Tag Archives: attribute

Call of Duty: Closed Beta Thoughts

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

CoD WWII - Team

So I recently bought into the Call of Duty: World War II beta. I haven’t played a CoD title that I enjoyed since Black Ops 2. Personally, I wasn’t really invested in all that future tech nonsense. If I want that, I’ll go play Destiny or Halo. However, with the notion that we were returning to World War II with better hardware, I bit the bullet, so to speak. Now, I know I used to rant about being sick of all the shooters being in WWII, but this is truly spectacular hardware we’re using now. I wanted to see how it looked, how it felt. The setting is probably the closest to the actual war as we’re going to get. Watching troops parachute from the sky off in the distance, buildings destroyed by war, by man, it was almost poetic in a way. I played around in most of the modes but focused on TDM (Team Deathmatch) and War (The new mode). I have to say that I love the maps, but I am a bit torn on the guns. As someone who hasn’t fired a lot of guns, I can’t really say one way or another how accurate they are, but the look was right, and for the most part, guns were pretty steady on the damage they dealt. But I did notice that a lot of my killcams were like two or three perfectly placed bullets that murdered me, where I would dump half a clip to get a kill.

CoD WWII - Battle

Would people actually cheat in a Beta? That’s not what I’m implying, but I wouldn’t be shocked. Most of this has been people bragging about godlike they are, and about how great their KD is. They must not realize this is a beta, for testing purposes and not to show how great you are. It’s to gather data, see what works on maps and with weapons, and what does not. That’s the important thing I think players are missing. I wish more people were concerned about the game and not “HOLY SHIT I CAN PLAY COD EARLY I’M SO AWESOME.”

CoD WWII - Burn It Down

-Insert Seth Rollins’ Theme-

Though for the most part, the guns I’ve used have been pretty great, I do sincerely think that shotguns (incendiary) and otherwise are pretty damn strong. Anything that can set you on fire is powerful, very powerful.  I’ve seen an overwhelming, possibly an alarming amount of snipers on the War map also. No matter what side, they would have a few people on the map, and the rest were hiding in snipers nests, just picking people off for easy kills and wins. I understand that that’s the nature of the beast, but I was hoping to see in the War mode, more actual combat. Not “Defend the tank that’s trying to cross the bridge” or “Repair this while being shot at by six people”.

CoD WWII - Claustrophobia

It looks open, but it’s not.

However, the maps are very claustrophobic. There aren’t many open areas, just a lot of alleys, paths, and crumbled buildings that you can slightly run through. I’m hoping that’s a thing that changes, because while it makes sense for a lot of them, surely every battle in World War II wasn’t fought in an alleyway. There are fewer customization options in the game right now, which is fine; this is still a beta. We don’t want players to see everything that’s on the way, right? I like the “classes” in the form of military divisions. I think you should have an option to see different class names if you’re on the Axis side, but I’ve yet to play on that side … so if it’s an option, I haven’t seen it. I feel like this game is going to be more beginner friendly on the customization side, so it’s not quite so overwhelming. Here’s what they get as they level:

  • Infantry: Rifle Bayonet, Additional Primary Attachment, Extra Magazines, Move faster while aiming down sight, Classified Rifle
  • Airborne: SMG Supressor, Sprint Longer, Climb over obstacles faster, increased sprint speed, Classified SMG.
  • Armored: LMG Bipod, Immune to Shell Shock/Tactical Equipment, Take less fire damage, Take less explosion damage, classified LMG.
  • Mountain: Sniper Sharpshooter, Invisible to Recon Aircraft while moving, Hidden to player-controlled Streaks, Silent Movement, Classified Sniper Rifle
  • Expeditionary: Shotgun Incidiery Shells, Select a piece of tactical/lethal equipment, throw equipment faster/farther while sprinting, Resupply equipment from killing enemies, Classified Shotgun.

CoD WWII - Class

Unlock Tokens are back, but it seems like they’re easier to acquire, at least in the beta. I had no trouble unlocking the items that I wanted for my guns. I’m hoping that more comes to the “War” Mode though. More War maps, more than simply “walk the tank into the base/blow up their guns”. The War Mode feels to me like it could be a tactical wonderland, so we’ll have to see where it goes from here. Overall, I’m very happy with this beta. I’m not the best at shooters, but I do think I’m going to enjoy the story of CoD:WWII and to be shooting Nazis in the face. A lot. I think the best feature is being able to skip the Killcam in most modes because while it’s nice to see where they got you from, it puts you back in the action faster. I also think this game would do well with a soundtrack written by Sabaton. That’s what I listen to when I’m shooting, anyway.

Let’s Talk: Warriors All-Stars:

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Warriors All-Stars - Nobunyaga

Behold! The Devil King of the Sixth Heaven!

So, I’ve by now, played almost every “Musou” game that has been brought to America. The only exceptions being the “first” which was a fighting game (really just the dueling mode from Musou 2) and Musou 2. I pretty much conquered all the others. But this is more in the vein of Warriors Orochi, in that characters from multiple franchises join together under Deus Ex Machina shenanigans to “set the world right”. However, Warriors Orochi had about 80-100 characters from just Dynasty/Samurai Warriors. Warriors All-Stars grabs from far more than just these two. Sure, Lu Bu, Mitsunari Ishida, Zhou Yu are here. These are awesome picks for sure, but then you have Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, several of the Dead or Alive girls, Laegrinna from the Descent franchise, William Adams from Nioh, characters from the Azure series, Atelier … but most important, Nobunyaga Oda. Yes, the Cat Version of Oda Nobunaga from “Samurai Cats”, the social game where Warring States Era characters are turned into cats, and given cat names. Nobunyaga Oda. There is some fan-service and scantily clad female characters, but it’s not the main focus of the game by any stretch. Instead of generals like “Licksplittle”, “Corpsemangler”, “Rotgristle”, we have more generic named lieutenants, which I’m kind of glad for. Edge for the sake of edge didn’t work for me. This is a world we aren’t familiar with, so a little anonymity/simplicity isn’t so bad.

Warriors All-Stars Cut Scene

Mm, Dead or Alive.

One of the positives is that it exposes people to lots of characters they may never have played as/seen before; like, I’ve never played Nioh, or Descent, and only one of the Atelier games (and only briefly). There’s the “Magical MacGuffin” world where this takes place, and there are three factions, Tamaki, Shiki, and Setsuna’s forces. Each one has a goal and wants to unite the land for better or worse. Each faction has its own group of characters, and I feel like it’s important for players to know which ones they will have access to, while the game is going on. My playthrough was with Setsuna, who is trying to reclaim his kingdom, mostly because I wanted to play as Nobunyaga Oda. This is definitely a good thing though, because it offers replayability, in this, and that so much of the game can be skipped. Each faction has its own “base” of characters, but you can unlock additional playable characters by completing “Hero” Battles. They’ll be visible on the map with the unlockable character on them. But unlocking certain characters can ruin endings (There are fifteen of them), so while this is the shortest Musou, there’s so much replayability on offer. You don’t have to play many of the stages on the open map that you don’t want to. So, let’s go over factions!

Shiki:

– Yukimura Sanada (Samurai Warriors)
– Mitsunari Ishida (Samurai Warriors)
– Naotora Ii (Samurai Warriors)
– Hajime Arima (Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time)
– Darius (Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time)
– William Adams (Nioh)
– Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)
– Ayane (Ninja Gaiden)

Setsuna:

– Nobunyaga Oda (Samurai Cats)
– Kasumi (Dead or Alive)
– Marie Rose (Dead or Alive)
– Honoka (Dead or Alive)
– Milennia (Deception)
– Laegrinna (Deception)
– Rio (Rio)
– Arnice (Nights of Azure)
– Christophorus (Nights of Azure)

Tamaki:

– Zhao Yun (Dynasty Warriors)
– Wang Yuanji (Dynasty Warriors)
– Zhou Cang (Dynasty Warriors)
– Lu Bu (Dynasty Warriors)
– Oka (Toukiden)
– Horo (Toukiden)
– Tokitsugu (Toukiden)
– Opoona (Opoona)
– Sophie Neuenmuller (Atelier)
– Plachta (Atelier)

Warriors All-Stars A Card

Gotta get them cards!

However, like I said, some of these appear in my Setsuna playthrough (Plachta, Mitsunari) so it’s really hard to say who will appear where. You have a main town, a headquarters, where your characters hang out, where you purchase new cards (you have cards instead of weapons), take on missions from your friends, and plan your next move. There’s also a Hot Springs, and when you have high enough Relationships with characters, you can have a bit of fanservice, and oftentimes hilarious moments in the steamy water. The character interactions between franchises are also pretty entertaining. Instead of buying new weapons and armor, you have playing cards. They have a grade (C, B, A, S) and can have elemental effects/stat bonuses, attack stat. If they have a skill slot, you can enhance them further with skills using the items you acquire in battle. You can also add the elemental effects and things of that nature in the same way. You can create cards by picking three of yours and hoping it comes out with something better, or you can unlock them by completing missions from your allies or simply by killing lots of foes. There are even missions highlighted with a card, that means you’ll get cards by winning the stage.

