I think it's fair to say that 2020 has been a tough year for pretty much everyone. Coronavirus, millions of jobs lost, people dying etc. It really sucks, and even though times are tough, you just gotta move on, toughen up and survive. Because of the virus, at least everyone got to stay home and hopefully play tons of video games or watch anime idk. I've been trying to stay positive this year as much as I can, I'm not depressed or anything, but it really sucked when i couldn't see my best friend for about 3 months because people couldn't risk getting sick from going outside. That really sucked but it honestly wasn't the worst of it, I'll talk about it later in the post as I don't wanna sour the mood. That being said let's get right into the games I enjoyed this year.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin / 天穂のサクナヒメ
(Switch/PS4/PC. Developers: Edelweiss. Publisher: Marvelous/XSEED Games. 2020)
I dunno if it's fair for me to include Sakuna on the list as I feel I'm not far enough into the game to properly do it justice, but it deserves to be on here, even if it's a brief segment. From the creators of the awesome shmups, Astebreed and Ether Vapor, Sakuna is an side scrolling action RPG with a unique twist. The twist is that it has a ridiculously in-depth rice farming system, that was part of the reason it took 5 years for them to make, and this was just a small team of 2 people. The game starts off with the humans visiting the realm of the gods, in search of food. The title character Sakuna is a bit of a pampered spoiled princess, but she has a likable personality and kinda acts like an old lady lol. She's small and is like a couple thousand or whatever years old. She's eating food with her friend when the humans have been sneaking around, Sakuna eventually catches up to them and all of the fucking rice burned to a crisp. This pissed off the head goddess and she banishes Sakuna and the humans to the abandoned island full of demons. To get off the island, you basically need to grow enough rice to make up for all the rice lost, and kill the demons to make it a safe place.
Fighting enemies can be pretty fun, thanks to the combat being really intuitive. You have a heavy and light attack, special moves that can be used after pressing A and a direction, and there's this grappling hook kinda mechanic where you use it to either cling onto walls and ceilings, or use it the throw around enemies. There's even air combos you can do in this game, which is pretty cool, letting you approach combat however you want. The different combinations of moves and and techniques, allow you to be very creative and just go wild. There is a bit of a limit tho. I mentioned it's an action RPG' meaning that in addition to fighting enemies and such, enemies/bosses have their parameters set up to certain levels' so despite you kicking ass in one area, suddenly your damage numbers will be real small because the enemies are tougher despite like being the same type of demon bunnies from earlier. Also enemies get stronger at night, and can easily murder you, meaning Sakuna has to go back to the main hub area and meet back with the group.
Fighting enemies can be pretty fun, thanks to the combat being really intuitive. You have a heavy and light attack, special moves that can be used after pressing A and a direction, and there's this grappling hook kinda mechanic where you use it to either cling onto walls and ceilings, or use it the throw around enemies. There's even air combos you can do in this game, which is pretty cool, letting you approach combat however you want. The different combinations of moves and and techniques, allow you to be very creative and just go wild. There is a bit of a limit tho. I mentioned it's an action RPG' meaning that in addition to fighting enemies and such, enemies/bosses have their parameters set up to certain levels' so despite you kicking ass in one area, suddenly your damage numbers will be real small because the enemies are tougher despite like being the same type of demon bunnies from earlier. Also enemies get stronger at night, and can easily murder you, meaning Sakuna has to go back to the main hub area and meet back with the group.
Since the enemies become so strong at night, you can always level up and revisit those spots later and kick their asses. But that means you need to level up. But how do you level up? Because defeating enemies doesn't really do that, you earn food and materials for quests and gear and weapon upgrades instead. So to level up, you need to take full advantage of the rice farming, In Japan, the game has received a lot of attention and praise for its super deep rice farming system. Apparently it's so in depth and complex that you can use it in real life, and the creators have even been interviewed by like agricultural groups and whatnot. So yeah, you gotta make rice, and you need to make a lot of it. RICE IS POWER. The rice farming is actually pretty fun and doesn't feel very tedious. The only thing is that the whole process takes some time, but it's fun. Usually doing any sort of manual labor in a game can feel like a real chore, but I guess when you have more of a drive and a real purpose, even work can feel like fun, and that's how I can sum up my experience with the game so far. Please try out Sakuna, it's pretty cool and unique. In Japan it's become a bit of a surprise hit! You can pet an adorable dog too.
(Vita/PC/Switch. Developer/Publisher: Compile Heart. 2014-2019)
This game teaches you that apparently panties are the most important thing in the world. For a first person RPG that isn't super deep mechanically, it was still kinda fun but the final boss was a complete pushover, never seen an RPG last boss so damn laughably easy. The game feels like a poor man's Dungeon Travelers 2 (well yeah it's goddamn compile heart) but it does manage to set itself apart in enough ways to stand out. So you play as Io, who's kind of a whimpy dude that doesn't wanna do much, and he has his childhood friend who's a monster girl. Monster girls and humans live in harmony but but then suddenly the guardians of each area have gone haywire and started attacking innocent people, so Io is basically forced into becoming a protag lol. Thing is Io himself doesn't fight, kinda like Fried from Dungeon Travelers 2. Instead, your team of monster girls do all the heavy lifting for you, and you're just support and the item guy. Your party can do the usual stuff like using physical/magic attacks, buff their stats etc. Io also has a "desire meter" that you can increase during your turn (either by using Io/the girls) and what it essentially does is give a slight buff to the selected girl you dump your desires to, and it can stack on top of like Dark Elf for example, buffing her attack.
You only start off with one monster girl, but by defeating mini bosses and main bosses, you can increase the amount of monster girls in your "Pokedex." So I guess that sorta does make Io a trainer huh. actually are. I mentioned how panties are important, well it's true. Finding the specific panties for each monster girl, allows them them to change their stats, and swaps their moveset, which I guess is basically like class changing. Well to class change, you must first increasing your trust/affection for the girl, and after it reaches 1 full heart, you can head back to the hub town, and talk to them in the hotel room. After that, you can change class. Changing their gives them a different outfit, (well if different panties/swimsuits counts as outfits but okay.) Each girl actually gets their room too, what it mostly does, is just let you upgrade the rooms to give inactive party members more EXP outside battle.
The rooms also allow you to use the Egg system, which has the girls...lay an egg(???) using selected materials, to craft items and gear you can equip. Why it couldn't have been a more normal way, is beyond me. So yeah all this talk about monster girls. The enemies you fight aren't just limited to monster girls, what you normally fight can vary from cute and silly to creepy or straight up nightmare fuel. It's bizarre, even for compile heart standards. Some look like a pair of tits, some are literally pubes with EYEBALLS. All the enemies, creepy or otherwise, all have elemental weaknesses, and so does your team, thing is tho, 90% of the time, it felt like it didn't matter too much. I did die a few times, but the game isn't too difficult' eventually, auto battle can be used just as much as actually fighting lol. Anyways defeating bosses is pretty straight forward, but I'm actually lying when I said you need to defeat them to get them. Instead of straight up defeating monster girls, you gotta increase the tension meter, by damaging the boss' clothing and stripping them to their undies. Yes this is real. Doing so allows you to do the Bump Scratch minigame i believe it was called, which basically has you touching the girl and rubbing her until the meter reaches max. They're all under some kinda mind control so apparently doing shit like this, helps them come....back to their senses. On the original Vita version, you could turn the Vita vertically during these minigames and rub as if you were, doing something lmao.
I suggest not playing on the TV if you don't want people to see or hear whatever you're doing, because it's hilarious how silly the game came be with this stuff. A lot of the bosses are based on mythical creatures, normal monsters/animals etc. Except they're (usually) some kinda sexy anime girl i guess. Like you can battle a Mimic, a mermaid, zombie, Cerberus and so on. Overall it's a decent enough game but the humor, dialogue and fanservice make it pretty entertaining, despite the not being very deep, mechanically. This game sure has a lot of weird shit in it.
I suggest not playing on the TV if you don't want people to see or hear whatever you're doing, because it's hilarious how silly the game came be with this stuff. A lot of the bosses are based on mythical creatures, normal monsters/animals etc. Except they're (usually) some kinda sexy anime girl i guess. Like you can battle a Mimic, a mermaid, zombie, Cerberus and so on. Overall it's a decent enough game but the humor, dialogue and fanservice make it pretty entertaining, despite the not being very deep, mechanically. This game sure has a lot of weird shit in it.
Caladrius Blaze / カラドリウスブレイズ
(Arcade/360/PS3/PS4/PC/Switch. Developer/Publisher MOSS/H2 Interactive (PS4/PC) 2013-2019)
Not like a shmup wasn't gonna be on the list, it's basically tradition at this point lol. Caladrius Blaze is a pretty interesting game, both mechanically because of some of the staff involved. For instance, the character designs and artwork was done by the Devil Survivor 1/2 artist. And even legendary CAVE composer Manabu Namiki did some songs for the game. So one thing that easily makes the game stand out a bit is the fact that it's a tate shmup but has a horizontal playfield, so while the screen still scrolls vertically, you have plenty of room to move around and dodge bullets. This game also has a bit of a story mode kinda like the Shikigami no Shiro series, where you'll see some story scenes before starting the game, and seeing dialogue before and after boss battles. Since the voice acting is only in Japanese tho, you don't any of the hilariously bad lines like in Shikigami 3's dub.
(Arcade/360/PS3/PS4/PC/Switch. Developer/Publisher MOSS/H2 Interactive (PS4/PC) 2013-2019)
Not like a shmup wasn't gonna be on the list, it's basically tradition at this point lol. Caladrius Blaze is a pretty interesting game, both mechanically because of some of the staff involved. For instance, the character designs and artwork was done by the Devil Survivor 1/2 artist. And even legendary CAVE composer Manabu Namiki did some songs for the game. So one thing that easily makes the game stand out a bit is the fact that it's a tate shmup but has a horizontal playfield, so while the screen still scrolls vertically, you have plenty of room to move around and dodge bullets. This game also has a bit of a story mode kinda like the Shikigami no Shiro series, where you'll see some story scenes before starting the game, and seeing dialogue before and after boss battles. Since the voice acting is only in Japanese tho, you don't any of the hilariously bad lines like in Shikigami 3's dub.
The weapon system is interesting because instead of a standard rapid/power shot and bomb, you get lasers like in the Raiden games, and some other wacky shot types, even melee weapons for some, sorta like Milestone's shooters such as Karous or Chaos Field. In addition to the weapons, there's also an upgrade system in between levels. You essentially earn these orange gems during the stages and by the end, you can use them to level up your special weapons. You can freely choose to upgrade them all evenly, focus on only one etc. I really like it, since you can just focus on the ones that fit your play style, instead of being forced into using each weapon. However, that doesn't make all the different special shots useless, a lot are extremely good in some situations, so it's good to learn what each one does, for each character. Speaking of characters, this game sure has a lot to choose from, which is is surprising for this genre. Usually you only get like 3 ships, but in Caladrius Blaze you can choose from 10 ships total. The characters all have pretty cool and interesting designs, both for playable characters and the bosses, Each character actually play and feel different from one another, which is really fresh from the usual spread shot, tracing shot that follows you as you move, or just straight laser. Not all of them are my favorites, but I feel it gives this game amazing replay value.
The bosses in this game are really crazy, especially the stage 2 boss (I hate that bitch) They really take advantage of all the screen real-estate, meaning bullets can literally come from all over the place. And some bullet patterns, either from bosses or generic enemies, sometimes feel like they don't make sense. Like how do you dodge some of this shit lol. Well that's what the training mod is for. The training mode isn't as amazing as the stuff M2 pours into their shmup ports, but it's still good enough. Bosses can be really tough, but you can overcome them. From what I remember, they should all have weaknesses for specific parts of their body or phase of the battle etc. I'm sure I'm right about this too, but lowering the bosses health and getting to each phase, usually results in a Shame Break, which damages their clothes. doing this for each phase makes them basically naked more or less. Yes, another game filled with stripping lol. That being said, the same can happen to you, as getting hit and losing a life, causes your clothes to take damage as well. Ultimately, this doesn't really effect the gameplay at all, besides the scoring system, and is mainly just to be eye candy, pretty nice eye candy at that lol.
The bosses in this game are really crazy, especially the stage 2 boss (I hate that bitch) They really take advantage of all the screen real-estate, meaning bullets can literally come from all over the place. And some bullet patterns, either from bosses or generic enemies, sometimes feel like they don't make sense. Like how do you dodge some of this shit lol. Well that's what the training mod is for. The training mode isn't as amazing as the stuff M2 pours into their shmup ports, but it's still good enough. Bosses can be really tough, but you can overcome them. From what I remember, they should all have weaknesses for specific parts of their body or phase of the battle etc. I'm sure I'm right about this too, but lowering the bosses health and getting to each phase, usually results in a Shame Break, which damages their clothes. doing this for each phase makes them basically naked more or less. Yes, another game filled with stripping lol. That being said, the same can happen to you, as getting hit and losing a life, causes your clothes to take damage as well. Ultimately, this doesn't really effect the gameplay at all, besides the scoring system, and is mainly just to be eye candy, pretty nice eye candy at that lol.
