Yearly Archives: 2018

Battletech Release Date Revealed with New Story Trailer

Developed by Harebrained Schemes (of Shadowrun Returns fame) and published by Paradox, Battletech returns in April 2018. On April 24th, the tactical turn-based ‘Mech combat returns, as you play a commander of a mercenary company on the edge of civilized space. Make contracts, negotiate, and tackle said contracts while keeping your Mechwarriors happy and your operation a prosperous one. The game’s story features the player falling in with the deposed ruler of a noble house and, fighting for either coin or cause, becoming a player in her bid to retake her throne. Battletech will be available for PC and Mac, for 39.99. Linux will be added post-launch.

“The entire team at Harebrained Schemes has been eagerly awaiting the day we deliver BATTLETECH to long time fans and introduce the joy of tactical ‘Mech combat and deadly interstellar politics to new ones,” said Jordan Weisman, CEO of Harebrained Schemes and creator the MechWarrior and BATTLETECH universe. “We’re massively thankful to our Kickstarter backers and fans of the MechWarrior legacy. Without their patience, dedication and support, this modern turn-based BATTLETECH wouldn’t soon be launching on PC and Mac.”

Atelier Lydie & Suelle – The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings Launch Trailer

The final part of the Atelier Mysterious trilogy launches today with Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings. It’s available on Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and digitally on Steam. An all-new, heart-warming adventure awaits. It also features re-appearances of protagonists from the previous Mysterious titles, Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis, who return a bit more experienced to go along with this unforgettable tale.

In Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings players are able to synthesize items while in a battle for immediate use through Battle Mix and Extra Mix, with each opening up a range of new strategic options. Battle Mix focuses on crafting special Battle Recipes that enhance weaponry or cause a drastic change in the battlefield conditions to give the players a tactical advantage. Extra Mix utilizes pre-synthesized items and allows the player to add new characteristics in ways which were previously impossible. Extra Mix allows for the creation of the Enormous Bomb, which has a wider explosive radius and deals a much heavier blow then a normal bomb. Alchemy is your friend, so experimenting with various ingredients can lead to unique outcomes, with plenty of different items to match each player’s gameplay style.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus Gameplay & Enemy Revealed

Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus was revealed at GDC, showing off some gameplay for the upcoming tactical turn-based game. The publisher, in conjunction with Bulwark Studios also revealed the foes the Adeptus Mechanicus will do battle with: The skeletal Necron, as their thirst for technology and knowledge intensifies on the planet Silva Tenebris. In the first gameplay to be shown since its announcement last month, members of the press were shown how players will select their team of Tech-Priests on the Ark Mechanicus battleship ‘Caestus Metalican’ and upgrade them with a wide array of augments before embarking on their chosen mission.

Players will come up against a variety of Necron forces in Mechanicus. Remorseless Necron Warriors, ghoulish Flayed Ones and the gauss cannon wielding Immortals will be just a few of those on display at GDC who stand in the way of an Adeptus Mechanicus victory. Fight back using high-tech Ad-Mech weaponry such as the Valkite Blaster and Eradication Ray or use Servo Skulls, Servitors or Skitarii to join you in battle and gain the tactical edge.

The MMO Bookclub Launches Unique Lootbox System

Dragon of Lostmauth - Neverwinter - Killing the Dragon was one of the achievements required to earn a lootbox

The MMO Bookclub is a community of over 1400 people who love MMOs and who vote on which MMO to play together so that nobody has to feel like they’re entering into a game with no friends. It’s a casual, fun group of people who vote to play a new game every month, or to extend the current game by a month and run/talk about content together. It’s a really cool concept, and they’ve taken it to the next level ahead of their next vote (their 11th vote, making the community almost a year old), and that’s to add Lootboxes! They have a custom-made bot, designed for the Bookclub community, that unlocks the lootboxes that players have earned. Players can earn free lootboxes with actual cash value, just by playing games with the community and picking up achievements set at the start of every month. They want to reward their audience/friends for succeeding, and can get common, uncommon, rare, or legendary prizes.

“Our players have been amazingly generous,” said Kraken, one of the community leaders of the Bookclub. “They’ve donated a ton of game keys for awesome games like Dark Souls 3, Shadowrun and STALKER, to name just a few of those I’ve seen.

Though keys aren’t the only prizes, such as the MMO Bookclub hoodie, and to celebrate this, they’re giving away free lootboxes to players who join the discord and react to the announcement. The next vote is for: Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, EVE Online, Rift, Blade & Soul, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Elder Scrolls Online and Black Desert Online. If you were interested in playing any of these/do play them but want to play with a fun group of people, you would do well to join their Discord (seen here) and get a lootbox, then cast your vote!

