Root Double -Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition (Switch) Review

Early in the morning, explosions rip through the lower levels of a research facility.   The safety measures fail to activate, leaving people stranded.  A special rescue squad is mobilized to get those people out.   However, the rescue leader has a different goal, and heads off to execute it.   He is soon struck with amnesia-like symptoms, leaving him, and us, to discover the truth of the incident.

In Root Double, first the player is presented with two story choices, "Before" the incident and "After".   Now you know where the game's subtitle comes from. Each choice has a separate main character, but all the important characters are shared between these two points of view.   Everyone's name was set, with no ability to change it.  The way the story is told is unique for a visual novel, and more importantly, interesting.

I decided to start with the "After" story, since it had more endings to achieve, and I had a feeling the "Before" story might spoil something important.  It took about six hours to complete, with some of that time devoted to replaying parts to get the "good" ending.  The story was compelling.  This route doesn't "end" per se, but was interesting enough to keep me engaged for the next ones.  Hints were given, and mysteries remained to be solved.

Upon completing the "Before" chapter, I was glad I played "After" first.  There are some revelations that would definitely change how I perceived certain events. Supposedly, there are changes to "After" if played after completing "Before".  Reaching the good ending for both stories unlocked a third route. Completing that route unlocked the final route, which brought the story to its conclusion.  While this is a more linear approach than most visual novels, it was a refreshing take with a longer and more involved story.  It's also good that the story logically permits different points of view for important scenes.  It's really well done. Most of the twists are logical and fit in the world presented.  The only weakness was that the latter half, namely the final two routes, can be very exposition heavy.  There's a lot of stuff to explain.  For better or worse, those explanations can't be done any earlier, either.

Another difference in features that Root Double showcased was the Senses Sympathy System.  Instead of making choices in various places, a circular chart appeared in the upper right part of the screen.  Clicking it would bring the chart up front and center.  It would then display any applicable characters, along with how positively the main character felt about them.  There was even a value for the main characters, so you know how much they trust themselves.  Changing these values determined the direction the dialogue and actions went.  There are three colors: blue, yellow and red.  Blue usually won't drastically change what is goes on, but seemed to have minor dialogue differences.  Yellow was more serious, and can either lead to, or avoid red scenarios.  Red was the most serious, most rare, and could easily lead to a "Game Over" if you don't have the right amount of trust in the right people.  Sense levels could be changed as much as you wanted each time, but only once each time it appears, and only for the relevant characters.

The system was kind of confusing at first, since the wheel appears much more often than I initially thought it would.  I liked that it could change some dialogue, but it ultimately functions like a "choice" system with a few key differences.  One, most times the levels can be set in advance, not always right when necessary.  Two, I wasn't forced to change the levels any time the chart appeared.  If you keep on reading, the story moves on with the current sense levels.  If you don't like it, reaching the good ending for a route unlocks "answer mode" which functions more like a tradition visual novel system, which is a nice option to have.

"Game Over", usually referred to as a "bad end" in visual novels, felt easy to hit in Root Double.  This was good for completion, if nothing else.  Each also gave a tip on how to avoid it.  Most were pretty obvious, as it just needed a change in the sense levels of the involved characters.  Although the tip for getting the "After" normal ending felt generic enough to not be helpful in avoiding it without significant backtracking.  Thankfully there are plenty of save slots, so use as many as you think you may need.  There wasn't a route map or anything like that, but the story layout and direction don't really need it.  Plus the skip function is really fast.

Overall, Root Double is another good visual novel that fans will enjoy.  The story is compelling, and the way it is told is unique.  I'm always a fan of multiple perspective stories.  A normal playthrough for all good endings easily runs over twelve hours and is worth doing.  I would definitely recommend the game to visual novel fans.

The Good:

Interesting story and presentation.

The Bad:

Routes are not self contained, latter half is exposition heavy.

The SaHD:

While coincidental, it's funny that the racist villains are referred to as "Q".

(Root Double -Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition review code provided by the publisher)

Seasons After Fall (Xbox One) Review

There’s never enough time in the day when you want to play a game but must parent, too.  Thankfully, there’s a bountiful market of indie games that appeal to someone looking for something quick and fun. In a world where artistic platforming indie games are a dime a dozen, Seasons After Fall has appeal if you’re looking for something short.  I was fortunate enough to get it on sale as part of a double pack, and decided it was time to give it a try.  It’s a pretty game, with a distinct art style, a clear plot, and easy play mechanics.  That’s what makes it a good choice for someone without a lot of time.

The first thing you’ll notice is the art style.  It looks like oil painting over hand-drawn scenery and characters.  It's nice.  Everything was uniformly presented, with nothing so obviously different that it took away from the main art style.  Nothing is more distracting when playing a game than a random object drawn in a different style.  The only complaint I can make about the game’s art is its tendency to place a plethora of objects in the foreground.  I don't like things obscuring my view of the character while I'm trying to control it, and they disrupt my immersion in the story.

The second thing that drew my attention was the story.  When starting out, you possess a small fox.  Urged on by a mysterious spirit, you set out to find the guardian of winter to gain its power and find out more about your purpose.  You jump around, but there are no complicated puzzles to solve until you earn the power of the first season, winter.  Of course, it doesn't take long before you get your second and further seasonal powers, and the game opens up. 

I say "opens up", but the second half of the game is still rather linear.  In the first half, you are required to earn the four seasons, in order.  Once that is complete, you move on to the second half, where you then free the four respective stones, and rebuild their power altars.  The first stone, like the power, is winter.  After that, you are free to do the other stones, and then the altars, in whatever order you want.  Previous areas don’t change, but more sections of them are available as you gain new powers. This helps keep the game short.  There are a couple of new areas added, and one is a big pain in the butt.  

Lastly, let’s talk about gameplay.  The mechanics are simple, but you can apply them in multiple ways.  For example, winter freezes water, which allows you to walk on it.  Summer is dry, and thirsty plants drink up the water, lowering its level.  Then there are more unique applications.  Fall winds can blow leaves and fog, while spring rains can make plants grow and help raise water levels.  The seasons can also affect the few creatures you encounter, which helps you to solve puzzles.  

Puzzles in the game are not overly complicated.  Until you get the second power, puzzles are either "use winter" or "turn off winter."  You may still get stuck, but every solution is close by, and rarely involves more than knowing what each season does.  Considering the limited list of effects, it shouldn’t be too difficult, even for casual gamers.  The platform jumping also isn’t very strenuous, which is a plus.  The simplicity makes for a relaxing experience for most of the game. 

You might think this sounds involved, but the entire game is only a few hours long.  It can be stretched out if you don’t do the stone and altar objectives at the same time, or if you go back for the collectible flowers.  Doing so doesn't add much time, but it's pretty much all you have for replay.  There isn't much in the way of extra content.

Overall, Seasons After Fall was a decent gaming experience.  When all is said and done, it's a standard indie game: artistic visuals, average platforming, short length, and a dose of charm.  A fun game, but not outstanding.  There just isn’t anything about it that makes it something to go out of your way (or out of your budget) to buy.

The Good:

Artwork is pretty and changing the seasons for puzzles and platforming is fun.  Controls are simple and effective.

The Bad:

Artistic objects can interfere in platforming.  Elements of the seasons could be deeper.  Not a lot of extra content.

The SaHD:

Argh, no double jump!

(Seasons After Fall was purchased by the reviewer)

(Expertly edited by Handy Edits)

Raging Loop (Switch) Review

As promised in my tweet last month, I'm reviewing yet another visual novel.  It seems like that and shmups are all I'm doing lately.  Sometimes, it does feel like that's all that I'm playing, too.

