GameLight - Warriors Orochi 3

Official Site: http://www.tecmokoeiamerica.com/orochi3/

Source: Youtube Channel ZhaoYun2011

Happy Lunar New Years Everyone!  According to the Eastern Animal Zodiac, it is the year of the Dragon.  Speaking of dragons, the dragon of the Hayabusa clan is returning in a new game; and I'm not talking about Ninja Gaiden 3.  RYU HAYABUSA IS IN WARRIORS OROCHI 3!!!

Source: Youtube Channel KING90I

Oh man, a chill went down my spine when I heard the remixed version of Ryu Hayabusa's original tune from the NES days come on.  I didn't pay much attention to Warriors Orochi 3 after I learned that it wasn't going to be brought over to the Western market early last year.  So it was a huge surprise when I heard today that it was going to be released in North America in March this year!!! (Supposedly March 20th)  Even more surprising was that Ryu Hayabusa of the Ninja Gaiden series was going to be in it!  Not only that, but characters from Warriors: Legends of Troy, Bladestorm, Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll and Dead or Alive are also going to join the huge cast of characters from Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors:

Source: Youtube Channel ZhaoYun2011

Altogether, the game has 120+ characters to choose from!  For those unfamiliar with the Warriors Orochi series: It's a spin-off that started with only Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors back on the Playstation 2.  A dimensional rift pulls the warriors of Ancient 3 Kingdom Era China and Sengoku Era Japan together to a strange land where they either join or oppose the Snake King "Orochi" (A snake demon in Japanese culture).  Some major differences in gameplay are the ability to switch between any three characters chosen for battle at any given time, chain attacks from multiple characters together, every individual character has a special attack unique only to them, and your proximity to allied troops has an influence to how they act on the battlefield.  Warriors Orochi is possibly the best spin-off Koei has done for the "Warriors" series and am incredibly happy to hear that it's being brought over.  I'm saddened that I never got around to getting and playing Warriors Orochi 2, but I had anticipated a 3rd one to come out and didn't get it.  So upon hearing that it wasn't being brought over made me lose my interest in pursuing the series any further.  Now I'm more excited than ever about its release, especially with even more collaborated games from within their IP.  If you're new to the series, I highly recommend picking up Warriors Orochi 2.  It's really a lot of fun!  THANK YOU TECMOKOEI!

GameLight - Pokémon Plus Nobunaga's Ambition

Official JP Site: http://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/ranse/
Wikia Page: http://koei.wikia.com/wiki/Pokémon_Plus_Nobunaga_no_Yabou

Source: Youtube Channel ThePokemonCompanyCH

A new Pokémon game is coming out (at least in Japan)!  But it's not what most are expecting.  Nintendo has teamed up with historical war game developer Koei in creating Pokémon plus Nobunaga's Ambition, a Tactical Strategy RPG for the Nintendo DS.  When I saw the video on Kotaku, I was excited.  "Whoa, Sengoku era warlords fighting with Pokémon?  Awesome!"  The article shared on Kotaku was written by Brian Ashcraft (I go to Kotaku specifically to read stuff he writes) and he explained his reaction of watching the trailer with his 8-year old child.  They were both perplexed and confused with why they would do such a cross over.  This is not surprising as it's a strange mash-up.  I told my father, once an avid player of Nobunaga's Ambition back in the NES days, about the cross over and he thought it was absolutely absurd.  "It's just too strange."

Just some background on what Nobunaga's Ambition is about: It's part of a long series of historical strategy games developed by Koei based on Japan's Sengoku Period (1467–1573) where many feudal warlords seeked to conquer and unify Japan.  Among those leaders was a man named Nobunaga Oda who held one of the largest armies and was a forced to be reckoned with.  Games based off that time period are numerous and should be familiar in one name or another.  Some of these games, aside from Nobunaga's Ambition, that is based off the history or references historical figures are: Sengoku Basara (known as Devil Kings in the Western market) (Capcom), Onimusha (Capcom), Samurai Warriors (Koei), Kessen 3 (Koei), Shogun: Total War (Electronic Arts, Sega), Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (Microsoft Game Studios), etc.

I'm guessing that the team behind the Pokémon franchise wants to try something new and grab a new audience, specifically those who are interested in historical Japan/the matured audience exposed to the history.  In all honesty, I'm really sick of the same Pokémon games that have been spewing out over and over.  So whenever Nintendo decides to develop or have another company develop a new type of game like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Pinball, or Pokémon Rumble, I get excited and am willing to try it out.  With a crazy mix between Pokémon and Samurai fighting, I say "why not?"  I'm hoping that it gets brought over to the Western market, though I'm not sure how well it would sell.

