Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk (3DS) Review

Ten years ago, the first Jake Hunter hit the US on the DS.  At that point, I had recently played Phoenix Wright, which started steering me into visual novel territory.  Since I like crime dramas, it seemed like a natural game to play.  I really enjoyed it, but didn't pick up the second release.  Partially because I was indignant that it was just a better version of the one I had already bought, and partially because I had a young child at that time, so I had no money.

Flash forward to 2018, and we are finally seeing another Jake Hunter released.  Ghost of the Dusk collects five different cases, plus an extra.  Each case is a separate story, with only a small handful of characters appearing among them.  Most times you will be playing as the titular character, Jake Hunter, but on a few rare occasions you will take up the mantle of his equally-capable-if-not-moreso assistant Yulia.  They are usually assisted by Jake's cop buddy Scott Kingsley, affectionately called King.

The game is pretty much a visual novel, but without the routes.  There are choices to make, but you can't really make the wrong ones.  This will keep some people from the game, but it shouldn't.  The stories and characters are interesting.  There are many times when you have to move to a different location, talk to various people, and even investigate suspicious scenes.  It works fairly well, but there were a few things that were either strange or rubbed me the wrong way.

First, there are many times when you must talk to people several times in a row.  For some reason, you have to select talk and pick the person again.  I understand doing this when there are multiple people, and Jake switches who he is talking to, but many times it's just the same person.  I guess it's nice if you want to examine something in between lines, but it feels a little strange.  Sometimes instead of speaking to a person, you have to "examine" them to move the story forward.  There are times this makes sense, and times it doesn't.

The examination scenes are the ones that sometimes frustrated me.  You have a small scene, and move the eyeglass around, pressing the button to see what's there.  Some things are obvious, plus the cursor changes to blue, but there were several times when I couldn't proceed.  I was missing the correct pixel to check.  It's not like the game highlights things of interest, so at that point it's just trial and error, clicking around various places on the small screen, hoping it's the slightly different message that allows you to finish and move forward with the story.

Another problem I had was with the text.  The main case had a rash of typos.  Strangely, they weren't anywhere near as prevalent in the other cases.  What they did all share were boxes of text that would be skipped through.  Sometimes, pressing the button to advance the dialogue would quickly dash through the box that was supposed to come up, and move onto the next.  It was easy enough to scroll back and read it, but that's a bad issue to have in a text-heavy game.  I'm pretty sure it's not my system, either.

While I didn't have a problem with this next point, the game is also localized, instead of just translated.  That means Jake and company talk in detective jargon, and the character names are fairly Westernized.  Personally, I like that, since it helps me keep the characters straight.  It will be a turn off to some people, though.

Ghost of the Dusk is the main case, and as such, lasts the longest.  It took me around 9 hours to go through it.  The four sub-cases were shorter, each lasting around 2 hours.  The final, extra case was much shorter, clocking in at about 30 minutes.  That one has a tiny alternate route, but it's little more than text and a riddle.  Still, the total play time clocks in at under 20 hours.  Since the game is linear, there's not much replay value.  Even if you miss the hidden passwords while going through the cases the first time, you can type them in to gain access.  I like that you aren't forced to replay just for some of the game's extras.

While Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of Dusk is short, the cases and characters are interesting.  The game isn't perfect, and it's not the longest investment of time, but it's well worth playing if you are a fan of visual novels, or detective stories.  Then, hopefully someday we will have the other games/cases translated, too.


The Good:
One main and four sub-cases with interesting stories and characters.

The Bad:
The game's linear flow hits a few distracting bumps.

The SaHD:
I know that the art style for each case is a little different, but Yulia's look varies a lot.  I didn't even realize it was her when I started the second case.

(Review code for Jake Hunter: Ghost of the Dusk was provided by the publisher)

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (3DS) Review

Following in the storied tradition of re-releases, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey now has a Redux. This release sees a new playable character, new endings, a new multi-level dungeon, some new story scenes, new monsters and some updated elements, such as UI changes.  Sounds nice, but admittedly it's a little lost on me.  I have not played the previous release, so I won't be as privy to these changes.  I do appreciate the added content.

Although part of the SMT series, Strange Journey is a spin-off, much like Nocturne. As such, it plays very similarly to the core games, but with a few differences. You still have demons in your party, and must recruit and fuse them to gain more. Like Nocturne, your main character is also a party member. While having a steady battle participant is good, it also means that having him incapacitated can mean game over.

I actually had that happen a few times. The random aspects of battle has that effect. Fights range from simple affairs too winning by the skin of your teeth. It really depends on how many enemies appear, and if they decide to spam certain techniques.  I can tolerate that, but it's far from ideal for my playstyle.  Later on there is an app that prevents game over from losing the main character in battle, which I understand is one of the new additions to Redux.  That's a good change!

Winning a fight gives experience, but it seems relative to the strength of the opponent.  This means grinding isn't that effective, which is an odd choice for a dungeon crawling-centric game.  Another big gripe I have with the game is the stat gain from leveling up.  It's random.  I'm very much against that idea.  Supposedly your random gains will favor whatever support you got from the opening personality quiz, but again, it's random.  While I'm mentioning it, I'm not really a fan of quizzes like that, either.  Just let me pick my focus instead of arbitrarily assigning me one based off vague answers to silly questions.  Or better yet, let me distribute my own stats!

In some cases, recruiting demons is easier than previous SMT game I've played.  Their speech and corresponding answers make more sense than they have (to me) in past games.  However, there are some cases where it is a lot harder.  Demons have alignments.  If they are a similar alignment to your main character, you may be able to recover from a wrong answer, or refuse more demon requests before negotiations break down.  On the flip side, opposing alignments won't even talk to you.  That seems a bit harsh.  Later in the game, there are some ways to get a tiny chance for them to join, but it's still far from ideal.  One step forward, one step back.

As mentioned before, you can fuse demons in your party to create new ones.  This feels very similar to previous SMT games.  You can pass on a skill or two, but the resulting demon has set skills and stats.  You can also pay money to re-summon any demon you have previously recruited. It's expensive, but occasionally worth it.  It's a good system for passing on skills, and filling out your demon book, but the fact that the resulting demon always starts at a set level with their own stats means it doesn't always help you move forward.  If you give up two level 10 demons, and they make a level 7, you are down in both power and numbers.  Choosing when and who to fuse is a skill, and not one I have mastered.

You can choose to pass on certain skills with demon sources, but after the first of each, you have to get lucky to get more.  I'm not a fan of that, nor of having the main character's skills based off his gun, with a few from apps.  Since they were updating features, it seems like there were a few that could have been made to skills and demon fusing to make it more player-friendly.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux was still kind of fun, despite the personal issues I have with the game.  If you really enjoyed the previous release, there is enough new content to bring people back for another helping.  If you were interested before, but didn't play it yet, this seems to be the definitive edition.  Might as well get this release instead.  People more familiar with the later Persona/SMT games should probably stick to those.

The Good:
New content and some good changes likely make this the superior release of the game.

The Bad:
Too much random stuff for my tastes.

The SaHD:
I feel like the plot and early story developments are straight from some low-budget SciFi, sorry, SyFy movie of the week.

(Review code for Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was received from the publisher)

The Alliance Alive (3DS) Review

When I first started The Alliance Alive, I wasn't sure what to expect.  It has the same (or very similar) art style to Legend of Legacy, so I thought it was a sequel to that.  While there are some similarities, it definitely is not a sequel.  It is a turn-based RPG with an interesting world, distinct characters, and unique battles.

The backstory is this: one thousand years ago, daemons invaded the world.  They defeated the humans, and separated them into different realms with the Dark Current.  I think it's a very interesting idea for a world.  The story is well told, and there is just the right amount of dialogue.  Cut-scenes can be paused or sped through, which is always a plus for me.  In the beginning, you will switch parties a few times, which introduces the characters.  I really like how these separate stories intertwine for the first few hours.  The story is pretty linear, but it does open up more after 10-15 hours.  There are even a few times where you have more direct control over what part to tackle next.

Battles are turn-based, and you select each character's action at the start of the round.  Characters can equip 2 different weapons/shields, and each has their own set of associated skills.  They can only defend if they have a shield equipped, and can only use an item if it or an item bag is equipped in one of the accessory slots.  Sorcery spells (more attack focused) can only be used by certain characters, while Signimancy (more heal/support focused) can be used by the others if they have special items equipped.  Skills take a certain amount of SP to use.  SP is normally gained back at a rate of 1 per turn, but this can be increased with passive skills.  Combat seems pretty simple at first, but is pretty involved as you dive into the systems.  Once I figured out that using a shield in the front in defensive stance can block for the whole party, I understood a great battle plan, and I like it.

