When the city is in danger, there is only one to call to save them all... Tembo, the Badass Elephant! The game starts with a cute scene that sets up the premise - Tembo is called upon to defeat the evil Phantom group taking over the city with its war machines. Once the premise is quickly out of the way, the game drops you in the shoes, err feet, of Tembo, and off you go.
Tembo is an action platformer where you must make your way through each level, defeat some badguys, and rescue civilians. There are four sections of the city, after which there is a boss fight. To unlock the fourth level in each zone, you must defeat a certain number of enemies. Each stage has citizens to rescue and enemies to defeat, which the game keeps track of. These are, in essence, collectibles. Unfortunately, you have to defeat about 90% of the enemies to even get through the game.
I'm fine with collectibles. I actually like getting them. I don't like when you have to get a lot of them to even continue. They should be fun extras. On a side note, I'm fine with them tied to a special ending, since you should get some reward for getting them. This is a point of contention with me and one of my fellow reviews. Either way, you will likely be forced to replay at least one stage to try and get enough enemies to unlock the further stages. It is annoying and shouldn't be necessary. I guess it increases playtime, but it is definitely forced.
There aren't many functions for Tembo, but they respond pretty well. He can jump, charge and spray water from his trunk. If you hold the jump button, Tembo will flap his legs and float for a bit. Besides looking funny, it is effective at extending his jump distance a bit. I have had a few instances where it doesn't respond as well, but it was few and far between. The charge is your main attack, and in the air it will do a diagonal dive. This messes me up often, as button presses will queue up, so be careful about mashing attack. If I did an attack or got hit and went into the air, I would accidentally do the dive attack. The water is used to put out fires. You can spray while charging, which is really useful and as far as I can tell, the game doesn't tell you. Using them together will change the color of Tembo's charge, so you know you are doing it. Don't over-do it, since water is limited.
While the game looks kind of cute, it isn't easy. It's not super hard, either, as long as you learn from your defeats. There is no time limit, but the game always made me feel I had to rush. Don't. It is already way too easy to get hit in the game, since you don't have a dodge move and Tembo himself is a large target. Rushing exacerbates this problem. There are plenty of places where the enemies get a cheap hit, simply because you didn't know what was off-screen. Once you do the section again, it is much easier since you know what you are dealing with.
It is also very easy to over think the game. Most things are straight forward, with just a little pattern recognition to defeat enemies. The first boss was a good example of me trying to be fancy. I figured I would have to dodge his attacks and hit him when vulnerable, like most games, but that ended up with me losing a few times. Eventually, I just kept ramming him and taking the damage, which easily beat him. I'm not even sure that was the intention, but I'm sad it worked so well. Action platformers tend not to have the Dynasty Warriors approach (just keep hitting it) to bosses and instead require more finesse, but I guess they skipped that lesson.
Tembo the Badass Elephant is a decent game with a great title. It controls pretty well, but suffers from forced replay unless you play each stage perfectly. It's also way to easy to get hit, but it is easy to learn from your failures. Great animation and character, but only an average platfomer overall.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Lost Dimension (PS3/ PS Vita) Review
Lost Dimension, which I first talked about several months ago when Atlus revealed they would bring it to the US, has finally arrived and I was happy to check it out. Its claim to fame is the traitor mechanic. Each floor has a traitor, and you must sniff them out and have them erased to be able to proceed to the next floor. The catch? The traitor is randomly determined each time.
Well, not exactly each time. The first time through a new game, the traitor is always the same. After that, everyone is free game. If you do a new game+, the first traitor is then randomized, always leading to new experiences each run and even different experiences for all players.
Each character has a powerful psychic ability, and the main character's is precognition. Using his Vision, he tries to figure out who the traitor is. After each battle, you will hear the voices of the participants, with traitor voices in red. There are three possible traitors each time, so you have to do several battles to help narrow it down. The game keeps track of the last 10 battles each floor to help you figure it out, and you can mark the characters with a blue, yellow or red highlight if you think they are safe, suspicious, or a traitor.
