Wild Arms (PS3)

Spagetti-RPG

More than a year ago I watched the Completionist let's play channel where they played this very game. It looked rather fun and since I had a craving for JRPGs I went ahead and got it. Finished it now and boy it was really good. It was probably a blessing since much that they played through I've already forgotten so it was fun to rediscover it although some twist you kinda can't forget. The special about this game is that it has a western setting and theme to it... which basically means that instead of a samurai game there is guns, since the spaghetti western already proved you could take Japanese samurai movies and set them in the west and they were as good (up to ones taste of course). Of course this is Japan so it isn't enough so you get Golems, which are basically mechs, demon cyborgs, space elves, guardian spirits, space stations and cities and human cyborgs. It's freaking amazing.

I AM IRON MAN!

The story is that the world of Filgaia is under siege by the race of demons, who are space travelling parasites, part machines. They are led by Mother who is the first and pretty much a Lavos who travel from planet to planet devouring it. But 1000 years ago they came to Filgaia where the Elw (space elves), humans and guardian spirits united their forces and defeated the demons and put Mother in stasis. Of course the battle took its toll so the Elw escaped to another dimension  while the technology level of humans went back from the space age one to a wild west setting while the guardian spirits put up mechanism to contain Mother which obviously, since this is an JRPG, starts to fail one Millenia later. The intro cutscene tells of the demons return and attack on castle Antarctica where they have found the cocoon prison of Mother in an excavation and only one person escapes the onslaught. Jump forward some years and you met your three main protagonist. Rudy, a boy who tries his best to help people, but since his abilities scares people he is always wandering aimlessly across the world. Then there is Cecilia, the princess of Adlehyde who is the chosen one of the guardians to be the protector of the Tear Drop, some sort of artefact. And last there is Jack, the swordsman treasure hunter with his talking mouse Hanpan... who quite clearly is the lone survivor of Antarctica. They all met excavating a golem named Lolitha and due to an attack of the demons that steals them away you set out on adventure to save the world.

Always bring a gun to a sword fight

During the course of the adventure you will fail to stop the resurrection of Mother, but since her only desire is to destroy the other demons allow you to finish her of since they want to make Filgaia their own home. In an confrontation with Zeikfried (the main demon lord after mother) he deciedes to chance it all by overloading a generator and creating a black hole that will swallow them all, but he believes he is strong enough so he uses a chain of magic silver to hold Rudy. As the chains won't break Rudy cuts his own arm of revealing that Rudy is really made of Living Metal, a machine created during the war as soldiers that went out of control to become killing machines. Of course Rudy is different since his time spent with his grandfather gave him a caring heart (although I've slaughtered monsters and demons left and right and hit bullies and so on). So you must go to the Elw dimension so that they can fix his arm. Unfourtunalty I remember that so the twist didn't have the same impact when I played through it. Also, Zeikfried ended up where Mothers weekend body was left and she devoured him overtaking his mind and continue her search for destroying Filgaia. A tower rises in the middle of the world and you climb that and end up on a space colony that orbited the planet and has a final confrontation with "Motherfried"... utterly ridicules name. After that you use the transportation device back, but are intercepted by Zeikfried that regained his own will and fight in the dimensional space causing the tower to explode and the Golem sacrificing himself to save our heroes. Freaking AWESOME.

You're an ugly Mother...

Really this game is so over the top with it's setting and it's memorable and fun to wander this world. The gameplay is amazing, besides the typical rpg you have tools in which you can traverse the dungeons which is fairly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda, with hookshot, magic wands, bombs and radars which also gives us some rather fun puzzles (except those that are just a pain, like the four statues that makes three of them placed correctly and the fourth must be destroyed by a bomb). Also, the music is unbelievebale good and fit the western themes with acoustic guitars, whistling and so on. It's really good, although I think it glitches out on me a couple of times when it couldn't decide which music track to play or which sound effect to use... of course just change setting and you are good to go. Talking about glitches I need to tell that I played the game as intended for almost half the time then I recalled the duplicator tricks and used that to max out my stats. The trick is that you use an item twice in combat and then change it with something you only have 1 of and want to duplicate. The game doesn't realise the item has been moved so uses the items with intended effect, but since its counting the new item which only has 1 of it counts zero and then 255, giving you 255 of that item. This is a really simple glitch when even I understand why it occurs. This apparently only works on the original game, but really, the game isn't that hard and it probably saved me 10 hours of grinding for levels and cash. If I play this game again I will most likely play it as intended without the glitch, but I just wanted the story this time. 

To think that one of the characters is actually almost 30, unthinkable

A final note, I already mentioned the similarities to Lavos from Chrono Trigger, another similarities was a cutscene when a tsunami was hitting the world which looks identical to a scene played after the destruction of the Kingdom of Zael and then one of the concept arts during the credits looks awfully familiar to a similar concept art for Chrono Trigger. Just a funny note.(you could probably say the tower of Kal Dingle is similar to the Black Omen). Also, New Year Tomorrow. Wonder what 2016 will have in store.