Warriors All-Stars - Kasumi Training

It’s worth the money.

In your HQ, you can also take on missions from your allies. They’re all pretty simple: Get four allies to cheer you on during Musou Rush (a new ultimate move), kill 500 enemies in 5 minutes, do that and win the stage 3 times, etc. You increase your relationships with them this way, and by fighting alongside them in battle. As your relationship grows, you unlock new traits and abilities, which stack several times. So it would behoove well of you to play with and as several characters to unlock more powers. Not to mention the Training Grounds. You’ll spend gold to level your allies, and I highly recommend doing it. Otherwise, they appear to level very slowly. So when you get that new character you’re dying on the team and you’re all in the 20s, it’s time to throw money around. There are some stages you won’t be able to undertake with/as certain characters (I’ve seen one I can’t play as Nobunyaga, or have him on the squad, for example), so you can either ignore them or simply play as someone else. I opted to ignore it. I had Cat Justice to bring to the world. The game is pretty simple too. You pick your main character, but you can swap whenever (between battles) that you desire. Then you pick up to four bodyguards, which will help you fight, and you can utilize them like Trap Cards in Yugioh. Holding R1 then a face button, you’ll activate whatever power that they bring to the battle.

Warriors All-Stars - Musou Rush

Sure! Stop fighting and cheer me on instead! Good plan.

Personally, my favorite one is a Vacuum Trap, that pulls everyone nearby into one giant blob, so you can just mow them down. They have cooldowns that can be reduced, but using these is a major key to success. The actual battles work like traditional Musou battles, with the forts having a variety of effects (Attack, Defense, Treasures et al) and defeating the masses there, and the commander will capture the base for your own needs. You still have a Musou Move, but now there’s the new, and ridiculous (but fun!) Musou Rush. You start with one and gain another every 1,000 kills (you can only hold one though), and upon hitting R3, a flood, a literal flood of enemies will hit the field, and you can spam attacks and charge attacks, dash around and kill them as fast as you can.

Warriors All-Stars Bravery

Huzzah, rewards!

You can increase the short timer slightly, and the more you kill, the more of your bodyguards will cheer you on! Does it help? … Well, no. But it’s funny! When you win this little mini-game by killing everything that breathes on the planet, you are showered with fantastic prizes, exp, cards, etc. It’s worth doing every time you possibly can. The enemies are kind of a hodgepodge, the standard being the weird cat-people from this world, but also zombies, toys, and all sorts of ridiculous nonsense from the worlds that make up these games. Another new addition to the game is the “Brave” system. This number fluctuates, depending on how well or poor you’re doing. Killing generals/lieutenants seem to increase the number as well as sub-missions in battle. It also increases your power, as well as characters, can use their “Awakened Skill”, a stronger Hero Skill, and gain the ability to start “Hero Chain”, which has all party members lined up and attacking enemies.

It’s Over Nyao: 3/5

Warriors All-Stars S-Class

While this game is fun, it does have some pretty glaring drawbacks. There’s no online, no multiplayer, not even a free mode! Though it’s short, the plethora of endings really makes up for that, and the overwhelming list of available stages after the first mission or so can feel very overwhelming. And as you just browse the map and scroll around, your allies can randomly give you items, and temporary stages can show up! They have a timer, so you have to decide if it’s for you, and while in stages, it can be a little frustrating. I’ve lost stages in about two to five minutes because I didn’t run immediately to the location that they required me to. Other than that, the stages, in general, are pretty easy. The cast is wide, varied and fun despite how small it is, the gameplay is solid and the character interactions are worth exploring from all points. However, the biggest thing that bothers me is how close this is being released to Dynasty Warriors 9. I feel like this could have come out a bit later. It’s going to sit in the shadow of the titanic undertaking that is Shinsangoku Musou 8, and that’s just the way of it. But it’s fun! It’s niche, but all Musou games are. If you’re a fan of the game, like bright colors and clever dialogue, and don’t want all the historic stuff, pick this up and start finding endings!

Retro Review: Robotrek

by Jason Parrker (Ragachak)

Robotrek - Cover

“Great”.

Games are not always as wonderful as we remember them. Recently, I’ve been on a quest to find that RPG that was “fun”, but also “not as good as I remember it”.  Sometimes, our Rose-Colored Glasses are tinted a bit too hard, and things that were fun as younger people are not quite as great as we recall. One of these games, unfortunately, is “Robotrek” for the Super Nintendo. Robotrek is often considered to be in the same universe as the “Act Raiser” games. The Act Raiser franchise is Act Raiser, Act Raiser 2, Illusion of Gaia, Soul Blazer, and Terra Nigma. Some people put Robotrek in the same line but that’s not a real point of contention. The “Raiser” franchise is built very heavily around the notion of being an avatar of a God, which is not the case in Robotrek. Instead of building civilizations and saving humanity, you build robots. Robotrek takes place on the planet “Quintenix” (Really? Developer Quintet, Publisher Enix?) You summon robots from balls, built from spare parts, equipped with whatever weapons you’d care to utilize, and do battle with other robotic foes.

Robotrek - Make a Bot

Build a Bot Workshop

For the Super Nintendo, Robotrek had one of the most revolutionary systems for creating your robots, customizing them, and a fantastic turn-based combat system. You create your robots, and it’s just a pleasant experience all-around. You pick their colors, you equip them with weapons, and you create “Programs”. It’s a combo for those robots to use, such as “Shot Sword Shot – Dashes to the enemy, slashes them once in the face, then once in the back.”  Each of these “Run Commands” does their own thing, and it’s up to the player to experiment and find the ones that work for them. Or you know, in this day and age, hit up Gamefaqs. Personally, I like to work with having two different kinds of weapons, and getting Lasers in there if at all possible. That’s one of the definite positives of Robotrek, feeling like you have some serious command over what your Robots do. The limits are your imagination, and the weapons you have/skills you’ve unlocked by exploring the world. You can choose not to use these Run Commands in combat though, and simply hit X, L, or R and depending on what you have equipped, certain actions will come out. It’s better, in my opinion, to learn what Run Commands do what. However, each of these moves uses some of your “Fuel”, which serves as a kind of meter for what you can/can’t do. Having all commands that empty the meter is not advised. Oh, and you can only have one robot out at a time. Sure, some skills can just wipe two or so enemies at once, but that’s when you have the knowledge/skills.

Robotrek - Mayor

Oh, that wacky Mayor.

The main character is just a kid, so he’s not going to go into battle. Like Pokemon, he summons his robots to do all of the dirty work for him. You can use up to three robots, and customize them to your liking, but I feel like this game’s innovative systems are just wasted on a game like Robotrek. Which is unfortunate, because I don’t really think it’s the game’s fault. The localization is incredibly poor, but that was common in the early 90s. A lot of games had incredibly bad translations/localizations, and I can only hope the story from the Japanese version of the game is much better. Perhaps I’ll look up a fan-translation and see if the original makeup for that. You’re going to spend a lot of time sitting in front of the machine that makes/updates your robots. As you explore, you find new “Inventor Magazines” that teach new abilities/skills, and leveling up lets you give your robots stat points, which make them stronger. It was a very cool system that I fear, still was wasted here. This is the story of the game, taken from Wikipedia. It is probably the most “90s” thing written.

On the planet of Quintenix, where the situation has long been peaceful, a group calling themselves “The Hackers”, headed by Blackmore, suddenly starts an uprising against the population by disrupting the peace of the town of Rococo (and elsewhere). The main character (who appears to be nameless) is the son of a famous inventor, Dr. Akihabara, who decides to move to Rococo. The main character soon sets off to find out that The Hackers want Dr. Akihabara for a sinister purpose, as Akihabara refuses an offer to join them. The story unfolds to the point where The Hackers’ ultimate goal is the Tetron, a mysterious stone that allows viewers to observe events past and future and travel through time.

The Tetron is later found out to be an invention of the main character’s ancestor Rask and one of his friends, Gateau, finds the Tetron’s potential as the key to controlling the universe by controlling time. Rask disregards that potential and hides the Tetron in shards throughout Quintenix. Gateau, who — presumedly — formed The Hackers later on, obtains the Tetron and attempts to proceed with his plan for universal domination, starting with Rask’s home planet of Choco. It is up to the main character to stop Gateau in his space fortress.

