Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PSP) Review

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC is the second part of an RPG trilogy for the PSP.  While it may seem odd to release a PSP game now, players can carry over some progress from the first chapter, and PSP games are fully playable on the Vita, so it does make sense.

It also looks fairly good on the small screen.  Graphics-wise, the game seems reminds me of one of those great 90s JRPGs.  The backgrounds are 3D and the camera can be rotated in many areas, allowing you to look around.  The characters look more like rendered 3D models than the straight-up polygons of the scenery.  This makes them stand out in a good way.  Being a fan of older games, and considering the limitations of the base system (PSP), the graphics look nice.  There is also a PC version on Steam, if you want it to look as good as it can.

The game quickly gets going when Josh, the main character's childhood friend/"brother"/secret crush takes off... and it is revealed he was actually working for a secret, evil group of people.  Yeah, so I really should have played the first game, as this probably spoiled some big events in it.  Our main hero, Estelle, is off to find and save Josh.  You can import a save from the previous game or just make a new one.  It obviously won't transfer everything, but you get some items and Estelle's level is the same if it was between 35-40 (otherwise it will be bumped up or down accordingly).  Since I haven't played enough of the first for it to matter, I didn't transfer anything.  Just be aware that this review is written with that in mind.

The game's story is really good.  Estelle's personal goal of finding her friend intertwines well with her professional goal of stopping an evil organization.  The characters are well fleshed out and believable, and you can easily get attached to some of them.  The dialogue and localization is top-notch, which gives extra marks to any RPG.  My only real issue is the lack of refresher of the previous story.  Given the time between the games, and the fact that you can play this without the first, some kind of optional recap would have been really nice.  As it stands, there is a chunk of stuff in the beginning that was tricky to figure out.  Like the battle difficulty (discussed later), this drops off as the game progresses, but considering much shorter and closely released games beat you over the head with a recap, it is disappointing to not have one in a game with such a great story.

Second Chapter is an RPG, so you will be fighting many battles.  Battles take place on a grid, but it's not a strategy RPG.  You can choose to move on the grid if you want, but if you select an enemy to attack and it's within your range, you will just run up and hit it.  If it's not in range, you will move as close as you can to it.  Since normal attacks send most monsters back a bit, it can be a problem hitting them out of range of the rest of your characters.  You can also cast magic, called "arts", but they will not cast instantly.  The turn order in the top left of the screen shows when the spell will take effect, so plan accordingly.  There are a good number of monsters that are much more affected by magic, so you can't just gomp stomp your way through every fight.  At least since enemies show up on the map, you can often times avoid the fight if you need to.

Each character also has unique abilities called Crafts.  These take a resource known as Craft Points (CP for short) to use, and tend to be pretty powerful or useful.  CP is unlike AP (Art Points) in that it is gained from taking or receiving damage.  If the CP meter is filled to at least 100, then a character can cash it all in to use an S-Craft, which is effectively a super move.  These can also be cast when not your turn to jump into the turn order.  Since some turns have effects like healing some HP or a guaranteed critical, it can be very useful to cut in line and take that for an enemy.  I really like the Craft system, since CP are a fairly renewable resource to use when you need it.  Using it with a beneficial turn effect has really helped on some of the harder fights in the game.

Your characters will get a special piece of equipment called an orbment that allows them to equip quartzes.  These crystals affect your stats, but also grant magic spells based off the element(s) it grants.  Each orbment has the same number of slots, but arranged in different lines.  Elements in the same line are added together to grant bigger and costlier spells.  I really like this system, as it allows you some refinements in your character.  Granted, I'm not a fan of the crystals that both increase and decrease stats (attack goes up 6% but defense goes down 3% for example), but most are good.  It's really easy to switch them around to make sure elemental spells are covered, too.  This is also a way to get a chance to apply status ailments on your attacks, which can turn the tide of battle quickly in your favor.

The difficulty in battle feels a bit unbalanced at times.  Fighting enemies on equal footing will likely result in you taking a lot of unnecessary damage.  If I got a preemptive strike, on the other hand, the battles were almost too easy.  There are also plenty of enemies with status ailments on their normal attacks.  These can be ridiculously deadly, so any advantage you can get is a plus.  Normal fights did get slightly easier with time, so the initial hurdle may have been because I didn't transfer a save into the game, as the starting difference would peter out over time.  Special fights against quest monsters and chest enemies can be tricky though, since you cannot get a preemptive strike.  Enemies are pretty powerful, so smart use of items and abilities will get you through them.  Strangely, boss fights were not as hard as I would have though.  Maybe they were easier since I did a lot of fighting while doing all of the side quests, or maybe they are more balanced than others.

