Battle Princess of Arcadias (PS3) Review

Battle Princess of Arcadias has finally come to the US as a digital only title.  I was anxious to try it out as the gameplay sounds like a fun reminder of the old 2D beat em ups from back in the day.  The first thing I noticed upon booting up the game was the style of the game.  It's a nice storybook or watercolor-looking world that in some ways reminds me of Vanillaware's games.  However, the animation is a different story.  Maybe it's keeping in with the storybook look of the game, but the animations look like they were made in Adobe Flash.  They aren't so much horrible as they are very stiff and puppet like.  The game's audio is also Japanese only with subtitles, which is a bit of a bummer.  Better than the game not coming out at all, but of course dual audio is preferable.

Combat is pretty fun.  You have a standard attack and a heavy attack.  There are some basic skills (combos), and a few more are unlocked as you level up.  You can jump around, attack enemies and rack up combo hits.  The easiest way to lose your combo number is to get hit, which happens easily.  The guard in the game doesn't cut your animations, so it can be difficult to successfully guard on the fly.  The normal fighting levels (the first battle type) will have you against several groups of enemies, and finishing it will give you some bonus loot.  These levels aren't too hard, which is good because you will need to grind on them several times.

The second type of battle is a siege.  These are fights against one big monster instead of groups of smaller ones.  You have troops to command and help whittle down the monster's shield.  Once the monster is hit enough, the shield will drop and you will finally damage its health.  The siege monsters do a lot of damage and easily kill many of your soldiers if you don't have them in defensive mode.  I found it cumbersome to switch the troops from attacking to defense when it was better to do so, and you don't really have much time to do it.  I found it easier to get a level or two over the monster and leave the soldiers in defensive mode so they don't lose the battle for you.  While attacking the monster, you have time for one combo, then block, then rinse and repeat.  If you build up your morale meter to full, you can unleash a powerful super attack that will help turn the tide in your favor.  You will need that same meter to switch the troops from defense to attack, so use it wisely.

Skirmishes, the third type of fight, are very similar to sieges.  Instead of fighting a large monster, you fight another army.  While your troops fight in the background, you fight some enemies in the normal plane.  If you manage to kill off a group, you will get a chunk of the morale meter.  Each type of troop has strengths and weaknesses against the other troop types, so matching them up helps immensely.  Changing your soldiers to another type costs some of the morale meter, so fighting in the foreground does help.  It sadly doesn't feel like it helps that much, since it doesn't actually reduce enemy numbers to kill them, which leaves it to the soldiers to win or lose.  It's more based on your unit's level and how they match up to the opponent.

The sieges and skirmishes, while interesting, just don't seem fully realized.  The first time you get to them, they just seem too hard, forcing you to grind until you and your troops are strong enough to win.  Your soldiers die very easily, and in large numbers (especially in the sieges), and losing all of them is a lost battle.  Yuck.  While grinding is a necessity in some games, it seems too excessive in Battle Princess.  The first battle in the game is a normal fight, then the next is a siege.  I would think that the first one of a battle type is easier, so the player can get a chance to acclimate to it.  I was wrong.  The first siege (the second stage of the game) had me spend the next 30 or so minutes grinding to get strong enough to get past it.  That's not the best way to start a game off.  The first skirmish (the third stage of the game) wasn't quite as bad, but it was a close victory for me.

This "grind for the sieges and skirmishes" seems prevalent.  After those first ones, there were several normal stages that unlocked.  I didn't lose a single one of them, but the next siege (which was optional) was way harder than it should be, considering how early it unlocks.  The next skirmish I got to was ridiculously hard, and had a boss that basically turtles the whole time, making it harder to get the morale necessary to change your troops and win.  Each time a new siege or skirmish unlocked, it would result in an hour or so of grinding to be able to pass it.  It's entirely possible I'm just terrible at those types of fights.  However, raising your level and getting the money, both necessary to train up each type of soldier, didn't come naturally and required multiple plays of previous levels.  I'm ok with grinding, but it really should be later in the game.  Having it so early just left a bad taste in my mouth and made the game feel unbalanced.

That grinding seemed to make up the bulk of my playtime, since it felt like it took hours to actually get anywhere in the game.  Story-wise the game is fine, if a bit silly at certain points.  Each character has a distinct personality, and none of them seem to get along with each other.  The princess herself is a complete ditz, and her brother, the king, has turned into a goose.  It's pretty enjoyable, and that part of the game doesn't take itself too seriously.

The trophies are a fairly standard set.  You'll get a few for completing sieges, and some for number of kills.  You'll have to use all the different characters to get a platinum, since you'll need to max out all their levels and honor (affection, basically) with each other.  There's some for getting a lot of kills and high hitting combos to round out the list.  Some of these seem like they will take a lot of time, but affection and levels can raise faster than you might think.

While the battle system for Battle Princess of Arcadias is fun, the necessity of grinding was very off-putting.  The sieges and skirmishes were a good idea, but not executed as well as they could have been.  The animation is a bit stiff and looks like early web videos.  While this might all be intentional, the game was a bit disappointing to me.

Plants Vs. Zombies (Vita) Review

While looking for things to download and play on my PS Vita, I ran across Plants Vs. Zombies, which I had obtained thanks to Playstation Plus.  Seeing as how I was one of maybe ten people on the planet that had not played it yet, I figured I would give it a go.  I am glad I did.

The game has a very colorful, cartoon-y look and it's very easy to make out what's what on the screen.  The animations are also really good, from the bobbing sunflowers to the furrowed brow of the corn-a-pult when attacking.  All the plants and zombies move and have personality to them, which really makes the game really pop when looking at it.  The zombies do make their typical groans, but the music is pretty catchy.

Plants Vs. Zombies is a tower defense style game, which is a genre I do not have much experience in.  Basically, there is an opposing force that is trying to get to the end of the map and you have to stop them.  This game has the playing field on a grid, with the zombies coming from the right.  You must collect sunlight to buy the plants you need to stop them.  Thankfully, the touch screen of the Vita makes this very easy to do, as you can just touch the plant you want and touch where it goes.  Sunlight can be collected by touching it or shaking the Vita when the sunlight is onscreen.  It makes the action really quick without overwhelming you.  It's really nice to have the speed of the touch screen (as opposed to using an analog stick or d-pad) when the huge waves approach.

The first few levels of Adventure mode teach you about the first few plants and how to play the game.  Every 10th level is harder than the rest, and is kind of like a boss fight.  After that, you will switch defense locations around the house.  It starts in the backyard, but extends to the pool, at night and even the roof!  Each location has something unique that you must make use of different plants to be the most effective.  For example, only certain plants can be put directly into water, and the slanted roof makes it harder for straight shooters to hit their targets.  It mixes up the levels enough that you don't get bored.  Overall, there are 50 levels to complete and the last is a massive boss fight.

After completing Adventure, you unlock a bevy of mini-games and extra levels to do.  These are really fun, so it's a shame that you get so little while going through Adventure, just to get them all dumped on you once it's complete.  You get several survival levels, which play how you would expect.  A personal favorite are the levels where you play as the zombies.  A lot of the unlocked levels are puzzle ones, where you have to figure out how to beat them.  Overall, there are a lot of extra modes and levels to do once you are done with Adventure mode and don't feel like playing that anymore.