While I say it a lot, the setting and idea for Raging Loop are great.  It's a visual novel that combines the Werewolf game with the idea of Groundhog Day (the movie).  Werewolf, aka Mafia, takes a group of people, a few of which are killers, and the rest innocent.  During the night phase, the killers agree on a victim, and that person is then out of the game.  During the day phase, everyone debates who one of the killers/wolves are, and vote to kill that person with a majority rule.  This cycle continues until all killers are, well, killed, or they outnumber the innocents.  Another wrinkle in the setup is when some innocents/villagers have special powers, which will be discussed later.

The game starts with Haruaki getting lost, and finding his way into a secluded village in the middle of the mountains.  He even starts to befriend a local named Chiemi.  However, things quickly go askew when the wolf game starts, and people begin dying in gruesome ways.  As an outsider, can Haruaki infiltrate and end this nightmare?  One wrong move can end his life...or does it?  Interestingly, all the "bad ends" actually happen.  You see, if he fails, Haruaki starts back at the beginning of the story, sometimes with knowledge of what transpired.  Until he can solve the mystery, he is doomed to repeat the werewolf game again and again.  That's where the Groundhog Day inspiration comes in.

This looping is also woven into the main plot.  Several choices are locked until you find the appropriate keys.  While not while unique, as the concept of cleared flags is constant in near every game made, it's done well.  Locks show which key(s) are necessary.  To find them, you just need to keep playing and try different choices, even obviously wrong ones.  Thankfully, the game includes a handy flowchart.  This makes it very easy to hop around, making choices, and getting keys, all while enjoying the story.

Raging Loop's story might not sound linear, but it surprisingly is.  There are basically three main routes that must be gone through in order.  It strangely didn't bother me.  I attribute that to how interesting I was finding the story, and how each built upon the previous.  Trying to figure out who were the wolves, who were the innocents, and who had the powers of the guardians was fun and surprising.  The guardians are the special powers mentioned earlier.  The village has four extra guardian deities that will choose a non-wolf person to give an extra ability to.  The snake can check one person per night, and be will be told if they are a human or wolf.  The spider can protect one person per night.  The crow will tell the bearer if the person hung the day before was a human or wolf.  There are also two monkey guardians, and each knows who the other is.

Honestly, while this works for a visual novel, it also sounds really awesome for another video game.  The idea and psychology behind how and when to use your powers, if and when to out yourself as a guardian...it sounds like a lot of fun.  My kids told me there is a similar sounding game in Roblox, and I might just have to check that out.  I don't know if I'd want to play with other people, but an open ended game using these powers, trying to find the killers, or even be one yourself.  It sounds fun.

Anyway, back to Raging Loop.  Several solutions rely on Japanese word/alphabet play.  Thankfully, the game takes the extra steps to lay it all out, so you won't get confused.  The one aspect holding the game back from being amazing is the ending.  It's not bad, but it wasn't that satisfying to me.  I'm not going to spoil specifics, but it tries too hard to make things mystical, and not, at the same time.  It's just not pulled off well at all.  It asks us to believe in magic, show us how the trick is done, but also include actual witchcraft, all after a massive info dump right near the end.  Still, the game is worth completing.  Besides some nice epilogue scenes, there's a commentary mode that injects character's thoughts during several scenes in the game.  The ones I read were okay, but not really worth going through the game again immediately to see.  Maybe some day in the future.

I know you've heard it before, but Raging Loop is a definite recommendation.  While it loses steam right at the end, it's not enough to stop the huge heap of enjoyment I got reading the rest of the game.  It's got a solid idea, and is pulled off very well.  I'm anxious to see if any other visual novels come from this same world in the future.


The Good:
Great premise and a captivating story

The Bad:
The story goes astray in the 11th hour.

The SaHD:
If you get this, definitely do not look at the artbook until you have completed all of the routes!  Massive spoilers!

(Raging Loop was purchased by the reviewer)

Root Letter: Last Answer (Switch) Review

Root Letter: Last Answer takes a good idea for a story and, well, turns it into a visual novel.  While in high school 15 years ago, the main character had a pen pal named Aya.  After finding the last of her letters mysteriously delivered to his house, "Max" decides to take a shot at meeting her in person.  As his nickname implies, he doesn't do anything half way.

Max travels to Shimane and quickly hits a dead end looking for his old pen pal. Undeterred, he decides to re-read one of her letters, and track down her old friends as a path to finding her.  Trouble is, she never specifically named any of her friends, just their nicknames.  Armed with that, determination, and some help from a few well-meaning locals, Max does everything he can to find out who his pen pal was, and where she is now.

For better or worse, the crux of the story is whatever secret revolves around Aya and the bull-headed conviction of people to be useless towards that goal.  I'm not going to spoil things if I can help it, but it really doesn't end up being that big of a deal.  One or two of the secrets may make some sense to keep under wraps, but the rest are super benign.  Plus, those one or two aren't even related to Max's quest.  One other weird aspect are the character's nicknames.  Max learns the real names of Aya's friends, but staunchly refuses to use those, instead only referring to them by these sometimes offensive nicknames.  It's not that bad, but makes it a bit harder for me to cheer him on.

One unique thing the game does is how it handles the interrogation of Aya's friends.  After corning one (sometimes literally), Max refutes each of their lies by presenting evidence.  It's set up like Phoenix Wright, but still feels fresh here.  Sometimes you will even enter "Max Mode", where a meter fills, changing what response you will tell the person.  I say tell, but he's usually yelling it at them...or at least enthusiastically saying at their face with higher volume and exclamation points.  The meter doesn't fill at a consistent rate, and the right answer isn't always obvious.  It's even harder when you have only a second or two to read the responses in the funky fonts.  At least there's no penalty for getting it wrong.

Root Letter does offer different routes in the story, but not in the way you may think.  The first 8 chapters are pretty much the same, and it's only the last one or two that are different.  The only things that affect your route are your responses to the letters you received years ago.  Max "remembers" what he wrote in each letter near the start of the chapter.  For better or worse, none of the other choices matter.  In my opinion, it's not the most logical, or interesting, way to do it.

Given this, the game would be prime for a flow chart, so you could just jump around and change your choices to get the different routes.  Unfortunately, there is no such grace.  Instead, you have to go through the whole game again, each time, to make the choices and get a different route.  Fortunately, there is a chapter skip in the menu, which will automatically advance through the completed chapter.  It's not the best method, but it at least keeps the subsequent playthroughs to about 20 minutes for a new ending.

Now, about those endings.  I won't spoil them, but they run the gamut from normal to horror, and even comedy.  You can see a bit why the choices lead to those endings, but they just don't feel like logical conclusions to the story.  If the choices had more of an influence over the story instead of just the last chapter or two, they might not seem as out of place.  Still, one or two of them are interesting.

There are two main additions in the Last Answer release.  The first is a live action mode, where all of the people and placed are replaced with photos of actors and locations.  It's pretty neat, and they did a great job replicating everything, but I prefer the original drawn artwork.  Quickly switching between the two would have been great, but you can't do it.  It has to be done on the main menu.  It would be nice to see the two back to back as you go through the story.  Still, it's a nice idea.

The second addition are some extended endings to most of the originals. These are hit or miss, but sadly, mostly the latter.  Thankfully, they are just unlocked to watch from the menu once you have completed all the vanilla game routes.  The one I would consider the "true" ending, because you have to watch the other first, is pretty good, and gives some extra closure.  There was another I liked, because it gave an actual resolution to the route.  The other two...are there.  Sorry to spoil this, but one involves kaiju.  Yes, really.  It's...odd, to say the least.

Root Letter: Last Answer is a decent visual novel.  The concept is good, as is the evidence-based interrogation scenes.  Route choices aren't the most intuitive, and the secret(s) behind the mystery could have been much more interesting.  They even throw out a very plausible explanation in the middle as a joke.  It's not that long of a game, so it's not a big time investment if you are looking for a new and (hopefully) cheap visual novel.  Otherwise, I'd suggest skipping it for much better offerings.

