Galak-Z (PS4) Review

I first saw Galak-Z at PAX Prime two years ago.  It is a space action game that is a cross between the ship movement of Asteroids, a power-up system like a shmup and the perma-death of a rogue-like game.  The setting is a 70s or 80s space anime.  Can all of this work together in any kind of coherent whole?

Actually, yes, it blends really well together.  The game is separated into five seasons that have five episodes in them.  Each season must be completed in one life, and unfortunately your life does not automatically replenish between each episode.  This is one of the rogue-like elements in the game.  You can purchase health from the store, but only 1 bar each time, so it is best to conserve it when you can.  Therefore, running in to every encounter with guns-a-blazin' isn't an advisable strategy.

A lot of what you do has to be somewhat deliberate,  The space controls make this more difficult, since you will drift in whatever direction you have momentum.  Thankfully you won't take damage if you make contact with the terrain, so it is manageable.  As a ship, you can fly and shoot in any of 360 degrees, boost for a time, and juke to avoid enemy fire.  It controls well as long as you keep your cool.  I would sometimes stumble with the controls when firefight chases would get tense.  It didn't really get me killed, but I would end up taking unnecessary damage.

Oh, and in some episodes your ship can transform into a mech.  The mech looks cool, but trades the gun for a laser sword (of course).  It also gets a shield to guard from attacks, and a grapple to grab space debris to use as a shield or throw at enemies.  While this in and of itself is cool, and some of the moves really useful, I found the ship to be much better, simply for the attack range.  Yes, that sounds strange coming from me, the robot fan, but I prefer the ship.  The sword is very strong, but I tended to take a lot of damage when trying to use it versus the gun.  The super brave tactic of running backwards while shooting left me alive more often than not.  I'm sure that using the mech in certain situations is far better, as big enough debris makes an effective shield or cover to sneak by opposing forces.

All stages are randomized, but the goals are similar: get to the target(s) and then escape.  You usually start in an open area of space and then have to make your way through a cavernous asteroid or derelict ship.  Enemies are either one of the space insects, soldiers from the Empire, or Void Raiders, which seem like a type of scavenger.  There are a few different types of each to mix it up a bit.  Further stages have stronger variants as well.  Thankfully, the groups are not allies, and will fight each other if they are close enough and don't notice you.  Also, enemies will predictably spawn near the exit point once you have to leave the level.  You are stuck killing them, since using the warp point takes a long time.  You don't want to be sitting still with some Empire goons looming near!

Dying in an episode isn't always the end.  It is possible to continue in exchange for some Crash Coins, which are sometimes dropped by enemies or chests.  If you do, you still need to find your stuff in a crate that is randomly placed in the level.  You also unlock blueprints that are randomly strewn around the various stages, which lead to ship power-ups that can be purchased from the store.  Unfortunately, if you die, your money is not carried forward.  Couple that with the fact that blueprints must be purchased after unlocking, and you can easily be screwed if you do die.  Yuck.  Either keeping your money or letting the blueprints be actual unlocks (my preference) would alleviate those problems, but it is not to be.

I like the inspiration of Galak-Z.  It is a fun combination of retro sci-fi anime, rogue-like gameplay and Asteroids.  Each episode even has a "written by" and the seasons have their own ending credit sequences.  There is some funny dialogue, too.  The game can be fun, but the pretty unforgiving nature of death is of course present.  It does get really tense when you are fighting an enemy patrol while riding next to no health.  The random levels and unlockable blueprints gives a decent replay value.  Fans of rogue-like games should check it out.

[Update: 11/13/15]
I tried out the PC version, and the levels ran fine on my i7-4790 3.60GHz w/ 16GB RAM.  The cutscenes seemed a tiny bit choppy, just enough for me to notice but not to disrupt the experience.  It also controlled fine with the Xbox 360 controller, and I vastly preferred that to the keyboard and mouse.  The K&M worked... but the positioning of the keys was awkward.  Thrust is W, S is reverse and Shift is boost.  Since braking is both W and S together, I couldn't find a finger position that let me do all of it as comfortably as just using a controller.

