Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk Review

Atelier Ayesha:  The Alchemist of Dusk is a new entry in the long running Atelier series.  It's plot is separate from the Arland trilogy (Rorona, Totori, and Meruru - try saying those 3 times fast!).  Does it stay true to the formula long time fans have come to love?

It's not a secret to everyone, but I really like the anime art style in general.  This game is a 3D modeled, anime style game, so, naturally, I like it.  There are occasional event still pictures that look really nice, and can thankfully be viewed again once you complete the game.  The whole game is very pastel colored, so it stands out from the usual bright colored JRPGs and the gray and brown WRPGs.  The only thing that bothers me is some of the text issues.  There's a few instances of overlapped text, and there's even more examples of text that doesn't quite fit in the box.  It might not bother everyone, but it was my job to notice this stuff for three and a half years, and that's a skill that sticks with you.

The music is usually some nice cheery RPG music.  There's also an occasional vocal track that reminds me of the Ar Tonelico games.  It's pretty good if not particularly memorable.  The game is dubbed, which is surprising considering the last few Tecmo Koei games.  Much to the chagrin of "purists", there is no sub option.  As unpopular as it might be, I would rather games be dubbed (except Chaos Wars...*shudder*), than subbed, for my own personal reasons.  The option for both would have been nice, but the dub actors are fine, and the file size is huge enough without having double the audio.

The basic premise of the game is you play as Ayesha, an apothocary that wants to find her missing sister.  Early on you meet jerkbag Keithgriff, the bipolar alchemist who tells Ayesha that she is actually an alchemist, not an apothocary, and attempts to help set her on the road to find her younger sibling.  Did I mention he's a jerk?  Anyway, off she goes with 3 years to figure out how to do it.

If you've played any of the other Atelier main series games (ie: not the Iris ones), you will know this time limit well.  All the ones I've played have it, and so does Ayesha.  It always feels a bit arbitrary to me.  It's very possible (and not too hard if you concentrate) to do what you need to do in the game in that time limit, but I don't like feeling rushed.  It's not as bad as it was in Rorona, but the time limit keeps me from diving into the synthesis and actually getting good at it.  In the Iris and Mana Khemia games, I really felt like I could experiment and fully understand the alchemy process.  Not so in the main Atelier games.  There is a tutorial that teaches you the basics, but I really felt that there was so much information that wasn't really communicated.  Most of it is actually in the "help" section in the Library menu, which I didn't discover until late in the game.

What else didn't I like about the time limit?  I didn't want to wander too much, sometimes avoided battles and gathering ingredients, all in an effort to maximize my time.  Is it a deal breaker?  No, but I always felt pressured to cut corners so I was sure to finish within the 3 years.  I'm a completionist, not a speed runner, if that helps you understand where I'm coming from.  I would have loved to gather lots of ingredients so I could play around with the alchemy system and make really good quality stuff, and lots of it.  Instead, I tended to use whatever I had the most of, just to fill the townspeople's requests.

You will want to do those requests, since that is the main way to make money in the game.  Battles yield little and items don't sell for much.  Each request has another time limit, but most of them were doable.  The few that weren't do stick out to me, but there were only three or four of them.  I never felt like I had too little money though, so just make sure to do the requests when you can.  There wasn't much spare time to try and make super equipment either, since you can't make your own equipment, but have to instead enhance things you find.  Again, I was held back by the time limit.

In it's defense, the time limit is more lax here than the other Atelier games.  There's no real intervals, you just have 3 years to complete the main story.  In previous entries, you had six month milestones to reach to get the good ending.  Thankfully, not here.  Sure, there are contests to enter every six months, but they aren't necessary.  So if you want to break into the Atelier series of games, this is a great start.  You get the basic gist of the 3 year limit but freedom within it, which makes the imposing time limit tolerable.

Battles are turn based and fun.  Characters get several skills, which take either MP, AC meter or the super meter.  It's almost too much, but I like having options as to what skills to use when I need them.  Although, some AC (action command) skills need specific positioning, which isn't conveyed in its description.    Positioning effects more than that though, since you do more damage attacking an enemy from behind, but can do useful "pursuit" attacks when next to your party members.  So there is more to the battles than normal turn-based combat, but it's not likely to change anyone's mind if they don't like turn-based fights.  The harder battles can be pretty dynamic and flashy.  It would be nice if enemy levels were displayed on the map when selecting an area, so you would know to avoid it instead of running in and hoping for the best.  Losing a fight returns you to the world map and you only lose a day, but again, that is just more time eaten up.

