The Wolf Among Us journal - entry two

I'd be a liar if said I wasn't surprised that the second episode of The Wolf Among Us ended up being shorter than the first. In the case of The Walking Dead, the formatting was the other way around, and I guess I expected a similar situation here - that the first episode would lay the groundwork and familiarize players with the story and gameplay, while the installments that followed would expand upon that, each being longer/bigger than the one before it (or at least, considerably more substantial than the first episode). It's not to say that the second episode of The Wolf Among Us was disappointing per se, it's just that I expected it to run almost twice as long as it did.

Still, the pacing was wonderful, and the plot twists intriguing. I suppose it's really a matter of quality over quantity with a fantasy world detective story like The Wolf Among Us, and to that end I don't have any major complaints with the way the second episode was handled. I do have a minor complaint, however, and that is the 'next time on The Wolf Among Us' preview at the conclusion of episode one giving away far too much. It showed snippets of practically every major event, and while it didn't spoil the nitty-gritty details of episode two's plot developments, I would have appreciated more surprises. Hopefully episode three delivers better on that.

Diancie officially confirmed for Pokémon X and Y

A few months back, three hidden (and presumably legendary) Pokémon were discovered by individuals who broke down the coding of Pokémon X and Y. While none of these three Pokémon were obtainable through traditional means within the games themselves, Diancie, Hoopa, and Volcanion were discovered to all be recognized by the games, and were even accepted as trade requests via the GTS. Diancie has now been officially confirmed as a new Pokémon on the Kalos Pokédex, and though no details have yet been revealed as to how or when it will be available, Nintendo and Game Freak have released a trailer in order to assure fans that specific details will be released soon.

Little Mac joins the roster for new Super Smash Bros.

This announcement comes as no surprise to me, really. When R.O.B. debuted in Brawl and Mr. Game and Watch made his return, I felt Little Mac would make a perfect addition to the selection of retro Nintendo characters within the Smash Bros. universe. I mean, after all he is a fighter to begin with, so it only makes sense, though I am glad to see that the development team incorporated some combat mechanics unique to Little Mac in the upcoming Wii U/3DS releases. This Little Mac reveal follows hot on the heels of a number of other Smash Bros. roster confirmations, including the return of Zelda and Lucario, and the debut of Super Mario Galaxy's Rosalina.

The Wolf Among Us journal - entry one

I got my first taste of Telltale Games’ episodic game format last year, when I played through the first two episodes of The Walking Dead at a friend’s house. It was surprisingly engaging, considering it was essentially an interactive story more than a full-fledged game. It harkened back to the old point-and-click PC titles, with quick-time events sprinkled throughout to push the survival horror angle more obviously befitting The Walking Dead. Its cel-shaded comic book styling was gorgeous, but when I heard about their follow-up series, The Wolf Among Us, I was initially skeptical. It seemed too easy a cash-in, and I wondered how they could successfully pull of a story from the Fables world with the gameplay elements cemented in The Walking Dead.

Having just wrapped up my playthrough of the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, I can say that Telltale Games has handled this fantasy property just as well as their first installment of the zombie survival tale that made them a household name. Fables is a very different tale to tell than that of The Walking Dead, for a number of obvious reasons, and Telltale seems to have taken that very much into account with the way they have chosen to push the detective angle of Bigby Wolf’s attempts to piece together a string of crimes carried out against his fellow fables. The Wolf Among Us pits Bigby in some rather intense scuffles with other powerful fables, but the majority of this first episode focuses on dialogue selections, scouring crime scenes for clues, and narrowing down the big bad wolf’s field of suspects.

The colorfully decaying streets of New York City in the The Wolf Among Us look every bit as good as the drab and dismal forests, farmland, and ghost towns of The Walking Dead – a testament not only to Telltale’s ability in crafting these worlds, but to the cel-shaded graphics carried over to this new game as well. The accents the characters bear, their mannerisms, and their classical fairy tale origins all culminate into one wonderfully immersive cast. It’s a truly impressive feat that a single episode that runs less than two hours can set the stage for a fantasy world and sell it so well to someone like myself who is only passingly familiar with the comic book source material. In fact, The Wolf Among Us does perhaps better to pack in so much quality in that brief time period than most of the triple-A titles I played during the last year.

