Who's excited about E3? I sure am. That's why I'm going to provide some links to various blog post and videos of interest around the web. As per usual this is stuff I find interesting, so don't expect to see everything here. Look for updates to this post throughout the rest of the weekend until the big show starts.
Sony
PSP Go Confirmed?: Seems Qore officially let the cat out of the bag about Sony's upcoming UMD-less, Download only PSP. Some other news post: here.
PS3 Slim: Or lack there-of. Is it real? Will it be there? Who knows? Do I really care? No. But I thought it was worth mentioning.
White Knight Chronicles: Is this game ever coming out? Apparently. I don't recall hearing much about it when it came out in Japan, so that doesn't really bode well. Still, holding out for a great RPG.
Nintendo
No More Heroes 2: Christ, I came when I saw this trailer. I cannot wait for this game!
Silent Hill Shattered Memories: You will shit with fear. Admittedly I was initially skeptical about this reimagining of the original Silent Hill. However it looks like its turning out to be absolutely terrifying. And that's a good thing. Wonder if I'll have the balls to play it.
Microsoft
Lionhead: Fable 2 may be highly overrated by some outlets. However it was still an enjoyable game. Wonder if we'll see Fable 3? Or perhaps some other crazy ass Molyneux project. Begin Speculation!
Mass Effect 2: Is this still a 360 exclusive? I'm not sure. Either way - this trailer is fucking pimp. I enjoyed the first game, even though I had a serious case of backlash when it came to GoTY. This trailer though totally has me pumped for another Mass Effect.
The Rest (Beware of Length)
Bayonetta: Still getting hyped up for Bayonetta, being a big Devil may Cry fan after all. Check out this trailer, and you might be too.
Brutal Legend: I'm not a total Tim Scahfer fanboy, in fact I've only played Psychonauts. However Brutal Legend is looking good.
XSEED: XSEED's E3 Lineup is looking good so far. I can't wait for that Lunar remake, Fragile looks amazing, and Flower, Sun and Rain is another crazy(?) Suda 51 game. What's not to love?
Square Enix: Woo! Of course I'm a huge Square fanboy and they certainly have enough games to show off at E3. Most note worthy: Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, My Life as a Dark Lord, and FFVI: The After Years.
DJ Hero: I'll admit, I'm interested. Despite the questionable trailer. I think theres some gameplay shots or footage floating around somewhere. Yep, there is.
Brink: What is it? Bethesda's new game apparently. Seems to be a first person shooter coming from developer Splash Damage. Who you may know from the Enemy Territory games. Sign me up!
Kojima Productions: Perhaps the most ridiculous story leading up to E3. We've been teased with countdowns that lead to other countdowns. What the fuck is it? A new MGS? MGS4 on the 360? Something else entirely? Try to keep up with this one. 1, 2, 3
Namco Bandai: As far as this article is concerned, nothing too exciting. I'm looking forward to some new Tales games, or perhaps there could be some other megaton - like a new Xenosaga game? Yeah - right. But hey - KOS-MOS seems to be popping up quite a bit lately. Who Knows?
40K Space Marine: I'm assuming this will be at E3. I'm not a huge Warhammer fan, but I do find the idea of an Action RPG in that universe pretty interesting. It some ways it reminds me of what Starcraft Ghost could've been. Ahh...
EA: Heres EA's E3 lineup apparently. I've talked a bit about some of the games before, but a few that have catched my eye: Brutal Legend, Dante's Inferno, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2. The Saboteur, Sims 3.
Activision: And heres Activision's lineup. It's hard not to be at least a little excited about Modern Warfare 2, but I'm certainly not blowing my load over it. Other games of note: DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Prototype, Wolfenstien.
King of Fighters XII: I still suck at fighting games, but KoFXII looks amazing. Plus Shane motherfuckin' Bettenhausen is involved with this game. Yeah!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of The Plume Review
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of The Plume, or Covenant for short, is the third game in the Valkyrie Profile series. And in a way it's a return to it's roots. The Playstation 2 game Silmeria was a radical departure from the beautiful sprite art and the addictive battle system. Thankfully that returns in Covenant with a bit of a twist. You see, Covenant is a Strategy RPG akin to Final Fantasy Tactics.
