Not Just Game of the Year

We’re at the time of year where all the publications pick their favorite games of the year. Humans must rank and list everything…and I am no different. This may have been a horrible year in the eyes of many but it has been an amazing year for games. We fight this year because we want to!

Titanfall 2

We have been spoiled, great software has come out of almost every corner this year. No matter who you are there was something for you to sink your teeth into. The AAA space had amazing shooters in Overwatch, Doom, and Titanfall 2. Adventures were available in Uncharted 4, Dishonored 2, and Abzu. All of your Harvest Moon farming fantasies came true in Stardew Valley. And the most surprising arrivals this year were games a decade in the making in Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian that hit with the success that Duke Nukem Forever could never fathom. With so many amazing titles this year I have decided to declare an entire genre as the winner this year not just a single game.

Japanese Role Playing Games (jRPGs) were the show stopping genre this year. JRPGs have been in one hell of a slump, especially in the home console space. The PS3 and Xbox 360 generation’s best games in the genre were moved to the handhelds with a few standouts here and there like Ni No Kuni or Resonance of Fate. I place a lot of blame on the sub-par Final Fantasy XII trilogy for kind of killing the progress of the genre; so much so that it has had to move backwards to get the fans back on board.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is probably the best commercial flop of the year. I understand it is a niche product for a dead system but it proves that there are some great titles for the Wii U. I know nothing about Idol Culture in Japan and have not seriously sat down to enjoy an anime since the mid 00’s but I loved this game. It was billed as a Shin Megami Tensei crossed with Fire Emblem, we didn’t quite get that but what we did get was a great jRPG that would serve as a wonderful gateway into the Shin Megami Tensei which is even more important with Persona 5 on the horizon. Final Fantasy XV finally came out this year. Even though I was lukewarm on the demo, I am happy to report that I really like it. Road trips are a blast if you are with the right people, and I think Prince Noctis has a solid group of bros to hang out with. FFXV is nowhere near perfect (how many times did you jump instead of executing the displayed X button prompt?) but fans of the genre collectively let out a sigh of relief when it was finally available.

7th Dragon III Code VFD

The handheld space was bursting at the seams with jRPG titles. The 3DS had Bravely Second, 7th Dragon III Code VFD, Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse, Dragon Quest VII, and the massive hit that was Pokemon Sun/Moon. The Vita even had some solid offerings in Shiren the Wanderer, World of Final Fantasy, and Trails of Cold Steel II. I’m not a Pokemon guy, that’s my younger brother and I trust his opinion that Sun/Moon is the best the series has been in a while. The DS family of handhelds has always been a powerhouse when it comes to jRPGs and this year was no different. 7th Dragon III Code VFD may be in the running for worst written title this year but it proved to be a really good take on the Wizardry -like but from an isometric perspective; if you missed it you need to grab it. The Trails of Cold Steel series has been fantastic. Part one was released just three days before Christmas last year and should be lumped with Part two for a complete experience; it gets extremely wordy and probably won’t be cup of tea but the way they built an early 1900’s European style world is something that should be experienced. Dragon Quest VII is a great remake, it has been streamlined down to only about 100(!) hours of gameplay; a lot of people missed DQVII on its first release but now it is front and center for all DQ fans to enjoy.

Trails of Cold Steel II

2016 was a great year for video games and Cubs fans. We are all tired of the political machine and the fallout that came after the two least popular presidential candidates in history but our favorite form of escapism came through. It would have been easy to name Dark Souls III game of the year, but the truth is it wasn’t. I was drawn into Bloodborne a lot more than the latest Souls offering. If you wanted to lose yourself in another world and live another character’s story jRPGs had you covered. Pick and choose your favorites, these are long games that are meant to simmer for as long as you want them too. Whether you just want to blaze through the story, max out your characters’ levels, or follow strategies to break the game on a mathematical plain, jRPGs will be there for you no matter where you decide to play.

