2021 was a pretty good year. Looking back on it, a lot of my favorite game series either had their old games re-released or had completely entries. finally come out. It was a really damn good year for smhups. These aren't included in this years list but amazing Cave games like Espgaluda II, Mushihimesama, and even Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu came out for the Switch thanks to LiveWire. And towards the end of the year we got awesome stuff like Ilvello Swamp + Radirgy Swag's physical release that comes with both games. And then of course there was the recently release compilation of Deathsmiles I & II by City Connection! Some other notable shmup releases were Eschatos on the switch, one of my favorites (I hope Qute ports over their other games and R-Type Final 2, a new entry in a landmark series. Oh and Darius Cozmic Revelation which included a HD port of G-Darius and and Dariusburst. This was honestly an amazing year for shmup releases, and I even managed to get invested into a new series. The Smash DLC came to a bittersweet end, and while Ryu Hayabusa didn't make it, I'm grateful to Sakurai for adding in Pyra and Mythra! There was a lot of stuff I didn't get to follow up on through out the year and I'm still lagging behind a bit, but I think this was a strong year for games as a whole, even if you take some of the more modern and mainstream games into account There's actually a pretty good amount of games I need to catch up on and finished, and some new ones that I'm looking forward to. Sorry that this post is several days late, some stuff prevented me from finishing ahead of time.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection / ニンジャガイデンマスターコレクション
(Switch/PS4/Xbone/PC. Developer: Team Ninja, Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games. 2021)
So last year I covered the original Ninja Gaiden for Xbox (through the updated release, Ninja Gaiden Black) and now I have the opportunity to cover the brand new re-release of all 3 of the modern entries from Team Ninja. To be honest, I was actually pretty excited at first, because I was just happy that they were finally giving the series some damn attention after like 8 years without a main entry. You know fucking how long it's been since Ninja Gaiden 3? That shit was in like 2012 man, and the vanilla release wasn't even good. It took until Razor's Edge on the Wii U to make the third 3D entry decent. It was honestly a sign that without Itagaki the series is pretty directionless. I miss Ninja Gaiden and I want it to be good again... So anyways, I was kinda pessimistic about the collection after remembering that this is modern Team Ninja that we're talking about, and with them, anything Itagaki related either gets ignored or treated like shit. Itagaki and the higher ups at Tecmo had a falling out due to the latter not giving him his unpaid bonuses for Dead or Alive Ultimate and DOA Xtreme if I remember correctly. So before NG2 came out for Xbox 360, they released Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PS3 which is like a remaster or remake of the original Xbox game with updated visuals and a lot of small changes that and playable Rachel levels that make it feel more like a complimentary addition to the series. It give me the feeling that you can still more or less ge the same experience with either Sigma or Black, as the differences are game changing enough to cause debates. Sigma 2 was the big kick in the nuts tho. Everyone back then on like youtube or gamefaqs would always warned people not to play it because it's not as good as the original on 360, it's way easier and claimed that it was an absolute trash fire. So when Team Ninja announced the collection, tons of people including me, were pretty upset that Black and NG2 (both of which are already backwards compatible on Xbone and Series SX, so I don't know wtf is going on) weren't gonna be on there bacause they claim they couldn't salvage the source code.... yeah okay then. So because of this, people were saying doom and gloom for the new release, but thankfully it's not all that bad.
What we get in the Master Collection are the Sigma versions of Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2, and then NG3 Razor's Edge, the game I mentioned earlier. In terms of being actual remasters they're very barebones and hilariously enough on PC, don't even have native mouse/keyboard support.. There's some better image quality with the resolution, and Sigma 1 looks better than ever, especially when compared to the PS3 and Vita versions. Speaking of the Vita, Sigma 1 and 2 actually have all the content from both the PS3 and later Sigma Plus versions of both games (minus the online co-op missions from the original Sigma 2). The graphics are razor sharp, the colors really pop and it looks crystal clear. I just hate that this game has so much fucking bloom tho. The first level has that one yellow ambush room with the enemy ninjas and that shit is like eye bleedingly bright, like yo turn the fucking gamma settings down will ya. In terms of gameplay it's more or less the same as the originals on Xbox, but with some helpful additions. Now there's a quick item select that can be used in real time, so when in a pinch, you can quickly use a healing item to save yourself from an early death. I still prefer doing it the old way with just going into the menu, but it does help if you're in the moment and need to act fast. There's also equipment you cause wear that can increase attack damage, defense or how much yellow essence you get, or even how much you heal from items or blue essence. The original PS3 version basically had some extra arm or leg pieces you could wear that had these effects in addition to wearing the bracelet items that were introduced in the original game. Sigma Plus for Vita added even more equipment that you could wear, mostly head gear, and both versions changed what costumes could be unlocked and actually gave them different effects based on what you wear. Only major gripe is that unlike the original game, you can't freely change between them when loading a save file, so you're stuck with whichever one you picked. The original Legendary Black Falcon and the NES costume have no effects, the Dragon Muscle Suit (aka the Doppelganger costume) increases your max health at the cost of taking more damage, and the Grip of Murder (the black falcon suit with the design and bloody cursed arm from NG3) lets you give and take double damage. In addition to all these changes are the 3 new Rachel levels. She was a side character in the original that was part of the main plot since the Vigoor empire turned her sister into a fiend and was using her to try and take over the world. She only showed up in a few cutscenes but it wasn't as if she didn't have enough screen time. Sigma gives us 3 levels where you actually get to play as her and it's mostly visiting areas that Hayabusa either has entered or will go to later, but it's basically making the parts where she's off screen, playable. I'm not a fan of her gameplay tho she's pretty slow with attacks that aren't as good as Hayabusa's and it doesn't help that their logic when making her chapters were basically "okay so put her in a small area full of really quick and tiny mob enemies'" It felt like I couldn't really fight them properly because the little claw fiends were always ganging up on me, so with her limited moveset and terrible long range options, you kinda resort to cheap tactics, such as doing wall jump attacks that hit multiple enemies or essence attacks, or her magic attack, which you definitely need for the one annoying as fuck boss in her second level. Overall her inclusion was a nice idea but feels like a mixed bag.
Sigma brought back mission mode from Black but the actual missions themselves are pretty different. It's a pretty fun mode that has you take on a variety of different enemy setups in levels from the main game. You can reach for high scores as well, and the missions have about 4 difficulty modes that you need to unlock. The missions usually give you a set weapon and items and you need to us what's given to you in order to clear it. I think it's great in short bursts and a fun way to enjoy the game for a few minutes. Besides all this, the mian game's levels are pretty identical but some items and parts of levels were either removed to cut down on backtracking, or replaced with different stuff'. And weapons locations got switched around. And for whatever reason, you don't start off with the Dragon Sword and Nunchuck, only the former, and the Lunar Staff is in chapter 4 etc. Oh and they added the new dual katanas that later got added to NG2. Okay I'm done lol. So I actually recommend Sigma 1 a lot if you're unfamiliar with the series and want a challenge. If you don't have way to play or emulate NG04 or NG Black, Sigma is a great option, as in my eyes it's pretty on par with black, but black is still better. Think of it as an apple and green apple. They're both pretty much the same but have different flavors.
In regards to Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, well that game is like comparing apples to oranges. In terms of features and extra content I'd say it's on par with Sigma 1, and it actually has a bit more if we take the added Sigma 2 Plus content as well. Mission mode is back with tons of brutal and challenging battles but this time you can have the AI help you out in these fights and even do cool stuff like a dual ninpo super move. You have the option as playing as Ryu Hayabusa obviously, but also Rachel (who plays way better in this game), Momiji from Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, and Ayane from DOA who was a side character in NG04/Black. All 3 of the girls are playable in the main story as well, but for whatever reason are only on one chapter each, so you barely get to try them out. and even in chapter challenge where you can replay levels with all the upgrades and stuff for more fun, you can't use them in Hayabusa's chapters and vice versa. This was added in Razor's Edge but it's baffling that this game doesn't have it. Sigma 2 also has the same problem with adding and taking away features but in the first game it didn't matter too much unless you were a diehard. It's worse here tho. Some are annoying like Life of a Thousand Gods which increases your max health, is automatically used once you get it now. In the original you could use it whenever you wanted and fully heal yourself and be more strategic about it. Similar to Sigma 1, key items and some level areas got taken out to reduce backtracking despite this game being pretty linear. The Incendiary Shuriken (aka the exploding kunai) got taken out of Hayabusa's arsenal so Ayane could have it lol. So all you have now is the regular shurikens, the mediocre giant canon thing and the bow/arrows. Not deal breaking but sucks to have options taken away.
The biggest issue with Sigma 2 is the reduced enemy count, increased enemy damage and the game honestly just not having the same feeling as the 360 version. Like I said, apples to oranges. Yeah they're both Ninja Gaiden 2 and have more or less the same level design, cutscenes and attacks you can pull of, but they feel so different from each other. Enemies can take forever to kill, they don't feel like a threat on normal and even hard mode, and there's only like 3 or 4 guys fighting you at a time, unlike the original where the enemies were relentless, spamming projectiles and showed up in bigger numbers. For years I always heard about these changes but it wasn't until the master collection that I finally got to see it for myself. Honestly it felt like a big let down. I was a still having fun because you know, it's Ninja Gaiden and i love the series to death but damn this shit felt wrong. Thankfully tho there's an awesome mod made by a Youtube channel called Fiend Busa that basically fixes Sigma 2's biggest flaws. The NGS2 Black mod adds higher enemy spawns, more balanced enemy HP and damage, more aggressive AI, extra moves and even gets rid of the annoying Buddha statue boss that was added to this game and is just boring. There's so much I can say about this mod but I've already rambled on long enough about this collection. I'll put a link to the mod and stuff [Channel and mod] so you can check it out. (Make sure you get CheatEngine, it's required for the mod). I'm not a big fan of NG3 Razor's Edge so I'm not really gonna talk about it here, maybe some day I'll go more in depth with it. But with this awesome mod fixing Sigma 2, I actually recommend the collection if you can get it on PC at least, the console ports are still kinda worth it for Sigma 1 tho.
Super Zangyura / メイドさんを右にミ☆
(Switch/Vita/PS4. Developer: PlantineDispositif. Publisher: Mediascape. 2021)
Maid-San wo Migi Ni Shooting Star, also known as Super Zangyura is a hard as hell linear 2D "Deathmatic action" platformer made by the doujin circle PlatineDispositif. They've made some other interesting games like Bunny Must Die, a super hard game, and GUNDEMONIUMS, a horizontal/yoko shmup. Both of these are actually available on Vita and PS4, not sure if both are on PC but i know that the latter is. Super Zangyura is really cool but seems that no one really knows about, since it's kinda obscure and only released in Japan, besides the Vita port, funny thing is it's one of the last Vita games to be released digitally as they released like right before Sony stopped developers from being able to publish Vita games. Still tho I highly recommend getting it, or looking for the original PC game online. From what I've looked, Super Zangyura was meant to be a remaster or remake of the original 2004 Zangyura/Maid-San wo Migi Ni, but seems to be a brand new sequel or sort of a sequel. I haven't gotten super far into it mostly because the game is really tough. And what makes it tough? Well a lot of things. It's honestly pretty sadistic how mean this game can be, but it's difficult in a good way, like Ninja Gaiden on the NES where you keep dying over and over again but always wanna keep trying. Well technically the game is more based on the classic linear Castlevania games (not the 2D action exploration titles like the GBA games or Symphony of the Night). Weird thing is that the game doesn't have special weapons you can throw at enemies. Just like in Castlevania, you basically need to rely on that chain ball whip thing to get through the whole game. The maid girl controls similarly to the Belmonts but she actually feels like a hybrid of them and Maria from Rondo of Blood. She has a floaty jump just like Maria and can even control her mid air trajectory. She also has the slide move that you can spam, useful in sections with gaps you can through by jumping, like if there's a ceiling right above you. But she's also like the Belmonts because of the chain ball whip weapon thing she has. You have that one weapon and it's the primary way of getting through the levels and taking out enemies, breaking walls open to reveal secret paths or even obtain the classic wall chicken. The whip isn't just for attacking, it has another pretty useful function that that the game is designed around. If you hold up, she swings the whip above her head, and after you jump, it let's you float in the air slowly and you can jump a bit farther. You can actually use the whip to pretect yourself from enemy attacks, because it's able to block attacks while it's spinning above your heard, and for certain sections, you're gonna need it. Letting go of the button does this super long range wrecking ball attack with a pretty huge hitbox. You need it to break down walls that your basic attack can't break, and is useful for hitting multiple enemies at once. It's a pretty easy set of mechanics to get the hang of but add a lot more depth to an otherwise simple control scheme.
