Sweet As Syrup: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 Review

You know what I love? Quests, epic quests that entangle our hero in a grand mission to save world, his girlfriend, or fulfill some kind of arbitrary task. Another thing I love is the Dragon Ball anime series. What happens when you combine epic questing with Dragon Ball? You get something akin to Dragon Ball Xenoverse, a game that is a mix between RPG, fighting game, and MMORPG. It’s a game that mixes several genres together in an attempt to make something wholly unique.

I’ve made it no secret that I love the Dragon Ball franchise. While I gave up on the series for a while, a couple years back, I found myself getting interested in it again. While I can definitely say elements of this show haven’t aged well, it’s still still an entertaining watch. The games are definitely where I find my interest in nowadays. So, I thought I’d take a look at Xenoverse, which is undoubtedly my favorite Dragon Ball game.

It’s Casper The Unfriendly Ghost Saiyan!

Background Information

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is an action RPG/ MMORPG / Fighting game made that was released on both the previous generation of consoles, as well as the current one. The game was original advertised under the code-name “Dragon Ball New Project” and was officially released in February of 2015. The game became a huge hit, selling over 3 million copies world-wide. It sold so well, that a sequel was released the following year.

Plot

Unlike most Dragon Ball games, which tend to retread the same old tired plot-lines, Xenoverse takes a unique spin on the formula. The game takes place in the future, over a hundred years after the end of the original series. The adventures of the Saiyan warrior Goku, as well as those of his family and friends are long over. However, an evil is stirring and starts altering history.

This results in major alterations affecting the primary timeline, to the point where several key members of the original cast end up dead. The time-travelling warrior known as Trunks has joined a futuristic police squad known as “Time Patrol” in an attempt to fix the altered timeline. The purple-hair warrior realizes that he’s in over his head and decides to call for some reinforcements.

Apparently, ordinary help is out of the question for Trunks. Instead of doing something logical like putting out a “Help Wanted” ad, Trunks decides to gather the seven magical Dragon Balls. Using these, he summons the dragon Shenron and summons your custom character to his time period. From there, you are sent out to various parts of the Dragon Ball timeline, in order to fix all that has been altered.

It’s not a super original plot, but it definitely is an entertaining one. All of the “What If?” scenarios presented by the game add some much needed variety to the game. After all, there’s only so many times you can tell the same Dragon Ball story-lines over and over. Considering this game was made in a time when Dragon Ball games were mostly rehashing the same tired plots year after year, it was a much welcome change of pace.

Thankfully, Xenoverse does mix it up quite a bit. It re-purposes elements from a game I previously review, which was Dragon Ball Online, and managed to do something unique things with it. Cut-scenes in this game are packed with all sorts of action, shenanigans, and surprise twists.

However, even though I enjoy the attempt at a new story, it sadly lacks the finesse of a common Dragon Ball arc. The story took me about 10 hours to beat, including grinding and sitting through all the cut-scenes. The story is just way too short, to the point where I felt that I wasn’t getting the full experience. Scenes from the show would play out in background dialogue, robbing me of the experience of viewing them through cut-scenes or game-play.

The plot is really nothing to write home about, but it does manage to freshen up the Dragon Ball franchise. As previously mentioned, Dragon Ball games had a tendency to play things a bit too safe. Having a game that at least attempts a new story is definitely something I can appreciate. While the plot feels like its written primarily for fans of the show, I thought it was definitely entertaining. Not good or fantastic, but enjoyable enough that I don’t often find myself skipping past cut-scenes.

Moral of the story: NEVER TRAIN WITH CELL!

Gameplay

This is the bread and butter of what makes people love the Xenoverse series so much. The gameplay on display is definitely entertaining, but not without its faults. Let’s go over the good first, that feels like the best place to start. Xenoverse plays like the fully 3D dragon ball fighting games that have come before it, most notably Budokai Tenkaichi 3. You control a singular character, and can have up to two allies fighting by your side.

However, some missions are special, and will occasionally pair your with three to four other allies in order to square against a really powerful enemy. Action unfolds in the third-person, and mainly focuses on a two button combat scheme. You can do light attacks and heavy attacks, and string them together to pull off some sick combos. It’s a stupidly simple system, but it’s easy enough for most people to get the hang of. Toss in things like grappling, ki blasts, and special attacks, and you have a simple system with a fair bit of complexity.

Unfortunately, combat can get super repetitive after a while. Sure, you have new moves and characters being thrown at you to spice things up, but I won’t deny the fact that it starts to feel stale after a while. The fact the combat feels like it relies too heavily on button-mashing is a rather large detriment to the game itself. It definitely doesn’t stop the combat from being fun, but it does water down the experience a bit.

What makes combat so fun is the insane amount of super moves you can pull off. Every playable character has his own set of special moves that he/she can use in combat. This can range from moving so fast you create a large blue hurricane, to even tossing miniature meteorites at your hapless opponents. Each set of moves is tailored to how that character fought in the show. For example, Frieza has access to his “Death Ball” attack, and has a combat style focused on both speed and power.

There are about 57 characters in this game, if you include DLC as well. There are also a ton of different forms, costumes, and move-sets for each character. This increases the amount of playable characters quite a bit, and adds some variety. The characters you can choose during combat level up with your character. The stronger your character is, the stronger the characters you play as will be. It’s a nice little touch that makes it so other characters you decide to play as are just as viable during battle.

The game’s main draw is its custom characters. Xenoverse allows for an insane amount of customization options. It’s easy to lose 10 minutes just messing around in the character creating, making something that looks absolutely silly and weird. Want to make an orange Namekian? Go for it. Want to make a Saiyan with silver skin and green hair? Go nuts. The game is just insane with the amount of bizarre characters you can make.

There are five different races to pick from, each one coming with its own specialties and limitations. Certain races have different advantages over others, such as different starting stats and access to race-exclusive abilities. Most characters handle the same out of the gate, but eventually become varied enough to stand out from the other races. For example, Frieza’s race is extremely fast, while Majins can use magic-based special attacks.

Character customization does have it limits though, especially in the amount of hair-styles and faces your characters can have. I hear that the character options are much better in the sequel, though I have yet to play that version. Regardless, what’s here is definitely welcome. The custom options go beyond just creating his look, you can also choose from a variety of outfits and different skills to use.

Sadly, the costumes have locked stats. You can’t change the stats, so you’re sometimes stuck with outfits of your favorite characters with abilities you don’t want. It’s definitely one of the weakness this game has, though it’s from the biggest offender. The biggest problem comes from online. Battles online against other players are largely unbalanced, with characters having builds that are broken and overpowered. While certain moves and abilities have been dulled down, a fair bit of attacks still remain stupidly strong.

This completely destroys the flow of online combat with other players. It gets worse when you factor in the insane amount of lag that occurs if you enter a match with another person that has a bad connection. Worse still is the game’s difficulty spikes near the end of story mode. Characters become stupidly overpowered, and gain the ability to spam ultimate attacks to an insane degree.

This gets worse in the “Parallel Quests”, which act as this game’s version of side-quests. The last few PQs are so immensely broken, that they are near impossible to beat offline. Characters can gang up on you constantly and bash you into a bloody pulp, using both overpowered energy attacks and cheap cornering tactics. This isn’t me being bad at the game either, this is legitimately broken in terms of difficulty. Thankfully, most of the really hard stuff is completely optional.

Another complaint I have is with the city itself, which is more of a small hub than anything else. It’s only three areas, which are strung together by loading screens. There’s not a whole lot to do in the city, aside from take quests and buy items. Thankfully, despite this game being an MMORPG, you are never gouged by micro-transactions. Sure, there is DLC, but you don’t really need it to beat the game.

All things considered, I definitely had fun with the game’s combat and character creation. Sure, the combat can get dull pretty quickly, but its insane amount of different specials moves makes up for it. While the online play could use a lot of work, it’s still a fair bit of fun to work alongside friends and strangers to beat tough missions. If you can get past the grind-y nature of the game, the very low item drop-rates, and the insane difficulty spikes, then I think you are in for a good experience.

Definitely not Kansas anymore.

Visual Stimuli

The game looks fantastic, truly fantastic. The art-style definitely captures the look and feel of classic Dragon Ball Z, while adding a bit of its own flavor to the mix. Despite the good graphics, facial animations are pretty awkward. Everyone looks overtly creepy every time they smile, almost like they are faking their smiles in a strange sort of way. Backgrounds look pretty nice, even if most of them are completely static.

The soundtrack is pretty solid, having a fair bit of tunes that sound like they would fit right in with the show itself. The game’s sound-effects are also pretty nice, having the right amount of punch to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were lifted from the show itself! The game seems to run pretty smoothly, though there have been times where I was randomly booted from the server. Also, certain moves can cause the frame-rate to chug considerably. An example of this is the Blue Hurricane move, which can cause the frame-rate to dip considerably.

Special attacks look flashy and powerful, just like how they are in the show. I especially love how certain attacks can cause damage to the area, it’s such a nice attention to detail. One of the game’s biggest faults come in both the voice acting and the translation. Funimation’s usual top-notch voice cast is playing the Dragon Ball cast, but it seems they lack direction. It was like Cell’s voice actor was told just to ham it up, so he rolled with it.

Several other characters just seem to say things they wouldn’t normally say, which can definitely get distracting. It has a certain charm to it, but it leads some scenes to feel pretty awkward at times. I can’t tell you how jarring it is to complete a mission where the villains of hell invade, only to be greeted with your mentor saying “I would totally hug you, if that was a thing I did!” It’s not terrible, just rather jarring.

Still, the voice cast is solid overall. The main problem with the game comes in the spotty translation and bad grammar. For some reason, the dialogue in this game is peppered with all kinds of spelling errors. From multiple commas in a single sentence, to words being improperly spelled. It’s very distracting, especially to someone like me, a person who gets distracted easily by such nonsense.

Translation overall feels a bit spotty, with voice-acted clips never really matching up with what the text-boxes are saying. Couple this with the aforementioned bad grammar, and you have dialogue that just feels tacked on. So, while I can say the game looks nice, it suffers from some issues in terms of both voice acting and translation. Direction-less voice-acting and multiple spelling errors pepper the game, but it doesn’t distract too much from the overall package. The game still looks and sounds great, despite its various hiccups.

Ginyu Force: Only the silly may apply.

In Conclusion

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a game that lets you make your own character, partner up with your favorite mentor, and live that ultimate Dragon Ball experience. However, its translation and voice acting issues, its repetitive gameplay, its broken loot system, and its huge difficulty spikes will turn a lot of people off. While I find these to be big weaknesses in terms of game design, I still feel this game is awesome and very unique.

After playing Dragon Ball Fusions, I didn’t think I would find a game that could top it. While Xenoverse plays more like a typical Dragon Ball fighting game, it somehow manages to do enough interesting things to keep it fresh. That’s why I can say that it is definitely as sweet as syrup!

Recommending this game is a hard thing to do, since it is mostly made with Dragon Ball fans in mind. If you’re a fan of Dragon Ball, I recommend checking this out. However, if you’re looking for a balanced fighting game experience, I suggest you check elsewhere. All in all, I can definitely say I had fun with this game. I hope to one day pick up and play Xenoverse 2, since I hear that the game manages to improve on a ton of faults with the first. Anyways, thanks for reading, and have a Super Saiyan day!