Caladrius Blaze doesn't have the best graphics, it can seem a bit underwhelming, especially since it does primarily use polygons for enemies , ships and the overall environment. That being said, the gothic inspired aesthetic of the menus and stages help, but the graphics definitely needed more oomph. It looks a bit meh at times, especially compared to other shmups using polygons and such, but it certainly makes up for it with great gameplay, character designs and interesting and unique ships/shot types. .
Super Mario 3D All-Stars / スーパーマリオ3Dコレクション
(Switch. Developer/Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
This was probably one of the worst kept secrets of the year, and yeah we finally got the remasters of the 3D Mario games (minus Galaxy 2 and 3D Land). And while everyone was busy whining about Mario 64 being the shindou version that doesn't let you backwards long jump/ass warp to speedrun through it. I was busy playing a ton of Mario Sunshine again, but now in widescreen! Originally I wasn't gonna put the collection on the list, but a recent patch actually fixed a majority of the issues related to Mario Sunshine. AND IT HAS PROPER GAMECUBE SUPPORT NOW YES. Should've been there in the first place but hey at least it's fixed now so who cares. Okay so to me, this is basically just Mario Sunshine HD with other games, and that's basically what this segment is gonna be lol.
Mario Sunshine is a follow up to Mario 64 that follows the same 3D open ended map design that the previous game made popular in the 90's. The differences here is while in 64, you could basically get any star in the order you wanted,. Which gave you a lot of freedom in you how you approach the levels and beat the game. Mario Sunshine makes the structure much more linear, where the levels are split up into acts/episodes, where different things happen each time. The overall levels stay the same for the most part in each episode, but the objectives change each time. Usually some areas open or close, or there's a new enemy, boss or special condition that has to be met. In Pianta Village for example, mission 1 has you spraying the little chain chomps and then cooling them down in the river. But then mission 3 has everyone trapped in goop, while FLUDD is taken away from you, and you need to either go through the level in a different way, to get him back, save the villager leader and clear the mission.
Oh yeah FLUDD. The main mechanic of Sunshine involves water, and using Mario's talking water pump clean away all the goop, defeat enemies and even use the pump in platforming. I know not everyone likes this "gimmick" or feel it brings the game down because "oh i wish this game was more like Mario 64" but fuck that, FLUDD is awesome. You can use the hover nozzle to extend your jumps, potentially save your ass from a mistake, or just to show off. The other unlockable Nozzles include the rocket nozzle, which shoots Mario high up into the air, and with the rocket storage glitch, you can reach thousands of feet into the air if you know what to do. And the turbo nozzle let's Mario run super fast and can even let you speed around the surface of water. They all have their uses and with more advanced techniques and even glitches, the stuff you can do is honestly insane. Mario Sunshine is still my favorite 3D Mario game of all time, and even after nearly 2 decades, the game holds well.
So talking about the 3D All Stars version specifically, there's some interesting differences. From what I've looked into all 3 of the Mario games are being emulated, and for Sunshine specifically, the game is based on the later PAL region release. This version fixed some glitches which were exclusive to the original Japanese version, and probably fixed some from the US version too. That being said, all of the main tricks that are required for things like speedrunning are still present, so it seems like this version is either on par or better than the Gamecube version, but who knows. Minus a few weird framerate dips in areas that never had slowdown on Gamecube, this is more or less a perfect way to play the game. Real quick, prior to the recent patch, the game had it's camera controls reversed which completely fucked with my over a decades worth of muscle memory, as well as having a shitty default control scheme that you couldn't edit in game. You still can't edit the buttons in game, but the switch lets you do it in the system menu. The worst thing about the pre-patch version of Sunshine HD was IT DIDN'T HAVE GAMECUBE CONTROLLER SUPPORT. It does now, but this frustrated the fuck out of me. My biggest worry when this collection was announced was "how the hell is sunshine gonna work without analog triggers?" They actually did it pretty well to be honest, but having no officially GC support initially turned me off from the collection. But now it's fixed so PLAY IT NOW.
Refrain: prism memories
(PC. Developer/Publisher: RebRank/Degica Games (Steam). 2011-2016)
Another Doujin shooter in one of my end of the year lists. This game definitely deserves it too. It's a bit tough finding actual information on the development and whatnot, but it was originally a doujin game released at Comiket, and maybe(?) had some sort of arcade release. I kept hearing stuff related to Akihabara regarding this game, so maybe it was a location test or something. It's probably the most obscure games on this years list, and considering I had Crimzon Clover there, and even I didn't know about the game until I saw it at an arcade in Japan. Refrain is a really interesting shmup. Similar to Caladrius Blaze from the previous segment, this game has a lot of interesting mechanics and nuances to set it apart from different games in the genre. It doesn't have flashy fanservice or 10 different ships to choose from, but I'd say in some ways this game is probably better than Caladrius, however both are still worth your time. So in Refrain there's the usual shot type, a piercing shot that can power up to do more damage and fill the screen if your meter is full and the shot changes based on how many times you press it (up to like 4 times i think.) And there's what I feel is probably the games primary mechanic, which is the bullet cancelling. by killing enemies and collecting the extra points that they drop, you can store up to 3 manual bullet cancels at a time, doing so can turn enemy bullets into points that fill up the power shot meter. This is pretty awesome, and you get into a bit of a groove with the game, where you're shooting enemies down, blasting them down with the power shot, and then cancelling to build your meter back up. It can feel kinda zen like at times, and that's usually the sign of a good shmup in my eyes. When you're able to just get into the zone and just play by either instinct or reflexes, it's so fun.
Similar to Caladrius, the 3 main ships have some differences in how they feel, although it's mostly with the power shots instead of like everything being different. The cool thing is that the menu and even the main menu, UI and borders on the sides of the screen actually change based on which character you play as. I really like that because it's another way to distinguish between them. This game has a great sense of atmosphere too. There's cyberspace, futuristic sorta cyberpunk aesthetic to the game that in some ways actually reminds me of Serial Experiments Lain. I always feel kinda cozy whenever I'm in the menu, it really captures the feeling I have of sitting in my bed during nights off, with the room all dark and just getting really immersed into whatever I'm doing, usually just listening to music with my headphones on. The game has that kinda atmosphere around it and it fits perfectly. The visuals are great too, with boot up and log out screen, an old desktop/mobile phone style main menu, and cyberspace like environment and background designs along with some deserts and dark cityscapes. There's a lot going on within the world and in a way, it feels kinda alive, like the game is telling a story through the environments. There actually is lot of lore and a bit of story. After beating bosses and getting through the stages, you can go back to the main menu and view your email in-game and read up more about the world and characters. Even in the sound test, you can read Messages from the composer and their thoughts on what went into the music, and how they feel about various aspects, like bosses.
The composers did a great job with soundtrack. There's a lot of moody and up beat techno tracks, with some piano backing it up, some boss themes sound like fucking club or trance music. Seriously you could dance to sick beats this game has. I just think the soundtrack is very unique and it's totally worth getting the game for the music alone.
Overall, you can't go wrong with Refrain: Prism Memories. It's a great shooter that barely anyone about, even in the shmup community for whatever reason. I have no idea why they don't because it's a fantastic game that's extremely underrated. Even if this genre isn't for you, at least listen to the awesome music!
Animal Crossing: New Horizons / あつまれ どうぶつの森
(Switch. Developer/Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
(Switch. Developer/Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
In a chaotic year full of hardships and a deadly virus forcing people to do nothing but stay home, Animal Crossing definitely came at a good time. I love the new Animal Crossing for the most part. It's a great game and extremely relaxing. You can always use these games as a way to relax and help forget about your troubles. I was in a real honeymoon period at first, as I usually am with Animal Crossing at first. But eventually I either get burned out after a couple hundred hours or so, or I end up basically doing everything I set out to do. And of course having fun time travelling. The new crafting mechanic has it's positives and negatives. On the upside, you can basically just gather materials and just make whatever you want, if you have the recipes. And after making stuff, you can sell them, give them to others as gifts etc. But here's a negative or 2. I like thee recipe system but then it gets to the point where you more or less have no idea how to get more besides learning new ones from villagers who are building stuff in their homes and talking to them during that. Or getting them from balloons idk. But the worst thing in my eyes are the fact they're pretty much determined at random. And Materials you need aren't always easy to get. Never in my life did i ever manage to get those star bit things from the shooting stars. I tried but came up empty. I do love the new building mechanic tho, where you use terraforming to make the island how you want within the limits. but you finally make the layout how YOU want. It's really time consuming tho. But worth it for some of the insane things you can create.
I said the game came at the right time, and for me, I can definitely say that it did. Times have been tough for everyone. Unfortunately for me, my father had suddenly passed away in April, shortly after the game came out. It wasn't the virus; but that doesn't make it any better I still remember the day. I was getting ready to leave for work that night an we saw him cold and lifeless on the bed. I felt awful, my whole mind was in a state of shock, everyone at home didn't home didn't know what to do, and I had to go to work during this whole situation. I fucking hated it, I hated myself for being stuck at work, not being able to help when i should've been at home with my family.
So basically I was using Animal Crossing as a type of coping mechanism to help me deal with any potential depression and negative thoughts, as well as my own sorrow. in the game, I even made a little resting spot for my dad so I could always see him in a way, whenever I was playing. I haven't actually told anyone this until now, but I've kept this info to myself because it's my own business, and I didn't need people worrying about me. So while i still love the game, the unfortunate timing of the situation has kinda made me sour towards New Horizons. It's not the game's fault at all, but I guess it's my own issue I still highly recommend the game if you need something relaxing to play and wanna get really immersed into it. Unfortunately it's hard to go back to the game without thinking about my late father. I hope you're doing well in the great beyond...
Sorry, I didn't mean to get really sad, but I can't really talk about that game without it being tied to that particular event. I wish that I could've at least said goodbye. It was a rough time for me, but I pulled through and made it through this tough year. I have him in my heart, and always in my mind and i feel that's what matter. I gotta hold down the fort and take care of my family. There's still a lot of life left in me and for my familiy's sake, I'll continue to enjoy life. I'll be strong and help the people i care about.
Sorry, I didn't mean to get really sad, but I can't really talk about that game without it being tied to that particular event. I wish that I could've at least said goodbye. It was a rough time for me, but I pulled through and made it through this tough year. I have him in my heart, and always in my mind and i feel that's what matter. I gotta hold down the fort and take care of my family. There's still a lot of life left in me and for my familiy's sake, I'll continue to enjoy life. I'll be strong and help the people i care about.
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson / 閃乱カグラ２ -真紅-
(3DS. Developer: Tamsoft. Publisher: Marvelous AQL (Marvelous Inc). 2014-2015)
I know this is basically gonna feel like tonal whiplash, but I wanna try and get back on track, forgive me. This year for the most part, I've been on a bit of either a nostalgia fix or just longing for when some of my favorite series were a lot better than they are now. Senran Kagura is one of those sadly. It used to be so much better!! The series started off fine enough for a small series and then got bigger and a bit bigger (kinda like all the tits.).But then a little while after the announcement of Senran Kagura 7EVEN (The most recent game that's basically stuck in development hell) the creator ended up leaving Marvelous and now we have this empty shell.... But hey at least the games we did get before the decline were really good, especially this one! Senran Kagura 2 is a follow up to the original game on the 3DS, unlike the Playstation games, that ended up creating a fucking alternate timeline, this one focuses on the original set of characters. After the events of Senran Kagura Burst, Homura and the Hebijo team become renegades that abandon the school after all the evil shit the school was trying to do (like summoning a goddamn giant snake demon Orochi.) Asuka and her team at Hanzo academy remain the basic good guy team, and now Homura's team become more of a neutral faction.
The 2 new characters include Naraku and Kagura. Naraku is thr protector of the sacred orb and keeps Kagura safe. And while Kagura looks like just some little kid with big green eyes, there's actually a lot more to her than that. There's these demonic creatures called Yoma that Dogen, the evil mastermind behind the events of the previous game, kept trying to summon so he could basically take over the world. Asuka and the others did manage to defeat Orochi and later kill dogen, but that's not enough as the eventually the yoma came back. Naraku is sent on a mission to assist Kagura and eliminate the yoma. Meanwhile Asuka's team was actually ordered by the shinobi higher ups that they need to not take care of the yoma but kill Kagura. So obviously this gives Asuka a lot of second thoughts.
They just fucking told her to kill a child, except Kagura is actually this otherworldly being that completely devours yoma and goes on a killing spree.
