Lazay727's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Lazay727's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Lazay727's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:39:06 -0700 GameSpot Lazay727's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:21:26 -0700 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/brain-age-train-your-brain-in-minutes-a-day/user-reviews/778765/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Ever hate when your parents or your friends tell you that playing game is useless or all games are making people more stupid or retarded?
Now it's your chance to prove them wrong. With Brain Train Age for NDS, you can show them that you can finish the daily training quickly and with better score than those who never play game. Don't believe it? just bring your DS to school or college and ask your friends to do it, those who never play game, will have an average of 2 times slower than those who have played. I know that, i've done my research by asking a lot of my friends to play the daily training. And most of the time those who manage to keep up with my pace of finishing are those who have played game.
The game itself is really fun and educating, not only it waste no more than 30 minutes of our day time(for full training). It keeps your brain healthy and on fire!
Good for those who want to stay young at brain. The training consists of two type:
1. Check your Brain Age, you don't need to make a profile.
2. Daily Training, You need to make a profile first(with max 4).

And for the daily training, since the name is daily, try to play the game everyday, it wont need hours of playing. Sometimes when you start your daily training there is a pop question, like you've been asked to draw something, or tell what you eat for breakfast, etc.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/brain-age-train-your-brain-in-minutes-a-day/user-reviews/778765/platform/ds/ Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:58:50 -0700 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/hotel-dusk-room-215/user-reviews/771947/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

First impression is awesome, it is like a moving comical characters that you're gonna see. And for me it is the first game i have ever seen using that kind of graphic and gameplay.
You will be playing as an ex cop from New York, Kyle Hyde. You are gonna play for the whole game in the Hotel which name is Hotel Dusk and you will be staying in the room 215(duh..). Your job is not only eating and sleeping in this game,but to dig the truth about Kyle's long lost partner Bradley, and fortunately or maybe purposely all other guest in Hotel Dusk has something to do with Bradley mysterious disappearance.

This game adopts multi-ending gameplay, anything you say or do will effect the game result and it has a lot of places where you can game over easily. Basically if you pay attention to the game story you won't find it hard to get through and finish the game. The side games are fun and the interact between each character looks real if you play it for the first time.

Why you have to buy this game:
1. Innovative gameplay
2. Interactive graphic, different from another DS' detective game
3. A really good gamestory
4. You will forgot other detective game on DS you have played.

Something that doesnt fit:
1. The movement of character is too slow, especially in a room since it's are to run.
2. The first playthrough only offers a little to try than the 2nd

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the DS..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:58:50 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hotel-dusk-room-215/user-reviews/771947/platform/ds/ Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:14:17 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Pangya for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/pangya/user-reviews/748495/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

This game is all about fun and playing golf. In this game you can buy clothes to strengthen you player control, power, accuracy, spin and curve. And buy golfstick that The variation and combination is hundreds of them to make a great skill in playing golf.

First of all before i tell the about the game im gonna introduce some new character.
There are Nuri, Hana, Arthur, Cecile, Kooh, Max, Arin, Kaz and Lucia.
There are more character than when the game being release first. Lucia is the last character , but maybe there's gonna be some new one.

Im gonna explain the gameplay, there are stroke, tournament, and last is lounge.
Stroke is a gameplay which you can play max 4 players and minimal 2 player, you play with others and you have a waiting turn in stroke, its when others turn to shoot you can sit idly and wait until they finish. In stroke not like it used to be , now there is a treasure price, so if you play and win and get tremendous amount of pang you can get a lot of items for free.
In tournament you can play to 30 players at once and we play at the same time but no waiting turn, so you can finish quick, but after you finish still have to wait for others to finish their game.
And last is lounge, in lounge you can walk around and chill in the blue lagoon, deep inferno or sephia wind and selling your items or buying others player items.


Most of all this game has beautiful graphics anime based, and it attract those who appreciate beauty, not to mention the character.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Pangya for the PC..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:14:17 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/pangya/user-reviews/748495/platform/pc/ Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:55:30 -0800 zh666 reviewed Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/fallout-3/user-reviews/745903/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

I think Bethesda learned a lot from their mistakes with Oblivion. In Fallout 3, they gave us a clever world, one you that want to explore. They gave you interesting sidequests, ones you want to complete. The battle system was fun, the graphics were great. Fallout 3 was a complete turnaround. I had a blast with it from start to finish.

