Kill Your Completion X

[dizzyshadow]

Game 7 : Bomber Crew

 

 

Another little gem here, although one with quite niche appeal.

 

You are in charge of the crew of a Lancaster bomber in WWII, you fly missions from an RAF airbase against various german targets, the mission range from destroying factories and guns, or dropping supplies to downed pilots to help them survive and larger missions with harder objectives which you need to progress the story.

 

The difference being you have no direct control over the plane its self, only the crew of 7 (pilot, navigator, radio operator, engineer, 2 gunners & a bomb aimer) you can give them commands and move them around the plane to undertake various tasks (operate the guns, fix malfunctioning systems, heal other crew members), as you progress through the game your crew members unlock new skills which can be used ti help on future missions. The game play reminds me a lot of FTL from PC or iOS, and is suspect this may have been the insperation.

 

In between missions you also have the option to improve your plane or give better gear to your crew using money and intelligence earned from previous missions. These will help make really future mission easier.

 

Along the way you encounter various hazards (enemy fighters, anti aircraft guns and if you are unlucky enemy aces) all of which can cause you serious damage, despite the relatively few options you have it can get really quite franctic in the heat of battle. particularly if any of your crew members are downed as you have to scramble other to carry out their tasks. On that note anyone who is downed you have a brief window to give them first aid other wise they will die and will no longer be available for future mission, when you get back to the bse you can recruti a replacement, however they will generally be lower level so it does set you back.

 

If your plane gets shot down then the survival of your crew is upto chance it depends on a number of factors including where the crash occurred and the gear you have equipped them with, but all you can do is shift the odds in your favour it still comes down to a spin of the wheel and whether it lands in green or red and to cap it off you will need a new plane whren you get back which is randomly assigned and likely won't have as many upgrades.

 

its quite different from anything else i've played recently and so makes a nice change. One i'm looking forward to returning to.

 

Playtime: 4-5 Hours

Trophies : 12/31

Rating: 

Completion :57.76%

 

that's me finally upto date with my reviews, hopefully i can do better for the rest of the month.

Next Up : Far Cry 3 

[DamagingRob]

3 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Ar Nosurge was a hidden gem for me. althrough I'm not quite sure why I enjoyed it as much as I remember enjoying the combat and it being original in that regard. It not overstaying it's welcome and there basically being basically no grinding were contributing factors too. Curious to see what you think of it, as I know some people didn't really care for this game.

Think I liked Qoga a bit more, but I enjoyed Ar Nosurge. Wish they'd make another entry in the series.

 

And while I'm here, I have finally decided what my final game will be. Seeing as how the ones I mentioned were ones I was going to play with other people, and I don't think they're ready to start them yet, I'm going to stick with the theme of the last two games: zombies. I just bought Yakuza 6, as well, so that's some extra motivation to get the two Yakuza games I have on the PS3 done. So yeah, Yakuza: Dead Souls will be Game #5. 

Edited July 23, 2019 by DamagingRob

[voodoo_eyes]

19 minutes ago, DamagingRob said:

Think I liked Qoga a bit more, but I enjoyed Ar Nosurge. Wish they'd make another entry in the series.

 

And while I'm here, I have finally decided what my final game will be. Seeing as how the ones I mentioned were ones I was going to play with other people, and I don't think they're ready to start them yet, I'm going to stick with the theme of the last two games: zombies. I just bought Yakuza 6, as well, so that's some extra motivation to get the two Yakuza games I have on the PS3 done. So yeah, Yakuza: Dead Souls will be Game #5. 

 

Never played Qoga, as it has some nonsense with the sixaxis movement thing, which is a deal-breaker for me. My Yakuza backog is starting to increase as well, haven't started any of them yet. If I keep that up, I could just as well make my whole line-up for a future KYC only Yakuza games .

 

P.S. Updated OP

[DamagingRob]

29 minutes ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Never played Qoga, as it has some nonsense with the sixaxis movement thing, which is a deal-breaker for me. My Yakuza backog is starting to increase as well, haven't started any of them yet. If I keep that up, I could just as well make my whole line-up for a future KYC only Yakuza games .

 

P.S. Updated OP

Ah, that's a shame. I still have a Sony DS3 if I need sixaxis, but they're probably hard to find now. :/ And seems like every time you turn around, there's a new Yakuza game. 0, Kiwami 1 & 2, and 6 are all out on the PS4, and I haven't played a single one. Then there's Judgement.. Slow down, Yakuza devs. ;w;

[SixyLove]

Review

"Valkyria Rising: Revengeance"

Valkyria Revolution

Playtime: 60 hours

Trophies Earned: 20/28 55%

 

Why this game?

I passed over this title when it first came out because I saw a impressions video that paraphrased, "This isn't like the other Valkyria Chronicles games and is not very good." I was excited to see a new Valkyria game but it wasn't what I wanted. After playing Valkyria Chronicles 4 and loving it to the point of it becoming my favorite game, I decided to pick of this game to fill the gap in my Valkyria Chronicles knowledge and the game was cheap. The game sat on my shelf for six months because I was busy with other games.

 

Story

A nameless student (as far as I know he doesn't have a name and I looked around for one and found nothing) is writing a paper about the "five traitors" and he brings his teacher to their grave. He believes that the traitors were actually heroes. His teacher, Richelle Laudrup, tells him the story passed down from her great-great grandmother that holds the truth to the story.

 

The five traitors were living in a happy little orphanage ran by a very nice lady called Miss Maria (Maria Schmeichel). One day, the Emperor of the Ruzi Empire and his crew of grand generals kidnap Miss Maria, killed all the children that didn't have plot armour and burn down the orphanage. The five traitors survived the ordeal by not being there when this was happening and only knew about Miss Maria being kidnapped because they returned just in time to watch it happen. From that day there goal is to kill the Emperor and his cohorts while saving Miss Maria. The five get adopted and spend their lives building up their skills to get their revenge on the Ruzi Empire.

 

The Five Traitors

Solomon Kahlenburg: A serious politician who plays Parliament like a damn fiddle! Carries a large stick up his butt in case he fails a speech check; he invested all his point into speech and charisma so that never happens.

Violette Szand: The attractive femme fatal of the group. She spies on the other countries and is the source of the military intelligence. She is always told she is too nice to be a spy. I really like the boots she wears.

Basil Sabancci: I took over a ragnite (ragnite is the super fuel that everything is built around in the Valkyria Chronicles Universe) manufacturing company from his foster father. He builds and upgrades all your weapons while funding the war with all the sweet war economy cash he's raking in. Basil also wuvs Violette but she is having none of it.

Fritte Eriksen: A nice guy. He's a writer and writes pro-war propaganda for the newspapers. Get's so engrossed in his writing he forgets to eat and drink.

Amleth Grønkjær (shock): The captain and commanding officer of Vanargand (Anti-Valkyria Squad). He is the main-protagonist and you play as him in between missions. He is a very quiet man. He is one of the few people to fight a Valkyria and live without going insane afterwards. Also, he went to school with Princess Ophelia and they had rivalry (not the Gary Oak kind).

 

The five manipulate a small country called Jutland to fight a war with the Ruzi Empire under the banner of liberation. The Ruzi Empire were planning to take over Jutland and was preforming an economic blockade on the country. It was easy to convince the people to start a war because Princess Ophelia was there puppet and life was terrible. The Ruzi Empire is a huge empire with tanks (they're more like mechs but they're called tanks in this game for some reason; the other games have traditional tanks) and Valkyria.  so they didn't have much to lose. The nation put together a group of individuals with a high affinity to ragnite, spend all their resources and money on their weapons, give them better meals then the formal military and all they have to do is kill the Valkyria (also literally everything else). This ragtag group is called Vanargand (aka, the Anti-Valkyria Squad) and they're your group of playable character for this game. Also, they don't know about the revenge plot.

