I can't believe the week is already over. It just blew by like a blur and now that everything has settled down it feel like it never really happened. It's been a tiring week trying to keep up with Steam Summer Sale AND E3 at the same time. I wanted to spend the week finishing as many games on Steam as possible so I can move onto new ones, but I only ended up completing one old game and 3 others that I got during the sale. I pretty much got what I wanted out of the Steam Summer Sale, but not at prices I had hoped for. As for E3, it wasn't particularly special this year other than the few surprise announcements that really caught everyone off guard. Let's talk a little bit about it the event:
Note: I might have missed some games, and it's hard knowing what there is when I'm not actually there as I experienced first hand going to E3 once before. Names marked in BOLD are ones I'm interested in.
New Games (Existing IP)
Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations
ANNO 2205
Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assetto Corsa
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Dark Souls 3
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Dishonored 2
Disney Infinity 3.0
EA Sports FIFA 16
Fallout 4
Fallout Shelter
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Gears of War 4
Gears of War Ultimate Edition
God of War 3 Remastered
Halo 5: Guardians
Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories
Hyrule Warriors - 3DS
Just Dance 2016
Kingdom Hearts: Unchained Key
Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends
Lara Croft Go
LEGO Jurassic World
LEGO Dimensions
Madden NFL 16
Magic Duels: Origins
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Mass Effect Andromeda
Mega Man Legacy Collection
Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Minions Paradise
NBA Live 16
Need for Speed
NHL 16
NieR (New)
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Ratchet & Clank Remastered
Rare Replay
Resident Evil 0
Roy McIlroy PGA Tour
Shenmue 3
Skylanders SuperChargers
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Star Fox Zero
The Elder Scrolls Legends
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
The Walking Dead: Michonne
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Trackmania Turbo
World of Final Fantasy
WWE 2K16
XCOM 2
New Games (New IP)
Abzu
Ark: Survival Evolved
Ashen
Beyond Eyes
Brave Tank Hero
Dreams
Firewatch
For Honor
Gotcha Racing
Horizon: Zero Dawn
ION
Mad Max
ReCore
Relics of Gods
Rocket League
Sea of Thieves
SOMA
Thumper
Unravel
Follow Up News (Previously Announced)
Adr1ft
Alone With You
Amplitude HD
Batman Arkham Knight
Battleborn
Battlecry
Below
Broforce
Capsule Force
Chasm
Cosmic Star Heroine
Crossing Souls
Cuphead
The Division
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
Doom
Drawn to Death
Dungeon Defenders 2
EarthNight
Enter the Gungeon
Elite Dangerous
Fable Legends
Fat Princess Adventures
Fire Emblem Fates (Formly Fire Emblem IF)
Fortnite
Forza 6
Future Grind
Galak-Z: The Dimensional
Gang Beasts
Gnog
Guitar Hero Live
Guns Up!
Heart Forth, Alicia
Homefront 2: The Revolution
Hollowpoint
I Am Bread
Just Cause 3
Kill Strain
Kingdom Hearts 3
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Mighty No. 9
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Moon Hunters
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Ninja Strike
No Man's Sky
Nuclear Throne
Overkill's The Walking Dead
Overwatch
Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Persona 5
Relativity
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rock Band 4
Ronin
Salt and Sanctuary
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson
Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
Snow
Star Wars Battlefront
Street Fighter V
Super Mario Maker
Superhot
Sword Coast Legends
Teraway: Unfolded
The Banner Saga 2
The Last Guardian
The Tomorrow Children
To Leave
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Until Dawn
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Yoshi's Wooly World
Most Surprising Announcements
Fallout 4 - I can't say I'm a Fallout fan since I've never played the originals and only played Fallout 3 and never even finished it. But I can say that I enjoyed Fallout 3 a lot and still plan on going back to it and actually trying to finish it. Seeing Fallout 4 in action was quite a spectacle. Particularly interesting was all the weapon customization and crafting you can perform in the game. This is certainly a game to look out for. Fans of FO3 have been waiting for 7 years for this.
Final Fantasy VII Remake / Shenmue 3 / The Last Guardian - This trio of announcements blew peoples mind, drove the crowd wild, and pretty much won everyone over during the Sony Conference. The Last Guardian has been on Hiatus for the longest time and didn't even show up in the past few E3 events. So it was quite an eye opener to see that the game was still being developed and even showed gameplay at the conference. I finally got around to playing through ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, so I have a better understanding of why people like them so much. The Last Guardian is a lot like ICO, it seems. I thought ICO was okay. It felt a bit slow, tedious, and frustrating. Shadow of the Colossus was amazing though.
When they got down to talking about Square-Enix and "how they brought a classic to the Playstation 1" and leading up to the reveal, I couldn't really think of anything except Final Fantasy VII. But I refused to believe it because the fans have been denied of such a thing for ever and ever. Upon hearing the first heartbeat from the song "Beyond the Wasteland" from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in the trailer they were showing, my own heartbeat sped up a little. "Was this a new movie? Another spin-off?" When the words "Remake" popped up, I was freaking out! I couldn't believe it was actually happening! I'm sure there were many others freaking out even more than I was because I never actually played through Final Fantasy VII. I know a lot about it, I know most of the songs by heart, and I even own the original PS1 game as well as recently buying the Steam version so that I could actually sit down and play through it myself; however, the fact is that I haven't played it yet. I certainly have an incentive to play through it before the remake comes out now.
I never played Shenmue 1 and 2, but it's a franchise that I constantly hear about. The fact that Sega is more focused on publishing and mobile games made the hope for a Shenmue 3 a pipe-dream. And so it took everyone by surprise to see Shenmue 3 announced by the director, Yu Suzuki, himself on the Sony Conference stage asking for support from the fans on Kickstarter. It fulfilled its funding goal by the end of the day. To me, Shenmue is the game that brought quick-time events into gaming. But to many others, it was a special adventure with a story that the fans obviously love enough to want a 3rd game after more than a decade wait.
Horizon: Zero Dawn - Besides "For Glory", this was the only newly announced, new IP game that looked interesting to me. The rich environment and large scale combat they showed in the trailer looked immersive and engaging. I was hoping to see more new games like this one announced during E3, but there wasn't. This is the one new game that wowed me more than any other this year.
Let's Talk About:
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 / Dark Souls 3 - This year's E3 was definitely about sequels. Both Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and Dark Souls 3 look amazing, but I don't feel very excited. I'm trying to pull away from Call of Duty because I always end up paying more than I actually play to make it worth it. I love Call of Duty and I really enjoyed Advanced Warfare from last year (albeit multiplayer breaking for me), but I can't really justify buying it every year only to play 10-20 hours ($60 at full price, $30 at lowest). I used to play it more before because I didn't play many other games, but now it just seems difficult to find the time to play it. As for Dark Souls 3, I haven't even played 2 yet. 2 is still under plastic wraps and I kind of know what to expect. As opposed to CoD:BO3, I'm definitely going to get Dark Souls 3. I'm just not that excited by the announcement like I was for Bloodborne (probably because Bloodborne is different and new).
Below / Chasm / Cuphead - I've been keeping an eye on these 3 indie games and am really interested in it. Below looks like a top-down Action-RPG. Chasm is a Metroidvania, I believe. And Cuphead is like Megaman with an old-school Disney art style. These are games I want to play.
Dishonored 2 - I'm actually a bit surprised by this announcement, even though I shouldn't. I loved Dishonored a lot and felt like it's one of those games to be considered a classic. To deliver such an extraordinary experience to the Action-Stealth genre in Dishonored seemed to be a one game sort of deal. So there's a lot of expectation to fulfill in creating a sequel.
The Division - Announced back in E3 2013, we all knew we wouldn't see the game for a while. Now that it's starting flesh out and getting close to a final product, I'm getting excited. I've played a lot of open world, survival games and have always been left with a poor impression. But this game looks promising and has the cooperative gameplay aspect that I'm looking for to play with my friends. So I'm hoping for the best and keeping an eye out for this game.
Doom - I didn't like Doom 3 that much, so I wasn't too interested in the announcement of the newest Doom last year. But when they showed gameplay this year, I became interested. There was a lot of high jumping, fast blasting action that's rather reminiscent of old-school shooters. I can't say I really like all the gore and blood, but the pacing and action that I saw from the trailers looked exciting. What's more, it seems like it will come with a level editor of sorts.
