Tuesday 31 August 2010

Atelier iris 3

gamespot score:6.2 (fair)

my score: 7.5

(+)pros:- great in-game characters have loads of personality,- battles are fun,- dungeons are somewhat good to explore,- alchemy system still remains great to use and play around with

(-)cons:- doing those quests are as repititive as hell,- the world isnt as great as before ,- the main story doesnt have much to offer.

Gameplay time:30-40 hours (above average)






Okay here it is. As I said I have been busy as hell and dont have the time to blog as often. Anyway, so heres atelier iris 3, probably the most underated atelier iris among the 3 released for the PS2. I never got the chance to play atelier iris 1, but I have to say atelier iris 3 is a step down from 2. Those looking for something thats exactly the same as atelier iris 2 that focuses more on the story and moving from area to area and exploring every different thing that the party comes across...will be disappointed. Atelier iris 3 is somewhat different, and will cause some to hate, but still, its a good RPG if players can withstand through the whole game.



Story wise, there isnt much, but its like this. Edge and iris have known each other for awhile, and they are raiders, working together. Iris is an alchemist, and she is looking for lost gems to piece up together and form the grand phantasm, which is a book that grants wishes. So they go taking quests from the raider's guild to find leads to quests that enable them to gather the pieces. To do so they have to seek the mana, creatures that hold secrets to these gems. So yeah basically they gather every single mana out there in order for those pesky gems to show up.




From my summary of the story above it may sound quite empty, because it is. Atelier iris 3's main core gameplay focuses on you going to the raider's guild and then taking quests, again and again and again and again......and in doing all this the story doesnt progress, cause its just fufilling the townspeople's requests! And after you do a fix amount of quests, a special event pops up and when you go to do it, the story pushes in front abit and that chapter concludes. So if you take out all the quest-doing you get a super short game. Yep. Its really a pity, cause iris from this game is my favourite female game character of all time. Seriously I think shes more attractive than tifa from FF7, UAHAHAHA. Ahem..so anyway, long story short, side quests are boring as hell.




Still, though the game has a dumb quest system, there are a couple of good things, such as the characters in the game, they all have good personality, just like previous atelier iris games. Iris is so cheerful and bubbly, and she really goes well with edge, since hes the kinda guy who like to bring down the mood, iris always manages to lift it up. Also, the 3rd party member nell is one hell of a...immature girl, pulling off silly comments and stuff, making the game even more funny. There are other funny characters, such as pamela the ghost and a few others, they make the game all the more quirky and the dialouge all the more comedically interesting. The other good thing in the game is the same old battle system, its simply to old style that it still appeals and battles are still fun as ever. Though the game has only 3 party members, it makes up for it by giving the characters each different playstyles, ranging from the different kind of mana you have, so theres actually quite a variety of styles to use in battle.


Besides the empty-ish story, and the lame amount of side quests , the only other bad thing in the game, is probably the problem with the game world itself. Altough you can go and explore all the game's given alterworlds (which is quite alot), there is really only 1 town in the whole damn game. So its always the same people over and over everytime you step out of a gate from an alterworld, it gets kinda boring. And what to make it worse than the side quests, which require you to go in and out of alterworlds.
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If you like atelier iris 2, or basically any of the atelier iris games, atelier iris 3 will probably keep you entertained as well. But if you want an epic story and a world that is as vast as atelier iris 2, you will probably get bored of atelier iris 3 before the game reaches its conclusion. But give it a chance, its actually good, and iris is hella adorable XD.


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Happy gaming.

Monday 30 August 2010

Studio project

Well recently I picked up skecthing and damn its addictive XD, so yeah I havent been posting as oftenly as before. But yes, I will still be posting, expect atelier iris 3 up by tommorow.

But yes, heres another depressing note, my school will be starting the very 1st studio project, which supposingly takes up a huge part of my grade, so yes I will be working hard for it. Damn, the 3 weeks holidays flew past..... Im still in a holiday mood.

Anyway, due to the studio project (which will last for 3 weeks), I will bcome less active, but I will stilll be posting, this is just a side note, cause ima be busy for the following 3 weeks to come. I wish myself the very best to survive this disaster until it blows over.

Peace for now.

Friday 27 August 2010

Blazblue: calamity trigger portable

Gamespot score:n/a

my score: 8.5

(+)Pros:- characters have pretty diverse playstyles and vary very differently from each other, - well designed characters,- has plenty of gameplay modes, - solid training options, -sharp controls - has a great background plot, -score attack provides great amount of challenge for those looking to pick a tough fight.

(-)cons:- little characters, - visuals suffered quite alot for being ported to the PSP

gameplay time: 40-50 hours( long)






Rebel 1, action!!!! Thats right, blazblue is on baby! Around last year blazblue calamity trigger was released for the PS3/360 and it was a huge hit, scoring some insane scores in sites all around the world. Somewhere early this year, blazblue: calamity trigger portable was released for the PSP, and since I didnt get the PS3 version last year( cause I didnt even have a PS3 at the time), I got this. Seriously, I wasnt disappointed, calamity trigger is fighting game that aims to please, and though its on the PSP, its so fun that it will delight you as long as your average PS3 game.