Retro Review: Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (GBA)

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

tacticsogrelodis_gbabox

The Ogre Battle franchise has not gotten quite enough love in my opinion. An excellent tactical/strategy RPG series with a compelling story, full of twists and turns, deserves more games than it received. The franchise has five games within it (and a remake) and one of these titles never made it to American shores: Legend of Ogre Battle Gaiden: Prince of Zenobia. Maybe there’s a fan-translation out there, but it’s never quite the same, is it? Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is the last game in the franchise to not be a remake, and how unfortunate that it was on the GBA. Not to say the GBA was bad, but that we’ve simply been without more Ogre Battle since, except the “Let us Cling Together” remake on the PSP. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is also a side story (or Gaiden) and takes place before the events of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber.

Retro Review - Tactics Ogre - 2

Just a kid? Well, you’re probably right.

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a huge takeaway from Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, even though they are both tactical RPGs. In Ogre Battle, you had no control over what your units did, except in where you placed them in the party (front and back row determines what you do). Tactics Ogre, however, is in the style of the Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s an isometric, squad-based RPG, where you have a variety characters (units) and put together a team to tackle a variety of tactical maps. Your first characters are decided based on a series of Tarot related questions (as in pretty much every other Ogre game), though you can recruit many more. It had a whole host of classes, from the traditional fantasy RPG ones (Knight, Wizard, Cleric) to the more “Ogre Battle” styled classes (Dragon, Dragon Tamer, Siren, Valkyrie, Witch). Characters had an alignment and three stats (the alignment system is another staple of the franchise) and the cooler, more “powerful” classes various requirements. Swordmaster requiring 95 STR, 111 AGI, the Book of Initiation Emblem, and must be male. This game was truly a technical marvel of the Gameboy Advance.

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Surrender, or die in obscurity! Wait, wrong game.

The story follows Alphonse Loeher, the titular “Knight of Lodis”, who was sent to look into military activity into one of the towns in Ovis. As the story goes on, Alphonse learns there is more to his order than meets the eye, and as in all good tactical fantasy games, there’s a deep conspiracy to unravel: The conspiracy behind the “holy spear”. The actual gameplay is standard tactical RPG fare: You move on a grid, position yourself and use attacks/abilities appropriately. Characters are attuned to elements and that also matters. This game has several interesting game mechanics like the element attunement system, like a biorhythm system that is based around a hidden Luck stat. That stat is in flux, sort of like a sine graph. From the moment a character comes into the game, that graph is moving and is far too complicated for me to go into today. I don’t truthfully know the ins and outs of it, because I’m bad at that sort of thing. But I did find a handy guide to help explain it, here. How Quest/Atlus packed so much onto a Gameboy Advance cart is really beyond me.

Retro Review - Tactics Ogre - 5

All he wanted were some Tic-Tacs…

Height values, weather values, these all factor into combat and players have to be aware of a lot going into each battle. It features class changing (as all good tactics games do), but sometimes you have to also perform specific actions or deeds in battle, so this is a game that likely will require a fair amount of research to get the most out of your team. That’s not a deterrent for me personally, I like to learn as much as I can about creating a fun, but useful team in a tactical RPG. This also released in May of 2002, so it’s not entirely unlikely to be able to do some internet searching and learn more about the game. It’s easier than ever now, but unfortunately, Tactics Ogre did not sell so well in America. Maybe they should have called it “Final Fantasy Tactics Gaiden”? Ogre Battle is another series I think that could have done better than it did with some smart marketing and a bigger company behind it at first (though I have no bad things to say about Quest Corporation).

You Get What You Give: 4/5

Retro Review - Tactics Ogre - 4

Yay, Deneb!

I’m sincerely disappointed this game did not do better than it did. The Tactics Ogre franchise in general deserves better. But this game is a min-maxers dream. You have so, so, so much control over the growth of your characters, what they can do, what you want them to do. You have fun, challenging battles, hidden characters, incredibly cool classes, and it takes place in the Ogre Battle universe, so you know some stuff is going to go down. It scored high when it initially debuted, and it’s not hard to see why. When you compare this to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (which starts off with that oh-so-stupid snowball fight), Tactics Ogre stands head-and-shoulders above any of its contemporaries on the mobile platforms at the time. It was truly the superior tactical RPG in every way. Its color palette was crisp and clean, and the developers seemed to know the limitations of the handheld and worked within it to create something beautiful. The story kept me engaged, the deep character/class system held the strategist in me in thrall. One of the things that keeps me coming back to a Tactical RPG is the various ways you can make a party, trying other alignments/systems/class combinations to make something new and exciting. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis does not disappoint. The only thing it really needed was the ability to rotate the screen, otherwise a lot of the maps kind of feel the same.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Review (PC)

