Costume Quest 2 (Xbox 360) Review

Four years after the release of the charming and fun Costume Quest, we are finally treated to a sequel.  Set just after the events of the first game's Grubbins on Ice expansion, Costume Quest 2 gives us another story of siblings Wren and Reynold saving the world.  This time, they must travel through time and stop a candy-deprived dentist from taking over the world.  Yes, the plot is silly, and not as good as the first, but it's well told and there are some good lines.

The game looks a lot like the first, with stylized cel-shaded locations and characters.  You still walk around a small area and find chests, hit candy out of objects, trick or treat, and find enemies.  You can still strike enemies from behind for a little extra damage at the start of battle.  The roller skates that allow you to boost up ramps return as well  So, in a lot of ways, it's more of the same, which is a good thing.

It's not the exact same, though.  The bonus for getting a preemptive strike doesn't seem as powerful.  You lose your previous costumes, but the new ones have some new exploration abilities to use on the maps.  There's now pinatas strewn about to give you more candy, and respawning enemies to help boost your level.  You can also buy maps of each visited area to make sure you have collected every secret in them.  There's also purchasable upgrades for each costume that not only power it up, but change its appearance.

Battles are, again, a similar affair to the first.  Time a button press correctly and you get more damage.  Do the same on defense to cut down your damage received.  To add something new, you will also get a combo attack for some more damage, and a counter attack on the defensive side.  The counter move is really nice, but you get it pretty late in the game.  Given how short it is, you don't get much time to enjoy it.  Special moves now require a meter to be filled, and aren't usable every 3rd or 4th turn as they were previously.  They do seem more powerful to compensate, though.  Stamps are gone and replaced with cards.  The cooldown on each is several battles, so save them for when they are needed most.  I rarely used any because the cooldown was high.  There are some really nice ones that boost xp and candy (money) gain, and even ones that make enemies damage themselves when they attack.  A good variety to play around with.

The biggest downside of the game is the length.  I had about 8 hours on the clock when I had finished the game and got every achievement, card, costume and quest completed.  Outside of missing the one missable achievement, there aren't many reasons to replay except to play it again.  The game also isn't too hard.  It feels like damage is higher than the previous game, but it still feels more forgiving.  And that is with me having the useless candy corn costume in my party the whole time.

If you are a fan of the original Costume Quest, you should definitely get Costume Quest 2.  It may be short and sometimes feel formulaic, but it's more of the same battles and exploration that you enjoyed previously, but with some cool new costumes.  If you like turn-based RPGs, I'd recommend starting with the first Costume Quest, but this is still a very solid title.  It pretty much does what a good sequel should, keep the good and familiar while adding a few new things to liven it up.

Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit (Vita) Review

Hot off the heels of Shinovi Versus, Senran Kagura hits us with another domestic release, Bon Appetit.  While the previous two are action games, this one is... a rhythm game about cooking battles.  Yes, you read that correctly.  As is clearly stated from the outset, this is just a silly side game and has no bearing on the actual plot.

Being a rhythm game, you must push the correct button or direction at the correct moment.  There are two different lines that go from right to left that these buttons appear on.  I'm not sure why there are two, but I think it's so they can fit more buttons in a smaller area.  The directional buttons that must be pressed are color-coordinated to correspond to the face button (circle, triangle, etc.) so it's easier to see when there are a lot of quick moving buttons on the screen.  Granted, the buttons are color coded on the system controllers, not the Vita, so it's borderline silly to do that for a Vita game.  Silly as it is, it's still helpful, especially when there are so many buttons shooting along.

Each of the 10 songs are separated into three rounds.  Winning one of the first two rounds will damage the clothing of the opponent.  If you win the first two rounds and do really well on the third, you will completely strip the opponent, and they will be wearing the now infamous chibi faces and light stripe.  There's also two halves of a heart meter (one per round) that if you fill, will create a special heart button that can give you a humiliating camera view in the background for a few seconds.  While this is a reward for performing well, it's also distracting.  If you ignore it to do better, then it's not much of a reward, huh?  I probably shouldn't admit this, but I've almost dropped a combo a few times while they are playing in the background.  Plus, they look so sad at the end of the scene that I almost feel bad doing it.  Almost.

