The past few months have been pretty crazy. This one week alone was very crazy. I'm not going to talk too much about politics, but I want to mention it a little.
So to get it out of the way, we all witnessed Donald Trump winning the electoral votes to become the next president of the United States of America. I don't talk about politics. For one, I am ignorant to how things exactly work in our government and the people within it. And the other is that I simply don't have much interest in learning about it. But with this presidential run, I have talked more about politics than I could ever remember doing. I think that happened to a lot of people in our nation this past year. A lot more people will want to educate themselves about politics and be more involved in the next presidential run. There were a lot of concerns for how the people would react after Trump's victory (of which many came true: racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc.), public outcry and riots, economic stability, international relations, etc. The future of our world, not just America, seems terrifying. All we can do now is bare through it and work together as a nation to make sure things don't go to ruins. I rather not go into details on this subject matter any further, so I'll stop there.
So in October, I was suffering from headaches. They were pretty bad. I had pain in the back of the head, side, sometimes right where my eye brows were. My mom mentioned my neck possibly not getting good support while sleeping or that it was bent at too much of an angle. I slept a few nights without a pillow and the headaches stopped. But it caused other problems. It was hard to fall asleep, I would wake up in the middle of the night more frequently, I would feel dizzy in the morning, and I was suffering upper back pains. Eventually, I replaced my mattress with a new one because my old mattress has been used for 16 years and concave inwards. It fixed my upper back pains and I was able to sleep on a pillow again. During the time I had the headaches, my vision started going blurry. I noticed that my left eye was very blurry while my right eye was quite sharp. Then it got to a point where both my eyes felt blurry. Now that I've been sleeping better, my vision went semi-normal again. My left eye is still sees things a bit blurry when they're at a fair distance.
Just last Saturday, I seemed to have caught a minor cold. I had a scratchy throat and near evening time I started feeling body pains all over my muscles and joints. It didn't seem that bad and I didn't really complain. But then the next day, allergies hit me hard and I started going through the same symptoms as usual: Itchy eyes, itchy nose, itchy ears, watery eyes, stuffy/runny nose, sneezing and to add to all that I had a bad cough. I continued having a bad cough throughout the rest of the week which left me with chest and upper back pains. The cough is mostly gone now, but I've been suffering from headaches again the past 2-3 days. Despite all these ailments, good things were also happening that really cheered me up. On Sunday, my parents went with me to Costco and bought me a full 88-key music keyboard to practice piano and record music with. On Tuesday, my dad asked me if I "wanted a macbook" all of a sudden and I said I wouldn't want an apple computer. He offered to buy me a new laptop and give my current one to him and my mom to use. I'm waiting for it to arrive in the mail right now and am really excited since there are a lot of games I'm not able to play that I've tried this year. And to put the cherry on top, my dad came home with a Playstation 4 on Thursday night because it was a great deal ($289 for 500 GB slim with an extra controller and a copy of Uncharted 4). He said he bought it for himself to play Plants vs. Zombies 2, but then I looked it up and realized he was looking at Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2. So I bought some games including the newly released Final Fantasy XV and am hoping to enjoy playing them for the rest of the month as soon as I get the rest of my work done. I'm organizing my computer files to transfer to the new laptop and I also want to finish a few more remixes before the year ends. Here's hoping that the rest of the month will be great and leave a good impression for the year for me and that 2017 will truly be better than this year (I said that last year and this year was pretty awful). Happy Holidays~
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Let's talk about Trillion: God of Destruction [SPOILERS]
Early this year, I had planned out some pre-orders for the first half of the year. I had a good idea of what games I wanted to pre-order and put them in, but then I saw a game called "Trillion: God of Destruction" and saw that it was developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory. I seem to gravitate to a lot of the games that have these two companies involved ever since I got Hyperdimension Neptunia. Having a bit of faith in the names of those two companies, I went ahead and pre-ordered Trillion: God of Destruction as well. I did a little bit of research and saw that it was a Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler. I was busy with other games when it released and didn't quite get to play it right away. A month or two after its release, it dropped down to $15 from its original $40 (I got it for $32). I was upset that I paid so much for it when I could have gotten it for a lot less. It was around that time that I decided to start it up and play it. Then I found out that it wasn't a Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler. It only made up a very tiny portion of the game and was its mean of participating in combat.
Trillion: God of Destruction is a Simulation game that mixes elements of management simulation, visual novels, dating simulation, and Rogue-like dungeon crawlers where you ultimately have to take down a monster with a Trillion HP. The plot of the game is that a monster arrives at the gate of hell and starts eating and destroying the underworld. The great overlord of the underworld faces the monster when he hears that his brother's counter-attack had failed. The great overlord also fails to thwart the rampaging monster and meets his demise as well. He then hears a girl's voice calling out to him and offered to save his life if he were to agree to fighting the monster once again and to relinquish his own soul after it is defeated to the girl. He awakens to a patched up, almost zombie-like appearance, version of himself and is to agree that he uses his ability to train each an overlord to fight in his stead using his power. This is where the roller coaster of emotions begins.
The game caught me off-guard on so many different levels that it became one of the more memorable games I played this year. First, I got the genre wrong, then I realized the games doesn't play the way I thought it would (I thought I could choose any character and train them all together, but you don't since you can only train one at a time), and it completely blindsided me when it mentioned "hey, the overlord you're training will probably die". They don't mention this until after you've picked a character and started training them already. In the beginning, you have the choice between 3 of the overlords. I'll be mostly talking about all the characters and overlords. So I started off the game choosing Perpell (the one in orange) because she was incredibly cute. As you choose the overlord's training regiments, you'll also spend time with them, give them gifts, and run into certain events that could reward you, add more to the story, or curse/injure your overlord. For the most part, the game is bright, colorful, light-hearted and funny. But it keeps going back to the theme of despair and absolute hopelessness. I was already informed that the overlord will die if they do no successfully take down Trillion at the beginning of the game, but I had no idea how they would present a character's death. I was expecting a quick and silly "oh, they died" sort of event to occur, but that was not the case.
Characters:
Zeabolos - He's the main character and the Great Overlord that everyone seems to adore. The player assumes the role of Zeabolos and finds that for a leader of the underworld, he is kind-hearted, loyal, and empathetic. You can't help but understand why all the female characters seem to hold affection for him and all his subjects are so loyal and respect him. I really liked him as a character, though as generic as he may be. His comedic reactions in contrast to his more serious attitude was likable.
Faust - I didn't get to play her. You have to do some specific things throughout the game in order to play 3 of the other characters other than the 6 overlords and I didn't want to play the game anymore. Faust is the girl that saves Zeabolos' life and asks for his soul in return after Trillion, the monster attacking the underworld, is destroyed. She has a serious and logical personality that evokes little to no emotion, which often times rub the other characters the wrong way. She's mysterious and has seemingly shady motives throughout the game. It isn't until you get near the end of the true ending that you realize who she is what she's after. She's the daughter of a great overlord of the underworld from another dimension that was destroyed by Trillion and wishes to use Zeabolos' soul to revive her father and restore her dimension and underworld. If you defeat Trillion with Faust, you get her ending in which she refuses to take Zeabolos' soul as she had fallen in love with him from the time they spent together. She then marries Zeabolos and stays with him in his dimension and world.
Perpell - The overlord of gluttony. She's the adorable niece of Zeabolos and daughter of Zeabolos' brother, Astaroth. She's quite child-like and is often seen or heard eating sweets. When Zeabolos' offered the throne of the great overlord to whichever overlord defeats Trillion, Perpell wanted to become the Great Overlord and filled the castle with sweets. She's honest, innocent, and cheerful which easily makes her the most amiable characters in the game. Zeabolos' does his best to be a father figure to Perpell after he makes a promise to his brother in his dying breath that he'd take care of his two daughters. That's why it was the most hardest death to get over when it happened. Perpell was the first overlord I trained and sent out and I had a fatherly attachment to her where I just wanted her to succeed. When Trillion kills an overlord, it does it slowly and you hear the overlord crying out in pain and expressing unfulfilled wishes and regret. I was devastated when Perpell died and wasn't sure if I wanted to continue playing the game. It definitely made me cry. But I was thinking I wouldn't like any of the characters as much as her and decided to continue.
Mammon - The overlord of greed. She's a treasure hunter that likes to track down valuables and pawn them off. She expressed her wish of being the great overlord so she would have access to the royal vaults. I nicknamed her "underboob-girl" just thought of her as the tomboyish thief that did things her way and muscled through everything rather than thinking. But then you learn that she takes all the money she earns from treasure hunting and uses it to better the lives of those in the slums where she was born and raised until she was adopted. She has a difficult time expressing herself and eventually claims that Zeabolos "will belong to her" when she becomes great overlord. I then sensed the pattern within the game: it makes you interact, learn and become attached to a character and then have them die if you fail to kill Trillion. You not only invest time into each of the overlords but emotional investment as well. This made for a good story and character investment, but a cruel ride for your heart.
Levia - The overlord of envy. I really liked Levia, but I knew I would. She's voiced by Imai Asami, who voices Noire (my favorite character from Hyperdimension Neptunia), has a tsundere personality, is the prettiest character out of the 6 overlords. She denies her emotions often, but makes it fairly apparently for the player that she really likes Zeabolos. They're childhood friends and so there is much that the two characters understand of each other. I don't recall what she exactly wanted as great overlord, only that she could be near Zeavolos.
Ashmedia - The overlord of lust. I honestly thought I wouldn't like her very much as the "giant-boobed, 'I love sex'" archetypes are generally my least favorite of characters. She constantly talks about delivering pain to others and enjoy hearing the screams of agony from her victims. She flirts with Zeabolos a lot and makes lewd remarks that causes him to fluster. But then you get into an event where Zeabolos finds Ashmedia more docile when she's usually the domineering one. Zeabolos takes up on Ashmedia's suggestion to "sleep" with her and teases her until she nervously admits that she's "never done this before". Zeabolos is taken aback by this remark and realized Ashmedia is not who everyone thinks she is. Ashmedia then says something along the lines of "the more outgoing and open a girl seems, the more wholesome and pure they actually are". It was just so funny and cute how scared and nervous she looked. She was a girl that was misunderstood and everyone projected their ideas of who she was and she just went with it.
Ruche - The overlord of pride. She's a complicated character. She goes a bit beyond being tsundere. She is the niece of Zeabolos, the older sister of Perpell, and the daughter of Astaroth. She has the princess complex and looks down on everyone, especially Zeabolos. But there are a great number of times where she subtly expresses concern, kindness, and empathy while still trying to hold up a strong front. She's proud of her own abilities and expects a lot from herself and those around her. But she's not very honest about her feelings and it leaves a lot of confusion for everyone. She'll often scold Zeabolos for being dense and foolish, yet always reminds him that he's the great overlord and should act like it because she believes in him. She doesn't like being treated like a child and often hints that she actually has feelings for Zeabolos despite being related. She claims that she'll take the title of great overlord and become the greatest leader the underworld has ever known and would be sure to have Zeabolos bow to her abilities. When you fight Trillion with her, you will have to fight a reanimated version of her father who became a messenger for Trillion. When you defeat him, she repeated bashes the body and yells at how it wouldn't die and let her father's spirit rest in piece. When the body finally ceases to move, she breaks down and reveals the broken sad girl that she had held in throughout the game. It was a very emotional moment and felt so bad for her. To be in such an awful situation where she loses her father, then her little sister, then having to fight an abomination of what used to be her father and then having to fight a monster that threatens to destroy her home world, how could I not feel bad for her. If you get her ending, she drags Zeabolos along to help save Faust's father and home dimension rather than having him give up his soul. Years pass and she's shown to be grown up and looking more like an adult. She still expresses her concern of other girls taking Zeabolos away which still hints at her having affection for Zeabolos.
Fegor - The overlord of sloth. The older sister of Zeabolos sleeps throughout the game. She'll be asleep in the middle of the road, in the garden, under the library table, everywhere. But if it gets to the point where she has to train and fight, they start explaining that she is actually incredibly powerful and was once on the front of the war that took place between heaven and the underworld. I didn't think much of her, but she's actually a pretty cute character. She has a certain charm to her. If you get her ending, she just continues to sleep. She also has Zeabolos give her a kiss on the mouth.
Cerberus - Once a fearsome dog-like guardian, Cerberus was turned into a tiny little puppy due to the miasma that Trillion exuded. Towards the path of the true ending, Cerberus is a playable character that fights Trillion. If you get his ending, Zeabolos blows up and becomes a ghost that advises for Cerberus. I didn't get to see any gameplay or events besides the ending for him, so nothing much to say.
Elma - The sickly, younger sister of Zeabolos is a playable character towards the path of the true ending. She takes on the role of an overlord and fights Trillion, of which the power from the ring that each overlord wears that connects to Zeabolos' power cured her of all her illnesses. For her ending, she becomes the great overlord and is said to be an incredible worker on domestic matters. She then expresses her feelings that she has always wanted to be Zeabolos' bride. WHAT?! I honestly didn't see that coming at all. But then she goes on to say that "she'll be happy whoever Zeabolos marries as long as he continues to praise her".
True Ending - Everyone has to die and you have to do very specific things. That is when all the power accumulated from all the overlords flow into Zeabolos where he regains power once again to thwart Trillion once and for all. After defeating Trillion, everyone is suddenly revived and each of them sacrifices a small portion of their souls instead of having Zeabolos give his entire soul to Faust. Everything goes back to normal, and yet everyone is a bit happier, healthier, and stronger.