The biggest addition to this... edition... is the Arcade mode.  Whereas normally when you die you go back to the beginning of the season, in Arcade mode you can restart the episode.  It's a good change, and thankfully the game doesn't make fun of you for it, and in fact, acknowledges how mean Hardcore is.  Also, the stages load much faster than the PS4 version, but that is likely because of the increased memory in my PC versus the PS4.

Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library and the Monster Seal (PS Vita) Review

By Tina Hand

Dungeon Travelers 2 is, in many respects, typical for its genre.  Like the old Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Bard’s Tale games from the 80’s, it is a first-person dungeon crawler.  Unlike those old games (and more like its contemporaries) it has benefited from a more modern perspective.  Instead of the carefully crafted party of eight player-created characters, there is a collection of truly lovely female party members to choose from, each distinctly unique in her own way.  Unfortunately, the player is restricted to five, but they can be arranged in a true formation rather than simply putting them in a line-up and hoping for the best.  A wide range of items, equipment and skills allows the player to customize each character as desired.  While the class system is limited in that there are only four base classes (fighter, mage, scout, and a class called spieler) they branch out into a tree of other available classes, making it possible to have multiple beginner classes become different things.

The game has a number of dungeons to explore, and as is usual for the genre, an incessant amount of grinding for better equipment, more money, and experience.  The first-person battle system harkens back to the nostalgic days of old PC games, but with far better graphics.  Though this game is technically a sequel, playing the first is completely unnecessary for understanding the plot.  There are numerous playable characters, and what is surprising for this type of game is that each one has a plot that is more than just paper-thin.  The characters all have personality and history—sometimes with each other and sometimes not—that make them more realistic.  There is humor present as well, sometimes at the expense of the characters, but always tasteful and in many cases subtle rather than blatant.

There is a lot to like about this game.  Though the main character—the only male in the entire story as far as I can tell—is not actually playable, he acts as a general for the rest of the party, giving at least the pretense of the characters doing what the player commands because they are meant to, and not just because a button got pushed.  Dungeons are artistically appealing without being overly-detailed, and monster graphics have a great deal of uniqueness to them.  After all, it isn’t every day you end up fighting fruit.  Also, there are extra rewards to fighting enemies that otherwise would be better avoided.  Once you have beaten a certain amount, you “seal” a monster inside the main character’s tome, allowing you to create a tome based off that monster later in town.  Those books can be equipped to improve a character’s stats and bonuses.

Menus and the interface are all very simple and easy to understand, with everything laid out logically and easy to access.  Of all the controls, a particular favorite is the right trigger, which displays the level and any status effects on enemies.  This is extremely useful when fighting enemies that cast spells, as you can see them “chanting” and it makes interrupting them easier.  Experience and money are on the low side, which forces a player to grind considerably.  Perhaps the only down side in this is that bosses are typically overpowered compared to the enemies in the dungeon surrounding them.  For example, if the dungeon has level 15-20 enemies, the boss is more likely to be 25-30 than something more reasonable.  Enemies also are unaffected by area issues.  If you are in an anti-magic area, the enemies will still be able to use spells.  Unfortunately, this renders pure magic classes practically useless, something that is actually irksome when your healer is unable to heal.   The ability to save in dungeons and exit quickly means that despite its disadvantages, it is still a fairly easy game to pick up and play.

The game also provides the player with the ability to reset a character’s levels.  This makes it possible to change classes and increase stats for a particular character without harming the entire party.  While it adds to the time spent grinding for experience, it also allows the player to reset a character’s skills, so if you accidentally purchase a skill you find yourself not using, or end up thinking is useless, you can reset their level and start again.