While at times the time limit feels oppressive, the game actually takes a good long while to complete.  Depending on what you actually do in that time limit, it can easily take over 20 hours for a playthrough.  My wife clocked in at just over 24 hours until the credits and I was even over that!  Unless you have some planning or understanding of how to spend your time, you may want multiple playthroughs to get all the events, endings and trophies.  Unfortunately, all of the trophies are secret, so it's harder to know what to shoot for unless you have played another Atelier game and know what they look for.

New game plus is present and gives you a few advantages from your previous save, but more would have been appreciated.  You keep your current equipment and the money you had, so sell all of your stuff before the end of the third year.  Also, you can't skip any cutscenes, just make the dialog go faster, so going through multiple times can be a chore.  You can skip to the first major town when starting again, which is nice.  I'd prefer to keep a lot more of what you earned, but what you get does help give you a leg up on another run through the game.

Did I have fun while playing?  Yes, I did.  I don't know if I will go back to get the other endings or trophies, though.  While I'm not a fan of the time limit, this is the best it's been in the Atelier games I've played.  I like the look of the game and battles were fun.  I could also play it in front of my kids with no issues (well, except for the hot springs scene) and my wife enjoyed it as much as I did.  If you want to jump into the main Atelier games, Atelier Ayesha is a good point to start.  The time limit is more lax than the others and you don't need to know any back story to enjoy the plot.  Oh, and...

Barrel!

Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires (PS3) Review

As a fan of Dynasty Warriors 7, I was very eager to dive into the new Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires.  Instead of just hacking and slashing, the Empires line of games have a lot more strategy involved.  As a ruler, you must decide to research weapons, train troops, making alliances and other details to make your kingdom strong enough to unite China.  If you are a vassal, you must do what your lord commands, or even attempt to overthrow him or her.  It's definitely a fun diversion from the normal story modes from the main Dynasty Warriors games.

The graphics are pretty good, but do suffer from some odd physics, clipping and pop in with enemy soldiers.  The physics issues were also present in Ken's Rage 2, so if they didn't bother you there, they probably won't here.  The clipping is fine for me, since a chunk of it is from the created costumes.  The pop in is the most problematic, but hasn't actually hurt the gameplay at all.

Like most recent Tecmo Koei games, the only spoken language is Japanese.  It doesn't bother me as much it used to.  I don't know if it's because I got used to it, or because most battles are short so I don't need to listen to much talking.  It's likely somewhere between the two, but I don't mind the Japanese voices.  I will miss gems like Lu Meng's death scene though.  I like the music in the game, but it's pretty much the same music that has been used in the games for as long as I can remember.

The fights are also what you would expect from a Dynasty Warriors game.  You have your normal and charge attack, which changes the end of the combo.  There are basically two different types of battles in the game.  Skirmishes are quick fights that "weaken" an opposing force.  You can't pick who fights in them, other than your main character.  You don't capture bases and can't use special "strategem" cards.  Invasion fights are large scale battles to take over (or defend) one of the territories of ancient China.  Officers can be captured, "strategem" cards can alter the battlefield or give you quick advantages, and you can pick several officers to accompany you into the fray.  Although, in the Empires games, you won't enter battle as much as you normally would, since you do have a kingdom to run.

Well, if you are a ruler, that is.  If you are a vassal, your lord will give your objectives that he or she would like completed.  When you run the show, you decide how to spend your resources, from seeking out officers to hire, getting better weapons, training troops or forging alliances.  It's a fun alternative to battle, and I really liked building up resources so I could level up various parts of my character and kingdom.  I'd recommend reading the various tutorial messages that pop up, since they do help.  Also, read the instruction manual (press the home button while in the game and it's just under "quit game"), as it has lots of helpful info that isn't in the tutorials.  Making my way through the actual running of the kingdom wasn't too hard, but I felt like I wasn't taking advantage of everything offered.  There were lots of options to pick that I didn't end up using, and it took me a bit to understand what picking your fame type actually affected.  It's a nice system with lots of options, and I haven't touched a chunk of them...yet.

There's six different scenarios you can complete, each in a different time frame and containing some different characters.  These scenarios can take a long time to complete, depending on how aggressive the enemy is, or how much you want to build up your lands before unifying the country.  They also have good replay value, since after the initial set up, who fights who and which kingdoms crumble is random.  Plus, once you've completed a scenario, you can replay it with different bonuses (in exchange for bonus points) and even allow officers to die.  I'm not even taking into account the player made officers that can show up...

