Closing…for now

Yeah, as people may have noticed, the blog here has not gone quite as well as I expected, so therefore, in order to get a fresh start on my writing life, I have decided to abandon this blog and create a new one. Once it is up, I will inform all of you by posting the link here.

Thank you all for your support.

http://finalcrosmaycry.wordpress.com/

And there is the new link now, with a brand new review of an old game known as Last Remnant. I will also re-review Dragon Age 2 and Final Fantasy XIII, since I am not satisfied with the effort I put into them.

Epic has a name, and it’s not Dragon Age 2

Near the end of 2009, gamers were able to rejoice, for Dragon Age Origins had brought them long needed joy. Filled with memorable characters and an epic storyline that continues to grow, the game certainly was praised and hyped by fans who eagerly awaited more from this game. And downloadable content soon came, expanding the universe of the games, and it was…decent. For awhile now, it seemed the fires Dragon Age had brought were now dying down, at least until the true sequel had come to reclaim its throne. After much eager anticipation, especially from Bioware’s many other video game franchises such as Mass Effect, fans were on the edge of their seats for what they expected to be perhaps the greatest game of all time! Mass Effect 2 had done the near impossible, so surely Dragon Age 2 could do the same, and give us a better game, right?

What we got however wasn’t quite what we expected. Instead, we have a rather decent, yet disappointing game on ours. Dragon Age 2 is good, but certainly not epic. Problems are few in number however, thankfully, and most are mere nitpicking. But after slaving 40 hours, problems were far easier to find. While the game does look gorgeous and environments are richly detailed to look at, they tend to repeat throughout the entire game.  And while sometimes it does make sense, for other times, it does not, and you are forced to spend your time traversing the exact same map you have gone through thirty times in a row. There is variety in some places, sure, but it feels like it’s being rehashed, and it’s a waste for such potential in this game. In fact, this was the exact same mistake they made in the original Mass Effect game!

For those who do not know what I am talking about and have not played Mass Effect 1, then allow me to explain: One of the problems with Mass Effect was the sidequests. While some were interesting, others were a bore, and they all had nearly one thing in common: having the EXACT same environments time and time again. In Mass Effect’s case, it is less forgivable since there are different planets, but Dragon Age cannot dodge this bullet. But hey, at least everything is prettier now, especially when compared with the DAO. It was good, sure, but nothing mindblowing.

Combat on the other hand is faster, forcing you to be apart of the action as opposed to waiting it out as you issue commands to your squad. It is near identical to Dragon Age Origins with mapping commands to the rest of the buttons and the radial menu, so old comers should feel somewhat at ease. And it definitely tries to earn its M rating with its brutality, making Mortal Kombat jealous. While it certainly feels good to hack into enemies Dynasty Warriors style, there are times where ally AI just completely stops. It’s not frequent, but it’s noticeable unless you are doing all of the work. And aside from that, classes do work as well as you might expect, with mages seemingly the most powerful class, able to take down foes faster than anyone I can see. It is a bit satisfying to feel like you are part of combat, but because of this hack and slash venture, tactics are dwindled down, making strategists not feel quite at home anymore, though enemies don’t stand still all the time and require effort to beat. Money is also a bit harder to find now, and if you managed to get the Blackstone Imperium (can’t remember the name) content, prepare to be taunted by the expensive items staring at you.

But aside from those two points, Dragon Age 2 suffers most when it comes to storytelling, one of its prime factors needed to carry the franchise. It isn’t bad, and dialogue is quite clever and entertaining, matching the amazing cast of characters and companions given to you, but it lacks focus at times and is spread out too thin. Though I have to admit, finding all the pieces in the story is a bit fun, as well as seeing what the world you created in Dragon Age Origins interact with Dragon Age 2, and even see familiar faces, assuming you let them live in the first game. Needless to say, I do like seeing the familiar gang. Also character/creature changes are in effect, so darkspawn are now different, as are the Qunari, who I have to admit, look more badass. A shame Sten didn’t make it in the game though.

Despite everything however, these problems are simple nitpickings compared to what you actually do have, for interacting with characters is certainly the best part of this game, with friendships and rivalries able to be formed between your friends But Bioware is going to have to do better to satisfy its fans, for while this is not a terrible game. Dragon Age 2 is a good game, but it fails to live up to the hype it was going for.

Dragon Age 2 barely manages to earn a 4 out of 5, and I highly recommend renting the game first before purchasing, for Dragon Age Origins fans may not be pleased with what they are playing. For me though, despite the problems, I still like to have fun with it. I mean it’s not like its Xenosaga 2 or anything….THANK GOD it isn’t Xenosaga 2, or Final Fantasy XIII for that matter. But try the demo at least, and if you hate that, you will not love this game.

