Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
In the past few years, I keep hearing from friends, critics, and other gamers that "The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky" is the best RPG for the PSP. I never got around to it despite wanting to see what was so great about the game. Today, it was revealed that the PC version will be brought over to the West on Steam while the sequel will be worked on being brought over. The sequel will be translated by Carpe Fulgur (Recettear, Chantelise, Fortune Summoners) which will be their first big project. It's been a while since they've announced on working on anything. Although I'm happy that they're moving up to work on big projects, I had hoped they'd translate even more indie gems to bring over. The first game for PC will release this Winter while the sequel will release next year in the summer.
Source:
-Joystiq - Trails in the Sky coming to Steam, Carpe Fulgur translating sequel for PSP and PC
Showing posts with label PSP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSP. Show all posts
Friday, September 6, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Retroview - Knights in the Nightmare (DS)
Official Site: http://www.atlus.com/knights/
Source: Youtube Channel AtlusUSA
I had finally finished playing Knights in the Nightmare sometime last year. I played it off and on for three years and finally completed it. Sting Entertainment is known for making very unique games with all the mechanics and gameplay a bit more different from its usual genre and familiarity. Before Knights in the Nightmare, I have tried Riviera: The Promised Land and Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone. One resembles a turn-based RPG while the other was like a Tactics-RPG. Knights in the Nightmare, on the other hand, is a little harder to describe. It looks like a Tactics game, with Action-RPG elements, and some bullet-hell. The player takes the role of a wisp which can command soldiers throughout each map. The game is seemingly complicated where the tutorial takes up to 2-3 hours to complete; however, the actual game isn't too bad at all. The player commands each soldier in real-time to attack enemies throughout each map while collecting items, dodging enemy bullets, and switching between LAW/CHAOS phases. Overall, the graphics were beautiful and highly detailed, the music was pretty good, and the gameplay was between fun/satisfying and a little repetitive/boring. The story is just as convoluted as the game's mechanics. I commend Sting Entertainment for always innovating gaming genres and having a lot of content in their games, but it often times scare off most gamers with its overwhelming presence. With such ambitious design choices for Knights in the Nightmare, I've always wondered what Sting Entertainment was going to do next. They have made 3 new PSP games since then (not counting ports of their previous games) and so I guess they've been keeping busy. If you want complex and innovative RPGs, look for games developed by Sting Entertainment. I heard Baroque is an innovative Action-RPG, Rogue-like that some people liked. Many others didn't like it because of how unforgiving or confusing the game was. Guess I should check out more of their games too.
Source: Youtube Channel AtlusUSA
I had finally finished playing Knights in the Nightmare sometime last year. I played it off and on for three years and finally completed it. Sting Entertainment is known for making very unique games with all the mechanics and gameplay a bit more different from its usual genre and familiarity. Before Knights in the Nightmare, I have tried Riviera: The Promised Land and Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone. One resembles a turn-based RPG while the other was like a Tactics-RPG. Knights in the Nightmare, on the other hand, is a little harder to describe. It looks like a Tactics game, with Action-RPG elements, and some bullet-hell. The player takes the role of a wisp which can command soldiers throughout each map. The game is seemingly complicated where the tutorial takes up to 2-3 hours to complete; however, the actual game isn't too bad at all. The player commands each soldier in real-time to attack enemies throughout each map while collecting items, dodging enemy bullets, and switching between LAW/CHAOS phases. Overall, the graphics were beautiful and highly detailed, the music was pretty good, and the gameplay was between fun/satisfying and a little repetitive/boring. The story is just as convoluted as the game's mechanics. I commend Sting Entertainment for always innovating gaming genres and having a lot of content in their games, but it often times scare off most gamers with its overwhelming presence. With such ambitious design choices for Knights in the Nightmare, I've always wondered what Sting Entertainment was going to do next. They have made 3 new PSP games since then (not counting ports of their previous games) and so I guess they've been keeping busy. If you want complex and innovative RPGs, look for games developed by Sting Entertainment. I heard Baroque is an innovative Action-RPG, Rogue-like that some people liked. Many others didn't like it because of how unforgiving or confusing the game was. Guess I should check out more of their games too.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
GameLight - Cladun X2
Official Site: http://www.nisamerica.com/games/cladun2/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/206250/
Source: Youtube Channel NISAmerica
There was a very unexpected game that released on Steam today. If anyone recalls, I posted a review of Cladun: This is an RPG! last year of May and explained how surprisingly fun it turned out to be. I had spent 30+ hours on the first game as its versatile character creation system, customizable builds, random dungeon generator, catchy tunes, and addictive hack 'n slash and looting system got me hooked for a really long time. I was excited to hear that a sequel was being made, but then kinda gave up after hearing that it wasn't going to be sold retail for PSP and was instead sold on the PSN network. I did not hear any sort of PC port being brought to Steam which really surprised me when I saw it on the front page this morning. The game consists of dungeon crawling with characters either within the story (if it's anything like the first one) or with ones created by the player. It seems that customization was brought further with the ability to customize the look of not only your own character, but to your weapons as well. As shown in the video, there are a lot of classes to choose from, many weapons to wield, and tons of dungeons to explore. What's great about the system in the Cladun series is that one character can have other characters team up with them to give crazy stat boosts to make them immensely powerful, or tanky, or incredibly fast. There's a lot of combinations to experiment with and a lot of risk/reward factors that's really rewarding. Although it's considered a "Hack 'n Slash" Action-RPG, it is not easy at all. If it's anything like the first one, the game will be extremely challenging and does require a bit of patience in order to get through some areas. The release on Steam is truly a pleasant surprise. Cladun X2 is available on Steam for $15.99 until August 21st, 2012 before reverting back to $19.99.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/206250/
Source: Youtube Channel NISAmerica
