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)

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)

Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (PS4) Review

I still own the original Odin Sphere somewhere in my collection.  I only played it for a bit, but loved the way it looked.  Looking back, it was probably my first introduction to the fabulous art style of Vanillaware.  It was easily one of the best looking PS2 games, and on the PS4 it still looks amazing.  Environments are very detailed, and character models look good and have great animations.

Odin Sphere is a side scrolling action RPG game, and the Leifthrasir remaster has revamped the combat.  It feels really good now.  Attacking, jumping, blocking, and dodging felt very fluid and easy to grasp.  The dodge can be pretty useful, although not an "instant win" button by any means.  Launching enemies up for air combos and mixing in special attacks works seamlessly.

Since I remember having difficulty with the first boss in the original, I shamelessly put the game on easy to play.  I am glad I did.  It was really fun to tear through enemies and lay waste to big, imposing bosses.  For the most part, the controls are really responsive.  The only part I really had trouble with was Mercedes, since she plays different from the rest (although they all have unique elements).  However, there are two side-scrolling shooter sections with her, and those were awesome!

Souls can be gained from slain enemies, or from other objects in the environment.  These souls are used to power up the various skills you acquire throughout the game.  First, you have to find the corresponding crystal, which will unlock the skill.  Many skills are gained from completing battle zones, but some are hidden in an area.  There are hints on the skills as to where to acquire the crystal, so you at least have a general idea where to look for any you may have missed.  When you are looking to power up a skill with souls, it will say what the effects of leveling it up will be, and you can decide if it is worth it or not.  The skills can be assigned to different directions and the circle button, but it is possible to add more, which is cool.  You can even assign some to be midair only, giving you many options!

The other use of souls is to grow plants.  No, really.  In one of the more odd systems in the game, the characters can plant seeds on the ground, and feed it souls to have it bear fruit.  Food in the game gives experience and increases max HP, so the fruit can either be eaten or used in some cooking recipes.  While it's not bad, it feels really superfluous to grow your own.  I can't argue with the effects, though.

The map for each area seems straightforward, but the areas themselves are a bit strange.  The game is on a 2D plane, but many areas are circular rooms.  As you run right or left, you effectively run around the area, but don't change your orientation.  It works, but it can be difficult to know which way is which without the map.  Many areas have multiple exits to other ones, and you hold up and hit the X Button to change.  Again it's not the most intuitive, but it works for what it needs to, and I haven't accidentally changed zones when trying to do something else.

The story will follow one character at a time through their arc of six chapters and an epilogue.  It takes about 7-8 hours each, and there is a final arc that encompasses all of the characters.  They will weave in and out of each other's tales, and it can be a pain to keep them all straight.  A timeline is included, which does help, but it is still not the most comprehensive story.  The character order for the first five chapters is set.  I usually found myself not caring about some of the characters at the start, but thinking they were interesting by the end...just in time for me to be whisked off to another.

While the story is pretty good, interesting, and a little confusing, I feel it doesn't quite live up to the foundation they have set.  Several of the characters have great motivations for their actions, but they (and their resolutions) aren't explored as in-depth as they could be.  Many plot points just seem to happen, instead of having proper build-up.  I guess it's a better problem to have than the opposite (trying to build a huge story on a bad premise).  Since the characters' stories cross a lot, you will be visiting the same locations with each of them.  Plus, you will be fighting the same enemies, and many of the same bosses.  At least they are in a different order so it isn't the same thing five times, but you will start to predict what each boss will be before you enter the area.

While I didn't remember how the original game played very much, Leifthrasir does include the Classic Mode.  It will have the updated graphics, but everything else is from the original.  After playing it for an hour, I can see why I didn't play much of it.  It feels needlessly complicated and the combat lacks the fluidity and fun of the remaster.  I'd recommend trying it so you can appreciate Leifthrasir that much more.

I really recommend Odin Sphere: Leifthasir to any side-scrolling action or action RPG fans.  The game looks great (sorry if you are one of those poor saps that doesn't like Vanillaware's style), and is really fun to play.  The original is also present, so you can see just how much they changed (for the better).  The game is fun, slick, pretty, and gives you a nice chunk of playtime.  What more could you want?  As much as I like Dragon's Crown, I'm hoping that game eventually gets the same treatment as Odin Sphere.

