I can't believe the week is already over. It just blew by like a blur and now that everything has settled down it feel like it never really happened. It's been a tiring week trying to keep up with Steam Summer Sale AND E3 at the same time. I wanted to spend the week finishing as many games on Steam as possible so I can move onto new ones, but I only ended up completing one old game and 3 others that I got during the sale. I pretty much got what I wanted out of the Steam Summer Sale, but not at prices I had hoped for. As for E3, it wasn't particularly special this year other than the few surprise announcements that really caught everyone off guard. Let's talk a little bit about it the event:
Note: I might have missed some games, and it's hard knowing what there is when I'm not actually there as I experienced first hand going to E3 once before. Names marked in BOLD are ones I'm interested in.
New Games (Existing IP)
Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations
ANNO 2205
Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assetto Corsa
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Dark Souls 3
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Dishonored 2
Disney Infinity 3.0
EA Sports FIFA 16
Fallout 4
Fallout Shelter
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Gears of War 4
Gears of War Ultimate Edition
God of War 3 Remastered
Halo 5: Guardians
Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories
Hyrule Warriors - 3DS
Just Dance 2016
Kingdom Hearts: Unchained Key
Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends
Lara Croft Go
LEGO Jurassic World
LEGO Dimensions
Madden NFL 16
Magic Duels: Origins
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Mass Effect Andromeda
Mega Man Legacy Collection
Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Minions Paradise
NBA Live 16
Need for Speed
NHL 16
NieR (New)
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Ratchet & Clank Remastered
Rare Replay
Resident Evil 0
Roy McIlroy PGA Tour
Shenmue 3
Skylanders SuperChargers
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Star Fox Zero
The Elder Scrolls Legends
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
The Walking Dead: Michonne
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Trackmania Turbo
World of Final Fantasy
WWE 2K16
XCOM 2
New Games (New IP)
Abzu
Ark: Survival Evolved
Ashen
Beyond Eyes
Brave Tank Hero
Dreams
Firewatch
For Honor
Gotcha Racing
Horizon: Zero Dawn
ION
Mad Max
ReCore
Relics of Gods
Rocket League
Sea of Thieves
SOMA
Thumper
Unravel
Follow Up News (Previously Announced)
Adr1ft
Alone With You
Amplitude HD
Batman Arkham Knight
Battleborn
Battlecry
Below
Broforce
Capsule Force
Chasm
Cosmic Star Heroine
Crossing Souls
Cuphead
The Division
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
Doom
Drawn to Death
Dungeon Defenders 2
EarthNight
Enter the Gungeon
Elite Dangerous
Fable Legends
Fat Princess Adventures
Fire Emblem Fates (Formly Fire Emblem IF)
Fortnite
Forza 6
Future Grind
Galak-Z: The Dimensional
Gang Beasts
Gnog
Guitar Hero Live
Guns Up!
Heart Forth, Alicia
Homefront 2: The Revolution
Hollowpoint
I Am Bread
Just Cause 3
Kill Strain
Kingdom Hearts 3
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Mighty No. 9
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Moon Hunters
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Ninja Strike
No Man's Sky
Nuclear Throne
Overkill's The Walking Dead
Overwatch
Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Persona 5
Relativity
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rock Band 4
Ronin
Salt and Sanctuary
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson
Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
Snow
Star Wars Battlefront
Street Fighter V
Super Mario Maker
Superhot
Sword Coast Legends
Teraway: Unfolded
The Banner Saga 2
The Last Guardian
The Tomorrow Children
To Leave
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Until Dawn
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Yoshi's Wooly World
Most Surprising Announcements
Fallout 4 - I can't say I'm a Fallout fan since I've never played the originals and only played Fallout 3 and never even finished it. But I can say that I enjoyed Fallout 3 a lot and still plan on going back to it and actually trying to finish it. Seeing Fallout 4 in action was quite a spectacle. Particularly interesting was all the weapon customization and crafting you can perform in the game. This is certainly a game to look out for. Fans of FO3 have been waiting for 7 years for this.