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

Where's Jar Jar?

Finally watched the latest Star Wars movie and gotta say, I'm satisfied... of course I probably said that back in 1999 as well. I even watched episode IV-VI in anticipation and at this very moment VII feels faster and better paced than all the old ones. Better characterisation than I-III, maybe equal to the original trilogy and same music, but felt more present than the others. Very much better dialoge although some names still sound rather silly, like Snokes. Really intimidating... or maybe not. So now I'm gonna be a real Homer and spoil many parts of the movie so a fair warning.

Last warning: Spoilers ahead!

So Rey is the Jedi of this series? Fine enough. Beating of a trained... sith-lord (?) in the way of the force? Hey, if you possess stronger force powers than sure, quick learner and adaptable so fine by me.  Dual better? Here comes a grey zone. I accept Fin since the first enemy he meets with a lightsaber is a fellow stormtrooper wielding an electrified baton which seemed to work as a sword substitute and he could have got training so fine. Rey only wielded a staff... but then again, she might have gotten training in many weapons as fast she handled the blaster. All it comes down to is who her family is. I might not even have noticed if my twitter feed hadn't exploded about Mary Sue-tweets, and maybe I shouldn't care. 

Another big spoiler is that Kylo Ren is Han Solo and Leia's son, Ben. My sister think they should have gotten an actor that would have looked more like either parent. He also kills Han Solo in the end battle. And Chewie survived which was probably the biggest question when you realise Han is gonna die. It's also here they seemed to jumble the time and space to get characters at their position in the right time. Kylo Ren appearing before Rey and Fin in the woods after the killing of Solo. I know, speed-force and force jump might explain it, but still. And then we have the First Order commander picking up Kylo Ren after the battle and escape right as the planet is destroyed. When the Millennial Falcon barely makes it out. Also speaking of the Starkiller (which probably is an honourable mention to Luke's original surname) what planet was the Federation located at? Was it Courocont (sp?)?

Last spoiler is that the movie ends as Rey finds Luke Skywalker at  the first Jedi Temple location... without him saying a word. Nothing to say, good ending. Can't wait for episode VIII.

Space Harrier

What did they smoke back in the eighties?

So I got the Sega Ultimate Collection so I have 40 new (and old) games to play with upscaling so they take on the whole screen and save states. Save states that makes it possible for me to finish the damn games. Why haven't they been released on the Wii U virtual console? Why? I got many of them on the Wii virtual console, but who can finish these games without serious memorisation... or just getting good and I ain't got time for that. So save states it is. Sadly I found it used the same day it arrived where I could have saved 200-300 SEK.

Seriously, what is this?

There's no story, you are just some guy holding on to a missile which can fire lasers and you shot monsters and navigates obstacles for 18 stages... and that was pretty much gameplay as well. I played one stage like that in Wonderful 101 and I get it was a homage to this game so now that I played it... boy we didn't expect much from games back then. 18 stages? With just shifting colours and faster speed? And several bosses are the same with just a palette swap and they pretty much use the same AI... if you can call it that? I get it was still the time when high scores was the driving points of games and especially this one which was the arcade version, but come on, no explanation? Not a saving your girlfriend from the last boss or something like that? Well, at least it was an experience and it probably has some other historical value. At least it's Christmas tomorrow. Happy Christmas or whatever you celebrate.

Ace Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste!

It was AMAZINGLY COOL! Damn, this puts Apollo Justice to shame since this one has a better connection to Ace Attorney. Frankly, we have Gumshoe, Wendy Oldbag, Menkins, Lotta Hart, Maggy Pie, Viola from the loan shark agency, both Von Karmas, Payne and Larry Butz and you know  that if something smells, it's usually the Butz. They even got Ema Sky. Apollo Justice got Ema Sky and Phoenix Wright.

We're a DUO, A DUO

It's basically the same although more focus on the cases and finding evidence to use compared to the Attorney games. It's a bit more fun though since it is actually much more logical compared to Phoenix insane turn it upside down logic. Although some things make me appreciate Dual Destinies saving futures. I was gonna play it legit and did up to the last case where I restarted twice due to failure and after that I used a walkthrough to finish it up. Damn final villain was hard to get. Mostly since it was so insanely long without much way in restoring the bar at the top. Especially when I have to finger him for the crime *spoilers* you use a statue, but there is two of them so don't fail to show the right one. *spoilers*. Also, you can walk around the actual sites and at points deduce if methinks wrong and such. And the music, Edgeworths theme is one of the best and here it's used all over. The new music isn't bad either.

Murder on the dance floor.

The story is that while traveling back to the states Edgeworth stumbles upon the activities of a smuggling ring that been active for over 10 years leaving dead corpses all over and some of them being important for the career of Edgeworth himself. So it's your job to stop this ring together with the always loyal Gumshoe and series newcomer Kay Faraday, the great thief who hunts for the truth. Another things it ups over Apollo, the story actually means something for Edgeworth and those around him. It's almost like they dropped all side characters and wanted to start new with Apollo and gave Edgeworth all remaining ones. They made a sequel, but sadly it's still stuck in Japan so I must wait for the next game... whenever that is coming.