Faeries Have Episodes Too

There is a turned based RPG with Japanese RPG style battles that gives you the freedom of flight. You fight fantastic creatures while helping the residents of one of the worlds you visit. Your character is customizable and after creation your selection of skills further personalize your avatar. You are also a fairy…errrr, faery. Today we perpetually flap our wings while we fight.

Before we get into Faery: Legends of Avalon I would like to look at the developer. Spiders is a French game company made up of people that worked on Silverfall. Silverfall was isometric hack and slash RPG that came out in 2007. I have not played it. Spiders seems to be sort of an anomaly in the game industry today by being a “mid-tier” company that has been around for almost a decade that hasn’t had a major hit. They develop and release games exclusively through Focus Home Interactive on their own “Silk” engine. Their website says they offer consulting services and will license out their proprietary engine, even though the only Silk games that have been released are from Spiders themselves. Let’s see what these little warriors can do.

You create your silent protagonist with a bevy of appearance options. After awakening a couple of friendly sprites teach you have to get around the world of Faery. You have full unrestricted movement in the small levels that make up the game world. There are a total of 4 worlds in this episode. The first is the hub world of Avalon that is defined by the mirrors you use to travel between settings. The world tree of Yggdrasil is next, it consists almost entirely of the tree; it makes for an interesting vertical level. The Flying Dutchman is a ship of legend that carries souls to the other side and is the most boring, drab place you end up. The City of Mirages is the highlight of the game, it is a desert city riding on the back of a scarab. The ending alludes to a sequel that never came. It is too bad, I would have liked to see where the adventure would have gone.

Faery is a product of the Silk engine and looks good for a downloadable only title from 2010. The music is extremely whimsical and fits each one of the settings well. The levels are small but have a numerous characters to talk to and receive quests from, often side objectives reward you with equipment that augment your different abilities. I stuck with the iron set and moved to the superior iron set when it was available to boost my main's physical attacks while using the status effects to restrict enemy actions. The battles are triggered when you get too close to an enemy on the map like Chrono Trigger and play out in typical turn based JRPG fashion. The overall structure of the game is solid. Also the game’s concept art is metal as f***!

Remember When...

Every now and then a game is released to so much acclaim, critical or otherwise, that it never fades from discussion. Most of the time titles appear and leave without imprinting much of a legacy on the masses. Dark Souls is something we will be hearing about for the rest of forever, there is even an offshoot genre referred to as “Souls-likes” because people just can’t get enough. For the record, I am one of those people. Do you remember the high profile, first party developed release Primal for the Playstation 2? You might, you are reading a horrible gaming blog that feeds off of your nostalgia but most will not even bat an eyelash at a forgotten game from well over a decade ago. Today we try to remember the fight.

Remember Me was an Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC release from Capcom. That name still holds weight, like it or not you are still interested in an Intellectual Property from Capcom is announced or released. I played Remember Me over two years ago as of this writing. Let’s see what I actually remember about Remember Me.

The main draw for this title have to be the main character and the setting. It is always nice to see a lead female character as a main feature of a new IP, I like Nilin (remembered her name because it was nothing I had heard before) a lot. She is an attractive, intelligent character who isn’t completely over sexualized. I get it sex sells, but I believe someone who looks and dresses like Nilin would live in Neo Paris. Yeah, New Paris….I’m pretty sure the Eiffel Tower is here so that would make it regular Paris. Paris is well realized, the slummy parts appear like they should and the high class areas look pristine. The soundtrack was the kind of futuristic techno we tend to add to anything that takes place after now and fit well.

This is a third person action game. The main focus is on melee combat where you can customize your attacks based on where they are in a combo. The first press of the attack button may be a low damage, quick opener to get chain started so you could land those slower attacks that do the bulk of your damage. Some of your combo elements will even regenerate bits of your health on contact and more powerful attacks can be added further down the chain; risk/reward is a huge player here. The Dynasty Warriors franchise is screaming for new mechanics at this point and would benefit from customizable combos. If Koei Tecmo have already implemented something like this, let me know. I do remember some enemies having entirely too much health and making some encounters endurance tests. Most importantly I remember liking the game enough to finish it.

