Review! Shin Megami Tensei IV

System:  Nintendo 3DS (exclusively)
How far did you get:  One completion, Chaos ending, 56 hours

Shin Megami Tensei IV (SMT IV from here on) was easily my most anticipated game of 2013, which may make it seem like I'm biased.  However, this also means I'm really disappointed when the game doesn't deliver, and on occasion, SMT IV does not.  Most of the time, it does. 

The Shin Megami Tensei series is known for a lot of things, and SMT IV upholds nearly all of them.  It's apocalyptic, dark, mature, and painfully hard.  If your only experience with the series is the spin off Persona games or Devil Survivor games, you're going to get a slightly different experience here.  SMT IV isn't really about it's individual characters so much as it is about the big picture.  What you're doing to the world around you is much more important than what you're doing to your friends. 

The game starts off a bit slow and very unlike a Shin Megami Tensei game.  The very first thing that happens in the game will actually be very familiar to anyone that has played the first SMT title, but after that quick intro, you'll be spending most of your time in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, a 1400s Japanese land filled with castles and Samurai.  Fortunately, you find out that a Samurai's duty has more to do with killing demons with a futuristic armband and summoning your own demons than it does with swords and ancient Japan.  You become one of these Samurai, and head to a cave full of demons with your fellow Samurai.  The other Samurai, while not particularly interesting people, are key to the game in that agreeing with certain friends on certain issues determines your alignment, and ultimately, the ending you'll get when you finish the game. 

Everything really opens up when you reach Tokyo.  I don't want to spoil any more of the game, so we'll leave it at that, but I'll say that Tokyo is absolutely nothing like the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, and you'll be glad for it.

While the story is interesting, the game really shines in it's combat.  It uses the press turn system, so if you've played Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne or the newer Persona games, you should be fairly accustomed to the battle system.  It's really simple on paper:  exploit weakness, and get more turns.  It gets more complicated when you have attacks that hit all of the enemies, and you fight new enemies that have weaknesses you don't know about yet.  The battles as fast as you want them to be, but animations are smooth and quick so they can be quite fast if you already know what you're doing.  Different attacks result in different death animations, some of which are pretty cool looking.

The game has it's ups and downs when it comes to how it looks.  Outside of battle, you run around in a 3rd person perspective though some pretty elaborate dungeons.  It also has this pretty cool system where you can jump up or down into certain areas, which is new to this series.  The bad part is how simplistic the battles look.  The art design on the demons is actually really good (most of the time), but you'll still never forget that you're playing a 3DS and looking at 2d sprites.  When you talk to the demons, you'll see hand drawn versions of them, which usually look pretty amazing and a lot better than the on screen sprites.

Speaking of talking to demons, that's another really awesome aspect to battle.  It's a really deep system with a lot of choices.  The most important aspect of talking to demons is recruiting.  It's basically like Pokemon, but a lot more fun.  Instead of just throwing a ball at your enemy to make them your friend, you have to convince them through conversation that it would be worth it to them.  Considering you're trying to convince demons to join you, you'll definitely have some pretty wacky conversations.  The different demon races all have different attitudes, so while buttering up one demon might work, it might piss off another demon.  In addition to scouting and recruiting, you can also ask them for money and items, as well as trying to convince them to stand down and let you go.  These can be useful when you're not sure if you can beat a demon, or a fight is going badly. 

Oh, and fights will go badly.  SMT IV is not only hard, it's at it's hardest right at the beginning of the game.  You don't have any demons right off the bat, and you'll need to fill your roster as soon as possible.  The game doesn't make it very clear that it's necessary to do that, though if you're a Shin Megami Tensei veteran, you'll know already.  When you die, you're sent to the River Styx, where Charon will resurrect you for a price.  After dying twice, you're given the option to lower the difficulty.  Most newcomers will do this, and most veterans will refuse.  The game also allows you to save anywhere.  This is the first Shin Megami Tensei title to allow you to do any of those things, so theoretically it should be one of the easier Shin Megami Tensei titles, though it certainly never felt like it. 

It's difficult to get bored with SMT IV.  For the first time in the series, you have a quest list.  It's split into main quests and challenge quests.  Challenge quests are basically side quests, and you'll spend most of the game doing these.  If you're not doing quests, you can work on increases your demon compendium, or fusing them for better demons.  When not doing that, you can work on leveling your characters and demons, so you can create higher level demons and get more app points.  Apps are a new feature to the series as well.  By using app points, you upgrade your armband and open all kinds of possibilities, like increasing the amount of demons you can hold, regaining hp and mp as you walk, and increasing your dialog options when talking to demons. 

