only do they barely have any connection to the plot but as Delta is pretty bog standard for a protagonist and Casty plays the generic tsundere role for the majority of the game, it’s difficult to see any value in these two characters. While these two characters aren’t exactly terrible, nor are they completely unlikable, they do not really offer much to the plot and are kinda just along for the ride.
Conversely Ion and many of the NPC’s in the game are pretty well characterized and fit in really well with the plot. If they removed Delta and Casty from the story, literally nothing important would change. I can kind of see what they were trying to do though, they were trying to implement multiple perspectives into the game which I can praise them for trying, however I personally find that this doesn’t really add much to the game other than having to level up two sets of characters separately which can be a bit of a nuisance at times. Had Delta and Casty had a stronger connection to the plot and were more interesting, I probably would have appreciated this design choice more. It’s not as if it’s a major issue that the game tries to offer multiple perspectives and it is a cool idea, It’s just that it felt like a last-minute addition to the game, even if it wasn’t.
I’m not saying that the Delta and Casty added absolutely nothing to the story, there are sections where the two parties encounter one another and you can clearly see a strong contrast between the two, I just think that Delta’s side needed to be fleshed out more for me to care. One thing that I didn’t give Odin Sphere’s story enough credit for was that it had you rooting for pretty much every side. In Ar Nosurge I didn’t really give a shit about Delta’s side because they weren’t fleshed out enough and didn’t really have a big enough stake in what was going on. The thing is though, I get what they were trying to do and in theory it’s brilliant but in practice, not so much. If the main story was all there was, I’d argue that the plot clearly outweighs the characters in terms of value.
In the genometrics however, things get a little bit more interesting as you are able to see the characters inner thoughts. While this appears to be a clever way to develop the characters, it can feel a bit disjointed from the main story at times, kind of like that feeling after you’re walking out of a cinema after seeing a movie where it’s hard to connect what you have just seen to reality because it is completely different and that’s kind of what genometrics is trying to be, it feels like a sub plot or a re-imagining of the characters rather than natural character development with loose connections to the plot. That isn’t to say that it is a re-imagining of the characters, rather it feels like it is because of how separated it is from the story.
I prefer natural character growth over simulated character growth personally and as such, I cannot ignore this point. Regardless, I get what the developers were trying to do, I really do. They were trying to make a point of illustrating how characters inner thoughts differ from their outer selves. I just don’t think that this is everybody’s cup of tea and as such I feel the need to bring it up. Nevertheless I think that the genometrics really brings out the best of the characters. Funnily enough, I found myself caring more about the NPC’s than the main cast as they really put a lot of effort into designing their genometrics, not to say that the main cast didn’t get the same treatment, I just found myself caring more about the other characters personally and it was a nice surprise to see them getting fleshed out instead of just having the main cast develop.
It should be noted that while many of the characters are written well enough, It’s hard to take any of the writing seriously when the characters wear such ridiculous outfits. Just looking at these characters makes me wanna puke.
Perhaps the developers had planned to have multiple party members at one point but later scrapped it in favor of focusing on having one front line fighter and one song mage for each side, this is heavily implied by the game’s friend skill ability which allows you to summon friendly NPC’s to attack enemies with a one time super move to deal a lot of damage to enemies which can be handy in a pinch though nothing beats the power of song magic. Speaking of which, there is a harmoburst ability that can be acquired later on which is similar to Valkyrie Profile 2’s break mode in the sense that you can use your abilities freely within a time limit. Unlike break mode however, this attack comes with a super move at the end and you will automatically unleash your song magic afterwards making it the ultimate finishing move. This can only be used once you have fully maxed out your harmo gauge and as such you will need to do a lot of genometrics to unlock it.
I think that if you want to enjoy Ar Nosurge to its fullest, genometrics might as well be compulsory as it the only way to acquire new song magic and increase your harmo gauge. Conversely I never felt the need to equip the crystals I received from genometrics so purification isn’t really all that important and can be completely ignored should you wish to avoid it. As for whether you will enjoy genometrics or not, that depends on how much you care about videogame narrative. Regardless, most of it can be skipped anyways after seeing it for the first time but it must be viewed at least once. Bear that in mind if you aren’t looking to play a dialogue heavy game because this game has no shortage of text boxes to button mash your way through.
Ar Nosurge takes every opportunity it can to insert more dialogue for players to read through. So much so that players can trigger skit-like conversations seamlessly as they walk around.
Had it been for the gameplay, story and visuals alone, I would have probably given Ar Nosurge a satisfactory rating as despite its shortcomings, there was some fun to be had here but it wasn’t a groundbreaking experience… well it wouldn’t have been had it not been for the game’s incredible soundtrack. The Ar Tonelico games have been known to have amazing soundtracks and Ar Nosurge is no exception. Electronic music makes up the bulk of the game’s soundtrack which is no surprise considering the game’s sci-fi setting but there’s also plenty of other genres on offer too.
I find that many of the tracks were well thought out and befit their roles rather well. The music that plays during the synthesis dialogues is so relaxing to listen to that it makes reading all of the dialogue a lot less of an ordeal, same goes for the music that plays in the genometrics, as there’s some really underappreciated songs that play in there and it makes the experience so much more enjoyable as a result. Generally speaking, Ar Nosurge’s soundtrack builds a very relaxing atmosphere that when combined with the game’s overall design, ultimately makes for a very relaxing experience. I cannot stress just how relaxing this game is to play once you get into it, nothing ever feels too overbearing and the pacing is on point thanks to the game’s unique encounter system.
Much like in Ar Tonelico, Ar Nosurge features a lot of hymnos music. Hymnos music is essentially vocalized music that is used to represent the song magic being sang by the characters in-game. I usually consider vocalized music in games to be the videogame equivalent of doping. It is a cheap way to get players to be in awe of your game’s soundtrack and these song usually get way more attention than they deserve, at least in my opinion. The Ar Tonelico series is the exception to this as the vocals fit in with very nature of the game due to their representation of song magic, the core of the series’ narrative, making the existence of vocalized music plausible.
The Ar Tonelico series has a pretty good track record when it comes to its vocalized music but does Ar Nosurge manage to live up to the series’ standards? Hell fucking yes! The vocalized music in Ar Nosurge is simply put phenomenal, so much so that it feels a tad awkward when accompanied with the game’s low-budget presentation. What makes Ar Nosurge’s vocalized music stand out from other game is its use of instruments and the overall composition. There’s also quite a lot of different genres too, of course you get your generic Jpop but there’s also some metal tracks in there too as well as some orchestral tracks. It often seems as if the instruments and the vocals are fighting a constant tug of war in each track in an attempt to dominate the listener’s attention. While there are some tracks that focus primarily on the vocals, most of the songs have a good mixture of instrumental and vocals in them.
“I cannot stress just how relaxing this game is to play once you get into it, nothing ever feels too overbearing and the pacing is on point thanks to the game’s unique encounter system”
One criticism I do have though is that some of the boss theme’s were a little too flamboyant to the point that the final boss theme felt disappointing in comparison, not that the song was bad or anything, rather the music that played in other battles would have fit the final battle a lot better. In any case, you’ll have a tough job finding a game that can match Ar Nosurge’s vocalized music and if you do manage to find one, chances are it’s an Ar Tonelico game.
Ar Nosurge likes to masquerade as a deep and immersive JRPG. Its unique battle system is brimming with inherent complexity and the narrative needlessly complicates itself in order to maintain this facade. While it may not appear to be a simple game at first glance, players will eventually realize that the game isn’t really as deep as it first appears. The game suffers from what appears to be a lack of budget and there are a few annoyances in the game as well as some really awkward moments that envelop you in cringe. That being said, Ar Nosurge manages to make up for all of its shortcomings with its spectacular soundtrack, quirky design choices and its steady pacing.
Or we could just shoot our way through and avoid all these needless discussions.
I think there’s a lot that can be learned from Ar Nosurge, particularly the way it handles the issue of random encounters. I think more JRPG’s need to employ systems designed to circumvent this issue in order to better optimize pacing. I still enjoyed the game’s combat despite its lack of depth as I found that it synergized with the encounter system well enough to create a really unique and rewarding experience. As for the story, If you’re a fan of visual novels, I think you’ll probably appreciate it quite a lot. Conversely if you’re not a fan of visual novels, you’ll probably have a harder time getting into the story as most of the game’s characterization is found within genometrics. All in all, I think that this game definitely deserves more attention as it has quickly elevated its way to being one of the better JRPGs on the PS3 (exclusive to Sony consoles at least).
A while back I did a video talking about the many methods developers use to engage players.
Looking back at that video, I realized that I wasn’t really delivering valuable information, nor did I explain anything in enough detail as the topic was far too broad to be discussed in a single video.
Now why start with systematic engagement? Well it’s a pretty common method used to engage players in the short term. Systematic engagement involves incentivising players to adjust their behavior in order for them to become more invested in the experience, thus becoming engaged.
Now you may be confused by what this means and for that reason, I shall give some examples. One of the more notable examples of systematic engagement is Devil May Cry’s style system. The style system is a distinctive feature of the Devil May Cry series and is often praised by its fans for making the gameplay experience more enjoyable. The question is, what makes the style system so important?
Anyone who plays the Devil May Cry games for the first time will quickly realize just how relentlessly difficult the games can be and at times it can be tempting for players to button mash out of panic. The style system was designed to circumvent this issue as players who button mash are not enjoying the game to its fullest, therefore they are more likely to become disengaged.
By adding a style rank as an incentive, players will be more likely to experiment with different moves in order for them to finally achieve that S rank that they’ve been working towards. Once players finally manage to reach the highest style rating, they are rewarded with a large quantity of red orbs which can be used to purchase new moves and upgrades to their character.
Another example of systematic engagement can be found in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. In Valkyrie Profile 2, battles require that players only need to defeat the leader to end the fight. The purpose of this is to encourage players to end battles quickly, thus saving the players time instead of forcing them to kill each enemy individually. The other enemies are merely an obstacle, which must be traversed in order for the player to reach and successfully defeat the leader.
Now this is fine and all but where’s the incentive? Why shouldn’t I kill all the other enemies first? On the right hand side of the screen there is a gauge consisting of 5 orbs. This is actually a timer which challenges players to end a battle as quickly as possible, if a battle is won with all 5 orbs lit up on the screen, the player will execute a direct assault which rewards them with a massive chunk of experience as well as occasionally dropping an extra item.
On top of all this, players are able to accumulate magic crystals by attacking enemies who are airborne, the purpose of this is to encourage players to experiment with combos in order for them to juggle enemies and acquire more magic crystals. Magic Crystals not only reward players with bonus experience but they are also used as a form of currency that players can spend to transport sealstones to other dungeons which allows their bonuses and penalties to be used anywhere. This can drastically impact gameplay and as such it is important to collect as many magic crystals as you can to give you the edge in battles, by using those sealstones to your advantage.
The point is that by giving players another factor to be aware of, you have essentially bolstered their level of engagement. Valkyrie Profile 2 not only saves the player’s time, but it also encourages players to learn the mechanics to get the most out of it. This is how Valkyrie Profile 2 manages to maintain the player’s engagement and it would not be possible without these two systems, the same goes for the style system in Devil May Cry, it isn’t just a random gimmick, it’s an important facet of the game that keeps the game from getting stale and when a game becomes stale, players become disengaged, just like how wasting the player’s time can also disengage them.
Now In my engagement video, I used the loot system from Diablo as an example of systematic engagement and you’re probably wondering why it is an essential facet of the game. The purpose of the rarity system is to encourage players to explore in order to locate unique enemies and treasures, doing so will reward players with special loot with unique parameters that distinguishes itself from standard loot, giving players bonuses to make their character stronger. This also encourages players to replay the game in order to collect even more loot, which gives an extra layer of engagement for people who enjoy growth.
Before I wrap up this video, I want to talk about the difference between psychological and systematic engagement. Psychological engagement is manipulating players into tedious layers of compulsive activity and compulsive activity in games is never fun. Many people have argued that level grinding in videogames is a tedious process and this is where the theorycrafting part of this video comes in.
What systematic engagement does is remove the monotony of games by building systems to distract players from this monotony and by doing so, you manage to make tedious tasks such as grinding more fun for players to partake in. As such my argument to Keith Burgun’s theory that grinding is bad game design is that systematic engagement exists and all game developers need to realize this.
