Gamer--freakz

Gamespot Score: 7.5 (Good)

My Score: 7.5


(+)Pros: - Excellent new combat system that caters well towards beginners, - Innovative level design, - Tons of weapon variety gives you different ways to kill enemies, - Angelic and demonic enemies add depth and difficulty to battles, - Many hidden secrets and difficulty modes for the hardcore.

(-)Cons: - New rebooted characters that we all know and love have completely shitty characterization, - No lock on during battles can be pretty frustrating during higher difficulty levels, - Lack of style changes removes a lot of depth in the combat.

Gameplay time: About 10 hours for the first play-through.

I love the "Devil May Cry" franchise, I'm sure if you're a frequent reader of this blog, you'd know that. I love the characters, the story, and the combat, I love almost everything about that franchise. Of course, that meant that when I saw the dreaded reboot trailer, I completely lost it. The new Dante looks like a spoiled teenager...a complete piece of shit in comparison to the original one. I thought I would never play this new rebooted "DMC", not in my life...until I played the demo. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, the combat was great, and I loved the sense of action. After much deliberation, I decided to give the main game a go, I departed with my cash and began my adventure. Here's what I think....




First thing's first, the story. Since "DMC:Devil May Cry" is a complete reboot, the story in this game is NOT canon to the original universe of "Devil May Cry", so don't go shitting your pants just yet. Anyway, it talks about this world's Dante, a teenage, chaotic, meth loving punk that goes about his day raving around in strip clubs and having sex with its ladies. Dante is also aware of the existence of demons, that aren't visible to most humans. He is constantly dragged into limbo, a rift in the human world, where he does battle with these demons. One day, after having a crazy night with a couple of demon girls from a strip club, he wakes up the next morning when a girl knocks on his window, and is immediately dragged into limbo. The girl helps him out, and introduces herself as Kat, who is scouting Dante for this demon killing abilities to work for the anti government organization, "The Order".

Looks fancy, and it sure is.

"DMC:Devil May Cry", no matter how dumb it sounds, may be a reboot, and everything looks SO WRONG  for the universe, is STILL A "DEVIL MAY CRY" GAME. And because it IS one, it plays like one, though it is being developed by a different team. The combat system is revamped, and while its different, it definitely still works as a fun, flashy, beat-em-up game that impresses both visually and mentally. Dante is able to fight enemies using different varieties of weapons, ranging between ranged and melee ones. You can combo enemies on the ground, launch them up, combo them in the air, smack them back to the ground, lift them off the ground with another move, and continue combo-ing. If you were a sucker for previous games in the series because of the combat, you will be happy here.


And because there are such huge windows of opportunities between attacks, and that the style meter fills up so quickly when compared to previous games, this reboot is very well suited for beginners. There are 3 different dodge types, you can switch weapons on the fly easily, and most of the time, the screen will be filled with weak enemies on average difficulties, meaning that you can breeze through levels as long as you grasp the basic mechanics of the game. If you want to feel badass getting SSS ranks in style, you can even as a beginner, as long as you don't get hit. And without the style switching of past games (Sword master, Trickster etc), its easier to just bash through enemies with the weapons you have, instead of switching styles mid combat. 

Cue fighting game announcer voice..."AIR COMBO"

With all that you have you breeze through 20 levels of enemies and bosses, all of which aren't too special. The new demon designs look far less interesting than the ones in old games, but they aren't too bad, and bosses are alright. Not too easy, not too difficult, just alright overall, but they do bring variety in having ways to get killed. The levels, however, are some of the most innovative I have seen. Since the game takes place in a modern world, unlike the original games, we are brought to limbo versions of warehouses, buildings and prisons, which look really cool. With twisted paths, walls and distorted backgrounds, everything just looks really interesting. Also, while killing these enemies and bosses, you gain access to a shitload of weapons, even more so than previous games, actually. There are three types of weapons, angelic types, demonic types and firearms. Added together, there are a total of 8 weapons.....now THAT is variety.