There were a couple hiccups though, mostly with the level capping. I seriously hate level capping, and at lvl20? Jeez. I wasn't even half way done with the game before I was capped. It feels like crap killing stuff and doing quests without being rewarded for it. The most fun you get in these types of game is character building. That's the only reason I played through Oblivion. There was no stop to the character building, but there was in this game.


----------Battle System----------
Fallout 3 is an action RPG. There are no character classes, but at the start of the game you get to add points to a few attributes that give your character his stance on strength, intelligence and so on. When you gain levels, you get points to add to specialized skills, like the ability to repair items or to unlock safes. The higher these skills, the better they become, obviously. You also get one bonus ability with each level too. These abilities are specific in their qualities. For example, one of them might boost your strength but only at night.

You gain experience for each kill or quest finished. I prefer this method over Oblivion's leveling system. However, you get level capped at 20, which freaking sucks. I barely scratched the surface of the game before I got capped off, and that annoyed me so much I quit doing all sidequests and just finished with the game. Why would they level cap you for one, and why would they do it at such a low level? I think it's because of the stupid downloadable content levels. I don't like feeling penalized because they want to sell you extra content. For a game that's all about freedom and choice, they sure do strip that away from you in terms of character building.

----------Characters / Story----------
You make your own character, not that it matters what he/she ends up looking like, because you won't ever see him/her. However, you're a person stuck inside of a lively vault, away from the impurities of the devastated world above them. Your dad is a scientist working on a way to make a water purifier. He escapes the vault without permission, and you go on a quest to find him.

----------Graphics----------
The graphics are really awesome. Maybe it's because of the source material, or whatever, but there seems to be better art in this game compared to Oblivion. Oblivion was just boring stock fantasy. Fallout 3 is creative, disgusting, scifi. I don't even like Scifi, but I had a ton of fun living in this world. Granted, this wasn't Bethesda original creation, but they did a great job with the material that was given to them.

The world looks great, the enemies look gross, the gore is just gruesome. The character animations are still rather stiff, and I still hate dialog scenes in this game (why can't western developers figure out a good way to show off dialog scenes?). Otherwise, I love the graphics and the style.

----------Sound----------
Voice acting is hit and miss. Some actors are really super generic, especially the non-important ones. They're either poorly acted or just terrible sounding. There are some shining moments in the voice acting, but it's nothing to special compared to other games.

The music creates a nice atmosphere though. There are radio stations you can listen to in the game, some depending on what area of the world you're in. However, I found those distracting, and rarely listened to them.

----------World Map----------
Fallout 3 is an open-ended RPG, and the world reflects on that. You can pretty much do whatever you want once you leave the vault. There isn't much in your way into exploring the world.

The world map isn't much different than Oblivion though. You can fast travel, exactly like Oblivion. You can rest and speed up time if you want too. Although, you don't heal up like you do in Oblivion though. The only true difference is the bigger variety of dungeons and even landscapes.


----------Time to Complete Game---------
46:36:33

The game ends and that's that. There are multiple endings if you choose to do them. I wasn't to thrilled with the one I got, since it was just a short epilogue ending, so why bother with the rest if they're just the same? Either way, if you want, you can go back to your old save states and do more quests. Otherwise, there are no rewards that I know of for beating the game, other than achievements. Woo.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by zh666 on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:55:30 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/fallout-3/user-reviews/745903/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:51:51 -0700 zh666 reviewed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/user-reviews/742178/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Granted, I wasn't a big fan of Mirrowind. I'm also not a huge fan of PC RPGs in general, but I like to give them a shot. I knew what to expect with Oblivion, but I stuck with it until the very end.

With that said, it's an OK game. I can understand why some people were addicted to it. There's a ton of things to do in this game, not all of them are my idea of fun or excitement, but there is a ton of (mundane) tasks to complete. The world wasn't something that sucked me in, since it was kind of bland and boring, but I can see why some people liked it. This was early in the Xbox360's lifespan, so people were eager for a game like this.

While I don't get the hype for a game like Oblivion, I can understand why people were sucked into it. It was a lot of peoples first experience with an open-world RPG. It was also one of the first big RPGs for the 360. It was in no way ground breaking or a meaningful experience, but it was new to a lot of people. Oblivion didn't deserve all the hype it received, especially all the Game of the Year Awards it got.

