Bravely Second: The Ballad of the Three Cavaliers

I assume it's a three musketeers homage?

I played Bravely Default when it was released and enjoyed it greatly, until the end game that is when it faltered with some repetitive nature and forced skill combinations you were forced to learn in order to win certain parts of the game. And it had a demo version which was some non-canon adventure in the desert region of the game so they repeat it here with another demo for the full version. I started it back in 2015... and finished it this year... more than 365 days after I started. Reason being I played it for 15 minutes before watching a play and didn't continue until much later where it took me 13 hours to get to level 20 and achieve most points of the demo.

It starts with the three cavaliers arriving in Al-Khampis where they are investigating certain monsters attack as their role of the best of the Crystal Guard, Janne Agard, Nikolia Nikolaikov and Yew Geonolgia... or however they are spelled. They have been assigned a guide by the Orthodoxy, but they are intercepted by Magnolia Arch who joins their adventure instead. You basically go around and solve quest for the people, defeat enemies and gather ingredients and so forth. Then you met old characters from the last game like the Swordmaster, RedMage and so forth as well as new ones, like a sharpshooter and... a cannibal? When I think about it it isn't much of a coherent story. The game pretty much ends when a monster is revealed in the desert which Magnolia is interested in. It's called a Ba'al and you defeat it and at the ceremony for your victory, Magnolia erases your memory and disappears as she fades away... I have no clue what happened.

Overall the framing story isn't that important, but it works for this since it's three old friends who are assigned a mission and they interact with a forth member which give reason to explain things between them. And it is better than the original demo who was a non-canon adventure just to teach you the game. This one is actually referenced in the main game as far I've played in it. Gameplay wise it's pretty much the same, the only difference is the new asterisks and a double or nothing mechanic if you win in the first turn can instantly fight again to get a multiplier bonus that raises higher and higher the more fights you are in. Also I believe the bestiary is something you have to grind to unlock information about the creatures, specially when the characters scribble their own notes and observations that adds to their characters. Janne is the more aggressive and bullying, Nikolai the calmer and reasoning together with Yew who is a scholar and a bit naive together tin Magnolia that is a bit random. It was fun to unlock and read about the characters and monsters. Although due to a bit of OCD-behaviour it stops me from continuing the story and just grind completion in the bestiary. Which causes me to be overleveled. It didn't get so bad in this demo since it caps at 20, but in the real game I already starts to be 3-4 levels above intended level recommendation. Well it's good to have played it and felt the real camaraderie of the three cavaliers and their goal to bring justice and peace across the world.

Janne on the left, Yew in the middle and Nikolai on the right

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)

The goody-two-shoes Japanese edition

So there was a new Fire Emblem game and hooked as I am on the series I had to get it. Only one catch, they decided to split it in two and let the players choose which scenario they want to play. Goddammit, it’s the Pokemon-scheme. So Birthright or Conquest? Technically it doesn’t matter since you could download the other one and it was basically expected to download a third part named Revelation. But with limited online capabilities what does one do? Get the limited edition of course where all three is on the same cartridge together with concept art and a steel-case game box. So now it’s just matter of playing through each part from start to finish to get the full story.

I really gotta look out for more special editions if they come with this kinda extras

The core concept is that Corrin, a child in the Nohr Royal Family living hidden away in a castle were his/her (you can choose gender for the character) staff takes care and the other royal members visits and trains with Corrin. Xander, Camille, Leo and Elise. All children to the King of Nohr Garon. You know, it isn’t great when a ruler reminds me of Ganon from Legend of Zelda. Corrin is sent out on a mission to investigate a fort near the chasm between the countries Nohr and Hoshido. There Corrin is attacked and ultimately betrayed by a servant of King Garon and you end up in the Hoshidan capital were the big twist is explained. Corrin is actually from the Hoshido royal family that incidentally have the same amount of family members, and I can’t spell their names right from memory since Hoshido is based on asian (and particular Japanese culture) while Nohr is european. As Corrin accepts the situation and gets to know the Queen the dastardly plan of King Garon unleash. While performing a ritual in the capital square the sword Corrin have reacts and acts like a splitter-bomb and the Queen steps infant of Corrin to save her child. Corrin than turns into a dragon. The armies clash over this and you are confronted by the Nohr family you grew up with and the Hoshidan family that are your blood relatives, choose side. And from here you play either Conquest or Birthright.