Which ending did I get? None of them. I played through what I could and couldn't beat Trillion and didn't want to start over with a method I knew I could win with, but I simply did not want to invest anymore time into the game. I spent at least 30-40+ hours on the game without actually finishing it. I mainly wanted to get to know all the characters as best as I could. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and thought the writing for the game was great. The voice acting (for Japanese at least) was incredible and really brought out the personality of each character and their emotions beyond anything the graphics were doing. Gameplay wise, it's rather tedious and monotonous just to get to events and to the actual fights. I laughed a lot, cried a lot, and had some fun fights. I really enjoyed the game for what it was and thought it was quite unique, but it's not a game I could easily recommend due to its difficulty and tedious gameplay. But if you're still interested and don't have a PS Vita, the game is releasing this upcoming Monday on Steam/PC.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/451780/
Trillion: God of Destruction is a Simulation game that mixes elements of management simulation, visual novels, dating simulation, and Rogue-like dungeon crawlers where you ultimately have to take down a monster with a Trillion HP. The plot of the game is that a monster arrives at the gate of hell and starts eating and destroying the underworld. The great overlord of the underworld faces the monster when he hears that his brother's counter-attack had failed. The great overlord also fails to thwart the rampaging monster and meets his demise as well. He then hears a girl's voice calling out to him and offered to save his life if he were to agree to fighting the monster once again and to relinquish his own soul after it is defeated to the girl. He awakens to a patched up, almost zombie-like appearance, version of himself and is to agree that he uses his ability to train each an overlord to fight in his stead using his power. This is where the roller coaster of emotions begins.
The game caught me off-guard on so many different levels that it became one of the more memorable games I played this year. First, I got the genre wrong, then I realized the games doesn't play the way I thought it would (I thought I could choose any character and train them all together, but you don't since you can only train one at a time), and it completely blindsided me when it mentioned "hey, the overlord you're training will probably die". They don't mention this until after you've picked a character and started training them already. In the beginning, you have the choice between 3 of the overlords. I'll be mostly talking about all the characters and overlords. So I started off the game choosing Perpell (the one in orange) because she was incredibly cute. As you choose the overlord's training regiments, you'll also spend time with them, give them gifts, and run into certain events that could reward you, add more to the story, or curse/injure your overlord. For the most part, the game is bright, colorful, light-hearted and funny. But it keeps going back to the theme of despair and absolute hopelessness. I was already informed that the overlord will die if they do no successfully take down Trillion at the beginning of the game, but I had no idea how they would present a character's death. I was expecting a quick and silly "oh, they died" sort of event to occur, but that was not the case.
Characters:
Zeabolos - He's the main character and the Great Overlord that everyone seems to adore. The player assumes the role of Zeabolos and finds that for a leader of the underworld, he is kind-hearted, loyal, and empathetic. You can't help but understand why all the female characters seem to hold affection for him and all his subjects are so loyal and respect him. I really liked him as a character, though as generic as he may be. His comedic reactions in contrast to his more serious attitude was likable.
Faust - I didn't get to play her. You have to do some specific things throughout the game in order to play 3 of the other characters other than the 6 overlords and I didn't want to play the game anymore. Faust is the girl that saves Zeabolos' life and asks for his soul in return after Trillion, the monster attacking the underworld, is destroyed. She has a serious and logical personality that evokes little to no emotion, which often times rub the other characters the wrong way. She's mysterious and has seemingly shady motives throughout the game. It isn't until you get near the end of the true ending that you realize who she is what she's after. She's the daughter of a great overlord of the underworld from another dimension that was destroyed by Trillion and wishes to use Zeabolos' soul to revive her father and restore her dimension and underworld. If you defeat Trillion with Faust, you get her ending in which she refuses to take Zeabolos' soul as she had fallen in love with him from the time they spent together. She then marries Zeabolos and stays with him in his dimension and world.
Perpell - The overlord of gluttony. She's the adorable niece of Zeabolos and daughter of Zeabolos' brother, Astaroth. She's quite child-like and is often seen or heard eating sweets. When Zeabolos' offered the throne of the great overlord to whichever overlord defeats Trillion, Perpell wanted to become the Great Overlord and filled the castle with sweets. She's honest, innocent, and cheerful which easily makes her the most amiable characters in the game. Zeabolos' does his best to be a father figure to Perpell after he makes a promise to his brother in his dying breath that he'd take care of his two daughters. That's why it was the most hardest death to get over when it happened. Perpell was the first overlord I trained and sent out and I had a fatherly attachment to her where I just wanted her to succeed. When Trillion kills an overlord, it does it slowly and you hear the overlord crying out in pain and expressing unfulfilled wishes and regret. I was devastated when Perpell died and wasn't sure if I wanted to continue playing the game. It definitely made me cry. But I was thinking I wouldn't like any of the characters as much as her and decided to continue.
Mammon - The overlord of greed. She's a treasure hunter that likes to track down valuables and pawn them off. She expressed her wish of being the great overlord so she would have access to the royal vaults. I nicknamed her "underboob-girl" just thought of her as the tomboyish thief that did things her way and muscled through everything rather than thinking. But then you learn that she takes all the money she earns from treasure hunting and uses it to better the lives of those in the slums where she was born and raised until she was adopted. She has a difficult time expressing herself and eventually claims that Zeabolos "will belong to her" when she becomes great overlord. I then sensed the pattern within the game: it makes you interact, learn and become attached to a character and then have them die if you fail to kill Trillion. You not only invest time into each of the overlords but emotional investment as well. This made for a good story and character investment, but a cruel ride for your heart.
Levia - The overlord of envy. I really liked Levia, but I knew I would. She's voiced by Imai Asami, who voices Noire (my favorite character from Hyperdimension Neptunia), has a tsundere personality, is the prettiest character out of the 6 overlords. She denies her emotions often, but makes it fairly apparently for the player that she really likes Zeabolos. They're childhood friends and so there is much that the two characters understand of each other. I don't recall what she exactly wanted as great overlord, only that she could be near Zeavolos.
Ashmedia - The overlord of lust. I honestly thought I wouldn't like her very much as the "giant-boobed, 'I love sex'" archetypes are generally my least favorite of characters. She constantly talks about delivering pain to others and enjoy hearing the screams of agony from her victims. She flirts with Zeabolos a lot and makes lewd remarks that causes him to fluster. But then you get into an event where Zeabolos finds Ashmedia more docile when she's usually the domineering one. Zeabolos takes up on Ashmedia's suggestion to "sleep" with her and teases her until she nervously admits that she's "never done this before". Zeabolos is taken aback by this remark and realized Ashmedia is not who everyone thinks she is. Ashmedia then says something along the lines of "the more outgoing and open a girl seems, the more wholesome and pure they actually are". It was just so funny and cute how scared and nervous she looked. She was a girl that was misunderstood and everyone projected their ideas of who she was and she just went with it.
Ruche - The overlord of pride. She's a complicated character. She goes a bit beyond being tsundere. She is the niece of Zeabolos, the older sister of Perpell, and the daughter of Astaroth. She has the princess complex and looks down on everyone, especially Zeabolos. But there are a great number of times where she subtly expresses concern, kindness, and empathy while still trying to hold up a strong front. She's proud of her own abilities and expects a lot from herself and those around her. But she's not very honest about her feelings and it leaves a lot of confusion for everyone. She'll often scold Zeabolos for being dense and foolish, yet always reminds him that he's the great overlord and should act like it because she believes in him. She doesn't like being treated like a child and often hints that she actually has feelings for Zeabolos despite being related. She claims that she'll take the title of great overlord and become the greatest leader the underworld has ever known and would be sure to have Zeabolos bow to her abilities. When you fight Trillion with her, you will have to fight a reanimated version of her father who became a messenger for Trillion. When you defeat him, she repeated bashes the body and yells at how it wouldn't die and let her father's spirit rest in piece. When the body finally ceases to move, she breaks down and reveals the broken sad girl that she had held in throughout the game. It was a very emotional moment and felt so bad for her. To be in such an awful situation where she loses her father, then her little sister, then having to fight an abomination of what used to be her father and then having to fight a monster that threatens to destroy her home world, how could I not feel bad for her. If you get her ending, she drags Zeabolos along to help save Faust's father and home dimension rather than having him give up his soul. Years pass and she's shown to be grown up and looking more like an adult. She still expresses her concern of other girls taking Zeabolos away which still hints at her having affection for Zeabolos.
Fegor - The overlord of sloth. The older sister of Zeabolos sleeps throughout the game. She'll be asleep in the middle of the road, in the garden, under the library table, everywhere. But if it gets to the point where she has to train and fight, they start explaining that she is actually incredibly powerful and was once on the front of the war that took place between heaven and the underworld. I didn't think much of her, but she's actually a pretty cute character. She has a certain charm to her. If you get her ending, she just continues to sleep. She also has Zeabolos give her a kiss on the mouth.
Cerberus - Once a fearsome dog-like guardian, Cerberus was turned into a tiny little puppy due to the miasma that Trillion exuded. Towards the path of the true ending, Cerberus is a playable character that fights Trillion. If you get his ending, Zeabolos blows up and becomes a ghost that advises for Cerberus. I didn't get to see any gameplay or events besides the ending for him, so nothing much to say.
Elma - The sickly, younger sister of Zeabolos is a playable character towards the path of the true ending. She takes on the role of an overlord and fights Trillion, of which the power from the ring that each overlord wears that connects to Zeabolos' power cured her of all her illnesses. For her ending, she becomes the great overlord and is said to be an incredible worker on domestic matters. She then expresses her feelings that she has always wanted to be Zeabolos' bride. WHAT?! I honestly didn't see that coming at all. But then she goes on to say that "she'll be happy whoever Zeabolos marries as long as he continues to praise her".
True Ending - Everyone has to die and you have to do very specific things. That is when all the power accumulated from all the overlords flow into Zeabolos where he regains power once again to thwart Trillion once and for all. After defeating Trillion, everyone is suddenly revived and each of them sacrifices a small portion of their souls instead of having Zeabolos give his entire soul to Faust. Everything goes back to normal, and yet everyone is a bit happier, healthier, and stronger.
Which ending did I get? None of them. I played through what I could and couldn't beat Trillion and didn't want to start over with a method I knew I could win with, but I simply did not want to invest anymore time into the game. I spent at least 30-40+ hours on the game without actually finishing it. I mainly wanted to get to know all the characters as best as I could. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and thought the writing for the game was great. The voice acting (for Japanese at least) was incredible and really brought out the personality of each character and their emotions beyond anything the graphics were doing. Gameplay wise, it's rather tedious and monotonous just to get to events and to the actual fights. I laughed a lot, cried a lot, and had some fun fights. I really enjoyed the game for what it was and thought it was quite unique, but it's not a game I could easily recommend due to its difficulty and tedious gameplay. But if you're still interested and don't have a PS Vita, the game is releasing this upcoming Monday on Steam/PC.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/451780/
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Nintendo Switch Revealed
Copy-pasted from what I posted on Facebook:
Summing up how I feel about the Nintendo Switch: “Worried,
but hopeful.” It doesn’t quite do
anything new and innovative that we haven’t really seen before. I think this was ultimately what Nintendo
wanted to do with the Wii
U.
Nintendo finally revealed their new system. The system is a home console/portable system
hybrid where you can play games on the TV like a traditional console and take
it along with you like a portable system. Here's a break-down of my thoughts on
the reveal.
Positive/Excited Opinions:
-Name: I don't particularly like the name, but I think it'll
catch on. At the very least it's straight-forward (much like the N64 being a
64-bit console, the Gamecube was cube shaped). The Wii U name caused confusion
and grief for marketing.
-Portable Console Quality: This might be the first time a
portable system has the exact quality of a console (I haven’t played with the
nVidia Shield so I’m not sure if that counts).
-Company Focus: Having to focus on one system that supports
both home console play and portable gaming on the go gives fans hope that 1st/2nd/3rd
party support will ensure a large library of games will be available for the
system (something that the Wii U sadly lacked).
-Easy LAN parties: Games like Splatoon are generally played
online, but the way it’s previewed they could potentially allow you to connect
several systems together (much like the 3DS does for local multiplayer) for an
easy setup for a LAN party.
-Cartridge-based: I hope this means faster loading for
everything. The one thing that has
bugged me to no end since the introduction of the Sony Playstation is that
Disc-based games take so long to load everything.
Negative/Concerned Opinions:
-Controllers: At a glance, the switchable controller looks
ugly, uncomfortable, and delicate. The
Wii U gamepad and Pro controller were also uncomfortable, but I eventually
adjusted to them, so it might be okay. My
main concern stems from its main functionality to detach from the controller
and onto the portable screen and back: will it wear out quickly? Is it sturdy enough? Will it hold the portable screen securely? Using the mini-controllers also looks
uncomfortable. That dedicated home controller
looks particularly ugly (it makes the Wii U pro controller look amazing). Ugh, I hope these are prototypes…
-Portable screen: When I had the original B&W Gameboy
and Gameboy Color, one of the problems I ran into was that the screen was
unprotected. It would get dirty, oily,
or scratched. But ever since the Gameboy
Advance SP, the clamshell design has protected the screen and buttons while
keeping the device portable. It’s cool
that the Nintendo Switch will have a large screen to play on, but now there isn’t
an implemented method of protecting the screen and it won’t easily fit my
pocket anymore because of the protruding joysticks. These were probably ignored due to conforming
to our tablet culture (the Wii U was half way there, and now it’s all the way
there).
-Battery life: The portable
screen looks small, but it has to be strong enough to run a console quality
game on it. How long would a battery
hold out before it knocks out?