Final Fantasy VII Remake / Shenmue 3 / The Last Guardian - This trio of announcements blew peoples mind, drove the crowd wild, and pretty much won everyone over during the Sony Conference. The Last Guardian has been on Hiatus for the longest time and didn't even show up in the past few E3 events. So it was quite an eye opener to see that the game was still being developed and even showed gameplay at the conference. I finally got around to playing through ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, so I have a better understanding of why people like them so much. The Last Guardian is a lot like ICO, it seems. I thought ICO was okay. It felt a bit slow, tedious, and frustrating. Shadow of the Colossus was amazing though.
When they got down to talking about Square-Enix and "how they brought a classic to the Playstation 1" and leading up to the reveal, I couldn't really think of anything except Final Fantasy VII. But I refused to believe it because the fans have been denied of such a thing for ever and ever. Upon hearing the first heartbeat from the song "Beyond the Wasteland" from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in the trailer they were showing, my own heartbeat sped up a little. "Was this a new movie? Another spin-off?" When the words "Remake" popped up, I was freaking out! I couldn't believe it was actually happening! I'm sure there were many others freaking out even more than I was because I never actually played through Final Fantasy VII. I know a lot about it, I know most of the songs by heart, and I even own the original PS1 game as well as recently buying the Steam version so that I could actually sit down and play through it myself; however, the fact is that I haven't played it yet. I certainly have an incentive to play through it before the remake comes out now.
I never played Shenmue 1 and 2, but it's a franchise that I constantly hear about. The fact that Sega is more focused on publishing and mobile games made the hope for a Shenmue 3 a pipe-dream. And so it took everyone by surprise to see Shenmue 3 announced by the director, Yu Suzuki, himself on the Sony Conference stage asking for support from the fans on Kickstarter. It fulfilled its funding goal by the end of the day. To me, Shenmue is the game that brought quick-time events into gaming. But to many others, it was a special adventure with a story that the fans obviously love enough to want a 3rd game after more than a decade wait.
Horizon: Zero Dawn - Besides "For Glory", this was the only newly announced, new IP game that looked interesting to me. The rich environment and large scale combat they showed in the trailer looked immersive and engaging. I was hoping to see more new games like this one announced during E3, but there wasn't. This is the one new game that wowed me more than any other this year.
Let's Talk About:
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 / Dark Souls 3 - This year's E3 was definitely about sequels. Both Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and Dark Souls 3 look amazing, but I don't feel very excited. I'm trying to pull away from Call of Duty because I always end up paying more than I actually play to make it worth it. I love Call of Duty and I really enjoyed Advanced Warfare from last year (albeit multiplayer breaking for me), but I can't really justify buying it every year only to play 10-20 hours ($60 at full price, $30 at lowest). I used to play it more before because I didn't play many other games, but now it just seems difficult to find the time to play it. As for Dark Souls 3, I haven't even played 2 yet. 2 is still under plastic wraps and I kind of know what to expect. As opposed to CoD:BO3, I'm definitely going to get Dark Souls 3. I'm just not that excited by the announcement like I was for Bloodborne (probably because Bloodborne is different and new).
Below / Chasm / Cuphead - I've been keeping an eye on these 3 indie games and am really interested in it. Below looks like a top-down Action-RPG. Chasm is a Metroidvania, I believe. And Cuphead is like Megaman with an old-school Disney art style. These are games I want to play.
Dishonored 2 - I'm actually a bit surprised by this announcement, even though I shouldn't. I loved Dishonored a lot and felt like it's one of those games to be considered a classic. To deliver such an extraordinary experience to the Action-Stealth genre in Dishonored seemed to be a one game sort of deal. So there's a lot of expectation to fulfill in creating a sequel.
The Division - Announced back in E3 2013, we all knew we wouldn't see the game for a while. Now that it's starting flesh out and getting close to a final product, I'm getting excited. I've played a lot of open world, survival games and have always been left with a poor impression. But this game looks promising and has the cooperative gameplay aspect that I'm looking for to play with my friends. So I'm hoping for the best and keeping an eye out for this game.
