Memorable Melodies: Character Select from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game

Song: Character Select

Game: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game

Artist: Anamanaguchi

Most people have probably heard of Scott Pilgrim before. It is an amazing graphic novel series by Brian Lee O'malley, which got its start 12 years ago. Approximately six years ago there was even a halfway competent movie adaptation. The story follows 23 year old Scott Pilgrim as he pursues his love interest Romona Flowers. In order to "be with her" Scott must defeat her seven evil exes. It's heavily inspired by anime and video games, so it only makes sense that the series came full circle and was made into a video game as well.

The game itself falls into the classic brawler style. You pick from a few characters and beat the living crap out of enemies until you get to a boss. Then you beat the crap out of the boss. It's a little deeper than old school brawlers like Streets of Rage in that you can level up and increase your ability to beat down on thugs. 

The creator of the series was able to do all of the art, so everything is very close to the way it appears in the comics, but a little bit more pixelated. To go along with the pixel-art style a chiptune soundtrack was composed by the band Anamanguchi. If you've listened to my podcast I actually use an Anamanaguchi track as its theme song. This game was actually the way I was first introduced to the band, and I quickly fell in love.

I fell so much in love that this very song has been my ringtone and alarm since the game was released back in 2010. What's a bummer is that the character select music isn't actually on the game's official OST, but obviously that doesn't stop it from being ripped onto the Internet in extremely high quality. 

I'd tell you to run out and buy the game digitally, but it is no longer available for sale. In December of 2014 the licence expired, and Ubisoft decided it was too expensive to renew. It's a bummer, but licensing deals are expensive and they don't last forever. Hopefully someday this wonderful game will be put back on the market for new people to discover and enjoy.

Memorable Melodies: Nate's Theme from Uncharted

Song: Nate's Theme

Game: Uncharted

Composer: Greg Edmonson

Uncharted 4: A Theif's End came out yesterday. As of writing this a day later I am almost at the end of the game. I can see the plot lines wrapping up and bringing the exciting franchise to a close. Naughty Dog claims that this is Nathan Drake's final outing. Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. Personally, I hope that Uncharted 4 brings an end to the series. It's been an amazing ride, but I think that the franchise has run its course. 

Since I'm nearing the end of the final chapter I've been thinking back on the series as a whole. I played the original Uncharted long after it came out on a tiny CRT in my college dorm room. In just a few short sittings I played the game to completion. The characters and the wild adventure they were on pulled me in immediately. I couldn't stop playing. Somehow this same feeling has managed to grab hold of me during each Uncharted game. It's why I've almost completed the new one and it's only been out for a day!

This franchise is the closest that video games have ever come to blockbuster movies. Nathan Drake sets out on grand adventures where he climbs and shoots his way to lost civilizations and buried treasure. The visuals and action set pieces are unparalleled. Everything is so grand that I can't help but be enthralled by it.

That's why I've chosen Nate's theme for this week's Memorable Melody. It reminds me of all the adventures that I've been on with Nathan Drake throughout the franchise. Whenever I hear it I can't help but feel a sense of grandeur. It makes me want to go on an adventure.

Game Time - July 2014

July was an insanely good month for gaming. It somehow turned into ridiculous anime game month even though I didn't mean for it to.

I started off by playing Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn for an unhealthy amount of time. It came out on the 1st, so I was able to start the month off with a real banger. I blew up over 100,000 robots and it was glorious! The games in the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series will forever hold a special place in my heart. There's something magical about decimating thousands of robots with little to no resistance.

After I started winding down from my Dynasty Warriors Gundam high I played a bit of One Piece Unlimited World Red. I intended to play it more than the two times I did, but became distracted by what is now one of my favorite franchises of all time.

I don't remember when in the month it was, but I decided to check the E-shop on the 3DS. That was when I noticed that Inazuma Eleven was on sale because of the world cup. It was only $10 and I had been wanting to try it for a long time. I don't really like soccer, but I am way into anime and games with RPG elements. I promptly downloaded it and ended up playing it for hours. I now have a new obsession that consumes most of my waking thought...

Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn

I don't know that there's a whole lot I can Say about this game. It's another Dynasty Warriors Gundam game. It's the fourth one to be exact. You play as Gundam pilot controlling a Gundam. You walk around a map and push square about a billion times and all the enemy robots around you blow up. It's great! If you don't know anything about the series I wrote up something about the previous game, which you can check out here.

So while I don't really need to describe its appeal I should talk about what's different with it. Obviously there are new Gundams and pilots, but the game itself is actually a bit different as well. The main difference comes with the way you upgrade the Gundams themselves. In the third game you just got blueprints after a battle. In this you still get blueprints, but now they're for specific parts like arms, legs, torso, and head. You can combine them in order to make complete blueprints with all the parts. The combining is actually kind of confusing and I'm still not quite used to it. Each body part can only have two stat boosts, so you need to be careful when combining or you'll often end up making your Gundam worse than it previously was.

This image perfectly captures the spirit of Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn.

The way you unlock characters and Gundams is a bit different as well. The game uses a card based system. There is a list of cards in the game and they all have an objective on them. So for example some cards may say you need to beat a specific mission in order to unlock the card. Once you do that you'll gain the card and whatever benefits come from it. This means you'll often need to go to the card list to see what you need to be doing. Some of the stuff is insane, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to 100% this game like I did the last one. To get all the cards you have to be every Gundam and Mobile suit in the game at least five times and blow up at least 2,000 enemies with each, which is bananas. There are so many more Gundams in this game than the previous entry, which was already an insanely large roster.

I'm impressed that Tecmo Koei somehow makes each game in this franchise bigger and better than the last. I was a bit disappointed they didn't dub this game into English though. One of my favorite things to do was make fun of the English voice acting, but this time I just have to settle for reading the corny lines. I'm just glad that they're still putting these games out in the U.S. at all, because I can't imagine they sell extremely well. Hopefully in a year or two I'll be able to once again tell you about my Dynasty Warriors Gundam exploits with a brand new game.


One Piece Unlimited World Red

I played Unlimited World Red twice, but they were two four hour sessions. I got a pretty good feel for what the game is and I like it. Initially when I heard about it people were describing it as a One Piece themed version of Monster Hunter. This isn't entirely accurate, but it's not super far off. It does have a lot of Monster Hunter Elements embedded in it. You do fight large bosses, some of which are creatures, but it's not the focal point of the game.

Most of the time you're wandering around various environments seen in the show. You'll be taken to such locales as Albasta, and Marineford. If you're a fan of the show you'll recognize everything, if not then you wouldn't be playing this game anyways. It's in the original Japanese with subtitles, so Namco Bandai clearly knows the audience that they're targeting with this release.

If you can name these four characters you'll probably want to buy this game.