Super Zangyura is referred to as a "Deathmatic Action" game, but what does that mean? Well it means you just fucking die a lot. I said that the game was hard, but I need to explain what makes it difficult. In some ways it can feel like bullshit but in some other ways it can feel really clever, and rewarding when you have the levels memorized. Funny thing is you kinda have a choice, there's a super easy mode (I dunno what it does) and then super hard mode, which I'm playing. The game is full of tricks and traps that are meant to either piss you off, or second guess a lot of things what you see throughout the levels. The overall level structure is a lot like the 8 and 16 bit games it's inspirited from, with lot of spikes on walls/floors/ceilings, platforms to jump on, some that you need to drop down from, and big jumps. It's linear but sometimes you do need to backtrack because you need to find the various keys in each area to progress. But you need specific colored keys. There's regular ones with a white color associated with them, and then actual colored keys; red/blue/green/pink/light blue. And obviously you can only open each specific type of door with the matching key. Opening doors causes some sort of attack to come out it that takes out enemies standing behind it. There's also plenty of check points throughout the levels, and you're probably gonna need them. Besides the usual thing where it prevents you from going all the way back to the beginning of the level, these checkpoints also have a timer. The time basically gives you a certain amount of time you can go without being able to lose a life if you die, but it can only be used once per checkpoint and the effect goes away after some time even if you didn't die yet. So either use it to figure out if there's some sorta of death trap near you, and literally spare one of your lives, or be careless. Each level has plenty of checkpoints so even on super hard mode, they're being pretty generous.
You actually have HP, and you heal from eating wall chicken just like Castlevania but the issue is it probably doesn't matter besides boss battles and dealing with common enemies and some level hazards. Most of the time you'll fall into spikes or a death pit and die instantly. Damn now it really does remind me of Ninja Gaiden lol. HP doesn't matter, just fall into the death pit. It's not only important to collect keys, but the gems as well. Each level has about 3 crystal gems hidden in each act, and by getting all 3 you unlock stuff that's accessible in the main menu. It's also important to kill enemies. That's a no brainer but you actually do need to money that they drop. In the main menu you can use it to buy stuff that can make the game slightly less unforgiving. like being able to start off with extra lives or buying spare keys that you can stock up on and use on locked doors without need to actually collect the ones in each level. Some keys feel impossible to get and have death traps surrounding them obviously so sometimes this helps get rid of any potential headaches. Only thing is that levels only scroll to the left or right, so when you enter a screen that's above or below you, it does that thing in a lot of NES games where it just instantly changes the screen, which is fine, but it also means you can probably fall into a bottomless pit or spikes and just die. There's some other brutal tricks in here too. Usually some sorta death trap can be seen by looking the parts of the level that have blood on them, such as the spikes or parts of the floor. If you see blood on the floor, it's usually a fucking pit to your doom. You sometimes need to fall through certain platforms to get below, but they don't open or anything like that, some areas, like in the second stage just so happened to have one of them near a bed of spikes, I was trying to walk on it, and i fell through it and died from spikes. There's also moving platforms that break a unwritten rule. In most platformers, when you get on top of a platform that's moving side to side, or even swinging, usually your character moves along with it. Well that doesn't fucking happen here lol. It just slides off from under you and you fall into spikes. So that's when you really need to spam the slide move, you can't walk fast enough to get back on even if you jump. Honestly the levels are harder than the bosses. Especially since the chain can protect you from incoming projectiles. This is a pretty cool game and I enjoy the challenge. Also another cruel thing this game does it show your death count on the title screen, so whenever you get a game over, it's there taunting you. Try this game out, it's really cool. Hope the Switch version eventually comes west.
Kyuukyoku Tiger Heli / 究極タイガーヘリ
(Switch/PS4. Developer/Publisher: M2 (M2ShotTriggers). 2021)
Thanks M2 for this awesome new release!!! M2 is back with another great compilation! The end of 2020 gave us the Aleste Collection (i still don't have it yet) which came with all the 8 bit console Aleste games originally created by Compile, and even the Game Gear titles. But the madmen at M2 took it a step further and made GG Aleste 3, a completely brand new Aleste game built from the ground up which looks like they actually made it for the game gear, if that limited physical cartridge was anything to go by, or maybe it was just a prop. The special edition of this game comes with a goddamn exclusive white Game Gear that has all the GG Aleste titles on it. I wanted to get it before the game had come out but that shit sold out so fucking fast lol. So I passed on getting the game for now. I made sure to get this tho. It's the first part of M2's Initiative to re-release every single Toaplan game, save for the mahjong arcade games. The main reason for this is probably because Toaplan is the big pioneer of the shooting game genre, and made them what they are. They're practically the father of what would become the modern bullet hell, and so many other companies were born once the company shut down, like Raizing (Eighting), CAVE and Takumi. Developers from Toaplan move onto those 3 companies and a few others and kept making shooting games, So it makes sense that M2 want's to honor such a historic and respected developer. But it seems like they're going in order, so what we have here is Kyuukyoku Tiger Heli: Toaplan Arcade Garage, which contains Kyuukyoku Tiger (obviously) and Tiger-Heli. Both are really important early shooters that. each played a role that would go onto influence other games in the genre. These games practically the first shmups they developed back in the mid to late 80's and M2 did a great job as always, breathing some new life into these classic games.
The first game is Tiger-Heli, originally relasesd for the arcade in 1985 and later came to the Famicom and NES. It's a military themed vertical/tate shooter where you play as a helicopter and need to shoot down enemies. For such an early game in their history and being despite the age, I think the graphics have held up really well. I don't know what it is, but the bright colors, chiptune music, and the way some of the landscapes look remind me of being a kid playing with toys. You know either legos or some toy planes or something. The graphics are cute and colorful but the game can be pretty challenge, mainly because you're so limited. Since it's a really early game in the genre, you basically have no power ups. If you shoot some hidden objects with colored diamond shapes, it sends out the little Heli's to pop out. you can collect like 2 of these little Heli's and they can shoot forwards or the side depending on the color. They're not invincible and die out just as easily as you do, but they can be handy sometimes. It would be nice to have actual powerups tho. Still your basic shot is better than most other games at the time where all you have is a little pea shooter. The problem in Tiger-Heli is your limited range. The shots have a bit of wide range but only go about a little close to halfway across the screen, so in some situations, you' gonna have to shoot the enemies close up, which can be dangerous. But thankfully you aren't completely defenseless. Tiger-Heli was actually one of the earliest examples of the Auto-Bomb system that most games in the genre would implement to some degree. As long as you have bombs saved, they'll activate instantly and try to take out the enemies within its range. It's pretty handy in a pinch but it's not much compared to what these kinds of bombs are in more advanced shooters. Like a lot of the more bullet hell shooters have complete screen clearing bombs. Most Cave shmups have these, like Mushihimesama, Dodonpachi series and Deathsmiles. One odd thing about Tiger-Heli is that the game keeps count of how many times you've shot bullets. It counts up to 15 times, but the number is actually invisible. That max count of 15 actually matters tho. As a little car drives across the screen in certain parts of each stage, and shooting it gives you bonus points. It's a pretty cool secret. In the original arcade and NES port, you probably would have no way of knowing about this, but even if you did, you'd have to make a mental note of each time you pressed the fire button. Luckily in the M2 release, they have the Gadgets that you can toggle on or off. The Gadgets show various thins like the stage map, gives you information and stats on enemy ships, guide you to where the secret items are and more. It even shows how many times you shot bullets and displays the numbers from 0-15 so you can keep track of it. This game doesn't really have any bosses at the end of the stage or even mid bosses. So the game just kinda infinitely loops lol.
Kyuukyoku Tiger aka Twin Cobra is like that too, no real ending. This game is where the more modern stuff begins. with proper power ups. There's a spread shot, a more focused laser like, a green shot that targeted enemies I believe, and the bizarre yellow shot that shots one row of beams up, and one that shoots on both the left and right. It's so weak, almost feels like being punished fir grabbing it by accident. I honestly like Tiger-Heli more for whatever reason, but Twin Cobra is fine. I just kinda hate the way the game is difficult. It's mostly difficult due to enemies trying to suicide bomb your ass and always to have pinpoint accurate aim, so you're probably gonna be dying a lot. I haven't put as much time into Kyuukyoku Tiger/Twin Cobra itself funny enough, I don't know but I think Tiger Heli is a ton of fun tho! So the collection actually contains the console and arcade versions of both games. You get both Tiger-Heli's Japanese and US arcade versions and the NES and Famicom ports. And for Kyuukyoku Tiger, you get the original Japanese arcade, Twin Cobra the western arcade game, and the PC Engine and Mega Drive ports. For whatever reason, the Sharp X68000 and FM Towns ports and their remixed songs are completely absent. Such a huge shame. The usual bells and whistles with robust training, mode, a mission mode, scaling and resolutions options, tate mode option, awesome scanlines that are well done.
There's actually 2 bonus games included in this collection that aren't shooters. There's Get Star aka Guardian, which was an early Toaplan side scrolling beat em up kinda like Kung Fu for NES. You just walk in a single direction and react to incoming enemies with punches and kicks. Apparently the game did poorly and was pretty much forgotten about. I think it's pretty fun for what it is, and it could've easily gotten a home conversion if it had been popular. The other game is Teki Paki which is a puzzle game which is kinda like PuyoPuyo but you can stack the blocks diagonally and still get the 4 in a row. This game can get super fast and it feels so stressful when the blocks start falling at like hyperspeed or something. I'm not amazing at puzzle games but this is a fun bonus that they included. I'm really looking forward to the future Toaplan Arcade Garage releases. Hopefully within a year or 2 we can finally get Truxton/Tatsujin, Batsugun, Truxton 2/Tatsujin Ou (which only ever got a home port on the goddamn FM Towns) and of course Zero Wing. We gotta see All Your Base Are Belong to Us in the trailer or back of the box. The newest release they have planned for April 2022 is a compilation of Hishouzame (Flying Shark/Sky Shark) and Same! Same! Same! (Fire Shark). which is gonna be called Hishou Same! Same! Same! Just like with the Kyuukyoku Tiger release, it'll come with the Japanese and western versions of both Flying Shark and Fire Shark, the NES port of Sky Shark and the Mega Drive/Genesis ports of Fire Shark. It'll also include Wanderer, an arcade action platformer that was one of the earliest ports on the Genesis. There's also a home port on the Famicom Disc System. M2 always does a great job bringing back classic shmups and other arcade games and while this collection isn't for everyone, eventually we'll get to the top tier highly requested games, so hopefully they'll all release on the same set of consoles in the meantime.
Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown / バーチャファイターeスポーツ
(PS4/Arcade. Developer: Sega AM2/Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, Publisher: SEGA. 2021)
KAGE MARU HAGAKURE RYU-JUJUTSU!!!! IZUNA OTOSHI!!! YEAAAARRRRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I literally only play Kage Maru in this game, and it's a ton of fun. So Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is basically VF5 Final Showdown for the arcade/360/PS3 but with the Dragon Engine that was first used in Yakuza 6, which has given the game a total graphics makeover. For now it's exclusive to PS4 and was actually free as part of PS+ when it debuted earlier in the year, so arguably it's the most accessible entry in terms of just getting the game. Sucks that the only home version PS4 tho, really hope it can come to PC and Xbox, or a possible future entry, more about that at the end of this segment. In Japan it's called Virtua Fighter eSports (VFes), similar to what they did with PuyoPuyo eSports (aka PuyoPuyo Champions in the west), which is meant to evoke a more serious and competitive spirit. So yeah VFes is what I'm gonna be calling it as we keep going. What exactly is new in VFes? Well not a whole lot aside from the graphics, some improved online features and new UI/music etc, but what is here is still amazing. As a DOA fan, VFes was pretty easy to pick up, especially since Akira/Pai/Sarah/Jacky were guest characters in DOA5 so I was already familiar with their movesets. What sets the game apart is obviously the lack of holds, and a lot of very subtle things that you'd only really notice after sinking a lot of time into the game. Things like tick throws are much more viable and actually strong in this game, where you do a weak jab to catch someone off guard or keep them blocking, and before they can react, you throw them. Another that's different from DOA but on a more surface level, is that VF is hard, and you'll definitely learn firsthand what makes it so tough. It's extremely fast paced, there's tons of mixup options that all the characters have. Command grabs, throws that confirm off hit etc. Ground game is extremely good as well, being on the floor can be pretty dangerous, you can easily get hit by a low hit, there's the big stomping moves of course, and obviously there's some characters with throws that work on grounded opponents. Honestly the worst thing for me (which can also work to my advantage) is how in most cases you don't immediately hit the ground, there's like this little floor splat animation and that can leave you or the opponent open for a follow up. It's great for characters like Kage actually, who's able to take advantage of this pretty easily where he can easily end combos with like 2P 2P+KK where he does that cool flip kick. There's also that bound mechanic where if you do certain moves like Kage's G+K either when the opponent is in mid air or if you're comboing them a certain way and they haven't done a full floor splat yet, it forced the oppoent to sorta stand up while still stuck in hitstun, opening them up for a brutal follow up. Pretty much every character has this, and whenever a really good player would do full combos and then add in a bound, damn that's just massive damage.
I literally only play Kage Maru in this game, and it's a ton of fun. So Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is basically VF5 Final Showdown for the arcade/360/PS3 but with the Dragon Engine that was first used in Yakuza 6, which has given the game a total graphics makeover. For now it's exclusive to PS4 and was actually free as part of PS+ when it debuted earlier in the year, so arguably it's the most accessible entry in terms of just getting the game. Sucks that the only home version PS4 tho, really hope it can come to PC and Xbox, or a possible future entry, more about that at the end of this segment. In Japan it's called Virtua Fighter eSports (VFes), similar to what they did with PuyoPuyo eSports (aka PuyoPuyo Champions in the west), which is meant to evoke a more serious and competitive spirit. So yeah VFes is what I'm gonna be calling it as we keep going. What exactly is new in VFes? Well not a whole lot aside from the graphics, some improved online features and new UI/music etc, but what is here is still amazing. As a DOA fan, VFes was pretty easy to pick up, especially since Akira/Pai/Sarah/Jacky were guest characters in DOA5 so I was already familiar with their movesets. What sets the game apart is obviously the lack of holds, and a lot of very subtle things that you'd only really notice after sinking a lot of time into the game. Things like tick throws are much more viable and actually strong in this game, where you do a weak jab to catch someone off guard or keep them blocking, and before they can react, you throw them. Another that's different from DOA but on a more surface level, is that VF is hard, and you'll definitely learn firsthand what makes it so tough. It's extremely fast paced, there's tons of mixup options that all the characters have. Command grabs, throws that confirm off hit etc. Ground game is extremely good as well, being on the floor can be pretty dangerous, you can easily get hit by a low hit, there's the big stomping moves of course, and obviously there's some characters with throws that work on grounded opponents. Honestly the worst thing for me (which can also work to my advantage) is how in most cases you don't immediately hit the ground, there's like this little floor splat animation and that can leave you or the opponent open for a follow up. It's great for characters like Kage actually, who's able to take advantage of this pretty easily where he can easily end combos with like 2P 2P+KK where he does that cool flip kick. There's also that bound mechanic where if you do certain moves like Kage's G+K either when the opponent is in mid air or if you're comboing them a certain way and they haven't done a full floor splat yet, it forced the oppoent to sorta stand up while still stuck in hitstun, opening them up for a brutal follow up. Pretty much every character has this, and whenever a really good player would do full combos and then add in a bound, damn that's just massive damage.
That's not even going into all the different stances characters have, super specific moves that only work from behind, unique throws that behave differently if you're near a wall etc. Some characters like Jacky can literally just parry a high punch by just standing there which can be pretty hilarious. Lei Fei and Kage Maru have stances, and various moves that combo and then lead into the stances, creating tons of mixup options, There's plenty of things to take into account, and similar to DOA the stages are also just as important. Walls and fences can help extend combos, and trap you in a smaller fighting area. You can also break the damn walls if you knock someone into them, either during the match or after the round ends. Wall breaks can also lead to Ring Outs, which are self explanatory. Some stages just straight up have no walls, so you need to learn to use the environment your advantage. There's just so much shit to keep track of within the game's fighting system that not many other 3D games have, probably only Tekken and DOA to an extent are as deep with a lot of small underlying mechanics that can really make or break a match. It's a game that greatly rewards player skill, knowledge of the stages and characters. I think it drives you to wanna get better at it, I know it did for me.
So besides the mechanics there's also a few modes, like the usual Arcade, offline VS, ranked/lobby match and character customization. Ranked and Lobbies are obvious, but the online isn't as bad as people keep making it out to be. It's not rollback but whatever they're doing with the servers it's managed to run smoothly most of the time. I've had tons of matches against Japanese players and didn't much of an issue. Overall out of the hundreds of matches I've had, only a very small amount were super laggy. Obviously that doesn't apply to everyone but as long as you're playing wired, you should be good. character customization is pretty neat. It's pretty toned down compared to Final Showdown and I believe previous entries like VF4 Evo and even VF5FS, but what's here is probably enough to try and make your character stand out from the others. You can choose from a base outfit of 4 different types, and the change the colors, headgear or head accessories, pants/shirts/shoes etc. There's also non customizable dlc costume like VF1 style blocky polygon costumes for everyone, and the new Yakuza dlc costume pack. Everyone gets a costume. It's been said recently in some interviews that SEGA made VFes as a testing ground, to gauge interest in the market and see if people give a shit about VF. From what was said, they reached over 8 million downloads from PS+ within a month or so, and they said both the downloads and the dlc sales were above their expectations. So the future is actually looking bright Virtua Fighter. After over a decade with out a new entry that isn't just an update, it could probably happen if SEGA is smart enough to add in stuff people want. Multiplatform release including PC, Rollback online, Quest Mode, and anything else that can help it sell. SEGA's been doing pretty good in the past few years, so hopefully Virtua Fighter can bounce back and make its grand return. And hopefully DOA as well, if we're lucky. An amazing fighting game that's a ton of fun, and a series that potentially has a bright future ahead of it.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
(Xbone/PC/XbSeXS. Developer: 343 Industries, Publisher: Microsoft. 2014-2020.)
So I played the 3 main Halo games on my Xbox 360 last year, and I got a handheld PC that's good enough to run the Master Chief Collection, so that was the perfect excuse to finally sink my teeth into the Halo online multiplayer. Halo MCC is a collection of all the Halo games from 1-4 and Reach. Originally this game was a train wreck at launch but has become pretty amazing in the years since. They did a lot to win back some good will and the games look and play great. Halo 3 has never looks so good. You're able to play all of the campaigns both alone or in co-op. You can just select any difficulty, choose skulls to change certain parameters that affect the campaign and even just pick whatever level you wanna start off from. It's great if you just wanna jump in and I don't know replay Silent Cartographer from Halo CE on legendary. I'm not really here to talk about the campaigns tho, as I did that last time for Halo 1-3 at least. I wanna take the time and gush about how much fun the multiplayer is. You have like endless options. You can select any match type, what Halo game it is, how many people can join and some other stuff. It's like this massive ocean. The most common one is Halo 3 Big Team Slayer. It's essentially a 8v8 team slayer match that's usually on the massive maps. It can get pretty chaotic and there's always people online, doesn't matter what time it is. I woke up at like 7am once on a Saturday morning and I was still able to find matches. The options for custom games is honestly insane. You can search for games that are active and have open space, you can even play Forge maps which can be absolutely whack, like everyone in the are doing huge jumps through the air only with energy swords, you hit each in the air and your corpse is just sent flying. It's so fun. Whenever I boot up the game, I pretty much just do it to do online matches. I'm not the best at the game, and yeah I've beaten 3 campaigns, but multiplayer is a different beast. People are so skilled so I tend to die a lot. Regardless of that's it's just pure fun. Besides custom games and modes, there's also character customization. You can make your Spartan look however you want. All the original armors and accessories from Halo 3 are available from the start, even the goddamn Hayabusa armor is here. That armor was included in the original version of Halo 3 as Bungie's way of thanking Team Ninja for including Spartan-458 in Dead or Alive 4, so the armor still being in MCC is pretty awesome. .
Master Chief Collection has a lot of extra reasons to keep playing aside from the game themselves. You can ear rewards from daily challenges and special events that happen all the time. And doing challenges like killing enemies in campaign, doing certain things in multiplayer missions help you unlock new armor and even weapon skins for your Spartans. There's cosmetics for Halo 2Anniversary, Halo 3, Reach and I'm pretty sure 4 as well. During the Xbox 20th anniversary last year, they had a massive celebration with events and even officially adding the Orion armor set for Halo 2 Anniversary. The Orion set is the name for the armor that's from the original beta version of Halo Combat Evolved, back when it was still a third person shooter for Mac computers. Wish it could've been in all multiplayer modes but oh well. Halo was one of the major pillars of online multiplayer on consoles, and means a lot to people, and I'm happy the series is still alive. And even if the newer games aren't as good, the collection helps keep the spirit of classic Halo alive. The legend will never die. Since Halo Infinite just released recently, now there will hopefully a new generation of players that will get into the classic games and see how amazing they are. Halo 3 is still a legendary game. It's sad that the original Xbox 360 servers for both Halo 3 and Reach are shutting down in January 2022. We still have the collection at least.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster / 真・女神転生 III NOCTURNE HD REMASTER
(Switch/PS4/PC. Developer/Publisher ATLUS. 2003-2021)
Another classic made new again. I talked about SMT3 Nocturne all the way back in 2016, after I had first played it. I liked it back then, but I love it more now. I have a newfound appreciation for the game as a whole, and it was a fun revisit to get me familiar with the game again, and to experience the new features of the remaster. There's not a whole lot that's different in this version but the stuff they did add is appreciated. The most important thing is that the remaster is based on the SMT3 Nocturne Maniax Chronicle edition, which came with Devil Summoner 2: Raidou vs King Abbadon in Japan. What that was, was essentially the Maniax version but swaps Dante with Raidou, and some small changes, but otherwise it's the same as the Dante version. If you want the whacky wahoo pizza man that badly, you're gonna have to pay up and get the Maniax DLC, but what happens is you essentially have 2 versions of the games but you technically cant't get Dante and Raidou in the party at the same time. Kinda reminds me of Pokemon having 2 versions lol. Another thing is that Dante finally has pierce, so he's not inferior to Raidou, and is useful for the true demon ending final boss (oh I'll get to that later). In terms of being a remaster, the game runs in full HD and with widescreen now so that's cool, and overall the game looks pretty sharp and is easier on the eyes compared to when I played it on the PS3, when it so many jaggies because of the lack of anti-aliasing. The one big gripe people have about this remaster however is the fact that the music hasn't been changed in any way. The original PS2 version of Nocturne had to have a lot of the music files compressed in order to squeeze everything onto the disc, and when Maniax and Maniax Chronicle came out, only the new music was uncompressed like the battle music in the Labyrinth of Amala and Dante/Raidou's battle theme. It's doesn't really bother me to be honest but I get why it annoys people. But it doesn't really take away from the game. Besides the ability the use both Raidou or Dante (with pierce) and the changes to the aspect ratio and resolution, they added English and Japanese voice acting. The original game lacking voice acting for dialogue and cutscenes was actually the only major non-gameplay related pet peeve I had. The voice acting actually enhances the story in my opinion and helped me actually pay attention to the plot and care more about the world and characters. I actually grew to like characters I didn't care much about because of the new Japanese voice acting, seriously it's great.