The blazblue universe has quite alot going on, for a fighting game, there sure is a huge chunk of story to go through. Thats good, since I always enjoyed long fantasy type-ish stories. Anyway, the story focuses on the main character, ragna the bloodedge. Altough each of the 12 characters has thier own seperate story that plays a part in the entire blazblue story, it focuses more on ragna. Ragna, being an S-class criminal, has been going aroudn the world causing trouble, and the "government" known as the NOL have been dead set on catching him, so yeah ragna while on his journey stumbles unto the kagutsuchi, where all of the BB characters reside in, so he drops in, not knowing what kind of shit he is going into.....




Being a fighting game, blazblue really excels. The fighting is awesome, and theres alot to dive into, ranging from bursts to libra, theres alot of things in this. Newcomers can be abit puzzled at 1st, but after abit of trying out here and there, everything should come into place, and you can start your journey on this amazing game. When you 1st enter the character select screen, dont be disappointed by your limited choice of characters, they are all incredibly varied and have distinct playstyles. PLus, thier designs are really unique. Cheers towards the creators for having such imaginative minds.




Gameplay wise expect something like guilty gear, since BB is like its succecor anyway. So, like all fighting games, you start out opposite each other and then start pummeling one another until time runs out or when either one dies. Still, you will be impressed by the mechanics. There are shits like jump cancel or rapid cancel which lets you continue your assualts by jumping or pressing different buttons. That means you can string tons of attacks together to cause some major hurt. And as I mentioned before, characters have distinct playstyles, ragna relies on melee combos and his drive attack drains the opponents HP, jin also relies on melee but does quicker strikes, his drive is meant to freeze the enemy. There are loads of characters with other playstyles, tager relies on close range grappling, noel relies on chain comboing, rachel relies on mind games and traps.... and so on, theres really too much to say, all the characters have very different playstyles, you will have alot of time to pick your favourite character to play as here in blazblue.

On the PSP blazblue runs incredibly well, with sharp controls and no lagging during gameplay, though this comes with a cost. Altough one cant expect the PSP to have better graphics than the PS3, the character sprites in the game seem pretty toned down. This is a pity, since on the PS3 the sprites were downright awesome. Also, for many players, a complaint is the lack of characters, 12 seems a little too low for character count in a fighting game. Altough the game makes it up with interesting characters, but still...12 is little.
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Blazblue: calamity trigger portable wont fail to impress, its amazing fighting mechanics and diverse characters will keep you entertained for quite awhile. Even my female cousins have fun playing this!! Its a seriously good game, dont let this one slip through, especially if you like fighting games.





Happy gaming!



Wednesday 25 August 2010

best game character: 25 august 10


Been awhile. So yeah, I'll get straight to the point, today's best game character will be none other than the famous prosecutor that is badass to da max!!

Thats right, its miles edgeworth.



Miles is probably the coolest character in the AA series, Im serious, followed by manfred von karma and perhaps klavier gavin. AA has loads of good candidates to be cool characters but these 3 always stood out to me, especially miles. Mr edgeworth here is a prosecutor, and can be said to be phoenix's rival. In the 1st game, phoenix's opposing prosecutor in almost all of his cases were edgeworth. And in the 2nd game, the final case's prosecutor was edgeworth as well. Thats a lot of cases.


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Miles is the apprentice of the great manfred von karma, a legendary prosecutor that has never lost a case in 40 years. So yeah, that makes miles pretty deadly, hes a feared prosecutor. In the 1st game he was nothing more than a perfectionist, he was cool back then, he did lots of shit such as forging evidence and other crap to ensure his wins. After the events of the 1st game, he has become more respectable, where his motto changes from focusing on winning, to searching for the truth. Thats right, spokenn as a true prosecutor.
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Miles is something else. Through the process of the games, there will be encounters with many other prosecutors, all have different personalities and some unique feature to look out for. Godot with his viser and coffee, fran with her whip and commanding personality and payne with his.... bland-ness and plain-ness. Miles is easily remembered and recognised, he is phoenix's very 1st serious court rival, and his aruguments and performance in court will make you remember him to say the least, he puts up a good fight when compared to other prosecutors. Many a time when you seem like you are on a roll miles will pull something off and turn the tables against you.
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Plus in AA 3, you get to play as miles in the last case. Nice. Whats more, he has his own game, AA investigations, in which you play as him. This game shows what miles is capable of, and how he solves cases HIS way, which relies heavily on logic, unlike phoenix, proving so much as how much of a smart ass he is.
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So, yes, miles is awesome, he will always be. And yes, I would also like to see how he is in the upcoming gyakuten saiban game, I would like to see how he looks like in the timeline of apollo justice.
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" My logic is sound."- Miles edgeworth