There was a very unexpected game that released on Steam today. If anyone recalls, I posted a review of Cladun: This is an RPG! last year of May and explained how surprisingly fun it turned out to be. I had spent 30+ hours on the first game as its versatile character creation system, customizable builds, random dungeon generator, catchy tunes, and addictive hack 'n slash and looting system got me hooked for a really long time. I was excited to hear that a sequel was being made, but then kinda gave up after hearing that it wasn't going to be sold retail for PSP and was instead sold on the PSN network. I did not hear any sort of PC port being brought to Steam which really surprised me when I saw it on the front page this morning. The game consists of dungeon crawling with characters either within the story (if it's anything like the first one) or with ones created by the player. It seems that customization was brought further with the ability to customize the look of not only your own character, but to your weapons as well. As shown in the video, there are a lot of classes to choose from, many weapons to wield, and tons of dungeons to explore. What's great about the system in the Cladun series is that one character can have other characters team up with them to give crazy stat boosts to make them immensely powerful, or tanky, or incredibly fast. There's a lot of combinations to experiment with and a lot of risk/reward factors that's really rewarding. Although it's considered a "Hack 'n Slash" Action-RPG, it is not easy at all. If it's anything like the first one, the game will be extremely challenging and does require a bit of patience in order to get through some areas. The release on Steam is truly a pleasant surprise. Cladun X2 is available on Steam for $15.99 until August 21st, 2012 before reverting back to $19.99.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
GameLight Review - BlazBlue Continuum Shift
Official Site: http://us.playstation.com/games-and-media/games/blazblue-continuum-shift-extend-ps3.html
Source: Youtube Channel banjoparapanyo
Source: Youtube Channel banjoparapanyo
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Aksys Games
Platforms: Arcade , Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation Portable, Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: July 27, 2010
Genre: 2D Fighter
Pros:
-Breathtaking visuals in both environment backdrops and character sprites
-Beginner mode makes it more inviting for new comers
-The combat mechanics leaves a lot of room for creative combos and competitive gameplay
-Gameplay is smooth, stylish, dynamic, and fast-paced
-Story mode isn’t just a repeat of Calamity Trigger, but a follow up
-Daisuke Ishiwatari once again graces us with his genius music compositions
-Legion and challenge mode changes up the pacing from the usual arcade mode
-All characters play very uniquely and have their own play style
Cons:
-DLC characters a $7 each, what a rip!
-Last boss: Hazama of Arcade mode is stupidly hard to beat even at the easiest difficulty level
-The new character selection graphics aren’t as good as the CT, but that’s a preference
-Players who have gotten so used to Calamity Trigger might have to readjust for this one
After playing BlazBlue Continuum Shift for about 1.5 years, I’ve come to love it more and more. The game just keeps getting better the more you play it. BlazBlue has one of the most definitive stories to go along with a fighting game. It’s so deep, moving and intricate that it just pulls the player into the world and change the ways one might feel about each individual character. Characters become more than just toons that fight each other, but they all have reasons and agendas that coincide or conflict. What’s more, Continuum Shift is a continuation of the events of Calamity Trigger rather than a simple update as most other fighting games seem to do. The game itself is fast-paced, very stylish and a lot fun to perform all sorts of combos, skills, and special abilities, but having the story completes the package. The changes from Calamity Trigger has added new specials for all characters, an optional beginner’s mode, some tweaks to how burst works, etc. to make the game more balanced and dynamic. This would be one 2D fighter that I would recommend to those who don’t generally play fighting games as its intriguing story mode is like a game of its own while the beginner mode option makes it easier for one new to fighting games to ease into it while definitely recommending it for hardcore, competitive players as it has all the factors that make it challenging.
Aesthetics
The main reason why I decided to buy the game was because the music was by Daisuke Ishiwatari and is developed by the same team who created Guilty Gear. It was sad to hear that they lost the rights to Guilty Gear and was no longer able to continue the series, and so I wanted to support them with the purchase of BlazBlue. Sure enough, the music was amazing the first time I heard it and more so when I hear it now; however, the visuals shocked me. I was expecting BlazBlue to be similar to Guilty Gear as characters from BlazBlue seem to look similar to those in the GG series. The graphics were dynamic with beautiful backdrops with lighting effects, moving sprites, and a sort of 3D-ish feel to them. The character sprites are a lot sharper and clean cut compared to what the team did for GG. The animations are incredibly fluid, flashy, and stylish, making combos, specials, and attacking feel really good. I have to admit that I was annoyed by some of the voice acting in both the English AND Japanese, but as I played the game more I began to adore the talents of both languages and their portrayal of the characters in the game. The biggest treat for me was the Story mode, which convinced me to play through Calamity Trigger before I started on the story on Continuum Shift, as it became a major factor to what made the whole game come alive. Story mode changed how I felt about each character and encouraged me to even play characters I generally wouldn’t choose. My biggest complaint on the game’s aesthetics would probably be the main menu. All modes and options are laid in one long list which makes it overwhelming and cluttered when most of them could have been collapsed into sub-categories and menus for an organized look. Besides that, I can complain a bit about some of the cinematics having odd animations and character design that doesn’t match up to the rest of the game’s art style, but it’s not that big of a deal either. Everything about BlazBlue Continuum Shift in terms of Aesthetics (Still images, sprites, backdrops, animations, cinematics, dialogue, voice acting, music, story, etc.) was very well thought out and meaningful. BlazBlue turned out to be a much more polished and carefully developed fighter than I would have every guessed. Aesthetics: 10/10
Buttons
The controls of the game are both easy and hard at the same time. There are essentially 4 buttons to utilitze: light attack, medium, heavy, and a special attack that differs between all characters. Players can easily perform combos by mashing light->medium->heavy and mix them around a bit; however, the combos and delays vary between each character. Even with beginner mode on, a player may not be able to land all their hits in time and can be countered if the opponent is skilled. Other times, combos are so easy for certain characters that even the most novice player can combo lock an opponent into a string of attacks that they can’t get out of. This is why the controls are both easy and hard at the same time. The mechanic of using three main attacks and a special key has been utilized in other games such as Melty Blood and now even Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 as it is much easier to understand and handle to single-action attacks from fighting games like Street Fighter or King of Fighters. It makes it much easier to learn and perform combos and utilize special attacks into them. Compared to most fighters, the leeway time between each attack for combos is rather lenient. The difficult part in learning how to play each character when not in beginner mode is finding the flow and pacing of each character and knowing which abilities can be chaining to each other. Some skills can still be difficult to execute, even with the use of a fight stick. For the most part, the game’s controls and battle mechanics was easy to understand if given the patience and time to learn them. Challenge mode helps a little, but rushes into the difficult techniques a bit too quickly. Buttons: 9/10
