Raging Loop (Switch) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Good:
Great premise and a captivating story

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

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

(Raging Loop was purchased by the reviewer)

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (Switch) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

The SaHD:
Busting makes me feel good!

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

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

The Logo: The Picture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

2016: The Good, The Bad, The SaHD

2016, what an infamous year.  A lot of bad stuff happening in the world at large, so let's find some good in the small hobbies I have.

The Good:
Gaming wise, I really enjoyed Trillion: God of Destruction on the Vita, and Digimon Cyber Story on the PS4.  Bravely Second wasn't perfect, but had a lot of content and kept me playing for almost 80 hours.  Hyrule Warriors Legends also ate up a ton of my time, and is improved from the Wii U release (but can still be made better).

Dex was a game that I had not heard about until around its release, and was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was.  It was a great mix of 2D, RPG and action game, and I would encourage people to check it out.  Lastly, I have to point out the wonderful visuals of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.  The artwork and animation is top-notch and it's impossible for me not to gush about them.  Half-Genie Hero looks great too, but I haven't had the chance to play it yet.

On the toy front, we have the latest Transformers line: Titans Return.  A few years ago, I realized how much I like the idea of a robot that turns into a vehicle that a smaller robot can ride in.  This entire line is about that, and they are some really cool toys!  They have some really good interactivity with each other, since you can swap heads, some weapons become little vehicles, or even attach on to the larger ones as turrets!  Yes, it makes me feel like an 8 year old, but it's cool.

Light FX Kylo Ren!  He's really cool looking, and fun to use in the game.

In pro wrestling, we even got a new promotion!  What Culture, who have gained a big following for their wrestling related shows on YouTube, launched their own promotion, WCPW.  While there are some minor issues and some silly stories, they have also highlighted some really great talent that I would not have been able to see before.  The first match I saw with Martin Kirby and El Ligero was fantastic, as was their rematch.  It quickly made me a fan of theirs.  I'm also a fan of Joe Hendry's song parody entrances.

On the WWE side, Shinsuke Nakamura really impressed in his debut match, and it is great to see AJ Styles there, too.

Movie-wise, I saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens earlier in the year, and enjoyed it a lot.  I don't like J. J. Abrams, but he made a good Star Wars movie.  I know the movie came out in 2015, but I saw it early 2016, and it came out on DVD/Blu-ray then too, so it counts.

Along a similar vein, Deadpool was just as funny as I hoped it would be, and my wife and I enjoyed that movie as well.  At the end of the year, we also managed to see Rogue One with our family (my parents took us all out to see it), and we really liked it too.  A bit too much "American action movie", but still good.

The Bad:
Probably the worst game-related things this year was the canceling of Disney Infinity and the closing of the main studio.  A lot of people lost their jobs through no real fault of their own, which is always bullcrap.  The series got better with each entry, and several of the figures are fantastic.  If they were more open to what figures worked in what playsets, and didn't overproduce 2.0, it would probably still be around.  After seeing Rogue One, I would have loved to get a playset and figures for it (especially K-2SO, my brother from another mother).  Hopefully they make a console version like the PC's Gold Edition, which just has everything included, no need for figures.  It's an idea I had in my now-scrapped article about how to salvage Disney Infinity after they shut it all down.  I'd gladly pay a few bucks to have that on a console.

Another low point in gaming was Exile's End.  Wow, did that game take a great genre (Metroidvania) and just mess it up.  On the whole, there were too many games that seemed to focus on absurd difficulty, instead of making it balanced or fun.  I don't want games too easy necessarily, but I don't want to make my fingers bleed just to get through a dungeon.

If you read above, you may be surprised to read this, but sadly, the Transformers Titans Return line also has an entry on this side of the line.  While the figure look cool, and are really fun, the quality control on them is inconsistent at best, and bad at worst.  I've had way too many issues with loose joints and other things that I haven't had an issue with on this large a scale.  The headmasters Titan Masters (the small guys that turn into the heads) are usually ridiculously loose when placed on the robots.  It's sad, since that is the whole point of the gimmick.  If the Combiner Wars toys from last year didn't always fit together, that could bring down the whole line.  Stupidly lose heads may do that for Titans Return.  Besides that, all but one toy I've purchased (good job, Brainstorm!) has at least one loose joint, or even hands that can't securely hold weapons.  It's a big bummer!