XIII truly is the unlucky number…(Final Fantasy XIII review)

Yes, you do fight these things....and they WILL kick your ass.

Ah, if you are a Final Fantasy fan, then odds are you were all hyped up many years ago during the trailer for the 13^th game in the franchise. Nearly everyone was, and the internet screamed with undying loyalty and love to the franchise. Everything about it was breathtaking and beautiful, we couldn’t help but be excited for. Unfortunately, a cloud of doubt hovered over my head as the day it came over to the USA started become closer. I shrugged it off, and thought I was imagining things. Then I played…and I realized I was right. Square Enix messed up royally with this game. Is it that bad? Let’s find out bit by bit!

THIS is the main villain.....My god, I miss the giant swords already....

In terms of graphics, the game is pretty awesome and the sights are amazing. But here lies perhaps one of the biggest flaws in this game: There’s no free roaming. That’s right, for pretty much the entire game, you are stuck on a linear path. Now while most FF games did this, they at least had an open world and levels where we could spend hours doing various other things such as quests or obtaining rare items. Is there such a thing in this game? Not really. The level design eventually becomes much better as the game goes on, but really, it only gets good at chapter 11. Why there? Because you are able to finally do side-quests and distract yourself from the main story. But what’s the problem again?…..It begins in chapter 11, which will take a long time to get to in order to actually enjoy this game. Not exactly a good point in its favor.

Speaking of the main story, it has its ups and downs, mainly downs. Naturally, you shall be confused like no tomorrow as you first begin playing and wondering why there are so many explosions. Well, while Final Fantasy was usually focused on one or two main characters, attention is divided between the game’s six protagonists. This might have sounded good in theory, but it’d actually work if the characters were likeable. Let’s take Vanille for instance, the usual kooky character they put in these games (like Yuffie, Rikku, etc.), but it seems the Zero Punctuation review of this game was right: the kooky meter has literally become a singularity. What does this mean? Well let’s just say she need special, special education. And yes, I put special twice just for her. I’d say more, but none of it is nice and deserves no mention. Besides, I have dealt enough of it by raging fans of the series in the form of my friends.

Anyway, continuing with the story, the game does actually give you summaries of the plot as you go along, but these tell the story much better than the actual game does. This is not proper story telling! It’s a ridiculous idea because when you play a game, you PLAY a game, not read through and waste several hours devoid of fun factor reading. That’s what books and fanfiction are for! Also, this game lacks a proper villain. I know they’re trying the whole defy fate thing, but I fail to see a true villain in the midst of all of this. This game’s villain is far less epic compared to the others in the FF series. The only good thing is that he’s a challenging boss for a change.

And that brings us to possibly the only good thing: combat. Believe it or not, the combat system isn’t half bad. It involves a lot of strategy, with the AI controlling two other party members while you control the leader. There is no MP in this game, so magic is used freely and rapidly. Using the ATB (Active Time Bar), you can perform multiple actions in a single turn, and even chain attacks to stagger a foe. Even status ailments, which were once useless since bosses within the series were often immune to them, are incredibly helpful as well. There’s also a paradigm system which changes the characters behavior, switching them from offense to defense in a flash. Should you be defeated in combat, no worries because the game actually has a retry function, so you can fight the same enemy no matter how many times you lose. So the game actually encourages you to make new strategies again and again. Sadly, the true potential of this function isn’t unlocked the minute you play, and most of the time you might just be using auto-battle.

Summons make a grand return as well, and characters can team up with them to perform special attacks and such. But you may only summon one since summoning is based on TP, and it takes away 3 out of 5, so summoning another beast to aid you is impossible. Also, the game has seemed to given up on potions and such, focusing more on the customization of weaponry. Even though when you exit battle, your HP is automatically restored, in battle, potions are only handy for the first few hours, then become useless. It begs the question as to why bother with items in the first place.

It may sound like this is a truly horrible game, but it isn’t. It has its ups and downs, but overall….it’s not great or bad. It’s only a 3 out of 5. It reminds me of Final Fantasy VIII, but the only difference was that I actually enjoyed XIII better than that game.

I wish it was, Sazh. I wish it was...

And on one more note, I think Spoony should be the one to review this game. Seriously, after the way he did number VIII, and number X (even though I love X), he can do a far better job and tear this game a new one. SPOONY: I DARE YOU TO REVIEW THIS GAME!

Role-Playing: Getting behind the character

Frustrated because your writing skills aren’t good enough? Tired of having a rampant muse with no direction? Boy then I have the answer for you!