The Good:
Interesting idea with Phoenix Wright-style interrogations.

The Bad:
No route differences until very late, and very random directions of those changes.

The SaHD:
Like 428: Shibuya Scramble, this makes me want to visit the area it's set in.

(Root Letter: Last Answer was purchased by the reviewer)

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa (Switch) Review

Continuing my visual novel kick, I recently picked up Kotodama: 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa.  It is a unique blend of a visual novel story with some match-3 types puzzles thrown in for good measure.  While this does give it a bigger replay value than most visual novels, it's definitely not without its faults.

The story follows your protagonist after they recently transferred into the Fujisawa Academy.  Oh, and you also have a contract with a demon fox that gives you special powers.  These powers force someone to tell the truth by stripping away the layers of their deceit.  Using your special ability, along with some good old fashioned detective work, will allow you to uncover the titular mysteries of the game.

Events follow a typical visual novel narrative.  There is a lot of dialogue, and appropriate characters appear on the screen as they speak or are spoken to.  There are dialogue choices, but most will not appear during your first time through the game.  Without giving anything away, Kotodama has an interesting take on its story.  It sadly doesn't really have routes as other visual novels do, but for the most part, I appreciate the way the story is handled.

During the story, you will learn several key phrases.  Primarily, these give you experience for each of the elemental pieces in the puzzle mode.  There are even specific ones for each opponent that allow you to do extra damage to them.  For better or worse, all of these are necessary to get the best ending.  To make it harder, some only appear if you go to certain areas when you are allowed to choose from several.  There's usually a list, and some choices disappear if not taken immediately, with no real reason for it.  Even more unfortunately, not having all of the key and power words means you have to repeat the game loop until you get them, if you want the true ending.  A chapter select would have been best to save all the unnecessary time wasted when (not if) you start another playthrough.

The other element of the story is the few times your main character calls upon his or her power to root out the truth.  This manifests as a match 3 like puzzle game.  Unlike a more traditional experience like Bejeweled, you don't swap pieces to match.  Instead, you pick a piece, and it gets sent to the top of the 8x8 grid.  It's different than what I've played before.  While it's not the best, it's pretty fun, and has some decent strategy.  You also get some abilities to use, but...they aren't great.  They aren't even fully explained.  I think you use one, poke the opponent somewhere, and have a percent chance to get some extra turns.  If not, they lock some pieces, making it harder.  While these abilities can be ignored for the most part, they will sometimes help in a pinch.

Oh, did I mention that the main character pictures peeling away the opponent's deceit like layers of clothing?  Well, that's how it plays out.  No, really.  As you fill out each opponent's happy meter, it will reach one of four milestones, removing some of their clothing (not in the "real" world) and giving you more moves to complete the stage.  It's not quite as creepy as it sounds.  No one is ever shown fully naked, just in his or her underwear.  You read that right.  It's not balanced, but there is one guy that you use your power on, compared to the five girls.

Once you have beaten an opponent, save for the near-final boss, they are unlocked in the puzzle mode for you to fight when you want.  Plus, they each have four different sets of undergarments to also unlock.  Most fights are not that hard, save for a few towards the end of the main game.  However, if you acquire the power word for those opponents, they are much easier.  I did have to retry a few fights for the near-final boss the first time through the game.  I say retry, but you basically have to load your game, so make sure to save often and take advantage of the multitude of save slots offered.

Overall, Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa was a decent visual novel and puzzle game hybrid.  The story has some nice ideas, but doesn't fully capitalize on its premise, and can easily drag on too long.  Puzzle sections can be pretty fun, though.   My only gripe was the ones at the end were really hard without having the special keywords.  If a sequel does get made and released, I would be interested in playing it for the story continuation.  Though it is not one I would get right when it releases.

The Good:
While mostly a visual novel, the match-3 puzzle aspect gives you a reason to play after the story ends.

The Bad:
Completing the game enough for the true ending can be a pain, and the final fights are difficult the first time through.

The SaHD:
No specific spoilers, but the ending was not fulfilling.

(Kotodama was purchased by the reviewer)

Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo (Switch) Review

Complimenting last month's release, NIS America releases Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo, another collection of six retro shoot-em'up games, frequently called "shmups."  Okay, one of them isn't a shmup, but we will get to that.  Last time had the three Strikers games and three others, while this time the collection is mostly centered around Samurai Aces and Gunbird.

The first game in the collection is Samurai Aces.  Like most of the games last month, it is a top-down shooter.  Choosing one of six planes, you get an auto shot (fires continuously), a normal shot that can be charged, and a bomb.  Unlike some of the other shmups in the collections, the charge shot in Samurai Aces doesn't require a portion of an energy meter.  The exchange is that it takes longer to charge.  This really limits its effectiveness, since you can't shoot while charging.  It just leaves you too vulnerable to be very effective for me.

You fly through each stage, blasting enemies and mid-bosses until the boss shows up.  Whittle down its health, and it will be defeated, moving you on to the next stage.  Like too many shmups, the power-ups hate going down to the player's section of the screen.  They bounce around with the enemies.  It's dangerous to try and pick them up, but too necessary to pass up.  At least they are plentiful.  Sadly, they need to be.  Making matters worse is the highest level of power-up is only temporary.  After a bit, it drops you back down a level.  It's hard enough to get there, let alone keep.  Still, it's not a game mechanic that I like.  Of course, the game back then just wanted you to keep putting quarters in it, balance be damned.  Setting the continues to infinite helps take the sting out of that old-school "balance".

Next up is Tengai and Samurai Aces 3.  Tengai is pretty much Samurai Aces 2, just with a different name.  Unlike the first, these two are side-scrolling shooters.  If you remember Sol Divide from my previous review, then you will know the basic gist of these.  However, instead of the early 90s CGI graphics, these two games feature sprite artwork for the characters.  Tengai also has sprites for the backgrounds, which looks better to me.  Samurai Aces 3 has fancy 3-D graphics for the stage backdrops, but they are too distracting.

Tengai features 5 characters, each with an automatic shot, a charge shot, and a screen-clearing bomb attack.  It's pretty fun, and unlike the vertical scrolling shmups in the collections, the power pick-ups can actually go near where the player is likely residing.  Samurai Aces 3 sports 4 characters (2 more can be added with a code), plus adds something new to the control scheme.  Each character has a cannon attack.  Now you know why the subtitle is Sengoku Cannon.  This attack is strong, but not able to be fired continuously.  Plus, killing an enemy with it makes some of their bullets disappear.  It's a nice function, and I would like that game the best, if it were nicer.  The fancy backgrounds make the bullets hard to see, which makes them harder to dodge.  If the game had more static backgrounds, or maybe just lighter in color, I think it would be better.

Next up are Gunbird 1 & 2.  While I still own Gunbird 2 on the Dreamcast, I didn't remember much of it.  Each is similar to the first Samurai Aces, but with a different character set and theme.  Both of them have 5 characters to choose from, each with different attacks.  In an interesting twist, most of the characters are different in each game, rather than the same or similar, like Samurai Aces.

There is still an auto shot, a charge-able shot, and a bomb to get you out of trouble.  Gunbird 2 also has a close-range attack that requires the built up energy meter to use.  It's...not great.  It would be more useful if it were a lot stronger, or could protect you from bullets, or even if it didn't cost energy.  Right idea, but I think the execution needed some work.  Each stage throws lots of enemies at you, some power-ups, and ends with a big boss fight before moving you to the next area.  Like the first Samurai Aces, the premise and story are simple (yes there's actually a plot), but the games can be pretty fun.  Well, until the screen fills with bullets and you have no where to go.  I completed both of the Gunbirds while playing with my favorite co-op partner (the ever popular Wife Blade), despite the numerous deaths we suffered.