Well that was certainly a lot of info. Enough about the story, let's talk about the game itself. Like the previous game, Senran Kagura 2 is a 2.5 hack n slash beat'em up with tons of fanservice and flashy special moves. The combat can be button mashy but it's very fluid and extremely fast paced and full of energy. My favorite things about this series have always been the fun cast of characters and doing tons of air combos, defeating hoards of enemies and just tearing through them. you have a light and heavy attack that can be stringed together for combos, it's a bit limited but gets the job done, at the end of a combo, a green ring flashes, and allows you to do an aerial rave. These are basically air combos, and while it's a lot more limited than fighting on the ground, this is usually a great way to deal with enemies, because you can just make it so they can't fight back. attacking build up your ninpo meter, and you can once you have at least 1 bar you can do you shinobi transformation and power up. After powering up, you can use the super moves, which do tons of damage and can be combo'd into, which just tears through enemies with ease. You can even do these in the air, and some might be better than the ground versions. There's like 3 grounded supers and I believe only 1 air super. Just like in Caladrius and Moero Chronicle, both you and the bosses (and normal enemies this time) can lose their clothes in battle from taking damage. Yes, another game where people's clothes get ripped off, I didn't do this on purpose. Grounded supers target the lower body, and the air supers target the upper body. You can leave the bosses down to their undies which is hilarious.
If you transformed and have a full ninpo meter, you can enter Frantic mode, which is basically a hyper mode that makes you a glass canon, and leaves you almost naked.. You deal MASSIVE amounts of damage, but the tradeoff is that you can die after one or two good hits. So you need to know when to use it. New to this game is the partner system. A majority of missions have you bringing 2 characters, and the story has you play as a specific character. Replaying missions let's you pick whoever you want, and you can even choose to do it solo or with a second character, if you happen to have a second 3DS and another copy of the game, you can even play this game in co-op, which i think is the only game in the series that has this feature.. I beat this game a couple years back on my friend's 3DS and it was great, now I finally got around to getting my own copy, and it's just as fun as I remember, some bosses are kinda unfair tho. The soundtrack kicks ass too with a lot of energetic hard rock tunes with a bit of classic japanese instruments and synth mixed in, it just gets you hyped to kick lots of ass. This is still the best game in the series.
Deadly Premonition / レッドシーズプロファイル
(360/PS3/PC/Switch. Access Games/Toybox Games (ports). Publisher: Marvelous/Ignition Entertainment/Rising Star Games/Toybox Games)
(360/PS3/PC/Switch. Access Games/Toybox Games (ports). Publisher: Marvelous/Ignition Entertainment/Rising Star Games/Toybox Games)
It's a whole mess trying to write all the publishers for each region/release of the game, and after doing that for games like Deathsmiles last year, I don't think it's good for my sanity. The development of this game and all the ports are about as whacky as the game's story and characters. Deadly Premonition is a surreal murder mystery mixed in with a survival horror shooter and open world sandbox. It's kinda hard to describe it honestly. You play as FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan, but we'll just call him York, that's what everyone calls him. York was investigating a series of murder involving a mysterious red seed when he gets called to investigate the murder of a young woman in rural Greenvale, Washington. It starts off with 2 kids finding her corpse which was put up onto a tree with her stomach open, like some sort of ritualistic offering. The first scene with York shows him smoking in his car, using his laptop, and talking on the phone about Tom and Jerry. He sees a mysterious man in a red coat, and crashes his car, which begins the first level.
The game like I said is like survival horror mixed with an open world sandbox. The game starts off with the former. It's basically like Resident Evil 4. It's a 3rd person shooter with an over the shoulder perspective. You aim slowly, shoot down enemies, collect items to solve puzzles and recover health, you have melee weapons with limited durability and so on. It can feel pretty janky and unpolished due to the game not having the highest budget, but it gets the job done. York even congratulates himself whenever he gets a good shot on an enemy. The latter is the sandbox. You can walk and drive all around Greenvale. You can talk to NPCs, buy food, and guns, do sidequests, go fishing, sleep a lot, and just get immersed in the world. All the major NPCs have their own schedules similar to Majora's Mask. Shops and people will available at certain times, some quests need to be done during certain story chapters or you'll miss them, if I remember right. I didn't do too many sidequests because I was so focused on the story. The story is the best part of the game, and they did a great job mixing the story with the gameplay. The enviroments all seem normal, but once you enter the other world, everything gets all distorted and twisted. They become a hellish version of what they originally were. Sure, they're all very dark and grey in the "nightmare" versions of these areas, but at least they match the setting of each level. All of theses levels are all tied into the overall plot and are required to figure out the mystery surrounding the Greenvale murder case. I mentioned the similarities to Resident Evil 4 but this game does some stuff gameplay wise to feel unique. During some story scenes the times where you collect key items in levels, York receives clues that can give the player glimpses into what the each victim was killed.
During these these investigation segment, York talks to his friend Zach to help piece everything together. Who's Zach? Well either just a clever way to have the player involved or just York's imaginary friend who knows. York's a weird guy, he thinks his morning can give him predictions, he talks to Zach about tons of movies and trivia as you drive around Greenvale and loves punk rock. York talks than like any character I've probably seen in a game. He's a really quirky and well written character that grows on you the more you progress through the game. The supporting characters in the game all have their own unique quirks and strange personalities. Thomas is a timid kinda guy who works at the local police station, who knows probably more about squirrels than anyone. George is the Sheriff who's always seen in that damn leather jacket and cowboy hat. There's the dude who works at the local supermarket that sounds like an Australian surfer that's always doing air guitar. Oh yeah the old lady who's always carrying around that pot, she's weird too. Another really weird but memorable aspect of the game is the soundtrack.
During these these investigation segment, York talks to his friend Zach to help piece everything together. Who's Zach? Well either just a clever way to have the player involved or just York's imaginary friend who knows. York's a weird guy, he thinks his morning can give him predictions, he talks to Zach about tons of movies and trivia as you drive around Greenvale and loves punk rock. York talks than like any character I've probably seen in a game. He's a really quirky and well written character that grows on you the more you progress through the game. The supporting characters in the game all have their own unique quirks and strange personalities. Thomas is a timid kinda guy who works at the local police station, who knows probably more about squirrels than anyone. George is the Sheriff who's always seen in that damn leather jacket and cowboy hat. There's the dude who works at the local supermarket that sounds like an Australian surfer that's always doing air guitar. Oh yeah the old lady who's always carrying around that pot, she's weird too. Another really weird but memorable aspect of the game is the soundtrack.
The modern mozarts of this soundtrack have given use great acoustic guitar songs that play in major parts of the game. Fucking smooth jazz plays during an autopsy and other scenes that don't really match but somehow they fit perfectly. There's some random hard rock tracks and of course the most well known song from the soundtrack, Life is Beautiful. I think more people have heard this whistle tune than there are people who have played the game. I love this game, it's on par with Cubivore as just this really strange game that somehow exists, that not many people can appreciate, but I love it to death. After 10 years, the game actually got a sequel exclusively on the Switch. It's still good but not as great as the original, It's still jank but not in the same ways that make the original so charming. I highly recommend playing Deadly Premonition. It's a highly immersive experience full of tonal whiplashes, inappropriate smooth jazz and a memorable story with an amazing twist and batshit crazy final act. It's a game that has you constantly asking question about who's the murderer; what's really going on in this town, and what will it ultimately lead to. Amazing game.
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army /
デビルサマナー 葛葉ライドウ対 超力兵団
(PS2. Developer/Publisher: ATLUS. 2006-2007)
(PS2. Developer/Publisher: ATLUS. 2006-2007)
The game's title is so long, this is literally the first time a games title has to take up 2 rows to fit both languages lmao. I think Raidou 1 wins for one of the longest JRPG titles ever. It's seriously a mouthful, even in Japanese it's a bit long. Raidou is awesome, and so is his cat Gotou. The Raidou games are a follow up the previous 2 Devil Summoner games on the Saturn and Playstation, except instead of being a set of first person dungeon RPGs with futuristic stuff, the Raidou games are action RPGs set in early 1900's Japan during the Taisho period. Yeah this is ATLUS' attempt at making a Megami Tensei action RPG, and I'd say they pulled it off for the most part. Considering this is a really different game with even a different setting from the usual modern day/post apocalyptic Tokyo (or even the fantasy settings like last bible), you need to have a different kinda protagonist. You play as Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, the newest in a line of Summoners, who use their demon summoning skills to protect the innocent and solve mysteries, usually from the shadows. Raidou works for the Narumi detective agency the plot kicks off whena mysterious caller tells them to meet her at the town bridge because she wants to die. A group of red soldiers show up, kick Raidou's ass and kidnap the girl. Now they have to solve the mystery behind the kidnapping as well as the other strange things in the capital. I don't wanna spoil the plot the final parts of the game go from pretty crazy to batshit crazy. Like, it's already kinda silly that you have a talking cat that no one else understand except for you. but Gotou is awesome.
Since this is an action RPG, they had to change up how the combat works, while still making it feel familiar. Raidou can do most of the same stuff protagonists in the other games can. You can block and use items. You can use pysical sword attacks, shoot enemies with your gun and summon demons. You really only have about 6 types of attacks; the basic 3 hit sword combo, a sword stab kinda like the Stinger in Devil May Cry. If you hold down the attack button, you can do a cool spin attack that hits all the enemies near you. You can also attack with your gun, using different types of elemental/non elemental bullets, and then a team attack with your demons. You can choose to fight alone or summon your demons mid battle if you haven't already selected one from the party. Unlike the other games, you can only hae one demon out at a time. When your demon is summoned, they'll auto attack and use their moves on their own. And the UI is pretty helpful, but in certain situations and especially boss battles, you'll want to give them commands so it's not total bullshit if you're in danger. The team attack you can do with you demons' only can be used after max out the demon has learned the move from leveling up, and then when their tentsion is at max during battle.
Whenever you defeat enemies in battle, you earn money, EXP, MAG and loyalty. MAG is the resource that let's you summon demons and for the most part, this was never really something I had to worry about, since i never ran out of it. Money on the other hand, can go away really fast if you need it to buy a lot of items or to buy back demons you already used for fusion. Every demon has a loyalty that fills up after each battle, and you need max loyalty to get them to listen to commands 100% of the time, and so you can fuse them. When you fuse demons, that transfer over are random but you can keep redoing it to get the moves you want. Not too much of a big deal. The detective work you do mainly consists of using the field skills of your demons to either read minds, interrogate suspects or to listen in on conversations since normal people can't see them. This can make story chapters feel pretty slow since it feels like you do more walking around and talking to NPCs but it does actually help you, it's just tedious at times. The beginning of the game was slow as fuck. That being said, Devil Summoner Raidou 1 is pretty good and I'm excited to play through the sequel to see the differences.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore 幻影異聞録 ♯FE アンコール
(Switch. Developer: ATLUS. Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
Looks like I got my wish after all, huh. I waned TMS FE on Switch, now here it is! This technically counts as a Shin Megami Tensei game, just without the demons. My only major gripe is that game still has all the changes made to the original western version. But considering it's been 4-5 years now, I've gotten over it. I'm just at the point where I'll just do whatever I feel like. I just wanted to enjoy the game for what is, so despite it not being completely uncensored, I'm happy this port even exists,. One of my favorite games for the Wii U came back. Now give me Xenoblade X and Fatal Frame V. I'm honestly kinda cheating by including this entry in the list as the original Wii U version was on my best of 2018 games list. I won't go into too much detail regarding the main game itself (read my original review HERE). Instead I'm going to talk about the changes and improvements added to the Switch port specifically.
It's still the same great RPG that it was last time, but with extra content. The new stuff consists of a whole new dungeon, the level/money grinding maps being included in the game itself, as well as all the costumes that were in the western release, including the ALTUS themed outfits. The new Dungeon isn't super tough, but is great if you played the original, as while it's separate from the main story, you can only see more of it when you keep advancing the plot. So you get a small side story where you get to see more of Kiria and Tsubasa's personalities and character development. You also get exclusive goodies from this dungeons, which are all pretty awesome. The rewards you get from clearing the EX dungeon are new outfits, both original and new ATLUS based ones, and the ability to have Tiki, Maiko and Barry join in session attacks. Having them join in to attack can feel like you're overpowered since you can have session attacks that are longer than the original game, but I'm not complaining because thi s game is still pretty tough at times. I never actually got to clear the original Wii U version sadly because i got sidetracked, but I made up for it now. Barry and the others are still not fully playable like in the original game, but I appreciate adding them in, because I always wanted Barry to be a party member. Close enough. There's other tweaks and such, better load tines and all that. I'm really glad they added the option to speed up the session attacks.
If the localization changes aren't too big of a deal and you wanna play an ATLUS RPG before Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne HD comes out, or even SMT V, give this game a shot.
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe: Late [cl-r] / アンダーナイトインヴァース Exe: Late [cl-r]
(PS4/Switch/PC. Developer: French Bread. Ecole Software. Publisher: Arc System Works/Aksys Games (US)/PQube (PAL). 2020)
I know it SAYS 2020 there, but this game is actually way older than that, but I don't like to include all these different version updates, since most of the time, they essentially count as a reissue of the game anyways. Technically this game came out way back in 2012 for the arcade and PS3, and eventually got versions for PC/Vita. I'm gonna be talking about the newest update UNICLR. Under Night In-Birth was created by French Bread, who were originally a doujin game developer, well known for their fighting games, notably the Tsukihime based game titled Melty Blood. That game was such a huge success for French Bread it eventually lead to them working on other projects for other companies. Eventually, years of development, they were able to release their brand new orignal fighting series. I think after years of them making other fighting games, they were able to take all that experience and create something truly special. I dunno if I can really do it justice but it's more of a game you need to play for yourself than have it explained. All of the characters are unique, have memorable designs, and overall this game is the total package.
