Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The Secret Project. All your IP are belong to us.

Click this to register, but you're probably an user anyway because we do have any friends.


If you're already an member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 3
Vidya Game Reviews, The Redux; you know what to do
Topic Started: Dec 16 2013, 07:58 PM (1,563 Views)
Romanticide
Member Avatar
Cult Leader
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I can't be assed to type up a whole new intro, so here's the old one. I'll edit in the links to reviews that currently aren't here later because I'm lazy and feel tired and blah.

Anyway, the rules are simple. Post your reviews here. Any game on any console is welcome, and I'll add new sections as we get new consoles represented here. I don't want simple one line or paragraph reviews; I want reviews that go in-depth about various aspects of a game. I want the review to be something that tells the reader you actually played the game and know what you are talking about, whether it's a few paragraphs or a few pages long. Also, make them readable. I expect perfection of nobody, but I expect a reasonable effort to keep errors down. Last, feel free to write dissenting reviews! Disagree with me or anyone else? Fine, write your review with your opinion, but don't flame.

OP will be reserved for links to game reviews. Reviews will be sorted by console, with multi-platform titles getting their own section. My first review is in the next post.


Multi-platform:
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (SaiyanShredder)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (SaiyanShredder)
Batman: Arkham City (kmr95)
Bioshock (failureatlife)
Borderlands (SaiyanShredder)
Borderlands 2 (Volt)
Catherine (Romanticide)
Darksiders (DucksFAN93)
Deus Ex (SnowmanXIV)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Romanticide)
Final Fantasy XIII (LightningBolt)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Romanticide)
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Romanticide)
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (DucksFAN93)
NASCAR: The Game 2011 (nascargo19)
Portal 2 (SnowmanXIV)
Rise of the Argonauts (DucksFAN93)
Silent Hill 3 (failureatlife)
Spec Ops: The Line (failureatlife)
Sonic Generations (MrMarill)
Tomb Raider (MrMarill)
True Crime: Streets of L.A. (Olinea)


Nintendo 3DS:
Kid Icarus: Uprising (LifeAgainstDeath)
Mario Kart 7 (MrMarill)
Monster Manor (Olinea)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (MrMarill)
Pokemon X/Y (MrMarill)
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Olinea)
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright (Olinea)
Rayman 3D (MrMarill)
Super Mario 3D Land (MrMarill)
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (MrMarill)


PC:
BYOND (SnowmanXIV)
Star Wars: Empire at War (failureatlife)
To the Moon (Romanticide)
Yume Nikki (Volt)


PS3:
Folklore (DucksFAN93)
inFAMOUS 2 (Bigcalv2002)
Journey (MrMarill)
The Last of Us (MrMarill)
The Last of Us (CALJR_8760)
Metal Gear (SnowmanXIV)
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (SnowmanXIV)
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Romanticide)
Okami HD (LightningBolt)
Tales of Graces f (LightningBolt)
Valkyria Chronicles (LightningBolt)
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Bigcalv2002)


Wii:
The Last Story (Romanticide)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (MrMarill)
Pandora's Tower (Romanticide)
Super Paper Mario (MatthewJJA)
Super Smash Bros. Project M (MrMarill)
Xenoblade Chronicles (Romanticide)


Wii U:
Mario Kart 8 (MrMarill)


Xbox 360:
Gears of War 2 (tfghost92)
Gears of War 3 (SaiyanShredder)
Halo: Reach (MrMarill)


Retro:
Athens 2004: The Olympic Games (PS2) (MrMarill)
Castlevania (NES) (MrMarill)
Fire Emblem (GBA) (Olinea)
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS) (Romanticide)
Luigi's Mansion (GCN) (metallicflames)
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (PS2) (Romanticide)
Mega Man X (SNES (MrMarill)
Ninja Gaiden: Shadow Warriors (NES) (MrMarill)
Persona 3 (PS2) (Romanticide)
Persona 3 Portable (PSP) (LightningBolt)
Pokemon Black (DS) (MrMarill)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) (MrMarill)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) (MrMarill)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) (MrMarill)
Super Bomberman (SNES) (MrMarill)
Super Mario RPG (SNES) (SaiyanShredder)
Super Mario World (SNES) (MrMarill)
Super Metroid (SNES) (MrMarill)
Edited by Romanticide, Sep 26 2014, 12:48 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Romanticide
Member Avatar
Cult Leader
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
This review is mostly an excuse to start this thread. I normally don't post them before I finish a game (I'd say I'm probably 3-5 hours from the end), but I doubt the ending is really going to change much for me.


Game: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Platform: PS3
Genre: JRPG

It's always major news in the anime community when Studio Ghibli does something. In this case, they collaborated with Level-5 to make a game, and Ni no Kuni is the end result of that. I'm not a huge fan of Studio Ghibli, having only seen one movie ever eons ago, but Level-5 has delivered good games in the past (for me, the Professor Layton series), so I felt reasonably confident picking this up.

Ni no Kuni's gameplay would best be described as a mishmash of various series. You have the creature collection aspects of SMT/Pokemon, a battle system that is fairly similar to the Tales series, and even an alchemy system that is somewhat reminiscient of the Atelier/Mana Khemia series. This all sounds good in theory; these are all perfectly playable series and the systems are tried-and-true. However, each system in this game suffers from flaws you'd never find in the series they're ripped from.

The creature collection system is nice at the start of the game, especially since you'll get some sweet ass familiars. I have no problem with the monster designs; they're actually pretty cool. However, as the game continues, you'll notice almost all of the new monsters you can tame are simply reskins of older ones. While reskins have been in JRPGs since forever and will likely continue to be in JRPGs, collecting them sucks and the minds behind Pokemon/SMT know this. Unfortunately only familiars in your active party will get experience, which creates absolutely no incentive to use monsters you get outside the early game, unless you're willing to grind and likely be overleveled. You can also enhance your familiars' stats with snacks like cake, pie, and other such goodies; think of these like vitamins in Pokemon or Incenses in SMT. Like Pokemon/SMT, you'll be doing most fighting with your familiars, which brings me to the battle system.

