Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry three

Though I have accepted the fact that Team Aqua and Team Magma’s aspirations will probably never live up to the nefarious deeds of other villains in the series, I definitely like the way their story has paced itself thus far. The race to stop Team Aqua at the top of Mt. Chimney added a bit of tension to an atmosphere that has been otherwise laid-back and focused primarily on a sense of exploration/adventure. In regards to that last aspect, Sapphire reminds me a lot of my original playthrough of Gold on the Gameboy Color. The distance between towns in Hoenn may not be as great as those in Johto, but the routes are all well-designed and the realm a great realization of what the GBA hardware was capable of.

Generally speaking, I tend to lean toward Pokémon that have a three-stage evolutionary line, or at the very least, a two-stage evolutionary line. Unless I’m adding a legendary Pokémon to my team, it’s very rare that I will keep a non-evolving Pokémon in my party. With Sapphire, however, I currently have two Pokémon in my party that do no evolve – Torkoal and Sableye. Torkoal has proven to be incredibly useful as my defensive ‘tank’ party member, while Sableye not having any natural weaknesses and resisting the moves that any other Ghost-type Pokémon would makes it a highly-dependable team member for getting me out of rough spots. As I’ve stated many times in past journal entries and other Pokémon-related posts, Ghost Pokémon are among my very favorites. That said, I’ve never cared much for Banette, and Dusclops is just sort of ‘okay’ in my opinion. Sableye might be super creepy and weird, but he’s got a lot going for him at the moment – assuming he will learn some better Ghost and Dark moves from leveling up, I’ll probably take him with me all the way to the Elite Four.

As far as the rest of my team is concerned, I’m quite pleased with their current levels and movesets. Both Loudred and Pelliper serve distinctly different counters to a wide range of Pokémon typings (and moves, thanks to their respective abilities), and as a result, I effectively have two ‘jack-of-all-trades’ Pokémon at my side. Breloom and Torkoal are geared toward specializing in moves reflective of their typings, and while they have their obvious weaknesses, are both solid in terms of offense and have served me well through these recent legs of the game. I may change the lineup a bit sometime down the road, but I still have a sixth spot open, and while I have typings in mind, I don’t have a specific Pokémon that I feel I absolutely want. Bagon and Beldum would certainly be nice, but I recognize that it will be a while before I encounter either of these Pokémon in the wild.

DLC review: Killer is Dead - Smooth Operator pack

Included with each collector’s edition/launch day copy of Killer is Dead, the Smooth Operator pack provides players with another full-fledged mission to take on, as well as an extra gigolo mission and alternate costumes for both Vivienne and Mika. The costumes are purely for aesthetic purposes and hold no bearing on the outcome of the new mission or any others. The gigolo mission with vampire Betty is a bit more challenging than previous interactions with Koharu or Natlia, but is ultimately just as shallow in design. The real substance of the Smooth Operator pack comes from the extra mission, dubbed ‘Episode 51’, wherein Mondo travels to an old castle to seek revenge on a Wire-vampire hybrid at Betty’s request.

As with many of the main game combat missions, Episode 51 opens with a series of moving pictures as opposed to a full-blown cinematic sequence, which details how Betty, despite being a vampire, was bested by another vampire who infused his body with Wire material. After this quick backstory segment, the game shifts back to its usual hyper cel-shaded standard. While this DLC pack still basically looks as good as anything in the main game, the fact that Mondo is sent to explore an ancient castle nestled within a dark forest gives it a very distinct aesthetic that is both fresh and familiar when compared to the Area 51-inspired base where Mondo fought Giant Head or David’s lavish mansion on the moon.

The setting also proves the most challenging to see in, at times, with Mondo needing to scour the dungeon for torches to light his way. Even the most brightly-lit portions of the castle still look dim in contrast to other levels, which certainly aids in perpetuating a classic monster movie vibe, but simultaneously leads to Mondo bumping into walls as well as the occatsional retracing of steps. Typical gameplay is broken up with the inclusion of a manned turret section and notable integration of both Mika and Bryan into the narrative. Aside from a brief appearance from Mondo’s unicorn friend, Episode 51 has practically no ties to the main storyline of Killer is Dead, and as a result, can be played at nearly any time once it has been installed.

Episode 51 offers a decent challenge factor while providing significant rewards in the forms of money and ore, and can prove a rather enjoyable means to boost stats and abilities. The time it will take to complete this DLC mission is pretty typical of the earliest up to the mid-game missions – not nearly as lengthy as Mondo’s storming Hamada Yama’s hideout, but comparable to his first visit to David’s mansion. With all the attention to detail and overall production quality of Episode 51, it certainly feels like a mission that was originally intended to be released as part of the full game.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Xbox 360 review: Killer is Dead

A government agent who operates as a sword-for-hire to various clients, Mondo Zappa is a man largely shrouded in mystery from the outset of Killer is Dead. From the earliest missions, it is made clear that he is the successor to his bureau’s former top man, but it isn’t long before the story pans out to make way for the larger picture. After a few missions that allow players to become accommodated with the control scheme and highly-fluid, smooth-as-hell gameplay style of Killer is Dead, Mondo makes a visit to the moon where he briefly clashes with a man named David. David apparently usurped command of the dark side of the moon from a woman named Moon River, and though he bests Mondo during their first meeting, he remains present throughout the remainder of the game, influencing the beasts and machines Mondo will square off against in locations like technologically marvelous skyscrapers, steam train cars, and even within Mondo’s own dreams.

Killer is Dead’s artistic style is heavily influenced by a previous Suda51 hit, Killer7. Killer is Dead is hyper cel-shaded to the point where people and objects obscured by shadows appear as completely black with little more than a vague outline defining them, allowing Mondo’s red eyes or David’s golden robes to glow and clash distinctly. Killer is Dead may run on the Unreal Engine, but its graphical direction prevents the technology from looking as obviously aged as it did in Lollipop Chainsaw. In fact, Killer is Dead is both one of the most visually loaded and visually impressive titles of 2013.

The story is more single-minded in its focus than other Grasshopper Manufacture titles. While Mondo and his allies will take on all manner of assassination gigs across the globe, David’s influence remains a constant pillar that reminds players of their ultimate endgame goal. The pacing during the game’s first half is a tad slow, but it never feels sluggish. Rather, it allots time to emphasize the themes and symbolism in Killer is Dead, which include a great number of traditional Japanese folklore elements, the moon, the Earth, and the sun as astral energies, the reliance people have on blood, and the contrast of technology and humanity, to name but a few. As with No More Heroes and Black Knight Sword, there is a decent amount of information relevant to the overarching story that is not explicitly stated, but can still be pieced together with hints dropped by NPCs and symbols associated with some of the characters. It takes around ten hours to reach the finale on a normal difficulty setting, and the payoff is incredible.

In truth, Mondo Zappa is practically a complete inversion of NMH’s Travis Touchdown. Both characters break the fourth wall from time to time, though Mondo is significantly less talkative and carries himself with a professional demeanor. While Travis bumbled through all of his romantic pursuits, Mondo has multiple women swooning over him, and can win their affection in gigolo missions where he presents them with presents in order to fill up an affection meter. These sections, though optional, must be completed at least a couple of times in order to acquire the freeze shooter and drill subweapons. The affection meter will increase more rapidly if Mondo ogles the bodies of these ladies instead of their faces, but if they catch Mondo’s vision straying south, their own meter - which gauges how impressed they are with the suave assassin - will dwindle. These gigolo missions are incredibly simple in design, and while they are not terribly challenging, they feel clunky, as if they were stapled on to the experience late in development. Suda51 games are known for frequently incorporating a high degree of sexuality in character designs as well as their interactions, but the gigolo missions are flat out lazy – there’s no meaningful end result, other than receiving the basic subweapon, and certainly no reason to return to the gigolo missions later on, as the freeze shooter and drill can be upgraded with ore at any time from the pause screen just like Mondo’s healing factor, katana attacks, guard break, and so on.

Whereas both No More Heroes titles played largely as action games with adventure elements worked into the overworld of Santa Destroy and portions of the combat-heavy levels, Killer is Dead plays as pure an action experience as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Mondo can chain combos by slashing his katana, performing a guard break with his mechanical arm, or simply keep the meter active by firing his cannon attachment at foes. The more damage Mondo inflicts on enemies, the more blood he is rewarded, which can be used as cannon ammunition, ‘adrenaline rush’ insta-kills on weak or heavily wounded Wires, and even to replenish his health. Finishing off enemies after the combo meter has exceeded thirty consecutive hits will result in a brief freeze-frame for each enemy slain, offering players free choice of one of four rewards – those being blood, ore (used to upgrade Mondo’s stats and weapon capabilities), wire synapses (which restore Mondo’s physical health), or health gems (which increase his health bar).

Speaking of upgrades, Killer is Dead does well to prevent the game from becoming too easy too quickly. The cheapest upgrades push some basic improvements to Mondo’s offensive capabilities, while the one that require the most ore will allow him to automatically heal at a gradual pace over time or remove the limiter on his katana, allowing combo chains to be achieved more easily. Rarely do these upgrades improve his overall strength or defensive capabilities, however. To improve Mondo’s health or blood meters, one must gather the relevant replenishing items within each level, rewarding players who do a little bit of exploring.

The game’s dodge mechanic is forgiving to just the right degree – if an enemy lunges toward Mondo, there should be ample time for players to press the right button and then counter said foe, and any mistakes after the first hour’s learning curve are on the player exclusively. The game does well to keep the camera at an angle that will provide an ideal view of the action and other nearby foes, though it is quick and easy enough to adjust while in the heat of battle. Also, the more combos Mondo has chained together, the faster he will move and attack, and the game accounts for this wild and loose progression by having him automatically block enemy fire or simply not taking damage that would upset the combo chain once it has gone upwards of fifty or so.

The variety in level design is flat-out brilliant. Though some levels may be completed more quickly than others, all of the main game missions feel as though they have seen plenty of time and care from the development team. Little additions like a piano staircase that has a different note associated with each individual step and added puzzle elements that open secret rooms go a long way in rounding out the experience. Outside of the main game, players can revisit portions of previously completed levels in order to try their hand at various challenges, some of which put Mondo in the sidecar of Vivienne’s motorcycle or behind a turret, while others simply ask that he slay a certain number of enemies within a set time limit. The most difficult challenge missions come from Scarlett, a nurse who can be found hidden within each of the main game missions. Tracking her down time and time again will unlock more challenges, and the criteria Scarlett lays out for Mondo certainly yield the biggest monetary rewards.

Travis Willingham, Johnny Yong Bosch, Tara Platt, and others lend their talents to the cast, and while Patrick Seitz’s soft-spoken and professional demeanor are performed very well, Liam O’Brien steals the show in every scene where villain David appears. Akira Yamaoka (of Silent Hill fame) adds a highly-creative blend of industrial, classical, and techno tunes to the mix. While Mondo and David are wonderfully inventive characters that beautifully contrast each other, the supporting characters are largely hit-or-miss with regards to their complexity and importance to the plot. Vivienne Squall does little more than remind everyone in the bureau that they need to be paid a hefty sum for each job, Mika’s annoying and childlike behavior gets old incredibly fast, while cyborg boss Brian provides some comic relief. The villains, though given notably less screen time than Mondo’s allies, are by and large quite memorable, both with regards to the visual representations and their attitudes/personalities.

Suda51 fans looking for a more goofy, bizarre romp in the vein of No More Heroes or Lollipop Chainsaw may find themselves a bit disappointed. Killer is Dead is no doubt a strange game, and very much a one-of-a-kind action experience, though it pushes a more serious story that is, at times, as dark in tone as the excessively-saturated cel-shaded shadows. It might not be a particularly long game, and it definitely has some oddities and pitfalls outside of the core gameplay. But for those looking to experience a curious culmination of Japanese folklore, cosmic mythos, and the smoothest gameplay Grasshopper Manufacture has delivered yet, Killer is Dead is an excellent choice.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)

Anime review: Wolf Children

Setting classic fantasy elements in a modern day, technologically advanced world can be a tricky feat to successfully pull off. There’s always the risk of the two failing to mesh well, and sometimes the true vision of a story gets lost between the emphasis of cool magical factors and a modern day setting for the sake of simply having a modern day setting. Wolf Children manages to avoid these pitfalls by defining its identity as a film within the first few minutes – yes, the story does follow two children who inherited the ability to switch between wolf and human bodies thanks to their late father being one of the last remaining wolf people in the world, but the core of the story revolves around the mother and the challenges she faces as a single mother raising two children, both of whom just so happen to be able to transform into furred beasts.

The film specifically denotes young Ame and Yuki as wolf children instead of werewolves, because they do not carry on the typical behaviors exhibited by werewolves in European literature (or any other vision of werewolves, truthfully). Whether Ame and Yuki held the ability to transform into wolves or not, they would still be as adorable as ever, with Yuki being the more rambunctious and mischievous older sibling, and Ame being the quiet and shy one. Their mother, Hana, must deal not only with typical challenges brought on by raising two young children, but also must keep secret the fact that her children are part wolf.

Early in the film, when Ame and Yuki are still toddlers, Hana finds the big city life presents too many risks for her children being exposed as part wolf. Ame and Yuki’s lack of understanding as to why they cannot howl at night or chew on the leg of the table leads neighbors and the apartment landlord to believe that Hana is going against the apartment’s code and secretly keeping pets there. A few outings to the park see Yuki bark at passing dogs and nearly expose herself and her brother. Because of these extra everyday hurdles Hana faces, she asks her children if they would like to relocate to the countryside until the day they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to live their lives as humans or wolves.

Though he dies before the Wolf Children really gets going, Hana’s husband is still present in spirit throughout the film. Hana shows a lot of personal strength and determination to rebuild an old run-down house, to plant vegetable in less-than-ideal soil so she can provide for her children, as well as in the way that she handles disciplining and expressing how much she cares for Ame and Yuki. That said, Hana is still human, and the brief dream sequences where she asks her late husband if she is doing the right thing for her family keep her grounded as a character. Similarly, Ame finds he does not enjoy interacting with people as much as he does visiting the local nature center, and attempts to understand an old wolf who lives there in captivity as a parallel to his father, whom Ame knows little about, as he was still a baby when his father died.

The film does jump ahead at certain junctures to show how Ame and Yuki adapt to this bold new world – both with their freedom to adventure through fields and forests as wolves and the social pressures to make friends in school. Environments as strikingly different as a school gymnasium, a stream cutting through snow-laden woods, and the farm hills near Hana’s new house are all beautifully realized, as is the gentle soundtrack which reprises the film’s main theme song a few times over with slightly different presentations. But despite how many weeks, months, or years the film might skip over to reach its next important life lesson or learning experience for Ame, Yuki, and Hana, the pacing feels spot-on throughout.

Wolf Children is truly a gorgeous film from start to finish, and a genuinely emotional adventure to top it off. Yuki’s obsession with snakes and frogs grosses out her classmates in a hilarious manner, while the scrapes and bruises that Ame gets when he is young and unprepared for the expanse of the wilderness lead him to feel sad and both Hana and the viewer to channel paternal instincts toward him. In terms of its quality as a standalone fantasy film, Wolf Children earns its place among the greats like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the works of Studio Ghibli, despite Wolf Children focusing more on the earthly challenges of single parenthood, and Ame and Yuki attempting to both understand the big open world and find their places in it.

My rating: 9.25 (out of 10)

3DS review: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

One of the earliest big-name releases for the 3DS, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D was effectively a means for Capcom to tide Resident Evil fans over until the release of the more bold and highly-anticipated Resident Evil: Revelations. The Mercenaries 3D has a very similar control scheme to its 3DS sister title, but plays quite differently. The major stages from the mercenaries bonus game modes of both Resident Evil 4 and 5 have been compiled in The Mercenaries 3D. The first handful of missions act as tutorials, asking for players to perform simple tasks like running past a dozen or so markers before the time runs out, or killing ten to fifteen enemies. As each mission is cleared, the parameters become a little more complex. While it is good of Capcom to throw these tutorial bits into the mix for those who may have missed out on the modern RE titles, it is also mildly annoying that there is no option to skip them, and seasoned veterans of the arcade-y mercenaries gameplay style may find the first twenty-five minutes boring and tedious.

That said, once the full mercenaries mode is made available, it proves quite enjoyable. The Mercenaries 3D lacks any sort of story mode, so anyone interested in this title should keep in mind that this a purchase that should be made entirely on how much he/she enjoyed the mercenaries mode from Resident Evil 4 and 5. Stages like the African caves and medieval castle remain largely unchanged, though a few of the larger ones have seen small portions cut from them. The limited spawn counter issue from Resident Evil 4 seems to have been rectified, as enemies will continue to descend onto the battlefield as long as you keep shooting them up. Overall, the game looks quite good – the textures are certainly not as impressive as on the home console releases, or even as impressive as in Revelations, but for as early a 3DS release as The Mercenaries 3D was, it’s none too shabby.

There are eight characters to select from, and while only a couple are available from the outset, the rest will be unlocked through a natural process of completing each ‘chapter’ worth of stages (each chapter usually consisting of approximately a dozen missions or so). There is also an in-game achievement list, and meeting certain criteria like beating a mission while using only one weapon or chaining a set number of combo kills will net rewards like abilities and alternative costumes for the eight characters. The costumes provide little more than an aesthetic alteration, which is a bit disappointing, since Resident Evil 5 saw different loadouts ascribed to each new costume. The aforementioned abilities can be added to a character’s loadout to grant them slight boosts to their healing, critical hit ratio, mobility, and so on, and can come in handy when tackling some of the more grueling late game missions.

The Mercenaries 3D supports both single player action and cooperative via online or local means. The standard loadouts of Chris, Jill, Claire, Hunk, Barry, Rebecca, Wesker, and Krauser are nicely varied, and though some characters share the same weapons like the grenade launcher, the play style from one character to another is prevented from becoming too similar by providing them different types of ammunition and distinctly different physical stats. Rebecca is more about speed and offense, Krauser is something of a one-trick pony focused on accuracy and critical hits, Chris and Jill act as the two comfortable balanced defaults, etc. There may not be a lot of content to Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, but then again, it isn’t trying to deliver a full-fledged RE experience like Revelations or any of the numbered entries in the series. The Mercenaries 3D is meant to satiate a hunger for pure, unbridled arcade-y gameplay, and it handles surprisingly well on a handheld, touch screen implementation for herb healing and all.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry two

I’m already noticing a decent challenge factor from Sapphire, and I think this is brought on by two fronts. First off, the game limits the types of Pokémon you have access to early on. There are plenty of different Pokémon you can catch, all of them newcomers to generation III, and as a result, I give this angle much higher marks than the approach that Platinum took in throwing a bunch of old and boring Pokémon at you during its first few hours. Between my Sableye, Shroomish, Wingull, and Whismur, I feel like I have a decently rounded-out team for only being four hours into the game. I also caught two electric types - Plusle and Electrike – though I am currently unsure as to which I want to add to my party. Neither would prove highly beneficial at the moment, as the next gym is run by electric Pokémon expert Wattson.

And as much as I enjoy having a nice variety of Pokémon typings in my party, I have yet to encounter any Rock or Fire Pokémon in the wild (either one of which would make for a solid counter to the slew of Electric types I am set to take on). I know the Electric gym won’t be flat out impossible to trump with my current party, but I expect it will be rather challenging, especially if the first rival battle with May was any indicator of the overall difficulty factor of Pokémon Sapphire. Having just come off my playthrough of Pokémon Y, Sapphire certainly boasts a big difference in terms of its degree of difficulty.

I appreciate the fact that routes have thus far been relatively short, but also rather fully packed with trainers, items, berries, and fresh types of wild Pokémon. I feel like I’m getting a solid return on my battling/training without having to rely too heavily on potions (which is doubly nice, seeing as the reward money you earn from battles in Sapphire is seemingly minimal in comparison to other entries in the series). Distractions including package deliveries and a couple encounters with Team Aqua have been brief, and did well to avoid upsetting the pacing of Sapphire’s main focus. It is a little strange that Sapphire just sort of dumps Team Aqua into the story without much of an introduction, but oh well – I never expected the machinations of a villainous team hell-bent on the expansion of the sea to live up to the caliber of deviousness conveyed by Team Galactic or Team Plasma.

Pokémon Sapphire journal - entry one

I’ve finally scored a copy of Pokémon Sapphire, thus marking the start of my exploration of the third generation of Game Freak’s iconic RPG series. While Emerald was my preferred Hoenn title, I found that locating a legitimate copy of any of the generation III titles online was something of an annoying endeavor, and luckily one of the vendors at Youmacon had copies of both Ruby and Sapphire for reasonable prices. Ultimately, the version exclusives for Sapphire won the day, and as of right now I’ve clocked approximately one hour in.

The pacing for this journal will likely be slower than the journals I kept for Pokémon Y and Platinum earlier this year, simply because there are other video games that I am ranking as higher priorities than Sapphire. Also, I’ve played a ton of JRPGs this year, and while they are plenty of fun and offer a generally extensive amount of content, I feel like a break from the genre is in order. I still intend to post my review for Sapphire before the end of 2013, and in all likelihood, it will be posted before the end of November. But expect reviews of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Killer is Dead, and possibly even Pikmin 3 to be posted before then.

My starter was Treecko, though in truth, my starter Pokémon is largely irrelevant to this particular playthrough. I’ve already used all three Hoenn starters between my Platinum playthrough and Soul Silver replays. There are other Grass type Pokémon that I have my eyes on that I ultimately intend to use in lieu of Treecko, including Shroomish and Lotad. Unlike my past few Pokémon playthroughs, I do not have a core team of six ironed out from the get-go, though I certainly have ideas in mind, and plan to stick to my pattern of not reusing Pokémon from previous playthroughs (thus why Treecko will ultimately be boxed).

Obviously a single hour worth of gameplay hasn’t revealed to me much about the nature of Sapphire, but I am impressed with what little I’ve seen thus far. The game world looks surprisingly more visually impressive than I expected, and the fact that the introductory sequence was breezed through in a matter of minutes was a welcome manner of kicking things off. I guess I thought that the running shoes were a generation IV item, but those too proved a convenient bonus right from the start. As of now, my team is made up of the aforementioned starter, Poochyena, and Taillow, but I know there are Shroomish looming in the grass nearby, and a Grass/Fighting dual type evolution (Breloom) sounds like a cool addition to my roster.