New Game First Impressions:
- Tales of Xillia - This is definately one of my most anticipated JRPGs to finally come out to the states and sure we got Tales of Graces earlier but wasn't really a real high point in the Tales saga although at least something to tie us over. Right at the start you get to follow the story of one of two main protagonists: Jude Mathis, a boy medical student who just so happens to get caught into this story and knows how to heal and beat up people with kung-fu, and Milla Maxwell, the human enbodiment of the world's spirital god as a sexy female with wild-colored hair and uses short swords and magic attacks. Of course I chose the hot chick, what else? (and seriously, who would name a god "Maxwell"? That's like calling the Na'vi god from Avatar "Ralph") I'm about 6 hours into the story as I'm writing this so the plot hasn't been really fleshed out yet although it mainly deals with Milla trying to get back the four main elemental spirit powers (wind, fire, water & earth) that were taken away by a mysterious high-powered magic weapon of some sort. The combat system is very similar to Vesperia's which is a good thing becuase the combat in that was damn fun and even though you are only focused on one enemy at a time you can run around anywhere in the battle area and switch targets easily. One thing they added is the linking system where your partner always helps you out in battle and is able to use linked special attacks for greater damage, that is once your meter is high enough to do them and is only linked to certain attacks. There's also another change in this game for the way the shops and stores are handled which is somewhat odd. In order for either weapon, armor or item shops to stock more powerfull gear and equipment you have to "donate" either goods dropped by enemies or found in the world or by money and they can rank up faster by giving then a certain type of trade item like minerals or animal bones. Also all vendors will carry the same items no matter where you are in the world (so far), even with the solo traveling merchants you find just standing around have all unlocked items. I think it's kind of neat they did it this way and technically you can just grind a lot of enemies for goods and buy better gear. The last big change is the leveling system which is done via a skill "web" however you can pick and choose which skills you want so if you just want high strength, health and defence then go for it although to expand it more you have to unlock certain nodes in the web to earn them. The graphics style has a impressive painted brush-stroke look to it and a lot of the enviroments are fairly artistic looking however there is no world map to explore (again for now) and some of the main monster fields can look similar to each other. The game music isn't that rememberable but really nothing bad about it, at least they kept the original Japanese vocals for the opening theme but unfortunately the game's spoken dialog is English only (but I wouldn't be surprized if Namco-Bandai releases a Japanese voice pack via DLC). Again I'm not really too much into this yet but I'm fairly liking what I've played so far, at least the charactors and story are a bit more interesting than Graces although not as good as Vesperia's. (and speaking of Vesperia, where the hell is that English PS3 version!?). If you're into JRPGs and have a PS3 then I'd say check this out.
- Dragon's Crown - Finally, a great spirital succuessor to the old school hack-n-slash arcade games from the yesteryears, yeah Castle Crashers kind of did that too a couple years back but this game makes that look like My Little Pony. The game is almost set up like the Diablo or Torchlight games, you choose one of six different classes and each one has their own powers and skills to earn and can find and equip various amounts of different loot. I chose the knight guy becuase I more just wanted to use a hefty brawler with good defence although I like to give the amazon a go for the next playthrough. Every mission area is about roughly the size of a standard stage of Knights of the Round and other 90's beat-em-up games and has a big bad boss encounter at the end. Within each stage are treasure chests to unlock and get loot however a little thief man must unlock them for you that always follows you around and same goes with opening locked doors. Unfortunately you cannot see the loot you got until the end of the level and each item is graded and you must spend money to appraise them to see what they really are, although you can just sell off the unwanted junk without spending a dime. Now if you are not much of an online player like myself you still can get some computer AI help by reviving fallen hero bones found in the world's stages however of course the computer's capabilites don't make them the sharpest tools in the shed but at least they can take the edge off of enemy hordes for a bit and you can have up to three companions with you at a time. Of course the high point of this game is the amazing visual art work and Vanillaware always does an awesome job in all the games they make, albeit with highly exaggerated fantasy designs in this game. The story is not going to win any awards and is very generic Dungeons and Dragons fluff but one really annoying part of the game is the story's narrator and is constantly nagging at you of what to do or where to go next and says the same line every time you enter and exit out of an area in the game's main hub city. Also just like Xillia there is no Japanese language option for this EXCEPT for the voices of the six main classes although they only say very simple and short lines of dialog. Dispite the game's minor inconviences and quirks I'm truly having a fun blast with this and this game is just as fun as the older 90's hack-n-slash games like Knights of the Round or the DnD Capcom brawlers (which the main artist of the game perviously worked on). The game only retails at $50 and if you got a PS3 then I really think you should check this game out.
- Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F - I still really think SEGA has some big balls to actually release this in the U.S. but of course they are only doing this for the fans dispite it mainly being a niche rhythem music game. So you get 38 "popular" songs (although not all popular by the American fanbase) either sung by the famous Japanese digital idol or by or with the other "friends" of Len, Rin, Luka, Keito or Meiko (and damnit, where's Gumi!? Oh wait, she's not "official"). Each song as four levels of difficulty ranging from simple two button presses to "OH MY FREAKING GOD THIS IS THUMB TORTURE!!" and you just press the buttons or flick the sticks on the controller to the right beats of the song, just like Dance Dance Revolution without the pad. I do have one big complaint about this game: I know SEGA has worked their hardest to design and program the amazing (albeit sometimes just damn weird) music videos that play during each song and the visuals of them can really get in the way of seeing where the button ques are in the music. Sure by practice you don't really need to see them but I defiantely need to and more wish there was an option to turn down the brightness of those videos to see them better or even a "practice" mode where you don't see the video and only the button ques. However if you can get past that issue I'm sure some gamers will have a fun time with this if you are into rhythem music games. Now getting a passing score or higher earns you "Diva Points" to unlock stuff like costumes or accessories to put on our digital singers but you have to play a lot to unlock most of them becuase they are damn expensive (costumes alone are around 20000 each). You can also use points to buy room themes, furniture or gifts and that you use in the "Diva room" which somewhat acts as the "dating sim" portion of the game. So you first have the option to "date" Miku although you cannot talk to her, only either give her gifts like rice omelettes or melon sodas and that raises her likeable meter and another thing you can do is touch her face or body in a certain way to make her more happy, (nothing dirty here guys, come on!) like rubbing Miku's forehead. Then there's a video concert viewer and a photo mode but I didn't touch on those yet and there also a downloadable area to play people's edited songs but haven't checked that either. Also another thing I'm hoping SEGA will do is release more of the older and popular Miku and friends songs that were in the Japanese PSP games as future DLC song packs like in Rock Band although in Japan a 2nd Project Diva PS3 game is currently in the works right now. In my best reccomendation I more suggest downloading the demo that is out on PSN before buying this becuase I'm not really sure this is for everyone but at least try it out and if you completely dig it then defiantely buy this game. It retails for $50 both in disc format and download and also a bit of a warning, if you are really looking for a disc copy the only retailer that is selling this in the U.S. right now is Gamestop although Fry's Electronics will start selling this too but not until later in September.
- Duck Tales: Remastered - The uber fun Disney NES game classic all reimagined in stunning hand-drawn HD art and new 3D enviroments. I will say Way-Forward did their greatest to perfectly emulate the same exact gameplay that was in the original NES title, right down to the cheap-ass difficulty and constant respawning enemies whenever you walk back and forth through areas. Also I'm going to give big props to WayFor on regathering all of the original voice actors from the 80's cartoon series for the game's cutscenes. (and seriously how old is Scrooge McDuck's voice actor? 90?) And speaking of cut scenes, there are a ton of them, and I don't think even the original NES version had this much. Also you can't easily skip them by a simple button press, you must pause the game and then press the skip cutscene button and it's just a bit annoying, especially if you have to restart a level if you lost all of your health or lives. Now I first tried the game on normal and it was freaking tough! Sure the first stage was a breeze but I tried the Amazon stage and could barely get to where the boss is. So I played the rest of the game on easy where getting hit only knocks off half a life heart instead of a full one and you get infinite lives (maybe that's how I finished the original back in the day). Lastly you can use all of your earned money from stages to unlock bonus artwork from the game but it's going to take multiple playthroughs to unlock all of them, you can also replay the levels after finishing the game. I more believe this game is for the nostaligia buffs and I kind of wish the game actually came with the original NES version too but at least newcomers can greatly enjoy it's classicness. Of course the best part of the game is the music and WayFor used remixed music for all of the stages to get an updated feel for today's standards while still keeping it's chiptune roots and is still highly enjoyable. The game is for $15 for download on PSN right now but will be on 360 Arcade, Wii Shop and PC later this month.