Fable Legends - After showing a bit more gameplay this year, the game does look interesting. But since it's Free-to-Play, I'm kind of wondering what kind of game it is. Will it be lots of grinding and going to the next level? Or will it be progression based and then have a hard mode and a harder mode? I can't say I'm convinced yet, but it's something to look out for.
For Honor - "This is what 'War of the Roses' should've been like" is what I want to say, but I actually haven't seen enough of the game to really pass judgement. Although it's a new IP, it's a game we've seen before in the market with games like Chivarly, War of the Roses, and on a looser case: Mount & Blade. Still, the game is looking pretty good and could turn out to be a popular multiplayer game on console.
Horizon: Zero Dawn - As I mentioned above in the surprising announcements, this new game announcement is the only one that really caught my attention that stands out from the rest of the games and makes me want to play it. It might be a while before we can actually play it, though.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force - I was very sad looking at this game. Why slap on the name "Metroid" when it doesn't really look, feel, or sound like Metroid? I guess it kind of has the concept of Metroid Prime's combat mechanics, but it's not Metroid. Every year, I'm hoping for a new Metroid game, but this is not I asked for and not what the fans want. There's even a petition people are signing to have all production and development of this game halted. That's pretty extreme, and I'm wondering how Nintendo will handle this. They might just ignore the hate and release it anyways. I can't say I'm too happy with how this game looks.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst - So it seems like the game is called "Catalyst" because it's supposedly a prequel to Mirror's Edge 1. It seems like fans want to see more of Faith and so there will be more cinematics actually showing her in action rather than keeping everything entirely in a first-person perspective view. The game's supposedly going to be open-world as well as opposed to its finely crafted linear gameplay of the first one.
NieR (New) - I haven't played (or taken off the plastic wraps) of my copy of NieR since I wanted to get through Drakengard 3 first (a friend told me that NieR was better). So it was unexpected to see a sequel to the game as it seemed like the first game was actually a spin-off of the Drakengard series. But what's really exciting about this announcement is that Plantinum Games is going to be the one developing the game this time around. Could you imagine what the game would be like? Over-the-top action in an RPG? I'm excited for this one, but it might be 2-3 years before we get to see it.
Nintendo - Nintendo's Conference was entertaining, but overall underwhelming this year. There were new games, but nothing that really got the fans excited. The most exciting news coming from Nintendo was the Nintendo Direct right before E3 which revealed Ryu from Street Fighter as a DLC in Super Smash Bros. as well as the return of Roy of Fire Emblem and Lucas from Earthbound (Mother). At the very least, they announced Hyrule Warriors for 3DS which made me happy.
Overwatch - It's kind of weird to see a Blizzard game mentioned at E3, but I welcome it. Overwatch is looking pretty interesting, but how long will it take before we get to play it? It was a very long wait for StarCraft 2, then Diablo 3, then Heroes of the Storm. Waiting for Blizzard games is tough.
Playstation Vita - If it weren't for Atlus, the PS Vita would be a very sad system to have right now. With Persona: Dancing All Night and Lost Dimension, what else is there to look forward to on the PS Vita that you couldn't get on any other platform? Honestly, all I want and need for PS Vita is Phantasy Star Nova. Sega, please!
Salt and Sanctuary - Boasting itself to be sort of a 2D Dark Souls, I first got interested in this game when it was announced last year because it's supposed to be like a Metroidvania. I keep craving for Metroidvania games, but not many seem to satisfy me. I hope this will be a good game.
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson - I need to remember to pre-order this next month. I've already listened to the soundtrack and am really looking forward to playing this game. Senran Kagura does a very good job of satisfying my craving for Hack-n-Slash / Beat-em-Ups.
Street Fighter V - More characters were shown and the game is looking pretty good. I wasn't sure how they were going to innovate the game from IV, but the new ability mechanics looks like it will change the pacing and strategies for the game. I even got excited enough to buy Ultra Street Fighter IV during the Steam Summer Sale.
Super Mario Maker - When they showed it last year, it was kind of a cool idea. But when they showcased it this year at the Nintendo World Championship 2015 event, they revealed the limitless possibilities for the game. I'd like to get this game if I ever get a Wii U.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands / Rainbow Six Siege - Rainbow Six Siege was shown last year and I was bit worried because of the competitive nature of the game. But then they showed cooperative gameplay in scenario based missions and it immediately reminded me of the fun I had playing games like SWAT 4 with my friends. Now I really want Rainbow Six Siege. Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a newly announced game and it looks amazing. It's an open-world, online-multiplayer, cooperative experience like no other game from what they've shown so far. These are two games I really want and convinced me the most of why I should be excited for their games this year.
Now let's take a look at I wanted and what I actually got during Steam Summer Sale.
What I wanted from Steam Summer Sale as posted 2 posts ago:
Lords of the Fallen - I wanted it below $20 but got it AT $20. I was very hesitant on picking it up because of the myriad posts on how the game constantly crashes, problems with controls, graphic glitches, and countless other problems. So far, the only problems I've faced is frame rate dropping, even at lower settings. The game's not properly optimized, but otherwise it seems to be running fine. I think I can make the $20 worth it as I'll probably be playing the game more than once.
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires - I kind of knew it wouldn't drop below $20, so I was hoping it'd at least go down to $25, of which it did. This was another game I was afraid of picking up because of countless reports of problems with the game, but I've never played the Empires expansion and kind of wanted that sort of depth in a Dynasty Warriors game. So I bought the game and tried it out for myself. The graphics is downgraded from the original DW8, I can't play with native resolution, I can't play full screen without the graphics pushed off to the side, and there isn't English voice overs. Despite all that, I'm still enjoying the game with the plethora of customization, RPG and Strategy-like elements, and new weapons.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - I didn't get this one. I was expecting to see it for less than $20 since it's been at $20 the last three times it went on sale. But this time, it was $25. I found out that they bundled it with the DLCs as GOTY Edition and forced players to get it as the original game was no longer available to buy. The game's about 14 hours long and I didn't want to pay more than $15 for it, so I skipped this game for now.
Dying Light - As I suspected, the game dropped down to $45. But the game is fairly new, so it's fair that they're keeping it at a decently high price.
Borderlands Pre-Sequel - This actually had an okay deal with the game around $20 and the Season Pass bundle for $25 (while getting the Season pass separately is $20). But my friends and I felt like we can wait for a larger discount since we weren't in any rush to play the game.
Divinity: Original Sin - The game only got a $3 discount from its regular sale price. But I still picked it up around $24 because I wanted to get a game I could co-op with my friend. We're kind of running out of games to play together.
Hotline Miami 2 - Barely even a $5 discount. Passing for now because I want to get the soundtrack with it.
Titan Souls - I found out it's only about 3 hours of gameplay. I didn't want to pay $9 for 3 hours of gameplay. It looks really interesting though.
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure - This didn't even have a discount. Perhaps it's too new.
Broforce - It's not out of Early Access yet and it's still $10.
Freedom Planet - I got it! I haven't played it yet, but I started it up and found out it has voice acting. Kind of strange for a 16-bit looking game.
Wings of Vi - This game is hard! I barely got through the 2nd boss in the game and I've already died 100 times. But so far the game is really fun! I like these type of difficult games where it's fun, challenging, and engaging enough to keep going even after dying countless times.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - I have mixed feelings about this remake. But overall, I think it's a great game. I'll admit that I miss the music Danny Baranowsky created for the original.
The Shadowcrypt - I bought it and then asked for a refund after 12 minutes of playing it. I didn't plan on ever asking for a refund on Steam, but the game was so monotonous and boring that I got sick of it after one session of playing it. I've played plenty of games like it in the past and saw the warning signs. It's unfortunate, but it's not what I thought it'd be.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - It really did go down to $5! I immediately bought it and then immediately completed it the next day. For a 1 hour game, I was thoroughly impressed. The new engine they're using is highly optimized, making the graphics incredibly beautiful yet run smoothly. The gameplay is highly refined and is what you'd expect from a MGS game. Despite being only 1 hour, I accumulated 3 hours. There was 1 hour of cinematics, 1 hour of listening to audio logs (which were really expensive), and there's also a bunch of side missions I haven't even played yet. I think for $5, the mini prologue game to the Phantom Pain is well worth it.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R - It's too new, so it didn't go down past its initial launch sale.