The bad guy really have potential, a pity doesn't come forth in this version of the game

So the story of Birthright follows Corrin choosing the Hoshidan side and unites the sibling split during the war and leads them on a attack on the capital of Nohr to confront King Garon and dethrone him as the only way to achieve peace across the continent. And I gotta say, the game is rather boring. It might be that in my fantasy game I actually expect the medieval european setting so with weapons and armour designs I can’t quite grasp I feel a bit lost. And the story is a bit to formulaic. It feels like a rethread of the very first Fire Emblem (which was remade as Shadow Dragon for the DS) where your land have been conquered so strike at the heart, meet a sage that upgrades your weapon and fight the big bad and the innocent victims of his reign. And of course he turns into a dragon. It’s a Fire Emblem after all. But there is interesting things hidden here and there. Characters you actually play as dies in the story… I thought, turns out one particular character that died on one chapter could have been saved if I had gotten support A with Corrin. Game, you really try my patience here. So skip that. The other good things was that they mention that life in Nohr is harsh where no one leaves the towns since they risk being attacked by faceless ones, monster of clay and abominations. They aren’t explained in this. But it also told of Nohrs lack of resources like food which forces them to constantly fight wars of conquest to get more resources. Then it’s the hint about Garon’s changed personality and his different wifes. There are interesting stuff there, and certain scenes at the end leading up to the confrontation are really pulling me in. A pity that it’s chapter 36 or something and there are 37-38 of them. A bit late so to speak. You defeat Garon, and Azura, the Nohr nobility that Hoshido took instead of Corrin sacrifice herself to keep Garon calm with her song as she is this games dancer. Looks a lot like Ninian from Fire Emblem nr 1 in Europe. Hoshidian coronation and then hints that it is more to Azura and Garon and so on. Thank god its over.

I don’t know why but it felt like a slog to go through this game. It really didn’t grip me until the end it might have been due to seeing more of the Nohr family which is the more interesting one and I’ve heard Birthright was the worst part of this game. So Conquest next. I would assume the siblings would be reversed. Maybe Ryoma (the oldest one) goes insane after losing both his mother and sister again cause I wouldn’t get why I would fight Garon in Conquest or am I confronting him with some knowledge I will get? i assume Revelation will gathers all characters into one giant battle against the real evil behind this, Garon mentioned some god while changing to dragon so I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the great evil that unleashes the faceless ones. Better get going, wait they released another Fire Emblem-game, another remake from before the releases in Europe? Oh god, I will either be burned by this series if that turns out an disappointment as well or it might rekindle my lost passion for this series. Or maybe Blazing Sword and the Ike-games where the peak of the series.

Still best game in the series!

Blaster Master Zero

As long as there is no zombies, bugs or trains I'm game.

And another Switch game. And I completely played it the wrong way. Just for completion I got it both for Switch and the 3DS and started on the 3DS, but then they released DLC so I got it since it was free and suddenly I could play as Gunvolt from the Guvolt-series by the same creators. SO I played that on the Switch version and finished it and I was gonna call it quits, but something told me to at least play it as intended to get the story. So I did. And I don't know which version is better. Playing as Jason has much stronger attacks that utterly destroys the enemies... as long as you don't get hit since each time you get hit you loose one upgrade of your weapon until you can power it up again. The main reason why I haven't finished the original game on the 3DS virtual console. Gunvolt was easier in that regard since you are more about hitting the enemy ones and then shock the enemies as long as your energy meter has something in it. Then run around until it recharged itself. Much easier, but the weapon is weaker... and that I didn't figure out that you could lock your attack pattern with a press of the right trigger. 

As Gunvolt easy as hell even if looking intimidating, cheap as hell as Jason.

So the story is that the earth has been hit by an ice age due to war and catastrophes and humanity hid underground for a couple of hundred years and are slowly rebuilding the ecosystem, but a comet have hit the planet. Jason Furdnick is a... whatever, he knows machines at least find an unexplained frog he names Fred. One day Fred escaped into a wormhole and as Jason follows he stumbles upon... tank I would guess, named Sophia III. He enters it and sets out to find Fred. Going through a former residential area he discovers a girl named Eve and she joins as a co-pilot and help him find Fred. And after discovering Fred it's revealed that he is a... robot that was sent out by an alien race together with Sophia III and Eve to fight the mutants that have arrived to earth with the comet and the mission changes to stop him. You fight your way until Area 8 where you fight the Mutant Lord... which I guess was the Blaster Master in the original game. And then the game ends I gotta say, the wave beam of Jason was a lot quicker than the electric gun Gunvolt used and... what? It doesn't end here? Is it like the Castlevania-games where additional characters only can play a part of the game and not the end game? Well talk about surprising me.

So you didn't get to fight through the boss rush? Update: Well, I guessed I missed something since he should be able to get to Area 9, but I don't know what I possible missed since I got all bosses and health, must have missed some upgrade somewhere.

