The Surge (PS4) Review

When I first heard about The Surge, it sounded pretty cool.  Action RPG where you control a man with a mechanical exoskeleton?  Sounds awesome.  After requesting it, I found out it's from the people who made Lords of the Fallen, and like that, is an attempt at a Souls game.  There's probably a proper name for the genre, like punishingly hard action rpg-lite, but everyone just refers to it by the game that started the current craze.  I'm not too into them, or good at them, but figured I would still play The Surge, simply because I'm always interested in mech and technology (mechnology?) focuses in games.

The opening scene is really good at setting the tone of the game and the backstory.  There's a nice little twist when you first control your character that I thought was super well done.  I got a little lost trying to figure out where to go after that, but once I did, I was treated to a fairly brutal cut scene that set up the main premise of the plot.  It's fairly quick and does what it needs to do.

Like others of the genre, The Surge has very deliberate combat.  The controls are wonky to me, but don't feel as clunky as similar games I have tried.  I'm not fond of melee attacks being on the shoulder buttons.  Each swing takes stamina, so you can't just hack, slash, and dodge until the enemy is dead.  Well, you kind of can, it just takes a lot longer than a typical action game.  Enemies don't often stagger from your blows, so you have to be careful when you actually attack them, so you won't get hit as well.  Most damage you suffer is pretty big, and you won't naturally heal.  You also won't pick up health packs, but instead have to use a healing item.  You can carry 3 at the start, and they are thankfully refilled at the med stations.

The med stations also serve as respawn points for when you inevitably die (another trope from the genre).  You'll also drop whatever tech scrap you were carrying.  You'll have to go back and get it if you want it.  If you die again, then it's gone forever.  This might not be an issue, but enemies respawn whenever you go back in the med stations.  Sure, this can help you grind a bit nearby, but is also a pain when you actually want to move ahead.  You can, and should, store your excess scrap at the crafting station or the medical bay.

Besides a mechanical focus, what separates The Surge from other competitors in the genre?  Executions.  Many enemies have different areas you can target.  Damaging a target quickly enough builds energy, which can then be used for a cinematic kill called an execution.  There are different ones depending on what area you targeted.  If you damage one part enough, you get a higher chance at drops from that part.  Want an enemy's weapon?  Focus on the arm that is holding it.  Want parts to build a new leg piece?  Keep hitting it and do an execution.

To facilitate this, there is a pretty decent lock-on feature.  Click the stick and focus on your nearest target.  The right stick will then sort of cycle through the different areas you can target.  While this is great for one-on-one, it's not that great when fighting multiple enemies.  You do eventually get a drone to help out a little bit.  Even so, switching targets is a bit of a pain, which becomes a big nuisance when also dodging attacks.  Also there were times I had trouble targeting a certain limb.  It might not have had equipment on it, but it can be hard to tell that when also trying not to get hit.

Besides storing scrap, you use it to create equipment, make it stronger, and level up your core.  Each piece of equipment has a power cost, and the total power you can equip is based on the core level.  Therefore, raising its level will let you equip more and better stuff to defend yourself and dish out punishment to your foes.  Creating stuff took me a bit to figure out, as you need both the salvage and the requisite items to do so.  So, you better learn the executions so you can actually get drops.

Since you will die a lot while learning every enemy's pattern, you will get your money's worth going through the game.  I'm a super cautious player (I save a lot), so it takes me forever to get anywhere in games like this.  For this reason, I really appreciate the shortcuts you can unlock.  I have yet to beat the game, and at my current rate, I could probably do so by the time I'm a grandfather.  Actually, that thought alone is scarier than anything the game could throw at me.

The Surge is an unforgiving action RPG in the vein of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and checks all the appropriate boxes for the genre.  It does have a technological bend to it, and adds flashy executions, though.  Fans of that genre should definitely check it out, but if that's not your thing, The Surge probably won't convert you.


The Good:
Feels less clunky than similar games in the genre and the executions are pretty cool.

The Bad:
Any tiny mistake is paid for in lots of pain.

The SaHD:
Not like it took much, but this is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy better than their previous offering (Lords of the Fallen).

(Review code for The Surge was provided by the publisher)

Akiba's Beat (PS4) Review

I had a lot of fun playing Akiba's Trip on the Vita and the PS4.  It was a unique action RPG where you defeated synthetic vampires by ripping off their clothes, exposing them to sunlight.  It was goofy and fun.  This made me eager to get my hands on the sequel, Akiba's Beat.