Nilin has amnesia. With the title it has to be an amnesia story. People are able to upload their memories into the cloud so that they can never lose them. I could have uploaded a long play of my experience with Remember Me with every detail, but I don’t think that would be worth my time even now. I sadly can’t remember all of the story beats (except for the “big reveal”) but the bar set is pretty cool and the last areas have a cool cyberpunk aesthetic.

So how did I do? Two years ago, Remember Me was good. Looking at contemporary reviews, it scored straight up average with scores somewhere between 6 and 8 out of 10. Not good enough to shine and not bad enough to instill rage in the YouTube community. 

Blog Posts Alight and the Timeliness Before

Dragon Quest VII finally is getting a Western release on the 3DS! This is great news and means if you have $40 you should jump on that as fast as you can. After smashing my head on Dragon Warrior VII a couple of times on the Playstation release and falling off every time because I have no attention span (see blog update frequency) I have decided to do something related to it to acknowledge DQVII’s release. We will mash Square over and over and call it fighting.

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below is one long winded and dumb title. I like it. Actually a bunch of the DQ releases have weird subtitles like “Hand of the Heavenly Bride”, “Sentinel of the Starry Skies”, and VII is “Fragments of the Forgotten Past.” Seeing as I have done some write ups on my experiences with Dragon Warrior, Dragon Warrior II, and Rocket Slime it makes sense to talk about the last DQ title I have played. It just happens to be a genre cross over with Koei-Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors.

First off, I love Akira Toriyama’s monster designs. The character designs are colorful, full of personality, and instantly recognizable as Toriyama’s; it just isn’t my favorite style for human characters. Seeing the monsters roaming around in HD in their cartoony glory is truly one of the best aspects of the game. Kudos to them for not trying to update them into either a more realistic, gritty, or extreme style. I like that the monsters will all pummel you while smiling. Maybe they enjoy your pain. The flipside is that you collect medals throughout your battles that represent different enemies that you can summon to your aid. Some of them hang around and fight in the immediate area you summoned them in or may use a skill and disappear. The visuals are on par with other anime styled games on the PS4, I haven’t experienced any crazy glitches or crashes. As a software application it runs.

There is a story here as well as original characters that take the center stage. Just like any other mash up game, different dimensions are colliding and your favorite DQ player characters are fighting together! The power of friendship….blah….blah….

The localization of the DQ games have been a love it or hate it affair. We have accents. All of the accents. They give the characters more defining characteristics. Some of them are expected like the British accents, the Irish accents, and some are less expected in the form of Alena and Kiryl sounding Russian and Valesco does his impression of Antonio Banderas (okay, with that pencil mustache there could be no other accent).

Walk up to monster, press Square a bunch of times, move on to next monster. If you haven’t played Dynasty Warriors it is a straight up button masher. Maybe you’ll press Triangle to change up your combos at some point, use your super when your gauge is full, and each character has unique skills they can use by holding R1 and pressing a face button. The way your characters are developed is probably the main reason the title was changed from “warriors” to “heroes”. There is a traditional JRPG shop set up for purchasing and equipping items in your hub as well as an alchemy pot to create different items and accessories. When you kill enemies you gain money and experience points and level in the traditional RPG sense. What I find really strange is that there isn’t a huge KO counter on the screen keeping track of the havoc you have caused or multiplayer, even Hyrule Warriors had them.

When you first lay your eyes on Dragon Quest Heroes you know whether you will like it or not. It really depends on how long it has been since you played a horde based beat-em up, if it has been a while pick it up. It would really help if you have preexisting Dragon Quest knowledge as a lot of its really hinges on characters and monsters you may be nostalgic for.

There is a sequel already? Oh boy.

Target Leynos

The 16 bit era had a bunch of games that came over from Japan that had anime stylings and were “toned down” to meet the tastes in the West. The cover of Shining in the Darkness traded anime characters to some that may have been designed by someone in Disney’s third string. I had a game on Sega Genesis that somehow made it through that process relatively intact. Today we fight waves of robots targeting Earth!

