Sunday, September 26, 1999

Bayonetta review

 ttention: This review was made with the PS3 patch that fixes the framerate and adds HDD option to my 320 GB HDD. Release date January 28, 2010.

In 1971, scored the band Led Zeppelin a huge hit with the song "Stairway to Heaven '. It sings singer Robert Plant, the sentence:" And she's buying a Stairway to Heaven. That's all well and good, of course, but after we Bayonetta have but we think there suddenly very differently. In the game you play because of a witch, as the title suggests, is called Bayonetta and her memory is lost. Hundreds of years, she sat in a box and is now awake, but without memory. Searching for answers, she is haunted by angels, in contrast to what we are told that angels are anything but peaceful. We accompanied her on the quest for answers and now have the review for you!
Before we elaborate on issues such as: the gameplay, audio, graphics and play like we can already say this. Yes, the game has some technical problems, but if you have a PlayStation 3 game and want to buy? Do not be frightened by what critics do not all say about the PlayStation 3 version of the game, because some tiny dots after it is still a great experience. Anyway we obviously have to explain why the game is so good and that is exactly what we do. Get ready for a game like you've never seen before and show that you have in your dreams will follow! Each game starts somewhere, however, so we just go off to the story to.
Bayonetta is set in the fictional city called Vigrid, this city is not entirely fictitious. As you probably know Bayonetta has a lot to do with mythology and the name of the city is not simply chosen. Vigrid is because from the Norse mythology, it represents the battlefield where the gods fought the giant black Sartre. The fictional European town Vigrid looks like a battlefield between giants and gods. Some own more than condominiums. Although they themselves do not exactly know Bayonetta is a member of the Umbra Witches, an old women from existing clan. They have magical powers which they draw from the Mon On the other hand, the Sages Lumen clan, a group of men who draw strength from the Sun
Together they hold a treasure called "The Eyes of the World '. One clan is "The Left Eye ', the other course," The Right Eye. " Light and Darkness, Day and Night, you understand that these are in balance. Naturally things go wrong and on and treasure the days disappear and a war breaks out between two clans and kill each other. To make matters worse, Bayonetta and her partner Jane have also been attacked by so-called 'Angels' that appear to come from heaven. Fighting on a broken piece of church introduces the game with your story and your character. After a wild roller coaster ride was suddenly dark and starts the game in modern times. Bayonetta hundreds of years appears to have sat in a box and has already been twenty years among us, now it's your turn.
A fairly early so hectic and one you will not soon forget. Bayonetta is a third-person action game where the concept of 'action' more than present. The control of the game is pretty simple on the surface, but as you get more moves and weapons unlocked quite deep. The game can be played off by just button bash, but gamers looking for but the hottest and coolest moves weapons can very deeply with Bayonetta. Of course, you buy weapons and moves to something and that you are called halos. These are the large gold rings that float above the heads of angels, only here you chop their heads off and take you into the halo. Then you visit your good friend and arms dealer who Rodin at the gate of hell is waiting for your halos.
Not everyone will just visit the gates of hell, but we've already told you that Bayonetta is a devil? Lumen The Sages are namely the gate of heaven, the Umbra Witches are those of hell. Got it? Good, then we can continue our Bayonetta Devil. The witch has a good range of moves and weapons ready to help you and not even close. When it has weapons on its limbs, both her hands to her feet as she guns. There are also weapons like a sword, a spear, an ax and so on. The most dangerous weapon of hers is still the alluring black hair and that's no joke. Were you always curious why its so good care of their women? We have the answer here!
Bayonetta is because her shiny hair transform into disgusting creatures such as giant fists, boots and a number of creatures including a dragon and a giant bird. As she does we see something remarkable and that is that the black suit that also has to Bayonetta locks is made! The genitals are just mind, but she is practically nude sample of a three storey banging into each other, action was never this good. In addition to these weapons is also a very cool feature and the "Torture Attacks. If Bayonetta namely a number of enemies defeated without being touched there is a full bar, at some point, the player the triangle and circle button and may be performed Torture Attack.
These attacks are very diverse and different enemies will also appear special. Thus Bayonetta a gallows where she calls her opponent bonjourt or a box full of spikes where an angel is depressed. There are about a dozen different Torture Attacks and they are all equally fun. Of course it is even more fun when it different enemies can exert Platinum Games deserves praise for creativity and imagination! Itself at the very end of the game, the player still new enemies, they all have different names and characteristics. So you have enemies that can fly and have a spear, a large kind of lizard that fire balls shooting, flying rays with pointed tails, flying creatures as big as buildings with traditional chiefs, and so on.
Of course there are plenty of bosses back at the end or midway a chapter reports should be. It all starts with one being about as big as a house and from there it is just bigger, stronger, narrower and more difficult for the absurd to it. The best trick is the fact that first you are very impressed by the first boss, but then you just fight against three at a time in a little later in the game and then again overwhelmed by a still greater being. So you see the progress as a player that you and your character books. If a being a bit too strong, but it is slow then you also have the opportunity to "Witch Time" to use. Indeed if the player evades an attack just in time with R2, then slows down time here and you're faster.