Doom - I didn't like Doom 3 that much, so I wasn't too interested in the announcement of the newest Doom last year. But when they showed gameplay this year, I became interested. There was a lot of high jumping, fast blasting action that's rather reminiscent of old-school shooters. I can't say I really like all the gore and blood, but the pacing and action that I saw from the trailers looked exciting. What's more, it seems like it will come with a level editor of sorts.
Fable Legends - After showing a bit more gameplay this year, the game does look interesting. But since it's Free-to-Play, I'm kind of wondering what kind of game it is. Will it be lots of grinding and going to the next level? Or will it be progression based and then have a hard mode and a harder mode? I can't say I'm convinced yet, but it's something to look out for.
For Honor - "This is what 'War of the Roses' should've been like" is what I want to say, but I actually haven't seen enough of the game to really pass judgement. Although it's a new IP, it's a game we've seen before in the market with games like Chivarly, War of the Roses, and on a looser case: Mount & Blade. Still, the game is looking pretty good and could turn out to be a popular multiplayer game on console.
Horizon: Zero Dawn - As I mentioned above in the surprising announcements, this new game announcement is the only one that really caught my attention that stands out from the rest of the games and makes me want to play it. It might be a while before we can actually play it, though.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force - I was very sad looking at this game. Why slap on the name "Metroid" when it doesn't really look, feel, or sound like Metroid? I guess it kind of has the concept of Metroid Prime's combat mechanics, but it's not Metroid. Every year, I'm hoping for a new Metroid game, but this is not I asked for and not what the fans want. There's even a petition people are signing to have all production and development of this game halted. That's pretty extreme, and I'm wondering how Nintendo will handle this. They might just ignore the hate and release it anyways. I can't say I'm too happy with how this game looks.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst - So it seems like the game is called "Catalyst" because it's supposedly a prequel to Mirror's Edge 1. It seems like fans want to see more of Faith and so there will be more cinematics actually showing her in action rather than keeping everything entirely in a first-person perspective view. The game's supposedly going to be open-world as well as opposed to its finely crafted linear gameplay of the first one.
NieR (New) - I haven't played (or taken off the plastic wraps) of my copy of NieR since I wanted to get through Drakengard 3 first (a friend told me that NieR was better). So it was unexpected to see a sequel to the game as it seemed like the first game was actually a spin-off of the Drakengard series. But what's really exciting about this announcement is that Plantinum Games is going to be the one developing the game this time around. Could you imagine what the game would be like? Over-the-top action in an RPG? I'm excited for this one, but it might be 2-3 years before we get to see it.
Nintendo - Nintendo's Conference was entertaining, but overall underwhelming this year. There were new games, but nothing that really got the fans excited. The most exciting news coming from Nintendo was the Nintendo Direct right before E3 which revealed Ryu from Street Fighter as a DLC in Super Smash Bros. as well as the return of Roy of Fire Emblem and Lucas from Earthbound (Mother). At the very least, they announced Hyrule Warriors for 3DS which made me happy.
Overwatch - It's kind of weird to see a Blizzard game mentioned at E3, but I welcome it. Overwatch is looking pretty interesting, but how long will it take before we get to play it? It was a very long wait for StarCraft 2, then Diablo 3, then Heroes of the Storm. Waiting for Blizzard games is tough.
Playstation Vita - If it weren't for Atlus, the PS Vita would be a very sad system to have right now. With Persona: Dancing All Night and Lost Dimension, what else is there to look forward to on the PS Vita that you couldn't get on any other platform? Honestly, all I want and need for PS Vita is Phantasy Star Nova. Sega, please!
Salt and Sanctuary - Boasting itself to be sort of a 2D Dark Souls, I first got interested in this game when it was announced last year because it's supposed to be like a Metroidvania. I keep craving for Metroidvania games, but not many seem to satisfy me. I hope this will be a good game.
