Year End Wrap-Up, part 3

Games to Revisit
Getting copies of games to review is really awesome, and reviewing a game pushes me to beat it if I can in the time allotted.  However, I don't always get to play as much as I want of a game, due to actually getting the review out in a timely manner and other scheduling things (stupid real life).

Of course Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will go here.  My buddy Mark Tatsu and I were so close to the end, and we've fought all but like 4 monsters.  If it wasn't for him getting married and other silly things we would have done it, too.  Now, I'm not advocating that he give up his life to play more Monster Hunter with me, but he definitely could have tried to work it in.  It's not like I wasn't making time for it, and he doesn't even have kids.

I've played a few visual novels in 2015, and I enjoyed them.  For Amnesia: Memories, Norn9 and Code: Realize, I would really like to get all the endings, and the platinum trophies if I could.  Another platinum I'd love to get is for Lost Dimension.  I really liked that game and would love to have enough time to finish my second run and hopefully get the rest of the trophies.  Well, maybe a third run so I can save my waifu Mana...

There are three other RPGs that I would add to the list of games I want to play more.  Omega Quintet was a game I found humorous and fun, and would love to put another 30 hours into.  Sword Art Online RE: Hollow Fragment is also on that list, since it is basically two games merged into one.  I liked it and would love to have to time to pour into it and get the platinum.  To round out the RPG list is, predictably, Disgaea 5.  I've really enjoyed the series, and I would like to devote more time to leveling up my characters and doing post-game stuff and a lot of the extra things you can do in the game.

Since I enjoy hack and slash games, I might as well include some recent Warriors games.  Samurai Warriors 4-II, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 and One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 still have a handful of content I haven't completed, and I want to.  Those should be easier because it is very possible to pick up and play, and my son enjoys playing them too.  I could play with him or have him play them and grind me out some drops, hahaha.  Anyway, I'd also like to add Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, since I haven't finished that one off and I've had it for years.  Good game, though.

Samurai Warriors 4-II (PS4) Review

The original Samurai Warriors 4 was really fun.  I loved the new hyper attacks.  However, the story mode was more focused on the factions, which I guess some people didn't like as much.  Instead of an Extreme Legends version, we have the character-focused stories in Samurai Warriors 4-II.  Honestly, I wish they stuck with the previous nomenclature, as mixing numbering systems is... silly to me.

Putting the name aside, let's focus on what actually matters: the game.  As mentioned previously, this entry focuses on more individual stories for the characters introduced in SW 4 and added for this iteration.  For each story, you must use the main character, but then can also choose one other from the list of available people to accompany you into battle.  Switching between them is quick, but it is on the Options button (PS4), which was kind of awkward to hit easily.  There are 13 total story modes, 8 of which have to be unlocked, and each containing 5 stages.

The newest character to join the roster is Naomasa Li.  He is Naotora Li's adopted son who just happens to look the same age.  I don't think it's intentional, but I thought it was pretty funny that it looks in no way like he is Naotora's son, but sure, why not?  He's pretty solid with some good hyper attacks (he is hyper attack inclined) and a few really good charge moves that hit huge areas.  His rage super is also really funny if you watch sentai shows.  The create-a-character also returns, which is always a plus.  All of the costumes are available at the start, but you can only give them weapons of characters you have unlocked.  Coincidentally I made a sentai-looking character, and gave him Naomasa's move set.  Boy was I surprised it was an accidental perfect fit.

Combat is largely unchanged from the previous iteration, with the hyper attacks seemingly less powerful.  You still have your standard attack string with various finishing moves based off when you use the other attack button in the combo.  The biggest addition is the skills you can use in battle.  The d-pad can scroll through skills you learn and then activate them.  These have a variety of effects, from stat buffs to heals to gaining more exp or money from kills.  They are on a cooldown, so use them when you need them.  Plus, you can equip several at once, so there's no reason not to load up when a character unlocks them.

Battle Objectives are still present in SW 4-II.  If you don't know, each stage has a checklist of objectives and bonus objectives for you to try and do during battle.  Normal ones are part of the flow of battle, like defeat some person before they attack your leader and stuff like that.  The bonus ones can range from "make sure no one dies" to "use this character to beat this one" and similar things.  While I like the replayability aspect of the objectives, they are pretty obtrusive when they first come up.  The action pauses and it shows the player what the objective is.  Yes, it is nice that you can't really miss them, but it gets annoying when it stops you mid combo to tell you to beat the enemy you are currently fighting.  In the other games, the bonus objectives tended to give you extra rewards, but it seems like they just give bonus experience now.  It does give you a reason to play the levels in Free mode, though, if you want to clean them up.