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Been awhile since I have done this and yes, once again, welcome to greatest boss fights. We had a variety so far, such as isolde from mana khemia and tigrex from monster hunter freedom 2. Well today's boss fight is pretty much something people will see coming. Thats right, for today's awesome boss fight we have dante himself, from devil may cry 4.
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Face it, nero vs dante is an awesome matchup, and what better way to express that awesomeness than making it out of a boss fight. Well done capcom. You fight dante 2 times, one time at the start of the game as a tutorial, he was a joke back then. The figth I am talking about here is the one far later, the 2nd fight at mission 10 or so.
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Now the 2nd dante is a difficult one. I simply thought he was undefeatable the 1st few times I fought him, with him deflecting/dodging my attacks and all, I simply couldnt do a thing to him. After countless deaths, I decided to fk it, and went to search youtube vids on how to beat him. Most strategies varied around using devil arm to slam dunk him to hell, so I tried that, and he went down after a few more tries.
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Dante is one hard mother fker. He approaches you mercilessly and lands some deadly combos when you are within his range, every time you try to normally devil arm him, he dodges and gives you a slash of his own. Everytime you try to combo him, he effortlessly deflects it and combos you with his own attacks. And lets not talk about firing, everytime you try to shoot him, he shoots back at you, and both of you just end up deflecting shots against each other. I found the only way to damage him efficiently is by jump grabbing him through baiting or devil triggering his ass.
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Dante doesnt stop there, when near death he starts using his various styles against you, though I dont see much changes when he starts using them, the only difference I could see was him dashing around when he used trickster. And even after you go through all the trouble and finally managed to beat him, the story still has you "lose" to him in the following cutscene, and according to nero, dante was just playing with him all along! Haha, now thats dante for you, always taking fights as jokes.
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Heh, dante is just badass, makes you think how long nero would last against him in a real all out fight eh?
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Difficulty: 8/10
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Video here

gamespot score:7.0(good)
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my score:7.9
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(+)Pros:- has a cast of entertainning and funny characters,- comedic plot that provides humour almost all the time,- managing a resort island and watching your profits rise in your charts is satisfying, - like most atelier games alchemy is important and addicting,- juggling for time to manage your resort facilities is challenging.
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(-)cons:- battle is too simple and boring, - you cant lose( literally),- may not appeal to some atelier fans.
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gameplay time:20-30 hours( average)
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Ahh the atelier series. Its one of NIS's more accomplished titles, and here's one of them, the 1st one to hit DS im sure. Atelier annie is an atelier game that takes a new turn, a pretty different approach, its really quite different compared to other atelier games, still its pretty good, though it turned out to be a lesser RPG game and more like some sort of resort management kinda thing....anyway,here you go.


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The plot in this game is pbviously a joke plot, just see the opening. Annie is a normal lazy ass girl who just lazes at home all day and sleeps her ass off. Her only dream is to get married and get stinking rich...as if that would happen if she stays at home all day and sleeps. Well apparently her parents started to worry for her, so they consulted annie's grandfather, a famous alchemist. Well he's got an idea, so he takes it into action. Ordering 2 of his minions, he asks them to wait for annie to fall asleep, and take her bed and carry it aaaalllllllllll the way to a foreign island, known as sera island. Amazing how she could remain asleep, being carried over 100 miles away from home....so yeah she was sent there to take part in an facility management alchemy contest to turn sera island into a resort island...she has to work hard...and overcome her laziness.
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In atelier annie, there is a actually quite of variety to do here. Actually its mostly 3 things. Being an atelier game, of course, you have alchemy, one of the game's 3 main aspects. You go around the wilderness, or shops, to purchase items used in an alchemy fusion, then make the shit you want, which will then be submitted as an item for the alchemy contest or for quest submission. Next is of course battle, being an RPG and all, I'll more into this later. Lastly, probably the biggest thing in this game, is resort management. Yeah, its exactly what it means, you manage the facilities of a to-be resort island.
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Atelier annie is a fun game with a great character cast, everyone is extremely funny. From gillian who is always slacking off on guard duty, to kilbert and beautrix always mocking each other. Who could of course 4get the main heroine annie and the retarded fairy pepe, they crack me up. Anyway, the process of the game is quite simple, you have to make sera island a successful tourist attraction in the period of 2 years. To do this you have to win contests and get tons and tons of money, and use them to build and upgrade facilities, which include a bakery, a hotel, a park and many more. Then from these facilities you gain even mor eprofit depending on its popularity. Of course to increase your individual facilities' popularities you have to do requests from the poeple in charge in the respective areas, these may be alchemy requests, most of the time. An after each month, your sales reports are counted, and you receive profit from your monthly sales from each of your facilities, which you will use to build even more facilities, to complete your ultimate tourist death trap.
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For an atelier game, its pretty different from the rest, so fans of the original game may not get appealed by the whole resort thing. Also, for an atelier game, the battle is overly simple, its damn obvious they didnt focus on fighting this time. Battle sprites are like tiny chibi versions of the characters (not appealing at all), and fighting is....unimpressive. Its kinda boring, even the enemies dont look cool at all, even the "bosses". Oh yea theres also no real way to lose, since battle is so wtf simple, and even if you die you practically dun get game over. The only challenge in this game is time management for your facilities.
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If you are looking for something that plays closely to the atelier iris or mana khemia series, this wont appeal to you much. If you are looking for something more casual, atelier annie is something you can enjoy. With good humour and a funny plot with entertaining characters, I dont see how any casual gamer can go wrong here.
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Happy gaming.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Moe! (Lucky star review)