Make no mistake in Bayonetta, because it's not like you go from one room to the other enemies to run a cup size. You will have many hurdles to overcome, and these vary from running over a waterfall to the running of a church while it falls down. This may sound crazy, but wait till you play the game and we seem suddenly not so crazy. As we previously said, Bayonetta is a spectacle from start to finish and gives you little time to rest. Because the steering is so nice smooth keep you busy and you are motivated to overcome every obstacle again. Some obstacles, like in slow motion of a falling wall to another falling wall jump, are just too much for our human Bayonetta. Therefore this kind of situation can also further transform into a panther or a crow. The panther is very fast and the crow can fly over unfathomable depths.

Bayonetta is typical of the sexual undertones that contains the game constantly. Each time you back here to laugh at a crazy move at a critical moment. So she suddenly pole dancing with a giant hatchet, or is it deliberately with legs spread right in the picture. And we have not even had the lollipop, always has a lollipop in her mouth Bayonetta her any extra energy. The way they do thing, however, to keep it clean, consuming to say the least challenging. Platinum Games in the men do like a touch of humor. The game certainly has a serious undertone, but the seductive Bayonetta makes it often very funny. The other characters sometimes take a naughty joke.


Graphic Bayonetta has a special and magical style. The game has very nice lighting effects and the characters look convincing. Although the game is something of a character like stijltje conservation. The eye care environments, and with much attention in the game process. They come at you a magnificent Colosseum, a large church, an underground maze or a paradise in cheerful colors. The game is generally well cared for, but unfortunately we can not ignore the problems around the PlayStation 3 version entails. Now and then have absolutely no frame rate drops and load times at the oddest places. This is the momentum of the game not as good and even the start menu includes a loading screen can even be frustrating.

Load times can be found everywhere in fact Bayonetta, whether you pick an item, want to load the start menu or simply anywhere wraps around the corner. Not that every corner you have a loading screen, but sometimes it just happens that a few seconds to load while being chased by a lava flow. That does not mean that the game has become a great experience. Partly due to the beautiful sound of the game. The music has a feminine elegance, but can sometimes care for a serious undertone. Platinum Games wanted a female character is also female accompaniment of music, something that they certainly succeeded. The sound of rain, falling rocks, lava, water and tunes as you pick up such a sacred object are excellent.

As a final remark can perhaps be called the camera a tad annoying to do, but fortunately you have the opportunity to R3 with the camera quickly to place the butt of Bayonetta. Overall the game is just well cared for, it looks good, sounds good and plays well. Unfortunately the present loading times so that it can be frustrating. It does not spoil the experience, but after playing the 360 version, we had to conclude that PlayStation 3 version is clearly inferior. There are also very occasionally some of the previously mentioned frame rate problems.
On whether we hit the first of 2010 I have with a resounding: yes. Bayonetta certainly has agreements with Devil May Cry, but has chosen to simultaneously complete a separate identity. With a great character, a beautiful world and large numbers of enemies present, this is a game you played as a fan of action games should be. Yes, the game has some problems, but what would it if you can fight against monsters that are greater than your own home? So you have a PlayStation 3 Bayonetta and you want to play? Do not be stopped by the equations you found on the Internet, because the Sony console Bayonetta is a game of epic proportions. Hideki Kamiya may again be proud of himself and his team!

Valkyria Chronicles review

 I completed the game a few days ago and instantly felt compelled to play it through again. My gut reaction was to give it a five-star review but I hesitated, read a few of the negative reviews, grudgingly admitted they made a few good points and convinced myself to give it a four. This game certainly deserves the praise it has received.

I don't think it can be said enough. The game is absolutely beautiful to look at!

The story, although a bit slow to start, had me fully engaged and concerned for the characters after 7-8 chapters. Like a well-made movie the villains are given adequate back story and reasons for their behavior...you just have to wait a bit for it.