The good news is that many game developers realize this, the bad news is that there is very little in terms of creativity these days when it comes to developing these systems as developers tend to re-use old systems. I personally would prefer if developers experimented with other methods of systematic engagement as old methods usually tend to become worn out over time. Thus my message to game developers is to come up with something new.
Castlevania is one of Konami’s most popular franchises and for the longest time, I had never actually played any of them. My first Castlevania was actually the original NES game which I picked up on the Wii Virtual console. I found it to be extremely difficult and never got far into it, however I later played Super Castlevania 4 and despite struggling through some really tough sections, I eventually managed to beat it and while the game initially felt like a frustrating ordeal, by the end it actually grew on me.
Ever since finishing Super Castlevania 4, I suddenly got the urge to play other games in the series but I didn’t know where to start. One Castlevania game that caught my eye in particular was Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness, a 3D Beat Em Up game set in the Castlevania universe with the ability to summon demons to fight for you, as tempted as I was to pick the game up, I ended up playing Symphony Of The Night instead due to the fact that it was considered the series’ magnum opus and that Castlevania Curse Of Darkness received pretty mixed reviews.
While Symphony Of The Night didn’t disappoint me in the slightest, when I finally played Curse Of Darkness, I realized that I had picked the wrong game. I mean don’t get me wrong, Symphony Of The Night is a wonderful game and definitely lives up to the hype but Curse Of Darkness was just begging for me to play it simply because it caters specifically to my tastes for better or worse.
Imagine what would happen if Chaos Legion, Castlevania Symphony Of The Night and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner combined, that’s exactly what Castlevania Curse Of Darkness is, it’s a 3D beat em up, much like Chaos Legion in which you hack n slash enemies and summon demons to assist you but at the same time your demons can evolve and level up much like in Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner.
The level design appears to be reminiscent to that of Castlevania Symphony Of The Night in the sense that it is tight yet somewhat open-ended. However I would argue that Symphony Of The Night provided more incentive to explore and there was a lot more freedom in terms of where you were allowed to go once you acquired the required abilities to traverse certain areas. That’s not to say that Castlevania Curse Of Darkness removes the aspect of backtracking to acquire new items, rather the progression in general feels a lot more linear.
I would argue however that the game more than makes up for this with its combat which is surprisingly flexible for a Castlevania game. Make no mistake, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness is not a metroidvania at its core, it is a 3D beat em up so if you are expecting a 3D version of Symphony Of The Night then you may be disappointed. Personally I find this to be a good thing as I enjoy beat em ups.
The combat itself feels like a combination between Chaos Legion and Dynasty Warriors, you have your basic attack string which can be cancelled into a finishing move by using the circle button. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well it would have been if it wasn’t for the Innocent Devils. By pressing triangle, you are able to command your Innocent Devil to perform a special ability… sound familiar? Yep it’s just like in Chaos Legion except this time, your summoned companion has several abilities to choose from, allowing you to mix things up. By pressing left and right on the d-pad, you can scroll between each ability in the heat of combat meaning that you don’t have to go into the menu to change abilities which allows for more flexibility in the combat.
Much like Chaos Legion however, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness doesn’t focus on building combos like Devil May Cry, rather the combat is designed more similarly to games that have you fighting a larger quantity of enemies such like Drakengard and Dynasty Warriors. Unlike those games however, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness doesn’t throw massive groups of enemies at you. Despite this, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness manages to distinguish itself from other 3D beat em ups of its kind as it puts more emphasis on enemy behavior patterns rather than swarming you with enemies, making you think more carefully how you approach each enemy. However, due to the quantity of enemies being considerably lower than other games of its kind, this can make a lot of the game’s arenas feel a bit empty at times as they can be pretty long and wide.
Speaking of the arenas feeling huge and empty, the game’s protagonist, Hector moves considerably slower than other characters in the series and this is made even more apparent when you are trying to run from one room to the next as it can take a while to get from A to B which can be a bit irritating at times. I often find myself dodging to get to each area as it is faster than jogging but if you choose to do so, be careful if you have the double dodge ability switched on because if you dodge too quickly, Hector will have a long recovery period so you will have to time your dodges as you move between areas. Despite this, I highly recommend turning on the double dodge ability as it allows you to chain dodges faster, thus allowing you to move faster. Just be careful when you use it in battle as dodging too quickly can leave you vulnerable due to the recovery period.
Thankfully the dodge ability is accompanied with a guard ability and they both share the same button which means that even if you fail the dodge, the guard can still save you so long as the dodge animation has ended. Be careful though as enemies can break your guard if you guard for too long so it’s important to keep on the move in order to avoid getting hit. Once you unlock the perfect guard skill, you can time your guard perfectly in order to stagger the enemy, leaving them vulnerable to your combo’s so it’s a good idea to keep that in mind when guarding.
I really like how the game offers plenty of options for defensive play as not only is guarding and dodging flexible but there are also skills your innocent devils can use to keep you safe from enemies and deal damage simultaneously. Curse Of Darkness may appear to be shallow on the aggressive side at first but once you unlock new Innocent devils and acquire new weapons, it really opens up. There are lots of different ways to play this game which is what ultimately makes Curse Of Darkness’ gameplay so appealing to me.
Aside from combat, Curse Of Darkness has a lot of RPG elements, so much so that it could arguably be considered an action RPG. Each enemy you slay will give experience to both Hector and your Innocent Devil companion. Bear in mind that in order to gain experience, the Innocent devil has to be summoned. Therefore it is often encouraged to switch things up every now and again to spread the experience points between each of them. On top of all that you may also acquire evolution crystals from enemies, these crystals can be collected by Hector to evolve the Innocent Devil that is currently summoned.
Each Innocent Devil has its own evolution paths and in order to get the evolution you want, you will have to use a specific weapon. It’s often encouraged to experiment with different weapons each time you get a new Innocent Devil. If you screw up then don’t worry as your innocent devil can produce devil shards which give birth to new innocent devils so you can try new paths with them. In addition, these new Innocent Devils will carry over the stats of your current Innocent Devil, making them stronger in the long run.
Weapons and armor are crafted by obtaining materials dropped by enemies and combining them in the combine menu. You can also steal materials off of enemies by pressing the circle button on them when the lock on cursor is purple but it can be quite difficult to do so against some enemies as to trigger the steal option, there are certain conditions that must be met with each enemy and some steal conditions are absolutely ludicrous. Stealing is hands down the most challenging aspect of Curse Of Darkness and can be quite frustrating at times, especially against bosses as you only have one chance to steal from them outside of the boss rush mode which is a pain.
In addition to stealing and killing enemies, certain ingredients can be found in secret areas which usually require the abilities of certain Innocent Devils to access. This is similar to the form changing in Castlevania Symphony Of The Night in the sense that they’re used to traverse areas of the map that were otherwise inaccessible except this time, each Innocent Devil has its own abilities and some Innocent Devils may not have the abilities you need, requiring you to incubate another devil shard to pick another evolution path in order to acquire the abilities that are needed.
This can be a tad annoying to some and a bit cryptic but it’s only necessary for those looking to get 100% map completion as many of the items can be obtained through stealing anyways, thus diminishing the value of finding secret areas which may disappoint fans of Symphony Of The Night. On the bright side, it encourages players to experiment with different Innocent Devils and make use of the devil shards.
Aside from devil forging, weapons play a major part in combat as each weapon type has its own set of combos and finishers. In addition, some weapon types have a one-handed and two-handed variation which perform very differently. For example, one handed swords are handy against mermen as they have the tendency to dodge a lot and are often attack in groups. Since one handed swords have long attack strings, reasonable AOE potential and high attack speed, they are a great weapon to use against them. A two handed axe on the other hand would have trouble hitting them as it is a lot easier for them to dodge a slower weapon despite its reach.
To get the most out of Castlevania Curse Of Darkness, you really need to be experimental and not stick to a favored playstyle. On surface, the combat may not appear to be very flexible but that’s because in order to change weapons and innocent devils, you have to use the menu and since changing weapons and innocent devils is important, you will spend a lot of time going in and out of the menu screen to do so.
Curse Of Darkness isn’t the first Castlevania game to have this issue as Symphony Of The Night also suffered from this problem. While this could be problematic for people who want to play a more seamless 3D beat em up, I personally don’t have an issue with it as the menu is paused and not in real time. This means that I don’t have to consider time spent navigating the menu as a resource cost. I’d also like to point out that Curse Of Darkness doesn’t require you to equip items in order to use them like in Symphony Of The Night so its menu navigation isn’t half as irritating as the equip menu isn’t as cluttered.
So Curse Of Darkness is not only a solid 3D beat em up but it also has some pretty deep character management to the extent that it could even be considered an action RPG. Despite how common it is to see RPG elements these days, I’d argue that Curse Of Darkness has more depth in its RPG elements than most beat em ups and I personally consider this to be one of the game’s biggest strong points as the ability to level up and evolve your Innocent Devils is rewarding in itself as there are many different possible evolution forms for you to discover which gives more of an incentive to play the game.
I personally think that this winning formula is ultimately what makes Curse Of Darkness stand out from other 3D beat em ups. If you’re looking for a game that is similar to Drakengard, Chaos Legion, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner or even Kingdom Hearts 2 then you’ve found the right game because all of these games have one thing in common, they are all action games in which you primarily control a single character and they each have some kind of leveling system to give players a feeling of progression. This is what Castlevania Curse Of Darkness is all about and it’s the best of the bunch in my opinion as it arguably has the perfect mixture of action and RPG elements within the framework of a 3D beat em up.
That’s not to say that the game isn’t without its flaws, while the need to constantly access the menu mid battle and the more streamlined level design could be considered flaws, they can easily be overlooked. What cannot be overlooked however is the visuals which are pretty mediocre for a 2005 game. It doesn’t help that a lot of the locations in the game look as if they were copy/pasted, particularly in the final area. To the game’s credit, there are some unique locations at certain points which help mix things up but the majority of the game has you exploring what looks to be a copy/paste of a previous room.
If it wasn’t for the in-game map, navigation in Curse Of Darkness would be an absolute nightmare as nearly everywhere you go looks the same. It doesn’t help that the arenas are big an empty as it can take ages to reach an area that looks different due to Hector’s slow movement speed. As such, the value of exploration in Curse Of Darkness is crippled because if all the rooms look the same, what’s the point in wanting to see what is through the next door? It’s just going to be another copy/pasted arena with enemies to kill.
On the plus side, like in most Castlevania games, the music is on point. Despite its dark gothic setting, many of the tracks are surprisingly upbeat which can feel a bit jarring at times but the same can be said for most Castlevania games. The music succeeds where the visuals fail, some of the tracks help build a strong ambiance while others play to the game’s strengths by being more dynamic. As such, there’s a nice variety of tracks on offer.
Despite this however, due to the game’s lackluster visuals, any attempt for the game’s soundtrack to build a strong ambiance falls flat. So while many of the tracks that build a strong ambiance are nice to listen to, they tend to blend in with the visuals poorly. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed Curse Of Darkness’ soundtrack and I highly recommend listening to it outside the game to better appreciate it. The music is arguably the most fun part of backtracking to previous areas if you ask me.
Aside from the visuals, the only other flaw that could be considered a major flaw is the fact that the Innocent Devils themselves aren’t exactly balanced as some abilities are better than others, therefore you may end up using the same abilities over and over again simply because they are better than the rest. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of useful abilities in this game but some of them just aren’t as good as others and some of them are a bit too good to the point that they could be considered overpowered.
I personally think that this flaw is justified due to the fact that there are many different Innocent Devils and they each come with their own abilities, it would be difficult to balance them all. With that said, Chaos Legion also suffered from balancing issues and I can safely say that Curse Of Darkness suffers from them a lot less than Chaos Legion despite the fact that Chaos Legion only has 7 legions to manage with only 1 assist ability for each.
As for the story, there isn’t really too much to say really. The story revolves around the characters Hector and Issac primarily who appear to have some sort of rivalry. Hector himself appears to be a dignified yet somewhat paranoid character who is prepared to fight anyone who stands in his way in order to avenge the death of his former lover by defeating Issac, a flamboyant servant of Dracula who scorns Hector for making a mockery out of him by abandoning his service to Dracula.