If you take enough damage in battle, you will enter ignition mode.  This makes you a bit stronger, but also allows access to your weapon's ignition attack.  These attacks are powerful, but break the weapon.  Can you guess why I barely use them?  The broken weapons can be repaired at the blacksmith guild, or at an inn after a certain point in the game, but it's still not something I would use except to finish a boss fight.  There is a way to use sorcery for a cheap one, but I still rarely actually used the ignition attacks.  Decent idea, but the downside is too great for me to actually use it more than a scant few times.

Damage your party receives can be pretty high, but that's because HP is usually completely restored after battle.  While this works well for normal enemy fights, it can be a huge detriment if you fight a strong enemy that can hit your whole party.  After 45 hours I still don't have a whole party heal, so one strong attack that hits them all can wipe out one or more characters.  For better or worse, that's the only difficulty I have in combat with my current set-up.  Liberal use of the quick save slot is recommended.

If a character runs out of HP in a fight, their maximum HP is temporarily reduced.  This can be fixed with items, or by staying at an inn.  Getting hit by an attack while you are incapacitated or retreating will also lower your max HP.  If a character's max HP becomes zero, it's another game over.  Even though the lowered max HP is temporary, I don't really like the whole idea.  It's also worth noting that there are no resurrection spells because just a normal heal spell will bring the character back, but with lowered max HP.  Being able to just cast a heal spell to resurrect is nice, so I can put up with the lowered max HP for a bit.

So how do you increase your max HP?  There is no experience system for combat (which may break one of the RPG rules, but I digress), but instead a random chance to increase your max HP or SP at the end of every fight.  It's far from a perfect system, since my front row fighter Galil had less HP than my healer for the first few hours of the game.  It isn't a fixed chance, since there is a skill that increases it, and it seems to increase more often when fighting stronger foes.  Still, there are times that your character choice is more restricted, so it is beneficial to try to cycle in lesser-used characters and hope to increase their HP and SP.

Since there are no levels for characters to gain, there are only two ways to get stronger.  First is your equipment.  The weapons and armor you wear will be the primary way that you deal more damage and reduce what you take.  Past that, all the skills you use in battle have their own level of effect in one of three areas: attack, defense, and support.  Depending on your stance in the formation (I promise that is easier to understand when you are actually playing), you have a chance to increase the corresponding potency of a skill with every use.  Damage dealing skills get stronger as the attack level rises, guarding techniques are better with higher defense levels, and you can heal more with higher support levels.  The game does tell you this, but only randomly, and probably well after you would like to know about it.  For the most part, my characters got stronger as the game progressed, but it was gradual.  I thought I would miss the lack of leveling up, but I really didn't.

For passive skills, there is a robust talent system.  Talent points are earned at the successful completion of a battle.  These points are then used for a myriad of skills, like increasing the chance of increasing HP or SP after battle, or increasing the sale price of items.  The ones I like best reduce the SP cost of weapon skills.  Couple it with the skills that give more SP per turn, and you can use stronger and stronger techniques more often.  The best part is every party member gets the same amount of talent points, even if they aren't used in battle, or even acquired yet.  When a new person joins your party, they have the same total as the rest of your party.  The after battle HP and SP may make it harder to swap in characters you don't use, but at least they don't lose out on talent points.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one other aspect of the game that I enjoyed.  There are five guilds that each perform a certain function, such as blacksmithing or signimancy.  If you are close to one of the towers, they can sometimes help you in battle.  However, their better use comes later in the game.  You will meet many different people who you can recruit to these guilds.  Assigning them to a guild will help increase its level, which will give you different benefits.  Some didn't seem that good to me, but others are invaluable.  For example, the recon guild didn't look too appealing at the start, but each level up increases the amount of talent points you get from battle.  Beyond that, many of the level bonuses were actually very useful.  I loved finding all the people I could to recruit for the guilds, often going back to towns to see if I missed anyone, or if someone new showed up.  While you can find a lot of them, I'm sure a guide would be best to track them all down.

While there are a few aspects of The Alliance Alive that I don't like, overall I enjoyed the game a lot.  I played it when ever I had a few minutes to spare, and had a hard time putting it down.  I would heartily recommend it to all RPG fans.


The Good:
Fun RPG with interesting world/characters, and several unique systems.

The Bad:
HP/SP gain is random, people you don't use can fall behind easily.  Attacks that hit multiple team members can be absurdly over-powered.

The SaHD:
I really could have done without the little "x" on the back of the snow bunny, and...the other things it looks like they put there.  I guess it's a male?

(Review code for The Alliance Alive was received from the publisher)

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (3DS) Review

I love good time travel in stories, but most don't do it justice.  So when I heard about Radiant Historia, I was anxious to try it.  It came out at a time when I could reliably play my DS at work on breaks and lunch (at a well-known first-party video game compaNy), and I was hooked.  I spent 50 hours on it, and finished all the history nodes.  The Perfect Chronology release on the 3DS will let others experience the game, but also adds some new content to entice previous players.  Among the changes are new character portraits, art CGs for certain scenes, and voice acting.

As the continent's desert spreads and arable land becomes scarce, the fighting has intensified.  Stocke must travel between two divergent timelines to end the conflict between two warring nations.  The time lines are separate, but do influence each other, so changes and progress in one can help with the other.  The time travel mechanic is very well done here, as you are allowed to jump around to many points in order to compete a quest, or advance the game.  This release sees more nodes to jump to, and a very handy "skip" function for previously viewed story scenes.  Some of these are less noticeable, especially if you played the game 6 years ago, but they are very welcome improvements.

Battles are turn-based, but based on a character's speed stat.  Your party is on the right side, and the enemies are distributed on a 3x3 grid on the left.  The bottom screen shows the battle's turn order, and where enemies are on the grid.  While this is usually obvious, this is to tell similar enemies apart, and to better spot how much space an enemy takes up.

Enemies can move on their side, but your characters have tools to move the enemies as well.  If your party members take their moves immediately after each other, it creates a combo.  If you push one enemy into another, then hit them, they will both take the damage from the attack or spell.  This is the depth of the system.  Shove the enemies around the field to stack them together, unleash stronger attacks, and conserve your MP by hitting multiple targets with fewer moves.  You can even change where in the line your character acts by trading places with an ally or enemy.  However, doing so means you will take more damage until your turn.  It's a really cool and unique system once you get the hang of it.  It makes many fights much easier.  I really like the tactical aspects of the battles in Radiant Historia.

The bulk of the new story additions (as opposed to just changes) are the Vault of Time, and Nemesia's quests.  At the start of the game, you can choose to play the game how it was originally presented, with the new stuff added at the end, or with the new content strewn throughout.  I chose to have them integrated, which I think is the better choice.  That way you can jump in and out of the extra stuff when you want some extra experience and items.  Nemesia's quests are very much like side quests in the main game.  The Vault of Time is basically there to make grinding easier, and it has some nice equipment that can save you some money.  Just remember to spend your mementos before you leave.  I like both of these additions, since I do enjoy "what if" scenarios, but they ultimately feel superfluous.

The original release took about 50 hours for full completion, and the newer release definitely adds at least a few more hours.  Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is still a great RPG with a great story and interesting combat mechanics.  There is no 3D for the game, possibly because it is a remake.  I would heartily recommend it to RPG fans that missed it the first time.  The new content is great for returning players that really liked the original and want to play it again.  If you already played it and don't want to revisit it, the new content isn't enough of a reason to.


The Good:
Solid and entertaining story, fun battle mechanics.  Time travel is done very well.

The Bad:
Money is still hard to come by in the first half of the game, and the new stuff doesn't feel that important overall.

The SaHD:
When filling out all of the bad endings, Lippti and Teo sure like to chide you for "poor" choices.  It's not bad decision making, it's completion, fools!

(Review code for Radiant Historia was received from the publisher)

Creeping Terror (3DS) Review

When a group of friends enter a creepy mansion , they end up getting a memorable experience...just not the one they hoped for.  Ultimately, they have to survive the horrors that await them in Creeping Terror, a 2-D side scrolling horror game on the Nintendo 3DS.

The game starts off pretty slow.  It sets up the story, then has you explore the underground area for a bit.  The game then picks up when you finally find hit the first enemy encounter.  I tried to run away, but my stamina drained really fast.  I walked away as I waited for it to recover, but got caught.  So, I had to mash the A Button to escape.  It appeared as though I filled the meter in time, but fell over.  Then, I had to quickly mash it again.  Like the first time, it appeared like I won, but didn't.  Game over, man.