Wait, what the!?!?!

That is the US re release of Target Earth on PS4. I walked into a well-known national video game chain and it was sitting on the shelf. $20. Sold. I am completely nostalgic for this game and to see a physical release on the shelf just blows my mind. It’s not a kickstarter or special project, just a regular localized release. It was developed by Extreme and published in Japan by Dracue while being brought over by Rising Star games. I am happy to report it is faithful to the original and the localization kept the extras that were added in the remake.

Assault Suit Leynos always looked good. In 1990 you could make out what each of the robots on screen were and there were several locales to fight in; including moon base, city, and space. The redesign thankfully kept everything 2D, no awkward 3D models on a 2D plane here. They used high resolution sprites with heavy rotation to animate movement. It looks good, it’s obvious that they didn’t have the timeline to create Guilty Gear level sprite work.

I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t reuse the Genesis music for the remake. Then again, how can you expect that 26 year old chip tunes to show up on your PS4? BUT, there is a sound test that has music from the original. Hot Damn. Perfectly emulated sound from the old game, the bonus options can even switch new sound effects for the old ones in the case of gun fire. They kept the Japanese with English subtitles the way it should be when controlling 80’s style mecha. All in all, great work.

That leaves us with gameplay. They captured the original and made it more accessible to modern audiences. Target Earth is hard as balls. The only reason I beat it is because when you press start on the second Genesis controller when you see the first enemy of level 1 it lets it control the enemies and also makes you never die. Assault Suit Leynos gives you the blessing of regenerating health, when you play the main mode. If you select classic mode you get all of the difficulty, and less bells and whistles, of the original. I was able to finish the main mode in an afternoon, it wasn’t easy but I progressed at a rate that was not frustrating.

Controlling Leynos is pretty simple. You move left and right with the D-pad (or left stick) and raise/lower your angle of fire with up and down. Jump with the jump button and hold it to boost with the B.Pack equipped. Shoot the weapon you selected with the shoot button and hold L1 to keep shooting at the same angle while you move. The L1 is crucial for the zero G missions that also use up and down for movement. A lot of things are zipping around on screen and you will get flustered, good thing the levels are straight to the point affairs that don’t feel like you have lost too much ground if you die.

Pick your loadout prior to each mission. You have six slots. Do you put six different weapons in there to take care of any threat? Load several of one weapon you like to use to double your ammo? Use a slot for the boost pack to improve your mobility or extra armor that gives you another life bar? The base machine gun reloads but never runs out of ammo so you should take that to deal with smaller threats, other than that I liked the shotgun weapons because you are likely to be very close to your enemies in most situations. There are also arcing grenade launchers, multi-shot weapons, homing missiles, and a hand held shield to help reduce damage. Play how you like, they even added a punch.

Assault Suit Leynos being released again really caught me off guard. I never met anyone else who had heard of the game aside from those I introduced to it so it couldn’t have been a runaway hit in America. It looks like it is remembered a lot more favorably than it was reviewed at the time, with 1990 reviews from MobyGames between 50 and 60 and more contemporary reviews being much more forgiving. I’m obviously a big fan of it and a 20+ year younger version of myself is also a big fan of it, that’s a pretty good endorsement. Give it a try, and hopefully Rising Star Games will bring over more worthwhile titles the bigger companies overlook.

Perishing Is Not an Option

Henry Rollins. Let’s not fight him.

I haven’t written anything about a movie yet. I watched He Never Died recently and it was excellent, in a black/deadpan humor sort of way. This means that you need to watch it now. It is available on Netflix as of this writing which means you either already subscribe or are eligible for a month free trial. I’ll wait.

That image makes sense now.