In each locale you'll be collecting materials much like in Monster Hunter. You do this by breaking boxes, and hitting trees. You can also catch bugs and fish. The locales are generally wide open and you'll fight a bunch of smaller enemies as you traverse through them. The combat is akin to Dynasty Warriors where you do basic attack combos by pushing square and triangle. You also have special moves, which can be used to do things to the environment as well. In fact, the entire game seems kind of like it's just Dynasty Warriors where the enemies take more hits and you collect a bunch of items for crafting like in Monster Hunter.

The reason you're collecting stuff is so that you can make expand the hub town. You'll need various things in order to construct buildings and upgrade them. Buildings will give you access to new things to do, such as shop, play mini-games, and take on quests. The quests are very similar to Monster Hunter in that you have a rank, which will increase the more you do. There's even a restaurant, which grants stat bonuses through the combining of various foods.

The game is all about making this town better.

The plot is unique to the game. A pirate named Red is messing with Luffy and the crew. He is able to pull from their memories and bring their thoughts into physical space. Due to this ability most of what I played so far involves the Straw Hat crew reliving some of the more memorable fights from the anime. It seems like an excuse to put all the old enemies in the game while still technically having a "new" story.

I bought this game for two reasons. The first being that I am a die-hard One Piece fan. The second was so that I could play multiplayer with a friend. It turns out that the only multiplayer in the PS3 version is local, so I won't be doing any of that. I probably should have gotten the Vita or 3DS version of the game if I had known. I do still enjoy the game though. It's interesting, because it doesn't seem like a generic cash grab, which most anime games tend to be. It's trying to do something unique and while it doesn't entirely succeed it's still super interesting. If you're a One Piece fan you should definitely pick it up!

Inazuma Eleven

There was a time a few years ago when I started looking into the Inazuma Eleven franchise. It sounded super appealing to me. A game about a middle school soccer team in Japan who essentially have superhuman abilities. It even had RPG elements to boot! I thought it looked pretty cool, but much to my dismay the game had only been Released in Japan, and Europe. Since the first 2 games were on DS I could have imported them, but the price was a little more than I wanted to pay for a complete unknown.

Fast forward to a few weekends ago when I happened upon the original game for ten dollars on the 3DS eshop. Earlier this year Level 5 finally decided it was time to give the franchise a run in America. In order to do so they put an enhanced version of Inazuma Eleven on the eshop for $20. When I happened upon it the World Cup was going on, so it was only $10. I knew that I had to buy it. What I didn't expect was for the game to consume my every waking thought.

Welcome to my new obsession!

The first night I played the game I only intended to try it out, but I ended up playing for six hours straight. Something about it hooked me immediately and it still hasn't let me go. What's crazy is that I don't really like soccer. However, when you take soccer and basically make it an anime I'm apparently all for it. Real soccer players can't call exploding penguins out of the ground, or make a soccer ball burst into flames because they kicked it so hard!

So what is Inazuma Eleven? I'm glad you asked! It's a soccer RPG developed by Level 5. There are now 6 games in the series, and an anime that follows the plot line of the games. All 6 are out in Japan, 4 of them are released in Europe, and there's just the original here in the United States. In the game you play as the Raimon Middle School soccer club. At first they're terrible and the club is in danger of being disbanded, but through a series of coincidences and hard work they turn everything around and end up thwarting and evil plan that threatens to ruin the soccer that they love so much!

I know this probably sounds like I'm messing around, but I'm not. I legitimately love this series. There are two kinds of soccer matches in the game. There are standard 11 on 11 matches, and then there are the 4 vs. 4 random battles. Yes, there are random soccer battles in this game! Yes, that is the best thing ever! You control your players with the DS stylus. Drawing lines from them will make them move and tapping the screen will make them pass the ball. Sounds pretty basic right? Well then you add in special moves. When your player comes into contact with an opposing player the game pauses and gives you some choices. If you have the ball you can either dodge, charge, or use a special move. Dodging will have a low success rate, while charging will have a higher success rate, but you're more likely to foul. Alternatively you could use a ridiculous special move that consumes TP, which is essentially this game's magic. The same thing happens if you're going against someone with the ball, but it changes to tackle and slide tackle. You can also do special shots!

HIS LEG CATCHES ON FIRE AND IT'S AWESOME!

As you play your team levels up and learns skills, and it's just the most magical time ever. To make it even better there's a Pokemon-like quality to the game. There are over 1,000 players you can recruit and they even have elements associated with them. Each played is either Fire, Wind, Wood, or Air and that determines what type of players they're strong against. The whole system was basically made for me, and the fact that it's all so over the top and filled with crazy characters makes it even better. Right now I probably sound like a mad man, and I feel like I'm just typing stream of consciousness like some kind of lunatic. I haven't enjoyed a game this much in a very long time. It's like someone made this series specifically for me.

Now as I said the first game is the only one that has been released here in the U.S. Lucky for me the second game was for DS, which was not region locked. I imported the 2nd game and have already played that for over 50 hours as well.

So Much More Inazuma Eleven

The third game in the series came out last year in Europe. While it was released for the DS in Japan it was sadly released for the 3DS in Europe. Much to my dismay the 3DS is region locked, so I had to import a European 3DS. Yes, that's right. I imported a 3DS from England so I could play the remaining 2 English Inazuma Eleven games I have yet to consume. In fact for the past few days I've been playing Inazuma Eleven 3 on my hot new European 3DS.

As we speak the first game in the Inazuma Eleven Go series (The 4th game overall) is en route to my house from jolly old England. Yes, I have played over 100 hours of this series over the course of 3 weeks. Yes, I have spend over $400 dollars purchasing these games and a 3DS. I regret absolutely none of it. I can't get enough of this series, and if my insane madman-like lunacy wasn't enough for you this week you can look forward to some other Inazuma Eleven related content in the coming weeks. I'm going to keep playing these games and it doesn't look like I'm going to be done any time soon.

In terms of other video games I'll be playing Tales of Xillia 2 when it launches halfway through August, and I'll also be getting the re-release of Disgaea 4 on the Vita, so that my Vita can finally get some love. I'll be back at the end of August to regale you with tales of those games and even more Inazuma Eleven!

     -Manny

Dark Souls 2: Darker, But With Less Soul

I've been putting off writing about Dark Souls 2 for far too long. Now that the first DLC has been released I feel like today is as good a day as any to finally get all these Dark Souls 2 thoughts off my chest. The reason that I'm not playing the DLC right now is that I'm kind of worried about it. 

I loved Dark Souls. It was an experience that is still fresh in my mind months after playing it. Since Dark Souls 2 came out so soon after I finished the original I was looking forward to it with anticipation. The fact that I'd be able to go through the new game with a sense of discovery was something I was super excited about. Discovering everything with the entire world at the same time was a really cool experience. The issue is that I can barely remember any of it. In order to understand that I had to leave myself to ruminate on the experience for a few months.

Leading up to the game's release info about the new and differing mechanics were being trickled out. Word on the street was that the game was a lot harder, which it was in the beginning. By the end I was walking through the game with little to no issue. 

Darker?