Throughout playing, you will collect money that can buy stuff at Crazy Dave's shop (the back of his car).  Most of it is just extra stuff, but there are a few actual plants to use in the modes.  It takes a lot of money to buy everything in the shop, and at first it takes time to get that money.  After it's all purchased, there's just nothing left to do with the money.  Sure, you could keep buying fertilizer and the spray for the Zen Garden, but that will just give you more money.  Unless you are after trophies, there isn't much you will need to buy at all.  As far as I've heard, the money was a real problem in the earlier versions, so I guess I'll be fine that not as much is needed in the Vita port.

Most of the trophies in the game won't take a lot of effort.  You'll get some without even trying, and there's a few completion ones.  There are a few lengthy ones, like beating Adventure mode twice and some of the long survival fights.  Unfortunately, there is no level select for Adventure mode, which would make some a little easier or faster to get.  A very achievable list, but the last few will require many hours.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Plants vs. Zombies.  The game is a lot of fun and has tons of content.  I only played the Vita version, and I imagine the game is much better with touch controls versus using a controller.  I highly recommend this version, and it even has me wanting to play the upcoming Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.  I even let my 6 year old play some and he enjoyed it too.  Most of the stuff is beyond him at this point, but there was enough of the quicker stages that he had fun playing.

Blood Knights (XBLA) Review

Blood Knights is a downloadable hack and slash fantasy game out now for the Xbox 360 and PC and coming soon the the PS3.  It stars a soldier captain named Jeremy who is bound to a vampire named Alysa on a quest to find the Blood Seal so humans can win the war against the vampires.  After being left for dead, Jeremy takes his bound blood sucker along and attempts to fulfill his mission.

There are two characters you can control in the game.  Jeremy is a dual-wielding close range fighter.  One ability is a very strong attack, useful on a strong minion or to get a weak one out of the way quickly.  The other is an area clearing whirlwind attack, great for damaging groups or giving yourself some space.  All abilities are on a cooldown, so you can use them frequently.  The character switch is also on a cooldown, so you can't swap, use an ability, then switch back immediately.  The second character is Alysa, who has two crossbows and fights enemies from a distance.  She can throw grenades to damage groups of enemies and has a very useful fire arrow attack that, besides being very damaging, can ignite explosive barrels.

The controls take a bit to get used to.  Jumping is done with the A Button and Y is used to switch.  Late in the game, the B Button activates a blood shield, but I didn't end up using it.  The Left Bumper is the first special ability (power attack and fire arrow), while Right Trigger is the second (whirlwind and grenade).  Left Trigger is the blood suck move, from which you can push (Alysa) or pull (Jeremey) the enemy.  Jeremy attacks with the X Button and can dodge with the right stick and Alysa aims with the right stick, but shoots with Right Bumper.  In the beginning, I would try to shoot with Right Trigger instead of the Bumper, so I lost a fair amount of grenades before setting myself straight.  As I said before, it took me a bit to be comfortable with the controls.

Overall, Alysa was much more useful a character, as her range and mobility made the game fairly easy (I was playing on Normal).  Jeremy could dish out some good damage, and the dodge was helpful, but it is very easy to get hit.  It doesn't take much damage to do you in for good, but there are plenty of places to fill up your health between fights, plus you can drain a bit from most of the enemies.  Most foes you face aren't very hard, even the bosses.  The most trouble I had with a fight was against the first golem you fight, but that was only because I didn't realize you have to use the vampire pull to defeat them after their health is gone.

Blood Knights is a linear game.  After completing a dungeon, you move on to the next and cannot revisit the previous area.  You can revisit the town to buy and sell things, but you won't be able to go back and get treasure chests or Blood Coins you may have missed.  You wouldn't need to go back to fight enemies or anything like that, but being able to snag the missing coins would be nice.  That said, the game does move in a logical fashion, so the player knows why they are going from point A to point B, and the story is pretty easy to follow.  The story is not bad, but the voice acting...is about what you would expect.  Graphic-wise, I actually thought the game looked pretty good.  The scenery detail was nice, and the weapons and armor you get are shown on your character.  It's not the best, but I actually liked it.

After getting enough kills, you will level up, and can choose one skill from a list to upgrade.  Well, most of the skills can be upgraded anyway, as a few don't have any upgrades.  The game tells you what each upgrade does before you buy it.  There are some really useful ones, like the attack and movement speed increase for Alysa, and some that are less useful, like reducing the cost of things from the store.  Life, attack strength and luck can be increased for every five Blood Coins you find.  There are several pieces of equipment to put on, and both characters each have two weapons.  You will find most of the equipment in treasure chests scattered and hidden in the levels, but you can also buy things from the vendors.  Most of the good stuff will come from the chests, so you shouldn't need to buy much of any items, really.

One run though all 7 chapters of the story took me just under 6 hours.  There's really only two achievements for going through the story, and the rest are missable.  You get some of the achievements for killing guys certain ways, collecting all of the Blood Coins, and making three "human" or "vampire" decisions.  As there are only really three choices in the game, this is easily missable!  My favorite one is to throw ten enemies off of ledges with the vampire push ability.  I'm always a fan of throwing guys off into the abyss.  If you wanted all of the achievements, you would have to go through most of the game at least twice (to make choices for both sides) and play some of the co-op, effectively making it 8-10 hours total.

So how is the co-op?  Battle wise, the game is fine in co-op, but not as easy as single player, since someone will have to be Jeremy.  The platforming is a lot harder, since you have to use your vampire push and pull abilities to traverse the levels.  Playing through the game once on single player made it harder, since I was used to being able to jump all of the gaps and hills, and the game wasn't very clear that I had to use the push and pull to travel what I could easily by myself.  Well, if it did tell me, then it was easily missed, since my wife and I fell to our deaths a time or two before figuring out what we needed to do.  You'll want to be well coordinated if you intend to go through the whole game with a partner.  You'll also end up accidentally grabbing the wrong target with the blood suck a lot, if what I played was any indication.  It wasn't horrible, but I'd recommend sticking with single player.

Blood Knights is a bit on the short side, but it follows a logical course.  The progression feels very natural, however, it would be nice to be able to return to areas for us completionists that missed a coin or two.  The controls take some getting used to, but the game is fairly fun, even if it got stuck loading the game a few times.  I'd go with the single player experience unless you have a partner that you can be very coordinated with.

Dragon Fantasy: Book 2 (PSN) Review

Earlier this year, Dragon Fantasy: Book 1 was released on the PSN, and paid homage to classic RPGs from the NES era of gaming.  Book 2 draws its inspiration from the next generation, mostly Chrono Trigger, with some more from Earthbound and even Pokemon.  The Chrono Trigger inspiration is easily seen when you look at the game.  As opposed to the previous game's first person perspective, the game now shows all of your characters on the map and in battle, and all of the enemies appear as you move around.  If you don't like random encounters, you'll appreciate the way this game does it.