If there ever was a person who was just older than you can imagine; seeing the world evolve in so many ways over the years and everyone you hold dear eventually go away, I would imagine they would act just like Rollins’ portrayal. He’s a hermit who keeps to himself and tries to remain unattached to anything temperamental, which includes people and personal relationships in his case. He also eats people, but not because he wants to. Jack is completely removed from reality and is indifferent to anything happening around him. At least at first.

Really the only thing that gets Jack’s concern to the present is a mistake he made nineteen years ago that resulted in a daughter. He must not have cared at the time. The story is nice and confined as you won’t find the fate of the world in the balance here, just a guy who really doesn’t want to care but realizes that he can fix things.

The dialog is where the film shines. The delivery that Jack gives in almost every line is spot on perfect. Understated and maybe insane. I’d be insane if I were alive that long and I would not be able to say the majority of the lines without laughing. Mr. Rollins, your acting has come so far since Johnny Mnemonic. That was a fun, campy movie but He Never Died is top notch.

“You’re probably just going to kill another room full of people.”

[Shakes Head]

“You are?”

“Probably.”

This is one of my favorite movies I have watched in the last few years. It seems like a rarer occurrence every time it happens. You cheer for Jack to fix things and one of the best parts is when you find out who you are cheering for. He Never Died and he still isn’t sorry for what did to become an immortal cannibal. 

Invaders from Planet Space

That’s not a witty title. That’s the actual subtitle for the game. Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space is available on your Vita, and you should buy it. Like now. There’s a reason this series has a huge cult following and it has been a crime that it doesn’t get the attention this side of the ocean that it deserves. Today we fight giant insects in one of the most video gamiest video games ever made.

Giant ants are crawling all over Big Ben. You have a rifle, point it at the ants and pull the trigger. It’s the simplest premise in the world against the most inoffensive enemies this side of Nazis. Once you take out hundreds of bugs you realize why you like this game, it is cathartic mowing down enemies with six, eight, and even hundreds of legs. There is definitely room in the industry for stupid fun, I am a total advocate for titles that fill this niche.

Earth Defense Force 4.1 was released the same day as EDF2 and is, as of now, the definitive EDF experience. This doesn’t stop EDF2 from being a perfect portable game. There are a bevy of missions to take part in with 3 soldier classes and 5 difficulty settings each with most being finished in under 10 minute bite sized chunks. It will take you quite a while to hit 100% completion especially with later difficulties being outright punishing.

First things first, this is a remastered PS2 game. It looks like a PS2 game and because it wasn’t released in the West this is the kind of re-release I can get behind. The graphics aren’t the important factor here, there are hundreds of weapons to choose from. Everything from machine guns, rocket launchers, lasers, and even air strikes will be used to stomp the opposition. When the bugs get bigger, get a bigger boot. Or a friend, EDF2 is even better with multiplayer!

Of course there are negatives to go with any game that comes out. There are vehicles available to two of the soldier classes but they don’t control very well and don’t have a crosshair (you do on foot) so it’s difficult to know exactly where you are shooting. Underground levels can be a pain, this is not meant to be a corridor shooter as it is easy to blow yourself up with explosives and everything seems to be intended for a large, mostly flat playfield with tons of space to fill with segmented body parts. The Air Raider class fills more of a support role and will likely cause trouble if you are trying to clear missions solo on higher difficulties. Grinding is also integral to the gameplay, you pick up armor and weapon drops from enemies that increase your health and arsenal for the coming missions. Some people don’t mind the grind but it may be enough to put people off.

 Earth Defense Force deserves a look. It almost plays like a recreation of classic games; Robotron 2084 when clearing gobs of insects, Space Invaders when shooting up at UFO’s that threaten your planet, and Centipede when you face the giant, well, centipede enemies. EDF!

Well fought? - A Few Hours With The Division Beta

New games are awesome! Being some of the first to play new games is even more awesome! Beta testing has been around ever since cavemen were trying to decide what materials burned too hot, and the internet has given us the privilege to warm hands all over the world in this metaphor. Today we fight with the feeling of "meh".