Game play is fantastic. Valkyria chronicles perfectly blends the classic turn-based RPG style with a third person shooter for what I thought was a unique experience. Each level presents the player with two general options or strategies. There is usually an obvious "brute force" method of clearing the level and a more "strategic" method. The brute force method will often take you more turns, drastically lower your score, but provide you with an enjoyable experience. Blasting away at enemies with your tank is sometimes worth the lower score. The more strategic method isn't often that strategic. It is a matter of figuring out which particular hoop the designers want you to jump through. This is usually accomplished by replaying the level once or twice after an untimely death, by luck, or sometimes by design. "By design" is listed last because it is nearly impossible to predict which hoop the game will ask you to jump through before starting the level. The pre-game map is mostly uninformative and you just have to figure it out after positioning all your troops. I could not overlook this flaw and is my main reason for giving the game four stars.

Overall this game was a lot of fun. The game requires a little patience as you start playing. If you are expecting Modern Warfare you will probably be disappointed, but I expect most people know by now what they are getting into when they purchase a game like this. Thus the overwhelming numbers of positive reviews which I think the game deserves.

Final Fantasy X review

 I believe that Final Fantasy X is the last game from Square that is really, awesomely good. It was all downhill after they joined Enix, in my opinion (I hope Final Fantasy XIII redeems them). Even FF12 was only average, to me. Anyway, this game is fantastic. Why? Well, let's find out!

Graphics (score 10/10): The graphics are really excellent for the PS2. I believe this game boasts the second-best graphics on the PS2, next to Final Fantasy XII. Although FFXII has the technically better graphics, FFX has much more creative and unique environments, so it's more graphically impressive to me. I guess it's kind of the difference between staring at a shimmering forest made out of crystalline trees and filled with iridescent swirls of light versus a big field filled with...grass...and just grass. So, FFX makes very good use of the graphical capabilities that it does have.

Music (score 10/10): Excellent, just excellent. The music is really quite beautiful, with my favorite song being "To Zanarkand". I even went and bought the soundtrack. And yes, I even like the song "Otherworld", which I've heard some people hated. Now, as for the voice acting... I thought it was great. Why do so many people hate on the voice acting for this game? I really can't figure it out. Other than the scene where Tidus and Yuna engage in fake laughter (it's cringe-worthy, trust me, but at least it doesn't last very long), the voice acting is top notch. I really found no faults with it. If you want to hear truly awful voice acting, listen to some scenes from the first Grandia game (on a side note, I got slaughtered with unhelpful votes for my review on that game; go figure).

Characters (score 10/10): Characterizations are excellent; everyone has a distinct personality and is well-portrayed. I know that everyone likes to complain about Tidus being a "crybaby" and whatnot, but I don't really think that's the case. To me, he's a realistic protagonist. With Final Fantasy 7 and 8, you had protagonists who were already used to battle, and who already had military training. It makes sense that they were used to dealing with stress (whether they actually handled that stress well is arguable, though, but that just makes them that much more interesting as protagonists). Tidus is just an average guy who is suddenly thrown into extraordinary events. In this light, I think his reactions (and subsequent narrations) are very realistic and appropriate for his character. I mean, he was living the good life before (he was a star athlete and living well, for the most part); why wouldn't he be unhappy about getting thrown into a world, which, through his eyes, must've seemed very inferior to what he just came from?! In fact, if he had immediately adopted a hung-ho, "this is so much fun" attitude, I would have found it very questionable. That being said, if he had been excessively whiney, it would've been annoying, but I don't really think that he is. As for the other characters, they all have subtle nuanced personalities, with the standout character being Yuna. So much of the story has to do with her, and she is extremely well developed. I love the fact that this game actually gives us a female character who is quiet, mature, and actually wears clothing that covers her breasts. Seriously, I get so sick of game developers thinking that all female characters must show cleavage, so it's awesome that Yuna actually has a real personality and isn't just eye candy. Not that eye candy is always bad or anything, it's just that I like to have some variety. I really love Yuna though because she is such a strong character without being a stereotypical gun-toting bad-ass female. She simply has a strong will and is dedicated to her morals and beliefs without being closed-minded. To me, she embodies what a "strong female character" should be rather than what Hollywood thinks that term means (ex. Large busted, cleavage exposing woman who wields guns). Once again, I have nothing against seeing that kind of portrayal once in a while, but there needs to be other kinds of heroines too. Too bad they ruin the good thing that they have going here in X-2, the sequel (see my review of that if you want to see how they screw over these fine characters). Whew, enough of my soap box. Overall, I think the characters are excellent, and yes, I even loved Tidus.

