Phantochi and the Crisis on Infinite Trophies

[Phantochi]

Soul Calibur 6

 

Bandai did it again..

 

Soul Calibur 6 is a reboot of the series. I wasn't planning to play this, but i saw it on sale and bought it because i had fond memories of Soul Calibur 2 - 4, and i wanted to relive some of that greatness.

 

The fighting mechanics are there. It may come to personal preference, but i like 3D fighting games to focus more on parries, combos, and juggles, but in here the focus is the new reversal edge mechanic, supers and critical edge, they are too lenghty, and to me, it disturbs the flow of the combat too much. They also changed some of the character's move sets, i'm a Voldo main since SC2, but they massacred my poor boy in here, he seems so one dimensional, it's mantis crawl mix ups all day basically, i miss my SC4 voldo. I don't agree with some of the changes they made to some character's move sets, but the core feature of the game is there and it's good, not great, but good.

 

The soundtrack is filled with grand orchestral tunes, much in line with what has been done in the past. If you liked music from earlier games you'll like what's offered in Soul Calibur 6.

 

Multiplayer is completely dead and the netcode is really, really bad.

 

The single player game offers a "story" mode, called Libra of Soul. You go fighting enemy after enemy until the end, on your way to the end you level up, get new weapons, etc. The problem here, is that the narration and writing is atrociously bad. It bothered me to the point where i could only play Libra of Soul in short bursts.

Besides Libra of Soul, for single player you can also hop in the usual Arcade mode, and that's about it. The content in here is so bad, specially when compared to every past release.

Where is the bad ass opening CG movie and in game cut scenes?
Shitload of voice acting but who cares?
A bunch of lore writing in the museum, but who cares?

Where is Time Attack?
Where is Team Battle?
Where is Survival?
Where are extra game modes that actually switch up the gameplay?

I'm afraid you won't find any of that in here.

 

Since it's a Namco Bandai game, you can expect some of the most predatory sales practices being instituted in this game. More than half of the the characters are behind a DLC paywall. All of the characters are being released individually to maximize profits. Even some of the gears that you can use on character creation are being held hostage behind a paywall and much of that gear is a blatant copy&paste from previous titles of the series. They are making us customers pay money for old content that should have been included in the base game from the very start. If you want all the current content, it will cost you $90 for the deluxe version, which includes Season pass 1, and an extra $33.99 for season pass 2. Even though this game is dead, there will likely be a season pass 3 and possibly a season pass 4. If the price of future installments stays the same you're looking at a $150 - $200 purchase, and it's not only Bandai doing this shit, every fighting game now is filled with this garbage. I cannot support these business practices and shoddy workmanship anymore. This is blatantly ripping off a fanbase for all the money it's worth.

 

I will no longer support Soul Calibur, Street Fighter and any other fighting game in the future. I know that zoomers and journos love their DLC, but this is unnaceptable to me.

 

 

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake

 

Finished up my first playthrought and i want to share my opinions, still have a few things left for the platinum, including a whole another playthrought on Hard.

 

Final Fantasy 7 is a legendary game. Not my personal favourite Final Fantasy, but there's no denying the impact this game had on the industry, this makes Remake 7 an ambitious project, and i'd say Square have done a good job updating such an immersive story for modern era. It has excellent music, fun combat, beautifully designed characters and environments, but it's far from the original.

 

My first playthrough was on normal mode, besides the 10h drooling over Tifa and Aerith, it took me around 40 hours to complete the game, including the side quests.

They have done a very good job telling the story of Midgar and it's characters, but most of the side quests are bland, pretty much bloating, stretching, meaningless sidequests. I enjoyed the dungeons and boss fights a lot, but the side quests were poorly made, and there was no need to expand the Midgar section as much as they did considering they didn’t make the city open for us to explore. The whole game actually have a lack of exploration, It’s like an adventure game where i’m spending most of my time watching stuff unfold, walking slowly, and waiting.