In movies, I have two main contenders for horrible movies I saw in 2016.  First is Jem.  Yes, it came out last year, but it was released for sale this year, so ha!  The movie is bad...terrible, even.  It has very little to do with the original cartoon, but also feel like how they would update the story for a modern and smartphone obsessed audience.  It's also terribly cliche, and felt like it was automatically written by a computer program.  I'm surprised I made it through the whole thing.  However, it wasn't the worst movie I saw this year...

That honor goes to Batman v. Superman.

"Are you serious bro?"

Quite.  At least Jem had logical progression, even if it felt way too fast.  The movie flowed from one scene to the next and didn't feel jumbled.  It also clocked in at half the time of BvS, which is another plus.  Batman v. Superman was just a mess.  It wasn't interesting, plot points didn't make sense, it was long, and filled with stupidity.  There were only 2 parts I enjoyed, the famous Batman in the warehouse scene, since it was entertaining and he straight-up murdered people, and when (SPOILER) Superman drives the spear into Doomsday while impaling himself.  The whole 4 hour train wreck was not worth the 5 minutes of decent.  It's just not a good movie.

The SaHD:
Well, for one, there were a few reviews that were suspiciously absent from my site, mostly because I didn't get codes for them.  It's not really an entitlement issue, but when a company is really good about giving you review codes, it's jarring when they "run out" all of a sudden.  It's nitpicky, but it was sad that there were a few games I was very looking forward to that I ended up not reviewing.  One day I may get to it, once I have purchased my own copies.

I might as well mention the Nintendo Switch here.  I like the idea behind it, but until we have some hard facts, I can't be fully excited.  Given Nintendo's track record of the 3DS and the Wii U, I expect the battery life on the Switch to be abysmal.  Both players being able to use half of a pad is a neat concept, but very much  limits what you can play like that, plus those are probably way too small for my hands.  The commercial was also very millennial-centric, but I think that group has moved on from console gaming, so it feels weird to appear to market toward them.  I'll still reserve full judgement until I try one out, but I am cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

So long 2016, don't let the door hit you on the way out, and I'm glad we never have to see each other again.  Here's hoping 2017 is much better.  Happy New Year!

New Video Content on my Youtube Channel

I'm glad to finally get some more video content for my YouTube Channel.  I still have a lot of unused Monster Hunter Tri videos that I could make, but those might be too old for people to care.  I also had a ton of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate videos, with audio... but the stupid laptop had a bad hard drive and I ended up losing all of it.  I'm still a little bitter/sad/angry about it, since there's nothing I can do to get it back.  I guess it's just another thing to file against Sony.

Anyway, first up is my first Transformers video review, the Vehicon from the Transformers Prime line of toys.  After seeing some other people do reviews for the last few months, I got a webcam and decided to try it myself.  I have a few more already filmed but not edited for the next few weeks, too.  As much as I'd like to do more of the recent toys, I can't really get a lot of those, so my reviews will be a mix of older and newer ones.  The first few videos will be a bit rough as I become more comfortable doing them, so bear with me and I hope you enjoy them!

The other content I'm finally putting out is a "Let's Play" that I'm doing with my wife.  We've discussed doing them before, and which titles to do, and decided to start with Legend of Dragoon PS1 Classic.  It was on sale a few months ago, so I purchased the digital copy (I still have my physical copy somewhere) and thought it would be fun to replay it while recording ourselves.  While not quite as unknown as most of the games we enjoy, it's fun to bring some more exposure to an overlooked gem in the Playstation's RPG library.  I'm not sure if we will play through the whole game, but hopefully there's some interest in watching us play and talk about stuff.