The battles will take place where you start the fight, which is both good and bad.  Good because it just feels more fluid, and you can sometimes maneuver an encounter so the enemies are bunched up.  Bad because sometimes the enemies really spread out, occasionally ridiculously so.  Also, wandering enemies can and will join the fight.  Early on, this makes some battle much more difficult than they have to be.  In a nod to Earthbound, if you are significantly stronger than the enemies, starting an encounter will have the main character "SMASH" them, winning the fight instantly.  This does get you full Exp, Gold and Items, so it is basically just saving you time and the enemies' embarrassment.  Enemies will not respawn until you leave the dungeon, which is helpful when making your way through it (or back to the save point), but less so when you want to grind or missed catching a particular bounty (more on this later).  For good measure, there's even two ship battles, where you must grab rock monsters to launch at the enemy ship.  They are pretty fun, but it would be nice if there were more than two, or a way to repeat them later in the game.

The skills and spells you get will give you some variety in hitting all of your foes.  You get some single target ones, a few ones that target a line and a lot that hit a radius (both small and larger).  Seeing some of these skills and hit boxes will really remind you that this game was inspired by Chrono Trigger.  Skills and spells will, of course, take MP, but after a few levels you won't run out quickly.  The effects are much better than the previous game, and all characters and enemies have animation to go along with their movements and attacks now.  I'd say that all of these things make the look and fights of the game better, even if enemies adding themselves to the fights gets annoying.

Is killing enemies the only option?  Not quite.  You can also capture them, and they will serve as party members (now you see why I said there was a little Pokemon thrown into the mix).  This is almost necessary for the parts of the game where a character will be without the rest of the main party, so make sure to carry a few capture nets for good measure.  Monsters you capture will have a different name that usually goes along with their class/type or what they are in reference to (the thief's name is Robert Heif, for example).  They also will likely have a unique skill or two, and then learn the same pool as other monsters you capture.  Monsters have low MP, but the skills they use are cheap.  Adding them to your party is useful to fill its ranks, but they just don't perform as well as the named characters.  It is fun to catch them all, though.

Last time, the story was told in 3 separate chapters that could be started in any order and all fit into an overall narrative.  Dragon Fantasy: Book 2 picks up where the third chapter left off, as our heroes are taking a boat trip.  After about 2-3 hours, you will be given a similar choice, all of which tie together.  It's a nice way of giving some freedom to the players while still maintaining a strong, overarching story.  I think it's pulled off very well, and many times I kept playing because I wanted to see what was going to happen next.  While it overall feels slightly more serious than the last game, there is still plenty of humor.  There is lots of silly dialogue, enemy names/attacks and tons of references to gaming/RPG culture.  You may know from my other reviews that I'm a fan of things like that, so I like that aspect of the game.  For me, the story and the parodies/jokes are solid and enjoyable.

There are a few diversions from the main story if you are so inclined.  Besides catching monsters, there are several side quests called "bounties".  Completing these will give you some money and usually an item.  Bounties come in three flavors: capturing a certain monster, killing a certain monster and examining a certain location for an item.  They aren't very hard or out of the way, so there's no reason not to do them.  Completing the story and about half of the bounties took me 13 and a half hours, so it is longer than the first game, which is a plus.  Cleaning up the trophies and the remaining bounties took me another 5 hours.  Thankfully, I was able to make my way through the story without the need to grind, so the balance of the game is good, too.

There are a few downsides to the game as well, as it is lacking some polish.  For a week, one of the bounties was unable to be completed.  There are ways to make NPCs slide along a line, sometimes even off the map.  At first, auto-saving on the PS3 would make movement really lag.  The Vita had it slightly better, where the auto-save would have the game sit on a black screen for a few extra seconds, but had no lag while you could move.  However, Woodsy's final spell, Metios (maybe my favorite reference in the game, right down to the MP cost), would turn the game into a slideshow on the poor Vita.  The silver lining to this is the developers are still working to polish the game, and talking directly to the community for feedback.  Problems are fixed fairly quickly, which was a great thing.

If you are a trophy hunter, or just disappointed that the previous game didn't have a platinum, you will be happy to know that Dragon Fantasy: Book 2 does feature a platinum for your efforts.  You will get a few trophies for story progression, and a few for doing side quests and capturing monsters.  Be aware that capturing 50 different monsters can be almost impossible later in the game if you haven't been grabbing them when you can during the story (because of the SMASH described above).  There's also a trophy in the beginning that's easy to miss, where you have to fight a Rock Man (who's Mega powerful) so it can be captured a little later.  The only grinding trophy is to get a single character to lvl 99 (no, using a captured Nugget doesn't count).  Fighting solo will get this much faster, and you can use that character to finish the final boss solo and claim that gold trophy for your collection, too.  Not too bad a list, as they are all obtainable.

Fans of 16-bit era RPGs should check out Dragon Fantasy: Book 2.  While you will get more out of it if you have played Book 1, it's definitely not necessary to have played that to enjoy this game.  It is a lighthearted take on RPGs that we know and loved, with a decent story to boot.  While at launch the game was lacking some polish, this will be less of a problem as time goes on.  The music is pretty catchy and the graphics and animations are pretty good.  Save for a few instances, the game played well on both PS3 and Vita, and you can use the internet to transfer your save file from one to the other.  There's even some multiplayer coming to the game soon, which I will update the review with when I get a chance to check it out.  Dragon Fantasy: Book 2 is fun and I look forward to Book 3.

Mamorukun Curse! (PSN) Review

Mamorukun Curse! is a downloadable bullet hell shoot-em-up recently released on the PSN.  The US release is a complete package, which includes the DLC bundled in it.  In the game, a group of people are trapped in the netherworld and must make their way out by defeating the demons that stand in their way.

The characters in the game are all drawn in a manga style for the menus and story, but all of the in-game graphics are 3D.  The 3D graphics are fine, not too great but allow for lots of things on the screen with no slowdown (except when intentional).  I like the manga style artwork, and it's really nice that you can unlock a lot of the images in the gallery.  You can also view some nice pictures of the bosses and even some of the arcade cabinet artwork.  Most of the gallery is unlocked through normal play, but there are no requirements on the ones you have yet to unlock so it can be harder to track down the ones you are missing.

There are 7 different characters to use, and each one has a different shot type.  The shot can be powered up in Arcade and Netherworld Adventures mode, but not in Story where it starts powered up.  It also powers up really quickly from collecting capsules from enemies.  Collecting Power ups does slightly change your shot, but it mostly just makes it stronger.

When this game was released in Japan a couple of years ago, there was DLC for it in the form of costumes.  Thankfully, the PSN release in the US has all of that included.  Each character has two costumes to choose from, which will affect their in-game model and the picture of them when conversing in story mode (but not the unlockable gallery images from story mode).

Start shooting!

Since Mamorukun Curse! is a "bullet hell" shoot em up game, you will pilot your chosen character around the screen and shoot lots of enemies and dodge tons of bullets.  The shots themselves have patterns, so learning where to stay and when to weave is the key to victory, especially in the sometimes cramped areas.  The characters themselves look larger than their hit boxes, which is normal (and very good when narrowly skirting bullets).  Shooting can be mapped to the right stick instead of a button.  If you choose not to use the dual stick shooting, you will have to move without shooting to change your firing angle.  I much prefer dual stick style, since it's easier and more intuitive.  You also can't shoot behind you, which while normal, is annoying in a few instances.