Nocturne HD added some quality of life gameplay improvements. The only one that matters to be honest is the fact that when fusing demons, you finally have the ability to choose what magic and skills get transferred over, You can still make it random if you want, but why do that when they added in one of the best features from later entries. Oh besides Dante being DLC, they also added some easy level up and money DLC in case you either suck at the game or really don't wanna grind, but you could literally download merciful difficulty for free and turning on easy gives you so much money and exp with no penalty and you can freely change difficulties. My favorite one probably has to be the music DLC that comes with the main battle theme and world map theme from the previous numbered SMT games. So I mainly stuck with the SMT4 Apocalypse music since it has my favorite. Nocturne is the same great game it's always been, which is a tough as nails turn based RPG where you need to exploit enemies weaknesses in order to get press turns, which let you act again during battle. Press turns were introduced to the series starting with Nocturne and has become a staple in the mainline series and similar mechanics exist in spinoffs like Devil Survivor. Basically SMT has always been about using super effective moves, and taking advantage of these weaknesses to do massive damage. It's great when you're wailing on enemies and beating the shit out of them, but it also sucks ass when the enemies do it back to you, so it's always important to have either a diverse set of resistances or no weaknesses at all. To do that you obviously need demons, which can either be recruited through demon negotiation or by fusing two demons together. I mentioned earlier that one of the big additions to the remaster is being able to manually select transferred skills when fusing. It's arguably game changing because now you don't have to cancel and constant check the fusion results just to see what random set of moves you get, it's such a blessing. Now you can make the demons exactly how you want with all the passive skills, magic and attacks that you need. Back in the original PS2 game, I never managed to get Dante because apparently if you didn't finish the Labyrinth of Amala before entering the final dungeon, you were basically locked out of the True Demon Ending route. That sucked ass because I was really looking forward to crushing the final boss with him in my team lol.
Luckily I made up for it in the remaster by getting Raidou in my team. But that was honestly kinda tough. I played the game on Hard mode but even then, Raidou was a challenge for me. When I fight him the first time in front of the big building he completely destroyed me in one fucking attack! I was thrown off so much because I remember the first Dante battle being easy. So I had to grind a bit and prepare a better team, and won eventually. I fought them again in Amala and goddamn he was even tougher this time, but didn't take as many tries, since it's closer to endgame and you have much stronger demons and more resistances. But goddamn he did his almighty attack with Tsuchigumo and rekt me. Raidou can be pretty cheap because he can use Dekunda to get rid of any debuffs he has, use Taunt to lower your defense by 2 stages I believe and has a good amount of strong moves that either have a high chance of crit or just hit all enemies. And I haven't even gotten to the part where he's chasing you down. That shit was like a horror game. Motherfucker was slowly following me and chasing me around always like it was a goddamn Resident Evil game. It gave me a few jump scares, and if you bump into him early, before the actual second fight, he usually does this one almighty stinger attack that has a chance to instakill any enemy, and he usually aims for one of your demons, and then runs away. Shit is scary man. I'll never get over the jump scares he gave me, I really jumped up from my seat when I bumped into him. So I mentioned back when I first played Nocturne that I would clear the labyrinth and get the true demon ending, well I did. And it took a long ass time to do so. Raidou was tough, the labyrinth and it's many floors were tough and full of annoying tricks. Teleporters, trap floors, poison floors, some annoying puzzles, that fucking poisonous hallway, and of course tough bosses like Beelzebub. Oh my god getting to Beelzebub isn't hard if you know exactly how to get to him but the hells hallway is so brutal because you gotta walk through a hallway that damages you every step and is full of super strong random encounters that can kill you before you eve reach the giant bug man., You're far away from a save point, then you gotta fight the boss, so you gotta heal up before you battle him. And if you lose, you gotta repeat this whole process all over again. Beelzebub is super tanky, isn't really weak to anything and his AI goes berserk if you buff/dbuff too much, causing him to spam Death Flies and other moves that can just murder your team. Funny thing is that Metatron was a fucking pushover and I beat him on my first try. But the true final boss Lucifer? Oh god that took me forever to beat, and keep in mind I cleared it on hard mode.
Lucifer is an absolute nightmare to fight, and the toughest battle in the entire game. Not sure if he's tough than YHVH at the end of SMT4 Apocalypse but he's up there. Lucifer has zero weaknesses and resists everything, the only way to can damage him substantially is with pierce, so by the end of Nocturne you need to have a lot of physical based demons with high attack, and you gotta get pierce by buying the expensive Girimekhala in the labyrinth and spreading the passive skill to multiple demons through fusion. easiest way is to beak him down into an element which is like the most basic component for a demon and can fuse with like almost anything. Once you're as prepared as you could ever be in this game, it's time to beat the final boss Kagutsuchi and then battle Lucifer. This guys is fucking brutal, he completely destroy my team the first time, and the later 20 or 30 more I attempted to take him down. Lucifer completely crushed me, destroyed my team with no effort, taught me what it mean to be weak. He not only resists everything but also has over 300,000HP and not only that, but when he drops to about half health or lowerm he is ALWAYS scripted to use Diarahan once per battle to fully heal him, so in reality he has goddamn 500,000HP or something. This man is bullshit. And that's not even getting into the fact he can use Delibitate to lower all your stats at once, his normal attack has high chance of crit AND ignores physical resistences, so he can just give himself press turns, and can give your team a variety of annoying status conditions. He can put you in situations that are legit checkmate. Not only that but he also has 2 of the most bulllshit moves ever. High King is a move that hits the entire party, does CRAZY HIGH DAMAGE and if you have at least +2 Rakukaja and give debuff Lucifer to -2 attack, this move is either gonna kill your party, or leave close to death. But lowering the potential damage as much as possible is all you can do, and have paralysis resistance to avoid losing turns. Easily his strongest move. But arguably just as deadly and soul crushing is the Root of Evil. This move is complete bullshit, literally hit's just RNG effects. LUCIFER SUMMONED DARKNESS AND DISTORTED TIME is the last thing you wanna see, but the way this move looks is pretty awesome tho. What it does it give you a random status effect and does fixed damage that's RNG based, it's either you tak like 25% damage which has the highest chance of happening, 50% HP has a smaller chance of happening, and being left with only 1HP is the lowest chance.
Unfortunately for me, i got that last one to happen once, and it was soul crushing because I was doing really well in this battle. It takes like 20-30 minutes per attempt just to do all this, not counting reloading saves, loading and needing to fight Kagutsuchi every time just to get to him. So I grinded and grinded for like 2 weeks straight, non stop playing because I pretty much locked myself into this ending with no way out. My final team setup was basically Me with Pierce, Freikugel and Focus. Metatron with all the buffing/debuffing and support skills, he resisted basically everything I needed. Beelzebub also resisted everything, but I gave him Pierce, Hades Blast and Focus. and Delibitate just like with Meatron to support me. And then I swapped in both Shiva and Michael for resistances and support. Shiva was there to do pierce damage and provide support. While Michael nulls all magic so Lucifer couldn't use his fire or ice attacks to get free turns, which basically cancelled his turns completely. After 2 weeks of hell, endless grinding demon fusing and overall insanity, I defeated Lucifer and got the True Demon Ending. And I beat him WITHOUT Masakado's Magatama by the way. I felt so fucking happy, was like 3am and i was screaming that i finally defeated him, after so many failures. I feel so fucking accomplished. That being said, I never wanna fight him again on hard again. It really sucks that Uber Pixie couldn't be as useful since magic is so weak against him, and Raidou's lack of certain resistances, and power creep from my stronger demons caused him to get benched by the end, but he's still the most useful party member. After fighting Lucifer, him the Demi-Fiend and the army of demons set out to battle YHVH and bring an end to everything. The Anarchy/Massacre ending in Apocalypse is extremely similar to this, except you team up with Satan, and you actually do get to battle YHVH as the true last boss. But both are very Chaotic in nature and are both about killing god to take the throne and reshape or conquer the universe. Despite how brutally hard Lucifer was, I love Nocturne. It's a really special game, and I gained a new appreciation for it. I already said it, but I liked it on the PS2 but now I love it. one of Atlus' best RPGs ever, and the feeling you get after hearing the credits in True Demon Ending is something I'll never forget. I still feel that Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne is an underrated masterpiece.
NO MORE HEROES 1 & 2
(Wii. PS3/360(Heroes Paradise)/Switch/Luna/PC. Developer: Grasshopper Maufacturer, Publisher: Marvelous Entertainment/Ubisoft/Rising Star Games (JP/US/EU, Wii) Marvelous/XSEED (Switch/PC). 2007-2021.)