Many people play the Souls series for the challenge it provides. While I liked the challenge in Dark Souls, it was never really my main draw. Yes, I did feel good about myself when I overcame a challenge. I'm just not a huge fan of games being hard for the sake of being hard. Dark Souls was punishing, but it was often my fault if I died. I'm not in the majority with my thoughts though, so people obviously wanted the game to be more challenging.

Initially I found the game to be much harder. The main contributor to that is that when you die, you lose a percentage of your max health. So now you lose all of your souls, and have less health upon death. You can still reclaim your souls, but it's not quite as easy to reclaim your lost health. In order to do that you need to use a consumable effigy. Early on these items are very scarce, so I found myself often walking around with around half my max health. The early game difficulty is exacerbated by the lack of healing available to you. At first you only have consumable healing gems of varying sizes, which are also far and few between for a while.

The creepy old witches give your your first effigy.

Eventually though you get your very own Estus flask, which you can upgrade until you have 11. Unlike the previous entry you don't have to kindle each bonfire. Your upgrades are permanent, and like the previous game the flasks refill at each bonfire. Dark Souls 2 has far more bonfires and areas than its predecessor, so refilling is never a difficult task. It also helps that you can fast travel between all bonfires you've come across right from the start of the game. This had to be added, since you can no longer level up from any bonfire. You need to talk to the cloaked woman near the bonfire in the game's hub city Majula. 

Another change is that weapons degrade much faster. This would make the game more challenging if they didn't get fully restored at every bonfire. If your weapon does end up breaking you'll need to repair it at a blacksmith, but it never costs a whole lot. Your rings can break now as well, and those do actually cost a lot to repair, because most of the time their effects are amazing. They did however, make it so you can wear four rings now, which will net some pretty insane stat boosts. One ring in particular, the cling ring, makes it so you can't drop below 75% max health from death. Needless to say that's a pretty good one to have. 

There are so many more bonfires now.

Leveling in Dark Souls 2 comes much faster as well. By the end of the game I was a way higher level than I was at the end of the original. Granted, the stats are changed up a bit to compensate for the greater amount of souls available, but there was a point where I started to feel overpowered. In this game I took up the slower moving great sword, and sometimes I would also have a shield to block. A lot of people say that this makes the game easy, but I don't believe in sacrificing my enjoyment of a game in order to make it more difficult.

The thing that really made the game harder at first though was the difference in movement. I'm not a huge fan of the movement in Dark Souls 2. To me it feels way less sensitive. You really have to push the stick in order to get moving, where as in the original you could lightly touch the stick and creep along. It made the player character in the original feel much heavier, whereas the character movement in Dark Souls 2 feels kind of light and floaty. This much is just personal preference, but it definitely took me a while to get used to. If you don't know how your character is going to move, it's a huge issue when you need to make precise dodges and attacks.

This was basically me the entire game.

Dark Souls 2 is much different, but it's also largely the same. It's the same franchise that people have come to love, with some differentiating features in order to make it more difficult. It was harder for me at first, but by the end I was crushing everything I came across pretty decisively. There was certainly no Ornstein and Smough moment of sheer frustration in this game. At most I got stuck on a boss for three or four tries.

Much Less Soul

Before I get into this section I want to say that I enjoyed my time with Dark Souls 2. It was a well crafted sequel that was very much meant for fans of the series. They tried to do all the right things and a lot of them worked in favor of the gameplay. So now I'm going to get into exactly why I liked Dark Souls 2 way less than its predecessor. I'm willing to admit that the gameplay is improved overall, but the way the world design was nowhere near on par with the original.

I have come to terms with the fact that I didn't like Demon's Souls, because of its level based structure. I did however, fall in love with Dark Souls because of its open world nature. The entire world was connected in a logical way, and it was even connected in physical space to boot! I loved the fact that you could turn a corner in a new area and find yourself in an area that you had visited hours before. It was truly a well planned out world that felt like so much time had been out into it. I don't want to say that Dark Souls 2 was less thought out, but it certainly was not as well designed from a world building perspective.

This map is not possible if you go by the way everything is laid out in the game.

The town Majula acts as a central hub, much as the Firelink Shrine acted as a hub in the first game. From Firelink you could go to one of a few areas, which were all interconnected. From Majula you can also choose to go to a few areas, but none of them are connected at all. Instead of being a huge interconnected world Dark Souls 2 consists of several spokes that all come to a close in a dead-end. There's nothing less appealing to me than coming across a dead-end in what is essentially an open world game. My issue goes much deeper than that though. In the original you could see everything in the world. You'd be on a mountain top and be able to see other explorable areas. This is not the case in Dark Souls 2, and it bothers me because of how completely different each area is. Yes, it's cool to have a ton of different terrain types, but when you can't see the fiery volcano that's insanely large from anywhere else in the world it really breaks the experience for me. 

The physical world isn't the only issue I had either. Let's take the bosses for example. There are a ton of them, but if you asked me to recall any of them I'd only be able to think of a select few. In the original Dark Souls whenever you came across a boss it was a crazy encounter and each one felt unique. In Dark Souls 2 there may actually be too many bosses and far too many are humanoid. It's like someone saw how much people liked fighting Artorias in the first game and decided to do throw a ton of humanoids in. If they were all interesting it wouldn't be an issue, but many of them are very straightforward fights. There were a few cool ones though like the fight with a giant spider for example. 

Hmmm why can't you see this insane lava wasteland from anywhere?

I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the story of Dark Souls. Finding out about each individual character and boss was interesting. The world was very well built and had a ton of backstory. I feel like a tool saying that Dark Souls 2 isn't as well built, but it definitely seems to be lacking something that the original had. I had barely any idea what was going on with the plot of Dark Souls 2, and I was actively looking for it a majority of the time. Maybe it's something I needed to dig deeper for, but the fact that you just suddenly kind of appear in a new world isn't exactly the best plot setup.

 Perhaps it's the fact that Miyazaki didn't have a direct development role, or maybe my experience with the original game is something that can't be replicated. I just can't help but feel that some of the magic of the first game has dissipated in the second.

On to the DLC

With all of this being said I can't wait to try out the DLC. It will be coming in three episodes, all of which involve looking for crowns. Maybe this will have the interesting story I was looking for in the game, or maybe it will at least fill out a lot of the gaps. At the very least it will be interesting to see if I can get right back into the way the movement works, or if I'll have to get used to the way everything works again. I liked the game, but I just can't help but feel like it could have been so much more.  

Dark Souls 2 was a fun experience. I enjoyed it while I was playing it, but that experience has almost completely faded from my mind at this point, which is extremely disappointing to me. I could still tell you about the story of the original game. If you set me down in the world of the original I could still give you directions and tell you exactly what you need to do. I could tell you where bosses are, and what strategies worked for me. It's an experience that is solidified in my mind, which rarely happens anymore. I just wish Dark Souls 2 could have replicated that. 