Winning a round treats you to a scene of Hanzo (Asuka's grandfather, master ninja and tournament creator) enjoying the dish.  Each girl creates a different dish, so there are 10 of these scenes.  The are definitely silly and over the top, but they get old pretty fast, and I was skipping them after seeing them two or three times.  However, the real treat for winning and completely stripping your opponent isn't Hanzo's scene... it's the special.  Your opponent will be placed on a pastry and covered with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.  It's as suggestive as you might think.  While it fits the tone of the game, I think it's even more risque than anything else so far in the series.  And that's an accomplishment, to be honest.  I didn't think it possible while keeping the game under an AO rating, but they did it.  To me, it's not a problem since it's on a handheld system, but as with the action games in the series, I wouldn't play it around my kids.

There are three settings, easy, normal and hard.  Easy is really easy.  I rarely missed even one note in a song, and I'm not really well versed in the current rhythm genre (I was really good at Bust a Groove and decent at Parappa).  Normal seems like a big step up from easy, and was challenging.  I can now consistently win at the normal setting (except Daidoji's song), but not without a mistake or two.  Hard is ridiculous to me, since that's where they add in the up direction and the triangle button, plus have more and harder button sequences.  The way it plays reminds me of the Hatsune Miku game demo I tried a year or so ago.  On the harder settings, the challenge for me was hitting the strange sequence of buttons and not on getting the timing.  I'm not sure if that's how rhythm games are nowadays, but I would prefer the focus be on timing.  Even so, I was able to complete all 10 stories on easy or normal.

Each character's story is 5 levels long, and takes about 30 minutes total to make your way through.  There's 10 girls to use (or 11 if you purchased the DLC characters for Shinovi Versus) and many costumes and underwear selections to unlock.  Each girl has their own song, 2 of which are vocal.  There's also an arcade mode which picks opponents based on the difficulty you select.  It's a decent value for $15, and you'll get your money's worth if you go after the platinum.  A few of the trophies require you to grind out a lot of songs, so if you really like the game, you might want to hold off on those until you get the DLC expansion that adds the girls from Shinovi Versus to give you a broader selection of characters and songs.

Fans of the Senran Kagura series will get the most out of the game.  It's a different style, but you'll know the characters and situations, and get more out of whatever story is present.  Rhythm fans may also enjoy it, but I'm not sure how it stacks up to other rhythm offerings.  Plus, if you aren't accustomed to the world of Senran Kagura, some of the racier aspects might be startling.  The game itself is decent, but I don't think it would convert anyone not into the series.  If you are a Senran Kagura fan and rhythm games are not your thing, you can skip it and not miss out on any ongoing plot.  If you are interested, the game isn't very expensive unless you get it and the forthcoming expansion, plus, a lot of the Shinovi Versus DLC (free and otherwise) will also work in Bon Appetit.

Game Trek: The Next Generation (of Consoles) - Part 6

Stardate 1014211141:

When the news of the $50 price drop on Xbox One consoles and bundles for the holiday came out, my mind starting swimming with ideas.  Maybe, despite the initial crash, I could end up getting an Xbox One as well.

I had a plan of action to get it the cheapest I could.  First, order the white Sunset Overdrive bundle for store pick up from Best Buy.  Since I had a week to pick it up, I could order it the Tuesday it released and pick it up the next Sunday, when the price dropped.  Then, return and rebuy with the lower price, and apply my coupon and mover's coupon (that may have cost me a lot to acquire).

I ordered the Sunset Overdrive bundle on the Tuesday it was released, and resisted all my urges to go pick it up.  Supposedly it was possible to get the adjustment even if it was open, but I didn't want to risk it.  On Sunday, I went and did they whole return/rebuy.  It took a bit, since they were busy, but there was no fighting, and the CS lady got it all taken care of.  Well, except for scanning my reward zone card, but I could fix that later I was told.

