Wow, I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Like, over a year. Maybe two. I point the blame squarely at college and real life sucking up all of my non-video game time, and even having the gall to cut into said video game time.

I know. How dare I let something so petty as college cut into precious video game time? But, that's another tale full of sighs, sorrow, and things that are best left unsaid in a public blog. We are here today to talk about Freedom in video games! And talk about it we shall!

Let me first say that I'm quickly finding myself to be an old-school gamer more and more. I'm finding much of today's gaming world to be a frustrating affair full of dark greys and grizzled men shouting unfunny one-liners. I know that this isn't wholly accurate to say, but I sometimes feel that we are more or less stuck in these bland areas, and I feel that gaming can be so much more than that.



But I digress. Again. Freedom. Yes! Let's talk about Freedom!

Or rather, how I don't want it in my games. I realize that this is a somewhat backwards way of thinking, but I don't like when games more or less plop me in a sandbox and expect me to go whilly nilly. I'm not exactly the most creative person when it comes to these things, and I often find myself running out of silly things to do. Sure, it's fun to run around with a bazooka and shoot people for a while, but it only lasts about one play session or so before I move onto the story mode, rarely going back to the sandboxy stuff at all.

I'm speaking primarily about Grand Theft Auto IV when I say this. The game literally has a button you can push to activate sandbox mode, and while that's all well and good for a while, I eventually just stopped pushing it, and just went through the story missions. And I had a great time doing it. The story missions were great fun, well varied, and the story of the game itself was strong enough to carry me through them all. And yet, despite one or two sessions, I was essentially playing what boiled down to be a linear experience. Sure, I could choose the order of the missions I went on, but because the city was so big I often just chose the one that was closest to where I ended the last mission. Traveling from mission to mission added an unnecessary hurdle (and time) between missions.

That might be a bit unfair to say. The open-world aspect is what makes a game like GTA work, and just because I chose to play it linearly does not mean that everyone wants to, nor should they have to. GTA is practically its own genre, and everyone plays each genre differently. And that's fine, and doesn't bug me. What does bug me is when non-linearity affects the game as a whole.

Some game reviewers tend to cycle linearity as a negative aspect. Personally, I don't think it is. Some people may disagree with me, but I like to play a game and be led down a story path. Let the game lead me through situations, meet characters, get involved with them, and come to a conclusion. Essentially an interactive movie in a lot of ways. And that's fine by me. In fact, I tend to prefer it.

People that know me will immediately raise a red flag here. But since I haven't been on here in ages, let me walk you through their reaction.

Ryoma: I like linear games.

Everyone else: BAWHAT? But you hates teh Final Fantasy XIII. And that game is the King, Queen, and PRINCE of linear! YOU ARE A LIARSX!@#!$!@

That is true. I hate Final Fantasy XIII. With a passion. But not because of its linearity. Honestly, I think in the right hands, an RPG where the party members are assigned in each battle can be kind of interesting. It would force some interesting battle situations on the player, and in turn get the player to experience each character in full. I don't think this would appeal to everyone, but this kind of "work with what you have" motif might turn into a challenging experience. Imagine going up against a boss designed to be strong against the characters you currently have in your party, so you are forced to think in new ways to defeat the foe, and new ways for the characters to work together.

It's a thought.

In brief, my hatred of Final Fantasy XIII comes from its stupid battle system that is neither challenging nor interest (and barely counts as playing), from it's terrible cast (Snow needs to be lit on fire) and from the poorly way it's told (datalog isn't a nice feature, it's required reading). That topic can be explored in a later blog if I choose to, but not now.

Also, sometimes I think forced non-linearity can hurt an experience. For this example, I turn to 2008's remake/reboot/re-whatever, Prince of Persia. In this game, which actually has a lot going for it, you play as the titular Prince, save a girl, and travel with her to stop a bad-guy. The game is split into four worlds, and lets you choose the order in which to go through them. This sounds delightful on paper, but it actually (in my opinion) mars the experience. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation pretty much hit the nail on the head here when he reviewed the game, and I agree with him 100%.



But, for those of you who don't watch Zero Punctuation (What is wrong with you?), here is basically what Yahtzee said. Because the game lets you play in the worlds in any order, the game's difficulty never increases. It doesn't build on itself. Each level can be played first and therefore has to be of roughly the same difficulty for newcomers. So, that means the level you played first will be as difficult as the level you played third. While the game does try to make it more difficult with (I forget the actual name) black stuff on levels that can kill you, it does little to shake the feeling that the game really is not gaining any difficulty or momentum.