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson - I need to remember to pre-order this next month. I've already listened to the soundtrack and am really looking forward to playing this game. Senran Kagura does a very good job of satisfying my craving for Hack-n-Slash / Beat-em-Ups.
Street Fighter V - More characters were shown and the game is looking pretty good. I wasn't sure how they were going to innovate the game from IV, but the new ability mechanics looks like it will change the pacing and strategies for the game. I even got excited enough to buy Ultra Street Fighter IV during the Steam Summer Sale.
Super Mario Maker - When they showed it last year, it was kind of a cool idea. But when they showcased it this year at the Nintendo World Championship 2015 event, they revealed the limitless possibilities for the game. I'd like to get this game if I ever get a Wii U.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands / Rainbow Six Siege - Rainbow Six Siege was shown last year and I was bit worried because of the competitive nature of the game. But then they showed cooperative gameplay in scenario based missions and it immediately reminded me of the fun I had playing games like SWAT 4 with my friends. Now I really want Rainbow Six Siege. Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a newly announced game and it looks amazing. It's an open-world, online-multiplayer, cooperative experience like no other game from what they've shown so far. These are two games I really want and convinced me the most of why I should be excited for their games this year.
Now let's take a look at I wanted and what I actually got during Steam Summer Sale.
What I wanted from Steam Summer Sale as posted 2 posts ago:
Lords of the Fallen - I wanted it below $20 but got it AT $20. I was very hesitant on picking it up because of the myriad posts on how the game constantly crashes, problems with controls, graphic glitches, and countless other problems. So far, the only problems I've faced is frame rate dropping, even at lower settings. The game's not properly optimized, but otherwise it seems to be running fine. I think I can make the $20 worth it as I'll probably be playing the game more than once.
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires - I kind of knew it wouldn't drop below $20, so I was hoping it'd at least go down to $25, of which it did. This was another game I was afraid of picking up because of countless reports of problems with the game, but I've never played the Empires expansion and kind of wanted that sort of depth in a Dynasty Warriors game. So I bought the game and tried it out for myself. The graphics is downgraded from the original DW8, I can't play with native resolution, I can't play full screen without the graphics pushed off to the side, and there isn't English voice overs. Despite all that, I'm still enjoying the game with the plethora of customization, RPG and Strategy-like elements, and new weapons.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - I didn't get this one. I was expecting to see it for less than $20 since it's been at $20 the last three times it went on sale. But this time, it was $25. I found out that they bundled it with the DLCs as GOTY Edition and forced players to get it as the original game was no longer available to buy. The game's about 14 hours long and I didn't want to pay more than $15 for it, so I skipped this game for now.
Dying Light - As I suspected, the game dropped down to $45. But the game is fairly new, so it's fair that they're keeping it at a decently high price.
Borderlands Pre-Sequel - This actually had an okay deal with the game around $20 and the Season Pass bundle for $25 (while getting the Season pass separately is $20). But my friends and I felt like we can wait for a larger discount since we weren't in any rush to play the game.
Divinity: Original Sin - The game only got a $3 discount from its regular sale price. But I still picked it up around $24 because I wanted to get a game I could co-op with my friend. We're kind of running out of games to play together.
Hotline Miami 2 - Barely even a $5 discount. Passing for now because I want to get the soundtrack with it.
Titan Souls - I found out it's only about 3 hours of gameplay. I didn't want to pay $9 for 3 hours of gameplay. It looks really interesting though.
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure - This didn't even have a discount. Perhaps it's too new.
Broforce - It's not out of Early Access yet and it's still $10.
Freedom Planet - I got it! I haven't played it yet, but I started it up and found out it has voice acting. Kind of strange for a 16-bit looking game.
Wings of Vi - This game is hard! I barely got through the 2nd boss in the game and I've already died 100 times. But so far the game is really fun! I like these type of difficult games where it's fun, challenging, and engaging enough to keep going even after dying countless times.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - I have mixed feelings about this remake. But overall, I think it's a great game. I'll admit that I miss the music Danny Baranowsky created for the original.
