Title: Super Street Fighter IV
Format: BluRay Disc
Release Date: April 27, 2010
MSRP: $39.99

Here we are, a little over a year later and Street Fighter IV’s first (and last?) update is upon us. Not DLC, not a sequel, but essentially a stand-alone retail expansion pack, budget priced at $40. Hopefully this review will help you decide if it’s worth the upgrade.

In case you slept through Street Fighter IV’s initial release last year, it was the latest game in the venerable Street Fighter fighting game series, this time re-imagined with 3D visuals, but retaining the classic gameplay. For the most part, it succeeded. While it maybe wasn’t as accessible to fighting game newcomers as Capcom may have hoped, it still sold very well and recaptured the spirit and fandom of the original Street Fighter II. It introduced new gameplay elements like the Focus Attack, a way to absorb a hit and counterattack, and the flashy Ultra Combos which allowed you to swing a fight back into your favor after taking a beating, but only if you managed to land it. Like most games nowadays, it featured an online mode, but that seemed to be the weakest piece of an otherwise great package with mediocre matchmaking and limiting online fights to 1 vs. 1. Super Street Fighter IV builds upon the framework of SFIV by adding 10 new fighters to bring the grand total up to a whopping 35, new backgrounds, a 2nd selectable Ultra Combo for every character, balance tweaks for the existing cast, bringing back SFII’s classic bonus stages and revamping the online modes.

The new characters have received an insane amount of buzz and attention online and deservedly so. Longtime fans were happy to see 8 returning characters from previous Street Fighter games. Dee Jay and T.Hawk return from Super SFII, Guy, Cody and Adon are back from the SF Alpha series and finally, fan favorites Dudley, Ibuki and Makoto are seen for the first time since SFIII. The remaining two characters, Juri, an evil Tae Kwon Do fighter and Hakan, the zany Turkish oil wrestler are brand new to the series. There were a lot of complaints that SFIV’s initial cast was very Shoto-heavy (characters patterned after series mainstays Ryu & Ken with similar move-sets), but Capcom has done an exceptional job rounding out the roster with these new characters. Each really adds something different to the game and has a fairly unique style unlike any other. If you can’t find a character that fits your playstyle out of these 35, then you may want to play a different game. Oh, and the best part? All the characters are unlocked from the start, including the playable version of the boss, Seth! Capcom really listened to player’s complaints from SFIV as having to unlock nearly half the cast was a royal pain, especially since the save files were locked. All characters originally in SFIV have received balance tweaks to either bring them up in ability or hold them back a bit if they were considered too powerful in SFIV. Likewise, everyone received a 2nd Ultra move which is selectable before the fight begins. This adds a very welcome new level of strategy to the game as you can pick an Ultra better suited to fighting a specific opponent.

The other additions help make this a great package. The new backgrounds are absolutely phenomenal. Tons of detail and little animations make them nearly as fun to watch as the actual fights. Unfortunately they also cause the original backgrounds to pale a bit in comparison. Too bad Capcom didn’t have the time to give them a slight facelift to match the new ones. While there are no character specific backgrounds like previous Street Fighter games (except maybe the final boss, Seth), every character now has their own remixed theme music which is a fantastic addition for longtime fans. Normally they’re reserved for the rival fights in arcade mode, but you can even unlock the option to use this music instead of the standard background tunes. The two bonus stages from SFII make a reappearance in car smashing and a barrel busting minigames. They make for a nice trip down memory lane, but once you’ve done them once or twice, you’ve probably welcome the option of turning them off for subsequent playthroughs of arcade mode. The intros and endings for characters in Arcade Mode have also received a facelift, but are mostly as forgettable as those in SFIV, which shouldn’t be terribly surprising as fighting games aren’t typically known for their storytelling. Most of the rest of the offline modes also make a return. The standard Training Mode and Vs. Mode are there as well as a revamped Challenge Mode. The challenges are largely the same as SFIV, giving you simple and not-so-simple combos to accomplish with a given character, but mercifully you’re no longer required to exit after finishing each one and can keep going through them in order. Absent from SFIV are the Time Attack, Survival and Gallery Modes. I personally won’t miss them, but it does seem a bit odd to remove them altogether. Extra colors & taunts as well as the online icons and banners still need to be unlocked, but instead of tying them to a single mode like SFIV, you now simply unlock them by playing Super SFIV’s various modes.

Next to the new characters and tweaks, the upgraded online mode is probably what interested SFIV fans the most. I’m sad to say, it’s a mixed bag. One of the most requested features, has finally been added: Lobbies. For unranked matches (or Endless Battle as it’s called here) you can have an online lobby of up to 8 players duking it out. Of course, it’s still 1 vs. 1, but the other players in the lobby are free to spectate the match and make comments via voicechat. Or at least they could if the voicechat worked well. In my experience any lobby with more than 4 people caused the voicechat to become choppy and unintelligible which is a real shame. In 1 on 1 matches or fewer than 4 it works great, just like SFIV did. For Ranked matches, the quick matchmaking seems possibly worse than SFIV. You’ll likely be seeing “Cannot connect to match” quite a bit as it seemingly attempts to connect you to full rooms. You can get around this by creating your own Ranked room for people to connect to or turning on Fight Request in Arcade Mode (allowing online players to interrupt your offline play), but that’s no real excuse for it not to work as advertised. The actual gameplay online seems about the same although I do seem to come across more matches with better connections. That could be simply because the game is still new. Probably the greatest positive addition to online, is double-blind select in all modes. This means you’ll never see who your opponent is picking until you’ve both selected. This is great because you’ll no longer suffer by having someone pick a particular character who may have a distinct advantage over yours and you’re still free to select your Ultra after character choices have been revealed. A new addition to the online mode, is the Replay Channel. It automatically stores your most recent online matches and let’s you view them again or save them permanently. You can even turn on the button inputs to see exactly how a killer combo was performed. You’re also able to view top online matches from other players, but the categorization leaves something to be desired and there’s no actual search function for it. Capcom has advertised a full-featured bracketed online tournament mode is coming soon as free DLC for Super SFIV. This looks to be a great addition and welcome as free bonus content.