There are no "bomb" items like other bullet hell games, but what sets it apart the most is the unique "curse" mechanic.  Holding the button will charge a curse meter and releasing it will fire the shot off.  If the curse shot hits a medium or large size enemy, they will take continuous damage but fire more bullets and any enemy that enters the radius will also be cursed.  When a cursed enemy is destroyed, they drop candies that increase your score.  They can be collected by moving over them, or if you stop shooting, even briefly, they will all be drawn to you.

However, that is not all the curse can do.  If you tap the button, the curse will hit the ground in front of your character.  If you move through this field, it will curse your character which powers you up for a brief time.  It's really nice on bosses, so you can get more damage without having more bullets to dodge.  It's an interesting mechanic and certainly something to use effectively if you want to do really well at the game.  When you start to charge the curse it will destroy some of the enemy's bullets, so it at least half-functions like a bomb item.  There is a cooldown on the curse shot, but used correctly the curse is a very powerful tool.

Another unique and cool thing is how lives are handled.  Some shoot em ups will have a few hits before you die but no lives and others have 1 hit kills but a few lives.  In Mamorukun Curse!, you have multiple characters instead of multiple lives.  Each hit will kill a character, but then the next takes their place.  It's a pretty cool mechanic that encourages you to try out all of the characters and get decent with them.  I will mention that this is not present in Arcade mode, where you just pick one and they can survive a few hits before you have to continue.  If you pick up an extra life, it will resurrect the first defeated character and put them back in line.

Thankfully, those red bats are yours.

There are three main game types:  Netherworld Adventures, Arcade and Story Mode.  Story Mode will follow the characters as they attempt to escape the Netherworld and reveal the reason they are there.  You pick the order of the characters, but once you run out it is game over and you have to attempt the stage again with the same number of characters that started it, so it is possible to get stuck and have to run through part of it again.  Arcade gives you a time limit and allows you to choose what stages you complete and in what order.  Once you beat a boss, you can opt to do a more powerful version of them for more points and time.  This mode is interesting since it gives you a little freedom in what stages you can do (or avoid).  It also has unlimited continues, so you can get through it even if you aren't the most skilled dodger of bullets.  Since you can only pick one character in this mode, it is also a good way to practice using a single person.

Netherworld Adventures is like a mix of arcade and training modes.  You can choose a course, which presents you with one or more stages that you must complete with a limited number of characters.  They have a broad range of difficulty levels, so it's actually a very helpful training mode, since it eases the difficulty up and helps you improve.  It starts with a few different courses to try, but more open up after completing them.  They can get pretty challenging (especially when you have kids running around and being loud while trying to reflexively dodge a hail of bullets).  If there are multiple stages in a course, losing on one means you have to do them all over again.  One strange thing with the three modes - even in the menu, to back out you have to press start and choose "exit game".  I would expect this while actually in the game, so it was odd to have to do that in the menus.

In the game, there are many standard trophies and a few unique ones thrown in for good measure.  Several trophies are for completing the stages and missions in arcade mode, plus ones for story mode and doing the different challenges in Netherworld Adventures.  The most unique ones are defeating certain bosses with certain characters and a few other feats in Story mode.  The longest would be acquiring a million pieces of candy and the hardest would be beating the game without continuing for the different characters and difficulties.  I appreciate that there are a good amount for different levels of skill.  I rarely get a 1cc (credit clear), but I can usually pull it off in two.

I'm a fan of bullet hell and shoot em up games, so I'm always glad to see another one brought over to the US.  Mamorukun Curse! is a fun game if you enjoy the genre.  There's good replay with (of course) getting high scores and getting the various Story mode trophies, but no multiplayer.  Three similar yet unique modes offer lots to do just going through them the first time.  The characters all have different shooting patterns, but learning to use them all will allow you to smash your way through the various stages.  If you are a fan of shmups (I still don't like using that word), Mamorukun Curse! is worth the price.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack! Review

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack has players play the part of a mutant blob who escapes from a research facility and proceeds to cause mayhem to the world that experimented on him.  You will have to jump around, avoid dying and eat up lots of items to grow and exact your revenge.

The graphics look like flash animations.  The humans depicted look strange, but it's intentional and works with the nature of the game.  The blob itself looks awesome- it is very fluid and contorts to fit in different spaces, which makes it seem more realistic.  Well, realistic for a mutant blob.  The music is fine but forgettable.  However, the ending theme for the credits is funny.  It's a nice way to end the game.

At its heart, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a platformer.  You have to jump and navigate the stages and hazards from one end to the other in order to advance.  Thankfully, there are several things in the game to differentiate it from its competition.  The blob can 'eat' various things lying around, and eating enough will make him bigger and allow him to eat/absorb larger things.  So, there's a little Katamari thrown in to fit the theme.

Your blob also gets a magnetic ability so you can attract or repel yourself from metal surfaces.  This leads to some interesting platforming and puzzle solving, and was a great way to add something unique to the game.  There's several sections where you have to move various elements by using the touchscreen.  There are platforms you can move and bars you can rotate to launch items or the blob itself.  These can be fun, however, sometimes the touchscreen isn't as accurate as I'd like.  Trying to jump around while holding the system with one hand or having a giant finger in the way of your screen can be annoying and frustrating.

There are a total of 24 levels spread over 6 areas.  Each level lasts anywhere from about 5 to 20 minutes.  The levels are not too hard, even though there are several frustrating parts.  Checkpoints are fairly generous, which alleviates much of that annoyance.  In each area except the final one, there are motion levels where you have to tilt the Vita around to move the blob.  At first these were really annoying, so I skipped them (you can opt not to do these).  I later realized that I was tilting it incorrectly.  Hold the Vita flat out in front of you, as if it were a table, and tilt it each direction that way.  It made the levels pretty easy.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks has 14 trophies, most of which are from story progression or doing a small task during a level.  Overall, most of them aren't very hard or take long to get.  The longest ones are getting all the friends in all the levels and getting the gold medal score on every level.  This will require you to play several levels over again, since getting the gold medal score can require almost all of the scoring opportunities in a given level.

The game is pretty short and could reasonably be completed in an afternoon.  It's a fun pick up and play game to spend some time with, but there isn't really any reason to replay it.  If you are after trophies or a higher spot on a leaderboard, you could get a little more playtime out of it.  It costs $7.99, so I was thankful I got it for free from Playstation Plus when it was offered.  Eight bucks for an afternoon or two of entertainment is cheaper than a movie, but I'd wait for a sale if you are interested in getting this fun little game.

Japanese PSN Demos!

I finally got around to making a Japanese PSN account to try some demos and games they get but we (North America) don't.  I downloaded and installed Dynasty Warriors 6 (7 for us) Empires, Hokuto Musou 2 (Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2) and EX Troopers.  As far as I've heard, the first two are actually coming to NA, and digital only, too.  Here's hoping they are good.

Oh, and a pretty cool Hyperdimension Neptunia V theme.  I hope it comes here when the game does.  It's basically similar to the Mk2 one, but with updated characters.

In the next few days I'm going to try the demos, and I'll put up some impressions of them.  Good thing I still remember some Japanese, although I don't think it will help that much...

Also, I'm excited that in the next few days I should have something...interesting...to review.  You might be surprised what it is!