On the more negative side of things, the Tokyo map is a total pain to get around, and it's not particularly nice to look at, either.  You eventually get to option of flying around the map, assuming you do the right challenge quest, but it comes really late in the game.  For most of the game, you'll be controlling a little peg on a map that does not have clear paths at all. 

Even worse is the DLC for this game.  New small bits of DLC is released every week for this game, and very little of it has impressed me.  I preordered the game at Gamestop, and received an armor set.  If you equip the armor set at the beginning of the game, it makes you weak to physical attacks, and you'll never survive.  Thanks a lot, Gamestop!  In addition, Atlus released 3 booster DLCs where you get pretty much unlimited access to experience points, app points, and macca (money).  If you want to completely ruin your SMT IV experience, try these out.  They completely ruin the challenge.  I did enjoy some of the armor sets, but I do not approve of releasing DLC where you can max level your main character in an hour. 

I don't really think SMT IV is the Shin Megami Tensei game I would recommend to a newcomer to the series due to it's extreme difficulty, but it's going to make a lot of veterans really happy.  It's not quite as good as Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, but the demon collection, dark story and addictive battle system are enough for me to give this game a thumbs up. 

Rating:  91/100

Review! DMC: Devil May Cry

System:  Playstation 3 (also available on Xbox 360 and PC)
How far did you get:  One completion

Devil May Cry is a pretty old series at this point, and the more modern entries were a bit stale.  In my opinion, very few video games need a reboot, but if any game did it was Devil May Cry.  Though many reboots may end up being shadows of their former selves, DMC: Devil May Cry took something that was already pretty good and made it awesome. 

DMC decided to take a slightly more lighthearted turn.  While the game is still full of dark themes and over the top weirdness, it doesn't take itself too seriously.  This can be bad for some games, but when you're working with the material DMC is, taking it seriously would make it seem legitimately silly.  Dante, the main playable character in DMC, is a violent, sex obsessed jerk with a touch of amnesia.  His brother Virgil is tasked with convincing him that he's half demon and half angel, and demons killed his mother and took his father to Hell.  In addition, the demons are currently controlling humankind and Virgil wants to set them free.  It's certainly not game of the year material, but it sets the stage perfectly for an over the top action game. 

DMC's gameplay is an absolute blast.  It's fast and frantic, and very rarely lets up.  I'd say it's even faster and more frantic than any of the other games in the series.  Fortunately, you can't just button mash you're way though the game.  You unlock different weapons with different properties as you play through the game, and certain enemy types can only be damaged by certain weapons.  This becomes particularly challenging when fighting large groups of mismatched enemies, forcing you to switch between weapons several times mid fight.  The controls are all very responsive and fluid, though it could have benefited from a target button. 

In addition to being fun to play, it's fun to look at too.  You'll spend most of the game fighting in Limbo, which is basically a regular area with a red foggy tint to it.  The world basically explodes around you as you move from place to place, keeping you on your toes.  There's one area where you fight inside a television, and the digital effects are really amazing. 

If you have any interest in action games, DMC: Devil May Cry is a no brainer.  It may not be the most complicated or deep game on the market, but it's fast, crazy and a whole lot of fun. 

Rating:  87/100

Review! The Witcher 2: Enchanced Edition

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360)
How far did you get:  One completion

The Witcher 2, a game originally released for the PC and later ported to the Xbox 360, is the sequel to a game where you play as Geralt of Rivia, a white haired monster slayer who seems to have lost his memory.  The Xbox 360 version was released as the Enhanced Edition from the start, and the PC version was updated to the Enhanced Edition for free when this happened. 

The most notable addition is that there is a legitimate tutorial.  The original game had an opening that sort of acted like a tutorial, but it didn't really tell you how to do anything.  To be honest, the new tutorial isn't that helpful either.  Rather than tell you what keys to press, it will give you a general idea of what button to press.  For instance, instead of "press left click", it would say "press the attack button."  At one point I was actually stuck in the tutorial because I didn't know which button threw bombs, and I actually had to exit back to the main menu to access the key configuration. 

Once you get through the tutorial, you're in for a really deep, mature story.  Every decision you make in this game has consequences, and for everyone that you do something good for, someone else is going to get screwed over.  Every time you are in a position to make a decision, there is never a real right answer, and it makes for a really intriguing experience.  At the end of chapter one, you are given a choice on whether to side with one of two different factions, and chapter 2 and 3 are vastly different depending on which you choose. 