The last game in the collection is Gunbarich.  It has the main girl from Gunbird and...some boy as the playable characters.  Instead of a shmup, it's more like Alleyway or other brick breaking games.  This got me excited because I love those games.  In Gunbarich, your paddle even has flippers!  That makes it much easier to hit your ball at different angles.  The power ups are really useful too.  I quickly noticed the levels are timed, which I thought would be a problem.  That didn't end up being an issue though.  After a few levels, there is a boss fight, which were a little chaotic, but fun.

However, there is a huge downside to the game.  It's flat out cheap, and stops being fun very quickly.  There are enemies that shoot paralyzing bullets.  You can reflect them back with the flippers, so it didn't start as a huge deal.  But after the next few levels, the bullets would explode when passing the area the paddle moves in.  This leaves a large burst that paralyzes you when you touch it.  You can't hit both the ball and the paralyze bullet, so you have to prioritize.  Choosing the paralyze shot means you miss the ball and lose a life.  Choosing the ball means you hit it back once, then likely hit the paralyze burst, which causes you to miss the ball.  It's definitely a lose-lose situation.  When I tried playing as the boy, there was a creature that would suck in the ball, randomly reappear close to the paddle's level, and spit the ball out.  There was very little time to react.  Levels don't seem to be random, either, so there isn't much replay value.  As much fun as I thought I would have playing another brick break game, Gunbarich left me with the bitter taste of disappointment.

All in all, Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo, like Alpha, is a collection worth playing for shmup fans.  Handheld mode works well enough, but I find the games better on the big screen.  It sure helps with dodging those bullets.  These games might not be the best in the genre, but they are faithful renditions of these arcade classics.  Bring a friend, but leave the quarters aside.


The Good:
Same as last time, six shoot-em-up classics on one cartridge/download.  Tengai is my favorite.

The Bad:
The games are still very quarter-hungry.

The SaHD:
Does Gadget Gen in the first Samurai Aces have an X-wing?!  It really looks like it.

(Review copy of Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo was received from the publisher.)

Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha (Switch) Review

Multi-game retro collections and "shmup" games are two things I enjoy.   It therefore follows that I would be excited to review Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, a retro collection of six shoot-em-up (shmup) games on the Switch.  The games contained are a healthy sampling of the genre, with some unique samples that I had not experienced before.  The game selection menu doesn't have any frills, but you can thankfully return to it at any point, a necessary feature sadly lacking in other game collections.

The first three games are Strikers 1945 I, II and III.  All three are very similar in gameplay and plane selection.  When I started the first one, it looked very familiar to me, but was missing a certain secret plane that I remember.  When I got to the third Strikers, I figured out why.  In college, there was a Strikers 1945 III arcade machine in the small arcade in the student union building.  I remember playing it several times back in the day, and one day seeing the secret plane that transforms into a robot for its bomb attack.  Of course I thought that was cool and would remember it. It's a transforming robot!

Anyway, memories aside, the three games are similar vertical scrolling shooters that task you with shooting down many enemies, dodging lots of bullets, and fighting a boss at the end that predictably has several forms.  In fact, most games in this collection fit that bill.  Each plane has a different shot pattern and bomb attack.  One cool thing is that each fighter has a special charge attack.  There is an energy meter at the bottom of the screen that charges to a few levels as you play.  Holding down the shot (not auto shot!) button charges it up if you have enough energy, and lets it fly.  Some will start as soon as you charge it enough, and sustains as long as you hold the button while having energy.  It's a useful attack, as most will cover for a craft's weakness.  For example, if the normal shot is very central-focused, the charge shot might be a spread, or vice-versa.

While these games are fun, they definitely show their arcade roots.  While a lot of shmups I play feel more focused on having dodge-able spread patterns, Strikers would rather you explode and pump another quarter into the machine.  The hit box and enemy attacks do not feel forgiving, and edge into the cheap territory, even on the default difficulty.  I would have loved an auto-bomb feature, but I didn't see one.  I found it much better playing the game while docked and on a TV, instead of handheld mode.  Also, the first few stages being in a random order is nice for replayability.

Next up is Sol Divide, the only side-scrolling shooter in the collection.  Besides that, it also looks the most different because of the digitized 3-D character models.  Both player and enemies will look familiar to anyone who played a lot of games in the mid-90s.  Because of this, all on-screen characters are much larger than in the other games, and there are fewer enemies as a result.

To further differentiate Sol Divide, there are only three playable characters, and no randomization of the stages. The only difference is after the first stage, you can choose the second.  You will end up doing the other choice right afterwards, so it doesn't really make a difference.  The player also gets a melee attack, and can cast various spells that are obtained while playing.

The magic aspect is really neat, as it provides a unique take on the bomb mechanic.  Some spells hit the whole screen, while some hit a much narrower area. There is even one that can make you invincible for a short time.  Melee attacks are just about the opposite.  They are clunky, weak and unreliable.  You might think that when an enemy rushed into your face would be there time to use a melee attack, and you should be right.  However, it doesn't knock them away or do anywhere close to enough damage.  That's assuming you can even pull it off.  Most times that I try, the enemy gets to swing first, and stuns me out of my attack.

Sadly, you can get stunned out of your spells, too.  It's possible to stun the enemy, but it is not common enough.  Your character model is big, making it very easy to get hit, and nigh impossible to dodge a lot of things.  To add insult to injury, you don't have any invincibility after taking a hit, so your health can sink like a rock for no real reason.  Sol Divide started off as an early favorite in the collection, but definitely wasn't by the end.  The aforementioned issues coupled with the "start the last stage over when continuing on it" nonsense saw to that.  It's still fun, just not the whole way through.

Dragon Blaze retains the fantasy aspect present in Sol Divide, but returns to the vertical shmup format of Strikers.  In fact, it's a lot like Strikers.  Instead of choosing a plane, you choose a dragon and rider.  Of course I chose the skull dragon first once I saw it.  You get a magic meter, which allows you to do a charge attack, and a bomb.  The most unique aspect in this game is the ability to separate from your dragon ally.  This will leave it in place to shoot while you move around.  It took me awhile to get used to that functionality, and to find it actually useful.  It's good for bosses and strong monsters, but only in spurts.  Supposedly there is a way to use it to one-shot a boss, but I couldn't get it to work on the only boss I saw the opening for.  It's a fun game, and the random path through the first four stages gives some decent replay.

Last, but certainly not least, is Zero Gunner 2.  I wasn't sure what to think at first, as the nice sprite graphics were replaced with early 90s 3-D.  Regardless of how it looks, it may be the most unique title offered in the collection.  It's still a vertical shmup for the most part (some parts scroll horizontal, but it's all top-down view), but you can change the direction you are shooting.  At first, I didn't like it.  It was a pain to stop shooting, change direction, and try to shoot another enemy.  After a try or two, I figured out that turning the ship doesn't mean you have to stop firing.  Now, you won't be a whirling dervish of death, but it made the game much easier, and much more fun.

Sadly, there are no bombs.  Even the method of powering up is different.  There are power-up icons to collect, but really you get stronger by grabbing the little "E" icons that fly out of everything you blow up.  Once I learned they gravitate toward you when you aren't shooting, it made it easier to collect the ones that pop up near the edge of the screen.  Too bad the other games don't have that ability.  Like every other game in the collection, you perform best when not dying.  The loss of damage when you are destroyed makes the games more challenging than I think it should, but it's very much in line with that old-school mentality.

I think Zero Gunner 2 is the easiest game of the bunch.  The stages are not, because you really have to fight your shmup instincts and stay in the middle to deal with all the enemies.  If you do the natural thing and stay near the bottom/back, way too many enemies will blindside you from that direction.  It's kind of annoying.  On the flip side, bosses tend to be much easier (save the near final boss), as you can usually get behind them and avoid most of their attacks.