After starting the game, I quickly realized this has very little to do with the previous game, so I guess it's more of a side story rather than sequel?  The story is set in the same place, but involves no one from the first, and the battle system is completely different.  Gone is vampire stripping and in its place, battles straight out of the "Tales of"series.  You fight on a 3D plane, and pressing left or right toward your target will move you toward them, and the opposite direction moves you away.  Holding L1 allows you to free run, which I found very useful for 90% of the game.  Dodging wasn't as reliable as just running away or around targets to avoid attacks.  Plus, the dodge button was either not responsive, or too much so.

You have an AP number, which dictates how many times you can attack before you have to stop for a few seconds and let it fill again.  Even if you have more than your standard attack string, you will pause after it, unfortunately.  Attacking while holding up or down will do high and low attacks respectively, which mixes up what you can do.  Pressing the special attack button with different directions on the left stick can also give you different special moves, which you set in the menu.  Thankfully, you can set another set on the right stick.  I like this since you get so many useful moves, that one set isn't enough when at the end of the game.  You can also set the buttons in the options, which I did since early on I mixed them up often enough.  Like the dodge button, the attacks weren't always responsive either, and not just because I ran out of AP.  It's a fairly big deal in such an action heavy battle system, and was pretty annoying.

Fights with normal enemies tend to be over very quickly, as quick as a few seconds early on.  This is nice, since it means you can usually make your way through the dungeons without sacrificing an afternoon.  Then come the boss fights.  The first two are longer than normal fights, but not by a lot.  After that, the bosses become standard JRPG massive HP slogfests.  Toward the end, I was dreading the thought of duking it out with dungeon bosses, simply because it would take several minutes of mashing attacks.  This gets compounded when they start having two boss fights back to back, which sadly happens more than once.

However!  As you do damage, you build up the Imaging Gauge.  When you do, you have infinite AP for a few seconds, and your damage is increased.  If you use it when the gauge is fully filled, your damage increases as you land attacks, and it lasts for the duration of the song you equip.  Near the end of it, the percent jumps up, and you will output a lot more damage than normal.  The Imagine Gauge is way too strong for normal fights, and does make boss fights a little shorter.  Still, I would have liked it to be more effective on the dreary boss encounters, or even do something great like making casting instant, or even making special moves free/cheap.  Bottom line: it works okay, but could be more interesting.

The story places you in the role of Asahi, a career NEET that does little but stay up late, watch anime, and play games.  I'm pretty sure I went to college with someone who lived like this and also woke up at the crack of 2pm, but I digress.  Progress is broken up into two parts, one where you run around the map, talking to people, and another where you traverse the dungeon, fighting monsters and then the boss, dissolving the delusion.  There are times where you go into the dungeon in the middle of the talking parts, but it's still a back and forth between these two scenarios.  It's not the best balance, since sometimes the running around and talking is a bit long, or the dungeon is, but the fast travel can help with some of that.

As for the story itself, it starts off pretty strong.  Then toward the middle of the story, it starts to go down.  A chunk of that is from my own pet peeves.  I won't spoil things, but one character that behaves a certain way does something that doesn't make sense in context.  Sure, they try to explain it later, but I still think it just doesn't work.  There are other instances, like when the main character has their stereotypical "doubting themselves" arc.  Again, it just doesn't work with how it is presented.  It could, and I get what they are going for, but it's just not pulled off well.  Also at the end they shoehorn in some nonsense, and stuff in some more to pad the length a little too much.  It's a shame the story went so bad for me, since the localization and the dubbing are top notch...probably the best I can remember in an XSEED game.

The dungeons in the game are pretty basic, just rooms connected by hallways, all very block-like.  Some have switches to open doors, and there are treasure chests to find.  Later dungeons get pretty long, but thankfully, several floors are shorter on repeat visits.  Any shortcut is welcome because they get a LOT of mileage out of these dungeons (so get used to seeing them).  There are also enemy encounters littered throughout the dungeon floors.  Getting the spacing and timing for the first strike is a bit of a chore, but it helps.  Assuming it works, as I've had times I was back attacked while facing the enemy.  While I'm usually okay with palette swaps of enemies, Akiba's Beat goes all in.  There aren't many types of enemies, and you will see most of them in all of the dungeons.  I remember remarking to my son when I finally saw a new enemy type after 30+ hours.  The boss designs are pretty good, though.