God this games has a lot of different versions and publishers wtf. Okay so I already played the original No More Heroes on the Wii, but never got around to finishing it because I just wasn't a fan of playing it with motion controls. But now we have this new remaster that's on PC and Switch so that's great. Originally these new ports of the first 2 games were only digital but I managed to get the JP No More Heroes III KILLION DOLLAR TRILOGY pack that comes with a physical copy of all 3 games, it's great! So with that, I figured it was the perfect time to finally go back and beat the original, and then experience the big sequel I never ended up getting. No More Heroes is an action hack n slash game developed by Grasshopper Manufacturer and originally published by Marvelous. The series and a lot of other games made by Grasshopper are usually the brainchild of one man called Goichi Suda aka Suda51. He's a bit of an auteur and makes a lot of strange, quirky and interesting games that tend to have a lot of personality in them. It's the kinda thing where you can look at a game and go "oh it was made by this guy!" His big hit that put him on the map before this series was the Gamecube/PS2 game called Killer7 which was an on rails FPS hybrid game about a dude with multiple personalities that and turns him into different people entirely. So after that he made this his next big thing. No More Heroes is about a dude called Travis Touchdown, a wrestling and anime otaku who wins a beam katana (no it's not a lightsaber) off of an ebay auction becomes an assassin to be ranked #1 in the world. Travis doesn't really care about being a killer but he's willing to put up with it if it means he gets to have sex with Sylvia, the woman arranging all these death matches. If he becomes #1 she'll do it with him, at least that's what he's hoping for. This guy lives in a rundown motel room that's full of anime and wrestling stuff, he even wears that Bizarre Jelly magical girl anime shirt. He's kind of an idiot who's selfish but has a good heart, and swears a lot. He's based on the guy from Jackass, Johnny Knoxville and a little bit of Suda51 himself. He's a pretty interesting character that starts off just doing the assassinations just to get with Sylvia but later starts to question if it's the right thing to do and even what the point is. He grows on you after a while. The game consists of the 3 core gameplay loops; main missions, side missions and going around the overworld. Main missions are part of the story and are usually full of these long action stages, boss battles, important cutscenes and some sort of stage gimmick, like a quick baseball minigame or Travis getting shocked and running super fast through a school hallway. Side Missions are basically jobs lol. To do the main story missions, you gotta deposit money in the ATM and to get money you gotta do jobs. There's 2 types of jobs, the assassinations' enemies with certain conditions like a time limit or failing if you get hit once, or needing to kill a specific enemy. And then there's actual labor. Stuff like mowing the grass, grabbing coconuts, picking up garbage, filling up cars with gas and using metal detectors to find stuff. The last one is the overworld. It's pretty big, honestly big for no real reason besides driving around on your motorcycle to look cool. Okay there's actual stuff you can do. It's pretty empty too with not much going on
The Overworld does have a few important places you can visit. There's shops to buy new clothes and movies, you can buy/upgrade weapons, you can work out, visit the job centers to do side missions etc. You can also go back to your motel room and do a few things. You're able to change your clothes which you'd think is kind of a pointless feature since it doesn't do anything gameplay wise, but i always kept changing outfits because it was fun. Heading to the gym out is important because it helps increase your overall HP and increases your damage, it's useful for the later parts of the game since enemies get a lot stronger and could easily wipe you out otherwise. At the video store Travis can buy wrestling tapes to watch so you can perform new finishing moves. And visiting Dr Naomi let's you buy new weapon and even upgrade your current ones. The combat in the game isn't super deep like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden but it has a beat'em up sort of feel to it. You can use heavy and light sword slashes, and mashing buttons is kinda encouraged. The last hit on enemies is a quick QTE where you move the control stick in a direction and slice the enemy to pieces. You can also hold the attack buttons to do a big sword swing that does huge damage, can break enemies' guards and the horizontal one can even hit everyone around you, it's pretty useful. You can't just go around spamming attacks all the time, because the beam katana has a meter that needs to recharge. So whenever the katana runs out of juice, Travis has to rub one out. It leaves you vulnerable so only stroke when you have time to yourself. There's also a kick move you can do, that can break their guard and daze them. When the enemies are dazed, you can grab them and pull of a wrestling move a with a quick QTE kill them earlier than you would with just the beam katana. It can be pretty satisfying to pull off because they just explode into a puff of smoke and blood. A lot of sword attacks can leave enemies knocked down on the floor, and that leaves them open to get finished off. Killing enemies gives you cash you need to either pay for missions or whatever else you need it for. There's items and other things scattered around the levels, things like upgrades and batteries to instantly recharge the the katana. Boss battles have some interesting gimmicks and whacky characters. There's a an old lady with a huge ass laser canon that can wipe anything out of existence, a high school ninja girl that doesn't hesitate to kill, and even a superhero called Destroyman. Shinobu the ninja girl was one of the hardest fights in the game, took forever to beat her because she's way faster than you, can deal a ton of damage and has a cheap instakill projectile. I defeated her eventually but damn it felt like a difficulty spike. I think it's a really good game with an interesting story, cast of characters and a unique and relatable protagonist. Oh yeah the music was alright and honestly was really hard to hear because of the bad sound balancing, where the music was too quiet and voices and sounds were too loud.
No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle is pretty interesting. They made efforts to up the ante, make the combat more fun and fluid, and address issues people had with the original game. For one, the big open map is gone in favor of a simple menu that just zips you from one area to the next. Nothing to really explore this time around. Travis has more clothing options this time around. You can change not just the jacket and shirt, but also the pants, gloves and shoes now. So you can make Travis look super awesome or completely stupid. The combat is way better here, although I'm not a fan of the camera being off to the side. I guess it gives it a sorta cinematic more action movie look, but I didn't like it, but it's something you forget about after a few hours. Travis isn't alone this time, as Shinobu has gotten a bit older, and has about 3 long missions where you get to play as her. She can even jump. Her gameplay is pretty different from Travis but being able to jump, do dive attacks and then wail on enemies. They gave Travis the ability to transform into a goddamn tiger which is a powered up state that activates when the ecstasy bar is full. I'm pretty sure it's like automatically activated, but what it does is let you run around and maul enemies to death. You can go on a killing spree wiping out mobs. Travis can also activate a sorta hyper mode where you can zip around and move super fast. You can a ton of attacks one after another, like the enemies are stuck in slow motion, and you're just like 5 times as fast, it's super satisfying to do and can wipe out foes in seconds. It's pretty fun. The original game had this slot machine thing that would randomly land on an effect like Strawberry on the Shortcake, and some others. One would let you wipe out enemies instantly with a projectile you could shoot, one of them was similar to the hyper speed in the sequel and I forget the other one. There's also this screen clearing super move Travis can do in the sequel that just instantly kills anyone near you. Enemies can still get knocked down in this game, and you can either finish them off right away or stomp on them a few times. You can keep stomping them out even after they run of out money to drop, it's honestly pretty funny. The big thing they added was this dual beam katana. It's one of the best weapons in the game and is great for combos and taking out anyone in your way.
My favorite weapon is actually the heavy red beam katana, it's a super long weapon and while it is slow, it actually does the most damage. You don't need money to access story missions anymore, so money is just for clothes, upgrades and working out, oh and feeding Travis' cat. The jobs from the previous game got replaced with these 8-bit style minigames. Some of them are pretty fun, my favorite is actually then pizza delivery one because it's basically Mach Rider. The game feels a lot louder and more over the top compared to the original. You fight a goddamn astronaut chucking giant rocks at you and has these giant lasers. Destroyman comes back but got split in half but both have their missing side replaced with a robotic half. There's this awesome bancho delinquent dude with a goddamn busouzoku motorbike who summons a fucking thunder dragon. And you fight a Quarterback and team of hoes that form a fucking megazord, so then Travis has to get his giant robot ant hen you have a giant kaiju style battle, wtf is goin on lol. Pretty cool games, I'd say try them out.
Tsukihime / 月姫
(PC. Developer/Publisher: TYPE-MOON. 2000)
So I realize that I've never covered a visual novel before, and I guess this is a first. I'm not a big visual novel guy, and to be honest there isn't really any gameplay to speak of besides making simple dialogue choices. So what exactly can I talk about? Well I'm basically gonna talk about the story, characters and the game's overall atmosphere. Tsukihime is an adult visual novel from from 2000 originally released by doujin circle Type-Moon at Comiket 59, and was actually the first game they ever released. After over a decade of people giving up on it and thinking it would never actually come out, the remake; Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon-, finally came out.... in Japan at least lol. In most ways, the remake is extremely faithful to the original work, but Kinoko Nasu; mastermind behind all the big Type-Moon stuff like this series and Fate; made some changes to the story. Either by moving things around like basically removing Chaos so he could possibly be saved for later and making a new character as a stand-in. Or just outright taking stuff out without a replacement, like removing all the hentai lol. Tsukihime follows the story of Shiki Tohno, an ordinary high school student that ends up in a series of bloody events after almost dying from a severe accident at a young age. He wakes up in a hospital but the world around him looks different. He see these "lines" all over the place; on floors and walls, all manor of objects and even on people. He later meeting a mysterious woman with long red hair, telling him that he's been given very special eyes. While those eyes are indeed special, they'll eventually make him go mad if it puts too much of a strain on him. So she ends up giving him special glasses that make his eyes see things normally, so he can resume his normal life. He eventually grows up with his foster family the Arima clan, which are related to the Tohno lineage. Shiki has been living at the Arima residence for a few years, and was originally disowned by his father for being so weak and was sent to the Arima family, seemingly because Shiki was that frail. Shiki gets a letter telling him that his old man had passed away, and is called back to the Tohno residence, he moves back into the mansion he live in as a child. Shiki's old man didn't leave him much besides a knife that doesn't seem too important, but it does get useful later on. At the house, Shiki ends up meeting with his sister Akiha for the first time since he had left. Akiha tells Shiki that's supposed to be the head of the household now but still has to go to school. She comes off as a cold person who's harsh towards her brother, but deep down cares about him a lot, and even has a crush on him. She's more like a tsundere but not really one dimensional. There's also Hisui and Kohaku, the maids. Hisui is a pretty quiet and reserved who can come off as very obedient and robotic, simply just doing the orders she's told. She does a lot of the house work and was assigned to be Shiki's servant. But Hisui can also be very shy sometimes. Kohaku is the total opposite, she's more carefree and playful girl. She's the one cooking the food and is more laid back, even letting Shiki sneak out at night or hang out in her room to watch TV. They're both pretty good supporting characters, they even have their own unlockable story routes.
He ends up meeting Ciel, an upperclassman that he seemingly knows already despite it being the first time they've met. she's a major character and is the main heroine in one of the many routes or endings that you can get. The other important heroine is Arcueid, a mysterious woman with piercing red eyes. She's actually the main heroine and is honestly more important than Shiki himself. Tsukihime is basically the story of Arcrueid but I have no idea which route is even canon. When Shiki first sees Arcueid, he was immediately captivated by her appearance, and ends up following her. He ends up following her to her house, basically stalking the woman, and in an instant cuts her up into pieces, immediately killing Arcueid. Shiki realizes what he did and chooses to either deny what he did or just accept it based on what you pick. Some time later he eventually sees Arcrueid again but claims it's impossible because he cut her up to pieces. It turns out to actually be the same girl from earlier, but she's completely unharmed. Arcueid is actually a vampire and was basically sneak attacked and sliced to pieces buy Shiki, forcing her to regenerate her body.
The reason Shiki was able to cut her down so easily is because the eyes that allow him to see those "lines'." I talked about earlier. The eyes he has are actually called the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, nice pun. And the "lines" he sees are essentially can see death itself, since whatever "lines" Shiki cuts, it's instantly sliced open. Dude can even cut buildings. If he just cuts the "lines" lol. Arcueid tells him that she's on the hunt for a killer vampire that's been responsible for the murders going on in his town, and she needs to put an end to him using Shiki's abilities. To sum things up, Tsukihime is basically about Shiki and Arcueid trying to to find the killer vampire, and how their relationship develops throughout the story. Obviously since it's not much of a game, and is all story, I won't really spoil the rest. But for anyone curious about the story, I recommend reading Tsukihime, it can get kinda emotional and overall the story was really fascinating and Nasu's writing style was both enjoyable and kinda annoying because words like senpai get repeated constantly and things that are simple to explain were like overly explained and it honestly kept confusing me. Like come on man, try to be simple. Aside from some nasty dead ends that can have you banging your head against a wall wondering wtf how do I keep getting the same bad ending, it was a good way to get your feet wet into the deep ocean that is not only Tsukihime and it's extended media like Kogetsu Tohya and Melty Blood, but into the goddamn Nasuverse itself. Not sure if Nasu is a genius with great ideas or he's up his own ass, but I enjoyed the game so idk maybe the former. I'm thinking of getting the other endings so I can fully understand the world and overall plot besides the one ending I got. But I don't think I'm gonna dive deep enough to get through the brick wall that is the Fate series tho. Still a pretty enjoyable story and was a good read. A little too wordy tho, Kinda like this segment.
MELTY BLOOD: Actress Again Current Code
(PC/Arcade/PS2(AC/AACC). Developer: Watanabe Seisakujo(French-Bread)/Ecole Software (AC). Publisher: TYPE-MOON/SEGA/Ecole Software/ArcSystem Works (PC/Arcade/PS2/Steam 2003-2016)
Oh god lots of publishers again... Oh hey it's Melty Blood. Now this is more up my alley, finally we can talk about this game. So Melty Blood is actually a spinoff doujin fighting game made by Watanabe Seisakujo another small doujin team that eventually turned into a legit game company called French Bread. And they made one of the best fighting games in the past decade; UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH!!!! So considering how much I gushed about UNI in the past, I figured that I owed it to myself to play their original big time game, and that's what I did. This game has a long history, originally starting out as another Comiket release as a collaboration between Type-Moon and the team that would later become French Bread. It has like 4 different versions and different versions of THOSE versions, it can get very confusing. Just know that Actress Again Current Code is the latest version, and seemingly the one use for western tournaments on PC and in JP tournaments in the arcades. Some of the Japanese arcades that I follow on youtube stream this game often lol. Melty Blood takes place a year after Tsukihime (after the Satsuki route that doesn't exist) but you don't need to understand the story of the source material to enjoy the game. However, knowing the world and characters of Tsukihime greater enhances the experience, since there's lots of small things there for fans that you wouldn't understand without that knowledge. As for the actual game, well there's a lot to like. Both French Bread and Type-Moon really put their all into this and it shows. The game has tons of characters to choose from, and technically there's way more than what's on the character screen because of the Moons styles, which remind me a lot of the isms (V-ism etc) from Street Fighter Alpha 3, and even the Groove system of Capcom vs SNK 2 (C-Groove, S-Groove etc). There's 3 Moons for each character which consists of a crescent moon, full moon and half moon. And they all have their advantages.
