Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

He always runs when other walks!

The third game in the series and once again I had to wait until the HD release to play it (although my mind gets jumbled over if I played the demo for the 3DS before or after getting the PS3 version). Anyway, the setting is the cold war and Naked Snake is sent into Soviet territory to extract a scientist that is working on a secret weapon that can shift the terror balance toward the russians advantage, the Shogohan (or however you spell it). It's a prototype metal gear. He lands and extracts him, but is confronted by the Boss, his superior officer that coached him through the mission while on the way to the extraction point. You get thrown of the bridge you stand on while the Boss assembles her former secret Cobra unit and takes of under the leadership of Volgin, a soviet officer working in secret to take over the world. And then fires a nuclear missile which puts the US and Soviet on high alert. After recovering Snake is sent back in to find the scientist, stop Volgin and kill the Boss to clear his name and avoid mutual assured destruction.

And we dance, into the fire

During the game you met up with Eva, a russian double spy sent to help you by the americans and Ocelot who tries to stop you (and later turns into Revolver Ocelot). Your enemies besides the soviet troops are The Pain, the Fear, the End, the Sorrow and the Fury. And your own support team is Major Zero, Sigma and Para-Medic appearing in your codec conversations... I don't think there's really that much else to say about this game. Biggest gameplay mechanic of this game was the new camouflage system in what colours you used or clothes (or even if you were naked) that affects your camouflage score that helps you avoid detection from the wild life and soldiers. Also you have to repair yourselves if you get injured with some improvised surgery or hunt for food by stalking wildlife like snakes and birds. Really interesting concepts. But since I'm lousy at games I play on easy and hardly needs to care.

It was fun playing it, but the story seems to repeat itself. Soldiers who are being used by their governments without care. Of course there is no secret society... or it actually tries to explain where it originated from. So after being captured, tortured and eye blown out and the scientist killed you find out that Volgin is sitting on the philosophers legacy which is apparently some amassed wealth from China, Soviet and the US as part of the second world war push to stop the Nazis. But Volgin tries to use it for his own purposes. So the Americans sent in the Boss to get it, but you didn't know that. Eva is actually a chinese spy working to get the legacy for her side while Ocelot that have been your antagonist through the whole game was your actual contact. Everyone backstabs everyone here and there and after defeating Volgin and the proto-metal gear Snake and Eva escapes only to Snake duel the Boss on a field of white flowers that turns red as she dies on the field. Then they escape again on a plane. While surviving the ordeal Eva steals the secret documents on the legacy and leaves. Snake gets back to the US. Gets a medal and earn the name Big Boss.

We Got all the time in the world!

I really liked the game and it could have been to play with Snake and to hear his constant growling or the fact that it is pretty much a James Bond-movie from the 60's with similar music (the snake eater theme really sound like a classic Bond theme). Also it's a bit more low-tech than the other games. There is no nano-machines. No clones and the rest I get a hang on like the nuclear weapons and such. Plus it's set to the backdrop of the cold war with the Cuban missile crisis. I even know who the world leaders are like Kennedy, Chrusjtjov and Brezjnev are. A simpler game for a simpler time.

Oh and the Bond references are Thunderbolt, View to a Kill and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Couldn't help myself, I had to play more of this series

Lucky I watched the movie before this game since some plot points appears here. But we begin in Monte d'Or, the city of miracles during a night parade. Layton, Luke and Emmy is investigating the city due to a letter from Angela Ledore, the  wife of Henry Ledore who founded the city on an oasis in the middle of the desert. The city is under attack from the masked gentleman who performs his miracles, like turning people into horses, petrifies them and giving life to paintings. Causing chaos and somehow have stolen the Mask of Chaos, an artefact which Monte d'Ors fortune is built on. The police can't handle the situation and have called in Scotland Yard and got... Grosky. And another investigator named Blom. And that's pretty much the basic plot. Solve puzzles and wonder around the city like usual. But there is an instance where we have an arcade section of riding a horse through the streets of Monte d'Or and at one point it turns into a Zelda dungeon crawl. And from here it's gonna be spoilers galore.