By Jaime Skelton (MissyS), Editor-in-Chief

I was never an arcade kid. Growing up poor, I was lucky enough to have a console or computer to game with, but my father was always making sure I had video games in my life. While I had plenty of experience with Tetris (and more with Dr. Mario), Puyo Puyo was something I didn’t encounter until my college days, when I had the luxury of haunting nickelcades on the weekends. Still, I wasn’t daunted when I installed Puyo Puyo Tetris. How hard can it be to learn a puzzle arcade game?

The sacchirine, cheerful, bright welcome screen of Puyo Puyo Tetris betrayed me. The game is everything it should be: energetic, easy to play, true to its two founding titles while expanding into the modern gaming society of online multiplayer. Yet every time I played, I ended up walking away a little more bruised in my ego than before.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

Falling From The Sky

Statistically, you probably know what Tetris or Puyo Puyo are if you’re reading this review, but let’s not discriminate. Tetris is a classic puzzle video game, in which blocks (tetriminos) fall from the top of the screen into a rectangular playing field. These pieces can be moved and rotated before they are finally placed at the bottom of the field, stacking on top of each other. The goal is to keep the board from filling up (causing a game over) by clearing full lines filled with tetriminos. Puyo Puyo is a similar puzzle video game, in which blobs (puyos) fall from the top of the screen; however, they must be cleared by grouping those of similar colors in groups of four or more.

Of course, if both these games were just that simple, they’d not have captured gamers’ attention for decades. Both games feature multi-player modes, in which clearing lines on your side sends ‘garbage’ to the other side – a tactical ambush which can harry your opponent to the brink of defeat. Over the years, the franchises have continued to develop, adding various challenge modes and small improvements that keep the spirit of the original games in tact.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

Luckily, Puyo Puyo Tetris comes with a series of tutorials on both Tetris and Puyo Puyo if you’ve never played, or are just rusty. A third tutorial for Puyo Tetris Fusion is also available. This mode has puyos and tetriminos falling into the same field, with their respective clear requirements; however, the mode also benefits from Tetris’ ability to “hold” a block, as well as the ability of tetriminos to smash puyos below them.

These tutorials are pretty fair and great for beginners, but they are also slow and lack interactivity. “Hands on” learning would fair much better for these games, especially as Puyo Puyo requires a pattern-building mindset that isn’t taught as well as it could be. Those experienced in Puyo Puyo might agree with me that teaching the 3-1 Stairs pattern first may be traditional, yet fails to compensate for other building patterns necessary when a puyo falls that doesn’t fit the mold.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

Let’s Go on an Adventure!

Puyo Puyo Tetris offers multiple modes, starting with the single player story campaign “Adventure.” Adventure is an alternation of story cut-scenes and specific game challenges, spread out over the course of multiple acts and stages. Each stage also has a three star ranking as often found in modern mobile puzzle games, encouraging players to ‘master’ the stage by reaching three stars.

The story itself revolves around two casts of characters: Ringo and friends, who come from the Puyo Puyo World, and Captain Tee and friends, who come from the Tetris World. Someone out there, meanwhile, wants to see these two worlds merge into one – causing puyos and tetriminos to appear in other worlds! How will our crazy cast of heroes solve such a dilemma?

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

By having Puyo Puyo and Tetris battles, of course! In the early stages, players are challenged to simple Tetris or Puyo Puyo versus battles. Later stages will begin to complicate things by having Puyo vs. Tetris battles, Swap battles (in which players have two boards, one for each game, that swap out every 30 seconds), Big Bang challenge modes (pictured above), and more.

Eventually players will face the titular Puyo Tetris Fusion mode (also known as PuyoTet). As mentioned earlier, this mode features both puyos and tetriminos in an interesting blend of mechanics. Either style of block can fall onto the board, and each style of block must be cleared under its original conditions – that is, tetriminos must be cleared by forming a complete row, while puyos must be cleared by forming groups of 4+ in the same color. Some blocks will also fall which alternate between tetriminos and puyos, and only ‘lock’ into one form once they have fully fallen into place. Additionally, there are single and double tetrimino blocks, which make it easier for them to be placed and fill gaps.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

This game mode borrows more heavily from the Tetris side of things. It features the Tetris “Hold” mechanic, which allows one game piece to be held indefinitely for later use. Tetrimino pieces can also be used to smash puyos below it. This causes the tetrimino to fall ‘through’ the puyos, pushing them off the board and falling to rest below them. It also causes the puyos to fall on top of the tetriminos from the top once the block is locked into place. This can cause some clever use of tetriminos to chain puyos, and can also be used to clear garbage puyos (no garbage tetris blocks are used).