As I alluded to earlier, the battle system is somewhat similar to that of a Tales game. Most of the time, because you're a smart human who doesn't want to waste ALL THE MP, you'll be using the attack function. When you hit attack in this game, you're given a set amount of time to execute as many attacks as possible by hitting X. You'll generally get 3-4 attacks in and you can even cancel an enemy's special techniques if you time a hit correctly, but this is still something I'm unable to do consistently after 30 hours with the game, so I still find mashing X to be the best approach. This being a JRPG, you also have magic at your disposal, though much like in Tales, attack magic is usually a lesser option. Healing magic is useful as always, and support magic can be useful but I find most of it (outside of spells that raise physical attack) to be unneeded. In theory the system should be pretty damn good, but the AI is absolutely horrendous. It does not matter what you set them to in the Tactics menu; they will spam magic all willy-nilly. Do What You Like? They'll spam 25 MP spells against the weakest of enemies, so they'll be out of magic in a few battles/early on in boss battles. Keep Us Healthy? They'll heal you when you have little damage. There's a "Don't Use Abilities" setting, but there are times where you'll want abilities to be used and switching to Oliver just to activate abilities is tedious. In short, you'll be pulling the party's weight most of the time unless you like wasting MP items on idiots.

The alchemy system is workable, but unlike in the Atelier series, gathering items is significantly harder. If you're playing through the game naturally and not grinding, you'll probably be short on money most of the time even if you take on most/all sidequests, and what money you *do* have is likely being saved for new weapons/armor. You probably won't be able to find the money to buy many ingredients unless you intend to use what you can alchemize. Also, most items you'll need for alchemy are fairly rare. They're either items you'll need to go out of your way to forage for or enemy drops. I've made less than 15 items, precisely because I don't have a wide variety of ingredients. It also does not help the items you'll get recipes for in the early to mid-game aren't exactly great, and the late-game ones require rare items.

Back to magic for a bit, because there are some very intriguing spells in this game that aren't used in combat. I find these to be the most interesting spells in the game. Many of these, like Levitation, Puppet String, Rejuvenate, amongst others, lend themselves to puzzles quite well. There aren't many puzzles in the game, but most of the ones that are there utilize the spells you've learned in ingenious ways. It's a shame there aren't more puzzles, because puzzles are one of the best aspects of this game. Not a surprise coming from Level-5.

The story is competently executed, though I didn't find it spectacular at all. You play as Oliver, a young boy who loses his mother within the first half hour of the game. One of the dolls Oliver's mother gave him turns out to be a fairy named Drippy, who tells him that it might be possible to save his mother if they go to his world, which is a world that runs parallel to and affects Oliver's world. Naturally, Oliver agrees and we're off on our adventure. However, Oliver learns rather quickly that the person he needs to defeat in order to save his mother is also responsible for breaking the hearts of the people in Drippy's world, so his mission becomes two-fold: Save his mother and the people of Drippy's world. Nothing ground-breaking here, though there are some plot twists I didn't see coming and the story flows naturally. In spite of the subject matter, the game is very light-hearted and silly, which differentiates it from the million other JRPGs that would treat this with unnecessary gravitas.

The characters are all fairly one-dimensional. Oliver starts out as a pure-hearted boy and remains such throughout the entire game. Even events that should challenge his resolve are dealt with in short order, with no changes to his character. Esther seems a lot like a female Oliver, though slightly less innocent and naive. Swaine is your archetypal coarse thief with a heart of gold. Drippy is extremely hilarious, though a bit on the conceited side. There's a tad of character development for everyone, but not enough so that I care for them. It just feels like Esther and Swaine are along for the ride; the story would work almost as well without them. If not for the game's humor, which appears quite often and is usually chuckle-worthy at the least, I'd probably find this cast even less memorable than it already is.

As stated way back in the intro paragraph, Studio Ghibli collaborated with Level-5 to make this game, and boy does it show. The graphics aren't cutting-edge, but I would say they're up to PS3 standards. The artstyle is where this game shines. I really don't know what to say other than the game looks like an animated, hand-drawn film, and it's gorgeous. You'd think this level of quality would be reserved for cutscenes, but it's present throughout the entire game. Every locale in this game is a treat to look at, but personal favorites would have to be Golden Grove, The Fairyground, and The Tombstone Trail. The sound is every bit as wonderful, though the only downside there is that I don't think the score would work well outside the game. That said, each song sets the mood for wherever it's played and most of the game's songs are absolutely wonderful. As far as voice acting goes, that's always been a lesser priority to me, but it's done rather well. It's not particularly memorable, but it's not a weak point either. You might tire of hearing neat-o, but that's about my only complaint.

There is a whole lot of side content that you may or may not get around to on a first run, including over 100 errands, a casino, an arena, the obligatory super boss, along with trophies that require you to do pretty much everything the game has to offer. While I don't mind the lack of a NG+, it's becoming more of a standard thing so you can just enjoy the game sans grind/prepare more easily to face hidden NG+ challenges and such. Even without an NG+, you can collect different monsters you never got the first time around, which may result in needing new strategies (not that you can strategize a whole lot with this AI, but still), equipment, etc.

I don't know of many games as aesthetically pleasing as Ni no Kuni. Sure, there are many more graphically impressive games, but not very many with an artstyle I enjoy more. There are definitely better game soundtracks, but this ranks up there with the best of them. If you like Studio Ghibli's work, I'd recommend this based on those grounds alone; the game costs about as much as one of their movies does on Amazon. This is one game where I wouldn't feel bad recommending playing on easy to minimize the AI's stupidity (normal isn't *hard*, it just means you'll be dealing with the stupid AI more), especially if you're buying it for the story/aesthetics. If you're looking for a deep, challenging JRPG, look elsewhere. Only the illusion of depth and challenge is present here, sadly.
Edited by Romanticide, Dec 16 2013, 08:06 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LightningBolt
Member Avatar
Boring Person
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Tales of Graces f
Platform: Playstation 3
Genre: JRPG

So, this is the first Tales game I've ever played. For those who don't know, the Tales series is a long-running Japanese RPG series with a lot of popular entries (Symphonia, Abyss, and Graces seemingly considered the best of the series). The series is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2015 with a lot of promised surprises, so yeah the series has been around for a while. I've been meaning to jump into the series myself for a while, as I consider myself a fan of the genre and this is one of its most popular series, but I've never been able to find a consensus best entry among the fans. I eventually decided to pick up Tales of Graces f after consistently hearing that it has the best gameplay the series has to offer.

The gameplay is, I imagine, similar to the gameplay of other 3D entries in the series on a basic level. You control one of four party members in a designated battle arena as you fight enemies in an action RPG system. You'll be attempting to chain attacks together and side-stepping or back-stepping to successfully dodge enemy attacks. There are two main types of attacks: A artes and B artes. A artes are the physical attacks and B artes are your "cryas" attacks (basically your special attacks). Each character controls completely differently in battle and their A and B artes differ pretty significantly past which attribute they're connected to. The completely different play style of each character adds a ton of replayability to the game as you can attempt to master the different play styles of each. I mained the main character, Asbel, who is a close-range attacker with swords (both his A artes and B artes are close-range). Each character has a completely different style, though, as I already said. There's a balanced character who can do everything, there's a healer, there's a mage, there's a character that specializes on combos but is flimsy in comparison, and there are others. You can play the game in so many different ways, which is a huge point in its favor. This game's replayability is huge in general, with the different play styles, the absurd difficulties that you can try to master, the sidequests that you may miss on a first playthrough, and other things.