Again they have changed how to combine weapons in the Warriors games.  This time, adding a weapons to your chosen base weapon will increase the experience of that weapon.  If it gets enough experience, it will level up and get stronger.  This will thankfully also increase the skills on it.  However, you cannot transfer skills or elements from one weapon to another, so it isn't perfect.  There is a level cap based on the star rating of the weapon.  If you combine two weapons of similar compatibility, there is a chance you will increase the max level.  This system also applies to the mounts, which is cool and kind of silly if you think about it.  (You are merging horses... is that legal?)  Anyway, the system is pretty nice, but I would prefer if there was a way to replace skills or add them to a weapon, so it was easier to make your perfect equipment.

There are now skill trees for each of the characters, laid out on a big hex-based grid.  You have to spend skill tomes that are acquired as battle drops or purchased from the shop.  Each skill costs certain numbers of different color tomes.  Once a skill is purchased, the ones next to it are then unlocked for purchase.  If you buy a skill next to an unlocked and unpurchased skill, then that one receives a discount, which is very nice.  Even more nice is some skills can become free if you surround them with purchased ones.  The skills are either passive ones that will do standard stuff like increasing attack damage or health, or active skills discussed above.  This system is new, and once I got the hang of it, is pretty cool.  The only thing I'm not too keen on is it can be hard to buy a lot of skills, since you don't seem to get many tomes per battle, and I don't want to fork over the cash since I need that for weapon and mount synthesis.

There is also a Survival Mode in SW 4-II.  It feels like a mix of the one from Samurai Warriors 2 and Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3.  Since you only have one character to keep track of, it is much more focused and easier to understand what you are doing.  It's also more fun because of it.  The standard survival is a 100 floor tower that you have to fight your way to the top of.  You have a time limit that gets extended every time you go up a floor.  It's a good way to get some experience, and there are nice bonuses the higher up you go.  However, it's not advisable to push your luck, since dying makes you lose all the stuff you collected.  You can exit on any floor once it is cleared by activating the circle near the stairway up.  There are also really strong versions of the characters that appear on some floors.  They are always pretty obvious since they have blue skin, and they pack a punch!

The survival challenge has four specific battles that have weekly rankings.  While at first I wasn't sure I'd like them, the rewards changed my mind.  These challenges are timed, and task you with a specific task, like killing a lot of enemies or gaining a lot of gold.  Those two are fun, but I'm not too keen on the racing one.  You have to kill standard bearers and run to the exit.  They've had similar racing ones in the Warriors games before, and I didn't like them there either.  Getting high ranks will give you strategy tomes or money.  Every week the rankings will reset and give you another opportunity to get the top spot.  The mode is more fun than I thought it would be, and can be a good source of cash and skill tomes.

At first I wasn't sure there was enough content in the game, but at about 2-3 hours per story mode and 13 stories, that's pretty decent.  The survival and survival challenge modes are more fun than I initially thought as well.  The focus on the characters more than the factions/groups should appeal to those that complained about that in SW 4.  If you are a fan of the Warriors games and somehow skipped SW 4, then I would recommend Samurai Warriors 4-II.  I'm sure fans of the series will also enjoy it, but most of the content is focused on the story, which may not be enough to get owners of SW 4 to buy 4-II.

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 (PS Vita) Review

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 marks the Chronicles series' first foray onto the Vita.  While there have been other Warriors games on the great handheld system, the Chronicles series has a few key differences to set it apart.

You will primarily play as your own created character.  While this is possible in other Warriors games, namely the Empires series, this time the created warrior is the main character.  You will follow their journey through the Sengoku time period and work for different factions as you do your part to unite feudal Japan.  There is a fair bit of fiction here, since the person you created didn't exist, but it is a good way to experience the timeline and get a feel for when things happened.  While I like the more focused character or faction stories, I have wanted one that just went through the whole history, so it is easier to grasp the chronological order of events.

Granted, this one doesn't go through everything, but it also includes some theoretical plot lines, which I enjoyed in one of the recent Dynasty Warriors games.  Before and after each battle there are some scenes, which may allow you to increase your friendship with the various officers.  There are also many extra scenes that either give you an opportunity to raise friendship, or open up the theoretical battles.  It is possible to ignore most scenes if you are so inclined.  Friendship can be raised at the teahouse, and there is a button on the stage select screen that will filter out the events and leave only the battles.