Opening songs- OP 1: Motteke! Sailor fuku

Genres: Slice of life, comedy

episodes:24

And here's another anime review. This time its a show most would know, lucky star! I have been wanting to watch this show since last year, but didnt have the time beacuse of Os and all..... anyway I finally found the time to watch it this year, and yes, its one nice as hell show. It makes you go weeeeeeeeeee.

Opening song is win. Motteke! Sailor fuku is a ridiculously stupid sounding but addicting song, how do they do it? And seriously, I cant believe it is sung by aya hirano, how did she change her voice like that?

Rating: 8.0/10

Well like many shows out there, lucky star is another show that is about nothing. Im serious, watch K-on, haruhi suzumiya and those kind of shows, ITS ABOUT NOTHING. And seriously, even after watching so many shows about nothing this show still entertains me.

This show has a cast mostly made by females, with I think only 2 or 3 male characters. The show's main character is konata, some game addicted girl ( rare to find those). She goes to school and has 3 "good" friends, kagami, tsukasa and miyuki. Episode after episode they are talking about stupid things and make fools of themselves. Though the show has around 10 girls as characters in it, more than half the show focuses on the 4 girls , and them going through everyday lifes. At around episode 15 or 16 a lot more characters start popping in, though its too bad by that time the show is already ending. All the characters in the show have bizarre personalities, ranging from doujin artists to smart and clumsy kinds. Though my favourite character is kona's father, he is one of the only show's male characters and he is win.

Overall its a mighty pleasant and fufilling show. You might find that this show is nothing special during the 1st 5-6 episodes or so but you will grow to like it, and when you have reached the last episode you will be sad to part with it. Recommended to... everyone?

Peace.

Monday 16 August 2010

Final fantasy 13

gamespot score:8.5( great)

my score:8.6


(+)Pros:- addicting and rewarding battle system, - challenging battles encourage more stragetic approaches, - has a great plot worthy of a final fantasy game,- graphics are breath taking, -gran pulse and cocoon are 2 very beautiful worlds,- great boss fights especially later on, - good lenghty main story that lasts at least 50 hours, - has many side quests

(-)Cons:- Exploration is godamn linear throughout the whole game, - character stats progressions are very very straight foward.

gameplay time:50 hours+ (long)





Okay! Final fantasy 13 baby, the long awaited HD final fantasy to arrive on the PS3. Well having waiting for 3-4 years for this game, of course people have high expectations to it, and thus, when it was released, it received criticism of being "not good enough". Well, I agree waiting 4 years was too long for this, but, its still a great game. One cannot think of it being something as epic as final fantasy 7 or 10, think of it as an average final fantasy, not the epic ones, then you will be able to enjoy it for what it really is, a great RPG game.




Story wise, theres quite alot going on in final fantasy 13. It still features the same save the world storyline, but theres alot of background info. The start of the game will be confusing, as you dont know shit of what's going on, make sure to turn on subtitles. Final fantasy's story is based on a war that is going on between 2 worlds, cocoon, and gran pulse. Supposedly this wars been going on for quite awhile. The game starts out awesome, with lightning, our main character, and sazh busting out of a train, beating up cocoon soldiers. Lightning is going to save her sister, which is being held in the fal'cie, sazh is tagging along for some reasons I wont spoil. However it seems there are many going for the fal'cie, other than lightning and sazh, theres snow, the leader of a resistance group called NORA, who wants to save his bride to be, which is in fact lightning's sister, there are also vanile and hope, who were people to be purged, but are making an escape. Later the all get turned into pulse l'cie, all 5 of them, and are wanted by the government of cocoon, being people of dangerous power. The story is confusing to explain in words, but this is just the gist of it, the story is huge.