The masked gentleman

So the investigation first points towards the two richest men in the city, Alphonse Dalstone and Henry Ledore. Henry, Alphonse and Angela are childhood friends with Layton from the town of Sansbury, which Layton left after an accident which killed Randall Ascot, the heir of the richest family in town and the one that introduced Layton to puzzles and archeology. Randall was a pair with Angela and Henry was his childhood friend and more or less the family butler. Randall and Layton is on an expedition to find the Azran treasure, but a trap right before the treasure room causes Randall to fall into a chasm and is presumed dead. Henry joined a search party and found the treasure and used it to establish Monte d'Or and married Angela and brought the Ascot family with them. Doesn't help that they arrest Alphonse as a suspect and Henry's fortunes goes through the roof. You are pushed to believe that it's Henry that is the mastermind behind it to get rid of the competition and ensure his hold on Monte d'Or. Doesn't help that he looks like a villain.

First introduction, and the beard and eyes is villainous

But after playing the flashback episodes you can pretty much guess the twist and that is that the villain is Randall... or maybe Angela seeking revenge, but it was Randall who wanted revenge on Henry for stealing his whole life. And it's framed like that, but there is certain things that doesn't add up, like that the reward for finding Randall is gonna be payed out by Henry, the Ascot mother lives together with Henry and Angela and he still keeps memorabilia from Randall around like the robot toy Randall gave him when he just wanted to play with it, but the maid scolded him from taking master Randall's toys. No, another twist is the man behind Randall's rampage is Descole who manipulated him to try to find the mask of order and use it to activate the legacy of the Azran civilisation that lies under Monte d'Or that Layton finds and activates as a mean to protect the city from being overrun by an avalanche of sand Randall caused. After unmasking Descole he runs of and we are left to explain to Randall who had amnesia and the blank filled out by Descole to make it easier to manipulate him. And I don't know if it's due the emotional writing or that I finished it around 2 AM, but I couldn't stop tears running down my face. It's a tale of everlasting friendship when Henry waited 18 years for his master to return. He searched the ruins, built the city as a beacon for Randall to find his way home, he entered a false marriage with Angela to ensure she wouldn't be pushed by her parent to marry Alphonse, everything is written in his name so Randall is the legal owner of every asset of the Ledore family and in this cruel twist of fate Randall is the one that almost destroys it all. I'm so weak for this kind of story. They also roll out his mother in a wheelchair to see her long lost son. Also a reason I had to end it at night so no one could see me crying.

Oh god, I can hardly keep the tears in

The game ends with reconciliation and forgiveness and the credits roll. And afterwards we are treated to a little scene with Descole in the  desert at a secret vault, part of the Azran legacy, when he suddenly is surrounded by tanks and helicopter and approached by "the commander", a figure that was only shown together with inspector Blom and apparently is gonna be the next games main villain as he try to arrest and unmask Descole that is saved by his... butler? Apparently this vault is connected with the garden in Spectre's call and the Ambrosian island in the movie. Great, now I gotta buy the last game in the series the first thing when I got back to work at the 2 January (I wrote this right before the new year). A really good game, the puzzle's felt easier though, but at least I didn't had the silver balls from the last game, instead it's the damn tile laying puzzle to create certain figures. Just three of them thank god. Beside this you have a rabbit theater where you have to train a rabbit in different poses so the rabbit can act in a couple short stories. You have the boutique mini-game where you have to lay out items in an aisle so that the customer goes on a shopping spree to buy everything and the final one being a robot maze mini-game. Fun distractions.

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

A movie? For real?

I mentioned while playing the first game that it looked like some animated movie from France, and guess what, in 2009 they released a 1 hour and 40 minutes movie with professor Layton. Taking place after the Spectre's Call but before the Curious Village. I got it for the 3DS and a bit disappointing it isn't in 3d, but still, it worked fine for me. It isn't a video game, but since it is part of the series I thought it was good enough to put in the video game spot (as well as giving me a bit of a buffer as it is faster to watch a 2 hour movie and write about it than playing a 20 hour game). It looks like the games animated cutscenes and the music sounds like the Layton-soundtrack, and I really dig certain pieces of the original compositions. The story begins with Layton and Luke starting up Big Ben again after it was silenced by Don Paulo disguised as an old lady and we see inspector Chelmey and Flora once again, and then we are put into a flashback adventure. The professor and Luke has received tickets to the performance of a new opera from the main singer, a former student of Layton since she says she's been visited by the reincarnation of a dear friend of hers that died a year ago, daughter to the composer of the opera that retells the myth of Ambrosia who's inhabitants have taken the elixir of life to await the return of the beloved queen who died just before they found the elixir. But all the attendants are kidnapped as the opera stage turns into a ship and they are invited to a game of puzzles to decide who will be awarded eternal life. And inspector Grosky tries to apprehend the mastermind and fights of a bunch of sharks.