Game Time - May 2014

Finally the month of May is behind us, and it was just as good as I had hoped it would be. It all started off with Transistor the new game from Bastion creators Supergiant Games. I enjoyed Transistor so thoroughly that I beat it in a single sitting. Drakengard 3 came out the same day, but I didn't like that at all...

Then there was Watch Dogs. The game that everyone on the internet that everyone was so excited about until a few weeks ago when everyone started to hate it more than anything else in the world. I'm glad to report that once again people on the internet have overreacted. Sure, it's not as good as it could have been, but it's still a competent open world game.

I also played a whole butt load of Mario Kart 8, but we'll save that for the hot new edition of Party Game Sundays that will be up in a day or two. So without further ado, let's get right into talking about the sweet games of May 2014

It's game time!

Transistor

Supergiant games released Bastion in 2011 right around the time I started this blog. In fact, it was one of the first games I reviewed on this blog. Since then I've moved away from writing reviews, but that's not really the point. I absolutely loved Bastion and gave it a perfect 5/5 rating. It was a great RPG, and the way they had the narrator react to what you're doing was incredibly unique.

Now it's three years later and Supergiant has released their new game Transistor on the PS4 and PC. I pre-ordered it for PS4 and started playing it as soon as it became available. As I stated in this month's introduction I completed the entire game in one sitting. Well, I technically did it in one sitting, because I got up to go to the bathroom multiple times. Either way, I really liked Transistor, but not as much as I liked Bastion.

I also ate food during my very long play session.

Much like Bastion, Transistor has a narrator. It takes the form of your sword, the Transistor. You play as a woman named Red, a singer, who has had her voice taken from her. In the opening scene you pull the Transistor out of a man's body and are immediately thrust into the game with little to no explanation. I'd set the game up more, but that would take away from the game quite a bit. All you really need to know is that there is an evil force known as the process, which is taking over the city.

The way Transistor presents its story is odd. Little to no information is given to you up front and it's not ever really thrown at you either. If you want to get a feel for the city of Cloudbank you need to go looking for its secrets. Since Red can't talk the Transistor has to tell you the story, but since he's a direct participant in what's happening he doesn't necessarily have all the answers. One of the ways you learn about the world is through combat and it's technically optional.

This is the menu where you mess around with your functions.

Battling in Transistor has you wielding the Transistor, because it's a sword. As you progress through the game you'll earn various functions, which are the games equivalents of skills. Each function is a different ability, but it also has to do with a person from the game. My favorite part of the game is how much customization there is. You can use each function as an ability, but you can also use it as a modifier for other abilities, or use it as a passive buff. This allows for a ridiculous amount of combinations, so in theory everyone could be using their functions completely differently. In order to get all the information about a given person you have to use the function in all three ways to see all the information about them. This is how the game encourages you to experiment. It allows you to figure out how you like to battle, and find out more of the worlds story in the process.

The combat never got old for me. You can walk around and hit enemies with button presses, or you can stop time in order to enter a string of commands and then watch them play out. Figuring out how to chain functions together was one of my favorite parts of the game and doing so was extremely satisfying.

Combat in Transistor is very compelling.

What's kind of unfair is that I can't help but compare this game directly to Bastion. They both have music composed by Darren Korb, which is incredible. They also both have Narrator figures, which makes it easy to draw direct comparisons. In that way I think that Transistor has a weaker story, because a lot of the information isn't readily available and you have to go looking for it. Even when you find it all the world still leaves a lot to the imagination. The plot in Bastion came together on its own, which was something incredible when it happened. With that being said Transistor is an incredible game, and it shows that Supergiant wasn't just a one hit wonder. They sure know how to create beautiful worlds that truly draw you in.

Drakengard 3

I'm always down to play niche titles, which is one of the reasons I bought Nier on the PlayStation 3. It had weird characters and gameplay, but had a special charm to it. It was super weird and rough around the edges, but I enjoyed the living hell out of it. I was trying to unlock all the endings, but in order to do so I needed to find rare crafting materials with a super low drop rate. Instead of searching the same bush over and over for a large egg, I decided to put the game to rest and remember it fondly.

I played Nier years ago, so when I found out that Drakengard 3 would be coming to the U.S. and that it was a prequel to the other games in the series I was ecstatic. See, one of the many endings in Nier leads to the creation of the Drakengard world. I also know that people really liked the first two Drakenhard games for the PS2, which I've seen likened to Game of Thrones. I guess they both have tons of violence and deal with what are considered taboo themes. Needless to say I was excited ti play it.

I like nothing about Zero as a character!

Upon playing the game all hope I had that I would enjoy it was quickly smashed into oblivion. I've played my fair share of bad games, but this one was almost immediately unbearable. It begins with a fairly cool pre-rendered scene that sets up the main character Zero and her dragon Mikhail. Right off the bat Zero is not portrayed as a likable character. She is an intoner, which is basically a god-like figure that is meant to keep balance in the world. For some reason she wants to kill all of her sisters and be the only intoner. This is all fine and good, but there's really no reason for it. It definitely doesn't help that she just seems like a bad person. She swears a lot and most of her dialogue is what I would refer to as insufferable. I think it's supposed to be funny, but it just seems like the writing is trying way too hard.

Granted I only played about two hours, so maybe Zero gets better as a character. What's the most upsetting is how inconsistent she is. One second she's sweetly telling her dragon not to roll around and the next she's screaming about how she wants the dragon to shut up with a whole lot of obscenities thrown in.

Scenes like this often destroy the frame rate.

Sometimes for games like this I can try and look past the story if they have decent gameplay. Unsurprisingly Drakengard 3 doesn't have that either! It's basically Dynasty Warriors with like three enemies on screen at once. You have strings of square and triangle that differ depending on your weapon. You can switch to a variety of weapons, but so far that hasn't proven to be very beneficial. I'm sure there are various enemy types each weapon is good against later in the game.I might even enjoy the combat if the entire game didn't run like total garbage. For starters the game looks pretty terrible graphically, so I don't have any idea why the frame rate slows to a crawl if there are more than two things on screen. It's mind blowing, because all the locales are essentially barren wastelands with crates in them.

I've been reading that the game gets a lot better around halfway through, but I just don't know if I'll be able to get there. Everything about the game so far has put me off to it. It just seems like a bad game, and not in an endearing way like Deadly Premonition. It just seems poorly optimized and generally bad.

Watch Dogs

When Watch Dogs was first shown I pretty much lost my mind. The concept of an open world game where you played as a hacker was something I was very much interested in. It helped that the graphics looked insanely good too. I, and many other people at that time thought that this was going to be one of the first true next generation games to come to the PS4 and Xbox One. Over time more footage of the game was shown, and it was clear that the graphics shown at the original E3 event were a thing of the past. They still looked fine, but were nothing spectacular. I feel like this is the point where a lot of people turned on Watch Dogs.