Okay, then, time to try again.  This time I skipped the event scene, which was not a good idea.  This didn't give me any time to start moving away, and was immediately caught.  Knowing a button mashing segment was coming up, I won it.  I took off and escaped.

Most of the time, you will be walking around the different areas and finding items.  Arisa moves pretty slowly, but you can hold down the R Button to run.  When not being chased by an enemy, your stamina is infinite.  The abandoned buildings and caves Arisa explores can be very dark, but thankfully she brought her phone, which is used as a flashlight (because of course there's no reception).  Some items are usable inventory items, such as food to replenish your max stamina, a charger for your phone, and defensive items to use on the monsters.  There are also necessary keys and such for progression, and collectible notes to find.  The notes provide some nice backstory.

While you won't run into enemies constantly, it does happen.  Since there is no real way to fight back (the usable items only stall the enemy for a few seconds), you'll have to book it out of there and find a place to hide.  While you do have the time and space to run away, the hiding places aren't marked on your map.  While some would say that makes it too easy, it's not always easy to remember where they were, since the map has no real detail on it, other than a basic layout.  When I know an enemy is near, I make sure to know where the closest hiding spot it.  At least the safe rooms are properly marked.

If a monster catches Arisa, as noted before, you will have to mash the A Button to escape.  Getting caught lowers the max stamina, which then shortens the distance you can run.  Another hazard to avoid while escaping are the small piles of rubble that Arisa trips on.  To avoid this, have your phone on.  Yes, tripping while running from the monster is a horror cliche, but I give credit for making a logical reason for it to happen.

The game isn't really hard, but it's easy to get lost.  Several times I wasn't sure exactly what to do, and would just wander around until something happened.  One time I ended up triggering an event where I lost an item, and retrieving it gave me the actual item I needed.  I generally had an idea whereabouts I should look, but not always the exact place.

It only takes about 4 hours or less to get through the game, but there are a few different endings.  That's some decent replayability.  The game is short enough that you can do multiple runs without a huge time commitment.  I'd also recommend doing a playthrough in as few settings as you can manage.  This makes it much easier to remember where things are located.

While not the type of game I usually play, Creeping Terror was pretty fun.  It's a well made game that could use a few improvements (I'd really like hiding places marked on the map), but is worth playing through at least once.  It can be scary, but was less so when I figured out the tell for most enemy appearances.


The Good:
Interesting and well made horror game.

The Bad:
Easy to get lost, would like some more detail on the map.

The SaHD:
One enemy you can hide from should be able to smell you, whether or not it can see you.

(Review code for Creeping Terror was provided by the publisher)

Hyrule Warriors Legends (3DS) Review

Even though I co-reviewed the Wii U release of Hyrule Warriors, I put so much time into the 3DS release several months later that I feel I should review that too.  In an effort to not write a term paper's worth of text, I'll try to keep some things brief and concise while covering the important points.  I say this because there is a lot to talk about in Hyrule Warriors Legends, and not just the improvements and additions that the 3DS release sees.

First up, the general gameplay.  While the combat is similar to Dynasty Warriors, with weak and strong attacks, special moves (musous) and the like, there are several key differences in the land of Hyrule.  Named characters usually don't take a whole lot of damage from attacks, but instead have weak point gauges.  These are only exposed after certain attacks, and not for very long.  If you can hit them enough to drain the gauge, you will do a powerful attack to take a chunk of their health.

Large monsters will also appear in some stages.  These are barely damaged by normal attacks, and you have to almost exclusively use the weak point gauge to damage them.  True to Legend of Zelda style, each has a particular sub weapon weakness to help expose the gauge.  While it's an interesting system, I got tired of having to do it all the time.  I far prefer the more Dynasty Warrior standard of just hitting something and doing damage.  The weak point gauge relies upon RNG for enemies actually doing the attacks that expose them, making fast paced battles slow down.  I'll also mention that the new characters range from average to really good.  At least they are all better and more fun to use than Agitha.

The story mode still includes the original story that, by itself, easily takes over 20 hours with all the battling and dialogue.  It also includes Cia's story, which was DLC on the Wii U version.  If that weren't enough, it also adds a new story for Linkle, and a Windwaker story.  These three together basically double the story mode, which was already a good time sink.  There are even reasons to replay the levels, since you can earn gold skulltulas, which can eventually unlock a few bonuses.  Yeah, this replay is a bit forced, but you can forgo it entirely and just dive into Adventure Mode.

Adventure Mode is where you will spending the bulk of your time, which, considering the main story is 40+ hours, really means something.  You move around a map of the original (and awesome) Legend of Zelda, laid onto a grind, where every section is a different level.  You not only have to complete the level, but usually get a certain grade to open up the levels next to it, expanding the levels you have access to as you go.  Many levels also have some sort of treasure or unlock, either by using a certain character, or even using one of the iconic Zelda items.  These are also map rewards, but they are unfortunately consumable, so you will need to repeat stages to get more.

This mode has been re-balanced to be complete-able without much grinding.  For better or worse, the weapons have been spread around the maps more, since the base game includes several whole maps (the previous DLC ones are now included, and more DLC maps are available).  It's also great that it is a lot easier to go through the Adventure maps, since they already added 100 or so hours of content without needed to make players do a stage multiple times.  Considering the current gaming landscape, it's almost insane how much content is shoved into the base game... and I'm not complaining!  Especially since I didn't run into many Cuckoo maps, and even then they weren't near as bad as they used to be (they still do absurd damage for no reason).

The last big addition to the game is My Fairy.  Some Adventure levels have a fairy you can rescue.  Each has a default element and, when equipped, can cast a damaging magic spell that takes your magic meter.  You also find food to feed them, which levels them up, makes their spells stronger, and can change the element of the spell.  At levels 25 and 50, the spells gain added effects based on the element the fairy is at that time.  For example, fire element gives the spell an effect of lowering the defense of enemies in the area it was cast.  Plus, there are outfit pieces you can equip on the fairy that either powers up their magic, or gives you a discount in casting it.  Yes, it comes across as very Style Savvy and unnecessary, but after you get a taste of the fairy's power, you will quickly love their inclusion.  It makes getting tons of KOs very easy.

To me, the original Hyrule Warriors, while flawed, was my most played game on the Wii U.  This is no small feat considering there was a Monster Hunter released on that system, too.  The 3DS release, Hyrule Warriors Legends, is better in every way.  Yes, it lacks multiplayer, but it has been re-balanced to not need it really at all, and has a lot of small changes that really improve the experience.  The game is worth playing for Dynasty Warriors fans, but I don't think it's quite as good as those, since the weak point gauge and a few other things get tiresome after many hours.  If you had the Wii U version, I would surprisingly still recommend picking up this version, since it has all the content that game and its season pass had, plus more, for half the price of that version.  Even if you have to re-do everything, it is worth the price and time to dive back in.


The Good:
There's a ton of content in even the base game, and the adventure mode has been much better balanced.

The Bad:
Battling is still a chore if you are underleveled, and cuckoos are still dumb.

The SaHD:
Twili Midna ("Big-na", since she isn't "mid") has a perfect costume for my wife, but this game isn't 2 player, and she doesn't have that costume in the Wii U version. :(

(Hyrule Warriors Legends was purchased by the reviewer)

Ever Oasis (3DS) Review

Chaos is taking over the entire land, and only the power of the water spirits can keep it at bay.  You, as a new chieftain of the last oasis, must gather residents to help combat the coming darkness.  That's the basis for one of Nintendo's newest 3DS offerings, Ever Oasis.

First and foremost, you will be gathering different people to live at your oasis.  Sometimes you find characters in the wild, and they will agree to visit your oasis.  Sometimes they visit if you have the right shops available.  You will usually have to do some sort of small quest to have them permanently live in your oasis.  It's pretty fun for me to track them all down and do their quests.  I would have done so even if the oasis level and happiness meter weren't so critical in the game.

When a Seedling (one of the races in Ever Oasis) decides to live in your town, you can put up their specific "Bloom Booth" shop.  Doing so the first time costs Dewadems (the game's currency), but you can move them around afterwards.  There's also special items you can place that increase sales, which you can go around and collect a portion of.  This is good because you will be the one resupplying them.  You give them some specific raw items, and they make the goods and sell them each day.  It's not as time consuming as I at first thought it would be, and it's pretty fun, too.

Battle is a relatively simple affair.  You have two different attacks, but very small and limited combos (you get a few more as you level up).  Your normal attack is pretty quick, while the strong attack takes more time, but packs a bigger punch.  Some combos will knock the enemy over, which gives you a few extra seconds to hit them.  You can lock on to enemies, which is really helpful on bosses.  Many times the lock-on did give me trouble.  It also centers the camera (for players without the New 3DS), which it tended to do when I would press it to lock on to a monster.  Having to struggle with that made it much easier for me to get hit.