The game has you learn powers, and each level is designed around a new power. That's all good, but they never cross over and get used in tandem until the game's final act. Only then, since the game knows you've completed all the other levels, does the difficulty increase and you get to use all the powers together.

It not only affects gameplay, but the storytelling as well. Once again, because each area can be viewed in any order, the characters make little to no progress. The whole game centers around the dialogue between Prince and Girl (Elika, I think), and to the game's credit, the dialogue is fairly witty and well done. You'll go through an area, Prince and Girl seem to make some progress, only to have all of that development be dropped in the next area. Girl seems to get nicer, only to grow cold again in the next area. Once again, only in the final act do you get to see these characters grow to trust each other. What should have been a slow, gradual change becomes stark and sudden. And it just doesn't work.

I'm a bit of writer in my spare time (What a concept) and I know what it's like to try and craft a tale. And I can't imagine trying to do so when a reader can read any chapter in any order. It's certainly non-linear, but it will also feel like it's spinning its wheels a bit.

I do think of video games as interactive stories, and I realize that that tag might not be entirely accurate to every game. I think that, with that thought in mind, most games should have some linearity to them. Being led along isn't always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes, it can be a very good thing.

Thank you for reading if you managed to get through the wall of text I just typed. I might keep this updated more regularly in the future. We'll see.

((Note: Yes, I know I haven't been updating lately. Summer job has been keeping me busy, preventing me from playing as many games as I want. But, I managed to finish this one! :D))

My history with the Shin Megami Tensei series has been somewhat mixed. I've always been intrigued by the ideas, but I guess I've never been "hardcore" enough to finish any of them. Or rather, I never learned to think like the game wants me too. What does that mean? Not really sure, but it sounded good. :P

I've been able to get my hands on Nocturne, but I wasn't able to really get into it. The idea of the game," It's the end of the world, now what?" intrigued me at the time, along with the nice demon designs, but the story wasn't able to hook me in. So, I sent it back to gamefly. I got my hands on Persona 3, as the concept intrigued me, but I got to a boss I couldn't beat, gave up, and sent it back. (There was more frustration than just a boss battle, but I digress).

So, here I am. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (henceforth known as SMT:DS) once again drew me in with its interesting concept. Tokyo is in lockdown when demon show up. Now, armed with your demon-summoning DS's (Called COMPs in game) you and your pals have to survive the chaos. And I am proud to say that SMT:DS is the first SMT game I completed, and I'm eager to look back into other games in the series.


Box Art showing off the characters, tho in game they are far more colorful than just red.

The set-up is above, and I won't go into detail about the story. Suffice to say, it's really quite good, quirky, but realistic, and lots of fun. A wide cast of characters with nice portraits do a great job. I only wish there was some voice acting, and maybe a few more portraits. Character art, while expressive, is quite limited. Maybe 5 different poses for each character.

Graphics are also well done. SMT games have a history of looking slick and this game is no different. Everything fits together nicely with a lot of thought clearly put in. The menus seem a little cluttered at first, but after about a half hour or so you'll be surprised just how much they display in a very logical manner. In battle, the character sprites that move around the grinds are well-done, but when attacking all you get is still shots of the (kickass) demons.

Speaking of battle, this is where the game really shines. Playing like a combination of Final Fantasy Tactics, EarthBound, and Pokemon, the game feels old and new at the same time. You move your group of up to four parties around a generally small grid, attacking groups of demons. Your parties consist of one human flanked by two demons. Here's the pokemon element. There are well-over 100 demons in the game, and you can use them in battle. You don't have to "catch them all" however, you can just go to the "Demon Auction" and buy them.

When you attack another group of demons, battle switches to a first-person perspective where you select your attacks EarthBound style. You fight three-on-three battles against evil demons. Battles have a variety of missions too, ranging from the general "Kill them all" to "protect person X" and many others. And they are difficult too! Not for the faint of heart!

The game is divided into 7 days, and each day you only have around 10 in-game hours to do tasks. This may sound like a lot, but just about every action you take, with the exception of leveling-battles, consumes a half hour of time. So, you'll have to choose how you spend it wisely, and it's impossible to see everything on one playthrough, giving the game quite a bit of replay value.

And that's really the surface of the game. There is a lot more to it that I just didn't cover here (Cuz I'm sleep-deprived). Basically, go out and buy this game. It's awesome. :)

So, a bit of personal backstory. I never had 2D fighters as a kid. My parents were the "Fighting is violent and wrong and you can't see it" Type, so fighting games were completely out of the question. I'm lucky to have been able to play Sonic the Hedgehog. The first fighting game I ever owned was Power Stone on the ill-fated Dreamcast (very much the opposite of 2D fighters). Then came Power Stone 2, and from there was Smash Brothers. Then, Soul Calibur 2 for my gamecube.