Either way, Oblivion was ok. I've played games like this before. Oblivion doesn't add to much to the mold.

----------Battle System----------
Oblivion is a third or first person RPG. Oblivion gives you the option to choose which camera you want to use, but I suggest the First Person, since the third-person view is an abomination against humankind.

There's been a ton of games like this over the years, prior or after Oblivions release. The one thing that annoys me the most is making the attack button as your Trigger. It is more tiring than waggling a Wii remote.

Anyways, at the start of the game you get to choose your race. Depending on what race you pick, you get special abilities. You typically can build your character around that race, so pick wisely.

You have Major and Minor skills you can learn. The Major Skills are the important ones that really connect with your character's race. Each time you use an action with this Skill, let's say each time you slash your Sword, your Blade skill will go up a little. Once it maxes out, then that Blade skill levels up. The better your Blade Skill is, the better you are at handling the sword and such. Each time you level up a Major Skill, you get experience. This is how you level up your character. Basically in two ways. One, in leveling up your skills, and two, in leveling up your characters stats.

Once you gain a level, you first must sleep somewhere. Once you find a place to rest, you'll get to choose between 3 stats to upgrade. It's usually pretty slim pickings. Depending on the race you pick, certain skills will have more skill points added to them as bonuses. So in reality, you don't have much choice in the way you build your character. It's all a charade in freedom.


----------Characters / Story----------
You play an escaped prison that randomly helps an Emperor fend of some badguys. The Emperor dies and gives you, THE PRISONER, the most important item in the world to save mankind. YOU ARE A PRISONER.

So you go on a quest to find the Emperor's bastard son and give him the Amulet so he can stop the evil within the world. Blah Blah Blah.

Very bad story, very predictable story, and very lame characters.

----------Graphics----------
I seem to remember a lot of people giving this game praise for it's graphics, which blows my mind. The only thing impressive about the game is the tech behind it, not really the "graphics". The game looks like crap most of the time. It looks like an Xbox game with everything smeared with a halo and high-res'd up. There were much better looking PC games at the time, but as I said, the 'tech' was ok. Sure, it was buggy, but they created a massive (ok generic) world, with almost seamless loadtimes.

Other than that... the art direction was horrible. The characters they created in this 'world' all look like deformed creations of a mad scientist that liked to create the ugliest humans he could think of. The bad thing about this is it seems they put their NPC's through a random generator creation tool. I met a KING in one town that had a mohawk! A MOHAWK! That is stupid. He's a freaking King!

Also the world is colorless and bland. Most of the dungeons are repeats. You can constantly see the repeating patterns of the tool set in the world map. This game might be HUGE, but there is rarely anything unique about any of the NPCs or world, which makes for a BORING game.

----------Sound----------
The voice actors sound bored delivering their lines. Even at the most important of scenes. The music is stock medieval generic thumping music. Most of the time you don't even realize there is music.

----------World Map----------
Like most games in this vein, it has a very open-world right from the start. You can walk through most of the world right at the beginning, which can be enticing to some. I wasn't a big fan of the world map though, as 90% of it was a forest. It got boring trying to find secrets, but all the "secrets" were just small caves. There are only a handful of towns and the only thing to do in them is to talk to people to open up side quests. A lot of people praise this game for it's sidequests and how open it was, but all I felt was boredom. None of the side quests really excited me and the layout of the land was just a bore to look at. I opened up almost every landmark on the map, as far as I know and there was nothing special about 95% of it.

The only thing I really like about the world map was the ability to fast-travel. You pick a landmark on your map that you have already visited and you can get there instantly, provided there are no monsters in the area. That certainly saves time.


