Originally I intended to play all the way through Xenoblade Chronicles X before the end of December, but SEGA decided they wanted to surprise me with the release of Yakuza 5. I played a few hours of Xenoblade, but then took a break from it in order to play Yakuza 5 to completion.
Other than that I played quite a bit of Nuclear throne. This was another surprise release. I've had it on early access for months, but could never really get into it. Now that it's been released on PS4 I have been having fun, but the immense number of bugs is becoming upsetting.
Let's get right into it!
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Okay, I played a whole lot of Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii. In fact, I played it so much that I got burned out on it before I even beat the final boss. Eventually I did, because my brother reminded me that I had never beaten the game. So when I saw that Xenoblade Chronicles X was supposed to be fairly different I was quite pleased. However, that isn't necessarily the case.
The main way Xenoblade Chronicles X differs from its predecessor is that it's a much more dense game. In fact, it may be one of the most dense games I've ever played. The game doesn't really helpo you either. You're thrown right into the game with only a basic tutorial on how combat works. Most of the deeper combat mechanics and other things the game wants you to read the in game manual for. Even when doing that the explanations are fairly poor, so it doesn't help very much. I had a friend watch me play through the first hour or so, and he explained to me what he had learned in his time with the game.
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| Xenoblade Chronicles X looks beautiful. |
I can't stress enough how overwhelming Xenoblade Chronicles X is at first. The open world is monstrously huge, there are quests everywhere, monsters everywhere, overpopulated UI, tiny text, and unlimited menus. At first I thought my mind was going to explode, but through playing I learned a lot. The game definitely doesn't hold your hand and encourages you to learn things on your own.
The plot sees two warring alien races fight outside of earth's atmosphere and cause catastrophic destruction to the surface. Evacuation ships had been prepared, but many were lost in the escape. You were aboard the last remaining ship to survive, New Los Angeles. While drifting through space the ship was attacked again and forced to make an emergency landing on the nearest inhabitable planet. In the beginning "you" are woken up from your escape pod. I say "you," because the main character of this game is player created. You make a character and then immediately start your adventure.
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| THE WORLD IS HUGE! |
So far in my approximately ten hours of play I have seen very little story. From what I have read it seems that Xenoblade Chronicles X isn't so focused on an overarching story, but instead focuses on the exploration of the world. This to me makes it feel like a single player MMO much more than its predecessor did. Yes, there are story scenes, but they are so few and far between that it gives you plenty of time to forget everything. It's an odd choice, but at least the game is still fun.
The combat is very similar to the previous game. You have a skill bar on the screen, and you play it like an MMO. You use skills to attack, and then they have to cool down. Outside of that you auto-attack. It's all about managing cool downs. It doesn't work exactly like the previous game, but it;s similar enough that anyone who played it will be able to pick up the system with little difficulty.
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| Manage all the cooldowns. |
I haven't played enough to form a full opinion yet, but this doesn't really seem like my kind of game. There isn't a whole lot of structure to the game. It's about exploring and taking generic quests while you work towards unlocking story missions. Since the story isn't a huge focus you have to make your own story, and I'm not really about that kind of thing. Perhaps as I play more it will grow on me.
Yakuza 5
Sony took the initiative to push for Yakuza 5's localization, and now it's out in English. Well, the text is in English. All of the dialogue is still in Japanese, but that's par for the course. I began playing this series with Yakuza 3, and it hasn't changed a whole lot since then. The general feel of the games has continued to be the same, but that's both a blessing and a curse. The best way to describe Yakuza is that it's a Japanese drama about the Yakuza mixed with a beat-em-up, and mini-game collection. It's probably the only game where you can rub a man's face on the pavement, and then enter the nearest building to play Taiko Drum Master. That's what I love about it.
In Yakuza 4 the concept of controlling multiple main characters with different fight styles was introduced, and that has continued on to Yakuza 5. This time however, you play as five characters! The first is series main stay Kazuma Kiryu. He's the ultimate badass, but now he's trying to get out of the Yakuza life and become a humble cab driver. As you'd expect he gets pulled right back in. Saejima, and Akiyama return as playable characters from Yakuza 4 as well. The Two new protagonists are Shinada who is a baseball player who has fallen from grace, and Haruka who is Kiryu's adopted daughter turned pop idol.