The gameplay beyond the battle system isn't too far off your standard RPG fare. You travel around the world and visit different cities and all that fun stuff as you progress through the story. There are plenty of sidequests to be found, and the ones I played were probably a bit above average compared to your typical dull RPG sidequests. In general the sidequests help add some backstory and other information to various characters in the game, whether they be the main party characters or side characters. If you want to really get the most out of the game, I'd recommend trying to do as many of the sidequests as possible. I'd argue that the sidequests are a point in this game's favor. They won't blow you away, but again they're good in comparison to typical videogame sidequests, which tend to be pretty bland.

The one criticism that you'll probably hear most often about the Tales series is that it's full of character tropes and if you want a deep cast of characters or a thought-provoking story, you should probably look elsewhere. While I wouldn't disagree with the sentiment overall, I do think it's a bit overblown. The story begins with much of the cast as children, and you're shown how they meet. Eventually shit hits the fan and you're fastforwarded several years with the main character, Asbel Lhant, now a teenager. The story follows Asbel as he eventually meets back up with his friends from his childhood and a few new characters as well as they attempt to save one of his old friends and, in the process, the world (because no JRPG would be complete without "save teh wurld!!!"). There's nothing amazing there. The politics introduced early on in the story eventually get completely swept aside as they often are in games like these. It's just a "save mah frands and teh wurld" story, which isn't great but Tales of Graces f doesn't seem like anymore an offender in this area than most of the JRPG's I've played, so whatever.

The characters are in a similar boat. The main character, Asbel Lhant, is your typical eager-to-save-everyone main character with a heart of gold. Other characters follow their own tropes to various extents. Overall, though, I'm willing to mostly overlook the originality (or lack thereof) of the characters because of how great their chemistry is together. The Tales games make extensive use of skits and post-battle dialogues with the characters are put into various situations and the interactions can be hilarious or sometimes even emotional. The character interactions are seriously top-notch. And the sheer number of these skits and dialogues made it really seem like you knew the characters pretty well. Any deficiencies the characters have in deepness are more than made up for in the quality of their interactions with one another.

If there's one thing that I'd complain about with this game, it's that the game isn't very special at all aesthetically. There are a handful of locations in the game where you may think "wow that looks great", but these are pretty few and far between. Visually the game is pretty lackluster. This isn't much of a dealbreaker and it still beats your typical brown-and-black AAA game of recent times, but it certainly falls flat when held up against some of the better looking (art style-wise) games in the genre, like Final Fantasy XIII, Ni no Kuni, Eternal Sonata, etc, etc.

Now, Tales of Graces was originally a Wii game that was remade for the Playstation 3 after a couple of years under the name Tales of Graces f. f adds in better graphics and a lot more post-game content with a New Game+ mode and a post-game arc called Lineage and Legacies. I'll refrain from commenting on what the post-game arc covers due to spoilers, but it's certainly worth playing and has some of the most humorous dialogues in the game. It also added like 15 hours to my playtime, I believe, which is some nice added value. I clocked in overall at about the 70 hour mark.

I feel like the conclusion I'm forming here is almost the opposite of Romanticide's in his review above for Ni no Kuni. This certainly isn't a game I'd recommend for its aesthetics or music (the music's pretty forgettable, I don't need a paragraph to tell you guys this). Nor is it a game you'd want to get for the deep and moving story. It's a game I'd fully recommend for an incredibly fun battle system, replayability, and awesome character interactions.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
MrMarill
Member Avatar
DAT STORY TIEM

Pretty cool that you both played JRPGs at the same time that were essentially the opposite in what they were strong at.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kmr95
Member Avatar
No Flex Zone
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Feeling like I need to review Batman: Arkham Origins. So that'll happen soon. Maybe even a review of The Last of Us if I'm really feeling it, since nobody has reviewed that yet.
Edited by kmr95, Dec 30 2013, 11:53 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DucksFAN93
Member Avatar
The Sports Nut Member
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Folklore
Platform: PS3
Genre: Action RPG

Posted Image

A dark, purple haze glows over the realm. Monsters are all around, and the only weapon against the gloom is the spirits of the fallen. This is Folklore, an adventure as filled to the brim with bright ideas as it is excellent execution of those ideas. As a launch title for the PS3, Folklore has long sat in my game cupboard just begging to be played in its entirety.

At long last, I put the disc in and began the 12 hour suspense story. Ellen receives a letter from her lost mother to return to Doolin, a small village where she grew up. Meanwhile, Keats, a writer from an occult magazine, receives a phone call from a woman in dire need of help at the very same location. Ellen arrives on the cliff of the village to find a woman standing underneath an arch. "Mother, I've finally found you", she says. A gust of wind appears and the woman disappears off the cliff. Keats arrives on the scene assuming the woman who has just disappeared was the one who called him for help. That night, Ellen is awoken by a voice telling her to come to the town pub. There she meets Scarecrow, a half life, and tells her she can meet with the woman who has just died in the Netherworld. Via these means, she can also meet with her mother. The setup is excellent, and the story is presented in CG cut scenes, traditional character text, and comic strip style panels. The strip panels are excellent and convey proper emotion as well as filter out unnecessary dialogue. That said, this game is absolutely story-driven. Story sequences are frequent, and occasionally lengthy. This isn't necessarily a problem, but the pacing is rather slow. I, personally, enjoyed the small cast of characters, each one was developed thoroughly. Through the 12 hour storyline, there are many twists and turns the story takes. The search for Ellen's mother turns into an intricate murder mystery and exploration of the supernatural. Divided into 7 chapters per playable character, there are 12 total chapters (The last two are shared levels by Ellen and Keats) and each leaves off in fantastic cliff hangers. The suspense brought me back quickly to see what would happen next; almost like a good book.
The game play is all based upon the folk you fight in the Netherworld. You start with two folk, but as you venture through the worlds you will earn dozens and dozens of folk, each with different powers, as well as many exclusive to each character. Ellen, for example, will get the wind shooting Boobrie, while Keats earns Ogma, a horned beast. The variation is fantastic and it is awe-inducing to explore looking for yet another new folk to add to your collection. The vast majority of the folk have useful powers, but some I rarely if ever assigned to my X, O, Square, Triangle palate. The folk are also upgradeable via releasing their karma, which is essentially a set of conditions such as "defeat X folk" or "give X amount of seeds". It is simple, but the affects are nice, and adds subtle RPG elements to the game. To earn the powers of these folks, you must absorb their ids, and this is done by weakening them with the proper attacks then pulling R1 on the glowing red id. Then, you literally "yank" their soul from them by six axis control. It works for the most part, but boss fights infuriatingly require absorption methods which are more frustrating than fun. You may absorb multiple ids at one time for an experience bonus, but character level ups do nothing more than add more to the health bar. Overall, I enjoyed the combat, and the fighting involves much more strategy than first glance. Deciding which folk work best against each other is fun and learning the quickest ways to get the id to pop is rewarding. Vague picture books for each world allow subtle hints, but are nothing more than something to collect. The only drawback to the game play is that Ellen and Keats travel identical Netherworld locations, and you must advance each character to the same point in the story to finish the game. This means that you will do the exact same level layout twice. This didn't really bother me, as the folk you encounter are thankfully different for the characters, so tedium was minimal.

