Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days review

 First off, just to clear up any confusion, the title of this game is actually pronounced "Kingdom Hearts Three Five Eight Days Over Two" weird right? Anyways, I have not yet beaten the game but I have played it enough to make a substantial review. As we all know the game started with Kingdom Hearts in 2003. About a year later they made a game for Game Boy Advanced called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The Story of Sora going to Castle Oblivion, losing his memories and having to sleep for a year to regain them. This is also where we first get introduced to Organization XIII. The worst part of Chain of Memories was the card based battles system, the best part was getting to play as Riku after beating it as Sora. Then there's Kingdom Hearts II, that picks up a year later with the last days of Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and then Sora's awakening. Now, a lot of Kingdom Hearts fans had a few questions as to why organization XIII only had 8 members in KH2, and why Sora awoke like he did in the place he did. Realizing that not many people played KH:COM, let alone had a GBA, they re-made the game for PS2, naming it "Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories". Now, many people are not too found of the card-based battle system, and trust me, neither am I. But COM is an essential part of the KH franchise and it is very important any true fan plays it to understand the story in it's true depth. Knowing this, they made sure to make the PS2 version much easier than the GBA version, it includes reaction commands, extra cards, 3D environment with camera controls similar to that of KH2, the ability to dodge roll automatically, and the option to choose between Beginner, Standard, and Proud mode.

Now that that's out of the way, I shall introduce KH358/2D. This game starts 7 days after Roxas' birth (when Sora stabbed himself with the dark keyblade) and takes place through the events of Chain of Memories, where 5 of the Orgnization Members (Vexen, Larxene, Marluxia, Zexion, and Lexaeus) all die at the hands of Sora nd Riku, and the game continues to play out for the whole year that Sora is asleep and ends near the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. With the final boss of the game being Riku. Go figure. This makes sense seeing how it was him who brought Roxas to DiZ when they put him in the fake Twilight Town in the beginning of KH2. But I digress. This game will introduce you to a new Organization member, Xion. The 14th member. Who can strangely also wield the keyblade and has connections somehow to Sora and Kairi. When you start the game it puts you through a lengthy hour long tutorial that teaches you how to play the game. You go on about 7 or so tutorial mission learning the basics of game play, and all about missions, and collecting hearts for the Organization. Out of the entire franchise, I would consider this game to be the hardest of the all, game play wise. The buttons are limited, so the camera controls are extremely limited. You can change this later, however. But it will make your shortcut window harder to access. In the previous games one could use the D-pad to access the command window, however in this game you need that to move. So instead you must use the X button to choose between attack, magic, and items. Now, your supply of healing items at your disposal and how many you can pick up on the field are both annoyingly limited. Whereas in the other games you could collect munny and buy potions then equip as many to your characters are there were item slots for them, in this game everything you have and/or do is based off a Tetris like panel grid. If you wanna level up, you must take a leve up pennel and put it on the grid. Wanna use fire magic? Maybe you wanna have a hi-potion at your despinse to heal up with? Again, must equip them to the panel grid. And please note, the grid is not unlimited. You only get so many squares to place panels in. weapons, abilities, items, magic, leveling up, these things all depend on the panel system. However, all is not lost. There are these items called "slot releasers" which open up more empty squares on the panel grid for you to equip panels on. Some panels, however, take up many squares. These are called link panels, there are used to further develop your character. For example, there is a link panel that allows you to attach up to 4 level up panels to it. Each of these levels is doubled. So instead of gaining four levels, you actually gain eight, along with any other level up panels you have equipped. With weapon panels you can link ability, power, or guard panels to unlock a hidden ability, raise your strength, defense, or magic. One of the things you'll notice right away when doing this is that all the weapon panels tend to favor one attribute over another. You will either find yourself killing off heartless pretty fast but losing health even faster, or you will take forever to kill them but also stay alive longer. As of right now, I have a strength power of 93, with a defense of 32. Explain that one. Trying to evenly balance them comes with a heavy price. The other issue with the weapons is that they all tend to favor one type of combat. One weapon is extremely useful if you fighting everything in midair, another is only useful if your feet never leave the ground. There are many more though, and I have not yet made it far enough to unlock the more balanced and powerful weapons, so I cannot yet say how the gameplay progresses near the end.