The PC version is stunning to look at.  In fact, the only PC games that probably look better than this are the last two Crysis titles.  It does require a very powerful PC to run on Ultra, and a pretty good one to run at all.  It manages to load big open spaces without a hitch, and look absolutely amazing in the process. 

The game is designed in an interesting way, too.  It's not quite open world, but it's not quite linear either.  It's a bit like Dragon Age, but more open world.  It has a prologue, 3 main chapters, and an epilogue.  In each, you are exploring entirely different areas, but most of the time you are allowed to explore them at your own pace, and you can do whatever quests you want to do in whatever order you want to do them in.  Side quests are entirely optional, but the rewards make them worth it.  The side quest stories are also incredibly in depth and no less interesting than the main quests.

The combat is a mixed bag, though.  It's different from any western style RPG I've played, but it doesn't always pay off.  The controls are not very tight.  There's a delay when you click to swing your sword, making the game feel almost like a free to play MMO.  Fortunately, it is in depth and challenging enough to keep you feeling engaged.  While many games of this sort will have you relying on health potions and healing magic to keep you alive, The Witcher 2 wants you to not need to do something like that in the first place.  The idea is to use buff potions on yourself before battles, so you'll survive the fight.  If you're getting low on health in a fight, you're just going to have to play better, buy or craft new armor, or use different potions before the fight next time.

The crafting system is a mixed bag, too.  The mechanics of it are actually quite good, but you only need it for particular things.  If you do all the side quests, you'll almost never need to craft armor or swords, as the side quests give you some really awesome gear.  Potions and enhancements are a different story.  They aren't exactly lying around to pick up in most cases, so you're either going to need to buy them, or craft them.  Considering how plentiful ingredients are, you'd be silly not to just craft them in most cases. 

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition is truly a must play for fans of the western style RPG genre.  Despite a few snags, it's unique, challenging, nice to look at and tells one of the best stories the genre has seen yet. 

Rating:  88/100

Review! Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

System:  Nintendo 3DS
How far did you get:  One completion

Like most Shin Megami Tensei games that have released in the past 10 years or so, Soul Hackers is a side story to the main entries in the series.  Soul Hackers is a bit different, because it's actually one of the first side stories, released on Sega Saturn in 1997.  The game has been updated and ported to the 3DS, and is available in the US for the first time ever. 

As the game has eluded us in the states for so long, it garnered a reputation of being one of the best Shin Megami Tesnei games, causing fans of the series to be rather frustrated until this game was finally announced for released here.  The truth is, there isn't anything particularly special about Soul Hackers. 

With the exception of the sprite art, this game is full of visual ugliness.  The dungeons are all bland and boring.  I spend most of my time in dungeons looking at my map on the bottom screen, as I knew I wouldn't miss anything on the top screen.  The cinematic movies were all ported as is from the Sega Saturn version, and they look terrible.  It almost looks like stop motion, which might have been cool if that's what they were going for, but I don't think it was. 

The amount of fun your going to have with this game depends a lot on how long it takes you to figure out how to actually play it.  As a jrpg, you expect a certain amount of stat handling, but this game doesn't make it obvious as to what you should do with certain stats.  For instance, there is are 2 currencies in the game, macca and magnetite.  Macca is just your money, but magnetite is where things get confusing.  Magnetite is required for your summoned demons to live.  If you run out, they take damage for every step you take.  You also get magnetite for winning battles, but you don't get macca.  If you want macca to buy things, you're going to need to stockpile magnetite and sell it for macca.  If you try playing the game with 4 demons summoned at all times, you're never going to be able to stockpile any magnetite, which is a fact I didn't come to realize until I was about halfway through the game.  I thought I needed my demons to win fights, but the truth is, you only need them for bosses.  If you build your two human characters right, you should be able to defeat all the regular enemies using only them.  In fact, you'll find that fighting regular enemies is actually much easier when you don't summon demons, because you won't have to worry about trying to keep them alive and you won't spend magnetite trying to heal them.  Once you figure that out and buy some anti-death magic armor for you two humans, the game quickly becomes the easiest Shin Megami Tensei game.  The hard part is trying to figure it all out. 

Soul Hackers also doesn't help you out much when building your human characters.  When you level up, you are allowed to distribute points into whatever affinities you want to.  While this sounds great, the game doesn't tell you that your main character never learns any magic, despite what you do.  So you may spend the first part of the game throwing points into magic and intelligence on your main character for absolutely no reason.  Fortunately, I decided from the start that I was going to use my main character as a tank, but not everyone will do this.