Zombie Driver HD (PSN) Review

Zombie Driver HD is an upgraded version of a two year old game from Exor Studios.  Players control a driver that is being tasked with rescuing civilians and fixing other problems in a town overrun with zombies.  The military might not be much help, but at least they are footing the bill.  So let's look at the PS3 version of:

Zombie Driver HD has a pulled back, isometric view so you can see lots of action around you.  There is good detail in the environment, even though it is really small.  I think my favorite part of the graphics are when the levels take place at night.  You only get the ambient light of civilization (streetlights, houses, etc.) and the headlights of the car.  Things look really smooth, although sometimes when I'm driving and turning quickly in the game, it's hard to focus on it.  This of course, could be my terrible eyesight and not a problem with the game.

The music has what you would expect, a few creepy tracks and some fast paced ones when the action ramps up.  They fill the role they need to.  There's a fair amount of voices in the story mode.  They aren't that great, and most can't be skipped.  I'm not even advocated skipping them to not listen to them.  I read faster than people talk, so I can finish reading the text and then have to sit there while they finish talking.  You can skip the mission briefings, but not the in-mission jibba-jabber.

Controlling the car is simple in Zombie Driver HD.  Accelerating, shooting and backing up perform well, but the car turns really quickly while backing up.  This makes it easier to do a 180, but usually the turning was too sensitive for me while in reverse.  It's not a deal breaker, but it did bother me.  It can be hard to make some of the tight turns with the faster cars, and I couldn't quite get the hang of decelerating enough to turn and keep some speed.  Also, the handbrake doesn't seem to help much when driving forward.  When going in reverse, it behaves how I feel it should, but I swear it doesn't even work when I try it while having forward momentum.  To be clear, I'm not accelerating while trying it, but it doesn't seem to stop me at all.

You can get four different kinds of frontal weapons.  Each seems really good at one or two functions, but not so hot at others, making them pretty balanced.  Machine guns were good in the Blood Races, as was the flamethrower.  I can't hit the broad side of the competition with the rockets, though.  However, those same rockets are great at destroying the zombie hives, which take way too long with the flamethrower.  The rail gun amassed a ton of kills in the slaughter mode, but only when fully upgraded.  I actually like that the weapon you should use is different depending on what you need to do.  There's also a handy nitro boost, that can kill enemies behind the car too.  I'm not sure why there are nitro pick-ups in the story mode, since the nitro refills over time.  They aren't really hanging around in convenient locations to refill it instantly, either.

The story mode has 31 levels.  Most only last a few minutes, but they are really good for pick up and play.  There's a decent variety, too.  I personally like the missions where you can drive a special vehicle like an army tank and a bulldozer.  There's even a few bosses throw in for good measure and secondary objectives for each stage.  If you wan to take a break from killing zombies, you can participate in some tournaments that have different events.  Sometimes you race other cars, sometimes you kill them, but they all provide a good break from story mode.  Admittedly, I don't score as well on these as I'd like.  Tricky turns trip me up in races, and sometimes I'm just not close enough to rivals in Eliminator (or they steal my kills, the jerks!) to survive for long.  They are still fun, but not as much fun as Slaughter.

Slaughter is the game's survival mode, and it's pretty fun.  You have to survive waves to get weapons and upgrades, so the first wave is just driving over zombies until you get a weapon the next wave.  I like it, but there isn't much reason to play it again, once you have all the gold medals.  I think it would be fun to have co-op slaughter maps (with no trophies for them, though) if I had a friend or two to play with.

There isn't any kind of multiplayer in Zombie Driver HD, which is fine with me.  The only real online is the leaderboards, on which I was usually in the top 10 for slaughter, even snagging the top spot on one of them at one point.  It seems silly to mention it, but it's the first time I've been that high on a leaderboard, so I'm happy about it.  I won't be up there forever, but it was an honor just to be nominated.

The trophies are a good mix from all the modes.  Several are obtained by making your way through the story mode and unlocking the different cars.  You get some for doing the tournaments and for getting gold medals in the Slaughter mode.  It will take some playing to get them all, since you have to get all golds in Slaughter and Blood Race, and complete all 31 story levels.

I will mention a bug I experienced while playing.  When I tried my first mission using the muscle car, I had no HUD.  So, I had no idea how far the objectives were from each other, no minimap and no health bar.  I actually finished the mission, but it wasn't fun.  Quitting to the XMB and loading the game again fixed it.  This only happened once, but I thought I would note it.  And while not really a bug, per se, occasionally I've gotten the car stuck.  You can hold the select button to respawn, but it takes several crucial seconds, meaning you will lose the race or possibly get killed while you sit there.

I always have fun driving over things in video games.  Bandits, animals, zombies...it's all fun.  Yeah, there's probably something wrong with me, but my driving record is sparkly, so we'll let it slide.  The game doesn't stray much from its core concept of driving over zombies, even with the occasional race in the tournament mode.  If you like driving over people or shooting hordes of zombies from the relative safety of a car, then try out Zombie Driver HD.  It's not the most original game, but it has lots of 'pick up and play for a bit' fun.

Black Knight Sword (PSN) Review

The new action platformer from Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality has recently been released on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade.  Take control of the Black Knight and attempt to defeat the evil Princess in this 2D action platformer.

So what happens when the art styles of Monty Python and Castlevania have a baby?  You get the look of Black Knight Sword.  The game is presented like a puppet show with background scenery changing as you make your way through the levels.  There is also a slight hand-drawn look to the game, which suits it well.  The border of the screen is the curtains for a stage, furthering the idea of this as a puppet show.  Since this takes up part of the screen, I wonder how it looks on SDTVs, since it doesn't interfere much with a widescreen TV.  Bonus points for the loading screen, which has silhouettes of the audience pop up, and one of them has steam from their...coffee?  Some kind of drink.  It seems like it would make more sense as a cigarette or something, but looks like a cup.  Either way, it's a nice touch that cements the look and theme of the game.  There is also copious amounts of blood in the game, so if you are squeamish, you might want to shy away.

The music is pretty good, and like most games, fits the style.  Blood sounds suitably gushy and monsters make appropriate noise like howling and clucking and such.  Intros and outros to stages are done by the narrator, who has a great, deep voice.  He sounds just creepy enough to really sell the crazy nature of this game.  Actually, he reminds me a bit of the late, great Tony Jay.

You don't get many buttons in Black Knight Sword, and you don't need them.  You can run, (double) jump, stab and throw out your sword (she's actually an evil doll-looking creature named Hellebore) to hit switches.  You later unlock magic and charged attacks (including a flash kick!).  One really nice and useful ability is stabbing in multiple directions.  You can attack straight up, up at an angle or croutch and stab for low enemies.  This is very useful for hitting airborne enemies.  You can roll, but it seems fickle on if you get invinciblity from it or not.  It might be like Monster Hunter's roll, where only certain frames are invincible, but I'm not sure.  You also have to be careful when trying to do it quickly, as you can't cut your attack animation to do it.  This usually leads to getting hit more often that you would want to

The game has fairly simple controls, but can get challenging.  It hasn't been controller-throwing hard by any means, but some parts and boss fights can be tough.  Thankfully, you can take some time to figure out how to fight a monster and what to do to proceed, so it wasn't that frustrating the first time through.  I will note that stage 3 reminded me of the dreaded "clock tower" stages from various Castlevanias, but thankfully there are no medusa heads (or equivalents) to be found here.  The end of that stage had a lengthy part that was very much like a plane shooter (shmup), and was a cool part to do.  The boss took a good amount of hits and was trying his best to make it a bullet hell (and partially succeeding).  I play several shmups, so I was right at home, but I don't know how others will fair.