While some may be upset this was not released as a downloadable upgrade and isn’t compatible with SFIV, rest assured this package is well worth the asking price whether you’re already an avid Street Fighter fan or a newcomer to the series. I must admit though, if the original Street Fighter IV didn’t appeal to you, there’s not much here to change your mind. It’s essentially the same game with some great additions and tweaks. The “not quite up to snuff” online mode revamping is disappointing, but not game-breaking by any means as it’s still incredibly enjoyable online. I would say the busted voicechat hurts the most, but could hopefully be patched in the future. Capcom has stated this will be the last retail expansion for Street Fighter IV so don’t go waiting on Super Street Fighter IV Turbo since this is probably as good as it’s gonna get, and it’s already fantastic.

–Mark

Cat Punching come to life?

Looks like there’s a new action-platformer coming exclusively to PSN this Spring! Krome Studios is bringing the Steve Stamatiadis comic, Blade Kitten, to life in a two-part action-adventure game. The game will feature pick-up and play arcade action through 19 levels along with involved storytelling, high-quality cinematics and a unique visual style. We don’t know too much yet, but I’m always up for a new arcade action game. Clink the link and check out the screenshots, then visit bladekitten.com to find out more about the game’s half-girl/half-cat herione.

NIS America just sent out a press release letting everyone know that one of my favorite PSP series, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!, has received a name change to “What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord?!” Unfortunately, it seems that the original title conflicted with an existing IP so they changed it. Too bad, I really liked the original title, but at least the gameplay behind the name will remain the same. What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord?! releases on May 4th.

With the resurgence of the fighting game genre in the past year or so, it’s not surprising to see little known titles pop up for a piece of the fighter pie. It’s not like we’re flooded with Street Fighter 2 clones of the 90′s so in some ways it’s kind of refreshing to see what these newer fighters have to offer. This brings us to Battle Fantasia, released by Aksys Games on the PlayStation Network and developed by Arc System Works, better known for BlazBlue and Guilty Gear.

With two well-respected and well-received fighting franchises under their belt, Arc System Works knows a thing or two about fighting games. Thankfully, Battle Fantasia does not disappoint. It may not look like much at first glance, or even first play, but stick with it for awhile and you’ll probably find it’s not just another throw-away Street Fighter clone. That’s actually a pretty good comparison because Battle Fantasia plays quite a bit more like Street Fighter than either BlazBlue or Guilty Gear. It also features 3D graphics on a 2D plane just like Capcom’s Street Fighter 4. Gameplay is pretty standard fireball, dragon punch and charge motions for all the characters. You have 4 primary attack buttons and pressing combinations of them (or assigning a combination to another button) lets you throw, use a parry-type maneuver or activate your character’s Heat Up Mode for a short time. The Heat Up Mode is basically Battle Fantasia’s gimmick and works differently for each character. Some get enhanced special moves, some get entirely new moves and little Marco even get a helper dragon on the screen that attacks opponents. Once you really understand how your character’s Heat Up Mode works you’ll find it really adds to the depth of the game.

Graphically, Battle Fantasia is pleasant looking. The 3D isn’t quite up to this gen’s standards and doesn’t stand up next to the big guys like SF4, Tekken 6 or Soul Calibur 4, but is forgivable for a downloadable title. The whimsical, storybook look to it all helps quite a bit and fits the style very well. There are subtle RPG references that add to the fantasy theme such as displaying a number labeled “HP” under your life bar and Watson can even “Level Up” during a fight. These things are cosmetic at best however and it’s a shame since some sort of RPG-like additions could potentially have been cool. The character portraits and dialogue scenes are all drawn in a very loose, sketchy style that looks both unique and like something straight out of a fairy tale. Character designs are a little off the wall, something Arc System Works is known for, but these are tame in comparison to some of the stuff in Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. You’ve got the youngster wannabe knights, a pirate with a giant hook, a catgirl, even a wizardly rabbit thing. With only 12 characters to choose from, the roster isn’t huge, but you’ll probably be able to find at least one character that fits your play style.

Battle Fantasia features quite a few modes to keep you busy. The standard Arcade mode pits you against the other fighters until you get to the final boss just like any other fighting game. Of more interest is the Story Mode, unique to each character and features extensive dialogue voiced in Japanese and subtitled in English. The stories themselves are pretty nonsensical, but it’s still a pretty cool addition to fighting game and you’re rewarded for finishing them with unlockable art and other goodies. You’ve also got the standard Time Attack, Survival and Practice modes to keep you busy. Of course the big thing in this day and age, is the online mode. You can choose ranked or unranked and have several options for searching for or creating a match against a single opponent. Online worked fairly well for me. A good number of the matches I played started out a bit laggy, but ironed themselves out after awhile. Unfortunately, the online community for seems to be lacking at the moment. I managed to find unranked games without waiting too long, but I have yet to find a ranked match.

Overall, Battle Fantasia is an unassuming yet solid fighting game at a fantastic price. If you’re looking for something new, but somewhat familiar in a fighter, I highly suggest a purchase.

PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Aksys Games
Release Date: 12/22/2009
Price: $19.99

Okay folks, here is my post-game impression of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII.

This impression will be broken into two parts. The majority of the impression will focus on the game as an RPG and how it left me feeling by the end of it. The second segment will be a shorter description of the game in terms of the almost enigmatic concept of how it performs as a “Final Fantasy” game. No storyline spoilers will be in this review – but if you’re worried about being spoiled… just stop reading now. This will be broken down into the typical categories and each one is my personal opinion of them.

Graphics and Sound Design:

I was at war with myself on which category to put first – but seeing as Square Enix is always praised for the graphic/audio fidelity of their Final Fantasy games, I figured it should be the starting point.

Final Fantasy XIII is hands-down the best looking RPG of this generation. Granted, big-budget console role-playing games have been miniscule so far in the current generations’ lifecycle, but Final Fantasy XIII has stepped up to the plate to deliver a standard so high other RPGs will have a very tough time matching it. The attention to detail in the environments will have even the most skeptical player forget that they are essentially running in a straight line. If anything, I was glad that the early chapters kept me moving, because if the path opened up any more, I’d never have made any progress from stopping and staring at something new and wonderful. Given the enormous scale of the areas you traverse, it is simply stunning how beautifully the environments operate on both an aesthetic and mechanical level. The game’s fantastical locations will give any game a run for its money.

On a smaller scale, in-game character models are getting so close to their CG counterparts now, it’s frightening. Mannerisms, body language and facial expressions are exaggerated, but realistic, and the lip-syncing is impeccable. I don’t think that the Japanese language has ever fallen quite so convincingly from any other gaming character’s lips. I’m worried this will change, though, as the early footage of the Western release doesn’t look quite as smooth, but time will tell. Monster design has taken another huge leap. Especially the boss fights. Some of the villains you come up against seem to have more details than the environment surrounding them. It’s a real testament to the team’s dedication to make every single aspect of the world look unique. And while Final Fantasy XIII falls into the time-honoured RPG tradition of changing a monster’s colour scheme as a signal of it being stronger than others you’ve fought previously, the variety of unique encounters you face throughout the course of the game is impressive.

The FMVs don’t need a large paragraph of hyperbole. They are far and away the best visual CG sequences of any game released. Take that as you will, but I believe it to be true.

The sound design is also very strong in Final Fantasy XIII. PS3 owners who have a keener audio sensibility than me will undoubtedly be eargasming for the 50-60 hours the game takes to complete. Voice acting for the Japanese release was of a good standard – but Mabuki Andou steals the show as Fang. Sadly, the English speaking release is not dual-audio so this part of my impression will be unimportant to most of you. I’ll just take away my own personal enjoyment of Japanese voice cast and keep it close to my heart.

Masashi Hamauzu’s score is quite brilliant. The ambiance of the music can be little too soft sometimes – these aren’t your typical, quirky tracks of previous Final Fantasy games. The essence of the soundtrack definitely has a “movie” feel, rather than a “game” one. For some, this will be an issue, but I rather enjoyed the lows and the highs that Hamauzu wove into the fabric of the different locations. I cannot give away the names of the track, as it contains spoilers, but the music towards the end of Chapter 11 will continue to haunt me for many years to come. I will say that the chocobo themes (yes, there are two — one of which has lyrics!) are a lot of fun and should make fans of the series smile. Some songs might not make others smile. There is definitely more J-POP insert songs in this one — at least more than you’d find in a Nobuo Uematsu or Hitoshi Sakimoto score. Some of these lyrical pieces are character themes, so there is no avoiding hearing them multiple times. I will say that Sazh, Serah and Fang’s themes are some of the best the series has seen. Personally, I didn’t mind the insert songs, but when they are paired with the Leona Lewis song in the Western release, I know the disjunction will be jarring for many. Thank the gods I didn’t have to endure Leona Lewis, though! You unlucky bastards get to deal with that mess of a song.

My only gripes with the audio presentation is that the characters were occasionally overacted, making them a little awkward, and that some of the sound effects are a little more prominent than I thought they should be. This probably has to do with the subtlety of music. That being said, all sound effects possess a clean, professional treatment that make the battles and cut-scenes very enjoyable.

Story and Characters:

As stated earlier, I won’t dwell on this section for fear of spoilers.

In my mind, the characters are the story. You definitely get the impression that the heroes and heroines are genuine folk — believing staunchly in the core principles that ultimately shape who they are. The interaction between all of the characters is well structured and believable. Snow, Fang and Lightning definitely stand at the apex of the group in terms of strength of personality, but Sazh is great as the character that adds amusing commentary. I’m really looking forward to see how the localisation team handles him. By the end of the game, Fang and Vanille stood far and away as my favourite characters, but I won’t reveal why. You’ll have to see for yourself in March.

These two left a huge impression on me.. for various reasons.

I truly believe that the characters of Final Fantasy XIII will continue to be associated with the pantheon of those that preceded them. Can anyone say Final Fantasy: Dissidia 2? Oh no, wait… no, you can’t — you’d need to have villains for that. Unfortunately, there are no memorable villains in this game. Yaag is the most interesting of the bunch, but he is also gray in terms of allegiance. He serves the people — not his own evil agenda… which makes him passionate, but not necessarily a “bad guy”. None of the antagonists feel fleshed out, but it is mostly the fault of the game’s story.

The story, while interesting and engaging, is lacking in continuity and filled with incongruities. Gaping plot holes, the weakness of the story’s structure and the reliance of the “auto-clip” (an encyclopedia inside of the game) were thorns in the side of an otherwise good tale. More in-game background information would have made the world feel more in-tune with what the developers set out to create. Luckily, the world tells its own story. The visual presentation of locations are enough fill in blanks of the game’s history that the script simply does not cover.