While the story does its job, it doesn’t really take center stage. One thing I can comment on however is the voice cast. Crispin Freeman and Liam’ O’Brien were the perfect roles for their respective characters, Liam especially since he has the tendency to voice a lot of flamboyant characters, particularly those who are aristocratic or insane. Crispin Freeman tends to play the dignified role well in pretty much every game he’s been in which makes him very fitting for Hector. I think the voice acting of these two characters is what makes the story as while the writing itself isn’t anything special, the delivery is perfect in every way.
While it might not be everybody’s cup of tea, Castlevania Curse Of Darkness does its best to cater to its crowd. If you’re a fan of 3D beat em ups then I can definitely recommend this game to you, I can also recommend this game to fans of RPGs in general as the Innocent Devils add a lot of growth and personalization to the game that many RPG fans will enjoy. Ultimately I’d argue that Castlevania Curse Of Darkness is a solid game as it manages to hold its own against other 3D beat em ups well enough to be considered a gem on the PS2.
Here’s a new video idea I came up with, glad I could finally get all of this off my chest.
The whole concept of leveling up could be removed from Witcher 3 and it wouldn’t change a thing, heck it would actually make the game better and more believable as Geralt has gone through 2 other games and countless books prior to this, he should be max level already theoretically speaking so he would have no problem dealing with powerful giants at this point. Why have a leveling system in a game where you play as an experienced Witcher? Instead why not make all the enemies in this game scale to Geralt’s level (in which case have no levels at all, instead just make enemies as tough as the difficulty level)? Not only would it give players a chance to fight these tough creatures early on but it would also make the game feel less linear because certain quests just aren’t doable at low levels, you have to do the low level quests before the high level quests meaning you have to do the quests in a somewhat linear order kinda. Sure you do have options but there are enough of them. If you fight an enemy that has a skull near its level, it’s considered to be “certain death” by the game.
Seriously though If they worked on the combat, cut out everything that makes this game an RPG, it might have actually been a better game. As an RPG though… nope.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, I hope you can take something from this video.
Edit: Looking back I’d say that what I said at 28:27 was wrong, there is a lock on in that game but the staff has such long reach that you can hit multiple enemies with ease so I mistook that for not having a lock on. In Witcher 3 it’s a lot harder to deal with multiple enemies. I would also like to add that The Technomancer has a stun ability that can help with crowd control without having to constantly dodge everywhere, should have mentioned that really but I was doing this off the cuff so I was saying what was currently in my head without thinking.
Now I have always believed that narrative is not a vital component in videogames but for some people, narrative can be the driving force of a game. I would argue however that games are not the best platform to deliver a narrative experience and that to properly execute a meaningful story in a videogame, it is highly recommended that its serious themes are accompanied with comic relief.
People play videogames to be rewarded and while a serious narrative can be engaging to some, it can become quite overbearing for others to the point that it can become tedious. Unlike movies, videogames are built around not only their narrative but also the gameplay. As such the narrative often takes a backseat in most cases. However it is important to remember that the narrative serves as a rewarding element and if you choose to cater to players desiring this rewarding element, you need to understand the value of humor because players do not play videogames for the narrative, the narrative acts as a reward to the player.
As such the narrative needs to be concise, it needs to be brief but most importantly, it needs to be enjoyable. If a game’s narrative focuses too much on its serious themes, the story can quickly become convoluted, this is because narrative that is too serious will often fail to grab the attention of readers due to the fact that there is no shift in tone, making the story feel repetitive. Because of this, impatient readers will be unable to take in all the information, thus missing out important details which leads to them becoming lost in the narrative and this leads to them becoming bored very quickly.
There is a fine line between writing for a videogame and writing a book. Both require a completely different approach. As books are written with the intent of connecting readers to an imaginary world, it is important to go into as much detail as possible to describe each scenario in order to paint a clear picture in the minds of the reader.
In most cases, it is also important for a book to remain consistent in its theme as a believable world is a lot easier to connect with. For this reason, the inclusion of humor in some cases would be out of the question because humor is not the primary focus of the narrative nor is it a critical component of the narrative. A book that revolves around comedy specifically would serve a completely different purpose however, such books do not focus on connectivity, rather they focus on amusing the reader, as such these books would require a completely different approach entirely, much like a different style of game would.
One thing that both books and movies have in common is that their stories are a strictly linear experience where nothing can be hidden from the reader, as such there aren’t as many methods to conveying a story in books and graphic novels as there are in videogames. I would argue however that this limitation is what brings the best out of books as in order for them to stand out, they need to be well written or else they will fade into obscurity.
Since games are illustrated and have interactive elements that allow players to have more control over their experience, they do not need to rely on descriptive writing and often encourage players to discover the story for themselves through interaction, hence why talking to non playable characters in towns has become a commodity in RPG’s. This means that a varied style of narrative is plausible and in most cases critical as there is a lot more room for content. However videogames have another role to fill, engaging the player. To do this requires a strong, varied narrative that can be picked up quickly without players having to invest too much time into it beforehand.
The reason why many gamers consider character development to be critical to providing a strong narrative is simply due to the fact that videogame narrative needs to play out at a much faster pace than that of a book. While I have always disputed the importance of character development in videogame stories, I can easily argue that character development isn’t as important in books, in fact you could also argue that it’s not even needed.
The difference between reading a book and reading text off a screen might not seem like much on the surface but when you consider the people consuming the medium in which the text is written for, you will realize that they are both completely different. Books attract a fairly niché audience, usually introverted people looking to connect themselves to a world where they can take a backseat. Videogames on the other hand attract all kinds of different people, not all are patient enough to play through a long, detailed narrative and as such, videogame narrative should be catered with these people in mind as focusing on a niche would actually be a bad idea. Why is this? Because you aren’t writing a book, you’re making a game and games are meant to be played. The gameplay is a big factor and cannot be ignored, by catering your narrative to a wide audience, you can instead focus your gameplay on a specific niche. See what I’m getting at?
This is where my theory comes in. While it is not wrong for games to be serious or comical, too much of it can make for a very stale narrative. Unlike books where there is room for detail so that players can connect themselves to the story easier, in videogames there is not. This is because narrative is broken into chunks that are separated by the gameplay. These chunks serve as a reward for the player, the carrot on the stick you could say. As such the reward needs to be valuable. In a book, you aren’t reading to be rewarded and the narrative is not broken up, so you keep reading on.
Because of this games need to break up each individual chunk of narrative in a way that prevents it from getting stale so that players want to see more. Humor is a great way to spice things up and keep things varied so that the player can easily become engaged in the narrative. In fact I would argue that Humor is often critical in videogame storytelling, at least to some degree.
While some games get away without having much humor such as Warcraft 3, they still have the occasional quirky moment that keeps players on their toes when consuming the narrative.
Other games such as Grandia 2 have a great balance of both humor and serious moments that make for a very memorable experience.
While I won’t deny that Warcraft 3 has a far better story than Grandia 2, I would argue that as a game, Grandia 2’s narrative is far more complimentary than that of Warcraft 3’s and I’m not knocking Warcraft 3’s narrative, rather I am comparing the two in terms of videogame storytelling. I can’t imagine Grandia 2 ever getting a series of books or a movie like the Warcraft series has (edit: apparently it does have a series of books, though I’d imagine they are merely a retelling of the story as opposed to an addition to the story given the nature of the source material) but as a game, the narrative does its job really well. In fact I would argue that Grandia 2 is the greatest example of a strong videogame narrative. It’s very easy to get into and the characters are easy to learn and identify, whereas in Warcraft 3, the characters require a time investment for the player to get to know and appreciate them, much like in a book.
This is where Grandia 2 succeeds where Warcraft 3 fails. I absolutely adore the Warcraft series’ storytelling as I love reading the books and watching the cutscenes so I won’t deny that its narrative is a valuable experience. However I would argue that Grandia 2’s cutscenes reward players with more value than the cutscenes of Warcraft 3. Understanding this is vital when writing a videogame narrative.
Now that you understand the differences, what about humor? How does humor make Grandia 2 stand out so well? That’s simple, the humor brings out the character’s personality. When the player first meets Ryudo, the game makes it very clear as to what type of character the player is going to be experiencing through its use of humor. Ryudo is a gruff mercenary with one hell of a bad attitude, you can tell that this is the case through his snarky one-liners which are not only humorous to read but they characterize Ryudo really well.
Ryudo is a very serious, no-nonsense type of character and doesn’t take kindly to other people holding him back, he is very principle driven and has expectations of other people requiring them to live by his principles in order for them to earn his approval. The game doesn’t tell you this however, instead you find out through the many implications found within his witty comebacks. By reading into Ryudo’s humorous statements, you can easily define his character. In fact you could argue that Ryudo is written so well that he doesn’t need any character development whatsoever, he could have remained the same type of character for the entire game and still be entertaining.
Of course Ryudo does change over the course of the game which is fine and all but I’m making a point here. Character development is not the important thing, what is important is writing characters in a subtle manner so the player does not have to waste time listening to the writer’s explanation of the character, this is basic common sense in all kinds of writing but the way Ryudo is written through humor really makes him stand out as a character, it not only gives him personality but it also gives the player a few laughs. This kills two birds with one stone which is very important when writing a narrative in a videogame.
My advice would be to read into who the character is and what the character is most likely to come into conflict with, now bend the conflict in a way that is designed to be humorous and there you have it. The beauty of having lots of different personalities is that they clash and when they do they can be expressed in all kinds of different ways but humor is an expression a lot of games seem to undervalue. I believe it is a very valuable form of expression that needs to be explored more.
However I want to talk about another problem. Games which are humorous for the sake of being humorous. Now I know we all have different tastes in humor here but games which try too hard to be funny just aren’t engaging to me. A lot of people see the Devil May Cry series as being a series built on humorous storytelling, they would be wrong.
Dante is a very serious character to the point that he can be made into a humorous character. The point is that the funniest characters are typically the more serious ones and humorous narrative requires a serious space to have any lasting appeal. On the surface, Grandia 2 is nothing more than a giant cheeseball but Grandia 2 actually has a very serious narrative with a lot of very serious themes and a strong message that it is trying to deliver to the player. Rather than coating it in melodrama however, the game builds a bright, colourful and comical atmosphere to accompany these moments which creates a strong contrast that ultimately brings a very varied and engaging narrative that can easily be picked up on by just about anyone. It is for this reason that I strongly recommend Grandia 2 to just about anyone who enjoys JRPG’s.
However, games such as Disgaea and Borderlands fail to deliver to me the same experience, despite being “humorous”. As I was unable to take the game seriously I was also unable to take the humor seriously. This was the problem with these games for me, it’s just not engaging enough for me to even invest my time into the humor. These games feel extremely hollow and it is because of this that they fail to engage me. I pray that developers in the future can understand the value of humor and seriousness in a videogame’s narrative and how they can be blended together to make for a highly engaging experience for the player so that perhaps one day we can experience another game that can match the experience of Grandia 2.
Chaos Legion is a difficult game to recommend. It has its ups and downs but its flaws stick out like a sore thumb. When I first played Chaos Legion I didn’t know what to expect. I picked it up dirt cheap in a bargain bin. The premise sounded interesting so I gave it a shot.
Chaos Legion is without a doubt an unforgettable experience but it’s an experience which may or may not leave a sour taste in your mouth. Put simply, Chaos Legion could easily be mistaken as being a campy 3D beat-em-up in the same vein as Devil May Cry with an emphasis on summoning minions to assist you in battle which isn’t completely far from the truth. The problem is that unlike the Devil May Cry games, Chaos Legion tries to take itself a bit too seriously.
This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the ridiculous yet somewhat confusing storyline. It’s difficult to put it into words to be honest but the problems lie in a multitude of issues. For starters, the characters are just bad… I mean bad. The main character is what would happen if Dante from Devil May Cry and Squall Leonheart from Final Fantasy VIII had an offspring… now that’s a scary thought.
Sieg Wahrheit is about as cheerful as an onion, so much so that clowns would burst into tears at the very sight of him. He’s the sort of guy you would find sat on his own in a bar drinking himself into a stupor. This doesn’t stop him from kicking some serious ass though. Not only is Sieg a capable sword fighter but he is also able to summon powerful legions to do his bidding. When confronted by a formidable adversary, Sieg combs his hair back as he sends the god of death to do what it does best… bring death!