The Shadowcrypt - I bought it and then asked for a refund after 12 minutes of playing it. I didn't plan on ever asking for a refund on Steam, but the game was so monotonous and boring that I got sick of it after one session of playing it. I've played plenty of games like it in the past and saw the warning signs. It's unfortunate, but it's not what I thought it'd be.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - It really did go down to $5! I immediately bought it and then immediately completed it the next day. For a 1 hour game, I was thoroughly impressed. The new engine they're using is highly optimized, making the graphics incredibly beautiful yet run smoothly. The gameplay is highly refined and is what you'd expect from a MGS game. Despite being only 1 hour, I accumulated 3 hours. There was 1 hour of cinematics, 1 hour of listening to audio logs (which were really expensive), and there's also a bunch of side missions I haven't even played yet. I think for $5, the mini prologue game to the Phantom Pain is well worth it.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R - It's too new, so it didn't go down past its initial launch sale.
Bladestorm: Nightmare - This is also too new and didn't go on sale.
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim - This was surprisingly cut down to 50% off at $10. I didn't pick it up yet, though. I still have Ys Origins and Ys 1 & 2+ to get through before I think of getting Ys VI.
Axiom Verge - It didn't go on sale.
Dragon Age: Inquisition - DA:I did go on sale on Origin like I predicted it would for 50% off at $30. But since my friends didn't want to get it and play multiplayer, I held off on it. I'd love to play multiplayer on it, but I don't think I can find anyone to play it with. So I'm just going to wait for a bigger discount before I pick it up for playing the single-player campaign.
Overall, both Steam Summer Sale and E3 were kind of underwhelming this year. Steam Sale had all sorts of shady dealings such as game prices being hiked up right before the sale so that even on sale it won't be be as much. There were bundles created to force players to buy a more expensive version of the game or bundles were taken out so the best deal wasn't readily available. Games that should have gotten a bigger discount got a lesser discount. Despite all that, I ended up buying 16 games (and some DLCs, mostly soundtracks) and received 4 games from friends. I wish I got better discounts on the game I bought, but I at least got the games I mostly wanted from the sale, regardless. E3 had some interesting announcements, but they're all sequels that we all pretty much expect to get from the game industry. Even with surprising announcements that blow people's mind like FF7 Remake and Shenmue 3, there wasn't much to offer at this year's E3. I guess I had a fun week, but I kind of want to continue lazing about until I feel ready to get back to work. But I guess I'll try to work hard until EVO comes around.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Hyperdimension Neptunia U and more Drakengard 3 Rant
[MORE SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAKENGARD 3]
After listening to the music a bit more, dissecting the words and meaning behind them, and pondering on the whole story again, Drakengard 3's theme goes a bit deeper than I had tried to explain yesterday. In my review of Drakengard 3, I mentioned the theme of "loneliness" a lot. What I failed to point out was how this actually affected all the characters. I've already mentioned this for Zero and Mikhail, so I think I can skip those. Besides the idea of being "alone", there was also the "sense of belonging" that leads to the perception of being "alone".
[The Disciples]
Dito - Dito mentions many times how he seems to hate the world and all things in it. He could never find companionship that shared his sadistic outlook for violence and inflicting pain. He abhorred his time with Five and at one point in the game mentions how he was "having the time of his life killing people and watching Zero slaughter them alongside him". It sounds messed up, but he seemed genuinely happy with Zero. Yet, in Branch D he switched sides to the resurrected Five to live his dream in a chaotic world of death and destruction. When he finally realized that he was about to disappear from summoning an angel without an intoner's song, he showed weakness for the first time. He cried out for Zero not to leave him, but there was nothing she could do.
Decadus - As a masochist, Decadus only wanted to serve one that can please him in the way he liked it: to be punished and consistently insulted. When serving Four, she was light on reprimanding him. But he served her faithfully and even wished to have himself killed after Four was slain. Zero captures him instead and Decadus humbly accepted to serve her until death. He seemed much happier with the party in tow as each member, other than Mikhail, verbally bombards him with insults as he moans in pleasure from them. Despite his weird ways, Zero does say that he's "been nothing but a perfect gentleman to her". Zero seemed to have enjoyed his company and Decadus evidently liked being part of the group. Out of all the disciples that leave in Branch D, Zero looked most pained to see Decadus go.