Lastly, I felt like the script contained far too many motivation speeches and repetitive tropes. It was very reminiscent of Final Fantasy X, but without the down-to-earth Auron to make light of it. Also, if I could take a dollar off the retail price for every time Snows says “The hero has arrived,” “I’ll protect X without fail,” or “SERAH!” I’d only have to pay for shipping.

I was underwhelmed by the game’s limp story telling, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the story that the characters told… even if the ending felt a little rushed. I would highly, HIGHLY recommend reading Episode Zero before starting the game. If you want to fully appreciate the characters, you’d do well to read this prior to playing the game. Naturally, there are spoilers, but the game leaves out large chunks of key character’s motives and history. Without reading this, it would have felt like riding a train made up solely of carriages with no engine. I’m really annoyed with Square’s decision to omit this from the game, but you don’t have to be. Go in knowing your characters and you’ll find the experience many times more enjoyable. You’ve been warned.

Gameplay:

I’ll get this point out first — Final Fantasy XIII has a fantastic battle system.

It feels rapid, energetic and engaging. You’ll be thinking three, four, five steps ahead of your current action in attempt to chain combos, interrupt enemy actions and ultimately reach the enemy’s “Break Gauge.” Once broken, you can unleash glorious, over-the-top ownage upon their unsuspecting being. By manipulating preemptive strikes and using your knowledge of the optima system, you can win battles in as little as one second… which feels great.

However, Final Fantasy XIII can be surprisingly challenging… even hard in places.

That is to say, if you care about getting the maximum rating for the battles you take part in, you’ll almost definitely have to wear your “thinking cap”. If you go into the game mashing the “Auto-battle” button without any consideration, you’ll find your party leader dead and the “Game Over” screen glaring at your face (a first for the Final Fantasy series, I believe… and one that’ll annoy some fans). Thankfully, every battle can be restarted, which is especially useful if you forget to set one your optima correctly.

Optima work by having your three-man team take on a certain role. An example might be that you have Lightning as an attacker, Sazh as a support character that buffs your party, and Vanille as a healer. While every character eventually has access to all six of the “roles”, each member of your team has three strengths that will be the most beneficial for you. Management of these roles is critical. You can easily err, and if you do, there will be hell to pay. Knowledge of how my optimas were set up, and the weaknesses and strengths of my enemies added a deep amount of strategy that really, really appealed to me. Sure, when the inevitable grind rears its ugly head, you’ll be hitting “Auto-Battle” a lot to save time, but the larger enemies you find at the ends of chapters and in the game’s special Missions will quickly remind you that you aren’t quite as tough as you think you are.

You'll be constantly changes roles to adapt to the situation.

Sadly, like previous games in the series, Eidolons are utterly throw-away. They’re more useful as a character development tool, rather than a battle strategy. Sure, they are gorgeous to look at… but that’s about it. I don’t mind their presence, but, in a game were the battles are ranked in terms of how much time you spend fighting, having a long, drawn-out animation sequence makes no sense. You can skip the majority with a button, but not the time-consuming “Final Blow”. While irritating, it doesn’t break the game.

I like the so-called “Crystarium system”, but the high “Crystal Point” value of each level didn’t work well with the lack of places to grind in the game. At one point I found myself staring at the maxed-out 999999CP I had accumulated and realised…it still wasn’t enough. Another problem is the Weapon and Accessory system. The level of customization only effects Physical and Magical power, which, while restricting, isn’t a bad thing. What does suck mightily is that the whole system is entirely based on money…. and there is next to no money in the game. Even 85 hours into the game, I barely have enough money to upgrade three weapons to their maximum potential. When one of the rarest and most valuable drops in the game sells for 150k, and you need something around 12,000,000 gil to get every character’s ultimate weapon, it just becomes ridiculous. I won’t even get into disassembling items. I could write a book on that.

A word of warning, then. Desperate fans who want to make their weapons stronger by selling off accessories and other goods will find it coming back to haunt them if they intend on getting the Trophy/Achievement for possessing ALL weapons and accessories.

Even with all that in mind, it feels brilliant when you’re dealing 5x400k+ damage to enemies with millions-upon-millions of hit-points. So, for those with the patience and the fortitude, it becomes rewarding.

Oh. And there will be Trophies and Achievement to make even the biggest overachievers think twice. Completionists be warned: you’ve got a long fight coming your way.

Final Fantasy Aficionado Need-to-know:

If you are already an avid fan of the Final Fantasy series, these lighthearted bullet points should be sufficient:

Potential Negatives:

• Some J-Pop
• No limit breaks
• No backtracking
• No Gilgamesh, folks
• No Malboros…? (yay!)
• No traditional towns
• No traditional victory fanfare
• No Moogles, Male midriff or Money drops
• Cid = Gackt = Genesis = Crisis Core cameo…
• No Uematsu — so don’t expect his style of music
• Linearity of FFX — because that game was linear too, remember?
• Full control of party sacrificed in order to produce a faster, more fluid battle system.