Sweet As Syrup: Digimon Adventure Anode/Cathode Tamer Veedramon Version Review

Yep, this is officially the longest title of anything I’ve ever reviewed on my blog! I thought I’d talk about a Digimon game that I’ve been getting into as of late, a rather forgotten title known as “Digimon Adventure Anode/Cathode Tamer”. This was one of the first Digimon video-games ever made, and was created while the series was at its most popular in Japan. It also introduced the world to Ryo Akiyama, a character who would make appearances in the first three seasons of the series.

This game was the series’ first foray into tactical RPGs, and one of their last. Sadly, the series would rarely revisit this genre. Regardless, I want to discuss this game. With Digimon’s 20th anniversary fast approaching, I feel it’s time I take a look at a forgotten classic. Without further adieu, let’s dive right in!

Background Information

Digimon Adventure Anode Tamer was originally released in 1999 for the Wonderswan, which was a Japanese exclusive console. A second version was released in 2000 called “Cathode Tamer”, and eventually a third a version of the game was released for the Wondereswan Color. This will be the version I’m looking at, the one known as “Veedramon Version”.

Unlike the other two versions released, Veedramon had an English version and was primarily released in English-speaking parts of Hong Kong. The Digimon Tamer series on Wonderswan proved to be very popular, and soon the main character Ryo Akiyama started making appearances in the show. It started off as a few cameos, but eventually he became a canon part of both the second and third seasons.

Can you smell that? That’s the sweet sweet smell of 90s nostalgia!

Plot

Taking place after the end of the first season, Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer focuses on a young man name Ryo. One day, Ryo is chatting on a message-board, until he gets a strange message on his computer. After foolishly touching a Digi-vice (a tool used on the show to enhance the power of a Digimon) our hero is pulled into the Digital World.

This is where he meets Digital Monsters, known as Digimon. Ryo is forced to work alongside a lizard-like Digimon named Agumon, in order to rescue the Digidestined from the original show. You see, all the kids have been defeated and captured by the villains of the first season, who have resurrected and become more powerful in the process. Ryo is tasked with using Tai’s Digivice, along with partnering up with the chosen Digimon to once again defeat all of the Digidestined’s foes. Not only this, but Ryo has to go up again an all new villain named “Milleniumon”, an evil hybrid Digimon who represents the Y2K virus.

Yeah, the plot for this game is pretty generic. While it’s cool that you get to fight all the villains from the first season in game form, the reason they are all there feels a bit like a cop-out. They are all conveniently resurrected by the new villain, and none of them offer any interesting bits of dialogue. I get that this is a Wonderswan Color game, and that they were limited in what they were allowed to do.

Still, I can’t help but feel that they could’ve done more with the setting. Digimon Adventure was a show that had a universe that was ripe for expanding upon. Instead, they decided to rehash season 1 all over again. This wouldn’t bother me so much if they got the character portrayals wrong. Sadly though, characters behave in a very unfitting way. For example, after you save every Digidestined, they just leave the Digital World and basically abandon you to your quest. They never offer to help or stay, and they never come to your aid.

I get that this is done so that more attention is put on the player character, as opposed to side-characters. It’s just really out of character for the Chosen Children to just have somebody else do all the work for them. Am I thinking too deeply about this? I probably am, that’s just how my brain works. Regardless, I felt the plot to be very bland and forgettable. Very few interesting things happen, and it just ends up feeling like a hollow story overall.

Gameplay

The game is pretty basic in terms of structure. You can have a maximum of 3 Digimon in your party at at time, same goes for your opponent. In these 3v3 fights, you take turns with each individual Digimon. You move them across the grid to attack your opponent Digimon. While it seems simple, there are some things thrown in that help spice up the gameplay.

The game introduces something called “Variable Moves”. These are basically Digivolutions, a form of transformation evoked by Digimon in the series. However, Variable Moves are different in that they only last for one turn, where Digivolutions often last a lot longer in other games. Variable Moves are basically special summon attacks, and can be used to attack your opponent, heal an ally, or even buff your part members.

You can also use items both in and out of combat. These range from average healing items, to food or waste disposal items. That’s right, the game has some simulation elements to it. You have to take care of your Digimon, by both feeding it and cleaning up after it. Unfortunately, these particular elements of the game felt tacked on. More often than not, it felt like the hunger system was just an excuse to send me running back to the village to buy more meat. Thankfully, this doesn’t become too much of a problem, since you are given meat in battle.

Outside of combat, you can acquire new Digimon and travel the over-world. The over-world isn’t fancy, and it lacks any real depth to it. You just travel to new dungeons to send your Digimon to. There’s no secret areas, hidden zones, or anything to make it remotely interesting. Even the Pokemon games had wide open areas for you to explore! Sadly, the areas you explore feel so barren. There are very few Digimon to talk to in such areas as well.

Speaking of the game’s flaws, there was lot of elements to this game that generally rubbed me the wrong way. For example, the aforementioned Variable Moves system is rather annoying to get working properly. The game starts you off with no moves for any of your Digimon, you have to unlock them all by scratch by experimenting with different party combinations. The problem is that you get them entirely at random. It’s possible to get moves that could’ve been useful two dungeons, while in a completely new dungeon.

Balancing is another issue with the game. Certain Digimon that you are given at the start of the game feel way too overpowered. A good example of this was Veedramon, who pretty much broke most boss encounters. I liken Veedramon to Frederick from Fire Emblem, put in the middle of a battlefield and everyone will die in an attempt to take him out.

The game’s biggest offense though is its repetition and length. The game is very repetitive in its combat system. Certain fights will drag on for what feels like 30 minutes, sometimes longer. It gets really old, really fast. All the while, you’re stuck watching the same animations over and over again. It’s like if they made an episode of Digimon and only had a budget of 5 bucks and only about 20 frames of animation repeated over and over.

I feel like that’s an apt summary of this game in a nut-shell: “It’s like Digimon, but not as good and extremely dated”. It may sound cruel, but in terms of gameplay I feel it just doesn’t measure up to the flawed gem known as Digimon World, which came out the same year, but for a different console.

Visual Stimuli

This game looks pretty good for the time, to be honest. The sprite work is typical of a Wonderswan Color game, but they manage to capture the art-style of the original show very well. Digimon are well-designed and the battle sprites look nice enough, even if a few of them can look a bit uncanny valley at times. Sprites on the over-world can look a bit too simplistic though.

The problem with this game comes in the sound department. It sounds pretty bad, which is a result of the console’s limitations, I know. Still, the soundtrack felt grating at times due to the loud blaring noises. Another problem I had with the game was the odd translation. For some reason, the English version of the game chose to use a mixture of both the Japanese names and the American localized names. This made certain scenes feel a little odd for me.

While I did like the graphics, I felt the localization and soundtrack were a bit too stale for my tastes. As previously mentioned, the audio was blaring and the game’s localization couldn’t decide which translation it wanted to stick to. In all honesty, I found the production values of this game to be fairly hit-or-miss.

In Summation

I know that I have been fairly harsh on the game up until this point. I know it isn’t entirely fair, seeing as how this game was one of the first few Digimon games ever made. However, it did help kick-start an entire sub-franchise, and introduced the fandom to a character who would be popular for years to come. I guess I went into this game with too high of expectations.

Now, do I hate this game? No, but I have trouble saying that it’s a good game. It’s a middle-of-the-road game. I enjoyed parts of the game, and was totally a sucker for the nostalgic elements of it. The problem was that the game was too short, lacked an interesting plot, and didn’t do enough to distance itself from the many other tactical RPGs coming out around that time.

So, with that I can say that the game isn’t as sweet as syrup. Do I recommend it? Well, kind of. I can only really recommend this game to two kinds of people: Those who love Digimon and Ryo, and those who love tactical RPGs. While you can easily skip this game in favor of future games, I do suggest at least trying it. It does introduce the hero and villain of this series and is fun for an hour or two, but that’s about it. Anyways, that’s my personal thoughts on the game. If anyone else has played this game, I’d like to hear your thoughts on it as well. If you feel I presented any elements of the game incorrectly, feel free to call me out on it. Regardless, I hope you all have a great day!

Sweet As Syrup: Toukiden 2 Review

I’ve made it no secret that I love Japanese games, especially ones that play like Monster Hunter. These Monster Hunter “clones” are one of the reasons I started this blog, and to this date dominate the subject of a ton of my posts. So, I thought today I’ll go back and revisit a series I haven’t touched in nearly 2 years. Today I wish to discuss the new Toukiden game, Toukiden 2. Is it better than the original? Did it change anything? Are the fox creatures still cute? Find out in this review!

Also, I’d like to give a shout-out to moco1982, who’s website you can find here. Moco was the one mentioned this game to me, and he’s the reason I got it. I originally had no plans on getting a new Toukiden game, but after both buying and play it, I am extremely glad I did!

I’m getting some MMO vibes from this…

Background Information

Toukiden 2 was an action RPG made for the PS Vita, PS3 (In Japan only), PS4, and PC. It was released in Japan mid-way through 2016, and was recently released in North America just last month. The game was developed by Omega Force, a company known for their work on Dynasty Warriors and its many spin-offs. The game was published by Tecmo-Koei and is the company’s second attempt at a Hunter-like game series. The company’s first foray into the genre was with the lesser-known title “Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce”.

Plot

The game starts off 10 years before the plot of the main game. You are a soldier, under the command of the great general Kuyo. During an attack by monsters, a gigantic demon appears and sends you tumbling through time into the current day. You arrive a few years after the events of the first game, in a brand new village. The village you’ve arrived in is dealing with various problems, including in-fighting between “Insiders” and “Outsiders”, as well as the ongoing threat posed by the Oni.

Not long into the game, you are introduced to the enigmatic Professor and her machine doll known as “Tokitsugu”. While the game boasts many varied characters, I found these two to be the most interesting and entertaining. I especially love the Professor and her overtly eccentric nature. He was such a blast to have as a supporting character, especially compared to a lot of the bland characters that showed up in the first few games.

While I liked the general setup of the plot, it left a lot to be desired in the long run. The first half of the game presents the in-fighting between the town’s two main factions in a rather realistic and unique light. Their rivalries felt like they had a purpose and showed the two clashing ideologies very well. The problem is that halfway through the game, suddenly a generic antagonist shows up. You can tell he’s the villain and your ultimate threat.

All of this interesting in-fighting and politics gets shoved aside for a generic “Let’s save the world” plot line that feels like they copy-pasted it from the last game. The game’s starting quarrel is resolved haphazardly at the end, while the new plot takes center stage. It feels like the game writers wanted to do two different plots, and both of them got mashed together into this unidentifiable substance.

While I did enjoy that first half of the plot, the forgettable second half really soured the mood for me. It’s not an overtly long main questline, so I never really felt like I stuck trudging through the second half all that much. I feel the game’s plot is just so-so, with two different arcs of varying quality. However, the plot of the game is only one part of the whole package. How does the gameplay hold up?

Shusuke will forever be remembered at that one guy who got eaten by a giant lizard. Upon his tombstone shall read “Tastes like chicken!”

Gameplay

Toukiden 2 is a game that may be deceiving at first glance. One may think that this is just another Monster Hunter clone, since all of the trappings are there. After all, this is a tird-person action RPG with a focus on slaying monsters and gaining new materials to craft weapons and armor. However, if you thought this was just another generic clone, you’d be mistaken.

Toukiden 2 manages to not only improve on the last two games, but also make some great additions to the genre as a whole! The game now boasts a fully realized open-world! You can now venture across the countryside in order to slay monsters, which is much appreciated. The game starts off by only giving you access to a few sections of the open-world at first, but they gradually open up as you play through the game.