Also, to switch things up, the games likes to toss you angel and demon enemies, which again, add more depth and variety to combat situations. You can only use angel weapons to defeat angel enemies, while demon weapons defeat the demonic ones. Since you can level up your weapons and skills, this actually forces the players to spend points into different weapons so you can actually deal with this complicated situations. It also makes the game slightly harder, which it should be (since it was pretty easy for my first run even on Nephilim). There are also a ton of secret challenges that are locked behind secret doors, which you need keys to open, these can be found throughout different levels of the games. These challenges are mostly just stuff like "Defeat enemies within the time limit", or "Defeat enemies without taking X amount of damage". What else? There are a ton of difficulty levels like before, for the hardcore, with a new "Hell and Hell" mode, where enemies are full health and Dante dies in one hit.

Kill shit, just keep killing shit.

The biggest issue I have with this game, is the same as everyone else. The rebooted characters....more importantly Dante and Vergil...have been butchered. Yes, you heard me, not just their looks, their personalities have haven a complete turn for the worst. Think what you want, you may like them, but I'm sure most of the fans around the world HATE the new Dante and Vergil. I won't spoil how they're like, I'll leave that to you.

As for flaws in the ACTUAL game, its pretty easy to point out the biggest one. The lack of a lock on. On "Dante must die" and "Son of Sparda", this was a real killer. Without a lock on you cannot kill the enemies you actually want to kill first, like when there are TWO FREAKING NINJAS, I WANT TO KILL THE NINJA WITH LOWER HEALTH FIRST GOD DAMMIT. No! Stop hitting the other guy, STOP IT. You'll be screaming that out loud when it actually happens, trust me. Just try and imagine that situation in your head. Also, since they removed style switching completely, there is a lot less that Dante can actually do for you to experiment around with. This mostly hurts for the hardcore fans who played previous games.


Alright, lets conclude this review. The combat is f**king great and all, but I'll say it up straight. If it were any other action beat-em-up title, it would have gotten an easy 8/10 or more from me. But BECAUSE it carries the "Devil May Cry" name...it doesn't. The butchered characterization of the characters that I like really sucked. As a action game, its great, as a "DMC" game for a "DMC" fan though....you might be in for a bigger spin that you may think. Enjoy the combat system, but as for the rest..its up to you to decide.




Happy gaming.

Opening songs
OP 1 - Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Eyelis)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Koi no wana (Haruka Yamazaki)

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance

Episodes: 12



Third times the charm. Two anime seasons and 1 movie later, the "Hayate No Gotoku!" franchise still grows strong. The fans' never dying love for the characters of the series still remain after all these years, even after 2 years of having no news of the franchise. Still, the 3rd season showed through and now we even have a season 4 that's currently ongoing. Pure shenanigans if you ask me. Still, this 3rd season, "Can't Take My Eyes Off you", is a brand new story that is NOT part of the manga main story line. Its based off of the author's ideas for the series that never made it into the manga. So, how does that all fair, now that it's made into an anime season? Let's find out.

Meet Nagi and her new sister, Tsugumi.

Not this game! This game! And get that Blue-Ray anime movie as well!

GAH ALL STAR LEAGUE WEEKEND LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!


Seriously, if you aren't watching it and you're a league fan, what the hell are you doing?!? But for now the stream is on break, so I'll get into some posting. "Unchained Blades" was probably a very niche title. Not many would know about it, it showed up on the PSN store when the PSP was already pretty much dead for the US. Anyway, if you like dungeon crawlers, especially ones like "Etrian Odyssey", this will definitely tickle your fancy. I know it was a little repetitive, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.



*SPOILERS*

Looks like a final boss actually.

 

Name: Fang
Traits: Fire attributed, High physical damage
Rating: 8/10


As the main character, Fang is pretty dominant throughout the game. He has high as hell hit points (second to Hector), deals a shit ton of damage, probably the most in the game. Also, he's a dragon, and we all know how badass dragons are. He is fire attributed, so yeah, expect his ultimate high level skills Napalm and Dragoon raid to do fire damage. This is weird however, since those skills PRETTY much scale a lot on magic, which isn't his forte.


Fang is pretty hate-able throughout the early and easily for the most part of the game AS a character. As a thick headed idiot who only knows how to boast and brag about his strength, he really lets his past as the dragon king get to him. He gets better as he learns to care for others, but well, you'll grow to deal with it. He is pretty much a staple in your team for damage, and he fits well in the full out DPS team formation. Power charge makes him one scary idiot.

She fits the role "phoenix girl" really well.