The battle system is no different than the norm. Run up to the heartless and press A to attack. However, the Heartless in this game are much smarter than their predecessors. Not only do they come in vast numbers and gang up one you, but a grand majority of the regular Heartless (not the bosses) have anywhere from 2 to 4 health bars. You will soon find yourself adopting a "hit and run" strategy, especially in the missions where you fight alone. It is almost kind of sad that the 5 Organization members of castle oblivion are short lived. As far as I remember the only time they assist you (or don't) is in the tutorial missions. You will soon figure out that most of your missions will be with Axel or Xion. With the occasional other member thrown in. however, the game does make up for this with Mission Mode, and I will get into that later. When it comes to difficult combat in the series, this game takes the cake. I remember I was only about a half hour into the game and I was surrounded by 7 Possessor Heartless who leeched onto me and sapped away my HP while Axel sat there picking his nose. I died exactly 8 times before killing them all off. According to the strategy guide, the game will insult you as well. If you chose Standard or Proud mode and you die too many times in one mission, the game will finally ask you if you would like to lower the difficulty level. One thing you may find yourself hardly ever using is the magic. As there is no surefire way to ensure your spells will hit the target, you will find yourself easily frustrated as a precious fire or blizzard spell floats right past your target. Unless you can master your aim, you'd be better off saving valuable panel room by just avoiding magic altogether. However, some missions require you have magic to complete them 100%. So I would say equip it for the mission, then un-equip it after.

The game progression is based off a series of missions. In order to move the story along, you must only do the mission marked with a keyblade and then choose "advance" to move on. However, moving on too quickly can result in an early and easy death. It is highly recommended that you at least try to do every mission Saïx has available for you before progressing. The game progression goes by days. Each time you do a mission another day goes by. This will continue until you reach 358. I am on day 93. This is not completely linear though. Sometimes a cutscene goes over a many day period. There is one instance where Roxas faints and stays asleep for 3 weeks time. On another instance the games skips from day 57 to day 93 without any explanation in between. The game offers you the choice to go back and redo missions you've already done, in case you may have missed something. You can only do this from the Organization castle. But that's not the only thing. Equipping panels, game configuration, saving your progress, and viewing your diary are all limited to inside the castle. These are all things you cannot do while on the field in a mission. Speaking of on the field, I forgot to mention that you are limited to haw many items you can pick up while on a mission. In the beginning, Roxas can only pick up 5 at a time. In order to pick up more you must equip a backpack panel to your level grid.

As for the cutscenes and graphics, they are as good as they are gunna get for a DS system. You will soon find that most of the cutscenes consist of text boxes and you will be doing a lot of reading. Very few cutscenes have voices. Hardly any.

Now let me talk about mission mode. On the title screen you get 2 choices. These are Story Mode, and Mission Mode. Mission Mode allows you to go through and replay any of the missions you have unlocked in Story Mode in an attempt to earn points and crowns which you can later trade into to Moogle Shop for prizes. But that's not all. Here's the bonus. Mission Mode allows you to playa s any one of the 13 Organization XIII members. And just as Roxas' keyblae changes its looks with new panels, so does the other Organization Members weapons. Many people hated that Marliuxia had a pink scythe. Well, just switch a few panels and presto! Really cool looking blue scythe with extra spikes coming out of the top. Again, that's not all. As the game progresses there are 6 characters you can unlock for mission mode by accomplishing certain tasks in story mode. These characters include Sora, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, Riku, and Xion.

I know it felt like I had a lot of complaints, but the game is not all bad. Once you get the hang of it the game is pretty easy to handle. The biggest issue is getting the hang of it. The game is rated E10+ for a reason. Not just because of the fantasy violence and dark storyline, but also because there's no way in hell anyone less than 10 years of age is going to understand how to play it. They would die within the first 10 minutes. The game itself however, is very fun. The story is deep and intriguing. The characters are loveable. The game play is challenging enough that you won't rush through it in a day, but not so challenging that you give up. The panel system, annoying as it may be, is also another way of testing a true RPG gamer's skills at strategy. And the Mission system promises a lengthy game time aside form the main storyline.

