Game Time - January 2013

2013 has started with a bang. January has been a big month for new releases and it seems as if they're going to keep on trucking. If this month is any indication of how this year is going to go, then we have a whole lot of awesome games coming. Yesterday I made a post about all the time I've spent with Ni No Kuni. It's a great JRPG and you should check it out.

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum I played both Anarchy Reigns and DmC. Sadly Anarchy Reigns didn't wow me as much as I'd hoped. Yet somehow DmC impressed me on a level that I didn't think it would be able to. I really like action games

Anarchy Reigns

After playing the Japanese Anarchy Reigns (Max Anarchy) demo I was very excited to get the full release. At first it puzzled me as to why Sega would hold off the game's U.S. release even though the localization was complete. It was even more surprising when it was announced for the reduced price of $30. Now that I've played it I know why it's $30 and I'm glad I didn't end up importing it.

I wrote up my impressions after playing the demo, so I'll try to elaborate on what I previously said to the best of my ability. My main issue with the demo was that the lag in multiplayer was unbearable. Just as I had guessed the issues I were having were due to the Japanese servers. Playing the game online works well with some occasional hiccups, but my issues with the multiplayer run a bit deeper.

Anarchy Reigns is a brawler at it's core. You have a heavy attack and a light attack. If you want to you can call out a weapon and do a light or a heavy attack with that. Mashing the button will create a combo, but if you delay inputs it will change up the combos. Overall the combos never vary a whole lot, but there is more technique involved than your standard brawler. I thought that the characters would differ, but in the end their combos are disappointingly similar. The combo system seems to be much deeper than I experienced, because there are some insane combo videos online. There's just nothing about the game that makes me want to try and learn the intricacies of the combat system.

Death is a constant in Anarchy Reigns.

The online experiences I had were more frustrating than fun. When I was in a battle royale match I kept getting triple teamed and getting my combos interrupted by enemies who I couldn't see because of the camera. It was super chaotic, but I did have a bit of fun. I played a bunch more matches and ended up getting the hang of it so that I didn't get beaten into the ground every match. One on one matches were what ended up making me not care about learning the combat system. I figured that those types of matches would be better for showing off the skill involved in the system. I played a few matches and won. My third or fourth match I was handily beating someone until they decided to spam the 360 degree attack. It's meant to get you out of tough situations, but if you continually spam it there was seemingly no way to get around it.

Yes, I realize that I'm probably an idiot and there actually was a way to get around it. That doesn't make it any better that the attacks are so freakishly strong and hit from so far away. It made me not want to play any more and I didn't very much after that. I've heard really good things about deathball, which is a violent form of football. I haven't gone back to play it, but I might have to at some point.

I had a feeling that Anarchy Reigns was going to be a multiplayer focused game, but I wanted to believe it would have more to offer. It really doesn't. I probably should have prefaced this entire section with the fact that I don't really like multiplayer games. I'm  more of a solitary gamer, which is probably why I was so disappointed with Anarchy Reigns overall. The single player is basically a way to have the player unlock characters while learning the combat mechanics for multiplayer. The basic enemies blow up after just a few hits though, so they're never really a challenge.

Deathball seems interesting. I may go back and check it out.

You basically beat the living hell out of enemies until the next story mission unlocks. At which point you're awarded with an insane cutscene. I really like the personalities of the characters and the ridiculous things they say. To be honest I was expecting everything to be completely nonsensical, but at some point an interesting plot showed up. There was actually some potential, but the ending of the game completely squanders that and goes with something that doesn't resolve anything. It could have been so much more, but I don't really like multiplayer in games like this. If you're craving some interesting online fun it's a decent buy for $30.

DmC Devil May Cry

The Devil May Cry fan base is very loud. As soon as Capcom announced the franchise reboot long time fans began lashing out. At one point I was among the angry fans. I couldn't believe the new Dante's hair. No, I wasn't like everyone else who wanted his hair to be white. I was much more concerned with the fact that it looked like he had taken a razor to his head without looking. It was a minor gripe, but a gripe none the less.

Devil May Cry fans have a very specific idea of what Devil May Cry should be. With every trailer it was clear that the new developer Ninja Theory was changing the world and characters that they had come to love. It makes sense for long time fans to be upset about that. It was a possibility that the combat system they had come to love would change completely. What blows my mind though is the fact that so many people actively wanted the game to fail. There were people who were willing to write the game off before every having played it, while actively hoping that it would do poorly. Why fans would want a game in a franchise they love to fail is beyond me. Devil May Cry 4 wasn't received very well. If this reboot didn't sell well it's not like they were going to go back and make a Devil May Cry 5.

At first I didn't like new Dante, but now I'm a big fan.