When you have narrowed it down, it is a good idea to spend a Vision Point to delve into one of their psyches and confirm whether or not they are a traitor. You can of course do it at any time, but you only earn 3 Vision Points per tower level. They do carry through the game, so if you only spend two on one level, you can have four the next one. The mini-game to run through their psyche isn't too bad. You just turn to see where the text is coming from and run toward it a few times. The only downside is when you confirm the traitor is one of the characters you like using.
Once you figure out who the traitor is, you then have to shift your teammates' votes onto that person. Or, if you want, any person you choose. After each battle, you will likely be approached by a teammate and asked who you think the traitor is, or they will mention who they suspect. Your answers will help determine who they will vote for. Until you have a better idea who the suspect is, choose "I don't know". It makes it much easier to change their opinion if you don't have to undo your previous work first. I learned this the hard way. At the end of each chapter, you enter a judgment room and cast your votes, and the rest of the team casts theirs as well. Then, one person is eliminated and you move on to the next level.
Lost Dimension's battles are like a gridless SRPG. Therefore, you have a movement radius that you can move around in, which will shrink as you approach the edges. Two of your teammates even have special movement abilities, hovering and teleporting, which lead to some interesting strategies in battles. Characters have certain weapon types, like pistols or knives, that determine their attack range. You can also learn many skills that have different ranges for more flexibility. To be the most effective in combat, learning where to place your characters is key. Utilize those assist attacks!
Every other level a character gets a gift point that is used to purchase a skill or skill upgrade. They each have a different skill tree that encompasses three different skill sets. Purchasing all of one group (defined by colored box) will even grant another special skill, some of which are amazing. The healer, for example, gets one that grants his normal attack a chance to apply any status ailment. Some of them will benefit all the characters in battle, so I consider it worth it to get them.
When a character gets erased, they leave behind a materia for each skill group (up to the three) that you had purchased at least one skill in. Equipping it to a character grants them all of the purchased skills, and may even unlock a special combo skill in their own tree. I really like that once a character is erased, you can still use their skills. I was paranoid my first run through that the healer would be a traitor, and I would have to rely on items to heal, but it was all for naught, since I could easily make a replacement healer.
The only real downside to the skill tree screen is how little of it you can see at a time on the Vita's screen. Since so much space is needed for the header and other stuff, you don't have much room left over to see the tree. I resorted to repeatedly turning off the info window to get a better view, and turning it back on to see the skill's effect. This is slightly better on the PS3 version, since you have a bigger screen, but it is still cramped.
Now, as much as I like the game, it definitely is not perfect. My biggest complaint is the saving. When you start a new game, you pick a slot, and that is where it will save to. So, no multiple save files. Yuck. While this makes the traitor mechanic more impactful, it makes me uneasy, since I love to save a lot and have back-up saves. The game will also auto save after each battle and when you enter the judgment, so be careful! The after battle save is annoying since the camaraderie missions are not repeatable, leaving you a small window to reset the game if you don't get the highest rank and you want it. Other than that, my other detraction is the random loading. The game would load at random times during the attack/assist/counter phases. Not a deal breaker, but just strange looking to attack, then load, then the assists and then counters. This didn't seem to be much of an issue on the PS3 version.
Each level of the tower has three main (story) missions and three sub missions, not counting the special missions for your teammates and such. It doesn't seem like much, but you will be doing some of the levels over a few times. It is mostly to help determine the traitor, and then sway the votes how you want them, but it does help to get the extra experience and money. So, there is some grinding, but at least it's not directly for experience. All of your characters will get experience, but those not in the battle will get a little less. This is good so you aren't wasting time training up people to use if you need a replacement, or to help narrow down who is betraying you. It took me maybe 25 hours in my first run through the game to beat it. I don't know for sure, since I see no game clock to tell me how long I played.
