Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

Look, a Chrono Trigger and Zelda combiner!

Originally for the Nintendo DS (and lucky enough I didn't import this one before the remake hit the shelfs even though I saw the original all over amazon). This one I got digital from the get go so I didn't have to wait and such and I probably was able to play it a bit more that way as I always could boot it up. So what is this JRPG? It tells the tale of Stocke, a master spy in the service of Allistel, a state freed from the Granorg Empire by the prophet Noah and they are basically brainwashed cult members. Stocke works for Heiss, the spymaster that one day give him a book, the White Chronicle. Heiss doesn't say what it does, but send him of on a mission together with Marco and Raynie, mercenaries that works for Heiss in his SI-division. The mission goes awry as their contact is killed in the field and the Granorg army's finest knight kills Marco and Raynie. Stocke in despair throws himself into a river to escape the enemy and awakens the White Chronicle that transports him to Historia where the two guardians await him and tells him how he can save his friends and change history. And the rest of the game is jumping between two timelines that splits if Stocke decides to stay in the SI or if he joins his best friend Roach in the military under Roach command and then back and forth to avoid dead ends in history.

That is an interesting concept and like noted reminded me of Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Trigger is more grander in scale and the existential threat of desertification isn't that prevalent compared to Lavos. The desertification that is the cause of the war due to destroying resources and land started a long time ago by this empire that collapsed and I get it was kept under control by the Granorg royal family doing the sacrifice to keep the mana flow balanced. It's mentioned all the time, but you as the hero only indirectly fight off this problem. And it bothers me a bit. Cause in any other game it would go like this that in the end you had to go back to the source of the problem and fight it off, meaning going back in time to the very moment the desert appeared and stop it. Chrono Trigger taught me that. Here it's just a setting for the real villain. And obviously it was Heiss.

I mean, look at the guy.

He got a really interesting story though. He is the brother to the late king Viktor of Granorg (who was a tyrant) and the sacrifice to stabilise the mana. To avoid death he escaped and later killed Viktor and then took care of his nephew that was scheduled to be the next victim after speaking up against his father. Heiss growing tired of the world then sneaked into Allistel and got the position as head of intelligence and then gave his nephew a new name and identity as Stocke the main character and as wielders of the black and white chronicles he hoped Stocke would join him in destroying the world since it was beyond corrupt. Which I agree with. Most people at the top were corrupt (like Hugo, Protea, Selvan, Viktor and Dias) and the people got either brainwashed, lied to or just killed off. Rampant prejudice and racism and everyone focused on the war while the world was on its way to destruction due to resource waste. Meanwhile the hope they had was priming a sibling pair from the Granorg royal family to use one as a sacrifice by killing it and then inhabit the soul of the other that to uphold the mana got their soul back, killing the host for good. I can see why he wanted to kill off the world.

In the end Stocke goes through with the sacrifice since he cared for his comrades and the hope he felt still existed in the world. And it's enjoyable since he was a bit of a loner in the beginning. I actually enjoy all the characters... except maybe Aht. She rubs me the wrong way in her selfishness and keeping important information away from the group since she has a crush on Stocke and believes telling him his real destiny would make her lose him. And in one way it reminds me of Tidus in Final Fantasy 10, but it works better since he actually is able to find another way without sacrificing Yuna (we wont mention that he sacrifices himself instead), Aht never does anything in game to find another solution. And this might be why the desertification plot feels bad, since we don't solve it and therefore must sacrifice the main guy. I don't like that.

Now, being a remake I can say they at least changed the sprites for the still-pictures of the characters just by looking at the pictures on the web. I assume they recorded new voices since they added a new character you can talk to that give you missions to get artefacts and give you some backstory. Other than that, I have no idea since I've never played the original. All in all a good game, but I might not play it again for some time. Might do it on easier mode since there you can just strike enemies before entering combat and kill them instantly. This actually have some Zelda-esque gameplay moments like moving boxes and bombs, blowing rocks up, turning invisible and like that. Fun things.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, 9 Doors (DS)

Finally, got my hand on the first game in the series

So I finished of the trilogy, just like in the series ending at the beginning. This one I had to import since it was never released in Europe, but thank god for the region free DS and a American copy. As with the other games you start trapped in a room and have to escape and from there you learn that a bomb is within in you and you have 9 hours to find the 9th door that will let you escape. Together on this adventure is nine other people, June, your former classmate/girlfriend. Ace, the cool collected old man. Snake, the blind know it all. Santa, the white haired pretty boy. Clover, the sister of Snake and the girl from the second game. Seven, the amnesiac African-American (I think). Lotus, the walking fan-service and the ninth man... who gets blown up the moment he appears pretty much. You yourself is Jumpei, the only character that have appeared in all three games. And June is Akane that he kept looking for in the sequel and then tried to propose to at the end of the third game. And since playing these out of order I know she was the one responsible for the whole game. I didn't know why until this game though.