Source:
-Kotaku: Watching the New Pokémon Trailer with an 8-Year-Old

Retroview - Genghis Khan (NES)

Source: Youtube Channel NESguide

Some of my best childhood memories (besides playing videogames) was watching my father player them.  He really liked strategy games.  One of those games was Genghis Khan, the story of the man who founded the Mongol Empire.  These strategy games are very different from the Strategy games we play now and it more closer to "management simulations" and "tactics" games.  A player manages their area of its resources, train their military, and takes over other areas to expand their rule over the land.  There's the planning phase and the battle phase.  It was games like this one as well as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga's Ambition, and Bandit Kings of Ancient China all developed by KOEI that got me interested in Asian history.  Back then though, it was just a bunch of numbers and names fighting each other for me.  I never really figured out how to play (tried and then lost my entire army in one battle) and it's probably the reason why they're not publicly popular.  They're difficult games with a lot of foresight and planning required in order to even begin playing.  To my surprise, Koei still creates these games.  One thing that gets me nostalgic from these games is the music.  They might be short, repetitive, and possibly annoying, but I recognize them pretty easily and hold a lot of memories of my childhood.  In the past decade, Koei has worked on the same histories and storyline through a different genre.  The most popular one being the Tactical hack 'n slash genre of Dynasty Warriors.  That one follows Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  Now my father plays nothing but Dynasty Warriors 5.  I asked him about Genghis Khan and he said that he really missed playing those games back in the NES days and how exciting it was to plan a huge army to decimate an entire fief.  So 20+ years later, I'm still watching my father playing videogames based on the same history of the games he played back in the NES days.  Genghis Khan was one of the more obscure games since I never really learned that much about the Mongols or the history of them.  I think I eventually learned more about Chinese and Japanese history on my own.  It was also probably because in Genghis Khan, you played several different nations in the world: The English, Japanese, Middle Eastern, and Byzantine.  Seems like the last Genghis Khan game that came out was back in 1998 in Japan (Genghis Khan IV).  I definitely remember watching my father play Genghis Khan 2 because it's synonymous to my memories of watching Halley's Comet.  I've always wondered if I should go back to this game and try to play it myself sometime and see if I can fare better than I did when I was younger, but I never hesitated to back to listen to the music from it.

GameLight Review – Dynasty Warriors 7

Official Site: http://www.tecmokoeiamerica.com/dw7/

Source: Youtube Channel gameboyuk

Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: March 29, 2011
Genre: Action Hack-n-Slash

Pros:
-Vast improvement from Dynasty Warriors 6
-Dynamic changes to story mode and combat system
-65 characters to choose from, each with their own person EX attack and 2 different musou attacks
-Campaigns for all characters is melded into 4 separate stories for each faction for a full campaign experience
-Conquest mode has high replay value and the ability to play co-op online

Cons:
-Some graphics lag is still present
-Much more difficult to max out on skills, stats and abilities than past DW games
-No ability to create custom characters
-Not enough time in the day to play the game even more

With the disappointment of Dynasty Warriors 6, I was reluctant to playing or even caring about the release of Dynasty Warriors 7.  Upon watching preview videos and reading some of the changes in the combat system and the revival of the combo system, I was compelled to learn more about the game.  I felt like I was getting tricked into getting back into the series, but I was too curious.  My first reactions to the game were mixed and confused.  The color palette felt darker and realistic than past DW games, there seemed to be a bit of frame skipping and lag, the combo system was back, and much more.  It was hard to take in all at once, but after playing through 1 out of 4 of the story lines and playing through the new conquest mode, I was convinced that this was perhaps the best DW right next to DW5.  The ability to switch between weapons, having more enemies on the screen, having a stylish and dynamic musou system, bringing back the original combo system with a unique EX attack for each character, a more heartfelt and continuous story campaign, an adventurous conquest mode, very challenging difficulty levels, adding a 2^nd musou for each character and the addition of the Jin Dynasty/Faction truly pierced all expectations for the series and delivered simply the best experience a DW game could possibly give for the PS3.