Ace Attorney: Duel Destinies

He's Back, the Man Behind the Badge and he's after... the truth?

So I finally finished this game which I got around I got the New 3DS. I played the intro and half the first "real case" and just stopped. Probably because it was just so absurd and the story didn't grip me, didn't help that the protagonist was Apollo together with newcomer Athena Sykes. It was just a stop until the next case which just flipped out on the crazies... although I knew who the bad guy was even before the murder was discovered.

Hey! Teacher! Leave these kids alone!

No, the big case is the third one which takes place before and after the tutorial case. It's long, but it needs that to establish characters, motivations and the drama. It tells the tale of sabotaged space program and how this games prosecutor Simon Blackquill ended up on death row. It's amazing and actually has a twist on the culprit that would have been really good... if I hadn't stumbled upon it at TVTroopes. Damn that site. So it spoiled the big shock which would have been awesome hadn't I read it since I couldn't have believed it. I also got the special episode telling the first case Phoenix Wright took after getting his badge back. Also a great episode which is very tragic in it's core story and at the same time really silly due to some of the premises. Both the last episode and this special one had a visit by Pearl Fey and it was so damn fun to see. Klaus Gavin also made an appearance and the best character of them all shows up to take the stand once again.

I broke the law and the law won!

The music, the scenery, the stories and the throwbacks to the earlier games all makes this game better than Apollo Justice. I care about the defendants, the lawyers have a personal stake in it and friends get in trouble and have to take the stand so I can save them. I can dislike Blackquill and at the same time pity him after I find out how he became so twisted and see his good sides. Apollo Justice probably suffered from having Phoenix Wright shoved into the story, but this game knew how to use all three attorney's. One final note I have to mention is that the game is a lot easier, both gameplay wise and I think as well overall, I hardly had any trouble and I didn't feel the need to... "look ahead" so to speak. The gameplay changes are that I can save and reload anywhere... which makes it possible to cheat a bit by save scumming the answers, but why bother when the game lets you restart from the final question you depleted your bar with and they even refill it. This takes away the dread from having to figure out a puzzle before you have to restart 1-2 hours of lost game progress. Quite enjoyable overall and I'm at the moment busy with Ace Investigations, the spin-off staring Miles Edgeworth himself. Oh, this is gonna be so cool.

Resident Evil 4

The first Resident Evil game I've ever played

I noticed in the last post I never wrote anything about this game so I decided to amend that and I finished it a couple of times with only hard difficulty setting left... and I will probably not finish that since I had a hard time on Normal, of course I used the special costume that made Ashley invincible making the more frustrating parts a little bit easier. The story is that Leon Kennedy has just been assigned as the US presidents body guard, but his daughter have been kidnapped and your first assignment is to get to Spain and get her back. A nice stroll through the Spanish countryside, how quaint.

Oh, the welcome committee, you didn't have to.

As per usual with Resident Evil all villagers have been infected, not with a virus, but with a parasite. A local chief, noble and a cultist leader are using it to take over the world as they want to infect Ashley that can infect the President and then they can take control of the US and of course THE WORLD! Obviously, its up to you to stop them. The plot is rather easy, but they made it atmospherical as you play through the first time and begins to figure out what's happening. There is like 4 different locations. The village, the castle, the island and a medical facility. Really, the village and castle are the best parts although the enemies are getting a bit frustrated in the castle area with instant kill and crossbows. Of course those are all over the island and facility. Plus it just feels more like a shooter at that point... or more like a sniper shooter. 

The easy mode for all other modes... or the mode to play the whole game

I got the Wii version just before Halloween back in... 2009? 2010? I can't remember, but I recall I had to restart after playing through the first part since I completely bungled the resources and finding the treasures to sell and upgrade my weapons. So with a walkthrough on the computer I played it through on Easy. I also figured I missed certain areas that was missing so to get the full experience I had to play it at least on Normal, but thank god for the mobster costume that gives Ashley a suit of armour that makes her invincible to attacks and to heavy to be carried away. Stress eliminated for several encounters in the castle as you could take your time with the sniper, which incidentally is probably the best weapon as its the most powerful and if you line the shoots up save a ton of ammo from other weapons. Of course the semi-automatic sniper is the way to go as you don't have to loose the sight each and every bullet reload.

I hate the later game monster

Replaying the game is a very satisfying procedure unfortunately it is crippled with a bit of irritating game design. First, if you want to change difficulty, start a new save. No keeping the old weapons on other difficulties and they probably saw that as a fault as well, since both 5 and Revelations makes it able to change difficulty. Another problem though is that you can't delete saves. I got it that you could if you deleted the save thing on the console, but the problem is all unlockables disappears as well. So I made another mistake and that was saving every singel act change and such meaning I now have several saves, when I at most need 3, one for each difficulty. So if I want to change that I have to replay the game 3 times.... I hate that.