While the world Estelle and company run around in is nice, I do have a slight problem with it.  I'm not the best with directions, and I'm thankful that towns have a mini-map so I don't get (as) lost.  Dungeons do not usually have maps for them, making it much harder to navigate.  I can eventually make my way through them, but I like to make sure that I've hit all the side paths and gathered all the treasure lying around.  The lack of a mini-map makes that much harder.  Since you can rotate the screen, I would have to remember cardinal directions rather than "I took the right path first".  Again, this might not be a problem for other people, but I would have really liked mini-maps for the dungeons.  You can save anywhere in dungeons (and towns), though, and you have plenty of save slots, which is always great in my book.

The game is also really long.  Remember RPGs about a decade ago when they ran 80 hours instead of 20-30?  Trails in the Sky SC is closer to the former.  There are 8 numbered chapters, a prologue and a finale.  The prologue itself took me 4 hours, which is crazy long for what in most games is a cut scene or two and a tutorial battle.  Other chapters ran me about 8 hours on average.  I am a completionist, so I pretty much did every side quest I could.  Unfortunately, it is easy to miss some by progressing the main story too far.  You could cut down on playtime if you ignore most of the side quests, but you might need to do some grinding to compensate.  Either way, just going through the game will take a long time.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC reminds me a lot of the PS1 era RPGs.  It has a good story with good characters, but could do more to introduce them to new players or those that don't remember the entire first game.  Otherwise, it is a fun RPG with unique battles.  I like the craft/art system, and the super moves are useful and fun to watch.  The game is really long, too, so you easily get your money's worth.  Fans of JRPGs, especially ones from the turn-based golden age, should definitely check it out.  If possible, I'd recommend playing the previous game first, then jump straight into the Second Chapter.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PSP) Early Impressions

Before now, I had heard of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and how great it was.  Sadly, I had not played it yet, but got the chance to review the second chapter of the saga, not so strangely entitled Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC.  Being an RPG, it is a longer game, so in an effort to have something on it out in a timely fashion, I figured I would break it up into two parts: one an early impressions about my first few hours with the game, and then a full review later on.  Maybe not the best idea to make more articles when my plate is already full, but I do plan to do this for at least a few games.

The first thing that struck me before I started was: it is two downloads.

Wait, what?

Yup, when the game came out in Japan years ago, it was on two UMDs.  Wow, that's actually kind of impressive.  So when it was made a download, it is just two separate downloads, each one is one disc.  It's... weird for a digital release, but that's probably the only way to make it work.  I just have to keep straight which download is which disc.

The game picks up right where the previous game left off.  Well, I assume it is right after, as it seems like the story starts right at the end of the jolly festivities that would accompany some triumph in battle.  I'm sure this is great for the people that conquered the first chapter, but some kind of explanation of what was going on would have been nice, even if it was optional so returning players could skip it.  I'm sure even fans of the first might not remember some things, considering the gap between the games.  Honestly, most direct sequels do this, and it was a little disappointing to see it not done here.

My solution: play some of the first game.  Maybe that's a good reason to split the review in two.  Luckily it was on sale when SC came out, so I picked it up and played a few hours to generally learn some backstory and game mechanics.  That should make this chapter a little easier for me to understand.  It helped some, but not as much as I'd like.  A lot of references to characters and events from the previous entry still eluded me.  Yes, I should have played all of the first before, but I still feel some optional explanations would have been great.  Maybe as the story goes on, the previous events will sink into the background, but I feel there will still be some cameos and plot points that will leave me confused.

In all fairness, the game does cover a few previous plot points.  However, they seem to be the most spoiler-y ones.  Want to know more about this random character name we threw out?  Too bad!  Hey, this girl you are going to meet is a secret princess, and that old mayor was secretly evil!  Yeah, that might have been better to not say, but sure why not.  It's almost the exact opposite of what I would want the game to do.

Anyway, we will see how that goes later, and move on to the combat.  It's a turn-based affair, but has a unique layout to the map.  It is separated into a griid, and you can move around like an SRPG, but the game isn't one.  For one, you can't move, then attack as two separate commands.  If you select attack, then a target, you will run up and attack.  If you cannot move that far, you will get as close as you can.  If you select 'Move', then that's all you do.  There's no bonus for attacking from the sides or behind as far as I can tell.  So while it looks like an SRPG at times, it is a straight-up turn-based RPG, which is great.  Remember how fun those were?