The Good:
Well, obviously I adore the look of the game, so that is an easy good point.  Second, the combat feels really well done.  Most importantly of all, the game was really fun to play.

The Bad:
It can be a pain to keep the overall story timeline straight, even with the graph.  While going through with the 5 characters, you will see each location, enemy and boss several times.

The SaHD:
It bugs me that the shopkeeps keep throwing my stuff on the floor.  Just put it in my inventory!

(Review code for Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir was provided by the publisher)

The Deadly Tower of Monsters (PS4) Review

The Deadly Tower of Monsters is an attempt to recreate a cheesy, low-budget sci-fi movie from the 70s and make a video game around the director's commentary on the re-release of the movie.  It's a great idea, and it's pulled off well, which makes the whole thing work.

One of the reasons it works so well is because the developers committed to the idea of the game.  There are times when you can see the strings attached to flying things.  When the heroes die, they become stunt dummies.  The weapons you pick up are clearly mundane objects that the prop department added things to in order to make it more sci-fi.  Enemies are guys in suits or even stop motion monsters, and they look like it.  There's even a grainy filter on the game that simulates a VHS tape (this can be turned off if you are not cool enough).  Putting the VHS filter on the audio makes it kind of warped in a few places.

The other good part of the presentation is the director's commentary itself.  He's kind of a stereotypical chauvinistic ass, but that's the point.  He boasts about the terrible working conditions he put people through.  He tries to explain away the inconsistencies of the movie.  He stumbles over $30 words while trying to sound smart.  To top it off, he'll even throw in a few chauvinistic remarks.  Even though all the actors do good work, the director is easily the star of the game.

Primary, Deadly Tower is a 3D action game.  Your characters run around the different areas, ascending the tower.  You get a melee attack and a ranged attack, and two weapons to swap between for each.  There are over 20 weapons in the game, split between the two attack types.  Each weapon is also upgradeable with cogs you pick up.  The ranged weapons have an energy meter that depletes when you fire them, and it refills over time.  It's fairly standard for the genre, but I really do like the upgraded weapons, since they tend to have some silly comment on them related to what it is, or how silly and sci-fi they look.  The melee upgrades in particular tend to make the weapons a little more goofy to fit with the theme of the game.

The best defensive maneuver the heroes have is a dodge roll.  However, if you use it right when an enemy attack would hit you, it will instead be a parry that will knock the enemy back and cause some damage.  Doing it to a projectile attack will send it back at the attacker.  Thankfully it is not necessary to master it.  While you will get hit a lot, especially in melee combat, you don't usually take a lot of damage.  Enemies will frequently drop cubes that restore a little health and larger health pickups are scattered around the map, so I rarely ran low on health.

Each of the playable heroes will get some powers that help with either combat or exploration.  They all share a force push to knock enemies away and one other that I won't spoil.  Dick's unique skills are a landmine that can clear out certain rocks and a dash.  Scarlett gets a electric barrier and a speedy run.  Robot gets a time slow field and a chain lightning bolt.  The way the powers are used to open up other areas and get some of the collectibles is well done.  Even if you need to switch to a particular hero for a certain part, there are many handy "sleep chambers" that let you do so.

While there isn't a ton of it, there is some platforming in the game.  It's not too taxing, save for one part later in the game.  If you happen to fall in the water at the bottom, a fish will eat you and you return to the nearest shore, with some commentary from the director.  Falling off of a ledge would be slightly more problematic, but you soon get an air teleport that will warp you back up to the ledge you fell from.  That comes in really handy when grabbing a few collectibles or falling through the rings.  It's actually a really nice feature that I now wish was in other games.  You also get a rocket pack that will allow you to hover for a short amount of time, or help break your fall so you don't die.  It has no upward thrust, so it can't be used as a double jump unfortunately.  I have used it to skirt around a few obstructions.  I'm not sure if that's intended, or just a happy coincidence.