Robotrek Machine

You’ll spend a lot of time here…

The end-game is that this little boy wants to walk in his dad’s footsteps, and also save him from peril. The story is … Well, there’s definitely a “story” here. It’s pretty basic, at least in the American iteration. Save your dad from evil.  Yup. I feel like the demographic, based on the bad, childish jokes and dreadful dialogue, was little kids. But most kids I knew weren’t into RPGs, so it wound up going to waste. There’s some clever time-travel stuff hidden in the game, but you have to dredge through some pretty weird schlock. The game was supposed to be clever, funny. But that’s not what the localizers over at Enix gave us, and that’s unfortunate. The greatest failing of this game is definitely a sign of the times: The 90s were a time of intense censorship and rewriting of RPGs. So many games lost things as simple as crosses, or temples/churches. Pubs/Bars were changed or removed in many RPGs because people were worried that kids wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of content.The characters were hollow and I genuinely didn’t care about any of them; that’s a poor thing to have in an RPG. Some character names weren’t even changed from Japanese nomenclature to English. There’s a lot of disconnects and there is not very much in the way of coherence.

Robotrek - Map

That awesome map though.

The difficulty curve is pretty weird in Robotrek. If you know what you’re doing and have an idea of what strengths/weaknesses you’re going in with on your robots, build them accordingly, the game is pretty easy. For people who are/were new to it? Prepare to be frustrated every single time a boss comes up. Most fights are pretty easy, and items are worth using. There’s a very cool item mixing system where you can make new power-ups and weapons to equip, but as a whole, you really have to understand where each robot should be placed in battle, and what you need to do to be successful. Again, the stuff that is done well is done remarkably well, and everything else? It’s just disappointing. I’m not really knocking the childish look to the game, because that bright color palette was popular, and it serves the game well enough. The music was mediocre at best, and while I loved making robots and sending them into battle for me, I would be lying if I thought this game was still a classic. As a teen playing this, I enjoyed it for what it was. I wasn’t thinking critically about how poor the writing was, how frustrating the battles could be (unless I was in one), and how simplistic much of appeared.

Fun, But Far From A Masterpiece: 3/5

Robotrek - Battle

ROBO COMBAAAAAAAAT!

I personally know a lot of people who played Robotrek, because I was fortunate to meet people at that age who loved RPGs as much as me. Many of them, looking back recall it fondly, until they actually sit down and play it. Then we recall that it’s not really … all that great. I think it’s unfortunate that Robotrek had such a remarkable system of customization and robot creation, but was it was given a very poor shake, mostly down to how poor the localization of the title was. This is not a game that you’ll want to play for the first time with no strategy guide/FAQ.  For a new player it can be horribly frustrating, and while you may at first feel like you have endless options for combat on your robots, it will boil down to finding one or two really powerful combos and you’ll just use those, because why use something that “might” work when you can use something that “will” work? It was fun in its time, and can be fun to poke fun at on a livestream or something, but it’s not a game that’s going to wow fans and keep them coming back like Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, or Final Fantasy games might.

Yakuza Kiwami: Kamurocho Nights, Kamurocho Fights

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Editor’s Note: I will endeavor to spoil as little of the story as possible. Some moments I will need to explain for the early game so you get what’s going down, but I won’t post major spoilers.

 

Yakuza Kiwami - Kiryu

Kiryu’s not here to take your shit.

I did not play the original PS2 Yakuza when it came out. Hell, I still haven’t. I didn’t find the franchise until around Yakuza 3 and fell in love with the combination of silliness and gritty storytelling. Because there are some things in the story (Yakuza 0, Kiwami, etc) that are pretty hard to wrap your brain around: Like ten billion yen disappearing? Come on. Ten billion? But somehow we’re still here, still trying to solve mysteries and make things right in this sleepy little town of Kamurocho. For those not in the know, Yakuza Kiwami is a remake for Yakuza 1, but it’s not a shot-for-shot remake deal. There are a lot of story points that simply did not make sense, and a lot of content added, so parts of the story were touched up and the story was added to wrap up some of these new side-missions neatly. There are so many of them, and at first I had no idea where to even find them.

Yakuza Kiwami - Skills 2

UNLIMITED … POWER … !

Until I unlocked the equipable item that lets shows on the map where a side-mission exists, I was a fish out of water. Luckily the Yakuza 1 FAQs helped a bit to get me started. It takes a while for these to get to us and while I hate waiting, it was well worth it. And one of the things I always worry about is when an incredibly badass main character like Kiryu shows up, what happens to make between Yakuza 0 and Kiwami? Because at the end of 0, he’s a monstrous force with four incredible styles of combat: There’s his personal style, Dragon of Dojima, Brawler, Beast, the Speed Style. It took a lot of work to max those out and at the start of Kiwami, he’s got all that power. Nothing can stop him. Even at the start of Kiwami, he’s well and truly horrifically strong.

Yakuza Kiwami - Crunch

Kiryu doesn’t hold back in battle.

So we send him to jail. Kiryu is a noble man, one of pretty high moral fiber, instilled upon him by his Captain, his adopted father. He doesn’t shake down poor people or kill [especially because murder’s not looked upon highly]. So how do we get him away from the limelight and let that skill of his wear away? He’s set up for murder and put away for ten years. So with a permanently ruined name, now nicknamed “Kinslayer” by many Yakuza. His time in jail takes him away from the world, his incredible skill will atrophy (despite being in at least one prison fight) and he has to learn about this new world he’s thrust into. So we’re in the year 2000. The magical year where cell phones exist, the internet is common, and hentai bug-girl wrestling games are popular with children. Okay, that last one takes some parsing, admittedly. He has to regain all of his power, which I enjoyed doing, and with this ability/exp system, you can put points into whichever tree you want. We’re talking about the combat first, because it’s the thing you’re going to do the most of, and I promise that. You can put points into Beast/Speed/Brawler … but not Dragon (weapons are still around as well). That’s where the new features come into play.

Yakuza Kiwami - Goromi

You thought I was kidding?

Majima. Is. Everywhere. Majima, your friend, your ally, the lunatic with one eye, the Lord of the Night. He’s everywhere, and the biggest feature of the game is “Majima is everywhere”. He pops up all over the place and through fights with him, you’ll learn the Dragon skills. He has a grading system, from F down to SSS, and if while sure, you can avoid him eventually (when you have the Majima Radar) to some degree, you shouldn’t. The Dragon style is incredible, it’s the real source of power for Kiryu. You can’t just max it out in the first few chapters either, because at certain points it’s gated, and he’ll stop tracking you down, opting instead to hang out in the park and “consider his next move”. He wants these fights to be special, to draw out Kiryu’s power again. Only he is allowed to kill Kiryu. Each time you fight him, it fills a meter and has a chance to give you a skill, and some of the skills are also gated behind particular “forms” of Majima (brawler, etc). But when I say everywhere, I mean it. Here are just a few of my favorite Majima appearances:

  • As a cop
  • As a stripper on a pole
  • As a hostess
  • In a giant damn traffic cone
Yakuza Kiwami - Turtle Power

He’s lurking.

And much more! He has various styles and each fight will be in these, from the bat-wielder to the knife-wielder, or just punching you out. He uses a lot of the techniques he used in 0 also, like his choke out, spinning and slashing like a wild crazy madman who is incredibly crazy.  But this leads me to another thing that I love about this game: Even regular bad guys have stances/styles! It’s not a rock-paper-scissors counter system, you can use whichever style you’re comfortable with, but you can see their heat auras. Heat is one of the most important things about combat in Yakuza and that’s very apparent in this one. It takes a while for Dragon Style to even get the ability to build up heat or use heat actions. The other styles can do that right away. When you meet a certain point on the meter, you can do Heat Actions, (Triangle) that’s when you do the incredibly horrific, violent moves, like breaking someone’s taint on a guard rail. I always come back to this one, because it’s probably my favorite. That or the delayed vertical suplex, face-first onto concrete. You also have Kiwami Actions (Kiwami meaning EXTREME or ULTIMATE) and these are the most gruesome, most powerful moves. Performing these at the end of a battle is the ultimate exclamation point.

Yakuza Kiwami - Potted Plant fight

Everything is a weapon in Kiryu’s hands. Everything.

Though the vast majority of the game you’re going to be fighting people, lots of people … Yakuza, goons, all sorts of lowlifes, this is one of the few downsides for me. Combat is fantastic, pretty fast-paced, and violent, just how I want it. But the regular goons give out almost no money. My screencaps and gameplay show I’m always doing well financially, but that’s from stopping muggings and completing side-missions. There are items definitely worth selling from your interruptions. But there are absolutely tons of these random encounters that give virtually nothing unless you unlock the Noveau Riche from Bob Utsunomiya [the guy with the clown makeup] who unlocks items and things of that nature from the CP (Challenge Points) you accrue by simply playing the game. They’re the real major source of fight income. But the battles can become incredibly tedious; I hit a point for a while where I just used a taxi to get to the four corners of the map, just to avoid them for a little bit and do side-missions and entertainment stuff like the Hostess Clubs. You find those challenges on the “Completion List” menu, which shows everything from total game completion, various side-mission completion, your current Majima Rank, and meter.