The open-world is littered with a ton of side-quests and different events. Sadly, a lot of the side-quests are just meaningless fetch-quests. Sometimes, you’ll find a quest that does expand the lore a bit, but those are few and far between. Some side-quests can feel a bit tedious as well, especially the one at the start of the game which sends you out to look for three brothers, all scattered about across the land.

One annoyance that I found with the new open-world system, is the “Miasma” system. You see, early into the game you are sent into the Other-World. This is a dimension where demons reside, and as a result it’s filled with deadly miasma. Too much of it will instantly kill your character on the spot. Normally, this is easy to work around. You’ll usually have enough time to get to where you need to be long before the miasma takes you. On top of this, there are ways to purify your body and slow down the miasma gauge.

So, what’s the problem then? The problem comes with the exploration of the Other-World itself. You see, the game doesn’t have any real indication that you are about to go over your miasma level, aside from the gauge itself. This means you need your eyes trained on the corner of the screen at all times, which can get annoying. This can be especially troublesome if you’re running through an area where the miasma is high and run out of stamina. You see, when the miasma meter turns red, your stamina loses its regenerate. This means that once you enter these areas and are far enough in, you won’t be able to run back out in time to save yourself. This can make exploring the Other-World quite a chore.

The open-world also introduces special events called “Joint Operations”. During these missions, you’ll stumble across a Slayer or a fox-like creature known as a “Tenko”. After doing these Joint Operations, you’ll be joined by either of these beings. Slayers will only follow you temporarily, but will act as a fifth party member of your team. This can help in more difficult battles, when needing a fifth party member feels like a necessity.

Upon being rescued, Tenkos will leave the field and go over to your house. At that point, you can feed them and even change their voices or pelt color. They can even join you on missions, though they can’t actually attack anything. You can even equip them with Mitama that will give you extra bonuses in combat. Joint Operations are something that I felt was overall fairly rewarding. They were nice little instances that let you acquire temporary allies, or even adorable pets. I especially liked the changes made to the Tenko system, who were originally only there to gather items in the first two games.

That begs the question, who gathers items for you now? Well, in this game you are given Machina Dolls. They are like the Tenkos from the first game, but have the ability to be upgraded. At the start of the game, Machina Dolls will be nearly useless. They will fail missions 9 times out of 10, unless you fully upgrade them. This means a lot of material farming if you want your Machina in tip-top shape. Speaking of farming, the game mostly avoids this. Aside from upgrading Machina, I never really found myself farming for items and materials all that much.

Now, let’s discuss the main selling point of this game: The combat. The combat remains mostly unchanged from the past 2 games. There are a few new weapon types, and each new weapon gains a few new attacks. Battles still playing in the third-person, with you and 3-4 allies going up against monsters of varying sizes. The game sadly doesn’t introduce a whole lot of new bosses. Sure there are some mini-bosses, and about a dozen new bosses, but the game still feels lacking when it comes down to opponents. This is even more annoying when you take into account the fact that a lot of bosses from Kiwami didn’t make the cut.

Some of my favorite monsters from Kiwami, such as Metagnost and Mynx are noticeably absent. This is even more annoying when you realize that most of the cut bosses are available only as DLC. Worse still, they are only available in purchasable missions, and never appear in the open-world itself. While the game does introduce some new bosses, the variety just feels lacking.

What does add variety is the various weapons and ways to approach combat. With 11 different weapon types, it’s not hard to find something that will fit your play-style. The developers took this one step further and added in a sort of sub-weapon called a “Demon Hand”. The Demon Hand allows you to latch onto enemies and pull them towards you, or smash them into the ground. The Demon Hand can lead to some great combat tactics and feels like a fantastic addition to the game!

Another new feature added to combat is that you can now completely destroy the limbs of giant demons. While it’s true that in previous games you could chop the limbs off of an enemy, they would create a translucent duplicate that acts as a replacement. This meant that no matter how many limbs you cut off, they would simply grow back. However, with the Demon Hand, you can now completely eradicate the limbs of an enemy demon! It’s almost kind of heartbreaking to watch a giant demon spider flail about with no limbs. Then you remember that these demons have exterminated a fair portion of the human race, and all of that pity just disappears.

Last thing I want to talk about is the hub-town. This place is gigantic, and I love it! It’s got some unique looking buildings, but also houses a variety of fun and interesting NPCs. Activities from previous games are all available here, such as the Pool of Purity, or the various item shops available to player. There isn’t a whole lot for the player to do here, but the fact the player needs to use the services provided here gives you an excuse to return back to town when you can.

I generally felt the gameplay was a step up from the first two games. While combat remains mostly the same, I found the addition of things like the new weapon types and Demon Hands to be a welcome change. The open world introduced by this game feels vast and unique, despite the fact that it feels woefully underpopulated in terms of unique monsters. The miasma system can also be a nuisance at times, as well. Generally though, I felt that the game really shined in what it was trying to accomplish. It’s an open world RPG where you hunt monsters, and I feel it delivered on those elements despite its shortcomings.

Howl’s Moving Castle, eat your heart out!

Visual Stimuli

The game looks pretty good, primarily on Vita. I haven’t played the other versions, so I’m basing all my opinions off of this iteration. Honestly, everything looks pretty good and is well-designed. Faces can look a bit weird at times during CGI cut-scenes though. The Professor’s face in particular always looked strangely alien to me during these scenes, as if we weren’t meant to see her in such detail. I can’t really put my finger on it, she just gives off an uncanny valley look.

The music is decent, but it’s nothing that will really stick with you after playing the game. There’s nothing super heart-pounding when it comes to the soundtrack, nothing that really feels too grandiose. It’s good enough that its easy to listen to, but it’s more than likely none of it will get stuck in your head.

The game uses the Japanese audio track, and they do their job very well. I especially love Tokitsugu’s voice and how well his voice actor emotes. Oddly enough, I’m glad this game series doesn’t have English audio. It feels natural to have all of these Japanese characters speak in their native language. Characters are well designed and look nice, with lots of them varying wildly in appearance. There was never a character in the game that I felt looked exactly like the other. Likewise, I enjoyed the visual flair given to each piece of armor in the game. This allowed the armors to look very different from each other, and made them feel wholly unique.

The game runs pretty well most of the time. It caps at about 30 frames per second on the Vita, and runs smoothly with little lag. I have noticed several glitches or bugs in the game, but nothing game-breaking. A glitch that really annoyed me was one that made it so characters don’t appear right away. You have no idea how annoying it is to go to the blacksmith, only to have him mysteriously absent with no explanation.

While the game does have some performance issues here or there, it wasn’t anything that soured the mood too much. Designs were varied, even if some of them looked a bit awkward during CGI cut-scenes. All in all, I felt the production values for this game were great, despite the shortcomings. Koei and Omega Force will definitely have to polish the game up more for when they eventually come out with Toukiden 3.

 

In Conclusion

The game was good, and a definite improvement over its predecessors. It adds an open world, some new gameplay mechanics, as well as some elements to help crafting be less of a chore. However, it does have some graphical issues and bugs, a lack of new and original bosses, and a story that’s too short and unfocused. The big question is this: Is this game as sweet as syrup? I find it hard to say if it is or isn’t. It’s a great game, but it certainly has issues.

I enjoyed my time with the game and still play it, but I still have trouble saying that it was as sweet as syrup or not. I recommend this game to people who like Monster Hunter or games that play like it. I especially recommend this game to people who always wanted to play an open-world version of Monster Hunter. However, I feel like people who don’t play these kinds of games may not get as much enjoyment out of them. In short: Great game, but difficult to recommend.

Sweet As Syrup: Mass Effect 1 Review

One of my favorite genres of media are sci-fi, which is a little redundant to say. After all, isn’t there a stereotype about all nerds loving sci-fi? Regardless, it’s always been a unique subject for anyone to handle and it makes for some truly unique and memorable experiences in any form of media. However, I’ve always felt sci-fi was best depicted in videogame form. It’s really the only form of media that sends you into these bizarre sci-fi worlds, allowing you to live the life of an intrepid space adventurer, or a cosmic bounty hunter. Scenarios like this make sci-fi videogames very palatable indeed.

I think that’s why I gravitate towards Mass Effect so much, it really captures that feel of adventuring in space. It’s hard to find an RPG experience as solid and entertaining as the original Mass Effect. An open-world RPG that puts you in the cool-looking space armor of Commander Shepherd. Why do I love this game so much when compared to the other games in the series? Well, you’ll find out right here in this review!

Politics have never felt so… Alien.

Background Information

Mass Effect was a game developed by prolific game developer Bioware, and was released in 2007. Bioware’s idea behind the title was to create their own sci-fi universe and game to go along with it. Bioware had previously done work on Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, and wanted to try their hand at a completely original property. Thus, the Mass Effect series was born. Mass Effect 1 was released to critical acclaim and ended up selling half a million copies in the span of a few months. Since then, Mass Effect has become a staple of the company and is one of Bioware’s best-selling franchises.

Plot and Setting

Mass Effect is set in a sci-fi universe that draws a lot of elements from both the real-world, as well as cosmic horror. Sprinkle in some more generalized science-fiction elements, and you have the making of what is essentially a universe that both feels real and feels very alien. This mixture creates something wholly unique, giving the player access to various star systems to fully explore as well as many adventures to undertake. Mass Effect did what few games before it have managed to do: Make you feel like a true star-ship captain in a world rife with both exploration and danger.

The game itself puts you in the shoes of Commander Shepherd, a protagonist who the player can fully customize. Shepherd is about to become the first human “Spectre” ever, a proud member of the Federation and one of the special few who are given full access to travel the galaxy. Unfortunately, during a routine mission on Eden-Prime, everything goes horribly wrong. A Taurian Spectre ends up dead, robotic entities once thought gone return, and an entirely new threat rears its ugly head.

It is up to Shepherd to take up the mantle of Spectre, form a team of various alien species, and do battle against forces that threaten the galaxy. I’m oversimplifying the plot quite a bit, as I don’t want to spoil too much of it. Mass Effect 1 has one of the best RPG stories I’ve seen in a game, and something that truly feels unique. The most unique pull of this game is player choices.

The story and outcomes of certain side-quests and events hinge on player choice. While most major events will remain the same no matter the choice, certain choices during the game will affect how people view you. Characters in the game will make reference to your behavior in certain scenarios. For example, Admiral Hackett will give you a firm scolding if you decide to punch out the female reporter. Another example is that you’ll have access to a ton of extra side-quests if you decide to spare everyone when saving this one colony from a mind-controlling plant. It’s stuff like this that makes the player feel more like an important person in this fictional galaxy.

The story isn’t perfect though, it has a large amount of flaws that I’ve taken notice of. Dialogue scenes are usually fairly awkward, with characters barely moving around at all. It seems like almost all NPCs share 4 or 5 different animations, causing them to feel more like robots than aliens. Also, I was annoyed by how almost all allies you can get in the game are acquired on either Eden-Prime or The Citadel. This is kind of annoying, since it means you’ll get 5 out of 6 possible party members right out of the gate.

Most RPGs make it so you acquire your party over the course of the game. Giving the play almost all of them within the first two hours feels a bit like overload. After all, we were just introduced to this world and setting. Having all of these party members available to the player just feels like overload. It just seems excessive, is all. Another problem with the story is that it often sends you on missions that don’t feel relevant to the story at all. You’ll be sent on missions that feel more like filler than anything else, ones that feel like they don’t factor into the overarching narrative. This makes the plot feel rather padded at times, which is something I wasn’t a fan of.