Graphics

The graphics were the first change that crossed my mind when first starting out.  The textures of models and environments were more earth toned and realistic compared to past DW games where colors were brighter and more vibrant.  I also noticed that there were 3-5 times more enemies on the screen and that the camera was pulled back a little further to see that amount.  The problem with past DW games was that enemies disappeared sometimes when there were too many at once because the graphics couldn’t support it or that it would have graphics lag.  In DW6, the camera was too darn close to the player and it obscured the vision of the player when all the allies and enemies grouped up.  These were all taken upon development in DW 7 when they recreated the engine to allow more enemies on the screen, pulled the camera back and angled it a bit downwards, and eliminated as much lag as possible (it still exists sometimes).  I’m not sure why, but the game lagged a lot in the beginning.  It could be that my eye adjusted to it or that the system was able to keep up with the game, but the lag doesn’t seem to be there anymore when I play.  The user interface changed as well.  The health bar is one sleek line with the musou bar as smaller bars curved alongside the health bar.  Everything is slimmed down and pushed farther to the corners which make the screen size feel a lot larger than any other DW games have.  Battles feel a lot more large scale because of all these aspects put together (more enemies, camera pulled back, and more screen space because of new UI).  Koei had changed some of the character designs (again) and some of them are alright (others can be questionable).  My biggest complaint in the graphics department (other than the usual lag) is that the mini-map in 2 player split screen is a nuisance and a hindrance to my vision.  Other than that, the CG cinematics are wonderfully choreographed, cinematics are seem-less with the gameplay so it doesn’t deviate from the gameplay itself, the animation for all the weapons and characters are amazing, the new art style is very different and a nice change, and the sequences for the musou attacks are incredible.  Graphics 9/10

Audio

One of the things I love about the DW series is the music.  The music is composed by the same guy who has been with the series since the first one.  The songs are memorable, dynamic, enjoyable to listen to, and adds a whole different atmosphere to the series.  I think it might be the best work the composer has done for the series (though he has always done a wonderful job).  The sound effects are a little better than its predecessors since weapon contacts sound and feel more realistic rather than everything sounding very metal or blunt.  I have a problem with some of the voice acting though.  One character in particular is Guan Yu.  He has always been portrayed as a man of valor and courage, but also of wisdom and grace.  In this one, they make him sound as angry and uncouth as Zhang Fei.  For a few of the voice acting, they seem to be out of character for them.  It’s also sad to hear the same one-liners when defeating an enemy.  I was hoping there would be at least 3 different lines for them to cycle through.  As for the “bad” voice acting, it’s still there and I think it’s become a staple for the series to have hilariously bad voice acting.  There is an option to download the Japanese voice, but I find it awkward to play a game about Ancient China when they’re speaking Japanese (I switch it to Japanese for Samurai Warriors though).  So 2 out of 3 things improved is pretty good for the audio.  Audio: 9/10

Story

Dynasty Warriors doesn’t change its story too much, mainly because it’s based off true historical events.  You always start off with the Yellow Turban Rebellion and you go through each character and their 6 chapters and then do it again with the other ones.  Not so with DW7.  The story is now told through 4 different segments in each of the 4 factions: Shu, Wu, Wei, and the Jin Dynasty which came around the end of the 3 Kingdoms era.  Each faction has approximately 20-28 missions told in a continuous journey much like a campaign should be for an action game.  The story mode has a lot of cinematics, lots of dialogue, and a little bit of free roaming before a battle begins.  The story is loosely based off real events in the history and is changed around a bit to dramatize the plot much like Hollywood directors do for movies based off real life stories.  I’ve got to say that Koei really went all out on the story mode for this one as events that happened in past DW games were retold in a different fashion that brought me to tears.  There’s so much joking and humor in past ones (possibly because of how bad some of the dialogue and voice acting were), but the story had quite a bit of drama to it.  But the humor is still there and quips from no-name soldiers turned the mood around when talking to people in the camp before a battle began.  Characters seemed to become more important, emotions felt more real, and the flow of the game and story is something that DW games should have been for the longest time.  Some people have complained about the story mode being too long, but I think they’re a good length.  I’m just happy that I don’t have to play the Yellow Turban Rebellion 60 times to get all the story lines from all the characters.  It’s surprising, but the story is one of the strongest points for the game.  It hasn’t changed the plot too much, but it has drastically changed the way it is told.  Despite some cheesy lines, bad dialogue and awkward animations in the CG, this is best Koei has ever done in the DW series for the story.  Story: 9/10