Somehow people got a wee bit too hyped up for this game, because the backlash it's seeing across the internet now is mind boggling. There are numerous reasons people are freaking out about it, but the graphical downgrade is a very prominent one. I guess people feel like they were lied to, which is a semi-legitimate complaint, but it's nothing to condemn the game over. It still looks perfectly fine for an open world game. I feel like that's where the legitimate complaints stop though. Now people are upset because it's an open world game that isn't much different from all the others. You still get behind cover to shoot people, find collectibles on the map, and drive around a whole bunch. What really gets me is that the game was never advertised as anything else. Hell, this type of gameplay was even shown in the original E3 demo everyone was losing it over in the first place.

I think the game still looks fine graphically.

Yes, Watch Dogs is an open world game that has you hacking the objects around you to make them do things. You hack everything with the push of a button, which is the main thing that makes Watch Dogs different from other open world games. I've said it once, and I'll probably say it many more times, but Watch Dogs is a fine game. It's nothing spectacular, but it's not the kind of thing that you immediately condemn either. It's a perfectly competent game. The hacking actually adds to the gameplay in a meaningful way. It allows for combat to be done stealthily, as opposed to going in guns blazing. Sure, I went in guns blazing 90% of the time, but at least I had the option not to.

You play as the vigilante Aiden Pierce. His goal is to get revenge on the people who killed his six year old niece. Throughout the game you'll work with various people in order to find out the truth behind the savage murder. It's not exactly the most compelling story, but it does have it's interesting points. The main issue I had with it, is that about 3/4's of the way through the game there are some plot events that seem to only happen so that the game is longer. The game is already long enough, due to the fact that collectibles and side missions are literally everywhere, just as they are in other Ubisoft open world games. Most of the stuff is totally pointless and not very fun. The rewards were definitely not worth completing everything in my opinion.

Watch Dogs is another open world game, except that it has hacking.

Watch Dogs was fine. It probably took me around 30 hours to complete, and that's with me mostly main lining the story. I ended up doing a fair amount of side stuff on the way, but I'm sure if I wanted to keep playing I could go for another 20-30 hours to collect the rest of it. Overall it's just an average open world game with a whole lot of third person shooting. The hacking element is very interesting though, even if it does just have you pressing a single button. I feel like Watch Dogs is a proof of concept that can be expanded into something much better the second time around. Hopefully it makes an amazing transformation like the Assassin's Creed franchise did between its first and second games. Despite all the backlash from the gaming community there will almost certainly be another one of these games. It around 4 million copies worldwide already, which is nothing to sneeze at.

E3 Hype Train!

This coming Monday, June 9th, E3 2014 is taking place. I'm very excited as I tend to be every year. This year is kind of weird though, because so many game announcements are happening prior to the show. Hopefully there are still a bunch of Surprises left to be unveiled, because with almost every single cool game being delayed to 2015 the gaming community could use a little bit of excitement.

As for games that come out in June I'm kind of drawing a blank. Tomorrow I'll be picking up Tomodatchi Life for the 3DS, which should be pretty fun. I'm also currently playing through Murdered: Soul Suspect on the PS4, which has been being completely blasted in reviews. So far I think it's actually pretty good.

It's probably good that I won't be getting much this month, because I'll be going on vacation from the 16th through the 27th, which should prove to be very exciting. I'm sure I'll cook something up for the blog though.

     -Manny

Party Game Sundays: Start the Party!

This past Sunday I was out of town, so we did not play anything new. I have however, neglected to talk about the game we played two weeks ago on Sunday, so I'll do that now!

As you may have surmised from the title of this post we played Start the Party. You may remember from the Sportsfriends edition of Party Game Sundays when I said I never wanted to play a PlayStation Move game other than Johann Sebastian Joust. That dream was shattered by Start the Party.

I kind of just want to type Start the Party over and over, because it's such a stupid name, but I guess I'll actually try to be informative and tell you what it's all about. I realize I sound super disdainful already, but the game was actually fine. It's a mini-game collection that uses Move controllers. 

Yeah, this is the box art...

You start the game by taking a picture of your face with the PlayStation camera, and then say your name. When it's your turn to play the game will pop up your face and replay your name. They change your voice a little bit, so everyone ends up sounding a lot like the announcer from the N64 classic Diddy Kong Racing. 

Once you set up the players you choose how many rounds you want to play and the game is off. You'll play through various rounds that all have slight variation on what you're trying to do. You might want to last the longest, get the most points, or try and steal points from other players. This is all done by actually playing the mini-games.

What's crazy to me about the PlayStation Move controllers is how well they work when paired with the PlayStation Camera. They make the motion control of the Wii look like complete garbage, which it pretty much is. Since the camera is tracking the movement of the Move controller you can see yourself on screen, This helps, because you need to move closer or farther away from the TV depending on certain scenarios. 

This girl does not look like she's having fun.

One of the games has you using a magnifying glass to find bugs. The closer you get to the screen the bigger the search area is, just like a real magnifying glass. The onscreen image of the move controller is replaced by a three-dimensional magnifying glass so you can see what you're doing. What's really cool is that if you turn your wrist the object in the game will rotate as well, so how you're holding the controller in relation to the camera matters.

In theory this game is really cool as a tech demo for the way PlayStation Move controllers work. The problem is that once again it's a mini-game collection. It has you doing all kinds of things from brushing an alligator's teeth to catching toppings on a pizza. It's all things that we've seen before, but with the added bonus of using a legitimately cool piece of technology. While I did have fun playing the game it just made me sad about the wasted potential of the Move Controllers. I understand that companies make games like this because they're easy to produce and sell, but it's just not fun if you play it more than a few times. 

The most upsetting thing about it to me was that I had the most fun re-recording my opponents name to "dickface" between rounds so that I could hear that whenever it was Noukeo's turn. The gameplay should be more compelling than me being able to yell obscenities about my friends.

Party Game Sundays: Sportsfriends

I've been waiting to play Sportsfriends for what seems like a lifetime now. I did not personally back the Kickstarter, so I wasn't able to play the beta builds on PC and all that fun stuff. I have however watched people play Johann Sebastian Joust and BaraBariball numerous times on the internet. Tuesday the 6th I finally got Sportsfriends when it was released officially on the PS3, PS4, and PC. I began playing it with Noukeo, but we quickly realized that we needed to be playing with the maximum amount of players in order to have the most fun. We grabbed my brother and called up Landers so that we could have Party Game Sunday on a Tuesday. We then played it again on actual Party Game Sunday.

So for those of you who don't know Sportsfriends is a collection of four local multiplayer games. If you don't have at least two people present you can't play any of them. The developers of each game made a conscious choice to not include any kind of AI opponents, because in reality these types of games are best when played while sitting next to other people. It is way more satisfying to trash talk someone to their face after all. The four games are Hokra, Super Pole Riders, BaraBariball, and Johann Sebastian Joust. 

Hokra

Hokra is a very minimalist game. You control a square, which is either green or purple to differentiate you from your opponents. There is a small black square, which I believe is supposed to be a ball. When you move over the "ball" you pick it up. When you're in control of the ball you want to have it inside the area that is the same color as you.