Despite the fluff and somewhat awkward intro, the game has a pretty good plot overall. It’s entertaining enough to keep you invested in the 20-40 hours you’ll spend playing this game. Just be warned that the game’s story doesn’t have the best pacing and that it’s awkward character animations may stand in the way of you getting fully immersed in this world.

Gameplay

I’ll say this outright: Mass Effect 1 is one of the few games I’ve played that have managed to expertly weave elements of role-playing games with third-person shooters to a masterful degree. It ain’t perfect and it’s got a lot of problems, but it’s still a good mixture of what makes both genres great. Allow me to go into detail on what I mean. Mass Effect is an RPG by nature and a third-person shooter by design. Combat often takes place in locations that may seem generic, but manage to feel like locations you’d see in an actual sci-fi universe.

You are given full control over Shepherd during combat, at which point the game plays like a typical third-person shooter. You can take cover behind objects to avoid bullets, fire back at your enemies using a multitude of different fire-arms, or use special abilities unique to your class. That’s right, the game boasts over 6 classes with a focus being on weapons, technology, or Biotics. Weapons and tech are self-explanatory, while Biotics are basically this game’s equivalent of magic. You can use Biotic powers to fling enemies around, throw them high into the air, or even freeze them in place. I honestly enjoyed playing as Biotic so much that every time I played the game, I made sure I chose a class that had some kind of focus on it.

While in combat, you are also aided by two allies. Unfortunately, their AI is pretty dumb, so their only real purpose is soaking up the hits for you. You can bark orders at them using the radial menu, but even then that doesn’t stop them from being stupid beyond all reason. Very often, your allies will charge ahead and get completely curb-stomped before you can ever fire a bullet. The enemy AI tends to be better, but it depends more on the kind of opponents you’re facing. Robots are easy to take out, since they barely take cover and can easily be destroyed by tech-oriented classes. On the other hand, Krogans are like walking tanks that can easily wreck you if they get the chance.

One of the most annoying aspects of gameplay comes in the form of the game’s various side-quests. Several side-quests help flesh out the world quite a bit, including introducing and focusing on concepts and characters that won’t become important until the sequels. On the other hand, most side-quests are meaningless fetch quests or obnoxious collection quests. The game has way too many collection quests, most of which are scattered all over the galaxy. So, you either need to scour every planet for the relics and dog-tags you need, or read through a walkthrough. I somehow managed to complete the one on The Citadel where you have to find and scan all the Keepers, who are bunch of bug-like aliens. This took me somewhere close to 2 hours, just because of how scattered these little critters are.

Another major problem is with the open-world exploration this game touts. You see, you can beam down and land on over 20 planets in this game, and explore a fair bit of the planet’s surface. The problem is that most planets are vacant with an extreme absence of life, very little activities to do on said planet, and are almost always difficult to navigate. The exploration becomes a chore due to the way the Normandy controls. It seems to spaz about uncontrollably with a mere tilt of the game’s camera. As a result, it becomes an arduous task to even drive in a straight line. God help you if you’re on a planet like Nodacrux, which is full of mountains that are nearly impossible for the Mako to properly traverse.

The game’s RPG elements are definitely the shining point in the gameplay department. There are tons of different weapons, armor, and upgrades to collect. Sadly, the inventory system is extremely chaotic. Choosing skills for both you and your party members and upgrading them the way you want is extremely satisfying. Sadly, few RPGs nowadays incorporate classic tropes like this anymore.

I felt the combat and exploration to be a bit sub-standard, but I definitely dug what the game was trying to do with its RPG elements. Talking to people, roleplaying as a space captain, and adventuring my way across the galaxy felt satisfying. Too bad the satisfaction was also offset with a lot of frustration when it came to driving controls and AI programming. Regardless, this game did a fantastic job of drawing me in with its gameplay.

Visual Stimuli

The game looks great for its time and has aged remarkably well. Sure, character animations can be a bit stiff and repetitive, but the amazing voice acting brings their wooden emotions to life. This game boasts the voice-acting chops of veterans like Jennifer Hale, Keith David, Mark Meer, and even Lance Henrikson! Heck, even Seth Green sounded great as the wise-cracking Joker. That’s saying a lot coming from a guy who doesn’t enjoy Green’s work all that much.

The music is great and sounds very atmospheric. It manages to capture vibes of both sci-fi and horror, while at the same time managing to sound unique and futuristic. The effects are okay, but lack a bit of punch at times. Some of the sound effects really got on my nerves though, especially the one that sounds whenever you equip something. Still, some awkward sound effects here and they never really got in the way of me enjoying the game itself.

In Summation

Mass Effect 1 is a great game and classic, but not without some major problems. This comes in the form of both the game’s somewhat archaic design philosophy, coupled with a company’s first attempt at blending FPS and RPG game-play styles together. What we have is a well-constructed game, that lacks polish in the gameplay department. Couple that with awkward character animations, and a crappy inventory system, you get a game that normally would be a chore to play through.

Luckily though, Mass Effect wins you over with its charm and its unique take on the sci-fi genre. It doesn’t feel like just another game that’s trying to be Star Wars or Star Trek, it feels like a game that is trying to surpass it. It may lack polish and refinement, but it’s definitely classy enough to remain relevant, even years after its release. It’s not a perfect game, nor is it some kind of “Ultimate Super Special Masterpiece”.

It’s a great game with a solid team behind it, who poured their passion and soul into this product. That’s why I can say without a doubt that this game is as sweet as syrup. However, I recommend it more for people who are fans of RPGs. If you’re a third-person shooter guy, you probably won’t enjoy this game too much. There are much better alternative for FPS games out there, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an action RPG out there that is as enjoyable and well-written as this game.

Sweet As Syrup: Jade Empire Special Edition Review

When it comes to things involving martial arts, I’m more of a fan in passing. I like the idea of Kung Fu or Karate, but I very rarely seek out martial arts films or the like. It probably doesn’t help that there doesn’t seem to be a huge demand in media for this kind of genre. This is especially true in the realm of videogames. It’s often hard to find a martial arts game that is truly entertaining. I remember that god awful Bruce Lee: Legend of The Dragon game, which was absolutely atrocious in terms of both gameplay and presentation.

For the longest time, I never thought I’d find a martial arts game that topped Kung Fu on the Nintendo Entertainment System, that is until I discovered a somewhat obscure title called Jade Empire. Out of all the titles Bioware has put out, this one is probably the least known of them all. Sure, it sold well and has a fair bit of fans, but most people nowadays forgot it existed. I want to bring this game a bit more attention, in case we finally get that remake we so desire. So, let’s read our nunchuks and do a backwards flip into Jade Empire: Special Edition!

Background Information

Jade Empire is an action RPG that originally came out in 2005 for the X-Box, and was later ported to PC, as well as other consoles. The version I’m going to be looking at today is the PC version. Jade Empire was Bioware’s first ever foray into the action genre, touting a combat system that was just short of a beat-em-up. Bioware made sure to pay careful attention to the lore of Asian countries, such as China and Japan. Bioware even invented its own Chinese-styled dialect just for the game.

Jade Empire proved to due well financially, prompting the developers to create a “Special Edition” version of the game. This version included a new playable character, some new items, and a few new side-quests here or there. The guys behind this project have gone on record saying that they want to revisit this game’s universe, though no sequels to the first game have ever been made.

That awkward moment when you realize that the giant goat demon thing is actually a little girl. No, I’m serious.

Plot

Our story takes place in ancient China, in a small village. We take on the role of the young apprentice of Master Li, who is training our selected hero in various forms of martial arts. As it turns out though, you aren’t any normal apprentice. You are a Spirit Monk, a warrior who can wield unnatural and mystical forces, the likes of which most students can only dream of. One day, your village is attacked and everyone you have ever known is killed.

You set out on a journey to stop the various evil forces that plague the lands, as well as save your kidnapped master from the claws of the Lotus Assassins. You are joined by various allies along the way, including a mad inventor and a crafty thief. While the story starts out like typical martial arts fare, it quickly evolves into something more grandiose. It becomes a story that not only pays homage to martial arts films of the past, but also deconstructs certain elements of them.

Jade Empire’s is certainly nothing new or original, but it’s presented in such a way that it feels fresh. The characters that populate this world are well voice-acted and all have their own stories to tell. The allies you acquire work well off each other, giving this game some of the best character interactions I’ve seen in a mid-2000s RPG.

Not everything is sunshine and roses with the plot, however. Without spoiling too much, the last few chapters feel rushed. They aren’t as large as chapters 2 and 3, and are severely lacking in side content. On top of this, the two different moral alignments (Open Palm and Closed Fist) lose their nuances partway through. They go from being two opposing alignments with vague shades of grey, to being just “good” and evil”.

While I did thoroughly enjoy the story, I felt the plot fell off halfway through for me. It lost its nuance and ended with a cliche ending that overwrote your character’s alignment. Is it a terrible plot? Of course not! It’s probably one of the best plots that has ever been attached to a western RPG, at least in my opinion. I won’t lie in saying that it isn’t flawed, but I’ve seen Bioware games with endings that felt far more rushed.

Gameplay

It’s hard to discuss Jade Empire without comparing its combat to that of a fighting game, or beat-em-up. The game pits your character and one ally against various monsters and creatures, usually in a small location setup like an arena. Your character can perform various actions, including blocking, rolling, attacking, etc. Your character will often auto-target a single opponent, though you can always turn targeting off if you wish to smack groups of baddies at your leisure.

Combat is fast and dynamic, but not without its faults. For example, I felt that the forward flip move was way too overpowered. It’s a move that allows you to flip over an opponent’s head and smack them before they have time to turn around. It makes combat a joke, which is why I chose to only use it sparingly. What makes the combat in this game so special are the various combat styles you’ll acquire.

These can rang from summoning large rocks and spears of ice to toss at your opponent, to being able to transform into a giant toad demon. The large amount of styles always kept the combat from getting too boring for me. There was always a new style to experiment with, and this kept the combat varied. Certain styles are useless against certain enemies, so even the game itself enforces a varied play-style.

Combat takes place from the third person perspective, and puts you in the shoes of one of 6 (7, if you have the Special Edition) different characters. The characters themselves are very similar to one another, with the only differences being that each character has a slightly different focus. For example, one may have more chi or be a more balanced character. All 7 characters function more like classes than individual characters. They all follow the same plot, with only dialogue being different depending on the gender of the selected character.

While each character is essentially a blank slate, the allies they can acquire are not. These characters can range from a girl who can turn into a demon, a man who is proficient in the Drunken Master martial arts style, or just a big beefy man with two axes. Characters feel varied, and the way they can enhance both combat and gameplay give them even more variation. Not every ally acquired will be able to fight alongside you in combat, but most of them will provide a near endless supply of witty and entertaining banter.

The game’s main draw is its morality system. Instead of focusing on purely good and evil, it focuses on two different philosophies: Open Palm and Closed Fist. At first, these two alignments start as being two morally grey choices. While Open Palm and Closed Fist seem like your generic good and evil factions, there are hints in the game itself that it is not so. It ends up creating this unique feel of two factions that are neither good nor bad. As previous mentioned though, the game throws out this unique dynamic in the final chapters.