The game isn't too long, taking about 4-5 hours to beat.  If you go looking for the collectibles or the trophies, then it's closer to 8-10 hours.  The touch pad is a convenient teleport to jump around the map to gather up anything you missed.  There isn't much replay value after that, since none of the trophies are missable.  The game isn't too hard, either.  The only times I died were from falling too far and the jetpack not saving me.  Once or twice I was low on health during a fight, but I never actually ran out.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a great idea for a game that the developers went full in on.  As a result, I think it was pulled of pretty well.  I laughed at several parts, even though my 8 year old had no idea why I was laughing.  The action of the game is fairly standard and the only real problem I had was the weird collision near many of the obstacles.  When in tight quarters, the player model tended to get stuck in a jump animation and it can be tricky to get out.  It's only about a 5-10 hour game, depending on if you are going for the platinum trophy or collectibles.  Fans of cheesy sci-fi movies should check the game out for some laughs, as I was pleasantly surprised at how fun the game was.

Stella Glow Coming West

Atlus announced today that it would bring Imageepoch's Stella Glow to the 3DS later this year.  Imageepoch might be most well know in the west as the people who made the Luminous Arc series (which I enjoyed).  They also made a few others that I enjoyed, like Sands of Destruction and Arc Rise Fantasia (which was fun despite the terrible voice acting).  I'm excited to check out there latest game, and hoping it's one I get to review.

The game stars Alto, a young knight that enlists the help of several Witches to combat the Witch of Destruction (awesome name) and her Harbingers.  You must have the Witches on your side unleash the powerful song magic to fight.  Atlus doesn't have any localized assest yet, but I will be sure to link the official trailer when it is up, and when we have some more details on Stella Glow.

Lost Dimension coming this summer to US

Atlus sent out a press release this morning to announce that they are going to bring Lost Dimension to the US (NISA is going to do the EU release).  Here's their information on the game:

IRVINE, Calif. ­­­-- March 11, 2015 -- In Lost Dimension, a tactical RPG published by ATLUS, an extraterrestrial being literally called "The End" is here to bring about the...uh... end of the world. Only a group of 11 psychically gifted warriors - each with unique abilities - are even remotely powerful enough to challenge this madman, but it won't take long for players to discover The End is not their only foe. As the protagonist, players have the extra special gift of psychic visions, a power that reveals that amongst his most trusted allies are traitors working to bring about the apocalypse. Lost Dimension will be available in stores and digitally beginning summer 2015, exclusively on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system for $39.99.
To subdue the threat The End poses to the entire planet, several countries create a special forces group called SEALED, which is comprised of eleven psychics with superhuman abilities. Each soldier has their own talents and skillsets to use in combat, which can be expanded after gaining enough experience in the field. Bonds of friendship will form amongst the members of SEALED, but be mindful of which allies to keep close, as The End mandates the player must begin eliminating teammates.  Make sure to accuse the right teammate of being a traitor though - once the final battle with The End begins any remaining traitors will fight the main character alongside him.

KEY FEATURES:

• A Cataclysmic Whodunnit! - Not only will players have to keep their eyes focused on strategically defeating the enemies laying in wait on the field of combat, but they need to carefully watch party members' tendencies in order to expose the traitor. At the end of every floor, players will be forced to vote and eliminate one of their trusted allies, and the consequences for choosing incorrectly could be dire...

• Spoiler-Free Zone - In addition to a variety of game mechanics to help assess teammate loyalty, Lost Dimension's traitor system is randomly determined, assuring that no two players will be faced with the same playthrough. Sorry, kiddies, but it's impossible to look up the answers this time around.

• Psychic Warlords - Each character in the party is a master of a different sphere of powers. There's the girl who controls molecular behavior to burn or freeze anything/anyone in her path. There's the guy who can teleport all around (also with the bonus superpower of being satisfyingly cocky). And there's even someone with an identity crisis because all he knows how to do is steal everyone else's powers.

• Keep Your Friends Close... - In between battles, players will have the option to chat with teammates and develop closer bonds with them. Juggling these friendships and keeping track of who participates in battle will be the key to sussing out the traitors and assuring that, by the time you reach The End, it won't be... the end... for you and your allies!

Lost Dimension is a tactical RPG from ATLUS and developed by Lancarse. It will be available in the Americas beginning summer 2015. NIS America has publishing responsibilities for Europe, also slated for a summer 2015 release. For more details on the game, please visit the official website at http://www.atlus.com/lostdimension. This game is not yet rated by the ESRB.