You also get magic attacks, which are derived from elemental crystals that you equip.  Without going in to too much detail (in this part), these crystals will bestow different status effects and affect what spells you have access to.  It's a cool system that gives some good customization.  Plus, healing spells heal a set amount, so you can give them to fighters and still have it as a viable safety net.

Besides HP and AP (Art Points for magic, basically MP), there is also CP which is used for personal skills and even super moves.  These points are built up by taking and dealing damage.  When you have at least 100, you can use your super move, and even butt in and use it on the opponent's turn.  Some turns have bonus effects, and this is a way to either steal them, or prevent the enemy from using one that you would rather they didn't.

The only problem I have with that is it didn't feel like it rewarded me for using it.  I would jump in and steal the critical turn, but it didn't seem to help in the long run.  Battles felt pretty hard in the first few hours.  It may be because I didn't transfer a save file, but that isn't really good balance.  Every time I lost a fight through some annoying means (exploding enemies, etc.), it made me question the "awesome" nature of the game that I'd heard so much about.  Getting a preemptive strike helps a lot, so I'll try doing that more often and see what happens.  Plus, the starting level difference should even out the longer I play.

I'm definitely playing more, but it seems like I am in for the long haul.  The prologue itself took me 4 hours, which is pretty crazy.  Look forward to a full review of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC in the future!

Criminal Girls: Invite Only (PS Vita) Review

Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a dungeon crawling RPG where you play as a teacher in Hell that must reform seven sinners so that they may be reborn.  Reforming requires you to lead them through four trials.  In order to make them stronger, you must "motivate" them.  Did I mention the seven sinners are all female?

It's hard to look at or talk about Criminal Girls without seeing or mentioning the fan service.  The premise of the game is to reform the girls by "motivating" them with a whip, shock stick and even mystery liquid.  Each of these motivations translates into a mini-game where you use the touch screen to either rub or move something (that sounds worse than it is).  As you do so, the pink fog covering the girls will partially disappear, allowing you to see them in some raunchy poses.  The game is very suggestive, which will, of course, turn some people off of trying it.  This is the slightly censored version, which is sadly a point of contention for fans of Japanese games.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  Each session costs a certain amount of points (which double as currency) to do, and successfully completing it will give some experience that the girls use to unlock new skills.  As the level rises, the cost of each session goes up and the amount of clothing they wear goes down.  This is the only way to get them their solo battle skills, so you can't avoid the raunchy fan service.  It wasn't a big deal to me, as it's a portable game, so I won't get children running up and asking why the lady is sitting like that.  At its heart it is just a game mechanic, and viewing it as such can alleviate some of the awkwardness you might feel.  Also, you will only need to do it so many times, since there are only so many skills each girl learns.

As far as the RPG elements go, you walk around a dungeon floor and get into random encounters.  Instead of choosing actions for your team members, they suggest an action, and you pick one to be carried out that turn.  At first it was off-putting to only get one action a turn, but the game is balanced for that (for the most part).  Unfortunately, you are at the whim of a random number generator if they will do a particular action, so fights can take longer or use more MP than they need to, simply because you can't choose exactly what they do.  This problem only gets worse as you get farther in the game and unlock more skills for each of the girls.  Thankfully, the game knows when you need to block or heal, so having the appropriate person out at the right time will have that choice.  There's also not much in the way of animation in battles, but at least the artwork looks nice.

Each of the girls has different skills from each other, and several of them are like classes in other RPGs.  You have the defender, the healer, a mage or two, a thief and some fighters.  Experience is shared equally among all members whether or not they participate in battle.  You can switch one person per turn, so it's easy to shift in who would help best in each situation.  There are even some team up skills that each girl learns that can lead to some big damage, or a string of buffs.  Using an item won't use up your action for the turn, but you can only do it once each turn.  I rarely had to buy an item, since you get a lot from enemies and treasure chests, but money isn't a problem if you do need to purchase some.

Each trial has its own themed dungeon and four floors to get through, culminating in a boss fight.  While not the most interesting thing to look at, at least they aren't all linear.  The layouts are pretty simple, too, consisting of rooms connected by narrow hallways.  The simplicity made me think they were random dungeons, but they aren't.  At least the themes are pretty different from each other.  Most floors have a portal that allows you to recover HP and MP, save, motivate the girls and teleport to any other visited portal.  It's very handy, especially when you need to jump around to a previous floor at various times throughout the game.  I do wish there was some kind of dash or a run button for the maps, since it can be pretty boring to walk through them.