The story and side quests took me over 60 hours to complete.  If you cut out the side/character missions and the monster killing quests, you could shave some time off of that.  Even so, the main story itself went on for about 10 hours too long.  It felt like the third Lord of the Rings movie, where there were several places it could have ended, but didn't.  It really could have cut out the last chapter or so, and be a much more concise (and better) story.  Admittedly, you will get your money's worth completing the game because of this.  I'd say it's worth trying for "Tales of" fans, but fans of Akiba's Trip should know it isn't really anything like that game.


The Good:
If you like "Tales of" combat, the fights will make you feel right at home.  Good references, localization, and voice acting.

The Bad:
Story goes down as the game goes on...and it lasts longer than it logically should.

The SaHD:
My favorite reference had to be the sequence from the children's trading card game.

(Review code for Akiba's Beat was provided by the publisher)

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (NSW) Review

Shovel Knight is a pretty good game that I'm not good at.  Still, I wanted to try out the two new campaign DLCs, since they are for characters that play very differently to the titular one.  After finally getting a Switch (for reasons that still aren't clear), I figured I would try out the new version on the new system!

I first wanted to try Plague Knight.  Instead of a close range attack, he can throw his little exploding vials.  As you progress, you can buy modifiers to the vial, which give them properties.  The vial can explode in flames, send fire up walls, or throw it up at an arc instead of down toward the ground.  While these are pretty cool, it's not quick to switch to them, so I end up barely using them.  You can also charge up the vial attack, which causes and explosion that launches you into the air (they do explain this at the start of the game).  Even though he has a (bad) double jump, this gives Plague Knight a more powerful jump.  And boy, are you going to need it.

Like Shovel Knight, Plague Knight has a world map with the same set of stages, and a different "town" area.  However, each stage has been slightly reworked to fit Plague Knight's unique abilities.  This means higher ledges and farther jumps.  The vial jump does work, and charges quickly, but has a set angle if you are moving forward while doing it.  This throws me off, since I'd prefer more control.  As it is, I can do it straight up, then move slightly to the side.  As always, I would have just preferred a good double jump instead.  He also relies mostly on temporary gains to health with special potions, but they wear off after your inevitable death.  Plague Knight and I didn't get along, so I moved on to his "friend".

Spectre Knight was next on my list.  He swings a scythe, which means again you have a short range weapon.  His kind of floaty movement and jump seem close to Shovel Knight's, but he has a few other tricks up his bony sleeve.  One, he can briefly run up some walls.  Of course they don't tell you this, old school style, so I sat around on the first screen for a minute before figuring out how to actually move forward.  Wall runs lead to wall jumps, which Spectre can also do.  This mechanic works, but it takes some getting used to.  I had to figure out which walls he can run up, and sometimes it gets messy when I'm trying to jump off of them, only to have him reach the top, or fall off, which then messes up the jump, and has me scramble to not fall in a pit.  Again.

Lastly, Spectre Knight doesn't just swing his scythe in the air, but dashes toward nearby targets.  He will either dash up or down at an angle, which is shown on the potential target.  It's actually really cool.  Plus, this is used many times as a method of mobility to get to higher ground, or to cover a long gap.  It takes a bit to get used to (there are many times I would accidentally dash down instead of up, which would put me in danger), but works really well.  Just be careful when doing it to enemies, since the game loves to bounce you just far enough back that an enemy will still hit you...ugh.  Spectre Knight has even more remixed stages for the bosses, and they will also change their patterns to feel fresh.  I really like that he has a more Megaman-like stage select instead of the map.

Even though I've played the core Shovel Knight before, I tried it again for a few levels.  The gender swap feature is there, so I switched everyone over.  It's not a huge difference to me, but I think it's a very cool feature that I would definitely mess around with.  It also has co-op (I don't recall if it needs the amiibo, which I do have), but I don't have anyone to try it with (my wife doesn't like these types of games).  The three campaigns also feature new game plus once they are completed.  For Spectre Knight, it combines will and darkness into one huge bar, but also constantly depletes it.  I tried for a few minutes, but it's definitely not something I'm going to actually put time into.  It's nice for people who want that extra challenge, though.

Each of the three campaigns runs about 4-8 hours, not counting deaths.  You will get a fair amount of playtime just completing what is offered, and some more if you go for completion, the feats, or any of the challenge modes.  The game can get pretty hard and frustrating, but practicing does help a lot.  There are plenty of times I would get a button or other move mixed up, make a mistake, get flustered when trying to correct it, and make it worse.  Other than that, the controls were pretty good, maybe even the best iteration of the Shovel Knights that I have played (Wii U, Xbox and PS4).  Who knew the four button d-pad could be so useful?