However unlike most strategy games when you engage an enemy in combat you transitions into the traditional Valkyrie Profile combat system. For those of you unaware, this is a turn based combat system where each of your party members are assigned to a face button, and when you push that button the character uses their various attacks. Combine these with other characters' attacks to combo and juggle the enemies. Needless to say it's an interesting mix, but I found it quite enjoyable.
Sadly there really isn't much strategy involved in the battles. Most of them can be solved by having your four party members move in a group, surround an enemy, and slaughter it. Still it's quite fun, and not all that challenging - which if you know me is always a plus. Those looking for a hardcore SRPG should look elsewhere though.
Enough about the gameplay though, let's talk about the story. The game's protagonist Wylfred has vowed revenge against the Valkyrie who took his Father's soul to Valhalla to become an Einherjar. This tragic event lead to the downfall of Wylfred's family, thus ruining everything Wylfred held dear. Many years later Wylfred is working for a mercenary group with his friend Ancel, when Wylfred is felled by an enemy. He hears a voice and is offered a deal with Hel the Queen of Nifilheim. She allows Wyl to live and provides him with a dangerous ability - The Destiny Plume. This Plume has the ability to sacrifice Wyl's valued allies in order to gain power that will allow him to defeat the Valkyrie. Thus Wyl sets off in search of war in order to fuel this dark power.
The story has three main branches that split off depending on how many times you make use of the Plume's power. There's a good ending, a normal ending, and a bad endings. Obviously the more you use the Plume the worse the ending you're going to get. However thanks to a new game+ option, you're allowed to replay the game with all the benefits of using the Plume on a bad ending path in order to make the good ending path easier. The story - regardless of the pain is very dark and deals with a lot of political strife and betrayal. Again, very akin to Tactics. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, since the story in Tactics was one of it's best parts.
To accompany the dark story, the music is very music and atmospheric. The tracks are also a throw back to the original Valkyrie Profile, which again is a good thing since that game, as well as this one, have awesome music. And as I mentioned briefly before the game is full of beautiful sprites and gorgeous portraits of each character. The music, the visuals, the story - they all help compliment an extremely enjoyable gameplay experience.
Like most tri-ace games, this one contains a bonus dungeon known as the Seraphic Gate which is full of all kinds of treats for fans of the series. The characters you can get to join your party there are awesome.
I'd say this game is best suited for Valkyrie Profile fans, but SRPG fans might find the game enjoyable too if they don't mind a relatively easy ride. At the very least, I really enjoyed this game and you can probably expect to see it on the Game of The Year list.
However unlike most strategy games when you engage an enemy in combat you transitions into the traditional Valkyrie Profile combat system. For those of you unaware, this is a turn based combat system where each of your party members are assigned to a face button, and when you push that button the character uses their various attacks. Combine these with other characters' attacks to combo and juggle the enemies. Needless to say it's an interesting mix, but I found it quite enjoyable.
Sadly there really isn't much strategy involved in the battles. Most of them can be solved by having your four party members move in a group, surround an enemy, and slaughter it. Still it's quite fun, and not all that challenging - which if you know me is always a plus. Those looking for a hardcore SRPG should look elsewhere though.
Enough about the gameplay though, let's talk about the story. The game's protagonist Wylfred has vowed revenge against the Valkyrie who took his Father's soul to Valhalla to become an Einherjar. This tragic event lead to the downfall of Wylfred's family, thus ruining everything Wylfred held dear. Many years later Wylfred is working for a mercenary group with his friend Ancel, when Wylfred is felled by an enemy. He hears a voice and is offered a deal with Hel the Queen of Nifilheim. She allows Wyl to live and provides him with a dangerous ability - The Destiny Plume. This Plume has the ability to sacrifice Wyl's valued allies in order to gain power that will allow him to defeat the Valkyrie. Thus Wyl sets off in search of war in order to fuel this dark power.
The story has three main branches that split off depending on how many times you make use of the Plume's power. There's a good ending, a normal ending, and a bad endings. Obviously the more you use the Plume the worse the ending you're going to get. However thanks to a new game+ option, you're allowed to replay the game with all the benefits of using the Plume on a bad ending path in order to make the good ending path easier. The story - regardless of the pain is very dark and deals with a lot of political strife and betrayal. Again, very akin to Tactics. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, since the story in Tactics was one of it's best parts.