Story (score 10/10): This game's story is just awesome. It's one of the best RPG stories ever told, in my opinion. At its core, it's about a group of people coming to question the things that they have always believed in. I really enjoyed the themes of questioning traditional power structures and religious doctrine that is in place in the world of Spira, as well as themes of sacrifice, death, and hope. I don't know if the developers intended this, but you could almost interpret this story to be critique of real-world religions. The game even deals with the idea of prejudice in it's portrayal of the Al-Bhed. On top of these fine thematic elements, the plot keeps you engaged with various twists, culminating with the biggest twist of all at the end of the game. I'm not going to spoil that just in case you haven't played this game, but suffice it to say, it was so emotionally gripping that I actually cried at the end. Well, the story is awesome. What more can I say?

Battle System (score 10/10): The battle system is pretty unique compared to previous Final Fantasy games. Of course, I'm not talking about the turn-based fights; they're pretty similar. I'm talking about the ability to switch party members in the middle of battle. In previous FFs, you pretty much picked a party of three people and stuck to them, never using any other characters. In FFX, they actively discourage this by making each party member have very specific strengths and weaknesses, and having a variety of enemies that require everyone's skills. The fact that you need to switch people mid-battle to accommodate for different enemy types means that you really need to use everyone equally. This is a nice change of pace from the older games, although I still like doing it the old way equally well too.

Gameplay (score 10/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. Let's see...FFX is very well paced in difficulty level, the controls and camera angle are good, and there's a wealth of interesting sidequests to take part in. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. My only small complaint would be that I wish there was a way to skip cut scenes. It's annoying to have to sit through a long cut scene again when you have to re-do a boss battle. Other than that, no complaints at all.

Overall (score 10/10): NOTE this score is not an average; it's my subjective overall score. FFX is a fine and excellent game. In my opinion, FFX is one of the best RPGs out there, and definitely should be added your collection if you're an RPG fan. And for its (currently) cheap price, you can't afford to pass this one up!

Tuesday, September 14, 1999

Lunar: The Silver Star review

 Lunar Silver Star Story first debuted on the Sega CD. While the Sega CD system didn't last very long, Lunar did manage to get quite a following. Unfortunately, because the Sega CD user base wasn't large, Lunar was overlooked by several gamers. The game had a release on the very short lived Sega Saturn, but again, never reached audiences. In 1999 Lunar finally reached a large audience. The Playstation. With several changes and updates from the original Sega CD version to make the story more complete and satisfying.

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete concerns itself with Alex. He one day dreams of being a Dragonmaster. Just like his hero, Dyne. He figures he'll just have to keep dreaming, though. Until his friend Ramus has a plan to go into the White Dragon cave and get a hold of the White Dragon Diamond. Finally, a chance for Alex to go on an adventure. But it ends up becoming much bigger than he ever dreamed.

For the most part, Lunar Silver Star Story has a cliched overly done storyline. Despite that, however, it is one of the best in the genre because it has a fantastic cast of characters who are all well developed, a good sense of humor, one of the best villains in video game history as well as a very emotional story. All these things make you forget the cliched storyline and make it something enjoyable and memorable. The story also has a few really great looking anime cinematics and some incredibly good voice acting to help flesh out the humor and wit. It also helps that the dialog is extremely well written. Put simply, the story is presented very well.

The gameplay is dated, but that's to be expected for a game originally released in 1992. Lunar has a straightforward combat system. It's the simple turn based fare you've seen in dozens of RPGs. You'll select an action for every character to do and then watch the battle play out as your enemies and you take turns. Every character can either attack, use special techniques unique to only them use items and run away, etc. Battles are contact based. That doesn't mean enemies will simply let you waltz by. Many enemies upon seeing you will give chase.

Lunar is by no means a complicated game. Every character gains magic through levels (save for Alex who will get a few spells from meeting certain objectives in the story) and has their own unique magic. For example, Nash is the only character who can cast Thunder Magic. There are a few tidbits to the battle system that help flesh it out and keep it from being overly repetitive. For one, characters who use staves can use them to cast spells that they otherwise might not be able to cast. There's also a huge emphasis on strategy here. Lunar is not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. Especially up against the bosses. You'll find you have to move your characters all over the field and heal every turn to keep yourself a float. To make matters even more difficult, you only have a limited number of items you can carry and on top of that, items at the market are quite expensive and monsters don't drop a lot of money. So even though battles are contact based, it's probably best to fight as many as you can. The only major problem with Lunar's battle system is that battles aren't quick. Even normal battles can last for several minutes because of having to heal yourself constantly. For the most part, though, the trip through the game is very rewarding.

Visually, Lunar is a very colorful, artistic looking, smooth running game. It doesn't push the Playstation to its limits, but it does manage to be a good game nonetheless. The artistic design is incredibly well done, though. So are the character portraits and animated cutscenes. It's actually a very beautiful looking game, but it looks like a smooth over sixteen bit game too. Luckily, this won't bother most gamers.