Freedom Planet

A cat on a motorcycle? That's it, the cat-craze on the internet has gone to far!

So after playing some classic fast-paced plattformers of the past I saw that this game would come to the Wii U to Halloween, and since the I've already played Resident Evil 4 (seems I haven't written about it, might be an idea for a future game) which they released as well, I thought this would be a bit more fun. I also recalls seeing Some call Me Johnny's review back... when I saw it and I thought it looked good. So I downloaded it and started playing it and boy, first scene is an alien overlord cutting the head of a local king and brainwashing his son to do his bidding... and I thought it would be a cute anthropomorphic animal game, but it's more bloodier than some Resident Evil games. They even have a torture scene and several more beheadings.

Apparently I choose the right game for Halloween!

So after that shock I played the game and found it rather fun. I just choose Adventure mode since you know me, story first. So you either choose Lilac the purple/blue dragon girl or Carol the green wildcat girl to speed through the different levels and beat up the boss here and there. While exploring the stage you can get star cards that gives you things like music or voice clips for a sound mode or concept art. Now, when you play the game, especially after playing Sonic 1 and 2 you start to feel familiar with the stages and how many things work, like the loops and springs. The reason being that the game originally was intended as a Sonic fan-game, but it became its own thing, but the influences are there. I would even go as far as say it's a greatly improved speed plattformer compared to the Sonic games, although I shouldn't be so critical due to Sonic being released 25 years ago. This game don't have the ring system, instead opting for a health meter which is based on red leafs you can collect to replenish. Also, you can dish out a couple of attacks during your run and even use them to escape certain attacks. Doesn't mean you don't end up at stages that are more slower like the Sky Battalion stage where you need to be careful or you run of the ship (happened to me twice).

The motorcycle is actually rather fun as it climbs walls and ladders.

The story begins when Lord Brevon crash-lands on this planet after being shot down by the Chasers who protects the planet from this alien madman. Seeing his chance on this primitive planet he reenacts the opening scene and wants to steal the planets energy so he can get back home (boy, its like G1 Transformers cartoon and the search for energon) to continue his conquest. He is followed by Torque, the last of the Chasers that get's help of Lilac and Carol to stop him from stealing the Energy Stone, an ancient artefact given to this planet by a cosmic dragon. The game has very detailed sprite cutscenes and the music is amazing on several stages. The first stage and the Business district especially looks amazing. Even some rather good voice acting talents on this game. This game is at least Oscar worthy compared to the voice acting of Grandia. A rather fun game to play and apparently more characters will be added in the future like Spade, Torque and Milla getting her own Adventure mode. Hope it will be fun.

Super Mario Bros. 1-3

Closest thing to capture all three games in one image

Since it's Mario's 30 years anniversary (while writing this that is) and me skipping over Mario Maker (since creating my own courses is gonna fail, no stable internet access and me not want to play other people's hellish nightmares) I will instead look on the classics, the first three games for the NES that I played as a kid. Even though the picture at the top is from the SNES All-Stars I'm gonna speak from the perspective of the original games since those are the ones I most recently played (due to having them on my 3DS... and Wii U). So lets start from the beginning.

Ah, the classic look of a time-less classic

So we got it to the NES back in the early 90's. Best thing was that you could play as two players so either me and my dad could play or me and my sister. I think I used to be Mario, although I wanted to be Luigi since he was green. Never finished this as a kid. The closest I got as a kid was 8-1. I got pretty close when the browser based game with several different 8-bit heroes like Simon Belmont, the Contra guy, Mega Man and some others. The Contra guy being the best since every enemy or block gets destroyed before it can even hit me. I got to the final level and... failed the damn platforming maze. I  never reached Bowser. So when I finally got them on the newest systems with save state function, I play through them, compensating my lowered reactions and patience to relearn every single enemy pattern. Alright I might be pushing 30, but in video game years that must be in the late 50's. I need every help I can get. Of course the sense of beating it is of course lost and really, what is the point playing games if you have to cheat to beat it? Well, since most of my childhood was spent on learning these games, I think I put enough time on them to deserve to see the end screen. Also, there was a lot of secrets in the game like the warp pipes at the end of 1-2 or those at 3-2 (?, the first Lakkittu stage or whatever), but I can't in my life get how we found it out. This is pre-internet days so how did we know? Did we stumble upon them?

The Mario game that isn't a Mario game, and yet is a Mario game

The second game in the series and as we all know isn't the real 2nd game, but a reskin of another game that Miyamoto worked on, and later he took many of the enemies and put them in other Mario games, effectively adopting the game into the series. First time I played it was with my cousins game and when we travelled from Gothenburg one summer we found it in a store and bought it as well. This was the last of the first Mario games we bought. Then I got it again for the GBA as the first game as well. The fun thing with this game is you could choose between four different characters. Sadly I think the longest I got was past the first boss, the 3-headed snake at the bottom of the pyramid. The least played of the originals for me.