What happens is that Eve knocks you out and takes Sophia III to fight the Mutant Core alone. Fred opens up another wormhole revealing Sophia Zero. And you are of to rescue Eve traveling through a maze like dream area where you have to fight of each boss again in groups of three. Except the first one, Mother Brain that you fight... well three times, but on two separate occasions. Then you find what I guess is the space ship the Sophias are modelled after where you find Sophia III taken over by the Mutant Core with Eve entangled by roots. So an epic battle between the Sophias where the best tactic is fire at  it until it sets up the Acceleration Beam, jump behind him and start up your own and blast it away. Jump out and board the Sophia III to rescue Eve and then blast it away. The End. I really enjoyed it. And I know I will hate playing through the original where I will miss the map, the quick weapon change, the guard for  losing the weapons upgrade and the target lock. Improvements that I bet wasn't in the original. And the music. I knew it was good from the original, but another benefit from playing Gunvolt first was that Gunvolt only have one track for dungeons while Jason changes it, but I actually prefers Gunvolt. I gotta continue play Azure Striker Gunvolt. The music must be in there as well. And with this I finished all Switch games I own... well maybe not Mario Kart 8, but it's a party game, not something you really complete... or Shovel Knight, but I finished it on both Wii U and 3DS... except the Spectre of Torment DLC... *sigh* I gonna fix that.... some day.

Blazing Star

I couldn't find the box art

So I've been giving Neo Geo games a shot, and Metal Slug I know from earlier that they are worth it so I decided to try this shoot 'em up after craving some Life Force and you know, it looks good, but it's hard as hell. Thank Good you can push the left trigger to add continues since I wouldn't have finished it otherwise. Took me like 25-30 continues. 

First Boss of the game.

The story is... I couldn't find it in the game so Wikipedia it is. Apparently it's about 6 assimilated human pilots that regained their humanity from the enslaver of humans Brawnshella and set out to destroy this biomechanics weapon that enslaved the life of two planets that waged war against each other and created this weapon that enslaved them. I guess I understand why they didn't put it in, it's insane. Anyway. It was a fun game blasting through, but it is a real bullet hell. I'm more amazed those few times I passed a bullet without getting hit I think it was a fault in the game. You can choose between 6 different ships with different attack patterns, and I defaulted to the first one. Also, I think the programmers must have put in certain phrases the wrong way. For example you are supposed to collect the letters for Lucky, put just grabbing one of them gives you the message "Collected all Lucky-letters" and getting all fives gives you the message "Collect all Lucky-letter" or something to that affect.

I think you can play two players, but my sisters weren't that interested too I had to play it on my own. Overall I prefer Life Force or Empire of Steel, but it could be too nostalgia but I also think the more available stories make me connect more to those games compared to these. The final boss was interesting though, although shooting a giant baby shouldn't be this fun.

Why does it look so familiar?

Oh right, that's why

Metal Slug 3

By some the best Metal Slug-game, I'm not one of them.

Why they choose to release Metal Slug 3 as the first game in the series for Switch I don't know. The first one would have been logical, but for the whole scope of the game I might guess why. It's really the biggest of the games with different paths to take and an ending chapter goes on for very long. It's an awesome end game for sure, but it goes on forever, starting with a fly attack upon the base, which leads to a retake of the ending battle of the first game, but follows up with a space ride, an attack on an alien mothership and then escape. There's planes, submarines, a mammoth and much more to travel in compared to the first game. What's not to like? It's a cheap shot game. Damn bosses takes way to much life, certain routes like the underwater route of the first stage is hard as hell.

Story is that some years after defeating the alien threat of the second game you set out to cleanup the rebel bases of general Morden who is presumed dead. Meanwhile you discover that the aliens are still around. You round both up but discover that general Morden is still alive so you make one final attack, but it turns out it is a alien. That kidnaps your character as well. So you get one of the other characters and  joins up with the rebel forces and follows into space were you save both Morden and your first character and escapes the alien mothership by falling to the sky in a Metal Slug. But like in Wild ARMS you get attacked by a big monster that apparently is the leader of the aliens that you have to defeat. Awesome.

I don't really know why, but I prefer the first two games in series more and it might be that it always was more fun fighting the humans compared to aliens. The humans had more expressions and a bit of humour  added or just the over the top death animations. The aliens? Just gross looking for the most part. I mean, the first game had enemies flying toward the screen or looking surprised as you arrive and so on. Aliens just shoot and then dies. No, I hope that the second game comes around soon, and I mean 2 and not X. But I'm weird.

Mario Kart 8: Deluxe

It's Mario Kart 8... again!

The first "remake" for the system and it's Mario Kart 8. I already wrote about it and there isn't much more to add. It's really the same game, but all the dlc packed in from the start. And what do you know, it is more fun with more people. Me and two of my sisters played the game and it was the most fun I had with this game. Especially fun that 3-players could play the cup since back in the Nintendo 64 day it was 2-players. This means I had to get another set of controllers and you guessed it, I got the grey one. A bit expensive aren't they?