This was probably the best time I had playing Shovel Knight.  Partially is because I think the Switch controls really well, and partially because I've had some practice on other versions.  While I didn't really like Plague Knight's campaign, I really enjoyed Spectre Knight's.  They both use familiar level design (but not the same) with new moves to feel very much like new games.  If you haven't played any versions before, I definitely recommend the Switch version.  If you already own another version, the DLC should be coming as a free update (assuming you bought it before the specified date), so no real need to double (or triple) dip, unless the portability and really solid controls are a necessity to you.  I wasn't sure I would prefer this version, but I think it's the best one.  I'm looking forward to King Knight's campaign dropping, just to see how that mixes things up.


The Good:
Lots of new content for this version (others will eventually update for free for previous owners), Spectre Knight is fun to use.

The Bad:
Many instances of difficulty spikes.

The SaHD:
There needs to be a rule against pits on bosses...it's just mean (and dumb).

(Review code for Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove was provided by the publisher)

Birthdays The Beginning (PS4) Review

Birthdays the Beginning starts with a simple premise: change the terrain to help create and sustain life in an effort to return home.  It's basically a god simulator, where changing the height of land and water will change the temperature, thereby spawning new life, ending some, and changing others.

It's pretty easy to control, too.  There are two views: macro and micro.  Micro allows you to raise and lower the terrain and the cost of HP.  Be careful with positioning and not to mash the button, as you will inevitably waste HP.  You can also scan new creatures to add them to your massive organism list/tree, and use items.  Or just sit back and watch the creatures roam around.  Time does not move forward in this mode.  As you scan creatures, your level increases, which allows you to terraform larger areas.  This increases the HP cost proportionally.

Macro view allows you to recover HP fairly quickly as time progresses, or fast forward time by spending a little HP.  Basically, you zoom in to change the land, which then changes the temperature, which allows creatures to be born (hence the 'birthdays' in the title).  When you zoom out and let time flow forward, these changes actually start to take effect.  Like real life, it is a slow process, and the results aren't guaranteed.

There are four chapters for the story, which takes you through different parts of the development of life on earth (sea life, lizards, dinosaurs, people, etc).  At first, they give you simple tasks that are clearly laid out, so you can do your best to meet the birth requirements, rinse and repeat until the chapter ends.  Build for a bit, then wait for a bit.  It's pretty fun and helps you get used to the game.  During the third chapter, they decide to open it up a bit, and give you a final goal, but not the necessary milestones along the way.

This is where it frustrated me.  I made all the other goals, and thought I had a handle on how the game functions, and how to do what I needed to.  When they skip over milestones, it became much harder for me to complete it in a timely fashion.  I would meet the temperature and moisture requirements, wait, and...nothing.  Tried giving more room, change some other things, and...still nothing.  Eventually I realized that looking at the 'tree' view of the creatures, not the 'list' view would sometimes help, as there were steps I needed that I didn't know about, like creature Y coming from Z instead of X.  Still, there were times when that didn't help.  Since it takes a bit for the temperature and other things to catch up to changes, figuring out what went wrong can be a long, arduous, and annoying process.

Besides the normal/story mode, there is also a challenge mode, which gives you a pre-made world and objective.  Some of them have special features, like height affecting temperature at a greater rate, and tasks you with completing them.  You have a fairly generous time frame to do so, and it logs your quickest completion.  A nice addition, but probably not one I would finish off.  There's also a free mode, which I think was patched in, which is good for trying out new things, relaxing, or cleaning up some of the creature specific trophies.

Overall, Birthdays the Beginning was alright.  Not great, but not terrible.  It was fairly relaxing as long as all the milestones were working, but annoying when they didn't seem to, despite the conditions being met.  You will get around 10-20 hours out of the story mode, a few more out of the challenges, and a lot more if you dive into the free mode.  A solid offering for the price if you like god simulator games.


The Good:
Fairly easy going god simulator that won't give you the same experience twice.

The Bad:
It can take awhile for changes to show, which doesn't help you learn as quickly.  Annoying when life doesn't happen even though conditions are met.

The SaHD:
Weird that global warming is a useful thing in the game.

(Review code for Birthdays the Beginning was provided by the publisher)