Your chieftain also gets a pretty decent dodge roll.  You don't seem to get much (if any) invincibility from it, but it's pretty useful nonetheless.  It was responsive, and went the direction I wanted it to, both of which are critical for in-game dodges.  Characters can also get SP moves, which you have to build up the meter for (it starts empty when you leave the oasis).  These are kind of helpful, but you get them late enough that I usually forgot about them.

Unfortunately, it is really easy to get hit in battle.  Plus, you don't seem to have any invincibility on knock down, so enemies can chain hit you to pile on the damage.  To compound this, character max HP is very, very low.  Thankfully, your oasis happiness helps out with that.  When you leave the oasis, it effectively increases your party's max HP by a lot.  Also, you can resurrect on the spot a few times depending on your oasis' level.  This helps even out the combat.  While the chunks of damage you take did bother me, I will admit I rarely died...and even more rarely used healing items.  It was usually easier to pop back to the oasis if I desperately needed to heal.  When returning, your party gets the experience for any enemies defeated, too, so it was a win/win.

There are many areas and even a few dungeons in the game.  Most have some light puzzle solving, like using a spear for a switch, turning into a ball to fit in a small hole, or using a crossbow to hit a high switch.  I like that there are several uses for different things, like weapons and skills, but it can be a pain to switch to them.  Teleporting back to the oasis isn't hard, and neither is teleporting back, but having to drag someone off the list to help you in one room can get tiresome.  It's a bigger problem as the game goes on, since you get more abilities and weapon types, for more puzzle bits.  Still, it was never enough to make me stop playing.

Ever Oasis is one of those games that takes way longer than it seems.  It's also one that I would end up playing longer than I thought I would, simply because I would get wrapped up in recruiting new people or exploring new areas.  It's not an overly hard game, though there are harder fights.  While there were a few small things that bothered me, the game was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed playing it.  I'd recommend it for action RPG fans looking for something new.


The Good:
Recruiting characters has many benefits that quickly amass.

The Bad:
You can lose your health really fast in combat.

The SaHD:
Serkah mouths are kinda creepy when they talk.

(Review code for Ever Oasis was provided by the publisher)

Mercenaries Saga 2 (3DS) Review

Mercenaries Saga 2 is a strategy RPG, much in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics.  So much so that it looks similar.  However, it isn't a copy, and if you draw inspiration from another SRPG, you might as well start at the top.

Battlefields are divided up into small squares that your character can move around on.  If you have played any other grid-based SRPGs, then you will feel right at home with the battles in Mercenaries Saga 2.  Each side takes their turn in alternating order, so being faster won't get you more turns.  Your characters can move and then take one action, be it an attack, skill, or using an item.  Unfortunately, you can't do an action first, and still have your move, like some other great SRPGs (although there is one character who can get that as a skill).

MP starts at 0, but units recover some each turn (based on their MPR stat that you can't see), so mages and healers stay useful throughout the fight.  Though, sometimes the close-range fighters struggle to gain any useful MP until late in the fight because heavy armor has a MPR penalty.  By the end of the game, you have 10 characters, but can only take 6 with you into battle (save the last two fights), meaning the later characters likely won't be used much.

At the end of each battle, all surviving characters get a portion of the obtained skill points.  These are used to buy new classes, skills, and power-up skills you already have.  It's a nice system that lets you power up any character brought into battle (and doesn't retreat), regardless of how many enemies they killed.  This is great for the healers, and helps balance out how easily the mages can destroy foes.  They will still be ahead in levels, though.

Once you reach level 10 or 20, you can class change your characters.  Each character can use all of the skills he or she has purchased, regardless of class.  Changing classes can easily be done in the menu.  You will have to re-equip their stuff, though.  Two of each character's high classes are locked until you exchange special items for them, but these will keep through playthroughs.  Overall, it's a great job class system, since you get the benefits from all your classes, and can pick whichever one you want for look or stats!

There are 32 story battles to go through, and almost as many free battles.  Each story level can be completed once per run, but the free battles can be completed as many times as you want.  I'd recommend doing most of them anyway, since you will want the extra experience, money and skill points from them.  Yes, it is grinding, but it's pretty quick, so I don't mind it.  It took me over 20 hours to get through the story mode, which included doing almost all of the free battles, too.

The game also has a very good new game+ mode.  You won't keep your levels or normal equipment, but you keep your money, skill points (although you have to re-allocate them), and magical/unique items.  If you get enough of the powerful and rare stuff, you can still power through a chunk of the game, even if your level is low.  You also unlock extra free battles and can challenge a higher difficulty once you complete the game.  Since there are two endings, it would be worth it to go through again.

Mercenaries Saga 2 is not as deep as other similar offerings (not limited to the 3DS), but is still very fun.  It offers good replayability, a great price for the content, and I would heartily recommend it to fans of grid-based strategy RPGs.


The Good:
Fun and well done SRPG with hours of content for a tiny price.  The skill and class system is pulled off very well.

The Bad:
Story is a bit bland.

The SaHD:
It can be a real pain to find the hidden weapons, so just use a guide.

(Mercenaries Saga 2 was purchased by the reviewer)

Bravely Second: The Finale (Hour 60+)

First off, since this is the end of the game, all but the end of this section is going to probably be filled with -Spoilers-, so hold off reading until you have either beat the game, or don't care.  However, I will throw in a Good, Bad and SaHD section past that, at the end, to sum it up as best I can.

-Spoilers-

I cleaned up the last summon I needed, Giratabulu, and also snagged the last side quest for the Templar job.  That extra HP should come in handy.

While a lot of stuff from the first game was recycled, not everything was.  Two of the jobs didn't come back.  The Vampire I only really miss for its passives, and the Sage job was late enough that I didn't get much time with it last game.  Even so, plenty of jobs from last time were near negated by new ones, so it seems odd to toss those two when they could have done it to add more jobs.

Speaking of the Vampire job class, there is a point where you have to go back to the castle, even if the master is gone.  I really didn't like this dungeon the second time around.  For starters, you can't raise or lower the encounter rate.  I could deal with that, but the enemies are annoying, so I want to turn them off.  There are cerberus enemies that have a very damaging counter attack, even if you miss.  There are also some chomper enemies that will poison counter any physical attacks.  Even ranged ones.  That's...a very far poison aura.  Ugh.

They also cram some extra story in this dungeon.  Personally, I thought it was kind of dumb.  They really go to great lengths to shove the new characters' backstories into previous characters' backstories, with mixed results.  Plus, and this is an extra (SPOILER) tag for you, they also undo any sympathy you might have for Janne.  They want you to feel sorry that his family was killed, but his father defended the church that caused the plague, so he's kind of an ass.  He's not much better than Yew's father, so Janne should just shut up about it.

The top culminates with a boss fight against the Yokai.  It's about time she gets her comeuppance!  Except she has a multi-hit instant death attack.  Yeah, she has balance in spades...*rolls eyes*

So after beating her, the weird pillar things spotted around the world finally have a use.  They contain the special sin monsters that power Yokai's job abilities.  Sadly, they are some of the most gimmicky fights in the game.

First was Satan, the sin of wrath.  He's a dragon.  So, the dragon sin of wrath?  Anyway, it just berserks you, and there's no item or ability to fix it.  Sucks, but I was able to power through.

Second is Lucifer.  It has a very strong counter move, but that's about it.  I was able to defeat it the first time.

Mammon, the sin of avarice (greed), just stole BP from me.  It can evidently steal stats, too, but it didn't do that to me.  Other than that it would just hit physically or use blizzaja.  It wasn't an easy fight, but it wasn't that hard, either.

Fourth I went to fight Asmodeus, the sin of lust.  Boy, is this fight terrible.  It can remove you from battle by absorbing you.  The only way to come back is for Asmodeus to do it.  Nothing else work, just waiting and hoping.  It doesn't even have to return you if the random number doesn't come up, which is crap.  If everyone is gone...game over, man.  Not fun, but I did manage to beat it on the second try, once I knew about its tricks.

I got sick of the gimmicky end game fights, and just decided to end the final boss.  So you fight Anne and kick her little...oh, wait, you probably won't the first time.  She has a skill that reduces a target's max HP to 1.  Yup, that's cheap.  The only way to fix it is to cast Undo, but you have to know that ahead of time and have the skill equipped.  I just started smashing her, with plenty of resurrection mist to go around.