Despite this, these two factions can affect gameplay greatly. Certain styles and items can only be acquired if you pledge yourself fully to one side or another. This makes the game great for multiple breakthroughs, especially if you want to try those other styles out. On the subject of items, this game has a rather unique inventory system. Instead of being given different armor or weapons to equip, you are given a talisman instead. While journeying through this game, you will acquire many gems that can be slotted into this talisman. These gems will bestow many useful bonuses and stat increases onto your character.

I’m honestly on the fence about whether I like the talisman system or not. On one hand, it streamlines the complexities often associated with inventory systems in RPGs. On the other hand, it feels a little too simple. I felt less like some kind of mystical chosen one, and more like some kind of ancient warrior jeweler. I’m not used to inventories being stuffed with a single kind of item, it’s a bit off-putting. I guess that’s more a nitpick than anything else, but it still bothered me somewhat.

I felt that the gameplay was pretty entertaining, if a bit simple at times.  The game relied a bit too much on its action elements, which really need some refining. Its too easy to flip over an opponents back, or overpower them with some strange demonic form. Certain jewels felt a bit too powerful, especially due to the fact that you can them early on. On top of this, the game was a bit on the short side. I did most of the side quests, while at the same time beating the main story. Roughly, it took me about 19 hours to do most of the stuff the game had to offer. This is truly disappointing, as I found myself really getting involved in the world and its characters. Still, despite being short, it was a blast to play through!

Visual Stimuli

This game looks great for its time, but has not aged well. Character faces are not super expressive, and some cut-scenes can end up looking somewhat compressed on modern TVs. Voice-acting is stunning and features a variety of voice actors, all of which really help bring this world to life. The game also features a few celebrities voicing its cast, including Brian Doyle Murray! I was honestly surprised to hear his voice in this game, and it’s always a pleasure whenever he plays some over-the-top character in anything.

Voice acting is pretty great all around, but there are some sore spots here and there. For instance, any character who speaks in the game’s made-up Chinese language often use recycled lines. This makes it so it seems like the characters are saying the same three lines over and over again, despite the subtitles telling me otherwise. Its a not deal breaker, but it is very noticeable.

The graphics are fine and I found the game ran well on Windows 10, despite how old it was. Character designs are nice and varied, even if some of the side-characters look a bit generic. The background music in this game is fantastic! It really captures the feel of martial arts movies to a tee! The music always seems to fit whatever is going on in the game, and really adds a sense of majesty to its various events.

In Conclusion

Despite its somewhat dated visuals, its somewhat unbalanced combat, and its over-simplified inventory system, this game is still a lot of fun! This is definitely one of the best martial arts games ever made, I just wish they made more of them like this. The game expertly weaves the combat of beat-em-ups with that of an RPG, creating a truly mystical mixture.

Keep in mind though that this game has a weak ending, coupled with a disappointing second half. I still feel that this is a game that you can behind, despite how old it is. Just be warned that the game is still prone to crashing or not functioning well on modern PCs. If you track down the X-Box or X-Box 360 versions, I recommend playing those instead. With that, I can easily say that this game as sweet as syrup. It’s a game that manages to be both a good RPG, and a fun martial arts story. I haven’t played a game in the last 2 years that has made me smile as much as this has. That’s a feat that I can truly appreciate.

Sweet as Syrup: Dragon Ball Fusions Review

I know I’ve been talking about Dragon Ball an awful lot on this blog, but it’s a series I find myself being drawn back into by the newer games and shows. Even though I have voiced my distaste for the new Dragon Ball anime, I still found myself enjoying the show in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. However, a month ago I received this awesome gift from my good friend 92Days. It was a Dragon Ball game that I had never played before, but heard was awesome.

This was Dragon Ball Fusions, a game that had blown up Japan and did moderately well. I’m a huge fan of Dragon Ball and thought this would be the perfect game to write up a review on. I want to tackle other DB games in the future, such as the Legacy of Goku games, as well as the Origins series. For now, let’s start with one of the newest titles: Dragon Ball Fusions!

Background Information

Dragon Ball Fusions was a turn-based RPG for the 3DS family of consoles. It was released on August in Japan, and November in America. The game is has one of the highest number of playable characters in any Dragon Ball game ever made, with the exception of Dragon Ball Heroes and Dragon Ball: Dokkan Battle. The game sold very well in Japan, but failed to be successful in America due to an extreme lack of advertising.

Weird self-insert Dragon Ball characters: The Videogame

Plot

The game starts in an unknown year in Dragon World (The primary setting of the series) and focuses on two youths. These two young men are Tekka (Who’s appearance, name, and abilities are up to the player to choose) and a Saiyan named Pinich. You are best friends with Pinich, though the game never goes into detail on how you met or how you know him. You’re just kind of friends because… Reasons.

Anyway, the two of you summon Shenron in order to wish for the ultimate martial arts tournament. Unfortunately, the wish goes wrong and all of the various realities and timelines of the Dragon Ball universe become merged into one. This includes the original Dragon Ball show, Z, GT, Super, as well as fair amount of the movies. Your main character is partnered with four other characters: Pan, Kid Goku, Goten, and Trunks.

Of course, you’ll obtain hundreds of other characters, but these will be your starting teammates. They will also appear in all cutscenes, even if they aren’t in your party. The teammates themselves feel very developed for a kids game and the writers of this game pay very close attention to detail. A lot of the entertainment value of the plot comes with how the characters work off of each other. The interactions lead a lot of in-jokes that long-time fans will get a kick out of.

Having all these different versions of all these classic characters interacting with each other adds a fair bit of depth and comedy to the proceedings. However, I couldn’t help but feel the story felt a bit formulaic. I appreciated that there wasn’t any hamstrung morals shoved in my face, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that the plot felt underdeveloped. It’s simple and easy to follow, but it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. It’s almost too simplistic, yet remains entertaining throughout.

Still, the plot was enjoyable for it was. It was silly, nonsensical, and somewhat short, but had a lot of heart to it. The game developers put a lot of thought into making a living-breathing world that encapsulated all of the various Dragon Ball universes, and I’d say that they succeeded hands-down! However, the story is just the appetizer when it comes to what I look for in a game. Time to move on to the main course!

Gameplay

Dragon Ball Fusions is by nature an open-world strategy RPG, a turn-based RPG that focuses on you building a party and having them do battle with other teams. I’m not usually a fan of this king of RPG, however Dragon Ball Fusions managed to get me both interested and invested in its gameplay and world. The game’s combat is primarily focused on having teams of 5 fighting each other. You control a party of 5, as does the opponents you go up against.

Battles take place from an isometric view. You control each party member individually, as does your opponent. The speed of each individual character determines when their move comes up next, relative to their teammates and opponents. This means having a higher speed gives you a combat advantage when compared to your opponents. When it’s your turn, you are a given variety of options of how to proceed. You can do melee attacks, ki blasts, special attacks, or even unique abilities that are specific to the character you play as. This adds a lot of much needed variety to the characters and combat, and having the right blend of characters and special attacks can guarantee you a victory.

There are three different types to consider when choosing which characters to attack with: Speed, Power, and Technique. These different types are strong and weak against the others, in a sort of rock-paper-scissors formation. Sadly, you’ll rarely ever need to take the type advantages into consideration when playing the main game and most of its side-content. Usually, certain attacks and abilities are going to guarantee you victory no matter the type.

The combat sadly lacks balance. Certain moves can just decimate your opponent (such as Energy Burst or Full Power Kamehameha) and this can lead to a lot of enemies overpowering your team using cheap tactics. The unbalanced combat unfortunately makes the game’s online multiplayer a bit problematic as well. The lack of balance turns strategic online battles into games of “Who can turn into a Super Saiyan first?”. Online multiplayer also has a tendency to chug like crazy whenever you perform a Zenkai Attack or Ultra Fusion. This immense amount of lag causes online play to move at a snail’s pace.

The biggest draw of the game is the EX Fusion system. In Dragon Ball, fusions were usually only limited to certain characters. Fusions were always used sparingly and were almost entirely useless most of the time. EX Fusions are different, as they allow you to fuse all sorts of characters to together. Your custom main character can fuse with anyone, while all the other characters in the game are limited to fusing with specific characters. Fusing two characters together can generate a substantially more powerful character, but other times it can hold back a particularly strong character. It’s a pretty unique system that allows for flexibility, and allows you mix and match to your heart’s content.

The game has over 1000 characters to obtain, if you include EX fusions and Ultra Fusions. Ultra Fusions are simply limit breaks that involve you fusing all 5 of your party members together. While you can do some serious damage with this attack, it also leaves you wide open after you use it. Then there is the crux of this entire game: EX Fusions. This gives the game a lot of replay value, as you’ll find yourself collecting characters long after the credits have rolled. While I like the EX Fusion system, I won’t deny that it has some problems. For one thing, if you want to de-fuse a character, you have to go through the arduous task of reassigning the specials moves to each specific character. This slows down the EX Fusion process considerably, and often causes me to ignore the system entirely.

Another problem with EX Fusion is that some of the fusions look downright ugly, especially the ones involving the generic NPCs. You’re bound to create some freaky abominations while playing this game, which is kind of fun in a way. What isn’t fun is the fusion process itself. Some fusions are so ludicrously difficult to get, sometimes involving you jump through some rather large hoops. Some fusions require you beat the 100 man tournament, or complete all 16 quizzes at the quiz house. That’s not even bringing into account all the fusions that require characters have a specific special move to use. It’s so hard finding that right special move, especially when you really need it.

The game has a wide variety of special moves available to the player, a lot of which can vary up the gameplay a lot. These moves also act as equipment, with certain moves providing buffs to the character who equips it. Unfortunately, storing these moves and saving them for later is a terrible ordeal. The game provides a bank that can only hold 30 special moves, making it near impossible to build a massive library. There’s no way to expand this bank, so you are stuck with a special move bank that can barely hold any special moves.

One of my favorite elements of this game is the character customization. While the options you can choose for your characters are limited, you can still customize a fair bit of how he/she will look. You can also obtain different sets of clothing in game and then tweak their color to your heart’s content. You can also change your character’s appearance even more through EX Fusion, allowing your character to take on a whole heap of wacky appearances.

While the game does feature a wealth of content, the story mode is insanely short. Most of your gameplay experience will mostly involve the post-game content you’ll partake in after the main quest is done. In a way, this makes Dragon Ball Fusions a giant sandwich, with two thin bread slices of story content and the rest being the juicy slabs of meat that act as the game’s filler. I have no problem with this, I just wish the main quest was a bit longer.

Visual Stimuli

This game looks amazing! This game has some of the best graphics you’ll ever see in a 3DS game. It has stunning visuals, though lacks the 3D features often associated with a game on this console. The voice acting is pretty good, though I could never fully get into it. I never grew up with the Japanese voice acting team, so hearing them speak through my favorite Dragon Ball characters was a bit odd.

The soundtrack for this game was fantastic, truly a delight to my earbuds. Songs sounded like something you’d hear from the show and the game knew just when to use them at the right time. The game performs well, though the aforementioned online mode isn’t stable at all. It’s possible to get kicked out randomly before you can reach an opponent to fight.

Honestly, I think the presentation is the strongest part of this game. While I was iffy on the gameplay and plot, I felt that the way the game looked really won me over. Never before have I seen a game that was made for a handheld that filled me with such glee. Couple this with the amazing soundtrack and good voice-acting, and you definitely have a winning combo!