There are multiple stages to choose from, which are all weirdly named after real life cities. They have varying shapes and patterns of purple and green on them. If you're green you want to have the ball on the part of the stage that's green. As you stand there, or the ball passes through it, it begins to fill up with a darker shade of green. Once the entirety of the green space is filled up you win. 

This barely looks like a game, but it definitely is.

In order to spice up the very simplistic gameplay there are a few things you can do. Like in any sport you can pass the ball. This is helpful to get the ball away from your opponent, or get the ball to a teammate. I personally like to pass to the wall and juke around the opponent to catch the ball myself. When you don't have the ball you can dash in order to make it so one team doesn't completely dominate. 

Hokra is really cool, because I think that anyone could figure out how to play it almost immediately without being told how. It takes the most base concepts from what we perceive to be a sport and makes them even more simple. The entire game is made up of colored squares. You're a square, and you need to get the ball into your goal. The fact that it's so simple and easy to pick up is what makes it very competitive, which is awesome.

Super Pole Riders

Super Pole Riders is insane. I don't know how else to put it. It controls super weird, and everything about it is just ridiculous. For starters one of the characters you can choose to be is named Stone Cold Heather and it's a man. You can also be a man with a bear head. You can also play at such locales as Princeton, or a weird version of Mario Kart's Rainbow Road.

You are a pole vaulter, and above you is a ball on a rope. It goes across the entire stage and there is a goal on either end. What you want to do is either kick, or push the ball into the goal opposite where you start. It sounds straightforward, but it certainly isn't. I can't even really explain how you control the game. You use the right stick to move the character and the left stick to rotate the pole. Instead of the pole being solid it's more like a pool noodle, because it bends like crazy. So you can hold the pole up and push the ball towards the opposing goal, or figure out how to plant the pole and kick the ball.

The poles are way more bendy than you'd expect.

Kicking the ball sends it flying pretty far, which is what you want to do most of the time. Sometimes you can't do that though, because your opponent is holding you down with their pole. In order to get rid of your pesky opponent for a bit you can kick them. Whoever is higher while kicking will knock the other person out for a little bit. This allows for some uninterrupted hitting of the ball, which is prime time to just use your pole to push it right up into your opponent's goal. 

I know how to play Super Pole Riders, but when there are four people onscreen everything usually just devolves into total bedlam. When we were playing there was a lot of screaming and accidental kicking. The control is easy enough to get down, but when there are other people moving around you can't really predict what is going to happen. I never got angry playing Super Pole Riders and I didn't even feel bad when I lost. It's just so goofy that I found myself laughing at almost all times.

BaraBariball

For some reason I first heard about BaraBariball during a stream of a fighting game tournament. It's the kind of game that looks simple on the surface, but it has a high skill ceiling. In that way it's well suited for high level play, but I'm certainly not ever going to be playing it at a high level. I'm generally pretty terrible at it.

You pick one of three characters. There's a the heavy Popo, the all around Sari, and the speedy Joshi. BaraBariball is a sport that takes place both in and around water. Like Hokra, your character is either colored green or purple to show what team you're on (You can switch to blue and yellow as well). Each stage has an elevated central landmass, that has water on the bottom. Each half of the water is colored like the two teams, which are your goals. You want the ball to fall below the screen when it's in your goal. 

This is how you score.

It's actually incredibly hard to score in Barabariball if your opponent knows what they're doing. Rotating around your character at all times are a few colored orbs. Each orb you have denotes a single jump, so in a standard game you can jump five times. Once you run out of jumps you have to get back on the ground in order to regain them. This allows for people to fall in the water, retrieve the ball, and get out with jumps to spare. This is why you need to hit your opponents as much as possible. If you hit your opponents when they have no jumps left they will break, which makes it so they can't do anything for a few seconds. 

When you score it nets you two points. If anyone on your team dies by falling through the water you lose a point though, so you have to manage your jumps carefully. If you want to make it either easier or harder you can adjust the number of jumps you have. The high skill ceiling is where I fall off on this game though. I have fun enough messing around with my friends, but there is so much more to the game. You can charge attacks, cancel moves, unleash special attacks, and a whole bunch of other ridiculous things. The BariBariBlog, which can be found here lists a tons of advanced techniques that I didn't even know existed.

Johann Sebastian Joust

When it comes down to it Johann Sebastian Joust is barely a video game, but it is by far my favorite game in this collection. I tend to think that the PlayStation Move is no good and I wanted nothing to do with it. This game alone made me purchase two move controllers and I couldn't be more pleased with my decision.

If you were watching the screen during Joust you wouldn't really be seeing anything. The only things displayed on the screen are colored musicians and the occasional word. The real actions happens off the TV, which is what makes it so fun. Each player holds either a Dualshock or a Move controller. The Dualshocks work well enough, but you really want to be using a Move controller to get the best result. 

The goal of Johann Sebastian Joust is to get your opponents to move their controllers quickly. The ball at the top of the Move controller will be lit up as long as you're alive. If you start to move too fast then the light will blink and rumble a bit. If you keep going after that, then you'll be eliminated from that round. You'll want to keep your controller as still as possible while doing whatever it takes to make everyone else move quickly.

This is all you'll see on-screen. The real action happens outside the TV!

Joust could end up being a game where everyone stands still and keeps their hands to themselves, but in my experience that's not really the case. Classical music is playing the whole time and the tempo dictates how quickly you can move. When it's slow the sensitivity of the Move controllers will be much more sensitive, but when the music speeds up it facilitates charging your opponents.

I'm not going to lie, Joust can get quite violent. When we played there was a whole lot of hitting and some of us even got hurt, but it's one of the most fun video game experiences I've ever had. Rounds go quickly, and it takes seconds to start another. Just playing vanilla Joust is fun, but you can add all kinds of rules to shake things up. You can add in random freezes to the music, so that no one can move for a bit, there is also the option to give players a few seconds of invulnerability while holding down a button on the controller. 

It's a really cool game that uses the PlayStation Move controllers in a way that's super innovative. 

Amazing!

Sportsfriends is an amazing package for just $15. If you buy it on the PS3 you also get it for the PS4. These four games are all very fun and super replayable. I can see myself coming back to this package quite frequently. Joust seems like something that would be particularly awesome at parties, however with alcohol involved it might get a bit more dangerous. That might make it even better though, who knows.

I'm glad that local only games are making a comeback, because it means that we can continue to have Party Game Sundays for a long time to come!

Game Time - March 2014

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't spend a majority of this month playing Dark Souls 2. In fact I'm taking a break from it right now in order to write this. I've decided to not write anything about Dark Souls 2 yet, because I haven't beaten it. I have a feeling I'm very close to the ending, so when I get there you can bet I'll have a whole lot to say about it.