Gameplay

The biggest disappointment in DW6 was the change in combo system.  In previous DW games, the combo system consisted of 6-7 variations of attacks with strong attacks.  In DW6, the developers wanted to create a continuous string of attacks by allowing the player to attack with the regular strikes infinitely and then ending the strong attack with only 2 choices: singular and wide.  In DW7, they brought back the original combo system along side with having 2 weapons on the field with 2 different musou attacks with each character having their own specialized EX attack as well as having multiple musou bars to execute.  This opened so many more possibilities in creating combos and using special techniques to fight in certain situations.  The weapon changing system was implemented in Dynasty Warriors: Strike Force and the EX attack came from the Samurai Warriors series that Koei worked on.  So they put everything that worked well into DW7 to bring a spectacular experience to the game.  It does feel a lot easier to kill enemies in this one, but it’s also easier to get killed as well.  I think this design choice was based on how realistic fighting would be like.  I was able to get over 1000 K.O.s in my first level of playing.  The musou system changed as well.  Instead of holding down the musou button for a continuous attack, the musou attack is closer to that of Street Fighter where the player uses up a bar to execute a special attack.  This makes musou attacks faster to get through, flashier, and better for creating different kinds of combos since a player can have more than one bar in this one.  Story mode has a long continuous campaign that’s pieced by missions.  The game does feel a lot more linear than past DW games where strategy was just as important.  Strategy is still prominent in the game, but the focus seems to be more on the action aspects.  Free mode was taken out for conquest mode.  The player travels around China (the board) and fights through various missions with any of the characters they’ve acquired but they don’t represent the character they play entirely.  This is where I wish they had added a custom character option as it would have made more sense for the context of the mode.  Conquest mode has missions much shorter and less large scaled than story mode, but it does have its entertainment value.  Furthermore, conquest mode can be played 2-player split-screen and 2-player online.  The replay value will be from the conquest mode more than the story mode.  The game took a turn for the better and brought everything that was great within the series and put it into this one.  Gameplay: 9/10

Overall

The game feels like more could be added to the experience, but the story mode and conquest mode itself is enough to make it complete for now.  Koei really made a comeback with this iteration in the series and has renewed my faith in their company.  The changes are good, the gameplay is better than it ever has been, and an Xtreme Legends add-on has already been announced for it.  I really hate how Koei keeps coming out with the add-ons and selling them for retail price, but the game was so good that I’m actually looking forward to what else they’re able to add to it.  I haven’t loved Dynasty Warriors as much as I do now after playing DW7 since DW5 came out.  The game is even more fast-paced, has a better system for telling the story, and offers so much dynamics to the gameplay that I can hardly believe that it’s a DW game.  I’m looking forward to what Koei can do in the future now that I know that they can handle making such a good game as Dynasty Warriors 7.  Overall: 9/10

NewNews - Two Things This Week

I'm going to be having a very busy and tight schedule this week and so I'll be keeping posts brief, informative, and hopefully entertaining.  So this is a special week where two great things of interest are released:

Nintendo 3DS
I'm excited for it, but not desperate.  I really want a chance to try it out, but I don't plan on buying it until later (with perhaps an upgrade like the DS Lite had with the DS, or at least with an orange casing like the one I saw at E3).  If I bought it now, I'd buy Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, and maybe Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Source: Youtube Channel AlphaProtocol360

I'm still debating on getting Super Street Fighter IV on PS3 as well.  I'm still playing the original and still have a huge backlog of games, which is why I'm holding off on so many new ones.  I am actually really hoping for some sort of incredible action RPG to come out like another Phantasy Star game.  Phantasy Star Zero and Portable for the NDS and PSP respectively were really amazing games.

Dynasty Warriors 7
This might be one game I can't hold out on and might get very soon.  With Dynasty Warriors 6 being a disappointment in changing the characters unique characteristics from the previous installments, having duplicate animations for several characters, and having an incredibly dumbed down combo system, I am hoping for something great to come out of this one.

Source: Youtube Channel KOEIWarriorsMedia

I'm so excited for this game, you don't even know.  I've known about the Three Kingdoms series that Koei started back in the 80's and 90's when I watched my father playing them.  It became increasingly interesting to me (the history that is) and I continued to look for ways of learning about it (I really need to find the time to read the books).  As for the game itself, I'm having high hopes in it being great with lots of improvements and hopefully the developers didn't skimp out on extra features like custom officers or weapons customization, etc.  It releases on March 29th, hopefully it's good.