Overall, Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha is a good collection of shmups.  It was enjoyable, even if not as fair as more contemporary offerings in the genre.  It's still worth getting and playing for vertical shooter fans.

The Good:
Six shoot-em-up classics on one cartridge/download.

The Bad:
Given more recent offerings in the genre, the games can feel dated.

The SaHD:
You know things will be hard when the default "normal" is 5 out of 7 on the scale.

(Review copy of Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha was received from the publisher.)

Lichdom: Battlemage (PS4) Review

Wasted potential is one of the most damaging things for a game.  Worse than mediocrity.  At least being average and forgettable doesn't leave you with regret.  Having a great idea on paper does not automatically transfer into a great game on the screen.  It still requires execution, know-how, and time.  Unfortunately for it, Lichdom: Battlemage is full of potential that it squanders.

Picture this: a power-mad ruler and his arrogant general flaunt their power over the commoners by doing as they please. Maybe they kill your family, or kidnap your sister.  After your despair, an old wizard approaches, offering you the power to take your revenge.  He gifts you two magic bracers that allow you to conjure magic.  Several elements are at your control, allowing you to destroy any in your path on your quest to make bad men pay for their crimes.

Sounds great, right?  It's a solid concept that, coupled with decent gameplay, would make an interesting title.  Sadly, Lichdom does not have that gameplay.  The building blocks are there, but the execution is not.  The game is first person.  Movement and aiming is what you would expect from a first person shooter, so the left stick moves the character while the right stick aims.  R2 fires off your offensive spell, L2 is a defensive shield, and both together uses your area of effect (AoE) spell.  There's also a short dash to move out of the way of enemies.

There are different trajectories and distances to launch your attacks, some more useful than others.  Both the attack and AoE can be charged to do more damage or hit a larger area.  That idea actually works fairly well.  The biggest problem is dealing with multiple enemies coming from random directions.  There are no constant threats, just rooms that spawn foes.  Unfortunately, there's no real way to tell how many are spawning and where, unless you see them appearing. Many times I would be fighting, only to get blindsided by some skeleton that popped out of the ground behind me or something similar. Then you have the scramble to get away, only to remember you don't move as fast as they can, nor have the generous attack range they do.  That's not the most conducive to charging an attack, which is usually a better and faster way to dispatch them.

So why not use the shield?  I do.  Well, I try.  To actually be effective with the shield, you need to time your block just as the enemy attacks.  This triggers a "nova" burst to damage everything around you.  Well, with some of the shield types anyway.  This is useful and powerful, but really hard (for me) to time correctly.  So, I try the dodge maneuver.  Sadly, it isn't much better.  For some shield types, you can only do a few "blinks", and they just don't go far enough to be useful.  I found it better to just do the tried and true "running around the room backwards while firing", and using the dash to stay out of harm's reach longer.

While you eventually discover several elements to command, only three can be taken with you at a time.  They can be swapped at some checkpoints.  These checkpoints also serve as your respawn point if and when you die.  It's not a new mechanic at all, but I appreciate that they work your character's "immortality" into the story.  The health system does have some unique features however. You have three health bars.  A bar can refill over time unless it was fully drained.  Fixing that can only be done by finding special orbs laying around the environment.  There is a burst from your shield when a bar is depleted, but all three going empty means a trip back to the last checkpoint, and doing whatever you started all over again.

Occasionally you will get points to strengthen some of your spells if you use them enough.  However, sometimes the point doesn't seem to increase a stat, so why use it on them?  Crafting new spells is a slightly more reliable way to make them better.  Enemies can drop different parts of spells of different rarities that you can use to make your own magic.  You are still limited by the types, but you can change trajectory, damage, and more.  While I do like some RPG elements in games, it feels a bit half baked in Lichdom.  The drops are plentiful, but still random, so you may not get what you want, or even something you can use.  You get a lot of drops, but it's still not easy to figure out what goes where if you are trying it for yourself.  That leads to the last few disappointing things about the game.

Capping the unhappy experience is the bad user interface.  While not always a make-or-break element, it does affect the experience.  In this case, it makes a bad situation worse.  The menu has both a normal and streamlined version.  One is good for making spells and seeing your drop components, but you need the other to upgrade them.  It's a baffling decision.  Plus, moving around the different menus is also a pain.  From wonky selections to having to use the menu button to exit (as opposed to hitting the cancel button), it just further mars the experience. 

Overall, Lichdom is not a good game.  I had heard that going in, but morbid curiosity got the better of me.  At least it was only a rental.  Multiple elements and spells is a great idea, as is the attack/defense/AoE control scheme.  Spell crafting is nice for customizing spells.  Unfortunately, the game doesn't run well, doesn't play well, and has bad user interfaces.  The game is only four years old, but looks and feels ten.  It would take a lot of effort and know-how to get this game to live up to its potential, and since it still hasn't happened after its numerous patches, it doesn't look like it ever will.

The Good:
Several spell types to play around with, and able to be customized to the player and situation.

The Bad:
Enemy hit detection, the UI, the big lack of polish.

The SaHD:
The game moves pretty smooth when you are just wandering.  The second enemies or effects appear, the frame rate takes a noticeable dive.

(Lichdom: Battlemage was rented from Gamefly's service.)

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (Switch) Review

Everything old is new again.  Ten years ago, Atari published the Ghostbusters video game, reuniting the original cast to voice their respective parts, craft an original story continued from the movies, and was even written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd.   Originally released 20 years after the second movie, the game has now been remastered on the eve of 35 years of the franchise.

While it's not as exciting to me as an Ecto-1 themed Transformer, I was eager to play the game again. I bought and still own the original on my Xbox 360.  Why not try it again with a shiny, new coat of paint?  For better or worse, that's what this "Remastered" is.  It looks nicer, but no other additions are present.  No new levels, modes, or anything like that.  On the contrary, the buggy multiplayer mode has been cut out entirely.  According this article, it should eventually be patched in after being re-built from the ground up, but it's certainly not there yet.

The gameplay is the same as the original release, but since I haven't reviewed that, I will cover it here.  You are the newest Ghostbuster, and must join forces with them to...what else, bust some ghosts.  The game dubs this as "zap 'em, cap 'em, and trap 'em", which is fairly accurate.  For the ghost enemies, you must start by zapping them with your proton stream or one of the other 3 weapon types.  Some are more suceptible to the different attack types than others, but the basic gist is to hit them and do damage.  Once their "health" is down enough, you can capture them with the proton stream.  A trap is thrown out, and the ghost must be lead into it.  Ghosts struggle while being captured.  Slamming them around will stun them and make it easier.  Despite the proton stream being appropriately inaccurate, the whole thing feels very satisfying.

That's all well and good, but the game isn't perfect.   While trapping ghosts can be fun, it can be a bit much when fighting multiple at a time, or some of the more annoying enemies.  It's very easy to get blindsided by something off-screen, or not be able to actually use the dodge move to get out of the way.   Many hits will knock you on the ground for a few seconds, leaving you unable to do anything.  Yes, the games around that time loved to make you ragdoll for some reason.

Another thing that was super popular to do in games around that time was not give a health bar.  Part of the "hud-less" craze, you won't know your exact health in Ghostbusters.  There's a tiny meter on the side of your proton pack, coupled with the growing red border of the screen, to give you a general idea of how you are doing.   It's not the biggest help, considering how quickly you can get downed, even on the "normal" setting.   Plus, the AI goes down even quicker, and isn't the best at helping you up. It's easy to get a "game over", sending you back to the nearest checkpoint.  That isn't the worst punishment for losing, but there could definitely be better placed checkpoints.