Which brings me to the best part of the game: create a warrior.  It's no secret that I love to create characters in games (main reason I love the WWE games and City of Heroes/Villains [rest in peace]), and it's a lot of fun here.  There's a fair amount of starting costumes, and a whole lot more you can purchase with bonus points that you get after battles.  The last time I played an Empires game, there were limited costume pieces, but thankfully not in Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires.  Besides being able to make many, many different looks for the character, you can choose their weapon, EX attack (if that weapon has multiple) and both Musou attacks.  I was very pumped for that one, so I wouldn't be stuck with a Musou attack I didn't want, and could make a "greatest hits" character.  Characters you make can be uploaded so others can download them or have them show up in their scenarios.  It's really fun to run across a random Samurai Warriors, Final Fantasy or anime character.  Unfortunately, the ability in the demo to use your created character in a sample battle to test them out is gone, so it takes longer to try out new weapons and musou attacks to find the right fit for your characters.

The trophies in the game don't seem particularly hard, save "complete an entire scenario on chaos difficulty". Most of them are from using the different fame types and their abilities.  You can also get one for getting a sworn sibling (good ol' Peach Garden Oath!) or marrying someone.  Wait, so when I married a woman for the trophy...does that make her a trophy wife?  It's funny that you can marry anyone of the opposite gender, even Lu Bu!  That's what my wife did, and she looked at me funny when I questioned her standards for marrying a big, angry, destructive monster.  Go figure.

There are some online amenities in Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires.  You can upload and download created warriors and they can show up when you play each scenario, as was mentioned previously.  You can also play battles online with 2 players, which is a nice, standard, addition.  You can also do 2 players locally, but in both circumstances, the game isn't built for 2 players, which is my biggest complaint.  Player 2 has to just sit around while not in battle, and they can't even play in skirmishes, only invasion fights.  Also make sure to set the character they want to play as as the second entrant in the fight, and they have to push start to join every time.  I'd really like it if there was either a proper 2 player mode, where they can pick a character that is in every fight, or a free mode where you could just do battles.

Despite the lackluster 2 player mode, the game is lots of fun.  The empire building sections are a nice diversion from the normal hacking and slashing, and it was made even better by running across other players' created warriors while playing.  Each scenario can be long or short, depending on your actions, and the random nature of them can make for some good replayability.  An added plus was my wife enjoyed playing it.  Well, it was an added plus for the game.  She was hogging it when I wasn't playing.  I highly recommend the game for fans of Dynasty Warriors, and if you see a daikatana wielding warrior named Goken...you're welcome.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 (PS3) Review

I enjoyed the first Fist of the North Star game, but found it to be slow.  I got the platinum trophy for it, but I didn't think it was as fun as many of the other Koei games I had played.  When the demo for the sequel came to the Japanese PSN, I gave it a whirl and was pretty impressed.  Thanks to Tecmo Koei America, I get to review their latest game, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2.

My favorite part of FotNS: Ken's Rage 2 was the cutscenes before and after each stage.  They are made to look like pages of a manga.  Yeah, they are mostly still images, but I love that it harkens back to its manga roots.  At first I was finding myself wanting the mid-stage cutscenes to do this as well, but the more I played, the more I liked it just the way it was.  The characters also look nice and detailed, and it's cool that their models show damage to their bodies and clothing.  Sometimes there are some weird shadows or lines on the models, but it's few and far between.  The only disappointing part of the visual experience is the pop-in of some of the enemies.  When you are being timed killing x amount of dudes and you just have to sit around waiting for the last few to actually appear, it's kind of annoying.  It's not a deal breaker by any means, but worth mentioning.

The voices in the game are Japanese only, which oddly doesn't bother me.  In the more recent Dynasty and Samurai Warriors games, having no spoken English during battles was a hindrance.  I had to read what was being said while I was fighting.  It made battles more annoying, since I couldn't just process the changing battlefield audibly while I was watching my character to make sure I wasn't dying.  In Ken's Rage 2, the stages are pretty linear and most of the story is told through cut-scenes, so there wasn't much reading I had to do during battle.  Hence, no problem with it.  As much as I like dubbed anime, being subbed made the story mode feel more like the original show.  Most of the music sounds like what was in the first game.  If you liked that, you should still like it.  The music isn't bad, but it isn't great either.

Several of the characters behave like fighters from Dynasty Warriors.  You have a normal attack that can be chained together and a strong attack that changes depending on what point in the combo you use it.  Thankfully, it seems like all of the characters from the first game received an overhaul to their combos.  They are faster and more fluid than they were previously.  This greatly benefited Kenshiro, Jagi and Mamiya, who were slow and awkward most times.  Kenshiro finally feels as powerful as he is meant to be.  In the last game, he was good at attacking single targets, but horrible at hitting groups.  I am very happy to tell you he is now awesome at destroying groups of thugs as well!