On the more positive side, the battle system is just as great as it is in any Shin Megami Tensei title.  It doesn't have the press turn system that some of the newer games do, but it does focus on buffs and taking advantage of enemy weaknesses.  The demon recruiting system is as in depth and fun as it is in any SMT game, as well, though I found the personalities began to repeat themselves far too early in the game. 

The story is fairly good for it's time, but it didn't impress me as much as other titles in the series, and reminded me more of Persona than a main series game.  It's dark, but not as dark as I had hoped.  The main cast of characters, called the Spookies, are a hacker group trying to explain all the strange things happening around the city.  They all have pretty distinct personalities, but I didn't get all that attached to any of them.  The ending was pretty lame, too. 

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers would probably be a pretty good starting point for anyone looking to get into the series, as long as they can figure out how to play it fairly early on.  I'm less inclined to recommend it to Shin Megami Tesnei purists, though.  It's a bit too easy, the story isn't really up to par, and the visuals and sound weren't very good. 

Rating:  68/100

Review! The Last of Us

System:  Playstation 3
How far did you get:  One game completion, played around with multiplayer

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the incredibly well received Uncharted series, has returned with what will likely be the last game they make on the Playstation 3, at least exclusively.  The Last of Us is a stealth driven survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic United States.  This is clearly a different kind of game than Uncharted, so if you expected this game to play like Uncharted in an apocalyptic setting, you might want to get into a different mind set.  It has the same visual style and great storytelling as Uncharted, but controls more like Resident Evil and plays more like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell.

The controls are what stop this game from being one of the better games I've played recently.  The combat design is actually really well done.  The enemy AI is great, the buildings are all strategically laid out, and the stealth system actually makes sense.  Unfortunately, maneuvering around enemies is an absolute pain, particularly after they've spotted you and you're fighting for your life.  Despite what many people will say about this game, it is absolutely in your best interest to attempt to never be seen and play the game as stealthily as possible.  Not doing so will put you in some of the most annoying situations I've encountered in video games.

The zombies are where this is most frustrating.  They're harder to sneak up on than humans, more difficult to kill once you do sneak up on them, and god help you if they've noticed you're there.  I consider myself a pretty calm gamer (and person in general), but this game had me yelling and getting very close to throwing my controller.

While the enemy AI is pretty amazing, the partner AI is the absolute opposite.  Despite who I had running alongside me, they were almost always getting in my way.  The game doesn't have the nice feature where you push people aside like Assassin's Creed has.  Fortunately, for some reason, the enemies never seemed to notice them.  It's bad game design, but I was happy to catch a break.  If my partner is going to run around like a moron, at least they aren't screwing up my stealth strategies.

On a more positive note, the game tells a wonderful story.  It has a few dips middle, but it starts strong and ends strong, and most of the game that doesn't involve you actually playing it was pretty awesome.  While the event scenes were all very well done, you get the most from the story when listening to the chatter between Joel and Ellie, the main characters.  At first they're relationship is a bit off putting, thanks to Joel telling Ellie what to do and Ellie just doing it, but it doesn't take long before they form an interesting, albeit complicated relationship.

Visually, it makes you wonder why we need new consoles.  If all developers were as skilled at making beautiful looking games as Naughty Dog, I'd be perfectly happy sticking with my Playstation 3.  It looks at least as good as Uncharted 3, and at times even better.  There was a particular scene where Ellie is hunting a rabbit, and the animation on the rabbit was mind blowing.  The Last of Us uses the in game engine the whole time, and it was hard to believe in many instances.

The combat itself is at least pretty set up to be pretty interesting.  If you like the thrill of not having enough ammo and supplies in a world full of dangerous things, you're going to like what's going on here.  This isn't a third person shooter.  You're never going to have 100 bullets for your gun.  In fact, you'll rarely have 20.  Certain zombies can only be taken down with certain types of weapons, which can be frustrating, but it keeps you on your toes.  For instance, you can't punch a clicker.  It will bite you.   

There's a crafting component in the game that adds a lot to the survivalist environment and gives you something to do besides hide and kill stuff.  You can't ignore it, as you're going to need healing supplies, and a few of the other components you can craft are incredibly useful when you're in a tough spot.  Most of your down time in this game will be spent scavenging through houses and building looking for crafting components.  They're one of the few things in this game that are plentiful.