Potential Postitives:

• Some J-Pop
• Not FFXII…..*
• Epic boss battles
• Immense boss music!
• Multi-million HP bosses
• Unparalleled hair physics
• Classic spells, items, and accessories
• Belts and zippers.. sometimes together!
• Cid = Gackt = Genesis = Crisis Core cameo!!!
• Probably the most likable Final Fantasy cast ever
• CG cutscenes the likes you’ve never imagined possible
• A lot of missions, hard to obtain accessories and break 99,999 damage
• Plenty of familiar faces: Cactuar, Bahamut, Tiamat, Tonberrys, Cid, etc
• A battle system that reaches a happy medium between FFXII and FFX-2
• Brilliant music that, while not what you are used to, FEELS like Final Fantasy

Despite my gripes with the game, I thoroughly enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, the game is annoyingly linear up until the halfway point, but not terribly more so than Final Fantasy games of the past. If the game had no in-game map I don’t think I would have been so aware of the linear progression. The lack of towns is blindingly noticeable, though. For me, this is preferable, because I have no time for NPCs unless they’ve got something to give me that isn’t mild complaints or information of the town. Yet, I realise for many, towns are the cornerstone of an RPG… those people are going to be very disappointed. I do feel that towns would have been a better place to learn more of the lore of Cocoon and Pulse, so their omission is a shame. This first installment of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series misses out on the chance to really delve into this new universe’s rich, well realised lore. I’m hoping Final Fantasy XIII Versus rectifies this issue.

Fans of the series might be scared by the deluge of negativity that has seemingly flooded gaming messages boards — I understand where you are coming from. But, if you take the word of this Final Fantasy veteran, I can tell you that you worries will be washed away the second you start playing the game.

What Final Fantasy XIII does, then, is push the series in a new direction. It tries to break away from the traditional themes of Final Fantasy and place itself into a faster-paced, more action packed RPG. In spite of the fact that Square-Enix has shed its skin and seemingly left the older concepts of what a Final Fantasy game is, it still feels very much like a Final Fantasy. For those who are coming into it expecting to relive to the glory days, I feel like they will be underwhelmed. But, if the everyday RPG gamer or magnanimous Final Fantasy fan approaches XIII looking for a fantastic 50-60 hour RPG experience, you’ll love Final Fantasy XIII.

This impression was based on the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII. The reviewer’s opinions are based solely on the imported copy and does not reflect the Western release in any way.

Written by Matt Hodgkins (aka Bleak Harvest)

Bayonetta (PS3/360)
My favorite game of E3 ’09 and I was all set to crown it GotY2009 until it was delayed until next year. Most of you are well aware of the shoddy PS3 port controversy. Sad to say, I’ll be buying it day 1 on 360 and probably renting it for PS3 to compare.

Super Street Fighter 4 (PS3/360)
Never thought an incremental update to the Street Fighter franchise would get me so excited, but after what SF4 did to me, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Let’s just hope all the additions and tweaks don’t completely break the game.

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
FROM Software already stole our hearts (and souls) with Demon’s Souls, so I cannot wait to play their next PS3 outing. Martin’s already been singing it’s praises and you gotta love the pixel block graphics and Zelda-esque gameplay.

Yakuza 3 (PS3)
OK, so maybe I never finished the first two, but I did play a few hours of the first one. I’m excited for this game none the less, maybe in part because I never thought we’d see it in English. It’s the game I always wanted Shenmue to be, just wish it was coming out later than March so i can get through the first 2 before it hits.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP)
I love Phantasy Star. I loved Phantasy Star Portable 1. I loved how it fixed Phantasy Star Universe’s flaws. I even liked a lot of what Phantasy Star Zero did on DS. The development teams have joined forces to create the ultimate portable Phantasy Star experience and I couldn’t be happier.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)
Thanks to listener Nabeshin186′s challenge, I’ve rescued Valkyria Chronicles from the bottomless depths of my backlog and have been enjoying the hell out of it. While I’m ecstatic we’re getting a sequel, I can’t help but wish it hadn’t bombed on PS3 so we’d be getting an equally gorgeous console outing. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers and I think I may enjoy playing it slightly more on a portable anyway.

Mass Effect 2 (PC/360)
Another one I didn’t play until recently, Mass Effect has quickly become one of my favorite BioWare games and caused me to shelve Dragon Age for a bit. It’s flawed, but it appears the sequel will be fixing what needs fixing and delivering an incredible Sci-Fi RPG experience.

Alan Wake (360)
Yeah, we make fun of this one by referring to it as Alan Hill (as in Silent Hill, get it?), but that’s the reason I’m pretty excited for it. Aside from Siren: Blood Curse on PS3, I’ve been sorely disappointed with horror games this gen and the initial previews seem to have that blend of psychological horror and monsters that made Silent Hill 2 such a fantastic game. Let’s hope it’s that good!

Cave Story WiiWare (Wii)
Another one that was supposed to be out this year, but seems lost in ambiguous WiiWare-release date limbo. For the unaware, Cave Story was a freeware PC game coded by one extremely talented man named Pixel. It was action-platforming metroidvania style and incredibly well done. It’s been picked up for release on WiiWare with upgraded sprites created by Pixel himself and remixed music. Definitely not to be missed.

Shiren the Wanderer (Wii)
Shiren who? Sega released the first game in the Shiren series last year on DS where it tanked hard and it just so happened to be my favorite game of 2008. It’s incredibly surprising to see Atlus taking a chance on localizing Shiren 3 on the Wii. The gameplay is roguelike, which essentially means it’s an RPG but everything is randomized (like dungeon layouts, item properties, etc.) and when you die you start completely over at level 1. It’s way more fun than it sounds.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (Wii)
Another Capcom fighter? Of course! I’ve had the Japanese import of it for a year now so I already know it’s an awesome entry in the Capcom Vs. series. Really looking forward to the additional characters and online play.

Mega Man 10 (PSN/XBLA/WiiWare)
I LOVE classic Mega Man. I even bought all three versions of Mega Man 9 in some twisted sense of support for the game. Won’t be doing the same for 10, but rest assured I nearly pooped myself when I saw the announcement. Sheep Man FTW!!!