As is customary in video games then and nowadays, you can upgrade the different functions of your loadout.  It's not too involved, as each function only has 2-4 different upgrades, and each of those only has 1 upgrade.   For example, some attack types can be upgraded to reduce the heat gain from using it, or increase the damage.  The trap even has a few upgrades to it.   To get the money for upgrades, you simply need to advance through the game, and trap ghosts.  You should get enough to fully upgrade by the end, so there's no grinding.

While the gameplay is a mix of fun with some aggravation, the story is solid.  Written as a psuedo-replacement for the third movie, it actually fits the bill.  There's even reasons to have iconic locations and characters return, just so fans can experience them.  Re-hashing encounters with Stay Puft and the Grey Lady (librarian ghost) wouldn't do in a theater setting, but should put a smile on the face of long-time fans.  To top it off, the original cast is back to voice their own lines.  It's not necessarily the best voice acting ever, but it's good and authentic.  Characters talk and act like themselves, mostly because they are themselves.  Although some of the chatter is repeated too much, especially when you aren't the fastest at an objective, there is plenty of humor in the writing.

Overall thoughts on the game?  Mostly positive.  The core "zap 'em, cap'em & trap 'em" gameplay is fun and satisfying, even if several fights are not.   Dialogue and story scenes are the highlight, being written and performed by the iconic Ghostbusters themselves.   Multiplayer is absent, but will likely not be missed by many, even if it does eventually get patched in.  This game is worth playing for Ghostbusters fans.  If you already played the original release, I'd only recommend coming back if you really enjoyed it.  Otherwise, there's nothing new to entice you.


The Good:
Story, characters, and strapping on the pack to bust some ghosts with the original cast.

The Bad:
Get downed too quickly, annoying to fight too many enemies at once.

The SaHD:
Busting makes me feel good!

(Review code for Ghostbusters was received from the publisher.)

Habroxia (Switch) Review

Since I'm always in the mood to try a new space shoot-em-up (aka shmup), I jumped at the chance to review Habroxia.  Its old school, charming visuals are very reminiscent of classics like Gradius, but with some new twists to make it a unique experience.

At the start, you can only do Story Mode.  This presents the stages in a linear fashion.   Each is fairly short, and most end with a boss fight.  There are 15 in all, which is more than I would expect, but compliments the shorter stages rather well.  The bosses themselves feel different from each other, but aren't the most visually distinct.  They do fit with the game's aesthetic, however I'd be hard pressed to name them, or tell you what stage they are from, if just shown a picture.

Most of the stages are side-scrolling, but sometimes one of the game's unique features kicks in.  The "perspective" will shift, and the game briefly becomes a top-down scrolling shooter.   It's done really well, as you are usually safe when it happens.   The choice to include it is interesting, for sure, and breathes some fresh air into the genre.  Some bosses are even top-down, as opposed to side-scrolling.  I don't always advocate games outright copying each other, but this idea could easily be done in some other shmups, and it would be neat to experience again.

The game is not overly hard, even though there was a stage or two that I failed a few times.  This is thanks the game's rogue-lite system of upgrades.  Some enemies drop credits when defeated, which can be used between stages to buy permanent upgrades to the ship.  These are persistent through story mode.  Costs increase for each as their level rises, and they are very useful.  It's not necessary to fully max out the ship to complete the game, either.  I went for shot power, speed, and spread, but never ended up getting the health upgrades.  That might explain why I failed a couple of stages.  Even so, I made it through with only a few rough spots.

However, credits are not the only way to upgrade your ship.  Power-ups are also occasionally dropped by enemies.  There are even two flavors: ship power-ups, and items.  Ship power-ups are similar to the upgrades.  You can get stronger shots, missiles, and health.  It seems redundant at first, but these can temporarily be used instead of upgrading your ship.  By temporary, I mean they only last on the current stage.  They are also vital for the other modes discussed later.

Items are things that should be familiar to shmup fans.  Bombs that damage everything on the screen, a shield to take a hit for you, and a few others.  One is a powerful but short laser beam in front of your ship.  It penetrates, and does a lot of damage to bosses.  Very useful. There's another one, with a wave-looking icon that I couldn't figure out what it does.  I didn't see any kind of tutorial, or explanation, and there was no visible effect.  I tried to avoid that one in lieu of one that was actually useful.  If someone finds out what it does, let me know!  The ship can only hold one item at a time, and once you use it, it's gone.

Habroxia's controls work well, but took me a few minutes to get used to.  Instead of using a face button to fire, players use the shoulder buttons.  The R Button shoots in a straight line in front of the ship, while the L Button fires shots above and below you.  This would be great, but shots are not very quick, even when maxed out, so switching to the top and bottom shot was never useful to me.  Plus, it only fires in both directions when you aren't moving.  If you move, it only shots in that direction.  So, even less useful than it already was.  I'm sure there are some players would can use it effectively, but it's not me.  Also, I rarely needed it.  Luckily, using both triggers to shoot will give you a small spread shot.  This is what I used most of the time, while occasionally switching to the front shot for a few parts.

As for the other modes, they are unlocked after beating the story.  First is Invasion Mode.  Ever play Space Invaders?  For this mode, it is vertical, and you must destroy random waves of enemies before they reach the bottom and get past you.  This mode also contains bosses, power-ups, and items.  It's easily the most interesting of the extra modes to me, but still not as exciting or fun as Story Mode.  Second is Rescue Mode, which tasks you with rescuing astronauts.  It's an okay mode, but gets a little boring after awhile.  The levels are random for this mode, and repeat fairly often.  Killing an astronaut ends the mode, so you have to be careful with your attacks.  The third and final unlocked mode is Shield Maiden Mode.  Your ship only has 1 bar of health, so you have to rely on the plentiful shield items to keep yourself alive.  Shields tend to be very useful in games like this, but I don't like the ones in Habroxia.  They seem to disappear on me.  I'm not sure if they have a timer, or the hitbox is the shield and not the ship, or maybe both of these.  If it's not reliable, I'm not really a fan.  So, a good concept for an extra mode, but not one I would play very much.

Habroxia is a fairly simple game that harkens back to early shmups, while adding modern features to the mix.  It's pulled off really well, and is definitely a neat little game that I recommend shmup fans try out.


The Good:
Fun retro-inspired space shooter with modern, unique elements.

The Bad:
Extra modes are not that exciting.

The SaHD:
The credits mini-game is fun.

(Review code for Habroxia was received from the publisher.)

Utawarerumono: Zan (PS4) Review

If you have seen any of my earlier reviews, you may have run across the one I did for Utawarerumono: The Mask of Deception on the Vita.  I liked its mix of strategy RPG and visual novel, even if some parts of the story fell flat.  I was cautiously optimistic about Utawarerumono: Zan, since it takes a game I like, changing it from one genre I enjoy, to another that I also enjoy.  Instead of being an SRPG/visual novel, it's now a hack and slash action RPG.

With such a genre shift, there are plenty of ways to make it work, and just as many to ruin it.  The first issue would be paring down the story.  It's a generalization, but I think a chunk of people that really enjoy action games don't want to sit and watch hours of story.  A lot of the plot is handled with text over a still image, or a brief scene of characters talking.  As much as I like the CG images, it would have been nice to have more scenes acted out between the character models, and made a lot more visually interesting.  I don't think it would be too much of a stretch, since there are already battle models for most of the characters.

The story is definitely missing large chunks from the original.  Most of the basics are covered, but there are still things that I thought were important that were left on the cutting room floor.  A lot of the everyday life sections are gone as well.  On one hand, these sections annoyed me more often than not, as they tended to be "pile crap on Haku".  On the other, it helped flesh out the characters, and gave voice to their uniqueness.  At least Anju is much more tolerable when they cut out 95% of her interactions.