The game only has 5 stages, but each is fairly long and ends with a boss fight.  You get some replay time from trying to find all of the cat grass pots in each stage and trying to go for the trophies will add a time or two through the game unless you are super good the first time through and beat the game without dying, on hard and without the shop.  Good luck with that, the rest of us will just go through the game a few times and save ourselves the frustration.  There's also some challenge stages, which thankfully you unlock in groups so if you are stuck on one, you can just try another.  The biggest fault with these is they don't really give you any info on what you need to do other than "reach the door" and how much life and magic you have to do the stage.  I don't expect them to tell me everything, but you have to fly blind the first time in each challenge to figure out anything.  They are timed, so your first run will likely be bad while figuring out what to do.  Some are really tricky, but fun once you figure out what to do.  I've only completed a few, since they get pretty hard.

If you like "Metroidvania" style action/platform games, you will feel right at home in Black Knight Sword.  I had fun with the game, even with some frustration.  The game is a bit short and linear, but you could get some extra time out of it going for the trophies and challenges.  It's a very quirky and unique game (it is a Suda 51 game, after all) that I recommend if you like jumping around and stabbing things to death.

Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition (PSN) Review

Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition has been released on Amazon and on the Playstation Network, courtesy of Rising Star Games.  In this game, players take control of a pilot in the final days of the war between the Union and Empire.  If you played Sine Mora on a PS3 or Vita, one of the pilots in this game will look familiar...and so will their subweapon.  Enough of that, let's get to the review!

I like the graphics in Under Defeat.  There's good detail in the background and no jagged lines.  Animations are fluid.  Smoke and explosion effects are nicely rendered.  There is slowdown, however, which can be helpful and annoying.  Sometimes the smoke can cover enemies, making tightly packed groups a bit more dangerous than they should be.  One part in particular I like is when the second boss is defeated.  The boat explodes, splits in half and starts to sink.  As it begins to submerge, water comes down from the sky, launched up by the previous explosion.  It's just a cool detail that I really like.  While the graphics are good, they aren't super AAA-title great.  That's fine for me, since as long as it looks good enough and plays great, I'm happy.

As with most shooters, the music is just kind of there.  It's fitting, but only one piece sticks out for me.  The music for level 1-5 "Graveyard" starts pretty melodramatic and then quickly ramps up.  I'd advise turning down the sound effects if you want to hear the music since they can drown it out pretty quick.

The controls mostly follow the standard of one button = shoot and the other = bomb.  If you refrain from shooting for a few seconds, a meter fills and when you next fire, an "option" will appear and help for a few seconds (if not destroyed).  As far as I can tell, the power-ups that can be picked up only affect the option (except for the chopper with no option).  The option helps, but doesn't really stick around long enough to be much help.  When the option is needed most, it's hard to avoid shooting long enough.

Since the firing line of the helicopter is so narrow, you can change your angle of fire.  If you move to the side while not firing, the helicopter will turn and firing will lock at that angle.  If you ever played the jeep in the SNES game Firepower 2000, it is similar to that.  This allows the player to shoot a bit to either side, but it is far better and easier to turn on right stick firing.  Try it out, and you won't go back to the default method.

Looking at the trophy list, you can see that there are 10 levels.  This might not seem like a lot, but each stage is longer than you might think and with the default two continues, can take awhile to get through them all.  As with most plane shooters, replaying is key to learn the stages, get better and raise your score.  I'm still having fun going through the stages and improving.

Don't get killed staring at the pretty explosions.

There's two modes: New Order and Arcade.  Arcade has a smaller screen, but the bullets are slower and the game is a little easier (to me).  New Order is basically made to fill the screen, but it's not stretched-looking or anything bad like that.  It's just slightly changed so it is the aspect ratio as a television and not an arcade cabinet.  There  is an option to have the screen displayed on the side, so you can mimic an arcade cabinet if you can somehow rotate your TV.  Going through both modes obviously doubles the amount of stages, although there isn't much difference.  In addition, there are four playable helicopters to try out.  One of them gets no option, but the power-ups effect its shot, which is neat.

The physical release is an Amazon exclusive, and includes the game, soundtrack CD and digital artbook.  It is $30.  The digital release is the game by itself.  It is also $30.  Unless you really want the digital, I'd recommend the physical, since they cost the same and you get the nice extra stuff.

Being a retail game, there is a platinum to gain here.  Most will be blatantly obvious how to get them, but a few of the score ones are really vague (hint: keep your bombs for these).  There's a few for beating the game on hard difficulty.  This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, since playing will unlock more continues and you will get better at the game, to boot.  Playing long enough will unlock free play, making hard mode a lot easier.  Continuing will still send you back a bit, so you can't just smash your way through.  You will still need to learn to beat the bosses within 3 lives to advance, so free play isn't a free pass to beating the game.  There's also 2 player if you have a buddy that wants to help out.

If you're a fan of plane shooters (shmups), you will like Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition.  It's definitely my type of game, and a worthy addition to any shooter collection.  It's not a constant bullet hell billion points game, but it doesn't need to be.  The game isn't groundbreaking, but it's fun, and that's what counts.

Page Chronica Review

Thanks to Red Hare Studios, the Stay at Home Dad Gamer can bring you a review of Page Chronica, the new action platformer where you have to spell to win.

The graphics are nice in the game.  They are colorful and really set the tone for the game.  The intro looks like a storybook, which looks really nice.  In game cut-scenes have 3D models with dialogue that reminds me of some JRPGs I used to play.  Stages look different from each other and really stand out from each other.

Music in Page Chronica is nice and really fits each stage.  It's pretty good and there is a wide selection of music.  As an added bonus, CDs can be collected in the levels which will unlock the song to be played in the base camp.  I always appreciate unlockable music in games.

Playing Page Chronica is a whole different beast than looking and listening to it.  First off, you will notice that you have to enter spelling mode and make a word before you will be much use.  You cannot attack nor double jump until you have made a word.  Even then, you only get up to 15 attacks and maybe 30 seconds of double jump before you have to make another word.  I realize the whole point of the game is a platformer with spelling, but I'd really like the ability to stack attack #s and double jump time.  Instead, they overwrite each other.  So if you manage to get a powerful attack, you can't refill the uses, as another word will just overwrite it.  Dying will reset you back to the last checkpoint with no word score, attacks or power-ups.  Yuck.  Also, if you figure out how to get stronger attacks, other than making the special word (all the sparkling letters), please let me know, since the game won't tell me.

The next thing you may notice is the timer.  For whatever reason, the game is timed.  I guess to make you spell quickly.  You are ranked on this, which is fine, but why does it count down?  There's no given reason for the timer, it's just there to annoy the player.  The time I actually beat the first boss, I had 18 seconds left on the clock.  That was making two special words, hitting him with all of those attacks, and attacking him every time he was open.  That was on normal difficulty, too.  Way too strict for my tastes.