Yakuza Kiwami - Majima on the Beat

Even the silly Goro stuff makes sense.

The real drive of this game is the story though. Nishiki (Nishkiyama) is a major focal point of this story, and as the game goes on, we see what happened to him in flashbacks, his highs, and lows, begging his subordinates, growing to gain his own family in the Yakuza. These are all new and are soul-wrenching at their best. The animation for these cutscenes/characters are wonderful and feel very real. It’s mostly about Kiryu, but we do see what happened, slowly but surely, in his absence, how the world has changed. Another major plot point is that Kiryu is a good man, and has to learn about the city and how it and its people have changed. It’s not all serious and depression though because we have lots of entertainment to enjoy.

Yakuza Kiwami - Strip Clubs

Bikini Bars, they’re a thing I guess.

The Hostess Clubs (Where you talk to a fairly openly gay hostess), the Race Cars are back (complete with a new, humorous side-mission to find a successor to that scene), bowling, karaoke, and that’s just some of it. There are lots of delicious foods to eat and booze to drink. There’s also MesuKing: Bug Battle Beauties! It’s very fanservy, as I said earlier. You collect cards for this Children’s Card Game and scan them into the arcade cabinet. They’re littered around the city and sold by vendors (but you can get an item from Bob that pings you when one is nearby). It’s a very rock-paper-scissors game, and picking correctly does a cool wrestling/fighting game move and deals the other fighter damage. It’s just amazing and hilarious that little kids play this game.

Yakuza Kiwami - Hostess Time

The cute hostesses have their own lives, and goals. They’re all different and adorable.

There’s one thing that this game deals with that kind of surprised me, but it’s done in a way that at least to me, makes sense. Rina, the hostess for Shine is gay and she tells you pretty early on. It’s not bait, you aren’t trying to “make her straight”, you simply learn about what it’s like to be a gay woman, and the various adventures/misadventures she has in love and life. It’s pretty beautiful. He doesn’t judge her lifestyle, he simply has to learn more about it. There are a few encounters with transgender persons, and Kiryu does wind up in a fight with them. But it’s not because they’re transgender, or any hateful nonsense. They scammed him and tried to steal from him/murder him. So he fights back against them. He’s not judging them, which I think it is handled pretty well. Throughout the game Kiryu is all about tolerance, being judgment free, but not pulling any punches when innocent people are caught in the line of fire in dangerous situations. He helps little kids, small animals, saves people from being mugged or raped. He’s a pretty good guy, that Kiryu. He never rushes to judgment, even when offered a job at a “Banana Bar”, and as long as people do right by him, he doesn’t resort to turning them from one form of matter to another with his fists.

 

Kiryu-chan~!  ⅘

Yakuza Kiwami - MesuKing 2

“Gameplay”

This is a wonderful game, but it’s not without its serious flaws. Flashbacks come out of virtually nowhere, and not having details/knowledge of the franchise can seriously hurt some of these. Not to mention the game itself is incredibly short if you only focus on the main story and nothing else. I feel like more was put into the side-missions than the actual game. Now, personally, I love that there’s so much to do in the world at large, as Kiryu tries to set everything around him right. I found myself very emotionally vested in a lot of the side-missions, but I was hoping for a bit longer of the main story. But while some of it can feel repetitive and annoying, it’s still masterful storytelling and capturing of emotion. Combat feels strong as always, and the game is a blast, but there’s something missing. I was hoping to see more of Kamurocho than I did. It’s a step in the right direction after 0, and I highly recommend playing it first, to get some of the call-backs and learn about some of the side characters, but you don’t have to. I hope this leads to a Yakuza 2 because even as the franchise gets sillier, it’s still one of my favorites. This is a great way to get people pumped for next year’s “The Song of Life” as the Kiryu saga comes to a close. The game starts very, very slow, but once it picks up the pace, it doesn’t stop. That’s one of the things I enjoy about Yakuza Kiwami, learning this world all over again. If you’re curious about the Yakuza franchise, or played 0 and don’t really know where to go next, this is it.  You owe it to yourself to get lost in this world of murder, mystery, and money.

Retro Review: Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals

by Jason Parker [Ragachak]

Editor’s Note: Next week, I’m going to review something that is objectively/subjectively dreadful. This requires a lot of research and input. So please, feel free to DM me on Twitter, comment below or message me on Twitch with your thoughts!

Spoilers Incoming! I know it’s from the 90s, but still.

Lufia 2 - Arek the Absolute

Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals was released in 1996, the same year as the Nintendo 64. This in mind, it’s probably an RPG you have never played/heard of and that’s not a surprise. Nor is it a dig! I have a lot of friends who played it, but when it was out and I was in High School, I knew no one who had it but one person. But why review Lufia 2 before Lufia 1? Because Lufia 2 comes first in the timeline! That really threw me for a loop. I didn’t see it coming until about halfway through the game. Lufia and the Fortress of Doom [henceforth: Lufia 1] starts at the “Battle of Doom Island”, the climactic battle versus the Sinistrals which are basically godlike beings who represent various forces of negativity: Death, Terror, Chaos, Destruction. They’re ruled over by a more powerful deity, Arek the Absolute. So at the start of Lufia 1, you have Maxim, Selan, Guy and Arty [the actual name of the character, Artea was incorrect, no matter how much I hate it] stand-alone against the tide of evil. It’s very dramatic. The music is among some of the greatest music in a video game. You know, ever. Fast-forward 99 years, you’re playing a descendant of Maxim, and trouble brews again.

Lufia 2 - Destiny

That delicious destiny.

Lufia 2 is the start of the fulfilment of destiny for Maxim: He’s a journeyman Monster Hunter, keeping his town safe by killing Slimes and Lizards and such. Over the course of the game, your party will fluctuate and change and of course, you’ll wind up with Maxim/Selan/Guy/Arty, but there are other guest-stars that will make you wish that you could change the party up for the final battle. Dekar, probably the strongest warrior in the world [Guy will contest this] and is brave to the point of absolute stupidity. He’s convinced that nothing in the world is mightier than him, and proves it. Then there’s Lexis Shaia, the brilliant scientist. His wrenches hit groups of the same enemy which confused me, but, hey. That’s the way it is. He’s responsible for all of your “awesome tech”. Tia, the young spellcaster/friend of Maxim joins too and she is physically weak but casts pretty devastating magic. The characters are memorable, the dialogue feels real. Sometimes it’s hard to parse because there is a whole slew of typos and censorship in the game, but the dialogue all around feels like something someone would say. It has moments that make my eyes well up with tears, and moments that make me laugh like a doofus.

Lufia 2 Puzzles - I HATE THIS PUZZLE

THIS PUZZLE MADE ME SO ANGRY.

This game also shines in the form of its dungeons. They’re clever, creative, and there is a whole slew of puzzles and each dungeon has its own. They vary in difficulty, and require everything from simple math, riddles, or moving blocks [picking them up, or pushing them around]. The game provides a series of tools that will help you navigate dungeons/avoid fights, from arrows, fire arrows, bombs, a mace, and hookshot. The game will never give you a puzzle you can’t handle/solve, but some of them are frustrating in their challenge. The worst offenders are probably any puzzle that depends on an enemy moving onto a certain spot or the first fire arrow puzzle. You have to step around, one square at a time, rotate and shoot the weeds down in a certain order. None can grow all the way or you fail. But that leads me to another interesting dungeon fact: Every step matters. Enemies are not random encounters but are on the map tiles with you. Each step you take they will take one [or a lot more!] and usually go right after you. If you hit them with a tool, they are stunned for a few steps. If you botch a puzzle/encounter, you can use your “Reset” Spell, also located on the toolbar. Though you can hold R and hit directional pads to rotate without costing you a step.

Lufia 2 - Another Puzzle

This puzzle .. not so bad.

The first dungeon teaches you all of these things; even without the manual, you’ll know how the game works. However dungeons can feel repetitive; each dungeon has its own Key that you have to collect and find, then get to the boss. Luckily there are healing tiles and save tiles in each dungeon because you can only save at those, and at Temples/Churches. There are hidden dungeons though, and one in particular does not obey the normal rules: The Ancient Cave. You go in and lose every item/spell you have. You start at level 1 on Floor 1 and the goal is to get to the bottom [99] and defeat the Ancient Jelly. That floor’s glitched, by the by. Anything you find you don’t keep, unless it’s in a Blue Chest; those are rare, powerful weapons that you can keep if you survive. On floor 20 there’s an item [Providence] that will take you back out. There’s also the “Iris Treasures”, which do nothing other than to say you collected them all. It’s the greatest real challenge in the game.