Sakura Wars (PS2/Wii)
I’ve been playing the preview so I already know this one is gonna be good! A fantastic swan song to the PS2′s massive RPG offerings and definitely one that should not be overlooked in the already crowded month of March. Not to mention it’s a long running Japanese Sega franchise, so why wouldn’t I want it?

And the rest…
You probably noticed some glaring omissions like say… God of War III, White Knight Chronicles or FFXIII. It’s not that I’m not excited for them, of course I am! It’s more that I know they’ll either be huge and good so I find it harder to get really pumped for them or I need to play them first to see if I like them. I’m sure closer to release date I’ll be just as excited as everyone else. The games I listed are the ones I personally am looking the most forward to and meticulously studying (or in some cases, consciously avoiding) every preview or trailer I can get my hands on. Dare I say, I’m TorgoHyped™ for them?

Review by François de Marquis

Warriors Orochi 2 is a sequel to a game I originally passed on playing because I was put off by the concept. I wasn’t a fan of the Samurai Warriors games due to some really bad level design in the first game, and being unimpressed with the characters. Mixing the Dynasty Warriors characters that I greatly enjoy with these goobers seemed like a bad idea.

Then Omega Force took away Dian Wei’s axe in Dynasty Warriors 6 and Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. I wasn’t too keen on the changes made to the new games and my most favorite of all the Romance of the Three Kingdoms heroes. Looking for any port in a storm, I turned to Warriors Orochi 2 and was pleased to discover that despite being teamed up with a bunch of ninnies, Dian Wei had his axe in tow.

Later I stumbled upon the joys of cleaving my path through the bodies of the Samurai Warriors and Orochi characters. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!

The game screen can be cluttered during the heat of battle. Meters populate the four corners of the screen – enemy officer health is in the upper left corner, morale bar and stage map beneath it in the upper right, K.O. count in the lower right, and the Health, Musou, and Experience bars for all three of the officers under your command. Additionally the the Ancient Chinese and Japanese perfected a battlefield version of Twitter which will pop up on screen when you fell an enemy officer, your commander issues you an order, or there’s just general smack talking and banter between you and a worthy foe. These exchanges are all voiced, but if you miss any of this, you can pause the game and go look it up in the History to stay on your toes.

The conditions for victory vary from stage to stage; but generally center on don’t let your leader get killed, or prevent your main camp from falling by beating back the enemy hordes as they attempt to invade. Here’s where the strategy and meat of the series comes into play – laying waste to all who stand in opposition to you and your sire. The battlefield hierarchy goes like this:

Leader > Officers > Gate Captains > Nameless Troops

The morale meter is a visual indication of how hot blooded your troops are, and the more morale you have, the more aggressive your faction will be. In order to turn the tide of battle in your favor you will want to cut down the enemy leader’s officers first. These named officers will put up more of a fight than a nameless troop and also drop experience or weapon pick ups. For each officer you kill you will receive a grandiloquent commendation from your peers or leader and your troop’s morale will increase because you’ve felled a known foe.

Next you’ll want to stem the flow of enemy reinforcements onto the battlefield by snuffing the Gate Captains. They’ll drop an experience item and once they’re gone your team will gain control of that gate to facilitate friendly troops flowing into the fray.

Nameless troops are just the grist for your death-mill. They pose no real threat on lower difficulty settings, but will gladly contribute to your undoing on higher difficulties.

Of course you don’t need to play this way, you could just go straight for the enemy’s leader and attempt to cut him down first; however it’s not uncommon for the leader to be reinforced with officers who will proceed to dog-pile you.

Not to mention there’s a perverse pleasure in sweeping across the battlefield like a blood soaked wind demoralizing and utterly oppressing your foes. I grin every time I hear an enemy captain order “Retreat!”, and if I have a character with suitable attacks and speed I’ll ensure none escape the area alive. Joyous day!

All of this is accomplished through effective application of your available game controls. Square attacks, Triangle is a harder attack, Circle is Musou attack / Musou charge, X is your Jump button, Left shoulder button is Guard / Strafe, and Right shoulder button is a Special Attack. You can choose to control your on screen avatar with the D-Pad or the analogue nub. If you use the nub to move, then you will toggle map size pressing up / down on the d-pad and tag out your officer by pressing left or right on the d-pad. Another change is now you start the battle with a horse instead of needing to find a saddle item in the game for use. Press select and your steed will surge to your side ready to sweep you across the map. The horse is extremely useful for covering large distances quickly.

Additionally if your officer’s health bar is red indicating you’re near death and all three of your officers have full musou bars you can activate a three character musou attack which will inflict impressive damage by pressing both shoulder buttons at the same time.

The game takes the tactical beat’em up formula of the Musou series of games and refines it. In previous Musou games, you had to unlock a new weapon to expand the number of attacks you could perform in a combo. Now your combo count is linked directly to your officer’s level, in addition to level raising increasing other character attributes like – life, musou, attack, defense, and speed.

You can obtain new weapons, up to four different variations of an officer’s type and a total of eight weapons in your character inventory. The weapons also now feature a high level of customization in addition to granting you higher attack power. You will find weapons with certain attributes attached to them. These attributes can be combined to increase their level, e.g. Drain 1 added to another weapon with Drain 1 becomes Drain 2. Additionally you can add up to eight slots to each weapon to add up to eight total attribute buffs to the weapon. Although You cannot remove or reassign these attributes to other weapons. Be mindful of what you’re combining and try to leave some open spaces on a weapon just in case you want to build it up or add an attribute later on without losing one you’ve spent time and upgrade points on growing.