Regardless of the few minor annoyances, this game quickly becomes very addicting like the rest of them. But unlike the rest of them, this one presses you to move forward and try hard, rather than just handing the victory to you like the other's did. But then again that could just be my gameplay skills. I actually seem to have forgotten what it was like the first time I ever played any of them. But I do recall there hasn't been a single Kingdom Hearts game where I haven't dies at least 3 times my first time through the story. Overall though, this is a very good game that will force you to place everything you know about strategy games on the line and then some. As it is not all fighting. Sometimes you must sneak past characters or follow them, keeping them in your line of vision, but staying out of theirs. There are also missions that require you to investigate new areas, and others that require you to collect emblems. Another good thing about this game is the worlds. While there are very few worlds, consisting only of The World That Never Was, Twilight Town, Agrabah, Beast's Castle, Halloween Town, Olympus Coliseum, Wonderland, and Neverland, these worlds are mainly repeats of their KH and KH2 counterparts to an extent. Many of them contain extra areas and remade versions of old areas to explore. For example, Beast's Castle consists entirely of everything it does in KH2, plus a secret hallway leading from the courtyard that allows you to drop down into the main entrance hallway from a hole in the ceiling. Also, with Agrabah, it looks and feels almost the same as the Agrabah in KH1, with the exception of the Cave of Wonders, which is absolutely nothing like it is in the first 2 games. Also, the music. I always have and always will love the music in the Kingdom Hearts games, which is why I downloaded the soundtracks. Even though most of the world music is recycled from the first 2 games, there are a few new musical tracks for the game itself, along with a brand new theme and battle music for Neverland.

Like I said before, the cons I mentioned earlier are only minor setbacks to an overall extraordinary game. Do not let the confusing controls scare you, at first it may seem like hell, but after awhile you find yourself getting really into it. You may find that the controls are actually less complex than the PS2.

Overall I'd say this game deserves an 8/10 rating and is absolutely a must-have for any Kingdom Hearts fan, especially those wishing to fill in the blanks of the story.

Lunar: Eternal Blue review

 The story of Eternal Blue is pure classic. It's the simple story of a brash adventurer who falls for an enigmatic girl with a mission. Quite simple, but monolithic nonetheless. Unlike many current RPGs, the simple charm of the love story is not buried under reams of dross. Yes, an epic adventure unfolds, but Eternal Blue never loses sight of its greatest strengths: its characters, simple romance, and a sense of lighthearted adventure. Working Designs knows what they are doing: their script is witty and proficient, underscoring unique personalities and heightening the emotional impact of any given scene. The villains are more interesting this time around, the plot hardly ever runs off track, and there's a few plot twists you'll never expect.

For those who didn't experience this wonderful story in the Sega CD days, you owe it to yourself to play it through. It ranks among the greatest stories ever, and in many ways is surpasses the original telling (which had too much humor for its own good).

The graphics are very 16-bit, so the game lacks graphical titillation. (The Gonzo-made (Last Exile, Full Metal Panic fame) FMV is gorgeous, though.) The gameplay, likewise, is archaic, and actually a step down from the Sega CD original. The magic system, which was one of the greatest merits of the original, has been simplified to the point of mindlessness, which is ridiculous and dumb. Actually, the gameplay seems more tiring than I remembered, the dungeons being particularly exhausting. The game is a little tougher though, which creates a sense of urgency not often associated with many RPGs these days.

While the gameplay hasn't aged well, the story is as timeless as they come, and that makes the game worth playing.

All the extras are a nice treat as well. I personally found the "Making Of Lunar 2" CD very interesting, and while I have no use for the amulet or the character standees, they are nice bonuses. The map is a nifty keepsake, and the full soundtrack is great. I don't listen to the soundtrack, because I don't really enjoy the Lunar music outside the context of the game, but I appreciate the gesture, and there are still several good tunes included (Lemina's theme is fookin' catchy). Hopefully other publishers will include soundtracks with their games in the future.

No doubt, Game Arts is porting it to PSP

I must say Working Designs has done it again! Lunar 2 is definitely a classic game that no household should do without. I've played Lunar SSS Complete and that game was a definite masterpiece. The storyline was excellent, the characters were well drawn, the music soundtrack of the game was brilliant, and most importantly the game play itself was top notch. . The packaging of the game was a great idea and the artwork of the casing was really cool. I must say Lunar 2 is a must have type game. For those who played Lunar SSS...your gonna love this game just as much as you loved the previous title. For those that hasn't played Lunar SSS...you're in for a good treat. I personally recommend this game to everyone. I feel this game will blow away the minds of those who don't even like RPGs.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht review

 Graphics: For the most part the graphics are excellent. During battles they easily top FFX's battle graphics, as the tons of deathblows and ethers you can do all look gorgeous and have all kinds of cool effects and particles like feathers blowing around them etc. Animation is smooth as is the framerate. Cutscenes are also superbly directed, and definitely help move the story ahead. All in all, an absolutely beautiful looking game.