Interesting that in 2-3 Mario goes toward the right while in the first game it went to the left... which you couldn't do in that game

The biggest game of the three. And we actually got to the last world, but that was that. Easiest way was getting the two first flutes and enter world 2 and then warp forward. As the first game, how did we know how to get those two flutes as kids? I guess I saw my cousins play it and they got it, but how did they know? I don't think they saw the Wizard that let everyone else know. Maybe there is something in those Nintendo magazine we got from them. Again, me and my sister played this game over and over, if nothing else just so we could fight each other for the special cards you get at the end of each stage. And as always, we didn't finish it. I finished it on my 3DS and Wii U with save state support. How people could finish these games as kids I don't know.

So that's my memories from my childhood. coupled with some reflections as I replayed the games again. Didn't focus much on story because....  well 1 and 3 was Bowser or King Koopa kidnapped princess Toadstool later known as Peach and Mario and Luigi had to get her back. The second game was Mario dreaming about a door where he and his friends entered and they appeared in a world where some people asked for their help in stopping Wart. Music in all 3 games are rather good and are classics used over again... maybe not the second game, but the others as late of Paper Mario had many of the songs reused and remixed. Graphics are of it's time, but they are nostalgic and I prefer them over the vamped up sprites of the All-Star compilation and one reason I skipped buying the 25th anniversary game... especially since it didn't have anything else to show like Super Mario World or some other Mario games. Why get it, when I have all games on Virtual Console?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 3D

The first game to my very own first console

So I took the time to play through the second game as well and finished it rather fast, may be due to me finishing it a couple of years ago with my sister and almost finished as a kid... again with my sister. She played as Tails and basically defeated every boss while I sped through the stages since i played the games more, but had a hard time with the Metropolis Robotnik since I couldn't get his pattern down. What we didn't do was finish with all the chaos emeralds in our possession. Funny enough the Super Sonic made the final stage much harder since you speed-up so you miss the fine tuned platforming section... wasn't Sonic about being fast? Then why is it harder if I go fast? Lucky the save state function make it possible to finish it 100 %. Another funny thing is that we finished the game on my Nintendo Wii. 

Here we have a real special stage!

The thing about this game is that my parents bought me a Sega Mega Drive with two controllers and Sonic 2 when I learned to ride a bike. I guess I rode the bike for maybe 5 years and after that I never rode it again. Still plays video games. I can compare this game to the first one and I can say is this game is much better. In the graphics apartment we have the Special stages that gives the 3D effect something to work with and the music is at the top. Each stage is a marvel from start to end. Best is Metropolis Stage. Love it. Also the addition of a somewhat 2-player mode is rather fun and as I mentioned enabled me and my sister to actually finish it... since Tails is basically immortal. Need to see if I can get a Super Tails mode in collecting each emerald and such. Really, this game is clearly an improvement.

And to think I became an obsessed Nintendo-fan!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3D

Apparently the fastest thing alive

So after many years I finally finish the original Sonic the Hedgehog game... or really not the original, but the remastered 3D version for the 3DS which includes save states and other goodies. I got a version closer to the original on the Wii Virtual Console, but that was a bit of a shock to play for me the first time since everyone said it was so fast and so, but he really wasn't. Growing up I only played the 2nd game, and there you could spin-dash. In this game you need momentum which you loose if you stop or get hurt. God how annoying that is to loose such an important function. Thankfully you can choose if you want it in this remake.

He can't catch the fat scientist, fastest thing alive you said?

Can't say I got the story for this game, Robotnik (that's what I grew up with, I never played a Sonic game where he was called Eggman) has kidnapped some forest critters and put them in his robots to do... whatever Robotnik is after. So Sonic set out to stop them. That's pretty much it. Graphics are nice, but some of the worlds can be rather frustrating to pass through, especially all the water ones when the time limit is put in action and the horrible music is used for suffocating. Funny thing I found out is that it was an extra second after the countdown which really simulates the eternity of waiting for the saving bubble. If it would be nice to show it self. Music was alright, but the only memorable track is the first world, the classic Green Hill Zone. An interesting thing to note that the Chaos emeralds are here, but they don't actually do anything other than some credit-scene changes. And don't get me started on the damn mini-game to get them.

What is this maze-like contraption?

The added 3D effects don't do much as far as I can see. Overall I can't say I like this game, everything the second game did was a clear improvement creating a much more enjoyable gameplay experience. Maybe if I played this one first I might have found it fun, but as is it feels archaic without the additions to make it closer to the second game. Speaking of the second game it was just released as a 3D classic so guess what's the next Sonic game will be... when I ever finish that one.

Spectre

Live and Let Die?