The story as a whole is basically a massive dollop of edge to the point of absurdity. It doesn’t help that the main villain is hilariously identical to Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, so much so that you even see a flashback of him standing in front of a fiery background much like Sephiroth did in Final Fantasy VII during the Nibelheim scene. There are other little quirks to the story such as poorly delivered voice acting and the odd choice of music that plays during the ending credits. The story is bad, really bad and you are going to either love it or hate it for being bad. Nevertheless, Chaos Legion makes up for this with its sheer kickassery in the gameplay department.
Chaos Legion is not without its flaws though. While I do not dispute the fact that this game is kick ass, the options available to you at the start are pitiful to say the least. You really are forced to rely on your legions a lot at the start of the game since Sieg starts out with a basic 4 hit combo and 2 aerials. Sieg also comes with what is quite possibly the most badass lock on system ever which shoots red lightning at an enemy because why the fuck not?
Over time however, Sieg is capable of learning an assortment of new abilities which can make him a lot more versatile in combat and this allows you to become very powerful. Doing so however requires you to level up your legions. Every single hit/smash rewards you with XP and soul. Soul is the power source used to summon and maintain legions, XP is used to level up legions in 3 categories: “Force”, “Assist” and “Enchant”.
Force is pretty much the standard level of your legion. It increases the number of legions you can summon at once and the more legions you have, the more damage they will deal. This can be handy when fighting certain enemies who are immune to Sieg’s attacks which you will find over the course of the game. The good thing about summons is that they cost nothing to use and you will only lose soul if they get hit so you will probably be using this a lot.
By combining the legion’s powers with Sieg’s you can perform a special ability known as an assist. These abilities vary depending on the legion Sieg is equipped with and while some abilities are arguably more useful than others, they all come in handy in a pinch. Using them will lower the health soul of your legion minions which can leave them very vulnerable when summoned. Each assist has its own soul cost and there is a cap on how many assists you can accumulate (though this can be increased via certain stat items you can acquire). There is essentially a risk reward system with both force and assist abilities making it very important to carefully manage your usage of them.
Enchants are augments for Sieg, they do not cost anything to use and are permanent upgrades. This allows Sieg to broaden his move pool and also offers several permanent stat boosts. These upgrades are tied to the respective legion however and as such you will need to equip that legion in order to make use of these abilities so it is important to keep in mind what legion does and what abilities it has before you equip them. Once you hit level 4, these stat boosts are directly linked to Sieg so you no longer have to use that legion. This requires a lot of level grinding though.
Leveling up your legions is the key to getting the most out of this game, many vital gameplay elements are contained within each legion and you are only able to use two legions at a time. This can feel limiting considering the fact that there are certain areas that are blocked off and can only be accessed with a certain legion’s ability which encourages player’s to backtrack to previous levels to collect hidden items. The problem with this is that the game doesn’t allow you to backtrack until you have the map selector which is an item you obtain for beating one of the game’s later levels.
In theory you could argue that they did this to prevent players from grinding experience points but this just isn’t the case. If you die in a level, you are given the option to retain a portion of your total experience points so you can technically death crawl your way through this game if you need to (you can also do this via the menu). Speaking of death crawling, this game can be ferociously hard even on easy difficulty. Enemies in later levels can deal a considerable amount of damage and have a ton of health, plus the game likes to throw a ton of enemies at you at once which can be overwhelming.
If you’ve played games like Devil May Cry before, you will likely be accustomed to the level of difficulty Chaos Legion brings to the table but if you aren’t you are probably going to have a hard time getting through the first few levels. As your legions grow stronger and learn more abilities, the game starts to open up a little as you are given more options at your disposal which can make the game feel a little less limiting and more enjoyable. Put simply this game requires a lot of patience, especially when trudging through the first few levels with just your basic attack string.
The controls are kinda weird at first and require a bit of practice to get used to but they offer a surprising amount of flexibility. X is to jump, square is to attack and triangle is to use your legion assist. To summon legions you press the L1 button, To swap legions you use the L2 button and R2 button changes Legion behavior. The R1 button locks the camera in the direction Sieg is facing as well as allowing Sieg to sidestep and perform dodge rolls and circle is used to lock on to the enemy (the one that shoots a bolt of lightning at the enemy). This can also be used to direct legions to attack specific targets.
Sadly despite how awesome it looks, the lock on function doesn’t automatically lock the camera towards the target and instead requires you to hold down the R1 button in order to lock the camera onto a locked on enemy. This can be quite nuisance as holding the R1 button down completely changes your movement leaving you unable to jump. The issue with this is that it’s not easy to utilize the dodge function as it requires precise timing to pull them off so in many cases it is easier to jump to avoid attacks as a poorly timed dodge leaves you wide open as you can’t chain them unlike in Devil May Cry 2 and trickster in Devil May Cry 3 which can feel crippling especially when there are a lot of enemies around which there will be.
I’d have preferred it if the lock on would automatically focus the camera but still allow you to jump around and by using R1 to change camera you could cancel your lock on. The problem with this is that when you want your legions to focus on a specific target, the only way to do so is to use the lock on. I get why the developers did this as they wanted to give players better control over the legions but it just goes to show how poorly the legions are integrated into the gameplay and in all honesty I think this is where the biggest issue with Chaos Legion lies. The problem is that summoning the legions kinda detaches Sieg from the gameplay as his movement speed is severely limited making him almost completely useless in combat. This is a shame because if they removed the legions completely and instead focused on enhancing the rest of the combat, this could have been serious competition for Dynasty Warriors.
The right analog stick camera can be hard to maneuver at times which can be problematic as due to the amount of enemies on screen it’s important to keep an eye on your surroundings at all times. Fortunately there is a handy mini-map which shows the location of all the enemies around you. It is often recommended to use the R1 button to lock the camera in the direction Sieg is facing instead. Sadly it requires to hold the button down for a short time in order to fully fix the camera which can be quite irritating at times but it still beats using the right analog stick which is something.
Awareness plays a big part in Chaos Legion’s gameplay as unlike Devil May Cry 1 and 2, you are going to be swarmed by a ton of enemies. In a way you could argue that Chaos Legion has more in common with games like Drakengard and Dynasty Warriors than it does with Devil May Cry. If you are accustomed with those type of games you’ll feel right at home with Chaos Legion.
As you can see, Chaos Legion has a lot of issues in both the gameplay and the story department, as such it’s easy to see how people can be turned off by this game and pass it off as a mediocre hack & slash game as it has so many odd gameplay elements and mechanics that are poorly executed. However there is no doubting that Chaos Legion is pretty unique for a 3D beat-em-up. Legions play a significant role in this game and it is important to learn and master them all to get the most satisfaction out of it. Sadly some legions are better than others and it’s easy for players to stick with the same ones which can lead to limiting the player’s gameplay experience, especially since only 2 legions at a time can be equipped and many of the underappreciated ones have some interesting abilities.
Chaos Legion appears to be one of those games that is awesome in concept but terrible in its execution. The question is, is there still fun to be had in this game? The answer is definitely yes… but you need patience. Leveling up legions does more than just make the player stronger, it opens up more gameplay elements that keep the gameplay fresh and ultimately more accessible. I found that when I managed to unlock the ability to quick dodge and counter attack, I was having a lot more fun with the game. Sadly this is all too little too late and I wish that the earlier portions of this game could be as fun as this. I really wish I could recommend Chaos Legion for putting a new spin on the beat-em-up genre but I just cannot ignore its many flaws.
The problem lies with the lack of flexibility in the game’s early stages as well as the really awkward gameplay elements. I think with a bit more time and thought, this game could have been so much better. I do see the possibility for a remaster of this game with improved combat mechanics and controls but since this is a Capcom game I won’t hold my breath. Still if you can get past the issues there is some fun to be had here as there are lots of really awesome powers available to you and Chaos Legion presents things in such a unique fashion that the gameplay is instantly likable. It’s one of those games that really makes you feel awesome playing it.
Speaking of awesome, the game’s soundtrack really amplifies this. From the first level all the way to the last you are presented with an epic soundtrack filled with metal and epic choir chants that really keeps the adrenaline pumping in a fashion that befits the setting of Chaos Legion rather well. To make things even better, the music changes when you summon your legions which can make things even more epic. Even the intermission screen has some great music that pumps you up for the next level.
Visuals on the other hand are a mixed bag. While the character models are nice, the environments are bland and many of the early levels look the same. You can clearly tell that they designed the levels knowing that there were going to be tonnes of enemies littered around and so many of the areas are somewhat open and empty. There is a bit of verticality though which makes the levels a bit more interesting but don’t expect the levels to be as good-looking as Painkiller.
All in all I think there is a lot we can learn from Chaos Legion. A game that does many things right but way too many things wrong. It’s a pit filled to the brim of both mechanical and a conceptual ideas that never got to truly flourish. On top of all that it has a great soundtrack and some really cool abilities to mess around with. Would I recommend this game? That’s a good question. Personally I would recommend this game solely to aficionado’s of 3D beat em up/hack n slash games as this is yet another action game by the makers of Devil May Cry so if you enjoy these types of games and want to experience something a little different, I’d say it is worth a shot.
As for everybody else, you’re probably better off just playing Devil May Cry 3 instead as unlike Chaos Legion it has aged rather well and still holds up as one of the best games in its genre. Though it saddens me that I have had to be so negative about a game I really like I believe it is important to paint an accurate picture for you all. Who knows? Perhaps the game’s unique ideas and awesome soundtrack might be enough to keep you engaged like it did me or it would be yet another mediocre slog for you to push through only to return it to the bargain bin.
Pacing is one of the most important aspects of game design in my opinion and is one of the biggest challenges you will face when designing your game.
So you’ve solved a problem and you’ve decided how you’re going to motivate players to play your game but how can we engage them? I talked about engagement beforehand but In that video I mainly talked about the commonly used systems that many games use to build engagement. Now it’s time to get more in-depth and talk about pacing. Pacing is arguably the biggest factor that decides whether or not your game will be engaging. While it isn’t the only factor, pacing can make or break a game depending on how well it is implemented.
Now I have previously brought up the terms: real-time, synchronized time and turn based. These terms will be very important in this video as they are ultimately what will govern the style of pace you want for your game. The hard part comes with deciding how you want to pace your game as not all games have explored these terms and for good reason. A racing game could never work as a turn based or synchronized time based game because its core mechanism revolves around reaction time and dexterity which contradicts a turned based style of pacing.
Nevertheless, pacing is a science which has yet to be fully explored, much like many other aspects of game design. I can however point out fundamental flaws in games where the pacing and the nature of the game contradict one another. Real Time Strategy is essentially a flawed genre for this reason. While it is important to use time as a means of adding tension, a game that has too many things to manage will contradict its real-time pacing.
However, if we separate the nature and the pacing of Real Time Strategy, we can clearly see that real-time and strategy are not incompatible by nature, hence why it is not the genre, rather it is the games that are commonly labeled with the RTS genre that I have issues with. Real Time and Strategy could possibly work together but it would come at a cost. If you’re going to make a game work in real time, it needs to be adaptable to real time gameplay. Too much management can compromise a real time game and as such the inputs required to execute strategic choices need to be as straightforward as possible so that players can feel comfortable playing your game.
One could argue that Final Fantasy XIII is closer to that of a Real Time Strategy than a Turned Based Strategy and they wouldn’t be wrong. The ATB bar is very similar to that of a unit production timer that you would usually see in a traditional RTS. On the other hand I would argue that games like Grandia are closer to turn based, as the game pauses when you are about to enter a command.
Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest flaw was the fact that it was forced to implement an auto battle option in order for players to keep up with the pacing of the gameplay. As such, players would use that option over actually picking skills manually because of how its real-time influences the game’s rules, as auto battle is arguably the most efficient option due to the fact that picking skills manually forces them to navigate through menus which wastes valuable time.
In a turn based game, this would never be the case as the game pauses when you are navigating through the menu which makes sense as navigating menus is a meaningless activity that has absolutely no connection to the player’s strategic choice. As such, while Grandia may have an ATB gauge, the game works completely differently to Final Fantasy XIII as the decision-making process isn’t governed by real-time, Final Fantasy XIII’s is.