The multiplayer is plagued by the same problems the main game has, and it's all a bit too simple.  Both multiplayer modes are survival style modes, which isn't anything you haven't seen before.  It's a lot like a stripped down version of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, only there is less ammo and you don't hug walls when you crouch next to one.

The Last of Us is a decent game, but a better interactive story.  I'd be more inclined to recommend it to someone that likes Resident Evil and stealth shooters than I would someone that likes Uncharted.  I certainly don't think it lived up to the hype, but it is worth looking into for the story. 

Rating:  74/100

Progress through The Witcher 2 and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

Here's a video update for where I am in the two games I'm trying to play. 

Review! Fire Emblem: Awakening

System: Nintendo 3DS (exclusively)
How far did you get:  Completed the campaign, did most of the side missions, and some of the DLC

The Fire Emblem series is known for it's intense difficulty.  Strategy RPGs are generally pretty tough anyway, but the Fire Emblem games had something other games did not.  If one of your characters die, they are dead forever.  Considering these games have always come out on Nintendo systems, it's odd to think that they are one of the most hardcore games around.

Fire Emblem: Awakening took a different approach.  While you can still play this game in the same manner as the older Fire Emblem titles, you now have the option to play in "casual" mode, where your characters are only gone for the battle they are defeated in, and not permanently.   Fans of the previous games may gawk at this, but it's entirely optional and gives newer players a way to enjoy the game without getting too frustrated.  Most veterans to the series understand that if you lose a character, you're supposed to reset the game and be more careful, but novices won't know to do that.

There is a downside to casual mode, though.  You learn to play better when you reset your game to make sure your people don't die, and you won't get as skilled at the game by playing in casual mode.  This can be problematic if you want to play some of the higher level side quests and DLC, as they are legitimately challenging for all players and if you're not up to snuff, you're probably going to die a lot.

The game is easily the best presented Fire Emblem game yet.  The battle sequences are absolutely awesome to watch, and you'll see a ton of them.  Each character has their own unique appearance and voice.  Some of the battle shouts and victory boasts are genuinely funny and give you a better understanding of the characters.  The menus are all easy to use and navigating them is quick and snappy.  It also gives you a lot of control over what you want to sit through and what you don't.  All dialog can be skipped (though I wouldn't recommend it) and you can fast forward battle animations if you're in a hurry or just tired of seeing them.  You can also pause them, which is a fantastic addition as in the older games, I often found myself needing to do something in real life during an enemies turn and had no way to pause the game.

When it comes to the gameplay, very little has changed, which should excite most Fire Emblem fans.  It's not much different than any other strategy RPG, but there's something about it that hooked me more than other games in the genre.  I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it's incredibly hard to put down.  It still has the weapon triangle and flyers are still weak to wind and arrows, which is where most of the real strategy comes in.  I did notice a few balancing issues, though.  Fredrick, my Great Knight, was my strongest character for about half the game.  I continued leveling him and toward the end of the game, he was noticeably weaker than most of my characters.  My trickster (think thief with heal magic) could barely damage anything at the end of the game, despite the fact that I had leveled her more than most of my other characters.

The game has some interesting wireless features.  I was fond of the bonus box, which allowed you to grab some good weapons for no cost.  Sometimes the game would get updates and you would get new items in the bonus box.  You also earn renown by leveling your characters and getting new ones, and you can use your renown points to buy bonuses.  There's a support option that allows you to watch a scene between 2 of your characters, which increases their relationship level.  These were usually really funny to watch.  There's also a barracks option which lets you watch your characters walk around the barracks.  Sometimes they would talk to each other, sometimes they would find items, and sometimes they would have an epiphany and gain experience or weapon levels.  The conversations during these were usually stock quotes and not really worth reading, but the bonuses were usually nice.

Most of the DLC is designed for higher level players, but 2 of them stuck out to me.  There's one that's designed to help you level up, and one that is designed to land you a whole lot of gold.  I used these a lot, but I felt like I was cheating by using them.  I found a majority of the game to be quite easy because I was able to quickly power level and buy pretty much anything I wanted.  They're pretty much a necessity to do post game DLC and the endgame side quests, but personally I don't think they should have been there for players still early in the game.

Fire Emblem: Awakening doesn't do a whole lot of new things, but it improved pretty much every aspect of core gameplay and gave us the best Fire Emblem story to date.  If you own a 3DS, this game really should be in your game collection.

Rating:  90/100