So on to the final boss finally then?  The first form at least.  It has a skill that commands one character to kill another.  It's not automatic, so why should I listen to that jerk?  Oh, because if you don't, he will hit your party with just under 100,000 damage.  Fair!

Yup, another stupid gimmick for a boss fight.  I'm sensing a trend here.  Anyway, after beating that form, the second form...was surprisingly normal.  It did buff its hands, but they were pretty easy to kill so it didn't matter much.  I just attacked and healed as normal and it eventually died.  It was really refreshing to just have a normal RPG fight at the end.  Final boss destroyed at just over 70 hours!

I then decided to pick off the last three sin bosses.  First was Belphegor (sloth).  It shifts its weakness after an attack, so my usual strategy didn't work at all.  Everything that it wasn't weak to would heal it, even attacks without elements.  Yes, again, that is a dumb decision, but I still killed him after working out a battle flow.

Second was Leviathan, the sin of envy.  Boy, I don't envy people who fight this boss.  I had originally tried this fight before beating the game, and was likely the cause of me just going to beat it instead of putting up with this nonsense.  It's one of the super bosses from the town in the first game, the four snakes.  This stupid thing is the source of the multi-hit instant death attack that Yokai does.  Plus, as an added bonus, Leviathan will brave to do it multiple times in a turn.  Yeah, stupid.  I was able to get two part members immune to the death portion of it, which helped.  It eventually went down like all the others.

Last was Beelzebub (gluttony).  This fight was pretty easy, since the gimmick is one I've seen before.  Every few turns he would use the gluttony skill, which lets him absorb anything as healing.  I tried a few things, even healing him, to see what would work.  Just waiting it out is the best option.  After a few turns, he will spit acid at the party, which does very little damage if you don't attack him beforehand.  Last sin down, so the Yokai is ready to be mastered!

There were also two bonus dungeons that opened up after clearing the main story, so I decided to check them out a bit.  I could tell they were going to be annoying, so I instead spent some time to grind up jobs to get the mastery (level 11) for them.  I realized I would have to sink even more time into the game to go through with it all, and decided to call it (for now).  I wrote some notes in the 3DS' game notes section, and stopped playing just shy of 80 hours.  Fun game, but the story went on a bit too long and the gimmicky fights near the end soured some of the experience.  Good game, though, and worth playing!

-End Spoilers-

< Hour 40-60

The Good:
Most of the new jobs are really good with some great new skills.  Chain battles are fantastic, as you can grind really fast with less running in circles for battles.  Overall the game was really fun.

The Bad:
The gimmick fights near the end of the game.  The story felt like it went on for a bit too long as well.

The SaHD:
I was annoyed I didn't get my preorder costumes, but you can buy them in the game...for way too much pg.

(Bravely Second Collector's Edition was pre-ordered and purchased on release day)

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (3DS) Review

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 brings back the run and gun action of the previous game, but adds a much appreciated extra - a whole new character.  The formula is similar to last time, you pick a stage, run through it trying not to get hit, and beat the boss at the end.  Copen, the added player character, will fight the same bosses, but in a different order, giving players a different experience in his journey.

Gunvolt is an adept with lightning powers, and his abilities are near identical to those from the last game.  As such, his gun isn't his main source of damage.  It still does a tiny bit, but its main purpose it to tag enemies.  By default, he can tag up to three enemies (or even stack them on fewer targets), which will focus his lightning attack onto them.  This attack is much stronger than just using his voltage field, but that has its own uses too.  Since it is a field around him, it can destroy physical projectiles, making a useful shield.  It's also used to power occasional things in the environment.  Using his powers drains his EP meter that you can let refill slowly on its own, or press down twice to charge it up quickly (but you are open to attack during this time).

Gunvolt can also dash and jump, but cannot dash in the air without an item (bummer).  If he still has power left in his EP meter, taking a hit will drain some of that instead of doing health damage.  This is paramount to your survival in the game.  There are plenty of times where you can't avoid damage, and have to use the shield to avoid HP damage.  When he defeats some of the bosses in the game, Gunvolt gets a different shot type for his gun, which can make it easier to tag some enemies.  Lastly, Gunvolt has three SP marks in the lower left of the screen that allow him some special attacks.  The default is a strong attack, and he quickly learns a healing one.  This was very useful to me, but it is a very weak heal.  There are other SP skills he learns, but I didn't end up using any others, since I needed the heal so often.

Copen, Gunvolt's rival, is also playable in this game, and plays differently than his blue counterpart.  For starters, his gun does more damage, and is his main source of attack.  Copen also has an air dash.  However, his air dash consumes a refillable resource called Bullits.  These also power his anti-damage shield, called prevasion, like Gunvolt's.  There are a few times where I ran out of Bullits when air dashing around, causing me to fall in pits.  One of the hazards of trying to rush through a stage combined with old habits.  If you dash into an enemy, it marks them so Copen's attacks will track the target.  This is a really useful function that I discovered on accident, since I didn't see the game point it out.  It is hidden in the Help section, but I doubt I would have looked there if I didn't stumble upon it by accident.

Where Gunvolt gets different shot types from bosses, Copen can somewhat mimic their attacks.  This is yet another meter he has, but it really feels natural to me as an old Megaman player.  In addition to the nice attacks and damage they cause, Copen can still use his gun while using the boss attacks, meaning he can dish out some serious damage in short order.  It's one of the big reasons I had much more fun using Copen than Gunvolt.  The other was the difference between their prevasion shields.  Using Copen's takes away from your mobility (air dash), where Gunvolt's takes away from your attack (can't use the voltage field).  However, I had the same problem charging both of their respective meters.  Pressing down twice to charge didn't always register, regardless of which pad I used to control them.

Overall, the game wasn't too hard for me.  There were a few tricky spots, especially with Gunvolt, but I was able to persevere through them.  With Copen, I was able to dispatch all the bosses without dying, thanks in part to his playstyle and stronger heal.  Admittedly, I think the game would be better if you could dodge all the attacks the bosses have.  There are several that hit the entire screen, or enough of it to effectively do the same thing.  It goes against my Megaman/Monster Hunter instincts, but you are supposed to abuse the anti-damage shields for both characters to get through without taking damage.  Still, I'd rather all attacks be avoidable.  Especially since most bosses have cheap hits that are hard to survive even with the shield.

Gunvolt also has some RPG elements.  Killing enemies gives experience that will level you up.  Levels grant more health, so the game becomes easier as you play through it.  Also, there is equipment that you can craft.  The pieces necessary to craft them come from the bonus game at the end of every level.  It takes a lot of luck or grinding to get most of the pieces.  By the time I had finished the game, I only had enough pieces to make one thing for each character.  Copen's was a skill chip I really wanted, which is nice, but if I got that far without it, I probably didn't need it at all.  If you do want them, then replaying levels and attempting the challenges is the only way to go.  Too bad you have to replay a stage to attempt the challenges for it.

The missing mid-battle dialogue was such a big deal after it was removed from the first game.  While on one hand I am glad to have it included in Gunvolt 2, on the other hand it is useless.  If the game stopped so you could actually read it, it would probably be better.  As it stands, your character banter while the action is going on, meaning you either take lots of damage to try and read it, or just ignore it.  To make matters worse, the dialogue box and character portrait takes up valuable screen space, making the fight even harder.  It's sadly better to just turn them off.

It only takes about 3 hours to make it through one of the characters' story, so double that for the whole package.  Even so, it's a game that I can see myself replaying, just to get better at fighting the bosses, and figuring out which weapon is best for each.  I wouldn't want to replay the levels just for material drops, but that would happen as I was re-playing through the game, and it is certainly an option to other players out there.  There are also challenges to try and complete for extra items, but you unfortunately can't get most of them your first time through the stage.

Overall, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is a very fun game.  It is very reminiscent of the old and awesome Megaman X games, while being different enough to not be a copy.  The game isn't very long, but there are reasons to replay the stages, and having two different characters is always a plus.  The prevasion shield is a useful mechanic, even if I think the game relies on it a bit too much.  I had a ton of fun playing as Copen, so I hope he continues to show up in the game.  I would definitely recommend the game to fans of the first Azure Striker Gunvolt, Megaman games, and side-scrolling action games.


The Good:
A fun and challenging side-scrolling action game that I can see lots of potential in learning enemy/boss patterns in order to improve.  Playing as Copen was a lot of fun.

The Bad:
Have to replay stages/grind to get drops to make equipment you don't really need.  Some enemy attacks unavoidable.

The SaHD:
The ice/slippery level is really annoying.  Can we as a gaming community just stop doing these kinds of levels?  It was cute the first few times, back on the NES, but they just aren't fun.  Do any players actually enjoy them?