 

Vanargand

Amleth Grønkjær (shock): The same Amleth from before. He has the highest ragnite aptitude of the squad and gets to be captain because he came up with the idea for the squad.

Ophelia Augusta af Jutland (scout): The princess of Jutland is on your team because she felt a duty to her country to fight on the front lines. Her father protested but he eventually broke down. She doesn't get too much special treatment just because she is royalty. Vanargand is also called the Princess Platoon by some because of her inclusion.

Godot Vilfort (shield): The princess' bodyguard. He's very serious and always looks after Ophelia.

Miranda Vilfort: Godot's younger sister and Ophelia's other body guard. She is scared of ghosts.

Blum Tomasson (sapper): Looks like a girl. His mother owns the shop you get all your armour from. Very quiet but also the most rational member of the team. He is childhood friends with Helena and only joined the squad because she made him join up with her.

Helena Andersen (shock): She works at her parent cafe when she isn't serving with Vanargand. She is very confident and strong. She is may have a crush on Blum.

Daryl Rommedahl (shock): A war veteran that was selected for the squad. He's the old man character and is a drunk.

Jordur Kvist (sheild): The character I forgot about the most. He's fighting so his kid can grow up in the nation he loves. Plays second fiddle to Daryl a lot.

Sara Benner (sapper): The uniform regulations are very lax in Vanargand but she is by far the worst offender. She wears her street cloths, ties the jacket around her waist and calls it a day. She is supposedly a genius but she has never done anything remotely intelligent and half the words out of her mouth are some type slang. She is best buddies with Ophelia (she loving calls her Fifi).

Brigitte Ulrik (scout): She was a school teacher before she volunteered for Vanargand. She is the most responsible remember of the team. She doesn't drink alcohol because she turns into a train wreck after a single drink. It's both funny and sad to watch but they're some of very best scenes in this game. She is my favorite character.

Hans: A non playable character that is the messenger between the Jutland army and Vanargrand. Brigitte treats him like a little kid because he looks so young. He's the big damn unsung hero of this game.

Tilda Gade (sheild): She is 139% chill and very lazy. She claims to only be lazy so Brigitte can feel important and have someone to look after. She is the invisible glue that holds the team together.

Issak Berggreen (scout): The arrogant aristocrat that thinks he's so much better then everyone. He's literally a walking snobby rich man cliche. He also tries to seduce every woman in sight. He is an ass that never learns from is mistakes and has zero humility. He is the character I most enjoyed watching because the world never lets him win. He's the sad pathetic punchline to many jokes and has zero redeeming qualities. He also blames Amleth for his misfortune  and is very determined to upstage him.

 

As a whole, this roster of playable characters is my favorite of any Valkyria Chronicles game. The squad is the smallest out of any game but it works to this games advantage. Everyone knows each other and it feels like a actual team. I liked every character on the squad.

 

 Villains

Claudius Powlovich Kiev: Your revenge isn't over until this man is dead. He stays in the throne room for the whole game and looks evil. He gets his Grand Generals and his Valkyria to do his dirty work for him.

The grand generals are all very uninteresting characters that are all just power hungry and enjoy it.

Brunhilde: The strongest weapon the Ruzi have. Being a Valkyria, Brunhilde is a borderline super hero. She has to do what Claudius says because she's cursed and he has the ring that lets him control her. She mostly says a bunch of cryptic stuff that they never explain in the main plot and I haven't seen explained in detail in the side content yet. Claudius makes her wear a wear a grim reaper Halloween costume. She can kill people just by singing, can teleport, bullets don't work and she has a lot of magic. She is a threat worth investing your countries money and resources to counter.

Maxim (Prince Laertes): He works for Claudius despite the fact he took over his kingdom and murdered his family because he got a cool robot arm. Laertes is the Prince of Ipseria and it's the second nation you liberate from Ruz. Ophelia knows who he is and offers to give him his country for free but he always says no. For the whole game you're waiting for him to betray Claudius and Join your team because the story spends so long setting it up.

Spoiler

He's either a New Game+ character or DLC. He can be recruited after beating the main story. He's scout class and has is own unique gun.

 

The story is by far the best part of this game in my opinion. It was very engaging and I was determined to see it through to the end, despite being told the ending in the first ten minutes by the game. This game has Metal Gear Solid levels of plot; skipping all plot will reduce your playtime by 50%. You will sometimes be watching cutscences for an hour without pause. I believe you can pause the games cutscenes. The story doesn't do dumb anime stuff in the main plot (there is some in the optional cutscences) and you don't beat the heartless Empire by using the power of love and friendship.

Spoiler

I don't like it when a story lingers on a teammates death for a very long time. This happens twice in the game but and for the next hour everyone is all sad about it. It's done well enough that I wasn't too bothered by it and both instances it did move the plot forward in a meaningful way.

 

Gameplay

Valkyria Chronicles is know for being a turn-based tactical RPG that can be descried inaccurately as a cross of Fire Emblem and X-COM. The previous games and 4 can be carried by their gameplay alone. Valkyria Revolution decided to do it's own thing and everyone hated it. I think the gameplay is okay, it's a C+ at best.

 

Valkyria Revolution is real-time RPG that feels like a cross between Dynasty Warriors and Dark Souls (not difficulty wise); It looks like the new Final Fantasy that the kids are into but I wouldn't know since I the newest one I played was Final Fantasy 9. Most missions are just fighting groups of enemies and completing the objective without everyone dying.

 

You are allowed to take up to 4 squad members with you on missions. The game let's you pick any team composition you want unless it's a story mission with forced characters. Fortunately, you're rarely forced to take certain members along and it's usually just Amleth (he's a bit OP). You can control one character at a time and are allowed to switch between them instantly Dragon Age style. You have a action gauge next to your characters portrait on the bottom left. While it's being filled you're allowed to move around, block and dodge roll. Blocking reduces your damage taken but blocking makes your action gauge fill slower. Dodge rolling gives you invincibility frames during the roll and you can chain them together infinitely. Once the action gauge is filled, you can attack. You can preform a combo by pressing , it only needs to be pressed once to preform the combo and the character will preform their combo until it's finished (you can roll cancel at the beginning but after a certain point in you can't roll cancel) or they get interrupted. Pressing  let's you access your "spells", gun, grenade and other items. Time will stop while selecting any of these actions and while preforming there actions.

 

Spells cost RP (ragnite points); RP can be restored by successfully hitting enemies with your combo or using a RP restoring item. Spells are very powerful are attacks, buffs, de-buffs and healing. Spells have 4 types, fire, water, wind and earth. A character can equip any spell they want, if their element level with that element is less or the same as the spells level. There are also class specific spells. Character have limited spell slots.

 

Guns come in 4 types, rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and sniper rifles. You will fire the guns whole clip and it counts as one ammo. Rifles can deal damage to a single target alright, launchers are good against tanks and groups of infantry, machine guns fire a lot of bullets inaccurately but your can aim them mid while firing and Sniper Rifles do high damage to single targets and are very effective at range. A character may only carry one gun. Grenades can be used offensively on groups or provide a special status over an area. A character can carry one grenade type on them at any time. Guns and grenades have limited ammo; you will restore 50% of their max ammo when you capture a base.

 

Preforming a combo or anything with  resets the action gauge to zero. The action gauge takes 3 seconds to fill at most. There is a gauge at the top of the screen that fills when you do something good and decreases when the enemy does well. You want that to be as blue as possible because your action gauge will fill quicker (it's almost instantly around 75%) and common infantry will be scared by your presence.

 

You can fail a mission if everyone is in the down state at the same time. When a character reaches zero HP (hit points) they will be down. The screen turns grey and the game will do everything it's power to let you know if somebody is down. You have 60 seconds to run over them and press a button to pick them up. You're invincible during the picking up a teammate animation and there is no limit to how many times a teammate or yourself can be downed. If the character your controlling is downed, you'll be switched to someone else who isn't also downed. Failing to save a teammate have them die if they don't have plot armour; this game tells you it has permanent death but I never actually had a teammate die. 