Lufia 2 - Capsule Monster

It’s like Pokemon! Only it sucks!

In addition to the main characters, you also have a system that you don’t really have to buy into in the form of Capsule Monsters. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can avoid getting any of them throughout the story. But unlocking them gives you an elemental creature [Neutral, Light, Wind, Water, Dark, Fire and Soil] and each have their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I always seem to go with Light or Dark, because the Light healing powers are second to none  … if it uses them on the right character. The AI for them is awful, it uses one of its powers at random on a random target, and though the Archangel Light monster might have a resurrection power, don’t count on seeing it used on someone who needs it often. This mode has the other real sin of the game: The feeding system!

Lufia 2 - Feeding Capsules

Oh how this system was flawed.

Oh, this made no sense and simultaneously made me so angry I could pull my teeth out. The Capsule Monster will want a certain type of weapon or armor that you feed to it. If you focus on stuff that’s in that general grade of gear, it should be fine. If you feed it what it’s craving, the bar [32 marks on the bar til upgrade] will go up several slots, and now … it wants something even better. Generally something you can’t get. You can glitch this, and reset it back to the item it wants and keep resetting to feed it that way, but that’s tedious. You can lower its cravings with crappy, low-quality items [at least some of the time], but the whole system doesn’t feel fleshed out quite all the way. It’s not necessary, but it is neat. At some point, you won’t be able to level it any further, and you’ll have to figure out which Elemental Fruit to feed it [opposite, usually] and which lower level it has to be in order to evolve it to its final form. That’s also never explained. You have to max it out as far as it can go, then lower its level and eat a fruit. It’s so annoying and complicated for no good reason.

Lufia 2 - Sinistral Fight

Behold! The Face of Destruction!

The gameplay is incredibly solid, and the IP system was revolutionary for its time. It’s a turn-based RPG and based on enemy/character speed, and also included a front row/back row for damage dealt/received. As characters take damage, a third bar [HP/Mana/IP] rises. Certain equipment comes with “IP Abilities”, which replicate spells, do amazing attacks, hit repeatedly, or boost stats. Even stuff you buy at the shops can have them as well as the rare, powerful gear like the Gades Blade [dropped off Sinistral Gades], and the various Gems [equipment slot, dropped off of most of the enemy races]. In addition to simply being the right level, and equipped the right way, these abilities can also make/break fights. They aren’t necessary for any battle, but they will sure make some of them easier. Each ability has its own cost, but the game doesn’t tell you how much of the bar it will deplete. Some of them are obvious, like the Dual Blade [best weapon in the game for Maxim]’s Wave Motion will consume the whole bar. You either attack, cast a spell, use an item, defend/run, or use an IP ability. The spells are pretty standard fare but instead of earning them in battle, you go to Magic shops and the appropriate people will be able to buy the appropriate spells.

The Saviour of those on Earth: 4/5

Lufia 2 - Give Me Your Energy

For those who fight.

I’d love to give Lufia 2 a 5/5, but I can’t. Everything about the game is wonderful. I can still play it today and feel the same emotions I did as a much younger man. It has tons of replayability factor in the Ancient Cave bonus mode [which you unlock after beating it, then beating Retry Mode: 4x GP/XP in every fight]. There are secrets, hidden items to find, hidden bosses, the whole deal. But the constant fetch quests, the repetitive “Do a puzzle, get a key, fight boss” mechanics, the annoying Capsule Monster issues, and the glitches can drive a man mad. There are glitches on the main window that can corrupt your file and I feel like it was not quality checked nearly enough. You can get to one of the superbosses/hidden battles, and kill it in one turn by using a low-quality healing item for example. Since the Egg Dragon has the highest HP possible, at 65535 HP (the maximum for an unsigned 16-bit integer), it’s very easy to kill him by using a weak healing item such as Charred Newt on him while at full health, which overflows his HP over to a very low amount, then attacking him. There are insane amounts of issues with the game that can cause you to quit and while some do benefit you [that one], but the Sound Glitch can completely ruin your run. This glitch is well-known and will ruin your file if you do it. Changing the audio setting past “Monoaural” can go to a glitched setting which will cause major corruption. These minor issues aside, it’s still in the top three RPGs I’ve played in my whole life. The music still to this day makes me feel incredible emotion without even playing the game. It’s a masterclass in how to build a world and characters, and it’s a shame it was overshadowed by the N64.

 

Retro Review: EarthBound

by Jason Parker [Ragachak]

EarthBound 1

It all starts with the Meteorite…

Earthbound is my favorite game of all time. There aren’t too many that come close. But I feel like if I’m going to go in on a game, it may as well be one that I love. It’s a charming game that’s very ahead of its time in a lot of ways, which may be why it wasn’t a huge success, and is instead relegated to “Cult Hit”. It’s nowhere near my first RPG, and in fact, I only briefly played it as a younger man, borrowing it from a friend. It took a few years for me to land my first copy of the game and play it for myself, but I was hooked from the first time I stepped into the shoes of Ness, the protagonist of the game. I do think it’s a shame that a majority of folks only know him as “That kid who what fought people in Smash Bros.”. It’s a story of a young boy, a ball bat, and his psychic powers. He teams up with friends he’s never met until you know … he meets them, and they work together to battle foes that no child should ever have to stand up to. The world is on the backs of these children, the chosen ones, travel alone, and in a very charming way the game tackles social issues, norms, and hides it behind bright colors and hilarious jokes.  You even get to name your special attack/PSI ability and your favorite food! Immaturity ahoy!

Earthbound 2 - Onett

The lovely town of Onett!

EarthBound’s a single-player turn-based RPG by the legendary Shigesato Itoi and APE/HAL Labs. It was the second game in an ultimately three-game series, Mother. Ness has been put into a position where he is the “Chosen One” and through a time-travelling bee, Buzz Buzz, he learns of his fate, his impending friends and the duty he has to the world. So he sets out with his dog, and two friends [one whom turns out to be not so friendly, the other is simply not in the prophecy] and alone again, he heads into the world. From deserts, swamps, mystical lands, a town filled with zombies and the bowls of God, Ness wanders trying to solve a problem only he can. He teams with Paula who is a psychic girl with incredible attack powers. Jeff’s the only one who can’t use these magical powers because he’s a scientist Clearly, they don’t believe in hokum like that. Instead, he gets laser guns, bombs, and bottle rockets. They do battle with gangs dressed like sharks, piles of living puke/vomit, the cops, giant moles, aliens, and more aliens. Even stop signs and taxi cabs have been infected by the power of Giygas.

EarthBound - 6 - Crit by a Record

Now that’s what I call Music, Vol. 47!

Jeff’s the only one who can’t use these magical powers because he’s a scientist, and clearly, they don’t believe in hokum like that. Instead, he gets laser guns, bombs, and bottle rockets. They do battle with gangs dressed like sharks, piles of living puke/vomit, the cops, giant moles, aliens, and more aliens. Even stop signs and taxi cabs have been infected by the power of Giygas/Giygig. His evil influence is spreading through the world [sort of like Zeroumus did in Final Fantasy IV], but it’s far less picky, apparently. The ultimate goal is to stop the machinations of Giygas, and there’s no guarantee you’re going to come home after it’s all said and done. You’re basically doing battle with an alien space-god that’s also a fetus [supposedly, but the argument’s strong]. Nothing in EarthBound is as simple as it appears. In fact, we played this on our Youtube Channel and our Livestream! Also, shoutout to Duane and Brando, who produced an amazing album of EarthBound themed music, such as this track.

Let's Play - Earthbound - Episode 19_ Shopping Imitates Life - Bottom Tier - You

Shoutout to Duane and Brando!

That’s one of the things that I love about this game, it does not take itself seriously. Characters are wacky, charming, and more often than not funny. Almost sign in the world had something worth a chuckle over, and some of the more sinister characters appear disarming and friendly. One of the earliest encounters in the game is Ness alone, versus the cops. Despite getting permission to go into Giant Step, the cops accuse him of trespassing, and instead of arresting him, fight him. He has to do battle with a group of cops in a backroom of Onett, and only after besting him will he let you go to Twoson to continue the adventure. Fun fact, Strong can actually be seen at the Meteor outside of Onett at the beginning of the game. He’s been hounding you this whole time, following, tracking. Perhaps he’s one of Giygas’ pawns? From the “Runaway Five” band which has six members and can be viewed as a parody of the Blues Brothers, to the Nessie-watching Club, there are lots of things that can make this game come across as a parody, as a satire of the RPG genre.

EarthBound 4 - Let's Play Battle

Weird encounters are this games cup of tea.