Bladestorm: Nightmare - This is also too new and didn't go on sale.
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim - This was surprisingly cut down to 50% off at $10. I didn't pick it up yet, though. I still have Ys Origins and Ys 1 & 2+ to get through before I think of getting Ys VI.
Axiom Verge - It didn't go on sale.
Dragon Age: Inquisition - DA:I did go on sale on Origin like I predicted it would for 50% off at $30. But since my friends didn't want to get it and play multiplayer, I held off on it. I'd love to play multiplayer on it, but I don't think I can find anyone to play it with. So I'm just going to wait for a bigger discount before I pick it up for playing the single-player campaign.
Overall, both Steam Summer Sale and E3 were kind of underwhelming this year. Steam Sale had all sorts of shady dealings such as game prices being hiked up right before the sale so that even on sale it won't be be as much. There were bundles created to force players to buy a more expensive version of the game or bundles were taken out so the best deal wasn't readily available. Games that should have gotten a bigger discount got a lesser discount. Despite all that, I ended up buying 16 games (and some DLCs, mostly soundtracks) and received 4 games from friends. I wish I got better discounts on the game I bought, but I at least got the games I mostly wanted from the sale, regardless. E3 had some interesting announcements, but they're all sequels that we all pretty much expect to get from the game industry. Even with surprising announcements that blow people's mind like FF7 Remake and Shenmue 3, there wasn't much to offer at this year's E3. I guess I had a fun week, but I kind of want to continue lazing about until I feel ready to get back to work. But I guess I'll try to work hard until EVO comes around.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Hyperdimension Neptunia U and more Drakengard 3 Rant
[MORE SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAKENGARD 3]
After listening to the music a bit more, dissecting the words and meaning behind them, and pondering on the whole story again, Drakengard 3's theme goes a bit deeper than I had tried to explain yesterday. In my review of Drakengard 3, I mentioned the theme of "loneliness" a lot. What I failed to point out was how this actually affected all the characters. I've already mentioned this for Zero and Mikhail, so I think I can skip those. Besides the idea of being "alone", there was also the "sense of belonging" that leads to the perception of being "alone".
[The Disciples]
Dito - Dito mentions many times how he seems to hate the world and all things in it. He could never find companionship that shared his sadistic outlook for violence and inflicting pain. He abhorred his time with Five and at one point in the game mentions how he was "having the time of his life killing people and watching Zero slaughter them alongside him". It sounds messed up, but he seemed genuinely happy with Zero. Yet, in Branch D he switched sides to the resurrected Five to live his dream in a chaotic world of death and destruction. When he finally realized that he was about to disappear from summoning an angel without an intoner's song, he showed weakness for the first time. He cried out for Zero not to leave him, but there was nothing she could do.
Decadus - As a masochist, Decadus only wanted to serve one that can please him in the way he liked it: to be punished and consistently insulted. When serving Four, she was light on reprimanding him. But he served her faithfully and even wished to have himself killed after Four was slain. Zero captures him instead and Decadus humbly accepted to serve her until death. He seemed much happier with the party in tow as each member, other than Mikhail, verbally bombards him with insults as he moans in pleasure from them. Despite his weird ways, Zero does say that he's "been nothing but a perfect gentleman to her". Zero seemed to have enjoyed his company and Decadus evidently liked being part of the group. Out of all the disciples that leave in Branch D, Zero looked most pained to see Decadus go.
Octa - His entry into the party was one most unexpected. He shows up looking like he was about to start one huge boss fight, only to drop his weapons and surrender.
Scene begins at 1:38
Octa had left because he wasn't satisfied with serving Three any longer. He felt he didn't belong there anymore. He claims that Three couldn't satiate his sexual desires any longer. Despite being a dirty old man (even though he claims to be 22), he was wise and perceptive. He often gave the most useful advice throughout the journey. He would also mention a lot about sex and having a never ending erection along the way too. But near the end of Branch D, when 3 of the disciples are gone, he says that he couldn't get an erection whatsoever. Perhaps he felt the group felt lonely without the others around. Perhaps what all the disciples wanted was a sense of belonging. Despite being a band of weirdos, they stuck together as a group.
Cent - The pretty boy without a brain, Cent often spouts nonsensical statements as fact when he probably just made it up on the spot. They made it a point to show how much of an idiot he is. The only time he seemed right in the head was when he's around Two. It seemed that Two and Cent were deeply in love with each other and that they were alone when separated. It did seem like Cent was the most disjointed from the group out of the four members.
[The Intoners]
Five - There isn't much to say about Five. She becomes obsessed with something and then immediately loses interest when she has it. Nothing really seemed to satisfy her.
Four - She felt that they all should stick together as sisters. She seemed to have all sorts of fond memories of Zero, but none of them seemed real. But to her, she felt like she belonged at Zero's side.
Three - She never seemed sane to begin with. She's like the black sheep of the family and didn't really have a place among the sisters. Almost like she was lost in her own world, she never really seemed to have any connection to any of the characters, including her own disciple.
Two - Deeply in love with her disciple Cent, she never seemed to function correctly without him. After the initial encounter with Two, the struggle of self conflict and sanity between Two and Cent is shown again and again in the alternate branches.
One - She is the only intoner that didn't lose her mind to the parasite's power and the only one that questioned their reason for being in the world. She figure out what she and her sisters truly were and soon fought for the same reasons Zero did. She was the only Intoner without a disciple and no one understood her motives. Ironically, the one person that did understand her was the one she had to kill: Zero.
Thinking about it all, I really liked the narrative of Drakengard 3. It's a shame that the rest of the game couldn't match up with the quality.
[Rant on Hyperdimension Neptunia U]
There isn't any spoilers for this game, because there's really nothing to spoil. I kind of wish they had fleshed out some sort of story for the game, but it's simply just a spin-off meant to take on the Action Hack-n-Slash genre. There isn't much I want to say about the game, but I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I was disappointed with it, but I somehow still enjoyed the game. I've completed the main game and didn't feel like I got much of an experience out of it, despite putting in 21 hours into it. The game does have end-game content, but I'm not sure what to think of it. The game itself plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors and/or Senran Kagura as it was made by the same developers as SK. The catch is that most of the levels are arena based (one small room) and require taking out a lot of enemies. The main gripe I have about the game is how confusing the balance of the game is. Low level quests were sometimes ridiculously difficult while some high level quests were actually not that bad. The recommended levels they listed don't seem to match up with what you have to put up with. Some of the worst scenarios I had to deal with is a room full of enemies that can do a string of attacks that stun you. When a group of enemies attack you in such a fashion, you will die because you'll be eternally stunned. It's even worse when those same enemies have so much health that it takes a decent amount of time to take even one down. I do appreciate the challenge the game provides over what SK games seemed to have presented, but it seems poorly balanced compared to the SK games. Perhaps this was a change to the North American version because many English speaking fans that played the Japanese version said it was so mind-numbingly easy that it wasn't worth playing. It took a bit of grinding, but I was able to complete the main quests by utilizing all the different abilities they provided so that I wouldn't die so easily. Afterwards, it unlocked four things for me: Cheat codes, a Chapter 4 quests, a Gauntlet tournament, and a tower. The Cheat codes can be unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements. What they are, I don't know. Chapter 4 quests give really high level and high difficulty enemies to fight against. The Gauntlet is really unbalanced. It gives items at the end (of which it didn't throughout the game), but the gameplay is so broken that it's not that fun. On Wimpy (Easy), enemies are defeated in 1-2 moves. On Decent (Normal), you die in one combo while they take minimal damage. On Pro (Hard), you do 1 damage each hit while they One-shot you. I'll try it more when I hit max level on my characters, but right now it's just farming for items on Wimpy mode. The tower I haven't tried much yet. It's just going up one floor after another to reach the top and fight the lass boss again. I can dare to say that the game is adequately entertaining for me, but I can't say that it's really worth $40. The game feels like it lacks depth and dynamics. What made SK really great was the flow between story and gameplay. HDN:U just seems to throw a lot of long-winded quests and then giving a few short conversations between the characters. I'm probably going to play it more just to get my $40 worth, but it's kind of a hard game to recommend. You'd have to really like Hack-n-Slashes in its bare core form or Hyperdimension Neptunia to enjoy the game.