UNI is an anime style 2D fighter that uses about 4 buttons. You have light/medium/heavy attacks and then the special button which allows you to increase your gauge. It's not for the super bar, it's for the games primary system, the Vorpal system. The Vorpal system is kinda like a momentum shift that can make or break your chances of winning. The vorpal meter has a set time that moves on its own' after 1 cycle, whoever wins vorpal can use it to cancel one move, which allows you to extend combos. You can do some crazy shit with this mechanic. Like based one my experience fighting the CPU and online, you can kinda just go crazy and deal massive damage, especially if you have meter for supers or EX. It's a fun system that makes each player focus their current situation. There's also Veil Off which, which allows you to activate a kinda super thing where you sacrifice meter which drains your meter quickly, but the benefit is that you can spam EX moves or even use a super without much penalty. And if you Veil Off with full meter at low health, you activate your ultimate attack. There's so much to learn in this game and I'm probably not too much of an expert. Regardless of that, fun factor is the key component and this game is probably some of the most fun I've had with a newer 2D fighter. When I first got the game, I got it for switch so I could practice while at work and such. First time trying the game was when my friend came over and we essentially played it without any real knowing anything. We played for like 2 hours straight and that was a great time.
A fun and mechanically deep fighting game can last you a long time, but a game is nothing without it's characters, and the roster in UNI is unique. I mentioned before how I feel that they're all memorable. That's because every character is able to set themselves apart from one another. Gordeau has this dark pointy hair, a giant scythe and his purple trench coat. His moves can hit like all over the screen with his ridiculous range. GRIM REAPAH. Hyde is a super cool school boy looking guy with blonde/black hair, he fights with a long red katana basically. Hyde can shoot a projectile and even follow up with either a jump slash or blow it up while standing. He has like 2 types of uppercut moves, and is overall a good character for beginners. Phonon is a sorta dominatrix wannabe that fights with a whip, she has amazing long range attacks, and while I feel her attacks don't do enough damage, she does make up for it with her combos and versatility. Hilda is this crazy super zoning character that can attack from all sorta of directions with all sorta of unconventional looking attacks. She has a great design and even does the OHOHOHO evil laugh.
A fun and mechanically deep fighting game can last you a long time, but a game is nothing without it's characters, and the roster in UNI is unique. I mentioned before how I feel that they're all memorable. That's because every character is able to set themselves apart from one another. Gordeau has this dark pointy hair, a giant scythe and his purple trench coat. His moves can hit like all over the screen with his ridiculous range. GRIM REAPAH. Hyde is a super cool school boy looking guy with blonde/black hair, he fights with a long red katana basically. Hyde can shoot a projectile and even follow up with either a jump slash or blow it up while standing. He has like 2 types of uppercut moves, and is overall a good character for beginners. Phonon is a sorta dominatrix wannabe that fights with a whip, she has amazing long range attacks, and while I feel her attacks don't do enough damage, she does make up for it with her combos and versatility. Hilda is this crazy super zoning character that can attack from all sorta of directions with all sorta of unconventional looking attacks. She has a great design and even does the OHOHOHO evil laugh.
My favorite characters to play as are actually the 2 guest character. Eltnum is actually Shion who was also in Melty Blood. She seems to have a the same moves from her previous incarnation, in addition to knew moves that were added to UNI. She fights up close but can also keep some distance thanks to her gun attacks, and then her little ribbon thing that can grab enemies and keep them in a specific spot, resetting neutral. If you EX the move, it becomes a multi hitting attack that opens the enemy up for combo extensions. She's great to play. My #1 personal favorite is Akatsuki from the doujin fighter Akatsuki Blitzkampf. He's essentially the shoto character of the game, with fireballs, uppercuts and even a kicking tatsumaki type of attack. Akatsuki is probably the most hype character to play as, due to his combos and the fact he yells CHESTO when he does his tatsu move. He's a very endearing guy who fights up close, so ranged characters can kinda space him out to take advantage of his weakspots, but if Akatsuki gets in, your ass is cooked. Merkava is this ghoul ass looking motherfucker that kinda reminds me of the mechs in Evangelion. He's a man that's turned into one of the creatures of the Night. What that means, is that he can fucking fly around, shoot projectiles, has a FULL SCREEN GRAB, has ridiculous air combos and juggles, and WACKY WAVY ARMS THAT FLAIL AROUND. The last character I wanna talk about is Waldstein, who's basically this demonic looking old man with giant claws and an even bigger set of hair both on his head and chest lol. He's a huge, hulking grappler with really long rage, his combos can actually feel fast despite the fact he's meant to be a bit slower. He has these massive claw swipe attacks, a grab that drags you all the way to the wall to corner you, and even has another command grab which can extend his combos. Basically if you fight Waldstein, you are going to get grabbed no matter what lmao.
The music in Under Night in Birth is one of absolute favorite things about the game. It's done by Raito, who also did the music for Melty Blood, which also has really good music. The soundtrack is full of these synth techno tunes with piano mixed, but also has some energetic hard rock tunes that get you pumped. The songs I recommend the most are the character themes of Hyde, Carmine, Phonon, Merkava, Vatista, Hilda and Eltnum's which is a remix of the Melty Blood: Actress Again opening. Unknown Actor, opening theme for UNIST (Exe Late [st]) is probably the best song in the entire game, please listen to it! The menus and the overall UI and aesthetic of UNI are extremely stylish and makes things like the character select screen very recognizable. The overall theming of the game relates to the night time setting, which ties into the plot and the lore, the lore can be extremely hard to understand within the game itself (seriously, I couldn't understand what I was reading), so you really need to have this explained to you, or just watch videos that put it in laymen's terms. Okay I've rambled on long enough, go fucking play Under Night In-Birth.
The music in Under Night in Birth is one of absolute favorite things about the game. It's done by Raito, who also did the music for Melty Blood, which also has really good music. The soundtrack is full of these synth techno tunes with piano mixed, but also has some energetic hard rock tunes that get you pumped. The songs I recommend the most are the character themes of Hyde, Carmine, Phonon, Merkava, Vatista, Hilda and Eltnum's which is a remix of the Melty Blood: Actress Again opening. Unknown Actor, opening theme for UNIST (Exe Late [st]) is probably the best song in the entire game, please listen to it! The menus and the overall UI and aesthetic of UNI are extremely stylish and makes things like the character select screen very recognizable. The overall theming of the game relates to the night time setting, which ties into the plot and the lore, the lore can be extremely hard to understand within the game itself (seriously, I couldn't understand what I was reading), so you really need to have this explained to you, or just watch videos that put it in laymen's terms. Okay I've rambled on long enough, go fucking play Under Night In-Birth.
Dead or Alive Ultimate / デッドオアアライブアルティメット
(Xbox. Developer: Team Ninja. Publisher: Tecmo. 2004)
I mentioned in the Senran Kagura 2 segment how I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately, and it's not only for that series but for DOA as well. I grew up with DOA and it's always been my favorite 3D fighting series besides Soulcalibur. And while Soulcaliibur did hit its low points with the 5th SC game, which sucked ass, the newest game helped pick it back up. Same sadly can't be said for how DOA6 turned out' But it's okay, we don't need that game as long as we have the better DOA games like Ultimate, DOA4 and Dimensions, all of which I've been playing this year, but i decided to narrow it down to a single entry. Dead or Alive Ultimate was released as a special double pack to help reintroduce the older games to the Xbox audience, which at that point were treated to DOA3 and Xtreme Beach Vollyball. The game comes with 2 discs; 1 Ultimate is port of the SEGA Saturn version of DOA1 (not the best version, but it's series creator Tomonobu Itagaki's favorite version apparently.) This version of the game doesn't the game doesn't have many bells and whistles to make it amazing but the first game in the series is still nice to see from a historical perspective. The second disc is 2 Ultimate , which is DOA2 remade with the gameplay changes and graphics engine of DOA3. It can be seen as like the definitive version of the game, with the only difference really being that a lot of stages from the original game got changed, but what's here is still pretty amazing. It's usually been said that Ultimate (disc 2 spcifically) is one of, if not the best game in the entire series. I feel that over the years, it's manage to stand the test of time. It does things right that even newer entries can't.
DOA2 Ultimate has every character from the original game, and 2 extra ones. You can play as the final boss Tengu and Hitomi from DOA3. You can get every unlockable character just by playing the game and clearing story mode, but for Hitomi, you NEED save data from either DOA3 or DOA Xtreme (not compatible with 360 goddamn it).) That's the only thing I don't like because if you don't the other 2 games and just Ultimate, well you can go to hell I guess. The fighting in this series has always been my favorite of any 3D fighter, full of fast combo strings that can be mixed up and delayed, juggles and the deadly holds. Every character do use a series of different holds which are basically counts in other games, except holds here can do a variety of things. Certain holds can either put the enemy behind you, throw them high up into the air for a free juggle combo, or can even lead into an entire combo hold such has Hayanusa's high/low/mid/ Izuna Drops, or even Tina and Bayman's long holds. There's also offensive holds, which are high risk throws that can beat jabs and other throws. But they deal way more damage if the opponent whiffs a hold.
All of this talk about holds, jabs and throws all tie into the series trademark Triangle System. Where Holds > Strikes, Strikes > Throws, Throws > Holds. This is a universal system that applies to each character. of course, some can do one or two aspects better than other, but that's what creates a type of game within a game, that matches can have in DOA. My favorite characters to play are Ryu Hayabusa and Ayane. They're both characters that are very good at strikes but also have a variety of tricks up their sleeves. Ayane is lightning fast, she can fight backwards and can spin around mid combo to throw you off and create situations where you'll whiff and be put into a bad situation. I've been playing as Ayane forever so I know all her tricks like the back of my hand. Hayabusa has a combination of great mixup strikes, a handstand move, and extremely deadly throws/holds. He has that handstand grab where he grabs you face with his feet and twists you face. And even the signature Izuna Drop that I mentioned earlier. When doing the first input for the throw/hold, they'll get knocked into the air, so you have a short time to input the next 2 parts of the move, and he'll teleport to them and spin drop to the ground doing massive damage. You can even do this if you know someone off stage, which leads to the series other main attraction; the stage transitions.
Unlike other games, where knocking someone off stage just leads to like a ring out, getting knocked off here continues the fight because you get sent to a lower part of the stage. The stage environments play a big part in how matches turn out. The layout of the stage should always be taken into consideration as you can either take advantage of walls, stage transitions for free damage, or even stage hazards. You can knock a guy down some stairs, into a wall, smack them against a tree or even smack against a giant bell. The environments themselves almost feel like a character, and can feel like an extension of your moveset. There's a huge variety of stages too. You can fight on the great wall of China, a burning opera stage, a dojo, a beautifully snowy mountain side with even dynamic snow physics that actually changes and moves as you fight around the stage. When you fight Tengu at the end of arcade mode, he has a move that seamlessly changes the seasons in the stage, it looks great. The stages don't just add another layer to combat, but have always served as a real graphical showpiece for the series, especially that thing Tengu does. It also helps that you can freely move around these environments in 3D to better position yourself, dodge attacks and set your enemies up for an ass whooping. Fights are always fluid and dynamic, making sure that every fight feels different from the last.. That's what always makes DOA fun to play.
I talked earlier about how DOA2 Ultimate does things that even newer games such DOA6 can't even do right. Being completely packed with unlockable content is definitely one of those things, as well as having tons off extra mods. Every character has a ton of costumes you can unlock just by playing time attack , arcade, survival etc. The females in particular have a ton of outfits like bikinis, casual clothes and even a booth babe style Xbox skirt and jacket. It's pretty uneven tho because the girls get way more outfits than the guys, but DOA has always been known for its ladies. The other unlockables are character arcade endings, system voices that replace the announcer with whoever you want, and special videos. DOA6 and even 5 lack amazing CGI arcade endings, and even lock tons of costumes behind massive DLC paywalls which sucks ass. I know fighting games are just full of DLC costumes nowadays, but the way Koei Tecmo handle it has given the series a shitty reputation and even turns people away from the series. The newer games, mainly 6 even lack the other play modes like Tag battle and Team battle. Tag battle can be played either up to 4 players, and you can swap characters mid battle and even mid combo to deal some crazy damage. There's even special throws and win poses based on which characters you use. And Team Battle is like a crew battle where you pick a team of like 5 characters, and you fight until whoever's team is left standing. You can't tag out but this mode has always been fun because it feels great to tear through a team using just 1 or 2 characters. I could honestly talk about DOA forever because I love these games. I haven' t event taken the time to discuss the music but this segment is already too long.