So I saw the latest Bond-film yesterday at the cinemas and I thought it was okay for a Bond-film or even an action movie. Apparently the reviewers are on another side, but then again, it's not perfect. Some complains about the chase scenes, some about the call-backs to the pre-Craig films. My complaints lie in that the film was pretty blurry at times, not the chase scenes, but perspective shots with a character in the foreground or background. To often and obscured some scenes. And then the standard intro song was bleh, I can't now recall it and that is a problem with a lot of the modern Bond movies, they don't have great songs or even great music at all. Of the Craig-songs I must say Quantum of Solace have a great track, but apparently I'm alone on that, it like the Eurovision all over. Really miss John Barry's score for the films since he knew how to use the main themes and tracks to really push a scene to the limit.

Other problem with the movie is a plot hole to me. So it begins in Mexico as 007 are hunting an assassin for Judy Dench dying wish. He goes to the funeral in Rome and the widow tells him about this meeting with the biggest villains in the world. There we find out about a scheme to take global control of all the worlds intelligence agencies and MI6 are one target as it is joined together with MI5 and are pushed to be a part of the 9 Eyes organisation including members of South Africa and... China? Heres the problem. I gather it's a collect information and share information collectively. Now why would western democracies join together with the Chinese? Apparently someone mentioned G8 and South Africa which would include Russia? Why? It doesn't make sense, we have enough problems and mistrust with sharing information and spying on democracies between EU and USA and why then would we give our information (which includes who oppose the autocratic regimes of Russia and China), why give away our intelligence network? The film tries to establish terrorists forcing the governments hands, but I don't buy it.

That's my main complaints about the movie. For Bond-lovers out there you can always quiz yourself if you can get the call-backs. Heres some of those I found so potential spoilers. Mexico felt like a Live and Let Die segment. Bond was gonna be replaced by 009 although the other movies seemed to push for 008. 009 was the clown in the Octopussy opening and the agent shooting Renard, but not killing him in The World Is Not Enough. The clinic in the Alps is clearly a reference to Blofelds clinic in Her Majesties Secret Service. They travel to Tengir which was the location for several scenes in Living Daylights. The train scene felt like the Orient Express from Istanbul in From Russia with Love. The compound in the desert was at a place looking like a volcano reminding of of Blofelds lair in You Only Live Twice and big spoilers Ernst Stavro Blofeld is in this movie with his white cat... the film is called SPECTRA so what did you expect? To me the torture chair just at the beginning reminded me of the speed tester in Moonraker. As they escaped the blown up MI6 complex they took a boat looking like the one Pierce Brosnan hunted the assassins in the World is Not Enough. These I found, I didn't mention other Craig movies and Blofeld is technically all Spectre movies, but what's the point pointing that out? 

I'm guessing next movie I will see at the cinema will be the new Star Wars movie. Just one and a half month left.

Paper Mario

Decided to play some lightweight game

So I finally played through Paper Mario for the third time. This time with the convenience of the Wii U and all that it entails. So what can I say about this game? I both like it and find it rather tedious. The story is rather fun and doesn't take itself serious. Nice characters and the musical nods to the previous games are fantastic. The mechanics are also well done with the badge system, the levelling up system and mostly the battle system. What is annoying is that Mario walks so damn slow. Really, the first two times playing I almost fell asleep before the tutorial was over and I reached Toad Town. The battle also drags a bit due to waiting to execute the command attacks and defences that are relaying on timed action presses. I did think it slowed down Magical Starsign and it does the same here. Also, could the timed button presses be more clarified when it's a hit or a miss? Especially the multi bounce attacks seems to change the hitbox window every time I try it and it doesn't help that I have to relearn it every time Mario changes shoes or a new companion is added.

A cheap-cheap? Great 4 new timed actions to keep in mind!

So the story is basically that after Mario gets an invitation to Princess Peach's castle Bowser crash the party and with the stolen Star Rod makes himself invincible so Mario has to gather the 7 star sprites so that they can stop the power of the star rod that grants wishes. Wow 3 lines, that is the story summed up? I could probably add that you will encounter and recruit different people like the cheap-cheap, a koopa, a gomba, a para-koopa, a bomb-om and so on. They basically are used to solve different puzzles in order to reach the end of a stage were a boss awaits and after that a star sprite.

Interestingly it's the one with glasses that are the only one that escaped on his own AND has the best offensive attack

Not much else to say then that it is a fun game, albeit with minor issues that can affect people differently. At least it's better than Sticker Star.

Grandia

Time for an adventure!

First a bit of confession. I began this game about a year ago, but didn't finish due to my sister returning home from Germany and with her in the house no one was safe so I let it be. Until two weeks before writing this. I remembered I still hadn't finished this game and started it up and after two weekends that totaled my playing time to around 60 hours when I reached the end screen. And what a journey that was. You have to excuse me if I can't remember every detail since I took a time off for a year. The story is that the age of adventure has come to an end since the great wall was discovered and no one could pass through it and the world was declared fully explored. This doesn't stop or main hero Justin, a boy living in... I have forgotten were he lives, but I know it was with his mom. He set out together with his... was she a cousin or just a next door friend? Her name was Sue anyway. Crossing the ocean on a ferry they meet up with Feena, a famous adventurer and they join forces. The reason Justin left I recall was also due to him antagonising the Garlyle forces who excavated some ruins where Justin was told to search for a mysterious legendary city.