I disagree though. It can certainly come across that way, as a way to take the air out of the ultra-serious RPG genre. But EarthBound is its own game, and while it may look heartwarmingly and visually is very bright, colorful and warm, this is one of the most depressing, soul-crushing games I’ve ever played; I think that contrast is why I love it so much.Dr. Andoughnuts, Jeff’s dad, has no idea who his kid is. He was shipped off early to a boarding school, has a best friend who he has an unrequited homosexual relationship with [yes it is confirmed]. Jeff’s a lonely genius who basically has nobody in his life other than Tony, and after meeting his dad still doesn’t have a warm relationship. It may never happen. Ness has a similar issue, and only talks to his dad on the phone, who sends him money in lieu of love and fatherhood.

Bottom Tier - Earthbound - Episode 11_ Whoops Ass! Is True! - YouTube

Jeff and Tony at Boarding School.

Ness feels like a real kid, basically alone in the world except his few friends. He frequently gets homesick [call home to prevent it], which is a real status ailment in the game. It’s a dark world and pulls no punches. The ending of the game is so sad it’s borderline physically painful to watch. But the tears in this game are also of joy, happiness, worry. Sure, Mother 3 is far more evocative and depressing [The story of Porky/Pokey is goddamn heartbreaking], Mother 2/EarthBound has its own charms. It has cults trying to paint the world blue [based on the actual Aum Shinrikyo Cult of 90s Japan], it has deep roots in our actual world. It’s our world, and all of its sadness, seen through the eyes of a child.

pokey_giygas_wallpaper_by_doctor_g-d33rc00

[Accurate] fan art of Porky/Gigyas.

He frequently gets homesick [call home to prevent it], which is a real status ailment in the game. It’s a dark world and pulls no punches. The ending of the game is so sad it’s borderline physically painful to watch. But the tears in this game are also of joy, happiness, worry. Sure, Mother 3 is far more evocative and depressing [The story of Porky/Pokey is goddamn heartbreaking], Mother 2/EarthBound has its own charms. It has cults trying to paint the world blue [based on the actual Aum Shinrikyo Cult of 90s Japan], it has deep roots in our actual world. It’s our world, and all of its sadness, seen through the eyes of a child.

EarthBound - 3 Summers

Visit beaautiful [expensive] Summers!

The gameplay’s very simple. Your enemies are out in the world, and if you get the drop on them, A green swirl fills the screen and your party goes first. Otherwise, if they get the drop on you, it’s a red swirl and they go first. Otherwise, it’s left up to initiative/speed. You attack, use items, defend, use psychic powers in lieu of magic. One of the most interesting things though is that the HP rolls on a wheel, and if you take mortal damage [and you will. A lot] you can get through the exp screen with as low as 1 hp and still survive. Hell, there are enemies that do mortal/critical damage every time they die, and you feel the need to rush and mash buttons to get through without dying. Most of the time, it’s easier to just avoid these fights.

EarthBound 8 - Territorial Oak

It looks peaceful, but it’s about to explode; literally!

Scroll them off screen, wait, then scroll back up to see if RNG reset them. This is one of the most frustrating things about the game, winning a fight, then losing because you’re slightly low on HP and the enemy explodes. And you will spend a lot of time grinding, which is one of the major downsides of the game. Luckily there are useful creature comforts: Calling a business to pick up your items like key items you don’t need, ordering pizzas [but first you have to visit the pizza parlor, only to find out they don’t do in-house, only delivery], calling your dad to save the game, calling mom to prevent homesickness… wow, now that I think about it, those are pretty damn annoying too. But it is true to the theme of the game. I appreciate that.

Earthbound 5 - Shopping

Your inventory will almost always be full..

You will spend a lot of time exping, and dying. Dying’s the worst because resurrection items are rare, expensive, and most of the time you’re going to have to find a hospital, which means leaving the dungeon/wilderness and going into town. There are exceptions, like Saturn Valley where it’s free, but that’s seldom found as well. The difficulty curves with no warning and there will be times when suddenly one of your most powerful team members is out of commission/unable to be used, making the game far more challenging [RE: Fourside Mall]. The story is incredible, and the gameplay is solid. It’s charming and without a doubt, a story worth telling. But there are huge slow gaps, where you are just leveling, walking places, or completing really annoying gameplay. I think the most frustrating parts are the Fourside Mall, or Dusty Dunes mines, where you fight five bosses in one series of caves. You’ll likely have to leave at least once to heal. The status ailments are infuriating, and happen more often than you’d like. That means over-level to use PSI Heal or carry tons of items. There are repeated parts of the game that are just a slog, then the difficulty spikes, and hair is pulled out.

EarthBound 7 - Mall Stuff

Hope you’re prepared, cause this mall will kick your ass.

The story is incredible, and the gameplay is solid. It’s charming and without a doubt, a story worth telling. But there are huge slow gaps, where you are just leveling, walking places, or completing really annoying gameplay. I think the most frustrating parts are the Fourside Mall, or Dusty Dunes mines, where you fight five bosses in one series of caves. You’ll likely have to leave at least once to heal. The status ailments are infuriating, and happen more often than you’d like. That means over-level to use PSI Heal or carry tons of items. There are repeated parts of the game that are just a slog, then the difficulty spikes, and hair is pulled out.

Say Fuzzle Pickles/Cheese Sandwich: 4/5

Earthbound: War Against Giygas

War never changes.

EarthBound/Mother 2 holds up after all this time. It’s repetitive at times, frustrating at others, but is couched in a delightful story, one that’s without a doubt well told. You meet a wacky cast of characters, many of which hide evil intentions behind a quaint smile. That’s the beautiful thing about EarthBound, nothing is what it seems. You see the world in a pretty fantastic way, through the eyes of a child, and it’s definitely a child of its era. This is the 80s/90s encapsulated in a cartridge. Everything that can go wrong will. It’s a Lovecraftian world bordering on the end-times, but it’s colored like a child’s coloring book, all bright yellows and greens. The gameplay’s a bit on the easy side, but that’s marred by the frustrating boss fights that can one-shot you if you aren’t completely prepared. It looks childlike, but it’s anything but. EarthBound is a unique game, and Mother 1 and 3 don’t compare at all. No other game compares. There are lots of wonderful and sad stories hiding under the surface for someone willing to look. Possibly the greatest [one that heads into Mother 3 for it’s most depressing bit] is someone whom you think is your best buddy is a liar and betrays you, repeatedly. That hurts, and it will feel familiar to a lot of folks. It’s one of my favorite games of all. In a time when I didn’t have many friends, and I felt like there was nothing to look forward to, Earthbound gave me that. It wasn’t without its deep flaws, but it made up for those in charm and skillful storytelling. EarthBound taught me that while yes, the world can be a terrible place [and it was for me then], things can get better. Things do get better. All you can do is keep walking forward down that road, believe in yourself, and your friends. That’s probably not the intended message, but it’s one I took away from it.

 

 

DOTA 2 Card Is Working on a Card Game

by Jason Parker [Ragachak]

DOTA 2 Card Game -Artifact

We’re awash in a sea of Children’s Trading Cards. Magic the Gathering, Hand of the Gods, Duelyst, Hearthstone . . . Some of these are similar to another. Hell, Pokemon has a CCG in a digital format! And I’ve played most every competitive card game there is to play. I owned a deck in middle school for Wyvern [bet most of you have never even heard of it]. Pathfinder Duels, Elder Scrolls, damnit, what’s a guy supposed to do? The answer is: Get bogged down in the swamp, because another is on the way, one we know even less about. Valve, during the DOTA 2 “The International”, their big esports tournament for possibly the hardest MOBA in the world, that they have a spin-off game coming: Artifact.  Artifact is going to be a card game version of DOTA 2. The current word is that it will include creating lanes, barracks, creep, stuff like that. So is this just going to be a version of DOTA without BMing and people AFKing? Because that’s something I could get behind. Now we can’t assume it’s a digital game because even League of Legends and Orcs Must Die have physical board games. But … it’s going to be digital, I’m pretty positive of this. It’s just easier. But I still have questions! What heroes/villains will be represented? There are over 100, and some of them are Gods, Kings, etc. Who is in charge? How will they balance it? DOTA 2 is a world where “When everyone is OP, noone is OP” at least in theory.  Are there a few I’d potentially like to see? Of course! But if this is a spin-off, it might not even feature them as “playable”. Maybe you simply run the base! Oh man, the speculation meter is off the charts. We have just a thirty-second video that has the logo [and that’s it], and some rumors right now. As we get more, you’ll get more. But do you have any thoughts? Let me know below!