The other thing that sets it apart is during battle.  Where before you controlled one or two characters, you now control up to four.  Each can be quickly switched between, but there are times where you cannot use some of the characters because of the story.  While it is really nice to have multiple characters to help you complete all the objectives, the game is balanced for this, so the objectives are all over the map.  This can make things much more hectic than I would like.  Most objectives are required to finish the map, but there are a few extras for bonuses.  It can make you scramble, but at least they try to make it worth it.  However, I still wouldn't mind a little less stress in some of the battles.

Besides scrambling around the battlefield, there is another thing that makes the later levels harder.  Often times you are using new characters for a battle, so they start at the default level, which is five.  At first I felt bad about using my higher level create-a-warrior (CAW) to tear through enemies, but towards the end, it was necessary.  If the first time you can use a particular person is later on, and their default level is far below the level of enemies, it makes the battle harder than it should be.  Can you kill the officers?  Yes, but it will take time.  You can still make it through battles, so I shouldn't really complain, but you will likely fail a few missions and have to replay the battle again.  Afterwards, the new characters should unlock, so you can actually raise their levels and buff up their weapons.

The AI in the battles can be really hit or miss.  Half the time they go where they are needed, so it doesn't seem like you have to baby them.  Then, the other half of the time, they just sit around somewhere and don't do much.  Therefore, you do have to baby them and set their destination.  So either you waste time checking them, or run the risk of them not helping, both of which are an inconvenience.

Other than that, battles still function the same as they did in Samurai Warriors 4.  Square is your normal attack and triangle is your awesome hyper attack.  Each has different combo enders if you use the opposite button at different points in the combo.  Hyper attacks are great for mowing down grunts, but are ineffective on lieutenants.  Each character can also use a War Art ability, like restoring health or weakening the enemy's defense.  They function similarly to the strategy cards in the Dynasty Warriors Empires series.  I still like the combat, although the hyper attacks seem to have been weakened somewhat.

Besides the story mode, there is also Challenge Mode.  You pick four characters and start in a castle.  There is a time limit and you are given quests to complete.  If you complete the quest, you get a reward and bonus time.  The idea is to complete as many quests as possible and build up points.  Before time runs out, a character (or multiple depending on the castle chosen) must make it to the exit point.  If you don't, you won't get all of the points you earned.  At least you get to keep some.  Sadly, you don't get experience in this mode, but the points can be used to buy some really good stuff, including the strongest weapons.

The engine is based of of Samurai Warriors 4, but also has some other changes beside the story and character focus.  The weapons have also changed.  It took me a bit to understand and then "get" it, but it is a nice system that I ended up really liking.  You will start with 5 weapons of the lowest tier, one each for fire, ice, thunder, earth and wind (there still is death element, but you don't start with a weapon that has it).  Some of the items you find in the stage are elemental stones that will give experience and stat boosts to weapons of the same element.  At the end of the stage, you choose which participant gets the stone, and it automatically adds the boosts to it.  Once it reaches the max level, you can visit the blacksmith to have it upgraded to the next tier.  If you want, you can assign an element to each character's weapon, or buff up all the weapons of a single character.  It's a very effective way of making sure the weapons level up with your characters, and you can of course put on some skills to help out.

The UI for battles isn't intrusive on the Vita's screen, but the game looks even better on the Playstation TV.  The controller just feels better to me for Samurai Warriors action.  The game still plays fine on the Vita, so no worries there.  Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 is a lot of fun, but not quite as fun as Samurai Warriors 4.  The hectic four person battles can make it really hard to keep track of everything, but it's still a good game to get your hack and slash fix on to go.  Plus, the new weapon upgrade is really nice once I figured it out and got used to the changes.

Samurai Warriors 4 (PS3) Review

After what seems like a long wait since the third game, Samurai Warriors 4 has made its way to the west.  As most Warriors sequels, it brings a new mode, more characters and a few other changes while trying not to mess with its 1 vs. 1000 hack and slash style.  I like most of the Warriors games, so I was looking forward to this releasing, since I actually prefer Samurai to Dynasty.  While the game is subbed only, which makes it harder for me to pay attention to objectives, I was happy to see there was far less pop-in versus Orochi 3 Ultimate, which released around a month ago.