There are also extra dungeons that can be unlocked by performing quests.  The more quests a player completes, the more dungeons and additional options are unlocked, increasing playability as well as improving the player’s experience.  While these side-dungeons are not necessary for the plot, they provide another useful place to grind for money and experience.  On a side note, the addition of not one, not two, but twenty extra characters available via downloadable content—while not absolutely necessary to the completion of the game—gives a player the opportunity to build multiple parties, so it becomes possible to handle nearly any circumstance.  [Editor's note: You do get many party members through the game.]

Overall, the game is clear enough to be easy to play, complex enough to keep a player engaged, and fun enough to be worth the price of admission.  With multiple characters, multiple classes, and a barrage of beautiful enemies there is enough playable content to keep even the shortest of attention spans interested.  This is easily a game that can be played by casual and dedicated players alike, and all without massive DLC additions.  It was enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes dungeon crawlers.  Just be aware of all the fan service in this game, as there is a lot.

XBlaze Lost: Memories (PS3 / PS Vita) Review

The XBlaze games are visual novels that are set in the BlazBlue universe.  Lost: Memories is the sequel to Code: Embryo, but introduces some new characters.  Knowledge of the previous game is not required, but I will definitely say it helps.  I have not played the original, and this was only really a hindrance the few times the game jumped ahead.  Most characters were introduced well enough, and I was able to follow the plot.

However, as stated above, there were a few times where the story would jump forward without filling in what happened.  I have to assume these missing bits are in the previous game, which follows a different protagonist.  The story that is played in Lost: Memories is complete enough that I wasn't really lost, but it seems like some important bits were off-screened.  I admit that it does make me want to play the first game to get the whole story, because the situations and characters got a lot more interesting as the game went on.

Besides the main backstory, there is another story that follows some new characters.  This new protagonist is named by the player and must find her little sister in the Phantom Zone.  These sections involve some walking around 8-bit landscapes and collect memory fragments to continue.  You don't have to collect all of them to proceed, only 3 out of the 4, but getting all four gives you trophies.  They also unlock optional memories of various characters, to give you more insight into them and their perspective on events.

The game lasts about 7 or so hours, depending on how fast you read or how fast you set the auto scroll text to be.  You cannot turn off the auto scroll from the options menu, but curiously are allowed to in game.  A vast majority of the text is also spoken dialogue, so there are many voiced lines.  They are only in Japanese though.  There isn't much replay value to the game either, as very little can be missed.

XBlaze Lost: Memories isn't bad.  It's a bit short in length and light on replay, both of which are to be expected from a visual novel.  The story gets pretty interesting, although there are gaps that I assume are filled in from the first game.  It can still be followed, though.  Platinum hunters are sure to love it for the quick and easy platinum trophy.  Otherwise, it is probably best for fans of the BlazBlue universe to give it even more depth.

Warhammer 40,000: Regicide (PC) Preview

I've been a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe (called Warhammer 40k or just 40k for short) since I was a teenager.  My friends and I collected and painted the miniatures, and had some pretty big battles (I play Eldar for those wondering).  So I tend to at least see what games are coming to the franchise and check out what they have to offer.

So Warhammer 40k: Regicide comes along with quite a unique offering, mixing strategy gameplay with chess.  Or, if you play Classic mode, just chess.  This is actually pretty cool, since the pieces are troop types from the actual game, and they even get kill animations.  So, it is basically like the old Battle Chess, which is a good thing, since that is probably the most fun and entertaining chess to play.

The other part of the game is Regicide mode, which is like small scale strategy RPG battles.  There is a whole campaign, of which the first act is currently playable.  These are pretty cool, since the chess movements and "instant kills" still work.  You get other abilities like grenades and taking cover to increase defense.  So far these battles are pretty fun.

Still, the game seems pretty cool despite a few problems with it letting me continue the campaign.  I like that it is not only a unique take on a game by combining strategy RPGs with chess, but also including chess itself, now with bloody murder animations!