Unlike other games, where knocking someone off stage just leads to like a ring out, getting knocked off here continues the fight because you get sent to a lower part of the stage. The stage environments play a big part in how matches turn out. The layout of the stage should always be taken into consideration as you can either take advantage of walls, stage transitions for free damage, or even stage hazards. You can knock a guy down some stairs, into a wall, smack them against a tree or even smack against a giant bell. The environments themselves almost feel like a character, and can feel like an extension of your moveset. There's a huge variety of stages too. You can fight on the great wall of China, a burning opera stage, a dojo, a beautifully snowy mountain side with even dynamic snow physics that actually changes and moves as you fight around the stage. When you fight Tengu at the end of arcade mode, he has a move that seamlessly changes the seasons in the stage, it looks great. The stages don't just add another layer to combat, but have always served as a real graphical showpiece for the series, especially that thing Tengu does. It also helps that you can freely move around these environments in 3D to better position yourself, dodge attacks and set your enemies up for an ass whooping. Fights are always fluid and dynamic, making sure that every fight feels different from the last.. That's what always makes DOA fun to play.
I talked earlier about how DOA2 Ultimate does things that even newer games such DOA6 can't even do right. Being completely packed with unlockable content is definitely one of those things, as well as having tons off extra mods. Every character has a ton of costumes you can unlock just by playing time attack , arcade, survival etc. The females in particular have a ton of outfits like bikinis, casual clothes and even a booth babe style Xbox skirt and jacket. It's pretty uneven tho because the girls get way more outfits than the guys, but DOA has always been known for its ladies. The other unlockables are character arcade endings, system voices that replace the announcer with whoever you want, and special videos. DOA6 and even 5 lack amazing CGI arcade endings, and even lock tons of costumes behind massive DLC paywalls which sucks ass. I know fighting games are just full of DLC costumes nowadays, but the way Koei Tecmo handle it has given the series a shitty reputation and even turns people away from the series. The newer games, mainly 6 even lack the other play modes like Tag battle and Team battle. Tag battle can be played either up to 4 players, and you can swap characters mid battle and even mid combo to deal some crazy damage. There's even special throws and win poses based on which characters you use. And Team Battle is like a crew battle where you pick a team of like 5 characters, and you fight until whoever's team is left standing. You can't tag out but this mode has always been fun because it feels great to tear through a team using just 1 or 2 characters. I could honestly talk about DOA forever because I love these games. I haven' t event taken the time to discuss the music but this segment is already too long.
What I will say is if wasn't for Aerosmith, we wouldn't have this amazing game. Itgaki stated that after Tecmo asked for a copy of the still in development PS2 port of DOA2 for "playtesting," they took that still unfinished game, and printed it for a retail release. It lead to the PS2 version getting a lower reviews, and making the team look bad. After that, Itagaki got extremely depressed and drank a lot, he also listened to a ton of Aerosmith. It was thanks to listening to a fuck ton of Aerosmith that he got the inspiration to make DOA2 Ultimate probably the very best in the series. The song Dream On is even used in the CGI opening of the game, and Eat the Rich got used as the opening of DOA4. So yeah thanks Aerosmith. Sadly Itagaki doesn't work at Team Ninja anymore, because Tecmo are a bunch of bitches and didn't wanna give him that damn bonus money. Now the series has basically been run into the ground after DOA6 released. Really should've just paid the man his damn money.
Streets of Rage 4 / ベア ナックルIV
(PS4/XBone/PC/Switch. Developer: DotEmu/Lizardcube/Guard Crush Games. Publisher: DotEmu. 2020)
(PS4/XBone/PC/Switch. Developer: DotEmu/Lizardcube/Guard Crush Games. Publisher: DotEmu. 2020)
The Streets of Rage series has a long history and alongside other classic beat'em series such as Final Fight and Double Dragon, helped to make the genre what is it today. Thing is tho, while all these new usually indie beat'em ups have kept popping up, and re-releases of these classic games keep comin out. Luckily 2020 finally answered my prayers for a new entry. I never thought we'd ever get a new fucking Streets of Rage game, and I'm glad we did because this game kicks ass. After 25+ years, the series finally gets a sequel that I'd say is worthy of having the series name on it. It's not perfect but it's still pretty amazing. I've always loved the Streets of Rage series, especially the 2nd game and Axel has always been my go to character. Axel, Blaze and even Adam from the original all return with updated designs. They're also joined by 2 newcomers; Adam's daughter Cherry and then Floyd who has robotic arms. I was initially worried when SOR4 first got announced, since I wasn't too big on the art style at the time and I felt it was too different, But after getting my hands on the game, it was worth it and then some. The team behind this did the Wonder Boy remake and seemed to impress SEGA enough with that project to get the green light to make a new Streets or rage!
The classic gameplay has the same feel, but with new elements that truly enhance the combat. There's juggle combos, super moves, wall bounces and other fighting game related stuff that make it a lot more fun. In the old games, you would beat up enemies, but they would do annoying shit like walk off the screen so they couldn't get hit. Well now they can't do that, what you can do is take advantage of the wall bounces using hard hitting attacks, or even knocking into trash cans or other objects. This is always fun to do because they'll be completely helpless in the air and they'll be dead. Wall aren't always needed to do juggle combos, but it's always worth going for, and you couldn't do this in the older games either. If you play either in local/online co-op, you can attack the same enemies together and just juggle the hell out of them, it's glorious. You can even overkill them, and if you do the right attacks, knock them into other enemies to deal damage. Super can be used to deal more damage during combos, and the invincibility frames help you get out of a bad situation. Generally beating enemies, juggling them and such build up the combo counter, the more hits you do, the bigger a score you get once the the more points get added to your high score once you drop the combos. But you need to make sure you don't get hit at all during this or else you lose all those extra points. So it encourages you to play pretty aggressive but has a risk to it. When you did special moves in the old games, you did a lot of damage of damage, but the drawback was you lost health. They expanded on this risk/reward system by adding a green part to you health bar. If you beat up enemies while you have green health available, you can actually recover your health back. But getting hit during, this and you lost all of that health in addition to whatever damage you'd take normally. That shit hurts when it happens.
You can still pick up/throw/hit enemies with weapons you find laying around or that you knocked off of them. Now after throwing a weapon, it'll bounce off them, and you regrab it, and keep using it until it breaks. This is great for hitting people that are too far away, and to prevent yourself from getting surrounded. A ton of enemies and some bosses return in SOR4. There's the generic Galsia's the Donovan's, Big Ben's etc. Even the stage 1 end boss from SOR2 returns and now he can easily whoop your ass. Bosses in general hit hard in this game. They have strong attacks, can potentially juggle while generic foes also attack. And have super armor on some attacks that really make the later bosses feel a bit bullshit. The fucking Muay Thai guys came back and I still hate fighting them, bastards. All of the art in this game is done in a hand drawn and somewhat cartoony style. I said I wasn't the biggest fan at first but it grows on you after a while. All the characters animate well, and respect the source material of the original series. The backgrounds are extremely detailed and have a bit of a 2.5D feel, but I swear this game doesn't use any polygons. I've seen the developers and it sounds like they used techniques similar to the ones SEGA and Ancient used back in the day. The first stage for example has the same diagonal street that transitions to the next part just like SOR2.
You can still pick up/throw/hit enemies with weapons you find laying around or that you knocked off of them. Now after throwing a weapon, it'll bounce off them, and you regrab it, and keep using it until it breaks. This is great for hitting people that are too far away, and to prevent yourself from getting surrounded. A ton of enemies and some bosses return in SOR4. There's the generic Galsia's the Donovan's, Big Ben's etc. Even the stage 1 end boss from SOR2 returns and now he can easily whoop your ass. Bosses in general hit hard in this game. They have strong attacks, can potentially juggle while generic foes also attack. And have super armor on some attacks that really make the later bosses feel a bit bullshit. The fucking Muay Thai guys came back and I still hate fighting them, bastards. All of the art in this game is done in a hand drawn and somewhat cartoony style. I said I wasn't the biggest fan at first but it grows on you after a while. All the characters animate well, and respect the source material of the original series. The backgrounds are extremely detailed and have a bit of a 2.5D feel, but I swear this game doesn't use any polygons. I've seen the developers and it sounds like they used techniques similar to the ones SEGA and Ancient used back in the day. The first stage for example has the same diagonal street that transitions to the next part just like SOR2.
The music for the most part, pays respects to the original games as well. They even go the original composer Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima to make some new tracks. I would've love to have Koshiro do the soundtrack for the whole game but Olivier Deriviere holds down the fort for a majority of the game. There's a some songs done guest composers like Yoko Shimomura and even the original NES Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi. Everything about this game feels like it was done with love and care, with a respect for the original games. The developers themselves said they're huge fans of Streets of Rage, and used a lot of art and materials from the original games to create this one. They based the gameplay mostly off of SOR2, which I guess explains why most of the characters can't run. There's the 5 characters I mentioned before but there's also unlockable retro versions of the characters from the older games, classic 16-bit Sprites included. Not everyone is here, like the Kangaroo or the gay dude from SOR3. Even Shiva's SOR4 iterations isn't playable (for now, please be DLC), with only his iteration from 3 being usable. That being said, Streets of Rage 4 is an amazing game, is everything I could've asked for in a new entry and then some. Maybe I'm not 100% on the soundtrack because it's impossible to surpass the second games' legendary music.
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition / デビルメイクライ３ スペシャルエディション
(PS2/PC/360/PS3/Xbone/PS4/Switch. Developer/Publisher: Capcom. 2006-2020)
Capcom is seriously obsessed with porting games a million times, just like Resident Evil 4 which was on last year's list. My older brother loves the Devil May Cry series, and DMC3 is one of his favorite games of all time. I actually think he tricked me into getting this game for myself. Well I'm glad he did, because I actually didn't expect DMC3 to actually make it onto my list; as I don't care too much for DMC and prefer Ninja Gaiden, but this game is so good, it's earned my respect. The series helped create a new subgenre of action game that's apparently called the "character action" genre. What this means is the game has a huge focus on stylish moves, big combos, a style meter and just kicking ass in the coolest way possible, leaving nothing but body bags. This game is actually a prequel to the whole series, and sets up events that connect to later games both in lore and in future entries. Dante is a wise-cracking pizza eating fool that always looks cool. He can't even sit in a goddamn chair or eat pizza without it looking badass. Dante and his twin brother Vergil are both sons of a legendary god tier badass named Sparda, who kicked everyone's ass in hell and decided to get some earth booty, giving birth to these 2. Sons of Sparda both have their father's blood flowing within them, giving them some superhuman abilities, this applies both to the story and combat.
Fighting consists of an attack button, one button for using your guns, one to jump, a lock one, a taunt and new to this game, the Style Action button. You start off with the Rebellion, a huge sword that can fight multiple enemies with its big swings and stab attacks. You can knock enemies into the air and do a variety of things like keeping them in the air by shooting them, or chasing them up and knocking them back down with the sword. This is just a very basic explanation. I'll go in more in depth later. Killing enemies gives you red orbs, which is the currency. This can be used to buy items, upgrades, new moves and abilities. You gotta be careful when buying items since the prices increase the amount each time you buy them. So you better choose wisely, or just focus on HP and moves etc. And you're gonna need all those fucking moves and upgrades because DMC3 doesn't mess around. This game will kick your ass and make you its bitch if you don't get good. You need to learn how to survive and get a better understanding of how the game works. You can't just spam the same combos and get through the game that way. The variety of moves you can buy help to add tons of depth to the combat, it's a like a deep ocean, with endless combinations. Most of the moves can be done with the basic attack button like the Rebellion's Million Stab or the High Time, which knocks enemies into the air. But this is where the Style Action button comes really into play. The game has 4 main styles, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Trickster and Royal Guard. Depending on which one you pick the style button does different things.
With Swordmaster, it gives you another button to do melee attacks with, and for most weapons, allows you to do air combos. But there's also a variety of moves on the ground as well. like the Rising Dragon. Gunslinger gives you a variety of different gun attacks like charging your bullets for more damage, or even being able to spin around in the air to shoot enemies down, it doesn't seem useful early on, but there's a lot of fun shit you can pull off with it. Trickster gives you a dash so you can dodge attacks and you can use it to run up walls to do some cool moves. Later on, you can use Trickster to fucking teleport around enemies on the ground and in mid air. The last main style is Royal Guard, which basically gives you a parry button. getting a perfect parry builds up a gauge that fills up the more hits you parry or block. After that you can do a counter attack that deals a massive amount of damage. You do this against bosses to which can basically one shot them if you know what you're doing, it's insane. All the styles can be upgraded and mostly give you more damage and special move you can activate. Maxing out Swordmaster and Gunslinger unlock a bunch of extra moves. I mentioned that Trickster gives you the teleport. And Royal Guard lets you stack of bunch of damage to just murder your enemies. There's not only a variety of styles but also a bunch of melee weapons and guns. You obtain these after defeating bosses, and Dante usually shows off doing some cool shit after getting them. You can switch weapons and guns in real time and even mid combo, which opens the door for a lot of insane looking combos. All of these things can all be used in tandem with the different styles so player choice and experimentation is the real meat to the combat. The music certainly makes you wanna fight enemies as it's full of a ton of hard rock with cool lyrics, even the bosses have some badass tracks.