For most of the game, the difficulty is good.  As you make your way through the game, your attacks become less effective and you start to rely on your mp-using skills to get through fights.  Boss fights are suitably challenging, up until the final boss.  Then the game turns on the cheap.  You only get one action per turn, but the final boss gets two.  They will likely paralyze a character every turn.  They can hit your whole party with a bunch of status ailments, or even do an attack that hits several times on random targets.  It's pretty unfair unless you grind up your level or blow through your good items.  Needless to say, it's pretty annoying.  It felt odd to me to not have any real problems going through the game, only to hit a big roadblock right at the end.

It took me over 30 hours to get through the main story.  There is a good chunk of extra stuff to do afterwards, like recruiting the two new characters and gaining knighthood for the rest of the group.  You'll only be able to get the ending for one of the girls, though, and there is sadly no new game +.  If you want to see them all, or get all of the trophies, you will have to make separate saves near the end, or go through the game all over again.  The game will remind you more than once that you should make a separate save at the point where it splits.  Good thing it is right before the end of the game, too.

Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a competent and fun turn-based RPG.  Granted, you will have to either enjoy or not be bothered by the fan service.  There will come a point where you won't need it anymore, but you won't get far if you ignore it completely.  The final boss is really annoying, but you will get your money's worth by completing the story, and more so if you do some of the optional stuff.  The lack of new game + is unfortunate, but I still enjoyed the game and would recommend it to RPG fans that are fine with all the risque elements.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant (PSP) Review

Yes, as you may have heard, Brandish: The Dark Revenant is an actual PSP game, released in 2015!  It is fully playable on the Vita, as that is what I used.  This updated SNES game looks good, and made some positive changes to how the game plays.

The game starts after an explosion has dropped you and your rival into an underground area.  As Ares, you must make your way to the surface and escape.  The controls took some getting used to, since it uses the d-pad and I'm so used to the little analog stick.  Circle is attack when an enemy is in front of you, but holding it will block.  You also automatically block attacks from the front if you aren't moving or attacking.  Combat has a pretty nice flow once you get used to it.  Patience and proper placement is rewarded as you wait to strike until just after an opponent has.  X is the jump button, which I do occasionally hit to strike, and jump over an opponent.  It wasn't very often, but I sadly did it more than once.

Holding the analog stick in a direction and pressing Circle will activate one of the items (or spells) in the assigned slot.  I did have some trouble with it not activating when I pressed the buttons, and I am not fully sure why.  It wasn't a big deal, and it might not affect everyone, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Triangle is your "do stuff" button, which picks up items, activates switches and so on.  Square is the inventory button.  While I'm used to Triangle being inventory, I didn't mix them up, and quickly got used to them.  Movement did take some adjustments, though.  Up moves you forward, while left and right turn you instead of moving in that direction.  The L and R Buttons will strafe in the corresponding direction.  The controls are by no means bad, but they did take awhile to adjust to... and even then I would still make some mistakes.

Even though you have stats, levels and experience, the game feels more like an adventure game than an RPG.  Most floors have enemies, but they aren't "filled" with them, so the combat is far from constant.  Some floors don't have any foes, but are instead a big puzzle.  Since many weapons only have so many uses, it's good that you aren't constantly fighting.  Most floors straddle the line of having monsters with a few tricks to solve.  It's really nice that it's not a dungeon killfest or a straight-up puzzle game, and I really like the balance Brandish has with all of its aspects.

There are over 40 floors to clear, spread over several areas, in the game.  It will probably take you 15-20 hours for a first run.  Beating the game once will unlock a bonus mode which will offer a few more hours of playtime.  The game does have its share of difficulty, but I rarely found it hard.  The two notable exceptions are the Darkness areas and the final boss.  Those are hard, but they are the only things I felt were on the unfair side of the line.  The rest of the game is a challenge, but very forgiving, since you can save just about anywhere, and you get plenty of healing items and weapons.

Game progression is linear, so there's no hub or safe areas.  It was also engaging.  Frequently I would sit down to play for a few minutes, but wound up playing for much longer because I was having fun.  It's easy to get sucked in and just want to do "one more floor".  Brandish: The Dark Revenant is a good game, and one I would recommend to fans of dungeon crawler RPGs and of the "punishing but fair" action games.  It was more fun than I expected and it was a satisfying experience to get to the end, even if the final boss was annoying.

Black Rock Shooter: The Game (PSP) Review

One of the last games being released on the PSP, Black Rock Shooter: The Game has made its way to the Playstation Store.  This unique action RPG has fans play as BRS, a super powerful warrior that players will discover more about during the course of the game.