Missions can also have failure other conditions. Failing will make it so you have to repeat the whole mission over.

 

You other teammates are controlled by AI. They do okay but are not very good at self preservation in my experience. You can give them priorities in a menu somewhere but it's best to switch to the character if you need something done well.

 

Character Classes

Scout: They have the fastest movement speed, there actions gauges fill the fastest and there combos contain a lot hits. They deal low damage with combos but can replenish RP quickly and are good at spamming spells. Scouts have very poor defense so hope they don't get hit.

Shock: They have high HP, good defense and their combos hit hard. They will deal highest amount of damage per hit.

Shield: They have a shield. They're very good a blocking and have very high defenses. There damage is good but their actions gauges fill very slowly and feel sluggish to use.

Sappers: They're the support unit. Any healing spells they use will restore more HP. They also can deal high amounts of damage with spells. They have low defense and their combo has a high hit count for regaining RP by deals so little damage the enemy will die of old age before you kill them. 

 

Enemies follow the same rules as you and contain the same classes, but they're a bit different. Scouts are zero threat and the worse they can do is stun you. Shock troopers and shield bearers can kill you if they get lucky but mostly just take longer to kill. Enemy sappers are more like snipers, they're annoying at range but they go down quickly. Your enemies will sometimes have a tank (looks more like a mech or someting from Final Fantasy 6 then a tank), they're easy too; break they're legs and just beat them while they're down and defenseless.

 

Bosses are the only challenge this game will try to throw at you. Prince Laertes and Brunhilde are the most fun battles. They're fairly balance and don't doing anything overly annoying. Every other battle in the game is very annoying and rage inducing. They will only spam attacks that stun you, spawn waves of enemies like it's going out of style, constantly refuse to let you hit them, heal themselves (only I'm allowed to do that) and have a ton of health. These fights took up to an hour on average. These fights are not hard, they just make you hate everything about life. It's very rare for me to get angry at a game but I actually got angry.

 

Rage filled boss battles aside, the game can mostly be played with very little thought and effort. Most enemies don't pose a threat so the only challenge is getting S-Rank on missions. To get a S-Rank, just do the mission fast and kill a lot of enemies. There are also optional objectives, do those and help your rank. You have story missions and the game will spawn random sides missions that are very similar just to give you money, experience, spells/weapon upgrade materials. Grinding takes forever in the mid and late game but levels are not very important because the game is easy (I was playing on normal; normal is the highest difficulty unless there is a secret hard mode I don't know about). Character will gain experience points every if you don't bring them on the mission; bringing a character gives them more experience points.

 

The game also has stealth mechanics. They're awful and you never have to use them.

 

Graphics and Sound

The game looks mostly alright. I played the PS4 version but this game is also on Vita so I'll give the low quality basic environments a pass. The character models and tanks look good. They game look good in motion and runs well when there isn't too many enemies on screen. I just have have a few small issues that ruin everything.

 

The game has a filter over everything. It's hard to notice sometimes and it is very obvious sometimes. The filter is just a bunch of very thin dark lines in a grid, or is it diagonal? It's hard to tell what it actually is be sometimes because it changes depending on where you look. I think they put coffee stains in some spots or something that looks like screen burn (my TV has a screen burn problem but those spots only appear during Valkyria Revolution). The filter is so darn distracting that I payed more attention to it then some of the cut scenes. I feel that the filter only exists to mimic the art style of the other Valkyria Games without putting in any effort. Voodoo_eyes also noticed this so I'm not crazy and I felt they hated it as much as I do.

 

95% of the game is fully voice acted. Only minor side stuff doesn't have voice acting. Sadly the lip syncing is awful. The mouths only open and close; it's also not synced up well with the voice acting sometimes. The game tries to hid it by showing you the back of characters heads a lot or has the characters far enough away it's hard to see their mouth.

 

I enjoyed the song selection but repeats the same songs a lot. Characters also only have a few voice lines in battles and will repeat them as much as possible. When a character with a pollen allergy touches grass, they always sneeze, Brigitte is always telling everyone she kills that they should have studied harder and gone to college, Daryl is always complaining about his hangover and Helena is always screaming about how mad she is. It's a bit annoying but even good games have these problems, *cough* Persona 5 *cough*, so I give these as pass.

 

Trophy Thoughts

The only platinum killer is getting S-Ranks on all story missions; doing that doesn't seem too difficult in this game. Everything else is just grind. The trophy list doesn't have any missables and nobody is complaining about glitched trophies. The "Distinguished Silver Sword Medal" trophy is a bronze and the "Distinguished Gold Sword Medal" trophy is a silver; that just doesn't seem right to me.

 

DLC

It is all free. It's mostly just free spells (Including the mythical "Ring of Fire") and more cutscenes,

 

Final Thoughts

Brigitte hasn't replaced Nico has my favorite Valkyria Chronicles character and this game doesn't come close to dethroning Valkyria Chronicles 4. I'll snuggle up and get cozy and earn the rest of the trophies on a lazy day in the near future. I enjoyed this game very much despite it's many flaws. It also makes me laugh thinking about Richelle telling the story and not omitting the hours I spent upgrading weapons. I guess I should explain the weapon upgrade system.

 

Enemies drop spells sometimes. You can equip them or use them to upgrade your weapons. Each spell will give you points, higher levels spells give you more points, and once you throw enough points into a upgrade it's yours. The upgrades are just more attack, higher element level, more critical hit chance, more RP points, etc. Characters have a lot of potenial upgrades on there weapons and you will be unlocking them all if you want that platinum.

[DamagingRob]

Final Review- School Girl/Zombie Hunter

 

Well, you know what? This actually did get better. At least in the gameplay department. I couldn't tell you much about the bizarre story, which results in the girls getting zombie clones of themselves or whatever. It's still probably the weakest game of the event, so far. But it's at least better than I originally thought it was going to be. And yes, this is a day early, but I figured I'm working tomorrow, so may as well type it up tonight.

 

Probably the most notable thing I would commend the developers for, is the variety of enemies. I don't know how they came up with some of the freaky ones they did, but they sure are something. You have the slow walking kind, ones that actually run, cop zombies who fire guns, a type that is two torsos fused together (?) with a head on each end, ones that are able to climb to the ceiling and attack with really long necks, and big dudes that swing giant weapons. It's also possible for some zombies to explode after death, or poison you with attacks/explode and poison you after death. You're able to tell, since they glow yellow or green. 

 

Since hanging back and picking them off is no longer an option with the fast moving zombies, I've had to use different tactics. Besides shooting with the various types of weapons, the melee attacks can actually kill zombies, so it works for when they're too close. You can also do a rolling dodge, which avoids damage briefly. Can even avoid taking damage from an explosion if timed right. And you can sprint away if needed. Melee attacks, dodging, and sprinting use stamina, though. Once it runs out, you will be unable to do any of them until it recharges a bit. 

 

The... amount of fanservice has reached ludicrous levels. There's boob jiggle, clothes ripping from damage, using your clothes or underwear to distract zombies, and partial nudity in shower scenes to obtain underwear traps. Onechanbara wasn't exactly tame, but this is basically Senran Kagura with zombies and less, umm, enormous breasts. :/ 

 

Missions are fairly short, which makes it a good game to play whenever you have just a little bit of time. And when I say short, I mean if you don't clear it in less than 10 minutes, you fail. It might become a game that I just play some here and there, because it does get repetitive. Most missions consist of running around sometimes confusing maps (I actually failed once by running out of time, I was so lost), killing zombies that never seem to stop coming, and finding items/reaching the exit. Some have you protecting something or someone, and you have to replay them all a bunch of times. 