I'll jump straight to the gameplay, which is probably the key point in final fantasy 13. The battle in final fantasy 13 is something never tried in any final fantasy game before. IN FF 13, theres no such thing as mana, thats right, you heard me, casting all spells, no matter how weak or strong, is free. The battle in the game makes use of ATB system, where you wait for the bar to charge, select whatever you want to use, and then boom, your character starts attacking. All spells are free, but the currencies for "skills" in this game are the ATB gauges themselves or TP. TP is used for shit such as libra, to scan ur enemies, summon, to summon ur eidolons, or other skills such as quake, to dish out easy damage.



The ATB gauges in this game are consumed for skills or attacks. During battle you have to stragitically switch roles to perform well. In simpler terms, each character has his/her number of roles in battle. There are 6 roles, commander ( specialise in dealing high damage), ravager (specialise in increasing the stagger gauge), sentinel ( specialise in absorbing damage), synergist ( specialise in buffing up allies), sabotier ( specialise in debuffing enemies) and the medic ( specialise in healing). Each character has only a set of roles early in the game, but eventually all roles will be unlocked for all characters. You go into battle, with each of your 3 characters each assigned a role, and fight. But this isnt enough, enemies may change strategies to fight you, and you must perform a paradigm shift, to change your party's roles to fit the con current battle flow. So, in short, you will be switching roles here and there like a mad fool until you win the battle. Later battles are tough, and require more stragetic paradigm shift choices, you cant just switch as you wish.



Final fantasy 13 is a very challenging RPG game, which is good, it has great story too, which is also good. But 2 things make the journey less pleasant. For one, this is a first for a final fantasy game, linear exploration. An RPG should be about exploring the areas around you and revisiting them as and when you like, and the area must also be broad and have alot to offer. Final fantasy 13's maps are linear, straightfoward, there are almost NO branching paths when exploring, its mostly a straight path all the way! Next is the character progression, the crystarium. I was hoping for something like the final fantasy 10's sphere grid, now that was aweswome, but it turns out to be like some wanabe line that goes through crystals to increase measly stats, for each of your 6 roles. Each character has some pretty confusing looking grids to go through, but all thier side roles have pathetic path ways.
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If you want to enjoy final fantasy 13 as a final fantasy fan, dont expect something at the level of final fantasy 7. Play it as a newcomer or just as a regular JRPG or average final fantasy game, then you will enjoy it and think its great. For new comers, this is definetely a JRPG you wont want to miss. For those looking for a final fantasy with the standard of 7 or 10, maybe next time eh, Im waiting for it too.

Happy gaming!

Saturday 14 August 2010

Djmax portable black square RE

gamespot score:N/A

my score: 8.8

(+)Pros:- full of hardcore songs that are more suited to many players,- challenging level of difficulty will appeal to veterans,- club tour is a great way to prove your skill, - many songs have multiple difficulties such as MX and RD,- more songs than clazziquai edition.

(-)Cons:- may be too damn hard for beginners,- auto correct sucks.

gameplay time: 100 hours+( very long lasting)






So yes! Here we go again, djmax portable black square review re-do version. This was supposedly supposed to be released along with clazziquai, but I dont know what the hold up was it ended up being released 2 months later. Anyway, being the 4th djmax portable release, it holds some level of expectations, and well, they are met. Black square is by far my favourite djmax portable game as a whole, it provides a great array of music, a challenging difficulty level, and an incredibly difficult and frustrating club tour that is very satifying once you clear it.




Just like all djmax portable games, there is not story. But like in clazziquai edition, there is a club tour mode in black square, that serve as sort of a "story mode". Unlike in clazziquai where the club tour is ridiculously easy and would be skipped by some players, black square's club tour is sure to provide a challenge, to newcomers and veterans alike. Like before you go from club to club to play songs and meet requirements until you reach the end. And like before club tour is to unlock songs, so its quite compulsory.




Djmax black square's presentation stands out quite abit, but its really nothing compared to clazziquai edition. In clazziquai the colours were bright and would have caught the attention of many, in black square, the colours and presentation seemed more simple. Anyway, I'll say this, up to date, black square is the hardest djmax on PSP. The songs have some ridiculous levels and many of them haves MX modes. 8B has been re-included, and has some monstrous songs to play. Club tour is the exact opposite of clazziquai edition, its set to kill, not to prep babies. Yeap, djmax black square is the djmax veteran's dream.


Djmax black square's gameplay mechanics remain mostly the same as before, with some new tweaks. The game play modes are nothing special, it has 4B, 5B, 6B, 4BFX and 6BFX. 6BFX is an outer cover, really, its just 8b in djmax portable 2. And like in clazzi, during gameplay the fever bar is to the side, but as usual you can shift it to the center. Your choice. Also, now theres a new green note feature. When you hit the green note, you get extra points, which is cool, but if you miss, the BGM stops for awhile. Its kinda.... weird to play without BGM so your job as the player to hit the green note. It only comes once in a few notes so its nothing to worry about. The song selection in black square is suberb, there are many amazing songs in here, fury, desperado, space of soul and more, the song list doesnt fail to impress, plus the difficulty set here is for veterans, so songs will feel at least a bit challenging, compared to clazzi. Difficulty in club tour wise, you can expect something like djmax portable 2 extreme missions, the last few ones.