Overall it’s a fun story. The music, voice acting, and general cut-scene style reminded me heavily of Hyperdimension Neptunia. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, particularly considering the voice talent for Puyo Puyo Tetris is phenomenal and includes the talents of Cassandra Lee Morris, Christine Marie Cabanos, Max Mittleman, and more voices that have been heard in the Persona series, Danganronpa series, Fire Emblem, and other stellar video game titles.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

I Get Knocked Down, and I Get Up Again

Of course, while Puyo Puyo Tetris also features a single player arcade mode, the real draw for most players is in multiplayer modes. The game offers both local multiplayer and online multiplayer. Local multiplayer can be found in “Multiplayer Arcade,” and this allows you to face off with frenemies at home, school, or office in many of the game’s modes, from Versus and Big Bang to Fusion and Swap.

Online Mode, however, allows you to play against others worldwide. “Free Play” allows you to join or host a match of any game type you like, without affecting your ranking – just for fun. “Watch Replays” allows you to watch the highest ranked replays of matches, uploaded by players through the game’s own replay save feature. These replays can be sped up or paused just like any video, and can be a great learning tool for those wanting to up their game.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

And then there’s the Puzzle League, the competitive, ranked online multiplayer mode. From my experience, almost all online play was to be found here – few if any matches were ever found in Free Play. The mode allows players to filter the modes available, but seemed to default to Versus mode whenever I played. When in Versus, you can choose to play with Puyos or Tetris – and after learning the hard way just how complicated Puyo Puyo can be, I of course stuck with Tetris.

Unfortunately, the game’s matchmaking system is lacking. As you can see in the above screenshot, I was frequently matched off against players far beyond my meager skill level and newbie ranking. I was matched twice in a row with this player in particular, who certainly did assassinate me quickly. This meant, of course, that my ranking continued to drop. I expected it would – I am far from good at competitive Puyo Puyo or Tetris – but I at least expected I’d have a fair fight. And while some matches seemed to play swiftly, others, like my matches against this Assassin, had frequent lag which caused the game to simply hang constantly while it caught up with the action.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

The PC Transition

“But wait!” a few of you might be crying, “Puyo Puyo Tetris has been out for years!” That is indeed true. Puyo Puyo Tetris was originally released in 2014 in Japan on consoles and handhelds, and only made it to North America and the EU in April 2017. It was only last month that the title made its way onto Windows for the first time in a global release.

The game itself has not changed really in its PC release, and outside of the lag – which sounds to be more of an issue in the PC version, based on community feedback – the only criticism must be in the mouse and keyboard controls. The mouse itself is sensitive, which can be great for gamers, but it does not work without also using keyboard controls (for instance, fast drop must use the space bar). Meanwhile the keyboard controls use Z, X, C, V or the arrow keys, plus shift, control, and space. The keyboard controls are the least sensitive and can be good for beginners or those with fat fingers who hit fast drop too often, but they’re awkward on the hands. As much as I tried to tolerate them, I ended up back on a controller every time.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshot

The End of the Line: Great (4/5)

There’s no denying that Puyo Puyo Tetris is a great game. It offers a variety of modes and challenges for all styles of player, including the new Puyo Tetris Fusion mode, while staying true to its source material. It’s vividly built, a perfectly modern rendition of both games that continues the franchises harmoniously.

That said, there were three key flaws I found. The first was the lack of a true ‘beginner friendly’ mode or tutorial. The tutorials were several minutes long, and lacked any interactivity or way to speed them up, and tutorial matches would have gone father in teaching the game skills and basics. The second was two-fold in the Puzzle League, a combination of a poor matchmaking system that seemed to ignore ranking in favor of finding a match and the intermittent lag that caused games to stall for seconds at a time. The third was in the controls for mouse and keyboard, which were generally awkward and lacked the kind of one-handed support controllers have.

Despite these flaws, if you’re a fan of either games – or both – and haven’t yet gotten a copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris on another platform, it’s worth picking up for $20 on Steam. However, the competitive community seems like it will continue to lean away from the PC release due to the lag and controller issues; if ranked play is your jam, you might want to look to the console releases from 2017 for better community support.

And if you ever find me struggling to master the art of Puyo Puyo, you’re welcome to laugh.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Screenshots