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| From left to right: Akiyama, Shinada, Kiryu, Haruka, Saejima. |
Each character has their own story and fighting style. Well, except Haruka. She doesn't fight. She just has dance battles to increase her skills. No fighting sadly. The fighting is my favorite part of Yakuza though. It feels so smooth and satisfying. Random thugs will accost you on the streets of Japan and you have to beat them down. You have weak attacks, and strong attacks. Pushing them in combinations will perform combos. When you hit enemies enough your heat meter will fill, which lets you perform "super" moves. Depending on the context the character will perform brutal moves that do a ton of damage. As I mentioned before Kiryu can rub an enemies face on the pavement, Saejima can clothesline fools, and they can all smash people into walls. These moves are context sensitive and there are tons to discover.
At the end all of the stories converge and the characters meet. I must say I was a bit disappointed with a lot of Yakuza 5's story though. It had some serious pacing issues. Yes, all of the games have had pacing issues, but 5 takes those issues to the next level. Most scenes go on for way too long, and characters reiterate the same points over and over. It can be excruciating at times. This made me sad, because when the story is in full swing it's a lot of fun. If Yakuza 6 isn't drastically different I don't know if I'll be able to continue playing the series.
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| This is a real thing that happens in the game. |
I loved Yakuza 5, but it's definitely not for everyone! It was originally released in 2012 and its age shows. The frame rate can get a bit rough in spots, and the character models don't look amazing by modern standards. If you like Japan, the Yakuza, and mini-games then you should try it out. If you do want to give the series a shot I'd recommend starting with 4.
Nuclear Throne
If you've been reading my stuff for long enough you already know how much I love Spelunky. I learned about it for a long time and was even doing daily runs for a while. At some point I fell off, but it started my love affair with rogue likes. Rogue likes are games that have you start a game from the very beginning when you die and nothing carries over. The only thing getting better is your skill. Some of them have unlocks such as characters or weapons. My newest rogue like obsession is Nuclear Throne.
Vlambeer has been working on Nuclear Throne for what seems like forever. I bought it in early access on steam six months ago and it had been out for a long time at that point. I played it a bit then, but I couldn't really get into it. I was trying to play with mouse and keyboard then. In Nuclear Throne you control a mutant in the post apocalypse. The goal of the game is to shoot your way through the wasteland and reach the nuclear throne.
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| Nuclear Throne can get out of control at times. |
I got into it now that it has been released on PS4. During PSX in December they put up a ton of games on PSN and Nuclear Throne was one of them. It's now at version 1.0, so it's officially released. I don't know if it should have been released on PS4 yet though, because it has a lot of issues.
It's a fast paced game where you pick up guns. There are many types of guns. You have to use the ones that work best for you. When you kill enemies they drop radioactive material or "rads" as the game calls them. Once you collect enough rads you level up. Once you kill all of the enemies in a stage a portal opens to take you to the next level. Before going to the next level if you have leveled up you get to choose a mutation. Mutations grant various bonuses for the remainder of the run. These things range from regenerating health when you kill to not taking damage from fire when you have low health.
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| These are all of the playable characters! |
What I love about the game is that it's super fast paced and there are a ton of options when trying to reach the end of the game. You have to know how the enemies move and how much health they have. You need to pick the right weapons, and conserve your ammo. Character choice is also very important. Each character in Nuclear Throne has a special ability that can be used by pushing L2 on the controller. The character I use is named Crystal. He has a lot of health and his ability works as a shield to stop bullets from hurting him temporarily. What's cool is that every character works so differently so no two characters feel the same. You start off with two unlocked, but the farther you get into the game the more you unlock.
This is where I rage a little bit. The PS4 version is busted. It was not ready for release. It is undeniably the most unstable PS4 game I have ever played. I've had games crash on me before, but I've had Nuclear Throne crash on me dozens of times! I'll be doing super well on a run and then when I finish a level the game crashes for no apparent reason. Sometimes when accessing the leaderboards the game crashes. Certain gunshots make the game crash. It's infuriating! I gave it a pass the first few times, but now it;s getting ridiculous. Also the frame rate is crazy bad in some spots. If you're going to buy it definitely do it on PC, because the PS4 version needs to be patched VERY BADLY. I guess it speaks to how much I like the game that I keep playing it though.
I'm Ready for February
There's not really anything coming out in January that I will be buying. It's a slow start to the new year, which is fine. Maybe I'll have time to beat Xenoblade Chronicles X and Fallout 4? The way I've been managing my time I probably won't though.
Things really start popping off in February though when four games I've been looking forward to for a very long time come out. Expect to see a lot of Digimon and a lot of Street fighter over the next few months.
See you next time!