The main mechanic that ties the combat together is the style meter. I mentioned earlier how you can't just spam the same shit over and over, well yeah you can't because it gives you a shitty style ranking. The style meter increases as you attack enemies, but doing a variety of different moves and constantly mixing up your approach without taking damage is key to going from a D rank to a SSS rank. You can basically do whatever you want, and figure out what to do. I've a bunch about the combat and mechanics but I haven't even gotten to the Devil Trigger. Since Dante and Vergil are both half demon, they can activate their Devil Trigger which makes them faster, deal more damage you can even kill enemies just by transforming. Transforming and taking advantage of this also builds the style meter, so knowing when to transform can make or break a battle. Fighting isn't the only thing you do. The levels are these huge environments with puzzles to solve, key items to find and you can even grab some healing items or upgrades along the way. There's times where you'll get lost and not know what do do, so the game will give you a bad level ranking if you play like crap or take too long. You can replay the levels whenever you want, so it's a good way to practice not only the combat but learning the level layouts. Getting a good style and level ranking actually gives you more orbs, and overall the game rewards you for getting better at it. There's also the Bloody Palace mode that's like a huge gauntlet of rooms where you kill all the enemies and can even fight bosses to reach the top. In the Switch version, you can even do Bloody Palace in Co-Op. But who's player 2?
Dante isn't the only character you can play as. I kept mentioning his brother Vergil because you can play as him too. (In co-op Bloody Palace, you get to play as both him and Dante at the same time.) He's Dante's main rival in the game and is even the final boss, and he's just a badass whether or not he's an enemy or if you're playing as him. He's a constant threat in the story, always one upping Dante and even humiliating him in the first battle you have against him. His battles are the most fun because it's like fighting yourself, since he can do a lot of the same things you can. His playstyle is similar to Trickster, so can teleport around and do some insane stuff. Since he's stuck with only one style, and 3 weapons, they let him do way more damage compared to Dante which makes him more fun to play. He doesn't have guns like Dante, but he has these energy swords that can attack enemies, you can use the energy swords while attack enemies normally, which just lets you do crazy shit. Vergil can even have the swords spin around him, protecting him from incoming foes and even use it to combo. He's a very technical character with a lot more depth than it may look at first glance. The story has a lot of drama, with stylish action scenes, a lot of humor and tons of memorable quotes. There's much depth to this game that I can't cover everything.
Dante isn't the only character you can play as. I kept mentioning his brother Vergil because you can play as him too. (In co-op Bloody Palace, you get to play as both him and Dante at the same time.) He's Dante's main rival in the game and is even the final boss, and he's just a badass whether or not he's an enemy or if you're playing as him. He's a constant threat in the story, always one upping Dante and even humiliating him in the first battle you have against him. His battles are the most fun because it's like fighting yourself, since he can do a lot of the same things you can. His playstyle is similar to Trickster, so can teleport around and do some insane stuff. Since he's stuck with only one style, and 3 weapons, they let him do way more damage compared to Dante which makes him more fun to play. He doesn't have guns like Dante, but he has these energy swords that can attack enemies, you can use the energy swords while attack enemies normally, which just lets you do crazy shit. Vergil can even have the swords spin around him, protecting him from incoming foes and even use it to combo. He's a very technical character with a lot more depth than it may look at first glance. The story has a lot of drama, with stylish action scenes, a lot of humor and tons of memorable quotes. There's much depth to this game that I can't cover everything.
Everything about Devil May Cry 3 is amazing, the drama, the characters, the music, Vergil etc. It's a great action game that rewards player skill, experimentation with a ton of depth that would honestly have to go into its own full review if I ever felt like doing that.
Ninja Gaiden Black / ニンジャガイデン Black
(Xbox. Developer: Team Ninja. Publisher: Tecmo. 2005)
Devil May Cry is a great series but nothing compares to Ninja Gaiden. A lot of fans consider Ninja Gaiden Black to be either the best entry in the 3D series or just Itagaki's magnum opus. The game is really that amazing, but I personally prefer playing the sequel because the combat in NG2 is probably the best combat system ever in a video game, that and the brutally hard difficulty. Ninja Gaiden is about fighting a ton of relentless enemies, barely getting to the next room and having to do it again. It's a series of games that even on the NES was famous for its ass kicking difficulty. This game is not for the weak, and you better learn how survive or else. You play as the ultimate ninja badass Ryu Hayabusa, who's no slouch. He has a variety of weapons and moves you can do The standard weapon is his signature Dragon Sword, which is great for taking care of enemies one by one, but the best for large groups. Similar to the DOA games, there's combo strings can be mixed up by using the light and heavy attack buttons, and even pressing certain directions too. Hayabusa gains a lot of different weapons from bosses, with even some secret ones hidden in some levels. Like the Windmill Shuriken. All the weapons serve a purpose and while you can't switch between them in real time, it's meant to feel more like a commitment than just changing things on the fly. Ninja Gaiden is all about killing enemies efficiently and leaving nothing but you as the last man standing. Killing enemies grants you these orbs called Essence that come in 3 colors. Blue = HP, Yellow = money, Red = Ninpo The Blue and Red ones refill your HP and Ninpo, I'll come back to that later. And Yellow Essence is basically money to upgrade you weapons, buy items and equipment.
There's a variety of other techniques that are shared between all the weapons, such as the Guillotine Throw, which has you leap onto an enemy and fucking toss them, usually killing them instantly. A charge attack that takes a while to start up, but can be very useful. If you're near any Essence, you can charge next to it to charge your attack instantly, unleashing a ton of damage onto enemies. The Flying Swallow is a deadly jump slash that has Hayabusa fucking leap towards and enemy, instantly killing them. It's one of the more useful techniques when it comes to dealing with minor foes. The signature Izuna Drop he uses in the DOA series is also here. Combo an enemy, knock them into the air, and BAM that dude is fucking dead. It's arguably the most useful and deadliest attack in the game since it instantly kills. Doesn't work on a lot of the bigger enemies tho. But you should still use it regardless because it's awsome. There's also a ton of projectiles such as the shurikens, exploding kunai and even the bow and arrow. These are great for stunning enemies trying to interrupt your attacks or if you need to pick off dudes that are far away. The only one with infinite ammo are the shurikens because they.re the weakest ones, but still useful. The other type of moves you can are the Ninpo attacks, which are kinda like special moves that usually have a ton of invincibility so you can save your ass from a cheap attack or potential instant kill moves from bosses. The fire wheels from the NES game return here, with fire balls surrounding you, letting you use it in combinations with your attacks, so enemies can just eat shit and die. There's also the lightning attack that hits all the enemies near you, usually killing them instantly and for one boss near the end of the game, you should abuse this move to completely wreck them.
I mentioned before that enemies are relentless, they won't wait around being completely telegraphed like in other action games such as DMC. They attack you while you.re beating someone else up, throw projectiles at you, and generally pose a threat if you're not careful. Taking advantage of all the weapons, techniques and options you have, are the difference between life or death. Enemies can from anywhere too, even weird looking mutated fish wanna kill you. There's ninjas, demons, military dudes, bats, fucking undead corpses, dudes on horses and even some dinosaur looking demons too. They all fight differently and some weapons at better at dealing with them than others. The game starts off fairly linear with you killing a bunch of ninjas and learning the basics of combat and exploration, eventually leading to the first boss Murai. He's basically the guy that determines whether or not you can even survive the rest this game as you need a good enough understanding of when to attack, when to dodge and how to avoid getting a beat down to even defeat him. I think most people get stuck on him lol.
After battling Murai, the ninja village gets attacked and everything is set on fire. Hayabusa rushes back to find out who's responsible, and he encounters Doku, a dude who's basically nothing but evil energy in black samurai armor, who nearly kills Hayabuasa and leaves everything in flames. His design reminds me of Kaioh from Hokuto no Ken, especially with whole armor and demonic energy he has. Having been beaten down, Hayabusa heads to Tairon located in the Vigoor, where the main plot takes place. He's out for payback both for himself and everyone in the clan that died, and to stop their master plans. The village getting attacked, with everything on fire, and Doku nearly killing protagonist creates the perfect build story setup to a revenge story. It's so well done and the dramatic movie like soundtrack just fills you with emotion, like "That motherfucker is gonna pay!" The song that plays during this portion of the game and is called Go The Distance and it's absolutely perfect. It has tension, a high and low point with a faint sense of hope. This song is what really makes the opening act of the game so amazing.
The Vigoor Empire is the main area of the game. It's a huge map with tons of areas to explore. Outside of combat, the other main aspect of the game is the Zelda like exploration. With a lot of platforming, secret areas, key items to find and puzzle solving. Some of these areas can feel like huge sprawling labyrinths, which can be a nice break from all the constant fighting. Sometimes you can get lost and it can be confusing as hell trying to figure out where to go. Some areas need to be reached by jumping off walls, swinging off bars, and even wall running. There's a lot of wall jumping, usually to go up to a higher area, but not enough wall running in my opinion. It's a bit underused which sucks because it's so cool. And while you're exploring these areas, enemies can and will attack you. So just like in DOA, use the environment to your advantage. There's tons of boss battles too. Bosses like Doku are these one on one fights; where you need to learn when to dodge, attack and understand enemy behaviors. There's also huge demonic enemies too, like a huge skeleton creature and an undead dragon thing. This guy sucks because a lot of your weapons barely damage him but he can kill you so easily. Luckily if grind some Essence and max out the giant sword, the dragon goes down fairly easily. At one point you even fight a fucking tank, and that's followed up by another goddamn tank.
The Vigoor Empire is the main area of the game. It's a huge map with tons of areas to explore. Outside of combat, the other main aspect of the game is the Zelda like exploration. With a lot of platforming, secret areas, key items to find and puzzle solving. Some of these areas can feel like huge sprawling labyrinths, which can be a nice break from all the constant fighting. Sometimes you can get lost and it can be confusing as hell trying to figure out where to go. Some areas need to be reached by jumping off walls, swinging off bars, and even wall running. There's a lot of wall jumping, usually to go up to a higher area, but not enough wall running in my opinion. It's a bit underused which sucks because it's so cool. And while you're exploring these areas, enemies can and will attack you. So just like in DOA, use the environment to your advantage. There's tons of boss battles too. Bosses like Doku are these one on one fights; where you need to learn when to dodge, attack and understand enemy behaviors. There's also huge demonic enemies too, like a huge skeleton creature and an undead dragon thing. This guy sucks because a lot of your weapons barely damage him but he can kill you so easily. Luckily if grind some Essence and max out the giant sword, the dragon goes down fairly easily. At one point you even fight a fucking tank, and that's followed up by another goddamn tank.
That's such a Ninja Gaiden thing, it's like "oh I'm safe" and a bunch of enemies or a boss shows up and then you go "aw come on!" Some of the bosses can feel pretty cheap, especially that skeleton looking motherfucker near the end of the game. Alma is probably the most infamous boss in the game tho. She's the sister of the demon hunter Rachel that Hayabusa meets in the game and has to rescue a few times. Her sister gets turned into a demon by Doku and she's tough as hell. She can fly around, block the Flying Swallow, shoot projectiles and even do a deadly grab attack that deals massive damage. Her second form was especially tough with that creepy looking centipede form or whatever it was. I definitely had a lot of deaths fighting against here. The game is amazing, but the latter half kinda suffers from some frustrating levels and some bosses but in my eyes, Ninja Gaiden Black is amazing. Beating the game unlocks higher difficulties, new costumes, including the classic NES outfit. You can unlock the original arcade game;(the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox had the NES games as unlockables.) There's even a mission mode that has you fighting enemies in different levels from the main game, with a different set of weapons, ninpo and projectiles. It' s super challenging mode that has you thinking of different strategies since you can't just change whatever weapons you want. This mode is a great addition that adds more replay value to a game that's already packed with content.
Ninja Gaiden Black is a masterpiece. Yeah it has some rough edges, like the latter half not being as good because some of the areas and bosses kinda suck, but overall it's a super challenging game that a select few can conquer. Hayabusa is awesome, and like a badass once you master the combat and clear the game. If you're up for an brutal game that will kick your ass, you better be prepared.
Halo Trilogy
(Xbox/PC/360. Developer: Bungie. Publisher: Microsoft. 2001-2007)
Ninja Gaiden Black is a masterpiece. Yeah it has some rough edges, like the latter half not being as good because some of the areas and bosses kinda suck, but overall it's a super challenging game that a select few can conquer. Hayabusa is awesome, and like a badass once you master the combat and clear the game. If you're up for an brutal game that will kick your ass, you better be prepared.