Name: Tiana
Traits: Fire attributed, Early-mid physical damage, Late game magic damage, Healing
Rating: 8/10


Tiana is a really weird character statistically. When you first get her she's this weird rapier wielding girl that does pretty good physical damage and can do decent damage with magic. As you level her up her physical damage continues to scale well but not as well as the game's hard hitters. However, towards the mid forties/early fifties you will see her magic damage take a good rise. She is fire attributed (god that X-flare), and can deal a bunch of damage as well as HEAL the team. She is practically the utility character.


Tiana is this spoiled teenage phoenix girl that just thinks she's all that. In many ways, she is a female version of Fang, but instead of being a thickheaded bull charging  man, she's kind of girly. I feel that out of the entire party though, her wish is the most underwhelming, but that's that. She grows to become a likable character. She also works well in parties. Having painful normal attacks while wielding a staff late game for some insane magic damage, always works out.

Bah, another one of you guys.

Name: Lucius
Traits: Instant death, High physical damage
Rating: 7/10


Lucius is actually really good....if you ever get to using him. You have to play his ENTIRE chapter alone and that is just backbreaking, difficulty as all hell. The problem with Lucius is that when you do get him into your party, you have spent an ENTIRE chapter without him and he is severely underleveled when  he joins. This is where most players abandoned him, and trust me, I wanted to do that. But if you manage to get the patience to train him back up, he's actually good.


Lucius is this lone wolf type bijin character that doesn't trust anyone and just wants to get his job done. Basically a character that has to be in every anime or JRPG. I actually like these kind of characters...but they have grown rather stale to me recently. Trust me when I say you'll f**king hate him until the end of chapter 5...you'll see what I mean. If you actually get him to high levels, he has good physical damage and can cause instant death on his attacks.

Oh, a summon!

Name: Hector
Traits: Earth attributed, Tank aspects
Rating: 5/10


I hate tank characters in RPGs. Its understandable to have them in MMORPGs, but in regular RPGs, they feel redundant unless they are REALLY F**KING GOOD (I'm thinking the defender of Etrian Odyssey). Hector is one of those characters. Highest health in the game, highest defense, has a bunch of skills that have him covering for another character/defending himself/raising his defense. But, he has the lowest damage in the game, right along with Lapis. 


His character is also really really really REALLY hate-able. He acts like a coward for a good 2/3 of the game, and you'll see him want to pussy out almost EVERY time. Also, he gets this creepy obsession of Mari which gets totally wacked out (well, there are people into that kind of stuff). He gets better character wise, but meh, I don't like him. As a tank in battle, he is just a damage soak, but with enemies hitting your entire team for tons of damage he doesn't really cut that well.

Nine-tailed foxes, why must it be nine-tails? I'm fine with just one.

Name: Niko
Traits: Wind attributed, High agility
Rating: 6/10


Niko is probably one of my more liked characters in the game, but in battle she just doesn't DO much. She is an agility type character, and if you've read my previous posts on RPG parties, I hate agility types. They usually don't do a lot of damage compared to other characters, and even if they do get some late game, there is no incentive to use them early-mid. However, she still can output damage, at least more than Hector, and being the fastest, means she always gets to go first. I'm sure some people can use that to their advantage.


Niko's personality is just likable. In a party of misfits and unsociable people, Niko is the one that keeps the mood up. She is kind of stupid, but her positive personality really helps to change things up. And because she is a tomboy, the opposite of Sylvie, a very ladylike character, its nice to her getting scolded and having that pout face on. She really leans towards the physical damage side in battle, but as I mentioned earlier, you have to take advantage of her speed to really be good with her.

Ultra shy big-boobs girl alert!

Name: Lapis
Traits: Healing, Buffing
Rating: 7/10


Lapis quickly becomes a staple to your party. Heals, heals and more heals, you cannot do without a white mage in your RPG...for ALL RPGs in that matter. Lapis does everything you'd expect her to, AOE heals, single target heals, revives, buffs and more. She also gets to do damage, though not as much as some other obvious caster characters. Still, there is no reason to not want her in unless you'd want to die easily. 