There were a few things this month that tore me away from Dark Souls 2 though, which is what I'll be telling you all about in this installment of Game Time. InFamous: Second Son came out, which I believe to be the first true next generation game for the PS4. It looks incredible for a console game.

I finally got around to playing Fez too, now that it has been released on PlayStation consoles. I bought the PC version for like $2 a while back during a Steam sale, but only played it for an hour or so. This time I downloaded it on the PS4 and actually completed it. I now understand why people praised it so highly when it originally came out.

I also played the newest addition to the BlazBlue franchise, but I'm not very enthused with it. It's another BlazBlue game and I find it harder and harder to get excited about the franchise. It's even harder now that ARC System Works has shown Guilty Gear Xrd Sign. It just made me realize how much more I like Guilty Gear than BlazBlue. That's not to say that BlazBlue is bad, I'm just not as into it as I once was.

Welcome to Game Time.

InFamous: Second Son

When a new console comes out, I find myself wanting to show it off. When the PS4 came out this past November there really weren't any games I could do that with. If I was going to do that now though I would definitely use InFamous: Second Son. For a console game it looks incredible. The graphics are amazing, but they're accentuated by the ridiculously awesome motion capture of all the actors. Delsin Rowe, the main character of Second Son is a Native American in his early to mid twenties. The way his body and face move it's almost like he's a real person. It's weird though, because it doesn't have an uncanny valley feeling that games like Heavy Rain had. It probably helps that he's actually a decently well written character while Cole, the protagonist in the previous 2 games, was generally pretty awful.

Second Son takes place in Seattle, Washington. The city itself is nothing special, but it sure looks good. It's like any other open world city really. You traverse the world in order to go from mission to mission while random events take place. Like the previous games you can choose to be either good or evil and the events will help you work towards either side. What really impressed me about the city is that the textures on everything didn't look like total shit. If you walk up to a sign you're actually going to be able to read it and it's not even blurry, which is some next level stuff.

Look at the texture on Delsin's hat. That's true next generation right there!

I wish I could say that InFamous: Second Son had a whole lot to offer outside of its awesome visuals, but I just can't. In terms of story it's the same kind of thing that always happens when super powers are involved. Some people think they're really cool, while other people feel that anyone who has them is evil and should be imprisoned. In the InFamous universe people with powers are called conduits, but the people who fear them call them bio-terrorists. Delsin discovers that he's a conduit when he comes into contact with a conduit who has the power of smoke. Turns out Delsin can take the powers of other conduits and use them himself.

As you may have guessed since Delsin can steal powers he receives a few different powers throughout the course of the game. He has to seek out new powers so that he can fight an evil lady with cement powers who is imprisoning conduits. Oh yeah, he also wants to get the cement shards out of his family and friends so they can walk again. I don't want to spoil the powers, but I will say that they're all pretty cool. You start off with smoke, which lets you go through vents to get up buildings, dash through fences, and shoot fire from your hands. It all handles very well and makes you feel like a proper superhero. You can get up buildings easily and move around with little effort, which makes traversing the huge city of Seattle fun. It feels a lot more smooth than the other InFamous games, which is nice. The only downgrade is the climbing. Previously you could just mash the jump button to climb up a building, because you'd stick to almost any ledge. This is no longer the case, so climbing is rarely ever an option.

Smoke is a cool power, but I like the second power you get the best.

I really like InFamous: Second Son, but at the same time it's extremely disappointing. The story was pretty good for the first half and then it starts to go downhill. The second half has a few missions that don't really seem related and then all of a sudden the final showdown is happening. The whole second half felt very rushed and the ending is super abrupt. What's even more disappointing though is that the only really cool thing about this game is that it looks awesome. Sure that's great and all, but I want the PlayStation 4 to bring new gaming experiences to the table. I realize that this is very early in the console's life cycle, but Second Son is just more of the same with a new character who has a different set of powers. Yes, it does control better, but that would have come with iteration anyways.

Second Son is a fun ride that looks pretty, but it's short lived and ultimately the same as the previous 2 entries in the franchise. If you have a PS4 it's definitely something you need to check out, but I have a feeling that once more games are released for the console it won't be remembered for very long.

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

I'm not good at fighting games. This is something that I've come to terms with over the past few years. I'm decent at Super Smash Brothers Melee, but that's a very different beast from your traditional fighting game like BlazBlue. The only fighting game that I ever got remotely good at was the original BlazBlue. I could actually do a combo, which is something that I certainly can't do anymore. I used to like buying new fighting games to try them out and have fun, but I can't really do that anymore. A lot of the people around me are on a much higher level than I am, so there isn't ever really a period where we're on a level playing field. I get destroyed on the regular and don't really have any fun doing it. The last fighting game I really had fun with was Jojo's All-Star Battle, but since it's not a competitively viable fighting game no one will play it with me.

Despite knowing all of this I bought BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma anyways. I mainly got it for the story, which I suppose I'm still interested in. The entire series I've been waiting for my favorite character Jubei to become playable. He's a cat-man with a huge sword and I think he's awesome. Somehow, despite being a main character in the story he's still not playable and it's killing me! Somehow they can make up totally new characters who are playable in each game, but leave out a previously existing character who plays a major role in the story!

I just want to play as Jubei! *Weeps*

So far I haven't played a whole lot of the story, but I do enjoy it. It's in the form of a visual novel. High-res character art of two characters appear on either side of the screen with a text box. It's all voiced and fairly well done. At times it can be a bit unbearable though, which is what's really bogging me down. Sometimes the game can be just a bit too Anime. The characters interactions can be super dumb. It gets even worse when you stumble onto a joke ending. I don't think they're funny and I find it had to believe that anyone thinks they're funny, but I'm sure someone must otherwise they'd stop doing them. I hope they stop doing them.

I'm going to enjoy the story. I just don't know why I keep buying these games. I don't enjoy fighting the computer and get frustrated with my general ineptitude. Hopefully I can re-ignite my passion for fighting games. Guilty Gear Xrd Sign might be the game to do that, because it looks amazing. Also I really like Guilty Gear.

Fez

I wasn't a part of the Fez zeitgeist, but after playing it I wish that I was. The game is amazing. I thought this was going to be one of those indie titles that I finally get a chance to play and then find out it was blown way out of proportion. For Fez that certainly wasn't the case. Everything is awesome whether it be the music, art style, or gameplay mechanics. Everything in the game congeals to make a completely unforgettable game. Fez is the epitome of a polished video game. You can tell that every fiber of Phil Fish's being was put into creating this awesome game.

Fez at first glance is just a 2D platformer, but the protagonist Gomez quickly gets the power to rotate the world with his magical Fez. He is given the knowledge that the world is truly 3D, which makes the game very interesting. In order to make it so that Gomez can get to his destination you must rotate the world, which is in actuality 3D. When you rotate the world you can use new objects as platforms. If you see somewhere you don't think you can get to there is a high probability that you can actually get there if you rotate the world just right. Describing it makes it sound sound really boring, but in action it's really something amazing. It adds something to a genre that's been done to death.