 

For the Platinum, you have to beat every mission on 3 different difficulty settings. And not only do you have to beat them, but you must get an SSS rank. Don't get it, have fun replaying until you do.. And then you need to find a number of collectibles that only one character has the ability to see. You don't always have the option to choose who to play as until you beat a mission, so that's even more replays with that girl to find those. Kinda funny I found all the shoes before I was even halfway through the story, though. Had to go take a look at the guide, to see if it popped early. ^^; But nope, there are really only two pairs of shoes to find. 

 

The A.I. can be annoying at times. The other girls have boxed me in on occasion, and there's no going through them. So, I had to go further into the room where they'd follow and get out the damn way!  A zombie got stuck behind a pillar, too, when I needed to clear the room to remove a barrier blocking my path. So yeah, not the greatest of A.I.

 

Guns, guns, and more guns! I have very little idea what I am doing with them, but it's working I guess. You can equip up to five different ones, choosing from pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers. The aiming, as I said before, is weird. The targeting reticle is always in the center of your screen. If you zoom in, it works more like a normal shooter. But then you're not as mobile, and can't see all around you. So, I've only done that in sniper missions, where you don't have to worry about enemies sneaking up on you.

 

I guess the graphics are fine? I'm not much of a graphic snob, so you'll need to look elsewhere for possible complaints about that. Music and sound effects are also okay. I know at least one track is recycled from Onechanbara, though. There's also online multiplayer for this, which I haven't tried (and probably won't), but I don't think those missions have any trophies tied to them. Besides it's dead. Or undead?

 

And I think that's really all I have to say about this one. Issues mentioned probably bring it down to at least a , making it the lowest rated game of the event for me, but it's not terrible. I don't know what the higher difficulties will be like, but SSS ranks are seeming manageable, so hopefully I'll finish it in due time. It's just going to be a grind..

 

Time played: I have no idea. I'll play a bit, stop. Play a bit, stop again. And there's no overall playtime stat, so it's anyone's guess. 

Trophy progress: 28/41 for 42% and a C rank. 

Completion Percentage: -0.16% Just being destroyed over here. Not sure how I'll recover.

[voodoo_eyes]

6 hours ago, DamagingRob said:

Final Review- School Girl/Zombie Hunter

 

I guess the graphics are fine? I'm not much of a graphic snob, so you'll need to look elsewhere for possible complaints about that. Music and sound effects are also okay. I know at least one track is recycled from Onechanbara, though. There's also online multiplayer for this, which I haven't tried (and probably won't), but I don't think those missions have any trophies tied to them. Besides it's dead. Or undead?

 

My alarm bells went off, when you mentioned graphics and Onechanbara in the same section. Is this another PS2 game masked as a PS4 game?

[DamagingRob]

3 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

My alarm bells went off, when you mentioned graphics and Onechanbara in the same section. Is this another PS2 game masked as a PS4 game?

Haha, that's why I said you may need another's opinion on those. Having been playing .hack recently, I'd say it looks better than a PS2 game. But I don't know how much better. :/ It's probably not up to AAA PS4 standards. And I reference Onechanbara because it's actually set in that universe.

[PerryToxteth]

On 7/23/2019 at 6:02 AM, dizzyshadow said:

Game 7 : Bomber Crew

 

 

Another little gem here, although one with quite niche appeal.

 

You are in charge of the crew of a Lancaster bomber in WWII, you fly missions from an RAF airbase against various german targets, the mission range from destroying factories and guns, or dropping supplies to downed pilots to help them survive and larger missions with harder objectives which you need to progress the story.

 

The difference being you have no direct control over the plane its self, only the crew of 7 (pilot, navigator, radio operator, engineer, 2 gunners & a bomb aimer) you can give them commands and move them around the plane to undertake various tasks (operate the guns, fix malfunctioning systems, heal other crew members), as you progress through the game your crew members unlock new skills which can be used ti help on future missions. The game play reminds me a lot of FTL from PC or iOS, and is suspect this may have been the insperation.

 

Thanks for the review! I've had this one on my radar for awhile. I'll grab it next time it's on sale.

 

I saw a Lancaster last year at the RAF Museum. What a beauty! I still find it crazy though, that it only had one pilot. But as my aviation buddy told me, England's a small island, and if there were two pilots, that's double the training on resources that are already stretched to the max. 

Are there any American bombers in the game? B-17s, B-24s, or B-29s?

[RuneEyesDragon]

Game #8 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

 

"Even with power, we cannot change what has passed. What is done, is done." - Ashe

 

(I think this deserved something better than a screenshot. Pretty sure this is Amano art. ^_^)

 

New Completion %: 81.29% (-0.50%)

Yes, surprisingly less than the others! Well... I have a VERY good reason for that...

 

(NOT MY PIC, I GOT MONSTER MASHER IN TERRA INCOGNITA)

 

I actually earned a ton of trophies in Dragon Quest Builders, improving my percentage and negating FFXII's added trophy list. Sorry, but I promised not to play DQB2 until I platinumed this game; it's been on my kitchen table for weeks!

 

Anyways... moving on...

 

Trophies that Fought For Dalmasca: 5

Unearned Trophies that Support the Arcadian Empire: 35

 

My Game Experience:

So yeah, this game... if you put a gun to my head and threatened to blow my brains into goo if I didn't declare love for ONE Final Fantasy game despite me because a Dragon Quest loyalist(as shown in the pic above), I would have to say that I would declare love for this title. FFXII may be rough and rustic but it feels so much like an MMO, which is why I dabbled in FFXIV years ago(might go back if I can get my Square-Enix account in order because of the new Shadowbringers content ) and I've had history with Ivalice, having beaten Final Fantasy Tactics back in the PS1 days and enjoyed dabbling in the Advance series. It was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance which introduced me to the creatures you see in this game. In fact, the first race I met were the Ban'gaa when poor Marche accidentally offended one by calling it a lizard.

 

The Moogles are much better looking here than in Kingdom Hearts, sorry fanboys. But to each his own.

 

The Struggle:

If you've ever watched a speedrun of this game, you can tell the early parts are very slow and tedious. Especially having to find this one undead monster called Dustia and keep spawning him and killing him with Phoenix Downs(it's a Final Fantasy game, most undead die to this item that revives people) until you're ready to go. Also, unlike the original game for PS2, this game is a bit more strict on how your characters gain power - you have to choose one of twelve 'jobs' and your license board - oh yeah, you have to earn points to spend on a chessboard like menu to unlock abilities and boosts - is different and has certain stuff available. For example, I made Penelo a White Mage and she can learn all of the healing spells. Vaan cannot learn any healing spells because he chose Uhlan(the spearman) and therefore is restricted to skills that do physical attacks. He'll get mediocre Black Magic(attack magic) but only after he earning a ****-load of license points, which he won't get until we advance the story and start killing things that drop 2 or more license points a pop.

 

Unlike the game this was remade from, International Zodiac Job System, after you advance to the second third of the game, you can unlock a second license board and use ITS powers, meaning your characters get stronger. And you're going to need it if you want to clear Trial Mode, which you have to do in order to get the platinum as two trophies are connected to it. So yeah, very much a struggle. At least they have a nerfed Yiazmat(superboss which had 50 million HP, and even without a damage cap on your attacks, you're still not doing enough to take it down in less than an hour). There is so much to explain but I think you could just Google Final Fantasy XII Hunts and whatnot and find out yourself, this game deserves some recognition and I will probably enjoy clearing up the rest of the trophies. Right now I have just gotten 5% into the story.

 

My Game Rating: 5/5

My Trophy List Rating: 4/5

Hardest Trophy Left to Get: Probably the one for clearing Trial Mode

Easiest Trophy Left to Get: The next story-related trophy

 

Next time, I go back into a game I platinumed on an older account, but with DLC!