The Crescent Moon is the normal style of play and was what the characters more or less played like in previous versions, you can string together longer combos and even do normals and air attacks in whatever order, aka the Reverse Beat. So you could start a combo with a heavy, then press light jab, into a mid hit etc There's a lot of emphasis on meter usage in Crescent Moon, where you can activate this such as the Heat Mode, which can restore any red health that you have, basically just regeneration. Max Mode, there's some other stuff like the dedicated dodge mechanic. That one works both on the ground and in the air and allows you to avoid moves, and if you air combos, you can cancel air htis into a dodge for around 50% meter. There's EX guard which is similar to advancing guard in the Marvel vs Capcom games. Characters have normals or specials that they can only do in Cresent Moon and vice versa. So much shit to remember. There's also air combos and air throws in this game, most characters have a md air throw, and there's really a lot of options that you have. It's an extremely deep game, but lemme get back to discussing the other moon styles.
Half Moon has really good combo ability but is weaker than Crescent Moon. Main difference is being able to use 6AA to 5A which can extend combos, a lack of an EX guard, less meter management and probably some other stuff. Full Moon is power based, and while combos are more limited, you're rewarded with a lot of damage and some meter management similar to the Crescent Moon, even having a max meter up to 300%. Characters have different moves based on these moon styles and in tier lists, top players even rank the characters differently based on which version of them. The atmosphere of this game is amazing and so is the music. There's a lot of jazzy and techno sounding tunes. Some relaxing ones that don't exactly sounds like they would fit a fighting game but work perfectly. A lot of hard rock tunes with some awesome guitar rifts, some funky hip hop sounding stuff. There's so much variety in the soundtrack it's amazing, I could listen to it all day. RAITO is an amazing composer and the soundtrack across all versions just has so many great tracks that are good enough to listen outside of the game itself. All the characters are really cool too. I mostly play Ciel and Sion in this game. Ciel can do a lot of really cool combos with Crescent Moon and has an air throw, tons of knife projectiles that can be thrown in different directions and one special that lets her throw them in mid air. She has a goddamn flash kick that can even be used in the air mid combo, you can cancel normals into EX moves, so you can do lik a flash kick into an ex flash kick. She has a jump move that changes where she jumps depending on what button you press, like the light version has her jump backwards on the side of the screen, and can jump back all the way across the screen, and you can use this momentum to air throw. There's attacks that can OTG, hitting people while they're down in that floor splatting animation, kinda like I mentioned with Virtua Fighter. You cant't get super long combos out of it, but the fact you can get anything out of it is great. I love the freedom you have with experimenting and trying to learn combos on your own. Makes me remember back when fighting games werent's as restrictive and weren't all about needing meter to any kind of substantial damage. It works for games like King of Fighters, but not every game benefits from having high damaging stuff being locked behind EX moves, super cancels and all that. Like you can do that in this game, but even without meter there's a lot to explore. Melty Blood has become one of my favorite fighting games, and it even got me to read Tsukihime and learn more about the goddamn Nasuverse. So anyways, play Melty Blood, it's great. It has Neco Arc.
Oh yeah there's actually a brand new Melty Blood game that came out to coincide with the Tsukihime remake. I think it's a really good game, but I wanted to dedicate the segment to the original game. But Melty Blood Type Lumina is totally worth your time if you enjoy anime fighters, it has a new auto combo system that's both helpful but annoying because it's so easy to trigger it accidentally but yeah, besides that and a kinda small roster, great game. Personally, AACC is the better game but it doesn't take away from how fun Type Lumina is. It's on current platforms even the goddamn Xbox AND has rollback netcode, so I recommend checking out both to be honest.
Star Fox Assault / スターフォックス アサルト
(GameCube. Developer: Namco, Publisher Nintendo. 2005)
EDF EDF EDF!!!!!!!Oh wait wrong game, but that's basically what Star Fox Assault is, and it's awesome. I remember playing Star Fox 64 3D on the 3DS and I cleared it once, but didn't the game was anything all that special. I was recommended Star Fox Assault because of the crazy plot and the on foot sections. Star Fox Assault is a direct follow up to Star Fox Adventures but keeps the same gameplay from the previous games, so it's back to being an arcade style on rails shooter. The game was actually a collaboration between Nintendo and Namco, with staff from the Ace Combat series working on it. So I mentioned the on foot sections but let me talk about the other ones first. The first gameplay style is obviously the air combat, just like in Star Fox 64, you fly around, do barrel rolls, shoot down bogeys, throw smart bombs and even collect those golden rings. The levels are pretty varied with distinct environments. You start off in the asteroid field with all these giant rocks flying all over the place, you shooting them down, shooting down enemies, it's great. You're going through jungles, space ships and other types of areas. Boss battles usually consist of giant robotic or organic enemies you need to blast away until they finally die. But there's also the all range battles like against Star Wolf, where you're in a small area and you need to do barrel rolls and flips to avoid getting shot, and keep tailing Wolf and his team to shoot them down. The other gameplay style which some people don't like but I honestly don't know what's wrong with them, are the on foot missions. I was typing in EDF in the beginning and that's literally what the gameplay is. Running around in these big maps, giant blaster, taking down aliens, mechs and anything that gets in the way.
Yeah get outta here you damn aliens. Machine guns, laser canons, you name it, just run n gun and mow them all down EDF style! You start off with Fox's basic gun which isn't all that weak and some guns are more effective against certain enemies. You can even do a big charge shot by holding the fire button, and you can lock on to enemies too. You can jump around, strafe, roll to avoid attacks. It's crazy how similar the gameplay is to EDF, it's basically Star Fox X Earth Defense Force! Mowing down alien after alien isnt't all you do while on food, there's also a lot of mission objectives you need to take care of. Some areas have you deactivating stuff by pressing some switches, there's these walls you need to blow up to get access to new areas, points you need to defend against hordes and some other stuff. You don't always need to be on foot tho, you're even able to use arwings and the landmaster. Landmaster is the last style of play where you're basically in a huge battle tank, you can run over and blast enemies. You.re able to still do barrel rolls and even hover in the air to reach higher areas. Sometimes there's walls in the game that need to be destroyed in order to reach the next objective or those areas are hiding weapons/items.
The story is pretty interesting. Andross isn't even the main villain for once. Team Star Fox were on a basic mission taking down some bad guys (specifically that one monkey dude related to Andross) when some freaky robotic bugs show up and start taking over everyone in the Lylat system. It's like the flood from Halo got in here, oh god I hate the flood. Everyone gets taken over, even General Pepper. Peppy fucking sacrifices himself and dies like a badass. Crazy shit The aliens are called Aparoids and are freaky. The bugs almost take over the entire Lylat system, and Fox and Wolf have to team up to stand a chance. I thought this part was really cool, the good guys and bad guys putting aside their differences for the greater good.. The action in this game is great but the music is something I never hear people talk about. Sucks for them because this music is really damn good. It's a full orchestral soundtrack that feels this big epic sci-fi movie, It helps elevate the game, and make it feel pretty special. The sweeping orchestra, the nonstop action, quick and responsive gameplay all make up what makes Star Fox Assault awesome. It's not a super long game and there's some replay value with replaying the game on higher difficulties, and medals to collect too, so you can unlock Xevious lol. There's a multiplayer mode which I didn't get to try yet but it's the same as the ground combat so it's probably good. This game is a ton of fun and you should try it out.
Cotton Reboot! / コットンリブート！
(Switch/PS4/PC. Developer: Studio SiestA/Rocket Engine. Publisher: BEEP. 2021)
So I don't what the hell happened but suddenly 2021 turned out to be not only an amazing year for shmups in general but also the 30th anniversary of the Cotton series! The Cotton games started all the way back in 1991 on the SEGA System 16 arcade board. Originally created by Success, Cotton seemingly helped to popularize the cute em up subgenre of shmups and was a huge hit, it's a classic series and is often overlooked even by shmup fans in my opinion. I always knew about the Cotton games as I remember watching a lot of retro gaming stuff on youtube as a teenager, and games like this and Mushihimesama Futari made me more interested in older titles, and I don't know why it took so long to get into Cotton but I'm glad I did now, I guess an anniversary is the perfect time to not only revive a classic series that's been dormant for so long, but to help introduce it to a new generation of people, including me. Success actually still exists and they had big plans for the series anniversary. What we got was Cotton Reboot; a remake of the original Cotton. This game is amazing and I'm gonna gush all about, but I also wanted to mention the 3 other projects; Cotton + Guardian Force Saturn Tribute which are ports of Cotton 2/Boomerang and Guardian Force; which is one of Success' other Saturn/arcade shmups. Then there's the re-releases of Panorama Cotton for the Mega Drive and Cotton 100% for the Super Famicom. I haven't had the chance the play them yet, but based on the porting studio's previous work with Gley Lancer (another Mega Drive game), I'm sure the emulation quality is top notch and hopefully has good scanline filters. And the final one is Cotton Rock n Roll, and all new Cotton game from Success for Switch/PS4 and the arcade. I really wanted to include it in this years list but at the time of writing my copy hasn't even arrived yet and it's only like a day or 2 left in the year at the time of writing .-. (update: I got the game! But might not be able to add it to this years list since I haven't had time to play for more than like an hour due to needing to finish up this blog post and you know, life stuff lol.).So I guess I can add it into the 2022 list and maybe the other Cotton games as well.
The Cotton Saturn tribute is a great idea and the games themselves are top notch but here's the issue: all of the games in the Saturn Tribute were originally STV Titan arcade and Sega Saturn games and while the collection is awesome the emulation unfortunately has like 10 fucking frames of input lag. Main reason for this is the fact that the original games themselves already had a few frames of lag built in natively, but the main issue is the fact the collection is emulated using a version of a Saturn emulator that's notoriously laggy, so it's lag on top of lag that ruins an otherwise great collection. So either City Connection didn't a great job getting these games to run, even on PS4 it lags a bit, or there's not much that can be done. They did say that they're working hard on a patch to address the issue but I can only hope that it actually helps. on the upside if you have a hacked Switch, you can inject Sega Saturn ISOs into the actual emulator the collection runs on and play other games like Radiant Silvergun or even Fighters Megamix and Daytona USA. It's a really intersting thing that you can do and maybe if modders care enough, maybe they can figure out the input lag lol.
Anyways Cotton Reboot is the game we're actually talking about, but I felt that mentioning the issues with the collection was important because people keep getting them confused. Reboot actually has a reported 3 frames of lag or so. Cotton Reboot is a remake of the original 1991 arcade game Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams made by Success and originally released by SEGA, The new Reboot game was created by Studio SiestA, a doujin studio that made a really awesome shmup called Trouble Witches, which funny enough had Cotton herself as a playable dlc guest character. (By the way, you should get Trouble Witches on Steam, it's a really good game.) The gameplay of Reboot is honestly the highlight for me. At first it feels like a standard yoko shmup but the more you play it, as with any good shmup in the genre, the layers begin to peel off and the deeper mechanics for scoring and survival really begin to present themselves without it being too obvious. I've put in a good amount of hours into Reboot and actually almost got a normal 1CC (but I died at the final boss...) The game is also really accessible to newcomers and even if you don't plan on getting a 1cc no miss clear, the game is just pure fun. So what sets Cotton apart from other games is the unique leveling system, the gems and the magic. There's actually RPG elements in this and not really something arbitrary like needing to be a certain level or whatever to deal damage, well sorta but it doesn't feel that way. Killing enemies and grabbing yellow or orange gems increase your EXP, and leveling up gives you slightly more powered up shots. Usually by the second stage you'll be fully powered up. Gems not only tie into leveling up but tie into the magic system and scoring as well.