After listening to the music a bit more, dissecting the words and meaning behind them, and pondering on the whole story again, Drakengard 3's theme goes a bit deeper than I had tried to explain yesterday. In my review of Drakengard 3, I mentioned the theme of "loneliness" a lot. What I failed to point out was how this actually affected all the characters. I've already mentioned this for Zero and Mikhail, so I think I can skip those. Besides the idea of being "alone", there was also the "sense of belonging" that leads to the perception of being "alone".
[The Disciples]
Dito - Dito mentions many times how he seems to hate the world and all things in it. He could never find companionship that shared his sadistic outlook for violence and inflicting pain. He abhorred his time with Five and at one point in the game mentions how he was "having the time of his life killing people and watching Zero slaughter them alongside him". It sounds messed up, but he seemed genuinely happy with Zero. Yet, in Branch D he switched sides to the resurrected Five to live his dream in a chaotic world of death and destruction. When he finally realized that he was about to disappear from summoning an angel without an intoner's song, he showed weakness for the first time. He cried out for Zero not to leave him, but there was nothing she could do.
Decadus - As a masochist, Decadus only wanted to serve one that can please him in the way he liked it: to be punished and consistently insulted. When serving Four, she was light on reprimanding him. But he served her faithfully and even wished to have himself killed after Four was slain. Zero captures him instead and Decadus humbly accepted to serve her until death. He seemed much happier with the party in tow as each member, other than Mikhail, verbally bombards him with insults as he moans in pleasure from them. Despite his weird ways, Zero does say that he's "been nothing but a perfect gentleman to her". Zero seemed to have enjoyed his company and Decadus evidently liked being part of the group. Out of all the disciples that leave in Branch D, Zero looked most pained to see Decadus go.
Octa - His entry into the party was one most unexpected. He shows up looking like he was about to start one huge boss fight, only to drop his weapons and surrender.
Scene begins at 1:38
Octa had left because he wasn't satisfied with serving Three any longer. He felt he didn't belong there anymore. He claims that Three couldn't satiate his sexual desires any longer. Despite being a dirty old man (even though he claims to be 22), he was wise and perceptive. He often gave the most useful advice throughout the journey. He would also mention a lot about sex and having a never ending erection along the way too. But near the end of Branch D, when 3 of the disciples are gone, he says that he couldn't get an erection whatsoever. Perhaps he felt the group felt lonely without the others around. Perhaps what all the disciples wanted was a sense of belonging. Despite being a band of weirdos, they stuck together as a group.
Cent - The pretty boy without a brain, Cent often spouts nonsensical statements as fact when he probably just made it up on the spot. They made it a point to show how much of an idiot he is. The only time he seemed right in the head was when he's around Two. It seemed that Two and Cent were deeply in love with each other and that they were alone when separated. It did seem like Cent was the most disjointed from the group out of the four members.
[The Intoners]
Five - There isn't much to say about Five. She becomes obsessed with something and then immediately loses interest when she has it. Nothing really seemed to satisfy her.
Four - She felt that they all should stick together as sisters. She seemed to have all sorts of fond memories of Zero, but none of them seemed real. But to her, she felt like she belonged at Zero's side.
Three - She never seemed sane to begin with. She's like the black sheep of the family and didn't really have a place among the sisters. Almost like she was lost in her own world, she never really seemed to have any connection to any of the characters, including her own disciple.
Two - Deeply in love with her disciple Cent, she never seemed to function correctly without him. After the initial encounter with Two, the struggle of self conflict and sanity between Two and Cent is shown again and again in the alternate branches.
One - She is the only intoner that didn't lose her mind to the parasite's power and the only one that questioned their reason for being in the world. She figure out what she and her sisters truly were and soon fought for the same reasons Zero did. She was the only Intoner without a disciple and no one understood her motives. Ironically, the one person that did understand her was the one she had to kill: Zero.
Thinking about it all, I really liked the narrative of Drakengard 3. It's a shame that the rest of the game couldn't match up with the quality.
[Rant on Hyperdimension Neptunia U]
There isn't any spoilers for this game, because there's really nothing to spoil. I kind of wish they had fleshed out some sort of story for the game, but it's simply just a spin-off meant to take on the Action Hack-n-Slash genre. There isn't much I want to say about the game, but I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I was disappointed with it, but I somehow still enjoyed the game. I've completed the main game and didn't feel like I got much of an experience out of it, despite putting in 21 hours into it. The game does have end-game content, but I'm not sure what to think of it. The game itself plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors and/or Senran Kagura as it was made by the same developers as SK. The catch is that most of the levels are arena based (one small room) and require taking out a lot of enemies. The main gripe I have about the game is how confusing the balance of the game is. Low level quests were sometimes ridiculously difficult while some high level quests were actually not that bad. The recommended levels they listed don't seem to match up with what you have to put up with. Some of the worst scenarios I had to deal with is a room full of enemies that can do a string of attacks that stun you. When a group of enemies attack you in such a fashion, you will die because you'll be eternally stunned. It's even worse when those same enemies have so much health that it takes a decent amount of time to take even one down. I do appreciate the challenge the game provides over what SK games seemed to have presented, but it seems poorly balanced compared to the SK games. Perhaps this was a change to the North American version because many English speaking fans that played the Japanese version said it was so mind-numbingly easy that it wasn't worth playing. It took a bit of grinding, but I was able to complete the main quests by utilizing all the different abilities they provided so that I wouldn't die so easily. Afterwards, it unlocked four things for me: Cheat codes, a Chapter 4 quests, a Gauntlet tournament, and a tower. The Cheat codes can be unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements. What they are, I don't know. Chapter 4 quests give really high level and high difficulty enemies to fight against. The Gauntlet is really unbalanced. It gives items at the end (of which it didn't throughout the game), but the gameplay is so broken that it's not that fun. On Wimpy (Easy), enemies are defeated in 1-2 moves. On Decent (Normal), you die in one combo while they take minimal damage. On Pro (Hard), you do 1 damage each hit while they One-shot you. I'll try it more when I hit max level on my characters, but right now it's just farming for items on Wimpy mode. The tower I haven't tried much yet. It's just going up one floor after another to reach the top and fight the lass boss again. I can dare to say that the game is adequately entertaining for me, but I can't say that it's really worth $40. The game feels like it lacks depth and dynamics. What made SK really great was the flow between story and gameplay. HDN:U just seems to throw a lot of long-winded quests and then giving a few short conversations between the characters. I'm probably going to play it more just to get my $40 worth, but it's kind of a hard game to recommend. You'd have to really like Hack-n-Slashes in its bare core form or Hyperdimension Neptunia to enjoy the game.
Monday, June 8, 2015
The game that DRAGS-ON! [SPOILER ALERT Drakengard 3]
I really buckled down and made an effort to complete Drakengard 3 (Drag-On Dragoon 3 in Japanese) this past weekend. Drakengard 3 is an Action game with aspects of hack-n-slash and RPG elements. The game starts out with the main character Zero slaughtering dozens, if not hundreds, of soldiers to get to her sisters to kill them. The game doesn't give much context and just showing the player that Zero really wants to kill her sisters and take their powers. I see this plot device pattern used in a lot of games where it doesn't tell you what the true motive or reasoning behind the adventure is until it's close to the end of the game. Even when the player kills the last sister and then dies, it still doesn't tell the player what the whole story was about. Then an alternate timeline reveals itself and you play through that one, and then again on another timeline. After the third time, the game pulls a game design choice that virtually extends the gameplay time before the player can progress. It required the player to collect 100% of the weapons in the game before they can continue to the 4th and final arch of the story. That was an extra 5 hours of grinding for money and hunting down weapons. Then I got through the last arch which was as twice as long as the past 2 story arch before reaching this BS, final confrontation.
The confrontation begins at 2:30
Honestly, an ending like this is absolutely beautiful and memorable. But the problem is that the gameplay side of this section is absurdly difficult and unforgiving that it didn't feel worth practicing over and over for. It's a music-rhythm mini-game that goes to Game Over if you miss even one note. I tried 7-10 times before I gave up. The long loading times between each retry didn't help encourage me either.
So there's a lot I want to say about this game, but I'd rather keep it short and simple. I want to start out by saying that this game has flaws and problems, but I don't regret playing through it. I guess it'd be best if I just complained about everything I didn't like first before explaining why this game is even worth talking about.
Cons:
- In-game graphics is garbage compared to what the opening cinematic looks like
- Lots of textures and models look outdated
- Many levels are reused; you will play each level 2-4 times throughout the game
- There isn't much depth or backstory to any of the characters, even though I like them
- Long loading times, despite eating up 5 GB worth of hard drive space to install the game
- Dubbing; the English voice overs weren't bad, but they changed the characters' personality
- Combat is largely because of combos and camera angle
- Usefulness of weapons; knuckles and chakrams were largely useless throughout the game
- Some enemies would strike for 25%-75% of your health, and you'd fight multiples of them
- Some levels throw so many enemies out that they literally block the view
- Forcing the player to gather 100% of the weapons to progress the story
- The game felt like it dragged on a lot and kept going when it should have ended
- The final confrontation being absurdly difficult; it wasn't worth my time
So with that out of the way, I can start talking about what I did like about the game.
[Story]
The premise is quite simple, but I enjoyed it. It starts off explaining how mankind was at constant war with each other. 5 beings went around and sang their songs that soothed the hearts of men and ended the wars. These beings went on to become known as intoners who the men worshiped like gods. They were sisters of serenity that brought peace back to mankind. But then there was a 6th sister that wanted to kill them all and take their powers for her own: Zero. Zero charged into the castle with a dragon named Michael to slay her sisters. As Zero fought each one of her sisters, they retreated one by one only to have a dragon summoned by them counter-attack Zero. Michael dove in and blocked the attack aimed at Zero. It is assumed that Michael perished shortly after as the player is introduced to a tiny Dragon named Mikhail. After a time of recovery from the loss of her arm, Zero set out to kill her sisters again. One by one, she hunted down her sisters: Five, Four, Three, Two, and One. Each Intoner has a disciple that helps in summoning an angel to fight for them. After killing each Intoner, Zero takes their disciple and has sex with them every night. I kid you not, that is brought up a lot in the game (but nothing is ever shown). There's Dito the sadist, Decadus the masochist, Octa the old man with an insatiable sexual appetite, and Cent the handsome idiot. They all join Zero in the slaughter of soldiers, trolls, beasts, and all sorts of enemies to reach the other intoners for Zero to kill. After getting 3 different endings, it is finally revealed why they were on this journey in the first place. Zero had died, supposedly. But she awoke and with great power. She found out that there was a parasite living within her in the form of a flower and would one day bloom and destroy the world. She tried killing herself when she found out only to be reborn out of the flower again and again. Then she tried pulling out the flower from her eye only to have spawned 5 copies of herself. They, in a sense, became her sisters and ensured the power of the parasite to come to fruition to destroy the world. The only way to destroy that power was the strength of a dragon. Zero had met Michael and agreed to cooperate in order to save the world. They would kill all 5 sisters and then Zero would sacrifice herself to Michael in order stop the end of the world. It is revealed in the middle of the game that right before Michael died, he respawned but lost all of his memories. And that is how Mikhail became to be. The responsibility fell on Mikhail to end it all, and that meant killing Zero.
So why did I like the story? It was different and I was able to empathize with the characters. It sounds so contradictory when Zero wants to save the world from destruction yet slaughters hundreds to thousands along the way to do so. It's contradictory for the Intoners to bring peace to the people when they will ultimately become the end of all living things. I felt the whole theme around the story was about being alone. Zero didn't really face the quest alone because she had Michael. Although short, that opening scene reveals a very intimate camaraderie between the two. Zero had a lot of confidence, faith and trust in Michael while he, as an all mighty dragon with wisdom and power, had this caring nature for Zero which ultimately got him killed as he shielded the blast for Zero in the beginning of the game. Mikhail is a totally different character. He is depicted as young, innocent, naive, and playful. He is incredibly faithful to Zero, yet Zero consistently yells and insults him throughout the game. You would think that Zero would slowly become attached to Mikhail, but near the end of the game, I had a different impression. She had already loved him from the beginning, but only she knew of the deal that she and Michael had; that Michael would be the one to end her to prevent the end of the world. With Mikhail's innocence, I can't help but feel like Zero tried her best to prevent Mikhail from being too attached to Zero so that he would be able to fulfill that same responsibility. It was also a way for Mikhail to toughen up and never settle for being weak, and it really reflected at the very last confrontation (as much as I hated the gameplay), because it was very difficult but it befell to Mikhail to see it through and destroy the flower. That's one instance of showing loneliness in the game. Zero always felt isolated. Even when asked about her "friends" the disciples, she retorts and says she didn't have friends and never had any to begin with. She didn't want to become attached or have anyone attached to her. But it was clear that she enjoyed the company, as weird as they were, as in one arch, she decides to save them before they disappear and in another arch she looked pained when they left. Zero couldn't trust anyone else to help her kill her sisters as they were the ones that brought peace back to the land. Suddenly, that contradiction I stated earlier makes sense, doesn't it? She killed all that impeded her way because no one would believe her or help her. And with the Intoners having such a large influence over the people of the land, the men would fight and die for them which is what the parasite probably wants. The only sister that understood their purpose in the world was "One" but she didn't trust Zero to follow through and wanted to fulfill the same goal Zero had. In the end, the one who was truly left alone was Mikhail, which is why it was such an emotional scene when Zero finally told Mikhail that he had gotten stronger as he was about ready to destroy the flower (Shown in beginning of video above). It's a very sad story in contrast to the abundant humor the game had throughout the journey, but it was one that I enjoyed.
[Humor]
I heard the first two Drakengard games were very dark and moody (I have the 2nd one, but haven't played it). So it was kind of a shock to fans when they realized how much humor was put into the dialogues, cinematics, and characters. A lot of the humor is vulgar, slapstick, or twisted/dark jokes as the writers said they wanted to write for a mature audience. You can bet there will be a lot of bantering between the disciples when there's a sadist, masochist, sex maniac, and a big idiot. The writers know the game is extremely violent, offensive, and has tons of innuendos, so they just roll with it and turn it into something funny (as messed up as it sometimes seems).
Start the video at 3:56
[Characters]
Zero - Zero is sort of a tsundere. She isn't really honest with herself, but she has a very good reason for being so. She knows that she must end her life at the end of this journey and doesn't want to be attached to anyone or have anyone attached to her. She's often foul-mouthed, angry, and very frank with her words. But there are times she shows weakness of losing people around her. It is most evident whenever she loses Mikhail. I kind of want to know what kind of person she was before she was infested with a parasite, but I realize that it's not important for the player to know at all in her current journey. I kind of liked Zero's character. She's very tough, but her rare moments of compassion reminds the player that she still human emotions and isn't just a killing machine. If anything, she feels like a really lonely character to me. She knows she's not a hero and not a savior. There was no good guys and bad guys; there were only countless victims. She just wants to set things right and take responsibility.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five - It's difficult to remember boss battle characters sometimes in videogames because you encounter them and defeat them within several minutes. The 5 sisters make reoccurring appearances and you'll face them multiple times. It kind of leaves an impression after a while and you start to pick up the differences between them. If anything, Two, Three, Four, and Five were more for dramatic and humorous encounters. One was the most serious one of the sisters and the only one that seemed to understand what was going on as well as being the only one to have not been driven mad by the flower's power. She wants the same thing as Zero, but neither one trusts each other with the job. Four left the biggest impression on me because she seemed very sincere about loving Zero and not wanting to fight. Perhaps the five sisters each possess a piece of Zero's original personality.
The Disciples: Dito, Decadus, Octa, Cent - This band of weirdos made the journey less boring. You can bring two of them into battle with you to aggro some of the enemies off of you and help you in a fight. Along the way, they'll have plenty of things to say. They'll complain about their situation, give advice, and yell at one another. At one point in the game, Mikhail felt like it was so much quieter when three of the disciples were gone. Even the one disciple felt off without the company of the others around. It was then I started seeing the theme of "loneliness" in the game's story. As messed up as he was, Dito was one of my favorites. The way he reveled in violence and the pain he inflicted was entertaining and felt fitting with all the fighting you do.
Mikhail - He was a rather lovable character. He was so carefree and childish that I couldn't help but feel sorry for him sometimes whenever he receives a barrage of insults from the party. But I can see why his character works so well as he's so contradictory to the rest of the game. That contrast made him stand out. He didn't like fighting and definitely didn't like killing. He wants to do his best and be praised only to mess up and get yelled at. He didn't really care about anything as long as it made Zero happy. So it was a really sad parting for him to say goodbye to Zero. He wanted to become strong for Zero and was finally able to prove it on the very last confrontation where he bested the flower's song and finished it off.
[Combat]
One of my complaints was about combat, but I also kind of liked parts of it. I didn't like how clunky combat felt. There are many hack-n-slash games where starting a combo meant you were locked in animation until it's over. You can't block, evade, jump, or cancel the animation in any way. This meant getting hit when you're fighting something else. I also didn't like how the efficiency of two our of four of the weapons dropped shortly after you acquire them. They hold almost no potential usefulness throughout the game. You only needed to use swords for multiple enemies and the spear/lance for single-targets. What I did like is the simplicity of combat and its challenges. The game is challenging, and sometimes not in very fair ways. But to make the battle possible, you need to utilize everything you've got. This means dodging, block/parry, buying and using items, upgrading weapons, going into intoner mode, switching between weapons, and sometimes using combos. There are a lot of games where I end up saving up all the money and items and never using them because they were never needed. Other times, there are games where you don't even use certain moves. But the game's design and difficulty forces you to utilize them all in order to get through the game, and I think that's great. Through its simplicity, there's a lot of planning and techniques you must use to survive and overcome impossible situations. I honestly think it's impossible to play the end levels without Strength and Defense potions because enemies hits too hard and frequently in large groups while having too much HP to be able to be defeated normally. Also, I love how the music has an added operatic voice melded in whenever you go into intoner mode. That part in presentation made for such dramatic effect and lasting impression. It reminds me of Chaos Legion where the music changes whenever you bring out your summons or in Final Fantasy XIII-2 where the music gets more aggressive when an enemy is close by.
[Presentation]
This opening cinematic was breathtaking and is sadly the only one with this kind of quality. This made me really disappointed in the in-game graphics with some of the blocky models and outdated textures. I was thinking that maybe they lowered the assets so that it would run smoothly, but even Dynasty Warriors 7 & 8 didn't look so bad when they have almost 4-5 times more enemies on screen than this game. Even then, the game's frame rate would drop a lot whenever there's an explosion. Lots of levels are reused, but are presented differently each time (different atmosphere/color tone, going backwards from last time). There were many problems and flaws with its presentation. But what made up for it was the writing and audio. The jokes and humor were actually pretty good and gave a good laugh throughout the journey. And even though I didn't like how the English dub changed the personalities of the characters, I felt like their delivery really accentuated the type of characters they've changed. And then there's the music. I think I might have given up on this game too half-way if it weren't for the magnificent music that ranged from being very aggressive and loud to mellow melodies of sorrow.
Arrival of the Guards – Battle Stage
Prevolt / Battleground
防来／戦場
This is possibly my favorite track and probably even the director's favorite because it was used so many times. There are three boss fights that use this melody!
Arrival of the Guards – Zophiel
Prevolt / Zophiel
防来／ゾフィエル
That energy and that haunting melody spends a chill down my spine. I really liked Four that much more because of her Boss Fight songs.
Kuroi Uta -black song- (International)
クロイウタ／日本国外向け製品収録版
The 8 minute final confrontation song is also amazing too (the video on the very top) called The Last Song. The music really made for an enjoyable experience. Without it, I don't even know what to think of how the game would be like.
I'm sad I couldn't truly finish the game, but I'm really happy that I played it through to at least that part. It was funny, sad, and beautiful. Sadly, I don't think it's a game I can easily recommend.
The confrontation begins at 2:30
Honestly, an ending like this is absolutely beautiful and memorable. But the problem is that the gameplay side of this section is absurdly difficult and unforgiving that it didn't feel worth practicing over and over for. It's a music-rhythm mini-game that goes to Game Over if you miss even one note. I tried 7-10 times before I gave up. The long loading times between each retry didn't help encourage me either.
So there's a lot I want to say about this game, but I'd rather keep it short and simple. I want to start out by saying that this game has flaws and problems, but I don't regret playing through it. I guess it'd be best if I just complained about everything I didn't like first before explaining why this game is even worth talking about.
Cons:
- In-game graphics is garbage compared to what the opening cinematic looks like
- Lots of textures and models look outdated
- Many levels are reused; you will play each level 2-4 times throughout the game
- There isn't much depth or backstory to any of the characters, even though I like them
- Long loading times, despite eating up 5 GB worth of hard drive space to install the game
- Dubbing; the English voice overs weren't bad, but they changed the characters' personality
- Combat is largely because of combos and camera angle
- Usefulness of weapons; knuckles and chakrams were largely useless throughout the game
- Some enemies would strike for 25%-75% of your health, and you'd fight multiples of them
- Some levels throw so many enemies out that they literally block the view
- Forcing the player to gather 100% of the weapons to progress the story
- The game felt like it dragged on a lot and kept going when it should have ended
- The final confrontation being absurdly difficult; it wasn't worth my time
So with that out of the way, I can start talking about what I did like about the game.
[Story]
The premise is quite simple, but I enjoyed it. It starts off explaining how mankind was at constant war with each other. 5 beings went around and sang their songs that soothed the hearts of men and ended the wars. These beings went on to become known as intoners who the men worshiped like gods. They were sisters of serenity that brought peace back to mankind. But then there was a 6th sister that wanted to kill them all and take their powers for her own: Zero. Zero charged into the castle with a dragon named Michael to slay her sisters. As Zero fought each one of her sisters, they retreated one by one only to have a dragon summoned by them counter-attack Zero. Michael dove in and blocked the attack aimed at Zero. It is assumed that Michael perished shortly after as the player is introduced to a tiny Dragon named Mikhail. After a time of recovery from the loss of her arm, Zero set out to kill her sisters again. One by one, she hunted down her sisters: Five, Four, Three, Two, and One. Each Intoner has a disciple that helps in summoning an angel to fight for them. After killing each Intoner, Zero takes their disciple and has sex with them every night. I kid you not, that is brought up a lot in the game (but nothing is ever shown). There's Dito the sadist, Decadus the masochist, Octa the old man with an insatiable sexual appetite, and Cent the handsome idiot. They all join Zero in the slaughter of soldiers, trolls, beasts, and all sorts of enemies to reach the other intoners for Zero to kill. After getting 3 different endings, it is finally revealed why they were on this journey in the first place. Zero had died, supposedly. But she awoke and with great power. She found out that there was a parasite living within her in the form of a flower and would one day bloom and destroy the world. She tried killing herself when she found out only to be reborn out of the flower again and again. Then she tried pulling out the flower from her eye only to have spawned 5 copies of herself. They, in a sense, became her sisters and ensured the power of the parasite to come to fruition to destroy the world. The only way to destroy that power was the strength of a dragon. Zero had met Michael and agreed to cooperate in order to save the world. They would kill all 5 sisters and then Zero would sacrifice herself to Michael in order stop the end of the world. It is revealed in the middle of the game that right before Michael died, he respawned but lost all of his memories. And that is how Mikhail became to be. The responsibility fell on Mikhail to end it all, and that meant killing Zero.
So why did I like the story? It was different and I was able to empathize with the characters. It sounds so contradictory when Zero wants to save the world from destruction yet slaughters hundreds to thousands along the way to do so. It's contradictory for the Intoners to bring peace to the people when they will ultimately become the end of all living things. I felt the whole theme around the story was about being alone. Zero didn't really face the quest alone because she had Michael. Although short, that opening scene reveals a very intimate camaraderie between the two. Zero had a lot of confidence, faith and trust in Michael while he, as an all mighty dragon with wisdom and power, had this caring nature for Zero which ultimately got him killed as he shielded the blast for Zero in the beginning of the game. Mikhail is a totally different character. He is depicted as young, innocent, naive, and playful. He is incredibly faithful to Zero, yet Zero consistently yells and insults him throughout the game. You would think that Zero would slowly become attached to Mikhail, but near the end of the game, I had a different impression. She had already loved him from the beginning, but only she knew of the deal that she and Michael had; that Michael would be the one to end her to prevent the end of the world. With Mikhail's innocence, I can't help but feel like Zero tried her best to prevent Mikhail from being too attached to Zero so that he would be able to fulfill that same responsibility. It was also a way for Mikhail to toughen up and never settle for being weak, and it really reflected at the very last confrontation (as much as I hated the gameplay), because it was very difficult but it befell to Mikhail to see it through and destroy the flower. That's one instance of showing loneliness in the game. Zero always felt isolated. Even when asked about her "friends" the disciples, she retorts and says she didn't have friends and never had any to begin with. She didn't want to become attached or have anyone attached to her. But it was clear that she enjoyed the company, as weird as they were, as in one arch, she decides to save them before they disappear and in another arch she looked pained when they left. Zero couldn't trust anyone else to help her kill her sisters as they were the ones that brought peace back to the land. Suddenly, that contradiction I stated earlier makes sense, doesn't it? She killed all that impeded her way because no one would believe her or help her. And with the Intoners having such a large influence over the people of the land, the men would fight and die for them which is what the parasite probably wants. The only sister that understood their purpose in the world was "One" but she didn't trust Zero to follow through and wanted to fulfill the same goal Zero had. In the end, the one who was truly left alone was Mikhail, which is why it was such an emotional scene when Zero finally told Mikhail that he had gotten stronger as he was about ready to destroy the flower (Shown in beginning of video above). It's a very sad story in contrast to the abundant humor the game had throughout the journey, but it was one that I enjoyed.
[Humor]
I heard the first two Drakengard games were very dark and moody (I have the 2nd one, but haven't played it). So it was kind of a shock to fans when they realized how much humor was put into the dialogues, cinematics, and characters. A lot of the humor is vulgar, slapstick, or twisted/dark jokes as the writers said they wanted to write for a mature audience. You can bet there will be a lot of bantering between the disciples when there's a sadist, masochist, sex maniac, and a big idiot. The writers know the game is extremely violent, offensive, and has tons of innuendos, so they just roll with it and turn it into something funny (as messed up as it sometimes seems).
Start the video at 3:56
[Characters]
Zero - Zero is sort of a tsundere. She isn't really honest with herself, but she has a very good reason for being so. She knows that she must end her life at the end of this journey and doesn't want to be attached to anyone or have anyone attached to her. She's often foul-mouthed, angry, and very frank with her words. But there are times she shows weakness of losing people around her. It is most evident whenever she loses Mikhail. I kind of want to know what kind of person she was before she was infested with a parasite, but I realize that it's not important for the player to know at all in her current journey. I kind of liked Zero's character. She's very tough, but her rare moments of compassion reminds the player that she still human emotions and isn't just a killing machine. If anything, she feels like a really lonely character to me. She knows she's not a hero and not a savior. There was no good guys and bad guys; there were only countless victims. She just wants to set things right and take responsibility.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five - It's difficult to remember boss battle characters sometimes in videogames because you encounter them and defeat them within several minutes. The 5 sisters make reoccurring appearances and you'll face them multiple times. It kind of leaves an impression after a while and you start to pick up the differences between them. If anything, Two, Three, Four, and Five were more for dramatic and humorous encounters. One was the most serious one of the sisters and the only one that seemed to understand what was going on as well as being the only one to have not been driven mad by the flower's power. She wants the same thing as Zero, but neither one trusts each other with the job. Four left the biggest impression on me because she seemed very sincere about loving Zero and not wanting to fight. Perhaps the five sisters each possess a piece of Zero's original personality.
The Disciples: Dito, Decadus, Octa, Cent - This band of weirdos made the journey less boring. You can bring two of them into battle with you to aggro some of the enemies off of you and help you in a fight. Along the way, they'll have plenty of things to say. They'll complain about their situation, give advice, and yell at one another. At one point in the game, Mikhail felt like it was so much quieter when three of the disciples were gone. Even the one disciple felt off without the company of the others around. It was then I started seeing the theme of "loneliness" in the game's story. As messed up as he was, Dito was one of my favorites. The way he reveled in violence and the pain he inflicted was entertaining and felt fitting with all the fighting you do.
Mikhail - He was a rather lovable character. He was so carefree and childish that I couldn't help but feel sorry for him sometimes whenever he receives a barrage of insults from the party. But I can see why his character works so well as he's so contradictory to the rest of the game. That contrast made him stand out. He didn't like fighting and definitely didn't like killing. He wants to do his best and be praised only to mess up and get yelled at. He didn't really care about anything as long as it made Zero happy. So it was a really sad parting for him to say goodbye to Zero. He wanted to become strong for Zero and was finally able to prove it on the very last confrontation where he bested the flower's song and finished it off.
[Combat]
One of my complaints was about combat, but I also kind of liked parts of it. I didn't like how clunky combat felt. There are many hack-n-slash games where starting a combo meant you were locked in animation until it's over. You can't block, evade, jump, or cancel the animation in any way. This meant getting hit when you're fighting something else. I also didn't like how the efficiency of two our of four of the weapons dropped shortly after you acquire them. They hold almost no potential usefulness throughout the game. You only needed to use swords for multiple enemies and the spear/lance for single-targets. What I did like is the simplicity of combat and its challenges. The game is challenging, and sometimes not in very fair ways. But to make the battle possible, you need to utilize everything you've got. This means dodging, block/parry, buying and using items, upgrading weapons, going into intoner mode, switching between weapons, and sometimes using combos. There are a lot of games where I end up saving up all the money and items and never using them because they were never needed. Other times, there are games where you don't even use certain moves. But the game's design and difficulty forces you to utilize them all in order to get through the game, and I think that's great. Through its simplicity, there's a lot of planning and techniques you must use to survive and overcome impossible situations. I honestly think it's impossible to play the end levels without Strength and Defense potions because enemies hits too hard and frequently in large groups while having too much HP to be able to be defeated normally. Also, I love how the music has an added operatic voice melded in whenever you go into intoner mode. That part in presentation made for such dramatic effect and lasting impression. It reminds me of Chaos Legion where the music changes whenever you bring out your summons or in Final Fantasy XIII-2 where the music gets more aggressive when an enemy is close by.
[Presentation]
This opening cinematic was breathtaking and is sadly the only one with this kind of quality. This made me really disappointed in the in-game graphics with some of the blocky models and outdated textures. I was thinking that maybe they lowered the assets so that it would run smoothly, but even Dynasty Warriors 7 & 8 didn't look so bad when they have almost 4-5 times more enemies on screen than this game. Even then, the game's frame rate would drop a lot whenever there's an explosion. Lots of levels are reused, but are presented differently each time (different atmosphere/color tone, going backwards from last time). There were many problems and flaws with its presentation. But what made up for it was the writing and audio. The jokes and humor were actually pretty good and gave a good laugh throughout the journey. And even though I didn't like how the English dub changed the personalities of the characters, I felt like their delivery really accentuated the type of characters they've changed. And then there's the music. I think I might have given up on this game too half-way if it weren't for the magnificent music that ranged from being very aggressive and loud to mellow melodies of sorrow.
Arrival of the Guards – Battle Stage
Prevolt / Battleground
防来／戦場
This is possibly my favorite track and probably even the director's favorite because it was used so many times. There are three boss fights that use this melody!
Arrival of the Guards – Zophiel
Prevolt / Zophiel
防来／ゾフィエル
That energy and that haunting melody spends a chill down my spine. I really liked Four that much more because of her Boss Fight songs.
Kuroi Uta -black song- (International)
クロイウタ／日本国外向け製品収録版
The 8 minute final confrontation song is also amazing too (the video on the very top) called The Last Song. The music really made for an enjoyable experience. Without it, I don't even know what to think of how the game would be like.
I'm sad I couldn't truly finish the game, but I'm really happy that I played it through to at least that part. It was funny, sad, and beautiful. Sadly, I don't think it's a game I can easily recommend.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Ready for Steam Summer Sale!