However, I'm still on the fence about is how much of the story is covered.  When the game was first announced, I was hoping it would cover both Utawarerumono: Mask games, as I didn't think there would be enough battles from the first game to handle the genre shift from SRPG to Action RPG.  That would be the second issue.  While most of the battles from the original did make it over, there are a chunk that are wholly original.  Framed as missions given to Haku's group from their employer, they do fit in with the story without feeling tacked-on.  Still, I think it would have been better from a gameplay perspective to have both games, but I understand why that didn't happen.

But, the story isn't likely why you are here.  If you were more interested in that aspect, you should just play the original.  This game is mostly action. Each stage is set in a small location, with enemies that appear.  Square is your normal attack string, while Triangle is a different attack, many times something with range, or some other special property.  Triangle can also be used for a combo ending attack if used in the string, but it's nowhere as complex as something like Dynasty Warriors, despite sounding similar.  To add some unique moves to combat, holding either Square or Triangle will do another attack.  The Square version can be thrown into combos, while the Triangle cannot.  Still, some of the held Triangle moves are very useful.  Haku's with the pierce damage scroll is particularly effective.

If you played the originals, you might be wondering where the chain attacks are.  Well, those are also present.  These are mapped to circle, and require some of your spirit gauge to use.  As you attack foes, the spirit gauge under the health bar begins to fill.  Pressing circle will start a stronger, unique attack.  As the attack proceeds, a ring appears on the screen.  When the glowing ring reaches the edge, pressing the button again is a perfect chain.  Hitting it correctly refunds some of the spirit spent, so it's worth trying for.  Up to two different chains can be equipped, with a shoulder button switching between them.

The combat system is entirely functional, if not super smooth.  Normal combos are pretty good, but lack variety with so few ender options.  The chain attacks are nice, but can't be worked into combos, and can also be hard to aim at your intended target.  Maybe that's just me, though.  In the original game, the chains were ever present in your techniques, where they are used much more sparingly here.  Thus, it's harder to learn the timing, or knowing how many chains there will be before you use the skill.  Useful, but they take way too much practice and luck to be reliable.

There are a few modes offered.  First is story, which, predictably, covers the parts of the story retained from the original.  Some chapters are battles, while others are just story.  Next up is Battle Recollections, which is pretty much the story stages, but with two secondary mission objectives thrown in.  There is an unlockable hard difficulty version of these stages, for more content and challenge.  Next is Free Battles, which recycle the story locations, but with different enemies, objectives and secondary objectives.  These are broken up into five different tiers, each harder than the last.  Higher ranks are gated behind story levels and previous free mission completion.  However, they can reward you with higher tiers of equipment creation, so they are worth doing.  Lastly, there is the Battle Arena, which are individual challenges for each of the characters that reward them a new chain skill.  Some of these modes can also be played in online co-op.  My PS+ has sadly lapsed, so I was unable to try the online.

Gaining experience is fairly straightforward.  You do a mission, defeat some enemies, and get some experience.  Gaining a certain amount will get your character a level.  The stat increases from only gaining character levels are okay, but you really need to acquire bonus points to get the best bonuses.  These points, called BP, are usually only be gained from secondary objectives.  Sadly, completing the objective the first time gets you the biggest bonus, as the amount gained is reduced for any subsequent completions.  Add in that only participating characters gain the BP, and you can see where the grind comes in.  Doing every mission once with the same character (where possible) likely still wouldn't max them out, so you will be doing some missions over and over again.  I don't think it's necessary to max a character, but it's a long grind if you are inclined to do so.

Equipment is handled very much like the original game. Instead of things like armor and weapons, the characters equip skill scrolls.  These tend to increase a stat, like extra attack power, or add something else, like a health regen.  The total number of scrolls that each character can equip is different, and can sometimes be increased by their Specialty stat.  You won't get many scrolls going through the game.  Instead, you need to create them by spending the in-game money.  You pick a tier, and either create one item, or a group of 10 for a discount.  After that, what you get is a random selection from the list.  Gaining a scroll again will increase its level up to 10.  You can also get special elemental tomes and new costumes.  This isn't the only way to get costumes, because there are some in-game achievements that also grant them.  It's worth checking the Military Medals, and work toward completing it for those bonuses.  It's nice that it's not hard to get new and stronger scrolls, but the random aspect can be a pain when you just need that one last item in a tier.

Overall, Utawarerumono: Zan is pretty fun. It's not the best representation of the story, and not the best hack and slash, but it is enjoyable. If you want to experience most of the important parts of the story, but don't want to sit through the visual novel or SRPG battles, then this is the way to go. Even if you prefer the original, it's worth playing for Utawarerumono fans looking for something a little new.


The Good:
Quick and fun fights, get most of the important story bits without spending 40+ hours reading.

The Bad:
Powerful enemies can be cheap, story feels way too cut down.

The SaHD:
Why is any creature bigger than a person ungodly powerful?  How does anything survive in this world?

(Review code for Utawarerumono: Zan was received from the publisher.)

Rambo (The Movie): The Video Game: The Experience: The Review (The PS3)

The Logo: The Picture

As I've mentioned before, I finally broke down and got a subscription to Gamefly several months ago.  One of the games on my radar was Rambo: The Video Game.  I had not heard good things about it.  Still, I was determined to try it.  It's an on-rail shooter, and there was a similar one I had played in the arcade that was pretty decent.  How bad could this be?

Sadly, it was de-listed from the US PSN store before I could purchase it.  Well, it was there for awhile, even having a sale, but never low enough for me to take the plunge.  I would have, if I had known that it would be gone soon after that last sale.  When I signed up for Gamefly, it was one of the first games I put in my queue.  It spent a few months staying "unavailable", with brief moments of availability, but didn't coincide with when new games were shipped to me.  Then, fate and a cosmic event aligned, and it was delivered to me in all its disc-ed glory.

Or something like that.  Thankfully my PS3 had enough room left to install the game, and I was eventually on my quest.  The opening cut scene is...not good.  It's hard to knock the graphics, as it is a PS3 game from several years ago, but you can definitely tell it is a budget game.  Still, that's not the important point, the gameplay is.

However, we had to get to that.  Making my way through the menus, I discover that the only thing I can actually do at this point is start the story.  There are no levels to select (not even the first one), no open challenges to complete, and no weapons to switch.  Just starting the story, and assigning a controller.

Wait, what?  I then remembered that, as an on-rail shooter, it could also use the Playstation Move controller.  It was too late for that, so in I jumped.

It was...quite the experience.  Using the controller was a huge pain in the butt.  The actual act of pushing the button to shoot was fine.  So was using the stick to hide (think Time Crisis).  Reloading was not that great, though.  Unlike other, superior light gun games, you can't just pull the trigger again or shoot off the screen to reload.  Instead, you need to push a separate button.  The only reason for this is because the developers wanted to take an idea from Gears of War, and add active reloads.

For the uninitiated, reloading during active reload puts some kind of meter on the screen.  If you time the button press correctly, you get a bonus, hit the "normal" zone to get nothing extra, and hit the bad zone to mess up even further.  Rambo doesn't give bonus damage for correct timing.  Instead you get twice as many bullets.  It's a nice idea, but is then saddled with the bad timing penalty for half ammo.  This might be easier to deal with, as I rarely hit the bad zone, but the meter is really small and hard to see.  It's on the cursor.  While it's where your eyes may naturally rest, it also moves around a lot, and makes seeing a tiny, precise meter on it much harder to learn.  They get a point for trying something, but I found it better to just ignore it completely.

That just leaves one thing left: the aiming.  Aiming with the analog stick was the main reason using a normal controller is such a bad idea.  The sensitivity on the thing is through the roof.  It's very hard to aim precisely, let alone quickly, which is not a good thing in an on-rails shooter.  Shooting is kind of its main thing, and it just wasn't done well.