Regarding scoring, gems actually change color when you shoot them, so if you need a certain color right away you gotta shoot it a few times which also helps keep the gems on screen. Gems also tie into the new fever mechanic, where once activated, gives you tons of points if you keep shooting at the gems as the more you shoot and the more you keep at it, the higher the multiplier goes which is one of the major keys to the scoring system. When this happens, the screen gets flooded with HUGE NUMBERS which is both amazing and a little distracting. Shooting gems can change their color to black, which actually give you bonus points. There's actually a way to change make all gems on screen gems in black gems, but I'll get into it when I talk about how magic works. Turning them into black gems gives you a ton of points and helps if you're trying to rack up extends or obviously if you're aiming for high scores. So combine the the black gems with the fever mechanic, and it's a scoring frenzy! So to actually use magic you need gems, which consists of red/blue/green/purple gems that all have their own unique attacks and attributes. Using these is just a simple tap of the magic button, but if you hold the button down and then let go, you get a more defensive spell. So going back to the leveling up for a second, grabbing the same type of gem once you reach the max you can carry, actually levels up the spell for that gem, so all the way up to level 3 actually. In total you can hold around 5 gems.
The Red Gem shoots out a giant fire dragon and once you move it stays in the spot you summoned it and goes across the screen. The range of it is pretty huge and generally does good damage. Level 1 for one dragon, 2 for 2 dragons and level 3 shoots out a HUGE DRAGON! And the defensive spell summons fire balls that auto target enemies. The blue gem normally gives you a laser that goes across the screen and follows you as you move around so you can just go up and down the screen, clearing enemies in sight. Level 2 is more powerful and level 3 covers the entire screen. Holding the button gives you a bubble that protects you from projectiles for a short time, and honestly you need it for some segments or at least it makes those segments less stressful. The green gem summons huge rocks from above that can clear the whole screen. Level 2 and 3 i believe just last longer, and the defensive shot, i kinda forget what it does exactly. The purple gem shoots a bomb like attack that drops onto enemies, the level 2 and 3 create more explosions so you can use it to clear a bunch of surrounding enemies or maybe save it for a boss and attack its weak point for massive damage. The defensive shot is probably my favorite mainly because it turns all the gems on screen into the black gems, which i mentioned earlier is useful for scoring. So if you use your magic right and understand the mechanics you can actually get an extend after clearing the first stage or even before the first boss. This game is pretty generous with extends, so you can have around 5 lives total by the time you reach the last boss. You can also earn extra points and extends during Tea Time, which is like a little challenge after clearing the stage. You gotta collect the tea cups as they from from the top of the screen. You actually don't need to get them tho. If you actually dodge all tea cups you get the SECRET BONUS, which gives you ton of points, and of course the number of magic you have remaining, and even getting a No Miss on the stage adds more points to your score, so like I said, scoring frenzy.
The game has a lot to keep you coming back for more: there's the survival mode which is just like a massive score junkie mode. The fairy Silk is unlockable after clearing the game, and Appli from Cotton 2 was added in an update I think, and they both play slightly different from Cotton. The best bonus feature is a brand new port of the Sharp X68000 version of the original game. A lot of people have said that the X68K version itself is a "better than arcade perfect" port and the ideal way of playing the original Cotton aside from the PC Engine version. And this modern port is a pretty good way of enjoying it, and way more accessible too! The emulation seems accurate to the original X68K version without too much lag, and there's only a tiny bit of noticeable shimmering when the screen scrolls but you get used to it. Only reason I haven't put as much time into it is the lack of a turbo function, I'd rather have a turbo button or the option to just hold the button to shoot instead of just having to mash the fire button. Besides that one oversight, this is a great inclusion. Only other gripe in Cotton Reboot is the lack of any type of training mode or stage select to make it easier to practice certain stage or bosses. Since it doesn't that means you gotta get better the old school way and just brute force through trial and error These minor flaws aside, this game is amazing and is probably the shmup I've put the most time into in 2021. One of the absolute best shmups to come out this year, not counting a lot of the great ports and re-releases. 100% recommended from me, get Cotton Reboot!! This game has turned me into a certified Cotton fanboy and I hope it does it does the same to you. You'll get addicted, like Cotton is with all those damn willows.
Shin Megami Tensei V / 真・女神転生V
(Switch. Developer/Publisher: ATLUS. 2021)
AFTER 4 LONG YEARS, OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI V IS REAL AND ACTUALLY EXISTS!!!!!!! It's been a long time coming and now we finally got the fucking game. Shin Megami Tensei V is actually here, it's a great game that kicks ass. Man this game was announced during the goddamn Nintendo Switch press conference and full reveal during the beginning of 2017. I was really hyped during that time, because that presentation is where Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2 and of course Shin Megami Tensei V were announced. And ever since the full reveal that it was indeed the 5th numbered entry (back in latr 2017 during the SMT 25th anniversary live concert) we had nothing but absolute silence from ATLUS. Occasionally we would get one or 2 teaser trailers but it was never enough. And then during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase in summer 2020, we got to see SMT V again for the first time in a few years, and the reveal of SMT3 Nocturne HD Remaster. And the biggest fucking thing in the SMT V reveal was that it was set for a 2021 WORLDWIDE RELEASE. And then during E3 202` we finally got the full gameplay reveal, a gameplay demo showcase at the Nintendo Treehouse Live, and the and the November release date. So after the E3 reveal, I stayed away from any further trailers or any news related to the game to avoid spoilers. It was so damn hard avoiding spoilers, I dodged that shit like the plague. But it was all worth it, we finally made it!. Shin Megami Tensei V is a turn based RPG set in a post apocalyptic desert wasteland flooded with demons. Similar to SMT3 Nocturne, the world has pretty much been destroyed and is has nothing but destroyed buildings and bridges, Cars are just littered everywhere, with no real society left in site. You play as Nahobino, a godlike being with amazing hair, that's the result of a demon and a human fusing together. The overall goal is to conquer the many demons and angels that stand in your way to decide the fate of humanity. The game goes for a more open ended structure. It's not like an open world game, but the areas of the demon realm known as Da'at are very expansive. Honestly it reminds me of the Xenoblade games, where each area is this huge sprawling map with lots of landmarks to discover, secrets to find, and things to collect. Some demons tag along with you and help you spot items hidden in the world, most of the time it's an item but it can also be an ambush lol. There's a lot of vending machines scattered around the world that give you valuable items called Relics, and you can sell them to make really good money. The further you get into the game, the more valuable the relics are, so it's always good to run around and revisit areas to pick them up, since you don't seem to earn a lot of macca in battle.
You can run around freely and just get lost in these huge environments while you take in the scenery, seeing demons running around the map in real time. It's a fully 3D world and it looks amazing. There's this mini hub you can access called the Leyline Fount, it acts as a save point, and where you have access to demon fusion and the shop. You can even warp from one Leyline to another once you find the other, like the Terminals in the other SMT games. Instead of Mido being in charge of demon fusing, we have Sopiha and the World of Shadows. Here you can learn passive skills called miracles, which grant you passive skills for both you and your demons, powers up your attacks and increase the amount of demons you can carry, and how many skill slots you have. To learn miracles you need get Glory, you can get them either from finding glory crystals scattered around the maps, or by getting them from enemies as a random item drop. The most common way to earn glory is from the Miman, There's a bunch of these adorable little guys scattered around each of the major areas, the further you are in the game, the more glory you recieve. It's always worth looking around for these guys because they're hidden pretty well, and they don't show up on the minimap. If you got the spare macca, you can pay a demon in each area to mark them on the map for you, but this guy always suggests that you pay up a lot lol. The Miman work for Gustave the shopkeeper, he asks you to find them in exchange for special rewards.
This is ATLUS' first time using Unreal Engine and it's really impressive. The environments are huge, the demons look better than ever, Nahobino looks so awesome (I'm envious of his hair...) Some of my favorite looking spots are the desert in the first map, with its huge sandy hills, giant mountains in the background and the overall yellowish color it has. The Fairy Forest is amazing with it's bright colors, calming music and rich scenery, there's some pop-in with the grass and some stufff in the environment but it's fine. Only thing is there's this nasty lens flare effect hey added, to emphasize how "bright" it is I guess. I believe they released a new update that allows you to adjust brightness and camera controls actually. The final open area is full of white snow (or is it sand?) and has these weird floating blocks everywhere that you can even walk on to find stuff, and you even need them to reach a story boss. Masayuki Doi and Kazuma Kaneko's demon designs feel fully realized in this game. In the overworld the demons are even made to scale, with demons of all sizes, even that one rock golem dude is super huge, he's counts as a unique monster, and is basically a miniboss for the first area that you're supposed to come back and fight once you're around level 40+. The combat is as good as it's ever been. Press turns are back, demons can use items once you unlock it through the miracles, buffing/debuffing and more are all here. New to this game is the Magatsuhi meter. In Nocturne, Magatsuhi was tied more to the story where it's the source of all energy in the world that the demons feed on. In SMT V it's kinda the same but is more tied to gameplay. Whenever you land critical or super effective hits, some of the Magatsuhi meter increases, when it reaches max you can activate exclusive skills that all have a variety of effects. The most common one makes it so that all your attacks are guaranteed critical hits for a single turn, including magic. Honestly this is the most useful one in the game because not only can you do massive damage, you can advantage of the press turns to buff up in the meantime or I don't know just keep hitting really hard. Common enemies and even bosses can and will use Magatsuhi to their advantage. It's really brutal at times, like in some boss battles, they can activate the Magatsuhi and they usually activate thier signature attack, and if you're not prepared, that shit will hurt. Whenever bosses are preparing for their Magatsuhi attacks, it's best to either guard or try and buff up your defense to soften the damage. Regardless of that, enemy AI can be pretty smart. Like if they have moves with status effects, they'll try to spam it as much as possible. they'll always try to use moves that you or your demons are weak to. It honestly is the worst tho when they have Magatsuhi because they can just crush the hell out of you. Random encounters can go from like 0 to 100 if you don't deal with them quick enough.
There are other ways to gain Magatsuhi in, but you need miracles for that. They're worth getting since it'll speed up the process and make it so the meter fills up a lot quicker. You can unlock miracles that cause the gauge to increase based on a variety such as if a party member is killed, if you block an incoming attack etc. The miracles also have other benefits in combat like giving you the ability to gain a tiny bit of MP back if you choose to guard, not losing all your turns if a negotiation goes wrong, and increasing your skill potential. Skill Potential was added into SMT4 Apocalypse and made it so you couldn't just have an OP Jack Frost or something that could spam fire attacks with massive damage. Skill potential has demons specialize in certain elements or support types that lowers the MP cost to use, and causes attacks of those types to deal more damage. So a Bufudyne +9 is gonna do way more than a Bufudyne -5 for example. It causes demons to be more of a specialist of a specific type and I think does encourage the player to try and have a variety of demons, I guess instead of a demon that can do everything. For Nahobino, you can mold your skill potential into whatever you want, so you can run a powerful spellcaster with +9 all elementals, have a ton of potential invested into healing and support skills, go all physical etc. The choice is yours as long as you have the glory to spare. To unlock more glory skills actually, you gotta deal with the Abecess, they're these big red eyeball looking things in each map that put these big purple circles on the map that make it hard to see. So you're supposed to take them out and deal with enemies they send out, and then take out the miniboss. After that, the part of the map you're in becomes clear on the minimap and you can learn new glory skills.