In Summation

I’m conflicted on this game. While it’s true that it has great graphics and a fun and unique combat system, it fell into the trap of being too repetitive and slow. Fights dragged out for far too long and the plot felt devoid of the creative energy that helped the power the series for so long. Despite this, I found the game to be a pleasure to play. Heck, I loved it so much that I’ve nearly 100% completed it, which is something I never do with RPGs!

It’s got a lot of heart to it and its immense amount of characters and quests managed to win me over. Despite its many flaws, I can definitely say that Dragon Ball Fusions is as sweet as syrup. I only really recommend this game to fans of strategy RPGs and Dragon Ball. I don’t think there’s enough here for fans who are unfamiliar with the franchise. Still, if you like the grindy nature of something like Dragon Quest mixed with the silliness of Dragon Ball, then this is something you need to play.

Sweet As Syrup: Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Review

I found that I had been drawn to a lot of Pokemon clones this year. It’s understandable, since Pokemon has an immense amount of fans. I could never get into any Pokemon game past Gold and Silver, so I eventually gave up on the series. Come 2016 and I find myself being drawn to games that play similarly to it. Dragon Ball Fusions, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, and today’s subject: Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2. While it’s true that this is an older game, I find that it has aged remarkably well.

This is one of the first Dragon Quest games I ever played and I found it immensely enthralling. It’s a fun and entertaining game that never really gets that dull. A game where you constantly obtain new monsters and get progressively stronger. On paper, that sounds exactly like Pokemon. However, it’s completely different in execution. Without further adieu, let’s get into this amazing game!

Background Information

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 was originally released in 2010 for the Nintendo DS. It was released a few years after the wildly successful game (at least in Japan) known as “Dragon Quest Monsters Joker”. This is a turn-based RPG that is semi-open-world in scope. Joker 2 is the fifth game in the Monsters series. Some may say that the gameplay for this title was ripped from Pokemon, but the Dragon Quest series actually pioneered the collectible monster genre with Dragon Quest V.

Geez, this cover is crowded! At least it’s better than the American box-art though…

Plot

Our story takes place in a world where monsters are tamed by humans and do battle with each other. In this universe, the Monster Scout Challenge is one of the greatest events known to man. People from all over join and try their luck at becoming the champion. This includes our nameless hero, the one you play as. As a young spiky-haired anime boy, you are driven by passion and desire in order to be the best. Sadly, you have no cash and our forced to sneak aboard a giant airship.

Unfortunately for our hero, he is caught and forced to serve as a deckhand. This couldn’t come at a worse time, as the ship is sudden and mysteriously damaged. It crash-lands on a nearby island, and it’s up to you to do all the hard work. Your shipmates are scattered, and it’s up to you to obtain power in order to save everyone and get off the island. While on this island you encounter strange and unexplained phenomenon. These include ghosts of people aren’t dead yet, a mysterious Monster Scout challenge ran by a giant mole, among many other oddities. It’s up to you to defeat these threats, solve these mysteries, and escape the island.

It sounds like a basic plot, and it kind of is, but I enjoyed it immensely! Ever since I was a young man, I have always loved plots that revolve around getting stranded on an island. It always felt like a good setting for an epic adventure to me. While I enjoyed the setting, I found the execution of the plot itself to be a bit underwhelming. The game sets up all these interesting mysteries for you, but never really solves them until the main game is almost over.

Things were kept overtly ambiguous for too long, which is kind of annoying. Even then, when you do get the answers, some of them feel a bit unsatisfactory. Then again, that’s just my way of thinking. I may over-analyzing the plot of a children’s videogame way too much. In short, I liked the game’s story even I felt it dragged its heels too much.

Wow, this is really bland! At least the Japanese one actually had stuff going on. Even if that cover art was over-stuffed.

Gameplay

The gameplay is where this title shines, as this is one of the most expertly crafted “monster collecting” games I ever played! The game seems pretty basic at first glance, and it pretty much is. However, there’s enough here to really set it apart from it’s competition. As the nameless hero of this story, it’s your job to journey across various locations and encounter many threats and challenges. Luckily, you are not alone! You can also acquire monster allies to help you. You are given one at the start, but can other monsters to aid you.

However, the scouting is a bit… Problematic. Engaging the “scout” ability is easy enough. All you do is click the button, and your monsters will attack. They will bash the monster individually and then you’ll be given a capture percentage. Unfortunately, the percentage seems to not matter a whole lot. Even when you get a high percentage, there is still a strong chance you won’t get the monster you are trying to acquire.

I’m not sure if certain monsters work better with scouting or not, but I tried using several different ones and got extremely random results. What makes scouting more annoying is that if you do it too often and fail, the monsters will get ticked off and enter berserk mode. This makes it impossible for you to catch the monster for the rest of the fight, leaving you no choice but to kill them.

Now, to be fair, you don’t need a lot of monsters to beat the game. Once you have the right combinations of team-members, then you’ll be able to take on most challenges. Some of the strongest monsters you’ll need can only be obtained through synthesis though. Synthesis is a system that allows you to fuse two different monsters, or two monsters of the same type together.

To fuse two monsters together, they need to be a certain level. This makes the game fairly grind-heavy, but that never really bothered me too much. Grinding also gave me a chance to gain more monsters, so it was a win-win for me. Synthesis can sometimes be a bit too grind-heavy. In order to get some of the more rare and powerful monsters, then you need to fuse a bunch of creatures together. This will require a lot of grinding and synthesizing, though you won’t have to worry about that until after you beat the main campaign.

One feature of the game I’d like to touch on is exploration. You see, each area you go to is different than the last. Some of these areas feel a bit too linear, especially when compared to the more vast open-worlds of past Dragon Quest games. There are still a fair bit of large open areas, but there are way too many narrow hallways when it comes to exploration. The way maps are set up remind me of Fable: A fair bit of exploration, mixed with a lot of linear paths. Still, it’s enjoyable for what it is.

Despite the claustrophobic nature of some maps, they still feel unique and teaming with life. The game incorporates various systems to help better flesh out it’s world. For example, it’s possible for the player to encounter bad weather in the game. This could come in the form of rain, snow, mist, or other natural occurrences. When these events happen in-game, they have a tendency to affect the ecosystem. For example, if it rains in the Doubtback, then the the log paths will become unstable. Elements like these shake up the gameplay and can cause unforeseen circumstances for your character.

There is also a day and night system implemented in the game. You have a chance of encountering enemies at night you’d normally never see during the day. Likewise, during the aforementioned bad weather, it’s possible to encounter even more unique monsters. This adds more variety and replay-value to these areas, which is much appreciated in my opinion.

The last thing I’d like to touch on is the combat itself. I thought since the combat was pretty basic, I’d save it for last. However, there is a lot to discuss when it comes to combat. Each party can have up to a max of three monsters each. This can change depending upon the sign of a monster. Each monster can come in one of three sizes: Regular, Large, and Gigantic. Regular monsters take up 1 slot in the part, Large take up 2, and Gigantic monsters take up the entire party.

Each monster takes turns attacking, much like any other Dragon Quest game. What makes the gameplay a bit unique is that your player character can use items without wasting a turn for your monsters. I really liked this, as it made so you didn’t have to waste turns desperately trying to have your monsters heal each other using items. The combat was pretty standard, but I still loved it! I got immense enjoyment out of the gameplay overall, despite its few hiccups.

Visual Stimuli

The game looks pretty good for a DS game. It came out late in the console’s lifespan, but still holds up remarkably well. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop the game from looking and feeling very dated. Characters don’t move their mouths when they and animations can appear a bit stiff at times. On top of this, the game purposefully uses bits of it plot in order to justify not making new character models. There are very few human character models in this game, which I feel hurts the entertainment value a bit. Then again, it is a deserted island, so it makes sense not to have fifty different looking people on it.

The soundtrack for this game is amazing. It boasts tracks that fit each individual area well, and even boasts it’s own unique battle theme. Despite being a Dragon Quest spinoff game, the main theme of the series isn’t heard until the end credits. Honestly, I really liked this addition, because it felt like a good composition to cap off this fantastic game with. I can say that without a doubt, the presentation is top-notch, despite a few minor problems.

In Summation

This game is amazing and you need to play it! If you have a 3DS and are interested in the Dragon Quest series, then this is a good game for you to play. However, I reccomend at least playing a few Dragon Quest games before this. The game is chock full of references and Easter Eggs relating to previous games, so having played previous games in the series will give you a better frame of reference.

The game certainly has problems: It’s grind-heavy, characters have stiff movements, the graphics look a bit dated, scouting seems to be broken and getting certain monsters is a major hassle. However, if you can look past all that, then this game amaze you. It’s a fun adventurous action RPG that doesn’t hold your hand too much.

It’s charming, fun, and entertaining and possesses a character all it’s own. It’s not a masterpiece of a videogame, but it’s got heart where it counts. That’s why I can definitely say that it is as sweet as syrup. It’s a game I reccomend to fans of Dragon Quest and Pokemon alike. It’s one of the best monster collection games I ever played and is a fun little game for people of all ages.

Sweet As Syrup: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Review

It’s been a while since I’ve tackled a Monster Hunter game! I’ve made it no secret that I love this series, even despite its faults and dated features. For as flawed of a game series as Monster Hunter can be at times, it does a lot of stuff right. It offers an action RPG that is both entertaining and enjoyable with a ton of unique and interesting monsters. As a result, its garnered an immensely large fanbase in Japan. The series didn’t start becoming big in America until just recently, though.

The Monster Hunter game I’d like to talk about today is the black-sheep of the Monster Hunter family: Monster Hunter 3 / 3 Ultimate. This was the game that a lot of hardcore MH fans had mixed feelings towards. This was justified, as the game tried to introduce new concepts and gameplay mechanics into the series, but weren’t implemented as well as they could have been. What we ended up with was a game with a lot of unique ideas and concepts, but fell flat in what it was trying. Let’s discuss this game and see if it is truly worthy of the Monster Hunter title or not!

If that dragon isn’t careful, he’s gonna end up being another armor piece for that guy.

Background Information

The third entry in the Monster Hunter series was initially released as “Monster Hunter Tri” for the Nintendo Wii in 2009 in Japan. It was later brought over to America the following year. The game did marginally well in terms of game review scores, but received mixed reactions from fans of the series. A few years later, Capcom would release Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U and 3DS, which was an expansion to the original. It added new monsters, new quests, new armor sets, along with various other things.

Monster Hunter 3 was originally marketed in America using a commercial campaign featuring a character called “Iron Beard McCullough”. I’ll be honest, I loved these commercials, as did a lot of other people. The commercials were charming, featuring a boisterous man with a Scottish accent who often brag about how real hunting paled in comparison to that featured in the game. The commercials were immensely enjoyable, and Capcom ended up making a whole mess of them. Sadly, the character is now mostly forgotten and Capcom didn’t even bother to bring his back for 3 Ultimate. Regardless, it remains one of my favorite commercial campaigns for any game.

Plot

Our starts in calm and serene fishing outpost, known as “Moga Village”. This small village works as hard as they can, gathering fish and expanding their trade. Unfortunately for them, their peace is shattered when a series of earthquakes strike the village. This causes chaos, which  urges the village to seek help. A Monster Hunter is sent to help solve the villages woes and destroy the monster causing the quakes, and this hero is you!