[AsaraBaenre]

Game 8: XCOM 2 (July 22nd - July 24th)

 

Time Played: 3 hr 

Trophies Earned: 2/81 (2.4%)

Current Completion: 23.80% (+1.16%)

 

I had a lot of fun with this game, though yes, I did die. A lot. I'm not very good at these kind of games, haha but I love them anyway. I also realized I had access to the first XCOM through Playstation Now, so I didn't go any further than the three hours for the event because I want to play the first game first. 

 

XCOM is a squad based tactical game where you go on missions to try and stop aliens from causing trouble on Earth. I assume you fail in the first game since this one starts with the earth under alien rule. But I didn't want to get any more spoilers so I stayed away from furthering the story. You can research things that you bring back from missions, create all of your friends to fight (and die) with you. You can create new items, there's a lot of base management and in between strategy, and it seems like a very complex game. Like I said, I stopped early because I want to go back to the first game, but what I saw looks very fun and I had a blast even though I lost half my squad in each fight. 

 

I'd give what I saw an 7 or 8/10 but I'd like to reserve judgement until I've played a bit of the first game! 

 

 

Game 9 Preview:  Moonlighter (July 25th - July 27th)

Game Stats:

3,908 Game Owners; 63 (1.61%) Platinum Achievers/100% Completed; 22% Average Completion
57 Trophies (1/1/9/46)

 

Playstation Store Description: During a long-passed archaeological excavation, a set of Gates were discovered. People quickly realized that these ancient passages lead to different realms and dimensions – providing brave and reckless adventurers with treasures beyond measure. Rynoka, a small commercial village, was founded near the excavation site providing refuge and a place for adventurers to sell their hard-earned riches.

Moonlighter is an Action RPG with rogue-lite elements following the everyday routines of Will, an adventurous shopkeeper that dreams of becoming a hero.

 

My brother recently got a Switch for his birthday (I was planning on getting one as well, but you know, adulting got in the way) and he's been playing this game. And one of my other friends with a Switch is also playing this game. They both said I would love it. From what I can tell, you're a little guy who inherits his family shop, and has to raid dungeons to get the items to sell in the shop. He wants to be a hero so you have to fight your way through randomly generated dungeons, upgrade your armor and weapons, and then continue through to stronger and deeper dungeons. Really looking forward to this one. 

[Intoner_Zero]

6 hours ago, RuneEyesDragon said:

 

(Pretty sure this is Amano art. ^_^)

Wrong, the art style is from Akihiko Yoshida.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #8 - Dishonored 2 - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: +9h

Trophies earned: 9/51

 

 

So, I've been doing a non-lethal+ghost playthrough and am currently in Chapter 6 (out of 9). Since I'm going through blind, there's a lot of trial and error, which results in my actual playtime being somewhat around the 5 hour mark, even though I've put over 9 hours into the game. The thing with this series is that it doesn't really get annoying to try over and over again. There's always 2 or 3 other ways you can take, that'll get you to where you need to go. Another plus, is that it allows you to be creative in your apprach. That's the main appeal I think. No matter, if you go lethal or non-lethal or a mix of both. There's so much to try out, that it's impossible to get boring. This is also one of the few series, in which I don't mind searching for collectibles, I actually look forward to it as most are hidden away in seemingly inaccessible areas.

 

 

As can be guessed by the previous lines, this is mainly a stealth game, with a lot of exploration (primarily vertically). You can pcik one of two characters to play the story with, both having different abilites and skills (at least to some extent). Each location has a main objective and a few side objectives, which can change depending on how much you explore. There are many buildings that have several areas that can be explored ,and in which you can often find documents that give you altenate solutions to your objectives. As someone who enjoys exploration in games, this is right up my alley.

 

The most notable ability and your only default one is blink (if playing as Corvo), and others can be unlocked by finding runes (collectibles). Essentially I've only used blink for the entire playthrough so far, as I've had no need for any other ability (except for a trophy). Essentially you can teleport short distances with it, making it possible to reach ledges/areas that would otherwise be impossible to reach.

 

There are some really cool locations in this one, most notably the one in the 4th Chapter, which I'll just call the mansion. Saying anything mor would just spoil  it. Characters are great, voice actors are too although it felt to me that on occasion the lip sync wouldn't quite add up. There are however the odd bugs, one of which actually got me detected in a mission.

There is generally a few seconds until an enemy notices you (there's a visual indicator), which starts to reset when you break line of sight. In this particular case I opened a door ,saw a dog who was getting excited to see me and so I closed the door. All was well, did a few things around the level walked past said door again, and suddenly got the notification of having been detected. I look around and see the dogs head clipping through the closed door...

 

 

Even though progress has been slow due to the type of playthrough I'm doing, I'm having a lot of fun. As such I'll give this one a , just as I did with it's standalone DLC. It's just a fantastic series.

[SixyLove]

Update 019

"Not cheating the game and myself"

Super Neptunia RPG

Playtime: 14 hours

 Trophies Earned: 21/36 50%

 

My party composition is Blanc, Noire, Neptune and Vert now. IF, Compa and Artisan are just too OP to keep using. I felt so guilty I had trouble sleeping. Chrome gets left out of the battle party because she is too weak and has the worst party commitment issues. The party change has slowed me down though. Battles take longer now and I'm required to use my very limited intelligence to battle effectively now.

 

I also figured out that pressing the touch-pad during a battle pauses it and lets me see my parties weakness' and the enemies weakness'. I'm not sure if this discovery made the game better or worse.

 

Iffy and Compa made story appearances and that made me happy. Chrome punched Neptune in her dumb face and laugh; violence isn't funny but I can't help myself sometimes. Other then that it was just Neptunia plot.

 

I learned the double jump ability today. I don't have to rely on Puddingo as much now. Puddingo is still a very valuable member of the party that we cherish and love with all our hearts!

[dmland12]

Game #4: Battle Worlds: Kronos

Trophies: 15/40 (35%)

Completion: 94.51% (-0.49%, -1.77% from start)

 

Battle Worlds: Kronos is a turn based tactical strategy game.  Although the game's trophy image above (as well as the header image this site uses on the game's page) would lead you to think it has something to do with fighting in space, it really doesn't.  You're fighting on the ground, on a hex map with tanks, artillery, ships, submarines, and airplanes.

 

When you first start the game up, one of the first things you see is a warning about how difficult the game is and how you should basically just suck it up and git good (I'm paraphrasing).  But, after playing through the first 5 missions (out of 13), I'm not really seeing it.  Employing a few basic ideas has been enough so far (grouping my units together before advancing to attack, putting the ranged stuff behind the non-ranged stuff, focusing my attacks on the more dangerous units first, attacking enemy units with units that they can't counterattack against, bombarding stuff from a distance with ships if they're near the coast and can't fight back).  The AI is also pretty bad and generally too defensive and spread out.  You start each mission with many fewer units than the AI, but since they don't really coordinate across the map, it doesn't really matter.  You can focus on one spot at a time, wipe them out and move on to the next.  Hopefully the game will get more difficult in the later missions otherwise this is going to get a bit tedious to platinum.

 

The story and mission objectives can be rather clunky.  For example, in Mission 4 the primary objective was to capture the enemy headquarters.  So, I captured that building and the mission didn't end...  as it turns out there were two headquarters on the map and I needed to capture both.  Up to that point there had been at most one on a map, so I assumed that would do it.  Seems like the game could have just as easily said capture two headquarters.

 

Overall, I'll admit, I'm a bit disappointed with this one.  But, maybe the later missions will be better.  From what I've read, Mission 12 is supposed to be difficult and you're also on the defensive guarding against waves of units or something.  That could be interesting.

 

No video this time, since I think it would be extremely boring to watch, so here's a screenshot from near the end of Mission 5 in case you want to see what the game looks like.