 

When it comes to soundtracks, it is amazing. Some of the scenes were seriously breathtaking, especially in combination with the soundtrack.

 

The English voice actors also did a good job of bringing the characters to life, but i'm not really a fan of how characters act in this game, they seem borderline crazy, overacting, flirting, so many thumbs up, etc, and the new characters had no purpose.

 

The combat system is one of the greatest strengths in this game, i just don't like how you can buy Materia, from Materia vending machines. The combat feels impactful and rewards you for successfully pulling off certain actions, the only problem with the combat comes when you're fighting flying enemies, those are a pain, Tifa and Cloud can do some Aerials combos, but since flying enemies keep moving non stop it's hard to hit them, so if you don't have Aerith or Barret in your party, or are not loaded with a Magic element that the enemy is weak to, the fight is gonna leave a bad taste in your mouth.

 

And the ending of Remake 7.. Oh the ending.. It's another one of those confusing endings that don't create any emotional investment. Send Tetsuya Nomura back to Kingdom Hearts, keep this clown away from everything else.

 

I am always down for a Remake of an original and old game, especially when you get to see the story play out differently, showing different character fates, interactions, new endgame material, that is beyond exciting, and the original game will always be there, and it tells an amazing story on its own, but the more i see of this remake, the more i realize it was not made for fans of the original, which i kind of saw coming.

[Phantochi]

Dang, I haven't touched this in ages lol 

I've barely played for the past two years because of health stuff, but hey, i'm finally getting back on track. Time to pick up where i left off and kick things into high gear!

 

I'd got only a handful of plats since then, including:

 

• Spyro The Dragon: I totally loved this game! I never got a chance to play the original on the PS1, but i had a blast playing through this one! I'm definitely gonna go for the trilogy soon.
• Stray: Easily one of my favorite indies on the PS4, and it's a very interesting one, sometimes lighthearted and joyful, sometimes deeply moving. Highly recommend it.
• The Darkness 2: Great visual style, fun gun-play and abilities, decent story and excellent voice acting, but it's kinda short.
• Dark Souls 3: Had this at 99% for years, thanks to the Proof Of Concord Kept farm. You need to farm some equipments that will increase your luck before the real farm starts, then you'll only have to run around the same area, killing the same enemies for 20hrs or so if you're lucky. Yikes.

 

 

Besides that, i made a little progress in a few games:

 

Final Fantasy Remake 7 is almost finished, but damn, the Hard mode is ridiculously tough. I couldn't get past that freakin Hell House and i was like, "Nope, I'm out!" 
I'm gonna give it another shot now that i'm not frustrated with it and see how it plays out.

 

Anthem is also almost finished, i made a lot of progress with the "No Stone Unturned" trophy, just gotta track down a few more Arcanists Runes and Intels, but damn, those Intels are hella grindy and mind-numbingly boring to get. I was actually having a blast with the game, but these collectibles are seriously ruining the experience for me.

 

I haven't played Yakuza 0 and Revelations 2 since my last update. Rev 2 isn't too tough, but you gotta practice for those speedruns. As for Yakuza 0, it's gonna be a long haul. I'm pretty sure i finished the story mode and called it quits. I'll leave both of those in the backlog for now.

 

I ended up starting a bunch of games both on ps3 and ps4, and just like Yakuza 0 and RE Revelations 2 i'll leave most of them in my backlog for now, but i'll try to finish a few of them in the coming weeks.

 

That's about it, i have some games in mind to play in this upcoming week, and this is what i'll be going for:

- Complete Remake 7 Hard Run  *High priority
- Get all the collectibles i'm missing on Anthem
- Get the platinum for Minecraft Story Mode (PS3), Infamous (PS3), and The Walking Dead (PS3)
- Finish at least the story for Haven and My Friend Pedro.
- Make some progress on Journey to the Savage Planet, NFS MW (PS3), Warriors Orochi 3 (PS3) and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (PS3)

 

I think i got plenty of time to do so, but it will all comes down to how long will FF7 takes