So what makes this unique?  The battles.  When you encounter an enemy on the map, you will enter battle (no that's not the unique part).  You don't select an attack or move your character like other RPGs.  You can block, dodge, attack or use a skill.  The block does what you would expect.  I found it much more reliable than dodging, but you will still take some damage.  When dodging, you basically move between two positions.  Therefore, mashing the dodge button can actually put you back into the attack you were trying to avoid!  In games, I prefer to dodge than block, but I tended to misjudge a lot of the dodging.  Different attacks come at different speeds, so it can be trickier than you would think to dodge them.  Plus, when there are several enemies attacking at once or close intervals, it can be all but impossible to come through unscathed.  Blocking is more useful earlier in the game, while learning to dodge will be better for the stronger hits.

To properly aim your attack, you actually move around a reticle.  When it's close to an enemy, it will lock-on to them.  The lock-on holds pretty well, unless the enemy moves behind another, zips around quickly, or is one of the few who uses a technique that blocks lock-on.  Shooting while moving the reticle is possible, and can be really helpful on the faster foes.  You shoot with the square button, and the number of shots is determined by your equipped weapon and the amount of heat you have.  The higher the heat gauge, the less shots per attack.  Basically, each attack will give you 10% heat, as will each dodge.  Blocking will not increase heat, but it will not decrease while you hold it.  Standing still will lower your heat, which gives the longer battles a kind of ebb and flow of action and patience.  It's a fairly good system, since you don't have lots of fancy options, it's up to you to use them when they are the most beneficial.  As mentioned before, you can equip and use a variety of skills from buffs, to healing, to a stun snipe and a few attacks.  Some challenges will even upgrade them to a more powerful version.

There's also lots of RPG elements mixed in with the action.  Winning battles gives you experience, and your level determines your maximum HP.  You also get several healing items to use in battle, but you can only hold a max of 5 of each type.  This limit is a bit low for my tastes, but enemies tend to drop lots of healing items, so you can use them regularly and still be fine.  There are also challenges for each stage that award you with a stat boost or skill when completed.  Most of them come from just killing all the enemies you run across, but there are a few you have to try for, like completing a certain timed mission in 5 minutes or taking no damage on a certain section.

This is your battle perspective.

Most fights in Black Rock Shooter are not too hard.  A few of the bosses can be difficult, especially in the later half of the game.  Most bosses have two health bars, and change tactics and attacks from one to the next.  As long as you practice and learn when to dodge and attack them, they can be taken down without much trouble.  If that's taking too long, you can always chug a few healing items to fudge the last bit.  For me, the most frustrating parts were the boss of stage four and the motorcycle riding parts of stage two (tip:  there are parts where you can drive on the walls)  While the main game isn't too stressful, the extra missions unlocked after you beat the game can get downright brutal.  Completing the game takes some skill, pattern recognition and determination.  Getting 100% in the game takes even more.

The story is told through several cut scenes that all have the original Japanese voice track.  Usually I prefer dubbing, but since the action pauses when there is dialogue, you are not trying to read while dodging enemy fire.  The plot is fine, not the best but not terrible.  The main plot focuses on BRS trying to defeat the aliens that have all but hunted the human race to extinction.  There's a twist or two, but the fate of the 12 surviving people of the human race (all men for some reason) is fairly predictable.  Well, at least for the normal ending.  After the first playthrough, the dialogue options presented at certain points can affect the outcome of the story, giving a reason to go through it again.

The first run of the game can last between 9 and 12 hours, depending on how much you need to grind or redo the harder fights.  That's basically just doing the story missions.  There are six stages, and the first five have five story missions each.  After you defeat the boss of a stage, you unlock the "hunt" version of it.  The hunt level is just the entire stage with no breaks or save points, and there are special enemies to find and kill that unlock pictures and music tracks in the gallery.  You also have to fight the boss again at the end to unlock the movies of the stage.  I would usually do these after beating the boss so I could get a little extra experience (they state you get less during the hunt missions) and because I like to unlock stuff.

I have not seen the anime that Black Rock Shooter: The Game is based on, but I was still able to follow the story.  It's a pretty fun game, and the battles are something new and sometimes frantic.  It is certainly a PSP game, and you can tell by the graphics.  They aren't bad, but they aren't great (it is an almost two year old game after all).  If you are looking for a unique RPG to play on your PSP (or Vita), go ahead and try Black Rock Shooter: The Game.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows (PSP) Review

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is the sequel to the smash hit downloadable PSP game Corpse Party.  Thanks to XSEED Games, I can review it for you.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is like a "choose your own adventure" story in game form.  It starts off in the thick of things, quickly thrusting you into the story.  When a group of students get trapped in a hellish world, it is your job to try to help them.