 

Spoiler

 

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #9 - Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - Preview

 

 

Who the hell comes up with these unpronouncable names? I mean sure, having just a generic name is bad for marketing, but having one that can be constantly misspelled can't be that great either.

That aside, I pretty much know nothing about the series and never played a game in the franchise. I am not unfamiliar with side-scrolling action-RPGs though, having played Exist Archive, Earth's Dawn and Battle Princess of Arcadias . For the most part I liked all of them, with Battle Princess of Arcadias being the weakest one, due to lack in variety.

 

I expect this game to be better than any of the above though, so hopefully that holds true.

 

 

[Psy-Tychist]

Pyre.

Playtime: 6 hours

Played: Liberated 1 Exile, Lost1 Pyre Battle

Trophies: 28/51 - 45%

Completion: 60.90% - ? 0.04%

Feeling: Enlightened and Amused.

 

Supergiant Games make interesting games, this is widely accepted. The thing about them as a company is that they don't stay in a box and stick to games that made them successful. Bastion was a story based action-RPG, Transistor was an action-strategy game with a similar overarching narrative and Pyre switches up the genre again along with the new game Hades, which is yet to arrive. The only thing that seems to stay the same is the singular naming system.

 

@voodoo_eyes Has already explained the general gist of the game. 

A condensed version is you join a band of exiles trying to escape back to the Commonwealth (unsure what it exactly is). You need 3 people to fight in battles which play like basketball with Yu-Gi-Oh style banishing mechanics. You reduce the fire or pyre to 0 by jumping into it with a celestial orb and not having your fire reduced to 0.

So far in the game, I have fought 13 matches and only lost 1 so far.

 

The other main part of the game is just learning about your companions. At any one time, you can have 8 companions, each with different speeds, banishing abilities and specific skills. The majority of the game is all text-based and you learn why your companions were exiled, fight in battles to help them become free with their past and meet past foes.

 

From what I can gather, until you have Liberated 5 exiles, the game won't end and will get progressively harder until you do. You can gain more experience by using Titan Stars which give buffs to enemies or debilitate your team. There are trophies related to using them, but do them on teams you can guarantee easier wins as the AI gets a big boost in skill and speed.

 

My experience seems to be more positive than @voodoo_eyes, I think it just struck a chord with me a bit more. I do understand his reservations, especially with the use of random language used to promote when the characters are speaking. Overall though, I will be finishing the story as I am invested in the characters and want to make them complete the Plan and see it to fruition.

 

Trophy-wise, the game is quite fair with what it wants you to do, promoting you to try all the characters, talk to everyone and to try out the Versus mode to get all the trophies. Currently, I have half of the trophies and that is all from just doing story related tasks, the rest won't take too much effort.

 

If you like this (style of game), try these: Transistor, The Banner Saga.

 

Next Game: Darkest Dungeon.

 

I'm running a little behind and may have to swap to another game as I will be away until the end of the month. I have Papers Please for my next game but might not have the ability to do another PS4 game in the meantime.

[voodoo_eyes]

@Psy-Tychist I actually finished the story today, and my opinion didn't change. Personally I find the game overstays it's welcome by quite a bit. It adds optional modifiers about halfway through the game, but that's pretty much the only thing that freshens the whole experience up a bit.  Most of the battles on standard difficulty are a cakewalk even with modifiers on, and don't really add anything new. Even the opposing teams are always teams you've fought before, not even their line-up varies. There are 26 matches in total, and I got bored halfway throug, because it was literally just going through the motions; pick location, do X number of matches do a match to "free" one of your party members, next location and do the same again. It's an original concept, but that's pretty much all it was for me. I still have the vs mode left, which maybe I'll try to wrap up today.

[dmland12]

@Psy-Tychist You like Transistor and The Banner Saga?  That's some good taste there.  I really loved those games.

 

But, when it comes to Pyre I'm more with @voodoo_eyes I'm afraid.  I think it's clearly not as interesting as Transistor or Bastion.  And the comparison to The Banner Saga pains me a little. 

[voodoo_eyes]

18 minutes ago, dmland12 said:

@Psy-Tychist You like Transistor and The Banner Saga?  That's some good taste there.  I really loved those games.

 

But, when it comes to Pyre I'm more with @voodoo_eyes I'm afraid.  I think it's clearly not as interesting as Transistor or Bastion.  And the comparison to The Banner Saga pains me a little. 

 

I don't really think Pyre is that similar to any of those other games, at least when it comes to the gameplay or how the game is structured. The emphasis in Pyre is the story telling, with very little gameplay throughout.  It also just feels like a game of dodgeball tbh There are some superficial similarities, like the sort of isometric perspective and their artstyle and maybe the presentation at least the Supergiant games tend to have the whole announcer/narrator thing going on iirc.

Edited July 25, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[Kevvik]

Game #8: The Unfinished Swan

 

Initial/Day 3 Impressions

Time played: 2 hrs

 

So RL really got in the way during game 8 so I didn't get the 3hr mark met. I knew this was going to be a rough period which is why I chose a smaller game but it was busier than I expected. Anyway, on with the review...

 

The Unfinished Swan is a first person puzzle/adventure game of sorts. Monroe's mother was a great artist but had a habit of not finishing her paintings. After her passing, Monroe picks up her brush, intending to finish his favourite of her paintings, a swan.  After he picks up the brush, the swan comes to life and flees through a magic doorway. Monroe follows and ends up in a world that is essentially a blank canvas. By throwing balls of paint, he covers the environment with paint which allows him to see walls, stairs and other parts of the world which would otherwise appear invisible.  Through this environment, he pursues the swan (which leaves behind footprints for you to follow).

 

You find story pages which describe what has occurred in the magical land you have entered.  There are also collectibles (balloons) to find in the levels.  Telescopes allow you to zoom in on distant inaccessible areas. The blank environment evolves into different areas but your thrown paint (later it shows as water as well) allow you to find hidden areas that allow you to find balloons or move forward. In a later level, the water you throw helps vines to grow and aid in passing obstacles.  The gameplay is simple but effective and I've found the controls to be fairly tight.

 

Getting through the first two chapters probably took me under an hour but I used chapter select to go searching behind me for collectibles. I'm really enjoying this (like I do most puzzle games) though it doesn't look really long from the trophy list. I'll definitely return to this soon.

 

Trophies earned: 3/10, 14% for D rank

Score so far: 8/10

Completion Rate: 83.33% (-0.95% for the event)

 

Next up: Game #9: Danganronpa V3

 

[SixyLove]

Update 020

"Lucky 7"

Super Neptunia RPG

Playtime: 22 hours

Trophies Earned: 24/36 54%

 

Today I found a really good grinding spot by accident. It is a very powerful spot that's filled with enemies like the golden hands from Persona 4 Golden. The enemies are immune to most things, resistant to everything else and have very high defense but are not very dangerous and reward a ludicrous amount of experience points, formation point and ability points when defeated. I'll probably be farming this spot at the end game once I get the strategy down.

 

I'll being playing a little bit of Rocketbirds 2 before I go to bed. I'm very excited to play this title because I enjoyed the first game so much.

[RuneEyesDragon]

On 7/24/2019 at 6:37 PM, Bittersweet said:

Wrong, the art style is from Akihiko Yoshida.

Sorry, Amano is the only artist I know of. That's shows how little I care about the series.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Final Fantasy hater, XII and World of FF are the only games I really care anything about. And Kingdom Hearts because the first two games have Final Fantasy characters and they did them well.

 

I'm more into Dragon Quest, already to island two of Dragon Quest Builders 2.

Edited July 26, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[SixyLove]

Review

"Spin Me Right Round"

Super Neptunia RPG

Playtime: 22 hours

Trophies Earned:24/36 54%

 

Graphics and Sound

This game is beautiful to look at. Every screen looks like the pretty concept art you would see for other games. Even the more simplistic areas look great. I would consider framing some of the backgrounds and hanging them up just to look at. The game will still look in a few console generations because everything looks hand drawn. I usually don't give a shih tzu about how a game looks but this is one of the few games that made me stop just to look at it.