As with Monster Hunter 1 and 2, the story is pretty basic. Seems like there’s a bit more detail this time around, though. Parts of the plot didn’t make sense to me. Like, why not just move the village instead of killing giant possibly extinct sea monsters? I guess you can’t run a fishing village without wiping out a few dozen species of sea creatures! I can’t believe I’m actually over-analyzing the plot to a Monster Hunter game…

Gameplay

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate brings the MMO-esque action-RPG elements of its predecessors into the one place it has never been before: Underwater. Yes, you heard me right, this was the first (and so far only) Monster Hunter game to have underwater sections. The gameplay on land remains mostly the same. You pick from 1 of many weapons to bring out in into the field, you craft and bring your own armor with you, and you fill up your inventory with all kinds of items necessary for the quest. It’s your standard stuff for a game of this genre.

While fighting on land, you can gather materials in order craft new gear or supplementary items such as pitfall traps and paintballs. Using your own weapons in conjunction with items is a good way to succeed in this game. It’s not all about your weapons and armor, but also about what kind of tricks you bring to the party. Want to stop your enemy in its tracks so you can pound him? Catch him in a trap. Want to temporarily blind an enemy? Use a flash bomb. There are countless ways you can make use of the various items you have in your repertoire.

What I enjoyed most about Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was the increase of things you can do in the village. In other MH titles, the village was mostly where you crafted new gear, bought items, and occasionally spoke with a villager who had a yellow sign above their head. This game introduces things such as “Villager Requests”, which involve you doing various random tasks for villagers. This could in turn reward you with good items or bonuses.

You could also trade with the Argosy Captain, who can exchange rare or useful items with you. Some items in the game can only be obtained by trading with the captain, so be sure to do this often! In all honesty, you will probably not need a lot of these items. A lot of them are fairly superfluous, and most can’t be used in crafting. They are mostly useful in the farm, or for decorating your house with furnishings.

Furnishings are the worst addition to the whole village experience, in my opinion. Furnishings feel less like unique additions to your house, and more like pointless knickknacks that you place around the room. I know that furnishings are a small feature, and I shouldn’t be too annoyed about it, but I love room customization. Not only are the furnishings pointless baubles, but they can only be put in select locations in your house. There’s only three spots where you can put a furnishing and that’s it. Unsurprisingly, this feature was cut out from future games, probably due to the pointlessness of it. Even though I appreciate the attempt to had customization to the game, it just ended up feeling pointless.

Other things you can do in the village include the farm from previous games. This allows you to cultivate items such as mushrooms, bugs, and herbs, all items that will be useful to you in some way or other. In all honesty, I enjoy the farm, even if I don’t use it all that much. It’s fun talking to the various characters that populate the farm, and it adds a fair bit of unique extra activities to the game. It also feels relaxing, especially when compared to some of the intense boss battles in this game! You can do the aforementioned Villager Requests to improve the farm even more, adding additional accouterments to the farm and allowing you to gather items of high value.

You can also send out fleets to acquire even more items, such as fish. Probably the biggest addition to the village is an area known as “Moga Woods”. You can travel into Moga Woods and battle both monsters and collect various items. This grants you points, which can be used in the village as a secondary currency. Also, turning in hunt reports not only nets you points but also bonus items!

The improvements to the village are probably my favorite thing about this game! I think it’s time I stopped stalling though and discussed one of the weakest parts of this game: Underwater combat. While ground combat remains mostly the same, underwater combat changes up the dynamics of the game considerably. The basics of ground combat are there: You wield a big hefty weapon while wearing bulky armor (which surprisingly doesn’t weigh you down underwater) and have to do battle against a giant monster. Adding a third dimension to the mix is where things get a bit problematic.

You now have to account for controlling the camera in a 3D space while making sure you are close enough to the monster to deal damage to it. Normally, I find the camera to be a bit of a non-issue in the 3DS Monster Hunter titles. You have the automatic camera lock-on feature, which was introduced in this game. This allows you to focus on the boss and only the boss. One press is all you need to constantly track your prey no matter where you are on the map. Pressing the L button will snap your camera into a position where you can the boss instantly. Sure, it’s fairly useless when you are facing two bosses, but it’s still fairly handy.

Now, that doesn’t so bad, but things start to get shaky when you throw in underwater combat. You now have to adjust the camera constantly, while at the same time trying to be close enough to your arch-enemy to do damage. You also have to dodge underwater, which is difficult when you are facing a specific direction. I know that the camera is easier to control with the Circle Pad Pro, or with the New Nintendo 3DS. However, I don’t really believe in buying a new peripheral just to not suck at underwater combat. The battles proved easy enough to not feel too tedious regardless. Thankfully, you don’t have to be underwater for the whole fight. Enemies usually resurface multiple times, so underwater combat doesn’t ruin the game for me.

To be fair, I’m not against the idea of underwater combat. While its true that water levels in videogames usually get bad-raps, but the idea of going underwater in Monster Hunter is a fun concept. It’s like Endless Ocean meets Jurassic Park, it seems like a fun idea that could further flesh out the world. I love swimming around underwater in MH3U, because it’s fun to explore the watery depths. There’s some nice scenery underwater in the game, and I loved little touches like being able to spear sharks or catch fish swimming around in schools. It’s stuff like this that adds to the feel of this game, it feels unique when compared to its competition. The problem is that even though the underwater exploration is fun and unique, the combat isn’t.

The underwater aspect feels really hit-or-miss, but I think it shouldn’t have been removed from future titles. I have a strong feeling that if this feature was more polished, it could’ve been kept in or even made into its own game. The idea surrounding it is novel enough and all of the working elements are there, it just needed more polishing. Maybe have it so you only fight large monsters on ground, but you can adventure underwater for additional materials or to hunt smaller monsters. While I enjoy the improved vertical-combat in later games, I still miss this attempt at trying to bring underwater mechanics to the hunt.

Aside from the iffy underwater combat, I find that this game is pretty top-notch over all. The graphics are nice, and I love that they decreased the difficulty for beginners. Combat is far more approach, although there were some bosses in the game that I find to be fairly annoying. Duramboros is a good example of this, a monster with a sickeningly large amount of HP. The thing is massive too, and overall the fight against him felt boring.

Another thing I didn’t like was that they replaced Palico cats with the Cha-Chas. The Palicoes were great teammates, but I always found the Cha-Chas too annoying. It doesn’t help that you can’t really change their design, aside from what mask they wear. They lack creativity and adorableness when compared to the Palico cats from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

The last thing I want to touch on is multiplayer. As previously mentioned, this game was released on two different consoles: Wii U and 3DS. The Wii U version features online multiplayer, while the 3DS can sadly only do local. I only have the 3DS version, so I’ve only played a few matches with some friends who have it. Sucks that the 3DS one lacks online multiplayer, but the difficulty was approachable enough that I didn’t feel the need to get other players to help me.

Visual Stimuli

The game has fairly good graphics for a handheld game, though definitely lacks polish. Character models seem a bit dated, and several backgrounds seem to lack oomph. Underwater areas looked fantastic though, looking fairly gorgeous and having a good bit of detail to them. Armor and weapon designs are top-notch as usual, with a lot of them looking really awesome or really bizarre. Frame-rate seems to be fairly consistent, at least during my play-through

The music in this game is fantastic! It’s got the usual theme song, along with a ton of new themes. I especially love the calm serene village theme or the upbeat farm theme, this adds a lot to my enjoyment of these areas. This game lacks voice acting and populates its world with people who have a tendency to grunt and magically project text boxes. 3 Ultimate brings back the amazing CGI cutscenes, which have become a staple for the franchise at this point. I always enjoy the cutscenes present in the game, as they add a whole lot more depth and detail to the world. This game has fairly okay graphics, amazing sound, and beautiful cutscenes. While all those things are normal for this franchise at this point, I still find them to be an amazing thing, especially in this current game industry!

In Summation

Like a lot of people, I consider this game to be the black sheep of the series. It lacks the finesse that previous games brought to the table, as well as lacking the difficulty previous games had popularized. Still, its a far more approachable game due to its lacking difficulty and has a lot of heart to it. The underwater sections are so-so, but its still fun to adventure through the depths for precious minerals and rare fish.

The game brings the amazing music and gorgeous cutscenes of previous games, while also adding new features like more stuff to do in the village as well as a unique hub area for multiplayer. The story to this game is bare bones, but this is pretty par for the course when it comes to Monster Hunter. Despite some forgettable or downright obnoxious boss battles and forgettable underwater combat, the game is still a fair bit of fun.

It lacks the polish that previous MH titles had, but it’s still fairly entertaining. This game is as sweet as syrup, but difficult to reccomend. There are so many other better Monster Hunter games out there to play, and I feel that this one is definitely one of the most lacking entries. There’s elements to enjoy, but also a lot of stuff that feels forgettable. While it provided a good basis for later entries, it just failed to impress as much as the other games did.

Sweet As Syrup: Costume Quest Review

You know, Halloween is right around the corner. You got free candy, cartoon-ish depictions of characters you would normally not find adorable, and just a general good atmosphere for children to spend time with their parents. And by that definition, it sounds like a really good time. So, that’s why I chose this hallowed month of October to talk about a Halloween-themed game. Why not, right? So, without further adieu I bring you the  ultimate Halloween classic: Costume Quest.

Background Information

Costume Quest came into existence when its development team “Double Fine” held events for their workers. These events were known as “Amnesia Fortnights” and involved the developers splitting into several smaller groups to work on prototype for potential new games. This was due to the developers being unsure of their developer, and need backup plan in case their upcoming project “Brutal Legend” failed. So, the developers came up with several concepts for new game franchises.

One such concept was Costume Quest, a Halloween-themed game that ended up being released in 2010. This game was a turn-based RPG with simple mechanics aimed towards not only kids, but people of all ages! The game was re-released with an added expansion pack later which was labelled “Grubbins On Ice”. A sequel was released in 2014, several years after the original.

Plot

It’s Halloween night and two young siblings known as “Wren” and “Reynold” are about to go trick-or-treating. Their family has moved to a new town and the twins have yet to make any friends. In order to keep the pair in line on this tremendously important day, Unfortunately, bizarre goblin-like creatures known as “Grubbins”, have started stealing all the candy in town. Not only that, but they’ve also stolen your sibling, who is a clad in a candy-corn costume. It’s up  to you to stop the Grubbins, save your sibling, and defeat the evil mysterious witch known as Dorsilla.

The plot is pretty basic, and brings to mind a lot of old Saturday morning cartoons. The characters don’t receive that much development throughout the game. Despite this, the dialogue for each character is extremely entertaining and well-written. I was grinning from ear-to-ear the first time I played through this entire game! Despite the game’s basic plot, it has a lot of heart put into it. It’s not a story that will rock your world, but it will definitely make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Gameplay

Much like the plot, the gameplay is pretty basic. The game itself is a turn-based RPG and it requires you taking turns to attack, defend, or heal during a battle. You can also do special attacks as well, which do extra damage or cause special effects such as healing you or buffing your entire party. You can also equip stamps to your party, which provide extra boosts in combat. Your entire party has the special and unexplained ability to turn into whatever costume you’re wearing, which is great for party customization! You’ll gain various costumes throughout your playthrough, each with their own pros and cons.

Despite the amount of costumes you can use, I found some of them to be pretty worthless. One such costume was the Black Cat costume, which didn’t really offer that much bonuses, despite the fact that you need to complete most of the game to get it. While the combat itself is an RPG, the gameplay outside of the combat is strictly an adventure game. You adventure around while attempting to solve area puzzles and trying to find as many costume pieces as possible. Of course, you also trick or treat in this game. Candy acts as a currency in this game, which allows you to buy stronger battle stamps.

Aside from the final bosses, I never found the combat all that difficult. The puzzles were never too intricate and I never found myself getting stuck for too long. On top of this, the game is only about 6-8 hours long, although the free-expansion included with the game adds an extra 1-2 hours. On top of this, it doesn’t take too long to 100% complete the game. This lack of content and difficulty may be a turnoff for some folk. This game was made with children in mind, and it’s short length is there for people so they can complete it in a day or two. Still, don’t let the simplistic combat and gameplay turn you off. Costume Quest is fun despite its lack of difficulty and length.

Yes, you can become any of those big giant battle creatures in the back. Halloween games sure are a magic time…

Visual Stimuli

The game boasts cartoon-y 3D graphics, which look really nice. Each character has a simplistic design that becomes far more detail during combat. Each costume has its own unique battle-form, you will never encounter any palette-swaps here. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the enemies which re-use a lot of their designs for later enemies. The game has a pretty good soundtrack as well. It’s nothing spectacular, but it sounds good enough and definitely sets the mood for virtual trick-or-treating.

The controls I found to be pretty basic, much like a lot of the game. If you’re like me and playing this on PC, make sure to turn sticky keys off, as the game asks you to mash the ctrl key a lot. The game features a lot of speech bubbles as opposed to having actual voice-actors. I can understand that they were cutting costs with this, but I feel like having actual voice actors would’ve brought a bit more charm to the character’s dialogue. This isn’t an insult against the game, as I found the production values to be pretty top-notch. It’s rare to find a game that is both charming and nice to look at in this day and age!

In Summation

This game is simple, yet entertaining. It’s mechanics are easy to grasp, but still fun to use. Sure, while the game is short and at times kind of repetitive, it makes for it with heart. I reccomend getting this game on sale, as opposed to full price though. I don’t think it’s worth the 11 dollar price tag. I got it for about 2 bucks, and that’s how much I think one should pay for this game. No more than five dollars, at the most. Still, if you can get it, you’ll definitely have a great time with it. That’s why I can say that this game is definitely as sweet as syrup. Just keep in mind that what you getting is not very long, doesn’t offer a lot of replay value, and is not worth full price. It’s worth getting on sale definitely though, especially if you love Tim Schafer’s comedy writing and the Halloween atmosphere.

Sweet As Syrup: God Eater Resurrection Review

I’m not usually the kind of guy to buy HD remakes of videogames. Sure, it’s always great having an improved version of a game you love, but most remakes feel unnecessary. That being said, this year I have bought not 1, but 2 remakes! One of them is the Odin Sphere remake (Which I reviewed a few months back) and the other is God Eater Resurrection. God Eater Resurrection is a remake of the original God Eater and it’s expansion pack. It includes the original two story arcs, as well as a brand new third one! Let’s not waste any time and get right into this game.

Background Information

The original God Eater came out in 2010, with the expansion / remake coming out the same year. This version was labeled as “God Eater Burst”, but was renamed “Gods Eater Burst” for its release outside Japan. The game was developed by Shift, who also developed the oft-forgotten game “Freedom Wars”. Unlike Freedom Wars, God Eater took off as a franchise and a console-seller for both PSP and Vita in Japan.

In 2015, the game was remade yet again under the title “God Eater: Resurrection”. This game expands on the original and adds new story material, new weapons, improved graphics, all new mechanics, and they even added online functionality for multiplayer matches! The game also replaces some of its old voice actors, which I’ll cover in more detail later in this review.

Would you believe me if I told you that this wasn’t the largest monster in the game?

Plot

Humanity is on the verge of extinction, and the few remaining humans struggle to survive. In this world, giant ever-evolving mutant monsters known only as “Aragami” have devoured most of the populace. You play as a “New-Type God Eater” and must kill and devour the opposing Aragami, who threaten all of mankind. Along the way you meet various colorful characters such as the goofy Kota, the mysterious loner Soma, the headstrong girl with issues Alisa, and the cool badass leader Lindow. Together, you fight back the mutant creatures that plague the land and stop them from destroying “Fenrir HQ”, the last bastion of hope against the dark denizens that plague the world.

Unfortunately, those aren’t the only threats our heroes face. This game’s three arcs has you facing off against evil angelic government officials, constantly-evolving monsters, and some giant lizard thing named after a murderous cannibal from a really good movie. Seriously though, I enjoyed the game’s story… Well, the first arc at least. The first arc had a good amount of cut-scenes that gave you a fairly entertaining story. Unfortunately, the second arc is terrible. Cut-scenes are spaced out way too much and sandwiched in-between dozens upon dozens of unrelated side-missions. While what little of the story we get in the second arc is entertaining, it’s still disappointing when compared to the first. I haven’t gotten far into the third arc at the time of writing this though, so I can’t say if it improves or not.

Gameplay

Gameplay is God Eater’s bread and butter, it’s one of the reasons I came back to this series. The game plays similar to Monster Hunter, in that you travel out into a rather large area teeming with monsters. You gain new items by killing monsters, at which point you can make new gear. You rinse and repeat this process many times. However, the similarities between this and Monster Hunter end here, since God Eater is a completely different beast altogether.

God is an action RPG, but it also blends in elements of third-person shooters. In this game, you have use of a weapon called a God Arc. You can craft new melee weapons, shields, and guns to attach to your God Arc. The weapons have different attributes and some can do elemental damage. One of the best things about the God Arc is the ability to bite enemy monsters mid-combat, allowing you to use their attacks against them. This ability brings to mind those old Megaman games, which implemented a similar system. Of course, you have several other kinds of ammunition you can use.

Now, if you think none of the ammunition available is good enough to use, you have to see the bullet customization feature! I’ll be honest, back in 2010, this was one of the reasons I bought the game. You can customize your bullets to form into specific shapes, like letters of the alphabet or certain symbols. This allows for some great customization! It’s fun to tinker around with this system and create wholly unique bullets. Of course, some of the more insane bullets require a lot more stamina than regular bullets, which makes using them a bit less desirable at times.

Combat in the game is similar to Monster Hunter, but has several differences. For example, you can jump in this game, unlike Monster Hunter. You can jump onto higher services and vantage points, which adds a lot to the combat. This verticality can lead to a lot of really good strategies when it comes to taking on enemies. Not only that, but the game adds “Predator Styles” to the mix. These Predator Styles allow you to do special attacks that bite the enemy. These can be done while in the air, on the ground, or even while dashing. Honestly, the Predator Styles are probably my favorite part of the game! Being able to leap towards a flying monster and munch on them in mid-air never stops being satisfying! You can also edit predator styles, adding small bonuses which can change the kind of bonuses you get from biting monsters.

Another feature of the game is its crafting system. Compared to Monster Hunter and a lot of its competitors, God Eater manages to do away a fair bit with the grinding. You can now exchange certain items for extra materials, making it easier to upgrade certain pieces of gear. While there is a bit of grinding involved in getting new gear, it’s nowhere near as tedious as it was in the original version of this game. This gives the game a much more welcoming feeling and I really appreciate it!

One of the weaker parts of the game comes with its online multiplayer. I felt this to be a bit lacking. Sure, you can online with buddies to complete missions, but I never really felt a strong urge to do so. A lot of the missions are pretty approachable in difficulty, so I never really felt the need to get online help unless I was really stuck on something. Speaking of difficulty, I found that there were some tweaks made in this version that make it superior to the original in that regard. For example, infinite revivals are no longer thing, you are now only allowed to be revived a finite number of time.

While there is a lot I like about the game, it has still has a fair bit of weaknesses in terms of gameplay. For example, Fenrir HQ is still pretty barren. There’s not a lot of people to talk to, it feels cramped and confined, and there aren’t a lot of interesting areas inside this HQ to visit. Compare this to Monster Hunter, where you are able to talk to several people in town, some of which can give you side-missions or helpful advice.

This game does have several issues that its competitors also possess, such as its repetitive nature and lack of boss variety early on. However, much like those games, if you stick with this long enough then you’ll find yourself fighting it out with new and far more entertaining bosses in no time! One big problem I noticed with this game was its lack of new bosses early on. Aside from one large mini-boss, there were no new addictions until the third story-arc. By then, I had already burned through most of the pre-existing content. I felt that the new bosses should have been peppered in with the old levels, to give it better variety.

That being said, I can say that the gameplay here is fairly entertaining. It’s got a bit of a slow start, but it does ramp up in terms of entertainment value the deeper you get. Couple that with a strong customization feature for both your character and weapon, along with a three-arc campaign that’ll take you a fairly long time, and you have something really worth your cash.

Visual Stimuli

I played the PS Vita version of this game and I must say that it looks fantastic! Character models have been updated considerably, as has most of the in-game graphics. The various characters populating this world have more detailed outfits, yet still keep the original designs that made them like-able in the first place. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the voice-acting.

A lot of the original voice-cast returns and brings with them great performances, but certain characters were re-cast. Due to this re-casting, the game loses a lot of its original charm. Dr. Paylor Sakaki is a good example of this. He went from having this rather subdued way of speaking to sounding like the anime equivalent of the Nutty Professor. Others are a lot more forgiveable, such as Johannes new voice-actor, who is pretty much spot-on.

The game functions pretty well, and doesn’t really lag that much. If there’s anything about the design that falters, it’s gotta be the inclusion of characters talking during missions. Now, this feature is kind of double-edged sword. Having the characters talk on missions alleviates some of the isolation you may feel while doing these missions. Having a vocal cast allows for characters to bounce off each other in the midst of combat. Unfortunately, this particular feature felt poor implemented.

Characters will talk too much, WAY too much. And most times, it’s not even comments that relate to the game or give you hints. It feels a lot like unscripted babbling, almost like a stand-up comedy act. Characters will screech their heads off when your health dips too low, and your character will constantly muse about nearly dying every time he gets his skull bashed in. It got annoying, to the point where I was healing myself constant just so the peanut gallery would stop throwing a hissy-fit about it.

To be fair, I could have muted the game, but I loved the soundtrack way too much to do that. I found a lot of battle tracks to be fair entertaining overall, some of them being my all-time favorite videogame songs. I also really enjoy the game’s theme song, as well as the really good animation used for its intro. I just wish that little opening theme song didn’t spoil so much of the game! Regardless, I felt the production values behind this game were a little hit and miss.

In Summation

This is a game that is a lot like its competition. It’s a hack-and-slash with repetitive gameplay, a story that feels like its stretched too thinly, and a crafting system that requires constant gathering of various items. Despite this, it’s still a pretty fun game! It’s god some nice graphics for a Vita game, pretty good voice-acting, really good combat, and a really unique bullet customization feature.

Sure, it may feel like the game is a bit too padded, but the story is enjoyable for what it is. Missions never really feel too long and the ten different weapons pack enough variety so that it doesn’t feel too stale. Best of all, this game is only 20 bucks! Seriously, it’s dirt-cheap if you get it digitally on Vita. This is something I can definitely reccomend! That’s why I can say that without a doubt, this game is as sweet as syrup! Just please keep in mind that this genre of game is not for everybody. It requires a lot of time to get through the main-quest as well as get the best gear. Still, it’s something that I think is worth trying, due to its interesting setting, cool monster designs, and fun gameplay. If you have a Vita, PS3, or PS4 and enough cash, definitely give this game a shot!