Foxhole Pre-Alpha Impressions

by Jason Parker [Ragachak]

Every game with a World War I/II feeling has to be a shooter. It’s practically law. They’re almost always first person shooters and typically feel the same. But Foxhole has taken the feel of WWI/II armaments/combat and put it in their own world. It’s a strange, exciting timeline within a persistent world strategy MMO. You have two factions which you may choose from when loading into a map. The goal is to defeat the other side by taking over their City Halls and important buildings, destroying them and rebuilding them in your image. This isn’t one of those games where it’s like 10 on 10 and the battle lasts for about a half hour and that’s it. No, no no. We’re talking hundreds on hundreds, and I can see these battles going on for a week or so. What I sincerely love is it’s not all just combat. This isn’t a game aimed at the folks that just want to kill and that’s it. You can’t keep a war effort going without supplies, without rebuilding/reinforcing structures, constructing sandbags/foxholes, and making sure the army is supplied with medkits, guns, bullets. And tanks. Did I mention tanks yet? Because you can drive tanks and shoot the crap out of people.

Foxhole Nightime Battle Screenshot

But you can’t do it alone. Like in an actual war, you have to have other folks in the vehicles with you: copilots, gunners, even those just tagging along to get to the front line faster. When I was in the pre-alpha working with one of their developers [Adam], we were surrounded by other players working together in voice and type chat, planning and strategizing. We were one army, bound together by blood and fire. This isn’t going to be a cakewalk either because I need to point out one thing: there is friendly fire. If you shoot somewhere and an ally is there? They get shot. Are you standing in a road or on a bridge and a group of your compatriots are driving a tank? If you can’t move fast enough, you’re going to get squished. I had a few moments where it was “run into the Green Ash or get flattened by an ally tank.” I took the gas because I’m not a chump. Green Ash is a type of chemical warfare; think of it as their version of Mustard Gas. You’re going to die, probably a lot. Whether it’s from your own friends, an enemy lurking in the grass, or launching a mortar from a distance . . . it’s going to happen. That’s another reason supplies are so important: if you want to respawn at the closest Town Hall to the fight, you have to use supplies. People have to be gathering them and putting things in place.

Foxhole Wall Building Screenshot

That’s one of the things I loved so much about Foxhole: people were doing more than just fighting. Sure, there’s fighting to be done, but the technology lets you do so much more. Want to help lead and be tactical, but aren’t about going into battle? Get a radio, learn about where the major sources of the enemy are together and plan strikes. Keep your gas mask on hand, have a few guns, maybe a medkit, but you’ll stay in the base and out of sight, coordinating with your team. And there are thousands playing this right now, all pumped for it. People willing to be led, willing to lead.

You can’t see everyone all the time. If they’d ideally be hidden in tall grass, behind a car, behind a wall, you can’t see them. They don’t die in one bullet. It’s a top-down/isometric style game. You can’t carry infinite amounts of stuff [you can be slowed/overburdened by supplies] and you can’t always just respawn and run back to the fight. If you get tired of a war and feel like it’s going to be a loss, you can leave and find another battle to fight in. But you have to build everything. From the massive tanks to bunkers/pillboxes, you have to work together to get this stuff built. Once you have a blueprint in place, others can help you put work into it, but you should take care that the enemy can’t see you building, so they don’t bomb or break it. With the right artillery, they can destroy the stone bridges that lead to their base, slowing you down quite a bit. The way the game works is very simple: you equip a hammer to build things, press a button to call up the list of things capable of being built, and if you have the supplies, you get to work! Sure you just spam LMB, but that way you don’t have to be some kind of architect/mechanical genius to actually craft vehicles. If you’re using a mortar, you have to have someone spotting for you. Foxhole is the most intense team game I’ve ever played. I loved every minute of it though.

Foxhole Sandy Battle Screenshot

And the best part to me? When you play in the Campaign Mode, all the maps are one gigantic map. Normally it takes about a half hour to run from one side of a map to another, more or less. In campaign mode, you can get to the end of one map and start another one, so you can halt the supply line on this map, and slow down an offensive maneuver that way on the connected maps. It’s leveled upon levels! This is a game that I could get a bunch of my tactically-minded friends together for a session over, play for an hour or so and really get something potentially accomplished. It was amazing to hear everyone working together on comms. There was virtually no toxicity, even when we were pinned down, practically surrounded by mobile artillery, being bombed non-stop. We just had to try and pull back and figure out a way out of the mess [the solution were sticky bombs and long-range rifles. They ran out of ammo eventually and it was our turn to strike.] There’s a lot still to be announced for Foxhole, and there are things I’d personally think would make it crazier still. Aerial Technology, maybe a third faction, submersibles/swimming. Nothing major or modern, because I love the early 20th-century architecture and mechanics. If you love real-time strategy and want something fresh and exciting, Foxhole’s where you need to be. There’s something for every kind of player, and I cannot see it getting stale anytime soon.

Foxhole is now available in early access! Find it now on Steam.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Review – From Alpha to Now

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Solstice Chronicles: MIA is a twin-stick shooter from Ironward, set in the same universe as their game The Red Solstice. Though I did not play any of their other titles, I definitely enjoyed what I experienced in this game. It’s a game that absolutely refuses to hold your hand, even on lower difficulties [except possibly the lowest one; didn’t try that one, just the harder ones]. It does offer a few minor tutorial screens, thankfully. The challenge is strong but warranted, but I do have some gripes and complaints that I plan to address. This is also a game I feel deserves some online play – something it currently lacks. The terror that a player feels when traversing these impossibly dark, empty areas could be way more entertaining with a friend. Quite a bit has changed from when I played this in the closed/technical alpha of the game, as far as game mechanics go anyway.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Screenshot

The actual game has remained the same as far as I can tell, but that’s fine! The game was already good. It just needed some solid menus [or rather, menus at all], to not crash everytime I died, or to not let me save. This game also now has difficulty levels! From Recruit [easiest, minimal enemy resistance] to Aetriden [the best of the best, the most badass man in space], but anything over Recruit is going to be a challenge unless you are truly godlike at twin-stick survival. If that’s not enough, beat the game and you get “MERCS” difficulty. These difficulties appear on Survival and Story Mode. The higher the difficulty, the more Stars you get at the end of a level. The more stars, the more skill points you get. High risk, high reward.

When I did the 6.0 GB update so I could play the full game, I still expected to be a nightmarish Hell where if you die you start all over again, because that’s what happened to me in the Alpha. It was an unforgiving wasteland, and James Cameron only dreams he could create that much fear with his aliens as Ironward did. That’s the big story point though: you are a space marine, trapped behind enemy lines, with hordes of zombies, aliens, and monsters barring your path. Your only ally is a robotic drone who teaches you the few things it can and tries to help you survive. It can upgrade as the game progresses, which will give it useful powers. These powers almost all come with a cost though. I think the only one that doesn’t have an actual major downside was “Taunt,” which lowers your Threat Level [which I will get to very soon]. The other powers, the longer you use them, the more your threat goes up. It seems to be incredibly overpowered until you consider the cost.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Screenshot

For example, the drone has a bomb. It activates and the longer you wait, the bigger the radius gets. You can get caught in it and explode, killing you. I use it in some of the more stressful boss fights, but one blast is not enough. It has a cooldown but did obliterate the waves of annoying monsters that were chasing me around that dim, dismal room. You can also send your robot friend off to get you supplies [AMMO. BEAUTIFUL AMMO] but the longer you send it away, the higher the threat level grows, so be wary of that and try to only use it when you are at low threat, and there are no more enemies spawning to fight you. You can also have it guard/defend you at the same cost. That drone has a personality, is quite pleasant, and only wants you to survive and get to civilization again. It becomes less of an OP Killing Machine and more of the only real check and balance you have against the endless hordes. Sure, you have tons of guns [tons of damn guns], cool grenades, auto-turrets, flares to light your way, but when you are out of grenades, have no resources for the turret, and you just fought your way through waves of foes, what do you do? You get that helpful Drone to get you ammo and get back to the fighting.