-Exclusive support: It’s great to see that games like Skyrim
and the NBA2K series being supported, but I hope it’s not ONLY going to be
multi-platform game support. The Wii U
tried to regain its core gamer audience that it lost during the Wii Era by
bringing a lot of multi-platform support. The problem is that a lot of people playing
those games will already have another console that plays those games and won’t
go out of their way to pick up the version for the Nintendo console. Games like Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X
and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE really set it apart from other consoles and was a
great addition to the library of games available, but it wasn’t nearly enough
for Wii U. The Nintendo Switch needs a
lot more games like those and I’m hoping that a lot of developers are willing
to create a tons of games fans are craving specifically for the system now that
they only have to focus on one system rather than 2.
-Audio: The Nintendo DS and 3DS finally had stereo audio for
the portable system! From what I can
tell in the preview video, the audio might come out from those holes on the top
of the screen. Does this mean it’s going
back to mono? I hope not! At least there’s still a headphone jack.
Overall, I’m not THAT excited since it doesn’t really seem
to bring anything new to the industry that the Wii, DS, Wii U, and 3DS did;
however, I am hopeful that we’ll get a lot more games for the Nintendo console
this time around. Despite the public
complaints about the last generation of Nintendo systems and its seemingly poor
sales, I really enjoy playing my Wii U and I absolutely love my 3DS which
currently holds a ridiculous backlog of 20 games on it. I wish Nintendo the best and hope they’ll
continue to provide innovative and entertaining games for many more generations.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Autumn Approaches
I really shouldn't have started my last post with "I'm feeling pretty good lately" because about a week later, I wasn't feeling that way. I started to experience hunger feelings with some slight burning, sharp pains around where my heart is, and numb to occasional sharp headaches everyday. It wasn't as bad as all the other times I felt ill in the past year, but it did affects during the time my sister was visiting. I always seem to fall ill around the time I see her.
Anyways, Summer ends in 3 days and it makes me feel a bit sad. I'm not sure what to look forward to nowadays other than release dates of games I really want. Summer has all the events I'm excited for and it's always a bit sad to see it end each year, so it's been the one season in the year that I'm usually excited for now.
It's been a crazy 3 weeks since my last post, and it all passed by so quickly. I had found some VSTs that mimic the soundchip used in the NES and decided to experiment with it and create an original song inspired by Mega Man using the VSTs:
I started up my remix of Elegant Summer right before my sister came home. I wanted to finish and upload it before the Summer ended, but I don't think that's viable anymore unless I rush it, and I don't want to rush this one. I also got word back from the company I applied a job position for and was declined and won't be making it to interviews. I did mention in my last post that I certain I wouldn't be getting the job, but it was still worth it and I really liked the mock-up I created from it. There's another position open that I could apply for, but it's not exactly what I want to do. Still, it's an opportunity and I'll take it. So I'll be working on that in the following weeks.
In the first two weeks of September, I mainly spent it composing Swift Man, starting up the Elegant Summer Remix, and playing lots of God Eater Resurrection. I forgot to mention last post that I had started with God Eater Resurrection that came free with the purchase of God Eater 2 Rage Burst. I am up to 68 hours on GE:R so far and have a bit more to go before completing all missions. I really like the game. It has a good story, fun characters, exciting combat, and lots of depth in character builds. And then in the past week, I spent time with my family with my sister visiting us. We went out to dinner a few times, watched half a dozen movies, played some games, caught up with each other, and went shopping (well, they went shopping while I just walked around with them). I haven't watched movies in a very long time, and so this is the most amount of movies I've watched in years. We watched X-Men Apocalypse, which I didn't like very much. I requested to watch Red Cliff since I've always wanted to watch it but never did. It was split into two movies and each one was 2.5 hours long. It had some slow moments, but it really immersed the viewer into the world of Ancient China. The battles were well choreographed and exciting. I enjoyed it. My sister wanted me to watch Pop Star and Spy. Pop Star was not only funny, but is a great critique in our modern day society. Spy was hilarious and well worth the watch. I also wanted to watch Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. It was pretty much what I expected. The graphics were incredible, but the story was typical and the pacing was slow. My sister left yesterday to go back to her home in SoCal and got back to work today. She seems really stressed about work, even when she was home with us during her visit. I hope she can finish what needs to be done in the next 3 months so that she'll be able to relax during Christmas time.
Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics released last week and I've been waiting for it all Summer. The game has some stuttering problems, can't be closed in-game (gotta Alt+F4) among other problems, but the extra content and a more updated/polished graphics are worth it. The game's still a lot of fun as the original One Way Heroics, but there's some aspects from the original that I still like more (such as status of other players, the retro-like charm, and smoother map scroll). Besides continuing God Eater Resurrection, I'm still playing Resident Evil Revelations 2 and just finished my 3rd run of campaign about 2.5 hours ago on Survival difficulty. Bosses and certain enemies would kill me between 1-2 hits. It wasn't too bad, but decently challenging. It unlocked another difficulty level after that one, but I'm not too keen on playing through it. I might consider playing Countdown mode. Otherwise, I'm going to play Raid mode a bit more and finally call it quits on it. Resident Evil Revelations 2 exceeded my expectations and I really enjoyed it.
As sad as it is to see Summer come to a close, I'm looking forward to playing more fun games and working on new projects. It's been a rough year, but at least the gaming side of things have been great.
Anyways, Summer ends in 3 days and it makes me feel a bit sad. I'm not sure what to look forward to nowadays other than release dates of games I really want. Summer has all the events I'm excited for and it's always a bit sad to see it end each year, so it's been the one season in the year that I'm usually excited for now.
It's been a crazy 3 weeks since my last post, and it all passed by so quickly. I had found some VSTs that mimic the soundchip used in the NES and decided to experiment with it and create an original song inspired by Mega Man using the VSTs:
I started up my remix of Elegant Summer right before my sister came home. I wanted to finish and upload it before the Summer ended, but I don't think that's viable anymore unless I rush it, and I don't want to rush this one. I also got word back from the company I applied a job position for and was declined and won't be making it to interviews. I did mention in my last post that I certain I wouldn't be getting the job, but it was still worth it and I really liked the mock-up I created from it. There's another position open that I could apply for, but it's not exactly what I want to do. Still, it's an opportunity and I'll take it. So I'll be working on that in the following weeks.
In the first two weeks of September, I mainly spent it composing Swift Man, starting up the Elegant Summer Remix, and playing lots of God Eater Resurrection. I forgot to mention last post that I had started with God Eater Resurrection that came free with the purchase of God Eater 2 Rage Burst. I am up to 68 hours on GE:R so far and have a bit more to go before completing all missions. I really like the game. It has a good story, fun characters, exciting combat, and lots of depth in character builds. And then in the past week, I spent time with my family with my sister visiting us. We went out to dinner a few times, watched half a dozen movies, played some games, caught up with each other, and went shopping (well, they went shopping while I just walked around with them). I haven't watched movies in a very long time, and so this is the most amount of movies I've watched in years. We watched X-Men Apocalypse, which I didn't like very much. I requested to watch Red Cliff since I've always wanted to watch it but never did. It was split into two movies and each one was 2.5 hours long. It had some slow moments, but it really immersed the viewer into the world of Ancient China. The battles were well choreographed and exciting. I enjoyed it. My sister wanted me to watch Pop Star and Spy. Pop Star was not only funny, but is a great critique in our modern day society. Spy was hilarious and well worth the watch. I also wanted to watch Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. It was pretty much what I expected. The graphics were incredible, but the story was typical and the pacing was slow. My sister left yesterday to go back to her home in SoCal and got back to work today. She seems really stressed about work, even when she was home with us during her visit. I hope she can finish what needs to be done in the next 3 months so that she'll be able to relax during Christmas time.
Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics released last week and I've been waiting for it all Summer. The game has some stuttering problems, can't be closed in-game (gotta Alt+F4) among other problems, but the extra content and a more updated/polished graphics are worth it. The game's still a lot of fun as the original One Way Heroics, but there's some aspects from the original that I still like more (such as status of other players, the retro-like charm, and smoother map scroll). Besides continuing God Eater Resurrection, I'm still playing Resident Evil Revelations 2 and just finished my 3rd run of campaign about 2.5 hours ago on Survival difficulty. Bosses and certain enemies would kill me between 1-2 hits. It wasn't too bad, but decently challenging. It unlocked another difficulty level after that one, but I'm not too keen on playing through it. I might consider playing Countdown mode. Otherwise, I'm going to play Raid mode a bit more and finally call it quits on it. Resident Evil Revelations 2 exceeded my expectations and I really enjoyed it.
As sad as it is to see Summer come to a close, I'm looking forward to playing more fun games and working on new projects. It's been a rough year, but at least the gaming side of things have been great.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Replaying Games
I'm feeling pretty good lately. I put in the effort of applying for a job at two companies with one of them requiring a mock-up. I created the mock-up throughout the month of July and really liked how it turned out, though I doubt I'll get the job. I'm getting back into the rhythm of exercising and sleeping better (need work on falling asleep earlier though). I finished up my Guilty Gear X - May Remix last week and uploaded it yesterday:
And I've been buying/playing some really fun games recently! I pre-ordered God Eater 2 Rage Burst last week and it released earlier yesterday. I've played a few hours and am anxious to play some more today, but not before I do a little bit of work today. Just this past weekend, I finished up Resident Evil Revelations 2 and found out that there were two endings to the game. I got the bad ending and was flabbergasted when I saw the credits roll because I thought that was the real ending of the game. There were unanswered questions and the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. I then thought of the possibility of multiple endings and looked it up to find that the game indeed had two different endings. I didn't have to play the entire game over again to get the true ending, but I felt compelled to play it again. In my first playthrough, I played on Normal and was pretty thorough in exploration. So I decided to play Easy the 2nd time and have a relaxing experience with the game. And it was a lot of fun! This brings me to discuss today's topic of "replaying games"
Replaying a game, whether it's multiple runs in a row or revisiting it years later, is not uncommon and is something I used to do quite often when I was younger and had significantly fewer games. But post-College years, I have accumulated an insurmountable amount of games of which many can relate to as a backlog. Because of this, it is very rare for me to play a game more than once and I'll usually just move onto the next game. Other times, playing a game just once and ignoring all the side missions/quests is enough for me because the extra content becomes mundane. So it's been quite a surprise to myself that I have replayed a few games multiple times in a row throughout this year. When Mighty No. 9 released, I played through it 2 times normally and then a 3rd time with the DLC character. I even still plan on playing it for the challenge modes and maybe on harder difficulties. Then earlier this month, Another Metroid 2 Remake released as the fan-made remake of Metroid 2 and I ended up playing that game FIVE times in a row! For Resident Evil Revelations 2, I've been wanting to play it since last November when I got it but haven't had the time or Hard Drive space to do so. I was expecting the game to be mildly entertaining and only planned on playing through it once. But I enjoyed it so much that I might consider playing it a 3rd time. I haven't even gone through the DLC stories yet and played much of Raid Mode because God Eater just came out.
So what is it about replaying a game that's so fun and makes it worth the extra time and effort put into it? Well, it's a bit similar to reading a book or watching a movie. When reading a book a 2nd time, certain plot points will be perceived differently because all the plot twists and pivotal points are already known from the first read through. Watching a movie over and over again, you might be inclined to pay attention to different things throughout the film like the background or other character's facial expressions that aren't the focus of the shot while watching a movie again years later might be for the purpose of nostalgia or you'll have a different opinion of the film after so many years. But for books and movies, they don't change. They're the same every time you read/watch through them. For videogames, it's a bit different because you interact with the medium and have control over it. When I was younger, this is how I would play and replay games: I would play the game normally and enjoy the game casually as it was meant to be played; then I would try 100% the game doing everything you possibly can in the game; and lastly I would try to finish the game as quickly as possible. Two games that comes to mind that I have done this with is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Metroid: Zero Mission; both for the Gameboy Advance.
Ultimately, the reasoning for replaying a game is having a different experience with it. With books and movies, the experience will probably have 2-3 different experiences: the first time, knowing everything that'll happen the 2nd time onwards, and revisiting it years later with possibly a different mind set. But with videogames, there are an array of dynamics put into play such as difficulty levels, different modes, and multiple characters.
Let's take Resident Evil Revelations 2 as an example since it's the most recent game I have played through multiple times (twice so far). Here are some reasons for why I would play through the game multiple times if I decided to play it a bunch of times: *I actually did these
-*Playing on Normal difficulty: My first playthrough with a decent amount of challenge.
-*Playing on Easy difficulty: Relaxing experience while getting the true ending.
-Playing on Survival difficulty: A truly challenging experience with low resources
-Playing Countdown Mode: It's kind of like a speedrun!