When I read about the game late last year, it sounds really interesting.  I think the mysterious traitor aspect sounds like a unique idea, and could make each playthrough very different.  It is coming to the PS3 and PS Vita, and the title is PSTV compatible.  No word on cross-buy, but I'm thinking it will go the way of Dragon's Crown, and forego that awesome feature.

Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord (PS3) Review

Tears to Tiara II is a story of historical fiction, where the last of the Barca family, Hamil, rallies his supporters to rebel against the Empire.  The whole story is actually pretty interesting, and contains some obvious real-world influences (the game is set on the peninsula nation of Hispania... wonder what it's supposed to be).  There's some religious themes, too, so it might bother some people, but again, no problem with me.  Each character's dialogue artwork and the special CG scenes are really well done.  Battle models are 3D chibi versions of the characters, which seem a strange contrast to the sometimes dark and bleak nature of the game.

The game is billed as a hybrid of visual novel and strategy RPG.  Story sections are obviously the visual novel half.  There is a lot of dialogue, with nicely done character portraits and the occasional full-screen image.  Yes, other games, notably RPGs, do this too, but Tears to Tiara II earns the "visual novel" distinction because it is much more in-depth with the story and dialogue.  There is a lot of it.  It wasn't too much for me, but there are large chunks where there is nothing but story.  The first 90 minutes of the game had one short fight in it.  While it could be a bit much, it didn't seem out of place.  The dialogue and situations flowed pretty naturally, so it wasn't just lots of dialogue or story for the sake of padding the playtime.  So if you are someone who skips through dialogue to get to the fights, you might want to steer clear.

The battles are fairly standard SRPG faire, with the field divided up into a grid.  You get better damage and accuracy from the backs and sides of opponents, different weapons have different ranges, strengths and weaknesses... you know how it goes.  Tears to Tiara II adds a few things into the mix, the first being Awakening.  There are certain characters that can transform into a stronger form for a few turns, once a meter is filled.  When it wears off, their stats drop dramatically and they can only move 1 space for their next turn, so be careful when and where you use it.  It's pretty cool, but isn't super new.

The second thing is the Quadriga.  One of your units is an elephant, who can move and attack, and also carries around the Quadriga behind them.  This cart can reclaim units and put out another.  It's similar to the base panel in the Disgaea games, but mobile and can be attacked and destroyed.  The third is the Chain Stock.  There are bubbles at the bottom of the character window that can be used to attack extra times, or boost magic attacks for more greater effect.  Extra attacks are always nice when making sure to finish off your opponent.  You do have to hit a button with correct timing to do them, so it's entirely possible to mess up.

The fourth, and most unique addition is the rewind function.  You can turn back any turns you have done, up to a maximum of 20, if you need or want to do something over.  This is very useful.  Sometimes you make the wrong choice of where to move, or who to attack (or even waste your chain attack on a chest...which I've sadly done more than once).  Now, you can rewind and make a better choice.  There's no limit to the amount of times you can do this in a battle.  If you lose a battle, you can use this function to go back a few turns and try to fix any mistakes.  However, as they state, doing the exact same thing (like attacking the same enemy from the same angle) will still produce the same result.  So if you missed an attack, you won't hit it by trying it again from the same angle.  Attack from the side or the back, and it has another chance to hit.  It makes the game a lot more forgiving and a little easier to play.  It's still far from an auto-win, so it won't make the game too easy.

At first, you have to take battles as they come along, but eventually you will be able to re-do some battles for extra money and experience.  Granted, it takes about 7 hours (!) to get to that point, but thankfully you can do some grinding if you want to.  Most fights also include bonus objectives that give extra rewards at completion.  These are nice, and it's hard to resist trying for all of them, but they don't note which rewards are from the bonuses, so I don't know if they are worth getting.

The game is touted as being an 80 hour game, but it's closer to 50 or so for a first run through the game.  After beating the story, there is an optional dungeon and even a new game plus.  Many of the trophies will be obtained just by making your way through the game.  Each battle has a trophy, and there are ones for beating the game on each difficulty.  Thankfully the new game plus helps with that.  If that's not enough, you can buy some extra characters to use in battle.  These are crossover characters from another game, so they aren't selling you things that should have been included.  It would have been nicer if the PSN pages for the characters actually showed them, or said what their weapon is, to make it easier to cherry-pick which characters I might want.