Octa - His entry into the party was one most unexpected. He shows up looking like he was about to start one huge boss fight, only to drop his weapons and surrender.
Scene begins at 1:38
Octa had left because he wasn't satisfied with serving Three any longer. He felt he didn't belong there anymore. He claims that Three couldn't satiate his sexual desires any longer. Despite being a dirty old man (even though he claims to be 22), he was wise and perceptive. He often gave the most useful advice throughout the journey. He would also mention a lot about sex and having a never ending erection along the way too. But near the end of Branch D, when 3 of the disciples are gone, he says that he couldn't get an erection whatsoever. Perhaps he felt the group felt lonely without the others around. Perhaps what all the disciples wanted was a sense of belonging. Despite being a band of weirdos, they stuck together as a group.
Cent - The pretty boy without a brain, Cent often spouts nonsensical statements as fact when he probably just made it up on the spot. They made it a point to show how much of an idiot he is. The only time he seemed right in the head was when he's around Two. It seemed that Two and Cent were deeply in love with each other and that they were alone when separated. It did seem like Cent was the most disjointed from the group out of the four members.
[The Intoners]
Five - There isn't much to say about Five. She becomes obsessed with something and then immediately loses interest when she has it. Nothing really seemed to satisfy her.
Four - She felt that they all should stick together as sisters. She seemed to have all sorts of fond memories of Zero, but none of them seemed real. But to her, she felt like she belonged at Zero's side.
Three - She never seemed sane to begin with. She's like the black sheep of the family and didn't really have a place among the sisters. Almost like she was lost in her own world, she never really seemed to have any connection to any of the characters, including her own disciple.
Two - Deeply in love with her disciple Cent, she never seemed to function correctly without him. After the initial encounter with Two, the struggle of self conflict and sanity between Two and Cent is shown again and again in the alternate branches.
One - She is the only intoner that didn't lose her mind to the parasite's power and the only one that questioned their reason for being in the world. She figure out what she and her sisters truly were and soon fought for the same reasons Zero did. She was the only Intoner without a disciple and no one understood her motives. Ironically, the one person that did understand her was the one she had to kill: Zero.
Thinking about it all, I really liked the narrative of Drakengard 3. It's a shame that the rest of the game couldn't match up with the quality.
[Rant on Hyperdimension Neptunia U]
There isn't any spoilers for this game, because there's really nothing to spoil. I kind of wish they had fleshed out some sort of story for the game, but it's simply just a spin-off meant to take on the Action Hack-n-Slash genre. There isn't much I want to say about the game, but I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I was disappointed with it, but I somehow still enjoyed the game. I've completed the main game and didn't feel like I got much of an experience out of it, despite putting in 21 hours into it. The game does have end-game content, but I'm not sure what to think of it. The game itself plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors and/or Senran Kagura as it was made by the same developers as SK. The catch is that most of the levels are arena based (one small room) and require taking out a lot of enemies. The main gripe I have about the game is how confusing the balance of the game is. Low level quests were sometimes ridiculously difficult while some high level quests were actually not that bad. The recommended levels they listed don't seem to match up with what you have to put up with. Some of the worst scenarios I had to deal with is a room full of enemies that can do a string of attacks that stun you. When a group of enemies attack you in such a fashion, you will die because you'll be eternally stunned. It's even worse when those same enemies have so much health that it takes a decent amount of time to take even one down. I do appreciate the challenge the game provides over what SK games seemed to have presented, but it seems poorly balanced compared to the SK games. Perhaps this was a change to the North American version because many English speaking fans that played the Japanese version said it was so mind-numbingly easy that it wasn't worth playing. It took a bit of grinding, but I was able to complete the main quests by utilizing all the different abilities they provided so that I wouldn't die so easily. Afterwards, it unlocked four things for me: Cheat