Halo Trilogy
(Xbox/PC/360. Developer: Bungie. Publisher: Microsoft. 2001-2007)
Well this is a first. I'm covering a whole trilogy of games here. Strap yourselves in because this is gonna take a while. The main trilogy of Halo games were originally made by Bungie and helped to revolutionize first person shooters on consoles, kinda like Goldeneye 007 for N64, except the games actually hold up well. I'm mostly gonna talk about the original Halo: Combat Evolved since a good amount of what I'm gonna discuss about gameplay can more or less be applied to the sequels. But goddamn this is gonna take a quite a bit of time.. Just wanna say for the record that I played the ORIGINAL versions of the games for Xbox/360, not the ports such as the Master Chief collection lol.
Halo: Combat Evolved was a launch title for the original Xbox that was a huge deal at the time. Bungie went from being a Mac developer, to working with Bill Gates and Microsoft to unleash this killer app onto the world. You play as Spartan 117 - The Master Chief. He's a Spartan which is basically like a supersoldier space marine. Chief is accompanied by his hologram navigation partner, Cortana. Later in the series, she takes on a bigger role. But for the most part, she just helps you out. There's war going between the humans and the Covenant; a alliance formed by different alien races. Tensions have risen, so Chief and the soldiers are sent to the mysterious ring called Halo. There's a lot more to this giant ring than just being a cool landmass with its own environments, but you should play the game to find out. The overall scope and scale of the story gets larger throughout each game and then eventually becomes this intergalactic war for the fate of the galaxy.
Unlike a lot of FPS games at the time, Halo only gives you 2 weapons at a time and some grenades. You're not carrying this huge arsenal of weapons inside some kinda infinite pocket. You start off with 2 weapons, but enemies usually drop ammo, grenades and other guns that you can swap out and use against them. So if an enemy has like a rocket launcher or something, you can just kill that guy and take it from them. This has always been my favorite feature, as it lets you experiment with different weapons and figure out which ones work best in each situation. There's human and covenant weapons, and feel pretty different from one another. Humans have the standard assault rifle, pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle and rocket launcher. And Covenants have guns that use energy, so you can't really get ammo for them. They have the Needler which shoots these little homing laser needles that attack enemies. The little laser pistol and can be charge up for a strong shot but can overheat. The laser rifle which is one of my favorites, it's a pretty strong rapid fire gun. and I believe there's some other ones I can't remember. Elites can use the energy swords, but you can't. You can use them in Halo 2 and 3 tho.
Another thing the Halo series is known for are the variety of vehicles such as Ghosts and Warthogs. The Warthog is like an all terrain buggy than can have up to 3 people on it; a driver, passenger and a guy on the turret. A lot of the maps are really huge, so being able to drive around makes it easier to progress. You can even run over enemies and crash into them which is hilarious. The Ghost is a Covenant vehicles that's sorta like a hover car equip with a laser gun. You can shoot enemies down and strafe too. And it's a bit harder to do since the Ghost but you can still run people over. Banshees are Covenant aircraft that they usually use to annoy the hell outta you. They have laser canons, and can even do barrel rolls. Whatever you can do to enemies, they do it to you too. I remember getting gunned down by some goddamn Elites in a Ghost and even getting run over a few times. So be careful. Oh yeah there's also the Scorpion which is a fucking tank and it's always fun to use because you can literally blow everyone up and just watch the Covenant forces get sent flying.
Oh yeah, the Covenant are made up of a few different aliens that all have unique traits and pretty damn smart enemy AI. They're really crafty too, doing things so you'll always be thinking on your feet.. They'll hide around, flank you, do a variety of things so that even when you respawn, the encounters never really feel the same. The first of the Covenant are the Grunts. They're these little short dudes that usually fire at you with tiny energy guns or throw grenades. Grunts always seem to come in groups and can even be seen sleeping at times, so can just pistol whip them. They have some hilarious high pitched voices. Elites are these armored aliens that usually carry guns or even energy swords. They can also activate cloaking, which turns them invisible. Those bastards with the energy swords love to one shot you from out of nowhere. If you kill an Elite that's teamed up with a bunch of Grunts, the grunts will actually panic and run away, it's always funny. There's also the Jackals. Fuck the jackals. All they do is snipe the hell out you from far away and hide behind their little energy shields. Luckily they die pretty easily but damn I hate them. The last of the Covenant aliens are the Hunters. They're these huge bulky armored aliens with goddamn laser beams and big shields. They can be pretty tough to take down, but are weak to pistols if you shoot them in the back.
Later in Halo 1, you encounter these alien parasites called the Flood. I fucking hate the Flood. They don't really have the same smart AI as the covenant but these guys are scary as hell. They're parasites that take over dead bodies, and are pretty relentless because they always attack in groups. The library section probably has to be the scariest part of the game. You need to wait for the robot bastard 343 Guilty Spark to come back, and while you're waiting, an ENTIRE FUCKING HOARDE of Flood start swarming you. Oh my god this section felt like a nightmare. I really hate the flood. They come back in Halo 2 and 3 as well. I mentioned how you could use the energy sword in later games, and it's mostly in Halo 2. Elites are the guys that always carry the weapons around, and in Halo 2, you play as Master Chief, but you also play as an Elite called the Arbiter. He's awesome. In the second game, there's a fun change of perspective where you play as Arbiter and have Covenant forces teaming up with you, and you even fight other Covenant in this internal civil war between the aliens. Halo 2 introduced a new set of aliens that become really important in the 3rrd game. The Brutes, they're just space apes basically, and in Halo 3, are the main enemy faction. Brutes are these huge hulking monkey looking dudes that are especially hard to kill in Halo 2 because they're goddam bullet sponges. They toned it down a bit in Halo 3 but I kinda hate Brutes. They wear armor, and if you damage them a ton, they'll get pissed off and start charging at you, which can easily kill you. Damn Brutes.
I love the music in Halo, it doesn't play all the time but always kicks in at the right moment. Usually the levels are full of ambient sounds or no music at all, but when the battles get intense, it gets good. Some of my favorite tracks are of course the main theme of Halo, A Walk in the Woods and Under Cover at Night. there's a part near the end of Halo 2 where the Covenant are fighting each other and Blow Me Away from Breaking Benjamin suddenly kicks in, and it's pretty awesome. Halo 3 has the amazingly hype Warthog Run that plays in the final section of the game. I loved playing through all 3 of the games. My older brothers and I would always play against each other in local multiplayer matches but I never got to play through the actual stories until now. The Halo trilogy is a really unforgettable experience and I'm glad I played them. WORT WORT WORT.
Later in Halo 1, you encounter these alien parasites called the Flood. I fucking hate the Flood. They don't really have the same smart AI as the covenant but these guys are scary as hell. They're parasites that take over dead bodies, and are pretty relentless because they always attack in groups. The library section probably has to be the scariest part of the game. You need to wait for the robot bastard 343 Guilty Spark to come back, and while you're waiting, an ENTIRE FUCKING HOARDE of Flood start swarming you. Oh my god this section felt like a nightmare. I really hate the flood. They come back in Halo 2 and 3 as well. I mentioned how you could use the energy sword in later games, and it's mostly in Halo 2. Elites are the guys that always carry the weapons around, and in Halo 2, you play as Master Chief, but you also play as an Elite called the Arbiter. He's awesome. In the second game, there's a fun change of perspective where you play as Arbiter and have Covenant forces teaming up with you, and you even fight other Covenant in this internal civil war between the aliens. Halo 2 introduced a new set of aliens that become really important in the 3rrd game. The Brutes, they're just space apes basically, and in Halo 3, are the main enemy faction. Brutes are these huge hulking monkey looking dudes that are especially hard to kill in Halo 2 because they're goddam bullet sponges. They toned it down a bit in Halo 3 but I kinda hate Brutes. They wear armor, and if you damage them a ton, they'll get pissed off and start charging at you, which can easily kill you. Damn Brutes.
I love the music in Halo, it doesn't play all the time but always kicks in at the right moment. Usually the levels are full of ambient sounds or no music at all, but when the battles get intense, it gets good. Some of my favorite tracks are of course the main theme of Halo, A Walk in the Woods and Under Cover at Night. there's a part near the end of Halo 2 where the Covenant are fighting each other and Blow Me Away from Breaking Benjamin suddenly kicks in, and it's pretty awesome. Halo 3 has the amazingly hype Warthog Run that plays in the final section of the game. I loved playing through all 3 of the games. My older brothers and I would always play against each other in local multiplayer matches but I never got to play through the actual stories until now. The Halo trilogy is a really unforgettable experience and I'm glad I played them. WORT WORT WORT.
Xenoblade Definitive Edition
(Switch. Developer: MonolithSoft. Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
(Switch. Developer: MonolithSoft. Publisher: Nintendo. 2020)
Holy shit I never thought I'd finally get a chance to talk about my favorite game of all time, especially as a remake! I've been a fan of Xenoblade ever since the game was first coming out back in 2010, I remember when the trailer popped on like IGN's youtube or something, and just being amazed by that trailer. I kept up with the games development and release in Japan, it came out in Europe a year later in 2011, and then almost didn't reach the USA because Nintendo of America wanted to be assholes, but thankfully they actually gave us the damn game. 10 whole years after the games original release, we get Xenoblade Definitive Edition. The Switch version of the game is basically a remake of the original game with remastered music, upgraded UI, quality of life improvements and brand new HD graphics. There's a lot of extra content including challenge battles, new equipment and even a brand new side story that takes place after the original ending. Xenoblade is the most recent set of games in the Xeno series, which are Xenogears for the Playstation (a game I covered last time) and the Xenosaga series. All 3 of these mostly unrelated series have one madman behind them, Tetsuya Takahashi.
The world of Xenoblade takes place on these two titans that were locked in an near endless battle, with nothing surrounding them but boundless ocean. The Bionis and the Mechonis. Eventually the two titans take each other out and only their lifeless corpses remain. Eventually life begins to flourish on Bionis, with humans known as Homs. The Homs are at war with a group of robots known as the Mechon. Homs technology can't take mechon down that easily, but a single man wielding the Monado comes in to take them down. The Monado was said to be the weapon the Bionis itself used to fight the Mechon, and Dunban uses it to take on all of the mechon himself. Dunban is so fucking awesome. A year passes and we find out what happens next. Dunban came back from the war victorious but the strain of using the Monado caused him to lose the use of his right arm. The main character of the game is Shulk, who's a researcher helping the homs army out by making weapons, and has been studying the Monado to understand its secrets.. His childhood friend Reyn is a soldier in the military, and then there's Fiora who's Shulk's love interest and Dunban's younger sister. Things are pretty peaceful in the colony until the classic Takahashi trope kicks in and the town gets fucking attacked. The mechon have somehow come back Shulk and his friends try to fight off, but is a it's a losing battle. Dunban comes back with the Monado but it becomes too much for his body to handle. Shulk takes a stand and uses the Monado himself. After picking it up, he could see visions of the future that warn him of incoming attacks and events that'll happen later. They end up kicking some mechon ass but then a giant Faced Mechon shows up and completely beats them down. Fiora tries to fight back but she's eventually killed. The Mechon leave Colony 9 with everything in shambles. This is what really kicks off the plot. Shulk decides to make it his purpose in life to destroy all the mechon and get revenge. Eventually there's more to it than just simple revenge but you need to play the game for yourself. I love the story and characters. It goes in directions you wouldn't expect and has an amazing final act that wraps everything up.
Xenoblade is an action RPG with MMO style combat. Similar to stuff like Final Fantasy 12 where you use menus in real time, fight in a team and have special moves that have a cooldown timer. You have the basic auto attack, and then Arts. Arts are the special moves that define each character, and their overall playstyle. Shulk is an attacker that focuses on hitting enemies from certain sides, like from behind or the side to deal extra damage. He's a bit of a jack of all trades since he can heal slightly, support the party and buff himself in battle. Reyn is a tank that takes all the hits for you and can force enemies to focus on him, so everyone else can attack without dying, The visions of the Monado aren't just tied to the plot either, they're part of the combat. When enemies are about to unleash a powerful attack that could either kill a party member or severely damage them etc. It shows you what the attack will do, you then have a time limit so you can prevent that future from happening. And you do this in a variety of way. The games has this system with 3 steps; Break, Topple and Daze. Break causes the enemies defenses to drop slightly and sets them up for the next step. Topple can only be one after a Break, and this completely knocks them down, so you can just wail on the enemy while they can't fight back. It doesn't last too long but the last one is Daze, where you can make an enemy dizzy, leaving them unable to attack for even longer. Doing this during a vision can get rid of it, and the enemy won't be able to do that move for a while. Other ways to change a vision is to tell you part what to do, which is a command that only pops up when a vision happens, so you can tell Reyn to activate Last Stand so he doesn't die. You can also try and get the enemy to target you so it doesn't kill the original target. Or you could just kill the enemy, whatever works for you.