Flaws wise, djmax portable black square wont have much. The only BIG ASS FLAW with it is....wait for it....yes....auto correct. AUTO CORRECT SUCKS, its a damn retarded thing they decided to put into the game. What issit for? I dont know, it just sucks. Basically, its like this, whenever during gameplay, a note comes down on the right, you hit a button on the left, you should have missed, but the game counts it as a hit. Wtf? So yes, you can basically spam through a lvl 14 song, making it sound terrible as hell and missing like fk, but still come through alive. Its so stupid really, it ruins the game. And well the other flaw may be that it will be abit too difficult for newcomers.


Black sqaure is overall a success, to me anyway. The difficulty is great, there are even songs I cant clear now ( im looking at you, beat you down MX). Those are decently good at music games can give this a spin and enjoy it. Newcomers to the series shouldnt start here, its too hard, but theres always easy mode.




Happy gaming!

Wednesday 11 August 2010

megaman ZX advent

gamespot score: 7.5( good)

my score: 7.3

(+)Pros:- transforming into guys that you have defeated is kinda cool, - still remains challenging as the other megaman games,- music is still good,- levels are still well made and revistable,- cameo appearance is great.

(-)cons:- still very hard to play especially for newcomers,- english voice acting is downright terrible, - playing as other forms may be weird at some of the levels.

gameplay time: 10-20 hours( below average)






Ok, this was delayed from yesterday. Megaman ZX advent, another one for the megaman Zero/ZX franchise. Its a sequel from megaman ZX altough different protoganists are featured. Apparently, its fully english voiced, a 1st for the zero/ZX series. As with megaman ZX, megaman ZX advent is a brand new experience on the DS that differs from the previous game, it features new stuff never to be seen before, with a few recycled features from previous games.



Ok so, like ZX , advent features 2 characters. This time I went with grey. Grey wakes up one day knowing nothing but his name, she is found by pandora, a character from the previous game. Pandora seems to know alot about him, strangely, so he asks her about his past and whatnot, only to get attacked by pandora herself. So he desperately tries to escape, and after a desperate chase he falls from a bridge and is discovered by a resistance group. Following the events that happen, he is somehow chosen by the biometal A, and becomes infused with it. Then begins his journey to stop a crazy doctor who tires to mobolize model W...hey, sound familiar?




Same same, megaman ZX advent has the same gameplay and platforming basics as all of its previous preduseccors. You go either left or right, until you reach a door which you will eventually enter and find a boss in it, kill the boss to finish the level. Of course on the way uou kill hordes of insane enemies, jump over countless pitfalls and evade cruelly placed spikes. Its all in the contract. Oh and this time your character choices influence your combat basics. Grey fires faster but weaker shots while ashe fires stronger but less shots. Pick your poison.




Megaman ZX advent still sports the map system used in ZX, only this time its more detailed. It still packs great music, it fits right along with the gameplay. Also, the new feature added to ZX advent, is the A-trans. Its pretty cool, its kinda like.....you know, other megaman games where after you beat a boss, you get its powers. But the A-trans, instead of allowing you to use a defeated boss's powers, lets you TRANSFORM into the boss itself. Pretty sweet eh? There are many cool looking and powerful bosses, the more of them you beat, the more forms you add to your collection. Moving around as a landshark or plant is pretty satisfying at times.



Well, every megaman suffers from the same mistake. They are hard as hell, this one is no different. Its not that being hard is bad, its cause, it tends to tend players off, especially those newcomers. Plus, this game has english voice acting, for once! An english voiced game for the DS for megaman! Well its too bad that the voice acting is HORRIBLE. Yeah, its pretty damn bad, hearing it almost wanna make me stap my own ears. Okay Im exaggerating, but still, it really sucks. Finally, when playing as other forms, transforming here and there, you may find some things weird in the levels, like not being able to proceed further, or getting stuck. This kinda sucks, since it can happen when you are experimenting your forms.


Overall advent is still a good and enjoyable megaman game. If you can endure the bad voice acting then you would probably be able to enjoy this game. Newcomers can still play this game through easy mode, but it isnt recommended cause its incredibly laughable. Plus, cameo appearance is awesome, probably my favourite part in the game, wont spoil it though.


Happy gaming.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Top 5 badass villians(anime) 10/08/10

Sorry, no game reviews today cause I cant seem to load gamespot. Wanted to do megaman ZX advent, well I suppose I'll do it tommorow or thursday. Once again, spoilers are here so be warned. Oh and today's villians are from anime.




5.Ryo
From: Persona:trinity soul

For number 5 today we have kanzato ryo from persona trinity soul, though the show is quite a letdown I cant seem to 4get this one guy that seemed to strike quite an impression.