Full disclosure, I indirectly paid to join The Division. I bought the Tom Clancy bundle on Humble Bundle because I really wanted to jump on some Splintercell action and I was in an impulse buying mood. Since the bundle came with a beta key I figured I would download the 26 gig (holy crap!) file through uPlay and check it out.

First off, this is a beta and for the most part it works. There is a warning stating that the servers may be going in and out etc. I was disconnected quite a bit, and that's probably a good thing, hopefully they are working on their netcode and managing all the stress the servers can take. I had some occasional issues with graphical artifact that seemed to be connected to lighting that would obstruct 80% of the game screen if I moved the camera into a certain angle. These are beta issues that will likely be fixed in the retail release. I'm sure Ubisoft will do what it can to make sure there isn't another Assassin's Creed: Unity.

When you start up the beta, one of the developers voice over plays and tells you it's a cover based shooter. And that's what we have here. It's a cover based shooter, you've played them before. This one has loot. I am not impressed. The game is functional, running around an epidemic overridden New York City looks great. The enemies are rioters that shoot first and ask questions later with sub par AI. At one point one of my NPC allies yelled out "They don't have a plan, keep shooting!" and I laughed in agreement.

The Division looks like it could be a huge, immersive world to get lost in. It's screaming for more interesting enemy design (with the epidemic theme we'll probably get zombies...meh). If this was a demo, I would not be buying the final product based on the gameplay. There's a ton of potential here to be more than a cover based shooter with RPG elements, but I'd wait for the initial flood of reviews to come out. Back to Splintercell I guess.

Anime From Your Youth Still Gets Your Attention

If you have a passing interest in video games in this day and age you have probably dabbled in the medium of Japanese animation. I have and haven’t seriously followed any series in well over a decade. There are a few titles that grab me whenever something hits new release lists or podcasts that I frequent, mainly Ghost in the Shell and I will defend Cowboy Bebop until the end. Today we fight like we have been inducted into Section 9.

I have my issues with early access titles and free to play titles. This time I paid to play a free title in early access. Ghost in the Shell: First Assault is a Sci-Fi first person shooter that does nothing new. The shooting is responsive, you gain levels by playing, and you can by skins and additional characters with real money. In all fairness, you can unlock more Section 9 operatives with the earned in game currency by investing more time. When it comes to game modes there is Team Deathmatch, Terminal Capture (point based capturing in sequence like Battlefield), and Demolition (it’s Counter Strike, even with one spawn per round). So, why are you telling me about this game?

It is all in the presentation, down to action based clips from the show in some menus. It looks exactly like what the GitS universe should look, futuristic and slightly sterile. The character models are spot on with the entire voice cast from the Stand Alone Complex series! Hearing those voices really hits the sweet spot. Even the Tachikoma think tank helps you in the terminal capture mode. Considering your team is always Section 9, the game projects you as generic “bad guys” to the other team; this also doesn’t let on which members of your team have what abilities to the enemy. Each operative has their own special skill based on their role in the anime. Major Kusanagi has her trademark optical camouflage, Batou shoots missiles out of his arm, Ishikawa can place turrets, and so on. Some of the abilities can be spread to other squad mates through a skill sync; giving everyone around you semi-invisibility can help turn the tide of any battle.

As a free to play game First Assault seems to be pretty on par with other titles. There are temporary items that can augment you slightly in the form of faster reloads, shorter ability cooldowns, and the like. Just like Hawken you gain levels and then are bestowed the privilege of purchasing upgrades with your hard earned cash. This is a model I’m not a fan of, if I’ve put in the time I don’t want to find out I need to grind money to get the item I’ve been after. I can also see how this could get someone to drop real world funds to get around it. Maybe I’m just getting old and can’t cope with these newfangled ways to spend my money.

If you’re looking for a fun, fast paced shooter that you can jump in and out of this is your one of your many answers. It’s still in early access at this point and is due out sometime in 2016. A co-op horde mode would be a welcome addition along with some way to pilot a think tank. When it hits its official release date give it a shot, it’s fun to dive back into a simpler time with familiar gameplay.