Monday 7 October 2013

Gaming Roundup!

*Luckily Andi archives his posts! This is his post from Friday!*

Come one come all to my gaming round up. Consider these mini reviews/buyers guide, as Geoff has stated we are independent run in our spare time & off our own funds. It's takes a great deal of time to write a review and even more so to play a game to the amount you can review it with correct experience.
My aim with this is to tell you what is currently in my console/PC/handheld why I'm playing it and why I think you should too!

 DISGAEA D2: A Brighter Darkness

First time in the main Disgaea series (excluding the Prinny games) we have a direct follow up. Following the events of Disgaea 1 Laharl and the gang are back once again shaking heaven and hell!.

SRPG heaven with a comedic twist! When it comes to Disgaea I'm weak, I can't help but love every game in the series (including Visual novel Infinite).

Personally from what I have played it has to be the best one to date. Up to where I am the story has been slow but still serves it's purpose and has plenty of comedy. HD sprites look amazing and there is a wealth of new features for vets and newbies alike. Example are mounting creature characters (Laharl on a dragon ftw) to combat training and old staples such as item world.

Inazuma Eleven 3: Lightening Bolt

Third entry in level 5's RPG/Football series. For those unfamiliar think Pokemon but instead of battles they have football matches to solve everything from global domination to bullying at school.

What I have to point out that despite this being a 3DS title it is intact a DS port. For some reason it takes forever for us to get Inazuma and unfortunately since we got the 2nd in the series they managed this one, a special edition of it and a 3DS series Go!. It looks great & plays fantastic but it is just a DS game and is priced as such.

Not being a football fan I would usually ignore these titles but the lure of kicking balls of fire and a "gotta catch them all" style team development has made me a fan. Battles use a brilliant system using stylus only and when your hard work pays off during match you feel amazing.

The dub as in previous games is horrid, for example team Inazuma is a Japanese based team but voiced as a team of London cockneys!. The story is a lot more mellow compared to the last instalment which featured aliens destroying schools!.
World tournament of football is taking place and they are looking to make a Japanese national team. Cue Mark Evans, team Inazuma and every other character from the previous games.

Unfortunately I'm not far enough in the story to say much more than that but I hear it does tangent off a little later on!. A fantastic game and well worth carrying around with you in your 3DS, I cannot comment on street pass as I have yet to pass anyone with the game :(
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2

Another sequel I'm currently playing, it's another notch in the successful musou spin off series (gundam & fist of the North Star are other notable games) based off the manga/anime One Piece.

Pirate based going ons based in the world of Monkey D Luffy & his Straw Hat Pirate crew, his objective is to find One Piece (a treasure) in which will make him "Pirate King".

Here we have a typical musou/warriors game play of you versus thousands, capturing bases & fighting enemy officers. This is a game for Warriors fans and especially One Piece fans.

I'd recommend this more for fans of the series, even though it doesn't follow cannon and is an extreme what if? Story, a lot of the story impact will be lost if you don't know the characters. There is a gallery and info about all the characters so you can read up about them there but for me it's the strange bedfellows knowing these characters as I do that keeps me playing the story mode.

Another addictive aspect to it is coin collecting. You find them in levels and get better ones by completing secret objectives. They make your characters stronger and are shiny so I want them all!

Overall it's tight package geared more towards fans of the traditional Musou gameplay as it's just battles no adventure stages this time around!.

That's what I'm playing mainly at the moment, there are others but Geoff has already covered them (KH & Soul Hackers) or in the case of Anarchy Reigns I'll be making a follow up article to Geoff's Madworld article.

I should be more active for the next couple of weeks as I have no review work on so expect to see a touch more of me in the coming weeks!.

Contact me on Twitter: @andicpunx or email rukiriot@hotmail.co.uk

1st Month retrospective & PSA

Public Service Announcement: Some posts are missing from the blog! Why this has happened and how the issue has arisen is completely unknown. At the moment it just seems to be localised to both posts on Friday, but I'll be keeping a closer eye on things for a little while now.  Id like to think it wasn't the admin account being compromised. Its a mystery and I'm hoping to find out whats gone on, Ive already enquired with Blogger/Google. I don't wanna be calling in Mulder & Scully though...