Visually, the game shows its age 6 years post-release. However, at launch time this was definitely a highlight for the hardware. Textures are inconsistent, but the colors are fantastic. The art direction is beautiful and makes the visuals even more pleasing on the eyes. The splendor of the particle affects is excellent. Yanking a soul gives a satisfying puff of sparkle and color and makes the world quite wondrous. Voice acting is surprisingly minimalistic. In fact, most of the game is not voice acted, but what is present is quite good. The writing is also excellent, and most clichés are thankfully ignored.

Ignoring the games faults is quite an easy thing to do when you get grasped by the story. It only takes one chapter into it to get completely hooked on this murder mystery. That is the game's greatest draw, unfortunately leaving the level design to be repetitive. Perfection would have required the level variation to be better among the characters. Loading is also an issue, but installing the game seems to help quite a bit. I definitely recommend this excellent title, even 6 years old. It is a cult classic for me, and I will certainly be revisiting this Netherworld in the future. If you love a suspense story, one which is void of clichés, then you would do right to see what lies on the other side of the portal in Doolin.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Olinea
Member Avatar
No finesse
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Puzzle

Posted Image

This is the game my friends got me for Christmas during a period where I was heavily deadset on breeding a ton of IV/EV'ed Pokemon that now live in my boxes. Recently I decided I'd nip this one in the bud and play it out - because with a few Layton games under my belt already, I knew what I was getting into and was absolutely looking forward to it.

To bring people up to speed on the Layton series, it's really a series of a huge variety of puzzles - number puzzles, logic, spacial reasoning, observation - I could sit here and describe the types but it's hard to because it encompasses a ton of varieties. But solving puzzle after puzzle with no progression would be tedious, and so the other half of the game is following Professor Herschel Layton and his assistants through the town of Monte D'Or, where a mysterious individual who goes by the "Masked Gentleman" is performing miracles that threaten the townsfolk. It's up to Layton to discover the meaning behind the artifact known as the Mask of Chaos, and learn the true secret of Monte D'Or.

Posted Image
Past Layton (right) and his friends Angela (left) and Randall (middle). A cursory look at their hair and clothes and I'm sure you, too, can see just how hard this crew is thuggin'.

I'll be straight-up. You'll only enjoy the game if you enjoy doing puzzles - and we're not talking Zelda-style puzzles where it's something required to progress somewhere new and then you fight monsters and do stuff, you're literally solving puzzles for the gameplay because that's how Herschel Layton rolls. The game does strike an excellent balance between gameplay and story, though - yeah, there are "sidequests" (in this case, puzzles you don't necessarily need to solve to progress) but most every story puzzle will result in Layton learning something new about this case.

It can be hard to gauge how difficult the game is but the trickier puzzles can leave you there a while. Those unsure in their abilities to solve everything they come across will be pleased to know that one cornerstone of the Layton series is the Hint Coin - Hint Coins are obtainable by examining certain points of the screen (typically lampposts and windows) and can be used during a puzzle to give you a little nudge in the right direction. They are a limited resource but the point is to use them when you're absolutely stuck - you shouldn't have to worry about running out, but there's always the element of pride at stake. The beginning of the game is remarkably easy and can be a tad off-putting but don't let it be how you judge the rest of the game, because it will ramp up.

Posted Image
Example of a Layton puzzle. Takes a while to settle in, then you look around and get familiar with what you're given and what you're asked. Did you figure out that
SPOILER


Layton stories are always great - I guess this is coming from someone who plays a limited number of story-centric games, but the developers do pace it in a very nice way - enough where you're in the dark at first, but gradually the pieces unravel, and finally the big kaboom where everything's out in the open. I was a little disappointed with the story as I neared the end (for reasons I can't exactly specify because it'd be spoiler-y) but 20-30 minutes later I took it all back as I was left awestruck at how many secrets had come to light, the final twists, and how if Herschel Layton were a real person he'd be a fucking legend. Or perhaps I'm easily entertained.

As far as Miracle Mask goes when compared to others in the series, it still follows the Layton formula - puzzles and story. The only major difference I can think of is a portion of the story mode which is half-puzzle, half-adventure - it's unmistakeably a puzzle, but presented in a different way from other Layton games I've played. It works well. If you like Layton, you'll like Miracle Mask - it doesn't push the boundaries or revolutionize the series, but that's not always a bad thing.

Layton games can be considered a bit niche because it's not exactly a game everyone will enjoy - and that's fine, to each his own - but if it sounds interesting to you I'd definitely recommend it. Sometimes you want an action thriller and sometimes you want to sit down and use your noodle. For the latter, Layton delivers.



Pros:
~Puzzles. Glorious puzzle after puzzle that stretches your mind more than almost any other game.
~Great story, mystery-style, that has you connect all of the dots right before Layton blows your mind.
~Colorful graphics, cutscenes, and art style

Cons:
~While there's huge variety in the puzzles, there isn't much gameplay variety besides puzzles and looking for more puzzles. You can binge on it but the beginning will be slow.
~Not too different from any other Layton game
~Small elements of the story can be spoiler-y for other Layton games (Miracle Mask is somewhere in the middle of the Layton series chronologically, despite being the most recent (U.S.) release)

Overall Recommendation: Layton's great, but if puzzle after puzzle isn't your thing, there are plenty of other games out there. For me, Azran Legacy (coming to North America in about a month) will be a $40.00 dent in the pocket and it will be well worth it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Romanticide
Member Avatar
Cult Leader
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Ouch. I want both of the 3DS Layton games, not to mention Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, but Azran Legacy has a tough slate of competition for my money. Lightning Returns, Yoshi's New Island, and X/X-2 HD are all games I want a bit more. (and are coming out relatively soon, too)

But yeah, Professor Layton is a series in which you know what you're getting. In this case it's a good thing, because the formula is far from broken. I'll have to pick this and Azran Legacy up, I just don't know *when*. >.>
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
MrMarill
Member Avatar
DAT STORY TIEM

The Last of Us
Playstation 3

Introduction
Another day, another zombie apocalypse. It appears we've reached a point in gaming culture where simply putting the words "zombie", "open world" and "action/adventure" on a game box will make the offending company drown in money. In my childhood, I never thought I would see the day where Naughty Dog would become such a company but, alas, here we are with The Last of Us.