There are also Treasures to be obtained by completing certain in-game conditions, which can then be used to imbue weapons with attack perks. Think of them as trophies that actually serve a purpose in the game. Obtaining all of them will take some time as you’ll need to play through each faction’s story mode, each faction’s story mode contains eight missions. Once you complete a mission, you unlock it for replay in Free Mode for experience farming, or to go back and meet the conditions required to obtain further treasures if you missed them the first time. You’ll want to keep an eye on the map in the upper right hand corner of the screen once you hit the treasure conditions, a blip will appear indicating where the treasure has appeared. You then need to go retrieve it before completing the stage.

Graphically the game is solid considering the amount of characters, visual effects, and objects on screen. The musou series has always strived for the grand scale battle feel akin to the opening of Fellowship of the Ring where-in The Last Alliance campaign to put an end to Sauron. That same feeling is here, but with fewer polygons and some pop-in of enemies. Considering you’ll often encounter upward of 20 characters on screen trying to put an end to you, it’s an admirable effort. Only once did I encounter any significant slow down during the final battle against a boss with some rather elaborate visual effects on his attacks and the aforementioned 20+ NPC’s on screen battling away.

Omega Force has also added some nice graphical flourishes when you fell certain enemy officers. The camera cuts to a more dramatic view of the killing blow in slow motion with focus lines drawing the eye to the critical moment. It’s a small addition, but really helps sell the impact of the action.

I would like to see more complex structures on the maps, castles, fortifications, etc; but this is the PSP. Not PS3, and even with more detailed environments in Dynasty Warriors 6 the game doesn’t deliver the level of fun Warriors Orochi 2 on PSP packs.

The audio is a mix of new tunes, familiar Dynasty Warriors themes, and I’m assuming some Samurai Warriors themes as well. The original compositions for the game are a fun, upbeat rock / club sounding music. Sound effects are all suitable and cue players to the events going on around them. However you may want to play the game with a good set of headphones since the PSP’s speaker cannot deliver the bass impact of steel against armor.

The game supports both English and Japanese language tracks and subtitles. So you’ve got some flexibility there depending on your preferences. Although some of the officer’s canned banter during combos may get a bit tiring after a while, so switching to Japanese which I find easier to tune out, could be beneficial if you’re easily annoyed. However I find not using an excessively chatty officer works just as well.

The game offers adhoc co-op modes and versus modes; but none of my gamer pals are into portable gaming so I couldn’t test these features. Which leads to an obvious failing of the game – lack of infrastructure co-op and versus play. Koei is making it’s first foray into online Musou games on consoles next year with the PS3 and Xbox360 port of Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. Hopefully this benefits the future iterations of this series, as it has proven to be a ton of fun to play co-op with friends on the Playstation 2 in the past.

In conclusion I’d say Warriors Orochi 2 is a fantastic title for fans of the beat’em up genre. At the very least, it’s a very strong rental recommendation.

Win Military Madness: Nectaris for PSN courtesy of Hudson Entertainment

Longtime listeners will know that Glenn and I are big time Turbografx-16 fans, so what better game to give away than Hudson Entertainment’s remake of one of our favorite Turbo games; Military Madness: Nectaris!

Much like our previous contests, you’ll have to answer some trivia and we’ll pick a winner at random from those with the correct answers on next week’s podcast (episode 141).* Only difference is, I’m giving you more than one question and you’ll have to answer them all correctly. Can’t make it too easy now can we?

Question 1: In Military Madness: Nectaris, how many players can participate in online multiplayer?

Question 2: What is the “Air Attack Range” of the Hawkeye Unit in Military Madness: Nectaris?

Question 3: How many different PlayStation systems have games in the Military Madness series been released on?

Answers MUST be emailed to: podcast@psnation.org and MUST include the subject line “Military Madness Contest”.

These answers shouldn’t be too hard to find, I have faith in you guys. Check out the game’s official site in the meantime or hit the jump for some screenshots.

http://www.militarymadnessgame.com/

*Code redeemable on US PSN Store only!

Comments are disabled so no one cheats and posts the answers. :-p

Nobody crafts an RPG quite like BioWare. They’ve had a hand in some of the most memorable western-style RPGs ever created: Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and more. That’s quite the resumé. Now we have Dragon Age: Origins, developed by BioWare and published by EA. BioWare bills it as a sort of return to their roots in fantasy-medieval RPGs. Let’s see if it lives up to the pedigree…

Dragon Age: Origins begins, quite literally, with your origin. You create your player character from one 3 races (humans, elves or dwarves) and then choose your class from the 3 available (warrior, mage or rogue). Each race picks from two origin stories, there are 6 total, which begin your quest in completely different ways. I completed two and while interesting, they felt a bit campy at times and obviously force you into a backstory you may not necessarily have envisioned for your character. Of course, that’s the point, but it can lead to some comical outcomes such as me creating a grizzled, old-looking dwarf and having him be referred to as boy or youngster when he clearly looks twice the age of the characters talking to him. What really makes the origins work however, is the way events and characters pop back up during the rest of the game. Even if it isn’t quite what you imagined for your character, it’s a fantastic way to keep it relevant and really adds to the feeling of completeness in Dragon Age’s world.