(Review code for Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 was provided by the publisher)

Azure Striker Gunvolt (PC) Review

After a successful launch on the 3DS over a year ago, Azure Striker Gunvolt has come to PCs via Steam, and brings improvements to address some of the problems players had with the initial release.  It returns the mid-battle dialogue, voices and updated translations.

Gunvolt himself is a lightning septima, hence he can generate electricity and attack foes with it.  He can also dash, jump and shoot his gun.  Although his gun does damage, the amount is very little.  Its main purpose is to tag targets.  Normally, Gunvolt's electric powers are a field around him.  However, if you use it while a target is tagged, the attack will track them and do a lot more damage.  This is his main method of attack, and you can do it as long as you have EP, the semi-circular meter under Gunvolt.  It can refill decently fast on its own, but you can also quick charge it by pressing Down twice.

Additionally, if you get hit, it deducts from your EP first, as long as you have enough.  This can only happen if you actively aren't using your EP.  Unfortunately, this means in order to defend yourself, you have to give up most of your attacking prowess.  Also unfortunately, the game seems built upon your ability to abuse this mechanic.  Finally, Gunvolt also has SP skills, denoted by the card-like icons in the lower left.  These are slow to charge up, but offer special effects, like a powerful attack or heal.  The heal was very useful, and the one that I used 90% of the time.  Too bad it isn't a very good heal.

There's a good variety to the ten stages, as some have some sort of gimmick that uses Gunvolt's lightning abilities, whether they are used to move platforms, operate switches, or float with magnets.  These parts are kind of neat, but I feel they were used just a bit too much.  To get through all the areas, it takes about 3 hours, and more if you want to get all the hidden gems or complete the challenges.  You are likely meant to grind the stages since the extra levels would make things easier.  Unfortunately, you will also fight all of the bosses at least twice.  Other than that, there is a speed run mode, and endless attack mode, and an easy and hard difficulty modes to give you more bang for your buck.

Killing enemies gets Gunvolt experience, which is used to level up once certain experience thresholds have been reached.  This gives him more HP, so it is possible to grind a bit and get more health to make the game easier.  Plus, every time you complete a level, you play a bonus game to gain materials.  There is a very rudimentary crafting system in the game, and the gear you make can provide you with some bonuses or extra abilities.  Trouble is, you either have to grind out the stages multiple times and complete some optional challenges to get enough loot to actually make something by the time you are nearly done with the story.

The difficulty level of Gunvolt feels closer to the old school, but with some new sensibilities like checkpoints.  I did die a few times, but not as much as similar games from back in my youth.  The stages definitely had parts that were difficult, but the bosses felt more like they relied on cheap hits to get damage.  More than one of them has an instant kill move that is nigh unavoidable.  Fun.  I can definitely see room for improvement, as the goal is to get through the stages without getting hit rather than just get through it.  It's pretty hard, at least for the bosses.  It's not overly hard to not take damage (most times), since the prevasion anti-damage shield helps out a lot, but that won't help you keep your score if that is of importance to you.

Since the game was adopted from the 3DS release, there are a few strange holdovers.  For one, the menu in-between missions is presented as closely as possible to the original, so you have two smaller screens on the screen.  I get why that is, but it does look weird to me.  Second, Gunvolt's SP skills are mapped to F1-F4.  I don't see a way to map them to something much easier to hit on the controller.  As it stands, I would have to move my hands quickly and accurately to the keyboard, because there's no way I would play a game like this without a controller.  Seeing how responsive the Xbox 360 controller is with this game, I see no need to try otherwise.  One last holdover from the 3DS release would be exiting the game.  In the game, there is no menu option to exit the title.  Instead, you hit ESC, which just immediately closes the game out.  It works, but it's jarring and I didn't see that listed in the controls, so it took me a bit to realize that's what exited the game.

Azure Striker Gunvolt can be a fun game.  Blasting through the levels, tagging opponents and using lightning powers is a lot of fun.  The difficulty is uneven at times, and bosses are plagued with cheap hits to mar the overall experience.  It's still worth playing for side-scrolling action game fans, and old school fans of the Megaman franchise.


The Good:
Familiar type of game with some very unique mechanics and different ways it is used in the stages.

The Bad:
Relies too heavily on the prevasion mechanic to avoid health damage.  Bosses can have some ridiculous attacks.

The SaHD:
I can't tell if the different shot types you get just aren't very useful, or if I'm missing what makes them so good.  The standard shot worked the best for me through the whole game.

(Review code for Azure Striker Gunvolt was provided by the publisher)

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS) Review

Shin Megami Tensei is always a series I should play more of, but for whatever reason, have not.  I've played a few hours of several of the titles, but always seem to get distracted.  They are dark and punishing RPGs, with crazy mechanics and monster designs.  Basically, they should be games that I love and plow through them to completion, yet for some reason don't.  The best way to correct this: get a review copy of one.  So, that's what I did.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is a side story to the previously released SMT IV (no subtitle). I do own that, but have only played a few hours of it.  Even so, I had no trouble following the story of Apocalypse and how it connected to the previous game.  It explains any relevant backstory so you can easily jump right into this game.  Just be warned that it will reveal a few plot points from SMT IV if you have interest in playing that first.  The only trouble I had was keeping location names straight.

Like most of the SMT games I have tried, the battles in Apocalypse are turn based, however they are noticeably unique from many other turn-based RPGs.  Each turn you get one action per party member.  If you strike an enemy's weakness, or get a critical, you gain another action for your team.  Meaning, if you know your enemy (or get lucky), you get more turns to destroy them.  It's great because it rewards you for having a balanced team and knowledge of the game.  However, the reverse is also true.  If you miss or the enemy absorbs the attack, you lose an extra turn on top of the one you just spent.  Ouch.  I'm not too fond of that, mostly because missing is sometimes out of your control, but it does make things fair for the monsters.  Thankfully, you can pass the current character's turn at the cost of half a turn, so if their action would cost you extra, you aren't screwed.  If you keep the battle in your favor, you can route a group of enemies with little effort.

Boss fights can be very difficult, though.  They get multiple turns (I guess to keep things fair), jacked stats (to nullify the previous reasoning), and top it off with high critical and smirk chances.  Smirking is a new status that gives you a high critical chance and gives the light and dark spells (Hama and Mudo) their original chance to instantly kill the target.  So basically, bosses have multiple turns, hit hard, and get more turns.  Ouch.  Frequently I would have to grind a few levels before I could take one down, ensuring my game progress was slow.  Thankfully you can save anywhere, so you hopefully won't lose much progress from a team wipe.

Another enemy type that I don't like much are the hordes.  The are represented by a lot of enemies on the screen at once.  They count as one whole unit, sharing HP and weaknesses.  Like bosses, they get several turns when they act.  Thankfully moves that hit all enemies hit them multiple times, which helps even them out.  My biggest gripe is that they usually have multiple waves.  When killing off one group, reinforcements may arrive, which then gives you another group to fight.  At least they give a lot of experience when you defeat them, but I could do with less of them since they are a pain to fight most times.  And if you are wondering, Hama and Mudo can kill the whole group instantly if you are smirking.  It's really satisfying to see that.

Like SMT: Nocturne, your only human party member is the main character.  The rest of the party is filled by demons that you can swap from your reserves.  Demons don't just join your quest out of the goodness of their hearts, they have to be persuaded.  This involves talking to them in combat, and sometimes giving them money, items, or letting them take HP or MP.  It's not an exact science, since there each demon has its own preferences, but it is much more user friendly than it was in SMT IV.  Apocalypse has scouting dialogue that makes more sense, plus if you already had the demon, it will usually join you again if you just ask.  Really great changes considering how vital it is to recruit lots of demons.

The main attack stats in the game are strength, which affects melee attacks and skills; dexterity, which affects ranged attacks and skills; and magic, which affects, well, spells and such.  When the main character gains a level, you can assign the stat points as you see fit, but it pays to specialize, even early on.  You won't have many skills when the game starts, but your demon friends can help you with that.  When a demon levels up and learns all of their skills, they can 'whisper' them to you, and you will learn it.  If it is one you already know, it will power that skill up.  So, the best way to learn strong and useful skills is to recruit demons with them, and put the time and effort into leveling them up and passing them to your main character.  Sadly, the slots available take awhile to open up, and even then don't leave as much room as I would like.  Toward the end of the game is when you can actually have a mage with all the elements, which feels too limiting.