I feel that no matter how good a game is, there's a certain level of hype that no game can live up to. I'm not saying I found The Last of Us disappointing because of the hype but, well... I was certainly expecting something more surprising.


Storyline
The Last of Us puts a colossal focus on its story telling. The first hour or so of the game is basically just a glorified cutscene and even after that I'd argue the game doesn't really want to let you play for another hour or two. I am fine with a game focusing on an element rather than gameplay, but it would generally help if that element was actually the best it could b- wait, put your pitchforks down!

Before I get into what's wrong with the story, I'll give a general overview. You play as Joel in a zombie apocalypse - okay, an "infected" apocalypse, whatever you want to call it - who tragically lost his daughter as the outbreak started. I mean it when I say tragically; the game puts you in her shoes and lets you survey the damage and chaos of everything before she dies. It makes her character and Joel's pain feel very real and it justifies his actions that you as a player must take. Joel works as a smuggler in Boston and is tasked with smuggling Ellie out of the city. You soon discover that Ellie has been bitten but is somehow immune and it's up to you to get her to the Fireflies, a team of researchers dedicated to saving the world and creating a vaccine for the infection.

The game focuses a lot on character development; Joel is bitter and closed while Ellie is immature. By the end, they're certainly more likeable characters, but that didn't stop me finding myself annoyed by their characters for the majority of the story. I know you're trying to make Ellie sound like she's edgy for growing up in this world, Naughty Dog, but does she really have to say the word "fuck" every second word for the first three quarters of the game?

That said, the characters are very well done and all have believable actions for most of the game. No, my biggest issue with the story is how impossible it is to connect with Joel or Ellie. These people are the good guys and you literally massacre hundreds of people without batting an eyelid. I found myself questioning why I was on their side a number of times which is a great thing! A game focusing on story should make you stop and think. That said, it becomes really hard to care about the fate of either of the characters when they're so savage and ruthless. The latter half of the game really focuses on this.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to talk about The Last of Us without mentioning the ending in some way. I feel that such an ending cannot be spoiled but I'm still in discussion with myself whether it's a good thing or not. The ending is such a huge part of The Last of Us' story that it makes it difficult to review.

All that said, the storyline is very engaging. I really enjoyed it start to finish and it had me hooked. For all people complain about it being an interactive movie, well, I found myself groaning when a cutscene was interrupted by bandits arriving for more cover based shooting.


Gameplay
Even though I used the genre "Action/Adventure" earlier, I think this game falls better under "Survival Horror" or "Generic Cover Based Third Person Shooting". The game tends to be in four modes at all times: Cutscene Mode, Avoiding Infected Mode, Shooting At Bandits For No Real Reason Other Than To Disguise The Fact That There Are A Million Cutscenes Mode and, finally, Meandering Down Yet Another Fucking Hallway While The Characters Discuss The Weather Mode. As you can probably tell, I enjoyed the first two modes infinitely more than the others The Last of Us had to offer.

The Infected come in only four different types. Two of these can be taken down regularly with punches and weapons, but the other two are a bit more special in that they immediately kill you. Clickers and Bloaters are two of the most fucked up, truly terrifying enemies I've ever seen in a video game. Both of these foul beasts will one shot you basically no matter what if you come near them in pretty gruesome ways. Of course, by late game you can just shoot everything in sight but when the game starts, that isn't really an option. The Last of Us really nails the "Horror" aspect of the genre I gave it but not really "Survival". You tend to spawn where you died but a few seconds earlier, so dying doesn't really have any repercussions besides making the player shit their pants if surprising enough. And believe me, this game is scary. The camera is always fixed forward no matter what direction you move the left analogue stick so I've had more than a few Clickers or Bloaters come up behind me silently while I peeked around a corner or casually made a health pack and tear my face off through my eye sockets. Every element of the Survival Horror is fantastic at what it does and while it may not be my cup of tea, it does its job perfectly. The only problem here is that every single enemy is introduced pretty early, so Infected sections literally just stay the same throughout the game just with more added on the later you get.

Most of my issues with gameplay come in when firing a gun gets involves. Now, now, I know what you're thinking. But Marill! You're like a six year old with an addiction to meth when it comes to shooting games! And you'd be right, that's true. No, my issue with this section is the complete lack of depth.

In the latter half of the game - hell, a big majority of the game is spent shooting at men shouting insults behind cover. And my God is it boring. All of these sections seem to just stretch on forever - the city I forget the name of where every enemy refers to you as a "tourist" comes to mind - and they never get any more exciting. They are all just about popping out of cover, shooting one guy who's stepped out to have a wank and then ducking back. There's no versatility. Sure, you can swap to a long ranged weapon, but they all make sounds and alert everyone in the world your presence anyway, so what's the point? Melee combat is just mashing the square button as fast as possible or occasionally positioning near a wall to ram someone's skull through it.

Now, I'm not saying all the cover based shooting is bad. The last section in particular had my heart pounding throughout and it feels very tactical. All that said, though, it really feels at odds with the story The Last of Us is trying to tell. It's hard to feel sorry for characters who are constantly ramming lead pipes through random black guys' jugulars and then moving on like nothing happened.


Presentation
The graphics, as you would expect, are absolutely beautiful. I'm actually a huge fan of the minimalist soundtrack Naughty Dog went for as it makes the game feel a lot more real and the desperation in everything you do is in your head, not driven by a soaring orchestra or something. Both of these elements are top notch and I very rarely noticed any graphical bugs or clipping.

The Last of Us has a really strange habit of doing absolutely fucking nothing. I really wish I was joking but I'm not. There are long corridors of nothing where generally Ellie and Joel will converse as designated "character development" rooms. Again, this would be fine, but this all leads up to my biggest issue with the game.

For a game focused on story, The Last of Us wants to make 100% sure that you will never ever get immersed in the experience.

For me, when I play games, I want to just play and then forget that I'm looking at a screen. It sounds ridiculous, but you can very easily get immersed in games like Castlevania on the NES even though it's obviously a video game and makes no attempts to hide it. The problem is that The Last of Us maintains very, very realistic aesthetics and areas throughout the game that it is unbelievably jarring when one of the inevitable immersion-breakers occurs.