It blows my mind that this image is just one of four possible options of this game state.

In order to advance in the game you need to collect golden cubes. You can also collect anti cubes although they're much harder to get. Golden cubes you can get by picking up bits of cube, or by completing platforming sections. Anti cubes require you to go a layer deeper into the game and figure out its ridiculously deep secrets. For one of the anti cubes I got I had to download a QR code reader on my tablet that gave me a button combination to enter on the controller. What's nuts is that that's one of the easier things to figure out. A lot of them have to do with a language derived from what look like Tetris blocks.

Once you beat Fez the journey isn't over, but it might be for me. There are all kinds of secrets to be discovered and the additional powers you get from completing the game allow for you to do some pretty crazy stuff. It makes you realize that nothing in Fez is just an art choice, or a piece of the background. Everything means something and it's up to you to figure it out. When the game first came out I remember the internet collectively working to figure out how to unlock all the secrets the game had to offer. I don't know if I'll ever get around to decoding the games crazy Tetris language, but it's cool to know it's there. I'm thinking about looking up a FAQ just to go through the insanity that happens after the game is "over."

I love the Fez Soundtrack so much.

I feel weird talking about Fez because it's so old now. I can't believe it took this long for it to come to PlayStation consoles and I don't know why I never bought it on the Xbox 360. It's a very immersive game. I originally planned to play it for an hour or so, but ended up not stopping until I had beaten it, which probably took around 6 hours. Most people have already played Fez, but if you haven't then you really need to. At least look up some of the amazing tracks on the soundtrack.

What's coming out?

I don't think I have any new games I'll be purchasing in April, which is good because I need to catch up with the ones I already have. As I mentioned at the top I'm still deep into Dark Souls 2. I've also started playing the HD remaster of Final Fantasy X for some reason despite the fact that I hate Tidus with every fiber of my being. It's even more annoying that they pronounce his name Tee-dus.

I'm sure I'll play a whole bunch of stuff, so we'll meet back here next month to talk about it.

    -Manny

The Darkest of Souls

There are so many people who sing the praises of the Souls franchise. Up until a few months ago I truly could not comprehend why. I picked up a copy of Demon's Souls a few years ago and never got into it. I tried so hard, but I felt like the game was actively trying to make me dislike it. Yes, it's super hard, but normally that kind of thing doesn't make me give up on a game completely. For some reason I felt directionless and devoid of all hope, which is why some people like these games in the first place. Hoping that I was just not in the right mindset I tried to get into Demon's Souls multiple times. Each time I'd beat a boss or two and then completely lose interest. This is the reason I was never interested in Dark Souls, until now, that is.

I've been hearing the praise of Dark Souls since it came out. I even started watching people play it somewhat frequently to try and see if I could glean some kind of enjoyment out of it. I didn't really end up enjoying it at all though and would often not pay very close attention. Something clicked in my brain a few months ago though that made me want to try it out. People always talk about it as if it's some kind of rite of passage, which in some sense it is. It's a truly difficult game, but if you're willing to put in the time and figure it out the game's not nearly as impenetrable as people make it out to be. In a way me trying out Dark Souls was like me trying out Monster Hunter. I just had to know why everyone thought it was so great. Turns out, I think Dark Souls is great too.

The silver knight looks so cool!

Yes, the game is difficult, but not impossible. I think that people make Dark Souls' difficulty out to be much more than it actually is. I see it as delayed gratification. In most modern games you're killing something every few seconds, and powering up as you go along. People like fast paced games that make you feel powerful. Dark Souls isn't fast paced and really makes you work in order to truly feel powerful. Sure, you can eventually get strong weapons and armor, but those won't necessarily make the game any easier. In order to truly get better you need to learn the ins and outs of the game's clunky systems. You need to approach every encounter with caution, because even basic enemies can strike you down at a moment's notice. Your character's movements are slow, deliberate, and filled with animation priority. You don't get thrown constant power-ups in order to keep the endorphin stream to your brain going. Souls, the games currency and experience, need to be earned through hard fought battles. 

Dark Souls makes you take time to think. It makes you value what you have earned. When you fall in battle you lose your souls. As long as you don't die again before returning to where you died, you can reclaim them. However, if you do die before reaching the blood stain your corpse left behind they're gone forever. The first time I lost a ton of souls I was devastated, but it taught me to be much more careful. It's cool, because you actually learn lessons in Dark Souls. You actually have to adapt in order to continue on. In some cases though you just have to persevere. 

The super heavy Havel armor helped me through to the end.

I try my hardest not to get angry with video games, but sometimes I just can't help it. Mid-way through the game Dark Souls decides to throw two bosses at you simultaneously. Those two bosses are Ornstein and Smough. During that fight I was literally screaming obscenities at my television. My rage was palpable. Ornstein kept flying across the room and impaling me with his spear, while big Smough and his fat self butt slammed me all day long. I fought those two for hours on end, until finally I had killed them both. The elation I felt when those two were beaten cannot even be described. I had a strategy that I knew would work, because I could get so close to winning every time. I kept running straight back into the battle until I won, which as I mentioned took hours. Dark Souls is a game of both learning and perseverance and that makes it unique.

In a lot of ways Dark Souls reminds me of Monster Hunter. They both seem impenetrable from the outside, they both have communities filled with elitist assholes, they both have clunky systems, and they're both inexplicably popular. Monster Hunter is more of a Japanese thing, while Dark Souls has a huge following both here in America and Japan. There are so many obscure things in Dark Souls, but passionate fans have figured all of them out. The wikis out there for the game are very in depth and you can learn anything you could possibly ever need to know about the game.

Just seeing these two fills me with rage,

I'm writing this the day before Dark Souls 2 comes out. I'm going to be picking it up at midnight and diving right in. What's scary is that there's hardly any information about the game on the internet right now. It's also a very exciting thing. Playing through Dark Souls I needed a lot of information in order to understand what was going on in the beginning. Without that I probably wouldn't have kept going, because some of the things the game does seem obtuse just for the sake of being obtuse. Kindling at bonfires for example made no sense to me and the broken English describing it didn't exactly help. Going into Dark Souls 2 I will be carrying my basic knowledge, but if I get stuck I'm not necessarily going to be able to find help. Going through the game at the same time as the rest of the community will be a completely different experience than I had with the original Dark Souls and I couldn't be more excited. 

I understand now why people like this series. It makes you work for everything. Hell, it doesn't even really tell a story unless you really go searching for it. You can go through the entire game and have barely any clue why anything is happening. That's quite a ridiculous notion, but somehow it works. For a lot of people exploring an open world and defeating enemies is enough, which just goes to show how well put together the game truly is. 

The DLC is pretty good too.

As a person who plays quite a few video games I'm proud that I was able to see Dark Souls through to completion. It's crazy to me how popular the franchise has become and I hope that it continues on, because there's really not a whole lot else like it out there.

     -Manny