When I identified myself as a Devil May Cry fan before I don't know if that was entirely accurate. I've played the previous games in the series, but I never felt a huge connection with them. They were fun action games that had much more depth than I cared to delve into. I liked the stories and characters, but I'm not the Devil May Cry super fan who can't handle change. Close to the release of this reboot it became clear to me that I'm not a "true" Devil may Cry fan. If you are a true Devil May Cry fan, then what I'm going to say definitely won't apply to you so you should take it with a grain of salt.

I came into DmC hoping that it would be a good game and I wasn't let down. In fact now that I've had a bit of distance from the game I'd be willing to say that it's great. I'll start with the story, because that's not exactly the most important part. Humans live in the human world, and demons reside in a parallel dimension called limbo. Dante is half angel and half demon, which makes him a Nephilim. This allows him to enter limbo and combat demons. At the start of the game the demon lord Mundus is taking control of the world through the use of political media and a soft drink called virility. Dante ends up getting sucked into a battle against Mundus with his brother twin brother Vergil, and his human partner Kat. They combat the demons together in an attempt to free the world from Mundus' evil clutches.

Dante, Vergil, and Kat work together to take down Mundus.

The character development in the game is fantastic. The character interactions are enhanced a great deal by the motion capturing that Ninja Theory does in all of their games. Sometimes real actors can make expressions that 3D animations just aren't capable of yet. It makes everything seem so much more lifelike than it does in other games. I think that may be the reason I like the new Dante so much as a character. In all of the pre-release media he kind of seemed like an unlikable asshole. The reason he came off like that is because almost every scene where he acts like a tool is taken completely out of context. He's still super cocky just like Dante used to be, but he's a whole lot more in your face about the whole thing. I know I might catch a lot of flack for this, but I think he might be better than the old Dante. He feels much more like a complete character to me. You can see him changing as the game progresses and things actually seem to affect him on meaningful levels.

As a whole the plot is trying to be a bit too topical, but it's a lot more ambitious than any Devil May Cry story before it. When the game ends it seems like if Ninja Theory gets a chance at a sequel they're going to be moving closer to the plot of the original games. So long time fans should breathe a small sigh of relief.

DmC is still all about the combos, so don't freak out!

The gameplay is what truly matters in a character action game though and DmC does not disappoint. Long time fans of the series may be unhappy to hear that it's a whole lot more accessible than the previous games in the franchise. I can't tell if it's because the gameplay is just more accessible, or because it's easier overall. The later difficulties are still overly punishing, but I feel like I have more of a chance to survive. Dante starts off with his sword Rebellion and his pistols Ebony and Ivory. Square is used for weak attacks and triangle is used for strong attacks. Circle allows Dante to dodge, and X allows him to jump. It's all pretty standard Devil May Cry fare. Where this game changes it up is by introducing two demon and two angel weapons.

Demon weapons do massive damage while angel weapons don't pack quite as much of a punch, but they attack super fast. DmC makes it very easy to switch between weapons on the fly, which makes almost any combo look impressive. Holding the right trigger makes Dante use demon weapons and angel weapons are on the left trigger. The combo system is still about making things as flashy as possible so you'll want to switch up the weapons you're using very often. Using the same attacks repeatedly will make the combo meter build up much slower. This ended up making me rapidly switch between weapons whenever I could so that I could achieve a SSS rank. If you want to get into some insane comboing that's still an option. There are already quite a few DmC combo videos on YouTube that blew my mind. You can still hit an enemy up in the air and keep them up there for a ridiculous amount of time.

This game allows for newcomers to get into the series while still having the ability to appeal to old fans. It may be a bit easier and more accessible, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have an insane amount of depth. It reminds me a lot of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Marvel 2 fans didn't want to accept it, but now it's the most popular game at most tournaments because it's filled with all kinds of insane infinites. I hope that Devil May Cry fans can find it in their hearts to play this game, because it totally deserves a sequel. Nina Theory did an excellent job re-imagining the Devil May Cry universe.

I've had enough action for now

It's a good thing Ni No Kuni came out, because after playing Anarchy Reigns and DmC back to back I have had my fill of action games for a while. Hopefully I'm ready for some more by the time Metal Gear Rising Revengence comes out in the middle of February.

Anarchy Reigns wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but both DmC and Ni No Kuni were incredible. This year has been awesome for video games so far and it seems like the hits will keep on coming. Fire Emblem Awakening comes out in a few days and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Sly Cooper is coming out the day after, but I don't know what to think about that. I want to like it, but we'll have to wait and see.

Well, I'm off to play some more Ni No Kuni. This has been another exciting installment of Game Time. See you next time!

     -Manny

Max Anarchy (Anarchy Reigns) Demo Impressions

Over the past few years PlatinumGames and Sega have partnered to bring us crazy games like Mad World, Bayonetta, and Vanquish. Platinum has proven that they know how to put on the crazy while still creating engaging gameplay to go along with it.

Platinum's new game Anarchy Reigns (Max Anarchy in Japan) continues their track record of sheer craziness. Much like Bayonetta and Mad world Anarchy Reigns is a brawler/action game. Interestingly enough it takes place in the same universe as Mad World and even focuses on some characters from that game, like the main character Jack. 

Anarchy Reigns was set to drop in the U.S. July 3rd and Europe a few days later, but now it's TBA in both territories. Just like all of Platinum's previous games Sega is publishing this one as well. It's no secret that Sega is in dire straights financially, so it's entirely possible that the game will only be released in Japan now. Platinum has stated multiple times that the game has been localized in it's entirety, so that information is keeping my hope alive.

Lucky for Japan their release date has not changed and the game will be released there on July 5th as planned. It's lame that it may not come out here, but the Japanese version is ripe for importing if you're into that kind of thing. For some odd reason the game will have the option for both English voices and text. Much to my surprise the demo that was put up on the Japanese PSN today had those English options as well. I immediately downloaded it, because I had to find out what it was all about.  

You can change it all to English!

Combat

First and foremost Anarahcy Reigns is a brawler, so the first thing I did in the demo was rush over to the training mode. I've watched my fair share of gameplay videos and I was eager to find it the gameplay felt as good as it looked and in my opinion it does.

Like most other brawlers Anarchy Reigns uses two main attack buttons. If you push square your character will bust out with a weak attack and if you push triangle they'll go with a heavy  attack. Creating combos is easy and they can get up to what seems like four consecutive hits. One, two, or three weak hits and then a heavy hit will make up a majority of what you're doing. You can vary the timing of the button presses and add directional inputs to change the attacks even further. This is basically how all brawlers work, but it's similar to Devil May Cry and Bayonetta in the way that your skill matters. If you get good enough you can do some really cool stuff. Learning to juggle opponents and how to get them into aerial combos seem to be a key parts of developing skill.

This video shows off a bit of training mode.

When you're fighting normal enemies you pretty much tear them apart. After two or three hits they'll explode and you can turn your sights to the next target. However, when it comes to fighting other characters and bosses it gets a whole lot more complex and fun. They won't just sit there and take your beatings. They'll hit you back and they'll hit hard. Blocking works well and it doesn't seem easy to abuse. Holding down R2 will set your character in place and they'll block incoming damage from the front. If you take too many hits the guard will break and you'll be susceptible to a lot of damage. If you notice your opponent start to block you can grab them out of it as well. 

The battles in Anarchy Reigns can get pretty hectic and blocking doesn't always work. In fact if an enemy hits you from behind you can be in pretty serious danger. Platinum took this into consideration and added a few things to help deal with those hectic situations. The first is the ability to do an area attack in exchange for some of your characters health. The attack will blow away all enemies around you so that you can escape and potentially avoid a great deal of damage.

If you're doing well enough in the battle an aura will appear around your character. If you then click in both sticks you'll enter rage mode. When in rage mode you'll attack much faster and be allowed to use your killer weapon without penalty. To use your killer weapon you'll need to hold the L2 button in conjunction with the light and heavy attacks. Attacking with the killer weapon is way more powerful. You can also use the killer weapon without rage mode, but it will take away your health.

Each character has a weapon. Jack uses a chainsaw, while Leo uses crazy leg swords.

The combat is well done and it seems like Platinum is trying to promote skilled play. Mashing buttons will do some damage, but if you time your hits and know what you're doing you'll kick some serious ass.

Single Player

I'm going to be honest when I say that I don't know what the hell was going on in the story of Anarchy Reigns, but I didn't care at all! It was straight up insanity. 

The game is going to feature two different campaigns, white and black. In the black campaign which I tried out first you play as Jack the main character from Mad World. It began with a ridiculous FMV video which looked beautiful. Blacker Baron, the pimp from mad world, and his consort Mathilda have tracked down Jack in order to take him down. 

This might sound a little bad, but I feel like this game is how Japanese people imagine American culture. Blacker Baron has an oddly high pitched voice and he says mother fucker, or fucker almost constantly. To top it off he has a grill that says fuck you on it. It's all ridiculous, but I love it. To make things even more odd almost all of the in game music is rap. With how weird everything is it all fits together well. The world they've created feels unique and definitely shows off a very Platinum style.

Jack is the main character if the black side, and Leo is the main character of the white side.