Since most of the traitors are randomly determined, there is replayability to the game. There is a new game+, which is always welcome in my book. You only really carry over the camaraderie of your teammates, which is needed for the best ending, and you get a handful of bonus skill points when starting out. The game isn't really difficult, even if some battles can be harder than others. Most of the challenge is from trying to get the highest rank on each of the fights. The trophies aren't too hard either, but will require three playthroughs to get them all. Well, you can do it in two if you are really lucky and the people who still need camaraderie aren't traitors the second time.
As you can probably tell, I really like Lost Dimension. It is a strategy RPG, which I enjoy, has a really unique and fun traitor mechanic that has you play amateur detective to figure out who is betraying your team, and a nice skill and materia system that is fun to play around with. It was easy to keep playing the game, and I felt like I was making progress every time I played. After finishing the game once, I immediately started a new game plus, and played a bit more. I forced myself to stop so I could actually write up the review. Lost Dimension is a fun game that I recommend to RPG and SRPG fans. Which version is likely determined by what system you have, but the Vita version seems to load slightly more often, and the PS3 version doesn't look quite as good.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Red Goddess: Inner World (PS4) Review
Red Goddess: Inner World stars Divine, a daughter of the gods, as she navigates her inner world to discover her forgotten memories of the past. It is an action/adventure metroidvania style game, which is a genre I really like. The game is pretty linear, as you have to collect crystals to proceed through certain gates, and there weren't really any you could skip. The map does a good job of showing where they are, but it would also be nice if it showed checkpoints on it too, or maybe even coins that you saw but haven't grabbed.
There are three basic forms that you use to make your way through the game. The first is Divine herself, who can levitate some objects but also gets the super useful wall jump and double jump. Then there is the red rage form, which can attack enemies and break red blocks. The third is the blue fear form, which can also attack enemies and destroy blue blocks. Note that there is a short cooldown when switching, so make sure you are pressing the correct button, otherwise you have a second or two before you can change again. It isn't a big deal, but I did mix up which button changed to which form more than a few times.
Exploration is mostly done with Divine, and is pretty standard. Unfortunately, her jump feels a bit float-y so I had some trouble aiming her during the jumping sections that required precision. She also cannot bounce, so after you land, there is a bit of momentum to carry her a tad forward, that again, made some jumping more troublesome than it should have been. You also cannot jump right after you land. It's not the end of the world, but I prefer platforming controls to be super precise when you require that precision from the player.
Combat is also a mixed bag. On one hand you get some satisfying attacks, since you can launch targets into the air and combo them, or hit them back to the ground. On the other you get enemies that can get annoying when fighting multiples. If they overlap, it can be hard to know when to dodge, since it is hard to see them all. Some enemies shoot fireballs at a distance, and it can be troublesome to get over to them while dealing with their friends. You do get a handy dodge roll, but that isn't always enough to save you.
There are also a few minor problems I have with the game. First and foremost being how easy it is to die. There are plenty of pits that if you fall into, instant death. Also, numerous spikes that will outright kill you. Of course, not all spikes will do that, some just damage you. If you take damage, you do not get any invincibility frames, which is standard for a reason. All too often I would get hit and fly back, only to land on something that would either hurt me again, or just kill me. Ugh. This would be less of an issue, but I feel there are not enough checkpoints, and the penalty for death is waiting 30+ seconds for the game to load. It won't bother everyone, but one of my pet peeves is load times after a death. I realize it is not always something that can be changed, though.
Also, I want to specifically call out a chase sequence that happens in the game. I'm not sure why there always seems to be at least one of them stuck in every game in this genre, but I don't like them. Rushing people through part of your game tends to highlight the flaws in said game, at least in my opinion. While running and jumping through the section, you have to dodge a few fireballs from enemies. It shouldn't be too hard, but getting hit by one can easily send you flying back, and either into a pit (death) or cost you a chunk of time (likely death). There are numerous pits, too, and parts where you will automatically wall cling, making the section harder than it should be. You will likely have several deaths, all resulting in waiting for the game to load, then starting with an un-skippable cutscene. Well, all the cutscenes are un-skippable, which again, should not be a thing anymore.