So, I dug out my PS Move controller and started charging it.  I also found my nunchuck Playstation Navigation controller to pair with it, and charged that too.  Well, attempted to.  I only had the one cable, and charging through the computer didn't do a whole lot.  I switched them when I thought one was done, but it really wasn't.  So, the next night I jumped in again, swapping the charger cord as needed.

Everything was fine until I had to pair the controller.  I paired the Move, and all it would let me do is start the game.  I was worried that the Navigation controller wasn't paired as well, but couldn't figure out how to move the cursor without it.  Plus, since the Move was paired, I couldn't use the regular controller to select anything.  Despite my better judgement, I pressed on.

Using the Move by itself was almost worse than the controller.  In fact, I'm just going to say it is.  Aiming is better, for sure, but that's about it.  It needs to face the screen to work best, and luckily I had a cheap gun attachment.  Advancing through menus required pressing the X Button, which is now on the top, and awkward to hit quickly.  Reloading was done with Square, I think.  That was awful, considering how much you will be doing it.  To get into cover, you had to hold the Playstation Move Button, and flick the controller in that direction.  Truly awful.

I quit out and reloaded the game, since I couldn't find a way to try to pair the Navigation controller with the Move.  When I got to that point again, I tried pairing the Navigation controller first.  No dice. So, I had to pair the Move, and figure out how to actually move the cursor.  Eventually, holding the Move Button and swinging the controller moved the cursor. It's a horrible design.  Why not just put the cursor on the screen and let me use that to highlight and access things?  The implemented way was not only unintuitive, it was unresponsive.  It luckily worked the last time I did it, otherwise I would never have figured it out.

So, I had to select "pair another" to actually sync both controllers to finally play the game the way it was hopefully intended.  By this point, I had started the opening movie/long "hidden" loading screen three times, and sat through too much of it before I could skip to the game.  Now you see why's it's more than a review of the game, but a review of the experience.  So little of my "play" time was actually game play!

As it stands, the game isn't that good anyway.   Aiming was still too sensitive, but the other controls were passable.   Reload was a button on the Navigation controller, and moving to cover used the stick.  You can even throw a grenade, but like the rest of the experience, it's not the most intuitive or accurate thing.

The game claims to go through the whole trilogy, but I wasn't really looking forward to finishing the first stage, let alone several more.   Like similar game ideas, you move from scene to scene, shooting enemies and taking cover.  Reloading feels like a chore.   It just takes too long, and isn't as seamless as shooting off screen or something similar.  There's a rage mechanic thrown in for good measure, which will give you back health when you kill enemies during it.   It's fine, but not enough to save the game.  If you get further than I could stand, you theoretically unlock challenges and different weapons.

It may be more fun with another player, but I can think of much better ways to spend time together.  There could have been a good game from the premise, but it's not Rambo: The Video Game.  If you are so inclined, try it for the sheer novelty, but don't expect anything good.  I'd recommend sticking to the far superior light gun game offerings.


The Good:
Uh...it's a good use for the Playstation Move controller?

The Bad:
Controls are not good and the game just isn't fun.

The SaHD:
It might not seem it based off my reviews, but I've actually rented good games from Gamefly, too.

(Rambo: The Video Game was rented from Gamefly's service.)

DS Game Impressions - Bleach, Dragonball Z, Infinite Space, Lufia

While going through and deleting a few half-baked reviews, I ran across this one that I had completely forgotten about from a few years ago, so here it is!

My friend lent me a few DS games that I wanted to play but didn't have, so I tried them out and have collected a few impressions of them here.

Bleach: The 3rd Phantom
I know very little about Bleach, but that isn't a big issue for this game.  It is set before the events of the anime/manga so it's more of a prequel.  It's a strategy RPG like Disgaea, so I was happy to dive in and give it a try.  You move on a grid, but thankfully can attack in a square around your characters, instead of the usual "plus" pattern.  When you choose to attack an enemy, the game will show this confrontation from a different viewpoint.  It switches to a side view, and the animations for the attacks are really cool and fun to watch.  Sometimes the attacks will include a special attack, adding to the damage done.

The only thing I don't like are the skills you can use in battle.  Most cannot be used after you move, making healers almost useless.  Also, you need to equip your items to use ahead of time, which I didn't catch on to at first.  The stat and skill upgrades are nice, though.  Upgrading your weapon can give you more skills, extra power for ones you have, or other bonuses.  You need to unlock one before the next in the line can be used, so planning is essential, since I don't think you can have all of them.  The game was so fun that I bought my own copy.  Now if only they made it so it didn't write "Bleach" somewhere on every screen in the game...

Dragonball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
Brought to my attention by Mole during one of the recent podcasts [recent at the time of original writing -editor], I decided to check it out, since I am a fan of Dragonball Z and turn-based RPGs.  First off, the game looks good.  The map sprites are cool little super deformed version of the characters and the battle animations are nice to look at.  The battles themselves are turn-based (as mentioned previously), where you can attack, defend or use a skill.  Skills are powerful, but costly.  They can be upgraded with points obtained from victories and new skill can be revealed when certain skills level up.  There don't seem to be many skills to learn, and it takes awhile to get enough points to buy anything.  There's also a "sparking" meter, which is presumably used for super moves.  Until you get those (I haven't yet), the meter is pretty useless.

Story-wise, the game starts just before the martial arts tournament when the Z fighters first see Picollo Jr. (the young one).  Along the way, you take control of different characters and do various unimportant tasks.  It takes over an hour to get Goku in the part, and then fight Picollo.  After that, you resume doing unimportant things that presumably lead to the fight with Napa and Vegita.  While it's nice that they don't just rehash the show/manga plot verbatim, the things you do just don't feel special or interesting.  Also, story bits in the game seem to take longer than they should, since there is a small pause after a text bubble goes away and before characters do their emoticons.  They also do them frequently, which just made the uninteresting story bits take that much longer.  So while the game looks good and the battles are fun, the story makes the game actually kind of boring.  I don't know if I'll play it much more.

Infinite Space
This is a game that's been on my radar for awhile.  Space exploration and battles with grid-based equipping.  It sounded really fun, but the price and availability has always been a drawback.  When I started, the first thing I noticed was the graphics.  It reminded me of the Transformers DS games which kind of looked like crap.  Ugh.  Well, I can look past that, especially for an RPG, so I dove further.

It was a letdown.  The space battles are interesting, but get annoying pretty quickly.  Most things in the game are not explained well at all, adding to the frustration.  The more I played the game, the less I liked it.  Some are small gripes, like your initial target in space battles is not the ship in the front, which you actually NEED to attack first.  There are plenty of big gripes too, like the computer AI being almost perfect.  I didn't even get the melee battles, but I read about them, and it seems I dodged a bullet by not getting that far.  As sad as it is, I'm going to pass on it and save that chunk of change.  I'll happily give my friend back his copy.

Lufia
Last but not least is Lufia.  This is a series I really need to get into, since I enjoyed the original on SNES back in the day (and I still need to get my own copy of that).  I have the GBA one, and should really play more, but I wanted to give this one a try since I've seen it for pretty cheap.  First off, it is an action RPG, not a turn based, but that wouldn't be enough to deter me.  The combat is ok, but not that great.  You don't get many moves so it's not as fun as it could be.  You get a pretty effect on your attacks midway through the combo, but all they seem to do is obscure parts of the screen for no benefit.

The combat can be a bit wonky, mostly from using the d-pad to move in the 3D space (it would be perfect for the 3DS circle pad).  It's easy to get hit, and you take more damage than you might think.  This is offset by the "retry with level boost" option on the continue screen.  There's also a lot more platforming than I would have guessed, and it's about as bad as you'd suspect.  While the game is funny and doesn't really take itself seriously, it's not as fun as the old Lufias.  A bit disappointing, and fans are better off skipping this one.