Now for the platforming.  Ask yourself if you enjoyed old school platformers that had death drops, downright cruel enemy placement and disappearing blocks (think Iceman's stage in Mega Man 1).  If you enjoyed those, then you'll be right at home.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, those are all there.  It feels like they took all cheap aspects of platforming games from the last 20 years and rolled them into one game.  Several times I've jumped up to a platform to find an enemy right on the ledge, giving them cheap damage.  Sometimes hazards such as appearing/disappearing spikes await with little to no warning, just adding to the unfair damage you endure.  Being careful would be ok if you didn't have the timer reminding you to rush through as fast as you can.  The HUD sits on the bottom of the screen, obscuring that portion.  This is an issue when you have to fall down to continue, since you might find a pit, enemy or other hazard.

One minor gripe I have is the end of level rankings.  You can get a gold, silver or bronze for your word score, time and overall score.  That's not what I have the problem with.  I want to see what time or score to shoot for to get the gold medals.  Pretty much just do your best and see what happens.  At least let me see what is required for the next medal so I know how much more I have to do.  Not game breaking, but it was annoying to me.  It would also be nice if after every level it asked if you wanted to continue or return to the hub world.  It's not major, but I would prefer to save the 30 seconds or so of loading when I don't need to waste that time.

On paper, there might not seem like many levels, but each has a fair bit of length, and you will likely die a few times while trying to navigate them.  Completionists will play levels several times to get all the dream feathers and music CDs.  Also, numerous level playthroughs will help getting the trophies for gold medal word scores and times.  All in all, a fair amount of content, if you are willing to stick around and go for it.

Surprisingly, there is multiplayer in this game.  I tried it out with my wife (side note: now she's mad at me), and there isn't much difference.  The biggest thing to note is entering spelling mode will not slow the game down.  Each player can spell a word, but share the same attack and power-up pool.  It seems as though only one player should bother spelling, and can quickly refill the number of attacks.  There is no indicator of where the player is if player two falls behind, so the game will eventually kill you and respawn you near player one.  So, the multiplayer is there, and functions somewhat, but isn't very good.

I really appreciate how unique the game is.  Spelling words to power up and replenish ammo is pretty cool.  Having to spell words to be able to attack every 10-15 times and to be able to double jump every thirty seconds is not.  If you are a platforming wiz and love the old school mean type of platforming, Page Chronica might just be what you want.  For the rest of us, I'd recommend skipping it.

Clan of Champions Review

Once again, thanks to NIS America, I can bring you another review, this time of the PSN game Clan of Champions.  In this game, players will take on the role of a mercenary for the king and root out the evil in an ancient ruin.

Graphically, the game is fairly standard.  There's some good detail on some of the equipment like rust, dirt and such.  There is also a good variety of armor and weapon designs, which is a plus.  However, there are not many different stage designs.  You will see similar courtyards and stone hallways several times while progressing through the game.  In a similar vein, there aren't many enemy types, just the three playable races and skeletons.  Though in a nice touch, enemies will have cuts on their bodies when you damage them.  There's also lots of blood, especially when you damage and enemy near a wall, and leave huge splotches of blood on them.  Thankfully, the skeleton enemies don't leave them, though.

There are no voices in the game.  Well, unless you count the assorted grunts and moans as voices.  All of the story is told through text on the quest descriptions.  While it's nice that it so optional to read the plot, I fear most players will miss it and think it's not there.  There's not much music, and some of the battle music reminds me of God of War.

The battle system takes a bit to get used to.  If you have played the PSP game "Gladiator Begins", then you'll know how this works.  You can attack high (triangle), middle (square) and low (X).  There are three different styles: sword & shield, dual wield and close combat (fist weapons).  Each has different strengths and weaknesses and can combo the attack heights a different number of times.  For example, the close combat style can chain attack high three times, mid two times, and low once.  Most times I wish that you could chain more attacks together.  There's also a roll/dodge move, but it provides no invincibility (as far as I can tell).  The enemy AI is expert at rolling and will frequently use it to escape constant attacking.  The few times I need it, it doesn't seem near as helpful as theirs.  I don't know if they actually have a different roll, or if their agility score is higher than it should be.

What really sets this game apart is how armor and damage are treated.  Armor on different body parts takes damage instead of the player's health bar.  After sustaining enough damage, the armor will be knocked off (shield or helmet) or outright broken (chest, arm and leg armor), which allows characters to take damage in the exposed region.  It's fun to start wailing on a poor sap and shatter his (or her) armor so you can do some actual damage to them.  Head attacks do the most damage, but helmets can be picked up again, so sometimes the best bet is to break the chest armor.  Personally, going for lots of head attacks works more often than not, so I stick with that.

The only thing more painful than the cuts is using bactine on them later.

However, the same thing can happen to you if you aren't careful.  Thankfully, equipment is not permanently gone, even if broken or pilfered by the enemies.  Yes, pilfered because equipment on the ground can be picked up by anybody.  This makes battles can be very fluid, but annoying when an enemy grabs your nice helmet or weapon.  The only time this was a huge problem to me was the second to last level.  While fighting the target, up to 4 skeletons at a time can  join in to fight you.  They also spawn in with no equipment, so they can steal anything you or your team drops.  At first I thought the game was nice for spawning naked skeletons so they wouldn't be too hard to kill, but soon realized that it was worse for them to have nothing.

I suspect there are nuances to the combat system that I just don't understand.  The in-game tutorial is fairly basic.  I couldn't find any info for mastering the combat.  Sometimes and enemy seems to counter attack (and are not using the skill that does this), as if there was a parry move of some sort.  They also seem very adept at rolling out of harm's way, but I can rarely pull that off.  Several times they get in a shot on me and I stagger back while being completely open to their teammate's barrages.  Whenever I am double or triple teaming an opponent, my hitbox seems to push me to the side while my AI just gets in my way.  Also, some of the "boss" characters have ridiculously high agility, strength and equipment durability.  Later in the game, they are capable of destroying your at-level armor with a few hits.  It's frustrating to get completely destroyed by the computer because they block, then counter, then unload on you while you stagger and you can't roll or block your way out.

Most level ups for the different styles will unlock an attack skill that you can map to the controller or a passive that you can equip.  There are lots of different attack skills, magic spells and passive skills that you can unlock in the game.  When you first make your character, you get bonus stat points to customize them, but these are unfortunately the only time you can upgrade your stats without passive skills.  Most attack skills are useful, but all are fairly mundane.  They are meant to be somewhat realistic, so you don't shoot giant beams from your sword or crack the earth at your feet to attack.  The magic spells are what will give the battles flair.  I especially like the ones that give your attacks elemental effects, so you can do damage through the enemies' armor.  There are lots of spells and skills to collect, and trophies accordingly.

He's not The Rock, but he sure is electrifying.

There are 24 stages in the game, and completing one will open the next.  Each stage can be done on 4 different difficulties.  It would be nice if beating a stage would open it on all difficulties, but they don't.  So, to get all the trophies, you have to do each stage 4 times, for a total of 96 stages.  There's also 3 different weapon styles to level up and lots of gear to collect.  This ensures that my completionsit nature kicks in and plays stages many times to stock the store with all the equipment.  There's a lot of stuff to do, but it is still grinding.  The stages are fairly short, though, which is nice for replaying them.