You fight a of enemies that are both organic and mechanic, coming from each respective titan. Mechon are hard to deal with without the Monado so for a majority of the game, I recommend keeping Shulk in the party. He also has Monado Arts that are open up a lot of interesting strategies. The basic ones are Monado Enchant, Speed, Shield and Buster. Enchant can allow other party member to attack Mechon
The world of Xenoblade takes place on these two titans that were locked in an near endless battle, with nothing surrounding them but boundless ocean. The Bionis and the Mechonis. Eventually the two titans take each other out and only their lifeless corpses remain. Eventually life begins to flourish on Bionis, with humans known as Homs. The Homs are at war with a group of robots known as the Mechon. Homs technology can't take mechon down that easily, but a single man wielding the Monado comes in to take them down. The Monado was said to be the weapon the Bionis itself used to fight the Mechon, and Dunban uses it to take on all of the mechon himself. Dunban is so fucking awesome. A year passes and we find out what happens next. Dunban came back from the war victorious but the strain of using the Monado caused him to lose the use of his right arm. The main character of the game is Shulk, who's a researcher helping the homs army out by making weapons, and has been studying the Monado to understand its secrets.. His childhood friend Reyn is a soldier in the military, and then there's Fiora who's Shulk's love interest and Dunban's younger sister. Things are pretty peaceful in the colony until the classic Takahashi trope kicks in and the town gets fucking attacked. The mechon have somehow come back Shulk and his friends try to fight off, but is a it's a losing battle. Dunban comes back with the Monado but it becomes too much for his body to handle. Shulk takes a stand and uses the Monado himself. After picking it up, he could see visions of the future that warn him of incoming attacks and events that'll happen later. They end up kicking some mechon ass but then a giant Faced Mechon shows up and completely beats them down. Fiora tries to fight back but she's eventually killed. The Mechon leave Colony 9 with everything in shambles. This is what really kicks off the plot. Shulk decides to make it his purpose in life to destroy all the mechon and get revenge. Eventually there's more to it than just simple revenge but you need to play the game for yourself. I love the story and characters. It goes in directions you wouldn't expect and has an amazing final act that wraps everything up.
Xenoblade is an action RPG with MMO style combat. Similar to stuff like Final Fantasy 12 where you use menus in real time, fight in a team and have special moves that have a cooldown timer. You have the basic auto attack, and then Arts. Arts are the special moves that define each character, and their overall playstyle. Shulk is an attacker that focuses on hitting enemies from certain sides, like from behind or the side to deal extra damage. He's a bit of a jack of all trades since he can heal slightly, support the party and buff himself in battle. Reyn is a tank that takes all the hits for you and can force enemies to focus on him, so everyone else can attack without dying, The visions of the Monado aren't just tied to the plot either, they're part of the combat. When enemies are about to unleash a powerful attack that could either kill a party member or severely damage them etc. It shows you what the attack will do, you then have a time limit so you can prevent that future from happening. And you do this in a variety of way. The games has this system with 3 steps; Break, Topple and Daze. Break causes the enemies defenses to drop slightly and sets them up for the next step. Topple can only be one after a Break, and this completely knocks them down, so you can just wail on the enemy while they can't fight back. It doesn't last too long but the last one is Daze, where you can make an enemy dizzy, leaving them unable to attack for even longer. Doing this during a vision can get rid of it, and the enemy won't be able to do that move for a while. Other ways to change a vision is to tell you part what to do, which is a command that only pops up when a vision happens, so you can tell Reyn to activate Last Stand so he doesn't die. You can also try and get the enemy to target you so it doesn't kill the original target. Or you could just kill the enemy, whatever works for you.
You fight a of enemies that are both organic and mechanic, coming from each respective titan. Mechon are hard to deal with without the Monado so for a majority of the game, I recommend keeping Shulk in the party. He also has Monado Arts that are open up a lot of interesting strategies. The basic ones are Monado Enchant, Speed, Shield and Buster. Enchant can allow other party member to attack Mechon
like a normal enemy, and deal extra damage for a short time. Speed lets one party member dodge physical attacks for a short time, and Shield can protect the party from an enemy's signature move, causing it to do only 1 damage. Buster is just a giant ass sword slash that completely wrecks Mechon. Knowing when to use certain arts and how to take advantage of them is the key to victory, Another key aspect of the combat is the party gauge. If a party member dies in battle, you can use up one bare of the party gauge to revive them. and they can revive you too, When a vision pops up, 1 bar of the party gauge can be used to tell the party what to do, like the example with Reyn I mentioned earlier. The main thing that the Party Gauge is used for is the Chain Attack. Chain attacks are a team attack where you get to pick an art for each active party member. In situations where the enemy resists Break, this is the perfect time to use Shulk's Stream Edge or Air Slash for example. Follow that up with Reyn's Wild down, and you can follow up with anything. I recommend doing another Topple because the length of time a status effect is active, can be stacked. Like there's this thing called Topple Locking, which makes it so that after an enemy has been knocked down, you can keep Toppling them and then use the same moves during a chain attack. The enemy can't dodge attacks in this state' so perfect way to challenge yourself with a lower level party.
Killing enemies usually drops items you can sell, equipment and arts manuals and materials for gem crafting. You use Arts manuals to increase the level cap of the arts you can upgrade, so they do can deal more damage and have a shorter cooldown. Gems can be crafted and they can give you all sorts of passive effects. Like increasing your overall stats, extending the duration of Break/Topple/Daze, and giving you resistances to elemental attacks, and status conditions. Like Debuff Immunity gems can make it so you don't get effected by poison, topple or even instant kills. Later in the game, enemies start having spike damage debuffs, that usually activate after you topple them. Meaning that you take damage for every hit you deal to them, which fucking sucks, at least you can craft gems to resist it, or just negate the effect. Every party member has a skill tree that given additional passive skill, and by increasing thee friendship with each of your party members, you can give them some of the same passive skills, if is the it's the right slot and whatnot. All these different tools and mechanics help with being able to experiment and optimize your party with certain strategies, so the freedom is there.
The areas in Xenoblade are gigantic. Bionis has these huge open landscapes that look like they go on forever. All the areas are unique and memorable and each one has music that fits perfectly. The areas are all on the Bionis, meaning that you're literally walking on the body of a literal giant, the size and scale are amazing, and you can almost always see the Mechonis in the distance, such as on the kneecap after leaving Tephra Cave, you just see the iconic visual of the Mechonis with its sword. The locations all have amazing art direction and creativity that set each of them apart. Bionis Leg is this huge grassy field with these giant rocky arches that loom over you. It has this sweeping orchestral track that's one of the most memorable songs from game.. Makna Forest is this dense Jungle that's sweatier than a brog's armpit and has a very relaxing tune.. Eryth Sea is a vast ocean with floating islands that you navigate using teleporters, it has a very calming piano theme. Valak Mountain is the huge snowy mountain that you have to climb all the way down, located on the Bionis's arm. Xenoblade has some of the best battle music that's ever been in an RPG. The Bionis battle theme is a orchestral violin track that sets the mood for the early parts of the game. The boss battles have a hard rock theme that bombastic and it's fucking great. Mechanical Rhythm is my absolute favorite track in the game. Halfway through the story, this becomes the primary battle theme of the game, and it's an amazingly energetic heavy metal track that goes mad hard. 10 years later and this song still kicks ass. No spoilers but the final boss theme is amazing, that's another song which is in my top 5.
There's a day and night cycle and it can completely change the music and atmosphere of each area. The most notable ones are Valak Mountain which changes from the usual snowy mountain, an area surrounded by yellow lights and a calming piano tune. Satorl Marsh goes from this grey and brown marshland to this beautiful blue area covered with streams of light, as if it's nothing but mist, or something from a dream. It has a great choir sounding song to go along with it. Every area is full of items to collect, enemies to fight and sidequests. Most of the sidequest mainly consist of finding items or just killing enemies, and yeah they can feel a bit repetitive but it's not too bad. The Switch version actually shows you were the damn item and enemies are when you need to do these types of quests. Other things the Switch version adds are the new Challenge battles which were introduced in Xenoblade 2, where you can do timed battles under specific conditions to earn rewards and get your best times. Future Connected is a side story that continues after events of the main game. They even brought back and expanded up the Bionis Shoulder, which was an cut area that was in the original game. It never got to be used but now it's here in HD! Another set of feature is that the game help makes the location on the map of where you need to go, in case you get lost. The original game only had this dumb arrow that wasn't always helpful. Fashion Gear returns from Xenoblade X, where you can dress the party up however you want without worrying about how dumb your actual gear makes you look.
Xenoblade is my favorite game of all time. My favorite game on the original Wii ever since I played it when it first launched in the USA in 2012, I bought it on release day! I've been following this series since the very beginning and never in my life did I think I'd be here talking about the fucking remake!! Back in September 2019, Nintendo had their last major direct of the year. And it was nearly over, I was like "NINTENDO WTF, MONOLITH SOFT RETWEETED THE DIRECT! WHERE'S THE GAME!?" Then after showing off Animal Crossing, Nintendo went "one last thing." Then the screen went black, I saw the waterfall from Makna Forest, the main theme of the game kicked in AND I LOST MY SHIT. I FELL OFF THE FUCKING CHAIR AND GOT ON MY FUCKING KNEES. I was in complete shock. I felt so many emotions all at once, I fucking so many tears, I couldn't believe what the hell I was looking at, MY DREAM REMAKE BECAME A REALITY. I remember thinking for a long while after the release of Xenoblade 2 and the Torna DLC, that Monolith Soft should remake the original game with the engine of XB2 and reintroduce the game to new fans for the series 10th anniversary. I never thought it would actually happen, it was too good of an idea to ever happen. No way. BUT THEN THEY FUCKING DID IT. Goddamn. I even went all out and bought the Japanese and European Collector's edition of the game, I love the game so fucking much.
Xenoblade is my favorite game of all time. My favorite game on the original Wii ever since I played it when it first launched in the USA in 2012, I bought it on release day! I've been following this series since the very beginning and never in my life did I think I'd be here talking about the fucking remake!! Back in September 2019, Nintendo had their last major direct of the year. And it was nearly over, I was like "NINTENDO WTF, MONOLITH SOFT RETWEETED THE DIRECT! WHERE'S THE GAME!?" Then after showing off Animal Crossing, Nintendo went "one last thing." Then the screen went black, I saw the waterfall from Makna Forest, the main theme of the game kicked in AND I LOST MY SHIT. I FELL OFF THE FUCKING CHAIR AND GOT ON MY FUCKING KNEES. I was in complete shock. I felt so many emotions all at once, I fucking so many tears, I couldn't believe what the hell I was looking at, MY DREAM REMAKE BECAME A REALITY. I remember thinking for a long while after the release of Xenoblade 2 and the Torna DLC, that Monolith Soft should remake the original game with the engine of XB2 and reintroduce the game to new fans for the series 10th anniversary. I never thought it would actually happen, it was too good of an idea to ever happen. No way. BUT THEN THEY FUCKING DID IT. Goddamn. I even went all out and bought the Japanese and European Collector's edition of the game, I love the game so fucking much.
Thank you Takahashi, for bringing back my favorite game of all time. Xenoblade was the first major RPG I played, and helped me get more into the genre, so I could experience and better appreciate amazing series like Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest. Thank you for creating the best game I've ever played in my life.
This list was a fucking doozy, and it was very hard to write all this down. Sorry for the delay! Some games couldn't make the cut and this list is too fucking long anyways. 2020 was a both an extremely rough year for me but also pretty fun despite the hardships. I hope you're doing okay dad... All these great games helped to try and keep my mind at ease with all the uncertainty in the world. Hopefully 2021 is a lot better. SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI NOCTURNE HD WESTERN RELEASE AND SMT V GLOBAL RELEASE HAPPENS THIS YEAR. HEE FUCKING HOOOOOOOO.
This list was a fucking doozy, and it was very hard to write all this down. Sorry for the delay! Some games couldn't make the cut and this list is too fucking long anyways. 2020 was a both an extremely rough year for me but also pretty fun despite the hardships. I hope you're doing okay dad... All these great games helped to try and keep my mind at ease with all the uncertainty in the world. Hopefully 2021 is a lot better. SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI NOCTURNE HD WESTERN RELEASE AND SMT V GLOBAL RELEASE HAPPENS THIS YEAR. HEE FUCKING HOOOOOOOO.
Honorable Mentions
Dezatopia: A great indie shmup that I need to put more time into. it's made by a single person called HEY and has some really interesting mechanics and great music!
Akatsuki Blitzkampf: The doujin fighting game where Akatsuki comes from, it's a great game with a cool parry mechanic and some whacky characters like a nun who revives herself and the goddamn Blitztank! Hopefully one day the PC port of Ausf Achse will come out.
Crimzon Clover World EXplosion: I said this game needed a home console version and here it is! World EXplosion adds new arrange mods and other features to make one of the shmups of the past decade even better! Please give this game a physical release and don't do some limited only shit.
Oneechanbara Origin: A remake of the original games made for the PS2 by Tamsoft. They ditched the kinda uncanny SFM porn looking ass graphical style, and added stylish and vibrant new cell-shaded anime graphics. I wanted to include this on the list but I eventually got sidetracked with other games featured on this list, so I still need to finish the game.
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