Your speed will be locked at seemingly random points to seemingly random speed. The game is aware of what's coming up and has Joel only move as fits the situation. He's in the middle of nowhere with no knowledge of what's around him, why the fuck isn't he moving carefully? On countless occasions I was crouching around slowly and very stealthily only to open a door and have Joel barge through with no breaks to basically just tell me "right yeah you're safe". On another occasion, I opened a door and Joel just casually edged his way through while a literal army of Infected chased me. This sounds like a really minor complaint, but it bugged me the whole way throughout, start to finish. Enemy AI is mind bogglingly stupid, just standing up and walking straight into you for no apparent reason, but then the AI at the end is really intelligent so it was obviously intentional!

I had a point where I had to get a ladder down, but there was a Clicker next to it. No biggie, I will throw a bottle across the room to distract the Clicker. Oh, no! I realise that Ellie was standing right in the way of the Clicker! At which point she stands up along with my other partner who says "C'mon, Joel!" before walking straight through the Clicker, flashlight on, and getting the ladder down. I'm sorry, but how the ever loving Christ am I meant to give a fraction of a fuck for this girl that I spend the entire game protecting if she's literally invincible? She can take on enemies that one shot me immediately for upwards of twenty seconds before she finally dies and I think that particular sequence only triggered three or four times throughout the entire game for me. It's not like Resident Evil 4 was unplayable due to these mechanic and it was obviously a huge design choice to have your partners completely impervious to damage and it's a choice that I really can't get my head around.


Closing Comments
The Last of Us is a strange game because there's sure as hell a lot more bad to focus on than good here. The gunplay is boring, immersion is nonexistant and its main selling point stops becoming interesting after its characters stop making sense. Despite this, I really enjoyed my time with The Last of Us and I'm not sure why. It has nearly no elements I like in video games but I was playing it nearly obsessively for the past few days. It has a hook that draws you in and makes you want to learn more about its world and what happens to it. I thought I didn't care all too much for Joel or Ellie but I still wanted them do be okay and they felt important to me. You spend so much time hearing their idle chit chat that you get to know them really well, which is probably the reason I was so disappointed that their murderous tendencies betray the characters Naughty Dog conveyed.

No, despite all of the flaws The Last of Us has, I would still wholeheartedly recommend this game. I'm not even a Shooter or Horror guy and I was drawn into it so if you like either of those genres, or you're just looking for a truly engaging, compelling story, look no further. You can pick this game up for just under £25 and that's well worth it. The Last of Us may not stick with you forever, but when you think about it, you'll certainly remember the good and not the bad.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Snowman
Member Avatar
Berserker
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Platform: MSX (through MGS3 HD for PS3)
Genre: Stealth

Posted Image
Not to be confused with Snake's Revenge.


I guess I might just review every game in this series as I play them. First, I'd like to say that this was a lot better than the first Metal Gear. I think it would be accurate to say that they improved everything except random boss battles, but I'll get to that later.

Story: SOLID SNAKE IS BROUGHT OUT OF RETIREMENT. THERE'S A NEW METAL GEAR IN TOWN -- METAL GEAR D. This town is called Zanzibar Land. Set during Christmas Eve 1999, four years after the first Metal Gear, the world is experiencing an oil crisis. Dr. Kio Marv creates an algae called OILIX, capable of producing high-quality petroleum at little cost. Soldiers from Zanzibar Land kidnap him, planning to control the world's oil supply. Throughout the game, Snake makes lots of new friends and some of them die. There are a couple plot twists, but one of them was extremely predictable because of a certain scene. Still, the fact that this game even has moments that can be called "scenes" is a big improvement over MG1. The first game's characters mostly just sent you running around, but these have backgrounds and personalities that make some of them interesting.

Gameplay: Stealth no longer means "don't cross the line of sight"! Now, the guards have a 45 degree field of vision. That's like, 45 more degrees than last time. Also, certain floors will make a noise if you run on them, such as squeaky wood floors. How do you avoid making noise, then? You can crouch and crawl now. Also, the box (and BUCKET which is like the box but noisier) isn't quite as magical as it was in the first game. Now, if guards see the box, they'll say "What's this?" or something and shoot it a few times. You'll take damage from this if you're in the box, but not the bucket. Still, I didn't use either of them very often.

The weapons in this game are pretty much the same as the first. I used the pistol most of the time again. You get a variety of explosives too, but I only really used those when it was required for certain boss battles. SPEAKING OF BOSS BATTLES, many were just as strange as they were in the first game. For example, RUNNING MAN. THE FASTEST MERCENARY ALIVE. Umm, okay. There's also a helicopter that actually flies, unlike in MG1, so that's cool.

Also, THEY IMPROVED THE KEY CARD SYSTEM. Slightly. It's still a bit stupid. In MG1, you could collect cards numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. Doors are only unlocked with one card so you just had to cycle through them all. In MG2, once you get cards 1-3, you can upgrade them to the "Red Card" which unlocks doors that use 1-3. Cards 4-6 get a Blue Card, and 7-9 get a Green Card. Pretty nifty. Though I hope later games make it a bit easier than cycling through each card.

Pretty screenshot:

Posted Image

My biggest complaint is the amount of running around you have to do. The game has two main buildings, and you just have to run between them more than I'd like. Other than that, good game. Looking forward to starting MGS soon.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Romanticide
Member Avatar
Cult Leader
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Platform: PS3, 360
Genre: JRPG

The highly divisive Final Fantasy XIII saga has reached its conclusion at long last. I feel there are some sites pandering to a nostalgic fanbase that is seemingly incapable of being pleased. While I cannot promise a completely unbiased review because I've enjoyed the saga for what it is (unlike seemingly everyone ever), I'll do my best. With that said, let's get on with it.

Your first question is probably, "how does it play?" Well, the paradigm system is no more. In its place is a hybrid of turn-based and action RPG systems. Instead of deciding which paradigms you'll use in battle, you have three "schemata" that you can assign any ability to. Want one with four attack spells? Physical attacks? Support magic? Go nuts. If you can think of it, you can do it. Schemata are decided by the garb you choose for Lightning to wear, and each garb can have one or two locked skills that *must* be a part of your setup. So, what's the difference between schemata? The usual Final Fantasy stuff: skills, stats, amount of ATB available to you, and so on.

Each skill is assigned to one of the four main buttons. You know, X, O, square, and triangle. Which leads us to the battle system. In battle, you'll be able to directly use your abilities by hitting one of these four buttons, which is a major change from hitting L1 and X for 60 hours. I know, you can make many RPGs (hell, games) look simplistic in this fashion, but this change really does make you feel much more involved with combat in Lightning Returns. In the last two games you were essentially managing combat; in this one you're an active participant. I like the change and feel this is probably how it should have been in the first place.