Granted there isn't much motion in the game, but it looks really good.  I'm a fan of anime styles, so of course I like the look of the game.  Locations look tattered and creepy, although many of the hallway screens look the same or similar.  Most of the rooms you encounter are very distinct and very detailed, though.  The artists did a great job of making the rooms very unsettling, some of them containing several corpses or other forms of visceral matter.  When there are rooms labeled "Death Room" and "Body Pool", you know what to expect and won't be disappointed.  The scenery definitely sets the mood of the game.

The game follows the exploits of several students trying to escape and survive a decrepit, demolished school filled with malevolent spirits.  It's not a cheery game by any stretch of the imagination.  They will find items and other students that may help them escape the ever-shifting school and avoid whatever dark fate awaits them.  It's kinda depressing, since with all the bodies, you don't get the impression many people survive.  A few parts may make you uncomfortable, but I don't think it's too bad for a mature audience.

Each chapter opens up with lots of story to set up the main character you will guide through that part of the game.  These can get fairly long, but they do a great job of fleshing out the characters and giving them backstories.  There are lots of characters in the game as well, so there can be long sections of exposition.  One problem I had was you don't often see a good picture of who you are playing as, so it was hard to keep track of who I was and how they related to the other characters.  I unfortunately have not played the first Corpse Party, so I don't know what characters return and if they were covered in that game.  This is something I'm going to look into, since there is a very interesting story being told.

In a few of the chapters, the perspective switches and you control another character for a time.  You can usually tell this if your "Darkness" meter is at 0% and doesn't move.  Since I had some trouble picturing who I was playing as sometimes, this could be a little jarring.  I kind of wish that the separate people you played as each had a chapter so the player could piece together how they all intersect, but it's fine.  Playing as several characters has an upside, namely seeing Heavenly Host Elementary and its horrors from different perspectives.  Jumping characters also helps flesh out more of the people trapped there.

You should be so lucky, but it's no dream.

The game plays like part digital novel and part point and click adventure (think The Walking Dead).  In between the story parts, you control a character and make your way through the school in an attempt to survive.  There is lots of wandering, trying to find an item or run across a person to continue the story, and a few times I was a bit lost.  While it might be annoying, I liked it since it felt more realistic.  If you were trapped in an unfamiliar place, you would probably do lots of wandering, trying to find things or people that would help you escape, too.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is good.  I like playing it, although it would feel odd to say it was fun, given the atmosphere the game sets us in, it was fun to play.  There's also things to collect, namely student ID tags from the deceased and the different endings.  I felt weird, but I would get excited to see a body and get its ID tag, since I do like collecting in games.  I also would save a lot so I could try for the "wrong ends" in an attempt to get them all.  Another great thing: the game is on PSP (or Vita), so I can play without disturbing the little ones, since this game easily earns its M rating.

There are 7 chapters, and easily over 12 hours of playtime.  I recommend saving in several slots, so you don't get stuck and can mess around to get several endings.  I only had to restart a chapter once, but it was fine since you can easily fast forward through the dialogue and get back to where you need to go (a great function if you ask me).  There's also some good replayability, to collect things and replaying a chapter may give you insight that you missed the first time.  If you like lots of story, horror movies or even old school point and click adventures, I'd recommend getting Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.  It's creepy, scary and fun.  If you can, you should probably start with the first.  Headphones are also a great way to experience the game, although I'd say turn off the lights at your own risk...

Quick PSP Impressions #3

Here is the last batch of impressions from the glut of PSP games that I got a chance to play somewhat recently.

Z. H. P.
This was a game I wanted to pick up after seeing the trailers for it, since I love NIS.  The plot is funny, but a little too much "let's make fun of this poor sap you play as" for my taste.  The writing is good, though.  The game is a dungeon crawler, similar to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.  The power up grid was big and I could see lots of potential min/maxing there, but it also seemed a bit more complicated that it should be.  It was kinda fun, but I never had enough money (especially for my Prinny wife), and the weapons ran out of durability too quickly for me.  I would pick it up if the download went on sale for $5 or so, but I was a little disappointed in it, to be honest.

Cladun x2
Like Z.H.P. above, this is a mystery dungeon style game.  I actually enjoyed it a bit more, though.  The movement is free roam (as opposed to Z.H.P.'s grid based) and feels more fluid.  The combat was faster, the player can dash and slide while running around.  An added plus was that you can customize your character when you start, and fully customize them later.  Party members and magic circles was almost too confusing, but I understood it pretty quick.  I was looking to pick this one up sooner rather than later, but I ended up picking up Legasista for PS3 instead.  It is basically the PS3 version of Cladun with high-res graphics.  I'll see how I feel after I beat that game before revisiting the idea of picking this up.  Also, I read that transferring the character creation data to the Vita is a pain in the rear.

Last and least is a game called Venus and Braves.  I really didn't like it, which is sad because the PS2 one looked great.  The PSP one was supposed to have Tales characters thrown in too, but I'm not going to get that far.  It took too long to get to a save point, the battle system seems needlessly complicated and...well, I just didn't have fun in the 30 mins I played.

If you would like more in-depth impressions of any of these titles, let me know in the comments and I can write them up, time permitting.  Thanks.

Quick PSP Impressions #2

Here is the second batch of impressions from the PSP games I played recently:

Kamen Rider Fourze
I haven't watched any Kamen Riders past Decade, so I don't care much about W, OOO of Fourze.  Mostly, I just wanted to play as all the other riders, and this game delivered that.  There doesn't seem to be much story, just arcade and some challenge matches to unlock other characters.  The combat doesn't seem too deep or difficult, but maybe I just don't know how to play it very well.  Kind of enjoyable, but I'm glad I wasn't the one that bought it.

Tales of the Heroes:  Twin Braves
After hearing of this game and watching the trailer, I knew I had to try it.  However, after playing it...it is actually good.  The game is a hack and slash RPG with Tales characters, and they have 2 playable characters from each game.  Good character selection, but a few too many sword users.  There is 1 attack button, and up to 4 equipable special moves at a time.  The moves are nice, some much more useful than others, but the combat feels a bit shallow.  I was hoping they would copy the Dynasty Warriors style of combat rather than Sengoku Basara.  Once you beat it with a given character, you unlock their partner for the "comical scenario".  I haven't done very many of these, but I have beaten all the regular story levels, unlocking all the characters.  Each story has 5 stages, and there are only so many levels.  More variety to enemies and stages would have helped the game out.  These really stand out when you go through all 12+ characters in quick order.  I had a lot of fun playing it so far, but burnt myself out for awhile, since there isn't much variety.  Still, it's a shame that it won't likely see a western release.

Queens Gate Spiral Chaos
Yes, I tried this fan service game, and I'm even admitting it!  The obvious pandering to their crowd aside (or maybe partially because of it), I really enjoyed this game.  I'm a sucker for strategy RPGs, crossover games, and RPGs with fun battle systems.  This had all three.  It's fun to pick out different attacks to find the best combination for each character fight.  I like that you can get extra attacks (and sometimes damage) when you break a piece of the enemy's armor.  The characters available are cool, and I am tempted to learn more about the characters I use that I don't know about.  I do have a few complaints, though.  First, the shallow one.  Less Flonnes and more Priers.  Second, sometimes the bonus attacks don't do damage, which can mean the difference of killing an enemy or not.  Some battles take a bit too long, and I really don't like it when they just dump many enemies on you in the middle of battle.  The combat is fun and the character selection is great, so try it if you like SRPGs and can get past the fan service nature of the game.

Quick PSP Impressions #1

I've recently being playing some PSP with a few of my old games and a few borrowed from friends.  I figured I would just throw up a few of my impressions.

Bounty Hounds
This is Bamco (Namco Bandai)'s version of Phantasy Star Online.  At least, that's what it plays like.  It is more action-oriented, which is hurt by the camera.  Like PSO, you use the L Button to center the camera, and that is the only way to control it.  I frequently have trouble turning it the right  angle, and fights get more complicated than they should be.  I like that you get 4 weapons, and fighting is pretty fun (except for the camera), but the inventory UI is cumbersome and I'd like to be able to hold more.  Also the active skills aren't that great.  The "shield" function is great for attacking (what?), but not that great for guarding.  I think I paid $5-8 bucks for this a few years ago, and it's probably only worth that.

Gods Eater Burst
A more fast-paced Monster Hunter.  Your weapon has a blade mode, gun mode and can guard.  It's really fun so far.  I don't have anyone to play it with, which I think would make it even better.  Also you have a move that bites the monster and powers you up briefly.  Eating a monster is how you carve it to get items.  Fun, weird, and cool.  I'm definitely getting a download copy of this (so I can transfer it to Vita when I get one) when it drops in price.  It seems to be worth the $20 they want, but I'm going to hold out for $10.  If you want a UMD, I believe it's already that price.