Now, that is not to say that the game is perfect – there are some current hiccups with the season pass not granting people immediate access to the second episode. I also noticed a few instances of lag during the action segments, which are arguably the most crucial moments for delivering a quick response. Still, it’s nice to see that developers in this day and age can deliver high-quality games without creating an overly-complex system of gameplay or charging full retail price for their product.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry four

It is highly unusual for me to get past this far into a Pokémon game without having a full team that I intend to try my best to carry on through the Elite Four and League Champion battles. Even though I swapped out Chimecho for Azelf during the late hours of my Platinum playthrough, I still knew that I wanted a psychic-type Pokémon to complement the other members of my party. While I intend to keep Sableye, Torkoal, Breloom, and Loudred, I’m having second thoughts about keeping Pelipper at my side – he’s decent enough, but his jack-of-all-trades role has been similarly filled by Loudred, the latter of whom does not have a four times weakness to electric-type moves. Finally, my current sixth party member, Castform, is something of a one-trick pony – not entirely useless, but a slow horse out the gates at the start of any battle, unless the weather is already in his favor. It’s a shame, really, because I like the way Castform looks, and his distinct forms are a clever idea, but the time it takes to utilize any of these takes far too long.

I’m also coming to realize that these routes being so single-minded in their focus on trainer battles and wild encounters may not be as great as I initially believed. Nearly every area I’ve come across thus far had to be explored for some angle of the main game, leaving little in the way of optional sidequests or bonus content. When I played through Platinum, one of the things I found a bit annoying was how there was a plethora of half-baked ideas from the sidequests and minigame content, but in Sapphire, those elements have been practically nonexistent thus far.

It was around the time that Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald left their mark on the world of handheld gaming that the Pokémon community began drawing their dividing lines between the games and claim one generation or another as the ‘very best’ (pardon the play on words). This process of fans aligning with one generation or another as their personal favorite became even more prominent after the DS titles came onto the scene. Long before playing Sapphire, I had heard exceptionally good things across the board, from personal friends of mine as well as the anonymous Pokéfan masses of the internet. Honestly though, I think that Sapphire is currently a little below Platinum with regards to my own personal enjoyment with the game. While I appreciate the Pokémon native to Hoenn, the game itself feels too cut-and-dry an experience. Yes, gen IV was far from perfect, with its insistence on pushing old and boring Pokémon during wild encounters and its over-reliance on event-distribution legendaries, but at least the overworld was colorful and the gym leaders a decently interesting spin on the familiar. The majority of Sapphire’s main game has been rather predictable, and the fact that Team Aqua and Magma are so thoroughly uninteresting only hinders the game's aspirations. I realize that it’s difficult to live up to the wonderfully-plotted ideals of Team Plasma, or the classic villainy of Team Rocket, but the expansion of the sea/land depending on which version of the generation III experience you are playing is simply yawn-worthy. Does Pokémon Sapphire look good for its day? Certainly. Does it play well enough? Sure. But does it feel anywhere near as inspired a title as any of the other five generations of Pokémon? Not even close.

Gaming Update: Welcome to Los Santos

Due to the fact that I wrapped up most of the games I wanted to complete in 2013 right at the end of the year, my early 2014 playthroughs are still currently underway. Grand Theft Auto V is easily one of the more expansive and longest-running of this early slew of titles, and should be one of the first games I post a review for this year, alongside The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Aside from those two titles, I received Super Mario 3D World and Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition for Christmas, and still have Pokémon Sapphire, the original NES Legend of Zelda, Persona 4, and a couple of Final Fantasy titles I intend to return to this year. I’m actually quite a ways into Persona 4, and feel like that game will become higher priority during this winter/spring season than some of the others, due in part to the fact that I haven’t very far to go before completing it, and the fact that the game has been on loan to me from a friend.

As far as the outlook for the rest of the year is concerned, I really can’t throw out a whole lot of concrete details, simply because I don’t really know what to expect from 2014 with regard to new games. I do intend to pick up Watch Dogs day of release for the Wii U, and I’ll definitely get Kirby: Triple Deluxe. The new Smash Bros. is also a guaranteed purchase for me, though currently, signs point toward that being a quarter three or quarter four release. Bayonetta 2 (as well as a playthrough of the first) stands as a moderate possibility – the game looks cool, no doubt, but I really haven’t been particularly impressed with Platinum as of late, as evidenced in most of my posts from 2013 detailing hands-on experiences with some of their games and demos.