----------Time to Complete Game---------
42:56:11

The main quest ends abruptly with no credit sequence or aftermath or anything. "You saved the day, now off to our merry lives" type of ending. That leaves a sour taste in my mouth but it gives you a chance to keep playing and side quest.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360..." was posted by zh666 on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:51:51 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/user-reviews/742178/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:06:38 -0700 zh666 reviewed Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/arc-rise-fantasia/user-reviews/738817/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

I've played a ton of RPG's on the Wii (read my past reviews), and I still own a bunch I haven't even started yet or barely scratched the surface with (Muramasa, Chocobo's Dungeon, Shiren the Wanderer, Baroque, Sakura Wars, etc). On top of that, I've played a ton of 360 RPGs, PS2 RPGs, SNES RPGs, PS1 RPGs, etc. I'm pretty well experienced in the RPG genre. I'm obviously not RPG starved. I could be playing any RPG out there right now. I have the money, I have the time, and I have all the systems I want. Just because I choose to play Arc Rise Fantasia right now, doesn't mean I was desperately looking for something to play on the Wii or I was desperate to play a J-RPG. I own hundreds of JRPGs and more Wii games I can shake a stick at. I wanted to play Arc Rise Fantasia. People keep making excuses about this game, and talking themselves out of it. I don't get it.

With that said. I had a blast with Arc Rise Fantasia. It doesn't do everything right, but it does have an awesome battle system, great music, a fun world, lots of sidequests, and addicting level systems. While the plot was uninspired, it does feature enough twists and turns to keep you interested. The characters might suck but the quirky dialog helps that out a bit. It gets all the important things right.

I had a ton of fun with the game, and nearly put 80 hours into it. There were enough addicting elements to the gameplay, and the fun battle system really shined. It's a really fun RPG, so give it a shot.




----------Battle System----------
Arc Rise Fantasia is a turn-based RPG with a bunch of twists for flavor. There are three playable characters, and sometimes you'll have a fourth tag-along character but you can't control the 4th. Each of the three party members you are able to control has a total amount of AP. When each character joins your team, each AP is tallied up. The AP are Action Points, and each move you make during battle sucks up a small amount of AP. You can divy up the AP among any member of your party during battle which ever way you want. For example, you can have L'Arc use every move in battle if you want.

Arc Rise Fantasia has a pretty fresh system through out most of the game because of the constant stream of new ideas they throw at you. The battle system seems very simlar and tame for the first hour or so, then they add Magic. Then the next hour they might had Summons. Then the next hour you'll gain the ability to use Crystal multipliers. Then you'll get the ability to combo attack. It's just a constant stream of ideas that keep the system fresh through out the game. That's what I loved the most about Arc Rise Fantasia.

Then there's the weapon system. Unlike most RPGs, Weapons don't give you better strength or magic. All the weapons in Arc Rise Fantasia are unique to each character, and there can only been one weapon in your inventory at once. So that means the weapons are collectibles. The only reason you want to equip them (since they don't give you stats) is because of their random stat boost abilities. Each weapon is equipped with one or two stat or ability boosting items. For example, one weapon will have a "HP + 200" item attached to it. Or Ryfria's rod will have "Speed Casting" attached to hers.

On top of this, each weapon gains experience and levels. Each weapon also houses a new ability you can learn too. Once you max out your levels on your weapon, you can equip abilities that you already learned. So, with this, you can form your characters however you want. This simple and addicting gameplay mechanic reminds me of Final Fantasy 12 with it's chart board. Everyone character was a blank slate until you open up their charts. Arc Rise Fantasia is pretty similar to that.

Magic system is pretty different too, but highly important for boss battles. Everyone has a blank slate of magic. You can equip Magic Orbs to characters, and this gives them their magic abilities. A Fire Orb will give a character the ability to use Fire Magic. The only way to upgrade this is by going to a shop (Final Fantasy 1 style) and upgrade the magic's power, and how many orbs you can use. The more Orb slots you can open, the more Orbs you cane equip. You can technically equip more than 1 Fire Orb, and give your Fire magic a boost. Or you can equip random Magic Orbs to be a more well rounded Magic User. It's all up to your choice.

One of the notable things about Arc Rise Fantasia is the tough boss battles. While it's true that this game can go from "easy to hard" without a warning, they do give you enough hints when you're about to reach a boss. Not always, but most of the time. So this gives you enough of a chance to prepare for them. On most occasions they even toss out a save point before a boss, not everytime but most.

The bosses can be extremely difficult if you're not prepared for them though. As I said earlier, your characters are as strong as the weapon abilities you apply to them. What armor and what accessory you equip them are also a factor. Most Bosses you fight are just biggest versions of the monsters you fight before them. So you can get an idea what you're going to face at the end of the level. This should give you enough time to prepare to fight an Earth-based monster or a Fire-based monster. Some are harder to predict though.