 

The soundtrack is one of my favorites of all gosh darn time. The opening song is amazing. Most of the background music is so good I stopped to listen to it and it would still be playing in my head hours after playing the game. There are a few songs that I didn't care for but on a whole it ducking amazing. A lot of the tracks reminded me of Final Fantasy 9; that isn't a bad thing because FF 9 has amazing music.

 

The game does suffer from a few visual and sound problems. Some of the animations for battle don't look great and I remember seeing characters teleport occasionally. The lip syncing is mostly on point (I'm playing with the Japanese voices; English is available) but on rare occasions it lined up poorly. I should mention the game is a little buggy (I heard the Steam version is horrendously buggy) but it's nothing too bad. The game will freeze momentarily sometimes when you open your menu or hand in quests. The game takes a long time to load your save file. A couple times one of my party members had 0 HP and they got stuck in a strange life or death limbo. The game hasn't crashed on me yet but I'm always saving at every save point I see (the game doesn't auto save) just in case. The game doesn't have much non-essential NPC design variety; you'll literally see identical twin in the same same outfits standing next to each other sometimes.

Spoiler

When the rebel base get's taken over, the game gives you a new base that is the exact same as the old one; the game does address this by having Neptune point it out and then Artisan forcefully suggests her to shut her dumb crumb covered face because the game developers were too lazy to design a different base (paraphrased). This make me laugh and was a good attempt at meta humor in my opinion.

 

  Why this game?

I'm a Neptunia fan so I was going to buy it no matter what. The only reason I played it for Kill Your Completion was because it released in North America when the event started. 

 

Gameplay

Super Neptunia RPG is a fully 2D game; the first in the series (the Japanese version was out before Neptunia Shooter). The game plays like a platform game in the over world. The whole map is connected like Metroid. You can warp between save crystals (barring a few exceptions) if you don't feel walking. You can jump, dash, air dash, use Pudingo as a trampoline and double jump to platform around. The platforming is very easy and you're not penalized for being bad at it; will respawn at the edge of the bottomless pit you fell down and there are not many of those.

 

The various NPCs around will give you quests. They range from simple fetch quests, taking a quiz, defeating monsters, collecting items and handing them your hard earned money. You will receive experience points, money and/or items for doing quests. You can ignore these if you and just do the main story but quests are your 2nd best source of experience points.

 

There are random encounters on most the maps. They are indicted by Dogoos (Dragon Quest Slime knockoffs used in every Neptunia) that can be platformed around. You will start a battle if you walk into them or symbol attack them. Your benefit for preforming a symbol attack is starting with 2 AP (Action Points). The battles are pseudo turned based. Both sides will generate AP over time. AP meter can go from -6 to 12. Every skill has a AP cost and you must have that much AP to preform that skill. Enemies and your party can resist, absorb or be weak to magical elements and physical attacks; Neutral magic can't be resisted but it can be supper effective. If you land a attack the enemy is weak against it will do more damage and give you 2 AP. Hitting a enemy with a attack they resist has it do less damage and you lose 1 AP; if an enemy absorbs an attack, they will heal from it and you lose 3 AP. These rules are true for both sides. You can also use items. Items don't cost AP to use and don't have any measures to prevent you from spamming them (barring revive items). You will also build up break meter from landing successful attacks. The meter can hold up to 4 break attacks and once a section is full, you can press , select a character and watch them preform their super move. 

 

On your side, you can have up to 4 party members fight with you. Every character has one skill and you press whatever face button they're positioned on. You are allowed to spin your party clockwise or counterclockwise. Spinning the party let's you access new skills for everyone and the formation skill for the front member is activated. The member in the  spot is the front member, they are more likely to be targeted for attacks and they're formation skill will be active.

 

Formation skills are passive benefits unique to each character. They can level up with formation points received at the end of a battle but only the front member receives them.

 

You learn new skills by equipping new equipment and gaining skill points from battles until the game you get enough. You're allowed to use any skill and ability on your equipment that's equipped but you will lose it if you unequip your equipment before you learn a skill/ability. You can only equip skills that are neutral or of the front members type; it's all done in a menu outside of battles. 

 

Abilities are passive bonuses that you can activate. Each ability costs points to activate. You have a limited amount of ability points to work with but you get more as you level up. Better abilities cost more points. You are allowed to activate/deactivate abilities at anytime you can access the menu to do it.

 

Despite how complex battles sound, they're actually very simple. You mostly just spam the enemies weakness, your turn can be nearly infinite. You can see what skill on your party members if you forget by pressing the touch pad, your type weakness and resistance as well as your enemies. Turns don't have any limits and it's a bit hard to tell which side is attacking sometimes. The gameplay can be quite fun but fights play out the same way a lot.

 

Story

This Neptunia isn't related to the others story wise. The game shares some characters and general themes with other Neptunia titles. Everyone's favorite and 100% lovable 4th wall breaking protagonist Neptune has a nightmare. She wakes up, is told to pay her taxes but can't because the only thing she has is amnesia. It's not a cliche or bad writing if you break the 4th wall and point it out all the time. The nice tax collector takes her to their base, give her snacks and gives her a job in their organization. Neptune works for the organization, Bombyx Mori, that turns out to be evil and leaves after one of the higher ups tries to beat her up and use her a bait.

 

Neptune meets this wanted criminal that can literally tell you everything about your past but doesn't because she likes to watch you suffer. She tells you to go find 3 other amnesiacs, gives you a magic book that glows when you find one and holds all the secrets of the universe. She collects the other party members and your party joins the rebels. The rest of the game is just misadventures and your adventure to defeat Bombyx Mori: I think. I haven't actually finished the game yet.

 

Returning Characters

Neptune: The lovable main-protagonist of the series. She is a lazy, irresponsible, "funny", breaks the 4th wall with reckless abandon and likes pudding. In this game, she constantly saves she is a hero and that's her weakness to get her to do things in this entry. You will move around the world as her in this game.

Noire: Noire has nothing better to do so she joins your party. She is really pissed about losing her memories. She is constantly telling Neptune to be more serious and complains about her unfunny jokes. Noire is often the butt of everyone's jokes. She is the most serious member of the main cast.

Blanc: Very quite until she snaps. Blanc really likes to read books and is often portrayed as the smartest character. She joins your party because Bombyx Mori is burning a lot of books. She is the character the swears the most.

Vert: She has a massive love of video games. She will play games for 200 hours a week if left on her own. Her huge love of tea is amazing an she has an encyclopedic on the subject. Vert is very nice and will often allow just go with the flow. She has a gigantic burning hatred for Bombyx Mori because they're successfully destroying everything to do with 3D and VR games.

IF: Noire MK2. She owns too many cellphones. IF is also Compa' roommate.

Compa: When you have IF, you get Compa (aside from that one exception). Compa is a nurse and can make pudding. She isn't the smartest character; she had to ask Iffy she was a nurse in this game. 

Histoire: The magic book that Neptune receives from chrome. Thick enough to be used a weapon.

 

New Characters

(That will Likely Never be Seen Again)

Chrome: The mysterious lady that could tell you everything but doesn't for no good reason. She is very boring and uninteresting.

Artisan: The leader of the rebels. I like her but I can't remember why.

Puddingo: The cute and lovable platforming companion. Once he/she joins your party, they can be summoned at the press of a button. You can summon two at a time but if they touch, the universe implodes via cuteness.

 

All the prior characters (besides Histoire and Puddingo) can be part of your battle party. IF, Compa and Artisan are DLC and cost a steep 1USD per character. 

 

All Hail Filyn

Filyn: The extremely powerful leader of Bombyx Mori. She is a little kid and is very easy to trick. She is obsessed with Chrome and will chase her across the world on foot. Filyn can also sleep standing up.