After a bit of talking a fight between Jack and the Baron takes place. It's what you'd expect, a battle. Near the end an event occurs that has bombs dropping down onto the stage. When you win you'll be given a score, which will translate into what level of medal you get. Platinum medals are the highest honor and it seems that the more points you get the more stuff you'll unlock in the game. 

On the white side you play as the cyborg Leo and his story is a lot less ridiculous. He walks out of a bar with his friends and is ambushed by a bunch of thugs. You then transition to gameplay, which allows you to roam around the immediate area. There are enemies to fight in order to get points, but the true goals are the pillars of light. Each pillar is a mission. Green pillars are free missions that you can do over and over to get points, while red pillars are main story missions. In Leo's he fights a weird lizard man. 

The look into the campaign isn't very deep, but what they showed has me very interested. Like all of Platinum's work the story seems to be bat shit crazy and I can't wait to see what else it has in store.

Multiplayer

I thought it was weird that Anarchy Reigns was going to have a large focus on Multiplayer when I first heard about it. Now that I've played it I still feel that way.

Games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry need precise timing to pull off the more advanced maneuvers and Anarchy Reigns is absolutely no different. When you introduce lag into the equation it loses some of it's functionality. Then when you add in four opposing players it loses even more than functionality.

I realize that I'm an American playing on a Japanese demo's server for an unreleased game, so I'm willing to cut the multiplayer a little slack, but I wasn't too keen on what I played.

The demo has two available modes for play. Death match, which has four players in a free-for-all and team death match, which has two teams of four players. I only played a few games of team death match, because that's what quick match throws you into. I played five matches and in four out of those five matches my team was mercilessly slaughtered. 

This was basically happening to me the entire time I played multiplayer.

Whenever I would spawn I'd find the nearest player and try to attack them. It almost never worked out in my favor. I'd try to block, but the delay made it so I didn't start blocking before they got me into an insane combo. There were times when I'd get into a fight with someone and it would go fairly well, but then I'd instantly die when someone attacked me from behind. Since the camera is positioned behind the back it's almost impossible to tell when someone is coming up from the back. 

To add to my woes I would get double teamed a lot. If two people attack you at the same time you're screwed. As far as I can tell there is no way to get around it. One person will combo you, then the other and it'll continue in an endless cycle until you're dead or they choose to leave you alone. This wouldn't be a problem if each team member fought someone, but I had a lot of people disconnecting. People were also using items to instantly kill me, which was getting extremely frustrating.

Before I played the game I expected the multiplayer to be pure chaos and it is, but not really in a good way. I kept getting super frustrated, because it felt like there was absolutely nothing I could do. The same solid base mechanics were still there, they just weren't working at the speeds I needed them to. 

The last match I played I ended up doing fairly well, but that was because half of the other team dropped out for some unknown reason and were replaced with computers who didn't move at all. When I was fighting people in that match everything seemed to be going well. At first I thought that the problem was just me, but it seems to be that whatever team gets a kill first either shuts out or decimates the other.

A lot goes in in a match of Anarchy Reigns.

In each multiplayer match you'll accumulate points, which seem to go towards some type of unlock system that isn't really present in the demo. At the start of a match you can pick an ability for your character that modifies something about their moves. There are only a handful to choose from in the demo, but there are a ton of locked boxes that I assume you get by gaining a whole bunch of points in the retail version.

I know I sound fairly dismissive of this, mainly because I am. The concept of a multiplayer brawler just doesn't play in my mind. The fact that I'm an American playing on a Japanese server doesn't help at all. If the game ever does come out in America I'll give the multiplayer a fair shot, but right now it's not looking too hot from my perspective. I'll try it out some more later this week to see if my opinion changes any. If it worked properly it could be super fun, because the core gameplay is fun.

Conclusion

I've been looking forward to Anarchy Reigns for a long time. I wasn't expecting it to be anything spectacular, but I came away from the demo liking it a whole lot. The combat is simple, but seems to have a lot of depth to it. It's not exactly like Bayonetta and DMC, but it's similar. In fact it reminds me a lot of God Hand. Even the overall style of the reminds me of God Hand. 

It sucks that it's not coming out here in July anymore, but it sucks even more that it might not come out here at all anymore. Sega isn't even going to be showing the game at E3 and it's completely finished. This may be the first game I ever import, because I just have to see what the final product is like.

The demo is definitely something you should try out if you've been interested in this game at all. It's really easy to set up a Japanese PSN account for free and you'll have no problem finding the demo. On the 360 the demo is restricted to Gold users right now, but tomorrow a free weekend is starting so you'll be able to pick it up then. 

I recommend giving it a try. It's fun at the very least. 

     -Manny