Lapis is those kind of character that gets picked because of her personality. She is SUPER shy, with BIG boobs (reminds you of Mikuru from Haruhi Suzumiya, or Mizuki from Baka test), and she basically just doesn't want to be a burden throughout the game. She has an obvious crush on Fang. In battle, well, she's a healer, just take her with you and stop whining. The reason why her score isn't higher is because Tiana can heal as well, and that Lapis has pretty low damage.

A lot less demonic that I would imagine!

Name: Sylvie
Traits: Lighting attributed, Magic damage
Rating: 7/10


Sylvie is a straight out, all-in caster with a ton of magic damage. She easily does the highest magic damage in the game, also hosting the game's lowest defenses and health. In other words, she's a glass cannon. Give her Hexxa skills and Geyser, she'll wipe the floor with bosses and enemies without any issue. She starts off as a lightning type, but she gets to learn other elemental magic later which makes her a way more formidable force than you'd think. She works as a damage alternative if your team needs it.


Syvlie is my favorite girl in this game, right before Tiana. If there was a ladylike character in this game, it'd be Syvlie, and I am a sucker for those high class lady types. Constantly bickering on how Niko should act more appropriately as a lady or how Tiana should not sit with her legs crossed. Although her brother complex could be toned down a bit in my opinion. As a full blown magical based character, just put her into that caster spot, she can deal 0 physical damage.

Here you go you loli lovers.

Name: Mari
Traits: Debuffer, Status ailment
Rating: 7/10


Mari is the oddball of the team. She doesn't get a good stable source of damage until later (Arcana burst is wtf), but she still fits very well in the team for those people who like to play around differently. Her kit mostly focuses around throwing debuffs at the enemy and status ailments, this won't work for players who dono't know how to abuse this practice, but in any case, Mari is the best character to have around for unchaining monsters. Battle-wise, I'll leave it up to you.


Mari is the quiet silent type girl that doesn't say anything. She doesn't care about much and only speaks her mind if she needs to. She doesn't show much expression throughout, so she's easily the type of character that you won't really like or hate. She neither physical nor magical, but I'd say magical later on as Arcana burst is a truly broken skill to have for damage. Other than that, she fits as the standard debuffer.



Finally, here we go.


My party
--------------------------------------------------
Fang
Tiana
Sylvie
Lapis
--------------------------------------------------


The rest in ranking
--------------------------------------------------
Mari
Lucius
Niko
Hector
--------------------------------------------------


Peace.

Opening songs
OP 1 - UNDERSHAFT (Maon Kurosaki)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Laterality (Nagi Yanagi)

Genre: Action

Episodes: 12


Every time I review anime sequels there's not really much to talk about that I haven't covered in its predecessor. "Jormungand: Perfect Order" is the direct sequel to the original "Jormungand", and needless to say, it continues doing what it does best. Guns, blood, murder, assassinations, a group of wacky ass gun totting mercenaries and their half-witted crazy leader. The theme that it focused on stays, and its safe to say that the anime didn't stray too far away from the first season. Also, as the story progresses, things heat up, which really gives the anime some much needed sense of urgency and tension. All while leading up to a satisfying yet thought-provoking conclusion, this sequel has done the franchise justice.

The bosses and their favorites.

They're kind of like brother and sister already.

Gamespot Score: n/a

My Score: 7.3


(+)Pros: - Great song selection for each character featuring beautifully rendered music videos with amazing visuals (considering that this is the PSP), - 4 difficulty modes for each song, - Easy to pick up, - Each version has different songs and characters, - Customizable notes and music gear, - Exclusive anime episode bundled with each version.

(-)Cons: - No crossover support, - Having only 2 buttons means that you will never ever fail any song (though scoring high can still be a challenge on higher difficulties), - Individual versions can be lacking and slightly overpriced. 


Gameplay time: - 

So if you checked out my "Idolm@ster" anime review awhile back, you will know that I love this franchise, almost as much as I love other franchises like "K-on" or "Hatsune Miku : Project Diva". I am, however, not a huge fan of the idol raising simulation thing that the original "Idolm@ster" games have going. Basically in those games you just choose an idol, and then you send them for training sessions, spend time with them, then finally send them for concerts to gain fame. Not my cup of tea, but luckily, "Idolm@ster : Shiny Festa", is a full blown music game, with songs, difficulty levels, and notes to hit!  Needless to say, if you like music games or the franchise itself, these are the games you may be looking for!