codes, a Chapter 4 quests, a Gauntlet tournament, and a tower. The Cheat codes can be unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements. What they are, I don't know. Chapter 4 quests give really high level and high difficulty enemies to fight against. The Gauntlet is really unbalanced. It gives items at the end (of which it didn't throughout the game), but the gameplay is so broken that it's not that fun. On Wimpy (Easy), enemies are defeated in 1-2 moves. On Decent (Normal), you die in one combo while they take minimal damage. On Pro (Hard), you do 1 damage each hit while they One-shot you. I'll try it more when I hit max level on my characters, but right now it's just farming for items on Wimpy mode. The tower I haven't tried much yet. It's just going up one floor after another to reach the top and fight the lass boss again. I can dare to say that the game is adequately entertaining for me, but I can't say that it's really worth $40. The game feels like it lacks depth and dynamics. What made SK really great was the flow between story and gameplay. HDN:U just seems to throw a lot of long-winded quests and then giving a few short conversations between the characters. I'm probably going to play it more just to get my $40 worth, but it's kind of a hard game to recommend. You'd have to really like Hack-n-Slashes in its bare core form or Hyperdimension Neptunia to enjoy the game.
After listening to the music a bit more, dissecting the words and meaning behind them, and pondering on the whole story again, Drakengard 3's theme goes a bit deeper than I had tried to explain yesterday. In my review of Drakengard 3, I mentioned the theme of "loneliness" a lot. What I failed to point out was how this actually affected all the characters. I've already mentioned this for Zero and Mikhail, so I think I can skip those. Besides the idea of being "alone", there was also the "sense of belonging" that leads to the perception of being "alone".
[The Disciples]
Dito - Dito mentions many times how he seems to hate the world and all things in it. He could never find companionship that shared his sadistic outlook for violence and inflicting pain. He abhorred his time with Five and at one point in the game mentions how he was "having the time of his life killing people and watching Zero slaughter them alongside him". It sounds messed up, but he seemed genuinely happy with Zero. Yet, in Branch D he switched sides to the resurrected Five to live his dream in a chaotic world of death and destruction. When he finally realized that he was about to disappear from summoning an angel without an intoner's song, he showed weakness for the first time. He cried out for Zero not to leave him, but there was nothing she could do.
Decadus - As a masochist, Decadus only wanted to serve one that can please him in the way he liked it: to be punished and consistently insulted. When serving Four, she was light on reprimanding him. But he served her faithfully and even wished to have himself killed after Four was slain. Zero captures him instead and Decadus humbly accepted to serve her until death. He seemed much happier with the party in tow as each member, other than Mikhail, verbally bombards him with insults as he moans in pleasure from them. Despite his weird ways, Zero does say that he's "been nothing but a perfect gentleman to her". Zero seemed to have enjoyed his company and Decadus evidently liked being part of the group. Out of all the disciples that leave in Branch D, Zero looked most pained to see Decadus go.
Octa - His entry into the party was one most unexpected. He shows up looking like he was about to start one huge boss fight, only to drop his weapons and surrender.
Scene begins at 1:38
Octa had left because he wasn't satisfied with serving Three any longer. He felt he didn't belong there anymore. He claims that Three couldn't satiate his sexual desires any longer. Despite being a dirty old man (even though he claims to be 22), he was wise and perceptive. He often gave the most useful advice throughout the journey. He would also mention a lot about sex and having a never ending erection along the way too. But near the end of Branch D, when 3 of the disciples are gone, he says that he couldn't get an erection whatsoever. Perhaps he felt the group felt lonely without the others around. Perhaps what all the disciples wanted was a sense of belonging. Despite being a band of weirdos, they stuck together as a group.
Cent - The pretty boy without a brain, Cent often spouts nonsensical statements as fact when he probably just made it up on the spot. They made it a point to show how much of an idiot he is. The only time he seemed right in the head was when he's around Two. It seemed that Two and Cent were deeply in love with each other and that they were alone when separated. It did seem like Cent was the most disjointed from the group out of the four members.