In a sense, I've never played any 2D fighters...

I picked up Guilty Gear X2 on the PS2 (Which I still have) and got completely and utterly lost in it. Being a youngster, I had no idea how difficult those motions could be to pull off. The game was played about 3 times, and to this day continues to collect dust in my collection. I rented Street Fighter IV, and still don't know my Hakoukens from my Shoriukens. (I'm sure I butchered the spelling on those...).

Now, on a trip to Gamestop to sell some old games I'll never, EVER play. (Things like Lego Racers, Harry Potter) I got some good cash, and decided to give 2D fighters a last hurrah. I purchased the limited edition of BlazBlue, almost solely because of the beginner guide included, and I must say...

I've fallen in love...

BlazBlue is the shit.

I'll start with my favorite part. The characters. I know they aren't for everyone, but if you're ANYthing like me, you can at least appreciate all the details in their designs. Plus, I'm a sucker for anime designs, so this game already has a win in that category.

Fighting seems to be fairly standard fare for the genre, at least to my experience. However, at least for me, it feels better. More responsive. And I think that has to do with it being more forgiving with your actions. Granted, it's not a button masher by any means, but doing the quarter-circles seems easier (meaning I can pull them off with some consistency)

I've only had the game for about a day so far, and I must say that the guide disk is incredibly helpful. It takes a few viewings to really absorb what they say, as it does kind of go kind of fast, but I've watched it about 3 times for the characters I wanna learn and it's very helpful.

I haven't tried story mode yet, tho I am incredibly eager to. :D

And, I went online. There is some lag leading up to the match, the pre-fight animations seem to skip a little, but during actual fights, I have to admit, I'm almost completely lag free. Which is such a plus. :)

I've only really tried one character (Noel) and I intend to stick with her for a while until I learn the fighter better. And that's it. I'm off to play some more. See you online! (PSN: Ryoma90)

You may wonder why, with games like Infamous and Punch-Out, I would be playing a DS game, an older DS game, in a series like Castlevania. With such high-profile, incredibly exciting titles on the more advanced systems, why would I play an old-style 2D platformer? Because gamefly didn't have anything more interesting to send. :P

In all seriousness, I've never played a Castlevania game before. Never. This was my first foray into the realm of Dracula-slaying. So, this review is not from someone who knows Belmonts from whoever else, this is the review from someone who never picked up a Castlevania game before, didn't know anything about the series. I added it to my gamefly as an afterthought, surprised to find it in my mailbox.

But, holy crap, what the hell have I been missing out on?


I know it's not the official NA box, but I like this one more. :D

Castlevania begins with Dracula's castle rising out of the ground for some reason, and two people, Charlotte and Jonathon are apparently the only two that can do something about it. Who are they? Why are they in the Castle? What makes them so special? Well, the game kind of explains this, but the story isn't really that interesting. Jonathon is a member of a family that isn't Belmont, but knows the Belmonts, and he has the Vampire Killer for some reason but can't use it...or something. I don't really know, the cutscenes were very brief and uninformative. But, what was there was fairly smartly written and at times humorous, which I found surprising.

Needless to say, it's the gameplay that really drives the game. At first, I was kind of disappointed with the gameplay. You don't really have any fighting combos, you just kinda hit a button for one strike. And you jump. Charlotte has magic, Jon has weapons, and you can switch. That's about it, at first. But then, I got more stuff, could perform more actions, and gameplay took off.

This was helped immensely by the awesome music. I had no idea Castlevania's tunes were so dang catchy. I found myself humming the songs long after turning off the DS, something that -very- rarely happens. I started searching for the soundtracks, and everything. It's great.



Graphics in the game are 2D, but very nicely done and well animated. The smoothness of the sprite's animation varies depending on the character, but for the most part, they are very fluid. Monsters are all beautifully rendered in a great art style. The character portraits are generic anime, but the actual monsters you fight are far more original.

Speaking of monsters, Castlevania has really awesome boss battles. They followed a kind of formula, at least I found. You would fight, die twice, on the third attempt get the hang of it, and win on your fourth. Otherwise, the game isn't really overly difficult, but not exactly easy either. It was the perfect difficulty, just challenging enough to keep things interesting.

I do have some complaints. There has to be a better way to switch specials then pausing the game each time, and going through the menus. It's tedious, and more than a few times in epic boss battles I would think I had one special equipped only to have a different one. Also, the two-character idea isn't very useful. I played most of the game as Jon, and switched to Charlotte in very specific circumstances.