This is what greatly differentiates the two. You could argue that Final Fantasy XIII was received poorly for this reason, because it didn’t work. The question is, could it work?
Well that depends, are you willing to narrow down the number of choices in order to have a tighter level of control in your game to make up for it? The problem is, doing so could actually turn your game into an action game because even action games have some decision-making involved, it just isn’t as noticeable. There is a fine line between action and strategy that can be crossed if developers are not careful.
This is where games labeled as RTS are flawed, as the outcome is often influenced more by the number of actions per minute rather than the decision-making process. Take Warcraft 3’s four versus four for example. Due to the fact that large battles favor massing powerful units, certain units such as the Banshee become false choices as they are lesser units designed to support more powerful units. This makes the decision making process weaker. Most players will use Frost wyrms, fiends, chimeras, hippogryphs, siege engines, mortar teams and bats depending on their race.
Because Warcraft 3 suffers from a lot of balancing issues, the outcome of a 4V4 game is usually influenced by what races are on what team but if you were to play in an all undead mirror game, the team with the most combined action per minute wins. As such, Warcraft 3 is not a strategy game anymore, it is an action game.
Then we have synchronized time. Synchronized time is where time moves when the player inputs certain actions. In other words, the pacing of the game can vary from slow to fast depending on how quickly the player acts. While this might seem like a good thing at first, it’s important to remember that synchronized time changes the rules considerably from real-time and unlike turned based, it wouldn’t really work in a multiplayer game.
In addition to all this, it is important to note that certain genres just wouldn’t work well with synchronized time because it would contradict their very nature. Games like Mount And Blade, Valkyrie Profile 2, Mystery Dungeon and Superhot all use synchronized time in some shape or form.
Now that we’ve covered the basic pacing methods, it’s time to refine them. In order to do this we need to find an answer to a more complicated question, “how does the pacing of a game differ between two games which use the same style of pacing?”
Since this is a lot to take in, I’m going to aid you in the process of solving this issue and as such I have come up with a guideline, not a be all and end all… but a guideline on how to decide what style of pacing you want your game to be so that you can clearly understand what this process involves and how important it really is.
This guideline focuses on two aspects of a game which are polar opposites. In terms of racing games for example, supporting mechanisms make up these two opposite ends of the spectrum. One one hand you have games which focus on control and on the other hand you have games which focus on building up speed. I can safely say that all racing games need both mechanisms to function but one is usually going to outclass the other. This is where the decision-making process comes in.
Now the guideline suggests that games on either end of the spectrum are going to be niche… however for the sake of brevity, let’s say that this guideline is used to judge how good a game is. Lets say games on opposite sides of the spectrum are the best games in their genre.
Lets use first person shooters as an example. On one end of the spectrum you have games like Arma and Half Life. On the other end you have games like Quake and Painkiller. Now that’s not to say that Arma and Half Life are the same because they’re very different but so are Painkiller and Quake. Each game has its own identity which separates it from the other. What these games share with one another is not the style of gameplay but rather the pacing of the game. In Half Life you spend a good portion of the game roaming the maps, hunting for ammunition and solving puzzles. In Arma you spend a lot of time positioning yourself in strategic positions as well as carefully aiming your weapon.
Quake and Painkiller on the other hand has you firing off bullets like there’s no tomorrow and you will be moving very quickly through levels, dodging bullets and other hazards like a god. Now there’s no secret that Painkiller was heavily inspired by Quake 2, you could even argue that it is Quake 3’s true single player campaign as its mechanics are very close to that of Quake 3’s. The level structure however is different. Painkiller is more linear, with large, open arenas to fight in, Quake is more contained and maze-like. Once thing is for certain though, both games are fast and will require a lot more reaction timing to master, Arma on the other hand requires more precision. While both games require a form of dexterity, it is merely the way in which players utilize their dexterity that differs and this completely changes not only the pacing but the entire nature of the gameplay experience as a whole.
As such you can clearly see how important pacing is, pacing can transform games. As a result, you have to be very careful with how you decide to pace your game. Does it fit in with your vision? This is the hardest question of them all because you might have the vision for the perfect game only for it to be ruined by poor pacing. As such you have yourself a dilemma. This is why pacing is so difficult because you don’t want to waste valuable resources trying to make a solid game only for it to fall apart because you realized that the pacing and the vision do not fit together. Then you have to re-think everything all over again and scrap the project.
To alleviate this issue. It might be important to pick the style of pacing first before you pick a vision, it sounds counter-intuitive but believe me, you won’t regret it. This will narrow down the scope of your vision drastically but this also helps you make a more calculated decision when it comes to designing your vision. Afterwards all you have to do is make sure the vision and your style of pacing work in tangent. In order to do so, you need to come up with creative mechanisms, ideally ones which kill two birds with one stone. Remember that the less mechanisms your game relies on, the less you will have to put in your game and the more simple and accessible your game will be. In addition, dealing with too many mechanisms can be costly and time is precious so it is very important to be creative with your ideas in order to hit that sweet spot.
After the disappointment that was Hard Reset, I decided to give Flying Wild Hog another chance to impress me by playing one of their more recent games, Shadow Warrior. Shadow Warrior is a re-boot of a 3D realms game released in 1997 which was also named Shadow Warrior. Shadow Warrior strives to be a blast from the past, allowing players to relive that old school FPS experience.
After watching one of the most badass opening cutscenes of all time (featuring Stan Bush’s “The Touch”), you are quickly introduced to the swordplay of Shadow Warrior. At first the only moves you have are a basic slash attack and a delayed slash attack but later on you can unlock more interesting special attacks you can use by double tapping specific directional keys and pressing the left mouse button. You can also press the right mouse button to use magic powers though I find the restoration power to be the most useful as it can be used to heal yourself mid battle whereas the other abilities specialize in crowd control and damage reduction.
As cool as it is to have such a flexible close quarters weapon, I can’t help but wonder why the katana needs to have a delayed slash attack. You will almost never use this attack as it feels completely pointless to use considering the fact that there are so many better attacks you can use with your katana. This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the constant necessity to double tap the directional keys to input these special attacks.
Having to double tap directional keys in the middle of a huge fire fight is a pain to do as it takes a bit too long to execute. Sure you can double tap the directional keys quickly but doing so will still leave you immobile for a split second which is never a good thing in games like this as all old school FPS games are built around mobility and this is ultimately what I consider to be lacking in this game as the movement in this game feels sluggish and this can be a major hindrance when you’re trying to avoid enemy attacks.
So it has shurikens… but where’s the lightning?
Now this could be considered a personal bias but I absolutely loathe the dodge function in this game, yes there is a dodge function much like in Hard Reset Redux but this time there is a stamina meter that governs how many times you can use it, so you cannot abuse it. In my Hard Reset Redux review, I praised the dodge system for existing and as such I will give credit to the developers for considering the necessity of movement in FPS games but to be perfectly honest my experience with Shadow Warrior has conditioned me to detest this dodge system for numerous reasons.
The biggest issue I have with the dodge system is that it just isn’t adequate for this kind of game. You are constantly swarmed with enemies, sometimes in areas where there is lots of clutter. Games like Painkiller get away with this by having bunnyhopping, why doesn’t Shadow Warrior have bunnyhopping if it’s trying to be an old school FPS? This is ultimately the biggest issue I have with Flying Wild Hog’s games. They are trying to make old school style games on a modern framework and this never works. Being able to bunnyhop would make it possible to jump over some of the clutter and could also allow you to hop between platforms, the extra air time from bunnyhopping is crucial to these games for so many reasons.
Much like in Painkiller where the player is constantly tapping the space bar, you will often be tapping the alt button repeatedly to dodge. You can also hold down the alt button to sprint but there’s no point in doing so as it doesn’t flow naturally with the pacing of the combat. You’re supposed to be gunning down enemies on the move and you can’t do that then you are sprinting so adding a sprint option was a waste. The stamina gauge will constantly be limiting your movement and you’ll eventually return to Lo Wang’s sluggish walking if you tap the alt button too much, as such the game encourages players to dodge only when the enemy is attacking which makes movement in Shadow Warrior an absolute pain in the ass.
Being a first person shooter, you’d expect to have some powerful firearms in your arsenal but Shadow Warrior’s weapons are pretty varied in their usefulness to the point that some of the game’s weapons feel misplaced or unnecessary. The revolver’s slow fire rate really doesn’t fit the pacing of the game all that well at all, so much so that you’re just better off using the katana, not only that but the revolver itself is rendered completely useless later on in the game once you encounter tougher enemies.
Then you have weapons like the PDW and the Flamethrower, both of which feel inadequate. Sure the PDW is the only automatic rifle in the game but does it really have to feel this weak? Oh well, at least it’s not as bad as the flamethrower which is completely fucking useless. Seriously what is the point in giving players a weapon with absolutely no stopping power in a game where enemies are charging towards you and you move at a snail’s pace? Painkiller Battle Out Of Hell’s flamethrower was at least decent and could kill most enemies quick enough to be of use.
Finally there’s the rocket launcher which is quite possibly the worst rocket launcher I have ever seen in a videogame. This weapon does absolutely bugger all in terms of damage to most enemies later on and the velocity of each rocket is so slow that it’s near impossible to land a well placed hit with it as enemies are constantly moving. The splash damage it nothing to write home about either, it may kill some minor fodder but that’s not saying much, it’s definitely better than the flamethrower but not by much.
As for the other weapons, the crossbow feels pretty decent despite having a low fire rate. I think they did a fairly good job with this weapon all things considered, it’s powerful without being completely imbalanced. It’s better than the revolver in pretty much every single way if you ask me. The crossbow can also shoot remote bombs at enemies which is pretty cool. The shotgun is also pretty decent for the most part as it deals fairly decent damage to enemies at close range which is a considerable improvement from the shotgun in Hard Reset.
You better enjoy the shotgun, crossbow and the katana because they’re the only 3 weapons worth a damn in this game. The PDW has its uses but only in certain situations is it really all that useful. I get that Shadow Warrior wants to focus primarily on its katana combat but does it really need to make more than half of the game’s firearms completely fucking useless? Satisfying weapons are important in any FPS, particularly the fast placed single player ones. Sadly the majority of the game’s weapons just aren’t effective enough to want to use them.
The shotgun outclasses just about every other firearm in this game.
Part of this is due to the later portion of the game’s constant bombardment of hit point sponge enemies and believe me, there are going to be some long ass firefights in this game enough to tire out even the most hardened of FPS veterans. I don’t think it’s bad to have the occasional mini-boss enemy with more health than the average foe but ultimately I would argue that glass cannon enemies are arguably more fun to fight as you have to react fast before they can damage you. Hit point sponge enemies remove the thrill of killing enemies before they kill you, instead you have to keep blasting away till they fall over.
In addition, shooting enemies in Painkiller causes a stagger effect so if you manage to shoot an enemy once but didn’t get the finisher, you get a second chance to make a finisher. You can also use the freezer to freeze an enemy in place allowing you to shatter them with a single shot regardless of how much health they have. This makes the gameplay feel more aggressive and less passive as rather than trying to back away from the enemies, you’re chasing them down. This whole “run away” mentality is what made me detest Serious Sam and Shadow Warrior does this to some degree mainly due to the hit point sponge enemies. As such you will often find yourself playing more passively in Shadow Warrior than you would in games like Painkiller.
The dodging system does make this a little bit less problematic than games like Serious Sam and I will acknowledge that its existence allows you to play a tad more aggressively but there is very little incentive to do so as dodging wastes stamina which could be used to help you escape from the enemy, therefore playing passively is simply more efficient than it is to play aggressively and I consider this to be a huge flaw in the game’s design.
Now sure, Painkiller had moments where keeping your distance was the best option, particularly in trauma. However the option to play aggressively was always available and was encouraged. The ability to pick up enemy souls gave players an incentive to stay closer to the enemy than to keep their distance. Shadow Warrior has a similar mechanic but unlike Painkiller, health drops from enemies are very infrequent as unlike Painkiller where soul drops are guaranteed, Shadow Warrior’s health gain system uses RNG to decide whether or not the health will appear which is a stupid idea.
Be sure to max this out quickly, you’ll be using it a lot.