The other use of demons is fusion.  You can select two demons to fuse, and get a third, different one in the process.  You can select which skills are inherited on the new demon.  This is a great system to play around with, since you can have a variety of skills on a demon.  There are also special fusions that use more than two demons.  Sometimes accidents occur while fusing, so make sure to save first if you need reliability.  If you need more demons that you already had, you can pay money to re-summon them, and even overwrite the default ones with their current counterparts that you have raised yourself.  The demons in the game are a very valuable resource that is complex but rewarding to master.

Since you play as a hunter, most story progression is through completing missions.  Unlike most games that do a similar thing, the missions feel really relevant to what's going on and aren't just there to pad out the game length (that's what the boss fights are for).  Get a mission, complete it, move on to the next bit of story, rinse and repeat.  There are also optional side quests, called challenge quests, that are automatically given to you at various points.  One of the many conveniences of getting missions through your smart phone instead of a job board.  Some of the challenge missions are actually pretty hard, and others aren't very clear on your destination.  Even so, they are extra, so I'm fine with them not being perfect.  At least they aren't all fetch or collection quests!

Having a long and storied RPG pedigree, Shin Megami Tensei games are also know for their length.  Apocalypse is no different, offering at least 50 hours of playtime.  Sure, a good chunk of that is grinding for the next boss, but there is also a lot of time you can lose fusing demons and getting powerful skills for you main character.  It's definitely a game for dedicated RPG players, as it is not likely to leave your 3DS until completion.

Being a 3DS title, the game also has some street pass functionality.  You can acquire other hunter's cards, but also randomly fuse or power-up your attached demon.  Both are nice in their own way.  Fusion is good early on, or to use a lower level demon that you don't need, while gaining a random stat point is good for stronger demons or ones that you are going to keep.  Plus, they bring back some items.  I randomly got a pretty strong gun early in the game, which saved me some macca.  You can also connect to the internet for the same boosts, but only every 2 hours of actual game time.  It's still totally worth it to do so once, as you get a big AP boost when you do.  Too bad it does't give you that every time.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is a fun and length RPG.  Battles can be a bit punishing and bosses likely require grinding, but the skill system and demon fusion are really fun to play around with.  Fans of SMT IV should definitely check it out, and make sure to import your save file for some bonuses.  It's also a game that most RPG fans should check out, even if they haven't played a Shin Megami Tensei game before.


The Good:
Battles reward the player for being prepared and/or knowledgeable.  Recruiting demons is made a lot easier than the previous entry in the series.  A lot of game for your buck.

The Bad:
Each new area brings with it the need for grinding.  If a battle goes bad, it goes bad.

The SaHD:
I wish I could move the camera with the C-stick and switch the buttons for attacking and menu.  Some of the monster designs are cool, some are creepy, but they are all unique.  As an artist, I really appreciate the enemy design in the SMT games that I've seen.

(Review code for Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocolypse was provided by the publisher)

Bravely Second: Hours 40-60

Early on, I fought a boss that was a mechanical bird (apparently being ridden by the two stupid soldiers that desperately want to be funny and replace Biggs and Wedge.  No deal.)  It looked fine, but could also transform in battle into the form of a person (it's called the giant form, but it isn't that big).  This made it instantly cooler, and I really liked the look of the boss.

It was also a pretty easy fight, thanks to the Exorcist job.  The third skill it gives will restore 30MP each turn, which is amazing for mages, and totally worth the equip cost (which is a paltry 1 slot).  This meant I could spam the most powerful bishop heal on everyone each turn for free (and actually get 6 MP back!)  Needless to say, a lot of fights got easier after that, especially the following boss.

I got the airship too.  It was pretty obvious, but somehow stranger than the airship from the first game.  Speaking of which, where is that?  Anyway, getting the ship and airship felt really close together and a little odd.  You have to stick with the stupid canoe for way longer than you get a ship.

-Spoilers-

I fought another boss that may be more annoying than Geist.  Coincidentally, it is his son Revenant.  True to his name he is a ghost (although not a zombie that Hawk has to put into a soul orb).  He's annoying and an asterisk holder.  Basically, he can possess one of your party members so he has access to their abilities and you can't damage him.  He really liked to possess my fighters, and use steal breath.  This would of course heal him, and not the body he was in.  However, damaging him while he was in a body would only damage the body and not him...which is pretty broken in his favor.

Actually, many of the gimmicky asterisk boss fights are like that.  The battle is really skewed in favor of whatever dumb gimmick the job has to show it in a better light.  Often, when you then get these jobs, they are nowhere near as good as advertised.  For example, the swordmaster.  The reason that fight can be hard is he is very counter-heavy.  If you attack him, even with splitting your moves between magic and physical, he has 2-4 chances to counter you for big damage.  If you guess correctly (unlikely), they you are fine.  However, reversing the roles, you have a 1 in 4 chance of him hitting your one person.  The odds are not in your favor and set up an unrealistic scenario for the job's effectiveness.  I feel like Revenant's asterisk is going to be similar.

I also finished chapter 4, which results in you getting the bad ending.  Anyone who played the first game will understand that you have to get this "ending" to further the story.  They kind of hit you over the head with what to do, but I foolishly thought it would all be automatic.  It wasn't, and that meant I would have to basically do the whole game over again, because I missed the tiny window where I was actually supposed to do something I don't normally do.  During the Kaiser fight at the beginning of the game, you have one action, where you can only really attack.  Hence, why I thought it was going to be automatic, since I couldn't do anything else.

Except, I could use the hourglass.  Considering how often I used it before now (maybe twice), I totally forgot it was an option.  It's what I was supposed to do.  Thankfully I didn't get to far in repeating the whole damn game because of a slight mistake before looking it up and shaking my head.  A better idea than the first game for sure, but still annoying.

I like that in the new world/run, you still fight the asterisk holders again, but they tend to team up, so the fight is different.  You still know how to deal with them, but there is at least a small twist to keep them more interesting.  However, they do team up Geist and Revenant, which could potentially be a horrible combination.  So, I abused the SP (hey they wanted me to use it...) to break the damage limit and hit them with specials to drop them fast.  I figure why not, since I don't want to put up with their crap again, especially not together.

-End Spoilers-

Returning to the world map shows several side quests.  This is the chance to redo them and pick the other side.  So, that was how I spent the next few hours, since I did want to pick up all of them, but a few were a top priority.  First stop, the red mage.  After that my intention was to get the monk.

However, I got a little mixed up and did the performer fight instead.  You see, some of the side quest have you do the whole thing again, and some you can skip to the end.  I didn't know this and talked to the person for the performer v pirate side quest, which is just the conversation and then the fight.  While it is something I would have done eventually, I was going to put that one off till last.  I then went and got the monk, so I was a happy camper.

One cool thing besides being able to skip chunks of some of the quests is that the dialogue changes.  Edea remembers the arguments, so she just sums it up for the people, which usually confuses them a bit.  Bravo to the developers for making it more player friendly!

I cleaned up the rest of the jobs before continuing the story.  I did mess up one other time, returning to the wrong dungeon and did the knight job fight instead of the ranger one.  Oops...again.  While doing this, I came to the realization that many of the jobs from the previous game have been toned down, or outright outdone by the new jobs.  Dual wielding doesn't seem as good, and neither does the dragoon.  White and black magic are terrible compared to the bishop and sorcerer.  It's sad to see the classics treated this way, but it does make the new jobs at least appear very useful.  And I suppose that means you can skip the side quests, although I don't know why you would want to.  At least some of the passive skills are still awesome.

During this whole time, I managed to fine tune my boss setup and make it even better.  I'm a big fan of spellcraft, but had not even begun to understand how great it could be.  I would have my healer set up a benediction mist to heal a lot of HP at the end of the turn for a few turns, and could have them default while it was down to recover the BP it takes to keep a continuous chain of it.  The other mage would do any other healing that was needed, or attack with elemental weaknesses.  Tiz and Yew, who I had as physical damage dealers (one as a bow thief and the other a hunter), would default to build up to max BP, then unleashed it all in a turn.  Barrage made this a little more effective than just attacking each turn.  It wasn't foolproof, but it was very safe, effective and I loved it.

-Spoilers (again)-

The final boss of chapter 5 was really annoying.  It was a Ba'al that had a mirror coat that reflected all damaging attacks.  It starts with 100%, and each reflected attack will take 20% off of this.  So 5 attacks and it's down, right?  Sort of.  At the end of each turn, it will automatically restore 20%, so each turn you have to suffer at least one reflected attack.