I would like to pick Final Fantasy VII back up later this year, as I truly did enjoy what I played in early 2013. Final Fantasy X did not impress me nearly as much, primarily due to the displeasing battle system and lack of many useful characters. I own copies of both Final Fantasy V and VI that I have yet to start files on, and I clocked a few hours into Final Fantasy IV: The After Years at the end of the summer. Though I realize it isn’t classical RPG in any sense of the term, I’m quite a ways into Paper Mario, and have simply been taking my time with that game, picking it up and clocking in a couple of hours here and there, as I feel like it. There’s a very good chance that title will see a review from me by the end of 2014.

The only other game that currently comes to mind as a potential purchase for this year is Killer7, which is a game I’ve wanted to experience in proper for quite a few years now. With that one, it’s really just a matter of finding a reasonable price for a used copy. I have absolutely zero intention of purchasing either the Xbox One or the Playstation 4, so I will write off any potential reviews from those consoles here and now. From this point out, my reviews of new-school games will be fueled by the Wii U and 3DS, as well as the Xbox 360 and Wii for those odd titles I never got around to playing in proper when they were first released. I suppose DmC might be worth mentioning as having a better-than-decent shot at seeing a review later this year, and Ghost Song is one indie title I've had my eye on since Two Best Friends Play made mention of it on their Facebook page. As for the rest of the year, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what lies in store.

Top 5 Anime of 2013

#5 - IGPX: I’ve long been a huge fan of mecha, and as a result, I tend to be more highly critical of how these stories of giant robots pan out. I was pleasantly surpsied by IGPX, a show which I had missed out on during its original Toonami run, because of just how fresh a concept it was. The best description I can provide is that IGPX is much like F-Zero, but with robots and greater emphasis on the dynamic of the teammates and pit crew than the actual races. Which is not to say the combination of breakneck-speeds and exchanging of metal punches isn’t incredibly satisfying to watch unfold in a curiously graceful manner, but there is certainly something to be said for putting the spotlight on a crew of young pilots who have to learn to cooperate if they want to succeed.

#4 - Wolf Children: A heartwarming tale about a single mother attempting to provide her children with a secluded upbringing so that they can one day determine for themselves if they wish to live as humans or wolves, Wolf Children is the most emotionally human tale to be conveyed in the anime medium in a long while. The kids, Ame and Yuki, are simply adorable, and the movie is genuine in its timing of making viewers laugh, cheer, and tear up along with the characters. For a film that seems to want to sell itself largely on its fantasy elements, Wolf Children is, at its core, about family and the challenges a single mother faces in raising two young kids who just so happen to harness the ability to transform into wolves.

#3 - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: I appreciated Gurren Lagann for reasons similar to why I have come to love Gundam, Evangelion, and many other mecha works over the years, except that in the case of Gurren Lagann, it was because it made fun of all the staples that have defined giant robot action over the decades. Combining robots for no apparent reason other than it looks equal parts silly and cool? Check. Ridiculous monologues that don’t actually mean anything but somehow strike fear into the hearts of foes and instill courage and determination in the heroic main cast members? Check. Gunmen mechs that just keep getting larger to the point where galaxies become viable options for Frisbee-like weapons? Check. It’s a series that punches subtlety in the face, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun.

#2 - Steins;Gate: Too few works dealing with time travel and divergent realities steep themselves so deep in real-world scientific theory. The fact that Steins;Gate lays out its rules before it really gets running not only makes for a more intelligently-scripted show, but a more entertaining viewing experience as well. Knowing how the ripples across time and space can cause either subtle or drastic changes keeps you guessing until the very end, the diverse and very human characters are ones you care about and want to see succeed, despite how great the cost to some might be. Other time travel-related works, anime or otherwise, could learn a thing or two from Steins;Gate about how to balance the nerdy factual elements with humorous pop culture nods and self-referential humor.

#1 - Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo: By the finale of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, we had a pretty good idea that the story was headed into bold new territory. What I don’t think I was fully prepared for, however, was how dark and complex the narrative would become. The Rebuild of Evangelion films have done a phenomenal job thus far of consolidating one of the most deep and thought-provoking anime works of all time into hour-and-a-half/two-hour installments, but there is a lot at play in Evangelion 3.0, and the attention to detail as well as the sinister nature of some of the grander schemes in motion are on par with 1997’s End of Evangelion. It’s a perfect follow-up to the groundwork the previous two films laid out, and is an exciting marker as the beginning of the end of this masterful tetralogy of films.