This brings me to a point that I neglected to mention in my review of Hard Reset but I will mention it here instead. Now the reason why I didn’t mention this before in my review of Hard Reset is because I was willing to give this idea another chance to see if it could actually work. Shadow Warrior proves otherwise as many of the game’s problems are related to the needless RPG elements that plague the gameplay. Like with many modern FPS games, Shadow Warrior allows players to upgrade their weapons and learn new skills. Unfortunately this is to the games detriment for so many reasons.
Now lets take a look at Painkiller again. In Painkiller you have 5 weapons that have been tightly balanced to give players an incentive to swap between them. Each weapon has a secondary function, some even have 3 functions. Each weapon serves a specific purpose and as such the weapon you’re using often depends on the situation you are in. The shotgun is used to deal with enemies at close to mid range, the stakegun is used to deal with enemies at mid to long-range, the electrodriver is used against large groups of enemies at close range and the rocket launcher/chaingun is used against large groups of enemies from afar. The painkiller on the other hand is a very flexible weapon that can do pretty much anything the other weapons can but isn’t as efficient at dealing with enemies as the other weapons are making it the perfect side arm weapon.
“You better enjoy the shotgun, crossbow and the katana because they’re the only 3 weapons worth a damn in this game”
In Shadow Warrior you have 7 weapons, one of these weapons being the katana. Much like the painkiller, the katana is a very flexible weapon that can do anything the other weapons can do. The problem is that the other weapons do not give the katana a run for its money. While some weapons like the crossbow, the PDW and the shotgun end up being more efficient later on in the game, at the start of the game they are pretty weak. This is because of the game’s upgrade system. Each weapon starts off as an unfinished weapon in which you have to spend money to complete it.
Now I can see what Shadow Warrior is trying to do, it’s trying to give players the incentive to explore to find valuables that reward players with growth. As good as all of this may seem on paper, it is actually damaging to the gameplay due to the fact that the weapons aren’t worth using until they are fully upgraded which requires players to accumulate resources. This takes time to do and as such you will spend a large portion of the game with a very weak arsenal of weapons, aside from the katana of course.
The sad thing is that it really didn’t need to be this way. Painkiller’s tarot card system required players to gather gold coins to purchase new cards. This gave players an incentive to explore in order to find secrets like holy items which are worth 100 gold each. This allowed Painkiller to keep a strong emphasis on growth and some minor exploration without compromising its weapon balancing. Now I realize that I’m comparing Shadow Warrior to Painkiller a lot here but bear in mind that the creators of Shadow Warrior also worked at People Can Fly and were involved in the creation of Painkiller. As such the fact that their more recent games are so inferior to Painkiller worries me greatly.
One issue that never ceases to infuriate me in most modern first person shooters is the constant need to reload your weapon. Not only does it bring the gameplay to a standstill for 3-5 seconds but it also adds more busywork for the player. Sure it makes sense in a more realistic game but in a game like Shadow Warrior, it just feels misplaced. I cannot count how many times I had to cycle through every single weapon at the end of each battle just to reload them just so that I would have a full clip for the next fight, it’s tedious and it is just bad game design.
This kinda sucks…
Sure you could argue that the need to reload adds an extra layer of challenge considering the fact that you have to be more careful with your ammo usage but let’s be real here, you have 7 weapons to swap between, if your ammo runs out, you can just swap to a new weapon so technically the reload feature doesn’t add any extra challenge, it just brings the pacing of the gameplay to a stand still which is never a good thing in a fast paced first person shooter. When will developers learn to stop assuming that realism is essential in games? Because it isn’t.
While Shadow Warrior tries to bring a solid single player experience to the table, it really doesn’t feel like an old school style first person shooter at all, rather it feels like your typical modern FPS with a premise that differs from the usual military warfare. I really like the oriental setting they went for with this game, the levels are very colorful and being a lot of flavor to the experience, that is until you reach the more industrial themed levels where the game starts to become a bit too generic for my tastes. As such I’d say that the visuals are a mixed bag. While some levels look really great, other levels are pretty lackluster to say the least.
I get that the game wanted to give us something different and it does to some degree. The first few levels are bright, colorful and filled with tonnes of Japanese architecture, later on you encounter a cool urban setting with a similar style to the first few levels. Once you reach the industrial levels however, the game starts to look bland and believe me, there’s no shortage of these levels and they seem to go on forever. Personally I think the industrial levels should have been shortened a little as I find them to be quite monotonous in comparison to the other levels for the simple fact that industrial settings tend to lack color and while they’re good in small doses, I think they overstayed their welcome in this game.
Speaking of things that overstayed their welcome, the boss fights leave much to be desired. Every single boss fight in Shadow Warrior feels like a needless ordeal and a time waste. Why on earth do you give the boss a health bar when the bosses health doesn’t decrease until you drain another health bar? The whole point in giving bosses a health bar is so that players are able to tell how much damage they need to do to the boss before it dies. Unfortunately the bosses in Shadow Warrior cannot simply be shot at, you have to instead shoot their weak points but in order to do so you have to break the shard of armor protecting that weak point.
This is the exact same issue I had with Hard Reset. The developers have clearly learned nothing when it comes to boss fights. Now to be fair, I’ve yet to play a single first person shooter where the boss fights are all consistently good. Even Painkiller had problems with its boss fights but at least it had a few good ones like the Necrogiant which was as simple as “shoot it till it dies”. Plus the bosses in Painkiller could be killed quickly by using tarot cards and players are encouraged to do this in order to unlock new tarot cards. In Shadow Warrior however, boss fights take ages and none of them are even remotely challenging, they’re just a tedious ordeal for the player to get through.
Another issue I have is with the hit detection of the bosses weak points. The hit boxes are way too small and as such you are limited to weapons such as the PDW and the crossbow to deal with every single boss fight as accuracy is everything. Plus if you have to reload in the middle of the fight, guess what? The armor regenerates and you have to do it all over again. This is quite possibly the pinnacle of shitty boss design in a FPS… or it would have been if it wasn’t for Hard Reset which was even worse in this regard. Why can’t I just shoot the boss and kill it? Why do I always have to shoot the weak points to damage the boss? It’s so annoying.
Except it’s not just the boss fights that have hit boxes. In the later portion of the game you are introduced to a new enemy known as Berserker. Berserkers are immune to all forms of damage from the front and will constantly charge at you. Basically imagine an over sized Kleer from Serious Sam with heavy armor at the front and lots of health. That’s basically what the Berserker is. These enemies are hands down the worst enemies I have ever encountered in a first person shooter and for good reason. The only way to kill them is by shooting the weak point on their back. Not only is it difficult to get behind them but when they charge you, you have only a split second to shoot their back before they turn around.
You would think that fighting just 1 of these guys is bad enough but in later levels they throw even more at you and you are constantly dodging around the map trying to avoid them. If you try to shoot one of them in the back, the other one will hit you with their charge attack. Because it’s impossible to focus on just 1 enemy at a time, adding 2 or more of these enemies in a single fight is downright criminal. I get that the developers are trying to make the game more challenging later on in the game but this just isn’t the way to do it, there are plenty of ways to make challenging enemies without having to make it such a needless hassle to kill them.
Will you just die already!?
Another of my biggest gripes with this game is the level design. Much like in Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior likes to fill each level with explosives and clutter except there’s no real thought put into their positioning. Not only does it serve to hinder the player’s mobility but it can be potentially fatal if a player accidentally triggers a chain reaction of explosions. Many of these explosives are positioned in places where enemies are not likely to go, making them nothing but a hindrance to the player. Compare this to Painkiller where most of the explosives are positioned in places where they can be put to good use such as the barrels that appear on the staircase on snowy bridge which can be used to blow up enemies that come down the stairs.
Speaking of explosives, later on in the game you will encounter these weird green orbs scattered across the level. This is probably the developers attempt at trolling the player by adding a form of trap to the game. I hate games that do this and I wish that developers would just stop. While some of these orbs are easy to see, others are not. Some of these orbs are placed near doorways or which aren’t in the player’s line of vision giving them a nasty surprise if they walk in, others are placed behind crates or even in bushes and can be a real pain to deal with.
Eventually you will encounter an enemy known as Mother, these enemies like to create more of these green orbs and send them rolling towards you. The only way to avoid these is by shooting them. I tend to use the revolver for this as it is a completely useless weapon for just about everything else so it’s not a waste for me to use it on these orbs. The worst part about all this is that the orbs can reach you from literally anywhere, they can even roll up staircases… I’m dead serious. You would think that in a game where reloading exists, the laws of physics would also apply. Sadly this doesn’t seem to be the case.
On the plus side there is plenty of ammo to be found in each level so you don’t often find yourself low on ammunition. If for whatever reason you do, there is a way to buy extra ammo from the upgrade shop if you need it. In addition there’s plenty of money littered around for players to find in order to give players some breathing room between fights as well as secrets to find. Despite all this, I feel that many of the games levels overstay their welcome. Some levels are way too short whereas other levels are way too long. One level in particular took nearly 2 hours for me to finish which is inexcusable.
Nearly an hour and a half? Are you freaking kidding me!?
While the game does give players the ability to save anywhere, I think that the developers should have spread the levels out a bit for the sake of encouraging break periods, especially since players are graded at the end of each level. Gamer psychology dictates that players are more willing to drop a game upon completing a level or upon reaching a certain milestone. As such it is important to have a bite-sized level structure, particularly in first person shooters. Shadow Warrior’s failure to do this is quite possibly its most damaging flaw, especially considering the rest of the issues that plague this game.
It doesn’t help that the music adds basically nothing to any of the levels, none of which are particularly memorable and makes you wonder why they even bothered with music in the first place. None of the music is adrenaline pumping nor does it go towards building a strong ambiance… it’s just there. I really have nothing to say about the music at all, it’s just forgettable. It’s like they weren’t even trying.
Music is shit… but at least it has rabbit sex…
All the negativity you have seen so far may lead you to believe that this game has absolutely no redeeming qualities. Is the game really all that terrible? Yes and no. You see when I started the game, I was actually having a lot of fun playing it. I really enjoyed using the katana to chop foes to pieces and at first the upgrade systems appeared to be a nice touch. I really liked the emphasis on exploring for secrets and I also liked the level aesthetics. That all changed when I reached the half way mark where the game started to become a tedious slog, enemies started to get more and more irritating to fight due to having way too much health and I started to lose interest in the level aesthetics once they went towards a more industrial setting.
Shadow Warrior is a game I wanted to like… a lot. While I didn’t expect it to be as good as Painkiller, I still wanted to have some fun with it and I did for a while but then the game began to stagnate in its later sections so badly that I couldn’t help but write a harsh critique on this game. In baseball, when you get 3 strikes, you’re out. This isn’t the way I do things however. If they get 2 strikes from me, they’re out. As such I can’t see myself wanting to give Shadow Warrior 2 a go, or the new Rise Of The Triad. Flying Wild Hog have failed to impress me twice now, they’re not the developers they once were back when they made Painkiller, they’re different now. It’s difficult to come to terms with my dislike for this game but I’m afraid sometimes you just have to accept the truth.
In any case if you’re thinking of buying this game, I’d say that it depends on how tolerant you are of the bullshit most modern FPS games. If you somehow managed to enjoy games like Serious Sam 3, I think you’ll probably find a winner here… but I despise Serious Sam for so many reasons and Serious Sam 3 is the first game in the series to implement a reload feature. It’s also interesting to note that the first Serious Sam makes a cameo appearance in this game which is quite fitting if you ask me. If you can tolerate games like Serious Sam 3 then you’ll most definitely enjoy Shadow Warrior. If not then spare yourself the ordeal and avoid this game.
Visuals: Satisfactory
Music: Forgettable
Gameplay: Mediocre
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Medium
Would You Replay? No
Overall: Mediocre
So the question is, which game is better? Shadow Warrior or Hard Reset? Well if I was basing my opinions on the start of the game, Shadow Warrior wins hands down. As a complete package however I’d argue that Hard Reset does a far better job.
Value: £5.00
Thanks to Hypno Coffin for gifting me a copy of the game. Saved me wasting my money on this.
Getting players immersed into your game is no easy feat. Many developers think that immersing players is as simple as creating realistic environments and mechanics, in this video I will argue against this flawed mindset and explain how we can make our games feel more immersive.