While it's not going to be for everyone, I like Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord.  It has a good mix of visual novel and strategy RPGs, which gives a lot of story and character development with fun grid-based battles.  There is a lot of story and dialogue, so if you want people to shut up and get to the fights, you should probably stay away.  The rewind function is unique, useful, and makes the game more forgiving.  You might not take the proposed 80 hours to beat the game, but you should get your money's worth and fans of SRPGs should give Tears to Tiara II a try.

Conception II (Vita) Review

My wife comes home and sees me playing the Vita.  "Oh, is that the new game you got today?" she asks.

"Yeah, it's called Conception II.  It's an RPG where you have to pair up with these women to make 'star children' and go into dungeons with them." I reply to her.

"Sounds neat."  She looks at the girls and points at Narika.  "This one's your favorite, huh?"

"Are you insinuating that the shy, nice, long-haired, clumsy, busty girl is my favorite?"

She just stares at me.

"Well...yeah, she is." I say as I slump my shoulders and continue playing.

While Conception II has some really nice character art during conversations, it's even more impressive that they have movement to them.  Not just the breathing and blinking stuff that has been in other JRPGs over the past few years, but they actually transition to their various poses, instead of just changing pictures.  It's cool to see such nice artwork actually move, too.  Characters have two models, their 2D and their 3D ones, and scenes will sometimes switch between them.  Plot scenes will usually use the 2D while the events to raise affection will use the 3D.  At first it was a bit jarring to have two different models of the characters used so much, but I quickly got used to it.

One of the first things you have to do in the game is "classmate" to create star children.  Yes, it's suggestive, but isn't near as graphic or dirty as it sounds.  That doesn't stop the game from playing up that angle, though.  Since three children make one unit for battle, and a child's max level raises the stronger the parents are, it is one aspect of the game you will have to use.  A lot.  It's easy to do since there are many classes and combinations to play around with, and you get plenty of Bond Points for viewing events with the different girls.  And by "viewing events", I mean raising their affection for you.

If you have played a game like Persona 4 or Thousand Arms, then the concept will be familiar to you. Each time you enter town from a dungeon, you can spend time with up to three of the girls and raise their affection for you.  This level and their mood will affect the stats of the star children, so it is also something you will be doing a lot of.  The game makes continuing the story its own selectable option, so you there's no pressure to get each event/date "just right".  If you want other ways to raise the ladies' affections, you could always give them a gift.  Once you raise the town's level by releasing your children, a shop opens up that will sell gifts to give them.  Several of them are actual costume pieces that you can put on them after giving it to them.  Hopefully you are comfortable being nice to your party members and making babies with them because it's a very important function of the game.  Yes, that sounds strange to say but it's true.

Dungeons are a random series of rooms connected by hallways.  They look different from each other, but aren't really that interesting to explore or look at.  Fights are represented by monster shapes wandering around each floor, and the color and size of the shape shows its relative strength.  When in a battle, your character's speed will help determine the order they move in.  When attacking or using a skill, you can also change your position relative to the enemy.  There are four positions- front, back and both sides- that can be occupied by your four groups.  Each enemy has at least one position that, if attacked, will take more damage.  Skills will also have a location that will yield more damage if it is used there.  Combine that with the chain gauge that can be very helpful on strong enemies and you have a fairly unique and deep system.  There's even a way for a group of your children to merge into a powerful robot called Mecunite.  It is really powerful, and best reserved for boss battles.  Currently, I haven't found a way for my actual kids to do that, but I'm going to figure it out.  Yay robots!

Doing all events and sub-dungeons will run you about 60 hours, which is really impressive for an RPG nowadays.  Just doing the main dungeons would probably be about 40.  The game isn't very hard, as you can grind easily or even leave and restart on any floor you've reached.  The trophies aren't that difficult either.  It's a pretty standard list with trophies for killing monsters, clearing dungeons, viewing events and getting endings with all the ladies.  Not a hard list, but it can be time consuming.

If you like dungeon crawling RPGs or light dating-sim elements, you should like playing Conception II.  It's a lengthy game for you money.  While it lacks a lot of touch screen functionality, it plays and looks really good on the Vita.  Some people might have a hard time looking past the seemingly risque nature of the game, but those that do will find a fun RPG.  If you are still undecided, try out the demo, since the progress carries over and you get some goodies!