Now I know what some of you are thinking, but no, I am not referring to dressing up as a fool. Rather, I am referring to the many RPing communities Livejournal has to offer. For those who do not know what RP is, it’s basically taking control of your character and acting/writing the actions they would do. This is pretty helpful in getting behind the minds of characters, and even helps develop your writing skills. It’s like practice.

First up is my favorite so far, Shiva Dancing:

http://community.livejournal.com/shivadancingooc/profile

Now in this RP, you take control of one of the Final Fantasy characters available, or even one from the old Chrono series, and interact. You are dropped in a merge of nearly every Final Fantasy world around, and yes, even places like Gran Pulse and the Shinra Building are accessible! And as you may have noticed, so long as you make a plausible background in your apps, you can actually app for other characters, such as I did for Raidou Kuzunoha. Combine this with the thrill of battle and hunts, mognetmail, and you have an experience where you can develop your skills and make friends while you are at it!

Next up is a rather new RP, but it will definitely reach the heavens like the previous one did. The next on is Crystal Epos:

http://community.livejournal.com/ce_ooc/profile

Hosted by a member from Shiva Dancing, Crytal Epos drops you in the middle of a warring world and you must take your side. Characters who were powerless before now gain the power to fight back, and even if your character is a powerhouse, their power is increased thanks to their crystal, which can also function almost as well as a cellphone, even better! In this RP, you can pick ANYONE from ANY fandom! Go nuts!

You see the stairway before you, young writers. Now take your first step, and dive in to the adventure!

Avengers Assemble!….Avengers? (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review)

Let’s face it, we have all dealt with subpar comic book games for years now, such as the Batman (excluding Arkham Asylum) and Superman games. But there is still hope so long as the Ultimate Alliance franchise holds up. However, can the sequel to what is arguable the best comic book game in history stand by itself? Can it rise to the occasion and be the very best at what it does!?

Sort of…

The story is based on the Marvel comics and takes place during the Secret War where Nick Fury, head of SHIELD, takes the world’s best heroes and invades Latveria, trying to stop a full blown war for erupting. Sadly, he fails as they retaliate, causing him to lose his position. Shortly afterwards, Congress decides they want to pass the Registration act, forcing our beloved protagonists into surrendering their identities and work for the government, or automatically be arrested should they disagree. And that leads into the Civil War storyline, where you must choose to be with Ironman and the Government, or side with Captain America and his Rebellion Army. Gee, I wonder what franchise this reminds me of? Eventually, it will stray off into a different path from the comics.

For those who do not know the history of the game series, Marvel Ultimate Alliance originated from the first X-men Legends series, continuing with a sequel, then the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and finally into here. The game gives you a set number of heroes, and sometimes even villains, with the roster growing as you progress. The last game featured 28 playable characters, and expands to 36 should you decide to purchase the Downloadable Content. Now while that may seem like a lot, it is, but you can have up to four heroes at once. Each character had quite a number of powers and abilities, making all of them nearly unique. I say nearly because some characters act almost in the same way, just with different animations and costumes. And you could equip each character with special items, such as HP draining or increased defense against fire. But customization didn’t end their as each character had four different unlockable costumes (such as the Spider-Man Black Suit and the WW2 Captain America), each with three different traits that could be upgraded to help ease your heroic burden. Finally, you could assemble a unique team of 11 heroes/villains with further upgrades like more XP or power. This game however cuts nearly ALL of that away.

No longer can you form your personal Ultimate Alliance with unique features. Sure, you can get bonuses by combining different teams like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, but odds are you might not do it if you want to play with your personal favorites. Multiple costumes have also vanished, replaced with only a single costume, and most of them aren’t really that fantastic. They were all replaced with Heroic Deeds, which are goals set for each hero, such as beating up ?? amount of enemies, score top fusions with a certain hero, etc. By completing these, you gain boosts that help improve your characters, thus making the game slightly easier. Plus this is the only way to get the costumes. However, you can’t get all of them in one playthrough due to the Civil War storyline, so this increases replay-ability. Overall, it’s not a bad idea, but they definitely should have added more costumes.

Equipment is gone and replaced with team boosts. You gain these by completing objectives or finding them throughout the levels, and can equip up to three. These boosts range from offense, support, defense, etc. Use these wisely as they are one of the key differences between victory and defeat.

Powers have been reduced greatly, and that is actually a good thing. No longer do you have to worry about wasting skill points on powers you are never going to use. Rather, you get four powers per hero, two of them already unlocked when you first begin playing. While the quantity has been lowered, the quality has indeed gone up as all the powers look great and work perfectly for each character. Plus the developers have heard the cries of many fans who were disappointed when their favorite heroes were rather weak and horrible to play as, and improved them wonderfully. Really, my only complaint is for the Green Goblin, whose only good side is his glider, and that thing is annoying.