Concept and Content
I was disappointed at first when I got the game and realized how very few characters the game seemingly had; however, I changed my mind about that as I played through story mode and saw how deeply involved each character was to the story of the BlazBlue as well as how distinguished each character players. To give some examples: Bang Shishigami focuses on counter-attack, grapples, and dashes; Iron Tager excels at knock-backs, wall bounce hits, grabs, and pulls; Rachel Alucard requires the use of all her special abilities and the use of wind influence to make the most out of all her attacks; Taokaka is quick and so can perform a long string of attacks in a small amount of time; etc. This idea of different play styles favors those who play in a certain way or ones who seek variety in their fighting games. The additional challenge mode to the existing arcade, training, legion, and story mode is a good tutorial into more advanced techniques, but it isn’t entirely exciting. The concept of story mode playing like a visual novel is both easy for the developers to continually create more in a short amount of time and providing a lot of insight to events, characters, and background history for the player. The continuation of the story from where Calamity Trigger left off is the biggest treat in Continuum Shift. Three additional characters were eventual available for DLC, but cost $7 each and doesn’t include their story modes. Also, those who didn’t play Calamity Trigger will have a lot of unexplained events in the story of Continuum Shift. It seems that upcoming release of BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend will remedy all these with stories of the first and second in one game, all the characters released so far, and a brand new mode. Continuum Shift further extended the concepts and gameplay mechanics of Calamity Trigger, but seems to have been lacking in content that should have been there such as the additional 3 characters. Concept & Concept: 9/10
Duration
The game as a whole doesn’t have a distinct flow, but Story mode is presented differently from Calamity Trigger. Story mode starts off with an introduction as usual and then allows only the choice of playing Ragna the Bloodedge’s story rather than allowing the player to choose any character in any order. After finishing Ragna’s story, 5+ or so opens up and then gradually unlocks more character stories as to keep a sort of flow to each one of them. The game can last a very long time as I’ve had the game for 1.5 years and am still playing it. Continuum Shift provides: Arcade , advanced tutorial (not available in Calamity Trigger), Challenge, Legion, Training, Online, and Story. For those who play casually only for the fighting, arcade mode and legion mod will probably the main modes to play. Those who like stories and learn more about the world of BlazBlue will play story mode and some arcade. Competitive and hardcore players will play online mode a lot. A good fighting game should have incredible replay value and provide something for the player to keep coming back for more. BlazBlue Continuum Shift seems to fulfill those criteria. Duration: 10/10
Fun
Honestly, my first impression of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift was kind of bad. I loved the visuals and the music, but the voice acting annoyed me, the character selection felt very limited, and the last boss, Hazama, was so difficult and unfair (silly me thought I could handle the game right off the bat on normal mode, everyone else was alright other than the last boss) that it just left a bad impression for me. I seldom went back to play it once in a while just because I loved the rest of the game play when I’m not fighting Hazama and because of the music. The game was fast-paced. Performing long combos felt good. It was fun, but it was hard getting back into it everytime I had to face Hazama. Eventually, I got a copy of Calamity Trigger and started playing story mode. For me, I love fighting games because of the story and how all the characters have some sort of relationship with each other in some way or another and I would play each character to see their character endings and see what their story is about. BlazBlue went far and beyond that with story mode as it expands long dialogues, history, backgrounds, and even multiple paths to go by to provide a rich and intricate world for the player to explore. I got really hooked onto BlazBlue ever since I started playing story mode and have begun to play the game a bit more seriously with training and challenge mode to become more familiar with certain characters. The only mode I’m reluctant to play anymore is Arcade because of Hazama. Fun: 9/10
Overall
What started as a curiosity of music and the history behind the developers turned into a game I can fully appreciate and have fun with. The fighting mechanics might be a bit confusing for those who are used to Street Fighter, King of Fighters, or Mortal Kombat at first, but those with patience to sit down and get to know each character will find a very gratifying 2D fighter that is so unique in many ways that it will be hard to put down. BlazBlue’s eccentric, yet loveable characters draw one in as story mode unfolds their endeavors and agendas. The many modes will keep game play fresh and entertaining after hundreds of rounds and continues to get better the more one plays it. If you have never played any of the BlazBlue games, I recommend picking up BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend which releases on February 14th, 2012 as it will contain the entire story mode from both Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift as well all the characters released thus far with all returning modes and extra modes such as Abyss mode and Unlimited Wars. This version of Continuum Shift was great with certain aspects lacking, but “Extend” will be the complete package worth a 10/10. Overall: 9.4/10
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
NewNews - PSN is back up & Compensation revealed
So this isn't up to the minute NewNews as PSN went back up this past weekend (I logged in and checked, it works). So I guess players can play online now, though I haven't tested that out yet since I was too busy playing 3D Dot Game Heroes and then I got Dynasty Warriors 7 yesterday. Anyways, Sony has also revealed those free compensation games they were talking about before, and here it is (directly from Joystiq):
North American "Customer Appreciation Program":
"All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury
For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation
Not exactly what I was expecting, but at least it's something. I was hoping that each user was given $10-$20 credit to choose the game they wanted rather than limiting to choosing 2 games out of the 4-5 available. I'm thinking of getting inFamous and Dead Nation for the PS3 side while getting ModNation Racers and Killzone Liberation for the PSP side. I don't really care too much about the PSP selections, but I guess getting inFamous is pretty cool since I wanted to try it (then again, it's available for $10 at Best Buy) and Dead Nation will be a fun co-op game to play when my friends come over. There are other misc. compensation for services such as the music streaming and movie streaming programs. You can read the rest of those on Joystiq's article on the bottom link. I'm glad I got my account back and hopefully I'll be able to play some MAG, Medal of Honor, or Call of Duty: Black Ops tonight and find out if the online play is working alright.
Source: Joystiq - Sony reveals choice of free game downloads as part of PSN 'Welcome Back' program
North American "Customer Appreciation Program":
"All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury
For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation
Not exactly what I was expecting, but at least it's something. I was hoping that each user was given $10-$20 credit to choose the game they wanted rather than limiting to choosing 2 games out of the 4-5 available. I'm thinking of getting inFamous and Dead Nation for the PS3 side while getting ModNation Racers and Killzone Liberation for the PSP side. I don't really care too much about the PSP selections, but I guess getting inFamous is pretty cool since I wanted to try it (then again, it's available for $10 at Best Buy) and Dead Nation will be a fun co-op game to play when my friends come over. There are other misc. compensation for services such as the music streaming and movie streaming programs. You can read the rest of those on Joystiq's article on the bottom link. I'm glad I got my account back and hopefully I'll be able to play some MAG, Medal of Honor, or Call of Duty: Black Ops tonight and find out if the online play is working alright.
Source: Joystiq - Sony reveals choice of free game downloads as part of PSN 'Welcome Back' program
Thursday, May 5, 2011
GameLight Review - Cladun: This is an RPG!
Official Site: http://nisamerica.com/games/cladun/ (Check it out, it's interactive!)
Source: Youtube Channel MachinimaTrailer
Japanese Name:
-クラシックダンジョン 〜扶翼の魔装陣〜 Kurasshiku Danjon ~Fuyoku no Masōjin~
-Classic Dungeon ~Assistance of the Devil Formation~
Developer: System Prisma
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America (NIS America)
Platforms: Playstation Portable (PSP)
Release Date: September 21, 2010.
Genre: Action RPG
At first glance, Cladun: This is an RPG! looks like a gimmicky retro wannabe presented in its pixel art form and optional 8-bit music. After a few hours into the game, I quickly learned that the game had a deep and intuitive system for powering up the characters to unleash all sorts of crazy builds. What I imagined to be 3-7 hours of killing enemies and moving on to new games because a 30+ hour quest in collecting various items, building a powerful grid to maximize my attack power, and having an obsession collecting all the gold that flies out of monsters upon killing them. Cladun takes the traditional Rogue-like dungeon crawling with modern action games and RPG elements to create an entertaining, portable game that is sure to last hours and hours of gameplay. With the ability to create your own characters, customize stats and abilities, and run through a randomly generated dungeon, there always seems to be something new to do each you pick it up.
Graphics
The graphics were rather unauthentic to the retro style pixel art when I first started the game, and it was mainly due to the fact that I started this game right after I beat Half-Minute Hero which was more closer to what pixel art looked like for character sprites. Well I quickly adjusted to the graphics as it turned out to be a comfortable style for the type of gameplay where everything is in a tile format. Also, having the graphics be pixelated made it much easier to customized, create, and fine-tune characters for those existing and original ones. The sprites for the enemies are distinctive and unique. Their elements were according to the color they embodied which made it easier for the player to counter them with the right weapon or spell. I do have a problem with monsters and environments such as bushes covering up traps since those are the main causes of the deaths of my characters rather than the monsters themselves. It could be part of the game design to remind the players to be more careful, but it is rather bothersome. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
I love 8-bit music and I've listened to them since the early Nintendo days, but the 8-bit versions of the music in Cladun is really annoying and monotonous. With that aside, the composition, recording, and performances of the real musical score is amazing. It's catchy, gets the player in the mood of the game, and it's memorable. For a PSP game, I'm surprised they went as far as having a live recording of all the instruments. The composition is a simple structure, but the performance is lively and simply addictive. I particularly love the ones with Violin leading the song.
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
I didn't like the music in the beginning (I didn't get to these two songs yet) but I grew a liking to them more and more as I played on and it really brought out the RPG out of this game for me (I like RPGs with good music). I didn't know actual musicians went to the studio to do the recordings for the game until I got to the end credits of the game. The sound effects are alright with a bit of cartoonish "whoosh" sound rather than realistic "blade through air" humming sound. Some of the most important sound effects that made the game satisfying is the sound of collecting gold and the tone you hear when a character levels up in the result screen. Audio: 9/10
Gameplay
This entire game was full of "meh" in the beginning (as in music, graphics, story, and gameplay) but kept getting better. In the beginning, it felt like any other dungeon crawler like Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon except it was live time rather than turn-based. The fun started when I understood how to use the Devil Ring system and made my characters significantly stronger. I would spend a lot of time just experimenting and planning before I went on a few more dungeon runs. How the game works is that a linear story is told along the way. Set dungeons are given to the player to go through before moving onto the next which reveals the next part of the story. The story is basic and not necessarily important, but it moves the game along and I felt that it made me appreciate the characters more. Besides going through the main dungeons, there's the option of going through "Ran-geon" which is randomly generated dungeons that the player can go through to find items, gain experience points, and collect gold to get their characters stronger to face the main dungeons. The player can try to get to the 99th floor of "Ran-geon" as the main challenge, but I don't know what you would get since I never could get past floors 30-40. The main game is pretty basic. I didn't like getting slowed or losing all the items I found after dying, but I think it was the Devil Ring system, loot collecting, leveling, and rewards that made the game fun since there's so much to experiment with and to explore. I think frustration was part of what made succeeding so satisfying. Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value
Part of the gameplay is the replay value, and I was writing all this under gameplay but had to separate it right here in order to have something for Replay Value. After beating the main part of the game, you can access "New-geon" which is similar to "Ran-geon" but with a lot of twists in it. The starting level of the enemies will be your character's Attack+Defense power / 4. Players can also jump floor levels depending on the gates they go through. So as you can tell, there's a lot to do in the game. Some floors can be unforgiving and have traps littered everywhere which can kill your sub-characters fairly quickly; however, times when you've defeated numerous high leveled enemies and escaping back to the main area "Arcanus Cella" and seeing your characters raise 5-10 levels in one run through is so satisfying that you'd go back in the dungeons once more. There are 5 classes to choose from (Warrior, Dragoon, Merchant, Guardian, Mage), but I found Dragoons (High HP) and Mages (High Mana) to be most useful ones and often ignored all the other ones. I didn't get to try out Multiplayer since I don't know anyone with this game (or a PSP for that matter), but allows competitive and cooperative play. The game can get frustrating with overwhelming monsters, excessive traps, and losing all the items you collected through the run because of a small mistake, but the rewards with taking chances make the experience well worth the risk and feels very satisfying. After beating the main part of the game, more content is unlocked for the player to play through. Cladun is one of those games that starts off simple and constantly gets better throughout the game. The game can feel a bit repetitive or somewhat of a grind when you can't get through certain areas in the main dungeons and it's also frustrating running into traps, getting slowed, or getting raided by 30 enemies in one map in "Ran-geon" and "New-geon". For the most part, the game has been a very entertaining game whenever I had some free time. The hardest part for me now is trying to quit the game and moving onto new ones, because I know I'll miss playing it. Replay Value: 9/10
Overall
Cladun: This is an RPG! was an unexpected gem for me and I didn't imagine that I'd like it that much. Looking back at my review for Half-Minute Hero, I probably should have given the audio a 9/10 instead of a 10/10 since I realized that there were only a few songs I really liked despite the sheer amount of tracks the game had. In some respects, I enjoyed Cladun a little more than Half-Minute Hero. Cladun is not for everyone as some gamers like strong storylines, epic adventures, and a feeling of a journey. Cladun is more like a ton mini-quests for the player to par-take. It focuses a lot on its gameplay and systems that allows for infinite replay value. Cladun is not as main stream and so many gamers may have missed it. If you can find it for less than $20 and want an entertaining Action RPG to play on the PSP, then I highly recommend picking it and giving it a go. Overall: 8.5/10
As a side note, Cladun 2 came out in Japan in March. If there's a chance that it comes out in English, I'll be sure to check it out.
Source: Youtube Channel MachinimaTrailer
Japanese Name:
-クラシックダンジョン 〜扶翼の魔装陣〜 Kurasshiku Danjon ~Fuyoku no Masōjin~
-Classic Dungeon ~Assistance of the Devil Formation~
Developer: System Prisma
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America (NIS America)
Platforms: Playstation Portable (PSP)
Release Date: September 21, 2010.
Genre: Action RPG
At first glance, Cladun: This is an RPG! looks like a gimmicky retro wannabe presented in its pixel art form and optional 8-bit music. After a few hours into the game, I quickly learned that the game had a deep and intuitive system for powering up the characters to unleash all sorts of crazy builds. What I imagined to be 3-7 hours of killing enemies and moving on to new games because a 30+ hour quest in collecting various items, building a powerful grid to maximize my attack power, and having an obsession collecting all the gold that flies out of monsters upon killing them. Cladun takes the traditional Rogue-like dungeon crawling with modern action games and RPG elements to create an entertaining, portable game that is sure to last hours and hours of gameplay. With the ability to create your own characters, customize stats and abilities, and run through a randomly generated dungeon, there always seems to be something new to do each you pick it up.
Graphics
The graphics were rather unauthentic to the retro style pixel art when I first started the game, and it was mainly due to the fact that I started this game right after I beat Half-Minute Hero which was more closer to what pixel art looked like for character sprites. Well I quickly adjusted to the graphics as it turned out to be a comfortable style for the type of gameplay where everything is in a tile format. Also, having the graphics be pixelated made it much easier to customized, create, and fine-tune characters for those existing and original ones. The sprites for the enemies are distinctive and unique. Their elements were according to the color they embodied which made it easier for the player to counter them with the right weapon or spell. I do have a problem with monsters and environments such as bushes covering up traps since those are the main causes of the deaths of my characters rather than the monsters themselves. It could be part of the game design to remind the players to be more careful, but it is rather bothersome. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
I love 8-bit music and I've listened to them since the early Nintendo days, but the 8-bit versions of the music in Cladun is really annoying and monotonous. With that aside, the composition, recording, and performances of the real musical score is amazing. It's catchy, gets the player in the mood of the game, and it's memorable. For a PSP game, I'm surprised they went as far as having a live recording of all the instruments. The composition is a simple structure, but the performance is lively and simply addictive. I particularly love the ones with Violin leading the song.
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
I didn't like the music in the beginning (I didn't get to these two songs yet) but I grew a liking to them more and more as I played on and it really brought out the RPG out of this game for me (I like RPGs with good music). I didn't know actual musicians went to the studio to do the recordings for the game until I got to the end credits of the game. The sound effects are alright with a bit of cartoonish "whoosh" sound rather than realistic "blade through air" humming sound. Some of the most important sound effects that made the game satisfying is the sound of collecting gold and the tone you hear when a character levels up in the result screen. Audio: 9/10
Gameplay
This entire game was full of "meh" in the beginning (as in music, graphics, story, and gameplay) but kept getting better. In the beginning, it felt like any other dungeon crawler like Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon except it was live time rather than turn-based. The fun started when I understood how to use the Devil Ring system and made my characters significantly stronger. I would spend a lot of time just experimenting and planning before I went on a few more dungeon runs. How the game works is that a linear story is told along the way. Set dungeons are given to the player to go through before moving onto the next which reveals the next part of the story. The story is basic and not necessarily important, but it moves the game along and I felt that it made me appreciate the characters more. Besides going through the main dungeons, there's the option of going through "Ran-geon" which is randomly generated dungeons that the player can go through to find items, gain experience points, and collect gold to get their characters stronger to face the main dungeons. The player can try to get to the 99th floor of "Ran-geon" as the main challenge, but I don't know what you would get since I never could get past floors 30-40. The main game is pretty basic. I didn't like getting slowed or losing all the items I found after dying, but I think it was the Devil Ring system, loot collecting, leveling, and rewards that made the game fun since there's so much to experiment with and to explore. I think frustration was part of what made succeeding so satisfying. Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value
Part of the gameplay is the replay value, and I was writing all this under gameplay but had to separate it right here in order to have something for Replay Value. After beating the main part of the game, you can access "New-geon" which is similar to "Ran-geon" but with a lot of twists in it. The starting level of the enemies will be your character's Attack+Defense power / 4. Players can also jump floor levels depending on the gates they go through. So as you can tell, there's a lot to do in the game. Some floors can be unforgiving and have traps littered everywhere which can kill your sub-characters fairly quickly; however, times when you've defeated numerous high leveled enemies and escaping back to the main area "Arcanus Cella" and seeing your characters raise 5-10 levels in one run through is so satisfying that you'd go back in the dungeons once more. There are 5 classes to choose from (Warrior, Dragoon, Merchant, Guardian, Mage), but I found Dragoons (High HP) and Mages (High Mana) to be most useful ones and often ignored all the other ones. I didn't get to try out Multiplayer since I don't know anyone with this game (or a PSP for that matter), but allows competitive and cooperative play. The game can get frustrating with overwhelming monsters, excessive traps, and losing all the items you collected through the run because of a small mistake, but the rewards with taking chances make the experience well worth the risk and feels very satisfying. After beating the main part of the game, more content is unlocked for the player to play through. Cladun is one of those games that starts off simple and constantly gets better throughout the game. The game can feel a bit repetitive or somewhat of a grind when you can't get through certain areas in the main dungeons and it's also frustrating running into traps, getting slowed, or getting raided by 30 enemies in one map in "Ran-geon" and "New-geon". For the most part, the game has been a very entertaining game whenever I had some free time. The hardest part for me now is trying to quit the game and moving onto new ones, because I know I'll miss playing it. Replay Value: 9/10
Overall
Cladun: This is an RPG! was an unexpected gem for me and I didn't imagine that I'd like it that much. Looking back at my review for Half-Minute Hero, I probably should have given the audio a 9/10 instead of a 10/10 since I realized that there were only a few songs I really liked despite the sheer amount of tracks the game had. In some respects, I enjoyed Cladun a little more than Half-Minute Hero. Cladun is not for everyone as some gamers like strong storylines, epic adventures, and a feeling of a journey. Cladun is more like a ton mini-quests for the player to par-take. It focuses a lot on its gameplay and systems that allows for infinite replay value. Cladun is not as main stream and so many gamers may have missed it. If you can find it for less than $20 and want an entertaining Action RPG to play on the PSP, then I highly recommend picking it and giving it a go. Overall: 8.5/10
As a side note, Cladun 2 came out in Japan in March. If there's a chance that it comes out in English, I'll be sure to check it out.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
GameLight Review - Half-Minute Hero
I bought Magicka & Breach for PC, tried out Modern Combat Domination for PS3, and beat Half-Minute Hero last night. I accomplished a lot for one night, haha. Anyways, I'll be doing some game reviews since it's been quite a while since I've done one (a month), and I wanted to do it on Magicka and Breach; however, I think I need a bit more time with it to give it a fair review. Even though I'm very late at giving a review for Half-Minute Hero, I think it deserves some recognition.
Developer: Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platform: Sony PSP
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Genre: Action-RPG, RTS, Shoot 'em up (It will make sense, don't worry)
Upon first glance, Half-Minute Hero seemed like a silly parody of RPGs with the nostalgia of pixel-based art; however, I now realize it is much more than just a short laugh and a tiny gimmick after completing the game. It tells an epic tale spanning 500 years of a never-ending war with charming characters, catchy music, and fast-paced gameplay suited for playing in short and long term durations.
Source: Youtube Channel TheGamingCriticz
Story
I wasn't expecting any sort of real story out of a game based on having each mission lasting 30 seconds, but there was a story and it really added to the game (surprisingly). The game tells of a tale that spans over 500 years of constant conflict between the Time-Goddess and the Ultimate Dark Lord who tries to destroy the world by casting a spell that activates in 30 seconds. The story is told chronologically through four individual characters with each one stopping the Ultimate Evil Lord from being resurrected into the world. The structure of the story is generic, but is done so in parody of typical Japanese RPGs. There is a main antagonist trying to destroy the world to rid a life of fear, sorrow, pain, and such but along with happiness, love, and tranquility. Heroes of different time periods approaches and stops the efforts to destroy the world. More detail on each character's story will be explained in gameplay. I liked how the narrative is separated 100 years from each other with different characters and gameplay each time. It created a distinctive bridge between each character's story and brought it all together at the end. Each character had a unique personality to them (maybe except the hero parodying the silent protagonist) that connects with the player after playing their story for a while. With each mission lasting only 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the mode) and each character having their own little story, the overall feeling doesn't seem all that grand. But near the end, everything is brought together and shows how pivotal each character was to the peace that is finally realized at the end (I'm trying my best not to spoil anything). It could be just me, but the ending of the whole story truly moved me and it was a good feeling after finishing the game. For a game based on small proportions on gameplay, the story had a rather big impact to the whole experience. Story: 9/10
Graphics
This will be a category that will be a bit more difficult to determine a score for since the graphics were more pixelated than a Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom on a system capable of rendering 3D graphics. The only fair way to judge this is by giving my own opinion to its design of the game rather than on how far the developers went with the capabilities of the hardware. I personally loved the pixel-based graphics for the game because it's easy on the eyes, takes zero loading time (except for loading a save file), is distinctive from the way RPGs typically look now, and has a nostalgic charm to it. Alongside the pixel art are images of typical Japanese RPG-ish drawn characters for cut-scenes and progressing the story. They don't appear often (except for Princess 30 mode), but it has a nice contrast to the retro art and reminds the player in a subtle way saying "hey, you're playing a new game on the PSP and not the Famicom!" The direction of the art style in both pixel and hand drawn is appropriate to the type of game the developers wanted to portray. I do have to admit that after a while playing the game I had the urge to play a game with better graphics. So I guess it's good for the short term and not the long term. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
Although the game went for the retro pixel-art, it did not go for retro 8-bit music in its game. The sound effects is typical in an action game nowadays and works well with the format in art and design. It's not too retro, but it's not too realistic either. The music, though not all of them are memorable, are well composed and has that new age techno-rock genre to contrast the retro look.
Source: Youtube Channel koukoupuffs
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Yuzo Koshiro even did some compositions in the game. There are 65 tracks according to the music player you receive as a gift once you beat the entire game and has various composers contribute to the list. The main theme seemed very cheesy and has that "this game is so epic!" wannabe sound to it the first time, but it changed my mind when I heard it at the very end of the game. Some of the tracks are definitely worth listening to outside of the game. Audio: 10/10
Gameplay
So as mentioned before, there are four distinctive characters that the player takes control of throughout the game, and each character comes from a different era within the story. After naming each of the four characters, three of the game modes will be available and can be played in any order. The last three modes can only be played after finishing the first three the then the previous one before it. Each mode plays differently and tells their own story that all links to a larger plot in the game.
Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
Hero 30 - Goddess Era 100: The Action-RPG mode that follows a blond haired boy who thwarts the efforts of the evil lords from reciting the ruination spell that destroys the world. Fight monsters, gain levels, buy equipment, talk to NPCs, and fulfill quests within 30 seconds. The time-goddess offers to reverse time back to 30 seconds again...for some money (that cheapo). Each mission consists of all the above with an evil lord at the end casting the spell. This mode is the main game and has a nice balance between action and RPG elements such as leveling among others listed above. Some of them are pretty difficult and forces the player to think more tactically rather than just bum rushing.
Evil Lord 30 - Goddess Era 200: The Real-Time Strategy (RTS) mode where the Evil Lord summons and commands numerous monsters to protect his beloved Millenia. The mode is chaotic, has lots of action with the strategy, and is a ton of fun. The mode has a very satisfying feeling similar to playing Starcraft or Age of the Empires and you see a swarm of your men decimate the opposition.
Princess 30 - Goddess Era 300: The Shoot 'em Up mode where the King of the land has fallen ill. It's up to the princess with her trusty crossbow to fight through dozens of enemies and find a cure for her father and unite the people of the land. The princess' personality was both light-hearted and humorous which sets up the conception of the princess being pretty crazy out in the field when she's firing 30-50 bolts a second. The mode wasn't particularly difficult for a shoot 'em up, but it was very relaxing compared to the other three modes which required much more thinking and strategy.
Knight 30 - Goddess Era 500: The fast-paced Action mode where a lone knight must protect a pretty boy Sage who holds the power to defeating all that is evil in the world. The concept is reversed in that instead of fighting against the clock, the player aims to have the clock go down to zero each level in order to win. This was perhaps one of my favorite modes in terms of gameplay because of how much control is given to the player in fighting. There's still a lot of strategy involved, but it doesn't distract the player from the action aspect of the game.
Hero 300 - Goddess Era 500: Everything is brought together to sum up the whole story and the player takes the role of the Hero once more to save the world in a final effort under 300 seconds (5 minutes). This was hard, not gonna lie. It was fun though, and really brought the whole game together in one final mission.
Hero 3 - No Era: Yes...3 Seconds. Nothing to explain, it has to be played to be understood. I beat it though.
With all the game modes put together, it's a nice distraction. And depending on the price, it could be worth it. The game has a fairly good replay value with a hard mode for each one, different ways of approaching a situation for each mission, and little secrets scattered around that can be found. Gameplay: 9/10
Overall
After beating Hero 30, I didn't plan on playing the other ones and was going to put the game aside as (finished). Once I started playing the other modes, I realized how diversified the game was and how well the story flowed once it was brought together. I'm very glad I went through the rest of the game and beat it. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go through the whole game again on hard mode since I've accumulated 12 hours and 47 minutes of it already and have a backlog of 50+ games I still need to finish (no joke). Still, I'm very glad I picked up the game and gave it a go and got through it. It was fun, charming, made me feel good, and has music I'm willing to listen to. Overall: 9/10
As an ending note, a sequel to Half-Minute Hero is in the making but I have heard that the other three modes will not be back for the second installment.
Developer: Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platform: Sony PSP
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Genre: Action-RPG, RTS, Shoot 'em up (It will make sense, don't worry)
Upon first glance, Half-Minute Hero seemed like a silly parody of RPGs with the nostalgia of pixel-based art; however, I now realize it is much more than just a short laugh and a tiny gimmick after completing the game. It tells an epic tale spanning 500 years of a never-ending war with charming characters, catchy music, and fast-paced gameplay suited for playing in short and long term durations.
Source: Youtube Channel TheGamingCriticz
Story
I wasn't expecting any sort of real story out of a game based on having each mission lasting 30 seconds, but there was a story and it really added to the game (surprisingly). The game tells of a tale that spans over 500 years of constant conflict between the Time-Goddess and the Ultimate Dark Lord who tries to destroy the world by casting a spell that activates in 30 seconds. The story is told chronologically through four individual characters with each one stopping the Ultimate Evil Lord from being resurrected into the world. The structure of the story is generic, but is done so in parody of typical Japanese RPGs. There is a main antagonist trying to destroy the world to rid a life of fear, sorrow, pain, and such but along with happiness, love, and tranquility. Heroes of different time periods approaches and stops the efforts to destroy the world. More detail on each character's story will be explained in gameplay. I liked how the narrative is separated 100 years from each other with different characters and gameplay each time. It created a distinctive bridge between each character's story and brought it all together at the end. Each character had a unique personality to them (maybe except the hero parodying the silent protagonist) that connects with the player after playing their story for a while. With each mission lasting only 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the mode) and each character having their own little story, the overall feeling doesn't seem all that grand. But near the end, everything is brought together and shows how pivotal each character was to the peace that is finally realized at the end (I'm trying my best not to spoil anything). It could be just me, but the ending of the whole story truly moved me and it was a good feeling after finishing the game. For a game based on small proportions on gameplay, the story had a rather big impact to the whole experience. Story: 9/10
Graphics
This will be a category that will be a bit more difficult to determine a score for since the graphics were more pixelated than a Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom on a system capable of rendering 3D graphics. The only fair way to judge this is by giving my own opinion to its design of the game rather than on how far the developers went with the capabilities of the hardware. I personally loved the pixel-based graphics for the game because it's easy on the eyes, takes zero loading time (except for loading a save file), is distinctive from the way RPGs typically look now, and has a nostalgic charm to it. Alongside the pixel art are images of typical Japanese RPG-ish drawn characters for cut-scenes and progressing the story. They don't appear often (except for Princess 30 mode), but it has a nice contrast to the retro art and reminds the player in a subtle way saying "hey, you're playing a new game on the PSP and not the Famicom!" The direction of the art style in both pixel and hand drawn is appropriate to the type of game the developers wanted to portray. I do have to admit that after a while playing the game I had the urge to play a game with better graphics. So I guess it's good for the short term and not the long term. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
Although the game went for the retro pixel-art, it did not go for retro 8-bit music in its game. The sound effects is typical in an action game nowadays and works well with the format in art and design. It's not too retro, but it's not too realistic either. The music, though not all of them are memorable, are well composed and has that new age techno-rock genre to contrast the retro look.
Source: Youtube Channel koukoupuffs
Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose
Yuzo Koshiro even did some compositions in the game. There are 65 tracks according to the music player you receive as a gift once you beat the entire game and has various composers contribute to the list. The main theme seemed very cheesy and has that "this game is so epic!" wannabe sound to it the first time, but it changed my mind when I heard it at the very end of the game. Some of the tracks are definitely worth listening to outside of the game. Audio: 10/10
Gameplay
So as mentioned before, there are four distinctive characters that the player takes control of throughout the game, and each character comes from a different era within the story. After naming each of the four characters, three of the game modes will be available and can be played in any order. The last three modes can only be played after finishing the first three the then the previous one before it. Each mode plays differently and tells their own story that all links to a larger plot in the game.
Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
Hero 30 - Goddess Era 100: The Action-RPG mode that follows a blond haired boy who thwarts the efforts of the evil lords from reciting the ruination spell that destroys the world. Fight monsters, gain levels, buy equipment, talk to NPCs, and fulfill quests within 30 seconds. The time-goddess offers to reverse time back to 30 seconds again...for some money (that cheapo). Each mission consists of all the above with an evil lord at the end casting the spell. This mode is the main game and has a nice balance between action and RPG elements such as leveling among others listed above. Some of them are pretty difficult and forces the player to think more tactically rather than just bum rushing.
Evil Lord 30 - Goddess Era 200: The Real-Time Strategy (RTS) mode where the Evil Lord summons and commands numerous monsters to protect his beloved Millenia. The mode is chaotic, has lots of action with the strategy, and is a ton of fun. The mode has a very satisfying feeling similar to playing Starcraft or Age of the Empires and you see a swarm of your men decimate the opposition.
Princess 30 - Goddess Era 300: The Shoot 'em Up mode where the King of the land has fallen ill. It's up to the princess with her trusty crossbow to fight through dozens of enemies and find a cure for her father and unite the people of the land. The princess' personality was both light-hearted and humorous which sets up the conception of the princess being pretty crazy out in the field when she's firing 30-50 bolts a second. The mode wasn't particularly difficult for a shoot 'em up, but it was very relaxing compared to the other three modes which required much more thinking and strategy.
Knight 30 - Goddess Era 500: The fast-paced Action mode where a lone knight must protect a pretty boy Sage who holds the power to defeating all that is evil in the world. The concept is reversed in that instead of fighting against the clock, the player aims to have the clock go down to zero each level in order to win. This was perhaps one of my favorite modes in terms of gameplay because of how much control is given to the player in fighting. There's still a lot of strategy involved, but it doesn't distract the player from the action aspect of the game.
Hero 300 - Goddess Era 500: Everything is brought together to sum up the whole story and the player takes the role of the Hero once more to save the world in a final effort under 300 seconds (5 minutes). This was hard, not gonna lie. It was fun though, and really brought the whole game together in one final mission.
Hero 3 - No Era: Yes...3 Seconds. Nothing to explain, it has to be played to be understood. I beat it though.
With all the game modes put together, it's a nice distraction. And depending on the price, it could be worth it. The game has a fairly good replay value with a hard mode for each one, different ways of approaching a situation for each mission, and little secrets scattered around that can be found. Gameplay: 9/10
Overall
After beating Hero 30, I didn't plan on playing the other ones and was going to put the game aside as (finished). Once I started playing the other modes, I realized how diversified the game was and how well the story flowed once it was brought together. I'm very glad I went through the rest of the game and beat it. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go through the whole game again on hard mode since I've accumulated 12 hours and 47 minutes of it already and have a backlog of 50+ games I still need to finish (no joke). Still, I'm very glad I picked up the game and gave it a go and got through it. It was fun, charming, made me feel good, and has music I'm willing to listen to. Overall: 9/10
As an ending note, a sequel to Half-Minute Hero is in the making but I have heard that the other three modes will not be back for the second installment.
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