So this time around we played the Battle mode and I recall that the original only used the same courses you played normally, but now they actually created 8 specific battle arenas. A fun time overall. Still a hassle to constantly get more coins to unlock different kart parts and then customise a ride when before it was choose the character you like and is divided into three classes. Easy and I don't have to know the stats for each wheel or glider. The only other new thing I can think of is the King Boo character... and maybe the inklings? Can't really check it at the moment. Pity we started to think about Diddy Kong Racing, I never actually finished that game. I'm getting sidetracked aren't I?

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

I got it, the final game in the series!

So I finally got around to it and got the last game in the series. And what a ride. It starts with the Professor, Luke and Emmy being taken to the town of Froenburg where an archeologist professor Sycamore have found a living mummy and needs the help of the professor. They find the professor near an cryogeneticfrozen girl hidden behind a wall appearing to be ice, but is actually glass. And as soon I see Sycamore I know the twist of the story... he's freaking Descole. A bit tipped off by his butler that I recall from the end of the last game. But as that ending set up, Descole isn't anyone to care about during the game since instead we have the military organisation Targent looking for the remnants of the Azran, a prehistoric civilisation that created futuristic technology but somehow disappeared from the face of the earth, the Atlantis myth pretty much. And that is something I really like. I liked it in Golden Sun, I liked it in Mysterious Cities of Gold and I like it here. It's a staple of fantasy, especially since Tolkien and the Akallabeth.

Professor Sycamore I assume

So they release the girl that don't have any memory so Targent arrives and kidnapps the girl and Layton and Sycamore chase after on "Sycamores" flying machine... this scene and music is amazing. And it's the beginning of the game. Well, Layton and Luke boards Targents ship and rescue the girl as they fall near a town with Azran connections that opens up a chart on where to find five eggs that will lead to the Azran legacy. So your on a world tour. And like in Mysterious Cities of Gold they find ancient artefacts of the Azran and showcases this ancient civilisation. I don't know why, but I really like it. So they find the five eggs, but for some reason one of them have been switched by Targent so they infiltrate Targent's main base. As you climb the tower... like any Layton climatic ending, you confront Bronev, the leader of Targent that tries to pursued Layton to join, but Layton resist because he's Layton and then... Sycamore appears to be Descole and steals the key that was formed by the five eggs... oh no, didn't see that *sarcasm*. They escape and travels to Froenburg and enters the hidden chamber again and there Targent, Descole and Layton have a standoff until... Emmy betrays Layton for her Uncle Bronev... That took me by surprise. No really, that was an interesting twist. Especially since they established her for 3 games and a movie. But that doesn't stop there. Emmy uses Luke as a bargain tool and goes with Bronev which leaves Layton and Descole as the only ones to stop Bronev as they figured out that the Azran Legacy can potentially destroy the world. The rivals find Luke after crossing a chasm and enters a maze with stone guardians. Descole breaks most of them, but one get ready to fire on Luke, but Descole jumps in between and yet another twist is revealed. Descole and Layton are brothers. And Descole is the real Hershel Layton as their parents were kidnapped by Targent and the older brother gave his name to his younger brother as he was adopted by his foster family that was introduced in the other 3DS game.

Best scene in the game, the attack of the flying machines

And that is not all. Apparently Bronev is their real father that went insane due to losing his wife and somehow climbed to the top of Targent. Layton and Luke continues and confront Bronev and Emmy at the top of the tower, but are unable to stop Bronev to put the girl in a sacrificial machine and, even if he hesitates for a moment, stabs a dagger in her heart. This actives the girls real function as the last created Golem of the Azran civilisation that went under due to giving the Golem sentient and still treat them as slaves so they revolted and crushed the Azran civilisation that in their final act locked the Golems away with the safeguards Layton traveled around to find. This is pretty much like the first season of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. Of course what they need to do is stop the machines heart by blocking the light it emits to some crystals. Layton, Emmy and Luke steps up to the task and even Descole appears again. But there is five lights and the girl can't enter the light due to being a golem so Bronev atones for his sin as all he believed in has proven false so he enters the light and stops the machine. The girl dissolves as she has fulfilled her purpose and Grosky apprehends Bronev as he have been chasing Targent all over the game. Meanwhile Chelmey was on a honeymoon toghether with his wife. A clever way to have him in the game while not interacting with Layton who he doesn't meet until Pandora's Box. The game ends with pretty much Emmy saying her farewell as she need to get away and the ending sequence is Layton and Luke travelling to a little town to solve an inheritance dispute which is the start of the very first game, the Mysterious Village. A really fun way to end the series and tie it together with all the games. Of course one point I thought that the game hinted toward the spider machine in the Unbound Future episode, but maybe it was mentioning the Spectre's Call. I was a bit disappointed in that it was rather short on the puzzle side. Really, apparently only 150 puzzles and they weren't that hard to find either. It says I got 149, but I don't know if it doesn't count the final game ending puzzle or not. Well, can't wait until Lady Layton releases.