Saturday was the 1 month anniversary of the blog! Yes I had some Sake like I said, even got some for Andi but whether he ended up stumbling around his house from the rice wine I do not know. A month is not quite long enough to throw a sexy party in celebration but its worth looking back on. With the daily view count slowly rising its been a more successful month than I originally hoped, more than likely due to Andi's inclusion on the team. I have been looking at adding other authors to expand coverage and news, but the couple of offers Ive sent out have yet to receive a reply. Today I'm going to look back on a few articles from the month that have either been well received by readers or have seemed to be a traffic magnet. Lets begin!
Project Diva F Review ( Post / Review )
There couldn't be any other post really to start with. This review was the reason I started writing on the Otaku blog. It was so well received, even by those with no interest in the game, that I decided to keep writing and Otaku Gamers Blog was born. The view count for the review on PushSquare is also staggering, currently sitting at 2,542! No doubt with me pushing the review out so soon after release and PushSquare themselves not hosting a review helped with its popularity. I recently went back and had a read of the review and to be honest I still wouldn't change a thing in it. It also opened my eyes up to just how much effort a review is. At least a few hours of work is needed. While my other reviews since, Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll (Review) & EDF 2017 Portable (Review), haven't been anywhere near as successful - Ill still continue doing reviews. If you've still yet to read the Project Diva F review, go and have a read. Its pretty much the only mention of Hatsune Miku on the blog considering how awesome she is!
Andi's debut post (Post)
Andi's first post was a scorcher on the view stakes, almost causing the blogs view count for the day to hit triple digits! While it was supposed to be a write up for a single game it became somewhat of a Suda51 gospel. The word count on it also puts my reviews to shame it seems! Anyone interested in playing some of Suda's back catalogue would be wise to reference Andi's post considering he pretty much details almost every game! A few days after the post I picked up a copy of Shadows of the Damned due to the post and recommendations so take a look and see which Suda games tickle ya fancy to go back and try! You could always tweet Andi for a recommendation if your not sure which suits you.
 Who's the perverted one? (Post)
The most viewed post on the blog and one of the best pieces Ive wrote so far. It tackles an issue that's been grinding my gears for a while and has no doubt been something most Jrpg gamers have come across themselves at the hands of certain gamers. If you've ever suffered abuse at the hands of other gamers over the Jrpg's you play, this post explains just how wrong they are with simple logic and details why. Ive received quite a lot of positivity from readers concerning this post which is always good. Not had anyone disputing its points yet though...
Otaku Mobile Games (Post)
Oddly enough this seemed to be a fairly popular post, up there with the previous 2 posts mentioned in view counts. No doubt people are intrigued by what they can do to Otaku their phones it seems. Have you tried Moe can Change! yet? I bet you haven't. While I had only mentioned a few games, It is probably going to be the first of many posts in the coming weeks with regards to Mobile gaming. With it being popular in Japan, we wouldn't be much of an Otaku gamers blog if we didn't cover some of the titles that make there way to our app store, plus theres no doubt people out there that see phones as a viable gaming platform. In the future I do have another post similar to this planned and also a bumper one for Jrpg's as Ive managed to get hold of a few to try.

While I've only mentioned these few posts, I'm still proud of the work that's been done so far. I was hoping that with me opening the comments section up to anonymous users a few weeks ago we'd receive some direct feedback here but it doesn't seem to be used by anyone. So whats in store for the future? Well things seem settled now so not much else will change. Hopefully some more authors will join to get more news & game coverage to the readers, but aside from that there isn't really any other plans in the pipeline for the coming weeks. The game releases will be picking up again soon so reviews will start to become more frequent seen as its been a couple of weeks since the last one. Any suggestions or ideas from the regular readers? I know we have some! Let me know here in the comments or, as always, on my Twitter @MadchesterManc

Thursday 3 October 2013

Retrospective: Madworld (Wii)

Today I'm going to do something a little out of the ordinary. I'm going to look at a Wii game. The Wii itself seems to be a console that divides opinion more than most. While theres people out there that think highly of it and that it deserves its lofty sales figure, Personally I think its the worst console Nintendo have ever made - possibly the worst console Ive ever played. I bought a nice swanky black version about a year ago and sold it about 3 months later. While it has an extensive library, there was only enough decent titles for me to last the few months. In truth, I probably used the GameCube backwards compatibility more. Still, it did have a few gems and I'm going to take a look at one of my favourites on the Wii - Madworld.
 Story (Wikipedia)
Three days before the game's event, the fictional Varrigan City became a target for a group of terrorists called "The Organisers", who severed the island city's transportation and communication ties with the rest of the world, and then released a virus onto its population that would kill them in less than 24 hours. However, the Organisers informed the populace that any person that killed another would receive the vaccine. The city was quickly transformed into the stage of a recurring game show called "DeathWatch", with announcers Howard "Buckshot" Holmes and former DeathWatch fighter Kreese Kreeley. The remaining citizens of Varrigan City as well as new hopefuls become the shows contestants, hoping to become the top-ranked fighter in the game and win a large cash prize. Jack Cayman, a man with a retractable chainsaw built onto one arm, enters the games and manages to gain sponsorship from "Agent XIII". The game's organisers, led by Noa, knows Jack's motive is more than just to win, and learn that Jack works with someone on the outside. They come to learn that Jack was a former marine, police officer, and rogue agent, but now seems intent on a mission. Noa surmises that Jack is after the mayor's daughter, who is still inside the city. While they could kill Jack at any time, they realise he became an audience favourite, with many sponsors and viewers betting on his success, and tries to kill Jack while he is in combat.