But that's all nitpicky stuff. Overall, Casltevania is one of the most fun games I've played in a while. I'm definitely a fan, and now I'm going to search out the others. :D

So, I know that there will probably be a -ton- of posts like this one on the site from now until the end of E3, and I will probably get swept aside with all the rest, but even still, I figure it's worth a shot, see if anyone wants to see what I thought.

I didn't watch the Microsoft Conference just because I don't own an Xbox and don't really care about what they are doing. However, I was really intrigued by the "Milo" project. The idea of a virtual kid that read your tone of voice and see your facial expressions is a certainly interesting idea. However, I can't see this getting added to games without the game just having you say key words...I don't know, but it seems like it can't be much more than a tech demo.

I did watch the Nintendo one, and it seems like it was an improvement over last year's. At least they had some games that we actually cared about this time, not just Wii Music. the Motion plus seems interesting, but I hope it's not too expensive to buy, that would be such a pain in my wallet. I don't know how I feel about the new Metroid...Samus is talking? But, Mario Galaxy 2 (Despite looking almost identical to the original) Seems excting and worth playing, and the New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks like Mario + Four Swords, so hopefully that will be fun too.

One thing that Nintendo seemed to tone back on was the casual games. However, their presence was still clear as day. There's nothing wrong with casual stuff, the problem comes with having them at E3. The people who will be playing these games ARE NOT watching E3, so stop showing them. :)

Lastly, I watched only part of the Sony Conference, because life did its best to get in the way, but I saw a few games. Uncharted 2 looks lots of fun, like an action movie. God of War 3 looks like a glorified Beat-em-up, but I haven't played the others (Yet, they are on my list) so I can't say for sure. Sony has it's own WiiMote now, and it looks somewhat impressive, the 1-to-1 tracking was very accurate judging from the videos. However, it's a blatant WiiMote, so I don't know if it'll ever take off.

I still miss Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter...Hopefully they come back soon. :D

And, that's my rant.

My first experience with the Prince of Persia series was, like many people, The Sands of Time. I got it for my gamecube somewhat later in the lifecycle, I think Warrior Within was on it's way, but I still played it. And fell in love with it. The Prince was a fun character, Farah was really lovable, the platforming was excellent and the fights cinematic. It was short, but it was hugely enjoyable.

Then, Warrior Within was released and killed everything I liked about Sands of Time. I won't go into the details, but to this day I have never touched that game.

Then, Two Thrones. I heard it fixed the issues of the previous game, but for one reason or another I didn't get around to playing it until it was released on the Wii under the title Rival Swords. I played it, it was good, but it wasn't Sands. It still had something missing, something that was lost.

Now, there's a new PoP game. This one looked different from Sands but not in a necessarily bad way. So, I played it. And while it's nowhere near Sands, there's a lot to like in this reboot.


Prince has a whole new look!

From the outset, it's clear this game is quite different from any previous version. The game has a more distinct art style, not quite anime, but far from realistic. We meet Prince in a Sandstorm looking for his donkey Farah (A clever nod that made me happy) and he literally runs into love interest Elika. About five minutes later the world hangs in the balance of Prince and Elika's actions.

Immediately the game is obviously trying to get a lot of the charm of Sands back into the series. Prince and Elika have good chemistry together when they argue and bicker, and the voice acting is very good. The story itself is as complicated as you want it to be, with lots of optional conversations filling out the backstory. The graphics are very very nice, and the animations are smooth.

However, story and graphics are the best part about this game. Gameplay is incredibly repetitive in this version. You can choose the order you explore the many areas, but this presents a problem. Since you can choose, the areas never get any harder than any other. Granted, they're all run to a certain point, but there's no difficulty change. Because if there was, the difficulty curve would be thrown all over the place if you chose the hard area first. It's a tradeoff, but I'd much prefer something more linear.


Graphics are nice. :D

However, the main repetiveness of the game isn't the running sequences. Those are actually quite fun throughout. The game has 4 main bosses. And you fight them, 5 times each! Every time you go to finish a world, you have to fought the boss of the area. And there are four sections of a world, with a final face-off at the end! The bosses don't really change up each time you fight them either. Same strategy each time. This gets REAL old, REAL fast.

However, the game is still fairly enjoyable. Prince and Elika are a good pair, and I didn't mind the fact you couldn't die. (Elika prevents it, you will NEVER die). What really ticked me off was the fact that ubisoft didn't finish the game. You have to pay an extra ten bucks for the 'real' ending! Really? You're not going to let me finish a game, gotta pay extra for it? No thanks!

With that said, there is certainly plenty to dislike about this new Prince of Persia. However, there is also plenty to like, if you let yourself get immersed in it, which it does do numerous times. I eagerly await a sequel.