A few days ago, the dates for the Steam Summer Sale seemed to have been leaked on a Russian Social Network post. Dates for seasonal sales have been getting leaked for the past few years because a developer, publisher, or editorial "accidentally" slips it out. If the dates are real, then Steam Summer Sale will be between June 11th to June 20th. As usual, I'm not exactly ready to buy more games when I still have a backlog to get through; however, there are a few games I'd be willing to buy and play right away if they're cheap enough.
[Lords of the Fallen]
I highly doubt it'll get a sale under $20, but this game's on the top of my wishlist as I'm kind of craving for something like the Souls series, but isn't Souls because I'm not quite ready to play it yet (Bought Dark Souls 2 and haven't played it yet). Lords of the Fallen received mixed reviews of people loving it and people hating it. It's obvious its influence and inspiration comes from the souls series, so it's not surprising a lot of people compare it to those games. But I think that is why I'm so interested in the game. It's designed to be like a Souls game, but what are they offering different to make it stand out on its own? If anything, this is the one game I kind of want above all the rest this Summer Steam Sale, but I don't know if I'm willing to pay anything over $20.
[Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires]
I never did get to play any of the Empires iteration of the Dynasty Warriors series. I want to give one a try, but the one for PS3 is digital only (I think) and my PS3 is already stretching thin for Hard Drive Disk Space. So I was a bit excited to hear it made it onto steam. The problem now is that a lot of user reviews complain about the port and how poorly it was handled. So I'm a bit reluctant to spend a bit more on it, if that's the case. But if I know it'll be a smooth experience, I'm pretty sure I can make even $25 worth while. I've been having a Hack-n-Slash craving and I think Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires would be a great game to satiate that hunger. I'm really hoping this gets a good sale.
[Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor]
If Lords of the Fallen doesn't go under $20, I hope this one does. I've heard so many great things about this game and I've already seen it get discounted down to $20 twice if not three times already. I saw a lot of comparison it had with the Assassin's Creed series, but it also seems to be more of an Action-RPG of sorts. I think that's what I'm actually craving for right now: Action-RPGs with a kind of Hack-n-Slash feel. Because I've been having the urge to play Vindictus again, but haven't since I've been trying to complete games. I guess I've also been having craving for Metroidvanias, possibly because of the announcement of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Out of the three games listed so far, it has the greatest potential for a good sale price.
[Cooperative Multiplayer Games]
I'm trying to look for new multiplayer games I can play with my friends because we kind of burnt out everything we have with multiple games completed several times already. Dying Light is one game I'm looking out for, but it came out so recently that it doesn't seem like it will go down in price by all that much. Borderlands: Pre-Sequel also hasn't been getting much of a discount, but I'm not too excited to play it anyways since I still feel kind of burnt out from playing Borderlands 2. Divinity: Original Sin hasn't been getting much of a discount ever since its launch last June, which I'm kind of happy for the developers because they put a lot of love and passion into this game and it seems like it's doing incredibly well. It's definitely one of the higher priority multiplayer games I want to get since it has lots of depth and gameplay hour potential that my friend and I could get out of it.
[Indie Games]
There's a bunch of indie games I'm curious about and want to play. I loved Hotline Miami 2, so I'm keen on playing the sequel. Titan Souls boasted itself for being a difficult game and I seem to want to play challenging games recently. Perhaps I've been playing too many games on "Easy". Among others, there's Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Broforce (Which still isn't out of Early Access!), Freedom Planet, Wings of Vi, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and the Shadowcrypt. Everything else, I feel like I can kind of wait for (though it'd be nice to get Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for $5). More recent games like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Bladestorm: Nightmare, Ys VI, and Axiom Verge will probably get a small discount if any. So I'm going to have to wait if I want those for cheaper.
[Dragon Age: Inquisition]
I know this isn't on Steam, but other digital distribution services often have sales alongside Steam Seasonal sales. Besides playing the main game, I'm also interested in the Online co-op multiplayer mode. From what I've researched, there are 4 playable maps and 16 unlockable classes to choose from. If I can find friends to play with, I'd be willing to pay more than $20 for it. But right now, I'm still kind of on the fence about it. If I'm just going to be playing the single-player mode, I rather just wait for a heavier discount.
Steam Summer Sale starts next Thursday (if the leaked dates are true) which isn't too long from now. But anticipating the sales will make these next two weeks drag by. I need to work hard these next two weeks because I know I'll be heavily distracted once Steam Summer Sales begin.
[Lords of the Fallen]
I highly doubt it'll get a sale under $20, but this game's on the top of my wishlist as I'm kind of craving for something like the Souls series, but isn't Souls because I'm not quite ready to play it yet (Bought Dark Souls 2 and haven't played it yet). Lords of the Fallen received mixed reviews of people loving it and people hating it. It's obvious its influence and inspiration comes from the souls series, so it's not surprising a lot of people compare it to those games. But I think that is why I'm so interested in the game. It's designed to be like a Souls game, but what are they offering different to make it stand out on its own? If anything, this is the one game I kind of want above all the rest this Summer Steam Sale, but I don't know if I'm willing to pay anything over $20.
[Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires]
I never did get to play any of the Empires iteration of the Dynasty Warriors series. I want to give one a try, but the one for PS3 is digital only (I think) and my PS3 is already stretching thin for Hard Drive Disk Space. So I was a bit excited to hear it made it onto steam. The problem now is that a lot of user reviews complain about the port and how poorly it was handled. So I'm a bit reluctant to spend a bit more on it, if that's the case. But if I know it'll be a smooth experience, I'm pretty sure I can make even $25 worth while. I've been having a Hack-n-Slash craving and I think Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires would be a great game to satiate that hunger. I'm really hoping this gets a good sale.
[Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor]
If Lords of the Fallen doesn't go under $20, I hope this one does. I've heard so many great things about this game and I've already seen it get discounted down to $20 twice if not three times already. I saw a lot of comparison it had with the Assassin's Creed series, but it also seems to be more of an Action-RPG of sorts. I think that's what I'm actually craving for right now: Action-RPGs with a kind of Hack-n-Slash feel. Because I've been having the urge to play Vindictus again, but haven't since I've been trying to complete games. I guess I've also been having craving for Metroidvanias, possibly because of the announcement of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Out of the three games listed so far, it has the greatest potential for a good sale price.
[Cooperative Multiplayer Games]
I'm trying to look for new multiplayer games I can play with my friends because we kind of burnt out everything we have with multiple games completed several times already. Dying Light is one game I'm looking out for, but it came out so recently that it doesn't seem like it will go down in price by all that much. Borderlands: Pre-Sequel also hasn't been getting much of a discount, but I'm not too excited to play it anyways since I still feel kind of burnt out from playing Borderlands 2. Divinity: Original Sin hasn't been getting much of a discount ever since its launch last June, which I'm kind of happy for the developers because they put a lot of love and passion into this game and it seems like it's doing incredibly well. It's definitely one of the higher priority multiplayer games I want to get since it has lots of depth and gameplay hour potential that my friend and I could get out of it.
[Indie Games]
There's a bunch of indie games I'm curious about and want to play. I loved Hotline Miami 2, so I'm keen on playing the sequel. Titan Souls boasted itself for being a difficult game and I seem to want to play challenging games recently. Perhaps I've been playing too many games on "Easy". Among others, there's Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Broforce (Which still isn't out of Early Access!), Freedom Planet, Wings of Vi, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and the Shadowcrypt. Everything else, I feel like I can kind of wait for (though it'd be nice to get Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for $5). More recent games like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Bladestorm: Nightmare, Ys VI, and Axiom Verge will probably get a small discount if any. So I'm going to have to wait if I want those for cheaper.
[Dragon Age: Inquisition]
I know this isn't on Steam, but other digital distribution services often have sales alongside Steam Seasonal sales. Besides playing the main game, I'm also interested in the Online co-op multiplayer mode. From what I've researched, there are 4 playable maps and 16 unlockable classes to choose from. If I can find friends to play with, I'd be willing to pay more than $20 for it. But right now, I'm still kind of on the fence about it. If I'm just going to be playing the single-player mode, I rather just wait for a heavier discount.
Steam Summer Sale starts next Thursday (if the leaked dates are true) which isn't too long from now. But anticipating the sales will make these next two weeks drag by. I need to work hard these next two weeks because I know I'll be heavily distracted once Steam Summer Sales begin.
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