A highly controversial release by SEGA when it was due to launch in the UK, almost not receiving a BBFC rating which would have prevented its sale. What was so bad about it?

Playing like, according to Inaba, a 'pick up & play' version of God Hand the game sees you fighting your way through various arena's killing your enemies in the most gratuitous ways you can think of. Most levels appear to be open environments, allowing you to explore them freely within each section, although your progression at certain intervals will be stifled until you manage to acquire enough points to open up a new section. A few levels also have motorcycle sections where you are attacked by numerous enemies as you race down a track or in a small arena. You will occasionally have to complete a boss battle within a time limit, but you will need to acquire enough points to activate the boss battle. The more violent your kills, the more points you get! There are also other challenges, bonuses, or mini-bosses that become unlocked after the you accumulate enough points. A common feature of each of the levels is a "Bloodbath Challenge", In this you have a time limit to complete set objectives or executions for bonus score, An example would be you needing to swing a bat at foes to knock them into a giant dartboard to score extra points, or trap enemies in  front of a speeding train for more extras. Outside of the challenges, you are awarded extra points for using more unusual methods of killing your enemies ie using your environment. An early example in the game would be forcing a tire around your enemy before smashing them into the wall, earning you more points than just knocking them into a wall.How well the game plays will depend solely I suppose on how you perceive the Wii's Nunchuck & WiiMote combo to be of use. Madworld makes little use of the Wii's motion gaming shizz and focuses mainly on using the buttons for input. There is still the occasional flick of the controller needed for QTE's, but the IR sensor aspect doesn't get used at all. A bad thing? Not really. When you factor in that the Wii's control system only has a single analogue, it does give the game a bit more of that SEGA nostalgia factor for me. While I'm no hater of motion controls, I'm actually a big fan of the PSMove when its been used properly, I like how this game eschews that in favour of a more conventional control system.

It sure looks amazing doesn't it? Its style easily sets it apart from almost every other game out there. The look of Madworld is clearly that of a comic or graphic novel (noted by Platinum Games to have been influenced by Sin City), with the red blood emphasising its graphic nature. The game actually features a fairly complex engine that had to be designed to work around some of the Wii's limitations. Featuring a complex lighting system, normal mapping, multiple character textures, fully realised particle system, motion captured animations and full animation blending. That's only some of the engine features. A little pointless for a game that looks like a comic? Not really. To make any game world come to life, regardless of style, this stuff is still needed. I cant help but think sometimes of how glorious this would look running in a higher resolution with some AA. It still looks mighty fine of the Wii though. Not going to be everyones cup of tea visually, but you can't deny that it looks impressive. The soundtrack is almost as good as the visuals. Featuring an octane mix of rap, hip-hop & rock notably, its a very western sound to have in a game developed by Japanese developers. Most tracks were produced in-house by Naoto Tanaka with a few local bands giving some input. While it doesn't quite reach the same heights as the visuals, its still a decent soundtrack and fits the style of the game with ease.
Probably the most fun I had on the Wii, aside from SEGA's other gem - House of the Dead Overkill. While my time with the Wii was short, the few gems I enjoyed like this were welcomed and fairly memorable, but 3 or 4 games can't carry a system for long. With the prices of the Wii as low as £29.99 these days, is it worth picking one up and giving Madworld a run through if you never have? That's a toughie. Madworld is cheap these days, less than £4 easy, so it would combine to the cost of a new retail game on the likes of Ps3/360. With only a few games of note coming out lately, why not? lol But it would be silly to end up lumbered with a Wii Just to play Madworld. Best wait for a WiiU price drop and try it then! I hope if you still have your Wii or have had one, You have at least given this gem a try at some point. Its up there with the other titles Platinum Games have released and is one of the most stylish games you'll play for a long time yet.


Wednesday 2 October 2013

Localization Prospect: Fairy Fencer F


With the news recently of an Idea Factory International office being opened in California and headed by former NISA president Harusato Akenaga. With IF now having their own localising/publishing branch in the west, I think its safe to assume that we may get more games from the likes of Compile Heart etc in the west. I'm not sure how it all pans out for NISA though as I'm sure they may not be too happy with losing franchises that, while niche, have garnered quite a following in the west. I hope this means we get the Neptunia Vita games in the west now! Ill scream like a fan-girl if that announcement follows soon. This all leads to some a new type of post for me to start. While I do Reviews, Previews, Retrospectives & News at the moment - I'm going to be doing these Localization Prospect posts now too. These will focus on Japanese titles that have a good chance of being localised, or are already in the process of being brought over. So today I'm going to focus on the soon to be released Fairy Fencer F, which has a good chance of coming to the west due to recent developments with IF and demand across the web seeming unusually high.
Story:
A long time ago there was a conflict between a goddess and an evil god. The two deities didn’t fight directly, but created a large number of special weapons for others to use. Eventually, these powers sealed each other and the power vanished from the world. Fast forward to modern times where these leftover weapons are called "Furies" and warriors that wield them are "Fencers." Fury weapons are said to be incredibly powerful, so Fencers constantly scramble to acquire them. By a strange coincidence, two fencers, Fang and Tiara, get caught up in the struggle between the goddess and evil god. 