While I'm very happy with my deal, I know it's not the best.  The next Saturday, there was a few hour period where you could also get the free year of XBox Live.  It had some trouble stacking with the mover's coupon, since that is for 1 item, but I have a few years stored up already.  I'm happy that I got a good price, and the bundle I wanted.  Now to enjoy the sun(set)!

There's still the issue of the ticket, but I haven't heard back since I disputed it, so we will see how that goes...

< Part 5

Styx: Master of Shadows (PS4) Review

Styx, the wise-cracking, foul mouthed companion from Of Orcs and Men now strikes out in his own game.  Making full use of his shadowy and thief talents, you must keep to the shadows and master your skills to complete your missions.

Granted, this is my first PS4 game, so I can't compare it to too many others, but it looks really good.  The lighting effects and detail is noticeably higher than games from the previous generation of consoles.  There are a few visual hiccups, though.  There is some noticeable pop-in of some of the environment while crawling around the tunnels and some while rotating the camera sometimes.  I wouldn't call it screen tearing, since it looks different than that, but it's similar.

As you can infer from the title, Styx: Master of Shadows is a stealth-based game.  It's third person, so you get a better view of your surroundings.  This helps, since many items lying around have physics to them.  If you walk to close to a chair, or across a broom and bucket, you may knock them over, giving away your position.  This is the first game I've encountered that in, and I think it's really cool (even the times it screwed me up).  You also have an amber mark on your shoulder that glows when you are in full darkness, so it's easy to tell if you are likely to be seen.

Although, there are plenty of times I've been seen while standing in complete darkness.  Hugging a wall or at least standing behind something fixes that, but I felt the enemies saw me times when I was standing still in the dark.  They also have really good peripheral vision, so make sure you only approach them from the back, or you may get a sword in your face.

Each mission is divided into a few large areas with multiple paths through them.  This is one of the game's strengths.  There are lots of places to explore if you want to avoid enemies, sneak up on them for a stealth kill, or hide a body.  There is some platforming, too, since you have to jump around from ledge to ledge and climb to some areas.  Unfortunately, this is a bit spotty, since the jump isn't scripted, like the Assassin's Creed games, so it can be a little frustrating trying to jump far enough, or land on that small ledge.  It works for the most part, but there were times that a jump looked possible, but was just too far.  Trying to drop down and grip a ledge was annoying, since you had to walk off the edge slowly to do so.  It always felt like I would just fall down and die.  Why not just make it the drop button?  Anyway, movement was sometimes frustrating, but workable.  Just make sure you save a lot.

Styx does get a few abilities to help deal with threats.  He can carry a few throwing daggers for distance, and even has acid to melt a body away.  You can create a clone to fit in some areas, or even as a diversion.  If you are caught, your enter a duel with most enemies.  You will have to parry or dodge their attacks several times in a row, and then you can kill them when they are off balance.  It's not too hard, but you can die quickly if you don't get the timing down.  Unfortunately, not all enemies can be dueled.  Partway through the game, knights are introduced, and they are unaffected by your weaponry.  If they catch you, you are just dead.  Yuck.  They make the game harder, or at least force you to be more cautious and clever if you want to take them out (or just avoid them).  At least the new enemy types are spaced through the game, so you continuously get new challenges.

There are eight missions in the game (counting the prologue), and they took me about two hours game time each.  However, that two hours doesn't count all the time spent messing up and loading.  I wasn't trying to do perfect runs, but at the very least I didn't want to be seen (I was trying to be very stealthy).  This involved a lot of trial and error, which increased my playtime by a lot that isn't reflected in the end stage totals.  Missions have some replayability, since there are many paths to the end, and different play styles.  If you are a completionist or trophy hunter, you will very likely repeat each mission more than once, so you can get all the insignias (not killing, speed run, etc.) and the extra experience it gives for your skills.

If you like stealth games, I'd recommend Styx: Master of Shadows.  It's not the best one I've played (can anything topple Dishonored?), and it is far from the worst.  There is a lot of trial and error if you are a perfectionist, but it's usually possible to muddle your way through the levels and correct your mistakes if you don't want to keep re-loading.  The platforming isn't as smooth as I'd like, but the large, explorable areas make for some good replay value.