When the game first launched, it had some framerate issues, but those have since been patched. So if you do play the game, make sure you get the update to make it run a lot smoother. However, I had a save file that was started before the patch, and made a section afterwards become unplayable. When I got to a certain section of the spider caves, the area would not load and I would fall though the map. I started a new save file and got past that part, but I wasn't too happy about having to re-do 2+ hours again, considering that also contained the chase sequence I don't like.
Admittedly, Red Goddess: Inner World does have some issues and is a bit rough, however, it is still kind of fun to play. If you can look past or deal with those, there is a decent, linear, action/adventure metroidvania game to play.
There are three basic forms that you use to make your way through the game. The first is Divine herself, who can levitate some objects but also gets the super useful wall jump and double jump. Then there is the red rage form, which can attack enemies and break red blocks. The third is the blue fear form, which can also attack enemies and destroy blue blocks. Note that there is a short cooldown when switching, so make sure you are pressing the correct button, otherwise you have a second or two before you can change again. It isn't a big deal, but I did mix up which button changed to which form more than a few times.
Exploration is mostly done with Divine, and is pretty standard. Unfortunately, her jump feels a bit float-y so I had some trouble aiming her during the jumping sections that required precision. She also cannot bounce, so after you land, there is a bit of momentum to carry her a tad forward, that again, made some jumping more troublesome than it should have been. You also cannot jump right after you land. It's not the end of the world, but I prefer platforming controls to be super precise when you require that precision from the player.
Combat is also a mixed bag. On one hand you get some satisfying attacks, since you can launch targets into the air and combo them, or hit them back to the ground. On the other you get enemies that can get annoying when fighting multiples. If they overlap, it can be hard to know when to dodge, since it is hard to see them all. Some enemies shoot fireballs at a distance, and it can be troublesome to get over to them while dealing with their friends. You do get a handy dodge roll, but that isn't always enough to save you.
There are also a few minor problems I have with the game. First and foremost being how easy it is to die. There are plenty of pits that if you fall into, instant death. Also, numerous spikes that will outright kill you. Of course, not all spikes will do that, some just damage you. If you take damage, you do not get any invincibility frames, which is standard for a reason. All too often I would get hit and fly back, only to land on something that would either hurt me again, or just kill me. Ugh. This would be less of an issue, but I feel there are not enough checkpoints, and the penalty for death is waiting 30+ seconds for the game to load. It won't bother everyone, but one of my pet peeves is load times after a death. I realize it is not always something that can be changed, though.
Also, I want to specifically call out a chase sequence that happens in the game. I'm not sure why there always seems to be at least one of them stuck in every game in this genre, but I don't like them. Rushing people through part of your game tends to highlight the flaws in said game, at least in my opinion. While running and jumping through the section, you have to dodge a few fireballs from enemies. It shouldn't be too hard, but getting hit by one can easily send you flying back, and either into a pit (death) or cost you a chunk of time (likely death). There are numerous pits, too, and parts where you will automatically wall cling, making the section harder than it should be. You will likely have several deaths, all resulting in waiting for the game to load, then starting with an un-skippable cutscene. Well, all the cutscenes are un-skippable, which again, should not be a thing anymore.
When the game first launched, it had some framerate issues, but those have since been patched. So if you do play the game, make sure you get the update to make it run a lot smoother. However, I had a save file that was started before the patch, and made a section afterwards become unplayable. When I got to a certain section of the spider caves, the area would not load and I would fall though the map. I started a new save file and got past that part, but I wasn't too happy about having to re-do 2+ hours again, considering that also contained the chase sequence I don't like.
Admittedly, Red Goddess: Inner World does have some issues and is a bit rough, however, it is still kind of fun to play. If you can look past or deal with those, there is a decent, linear, action/adventure metroidvania game to play.
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