Sound - The music is great for the most part but there just isn't much of it. If you take out the hollywood type action cut-scene music, you could probally fit the music on to 1 cd, it almost feels like it's only about 1/6 of the amount of tracks that say Xenogears had. Also one thing that bugs alot of people, is the for 80% of the gameplay section (running around and dungeons) there is no music because Mitsuda thought it's more realistic to only hear sound effects, and that it makes the music have more of an 'impact' when you do hear it. But what is there is very nice.

Gameplay - The first five hours of this game is a intro movie, you really get no gameplay during it, and you mainly just watch cutscenes and nothing much happens right away. This isn't bad, it's just the game has a slightly slow beginning so be prepared and know that the game does open up. But remember, the Xeno series is like this. If you've played Xenogears you'll know what I mean. But, once the game really starts moving, the gameplay is very good. The battle system is one of my favorites I've ever played, the character management and development between Deathblows/skills/stats/equipment/AGWS is my #1 favorite character management system in any rpg in the last 10 years, it's very complex and really allows you to make the characters the way you want them. Luckily the game makes a save when you beat it which is only for loading into ep2 next year, so if your characters make it through ep1 alive then you can use the one's you've built up in ep2 probaly. Also the game has several mini-games which are completely seperate from the game itself. At save points you can use an item that just takes you into a different game, and you can't win anything to actually use in the real game. Also the AGWS are in the game. While your characters can Boost (Extremely important), heal (likewise), and attack for major damage starting around 1/2 through, your gears cannot do anything other than attack and guard. Their attacks do around a 1/3 of what any of your characters can do outside of AGWS's, and even there hp is only about 2x your character hp, and none of the bosses require you to use them since only 4 people of the 6 can even use AGWS's, the developers couldn't force you to use AGWS's since your party might not have them. Also there are only around 6 AGWS's (3 playable from the start, 2 buyable, 1 another character in the game uses) in the game, and only 1 really looks like a 'gear' . But this doesn't take away from the gameplay as there more of just an extra for fans. Also there are a good amount of side-quests and hidden scenes spread around the game.

The game's story does not stand on it's own period. Until the last 10% of the game, I thought it was turning into possibly one of the best rpg/anime/movie/novel stories ever. But then you realize at the last 10%, 'oh wait, there just going to end it there aren't they', and they do. Several of the characters in the main party do not even get more than 1 scene of development in the whole game, 1 character doesn't even get a single scene of character development, he's just 'there' for now. But I really loved the bits of story in the game as there are told with style (think Xenogears and the last 2eps of Eva), very artsy at times and cool. But the story has not even started. Expect to see lots of flashbacks and symbolism that makes no sense at this point. There isn't even enough story in the game to make theories yet. But again, this game is the first part of an on going Xenosaga series so expect the story to unfold during the upcoming sequals. The game took me about 47 hours including 4 hours of just non-stop leveling up in the middle which made the rest of the game pretty easy for me. The game does have a higher difficulty than say the FF series, but it's not the hardest rpg I've played. If you do all the side-quest stuff and get all the secrets I'd say the game will take you about 50 hours, plus the time if you want to play the mini-games. All in all, a great game and one of the better RPG's I've ever played and a series that is gearing up for an absolute epic adventure.

Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose review

 Alot of reviews have been given for this game as "REALLY BAD." I'm one of those people who lets things slide. I'm a big RPG gamer. If you're just looking for fighting in a game. Stay away from this one. This needs alot of role playing consciousness. It has a FANTASTIC storyline (surperior to alot of other RPGs), but the game should have been a movie if you ask me. This game goes back to the past, alot of flashing back and forth and alot of surprises. On "The Trio" as I would say. Jr. Albedo and Gaignun. Don't worry about other characters. They're not as important here. But don't let that get you down.

It summerizes everytime I turn the game on to back where I left off, (loading from memory card) so that should help people who dooesn't game much. I couldn't understand why people wouldn't get the storyline if the UMN at the beginning of the game allows a feature to review what has already happened. I'm guessing people are giving irks about that.