To accompany the dark story, the music is very music and atmospheric. The tracks are also a throw back to the original Valkyrie Profile, which again is a good thing since that game, as well as this one, have awesome music. And as I mentioned briefly before the game is full of beautiful sprites and gorgeous portraits of each character. The music, the visuals, the story - they all help compliment an extremely enjoyable gameplay experience.
Like most tri-ace games, this one contains a bonus dungeon known as the Seraphic Gate which is full of all kinds of treats for fans of the series. The characters you can get to join your party there are awesome.
I'd say this game is best suited for Valkyrie Profile fans, but SRPG fans might find the game enjoyable too if they don't mind a relatively easy ride. At the very least, I really enjoyed this game and you can probably expect to see it on the Game of The Year list.
Friday, May 1, 2009
8 Things Suikoden fans should know about Tierkreis
Falling two short from a top ten list, here are 8 changes that have been made in the new Suikoden game - Suikoden Tierkreis - fans of the series should know before getting into this one.
1. The Hero isn't a mute
With the exception of Suikoden 3, the Hero, or the Tenkai star has always been a mute for better or worse. In Tierkreis our nameless (to the best of my knowlege) Hero is actually quite talkative. Personally I feel that this helps flesh out an otherwise blank character, but unfortunately it also means you're subjected to the Hero's terrible English voice actor for the entire game. It eventually grew on me, but still it should be mentioned that his voice is really one of the worst in the game.
2. It's a whole new world
The previous five Suikoden games took place in the same world, despite taking place many years apart from each other in the case of Suikoden 4. Tierkreis takes place in a whole other dimension as far as I can tell, and as such you won't see many similarities between this game and the rest of the series. This is especially surprising when you consider that all of the previous games featured characters from each of the previous games. It's also disappointing for fans who have been keeping up with the series lore and history, but for whatever reason Konami decided to cut ties with everything they had built up this time around. Oh well.
3. The "Location Menu"
Similar to Suikoden 3, you select locations on the world map to travel to. However unlike previous games you also choose locations to travel to in towns as well. You'd think there wouldn't be much walking around then, but you'd be wrong (more on that later). You'll still be able to walk around the entire Castle/Headquarters and any dungeons though. A minor change, but worth noting.
4. Where's Viki?
Perhaps one of my favorite characters from the Suikoden series is also missing in Tierkreis, Viki. Not only is she always a funny character but she was also one of the most useful characters you could recruit into your army. She'd allow you to warp to previous locations on the fly. While this isn't as big of a deal in this game thanks to the location menu it's still noticeable. Also it seems like the game was trying to include a substitute for Viki in the form of the warp gate system, but there were only two locations you could warp to in the entire game, and it was a one way trip. What a mess.
5. No Escape Talismans
This is easily the most annoying change, and one that is really beyond my understanding. For whatever reason they decided to remove the ever useful "Escape Talisman" item that would allow you to instantly warp out of dungeons. Yes, you heard me. This means you have to manually walk out of almost every dungeon in the game. The game also has a nasty habit of dropping you off in the middle of a dungeon on a quest and still making you walk back out. It's fucking infuriating.
6. No Weapon Upgrades
In the previous five games, each character would come equipped with a single weapon that could be upgraded up to a maximum of 15 times throughout the course of the game. In Tierkreis however you can actually purchase new weapons and some characters can even use a wide variety of weapons. On the one hand this makes things more versatile, especially considering many enemies in the game are weak/resistant to certain types of weapons. On the other hand, I liked the simplicity and attachment the characters in the previous games had to their single weapons.
7. Runes? What Runes?
Perhaps the most surprising change in Tierkreis is the absence of any sort of runes in the game. Not only were runes the main form of magic in the Suikoden series, allowing the player to outfit characters with various runes allowing them to access different spells and abilities, but they were also huge plot points in the previous five games, with each game revolving around several absurdly powerful "True Runes". In their place is the "Marks of The Stars" system, which while still allowing you to customize your characters skills and abilities, doesn't have quite the same impact as the runes did.