I still prefer Chelmey

I like the nod to different character that appears in the game series as they appear as background characters. For example the owner of the train in the second game is one of the opera goers. And many more. So continuing 12 people arrives on an island we find out is the island of Ambrosia. The rest have lost the puzzles and been sent back to town (and the first puzzle is showcased like in the game with a counter of 3 zeroes that then goes to the number, why there is 3 zeroes when there really is 5-6 puzzles in the whole movie including the prologue is beyond me). Meanwhile Emmy have been looking for clues in London and started searching the seas in a plane and picks up a stranded Grosky before reaching this island. After some more people is lost to the puzzles and we enter the castle (because there is always a castle in this series) we find out that the bad guy is, Descole the villain from the Spectre's Call. But he's not working alone. The composer has somehow together with Descole constructed an organ that can copy the mind of a person, in this case his deceased daughter and invited a world renown chess player to use as a vessel for his daughters mind before the machine goes down. But apparently it worked earlier as the daughter had been transferred into the opera singer as she allowed it and started to plan to stop her father from hurting anyone else (since he kidnapped girls in search for a perfect vessel and for some unknown reason believes this is the one). But Descole backstabs him and takes the daughter/opera singer since he needed her as the only one that could sing one part of a song to raise Ambrosia from the sea.

And a sword fight upon the top of a giant walking robot

But as usual Descole missed a part of the puzzle, the oldest trick in a Layton-puzzle, he didn't turn it upside down. But obviously Layton get this and I gotta say, I really like that music. Ambrosia rises, in anger Descole attacks Layton and causes the robot to rampage, causing himself to fall of and disappear. Layton, Luke and the opera singer jumps ship and meet up with Emmy, Grosky apprehend the composer and the dead women leaves the opera singer. Back to the present and the opera singer pays our heroes a visit. The End!

And Layton again build a machine out of things in a garden shed, he's freaking MacGyver

Overall, it feel like a Layton story, but I'm gonna say, there isn't enough puzzles in it which the counter is a proof of. In a game you go for around 150 puzzles, here they are 5-6 that can be seen as puzzles. Really, the Da Vinci code has more puzzles and really, a better way to handle a puzzle movie when you have a larger puzzle that you have to figure out bit by bit. But I guess the reason for missing that was to cram in so many characters, I mean 12? Beside Descole, Emmy and Grosky. You get snippets of why they go along with the eternal life idea and so, but it doesn't matter since the important one is the chess playing girl. And they got rid of 4 of them in one puzzle instead of a one by one that would have been the game version I believe. One by one they fall. One of them is even a mystery novel writer and I would assume that is a nod to Agatha Christie and "... then there were none". Still, it has its moments, like Grosky fighting the sharks, the end battle against Descole and the music. But the lack of puzzles does bother me, but I know its hard to incorporate it when they are more or less thrown at you in the games just by looking at things.

Doin' The Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '17 (1)

Damn it, not again!!!

Damn it, I was gonna jump this year since I was preoccupied with the newest Zelda at the moment on the brand new Switch and the earlier parts of the competition I either played Dragon Quest VIII or Xenoblade Chronicles X (which being JRPG:s aren't the smallest games). And my sister were at home and wanted to watch so to keep the peace I yielded. For 30 minutes, after that I couldn't take my sisters negativity as it poisoned the whole competition I took the Switch from the dock and played some more Zelda. Wise decision.

I can't say anything about the songs than that the winner sounds like a Justin Timberlake act. Which probably is the idea. Funny thing is that he didn't get the most votes from the public, but one by the jury votes. And the songs produced for the show... not good. The intro just droned on and on for far to long and the same goes for middle act, which otherwise had an interesting premise of workplace clean up crews. But it went on to far to long with to much repetitive choruses. Sister wasn't to happy with the result, but I knew that from the beginning. And now it's 2 months "build-up" for the big event. God help us all!