They changed how some buffs/debuffs work. They made it so that stuff like Rakukaja or Rakunda only work on one ally.enemy. So instead they added stuff like Marakunda and Masukukaja so they can work on all enemies/allies. Skills like Tetrakarn/Makarakan and things like Focus/Concentrate only work for a single member tho. And they cost way more magic to use compared to SMT4 where you were basically able to put up magic/phys repel the whole time because it barely wasted MP. It was honestly pretty overpowered, especially in something like Soul Hackers, where Tetrakarn only costs like less than 15MP I'm pretty sure. They actually brought the the goddamn Vitality stat, so now you're stuck as a glass canon like in SMT4 and Apocalypse, So now defense is actually something you need, and they even added the ability to guard against attacks, I mentioned this when talking about the Magatsuhi but damn I missed being able to actually block attacks, it's actually useful since it prevents you from taking crits. And with a certain glory skill, you can cancel out an enemy's Magatsuhi critical hit power up by blocking the attack. Demon negotiations are still here and it seems a bit easier to do. There's this one type of conversation where demons will challenge you to something based on your stats. Like to test strength they'll see if you can do push ups. Almost all the times a demon wanted to test my stats, I won and I'd basically get them to join me for basically free. Once demons join you or if you fuse them they can level up just like you do and learn up to 3 new skills after gaining a few more levels. With some glory skills unlocked, you can make it so some stats always increase after leveling up, and give them a chance of learning a random skill. Usually demons give you items once they level up, but occasionally after leveling up for a while they can give you their essence. These are pretty useful as this is the only way to each new skills to demons you didn't obtain through fusion, but you can only these essences once, and then you need to either find them again or get them from the same demon. You can actually use essences on yourself and learn skills, but unique to the Nahobino is the ability to learn the demon's resistances. It's similar to Nocturne's Magatama's where the demons' essences all have strengths and weaknesses, so you can customize yourself to be whatever you want. And then combine it with passive skills that let you resist/null/repel/drain whatever you need. You could probably make it so you're not weak to anything.
The music is fantastic, Ryota Kozuka really knocked it out of the park with the soundtrack. It doesn't beat SMT4 in my opinion (that game has a godlike soundtrack) but it's up there with some of the best in the series. He brought those cool techno synths that he used in SMT4/Apocalypse but incorporated a lot of heavy guitars that remind me a lof of the PS2 era games like Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga. It seems to be the main focus as a majority of the battle themes have guitar mixed with synth or techno. My favorite battle themes are the regular Da'at battle theme with its heavy guitar, and its kinda angelic vocals that are really catchy. The Dungeon Battle theme is awesome and feels like a callback to the older games with this fast paced rocking metal track mixed with synth that gets you amped up kick some ass. All the boss battle themes are great too, amazing work by Kozuka. The environment themes are both atmospheric and catchy. The first area of Da'at, Tamachi has this very ominous theme where there's a small guitar melody combined with all these vocal elements, and kinda creepy sounds. It gives off a very unsettling vibe, like trying to tell the player that they're not ready for what lies ahead Considering the game begins in this seemingly endless desert, it's a really good theme to put in the beginning and really sets the tone going forward. The Shinegawa Pier in the second area has a very new wave, techno grunge like sound, that really gives off a heavy ethereal vibe. Especially with all the destroyed building, the large destroyed highways you need to walk across and the empty warehouses and the giant storage boxes. Feels very industrial with a hint of despair and sadness. There's one track in the same map, in the Mitatebashi area that is like the total opposite. It feels more peppy and futuristic, something you would probably hear in a mall. It's honestly one of my favorite environment themes in the game and I had to turn up the volume as soon as I hear it. The Fairy Forest has this calming synth theme and supporting vocals with a church bell that rings in the background, It's pretty different from a lot of other songs in the series and was really refreshing. The music really helped this area stand out and feel special, made me wanna stay there and just take in the calming atmosphere. Chiyoda has the loud bombastic beat that fits with the dark and gloomy environments, feels like theres a lot of anarchy and fighting going on and is overall pretty catchy. The final major area Taito probably has my favorite environment theme. It's the snowy area with the weird blocks, some lakes shrouded in mist and gives off a feeling like things need to get done. It's towards end game, it's this sorta calming yet heavy feeling song that perfectly fits the context. You're towards the end of the game, where all the major stuff is gonna go down, allies and enemies have chose to walk their own paths, and now the time to decide their fates is here. It starts off with a chill beat and some small vocals (dadada dadada dada dadada dadada dada), then the synth kinda evolves, the beat feels stronger as it goes on, a little bit of heavy bass here and there. It really represents what a second to last area is supposed to feel like. One last major area to explore before reaching the final dungeon and the game's final challenges. The soundtrack is amazing and really got me excited to keep going just to hear what type of music would play next. It's up there with some of the best SMT soundtracks but personally SMT4 has my all time favorite in the mainline series. But for SMT overall, well maybe Soul Hackers has my favorite music. By the end of the game when everything was said and done, I was overwhelmed with emotions once the credits hit. After so much time had passed, after so much waiting, doubting that the game would ever come out, after giving up hope a few times. It finally came out, I played it to death, played for over 130 hours, them I finally beat the game and reached those end credits. This game is incredible and it was absolutely worth the fucking wait, The long journey of waiting for SMT V had finally ended. Now we can just enjoy the game and have fun. The callback to the music in the first trailer where they revealed that it was the fith entry, the calming vocals, the piano in the background. The image of Nahobino walking through the cosmos back towards the earth, the xylophone jingling, it's one of my favorite ending themes next to Soul Hackers, SMT4 and Nocturne's.
Well I never thought we'd see the day but SMT V really did come out and it was awesome. Yeah the story and characters were a bit lacking, but it's not a deal breaker or anything. To be honest I had no idea how ATLUS was gonna top the story of SMT4 and Apocalypse and the sheer scope that those stories evolved into towards the end of both, but as a video game SMT V is amazing. I was completely addicted to it, and played for a whole month nonstop. I invested over 130 hours into it and still wanna go back so I can get 100% demon compendium, get all the endings and of course defeat the superboss Shiva and defeat Demi-Fiend in the DLC battle. They're gonna be tough to beat but I still have plenty I need to do when I revisit the game. Shin Megami Tensei V is finally here, the game is real, it's amazing and I feel so satisfied. After 4 long years since its announcement, the game finally came out and I'd say it lived up to my expectations and exceeded them. Thank you ATLUS for finally giving us a new SMT. By the end of 2021 the game reportedly sold 800,000 copies according to ATLUS and even SEGA said they were satisfied with the sales the game got. It reached that number after being out for only 2 months, that's pretty insane for SMT. It took SMT4 over 2 years to reach over 600,000 sales on the 3DS. So I think the future is looking bright for the series. I hope the sales eventually reach 1 million units so both SEGA and ATLUS can understand that people really care about SMT and all we want is to just enjoy the games and have fun. Long live Shin Megami Tensei. Nuwa and Idun are best girl.
This was a really good year for games, I just wish it didn't take 4 months for me to finish Sakuna, that game is a 9/10 game and has one of the nicest endings ever, that left me sad towards the end because the journey had ended, and I felt attached to the cast of characters. Edelweiss made a game that's probably considered a masterpiece. This was a great years for anniversaries too. It was even the 15th anniversary of Super Sonico, we've come so far. Plenty of games like Zelda, Metroid, Sonic and Cotton all celebrated their anniversaries in one way or another. It was also the 20th anniversary of the Gamecube and Wii, my two favorite Nintendo consoles of all time. So i might try to play more games from both consoles to celebrate in addition to the other big stuff I gotta catch up on.
Honorable Mentions:
Blue Revolver: A really interesting indie shmup that has a lot of passion put into it. The techno soundtrack is amazing, the pixel graphics are top notch and the two main girls have pretty cool designs, I love the art style of this game. It has a really unique aesthetic that a lot of other games don't have, It's only on PC at the moment so check it out.
Cotton Rock 'n' Roll: Superlative Night Dreams: The newest entry in the Cotton series and the big finale to the year long celebration of the 30th anniversary. I haven't had the time to really sink my teeth into it since I needed to dedicate time into finishing the 2021 blog post, but it's a pretty fun game and was worth the wait. Check it out on PS4 or Switch. In Japan it actually released in the arcades too.
Omega Labyrinth Life: A mystery dungeon roguelike RPG that's very similar to Shiren the Wanderer or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. Except it's about tits. A lot of the core mechanics center around the tits and there's a good amount of fan service. I was originally gonna include it but I wanted to give Super Zangyura some spotlight. Maybe next time.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4: A really awesome arcade racing game that be played on PC thanks to stuff like Teknoparrot. It's similar to the Initial D arcade games and both series actually started out as manga that both got these consistent arcade releases. Yuzo Koshiro who did the unforgettable music in the Shinobi and Streets of Rage series works on all of these and made some really good techno and club tracks. You can win races to upgrade you cars to better fine tune them, and overall it's great.
Melty Blood Type Lumina: The return of the classic fighting released to coincide with the Tsukihime remake. It's more of a reboot and a "what if" that happens during the events of the remake rather than taking place after the story. It's a really fun game that's on all current platforms even on Xbox. And while the auto combo stuff is annoying and some mechanics were changed, it's a miracle that both the remake and a new Melty Blood finally released after over a decade.
This was a really good year for games, I just wish it didn't take 4 months for me to finish Sakuna, that game is a 9/10 game and has one of the nicest endings ever, that left me sad towards the end because the journey had ended, and I felt attached to the cast of characters. Edelweiss made a game that's probably considered a masterpiece. This was a great years for anniversaries too. It was even the 15th anniversary of Super Sonico, we've come so far. Plenty of games like Zelda, Metroid, Sonic and Cotton all celebrated their anniversaries in one way or another. It was also the 20th anniversary of the Gamecube and Wii, my two favorite Nintendo consoles of all time. So i might try to play more games from both consoles to celebrate in addition to the other big stuff I gotta catch up on.
Honorable Mentions:
Blue Revolver: A really interesting indie shmup that has a lot of passion put into it. The techno soundtrack is amazing, the pixel graphics are top notch and the two main girls have pretty cool designs, I love the art style of this game. It has a really unique aesthetic that a lot of other games don't have, It's only on PC at the moment so check it out.
Cotton Rock 'n' Roll: Superlative Night Dreams: The newest entry in the Cotton series and the big finale to the year long celebration of the 30th anniversary. I haven't had the time to really sink my teeth into it since I needed to dedicate time into finishing the 2021 blog post, but it's a pretty fun game and was worth the wait. Check it out on PS4 or Switch. In Japan it actually released in the arcades too.
Omega Labyrinth Life: A mystery dungeon roguelike RPG that's very similar to Shiren the Wanderer or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. Except it's about tits. A lot of the core mechanics center around the tits and there's a good amount of fan service. I was originally gonna include it but I wanted to give Super Zangyura some spotlight. Maybe next time.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4: A really awesome arcade racing game that be played on PC thanks to stuff like Teknoparrot. It's similar to the Initial D arcade games and both series actually started out as manga that both got these consistent arcade releases. Yuzo Koshiro who did the unforgettable music in the Shinobi and Streets of Rage series works on all of these and made some really good techno and club tracks. You can win races to upgrade you cars to better fine tune them, and overall it's great.
Melty Blood Type Lumina: The return of the classic fighting released to coincide with the Tsukihime remake. It's more of a reboot and a "what if" that happens during the events of the remake rather than taking place after the story. It's a really fun game that's on all current platforms even on Xbox. And while the auto combo stuff is annoying and some mechanics were changed, it's a miracle that both the remake and a new Melty Blood finally released after over a decade.
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