Atlantis? No? Alent?

Of course you are able to traverse the wall and discover a new part of the world and as any JRPG the military antagonist already found it. And here I was stumped, I didn't find them as antagonising. I was trespassing in a dangerous area and they seemed to care very much for the protection of the citizen. So who was the enemy? Well, it was the General Baal (really? One of the false gods that Elias threw out of Judea? Clearly a nice guy) who seemed to have gone insane by fusing with a corrupted spirit stone that wanted nothing else than destroy the world in an eternal cycle of life and death. To help him his son Colonel Mullen and (*SPOILERS*) Feenas sister Leen tries to take Justins spirit stone his father gave him and so on. It feels rather fresh when there isn't a conquering empire as your enemy, but some misguided military people who are betrayed by the higher ups. Baals action even turns his own son Mullen against him as he forces a mutiny in the ranks of the military to depose his father. Of course I have to do the dirty deed and dethrone Baal since he won't give up. All in all a really tight story written from start to end. You have the sense of excitement of traversing the great wall, the sadness of farewell when Sue departs back home.

One of the saddest moments in the game

That moment also tells me Justin is really a sociopath, or does he have ADHD? Whatever it is, he can't seem to figure out other people. The whole love story between him and Feena is so obvious I can't believe he missed it. Still, it was fun playing. And mostly due to the levelling system. You have the normal levelling up system, but a twist is that magic and skills level up with use. Normal sword attacks, gain points and new special attacks. Use fire spells and learn a new spell. Hit the right amount of levels and detect other attacks and skills. Rather fun using spell after spell and see the numbers fly away and reach that level up to unlock another spell. A pity the only ones that makes it easy to level up are attack spells which are favoured by fire and after the first slope Earth. Water was woefully neglected by most party member even though it has all healing spells.

Um... who is the knight guy on the left?

The ending is that Baal merges with the stone Gaia and transform into a giant worm and is stopped by Leens sacrifice which traumatises Mullen and Feena is guilt tripped into join him on a suicide mission as their only course of action. Justin unable to figure out a way out of this is left behind and lost until a reunion with all characters that joined you creates a portal to the spirit world were he receives the spiritual sword and can challenge Gaia. He saves Feena and Mullen and fights of Baal and Gaia. Feena and Justin wakes up below the giant tree that appeared instead of the Gaia worm and we watch as the people celebrate, only Mullen stand above them, left alone after his fathers death and Leens sacrifice. Spirits starts to gather and in a flash of light Leen is brought back to life. Even Grandia knew what the players wanted Ni No Kuni! Then credits roll and after that a post-credit scene in which it has gone 10 years and Sue is walking to the port as Justin and Feena are returning and what do you know, five familiar looking kids runs past her and we end as she is waiving toward Justin and Feena as they get of the boat (I presume since it fades to white as she waives at the audience). And I was so excited to play the second game in series to see the follow-up adventure of Justin... but it appears they went with the Final Fantasy type of series and created a completely new world for each game. Damn.

Don't look so cheerful Sue, we ain't seeing you in those games either.

So is there something I don't like about this game? First is the points of no return. Each new town feels like it and I would really loved to have seen Justins mom's reaction of him returning home. Other games usually gives you an airship at the end so you can see the world and return to old places to give the end battle even more impact, but not Grandia. And then we have the biggest issue.... the damn voice acting for the game. This must be one of the earliest games I've heard with voices and they are mostly atrocious. Especially Mullen who sounds bored out of his skull and Baal I can't take seriously. Sadly, they open up the game. Justin goes back and forth with decent to abysmal and Feena is probably the only one that sound normal... most of the time. At least the music is awesome. No, but really, it was a fun game to play through and it hit some sweet spots. I'm more amazed that even though I didn't play it for a year I could jump right in and finish it and still remember all the characters that joined me and some of the more important moments like Justin and Feena at sea and the goodbye of Sue. Wonder what I should play next?

Splatoon

Paintball: The Game

As mentioned in this post I bought Splatoon as a tribute to Mr Iwata and now I can write about it. Took me 3 months you say? No, it actually it took 2 weeks to finish the single player campaign and since I want to avoid a drought or flood of post I have the system of letting these game post release every Wednesday. So it can fall out of sync, but I believe it is for the better in the long run for this blog, instead of the month long droughts I had at certain times and it also makes me less guilty in not writing with a 3 month back-up.

Well, back on track

So I played the game and it was fun. I haven't got the full experience since I haven't played any online matches or such or even attempted the amiibo challenges since I haven't got any of the Splatoon amiibos (or any amiibo at all). As stated I played the single-player campaign with its 29 missions and 5 boss battles to get a good grip on the controls and the mechanics of the game. The story of the single player is as absurd as many Nintendo games tend to be. These two races used to be at war with each others, the octarians and inklings. You play as an inkling and the great zap fish has disappeared that gives electricity to Inkopolis and Captain Cuttlefish recruits you to stop the octarians as agent 3, together with agent 1 and 2. It ends when you corner DJ Octavio that has kidnapped Cuttlefish together with the zap fish. After some intense shooter/platforming the DJ is overthrown and everything is restored to normal. 