The Nanto characters play a little different from the rest.  They still have a normal attack chain, but their strong attack doesn't really change.  They do less damage than the rest, but when attacked, hitting the strong attack button can result in a counter that powers them up for a bit.  When powered up, their strong attacks have a much greater range and attack power, often changing completely.  Getting in that mode makes it easy to lay waste to big groups, and is fun, too.  Both Hokuto and Nanto (martial arts styles used in the Fist of the North Star universe) characters tend to leave enemies exploding or slicing apart into bloody messes, so you might to shy away from playing this in front of younger kids (or really old people).  I didn't, so I'm likely a bad parent.  My son does love "all the punching moves", though.  I recall an option in the first game to disable the more graphic parts, but I sadly don't see that in this game.

The special button allows some characters to use their projectile weapon (much better than last game!) or other things, like Shin's finger snap that damages enemies in a state of Aura Shock.  Characters can also throw, but it took too much time so I didn't use it much.  The throws don't take a long time to do, but it is much slower than just hitting them, which can impact your grade at the end of the stage.  Jumping is no longer a button, but done as a context-sensitive action.  Instead, you get a very useful dodge move to evade enemy attacks.  You can easily avoid powerful musou attacks by spamming the button, but you will lose aura (musou meter), so use it sparingly.  Finally, they threw in a few QTEs for good measure.  Most aren't actually timed, so they are not difficult.  They usually make sense in context, and can be fun.  You only need to hit one at the end of a stage, so no more long strings to finish the boss like the first game.  They don't really need to be in the game, but they're not bad, either.

Leveling up is done a lot different than the first game.  Now the karma you get from killing enemies is determined by certain conditions.  If you have lots of life when you kill enemies, you get defense xp.  Killing them with a normal attack is health xp and a strong attack nets you attack xp.  It's a pretty new concept, and it isn't as confusing as I thought it might be, so I actually kind of like it.  I do miss spending points on the level up chart from last time, but this is still good.  You can also equip scrolls to increase the levels of your stats and unlock different skills.  The only real problem I have with this system is you really need to create a multi scroll nexus to get much effect after the first few levels.  It's not that big a deal, but without chaining them together to get a much better effect, adding 1 to your level doesn't add much.  Scrolls from chests and finishing a stage are random, which can make it hard to get a good set for each character.  It really just led to me keeping way to many scrolls, since you don't know if you will need it to make a nexus down the line.

Story mode follows the main storyline of the anime/manga and is much more thorough than the first game.  It's fairly long and has numerous cutscenes during the stages.  It can be a bit much when there are scenes in the middle of boss fights, but it's a minor complaint from me.  The stages themselves can be fairly long, but some are little more than boss fights, which evens it out.  At some points in the story, you control another character.  It's a nice change of pace and gives you a little taste of them before you can play as them in Dream Mode.  I have yet to finish watching the original anime (shame on me, I know), so I like that it goes more in detail than the first game.  You also unlock the scenes you view, so you can watch your favorites whenever you want.  More games should do that.

Just like the first Ken's Rage, there is a Dream Mode here too.  It plays much more like Dynasty Warriors than the Story Mode.  You choose a character and follow a new story where most stages have you capturing bases.  In the first game, each character had their own Dream Mode that followed a new story centered around that person.  This time it seems to fill in a lot of the backstory of the whole series and give more depth to the various characters.  The whole story intersects and has different paths depending on the character you are playing as.  You will likely spend a lot of time in this mode, since you can play as all the unlockable characters, and I think it's fun.

The most major things you can unlock in Ken's Rage 2 are the other characters.  You can also unlock a few pictures and some music, most of which come from normal gameplay.  One of my favorite things is the Encyclopedia, which gives you background on characters, techniques and story.  It's a good way to remind yourself or fill in the gaps so you can understand the whole story.  The trophies/achievements you get are fairly standard, most of which come from completion of the various modes with the various characters.  There are a few that will take a good chunk of time, namely acquiring the scrolls to make an ultimate nexus, completing all Dream Mode challenges in Free Mode (so you will be doing the stages twice) and killing 100,000 enemies.  Not the most inventive list by a long shot, but very achievable.  There's also some multiplayer that sounds similar to what was found in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3.  I wasn't able to find any matches, so getting those 2 achievements/trophies might be troublesome.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to how fun a game is.  As a fan of Dynasty and Samurai Warriors games, I was looking forward to playing Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2.  It is better than the first game, so I can easily recommend it to you.  The biggest complaint would be the loading.  It didn't seem to take that long (I have the PSN downloaded version), but it seemed to load a lot, especially in Story Mode.  If you don't like the Warriors style of hack and slash gameplay, this isn't likely to change your mind.  If you do enjoy them or are a fan of Fist of the North Star or were disappointed in the first game or just like running around and beating up tons of guys, give this game a shot.  It's fun and can give you great insight into the story of one of the best anime/manga series' to date!