Grand Knight's History
It took me a bit to "get" this game and understand what to do.  I like that you make your party and can customize them to a decent degree.  Battles are fun.  It reminds me of Cross Edge, how you place your party and attack, but without all the crappyness of Cross Edge.  The game seems really basic, you just run around and do quests for money and experience, to beef up your party for the online component.  Unfortunately, the online component only works in Japan, so I couldn't try it out, even if I wanted to.  A real shame that Vanillaware didn't want to sell this in America, seeing as how they paid for and got a translation of it.  So, Vanillaware, you lost a good chunk of respect (and profit).  Tell Bioware hello down there.

Gungnir
I've only played about 30 mins of Gungnir so far, and I'm not too hot on it.  There seems to be a lot of things that affect battle, but none of them seem too important.  I haven't done poorly or anything, but it just seems like they threw in lots of unnecessary things to complicate an SRPG.  I mean, you only more 1 unit a turn?  Weird...

I'll have a few more quick impressions up shortly, so stay tuned!  Do people even say that anymore?

PAX Bound!

I got my pass in the mail, but my friend still hasn't received his (8 or 10) passes.  Maybe to cut down on scalping they are sending them out to the people that only ordered 1 or 2 first?  Probably not.

This is only a one day pass.  I lagged too long thinking about the 3 day, and they sold out.  It's probably for the best, since I should only afford the 1 day pass.  This year, I'm going for "journalistic purposes" so I can report back all my impressions.  I used to go as just a fan, but this year I will be turning it into a podcast/video and blog entry(ies).  I've got to prepare some questions!  If anyone has a suggestion or request for a line to stand in/game to try, let me know in the comments and I will check it out, assuming it is there.

Also, if you are going to PAX Prime, feel free to download and read my wife's books while you wait in the long lines!  Shameless promotion!  Also, if you are an Amazon Prime member, they can be checked out for free!  I have it on good authority that you might want to wait until PAX weekend to get the best deal on the first book...

So I Took Apart My Neo Geo Pocket Color...

About 7 years ago I purchased a bundle of a Neo Geo Pocket Color with 6 games blister packed together.  It was from a store, not ebay.  After I opened it up, the unit itself had dark, sticky stuff on the buttons, d-pad, side joints and battery cover.  It was pretty gross.  So I took the screws out of the back so I could take it apart and clean it.  The last screw was a triwing screw, which I had never seen before.

Then a few months ago, I finally snagged a cheap triwing driver off of ebay.  I set out to find my NGPC, but it had been packed somewhere.  This past weekend, while my wife was helping me find an N64 memory card (check out my YouTube Channel to find out why), she found it!  And the n64 memory card, too.

So I finally removed that screw, and used a wet napkin to clean the thing.  It wasn't too hard to take apart and put together again...except for the 6 or so non-triwing screws.  I took them out years ago...and they weren't put back in the unit.  Oops.

To date I've taken apart a Playstation, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and now a NGPC.  What will be next?  I have a broken PS2 I could take apart, and a few Gameboy Advances.  Now if I could only find those NGPC screws...

More Monster Hunter!

So you may know that I like to play Monster Hunter.  And if not, check out my YouTube channel to see the misadventures of playing it on the Wii.  I recently acquired the ability to play the latest PSP entry, Monster Hunter portable 3rd.  It's more or less the enhanced version of the Wii game.  Important improvements:  no underwater, more monsters.  Really, just no underwater is enough of an improvement.  According to my friend, some of the more underwater-oriented monsters are just gone or pallet-swapped in this version.  And unfortunately, none of the previous monsters have returned.  Well, except for one...the (expletive) Bullfangos/Bulldrone.

After playing it for a bit, it's even more sad that Capcom won't bring it out on US shores (or any other country that isn't Japan, for that matter).  It's really good.  I've already fought a few new monsters, like the Frogi (similar to the Jaggi and Baggi, but they use poison) and the Aoashira.  The latter is a new skeleton type, and the monster is basically a big bear.  It's not as big as many of the other monsters, and it's honestly not very hard since you fight it so early.  He/she/it does make pretty cool armor though.  They also toned down the Barroth, so he is much easier to fight, at least with a hammer.  The gave him higher recovery on some of his moves, making him more open.  I think he does a bit less damage too.  I beat him my first time going against him in MH portable 3rd, and I can assure you it's not like riding a bike for some of these monsters.  Check out my Monster Hunter Tri: SaHD Chronicles episodes versus the Barroth to see what I mean.  To even that out, they made his armor worse.  I loved using it in Tri, but they changed the skills it gives, making it not anything I can use.  At least I don't have to farm him!

Hopefully I can snag a copy of the PS3 version of the game, which uses the same save file, so I can make some videos of my misadventures in the new game.  If you can get an import copy and like Monster Hunter....well, then you likely have the game.  If not, I'd recommend getting your hands on one to try it out!