So I’ve mentioned “Threat Level” a few times. What exactly is it, anyway? It’s a bar at the top of your screen, and it’s a very clear indicator of how boned you are at any particular moment. When it’s at the far left and reads “Low,” you’ll get a few aliens here and there, nothing terrifying. They will occasionally come behind you and other than the bare lights in the game, they won’t likely be seen until they are right on you. More often than not, they’ll come from where you need to go. The farther the bar goes into the red and toward the right, the more intense the encounter will be. Enemies will come in waves, and as you mow them down, the bar will deplete more and more – but it takes time, and I hope you have the bullets for it. If it gets to “Extreme Threat!” then you know it’s really going down. You’re going to see the bigger, more ferocious aliens/demons/monsters, the kind that can exhale and summon more zombies from the ground below you. I advise against advancing too far in the higher threat modes: just find somewhere safe with a wall behind you and obliterate those enemies! You have a melee attack in the most dire of situations and a brief dash, but it’s really down to you and the bullets.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Screenshot

Speaking of bullets, there is a bevy of guns, from pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, and even flamethrowers. Guns level as you kill more enemies with them, which makes them more and more useful. This was something that was unclear, and brings me to a point: while this game is not big on help, it should at least have tooltips. At least on a controller, I have no idea how to show tooltips because there is no “button” for it. That’s one of the few things this game needs, it needs tool tips for the skills and guns in the character improvement menu. As you play, you gain skill points that you can invest into your suit of battle armor, the character in general, etc. You have three choices, and each of those has a host of skills/weapons to improve, but you have no real idea what they improve, which is a serious detriment. Out of all the guns I’ve encountered, the best one to me was the Flamethrower. It has no ammo, but it has a stamina meter. The longer you hold the trigger, the weaker it gets, so I get that initial huge burst of deadly flame, hold back, and do it again. That and the pistol are my go-to. You have a wider burst arc/faster shot with the other guns, but they’re less precise. You have an arc that bullets can go through, and the farther away you are, the less likely you are to hit. You can activate auto-aim, but it has a timer and can be toggled on/off as needed [until it runs out].

Story Mode is pretty self-explanatory. You proceed through the levels without a minimap and with only minimal light to see by. You have a flashlight, some flares [maybe] and the occasional lighting of these factories and buildings. At the end of a stage, you can replay, quit, or move on. At certain points, it will get increasingly harder with the Threat Level amping up, and at the end, it tends to have a horrifically difficult boss fight attached to it. You also have a few lives at least! It comes in the form of “Suit Integrity,” which is not healed by med kits. Each time you die, you can hold a button to auto-resurrect, which takes some of your suits integrity but gets you back in the fight. You can also unlock a new combat suit, the Terminator, but only after you beat the game on Soldier Difficulty [second difficulty]. It’s the most powerful, but the weaker the suits integrity is, the weaker his skills are. Survival Mode only has one map right now. It’s a simple premise: Survive, Escape. You must find out how to power the area you’re in. Then you have to turn on four terminals and get out, but there are constant waves of infuriating monsters, structures to build, and phases to go through. There’s a “safer” Evac phase, which you need to do because that’s how you get your exp in this mode. That and surviving, that’s key. I’m so bad at this mode, but I love it anyway. I’m more interested in the Story Mode, that’s my kind of challenge. You have to figure out where to set up your defenses in the dark, and hold up there and defeat as many foes as you can. It’s rough, unforgiving, and brutal. But that’s what makes it shine.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Screenshot

Alone in the Dark: 4/5 (Great)

Solstice Chronicles: MIA is Nintendo Hard. This is probably the highest compliment I can give. The harder the difficulty, the greater steps this game will take to stomp on your spine, pull it out, and also eat it. The premise is simple but is also terrifyingly frustrating. It is not revolutionary by any standard; this is a game you’ve no doubt played before on a plethora of platforms. It’s a love letter to my childhood, games that made me weep with anger but kept me coming back anyway. It’s hard to judge the graphics because the whole game is so damn dark, but the cutscenes are fantastic. It’s not supposed to be a graphical powerhouse. It’s supposed to be hard to see, that’s part of the charm. There are a few things I need more of in the game. First, online multiplayer. It doesn’t need a PVP arena [that also has PVE enemies] but it would be amazing. Second, more Survival Stages are a must, and I’m sure they’ll come about. Overall, as I said it’s simple, but it is doing what it sets out to do exquisitely.

 

Solstice Chronicles: MIA Screenshots

MU Origin Mobile Review

By: Ojogo

 

MuOrigin-Preview01

There’s been a lot of revivals lately of old early 2000s online games. Of course the majority of them are mobile ports rather than rehashing the same thing again on PC. Some of the most notable examples include MapleStory and Ragnarok Online getting their second wind on the mobile platform, despite their PC presence still going strong. Now Webzen has thrown their hat into the ring, attempting to take the growing mobile MMORPG market by storm with MU Origins.

 

MuOrigin-Preview02

Disclaimer

MU Origins takes place on the world MU Online established on the surface. Before I continue with the review, I must admit that I’ve had no prior in-depth experience with MU Online. I was just a casual observer in the computer cafes when people have played the game religiously (and they would often just sleep/camp overnight to play the game). So don’t expect a deep, blow-by-blow differentiation from MU Online here. Though on a positive note, from what I can tell the mobile adaption is strikingly close to capturing the exact magic present in the PC edition.

 

MuOrigin-Preview03
Gameplay

Moving forward, MU Origins has all the staples of what you’d expect from a mobile MMORPG. Character control is relegated to a virtual direction stick on the lower left side of the screen. Active skills and normal attacks are accessible on the streamlined right side of the game screen. You’d have the various game modes also accessible within the upper portion of the screen. And you have a minimap (of sorts) on the upper right side. Character information is seen on the upper left side of the screen and tapping on your character’s portrait enables you to see a more in-depth run-down of your character’s stats, attributes and points allocated.

Character creation on the other hand allows you to choose from three classes which are the Dark Wizard, Dark Knight and Elf class. These classes are basically your mage, knight and archer classes found in the normal MMORPG archetype spectrum so don’t expect anything fancy here.

MuOrigin-Preview06

The various game modes that you can get into in MU Origins include arena, event and dungeon battles. Each area has its own set of instanced maps that you can fight either in PvP or PvE Battles. Thankfully, MU Origins does away with the standard mobile energy system so you won’t have to worry much about marathon playing until you are disqualified from enjoying anything in Mu for the rest of the day. However to avoid burn-out they have implemented a daily cap on entering events and dungeons to keep you wanting more, and force you to experience the rest the game has to offer in the meantime.

MU Origins also adopts the automatic battle and travel system you’d often see in mobile games of this scale. With just a flick of the finger, you can have your character travel through maps, battle monsters, and get back to turn in quests. On that note, questing is the run-of-the-mill gather and kill quests. As I said before, this game captures the essence of the original game, from an era when questing diversity was not so common.

 

MuOrigin-Preview08

Visuals

The one thing that’s prominent with MU Origin is that it retains the dated look MU Online was known for. The mobile platform thankfully denies you to see the game in its full “glory”. Since there are tons of F2P mobile games out there that don’t look as dated as MU Origin does.

But then, the game doesn’t really hide that fact since you can see the game as what it is on the preview store and website. So it’s not like you’re getting lured in by sexy pictures that don’t reflect the actual gameplay. Plus I’m sure there’s quite a few players that will get nostalgic over the look and feel of their old friend.

 

MuOrigin-Preview12

Character Development

So moving along, let’s talk about the game’s visuals. We’ll focus now on what MU Origins stuck with from MU Online that can make someone interested in playing the game. Character development shines.

MU Origins follows the typical leveling system you’d find in MMOS with the exception of the rebirth system that allows you to unlock higher tiers of your character. With the game’s automated battling and travel system it makes the level grind less intense. You can actually leave the game running as you go through your daily tasks and just get back into the game at a more convenient time to experience your newfound power hands-on.

MuOrigin-Preview13

Another cool thing that MU Origins retained is the emphasis on the wings your character gets. This adds another dimension in the areas of increasing your character’s stats. In fact you can also increase the star rarity of your wings (and your other equipment too) by investing currency and ingredients to make it stronger.

 

MuOrigin-Preview07

World Bosses, Events

If there’s one thing that stands out as my most memorable experience in MU Origins, it would have to be the world boss and world events Webzen throws at you. The world boss encounters can hold their own against a decent sized group for quite some time. Meanwhile the lower tier world bosses make an ideal auto-play hotspot due to the extensive time it takes your character to solo one.

The events on the other hand will test your skill in the game as you slaughter your way through as fast as you can. They’re a great opportunity to turn the auto-questing off to showcase your power! The awards for both encounters are too good to pass up, so you’d be doing a lot of them as you play through the game.

 

MuOrigin-Preview14

Conclusion: Good

My MU Origin experience is a nice throwback to the early 2000s of MMO gaming with the dated graphics, almost mind-numbing quest/level grinding and the downright basic gameplay and story build-up. It’s a good nostalgia trip for those looking to remember the good ol’ days of gaming with the convenience of the modern automated quest and navigation tracking.

With that said however, the game doesn’t hold much in terms of the more modern games we have these days. The visuals alone can really turn you off, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to games that have a certain visual flair. Gameplay-wise, MU Origin can hold its own with its fast-paced kill happy action combat. Essentially this game isn’t for everyone, but if you’re the group its targeting, this game can be awesome.
On that note, the enduring fanbase of MU Online should go crazy for MU Origin. However MU Origin may need some additional updates to capture the imagination of newer players to the genre lacking that nostalgic feel for this classic.