As for the difficulty, the system is a bit hard to pick up. I only became comfortable with the system in day 3. Sure, you can just spam things until you run out of ATB, which is most easily thought of as an analogue to MP (except it regens automatically) but that's not always the optimal approach. Unlike in the past two games, the timing of your attack may matter when attempting to stagger an enemy. For example, attacking right after an enemy attacks you may raise the stagger bar more than it otherwise would. You can also raise the stagger bar by guarding at the right time. The combat requires a bit more of a tactical approach than that of the last two games, which is an improvement. The bosses themselves are all fairly difficult, with special mention going to the Luxerion boss (on day 2, when you have fuck all), the "Omega Point" boss, and the final boss's fourth form holy fuck that shit.

You don't level up in this game. As someone who is adamantly opposed to grinding, I usually welcome this. In lieu of experience points/levels, you gain stat increases by doing various quests. Obviously, the story quests will net you the biggest increases - hundreds of HP, tens of strength/magic, an extra EP (Eradia Points, more on that in a bit)/recovery item slot, and most importantly, an extra day. You'll want to prioritize the main quests on your first playthrough because these are your best ways to strengthen Lightning. Side quests give you a lot less, but there are 66 side quests, plus another 80+ from the Canvas of Prayers. Those bonuses add up and you'll want to do as many as you can. Quests range from your typical "kill X monster and collect Y amount of drop", to "investigate so-and-so occurrence" whether that's a disappearance/murder/whatever, to "find X amount of item at Y place", and so on. There are plenty of types of quests, though there's nothing here you haven't seen before. The variance kept me interested in doing side quests.

You've all heard about the time system by now. You'll eventually earn not thirteen, but fourteen days, if you do the main quests plus at least 40 side quests (Canvas of Prayer quests do not count). So, do you have enough time? Yes. You have plenty of time. Why? Well, you have the aforementioned Eradia Points, and one of the things you can do with them is use Chronostasis. As its name implies, it STOPS TIME. The concept is OP by itself, but what makes it truly OP is that it costs 1 EP on Normal and there are plenty of enemies that give you 2 EP. You can see how this is easily abused: stop time, kill a 2 EP enemy (or enemies that add up to 1), abuse until the end of time. On day 4, I just used Chronostasis the whole day and finished three of the game's five main quests. As a result, I had 7 days to dick around and do side quests, during which I continued to use Chronostasis. By day 10 I was out of things worth doing, so I slept until day 13.

Eradia Points also allow you to use things like Curaga, Arise, Quake, Overclock, amongst others, but the points are most useful for Chronostasis because of its low cost and because it's arguably the most powerful ability in the game.

If you somehow manage to run out of time, you get a game over, but you also keep your stats and can access NG+. This is a nice touch that makes the game more accessible.

One of the relatively minor things I like is how enemies go extinct in this game. I've always wondered how there are infinite monsters in other games. You'd think that would fuck the ecosystem up. In any case, there's a limited amount of most enemies. Easier enemies are generally in the 100-120 range, intermediate enemies around 60, and the hardest enemies number around 30. When you get down to just one last enemy, a super-powered "Last One" will appear. You'll know it because it's pink and has the Omega sign in its name. Some of these fights are still pretty damn easy, but the tougher enemies' Omega forms are about as tough as story bosses. On the enemy front, there are very few types of enemies, which means very few palette swaps. Your mileage may vary, but I don't mind this in the least.

Some of the game's systems are locked to NG+, which is total bullshit. You mean to tell me I can't forge my weapons and improve accessories on Easy/Normal? That's either a sign of poor balance or a lazy way to add "replayability". Neither is good. While I'll definitely be playing this game again, it's ludicrous to lock what would be core mechanics in most other games to NG+.

If you've stuck with the XIII series since the first game, you'll want to know how the story is. Well... It's not good. There wasn't much worth working with following the events of XIII-2, but it's still not good. The first two arcs you'll likely undertake (Luxerion and Yusnaan) are decent, as is the Dead Dunes arc, but once you go out to the Omega Point, shit starts falling apart in a hurry. The Eremita Plains arc is completely irrelevant. When you reach the final day, whichever one it is, everything falls apart.

However, that's not to say everything is bad. The game makes it a point to tell you in the first hour that Lightning and Hope have no emotions. I vehemently disagree with this. There's a scene in the Yusnaan arc and another one in the ending that have her showing more emotion than she has across the last two games. Lightning was defined exclusively by her interactions with other characters in XIII, but in this game she has to stand alone as her own character because there is no party. I feel the writers did a reasonable job making Lightning into a better character.

As for the other characters, Fang, Noel, Vanille, and even Sazh acted in ways that were consistent with their characters. I liked Lumina, and I liked the final plot twist concerning her. But then again, as we all should know, I'm a sucker for this type of character. A lot of people will probably find her annoying, however. If you're playing this game for anything story-wise, it should be the characters. As usual. The best parts of this series are those concerning the characters and their interactions, not this nonsensical plot.

The game looks pretty and all that jazz. Luxerion is surprisingly beautiful despite its main colors being white, black, and grey. I ascribe this to the gothic style, which is evident pretty much everywhere you look. Yusnaan is the opposite of Luxerion, being a vibrant place full of color and joy, which again shows in its style. The Dead Dunes are a desert, nothing special to report here. The Wildlands are a fairly typical forest/plains setting, again nothing spectacular. There's nothing on the order of, say, Gran Pulse or Lake Bresha (when it crystallizes) here. However, there are some fairly obvious framerate issues. The game dips down to what I'd estimate is 20-25 FPS at times. This is most noticeable for most players in the Wildlands for whatever reason. The game is still playable, but this bears noting.

As far as the outfits go, there are some revealing outfits like Mist Walker, Witching Hour, and a few others. My favorite is still Midnight Mauve, which is one you get in the main story, and it's one that manages to look sexy yet classy, as a good ballroom dress does. It also helps this is a good outfit gameplay-wise. I was worried that there'd be a lot of overly revealing outfits and thus I'd have an issue completing the game without feeling icky for putting her into a costume I would dislike, but that's not the case.

The music is great. I listened to the OST before this game came out in America and thought it was the best of the three games then. There are a lot of throwbacks to songs in the previous two games, namely Blinded By Light (which is *decent* but probably not even in my top ten songs for the series) and Nascent Requiem, the final boss theme of XIII. I have no complaints about the music; most of it is at least good and there are plenty of great tracks.