The Legend of Legacy

I don't know if I hate it or love it

The Legend of Legacy, a game I picked up the demo for and played around a bit and thought it was a funny concept. Basically you pick one of seven characters and for different reasons arrive at the island Avalon that rose from the sea some time ago. I choose Meurs, one of the elementalist that hails from Avalon and feel the calls from the elementals from the island. Joining me on an excursion to a forest is Bianca, an amnesiac trying to find out who she is and Garnet, the paladin working for the church to fight of "false gods". While walking in the forest we discover a "singing stone", a stone singing that gives us a singing shard that allows us to adjust the elements during battle, awaken certain pedestals that gives us a bonus for battle near it or even affects the environment. After that you are dragged back to Initium, the only city in the game where the Lord-Mayor lives in his castle that pays you for for progressing while you have a shop that sells most of the equipment (at random intervals), an inn to sleep and save in as well as a bar for some gossip (well hardly anything at all). Sometimes some of the other adventurers appear in the city so you can recruit them if you want (but I find it rather worthless and I will return for that later). And your off. The demo actually goes on for a bit longer, but I've had already ordered the game and waited for it. Which was a big mistake since I actually forgot how to play the game so instead of transferring over and continue from the last point I restarted. Oh goody!

Be prepared to see these words a lot

So how do you play this RPG? Mostly standard turn-based RPG. Await your turn, use a skill and wait. What's more unique is the use of singing shards (which you need to equip taking up one of two item slots) which allows you to make a contract with that element that gives you a bonus depending on which element it is (water a HP-regen ability, wind a SP-regen and fire an heighten success rate on status effects) and I think water is preferred since mostly does most damage with it compared to when fire, wind or evil (yes, the fourth element is evil or darkness and only enemies can use it). And now to the "unique" gimmick of this game, you don't level up like normal, instead you "level up" skills, but it's completely random when you do. I mean you can hit the same monster with the same attack for thousand times and you can't predict if the stat boost will be in the first attack or the last, or if you unlock a new weapon attack by random. On one hand, I really like the idea on the surface since I had a weak spot for Final Fantasy II that used something similar, but it was not random or the Quest for Glory-series that also adhere to boosting skills by use, but again, not randomly. It's a bit more realistic than random boosts each level up, but the main problem after a while is its randomness. Since I can't reliably grind the characters I just stick with the first three characters since why bother trying to keep everyone even levelled? And then we have main stats, Attack, Guard and Support... which each receives boost up randomly and if you use them with a corresponding stance. Yes, we also have to choose stances for the characters, where we have 8 customisable slots and one attack all and one flee (that works 99 % of the time, the last percent is when you either enter a boss battle or a battle you stumbled in and therefore can't flee from). You also can find different versions of the main stances that enhances different stats or abilities. Fine and dandy. Also your HP and SP randomly get a boost after finishing a battle, maybe. And what is the best strategy to prepare for a hard boss fight? Find an almost as strong enemy and attack, or guard, support until you feel ready. Fighting harder enemies gives you a higher chance of getting the boost or acquiring new skills for weapons so that is nice I guess, but be aware that if you fall it's game over. All progress lost and you are thrown back to your latest save. And I'm now gonna give you the best tips on playing this game, hold R + X makes a quick save which you can do all over the place and restart with L + R + Start + Select. It almost drove me insane fighting through a map and just before leaving back to town be attacked by an unescapable ambush and it causes a game over.

The main seven

So that's a bit of the gameplay, the rest of the story is finding 3 hidden ruins, each designed for one of the three elements. Find the corresponding golem, defeat it and put its core into the corresponding sphere. After that you unlock the rest of the continent as you raise it from the seas. And then you travel the new places until you reaches the hidden waterfall where you refight the three golems and bring their cores to a transporter that brings you to the unseen city, the home of the god-people. Fight the bosses and game is over. That if you didn't listen to the singing stones as you gathered all the shards. Apparently Avalon sank after a civil war occurred when the big bad guy banished Queen Lilith from the world and the elementals was captured by the Star Graal that gave eternal life to the god-people, but also caused the shadow giants and stole the stars from the night sky (as I gathered by the ending). By destroying the Star Graal the stars are back and Initium is on the verge of becoming a new regional power of trade and diplomacy governed by the Lord-Mayor, another descendant of the elementalist that originated from Avalon, finally coming home. And then you are supposed to play the game 6 more times to unlock the secret ending when the save figure cat that was taken by one of the shadow giants in the bottomless pit returns to the inn. And as frustrating as the game was I won't play it. Maybe if I'm ever curious again I might play another character, but I'm not gonna do it now.