Boss fights all require strategy and planning. That's why they might be tough to people. You can't run into a boss fight expecting to win by attacking and healing. You need to prepare. That's why level grinding in this game is pointless. I've read numerous reviews claiming they had to level grind. However, experience points drop the higher the level you are, so you'll almost level capped when you play this game. They basically keep you at the level you need to be. Level grinding is impossible, since you can't properly gain levels. If you've read any review claiming they had to level grind in this game, then don't trust that review right off.




----------Characters / Story----------
You play as L'Arc, a mercenary for the Empire that gets separated with his army during a Felldragon attack. He meets up with a strange girl named Ryfia. She's from a far off country, and doesn't understand most things that are trivial to L'Arc. So he's often frustrated with her.

There's a ton of twists in the game, so it's hard to find a point to talk about. Either way, L'Arc and Ryfia goes on a journey to rid the world of evil and all that junk. The plot isn't to original but as I said, there's a ton of twists that keep you on your toes. There's one twist that I just wasn't expecting at all. It wasn't a huge revelation like in Final Fantasy 7 or Ocarina of Time but it caught me off guard.

If you've played any Tales of game since Tales of Symphonia, then you'll be familiar with their Skit system. Arc Rise Fantasia uses a skit system just like in those games. I loved skits from Tales games because they add an extra level of personality to the characters you don't typically get in RPGs. The skits aren't as interesting or funny in ARF but they do serve a nice purpose of giving these characters a better personality.

----------Graphics----------
The graphics are hit or miss, depending on the area. The ground textures tend to look bad, but the character animations and enemy animations during the battle scenes look good. The special attacks are huge and a joy to look at. The full blown CGI cutscenes look like something out of a late PS1 game, compression and all. The actual in-game cutscenes look wooden and gross sometimes too. I do like the art style, I do like the world, and the dungeon designs.

I'll often times forget I'm playing a Wii game, then they hit you in the face with some bad textures or a cheesy cutscene, then you're reminded. The graphics are all over the place, but it's not all bad. It does have good style.

----------Sound----------
The rumors are true, the voice acting is down right horrible. It's almost unforgivable that they would accept such horrible actors but it's not ALL bad voice acting. There's a few actors that are shockingly good. For the most part though, the actors are dull and boring and they deliver their lines in a wooden way.

With that said, I've played games with much worse voice acting. For example, Baten Kaitos, which had a combination of bad voice acting and terrible voice production. Arc Rise Fantasia is not that bad. Just like in Baten Kaitos though, you do get use to the voice acting and sort of forget how bad it is.

The awesome music makes up for the bad voice acting.

----------World Map----------
The world map is an open ended clone of Final Fantasy style maps from the SNES days. It's not super big, but there are some secrets you can find on it. The game starts off sort of linear, but you eventually break out and can do sidequests or backtrack later on.

Over time you gain new abilities and items that let you move across the map quicker and easier too. This should be expected.


----------Time to Complete Game---------
79:24:13

After you beat the game, you get a special "star" on your save file, and you are sent back to the final dungeon before the final boss. You can go back to the main world, and do any sidequests you might have missed.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:06:38 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/arc-rise-fantasia/user-reviews/738817/platform/wii/ Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:18:34 -0700 zh666 reviewed Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-chronicles-the-dark-brotherhood/user-reviews/734373/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 4.5.

Man, I don't even know where to begin with this game. I wasn't a huge fan of Sonic games growing up. I had a lot of fun with Sonic, but that was the jest of it. I don't quite get the Sonic universe or any of the wacky characters that's attached to Sonic nowadays. I can go as far back as Knuckles, but everything is over my head.

I'm also not a huge fan of Bioware either. I like some of their games, but they have design flaws, and are buggy as hell. I can enjoy aspects of Bioware games, but I never played one that truly blew me away.

With said, I gave Sonic Chronicles a fair shake. I went in expecting the best. The game had great graphics, and it looked like an engaging battle system. It seems they pooled all the best influences from some of the best Japanese RPGs. You have bits of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy X, Mario & Luigi, and there's even some classic Bioware bits aswell.