I would probably complain about the voice actors and battle system, alot of people would probably say the same thing. I do not mind KOS-MOS' voice actor as much as Shion and chaos. chaos (Yes no caps) is too stoic for me, after playing Xenosaga I (over and over in order to get his character down, hey he's not human!), I'd say he doesn't add much to the action in the beginning where all the cool fight scenes are. The beginning of this game, IS AWESOME. Yes AWESOME. (Voice actors killed it.)

Shion, I would say, is a mess, her attitudes and momentum throws me off everytime a new situation becomes bad. How can she sound so perky all the time? I would definately go with the voice actor in Xenosaga I if I were to choose between the two. And the old voice actors are wonderful as always, Albedo, Jr., Gaignun, and Captain Matthews. Yar they're the same.

The battle system, yes it's a pain. You're not actually fighting. You spend most of your time "stocking up" and letting your enemies rag doll you most of the time. Stocks are like AP in Xenosaga I, except you can only add one stock each turn, or use an ether "Stock 1" to add a stock to another character. After you attain a certain amount of stocks you are presented a number of combo options. The more stocks, the better combo. It becomes an issue because I would have to run around and train in the same area in order to get enough levels or TM points (in order to get Medica All, it becomes valuable, trust me.) I was hoping that this game system would take a tiny bit from Final Fantasy X (because you can to switch characters in battle) however, unlike FFX, this only allows share of spoils (TM points EXP etc.) to the remaining three characters standing in battle. It becomes a real disadvantage if you have characters that have some abilities, but not others. (Medica, Revert, Refresh, etc. although they all have the same abilities to learn, such as Psycho Pocket.) I would suggest picking three main characters and if you do have a strategy guide, ignore the character reccomendations. I chose to maintain Jr., KOS-MOS, MOMO, or Ziggy. (Robotics addict.) Unlike Xenosaga I, tech attacks are only avalible with doubles. So say you have KOS-MOS and Shion, if you have the key for the ability Double X-Buster with a boost and a certain amount of stocks, you can do a tech a attack. Once per battle.

Also, alot of people are confused about "break zones." It's hard to explain in words, there are tutorials in the game. But it's something so that you think you'll always have to rely on combos. It's like suppose you have an enemy with a break zone of B, A.
On your controller there's a:

O which represents "A" or "B" (Some characters such as Shion and MOMO have only B as combos so you press O all throughout for a "B")
Triangle which represents "C"
Square which represents "B"

Those buttons represent letters. Characters have combos accordingly to the buttons you press. So you attack with Square and O. Then their zone is broken. You give more heavy damage by following the character with O buttons for "break bonus" this just means you successfuly broken through their break zone and you are currantly giving more than average damage.
This all comes down to your characters. Characters have different combos. It's much more simple to play it rather than explain it. There's more to it though. Battle slots are still there, and a few more quirks.

A few notes:
Jr. - A bit weak. He doesn't have a lot of enemies that has a weakness for him. But I use alot of skill upgrades so that he gets to make quick work of Albedo.
KOS-MOS - She's super strong against Gnosis. (Fitting of course.)
MOMO - She's a super valuable asset. I use her ALOT. Her ether bow kills.
Ziggy - He's good against anything. Like bosses.

Another battle system irk is the "Move" command. I use that command to do efficient back shots. But the stupid thing is that if I move to the other side, my character is facing his/her back towards the enemy. Then I'll have to wait next term to attack in order to make her face the enemy. (Confusing ya.)

Speaking of areas, the maps are smaller compared to other games I played, so there's fewer enemies to bash. A bit convienient but gets tiresome if you're trying to get treasures around the block. The UMN encephalon has changed. Now you don't have to worry about exiting through a plate. Just start menu and exit. But I really hate knowing that two disks can only contain about 30 maps. It goes by fast. I mean, really fast. Before the first disk was over I was halfway through the stradegy guide. (And I don't usually buy stradegy guides.) The only things that are making the game longer are the GS campaigns, I'd totally reccommend that you do it or else you won't get all the nifty stuff that would make gameplay a bit more "exhilerating." Like double tech attacks and all those other cool items. (Believe or not I haven't used any item in the game yet, not even a Med Kit.) I'm a thrifty person, knowing that there is no currency = no shops. And I hate the puzzles in this game. It gets on your nerves eventually. Even little tiny puzzles.