Each origin ends similarly, a Grey Warden named Duncan recruits you and off you go into the main story-line. In Dragon Age, the Grey Warden’s are a force that held back the tide of the evil Darkspawn as the rose time and again to destroy the world. Now the Grey Warden numbers have dwindled, but the Darkspawn haven’t and are once again threatening to invade the land. The basic premise isn’t terribly original and some of it really smacks of Lord of the Rings or even various Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. I won’t spoil the plot, but it really opens up after your first battle as a Grey Warden. The twists and turns along the way are expertly crafted and presented, making Dragon Age one of the most enjoyable and compelling stories I’ve experienced in an RPG. The massive amount of detail and lore presented to you through both the codex (basically your notebook) and in-game dialogue is simply astounding. It may not be the most original, but BioWare still manages to inject some very compelling backstory and detail to really make those tired old fantasy stereotypes their own.

Story is the key.

If you’ve played other BioWare RPGs, the gameplay in this one is quite similar. Unlike it’s PC counterpart, you will view everything from a third-person camera perspective, no overhead isometric views. You have full control over every character in your party including level progression and inventory. Combat is still based around targeting an enemy, then selecting an attack or ability and letting the computer handle the outcome. Despite featuring a third person camera, this is not action game. You’re still free to handle battle tactics on your own as you can freely switch between party members, repositioning them as you see fit. When not being directly controlled, party members use an AI system to handle combat. This is a very well-designed and deep system that allows you to assign nearly any actions you can think of provided you have enough “tactics” slots to assign them to. An action palette mapped to the face buttons (with an alternate palette available by holder down the right shoulder button) gives you quick access to whatever items or abilities you link there. Everything else can be quickly and elegantly accessed with the left shoulder button which brings up a tiered radial menu containing all of your other abilities, items and few more things such as a quick heal option. The game is paused while in this menu giving you as much time as you need to target enemies, choose your actions or even switch between party members.

Graphically, Dragon Age gets the job done, but isn’t spectacular looking. Character models and environments are good, but textures occasionally leave something to be desired and look rather muddy up close. Characters animate fairly well, but are missing some of those little touches you’d expect from a game at this point in the console generation. Little things like hair or clothing just don’t move enough, if at all. Sometimes it just looked like my female mage was wearing a helmet of hair. Framerate is less than stable so when the action gets heavy, expect hiccups and hitches. It’s definitely not bad enough to ruin the experience, but it was noticeable. Personally, I think the worst offender visually is the art design itself. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I just found it to be very bland overall. The character you create probably won’t look much more unique than any random NPCs you run into and even the playable party members are a bit blah in their design. One of the oddest graphical touches has got to be the blood splatters covering your characters after a fight. I’m not sure what effect they were going for here, but it just looks ridiculous having people stand around in conversation after a battle, drenched in blood. Music is fairly well done, but sticks to orchestrated themes as you’d expect from a fantasy game. The rock and metal present in the game’s commercials and trailers is no where to be found in-game.

Get ready for gratuitous use of blood.

I’m probably coming off sounding a little harsh, but now I’ll get on to what makes the game so enjoyable. As I said, the story and dialogue are extremely well done and those alone are good enough to carry the game. Yes, I said the setting was rather generic, but BioWare has still managed to craft an excellent tale in a familiar theme. The characters especially make it shine. What your party members lack in visual presentation, they make up for in personality. Every so often 2 of them will just start bantering and the conversations are usually gold, from Morrigan antagonizing Alistair to Leliana trying to have a chat with the War Dog. I highly recommend picking up the DLC for the Stone Prisoner if your copy didn’t come with it. Shale makes a fantastic party member and his dialogue is simply awesome. I don’t think I even found a side quest or mission that wasn’t entertaining. Even the standard fetch quests were suitably short and made nice diversions from the often-challenging main quest line. The world of Ferelden is simply a joy to explore and delve into it’s history, even if the fantasy trappings have been seen before.

Aside from the story and deeply detailed world, the simple refinement of BioWare’s RPG system makes this one a winner. The previous fantasy RPGs BioWare worked on were actually licensed Dungeons & Dragons games. They did a great job fitting a pen & paper RPG system into a video game, but the sheer amount of rules you still had to familiarize yourself with was daunting. In Dragon Age, they’ve trimmed down a very similar ruleset, but removed everything superfluous. Classes have been paired down to 3, with several unique options to specialize in, and even magic has essentially become a skill tree. It works amazingly well and keeps the inventory and character management down to far more tolerable levels. I’m actually planning to buy the tie-in Dragon Age novels and eagerly anticipating the pen & paper tabletop adaption of of it simply because I’d love to see it come full circle and see what else they do with the world they’ve created.

You'll be facing some epic battles.

If you listen to the podcast, you’ve undoubtedly heard me harping on the fact that Dragon Age looks an awful lot like Dungeons & Dragons or Lord of the Rings. So much in fact, that I freely accused it of ripping off those well-known fantasy settings. After playing it, I’ve definitely changed my stance to Dragon Age being less of a rip-off and more of an homage to both those and Bioware’s own previous RPGs. Yes, it borrows liberally from those franchises, but BioWare still manages to inject some very compelling backstory and detail to really make those tired old fantasy stereotypes their own. I really feel like they did it to make the world more familiar to mainstream audiences and the strange actiony focus of the marketing campaign seems to back that up. Those who would only know an elf or dwarf from seeing the Lord of the Rings movies, but otherwise have no frame of reference will still feel at home here. Unfortunately, to someone who is quite familiar with fantasy settings, it seems far less original. BioWare has the RPG-making muscle to create something incredibly original and you definitely see glimpses of it in Dragon Age, but the originality fell short of my expectations. That said, what it may lack in originality it makes up for in story and refinement. The actual system used here is possibly BioWare’s finest to date and it’s obvious they put a lot of care into creating Dragon Age’s world. RPG fans are definitely going to love this one and I think RPG newcomers may find a lot to hook them as well. I personally can’t wait to begin my next Dragon Age adventure.