Ester Zira: Every time she speaks (Japanese voice) I feel my brain cells committing suicide. Fortunately for my mental health, she isn't into many scenes. She is the 3rd ranked musketeer of Bombynx Mori. She uses mechs in her fights and before defeating her in a battle, she will launch her mech at you in a last ditch effort to kill you; it's a dirty move that you don't see very often.

Artura Arrima: The mad king of Bombynx Mori and 2nd musketeer. She has an obsession with pain and torture. She really want to capture Neptune for her own nefarious AO rated pleasure. Artura really creeps me out and whenever she was on screen I wanted her to leave as quickly as possible.

Paix St. Gliss: 1st musketeer and a music snob. She carries a violin with her and talks to a doll sometimes. The doll's name is Kurumi.

 

Trophy Thoughts

All the trophies should come naturally over time or be part of the post game trophy grind. I haven't checked for missables to avoid spoilers but it's likely that there are a few. The game in my experience is rather easy (my skill is average at best) so challenge wouldn't be a issue for most people. I really like the artwork on the trophies.

 

Final Thoughts

I guess I should mention that the PS4 version of Super Neptunia RPG is a victim of SCEA's crusade of censorship. This game got off a light will only 2 images being altered; the hotsprings one has thicker stream and a image of Vert is zoomed in so you can't see her underwear. Go buy the Switch and Steam versions instead if you care about this injustice.

 

This is one of the best Neptunia games, if not the best, made to date. I'm in love with the visuals and soundtrack, I enjoy the gameplay and the story is a little basic but I'm enjoying the story so far. I'll post a update on my feeling after everything is done. I'm honestly surprised I only mentioned Final Fantasy 9 three times in this review.

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by SixyLove
Fixed a format error.

[RuneEyesDragon]

Game #9: Ni no Kuni II - Revenant Kingdom

 

"I know it will be difficult. But if there's even a chance, we have to try." - Evan

(There won't be any more gameplay screenshots for the rest of the event. This is taken from one of the box arts.)

 

New Completion: 78.02% (-3.27%)

 

Again, this is inconsistent, but this time, the % has dropped significantly, but not because of this game...

 

It's because I've been running through Dragon Quest Builders 2, which added a huge void to my account. Great game, but this game is pretty great too.

 

Trophies that Worked Towards a Brighter Future: 3

Unearned Trophies that are still looking for a Kingdom to Rule: 59

(Sorry, the titles are getting a bit tired now, I'm just glad this event is almost over. Writing up synopses for each game is tiring.)

 

My Game Experience:

Boy, did this game have some stiff competition in the attention department. If I could make an analogy, this game was the nerdy high school girl with freckles, glasses, and tiny breasts trying to get the attention of her crush at the high school prom while Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the sexy bombshell cheerleader queen who every boy is drooling over as said girl flirts with the boy and convinces him to do THE SLOW DANCE. You know the one, the one that makes teenagers so lusty for each other that, if the prom wasn't heavily chaperoned would lead to said cheerleader queen and the nerdy girl's crush slipping into one of the empty classrooms, barring the door, and doing stuff that would probably get said cheerleader queen teen pregnant. And said poor nerdy girl would lose all will to love... and become CEO of Nintendo and end up rich as hell while cheerleader queen gets dumped when the husband she made love to during prom runs off with Dragon Quest XI S for the Switch and leaves her raising ten kids who create really immature content in the Isle of Awakening.

 

Okay, that's sort of a wall of text, but you can see where I am going here. Ni no Kuni II had to be started at a very bad time. I had finally platinumed the original Dragon Quest Builders and promised not to play the sequel until that was done, so I started playing DQB2 blind and NNK2 had a hard time. But I did eventually start playing it... and with sound on! (I usually mute the games I play.)

 

So putting aside Dragon Quest games, this game is a very beautiful game. It's the technical sequel to Wrath of the White Witch, but other than an obscure reference in the beginning during a series of puzzles you have to solve telling a legend which includes Mornstar, a weapon you get in that game, and Ding Dong Dell existing in both games(and having cat-people in both), this game is totally divorced from the first game in both story(the President of the United States gets teleported to Ni No Kuni's world and de-aged by twenty years to help a prince who is usurped by a villainous advisor) and gameplay(the first has Tales of Symphonia like combat, this is pure action RPG combat).

 

Instead of taming and raising familiars, this game uses strange puppet-like Pikmin creatures called Higgledies, which support you in combat. One of the sidequests has you finding strange stones and offering items to them and if you guess what they want from their clues, they spit out a Higgledie which you can equip to your team(you can equip four groups of Higgledies) and form a powerful support group to keep you alive in boss fights, and boy will you need them as boss fights pull no punches.

 

The Struggle:

I've stopped after you get your first new party members, at the beginning of Chapter 3, and this game is gorgeous and easy to get into for those who love Wrath of the White Witch(which is getting a PS4 remaster on the same month as Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch) and got its full line-up of DLC(which for some reason I cannot access right now).

 

There won't be a struggle here or in the finale as I am just going to play until I earn at least one trophy each day and end it at that. I think I titled this category very wrong. If I participate in next year's KYC, I will definitely rethink this category's name. I guess I could mention the Hardest Trophy To Get, Dream Big. Later in the game, once you got your kingdom started, you run into a woman who shows you a strange door which she calls a Dreamer's Door. There are ten of these in the world, and each leads into what we could call Mystery Dungeons - randomized dungeons that go down to a boss at the end. Of course, you could cop out and leave by finding the door on a floor(yes, it's a rhyme) and exit, but you lose all progress in that dungeon(you keep what you find and any EXP you earn). There is also a timer, and as it advances, the monsters on each floor get stronger and deadlier, and they also get stronger and deadlier with each floor you descend too. The first nine Doors are a decent challenge for your level. Heck, it's possible to enter and clear the first Door(the one that strange woman shows you during the story event) when you first find it without a sweat...

 

And then there is Door #10. Kill me now, please.

 

This Door leads to a dungeon that has at least thrice as many floors, and monsters go past Level 99, meaning that even a rat-man (the Whamsters, which are the first mobs you fight in the game) can one-shot you if they connect. And at the bottom you fight a MUCH meaner version of one of the first bosses you fought in the story, WHO WILL PARTY WIPE YOU IF YOU TRY TO BULLRUSH HIM!

 

Oh, and did I mention that the first DLC pack, which added harder modes to the game, ALSO added TEN MORE FLOORS TO THIS PLACE?!!?

 

It's not optional, you have to clear this Nightmare From Hell to get the platinum. It's possible, but I couldn't do it with maxing my characters out to Level 99 and kitting them with the best gear in the world, and even then I had to spam healing and resurrection items to even GET to the boss of this Door. (Luckily, the new versions of this game have raised your level cap to 150, so now Evan and his gang will have an easier time with more HP and strength.)

 

My Game Rating: 6/5 (yeah, it's that good)

My Trophy List Rating: 4.5/5 (mostly because of the tainted monsters and the DLC trophies, if I ever go for them)

Hardest Trophy Left to Get: Dream Big (definitely this, because the last Dreamer's Door is going to be HELL)

Easiest Trophy Left to Get: Barring automatic trophies and the "your first XXXX" trophies which are given automatically in tutorials, probably Higgedly Gaggle, because I'll probably get the right combination of Higgeldies eventually.

 

Tomorrow is the final (and simplest) game in the event. This event has been a trip, let me tell you that. Congrats to @voodoo_eyes for hosting it and convincing me to pick up all the physical games I have and give them a little play to re-experience them.

 

I think the quote I gave for this game above signifies a motivational quote for me. Yes, it will be a struggle to platinum all of these games and get my completion back to par, but as long as you enjoy the experience, that's what counts.

Edited July 27, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon