Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

The James Bond of video games

The first Metal Gear-game I played... or maybe not completely true since I watched the neighbour play Metal Gear for the NES when I was a kid, but this was the first one I played and finished for myself. Got it as a birthday present... or maybe Christmas. Hard to keep those apart with only a couple days difference. I used to watch the preview clip that came with the Super Play magazine when it come out, together with the other Metal Gear Solid-games and I really liked the cinematic experience, but we never got any game for the Playstation 2, even tough as we bought it it could have included Metal Gear Solid 2. Got two controllers and Final Fantasy X instead. So the Metal Gear debut didn't happen until this game. And it was mind-blowing.

It's a nuclear-equped walking battle tank... and a cyborg ninja!!! AWESOME!!!

It might be totally ridiculous plot with nano machines, shamanistic giants, cyborg ninjas and a walking battle tank, but it's so fun. You play as Solid Snake, hero of former covert operations that stopped Big Boss, the former hero turned traitor that tried to create an eternal war for the soldiers to continue to fight without the "dirty" politicians corrupting the warrior spirits of the soldiers. Snake retired, but is pulled into action to infiltrate an American base on Shadow Moses Island that was taken over by Snakes old group Fox Hound during a military training and demonstration with a governmental official and the head for one military contractor. They threatens to launch a nuclear missile so Snake is sent in by his old boss Colonel Campbell (who I recently found out is voiced by the guy that voices Max Tennyson from Ben10). Objective to rescue the hostage and see if the terrorist can unleash their plan. So they send you in with a submarine and launches you on a torpedo into the base. Sneak in and rescue the first hostage, the DARPA chief and he spills the story. The government had a black ops building a new weapon, a Metal Gear, the same machine Snake fought two times before. And then he dies in a heart attack.

And of course the black guy dies first, how typical.

You get out and meet Meryl, the only soldier who didn't join the terrorists who apparently is Campbell's niece. You get deeper into the compound and discovers the other hostage tied up to explosives, but are put on a revolver duel with... Revolver Ocelot. The fight ends with the aforementioned Cyborg Ninja cutting of Ocelots arm. The hostage spills the beans and... he dies of a heart attack. Gotta be a coincidence. Before the death he tells you to contact Meryl with the code on the back of the box... what box? I think I was able to run back and forth at least two times  over the areas I've already been too before the helpful codec-conversation told me where to look, on the back of the game box... damn fourth wall breaking. So basically the plot has shifted to determine if Liquid Snake, the leader of the rouge agents, have accessed Metal Gear and if he has, be able to stop it. Also the Ninja appears to be a Frank Jaeger, Grey Fox that Snake saved in the first game and later fought in the second game. And the plot only gets more complicated, the rouge agent gets killed one by one until Meryl is caught and with her Snake. Snakes tortured and it is revealed the DARPA-chief have been dead for a long time... which I guess would clue in everyone that the first was a decoy, which is later proven right by another rouge agent before he is eaten by his ravens. Also depending if you withstand the torture or not affects if Meryl will live or die in the end of the game. First time I actually missed how to input the right commands which caused me getting the "bad" ending.

Before the ending I just have to finish of REX

Epic battle where Grey Fox sacrifice himself to save his old comrade. After the battle there's a one on one between the Twin Snakes. Also revealed that they are clones of Big Boss and that Liquid has a real inferiority complex. You beat him and either escape with Meryl or Otacon, the scientist that helped build Metal Gear REX. After a long drive with a pursuing Liquid that fires at you leave the base and prepers for yet another showdown when suddenly, Liquid dies in a heart attack. Earlier it was revealed that the nanomaschines that was injected in the start of the game also contained some sort of virus that simulates a heart attack in the right DNA-coded people. This is the reason people been dying around Snake. Snake and either person following him travels across the snow into the unknown future as the virus within Snake has some unknown parameters that could prove deadly for Snake as well. And then you either get a bandana for unlimited ammo or a cloaking device. And then you replay the game again. I really liked this game. The over the top acting is cheesy fun, the ridicules plot is worthy of a Bond-movie (and in some cases probably are more grounded in reality, I mean, the West willingly giving espionage information to China and Russia? I mean come on!). A pity it took forever after it to get to play another Metal Gear, next one was actually Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3 which caused some problems following the continuities in the games in-between.

Asdivine Hearts

Now we are talking JRPG:s dime of dozen

Got this game for the Wii U since it was one of the few fantasy JRPG:s to the system and after the modern Tokyo Mirage I wanted the old good vs evil gods, shadow vs light and the paragon of light hero standing up for the right cause and so and on. And it's really nothing special. The story is one of the more basic ones, but it satisfied me through it. It start one year after some mysterious light across the heavens and the world have become more dangerous as monsters have increased in numbers. You play as Zack who together with the obvious love interest Stella are heading out in the forest to release the wild-cat Felix that they took care at the orphanage they grew up in. While in the forest a mysterious light appears and try to hijack Stella's body, but Zack intervenes causing the light to enter the cat. The light is the light deity that have been pushed out of the heavens by the shadow deity (which caused the light in the sky one year prior). So you guessed it, it's out saving the world with your obvious girlfriend and the pet cat.

During the journey through Asdivine you will encounter the mysterious Uriel who follows Zack after he somehow saved her when her village was destroyed by monsters, but he can't recall the event and the oracle Celine who works for the Queen of Gutemburg Castle. And all girls have a crush on Zack... even the cat... who was the light deity who of course is female. Why not. There's actually a mechanic in that if you get a certain heart rating you get together with that girl in the end of the game. I maxed all up since... why not, but it still went for the ending with Stella, which was nice. Although I thought one could get all the girls, since Zack was such a charmer, but apparently it didn't work... maybe the fact that I changed difficulty from Hard to Easy to speed up the battle sequences and get to the end affected that, but since it only took less than 30 hours to play through the game it was rather nice just cruising through a game for a change.

You travel the world and enters Phantasma to confront the Shadow Deity. You find him, beat him and suddenly find yourself in another world, Revierie. I kinda guessed it since Uriel didn't know anything about the world which hinted on that she couldn't have come form Asdivine (also a prince from Gutenberg have been gone for a year and haven't been seen which also points toward that). You also meet this worlds Zack and Stella, some con-artist and thieves making a nice contrast to the hero of Zack and Stella. You travel this world and enters the final dungeon, climbing the Tower of Sephirot (is it a reference to Final Fantasy 7 or does the name have some important meaning in Japanese?) and learns the truth. Due to people stopped believing in the Deitys (especially the Shadow Deity) they are on their way to disappear. Lumiere the Light Deity didn't understand the threat and was the reason she was cast down. You now have to return to Asdivine where the Shadow Deity have taken over the Queen so you have to exorcise him from the Queen and finding the two servant legions of the Deity. As they commit suicide in helping Lumiere and breaking their vow to the Shadow Deity they summon Phantasmo, yet another otherworldly dimension. Getting through that and we are on the ending showdown with Noctademus and fight of his two forms. During the ending portion it is also revealed that Zack is somehow the light progeny, some kind of manifestation of light as a human... so like Jesus. So when you defeat Noctademus you also get it that light and shadow need to balance each other and since Zack is proficient with light he assumes the role of the new Light Deity as Lumiere take on the role as the new Shadow Deity with her experience as a Deity. And with enough points with Stella you show up to her after a couple of years since you had to stay in the heavens to master your powers.

Is it the end? No, by starting the save again you can fight Noctademus again and not use a certain item in the battle which makes him survive and occupy Stella's body (since she apparently is the Shadow Progeny) and another Deity shows up, the creator Deity... which was probably guessed as well since I think I saw it in the sequence that Lumiere was thrown out of the heavens and the game has 3 different magic teaching, normal, light and shadow. This one isn't as nice since it finds human evil problematic and want to take away their emotions to stop this to happening. Our heroes aren't happy so you traverse the two worlds and find yet another dimension. And damn, it's the worst cause they placed a mini-secret-boss that you have to fight to reach the end where I had to grind for 6 levels before beating, the damn cheater. Not only did he do two attacks in a row (some attacks damaging all party members for over 6000+ damage) but he was so fast he almost attacked after one of my characters could react. But I beat him and pushed to the end. Beat the boss that was a sprite swap of Noctademus final form and he concedes that humans heart maybe should be allowed to continue to feel emotions in that they even can challenge a god. He leaves and the game ends with order back to normal and beliefs in the deitys back as both Lumiere and Noctademus have regained their places. Stella and Zack hooked up. The End!

It really feels like the ending was a bit rushed or maybe not planed since the creator deithy almost comes out of nowhere... I say almost since there was one discussion about it, but out of nowhere Stella is pushed as a Shadow Progeny and nothing really comes out of that. Also, the ending enemies are atrocious since they take forever to kill and when the damn dragons appear, expect 10 minutes of just attacking to take away all the damn health. It still has its moments. I really like the interaction, especially between Zack and Felix although I don't know if I should see it as animal abuse. All in all nothing special. I also think it has some problems, for example, it didn't always register my direction input on the controller and that could be due to the game originally being an IOS title. If you like fantasy RPG:s and want something short, go for it, but as stated it's nothing special. One thing I found irritating is that there is no map over the dungeons, just for the overworked. Nice to know where I'm supposed to go, but finding my way around the final multi-level dungeons can be irritating as I sometimes forget if I was walking up or down and sometimes have a hard time remembering where to go to get out. Found it really irritating in the end.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

The game that really pushes the J in JRPG

This game... a game I wasn't gonna get, but as the release date came and went I looked at some reviews and after watching one trailer that had some really amazing music I couldn't resist so I got it. And immediately starting playing I wondered if I've made a terrible mistake. I knew getting in that it was a JRPG set in modern Tokyo so no problem there, although I prefer the more traditional fantasy setting, and as follows the kids are 18 year old high-school students... that are getting in the Japanese idol business. I assume my sister would find this game more enticing than me. But it is colourful and the music is really amazing. And as I play I realise that this is one of the best social commentaries of our modern world I've ever seen. It's even subtle. So basically the story starts as Itsuki (the main character) is hanging out on some kind of department store and waiting for his best friend Touma. Suddenly he is caught in a stream of kids all ages that are gonna try out some singing contest and there he spots Tsubasa, a childhood friend of his. He follows, she sings and suddenly the announcer is possessed by some ghost and kidnaps Tsubasa and take her into what we later learn is an idolashpere. Some kind of shadow place of the area we are in. Being the hero Itsuki jumps in afterwards. The idolasphere is dark, even creepy, filled with cloaked shadowy creatures roaming the corridors. He is attacked by one of them and... for some reason are able to infuse some strange light into the shadow and it appears it's Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening. They form a pact and rescue Tsubasa by infusing yet another shadow that turns out to be Shiida from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (the remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem-series). Touma appears to save them and it's revealed he had infused himself with Cain, the red knight from Shadow Dragon. They escape and Touma brings them to the attention of the president of Fortuna Entertainment, an agency for singers, actors and models.

... nice to meet you, miss President!

Itsuki and Tsubasa get hired and we launch Tsubasa's singing career while Itsuki does... support I guess. Really, it never fells like Itsuki is the main character of the game. It's mostly Tsubasa in the beginning with her search for her sister that disappeared 5 years ago  (that we rescue not long after) and her budding idol-carreer. Then it switch over to the last character to join the group, Yashiro. Yashiro is a male superstar that after some confrontations during missions joins their agency as he sees the best option to find out about his father that disappeared 5 years ago as well and his vengaence on the mirages who did this. The shadowy cloaked figures are mirages and are from another world. Images of the former heroes Fire Emblem, so besides those already mention there is Virion and Tharja from Awakening and Draug and Navarre from Shadow Dragon. As you can see, most characters are from Shadow Dragon and Awakening, but there are other references to the series. For example the waitress of the cafe in Shibuya is Illiyana from the Radiance-duology, the jeweller-sales woman gotta be Aime from the same game and both sales woman at the Ho He Mart is Anne that appears in several games in the series. Real satisfying when I realised that. Several of the games weapons are referenced and many villains of the series makes a return here. This is the setup, so what's the story? Gharnef, the evil sorcerer of Shadow Dragon has bonded with a human on earth and are about bringing forth the Shadow Dragon (from Shadow Dragon and Awakening) by stealing the performa (I would say something like talent and inspiration) of the humans and use it to resurrect Medeus. He failed 5 years ago due to Tiki's interference (the manakete from mentioned games) and are now doing it again. So you gotta stop him from stealing "performa". And here the subtleness of the game appears. It might be a sleazy contest holder that is corrupted, or a model photographer, or a TV/Movie director. People that some people put their trust in that can sometimes abuse that. The photographer example the easiest to remember due to that it originally was supposed to play up the "girls in bikini"-angle which they toned down in the west due to censoring over sexualization, of course taking away the message that you shouldn't always trust those that promises easy ways to stardom. Anyway, after figuring out who it is you decide that the only way to stop Gharnef is using the Opera of Light: Fire Emblem to counter the Opera of Shadow. You head in to a idolasphere of Tiki's memories and receive the powers of the ancient heroes that defeated Medeus before. Except the soul of Marth that Gharnef combines with his own in summoning the dragon. All seems lost, but Itsuki won't get down with a fight. They climb the final idolasphere and prepares to do the Opera of Light in hope that the stolen soul of Marth still would be triggered. And then...

WHOA!!! Did not see that coming!

If you can't see it's the reveal of Medeus and the first thing he does is fire a laser at Itsuki that kills him. We didn't even get to start the fight. Of courses friends mourn him and the soul of the other heroes emerges and attacks the dragon, releasing Marth's soul, turning Itsuki into Marth as they defeat the dragon and saves the world. Everyone become a giant star within their field and Itsuki takes over as president of Fortuna Enterprise since miss Maiko returns to her life as a model... well, she sure looks the part. It took me 70 hours to play through this game. And it's really mixed if I like it or not, I like the gameplay, fast and satisfying in battles, the music goes from awesome to so cheesy I can't help but like it, especially the songs they put in. And don't think I didn't notice the Splatoon reference in the game. Both songs and visuals. And as noted I liked the nods and references to the Fire Emblem-games, but the story. I liked the social commentary, and it's standard good vs evil, but the personal problem of the idols are boring as hell. It's about understanding "cute", "sexy", "how to be a hero", one has to learn about eating. Really, Yashiro don't get the concept of eating in regular intervals since that was what is assistant took care of. All I can say is that these character at least get character development from aliens and robots to somewhat functional humans. The only one that hardly get any is Itsuki. He's always the good guy or I at least I played him that way... with maybe a bit of flirtatious behaviour. Then again, he's constantly sexual harassed by Maiko so I don't know, maybe I played him with a bit of bad taste. Speaking of bad taste:

Goddamit Barry!

The most embarrassing character of the whole game. On one hand we have this death metal guitarist, former mirage master and the coach for everyone in Fortuna Entertainment. And the other hand... it's Barry Goodman. I don't mind his obsession with an animated kids show, hell, I've obsessed about nostalgic shows for me, but somehow Barry even grates on me. Then we have the love interest. It's obviously Tsubasa x Itsuki. But they don't get it, but everyone else see it. Doesn't stop every other girl for crushing on Itsuki. And the worst part? It actually feels like a better choice in some of them. Take Eleonoras side quest which is she needs help playing a young high-school girl that falls in love so she need Itsuki to go on a date with her so she can method act the role. The final side-quest is you doing those things again, but she quizzes you if you remember what you did. As to see if Itsuki actually played attention to her. And that is really sweet. I actually started to feel they belonged more together than Tsubasa and Itsuki. Sure, Eleonora was irritating at first with her "Hollywood" talk and boasting about her superior knowledge of the movie industry. But I still grew to like her and it really felt bitter-sweet that her dream become realised, she will go to Hollywood, but she will leave Itsuki behind.

Could be due to her being the most normal sized girl of them all around... the chest area

So the characters is hit or miss and their relationship between each other is mixed as well. Otherwise it's fun to play, and I really like the animated music videos (and most of the music ain't bad). Is it for everyone? No, I have a hard time myself with the modern world and the focus of the idol industry and frankly the idolaspheres mostly are dark and moody. They don't get better until the end when we finally have some forest and ruins that doesn't go in the colours black and purple. Still, would have preferred a more fantasy setting since there ain't no RPG for the Wii U in the west... can't wait for the Dragon Quest VII release.

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Greed is good!

The second sequel and instead of Mario we play as Wario, the final boss of the last game in our search for enough gold to buy our own castle. But since since we can't earn it the honest way we steal it from a pirate gang for our own selfish need. I played this game a lot and finished it almost 100 %, was one treasure I believe I couldn't find for some reason. Does this mean I'm super good at this game? No, I cheated the hell out of this game by pausing it, pressing the select-button 16 times and upgrade my hat and give me more time and gold. Nothing better than flying across the sky with the jet-bunny upgrade. 

How come Wario has the better looking villains?

So you battle the pirate gang until you defeat their female pirate captain (or rather her genie), the castle crumbles and you escape with the genies lamp and watch as the rubble reveals a giant golden statue of... Peach... or maybe Daisy? And who comes around if not Mario in a helicopter (where did he get that and where is it now?) and he steals the statue away from Wario who honestly got it... or maybe it was paying of the redecoration bill that Mario had commenced after booting Wario out of his castle. Wario summons the genie and depending on how much money and treasures you gathered the quality of  your castle will shift. Really, I really like playing through the game... with some help of course. Maybe I should play it legit sometime. This was also the final Mario land game since Wario apparently got so popular he took over the whole series and also the final Mario/Wario land game on the Game Boy, only colour from now on. And I still wish we could get the colour filter on the 3DS virtual console thank you very much.