The DJ is in the house!

That was basically it. Each mission trains you in certain aspects of the multiplayer. For example, dodging, hiding, stealth and striker. What I miss though is the usage of different weapons like the roller or the sniper (or whatever it gets called). You can train them in local co-op though which I played a bit with my sister and another sisters husband. Of course I won most of the matches and the only time I  really lost was trying out the other weapons since I was curios. I say it was good that I played a lot of Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3 as it gave me a huge advantage in the mechanics of a shooter. At least over my sister and sisters husband, neither of whom have played any modern shooters. A pity you only can play one mode and 1-on-1 matches. Otherwise they sell the whole turf war concept that you must colorise the stage to win, which is an interesting concept that I don't think have been done before. Other notes of interest is that in the campaign mode you can collect scrolls which builds on the lore of the game fleshing out some of the characters like the Squid sisters or Cuttlefish himself, but also a bit of the world itself. For example, the world is set on earth long after humans have disappeared, which sets the world in the same universe as Pikmin and Mario (and others that have a tangible setting to our world).

That could be me in 12 000 years.

Maybe I'm not the best to say if you would like it or not. It has charm and is rather unique compared to other shooters, both in visuals and gameplay since the focus isn't the best player, but the best team. It's colourful and the music is rather funky. I can't recommend any songs other than the final boss music since I don't know any names for the songs. But I'm not a huge shooter fan, the story felt to short for a single player experience and the scroll collecting was rather easy for more re-playability. Together with my lousy internet connection making it impossible to play online I definitely misses out and therefore it felt short and I honestly think Modern Warfare 2 gave a better introduction with gameplay mechanics and different weapons (on the other hand they introduced elements that wasn't part of the online game either). So it felt unfulfilled with only single player and local co-op, but if I had the opportunity I would play it for all it's worth, but at the moment it makes for a lousy review of the game. So try it and see if you like it.

Stay Fresh everyone!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania in the future!

Finished of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow last Friday in a last push to get it out of my way, especially since it's like 7 months since I finished of Harmony of Dissonance. Why did it took so long? Well, I never felt like it. And I distinctly recall that something similar happened when I originally played this. Gameplay wise its fine, instead of a Belmont you play as Soma Cruz and instead of a whip and sub-weapons you use a large array of weapons like swords, spears, axes and even guns. The most important though is the soul system. With luck (and intense grinding) you collect souls from defeated enemies and are given their abilities and stats (all varying depending on the monster of course). A fun time waster as when the soul swirls around after the final strike it feels so satisfying to collect it. And thank god for the bestiary so you can keep an eye on it. Otherwise the game plays just as the other two GBA Castlevania games. 

Still, sure miss playing as the Belmonts

The story then. Soma Cruz happens to walk near his girlfriends Mina Hakuba's temple on the day of an eclipse and both are transported to Dracula's castle that was sealed away there when the count was finally vanquished in 1999. There he discovered that he has the power of rule, to collect the monsters abilities and set out to get out of the castle. On the journey he meets Arikado, a shady governmental official that seems to know far more about Dracula and the castle that he lets on, Hammer, an army soldier that works as a supplier, Yoko Belnandes, a witch in the employment of the church (and dependent to the Belnandes family that has strong connections to the Belmonts). Graham Jones, a missionary who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Dracula and the castles true master and finally J, an amnesiac who turns out to be Julius Belmont, the last descendant of the vampire hunter clan, spoilers I guess. So how does Soma fits into all this? The twist of the story is that Soma is actually the true reincarnation of Dracula and after fulfilling certain requirements before defeating Graham the dark powers awakens and you must stop them from taking you over.

And he looked like a nice boy!

So a decent story and with gameplay elements that works and plays well, what is there not to like? Even the graphics are good enough so why don't this just evoke fun in me? Maybe its the randomness of the souls. It is a real grind to get them all and certain ones that are necessary to progress to the true ending is just a pain to get. You can get an item to increase the rate of Souls, but it cost a fortune and you need a lot of money acquiring items and souls (or just start over in New Game + over and over again until you get it). So the extras then? You get to play as Julius Belmont with his kick-ass team music and it feels like old school Castlevania... if you look past flying around the rooms and such and having all the sub-weapons all the time. That is the real improvement, all sub-weapons and you switch between them with a button. This makes a rather fun mode, sadly you need more skill than level grinding or using potions to finish of harder bosses. And maybe that is another problem with the main game, with all the improvements the game feels to easy. Of course you can choose your own handicaps if you like, but the easiest for me was to get max potions and use that when needed during boss fights. And they can all be bought in Hammer's shop. Maybe this is the reason I can't afford the soul ring, I spend the gold on potions.

Me at Hammers shop, lucky they put a cap on 9 items per stack