First off, I was surprised the game had a platinum.  Well, since my friend claims there was supposed to be a disc version for the Xbox 360, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.  Most of the list is pretty standard, as you will have to beat all missions, on all difficulties, and get high ranks on them.  You'll need to max out your levels and sell lots of things to the shop.  Unfortunately, there's a few trophies for playing multiplayer (co-op and versus), but finding a game is near impossible.  After sitting in a lobby for awhile, I got one person, but it would boot one of us when trying to start the level.  I attempted it a few times to no avail.  Admittedly, I have little desire to play versus, but I would try it out if I found anyone in those lobbies.  It would be much more fun to play the game with actual players, since the teammate AI isn't too great.  They have their moments, though.

While the levels are short, you are meant to do them several times to get more money, experience and equipment.  So even though you grind a lot in the game, it doesn't feel very tedious to me, since the levels are short and you get stuff fairly quickly.  I don't know how fun it will be to do all levels on 4 different difficulties, but I would certainly try if I could find some co-op lobbies.  The game is very average on all counts, but I still had fun playing it.  If you want to spend the $30, Clan of Champions is a decent game to play in short bursts or when you have some extra time.  If I can ever get into a multiplayer co-op or versus game, I'll of course put an update here on my blog.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 Review

Hyperdimension Neptunia, the game about the gaming industry.  The first had a great concept, but had a fundamental flaw in the battle system (healing was terrible).  Will the sequel improve the game, elevating it to the highest of RPGs?  Thanks to NIS, we will now find out.

The characters and locations are done in the anime style, so if you like that (as I do), you will like the graphics.  Most cut-scenes use the 3D model of the characters instead of the HD sprite version.  I'd prefer the sprite version, but the 3D models look good enough that it's not really a problem.  Many times during cut-scenes characters that are talking don't always appear as one of the two characters that are animated on-screen.  It's a strange choice more than an annoyance, but I did notice it.  One thing that surprised me: most enemies I haven't seen in another game except the returning ones from the first.  There was a period where most Compile Heart (if you didn't know who Compa was representing, now you know) games all had similar enemies, and I'm glad they included lots of new ones here.

The dungeons can be a little sparse, though.  Especially the plains and the abandoned factory just have areas to run around in, but not much detail or atmosphere to them.  Some others are full of color and character.  I personally like the Tetris-inspired one.  A few of them remind me of Phantasy Star Online, and given the main character, I wonder if it's intentional.  Also, occasionally when running around the dungeon, the frame rate seems low.  It's not as though it drops or is choppy, it just doesn't look smooth.  That's admittedly a minor complaint.  Since I am reviewing the download version, it may not be an issue on the retail release.

The English voices sound fine to me in this game.  Compa, IF and the other returning characters have the same voice actors (even if some change pitch/tone), which is really nice when coming off a previous game.  While many purists will change it to Japanese, the English VAs do a good job.  The music is also decent, if forgettable.  Unfortunately, I haven't run across my favorite track from the first game, which was used in the tutorial dungeon.

Dood.

It will be hard for me to talk about how this game plays without comparing it to the first one, so bear with me.  Last time, it was old school party vs. monsters, turn based combat.  This time there is movement in combat, allowing good placement and strategy to help kill multiple monsters or beat a strong foe.  If you've played Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, it's kinda like that.  A thing that bothered me was enemy attack ranges.  They seemed to have much bigger attack range and area (these aren't displayed for enemies) than anyone in my party.  They also had lots of turns in a row, making them pretty fast.  While they usually couldn't get in as many attacks as my characters could, it rarely felt like I had an advantage.

How about actually attacking?  Each attack takes a certain amount of AP, and the attack chains are chosen by the player and can be customized slightly in the menu.  You also build up SP which, allows special attacks, healing, and transforming into the CPU form.  This is gained from actually attacking, while AP is given each turn.  It's a lot of numbers to keep track of, but as I say, the more numbers you give an RPG player, the happier they'll be (probably).  Combat is fun and I like making my own combos even though I usually stick to the special "EX" ones for the extra damage.

If my explanation wasn't good enough, here's some pictures to help out.

Now for the real test...can you heal outside of battle, or even control it in battle?  YES!  Thankfully, you can use items to heal in and out of battle.  While it takes certain amounts of AP to use an item, it's miles beyond the system from the previous game, which is why my wife and I didn't finish it.  Compa (and others in a limited capacity) can heal people, making battles less tense.  Honestly, the change to healing alone is enough for me to recommend this game to anyone disappointed in the first.

The main game can run about 35+ hours for a first run.  Dungeons aren't very big and can be run through rather quickly.  This is good for playing quickly, but not as engrossing as lots of other RPGs.  There are multiple endings, but thankfully "New Game +" saves the day here.  Keeping all your stats allows you to run through the game multiple times fairly quickly if you want to get all the endings.  So even if you consider the first run a little short, there's replay value with the multiple endings.  Admittedly, I don't always have time to play through an RPG multiple times, but New Game + makes that less of an issue when I'm ready to jump back in.

The plot of this game, while not serious, is very funny to me.  Last time, it was a parody of the console wars and their fight against piracy (the enemies are called Arfoire).  This time, it's up to the handhelds to band together and again combat piracy.  One thing I love doing in each new dungeon is see what new enemies there are and what they were "inspired" by.  For example, there's a suspicious green pipe, a doctor's polygon head, and groups of four blocks whose names are all anagrams of "Tetris".  I really like parodies, and the ones in this game make me smile.

What about DLC?  There is a bunch on the Playstation Store, and some of it is free.  Obviously, grab the free ones, since they tend to be new dungeons and battles and such.  Most of the paid ones are costumes for the characters, which you can grab if you want to, but are ultimately skippable.  Before you buy, I'd check for pictures of them so you know what it is you are buying, since there is no picture, just a description.  The last two pieces of DLC (and maybe the best) are the added characters.  I'm hoping to get them soon, since they aren't too expensive ($3 each) and you get new characters to use in battle.  Personally I want Cave since I really like their side-scrolling shooters.  I'd also want to add on her death smile costume, because I like that game.

You thought I was kidding.

The Trophies this time aren't that bad.  The most tedious would be getting all the different CG Images (most are automatic) and all the endings.  There's not really any that you would have to plan out your entire playthrough, and New Game + makes getting all the endings and any missables relatively painless.

One last, and (to me) massively cool thing.  You can download a template to make your own skin for Nepgear in her CPU form!  Way better than making your own summon from the first game, this is a great addition that I wish more games could use.  If you don't want to take the time to make your own, there are many to download that others have made.  Be warned that some are NSFW (or NSF children, either).  Thankfully, the really good ones are also tasteful.

Even though I was doing a bit of grinding after each plot point before the next, I was having fun doing it.  The battle system is more fun than the first, and that really improves the experience.  One warning though: they don't really cover what happened in the first game, so you will have to research it or piece it together if you haven't played the first Hyperdimension Neptunia.  Nonetheless, I like this one over the first by a good margin.  If you like JRPGs, check it out to (re)live the imaginary wars the handheld consoles went through to battle piracy.  If you can't track down a disk copy, you can now buy it from PSN directly.  If you plan to take your time and get a few endings, it's worth the asking price.  After playing this, I'm looking forward to Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory even more.