8. A serious lack of Strategy
One of the defining features in the Suikoden series has been the various strategy battle mini games that have varied from game to game. From controlling a unit of soldiers to naval battles the strategy battles were always an interesting addition to the RPG genre, and usually quite entertaining. However for whatever reason Konami decided to exclude any such mini game in Tierkreis. In it's place you just form multiple groups that will tackle a series of random encounters and bosses during key battles in the game.
Despite these changes Suikoden Tierkreis is still an enjoyable RPG, even for a Suikoden game I think I liked it more than the fourth game in the main series. While the lack of strategy battles and escape talismans really make no sense to me, the other changes are at least an interesting new take on the series.
1. The Hero isn't a mute
With the exception of Suikoden 3, the Hero, or the Tenkai star has always been a mute for better or worse. In Tierkreis our nameless (to the best of my knowlege) Hero is actually quite talkative. Personally I feel that this helps flesh out an otherwise blank character, but unfortunately it also means you're subjected to the Hero's terrible English voice actor for the entire game. It eventually grew on me, but still it should be mentioned that his voice is really one of the worst in the game.
2. It's a whole new world
The previous five Suikoden games took place in the same world, despite taking place many years apart from each other in the case of Suikoden 4. Tierkreis takes place in a whole other dimension as far as I can tell, and as such you won't see many similarities between this game and the rest of the series. This is especially surprising when you consider that all of the previous games featured characters from each of the previous games. It's also disappointing for fans who have been keeping up with the series lore and history, but for whatever reason Konami decided to cut ties with everything they had built up this time around. Oh well.
3. The "Location Menu"
Similar to Suikoden 3, you select locations on the world map to travel to. However unlike previous games you also choose locations to travel to in towns as well. You'd think there wouldn't be much walking around then, but you'd be wrong (more on that later). You'll still be able to walk around the entire Castle/Headquarters and any dungeons though. A minor change, but worth noting.
4. Where's Viki?
Perhaps one of my favorite characters from the Suikoden series is also missing in Tierkreis, Viki. Not only is she always a funny character but she was also one of the most useful characters you could recruit into your army. She'd allow you to warp to previous locations on the fly. While this isn't as big of a deal in this game thanks to the location menu it's still noticeable. Also it seems like the game was trying to include a substitute for Viki in the form of the warp gate system, but there were only two locations you could warp to in the entire game, and it was a one way trip. What a mess.
5. No Escape Talismans
This is easily the most annoying change, and one that is really beyond my understanding. For whatever reason they decided to remove the ever useful "Escape Talisman" item that would allow you to instantly warp out of dungeons. Yes, you heard me. This means you have to manually walk out of almost every dungeon in the game. The game also has a nasty habit of dropping you off in the middle of a dungeon on a quest and still making you walk back out. It's fucking infuriating.
6. No Weapon Upgrades
In the previous five games, each character would come equipped with a single weapon that could be upgraded up to a maximum of 15 times throughout the course of the game. In Tierkreis however you can actually purchase new weapons and some characters can even use a wide variety of weapons. On the one hand this makes things more versatile, especially considering many enemies in the game are weak/resistant to certain types of weapons. On the other hand, I liked the simplicity and attachment the characters in the previous games had to their single weapons.
7. Runes? What Runes?
Perhaps the most surprising change in Tierkreis is the absence of any sort of runes in the game. Not only were runes the main form of magic in the Suikoden series, allowing the player to outfit characters with various runes allowing them to access different spells and abilities, but they were also huge plot points in the previous five games, with each game revolving around several absurdly powerful "True Runes". In their place is the "Marks of The Stars" system, which while still allowing you to customize your characters skills and abilities, doesn't have quite the same impact as the runes did.
8. A serious lack of Strategy
One of the defining features in the Suikoden series has been the various strategy battle mini games that have varied from game to game. From controlling a unit of soldiers to naval battles the strategy battles were always an interesting addition to the RPG genre, and usually quite entertaining. However for whatever reason Konami decided to exclude any such mini game in Tierkreis. In it's place you just form multiple groups that will tackle a series of random encounters and bosses during key battles in the game.
Despite these changes Suikoden Tierkreis is still an enjoyable RPG, even for a Suikoden game I think I liked it more than the fourth game in the main series. While the lack of strategy battles and escape talismans really make no sense to me, the other changes are at least an interesting new take on the series.
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