The story does sound like it has potential to be pretty deep and intriguing. With it being developed by Galapagos RPG/Compile Heart, the Neptunia devs, I would hazard a guess its storytelling will be in a similar style to other series they are known for.  Yes, that means Visual novel-esque dialogue with the odd in-game engine cutscene. Compile Heart don't have the astronomical budgets that the more mainstream developers like SquareEnix give to their Final Fantasy series, so don't be expecting anything like sumptuous pre-rendered cutscenes with photo-realistic detail. Lets hope the potential for the story is realised though as most of the other aspects of the game sounds just as, or even more, promising. 
With the game not due to be released till the 10th October in Japan, there isn't really anything to go on from a gameplay perspective as Ive not found any videos to study at least. There is constantly a mention in articles of the game using a refined version of the Neptunia battle system. For those yet to try the Hyperdimension Neptunia series (shame on you! Victory is superb!) I'll give a brief description of how it plays. Basically, its a dungeon crawler. Most of the time you will be exploring dungeons, grinding to level up or collecting ingredients to synthesise, and the rest of the time will be mostly spent in boss battles. You are free to go to any dungeon or City on the map, but the game is not free roam as you are probably envisioning. The real bread & butter of Victory though is in its battle system, which Fairy Fencer F is no doubt using. Its your typical turn-based affair, which I prefer for my Jrpg's. The key to victory with its battle system though is in taking advantage of the Guard Break system. Under the enemies health bar is another that once depleted from attacks strong against the guard will leave the enemy vulnerable. Attacks do far more damage then, making it essential during boss encounters. Transformations are also in FF, which boost your character when done in Victory so its safe to assume the same here. Little else is know about how the rest of the game plays out here in the west. A recent Trailer showed some of the combat system so that's confirmed. I can see it playing similar to the Neptunia series, so if that's not your cup of tea then you may avoid it.
On the presentation side of things, its probably at its most interesting. Former Final Fantasy artist
Yoshitaka Amano & Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu have both worked on this title. This news alone was enough for the hype machine to start rolling online when it was announced earlier in the year. There are screenshots floating around so we can at least get a glimpse of how the game will look, I don't think these niche developers have the budget or the need for 'bullshots' so its safe to assume they are genuine. Graphically it looks to be similar to Victory, except those enemy character models look to be superbly detailed. Its not just me that sees that? You can tell the artist of the Date-A-Live anime has worked on this with the character designs. I'm just hoping that the framerate issue that plagued the Neptunia series has been fleshed out. It was defiantly baffling as to why it did have issues. I would recommend looking at as many trailers as you can find for the game to see if its style suits you.
I hope we see a localisation. Like I said earlier, with IF international opening in the west there's a good chance we'll see more of these titles. I reckon NISA probably would've localised this anyway with how popular it seems to be on the Internet at he moment. Having some former Final Fantasy stalwarts working on the title probably gives it that extra little something to make it appeal to some beyond its usual niche. For me the story sounds interesting, the art is beautiful, graphically it looks to be an improvement and the talk of it playing similar to Hyperdimension Neptunia: Victory is enough to ensure my interest. What about you?
Let me know on Twitter @MadchesterManc

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Retrospective: Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox)

With Rune Factory 4 being released today in the US I was considering writing a piece on it. Then I seen the EU release date being Spring 2014 and I thought Id leave it. I dunno about anyone else but that's quite a long gap, At most it could be 6 months! 6 Months! I guess there'll be a lot of information on the game floating around so a preview would be easy to write up and I could do one at a later date. To be honest I don't blame the publishers here, the blame falls squarely at Nintendo's feet for shafting their userbase and region locking the 3DS. With us being based in the UK, we have to share the pain of our EU readers and suck it & wait. At least on the PlayStation side of things we are able to import, Its just a shame about the 3DS. So whats today? Its another retrospective. I know you guys are probably getting fed up with these and want some info on new releases but I'm currently compiling a list of games to research so hopefully all next week should be upcoming releases of interesting games. Today's game is going to be the hugely ignored sequel to one of Sega's Dreamcast gems - Jet Set Radio Future