The "Idolm@ster" franchise has always been quite ample with its story, and for the most part it has been handled well. These games each have their own story as well, though its told in 3 different iterations in each of the versions. The games follow up the story of the anime, using the same producer and character cast. Basically, it speaks of a new resort that opened overseas and that many idols/music groups are going there for a music centered festival. Of course, the idols of 765 pro cannot forsake this opportunity, so the producer already managed to book a slot there for a performance by the idols. However, not everybody gets a chance, and the girls who get to perform there are......

Beautiful visuals for the PSP.

...varied depending on your version, more on this later. "Idolm@ster : Shiny Festa" tries to go for a more "Pokemon"  feel, by selling 3 different versions, each with its own differences. The games split their song selections over 13 different characters, along with plenty of collaboration songs. There are 20 songs for each version, with each character getting their own songs exclusive to that version, with the inclusion of songs that are present in all 3 versions. Each version tries to portray a "theme", which the song genres will fit into. "Groovy Tune" goes for a more serious tone, having the most epic songs out of the 3 versions. "Funky Note" has the catchy and super cutesy songs that will get all the loli-cons raved up into the air. "Bright Sound" is a middle ground for both, having a mixture of catchy and serious songs.


Its also worth a note that the visuals for the music videos as you play through the songs, are absolutely beautiful. Since you can't customize the outfits for your idols (each song has them automatically switching outfits), most the music videos consist of short animated clips and CG graphic dance routines. These look great, among one of the best I have seen for anime themed games. Though there are quite a few modes right off the get-go, there are only 2 related to gameplay. Stage and festival. Stage is like a free play mode where you just play songs whenever you want, while festival is more of a "story" mode where you go into an event and try to perform as well as you can to outshine other idols.

Keep pressing those buttons!

The main gameplay is easy to pick up. Whenever a song plays notes come out from the left and right side of the screen, and will close in on a center circle. Pushing any button on the D-pad registers a left side note, while triangle, square, X or circle registers as a right side note. As the notes come in you just push buttons from the left and right side of the PSP, simple! Though in higher difficulties, this still proves to be very challenging as multiple sections appear on screen and the lines carrying the notes will be twisted or distorted, making it very confusing at times. There are 4 difficulty types, and those apply to the higher level difficulties. There are different songs and characters for each version. "Groovy tune" hosts Miki, Makoto, Yukiho and Takane. "Bright Sound" hosts Haruka, Chihaya, Ritsuko and Azusa. Finally, "Funky Note" hosts Yayoi, Iori, Ami, Mami and Hibiki.


Playing songs earns you two things, money for customization and items, as well as fans. Fans are divided into a few tiers, leading from D to S rank, with a maximum of 200000 fans at the top of the chart. That is hardcore, though I managed to hit that amount for 2 of the versions. Items you buy either make you account out for a mis-note or give you more fans for the next song you play...the effect varies on what you buy. You can also customize the music notes, lines and gears to your liking. These unlock as you progress up the ranks of your fans, which gives us incentive to get more fans. Each version also has an anime episode, chronicling the adventures of the different girls at the festival for each different version.

Exclusive anime episodes serve as an extra goody.

Now it stinks hard that the games lack any feature to let us play with other players with different versions. I mean, that is the point of making 3 versions ain't it? To share among others? It sucks that this is not the case. Also, this may be a problem for the hardcore music players. A 2 button music game is sure to turn off those hardcores, though I will come to their defense. While it is hard to score in those high difficulty songs, its almost impossible to fail a song. Even by mashing buttons you can get past them. Also, the fact that all 3 of these games combined feel more as a whole, each individual version might be a little underwhelming, considering that it is a full priced game. FFS the IOS app costs $54.99 US PER VERSION, which is ridiculous.


This is already a dream for "Idolm@ster" fans who love the franchise, but don't initially dig the idea of an idol raising simulation. What other way to bring out the music in "Idolm@ster"? A rhythm game its the bill correctly, and "Shiny Festa" will probably appeal to a much bigger audience, seeing how not everyone wants to raise virtual idols. In my opinion this is a better step forward for the franchise, though there are improvements to be had. Lets hope the western side sees some future "Idolm@ster" content, seeing as how they managed to localize this for the IOS on English.





Happy gaming!