To add more to the hack and slash formula that has worked so well for Tecmo Koei over the years, they added a hyper attack.  It effectively replaces the strong attack, and adds a new combo string to each character.  It does not replace the strong attack as a combo ender for the normal attacks, so you basically lose 1 attack that wasn't very useful, and gain another whole string with new enders.

The hyper attack usually has your character dash a short ways while attacking.  It's great for groups of grunts, and that's exactly what it is for.  It's almost overpowered, but officers have little trouble batting it away.  Therefore, there is a split in your combos.  Hypers are best for big groups of weak enemies, and the normal combos are best for officers.  I'm totally fine with this.  I really like the new hyper attacks, since it seems much more like an anime samurai, attacking so fast you can't see it.  I should mention I love that trope a lot, so it almost caters directly to me.

In a similar vein to the 3DS Samurai Warriors game, you have two characters on the battlefield at a time.  You can switch between the two and, thankfully, give simple orders to the one you aren't using.  Each battle contains multiple objectives that can give you extra rewards for completion.  Having two characters makes a lot of them actually possible by yourself.  The objectives themselves are fine, but expect to play each stages multiple times if you are a completionist, as you can't see what the objectives are, or who you need to use to get them, until the stage is completed once.  It is possible to get them all the first run though, but that is an exception rather than the norm.

You can bring several items into battle with you that give various buffs.  Gone are enemies sometimes dropping these buffs, like double attack or defense.  This doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, since choosing when to activate something makes it easier to get it when you need it.  Each playable famous officer also has a personal treasure that gives a special effect, and it has a cooldown, rather than the one per battle use of the regular items.  Getting said personal treasures is a bit more difficult, since each officer must be killed a certain way for a chance at getting it.  I'm not sure what affects the chance, but regardless, it will take lots of grinding to get them all.

The weapon and skill system is, again, slightly revamped from its previous iterations.  Skills have a max level, which is determined when you get it, and requires gems to upgrade.  You get plenty of gems and money, so that part isn't the issue.  However the skills and max levels of them are random, and you can't merge items to transfer skills.  No more making your perfect weapon... you have to hope that you randomly get it.  Ugh.  Thankfully, you can transfer weapons to other people, so you can spread around the love to characters you have yet to use, and make sure they can survive the battles you throw them into.

The stories are broken up into factions, focusing on a few select characters per each.  They also vary in length, from 4 stages for the lesser factions to 8 or more for the big ones (Nobunaga, etc.)  The presentation is fine, but I would prefer a more streamlined one, so it is easier to see what happened when, or at least put the years at the start of each stage.  I know the games aren't 100% historically accurate, but I'd still like to be able to figure out what happened when without drawing a chart.

The new mode for the game is Chronicle mode.  Seemingly based on the 3DS games, you create your own character and run around Japan fighting battles.  You can meet up and befriend famous officers, which you can also play as if you want.  It's pretty open ended, and the battle objectives don't matter as much.  Plus, making your own character in these games is really fun.  Though, I'd like to see a bit more instruction for Chronicle mode, explaining what affects what, so you aren't just moving around and fighting without purpose.  They even brought in the quiz levels from Hyrule Warriors, although they are much harder here.  The ask things like, "which is the eldest brother", or "who's name is written differently in Kanji?"  Not impossible, but not really geared toward western audiences.

Like most Warriors games nowadays, there is a good amount of content.  Going through the story modes takes 20+ hours, and chronicles mode adds a lot more.  It could end up being endless, given the random nature of it.  Plus, if you are going after trophies or completion, there is a lot of grinding and re-doing levels for the personal treasures, objectives and rare weapons.  The two player is done a lot better than previous games, since you choose if you want single, co-op or online when you select story or free mode.  No more remembering to hit start at that one point every single level.  The only real problem with two player is there is a small dip in draw distance and frame rate.  It's not as horrible as a lot of people would have you believe, but it is there.

Samurai Warriors 4 is, to me, a great addition to the series.  The hyper attacks are a lot of fun, and adding what amounts to a second combo string gives each character a lot of moves, plus the rage mode/spirit meter returns.  The new characters fit in, and some of them are lots of fun to use.  The story mode offers a good chunk of playtime, and the Chronicle mode lets you create your own character and adds even more content.  The random nature and length of the Chronicle mode will be off-putting to some, and the highly objective-based battles in that and story mode aren't the most seamless the series has had.  It's still lots of fun, and I recommend it to any Warriors or hack and slash fans.