The maps are beautifully rendered. One thing I'm ticked off about is that there's no radar. You just have to wait to be ambushed unless you memorize every quirk in the area (which doesn't take a lot since you eventually visit the maps over and over.) Sometimes you can't even smash the traps before the enemy ambushes you.

Although I can't say the same for the characters, even though it's become all realistic, it's become too femme for me. KOS-MOS' new design throws me off, and that's why I put the bathing suit on her for battle, Shion is also a bit femme for me. But I would totally think guy gamers would fall for them eh.

I would also say the same for the guys, they grown cuter, but I still am not pleased with the new character design after I played it.

E.S.s I almost forgot about that. (I was reading other reviews.) Piloting the E.S. is like the A.G.W.S. only more bulky and cooler. The thing that pissed me off for the E.S. is that it's slow on the maps. No matter which E.S. you chose, Dinah, Zebulan, Asher. It's slow. Pathetically slower than the human lead characters. I would love it if they had more abilities and hope that they STOP STOCKING UP. I almost died because half-way I did not have Zebulan (that's the only E.S. that can use ether = heal). But I love the E.S. Much more detailed and beautiful things than the A.G.W.S.

Music is a bit more techy. Very techy. I don't like most of the soundtrack. Gives me a headache. I love orchestra, but that's me. (like Chrono Cross, FFX, and Xenosaga I etc.)

Three stars, it's not the living saga, there's not a "true game" thing going on. Not enough for me to play over and over. If you're into SCI-Fi storyline, random philosophies, techy mechas. (Like me) This game would probably love you. But not as much for me. (And I ain't no star wars fan but I'm loyal enough to keep Xenosaga as my favorite RPGs)

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra review

 Having played through the trilogy I feel that somewhere along the way the direction was lost. Xenosaga episode I introduced a vast and promising universe full of interesting concepts and characters and the promise of an in depth and interesting story. The first installment introduced everything from Realian rights, to discrimination; you even knew that the Seraphim Sisters were a popular girl group, giving you a feel of the setting that the game was to take place in. Sadly the universe that was introduced in the first installment has been methodically chipped away so that by episode III it has become the size of a person and that person is Shion Uzuki. A fair ninety percent of the game is focused on her and her far reaching effects on the world. The atmosphere of Xenosaga episode III was, I believe, supposed to have an apocalyptic feel, however, the impact of that was lost on me from seeing something that allegedly involves the fate of the entire universe from one person's point of view. There is too much going on in XSE III to be focused on one person for so long. Not only that it seems like an incredible waste to introduce so many interesting characters in episodes I and II only to shove them aside to focus on one and then to not only neglect characters that could have added an extra layer to the story but to introduce new characters who contribute nothing to the plot. I spent a majority of the game waiting for something plot wise to suck me in before finally admitting to myself that it wasn't going to happen. "Plot twists", revelations, and explanations are given in such a rapid succession that instead of being amazed at what I had found out I usually ended up rolling my eyes and muttering so what or asking do you really expect me to believe that?


It's a solid game even though the direction and execution of the story makes it fall short of what I expected it to be. My disappointment with it however still doesn't allow me to label it a bad game because it isn't which is why I have given it four stars. The battle system was fun and engaging to the point where I actually looked forward to getting into battles and the graphics were gorgeous. I have to admit that this is one of the most visually pleasing games that I've played all year. The dialogue however, is a mixed bag between thought provoking and unintentionally hilarious. While I was underwhelmed with the story it's still interesting enough so that if you're a fan of story driven rpgs that this is definitely something that you would want to look into, if you aren't already an initiate into the series.

Xenosaga does have a rather engaging storyline, but it didn't live up to the expectations that I formed upon playing episode I and even II. Perhaps my expectations were too high or perhaps I was led to expect something that never developed. Personally I felt as if it wasn't worth playing three games to get such an ambiguous and unsatisfying ending. I've played three games and not once have I ever gotten anything that even remotely felt like completion at the end of any of them. This doesn't however mean that I hate the game, but I wasn't impressed with it either. The writing, pacing, and direction felt too uneven, as if it was the result of a round robin with multiple people changing and adding to what had already been stated than as if it was a consistent campaign. Before any die hard fans get up in arms and decide that I didn't understand the story, let me assure them that I did. I just didn't care for the direction that was taken when there were so many other directions that the game could have gone in and left a more fitting conclusion than what was presented.