There's obviously replayability, but the means the game uses to ensure it are a bit underhanded. As mentioned, I don't like the idea of locking core game mechanics to Hard mode, which itself is unlocked in NG+. Beyond that, there are new outfits to get, it's much easier to level up abilities because the necessary stones are sold by merchants, a quest or two that can only be completed in NG+, and the ability to continuously make Lightning stronger. You also keep practically everything you earned in your first run - outfits, money, items, etc. Even so, if you don't like it the first time, there is nothing that will make you like it the second go-around.

I would recommend this to anyone who's curious to see how the saga ends, but I'd also tell them not to go into it with high expectations for the plot, because they will be shattered. I'd also recommend this to anyone who enjoys JRPGs and thinks the battle system looks like fun, because it truly is a joy to play. I have relatively few complaints on the gameplay front. Everyone else, I'd recommend they wait for a price drop or avoid altogether.
Edited by Romanticide, Feb 19 2014, 11:43 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DucksFAN93
Member Avatar
The Sports Nut Member
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
You beat me to the review :/ I was gonna post one once I beat it :/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Romanticide
Member Avatar
Cult Leader
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
DucksFAN93
Feb 20 2014, 05:21 PM
You beat me to the review :/ I was gonna post one once I beat it :/
There is no rule that says you can't do one yourself. =p

I tend to think "the more, the merrier". After all, more information in the case of what may very well be a $60 purchase for some people is generally good.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DucksFAN93
Member Avatar
The Sports Nut Member
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Ah good point! Needless to say, I will be doing a review, and it will be immensely positive reaction.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DucksFAN93
Member Avatar
The Sports Nut Member
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Game: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: RPG

Posted Image

(Game was played on the PS3)

REVIEW: Lightning Returns promised a lot of things. Developer diaries poured out to the public before release for those pining to know the ins and outs of Lightning's final saga. The XIII series has garnered an inordinate amount of flak from the Final Fantasy "diehards". Some of the complaints are valid, while a vast majority of them are plain silly. So for the XIII saga, does Lightning strike tw...three times?

Yes. Lightning Returns is fabulous in almost every way. Most importantly, the game's core mechanics are unbelievably good. The paradigm system is history in favor of a much more athletic approach. Lightning, the only playable character this time around, still has her ATB gauge, but rather than auto-select the best ability per situation, players must customize Lightning's arsenal. Customization is an incredible part of Lightning Returns. You can take three schema into combat; each schema changes Lightning's inherent abilities. You select new garb for each one of your schema, and the options are endless. You have to constantly shift around your schema to succeed, however, I was able to select and tinker with just a few favorites. For example, I used the Amazon Warrior garb with Caius' sword; this allowed an incredible amount of strength rating. In fact, I used this garb from when I received it up until defeating the final encounter. That is certainly not to say that LR is an easy game; on the contrary, it is easily the most difficult of the three. I played on normal, and while I rarely got frustrated in normal encounters, I had to stay alert and be active; I could simply not just press X and hope for victory. The bosses were challenging and required strategy. For example, to defeat Caius I tried twice and failed before working out a schema with appropriate status ailments and abilities to take him down quickly before he kicked my butt again. This is great though, because once he fell in defeat I literally threw my controller into the couch pillow and raised my fists in the air victorious. This is the greatest feeling in Lightning Returns, and you earn it a lot. Leveling up does not exist. Rather, you earn stat boosts via main quests (substantial) and side quests (incremental). This isn't as bad as it seems; you have complete control over what abilities to upgrade via the sorcery shop and synthesis. You focus more on how you will fight and evolve rather than character evolution. It is a nice change, and I personally loved it. It also eliminated the need to grind which was wonderful.

Speaking of the side quests, there are a lot. I played through every single one and the total was 62 I believe. That doesn't even count the board quests which outnumber the side quests, but these are all of the fetch variety. The side quests for the most part were split 50/50 for being standard issue and having a tie in to the storyline. The latter were the best. Some were actually complex enough to require thought, and none of them honestly felt like a slog. I actually got perked up when I saw a new townie offering a quest. The game works on the doomsday clock, which has been a much criticized feature. Listen closely: it is not a bad thing. I did every side quest, countless canvas requests, and hunted 10 of the 30 monsters to extinction by Day 8, and that gave me 5 days left to go. You have plenty of time, trust me. You can spam an EP ability called Chronostasis to freeze time for a bit, which was a lifesaver. I finished the game in 47 hours and I can't wait to get back in for a New Game+ playthrough (which unlocks the rarest items and weapons as well as weapon and shield upgrading, which is ridiculous). There is a bountiful amount of replay value, honestly. There are so many ways to approach the combat and virtually every player will do it different. The variety is amazing.

The presentation is, well, on par with XIII-2, and sometimes XIII. It lacks that spectacle and dazzle the original had, and there are some obscenely bad textures. However, the vistas are gorgeous and the environments are large, vast, and beautifully realized. The art direction, as always, is fabulous. The character models are just fine, they look the same as they did in the previous two, which is to say they look great. Unfortunately, the frame rate dips frequently, though it is always playable. The voice acting is very well done, most notably Lightning and Snow. Hope is well done, but he does tend to talk too much. Emotion is conveyed at all the right moments (despite the game telling us Lightning no longer feels emotion), and it's all very believable. The music is just amazing. Scores from the first two games return, as well as some new mixes and orchestration. I fell in love with the soundtrack to this title, it's simply gorgeous and makes every scene, every moment, every battle that much more exciting, dramatic, and inspired.

The story line has been almost universally panned by critics and fans alike. I, however, disagree with them. Yes, the finale could certainly upset some people, and I understand that complaint perfectly. For me, it tied up all the loose ends, and sent all my favorite characters off into a ending I was happy with. The ending scenes are gorgeous as well. My only issue is during the finale, I saw a flashback of the ending to every Sonic the Hedgehog game ever. The plots with the main characters are great, minus the Sazh line; that was tacky and unnecessary. Actually, Sazh's story was the only one that felt unimportant to wrapping up the story arc from the past two games. It felt like fan service only, serving no real purpose. That said, it was a solid story that you'll be happy to see through to the end.

Lightning Returns is a game that should not be polarizing critics like it has. Mediocre reception is plain disrespect for this title. It is everything you could want from an RPG. I don't appreciate the disapproval based off of fan biased in its purest form. Lightning's journey isn't the smoothest ride, but it has certainly been a blast. This is a saga that is a highlight from the last gen of games for me. There were so many times I sat down to play the game for maybe an hour but ended up spending five or six hours straight playing, hunting, upgrading, and questing. I haven't done that in a long time. Pick this game up and send Lightning off with a fond farewell, because for this gamer, she will be missed.

Score: 9.5
Edited by DucksFAN93, Feb 26 2014, 03:07 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
ZetaBoards gives you all the tools to create a successful discussion community.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Entertainment · Next Topic »
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 3