Mount And Blade Warband is a game not known for having realistic visuals or animations but it is hands down one of the most immersive games I have ever played. As such the video will show you an epic siege battle that managed to turn the tide in one of the toughest conflicts I have had in Mount And Blade.
I hope you pay attention to how dated the animation and visuals are to help you understand my points as the video is supposed to show how lacking Mount And Blade is in this department but to also show a sense of scale to illustrate just how incredible it is to launch your army into a siege.
When people think of notorious game developers, a few names come to mind, Yoko Taro is one of them. Yoko Taro is quite possibly one of the most interesting gaming personalities of all time, a man who dares to present himself in an unorthodox manner and escape the confines of formal corporate etiquette. If you ask me, Yoko Taro is essentially what I would consider to be the perfect videogame producer.
However, looking at Yoko Taro as a game developer requires us to take a look at the many games he has developed. Now my personal knowledge on Yoko Taro’s games is limited but I have seen a pretty clear pattern in his design philosophy. It appears that Yoko Taro gives zero fucks about any of the potential repercussions that his crazy ideas may cause and rather than solving problems, many of Yoko Taro’s design choices often end up creating them.
When you look at Yoko Taro’s games on the surface, his games are crazy and over the top. I believe this to be the main draw to Yoko Taro’s games. His carefree attitude is certainly appealing, especially in the current climate where most gaming companies prefer to play it safe. Yoko Taro appears to believe that by doing the opposite of what other game developers try to do, he will succeed. He is partially right but at the same time this is a flawed mindset.
While it is important to experiment with new ideas, it is equally as important to prioritize certain ideas over others and cut away anything that isn’t congruent with the gameplay. Sadly Nier Automata prioritizes its narrative and illustration over its gameplay and tries to meld them into one in order to create an unusual experience, an experience in which I personally feel mixed on.
If Nier Automata has taught me anything it’s that ideas and concepts alone do not make a game. If we look at Nier Automata on the surface we see a massively ambitious project that blows our minds, so much so that this game is admittedly very difficult to critique but at the same time it’s very easy when you look closely at what the game actually is. Nier Automata is the equivalent of a dish that hadn’t been tasted, that’s not to say that the QA department were to blame, rather Yoko Taro’s dumped a lot of random ingredients into a blender expecting it to turn out great.
Now the good news is that Nier Automata is a game that manages to tickle everyone’s taste buds, hence why it became so popular. Methinks this was Yoko Taro’s plan from the start, create something so ridiculously absurd that people get blown away in amazement by how unorthodox the game is and with a plethora of ideas at his disposal, he was able to make a game that grabs the attention of the masses for it offers something for everyone. It worked, sure but that’s not to say that the game is a masterpiece, far from it actually.
As this is a review I am obligated to paint an accurate picture of the experience and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. In doing so I’m going to tear this game apart. Yeah you heard me, I’m not going to pretend that this game is a special snowflake because it’s not. Nier Automata is far from being a masterpiece like many make it out to be and this is due to one simple issue that plagues the entire game, it lacks a solid foundation.
Videogames requires a similar structure to that of a tree’s anatomy. You have the roots, the trunk and the branches. The roots are essentially what keeps the tree alive, without the roots there is no tree. As such the roots are the base of the foundation, they provide the tree with nutrients and water. Considering the fact that Nier Automata appears to be primarily a 3d beat-em-up I will use Devil May Cry 3 as an example. Devil May Cry 3’s foundation is not the attacks, nor is it the style gauge, the base of Devil May Cry 3’s foundation is the movement and the camera. You see, the entirety of Devil May Cry 3 is built with camera and movement in mind. Devil May Cry mainly uses a static camera angle and the gameplay is built with this in mind.
Many animals were harmed in the making of this review
Later on, many 3d beat-em-ups opted for a manually controlled camera so that players have control over the camera rather than feeling unable to feel in control. This came with a cost as it can be difficult to manage both the game and the camera simultaneously. Some games such as Chaos Legion made camera management easier, others such as God Hand opted to remove the camera controls entirely, this caused both games to differentiate from one another dramatically giving each game a completely different feel. As you can see, the camera plays a big part in these games as it is the focal point in which each game is built around. In other words, the camera acts as the foundation that governs the rules and systems built to accommodate it.
Why am I bringing this up? Because one of the biggest issues that plagues Nier Automata is the very thing that governs the foundation of all 3d beat-em-ups, the camera. The very first thing you are introduced to in Nier Automata is a shoot-em- up section. Wait, isn’t this supposed to be a 3d beat-em-up you ask? That’s the thing, Nier Automata doesn’t focus on being one specific genre exclusively, rather it tries to meld different styles of gameplay into one expecting to impress a huge audience with its diverse gameplay.
When you first begin, the game starts with a vertical camera with your flight unit able to move forward, back, left and right as enemies appear from the top of the screen for you to shoot down, sounds simple doesn’t it? Well don’t get too used to this as the next section presents you with a top down camera which plays more like a twin stick shooter. This introduces the use of the right analogue stick which was previously unusable in the previous section. In other words, the game has just changed its rules without warning and you now have to adapt to a completely different set of rules.
This can be disorientating as players need time to adapt to a set of rules before they are introduced to a new set of rules. Only through practice can players experience educated empowerment, the problem is that rather than having players feel like they are coming to grips with a system, Nier Automata changes the rules and forces players to come to grips with an entirely new system, thus the element of mastery is neglected for the sake of diversifying gameplay which can be infuriating to people who enjoy mastery in videogames and can be equally as frustrating to people who struggle to pick up on gameplay mechanics.
“If Nier Automata has taught me anything it’s that ideas and concepts alone do not make a game”
In Devil May Cry 3, aside from the occasional puzzle, the game consists of mostly beating the living shit out of bad guys with mostly close quarters combat, it focuses primarily on this close quarters combat and the very first mission involves primarily close quarters combat. Why? Because that is the core of Devil May Cry 3’s gameplay and the game wants to introduce the player to the game by giving them a fairly simple and straightforward training ground allowing players to experiment with Dante’s move set in order to learn the basics of the game’s combat. At first, it is natural that players are going to suck and as such you need to present the player with more of the same gameplay sections, occasionally adding something new to the mix in order for them to become better acquainted with the game’s mechanics which is the first step towards mastering the game.
If you transition to a completely different ruleset, you essentially compromise the entire process of mastery, this is the biggest issue with Nier Automata’s gameplay and it only gets worse from here on out. Nier Automata loves to experiment with a lot of different ideas… the problem is that Nier Automata is a commercial product designed to be a recreational activity. Such experimental ideas do not belong in the game, rather they belong in a note pad… or in a completely different game entirely.
Of course this also applies to the sections where you are grounded and engaged in close quarters combat. Most of the time you will have access to manual camera control but this is not always the case, some sections will have a static side view camera or a static top view camera. The game seamlessly transitions between each camera angle so this can often happen without warning, changing the way the controls work every single time.
The top down sections are by far the worst of the bunch as the camera is usually zoomed out way too far. Of course this isn’t the only time this happens as the side view camera angle can also be zoomed out way too far at times but I find this to be a lot more common with the top down sections. This can be quite irritating as it can be difficult to read the enemy’s moves when the camera is zoomed out too far. The game tries to make up for this by giving many of the enemies a red aura when they are attacking but it only happens for a split second and when there’s so many enemies on-screen at once it can be difficult to figure out which one was attacking you, let alone what their attack is going to be as it can be difficult to see which enemy you’re fighting.
Now I get what the game is trying to do, I really do. It’s trying to harken back to the old school style of gameplay, back when side scrolling and top down camera angles were common. The problem is that the gameplay of Nier Automata is not built with these camera angles in mind. The entire game is built with manual camera controls in mind and as such having multiple camera angles is kinda pointless as it doesn’t enhance the gameplay experience whatsoever, rather it hinders it.
If you want to make a side scrolling beat-em-up, that’s perfectly fine, look at what Odin Sphere Leifthrasir did, that game was built with a side view camera angle in mind. As such, rather than removing certain functions from the game, it incorporates functions that simply wouldn’t work in a game that uses manual camera controls such as the ability to hold down square and press up on the left analogue stick to perform aerial attacks. You can’t do this in Nier Automata as pressing up on the left analogue stick is used to move your character forward, granted games like Devil May Cry 3 added a directional input using its lock on system, something Nier Automata is sorely lacking.
This is where I want to get into the game’s combat system, specifically the 3d beat-em-up sections. Nier Automata’s combat system feels somewhat archaic, at least when compared to other 3d beat em ups like Devil May Cry 3. You are limited to one string of attacks per weapon and can equip 2 weapons at a time. You are also given a pod that shoots bullets and other ranged weapons. In addition to all this you are also able to dodge enemy attacks and counter them which is pretty satisfying to pull off.
One thing that bugs me however is that the short sword counter attack launches enemies into the air, this is cool until you encounter enemies that don’t stagger as instead of launching them into the air, you flail your sword around like an idiot, it gets really irritating how some enemies can be staggered while others can’t. In addition to all this, I encountered several hit point sponge enemies over the course of the game, the game gave me no indication as to which enemies were hp sponges and which weren’t which was annoying.
It appears that these enemies are monikered “gold enemies” and they’re really annoying to fight as they take way too long to kill them unless you hack them but doing so requires you to have a hacking ability which you don’t have access to when you first encounter them and you don’t get access to the hacking ability for ages. In which case why spawn these enemies there? They’re not even challenging, they’re just annoying and tedious, I killed one of them but I didn’t get anything special for doing so, perhaps there’s more to them but I don’t really care, the fact that they show up in a section of the game you need to pass through to progress through the main story is absolutely fucking ridiculous as you clearly aren’t supposed to kill them at that point… yet you can, the funny thing is, these enemies aren’t a higher level than any of the other enemies, so why do they have so much goddamn hit points!?
It was at this point where I realized just how limited the combat feels, yes the combat is really fun and satisfying at the start but it stagnates later on, particularly when you find out that shooting enemies at long-range with the pod is usually the best strategy for dealing with most enemies making melee combat kinda useless. In a way, Nier Automata feels a lot like Devil May Cry 2 but with faster, less janky combat as it gives you an automatic weapon right from the get go meaning you can hold it down and kill most enemies surprisingly quickly. Why waste time with the melee combat when ranged combat is safer and easier, sure it might not be the most efficient method in terms of damage dealing but after weighing everything up I’d say the game encourages you to use ranged weapons over melee weapons.
Now you could argue that Devil May Cry 3 gives you handguns and that you can shoot enemies to death. Though this may be true, it clearly isn’t encouraged as shooting requires you to rapidly tap the square button and they deal very little damage per shot, it’s so much easier to hit things with a sword as not only does it deal considerably more damage but it also helps build the style gauge which gives you access to more red orbs letting you learn more moves faster. It puzzles me how a 12-year-old game manages to have more flexibility in its combat system than Nier Automata. It’s as if the developers were desperate to release the game ASAP with a passable combat system. To the developer’s credit, the combat is easy to pick up and play, dodging feels very responsive and the overall combat feels smooth, so much so that it makes a mockery out of Yoko Taro’s previous games in this department which is nothing to write home about but commendable nonetheless.
Going by Yoko Taro’s track record, I’d say that this game’s combat system would have been a train wreck if it wasn’t for Platinum games which just goes to show how little confidence I have in Yoko Taro’s games. The Drakengard game’s combat systems were painfully slow and janky that I couldn’t be bothered to finish any of them, granted I never played the first Nier though I heard a lot of complaints about the game and based on my experiences with the Drakengard games, this doesn’t surprise me. If you ask me, Platinum games saved this game from being yet another janky mess.
Of course this is only the first layer of the game’s combat system as it is technically two games in one, well sort of. The shoot-em-up segments make up the second layer of the game’s combat system, much like in Odin Sphere, I really wasn’t too keen on having them in this game either. To the game’s credit these sections aren’t particularly all that bad but they just seem to be thrown in there for the sake of it. Unlike most shoot-em-ups where enemies drop power ups and you improve your ship, Nier Automata doesn’t do this which kinda makes these sections feel tacked on and thus an ordeal to get through.