- Stealth INC. A Clone in the Dark - This is what you get when you mash the stealthiness of the Metal Gear and Splinter Cell games with the grueling 2D platforming difficulty of Super Meat Boy. Each stage only has one goal: open the exit door to move on to the next stage, but you have to trudge through all of the super tough obstacles, traps and puzzles to get to it. Also the game even makes fun of your greusome mistakes via text messages on the walls. Even though the game is only $10 on PSN I kind of wanted to try a demo of this first before I really wanted to get it, but there isn't one and sad to say I'm kind of regretting this purchase. Sure the 1st set of levels are more or less a tutorial/cakewalk but it gets really damn frustrating in the later levels and can really take some lucky moves to get through, especially with the final stages against a huge-ass homing lazer turret. Sure Super Meat Boy was also damn hard in the later levels but that game was more simpler and fun to play and this isn't. You can also make your own levels in the game but you cannot share them with others nor download any other people's stages which is a huge bummer. And one more thing, the people on the online stage leaderboards are cheaters! There is no freaking way all of these people were able to finish all of these stages in exactly 9.15 seconds! I will say I like the cute graphic style of the game and the clones kind of remind me of the minions from Despicible Me and does have some decent techno/electronic background music during the stages. Overall I think this is a "try before you buy" game but again there is no demo of it (yet) and also it's not on any other platforms other than PSN.
Recently Finished:
- Borderlands 2 - Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep - Finally was able to get around finishing this and while it's not one of the greatest DLC mission packs to hit the Borderlands universe but it was still a pretty fun one. The story of the DLC almost mirrors what was in the main story of the 2nd main game with you hunting down an evil wizard version of Handsome Jack and fighting off against his armored knights and sorcerors. There was one really annoying type of orc enemy that can automatically level up to 5 levels above you and was literally impossible to kill off if he goes that high and I practically had to run away from it most of the time. The final boss battle has you killing three different forms of Handsome Jack and took a really long time to fight off, especially with the multiple dragon enemies flying around him. Overall I had a fun time with this and all of the awesome and funny dialog from all of the charactors really make up for it and all of the areas had some pretty nice cell-shaded visuals. You can even get a shotgun that shoots out swords! Too bad there is no huge treasure loot fests after finishing the last battle. I kind of more enjoyed playing the pirate-themed DLC back that was released for Borderlands 2 earlier because that one had a lot more open areas to fight and loot while this one has more smaller and more constrained areas and the sidequests were a bit more enjoyable in that. However if you heavily enjoyed what BL2 has to offer then definately check this out, but make sure you play it after finishing the main story, it just makes a bunch more sense.
And with that out of the way I do like to make an important annoucement: Finishing Borderlands 2 and that last DLC pack marks the final game I am playing on my XBox 360 and as of the end of August I have sold off my system. I know I had some great and awesome times playing on 360 and I have ranked my gamer score up to 46085 points in game achievements but I have personally decided to let it go and only stick with my Playstation 3 (and eventually PS4) as my choice of HD gaming.
However, with the money I got from selling that system I now have in my possession a black Nintendo 3DS XL. Now it's not fully set up yet for online and friend codes and whatnot and so far I only have one game for it: New Super Mario Bros. 2. Personally I've always had plans on buying one (and the new black style is really nice) and was just waiting for the right time to get it so of course making a trade from one game system to another is the best way. Right now I'm more waiting for the new Zelda: Link to the Past to come out later this fall but also have plans to buy Mario Kart 7, the new Luigi's Mansion and eventually Monster Hunter 4 (a game series I've been always hoping to play on the PS3 or 360). Expect at least my impressions of NSMB2 next month however still rather wait until I finally set up wi-fi in my condo later this Fall.
Games to buy in September:
- Diablo III on PS3 (out now) - Ok, I know, I could of played this on my PC months and months ago but due to some BS graphics card and driver issues I couldn't so at least I'm finally playing it in console form, albiet on a controller than with a mouse and keyboard (although I'm sure I can still use that option on a PS3, right?).
Games to buy later:
- Grand Theft Auto V (09/17) - I just know this game will be the heaviest contender for Game of the Year in 2013 and will sell millions and millions but I'm holding off on it for a couple reasons: 1st, this is supposed to be the largest open-world game that Rockstar has ever made, something like 4X larger than Red Dead Redemption (and another game I really need to play one of these days), but with huge sandbox games like this there are bound to be numerous bugs and glitches. Hey, just look at Skyrim where most the game didn't get working until well after XMas from launch. 2nd, I am willing to hold off on this until after I finally finish another Rockstar game that I need to eventually complete and that's L.A. Noire but I'm really hoping by X-Mas time this year most of the issues will be fixed up and some goes with the online portions of the game too. Of course I could attempt to get my brother to buy it for me on XMas. :)
- Puppeteer (09/10) - When I first saw the puppetshow-style graphics of the game I was imediately in love with this and seems to have some of the most innovative and fun boss battles I've seen in any video game. Plus the game retails at only $40! However I am somewhat holding off on this due to waiting for the game reviews to trickle in and really more like to just try a demo of this first before buying (if there is one) becuase I've actually heard this game will be difficult, like Dark Souls difficult and want to more have a hands on impression before diving into it. I still eventually like to buy it and play but possibly at a much later time.
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