So how best to beat this?  I tried being clever, and reflecting non-damaging spells like Antidote and stuff, but that didn't seem to lower the percent.  Fine, so I try to reflect a heal spell.  No dice.  I eventually figured out to hit it with my mage(s), so the reflected damage was negligible, but they go at the end of the turn, so I still have to eat one attack before damaging it.  I got he bright idea to knock down the shield, then blow an SP point to use a special and break the damage limit.  Ha!  Smashed him down good...and then he just gets to full heal because plot.  So, rinse repeat and then...the fight ends, but 'story wise' he wouldn't die.  It was resolved, but the fight was really stupid in my opinion.  However, it was just a portent of things to come...

-End Spoilers-

< Hours 30-40  |  Hours 60-??

Bravely Second: Hours 30-40

When starting this block of time, I decided to go back to the previous two side quest dungeons to mop up the treasure chests I missed.  This brought me back to the blue chests.  At first I thought the thief would be able to open them, but later realized that would be an unbalanced choice for the first side quest.  So, it must be sometime later in the story.

Then I finally got the long-awaited chef asterisk.  It's called patissier or something that you have to say nasally (I just call it chef because I don't care about it).  The fight to get it is interesting to say the least.  They introduce a new status ailment, ghost, where you can only cast magic.  While you also cannot be hurt or healed, a ghost counts as a dead party member for game over purposes.  I had to reset because I didn't know this crap and picked a character who was a fighter to be a ghost.  Oops.  The chef himself isn't too much of a threat (although he can charm, which is super annoying), but the people with him can be tough to deal with when he's feeding them.  Eliminating them made the fight much easier.  I still can't take pride in his defeat...I just beat up a pastry chef.

I finally got the boat too, so I could replace the canoe and actually travel around the world.  While Setzer's gambling ship and the whale ship were cool, the hot springs ship is...well, unique.  Silly, too.  Are they again trying to out-do the the previous game where your ship was a city?  Feels like it.  Maybe they wouldn't have to try and out-do the first game if they didn't recycle so much from it.

At this point I also had the game take all of my workers off their jobs at Fort Lune.  I have no idea why.  It did this at some point before, and it is annoying.  I may have only lost a few hours of work each time, but I'd rather know why it did this at all.  I don't remember this problem in the first game.

Two side quests fell during this time frame.  The first was the hardest choice I've had to make in this game.  It was either the monk or the valkyrie.  I've become fairly desensitized to the moral quandaries of each side quest, sine they don't really matter outside of which class you want.  However, I really like both of those classes (even though I constantly refer to the valkyrie class as dragoon).  I always like the monk class in just about every RPG, and the dragoon has jump (which is very useful and strong) and crescent (strong and super useful in the previous game).  I ended up going with the dragoon, simply because I didn't have many classes that use heavy armor, but I already had a good one that used light armor.  One problem down, one to go (although I am very much looking forward to getting the monk later!)

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the previous side quest we have the pirate job versus the performer.  Wow, what a choice.  I don't like nor use either of those classes, so it was a case of "which is less bad?" to figure out a...winner.  I decided to get the pirate job, so I sided with the ever annoying Praline.  At least I can punch her in the face later.

I managed to master (level 10) my first job class too-- the thief.  It's so useful in this game and I really like the changes they made to it!  Steal Life is wonderful.

What better way to close out this session than with the worst boss from the demo-- Geist!  As much as I hated him, fighting him in the demo did help prepare me for what it was like to actually fight him effectively.  He wasn't nearly as hard, so I have to assume they toned him down.  I saved my specials for when he summoned helpers, which would eliminate them.  Without backup, he has to either undo damage to himself or a heal that I did, neither of which will actually help him win.  I was very glad to finish him off!

< Hours 20-30   |   Hours 40-60 >

Bravely Second: Hours 20-30

So after reviewing Langrisser, I went back to Bravely Second.  I'm going to try and limit spoilers, but in some cases it will be hard to, and they will be noted.  This whole journey is kind of meant to be read when you are either past me or don't care, but be prepared just in case.

My Fort Lune is coming along nicely, as I got the scene for 80% completion near the end of the 30 hours.  I've also started using my ships to weaken the Ba'als, as I wanted to try fighting one to see how it goes.  I first chose a Turtle Dove, since it was a lower level than me (23 to my 25 or so).  Yeah, that didn't pan out.  It had a stupid high HP amount (120k or so).  I probably could have done it once I learned what its gimmick was, but I'll just weaken its level and fight it later.

I finally met the sniper (she was in the demo) named Aimee.  She has the hawkeye asterisk, but I can't remember that and usually call it sniper or marksman or something similar.  I rolled my eyes at her name, and sighed at how overpowered she was.  Not only did she shoot very accurately across an ocean, she is holding an army at bay by herself at the bridge.  Seriously?  The other army has shields!  Even if she can magically redirect bullets, I'm sure she couldn't do both 100 times in a minute.  The army v army stalemate in the last game made sense...this one tries to up the ante but fails.  Or she is a dynasty warrior.  The dungeon leading to her wasn't too bad, but I could have sworn I was able to use resurrect on the undead enemies inside, but then it wouldn't work later.  I guess I'll have to stick to healing them instead.

I also saw the chef job...sigh.  I was hoping I was wrong about that.

There was a princess I met that had a unique graphic, so I assume she is some future job.  She has a brother, who looks like Yojimbo.  Looks like a future job too, but I'm not sure what they would do for a third swordsman...maybe iaijutsu like the samurai in Final Fantasy Tactics?

We traveled with them to a hot springs town.  Of course we did, Japanese game gotta be Japanese.  There was also a hot springs themed dungeon to go with it, which had a really interesting idea.  Each area had different steam that gave a battle effect.  The first area favored magic, and wasn't really a big deal.  The second area gave everyone berserk, which was stupid.  I really dislike that ailment (but it's not my most hated), so I turned off battles and just ran through it, except for the one forced fight (it's on the map).  The third area gave every physical hit a critical effect.  This area was awesome for my two attackers, and I made short work of enemies.  However enemies were also really dangerous if I let them live!  The fourth area might even be better, as both sides start with full BP.  Great for doing chain battles, so I took advantage of that for a bit.

-Spoilers-

At the end of that dungeon, they had some story scenes.  At first, I thought it really strange/stupid that the princess' story matched up perfectly with Yew's.  Then, she revealed it was all an illusion and it made sense that it was a copy/paste.  Also, she also used the illusion on Aimee who then thought the bullets were being deflected?  I'm not so sure about that...

Anyway, she then tells Yew to feel bad because he got someone hurt because he wouldn't reveal his backstory.  The hell?  He told the princess not to go for the sword because it was cursed, so he did try to stop her.  He shouldn't have to tell her the entire sob story for her to not make a terrible decision, as she has done that herself.  Plus, she set the whole thing up, so she would have done it anyway, making her whole point moot.  I get what they were going for, but it was stupid and done wrong.  There's many points like that in games and shows where they attempt to make a point, but fail to very hard if you stop and think about it.  Sigh.

-End Spoilers-

Side quest-wise, it started with the white mage versus the merchant.  From the game perspective, I chose to side with the merchant so I could get the white mage job.  However, I also agreed with his proposal more than Holly's (the white mage).  Building up the economy of the entire continent is totally worth one family living in a childhood home.  The bit about the old only looking at the past and the young looking at the future was really insightful, too.  The end scene was kind of funny, even if it nullifies your choice.  The white mage, though...it's somehow not as good as the bishop.  I was shocked, but it won't be the last time we see something like that...

The black mage/hunter side quest had an interesting premise, with us being trapped with little food.  I understood the mage's thoughts about the food, but I really don't agree with him.  Plus, I wanted to cut the job from his belly and he's still an ass, so it was easy to side against him.  While normally I would want the ranger job, I have the thief for bow usage, so I don't need it yet.  Somehow, the ranger wasn't a psychopath, either.  I guess they toned down most of the previous asterisk holders so you could be somewhat sympathetic to their cause (most were horrible people).  At the end, I would have liked an explanation of how we got out, you just get some dialogue, it flashes white, Edea wakes up and it was all over.  Uh...what?  Did Moe save them?  What a cop out.

Just before the thirty hour mark, I finished the side quest for the ninja.  Thankfully it was between the ninja and knight (and not the dragoon or something I really like), so the choice was easy for me.  The quest itself was enjoyable too.  It reminded me of the section of the previous game where you fought the ninja.  I'm still not sold on choosing one job or the other, but most of the choices haven't been too bad so far.

While the game as a whole is going well so far, I have had the game freeze/hard lock/lock up on me 2 or 3 times so far.  It's always in battle when I'm selecting my moves and sometimes canceling them.  Whenever I want to investigate a bug, I have to stop and remind myself that I'm not a game tester anymore.  Still, it's sad to see this happen in the game, because usually Squeenix and Nintendo stuff is pretty solid.

< Hours 10-20   |   Hours 30-40 >