I can’t exactly complain about these sections though, much like the beat-em-up sections you have more-or-less the same abilities, dodging is still great, you can melee attack to deflect projectiles and shoot powerful lasers at enemies. If I was to summarize my overall experience with these sections, I’d say that they’re the top down low-budget equivalent Zone Of The Enders. In other words I think these sections are ok but not particularly rewarding or enjoyable to get through, at least in my opinion. I would have rather they focused on enhancing the beat-em-up style gameplay than shove this in there because I bought this game to hack n slash robots on the ground, not shoot things in the air.
Then we get into the hacking minigame. To be honest while these sections are simplistic, the fact that they keep the camera static the whole time makes these sections the best part of the gameplay hands down. Much like the standard shoot-em-up sections however, these sections also feel like a needless ordeal to get through most of the time and you will want to get back in the action ASAP. Still I cannot complain about these sections, it’s like a budget indie title some amateur made in game maker, how can you possibly fuck it up? All you need to do is shoot cylinders, circles and arrows, you can’t possibly fuck this up. Do you want a fucking medal game?
Combat aside, Nier Automata offers a reasonable amount of character growth and personalization through the use of plug in chips. Over the course of the game you will acquire plug in chips which can be added to your pod. Each plug in chip has different effects that can be applied to all elements of gameplay. They can also be enhanced by combining multiple chips together in order to improve them. I honestly found this to be a nice addition to the game and sort of makes up for the lack of options in combat. As such you could argue that Nier Automata is actually an Action RPG and to be honest you wouldn’t be completely wrong as the game does have a leveling system and RNG… but after the last blog I made, I’m going to treat this game as a 3d beat-em-up. I do think the character management is good enough to give this game some credit as an ARPG but with only a single controllable character, it’s expected that the game can do more than most ARPGs and as such it feels unfair to compare it with other games in the genre.
Still, I think what Nier Automata lacks in the gameplay department is flavor. The framework is there… mainly because that’s all they had time to do by the end because they didn’t bother to focus on one particular element. This means the game feels sterile as a result, you get a playable, yet empty experience which could have been so much more had the developers focused on one element of gameplay rather than trying to do everything at once. As such, the lack of focus is the core of the problem. The potential is there but the material on offer feels archaic, dull and boring which is extremely disappointing coming from Platinum games. If you ask me, I’d say that Yoko Taro’s involvement is the main reason why the gameplay never reached its full potential, he demanded too much from the game and Platinum did their best to make it work.
By now you can probably see a trend in this review. So far I have only touched on the gameplay and for good reason, it’s all over the fucking place! That means I have to review every single combat section separately because they’re all different even though my opinion on every single one of them is the same, they all feel half-assed. Now I’m not saying that the gameplay is terrible, it definitely isn’t, heck the game can actually be quite fun to play for quite a while, the gameplay is definitely not a major issue, if I said it was then I’d be a hypocrite for giving other games the pass and not this. I’m just disappointed that they didn’t go all the way with this game considering the amount of hype that was built up for it.
The sad thing is, Nier Automata clearly had the budget, it just lacked common sense in its direction and I know that this might sound like I hate Yoko Taro but the truth is I don’t, I really want to like his games, I really do. I support everything he stands for in gaming, he’s one of the few people involved with Square-Enix that is genuine and for that I cannot bring myself to hate the guy. I feel his games however seem to follow a clear pattern. Yes they’re all weird and wacky, nothing wrong with that, I get it, heck I can even appreciate it. However there are certain things about his games that rub me the wrong way, particularly in the gameplay department. As such if gameplay is the only thing you’re interested in, Yoko Taro’s games definitely aren’t for you, you are wasting your time and money playing them as there are better games out there for people like you, go play them instead.
So as a game, Nier Automata could have been so much better but is it a good experience nonetheless? That’s a tough question. You see Nier Automata is one of those games that’s either going to click with you or it isn’t. Nier Automata’s narrative concept is pretty unique. The world has been taken over by machines and mankind has deployed androids known as Yorha to deal with them. Sure we’ve seen conflict between human and machine in other media countless times but what truly makes this interesting is Nier Automata’s choice to replace humans with androids.
Such an ambitious narrative concept is going to require a lot of creativity in the narrative department as androids are artificial lifeforms that use artificial intelligence. There are only two ways to approach such a concept, either make the android characters completely devoid of emotion and focus primarily on building a strong, interesting world with plenty of abstract storytelling, or find a way to encourage players to willingly suspend their disbelief in order to establish strong connectivity with the characters. Nier Automata focuses mostly on the latter.
The problem is that the characters in Nier Automata are pretty bland. This is usually expected with such a narrative concept as it is normal for androids to lack emotion but when you clearly focus your game’s story on connectivity with characters, you need your characters to have strong emotions in order for them to be interesting enough to connect to. The main character 2B has a cardboard personality. She’s a serious, duty-bound Android who is stoic and blunt. Then you have 9S who joins 2B on her mission who is kinda laid back but does develop later on in the game.
When a game feels the need to be literal when describing the personality of a character, you know the writing’s fucked.
Unfortunately the character development in Nier Automata feels forced. This is mainly due to the game’s lackluster dialogue. The build up is there but it feels very shallow. Once again, this all comes down to a lack of focus. A lot of the game’s narrative is focused on the game’s premise and its themes rather than the characters. If the game was going for a more abstract style of storytelling it could probably get away with this but sadly this is not the case as Nier Automata clearly focuses on connectivity. For a game focused on connectivity to work it needs strong characters to act as a foundation for the rest of the story. If the characters are weak, the pillars holding the story together begin to crack and if the pillars crumble, the rest of the story goes down with it. This is the unfortunate fate of Nier Automata’s story.
To enjoy Nier Automata’s story to its fullest, you not only have to willingly suspend your disbelief but you also have to read a lot of the game’s texts and engage in many of the game’s sidequests. While this does not save the main story from being a complete let down, it at least allows you to appreciate the world a little bit more. I can honestly say that I had way more fun doing sidequests in this game than I did playing through the main story as the sidequests are pretty well designed. Sure there are plenty of fetch quests but they each come with their own little side story. Some missions are more interesting than others but I can definitely say that these are some of the best sidequests I’ve seen in a game hands down.
Where Nier Automata truly shines is in its exploration. If you’re looking for a true adventure game, this is it. The world of Nier Automata doesn’t feel empty and barren like most open world games nor does it feel strictly linear, instead the game gives you freedom to explore within limits. Personally I’d argue that this is by far the best approach to open exploration. If you see it you can most likely reach it and the game makes it easy to move around the world for the most part making exploration simple and fun. Of course there are plenty of treasure chests and items laid about for players to scavenge to reward players for exploring the game’s world.
Visually I’d say that the game is kinda a mixed bag for me personally. I’m not personally fond of the post apocalyptic urban setting as it brings about a pretty grim aesthetic that emphasizes a colour scheme that is comprised of greys and browns, which can be pretty bland to look at if you ask me. The vast majority of the game takes place in areas that look this way which is a bit of a downer for me but outside of these areas, there are some gorgeous looking areas to explore. I do think the developers overdid it with the lighting at some parts but I don’t think it’s a major issue. For this reason, I found the best parts of the game were the early sections before acquiring the first ending. Those of you unfamiliar with Yoko Taro’s games probably don’t know what I mean by this but Drakengard and Nier both have multiple endings. As you play through the game you will eventually reach an ending where the credits play but the game isn’t over and you are told to keep playing on for more content.
After the first ending, I started to lose interest in the game as I had already explored the majority of the game’s map and the value of exploration was no longer present in the game. To be honest, despite the fact that the first ending left me with lots of questions, I felt that it was the best possible time to end the game. You could argue that the game is worth purchasing for the first section alone but considering the full package, I’d say that Nier Automata overstays its welcome much like everything post disk 1 in Legend Of Dragoon.
One thing that didn’t disappoint me was the soundtrack. While I’m not usually fond of vocals, I found that they accompanied many of the tracks pretty well. The music helps encourage the exploration, something a lot of open world games fail to do because they tend to shuffle the music randomly rather than keep the same track for each area. I really like how a semi-open world is accompanied with a soundtrack that perfectly fits each section. Not only that but the music changes depending on whether or not you are in battle to get you pumped up for the action. I think a lot of games can learn a lot from Nier Automata for this reason. In terms of open exploration, I’d argue it’s one of the best if not the best game I have ever played.
Though Nier Automata does have some redeeming qualities, I’d argue that the overall experience of the game is hit-or-miss. When this game was first released I had to pay £44.99 which is an absolutely outrageous price for such a game. I definitely didn’t get my money’s worth out of it but I probably would have if I spent £39.99. This is why I come across as somewhat harsh and bitter in this review because not only am I having to pay more for videogames these days but I feel that many of the games released this generation (and the previous) fail to meet the standards set by games that were released 10 years ago and Nier Automata is one of them.
As such I cannot say that I was as impressed or as blown away by this game like the masses were but can I recommend this game? Well I’d say if the price is right, pick it up, just don’t spend £44.99 on this game, it just isn’t worth it. I base my entire judgement on value for money and time as when a game has the audacity to charge more, I expect more. I don’t give a shit about inflation, I expect games to improve as time goes by, sadly this clearly isn’t the case.
Every einherjar in Valkyrie Profile 2 (except Dylan) and how they are connected, all shown here. It’s in Japanese so obviously you’ll have to understand Japanese in order to read it. It also shows the timeline for all the einherjar also so you can see which einherjar existed first.
So the Destructoid article claims that due to an agreement with Vanillaware, Atlus cannot publish the game to PC even though they clearly want to. I will quote the article:
Yamamoto: As a publisher, we would like to deliver it to PC users as well, but per our agreement with Vanillaware, we are only releasing on console. In other words, there are no plans to port it to PC currently.
From Destructoid article written by Eric Van Allen
Now in the next article by GNN, we have another quote from Yamamoto which contradicts the above quote:
Yamamoto: Regarding the development of this game, ATLUS and VANILLAWARE actually started work in 2016, and the original development platforms were only PS4 and PS Vita. But compared with 8 years ago, today’s game market has undergone earth-shaking changes. In order to adapt to the changes of the times, we asked VANILLAWARE to change the compatible game console platform to PS4 / PS5 / Nintendo Switch / Xbox Series X|S , which doubled the number of platforms originally expected, and the sales method was also changed to simultaneous global sales at that time. The current corresponding platform is determined by ATLUS as the publisher. We are very grateful to VANILLAWARE for agreeing to this request without hesitation. Because of this, there are currently no plans to make a PC version.
From GNN Article written by Inu Taku
So this essentially points fingers at two different companies. Destructoid blames Vanillaware, GNN blames Atlus as according to GNN, it was Atlus who decided on the platforms to support. Now given my bias against Atlus’ parent company SEGA, I am more inclined to believe the GNN article given the fact that this outrageous decision is something that SEGA would make given the fact that they are and always have been incompetant morons since the 60’s. At the same time however, Vanillaware games have still yet to see a PC release.
Put simply, I don’t know what to believe anymore, either the journalists suck at their jobs or Yamamoto didn’t deliver a sufficient answer in the Destructoid article and finally gave some proper information on thw GNN article. If that is the case then I do apologize to Vanillaware and my readers because I was mislead by all of this.
Now as for my Vanillaware article, I will take it down to avoid spreading any false facts. I no longer have any issue with George Kamitani as of right now and while I won’t support his games going forward unless a PC port is released, I won’t make any more assumptions. While those assumptions were necesarry at the time and regardless of them being true or not would serve their purpose, with this new information, I retract my statements made regarding his possible reasonings for not wanting to release games on PC because there’s a good chance that he isn’t against releasing games on PC, it’s just that Atlus don’t want him to.
Regardless, this is terrible news for us all. With Vanillaware games never getting a PC release, it’s going to mean that PC gamers miss out on all of George Kamitani’s work which is a shame because George Kamitani can actually make some decent games.
In any case, I know that there will be those people who want to be smart asses about me being wrong about this but the reality is that this mistake was not my own. I formulated my views based on what is supposed to be a reputable source. Yes I was perhaps wrong in retrospect but at the same time, had I not spoken out on it, this problem would not have gotten awareness and at the same time, sometimes you have to push the assumptions to grab people’s attention. That is what I do, this is not a fact based site, I base my views on facts brought to me by what are considered to be reputable sources but I am an opinion based site who’s purpose is to speculate and uncover the truth hidden behind the facts that they don’t want us to know, so that we ask the questions.
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