Initium

So why is it so frustrating? The randomness, for me, mean I can't expect the same outcome for doing the same action. I can sometimes get the boost and new skills for doing one battle and sometimes it can take forever, and often the boosts happen during a boss fight that I can't win since I'm under prepared, there is no item use as I found, and the bastard bosses can steal my contract and get a free 999 regan when I needed it to cure the poison attack that kills my main healer at the end since stealing a contract makes it impossible to use magic. Which forces the end game strategy to keep making water contract since losing that is a death sentence. Also, of only keeping two accessory slots which I need both for magic (one for the singing shard and the other for the wishing shard) until I learn it permanently, but as with everything else, it's random. Also, it feels like the game cheats at times. At the wind ruins there are flying griffins. I met them earlier, black and red and they beat me every single fight. But here the game has hatchling and I think, maybe I can fight them and after a hard battle which I won by the neck of my hair, what does the game do? Sending in a grey parent that proceeds killing me after one round and booting me to the game over screen. And if that wasn't enough I'm waking up at the start of the level due to already sold the map in town and other adventurers walking around and they sometimes can drag you out after falling. The thing is... my gains during those two fights don't stay. The game tricked me and this was before I figured out the quick save functionality. Basically the game burnt me enough to not care, and since the story isn't more than paper thin excuses for the different characters what is the point? You play this for the gameplay, getting new skills and each playthrough is unique since everything as stated is random. Even some maps are random. There is a desert level where you can find mirages that teleports you to other maps, doesn't work at all or takes you to secret area of the desert, one being where the cat clan lives which the already save cat comes from. The thing is I found this place after already gone through the Bottomless Pit segment meaning he wasn't there when I came there making it just being cats that ran after me and disappeared if I tried to talk to them. Leaving me totally confused. But there are apparently interesting story bits, like who Bianca is. Which is pretty much the only one people on the internet is talking about, I knew I should have played the amnesiac girl. Those are usually important characters in RPG's. For people who like those kind of games, try it out, but if story is important (and I mean character story, since it is much lore hidden around the game and it is interesting, but I want some character development and not just one at a time, but between characters as well) this isn't the game for you. I'm tired of RPG's for a while after this.

I know I hate you!

And to add insult to injury, there is a New Game + future where they give you a higher drop rate and allow you to keep your accumulated money which you can use to kickstart sending out ships for new equipment and maybe luck out on getting decent stuff. But your skill progress is reset. The one thing that maybe have made the game fun to replay with a maxed out skill set... and yet some of these futures where enhanced for the western market. So we were lucky in my opinion. I know why they didn't do that and it's obviously the fact that if you can't try out a different setup due to chance the games randomness is pointless, but the option for us who don't like the grind would be welcome.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Christmas game of 2016

4th game in the series and after 1 day I finished it. Even though I haven't played any of the games since the last game come out I can feel the reflexes still kick in while playing. And I gotta say, after the high-note of the last game which... basically threw out everything that was a Shantae game (transformations and magic) it felt rather nice and double fun to see old transformations like harpy, mermaid and the monkey return. And at least they got rid of remembering the combo to activate the transformation. Story is that Shantae's uncle once again have unearthed a blue print for a machine and... as usual Risky Boots is there to steal it. Stop her and begin constructing the machine that will protect Sequine land forever with the energy boost.

And your off, visiting 5 main levels until you can defeat Risky once again. In between finding the next map you have to travel back and forth between the areas to gather certain items to unlock the next part of the story and doing so get's you more money to upgrade your equipment or find extra hearts or gallery keys. And if you are good enough you can find an item long before it's needed which will spare you a trip and the headache to remember where it was. They also brought back the map overview of watching the different maps and see what they have left to find skipping the irritating wander all over the maps like the first games. What they did get rid of was the world maps... and I find it rather irritating. Usually you could look at the map and learn where you haven't gone. Often that it wasn't fully explored due to missing some ability and with a new move set you think "maybe I can get past with this?". I would assume the reason they got rid of it is due to the stages being rather short. 7 hours total gameplay and then the first playthrough was over, unlocking the hero mode which I haven't started yet since as of writing it's the day before christmas and my sisters are home causing all trouble so I can't play (except finishing the game right as they arrived home for the holidays).

Overall the best traditional Shantae with magic and such of the four existing. And I feel they get easier, but with some of the platforming required I would like to think my platforming skills have been improved by playing. As I jump from platform to platform and instantly switches to the right transformation to continue. Feels like... a Sonic game with the speed. I recall the Pirate's Curse final level to the boss and I feel that it trained me very well for platformers. Overall a good game, now only I could kick out my sisters so that I can finish Hero mode and unlock what I suspect is either Risky's mode or Shantae in Risky's equipment like in Pirate's Curse. Lucky I got a long holiday this year since I was forced to use up all my vacation days I had left.