Ryo is shin's, the protoganist, elder brother. Now he was a good guy at the start of the show, but later towards the end he shows up and becomes a total bad guy. Supposedly he was killed in a fight against the mad doctor fella in a fight between personas, that was like episode 12-13 ish.

Well he hasnt done THAT MUCH bad its just that well, the irony. He was a brother to shin and had helped him at the beginning, but after his "disappearance" he appears to confront shin at some part and the line he said at one of the final few episodes to akihiko, " dont get in my way, sanada." was so damn cool, for some reason.




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4. Medusa
From: Soul eater
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Next is medusa from soul eater, the insane witch that toys with whatever she has at hand. Oh, she is persistant too.
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Medusa is one sexy witch. Yes shes known as a witch in the show, and she somewhat bases her powers around snakes, being medusa and all. In the 1st arc shes the main antagonist and turns out she was the one who planned for the resurrection of asura.
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Shes badass for such a lady, she fights with stein and maka's dad in the early arc, and puts up quite a fight. Also, her powers all revolves around snake like attacks, which is dam cool. Also, even after being "killed" by professor stein, she resurrects as a snake and enters a body of a young girl, and continues to live as her role as "medusa".


3. Nagi
From: Mai-hime
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Following up in 3rd place today is nagi from mai hime. The suspiciously evil boy that plans many evil things.
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Nagi, although remaining passive throughout most of the show, is obviously a villian. He shows up many times where battles are being fought and is always seen sitting on top of a tree, observing the fight. He also holds the school library as his base of operations, with an evily huge clock in the library center.
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Nagi does fight, in the last or 2nd last episode of the show. He summons dark spirits and whatnot, and holds his own against miyu, that robot girl. It is also revealed that he is indeed behind some huge evil master plot towards the end of the show, for the resurrection of izanagi, which is in fact reito.



2. Sabrac
From: Shakugan no shana 2
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Alright, now for some badass-ness. Up for 2nd place is sabrac, the destructive blade from shakugan no shana season 2.
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Sabrac is just too bad. I mean, from opening 2 we see his badasstitude as he challenges the 3 heroines in a battle to the death. In the actual show itself, he pawns almost all of the heroines, even if its 3 on 1, he practically owns them.
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Sabrac has a heck load of abilities that make him one hell of a powerful badass. He summons swords as his weapons and his form of travel consists of him flying on top of an ocean of swords, of which can sends hundreds of blades flying to the enemy. Plus his 1st stigma moves makes for a great preemptive strike that makes everyone bleed like hell. He also killed pheles's lover, and is the reason for the relocation of reiji maigo towards yuji.
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1. Tri edge
From: .Hack roots
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Finally, up in 1st place we have tri edge, the evil sonuvabitch that wreaks quite alot of havoc in an online game.
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Tri edge bears a striking resemblance to our previous series's hero, kite. From the attire, to this hairstyle to his weapons, though they look more evil-ish. And from the show, he has killed many in the game.
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Tri edge kills shino? and makes haseo really emo and upset. He is drastically powerful and though he has lost to ovan, which also has data drain, he is still powerful. He still retains his data drain and is able to beat haseo later in the show, who becomes a power deprived freak and can defeat a group of 100 Pkkers. He is really memoriable, you know , resembling kite and all.
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Thats all for now. Peace.






Boss health

Adjudicator
HP: 1306
Skills: lick (aerial)*, veritcal slash, horizontal slash, lick*

Difficulty:1.5/5
Times died on 1st playthrough:3-4 ish

Been 2 months since I have done this. Ah well heres my next boss fight in demons' souls after armor, the adjudicator. He's a pretty big and fat lug wielding a couple of cleavers for weapons, and he has a bird taking nest on top of his head. I'll give it to you he looks pretty intimidating, but after seeing through all his moves he's one hell of an easy shit. Adjudicator is the boss of 4-1, shrine of storms archstone.




Aint gonna lie, before properly knowing all of his attacks, he got me around 3 or 4 times. His attacks do brutal damage, and will probably one shot those without high vit. Here are his moves.

Lick(aerial)*- Probably the attack that gets me the most. He lashes out his tongue at you while you are at platforms above him. It has fast execution and does deadly damage. It also destroys platforms.

Vertical slash- While on ground level, he raises his blade up high and lands it veritcally downwards, doing some insane damage. This will probably one shot you, but it has a friggin slow startup.

Horizontal slash- Same as vertical slash, but on a horizontal basis. Still does insane damage that is enough to 1 shot people, but its just like the horizontal slash in terms of the slow startup.

Lick- While you are too far away from him on the ground level so that his cleaver cant get you, he lashes out his tongue at you. Does big damage just like its up-aiming counterpart and it can break through shit like pillars.