-Playing Invisible Mode: Enemies are invisible. Makes it that much harder
-Beating the game with knife only: There was a mode like that in the older Resident Evil games
-Beating the game under 3 hours: There's an achievement for that
-Beating the game with only the use of the Pistol
-Playing through Raid mode with all character levels maxed
There's a lot more variations I could probably put in that list. A lot of hardcore speed-runners enjoy setting challenges and mixing it up which keeps the same game fresh. That's why even now, people are still speed-running games back from the NES days. There are 100% runs, fastest runs, one type of weapon runs, blind-folded runs, minimal upgrades runs, etc. I miss enjoying games in this fashion, but I generally don't have the right mindset to be able to do so because going through so many games each year that I rarely feel like I have the time to play a game multiple times. I guess it's a little different for me this year because I decided I wanted to play games I enjoyed as a lot of games I played last year left me frustrated or disappointed. The one exception I've made throughout these past 6 years is revisiting older games, mainly one's I've never completed. I was in the middle of running through Super Metroid again after playing Another Metroid 2 Remake and Metroid 2 earlier this month, but I didn't get to finish because of Resident Evil Revelations 2 and now God Eater 1 & 2. I think I will play Resident Evil Revelations 2 a few more times as well as Mighty No. 9 until I feel completely satisfied before I delete them off my hard drive (with Mighty No. 9, it's not a big problem, but RE:R2 is taking up 18 GB of Hard Drive space). If I ever get around to it, I'm pretty sure I'll be spending a lot of time playing through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
And I've been buying/playing some really fun games recently! I pre-ordered God Eater 2 Rage Burst last week and it released earlier yesterday. I've played a few hours and am anxious to play some more today, but not before I do a little bit of work today. Just this past weekend, I finished up Resident Evil Revelations 2 and found out that there were two endings to the game. I got the bad ending and was flabbergasted when I saw the credits roll because I thought that was the real ending of the game. There were unanswered questions and the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. I then thought of the possibility of multiple endings and looked it up to find that the game indeed had two different endings. I didn't have to play the entire game over again to get the true ending, but I felt compelled to play it again. In my first playthrough, I played on Normal and was pretty thorough in exploration. So I decided to play Easy the 2nd time and have a relaxing experience with the game. And it was a lot of fun! This brings me to discuss today's topic of "replaying games"
Replaying a game, whether it's multiple runs in a row or revisiting it years later, is not uncommon and is something I used to do quite often when I was younger and had significantly fewer games. But post-College years, I have accumulated an insurmountable amount of games of which many can relate to as a backlog. Because of this, it is very rare for me to play a game more than once and I'll usually just move onto the next game. Other times, playing a game just once and ignoring all the side missions/quests is enough for me because the extra content becomes mundane. So it's been quite a surprise to myself that I have replayed a few games multiple times in a row throughout this year. When Mighty No. 9 released, I played through it 2 times normally and then a 3rd time with the DLC character. I even still plan on playing it for the challenge modes and maybe on harder difficulties. Then earlier this month, Another Metroid 2 Remake released as the fan-made remake of Metroid 2 and I ended up playing that game FIVE times in a row! For Resident Evil Revelations 2, I've been wanting to play it since last November when I got it but haven't had the time or Hard Drive space to do so. I was expecting the game to be mildly entertaining and only planned on playing through it once. But I enjoyed it so much that I might consider playing it a 3rd time. I haven't even gone through the DLC stories yet and played much of Raid Mode because God Eater just came out.
So what is it about replaying a game that's so fun and makes it worth the extra time and effort put into it? Well, it's a bit similar to reading a book or watching a movie. When reading a book a 2nd time, certain plot points will be perceived differently because all the plot twists and pivotal points are already known from the first read through. Watching a movie over and over again, you might be inclined to pay attention to different things throughout the film like the background or other character's facial expressions that aren't the focus of the shot while watching a movie again years later might be for the purpose of nostalgia or you'll have a different opinion of the film after so many years. But for books and movies, they don't change. They're the same every time you read/watch through them. For videogames, it's a bit different because you interact with the medium and have control over it. When I was younger, this is how I would play and replay games: I would play the game normally and enjoy the game casually as it was meant to be played; then I would try 100% the game doing everything you possibly can in the game; and lastly I would try to finish the game as quickly as possible. Two games that comes to mind that I have done this with is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Metroid: Zero Mission; both for the Gameboy Advance.
Ultimately, the reasoning for replaying a game is having a different experience with it. With books and movies, the experience will probably have 2-3 different experiences: the first time, knowing everything that'll happen the 2nd time onwards, and revisiting it years later with possibly a different mind set. But with videogames, there are an array of dynamics put into play such as difficulty levels, different modes, and multiple characters.
Let's take Resident Evil Revelations 2 as an example since it's the most recent game I have played through multiple times (twice so far). Here are some reasons for why I would play through the game multiple times if I decided to play it a bunch of times: *I actually did these
-*Playing on Normal difficulty: My first playthrough with a decent amount of challenge.
-*Playing on Easy difficulty: Relaxing experience while getting the true ending.
-Playing on Survival difficulty: A truly challenging experience with low resources
-Playing Countdown Mode: It's kind of like a speedrun!
-Playing Invisible Mode: Enemies are invisible. Makes it that much harder
-Beating the game with knife only: There was a mode like that in the older Resident Evil games
-Beating the game under 3 hours: There's an achievement for that
-Beating the game with only the use of the Pistol
-Playing through Raid mode with all character levels maxed
There's a lot more variations I could probably put in that list. A lot of hardcore speed-runners enjoy setting challenges and mixing it up which keeps the same game fresh. That's why even now, people are still speed-running games back from the NES days. There are 100% runs, fastest runs, one type of weapon runs, blind-folded runs, minimal upgrades runs, etc. I miss enjoying games in this fashion, but I generally don't have the right mindset to be able to do so because going through so many games each year that I rarely feel like I have the time to play a game multiple times. I guess it's a little different for me this year because I decided I wanted to play games I enjoyed as a lot of games I played last year left me frustrated or disappointed. The one exception I've made throughout these past 6 years is revisiting older games, mainly one's I've never completed. I was in the middle of running through Super Metroid again after playing Another Metroid 2 Remake and Metroid 2 earlier this month, but I didn't get to finish because of Resident Evil Revelations 2 and now God Eater 1 & 2. I think I will play Resident Evil Revelations 2 a few more times as well as Mighty No. 9 until I feel completely satisfied before I delete them off my hard drive (with Mighty No. 9, it's not a big problem, but RE:R2 is taking up 18 GB of Hard Drive space). If I ever get around to it, I'm pretty sure I'll be spending a lot of time playing through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Let's talk about Another Metroid 2 Remake
There was a job opportunity and I finished up applying for it. I had to stop all projects to work on the application. It's a composer position and it's an extremely small chance, but I still took it anyways. After I finished up, I went back to my own projects. Shortly afterwards, I saw that Metroid had reached its 30th anniversary since its initial release on the Nintendo Famicom.
By the way, a DMCA was issued to the site a day after it was released and they had to take down the downloads for it. Sad but true.
I'm planning on revisiting all the other Metroid games other than the original since I already did that earlier this year. Maybe I'll finally get around to actually playing Metroid Prime 3 and Other M.
"Whoop-dee-doo, we've reached the 30th Anniversary and they're giving us Metroid Prime: Federation Force. I don't think it looks bad, but it feels like they slapped the Metroid brand on a project that would otherwise get no attention. We haven't had a proper Metroid game in 12 years and haven't had a spinoff in 6 years. I don't think this is the spinoff fans expected or wanted, but perhaps it has a chance to surprise us."
That was my initial reaction to the news (as posted on Facebook). It has bothered me for the longest time that there were so many Mario and Zelda games still being made with even some Donkey Kong Country and Star Fox games released while the Metroid series has been mostly ignored by Nintendo. Even on the anniversary, no mention or celebration was made by Nintendo. It wasn't even used as a marketing ploy to bring interest to their upcoming game Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
Moments after seeing the news for the anniversary, I came across Another Metroid 2 Remake when I typed in "Metroid" in google. I've played quite a few fan-made Metroid games and they mostly capture the controls of the game, but not the full gameplay. The game looked interesting and I decided to download and try it out. I have never finished the original Metroid 2 as I got stuck on the last boss and couldn't beat it. I was thinking the game was going to be a graphics overhaul of the original game and didn't think there would be too much deviation from it. Boy, was I wrong!
This trailer is about 3 years old and was possibly the only time I've heard about this project. Back then, it was just a demo and I didn't feel like playing an unfinished game. So I didn't think much of it. But on the 30th anniversary, the game was fully released. I was expecting the game to be short since it was a fan-made game. What I got was a fully fleshed out Metroid experience that is nearly on par with the quality it would have been if Nintendo had created the game. Much of the gameplay, visuals and design is influenced by Metroid Zero Mission, which was a remake of the very first Metroid game. The basic world layout and concept of Metroid 2 is still there: Kill all the Metroids, move onto the next area. Obviously, the first and most notable difference in the remake is how rich and nicer looking the graphics are. The original Metroid 2 was released on the original Black and White gameboy which had a limited amount of technology and memory space to work with. In terms of control and gameplay, it closely resembles Zero Mission as Metroid 2's controls were slower and floaty to compensate for the limited amount of screen space it had. The only critique I personally have for the game is the audio. Some of the sound effects feel like misplaced foley recordings and some of the arranged music from the original are a bit monotonous and boring. It also doesn't capture the eerie and atmospheric experience that the original had, despite its limited capabilities. Still, it wasn't enough to call it "bad", just not up to expectation. Everything else is great though! Enemies have a lot more movement and AI patterns, bosses are challenging and memorable, level designs and item placements are well thought out and teaches the player along the way without actually having them go through any tutorial. It was so fun, in fact, that I played the game 5 times in a row! I played Normal the first time with the attempt to do everything and collect all the items (couldn't, got 94%). Then I played 2 more times to improve my time. I was going to stop. But then I played through the original Metroid 2 and was reminded on how difficult it was due to enemies dealing a lot of damage and save points being scarce and far apart from each other and it made me wonder if enemies would hurt as much as they did in the original if I played on Hard difficulty for the remake. And so I played the game a 4th time on Hard difficulty (with all other runs on Normal, I didn't play Easy). It was challenging and it definitely made boss battles that much more intense, but I think I enjoyed the game more on Normal. I wanted to try the game on Normal one last time and try to finish it in 1.5 hours. I ended my run at 1:42:50 with my previous fastest time at 1:57:36. I was hoping to get a much faster time than that after skipping a boss fight and many miscellaneous items. I'm satisfied now in terms of Another Metroid 2 Remake. The fans didn't exactly get the 30th Anniversary celebration they wanted for Metroid, but the fan-made game will have to do.By the way, a DMCA was issued to the site a day after it was released and they had to take down the downloads for it. Sad but true.
I'm planning on revisiting all the other Metroid games other than the original since I already did that earlier this year. Maybe I'll finally get around to actually playing Metroid Prime 3 and Other M.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Summer Event Withdrawal
EVO just ended last night, and man it was great! But today, I felt a bit...empty. I think I'll call this "Hype Withdrawal"! I was super excited for this Summer's events like I do every year and was not disappointed this year...for the most part. E3 was a bit underwhelming, but reminded me of a lot of games I'm looking forward to that they've already announced. Most of them I can't even get because I don't have a PS4 yet: Final Fantasy XV, Hatsune Miku Project DIVA X, The King of Fighters XIV, NieR: Automata, Nioh, Persona 5, etc. Then the main Summer release game came in the mail: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE which I've been struggling to play because I keep nodding off and feeling sleepy each time I play it (Note: It's a bit slow, but a great game. I nod off on even some of my favorite games in the past). Steam Summer Sales arrived and I was initially disappointed with the discounts, but I still managed to spend a decent amount of money on 11 Single-player games, 5 multiplayer games, 5 Soundtrack DLCs, and 2 game DLCs. I've been enjoying playing multiplayer with my friends and sister on games like Overwatch, Move or Die, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Golf With Your Friends, Roguelands, and Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide the past several weeks and it's been a blast! I had some frustrating experiences with some of the smaller indie games I bought and now going through some of the longer-lasting single-player games I bought (I bought Metal Gear Solid V:Phantom Pain but haven't installed it yet). Summer Games Done Quick was two weeks ago and I watched quite a bit of it throughout the week but missed a lot of the ones I wanted to watch so I'll still be watching some of it (it'll help alleviate some of the withdrawal). And then we just had EVO this past weekend which I am pretty exhausted from. The first day was the most tiring as I was attempting to watch 5 streams at once (I have no idea how I survived watching 7 at once last year).
I missed Tekken 7's finals and will watch that sometime this week. Super Smash Bros. Wii U was fun to watch Pools and everything leading up to grand finals. Grand Finals was okay...But it was exciting to see a player bring Mega Man all the way to Grand Finals! (He got 2nd) Pokkén Tournament was pretty tiring to watch and I fell asleep parts of the beginning of the Grand Finals but woke up to watch the last few matches. It was pretty intense. Killer Instinct was pretty fun to watch. I'm impressed by how much Killer Instinct has evolved and refined itself as well as being available on PC. If I had a better computer and Windows 10, I'd definitely play it. I missed Mortal Kombat X, though I don't care for it as much. I might watch some of the Finals. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was great! I got to see my dream match up of Justin Wong vs. ChrisG. As much as I wanted to see Justin Wong make another comeback with the usual 1 character vs. 2 scenario, I really wanted ChrisG to win this year. And not just the match, but the entire tournament. He has worked so hard refining his team and playstyle throughout the many years of playing UMvC3 and has gotten close to winning EVO many times but hasn't. So I was really happy for him when he climbed all the way to Grand Finals, reset the bracket, and won pretty decisively at the end. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released 5 years ago, but is still a really fun game to watch tournaments for.
In terms of Grand Finals, Super Smash Bros. Melee was definitely the most exciting one to watch this year. With a repeat of last year's EVO final, Armada (Peach/Fox) and HungryBox (Jigglypuff) met once again on the grand stage.
Much like with UMvC3 having the dream match of Justin Wong vs. ChrisG, I got to see my dream match of Mang0 vs. HungryBox during the finals of Super Smash Bros. Melee. And much in the same way, as much as I wanted to see Mang0 win EVO again for a 3rd time, I wanted to see HungryBox win more. He went toe to toe with Armada at last year's EVO and encountered Mang0 at the grand finals of EVO in 2014. This was definitely his year to shine and I really wanted to see him win it this year. I especially wanted to see him win this year's EVO after his interview at Dreamhack last year:
(1:35-1:58) I don't know what his relationship with his biological father was like, but at the very least he proved to himself that he can accomplish anything he set his mind to. I was so happy for him. It was down to the last round and last stock. It was an intense match.
Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator was fun to watch with a variety of characters in the finals. I was cheering on Nakamura for bringing Millia Rage to the finals. But the lovely surprised to come out of the showing was the reveal of Dizzy! She's back! And she's so cute!
And then there was Street Fighter V. I was cheering on Infiltration to win as I became a fan of his for his performance at last year's EVO with Street Fighter 4 with switching up between a variety of characters (8 of them). He's won EVO for Street Fighter 4 back in 2012, but I didn't think too much of it (he played Akuma and Gouken that tournament). He played three matches in a row at the end with losing to Fuudo in winners final, then won against Yukadon in losers final, and then finally he reset the bracket and won against Fuudo in the Grand Finals.
And that ends the summer events. I'm going to buckle down to get some work done this week and then continue working on my own projects afterwards.
I missed Tekken 7's finals and will watch that sometime this week. Super Smash Bros. Wii U was fun to watch Pools and everything leading up to grand finals. Grand Finals was okay...But it was exciting to see a player bring Mega Man all the way to Grand Finals! (He got 2nd) Pokkén Tournament was pretty tiring to watch and I fell asleep parts of the beginning of the Grand Finals but woke up to watch the last few matches. It was pretty intense. Killer Instinct was pretty fun to watch. I'm impressed by how much Killer Instinct has evolved and refined itself as well as being available on PC. If I had a better computer and Windows 10, I'd definitely play it. I missed Mortal Kombat X, though I don't care for it as much. I might watch some of the Finals. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was great! I got to see my dream match up of Justin Wong vs. ChrisG. As much as I wanted to see Justin Wong make another comeback with the usual 1 character vs. 2 scenario, I really wanted ChrisG to win this year. And not just the match, but the entire tournament. He has worked so hard refining his team and playstyle throughout the many years of playing UMvC3 and has gotten close to winning EVO many times but hasn't. So I was really happy for him when he climbed all the way to Grand Finals, reset the bracket, and won pretty decisively at the end. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released 5 years ago, but is still a really fun game to watch tournaments for.
In terms of Grand Finals, Super Smash Bros. Melee was definitely the most exciting one to watch this year. With a repeat of last year's EVO final, Armada (Peach/Fox) and HungryBox (Jigglypuff) met once again on the grand stage.
Much like with UMvC3 having the dream match of Justin Wong vs. ChrisG, I got to see my dream match of Mang0 vs. HungryBox during the finals of Super Smash Bros. Melee. And much in the same way, as much as I wanted to see Mang0 win EVO again for a 3rd time, I wanted to see HungryBox win more. He went toe to toe with Armada at last year's EVO and encountered Mang0 at the grand finals of EVO in 2014. This was definitely his year to shine and I really wanted to see him win it this year. I especially wanted to see him win this year's EVO after his interview at Dreamhack last year:
(1:35-1:58) I don't know what his relationship with his biological father was like, but at the very least he proved to himself that he can accomplish anything he set his mind to. I was so happy for him. It was down to the last round and last stock. It was an intense match.
Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator was fun to watch with a variety of characters in the finals. I was cheering on Nakamura for bringing Millia Rage to the finals. But the lovely surprised to come out of the showing was the reveal of Dizzy! She's back! And she's so cute!
And then there was Street Fighter V. I was cheering on Infiltration to win as I became a fan of his for his performance at last year's EVO with Street Fighter 4 with switching up between a variety of characters (8 of them). He's won EVO for Street Fighter 4 back in 2012, but I didn't think too much of it (he played Akuma and Gouken that tournament). He played three matches in a row at the end with losing to Fuudo in winners final, then won against Yukadon in losers final, and then finally he reset the bracket and won against Fuudo in the Grand Finals.
And that ends the summer events. I'm going to buckle down to get some work done this week and then continue working on my own projects afterwards.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Mighty No. 9 Review
I wrote a lengthy review yesterday on Facebook and decided to repost it here.
Mighty No. 9 [PC]
Run of Military Base Level, Normal ,
Mostly Brandish skill
I tried my best to show how fast-paced, slick, and stylish
Mighty No. 9 looks in-game.
Mighty No. 9 finally released yesterday and rather than
being excited and happy for its arrival, the gaming community has expressed
anger, regret, contempt, disappointment and caution relating to Keiji Inafune
and the game. A majority of the reviews
I’ve seen are emotion-fueled fits of how production was handled, the delays,
the kickstarter campaign, and how it didn’t fulfill expectations. I’ll talk a bit about the drama behind the
development cycle of Mighty No. 9 at the end, but I just wanted to discuss
purely on the game itself with an unbiased view to the best of my
abilities. I’m going to be critical, but
fair.
Short Version: Nothing ground breaking, but it does a good
job of being a Mega Man game. It’s fun and I plan to play more of it for
challenges, online co-op, and harder difficulties.
Experience
I’ve played through the game twice on Normal
difficulty; once in English voice-overs with the original music, and the 2nd
time with Japanese voice-overs with the 8-bit music and playing mainly with the
Brandish ability for a pseudo-Zero experience.
The first run through took me about 4.5-5 hours while the 2nd
run took roughly 2.5 hours. The only
time I ever got a “Game Over” (lost all lives) was on the very last boss in my
first run (Note that you can change the amount of lives you started with and I
chose 9). It took me about 12 tries to
beat the last boss. I was a bit unsure
how I felt about the game the first run through, but I was pretty convinced the
2nd time playing that I really enjoyed the game.
Story
Mighty No. 9 is your typical Mega Man plot where robots
co-exist in the world to facilitate the daily, human life but then a virus
takes over them and Beck is sent to stop them.
There isn’t much to the story, though I have to admit that it has a bit
more depth than the original six Mega Man games. The characters don’t have a strong
presence. I mainly like: William White,
who created all the Mighty Numbers and has a pivotal role in the story; Dr.
Sanda, because he’s such a character and one of the few English voices I prefer
over Japanese; and Call, who’s really cute and plays a role in pointing out
something important about Dr. White. I
guess I also kind of like Cryosphere (Mighty No. 2) as well as hate her because
she’s annoying the fight the first time and not knowing her patterns and
because of all her puns. I love and hate
her puns at the same time. So in terms
of story, I liked the philosophy behind it but felt it wasn’t a very important
aspect within the development of the game (you wanted a Mega Man game? Here’s a
Mega Man story).
Graphics
Here’s where I share some of my sentiments with other
players on their take on graphics. What
they showed in the alpha stages of the game did look like it had more depth and
dynamics in the environment, animation effects, and character models. So what exactly happened? The popular theory is that they worked on the
graphics based on the lowest spec hardware that they planned on porting it to
(which I believe was the Nintendo 3DS).
In order to keep a steady frame rate, they had to do some downgrading. Explosions looks awful and blocky, animation
effects don’t look as flashy, environments and objects are simple looking;
however, I still like the overall quality of the graphics. Yes, I agree with many players that what they
showed us in the alpha footages look potentially better than the final product,
but I’m mostly satisfied with the handling of the graphics within the game. Although the Alpha footage and concept art
showed graphics with depth, I was concerned the darker contrast would affect
visibility of platforms or create a somber tone. There were two instances in the game where it
was difficult to discern what I was supposed to do because one of them was too
dark and the other one’s foreground blends in a bit with the background. But for the rest of the game, the simple and
vibrant colors of the environment really stood out. It was aesthetically pleasing, it easily
distinguished foreground and background, and it still brought the world to life
despite its simplistic design. I still hate
how explosions look. It’s cheap looking
and they obstruct your view. Basic
enemies are what you would expect from a Mega Man game with a technological
theme. Some of the Mighty Numbers look
silly, but at least they’re unique enough to be somewhat memorable. If you really want to make a comparison, I
think I might have liked the aesthetics of Azure Striker Gunvolt more than
Mighty No. 9. I make that comparison
since the same development studio worked on it along with Keiji Inafune. I would say the graphics are
satisfactory. It’s good, but not great.
Audio
This is where I’m going to be a lot more critical. Sound effects are fine and what you’d expect
out of the game with it being somewhat familiar to Mega Man fans yet unique
enough to be distinguished on its own.
The music is possibly the one aspect I’m most disappointed in. Judging from the main theme they presented us
in the kickstarter, I expected the whole soundtrack to be as catchy, memorable,
and iconic. Sadly, there isn’t a single
tune I remember from the game (and I played through it twice). The music certainly isn’t bad and compliments
the stages well, but there wasn’t a single song throughout the game that I
wanted to go back and listen to. Many
would agree that one of the greatest aspects in a Mega Man series game is how
memorable and iconic the music was.
Despite being forgettable tunes, they were at least high quality
produced tracks that weren’t annoying. I
point that out because one of the worst aspects in Mighty No. 9 is the voice
acting. The quality is poor with the
volume fading in and out of focus, the delivery for many of the voices are
forced and campy, and the dialogue is corny.
It was borderline painful to listen to.
I did my research and the majority of the voice actors have had
extensive experience with voice acting in well known videogames within the
industry. So I’m keen to believe that
it’s because of the writing, voice directing, and audio engineering that the
voiceovers weren’t very good. I did say
that I played both in English and Japanese.
In the Japanese dub, the quality of the voice over (clarity and
consistency) is very high and was a lot more bearable. The problem with the Japanese dub is some
characters feel miscast (such as Dr. Sanda), some sound very stereotypical, and
some have different lines and delivery of lines from the English which changes
their personality. This happens quite
often between the creation of English translations and dub from Japanese
versions. One example is the voice of
Pyrogen (Mighty No. 1). Pyro sounds
maniacal and has many lines of dialogue describing how he wants to burn
everything and enjoys it in the English dub.
But in the Japanese dub, Pyro just yells “moero” (burn) over and over
like a Pokémon expressing more of an individual who’s completely lost it and
has no control over themselves. Another
example is Beck’s (Mighty No. 9) dialogue and lines in English sound more
innocent, naïve, and chill while the dialogue and lines in Japanese make him
sound more assertive, tough, and confident.
It’s a bit of a mix match as I prefer the Japanese dub of Beck, Call,
and Dr. White while I enjoy hearing the English dub of Dr. Sanda and
Countershade (Mighty No. 8) and for certain ones I think both are good such as
Dynatron (Mighty No. 3). There is also a
French voice over, but I haven’t listened to that one yet (and my French sucks
now compared to my Japanese despite having studied it longer). So the run down is: Sound Effects is good,
music is okay, and the voice acting is mostly bad.
Gameplay
I haven’t played harder difficulties, solo challenge, online
co-op challenge, or online racing yet.
I’ve played through the main game twice on Normal
difficulty (lowest difficulty). Despite
being advertised as a spiritual successor to Mega Man and everyone wanting a
Mega Man game, I personally did not want just “another Mega Man” game. I believe the game fulfilled what I wanted
which was a familiar Action-Platformer with its own unique mechanic. If you watch the gameplay in the video above,
you’ll see that I’m running into enemies.
Rather than just plainly shooting an enemy, Mighty No. 9 has a mechanic
in which you disable an enemy and assimilate them by dashing through them which
grants various buffs and energy to your abilities. The dash doesn’t have a cooldown and can be
done in mid-air or even crouched which allows the player to dash
indefinitely. It’s obviously dangerous
if you’re not careful as running into enemies and environmental hazards hurt
and kill you, so it’s exploitative with a risk.
Assimilating multiple enemies at once grants a multiplier score. And the sooner you absorb an enemy after
disabling them, the higher the score.
With this design, it rewards players for being quick and efficient in
combat. It creates a nice flow of
platforming and fighting enemies when dashing around a level. I would say the game plays like a combination
of Mega Man’s difficulty, Mega Man X’s level/enemy/boss designs and controls,
and Azure Striker Gunvolt’s mechanic of tagging enemies and running into
them. Levels are unique, diverse,
dynamic and challenging. Enemies and
bosses have interesting and engaging patterns.
The overall experience feels satisfying and fulfilling.
Overall
The presentation was okay, the audio was mostly disappointing,
but the gameplay was great. I’ve been
itching for a Mega Man-like game for a while and Mighty No. 9 is definitely one
of the better ones I’ve played in years.
$20 is a bit high for those who will just play through it once if they
gauge price the way I do ($1 = 1 Hour of gameplay). But those looking for a fast-paced and
challenging Action-Platformer should give this a chance.
Discussing the Controversy and Complaints
Throughout the development cycle of Mighty No. 9, there have
been a number of problems that caused a stir within the community. This has led a lot of players to post
negative reviews on the game based on those experiences rather than the game
itself. Others have unfulfilled
expectations be the driving force behind their negative reviews. I’ll try to cover the ones I can remember.
Controversial use of
kickstarter money – I don’t think Keiji Inafune expected to make four
million dollars for this project. With
the steady rise of the kickstarter earnings, the expectations for the game rose
along with it. With $4 Million, backers
were expecting the greatest game ever made.
Then as time passed, a Mighty No. 9 cartoon was announced. This brought up some concern for backers as
they specifically put money down for a game, not an animated series. Then Keiji Inafune put up another Kickstarter
to support a project called “Red Ash” which was going to be a spiritual
successor of Mega Man Legends. This
happened before Mighty No. 9 had even gotten a release date, I think. So many concerned backers questioned what the
money they’ve invested in was being used for.
Delays – Mighty
No. 9 was delayed a total of 3 times.
Each time the game was delayed, the public was given a vague and shady
explanation of the game not quite ready.
At one point, it was mentioned that the Online modes were the parts of
the game that had problems and this did not sit well with the community as many
backers expressed their dismay at the delays being caused by a mode they’ll
never play.
Poor Communication
– It seems many backers faced problems with the one handling kickstarter
questions, rewards, and updates. The
individual that spoke with the backers have been reported to have banned some
of them for raising their concerns on the kickstarter. Banned backers lose their money, rewards, and
anything attached to the campaign. I
don’t know how true this is, so I can’t quite comment.
Alpha footage
graphics look “potentially” better than final product – As mentioned in the
review, the graphics was most likely downgraded in favor of easily porting to
every console, device, PC, and OS.
People are not happy with it and immediately calling the game
trash. Maybe I’ve played a lot of awful
games in the past, but the graphics are really not that bad. It does have a nostalgic Playstation 1 era
aesthetic to it, but cleaner. This does
not please the players, apparently.
YouTubers, critics,
and even physical copy owners got the game before backers – I didn’t back
for the kickstarter campaign. I
pre-ordered the game but didn’t get the code until the next morning of the
actual launch date. I really wanted to
play the night before, but I guess I was willing to wait one night since I’ve
waited so long already for it to launch.
But I feel bad for all the backers that supported the game and not even
get their codes before everyone else. I
thought they’d get their copies of the game before everyone else.
My digital code for
the game/DLC doesn’t work – It was one thing for backers not getting their
copies of the game earlier, but it was even worse when the codes they got
didn’t even work. Distributors did their
best to fix everything as quickly as possible.
Voice Acting is awful
– I’ve heard worse, but I’ll agree some of it is borderline painful.
Framerate is choppy
and controls are clunky – I’m not sure if it’s a graphics card problem or
something hardware related. Thankfully,
I didn’t experience any of those problems.
The game is so bland,
it’s literally just a copy of Mega Man – Isn’t that what everyone
wanted? It’s not what I wanted. I wanted something new and different but
familiar enough to still be a classic Action-Platformer. And the dash mechanic was what set it apart
from the Mega Man games and I love it.
The dash mechanic is
dumb and imprecise – This reminds me of all the complaints people had
playing Abyss Odyssey and complaining about the controls being clunky. It’s a matter of knowing how the game
works. Holding down the dash key will
make you dash a bit further. Crouching
while dashing performs a low dash.
Dashing onto an edge allows you to grab onto ledges. Certain attacks can cancel out of your
dash. The dash mechanic makes the
entirety of this game, so I’d say it’s the most important aspect in the game
that makes it fun.
This game isn’t
anything like Mega Man.
The game is
rage-inducing and difficult – You wanted a Mega Man game, right? Mega Man games have been known to be tough
and unforgiving. I honestly think this
game is easier than most classic Mega Man games. I bet there’s a decent amount of people
within the community that say they love Mega Man and never even played one
before.
This is not a
spiritual successor to Mega Man, and not a good Mega Man game – If I were
to choose a punishment for people who agree to this sentiment, I would make
them play Mega Man Network Transmission for the Nintendo Gamecube. Could you play both games and look me in the
eye and say that Mega Man Network Transmission was a better Mega Man game? And if you can, congratulations on finding a
Mega Man game you like more than Mighty No. 9.
As an ending note, a lot of people reference back to a line
that Keiji Inafune said translated by Ben Judd as "Even if it’s not
perfect, it’s better than nothing."
It seems that line was more of Judd's opinion rather than Inafune's
words. Still, they sound so defeated
when they put it that way. I can only
imagine the kinds of hate mail and rage posts they've read throughout the
week. But after playing through the
game, I feel like they should be proud to have brought the game out. Yeah, it's not perfect; however, it's far
from being considered a horrible game.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/mighty-no-9
Oh well, there's one other game having it worse this week:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/umbrella-corps
Friday, June 17, 2016
Reflecting on E3 2016
I remember I wasn't thoroughly impressed by last year's E3 despite the major 3 announcements from the Sony conference (FF7 Remake, Shenmue 3, The Last Guardian project resumes), and I feel bad for even thinking so after this year's E3. It felt so underwhelming this year. There were quite a few games where I thought "that looks cool", but I wasn't excited for it. Out of the newly announced games, I'm looking forward to playing the ones that were least mentioned by the media. This time around, I've only listed games that caught my interest. Maybe I should have the whole list of games.
Newly announced
Keeping an eye out for:
[Detroit :
Become Human] - The creators of Heavy Rain is back with another adventure game that has a lot of branching paths and outcomes. The quality of the graphics is really high and it seems like there's a lot of choices to make, but I don't feel entirely convinced on getting it.
[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (September 2015)] - I didn't even know this was at the show floor until my sister (who went to the convention) mentioned that it was there. I'm sad that we missed out on another Ace Attorney game, but at least we're getting this one.
[Star Ocean [Tekken 7 (July 2014)] - They finally gave us a potential release time. And it's coming to PC as well! I wonder if I should get it for PC or wait until I get a PS4...
[Tokyo
Mirage Sessions #FE (January 2013)] - I excited to play this when it releases next week.
River City : Tokyo
Rumble (US release announced April 2016)
Detroit
Newly announced
Most inclined to buy and play:
[Akiba's Beat] - It's a follow up to Akiba's Trip and the combat looks a lot better this time around.
[Ever Oasis] - A new IP for the Nintendo 3DS. It's kind of like a mix between Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing. It reminds me of Fantasy Life. I'm not sure if I'll get it, but it's one of the few new games announced I feel most compelled to play.
[Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star] - I haven't kept up with all the new Fate series content that's been put out, but this new game is a hack 'n slash by Marvelous and that makes me excited for it.
[Rhythm Heaven Megamix] (Released it during the live stream) - I really want to play the game, but I don't really want to put down $30 for it. I'll definitely get it when it goes on sale.
[Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity] - This is the third Touhou game I've seen announced for a Western release in the past month and it's the one where it's kind of like Ys. It's definitely a game I'll pick up when I get a PS4.
[Agents of Mayhem] - It looks like an entertaining 3rd-person shooter, but there wasn't enough from it that really made me really want it.
[Battlefield 1] - While many fans aree raving about the game for going back to World War 1 as its theme and praising them for "innovating" the theme of military First-Person Shooters, I found myself feeling disappointed with the choice. It's back to the days where everything is of a muddy brown/tan/grey color, iron sights that can barely target the enemy, and everything is dark.
[Days Gone] - What they showed at the Sony conference for this game was really impressive presentation wise. Lots of zombies were on the screen at once with a very steady frame rate. But it wasn't really enough to get me excited for the game just yet. It does looks good though.
[Dead Rising 4] - Frank West is back! But everything is so dark and muddy in color...it's looks a bit more colorful than Dead Rising 3 and the goofy nature of the game seems to be back, but I feel a bit disppointed with how gloomy the environment looks.
[Death Stranding] - It's no surprise that Kojima is working on a new game, and they announced the name of the game at Sony's conference with a teaser. The teaser was trippy, but it says nothing about what it's about, what kind of game it is, or what to expect other than that weird stuff is going to happen.
[Farpoint] - No real gameplay to show, but it's one of the very few VR games that seems promising.
[Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age] - I'm not sure if I should play the original FFX/X-2 and FFXII games since I have them but haven't played them yet or if I should just pick up these remastered versions where they have stuff like speeding up battles by 4x. Not to mention how shiny and pretty they've remade everything.
[God of War] - God of War? More like God of Tomb Raider. The gameplay is similar to what a lot of recent Tomb Raider games look, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It seems like the series is going into Norse mythology now and some speculate that it'll be about Kratos becoming Odin and his son is Thor. After playing through the first two GoW games, I'm not much of a fan for the series. But this new one does look pretty good though.
[Quake Champions] - It was only a teaser, so I'm only excited in the fact that it's a new Quake game. I hear there will be characters with abilities (like Overwatch and Battleborn), so it's definitely one FPS to keep an eye out for.
[Prey] - (Initial work started in 2006, resurfaced at E3 as a
re-imagining of the first game) I haven't heard this name in forever. I never played the original, but I remember it. What they've showed off so far looks pretty cool. The problem is that it looks kind of like the new Doom, but not nearly as impressive in terms of gameplay. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
[Resident Evil 7] - I was shocked when the trailer we were watching that looked like P.T. or some Slender Man game turned out to be Resident Evil 7. I'm concerned that it'll turn out to be a generic, western-developed horror game. These sort of horror games have become rather popular in the past few years because of the many Youtubers and streamers that play and react to them. I'm hoping it'll be as involving and exciting as its predecessors.
[Shadow Warrior 2] - I really enjoyed the first game and am happy to see a sequel. There wasn't anything new that surprised me, so I'm not as excited for it as other games at the moment.
[Touhou: Genso Wanderer] - Another mystery dungeon game. I would much rather have them bring this to PC rather than keep it console exclusive.
[Watch Dogs 2] - I'm not sure what to expect since I still haven't got or played the first game, but I think it's one game worth keeping an eye out for.
Previously revealed (Not within the month. Revealed dates
may not be accurate)
Most inclined to buy and play:
[Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (May 2015)] - My friend to got meet and take a picture with Koji Igarashi! I'm jealous. But it also let me know that there was a demo there and that means gameplay footages. It looks pretty good so far; I can't wait!
[Dishonored 2 (June 2015)] - The first game was phenomenal and the new abilities they showed off within the game this year convinces me even more that it'll be as fun as the first one.
[Dragon Quest Builders (July 2015)] - Yay, we're getting the game in the West! I'm honestly concerned about getting this game. I had skipped out on Minecraft in fear of game addiction. And the fact that this will be available for PS Vita makes it that more dangerous for me. But it does look like a lot of fun. I think I'm willing to take the risk.
[Final Fantasy XV (June 2006)] - Wow, is it really going to finally release after 10 years of development? This is definitely the first game I'm getting if I purchase a PS4.
[Guilty Gear XRD – Revelator (May 2015)] - I haven't even played through SIGN yet...But I'm definitely looking forward to the day I get this iteration so I can play all the cute girls: Jack-O', Jam Kuradoberi, Kum Haehyun!
[Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (August 2015)] - I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. It's not on PS3, and I'm not sure if I can use my special Miku controller on PS4. I'll have to make a decision of getting it on PS Vita or waiting until I get a PS4 to get it.
[The King of Fighters XIV (September 2015)] - I've given this game a LOT of flak for its poor graphics and character models. But despite that, I really want to play the game. 50 characters!
[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (January 2013)] - This is possibly the game I'm most excited for from this year's E3 show. I was concerned about the pacing of the game as it's slower than the usual Zelda game, but it plays very similarly to many other Open-world RPGs such as Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma. As I watched more gameplay footage of the combat system and utilization of Link's abilities, I warmed up to the idea of this new take on a Zelda game. I'm probably going to pre-order it as it nears launch next year.
[Mass Effect Andromeda (November 2012)] - Having shown a bit more of the game this year, I was awestruck by how incredibly beautiful and immersive the environment looked. I still need to get around to playing the trilogy, but this is one game I'm definitely keeping an eye out for.
[NieR: Automata (June 2015)] - It was just an announcement last year, but they showed actual gameplay this year and it looks amazing! I was instantly excited for the game when it was announced last year that Platinum games was working on the title. Now I just got to get a PS4.
[Nioh (October 2004)] - I remember this name from years ago when I was still in High School. The fact that the project resume again is miraculous in itself (much like Prey). The game looks challenging, gritty, and fun.
[Persona 5 (November 2013)] - I gotta get through Persona 3 and 4 quick...
[Tales of Berseria (June 2015)] - This looks pretty different from other Tales games, but I like what I see so far. I'm still set on getting physical copies of Tales games to collect them.
[Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (June 2015)] - Is this the only FPS I listed being excited for? Seems like it. There were over 25+ First-Person/Third-Person Shooters shown at E3 this year. But ever since I saw this last year, it really caught my attention. I think this would be a really fun co-op game.
Keeping an eye out for:
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (February 2016)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare HD (February 2016)
Cuphead (June 2014)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (April 2015)
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (US
release announced November 2015)
Eitr (June 2015)
For Honor (June 2015)
Furi (October 2015)
Horizon: Zero Dawn (June 2015)
I Am Setsuna (June 2015)
Killing Floor 2 (May 2014)
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 (December 2015)
The Last Guardian (June 2009)
Let It Die (April 2013)
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 (US release
announced January 2016)
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (February 2015)
Monster Hunter Generations (US release announced March 2016)
Necropolis (March 2015)
ReCore (June 2015)
Scalebound (June 2014)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (September 2013)
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse (October 2015)
Titanfall 2 (March 2015)
Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr (July 2015)
World of Final Fantasy (June 2015)
Zero Time Dilemma (2012/2015)
All Newly Revealed Games:
Absolver
Agents of Mayhem
Aragami
Death Stranding
Crash Bandicoot Remasters
Spider-Man PS4
Days Gone
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
FF15, Batman Arkham, Star Wars X-Wing Missions VR
God of War
Trials of the Blood Dragon
Grow Up
Just Dance 2017
Steep
State of Decay
2
Dead Rising 4
Forza Horizon 3
Gwent: The Witcher 3 Card Game
Fe
FIFA 17
Madden 17
Prey
Quake Champions
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - Special Edition
Fallout 4 and Doom VR
Ever Oasis
And that's it for this year's E3. Though it didn't wow me with new stuff, there are quite a few games to look forward to.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Let's Talk About Overwatch
Overwatch is the newest game to be released by Blizzard Entertainment and has been out for a week now. Blizzard has been well known to take existing games or inspirations and make it their own. Warcraft was inspired the Warhammer universe and was almost a Warhammer game. Starcraft was influenced by games like Command and Conquer. World of Warcraft was Blizzard's take on Everquest 2 and is probably the most lucrative product out of all their creations. Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard's own take on the Defense of the Ancients custom map for Warcraft 3 which spawned the DotA-like or MOBA genre of games such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, DotA 2, SMITE, and many others. And Overwatch is Blizzard's own version of Team Fortress 2. But it wasn't always that way. Overwatch is the result of a 10-year development cycle on a project code named "Titan". It was announced last year that the project was officially canceled, but about a month later Overwatch was announced as the game they were going to release from the result of their past creations.
With Blizzard's creation of Overwatch, they wanted to create Heroes rather than nameless classes to give them distinction, personality, story and depth. Each of these Heroes would have their own weapons, abilities, and roles. I love the game and enjoy playing each and every hero so far, but I couldn't help but see stereotypes, references, or what seems to be direct influences from other videogames and pop culture.
Story
Humans create Omnics, or sentient robots, to work and improve our world. One day the Omnics turn on the humans and ignite a global war between humans and robots. Overwatch is formed as an organization to stop these attacks and prevent further crime in the world. The war between humans and Omnics cease, but crime continues to thrive in the world. The public response to these crimes was to blame Overwatch's existence. The leader of Overwatch seemed to have turned on the organization at one point. A fight breaks out between Morrison (Soldier 76) and Reyes (Reaper) and the headquarters of Overwatch explodes. Both seemingly survived, but Overwatch was quickly disbanded and the members went off in opposite ways. Some became mercenaries, some vigilantes, and others criminals. Finally, one former member of Overwatch reaches out to his former comrades and brings the crew back together as something big is seemingly going on behind the crime scenes.
The story immediately reminded me of Pixar's "The Incredibles". Humans born of super powers become super heroes to stop crime only to have the public ostracize the heroes in fear of their abilities. One of the members of the Super Hero scene wants to stop all the rising crime in the world and begins fighting on his own with later two other former Super Heroes joining him as he gets himself into trouble.
It also doesn't help that the first trailer that Blizzard put out was SUPER Pixar influenced. But you know what? I don't think many people cared, including myself. It was full of personality and emotion that it captured the viewers interest in just the few minutes of watching it.
Character Breakdown (Controls based on default PC)
Offense Class
Genji - Genji Shimada
Looks like: Some of the frames from Warframe
Players claim Genji reminds them of Raiden or Grey Fox from the Metal Gear Solid series
Plays like: Kind of like Warframe - Throws shurikens instead of shooting bullets, sword attacks, run and jump around like a Ninja.
Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks
McCree - Jesse McCree
Looks Like: Clint Eastwood in his Western movies
Players claim McCree reminds them of John Marston from Red Dead Redemption or Graves from League of Legends.
Plays like: Call of Juarez - from the rolling, fan the hammer, and quick-draw, it's very reminiscent of playing Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Single shot from the six-shooter
Right-Click - Unloads entire chamber
Left-Shift - Roll and immediately reload all 6 bullets
E-Key - Flashbang that causes opponent(s) to be stunned for a short duration
Q-Key - Marks all opponents into view and quick-draw for a quick kill
Pharah - Fareeha Amari
Looks like: Samus Aran from the Metroid series in armor design at least
Pharah's helmet reminds me of Eagle Riders/G-Force
Plays like: Quake/Unreal Tournament with the rocket spamming
Abilities:
Left-Click - Single Rocket shot
Left-Shift - Jump jet high into the air
E-Key - Concussive Blast that knocks enemies back and damages shields/barriers
Passive - Can hover in mid-air with Right-click or jump
Q-Key - Sends out a Rocket Barrage
Reaper - Gabriel Reyes
Looks like: Death from Darksiders 2
Plays like: His playstyle doesn't really remind me of any particular character or gameplay. He dual-wields shotguns and can become ethereal-like to avoid getting hit.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with either shotguns
Left-Shift - Become ghost-like and phase through enemies and bullets
E-Key - A slow, short-distance teleportation
Passive - Collect souls from fallen enemies to regain health
Q-Key - Spin to Win, shoot all around you
Soldier: 76 - John "Jack" Morrison
Looks like: I can't say he really looks or reminds me of anyone
Plays like: A military shooter without ADS (aiming down sight)
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with assault rifle
Right-Click - Shoot a set of spiraling rockets
Left-Shift - Sprint key, like in many military shooters
E-Key - Set a Biotic Field that heals for 35 HP per second
Q-Key - Aim-Bot, bullets lock onto enemies in view
Tracer - Lena Oxton
Looks like: No character I can really think of
Plays like: It reminds me a little of Dishonored where you can weave in and out of battle with the blink ability without the peashooters
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with dual-wield pulse pistols (reminds me of Earthworm Jim)
Right-Click/Left-Shift - Blink forward for a short distance
E-Key - Recall back 3 seconds from before with the same amount of health, ammo, and position
Q-Key - Throw a sticky bomb that does a ton of damage
Defense Class
Bastion - SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54
Looks like: Something out of Borderlands
Plays like: Any FPS that has a mounted turret scene
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with a sub-machine gun in mobile mode and mini-gun in sentry mode
Left-Shift - Switch between mobile mode and sentry mode
E-Key - Self-repair by Healing 25% of HP per Second
Q-Key - Transform into a tank and suddenly you're playing Battletanx
Hanzo - Hanzo Shimada
Looks like: Heishiro Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur series
Plays like: Sniper with Huntsman (bow & arrow) equipped from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Draw and release arrow
Right-Click - Cancel draw on the bow
Left-Shift - Sonic arrow that reveals the positions of enemies behind walls and obstructions
E-Key - An arrow that scatters when colliding with anything
Passive - Climb walls
Q-Key - RYUU GA WAGA TEKI WO KURAU, shooting into walls and getting Play of the Game
Junkrat - Jamison Fawkes
Looks like: A Borderlands character
Plays like: Demoman from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoots frag grenades from the launcher
Right-Click - Detonates Concussion Mine
Left-Shift - Toss a Concussion Mine that damges enemies and propels them and yourself upwards
E-Key - Toss a giant Steel Trap that damges and immobilzes enemies that walk into it
Passive - Total Mayhem has Junkrat drop 8 live grenades on the floor when he's killed
Q-Key - RIP-Tire is a remote controlled wheel that can be detonated for massive damage
Mei - Mei-Ling Zhou
Looks like: Some people claim Ice Climbers, but I'm sure most people that live in extreme cold weather dress like this.
Plays like: An even more annoying version of Pyro from Team Fortress 2. Instead of burning you, you're frozen just long enough to see how you die.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Endothermic Blasters, it's like a flamethrower that freezes instead of burn
Right-Click - It's like getting shot with a giant nail made of ice
Left-Shift - Encase yourself in a block of ice for invulnerbility and heal 37.5 HP per second
E-Key - Create a giant Ice Wall used to impede enemies progress or from them running away
Q-Key - Toss out a tiny drone that freezes and damages enemies in a large radius
Torbjörn - Torbjörn Lindholm
Looks like: Every stereotypical, smith-loving Dwarf from fantasy fiction; including Blizzard's very own Warcraft universe
Plays like: Engineer from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Long ranged rivet / Hammers turret to repair it or upgrade it
Right-Click - Close range, shot-gun like burst of molten metal
Left-Shift - Build a turret that detects and fires at enemies
1 & 2 Keys - Rivet Gun & Forge Hammer respectively
E-Key - Toss out Armor Packs for allies to pick up
Passive - Can pick up metal scraps from fallen enemies to create Armor Packs
Q-Key - He becomes stronger alongside his turret automatically upgrading to Level 3
Widowmaker - Amélie Lacroix
Reminds me of: A Night Elf from the Warcraft Universe
Plays like: Sniper from Team Fortress 2 with the charge mechanic. 007 Agent Under Fire with the Grappling Hook, and Blacklight: Tango Down/Retribution with seeing enemies past walls
Abilities:
Left-Click - Assault Rifle when not aiming, Sniper Shot when aiming
Right-Click - Aiming with Sniper Scope; Aiming will charge the shot
Left-Shift - Grappling Hook to get to higher places or to get to a new location faster
E-Key - Launches a Venom Mine that explodes and poisons enemies that's near its proximity
Q-Key - Infra-Sight lets Widowmaker and her allies see enemies heat signatures through walls
Tank Class
D.Va - Hana Song
Reminds me of: Ahri from League of Legends
Plays like: Sort of like a Mech, but not as clunky. When she's out of her Mech, it reminds me of Zero Suit Samus where Samus uses a little pistol when she's out of her suit in Metroid Zero Mission.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged Fusion Cannons in Mech, tiny pistol when out of Mech
Left-Shift - Boosts forward in any direction and knocks enemies back
E-Key - Brings up a Defense Matrix in front which block enemies projectiles
Passive - D.Va is ejected out of her Mech when it's destroyed
Q-Key - D.Va ejects her Mech to let it Self-Destruct and cause massive damage around it
Reinhardt - Reinhardt Wilhelm
Looks like: Mordekaiser from League of Legends
Plays like: I forget which other game had this one character that puts out a huge shield and swings a massive weapon, but I know I've played a game with a very similar mechanic.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Swings giant hammer
Right-Click - Wields a Barrier Field that can absorb 2000 Damage
Left-Shift - Charge forward and anyone caught that slams into the wall is probably dead
E-Key - Launches a ranged Fire Strike that damages enemies
Q-Key - Slams giant hammer in front of him damaging and knocking down all enemies in range
Roadhog - Mako Rutledge
Looks like: His face reminds me of something. Not sure if it's Borderlands related. But his large stature and play mechanics is totally The Butcher from the Diablo Universe. He also reminds me a bit of Rufus from Street Fighter IV.
Plays like: The Butcher from the Diablo Universe/Heroes of the Storm or Pudge from DotA 1&2. But instead of eating you, he just shoots you in the face at point-blank after hooking you in
Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires a short-ranged blast of shrapnel from his Scrap Gun
Right-Click - Fires a mid-ranged shrapnel ball that scatters on impact
Left-Shift - Tosses his chain hook and pulls in any enemy it collides with
E-Key - Inhales a special gas that restores 300 HP
Q-Key - Turns his Scrap Gun into a Gatling Shotgun
Winston
Reminds me of: The Hulk. He's a scientist, and when he's mad he goes berserk
Plays like: I can't remember which game I played that had an Electric gun similar to his and a spherical barrier like his. But his ult does remind me of The Hulk.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Tesla Cannon; Slap enemies around in Primal Rage
Left-Shift - Uses his Jump Pack to leap far and high distances
E-Key - Drops a Barrier Projector that absorbs projects and various damages
Q-Key - Become The Hulk with Primal Rage and knock enemies off cliffs
Zarya - Aleksandra Zaryanova
Reminds me of: Heavy from Team Fortress 2 only because of her large stature and Russian accent
Plays like: I don't think I can give a comparable example. I think there was a gun in Halo 3 that's kind of like her's, but it's been over 6 years since I've played Halo 3 (or any Halo for that matter).
Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged energy beam
Right-Click - Short to Mid-ranged explosive charge with small splash damage
Left-Shift - Project a Particle Barrier on yourself
E-Key - Projects a Barrier on an ally
Passive - Damage blocked by any of the two barriers increases the damage of the Particle Cannon
Q-Key - Launch a Gravity bomb that sucks in all nearby enemies in one area
Support Class
Name
Looks like:
Plays like:
Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks
Lúcio - Lúcio Correia dos Santos
Reminds me of: DJ Professor K from Jet Set Radio
Plays like: Jet Set Radio where you roller blade around and skate on walls. But instead of spray paint, you use a Sonic Amplifier (a very loud speaker). And JSR is very music influenced.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires off a set of sonic waves as projectiles
Right-Click - Blast a Super Sonic Wave to push back enemies and damage them
Left-Shift - Crossfade between exciting/relaxing music to give a speed/healing boost
E-Key - Amps up the volume, increasing the effects of his speed/healing boost
Passive - He can Wall Ride with his roller blades, just like in Jet Set Radio
Q-Key - He drops the beat with a Sound Barrier that shields all nearby allies with a temporary shield
Mercy - Angela Ziegler
Reminds me of: Medic from Team Fortress 2 from her playstyle mechanics to her German accent
Plays like: Medic from Team Fortress 2 with the ability to fly to opponents who keep running away from you and towards their deaths
Abilities:
Left-Click - Heals 50 HP per second with her Caduceus Staff; fires from her sidearm pistol
Right-Click - Increase the damage of an ally with her Caduceus Staff
Left-Shift - Fly towards a targeted ally
1 & 2 Keys - Switch between her Caduceus Staff & Caduceus Blaster respectively
Passive - Hold jump to glide down slowly
Q-Key - Resurrects nearby fallen allies with full health
Symmetra - Satya Vaswani
Looks like: I don't know, but her glasses are cool looking.
Plays like: I feel like I've played another game where a character puts down tiny sentry turrets, but I don't remember which game.
Abilities:
Left-Click - A short-ranged energy beam that homes in on nearby enemies
Right-Click - A charged energy shot with slow travel
Left-Shift - Set up to 6 Sentry Turrets that slows and damage enemies that come near it
E-Key - Creates a Photon Shield around allies that can regenerate as long as they're alive
Q-Key - Place a teleporter that connects back to spawn so that allies can get back to the front faster
Zenyatta - Tekhartha Zenyatta
Looks like: A robotic monk
Plays like: No one/No game I can think of. He's a very aggressive support who can kill easily
Abilities:
Left-Click - Chuck a metal ball
Right-Click - Charge and Chuck up to 5 metal balls in a row
Left-Shift - Throws the Orb of Harmony to an ally that Heals for 30 HP per second
E-Key - Throws the Orb of Discord which amplies the damage they take by 50%
Q-Key - Be all Zen-like and reach Transcendence which grants invulnerability and heals nearby allies
Despite this mish-mash of characters and influences from other games, it all blends together cohesively in a believable environment. I'm gonna go play some more right now!
With Blizzard's creation of Overwatch, they wanted to create Heroes rather than nameless classes to give them distinction, personality, story and depth. Each of these Heroes would have their own weapons, abilities, and roles. I love the game and enjoy playing each and every hero so far, but I couldn't help but see stereotypes, references, or what seems to be direct influences from other videogames and pop culture.
Story
Humans create Omnics, or sentient robots, to work and improve our world. One day the Omnics turn on the humans and ignite a global war between humans and robots. Overwatch is formed as an organization to stop these attacks and prevent further crime in the world. The war between humans and Omnics cease, but crime continues to thrive in the world. The public response to these crimes was to blame Overwatch's existence. The leader of Overwatch seemed to have turned on the organization at one point. A fight breaks out between Morrison (Soldier 76) and Reyes (Reaper) and the headquarters of Overwatch explodes. Both seemingly survived, but Overwatch was quickly disbanded and the members went off in opposite ways. Some became mercenaries, some vigilantes, and others criminals. Finally, one former member of Overwatch reaches out to his former comrades and brings the crew back together as something big is seemingly going on behind the crime scenes.
The story immediately reminded me of Pixar's "The Incredibles". Humans born of super powers become super heroes to stop crime only to have the public ostracize the heroes in fear of their abilities. One of the members of the Super Hero scene wants to stop all the rising crime in the world and begins fighting on his own with later two other former Super Heroes joining him as he gets himself into trouble.
It also doesn't help that the first trailer that Blizzard put out was SUPER Pixar influenced. But you know what? I don't think many people cared, including myself. It was full of personality and emotion that it captured the viewers interest in just the few minutes of watching it.
Character Breakdown (Controls based on default PC)
Offense Class
Genji - Genji Shimada
Looks like: Some of the frames from Warframe
Players claim Genji reminds them of Raiden or Grey Fox from the Metal Gear Solid series
Plays like: Kind of like Warframe - Throws shurikens instead of shooting bullets, sword attacks, run and jump around like a Ninja.
Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks
McCree - Jesse McCree
Looks Like: Clint Eastwood in his Western movies
Players claim McCree reminds them of John Marston from Red Dead Redemption or Graves from League of Legends.
Plays like: Call of Juarez - from the rolling, fan the hammer, and quick-draw, it's very reminiscent of playing Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Single shot from the six-shooter
Right-Click - Unloads entire chamber
Left-Shift - Roll and immediately reload all 6 bullets
E-Key - Flashbang that causes opponent(s) to be stunned for a short duration
Q-Key - Marks all opponents into view and quick-draw for a quick kill
Pharah - Fareeha Amari
Looks like: Samus Aran from the Metroid series in armor design at least
Pharah's helmet reminds me of Eagle Riders/G-Force
Plays like: Quake/Unreal Tournament with the rocket spamming
Abilities:
Left-Click - Single Rocket shot
Left-Shift - Jump jet high into the air
E-Key - Concussive Blast that knocks enemies back and damages shields/barriers
Passive - Can hover in mid-air with Right-click or jump
Q-Key - Sends out a Rocket Barrage
Reaper - Gabriel Reyes
Looks like: Death from Darksiders 2
Plays like: His playstyle doesn't really remind me of any particular character or gameplay. He dual-wields shotguns and can become ethereal-like to avoid getting hit.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with either shotguns
Left-Shift - Become ghost-like and phase through enemies and bullets
E-Key - A slow, short-distance teleportation
Passive - Collect souls from fallen enemies to regain health
Q-Key - Spin to Win, shoot all around you
Soldier: 76 - John "Jack" Morrison
Looks like: I can't say he really looks or reminds me of anyone
Plays like: A military shooter without ADS (aiming down sight)
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with assault rifle
Right-Click - Shoot a set of spiraling rockets
Left-Shift - Sprint key, like in many military shooters
E-Key - Set a Biotic Field that heals for 35 HP per second
Q-Key - Aim-Bot, bullets lock onto enemies in view
Tracer - Lena Oxton
Looks like: No character I can really think of
Plays like: It reminds me a little of Dishonored where you can weave in and out of battle with the blink ability without the peashooters
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with dual-wield pulse pistols (reminds me of Earthworm Jim)
Right-Click/Left-Shift - Blink forward for a short distance
E-Key - Recall back 3 seconds from before with the same amount of health, ammo, and position
Q-Key - Throw a sticky bomb that does a ton of damage
Defense Class
Bastion - SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54
Looks like: Something out of Borderlands
Plays like: Any FPS that has a mounted turret scene
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with a sub-machine gun in mobile mode and mini-gun in sentry mode
Left-Shift - Switch between mobile mode and sentry mode
E-Key - Self-repair by Healing 25% of HP per Second
Q-Key - Transform into a tank and suddenly you're playing Battletanx
Hanzo - Hanzo Shimada
Looks like: Heishiro Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur series
Plays like: Sniper with Huntsman (bow & arrow) equipped from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Draw and release arrow
Right-Click - Cancel draw on the bow
Left-Shift - Sonic arrow that reveals the positions of enemies behind walls and obstructions
E-Key - An arrow that scatters when colliding with anything
Passive - Climb walls
Q-Key - RYUU GA WAGA TEKI WO KURAU, shooting into walls and getting Play of the Game
Junkrat - Jamison Fawkes
Looks like: A Borderlands character
Plays like: Demoman from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoots frag grenades from the launcher
Right-Click - Detonates Concussion Mine
Left-Shift - Toss a Concussion Mine that damges enemies and propels them and yourself upwards
E-Key - Toss a giant Steel Trap that damges and immobilzes enemies that walk into it
Passive - Total Mayhem has Junkrat drop 8 live grenades on the floor when he's killed
Q-Key - RIP-Tire is a remote controlled wheel that can be detonated for massive damage
Mei - Mei-Ling Zhou
Looks like: Some people claim Ice Climbers, but I'm sure most people that live in extreme cold weather dress like this.
Plays like: An even more annoying version of Pyro from Team Fortress 2. Instead of burning you, you're frozen just long enough to see how you die.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Endothermic Blasters, it's like a flamethrower that freezes instead of burn
Right-Click - It's like getting shot with a giant nail made of ice
Left-Shift - Encase yourself in a block of ice for invulnerbility and heal 37.5 HP per second
E-Key - Create a giant Ice Wall used to impede enemies progress or from them running away
Q-Key - Toss out a tiny drone that freezes and damages enemies in a large radius
Torbjörn - Torbjörn Lindholm
Looks like: Every stereotypical, smith-loving Dwarf from fantasy fiction; including Blizzard's very own Warcraft universe
Plays like: Engineer from Team Fortress 2
Abilities:
Left-Click - Long ranged rivet / Hammers turret to repair it or upgrade it
Right-Click - Close range, shot-gun like burst of molten metal
Left-Shift - Build a turret that detects and fires at enemies
1 & 2 Keys - Rivet Gun & Forge Hammer respectively
E-Key - Toss out Armor Packs for allies to pick up
Passive - Can pick up metal scraps from fallen enemies to create Armor Packs
Q-Key - He becomes stronger alongside his turret automatically upgrading to Level 3
Widowmaker - Amélie Lacroix
Reminds me of: A Night Elf from the Warcraft Universe
Plays like: Sniper from Team Fortress 2 with the charge mechanic. 007 Agent Under Fire with the Grappling Hook, and Blacklight: Tango Down/Retribution with seeing enemies past walls
Abilities:
Left-Click - Assault Rifle when not aiming, Sniper Shot when aiming
Right-Click - Aiming with Sniper Scope; Aiming will charge the shot
Left-Shift - Grappling Hook to get to higher places or to get to a new location faster
E-Key - Launches a Venom Mine that explodes and poisons enemies that's near its proximity
Q-Key - Infra-Sight lets Widowmaker and her allies see enemies heat signatures through walls
Tank Class
D.Va - Hana Song
Reminds me of: Ahri from League of Legends
Plays like: Sort of like a Mech, but not as clunky. When she's out of her Mech, it reminds me of Zero Suit Samus where Samus uses a little pistol when she's out of her suit in Metroid Zero Mission.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged Fusion Cannons in Mech, tiny pistol when out of Mech
Left-Shift - Boosts forward in any direction and knocks enemies back
E-Key - Brings up a Defense Matrix in front which block enemies projectiles
Passive - D.Va is ejected out of her Mech when it's destroyed
Q-Key - D.Va ejects her Mech to let it Self-Destruct and cause massive damage around it
Reinhardt - Reinhardt Wilhelm
Looks like: Mordekaiser from League of Legends
Plays like: I forget which other game had this one character that puts out a huge shield and swings a massive weapon, but I know I've played a game with a very similar mechanic.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Swings giant hammer
Right-Click - Wields a Barrier Field that can absorb 2000 Damage
Left-Shift - Charge forward and anyone caught that slams into the wall is probably dead
E-Key - Launches a ranged Fire Strike that damages enemies
Q-Key - Slams giant hammer in front of him damaging and knocking down all enemies in range
Roadhog - Mako Rutledge
Looks like: His face reminds me of something. Not sure if it's Borderlands related. But his large stature and play mechanics is totally The Butcher from the Diablo Universe. He also reminds me a bit of Rufus from Street Fighter IV.
Plays like: The Butcher from the Diablo Universe/Heroes of the Storm or Pudge from DotA 1&2. But instead of eating you, he just shoots you in the face at point-blank after hooking you in
Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires a short-ranged blast of shrapnel from his Scrap Gun
Right-Click - Fires a mid-ranged shrapnel ball that scatters on impact
Left-Shift - Tosses his chain hook and pulls in any enemy it collides with
E-Key - Inhales a special gas that restores 300 HP
Q-Key - Turns his Scrap Gun into a Gatling Shotgun
Winston
Reminds me of: The Hulk. He's a scientist, and when he's mad he goes berserk
Plays like: I can't remember which game I played that had an Electric gun similar to his and a spherical barrier like his. But his ult does remind me of The Hulk.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Tesla Cannon; Slap enemies around in Primal Rage
Left-Shift - Uses his Jump Pack to leap far and high distances
E-Key - Drops a Barrier Projector that absorbs projects and various damages
Q-Key - Become The Hulk with Primal Rage and knock enemies off cliffs
Zarya - Aleksandra Zaryanova
Reminds me of: Heavy from Team Fortress 2 only because of her large stature and Russian accent
Plays like: I don't think I can give a comparable example. I think there was a gun in Halo 3 that's kind of like her's, but it's been over 6 years since I've played Halo 3 (or any Halo for that matter).
Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged energy beam
Right-Click - Short to Mid-ranged explosive charge with small splash damage
Left-Shift - Project a Particle Barrier on yourself
E-Key - Projects a Barrier on an ally
Passive - Damage blocked by any of the two barriers increases the damage of the Particle Cannon
Q-Key - Launch a Gravity bomb that sucks in all nearby enemies in one area
Support Class
Name
Looks like:
Plays like:
Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks
Lúcio - Lúcio Correia dos Santos
Reminds me of: DJ Professor K from Jet Set Radio
Plays like: Jet Set Radio where you roller blade around and skate on walls. But instead of spray paint, you use a Sonic Amplifier (a very loud speaker). And JSR is very music influenced.
Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires off a set of sonic waves as projectiles
Right-Click - Blast a Super Sonic Wave to push back enemies and damage them
Left-Shift - Crossfade between exciting/relaxing music to give a speed/healing boost
E-Key - Amps up the volume, increasing the effects of his speed/healing boost
Passive - He can Wall Ride with his roller blades, just like in Jet Set Radio
Q-Key - He drops the beat with a Sound Barrier that shields all nearby allies with a temporary shield
Mercy - Angela Ziegler
Reminds me of: Medic from Team Fortress 2 from her playstyle mechanics to her German accent
Plays like: Medic from Team Fortress 2 with the ability to fly to opponents who keep running away from you and towards their deaths
Abilities:
Left-Click - Heals 50 HP per second with her Caduceus Staff; fires from her sidearm pistol
Right-Click - Increase the damage of an ally with her Caduceus Staff
Left-Shift - Fly towards a targeted ally
1 & 2 Keys - Switch between her Caduceus Staff & Caduceus Blaster respectively
Passive - Hold jump to glide down slowly
Q-Key - Resurrects nearby fallen allies with full health
Symmetra - Satya Vaswani
Looks like: I don't know, but her glasses are cool looking.
Plays like: I feel like I've played another game where a character puts down tiny sentry turrets, but I don't remember which game.
Abilities:
Left-Click - A short-ranged energy beam that homes in on nearby enemies
Right-Click - A charged energy shot with slow travel
Left-Shift - Set up to 6 Sentry Turrets that slows and damage enemies that come near it
E-Key - Creates a Photon Shield around allies that can regenerate as long as they're alive
Q-Key - Place a teleporter that connects back to spawn so that allies can get back to the front faster
Zenyatta - Tekhartha Zenyatta
Looks like: A robotic monk
Plays like: No one/No game I can think of. He's a very aggressive support who can kill easily
Abilities:
Left-Click - Chuck a metal ball
Right-Click - Charge and Chuck up to 5 metal balls in a row
Left-Shift - Throws the Orb of Harmony to an ally that Heals for 30 HP per second
E-Key - Throws the Orb of Discord which amplies the damage they take by 50%
Q-Key - Be all Zen-like and reach Transcendence which grants invulnerability and heals nearby allies
Despite this mish-mash of characters and influences from other games, it all blends together cohesively in a believable environment. I'm gonna go play some more right now!
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