[The Intoners]
Five - There isn't much to say about Five. She becomes obsessed with something and then immediately loses interest when she has it. Nothing really seemed to satisfy her.
Four - She felt that they all should stick together as sisters. She seemed to have all sorts of fond memories of Zero, but none of them seemed real. But to her, she felt like she belonged at Zero's side.
Three - She never seemed sane to begin with. She's like the black sheep of the family and didn't really have a place among the sisters. Almost like she was lost in her own world, she never really seemed to have any connection to any of the characters, including her own disciple.
Two - Deeply in love with her disciple Cent, she never seemed to function correctly without him. After the initial encounter with Two, the struggle of self conflict and sanity between Two and Cent is shown again and again in the alternate branches.
One - She is the only intoner that didn't lose her mind to the parasite's power and the only one that questioned their reason for being in the world. She figure out what she and her sisters truly were and soon fought for the same reasons Zero did. She was the only Intoner without a disciple and no one understood her motives. Ironically, the one person that did understand her was the one she had to kill: Zero.
Thinking about it all, I really liked the narrative of Drakengard 3. It's a shame that the rest of the game couldn't match up with the quality.
[Rant on Hyperdimension Neptunia U]
There isn't any spoilers for this game, because there's really nothing to spoil. I kind of wish they had fleshed out some sort of story for the game, but it's simply just a spin-off meant to take on the Action Hack-n-Slash genre. There isn't much I want to say about the game, but I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I was disappointed with it, but I somehow still enjoyed the game. I've completed the main game and didn't feel like I got much of an experience out of it, despite putting in 21 hours into it. The game does have end-game content, but I'm not sure what to think of it. The game itself plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors and/or Senran Kagura as it was made by the same developers as SK. The catch is that most of the levels are arena based (one small room) and require taking out a lot of enemies. The main gripe I have about the game is how confusing the balance of the game is. Low level quests were sometimes ridiculously difficult while some high level quests were actually not that bad. The recommended levels they listed don't seem to match up with what you have to put up with. Some of the worst scenarios I had to deal with is a room full of enemies that can do a string of attacks that stun you. When a group of enemies attack you in such a fashion, you will die because you'll be eternally stunned. It's even worse when those same enemies have so much health that it takes a decent amount of time to take even one down. I do appreciate the challenge the game provides over what SK games seemed to have presented, but it seems poorly balanced compared to the SK games. Perhaps this was a change to the North American version because many English speaking fans that played the Japanese version said it was so mind-numbingly easy that it wasn't worth playing. It took a bit of grinding, but I was able to complete the main quests by utilizing all the different abilities they provided so that I wouldn't die so easily. Afterwards, it unlocked four things for me: Cheat codes, a Chapter 4 quests, a Gauntlet tournament, and a tower. The Cheat codes can be unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements. What they are, I don't know. Chapter 4 quests give really high level and high difficulty enemies to fight against. The Gauntlet is really unbalanced. It gives items at the end (of which it didn't throughout the game), but the gameplay is so broken that it's not that fun. On Wimpy (Easy), enemies are defeated in 1-2 moves. On Decent (Normal), you die in one combo while they take minimal damage. On Pro (Hard), you do 1 damage each hit while they One-shot you. I'll try it more when I hit max level on my characters, but right now it's just farming for items on Wimpy mode. The tower I haven't tried much yet. It's just going up one floor after another to reach the top and fight the lass boss again. I can dare to say that the game is adequately entertaining for me, but I can't say that it's really worth $40. The game feels like it lacks depth and dynamics. What made SK really great was the flow between story and gameplay. HDN:U just seems to throw a lot of long-winded quests and then giving a few short conversations between the characters. I'm probably going to play it more just to get my $40 worth, but it's kind of a hard game to recommend. You'd have to really like Hack-n-Slashes in its bare core form or Hyperdimension Neptunia to enjoy the game.
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