Adjucicator is easy as shit, his attacks all have the potential to one hit kill, but too bad none of them will even be connecting! There are 2 ways to combat him, on higher platforms or on ground level, though I find that fighting him on ground level is significantly easier.

If you plan to combat him from above, which is not recommended, you can do so by arrowing or casting magic on the bird on top of his head, since thats the only point that the boss will take damage from. Be weary, since fighting from above you are vunerable to its only aerial attack, the aerial version of lick. This is quite unpredictable since you have the platform blocking your view and you never know when it might strike. I highly recommend players to fight on the ground floor since its much easier.

On the ground adjudicator is so damn easy. You can only hit the bird for damage, but its high up on his head. What do you do? To be able to hit the bird, you must locate a gapping wound on the adjudicator, it has a part of a huge cleaver stuck in it. Locate it and hack away, of course, when doing this the boss will charge up one of its slashes, you can safely attack the wound a few times, but after like 3 attacks on it, run to the opposite end of the room, cause that blade of his is coming down. Keep doing this until he falls down, shouldnt be too long. When he falls down, hit the bird, 2-hand your weapon and give it a spanking. After abit he will rise to his feet again and you have to repeat this process until he dies. Really its not that hard.

Just remember to keep a close eye on the boss's cleaver when you hit his wound, it will rise very slowly, after about 3 hits you can back to the opposite end of the room and the blade will hit nothing but air. Make sure that after each of his swings, you need to immediately run back to his wound and start hitting again, cause if you just stay at the opposite end of the room after his swing, he will realise that you are too far to hit and will tongue lash you. Though its significantly easier to dodge the tongue on the ground, its just a reminder.

Adjudicator is weak, once you can see through his attack patterns on the ground you will have zero problems. Just make sure not to be hit even once, since it will spell your doom. Overall his difficulty is easy.

All in game boss HP amounts have been taken from demons' souls wiki.

Peace.

Friday 6 August 2010

Latale online

gamespot score:N/A

my score: 7.2


(+)Pros:- characters are fluid and great looking,- great visual presentation,- many branching paths from basic jobs,- world is good to explore,- commendable job balance.

(-)Cons:- like many online MMOs grinding becomes very tedious,- combat can be slow, - easy to get bored.


gameplay time:20-30 hours( average)






Okay, latale online. I played this quite some time ago, didnt have engineer back then. Well I've got to say this game caught my attention wayy back when it was 1st out, and when I quit maple for good. Gotta say the art and visual really did catch my eye, it was like a maple that is improved by a ton, in terms of visual. SO yeah, got a few friends, played this ASAP. It was good, but I didnt invest as much time in it as I did with maple. Still, its good, far better than maple. Okay, lets begin.





Online game=story=not caring. Online game stories need not be cared about, and latale's background story information isnt as deep or well told as dekaron or cabal. Still yeah, I'll state the basic jobs, you have warrior, knight, wizard, explorer, and the new engineer which I have never seen before. Yes and we have branching paths, which isnt rare for MMORPGs, stuff like warriors>warlords, knights>temple knights...you know, the basic shit.




Visual-wise, this game rox. Every character in the 2D platformer is exquisitely detailed, especially the characters, they look well-porpotioned and the equipment available really rocks. It beats maple alot. Plus, the areas, such as towns and monsters look great. I guess Im the kinda guy that likes 2D environments and surroundings. Also, NPCs have well drawn portraits to fit them, which is great. Theres also alot to explore in Latale, even though I only made it to like lvl 23, I could explore pretty far into the Latale world, and boy its great, to see new monsters, environments and such.



Gameplay wise its like maple, only better. You go around in the 2D platforming world, walking or jumping to other platorms. Then you battle monsters, gain exp, level up, get money, get better equips, do quests.... blah blah BLAH, you know, your basic MMO stuff. Well since the main thing in this game, or generally, MMOs, is to kill monsters, I'll skip to that part. Monster killing in this game is quite good. You basically tap the attack button, throw skills here and there, and eventually kill the enemy. And well, taking them down with skills are an obvious DUH, since the game would be boring otherwise. Skills are okay, quite well animated if you ask me. I was using a warrior going on by the warlord path before and I used a spear. Using skills when there are many enemies together kills them and nets you more exp, and spear skills are only the beginning, wizards have elemental skills which kick even more ass.




Flaws wise, latale suffers like ANY other MMO, tedious grinding. Every MMO has its own, STOP point. When you hit that point, training gets alot harder and 10 times more tedious, then you will just stop. This game has it too. Also, combat in this game can be slow, since its a 2D platformer, combat should be fast to make things more fun. The slow combat is monotonous at times. Finally, you get bored easily, altough combat keeps you occupied, most of the time thats it, you wont be playing more than an hour or 2 when you reach your high levels, you'll get bored easily.
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Latale is a good game, but more can be done to make it better. Casual gamers looking for a casual MMORPG should look here. Heres the link to download on OGplanet.
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