It sounds pretty good. As mentioned before, the voice acting is some of the best in the industry. Many of the tunes are quite catchy (particularly the world map and battle themes). They're short tracks, though, so they loop real soon, which makes much of the music quite repetitive. In the long run, though, you're getting quite a bit.

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete originally came with a lot of extras. A soundtrack CD filled with the best tracks, a cloth map, a making of CD and a hardcover instruction booklet that even included a sample of the strategy guide made by Working Designs themselves. It's quite the collector's item to have.

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete is a fantastic RPG that despite being released on the Playstation, was still fairly overlooked. It does, however, retain a strong audience. A fine game where the effort of the creators really shows through fantastic writing, a well crafted story and some of the most well developed characters to grace the genre.

Grandia review

 Grandia is a great game all around. If not one of the best, it is definitely one of the most fun RPG's I've ever played.

The first thing which strikes my memory, like so many other games, is the characters. They are good, fun characters. If nothing else, Grandia does make you care about them and what happens to them. Unlike almost every other RPG ever made, there really aren't any dark, brooding characters, or even evil ones (even the bad guys weren't very evil seeming), and I know that will put a lot of people off. Justin, the main character, is a total jerk. He's a nice guy at heart, but just a little clueless. There is some voice acting, which is entertaining, and some of it is okay. I like it well enough to keep it. It set the characters well. There is a little love story, too, which is corny, but it fits well with the rest of the game. Nothing in this game is very serious.

Except the combat. The fighting system in Grandia is awesome. It is still turn-based, but instead of just standing in a row, you're characters actually move around, which is important against many bosses and special attacks. It uses a timing system with an action bar to determine who goes when. When you hit enemies, or are hit yourself, you move back on the bar. This is important for strategic reasons. Basically, you can do more damage with a combo than a critical attack, but a critical moves them further back on the bar. The special moves and magic system is very well done. You level up specific moves and spells by using them. This makes some of your early moves devastating even into the later parts of the game.

On a similar note, the experience system is one of the best in the industry (whether or not it is innovative or original). There are standard level ups, running on the normal experience system. Then Grandia goes the extra mile and adds in the specific weapon and magic class levels. When you use a specific type of weapon, you level up in that specific weapon, getting a small stat boost and allowing you access to new skills. This makes it necessary to switch up what kind of weapons each character uses. Magic also levels up in this same way, and to get access to new spells, especially the ones which are mixes of elements, you will have to mix-up what kinds of magic you use. It is a fun system to work with.

Grandia has a fairly simplistic, happy plot. It is not unique by any right. I guess it kind of is by its lightness. It really is cheery, and a total departure from dark, depressing insight into the human soul type stories (did someone just mention Xenogears?). You spend a large portion of your time on side-quests and adventures which have nothing to do with the overall plot, but that was okay, because you are a young, aspiring adventurer, after all. That, and the combat system is great, so fighting lots of monsters is fun. The main story is nothing special, but it is interesting. I did find myself wanting to know what happens. Despite the general and generic plot, individual events and occurrences are still exciting now and then.

The graphics aren't anything special, like most Playstation games that are three years old. The characters themselves are well observed, done with a high level of detail, and the character dialogue portraits are neat. Every character has two or three, expressing different emotions. Again, nothing outstanding or brilliant, but a nice touch. In general, the dungeons themselves and the enemy monsters don't look so great. But then again, I've never really cared much about graphics in RPGs. Your call.

There are a couple things which really makes Grandia stand out above the rest of the crowd. For one thing, there are no random encounters. Nobody likes those. There are still wandering monsters, but you can see them on screen before you have to fight them, and they are avoidable. I thought that was absolutely awesome. The music in Grandia was excellent. I think it is the absolute best soundtrack on a RPG so far. I absolutely loved it. People who weren't watching would occasionally glance in to see if I was just listening to classical music. That is a bit of an overstatement, but still.

All in all, Grandia is great. It is an epic. It only took me 40 hours to beat. Nowhere near this 90 hour stuff the other reviewers were talking about. I did almost everything too, including talking to everybody in town three times in a row (one of Grandia's more annoying points). The dungeons are well designed, if short, and easy. I had a more difficult time fighting wandering monsters than some bosses (mainly because you can hit them so many times they never get to move). Anyway, Grandia is definitely one of the most fun RPGs ever, even if it isn't one of the technical best. And it has Puffy. All RPG fans should pick it up. And beat it. It is great.