But perhaps the most glorious of all powers are the fusions. You see, fusions replace the X-treme attacks (which are like super special moves) from the previous titles, and they allow you to combine powers. For example: if you combine Spider-Man and Ironman, Spidey will get all grunts into one location, allowing Ironman to blast them all away with a powerful charge shot. They animations are great and are possible with most heroes (unable to see a real Storm + Spidey fusion going with a web tornado), but all of the moves are essentially identical. Soon, you will eventually tire of seeing the same fusion again and again. However, they are essential for tackling down your enemies.

Speaking of which, the gameplay is very satisfying, much better than its predecessor, but it’s still pretty much the same thing, just with added stuff like rag-doll physics. And at least the characters can do their own usual thing (Spidey and Venom can Web-Swing, Ironman and Songbird, along with others, can fly, etc.) With four heroes, you face pretty much waves of enemies (ranging from 1-???). On higher difficulties, this becomes more of a challenge, but on normal and easy, you can pretty much go through a level blindfolded and still come out on top. And if you somehow lose on easy, be ashamed as you literally cannot fully die. At least that’s what the in-game directions tell you.

Now as I stated earlier, you have to choose a side in this game. Should you go with Ironman, you will have him, Mr. Fantastic, and Songbird on your team, as well as heroic deeds that can be finished. However, you will temporarily loose Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Captain America. Same thing goes if you choose Cap’s side, only reversed. These paths will net you one of the two endings (which aren’t really satisfying by the way) and let you fight different enemies. But that’s the problem: level design. You have different objectives for each, but the level is basically the same, with nearly the same type of boss fights, with nearly the same types of enemies. So really, just choose who you like and take it from there. And don’t expect a chance to betray/leave your team like Spidey did in the Civil War. Even adding those types of story elements would have helped greatly, but the developers just had to be cheap.

Also, the conversations have been upgraded to choose an answer that fits your hero, but there will be no voice dialogue for that character, which kind of brings the question: Why bother? But you will gain more boosts that help the team out, so that’s something. And it’s better than simply reading from a small text box.

If you were expecting the same great voice actors from the previous title, prepare to be disappointed. That’s right, nearly all the voices have been changed/mixed-up for EVERY character. It’s sad really since I preferred the first game’s Thor voice. Now, it kind of irritates me. Still, voices are good, but not great. Changing Ironman’s voice was actually a wise decision though. And Wolverine fans can relax as they didn’t change him (Thank God!). Also, all the heroes you could control in the first one are also taken, such as Blade and Ghostrider. While the replacements are fun, it does make you miss them terribly. Good news is that the Downloadable Content will feature new characters, including Spidey’s enemy, Carnage. Sadly, you will have to pay.

Online mode runs well, other than the fact of the occasional slowdowns of the frame-rate. Plus you gotta be careful who you play with as they will be a douche and cancel the level halfway. This makes it very frustrating if you are trying to get the online achievements, so stick to playing with a buddy, just like in swimming.

But perhaps the biggest offender is the story. It’s not that it’s bad, but there was so much more that could have been done with it. Plus the game is short, really short. I mean you can beat this within a week for 1 playthrough, and I had to do a crapload of college work too! Really, the only LONG part is the whole story before the Civil War.

All in all, Marvel Ultimate Alliance isn’t a bad game and it’s very fun, but the length is too short when compared to its predecessors. Graphics and gameplay are satisfying, but me thinks it is not worth $60, which is sadly money I cannot get back. And I didn’t even get the Juggernaut code! I really wish I could give this game a higher score, but I am forced to give it a 3 out of 5. Sorry Marvel fans, but just enjoy the first game, unless you have money burning in your pockets.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

I am a college student who wishes to write video game review for the gaming industry in the future, though I also wish to promote my story Final Cross May Cry on Fanfiction.net. I chose the name Reaper’s Shadow for a reason, mainly because I saw it in a dream I had when I was trying to come up with a name.

This blog will contain mainly reviews of games past and present, with some links to my stories on Fanfiction.net.

For my reviews, I use this scale:

1 out of 5: Horrible and not worth even a penny.
2 out of 5: Bad, but has some good things that may be worth a purchase when it’s $10 or less.
3 out of 5: Rent it and see for yourself. Odds are it might be worth buying.
4 out of 5: A good game with some flaws. Worth a buy.
5 out of 5: Awesome beyond belief. It may have some flaws, but the fun factor easily erases this.

I hope all of you will enjoy my work and tell your friends about it!