So basically it began 9 years prior when Akane, Santa (her brother named Aoi) and Snake had been kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company for illegal experiment in order to find those that could transmorph information between people. Seven was a detective that was able to track them down and trying to save them while Ace was the CEO of the company together with the 9th man who created the experiment. Akane was captured again and by communicating with Jumpei across time and space was able to escape so Aoi and Akane recreated the experiment to get revenge as well as save Akane. Besides these people two other is on the ship as well. Ace right-hand man and the companies financier. Both who met gruesome ends. 

Now, had I gone in blind and went from game to game I might have enjoyed it much more since they really perfected the gameplay. I felt it at times unplayable. You can't jump between scenes, you have to go from the start to the end (you can of course restart any time, but you have to redo the puzzles nevertheless). You can't write down codes or such in game and not a single document is saved in playthroughs. In the end I sat with a walkthrough to redo the rooms I've done the quickest possible way. At least there isn' any game breaking bugs like in the second game. The story works though, although it confuses me a bit in things they hinted in this game and completely dropped in later instalment. For example Alice (the character from the second game) appears here first as hinted to be a mummified woman locked in ice that de-thaws and releases her. And then as stated an important character in the second game and then she is dropped, even though she was a huge deal for two games. And I don't get Lotus character. She really doesn't have any important story element to her and she is the only one that isn't connected or know the other people in the game. I can't help but feel she's there for eye candy.

Looks good for a 40 year old

Apparently she was a mother to two daughters and they were used in the episode 9 years ago. I don't recall the game mentioning that? And she is also born in 1987... that hurts since every other character describe her as an old lady, but she is the same age as I will be when the game takes place in 2027. Well, at least that gives her a connection to the rest of the characters. Another thing that bothers me is that the abilities seems to shift in the other games. In those games the ability you possess enables you to jump between alternate timelines, but it seems more focused on shared information in this game. Certain characters store information in some kind of all-encompassing life force that other people can tap into anywhere and use it to their advantage or being mislead by the people send the information. It could be hinted that the ending with Jumpei saving Akane in the past hints on the larger scope, but it feels like the idea was evolving a bit. And now that is over. Now I got a real itch for a fourth game.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Co-Op)

And my sisters plan to only allow me to play Claire Redfield backfired since I got the gun

And yet again, another Resident Evil Co-Op version. Pretty much the same problem as I described in Resident Evil 5 (Co-Op), the duel screen is terrible. This is were the Wii U solution actually would work better with a separate screen. Now, another problem is that, due to the gameplay mechanic only one have any decent weapons. And that makes Moira Burton rather worthless. Natalia at least can see unseen enemies, but Moira? She hits enemies with a crowbar, but never bring a crowbar to a gunfight.

Now, me and my sister got the bad ending as since as Claire I was a bit quicker to get her to pick up the gun to kill the boss which then leads to Moira die since she wouldn't get past her own phobias. So Natalia is turned into Alex Wesker and since Barry bonded to much to Natalia he can't kill her. Intersting to see. And then the thing that bothered me the most in solo mode. In chapter 2 (I believe it was) you have several invisible enemies when you are Barry and Natalia hiding in a building. I used Natalia to spy two out and then using Barry to kill them. But I always seemed to miss one and then it killed me. Now in co-op I could see the figure in real time... and still it killed me. The thing is that it came from behind. But there was nothing there. We think that the bug actually went through the ceiling since I know it was one there and therefore sneaked up on me. Meaning the game have a bug... and I don't mean the monster bug. That irritates me a bit. 

All in all Resident Evil 5 is funnier in co-op than this game. Unlimited weapons for all is funnier.

Axiom Verge Multiverse Edition (Switch)

I buy to many special editions

So when the news broke of a special edition Axiom Verge for the switch I went for the pre-order directly. I think it was scheduled for November, but it was pushed forward to January/February. And now I finished it again. Pretty much the same game as I already mentioned for the Wii U. Only thing is I gotten better at it. Could be for me watching the extra material in the package. There is a blu-ray dvd with an interview of the creator, a story of the creation of the game and two playthrough's of the game. One by the creator and the other of a speed-runner. And the speed-runner taught me some moves to fight certain irritating bosses. Thanks for that. The rest of the package was a map, an artbook and a soundtrack CD. Great tracks and was actually the one reason I didn't just go digital again. And maybe that the micro-sd card is getting filled up with 20 GB full-release games. Still a great game.

Another thing I missed from my original run was that there was a way to decode the sudran messages. I don't know if I just missed it, but by putting in codes in the password screen it was revealed. With that knowledge I was even able to find a hidden area due to texts appearing when using the decoder gun and by typing it into the password screen a doorway appeared. Neat. One reason for that might be that I didn't have to think what every weapon and ability did since I already knew so instead I could focus on the other things I didn't get.