However, even with great influences, doesn't mean they can make a great game. Sonic Chronicles is proof of that. This game almost fails at everything. The battle system was clunky and slow. The story and dialog was just awful. The characters barely had a personality, which is sad consider it has one of the biggest video game personalities EVER as the starring lead. The pacing is just TERRIBLE. I haven't played a game with worse pacing since Grandia 2.

Sonic Chronicles actually starts off promising. You'll find NPCs that need help, and you'll have fun exploring the world (read more at the world map section) and you'll have fun collecting random stuff and compelting puzzles. However, once you do a couple stages, then you've done them all. You'll see a pattern and it gets old quick.

That's the sad thing about Sonic Chronicles, it has a bunch of good ideas, they just didn't know how to implement them right.


----------Battle System----------
Sonic Chronicles is a turn-based RPG. The turns go about by rounds, so you input your characters moves, then watch your team battle it out with the enemy. The character or enemy with the best speed goes first.

Some characters can have multiple turns per-round as well. I haven't quite figured out how that works (maybe the better the speed stat the more moves) but typically Sonic could dish out 3 or so turns, while the slower characters, like the Robot could only do 1.

When all your moves are set and you go into battle mode, you have to do Quick Time Events. Every freaking turn. This gets so old after a while, especially once you figure them out. There's only 3 types of Quick Time Events. Mashing the screen 8 times, swipe by following the button, or hit the button like Simon Says. All three are easy to do once you figure out when to do them.

It gets OLD really quick. It also means it's sloow too. This also means Sonic Chronicles is a Stylus only game too. Which is annoying in its own right. I like to zone out while playing an RPG, I don't want to pay attention to EVERY battle.

Anyways, besides that, they barely give you money in this game. The money in this game are rings, and you can only get rings by finding them on the map. Finding them on the map is easy but they don't replenish. So once you spend them, they're gone. You can sell loot to stores, but it's usually best to keep the loot (healing items, etc) and not even map has a store. So, with limited cash, there's also a limited selection of equipables. Which stinks.

Another thing about the battle system are the eggs you find on the maps. These eggs eventually hatch into little creatures, and you can equip these creatures to your party members. These creatures give you special abilities, such as regenerating health or more loot after battles.

The level system is similar to other Bioware games. You gain experience and level up, once you gain a level you can distribute a skill point towards a stat (or have it automated for you). You also gain 5 points towards buying special abilities aswell. Each ability has 3 levels (5 points, 10 points, 15 points). These abilities are unique to each character, and can be used in battles only. Some abilities can be combo'd with other characters while in battle, but they seemed useless. This combo system seems thrown in just so someone can make a loose Chrono Trigger comparison. It's nothing like Chrono Trigger.



----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Sonic and his band of castaways trying to find Emeralds or something. Who cares. The story is as dumb as you would expect. One thing I really hated about the story was how each character that joined your team and how they did it. Every character that joins your team always starts off as your enemy. Nearly all of them. It was so dumb.

The dialog didn't take itself to serious, so that's good. However, it was still stupid dialog most of the time. Most of it was self referential humor too. Most of it felt like bad Sonic fan fiction from Deviant Art.

----------Graphics----------
I like the graphics a lot. The cutscenes are all over the place though, but I like both styles. One style of cutscene is the classic CGI pre-rended cutscene. There's plenty of them, and they're mostly used during the more action heavy scenes. Then there's the comic book style cutscenes. It's basically cutouts of Sonic characters giving reaction shots. The comic book stuff is more stylized but I enjoy both.

I love the background for the towns and dungeons. Everything looks like it was carefully drawn. The battle system was a little boring to look at though. Otherwise, the graphics were really awesome.

----------Sound----------
The music was good. There was nothing wrong about the music. It felt like a Sonic game. It wasn't nearly in your face like the Genesis or Sega CD games but it felt right.

However, I HATED the sound effects. Especially during the battle systems. Annoying bonks and clanking sounds just made me want to mute the sound. It's very annoying.


----------World Map----------
The one thing I really liked about Sonic Chronicles was the world map. It's nothing to original but I just liked exploring the world. The world is a basic connect the dots map, and within each area is a big map to play around on. It almost feels like a playground. The monsters are visible and usually easy to ignore, and there's a ton of secrets to find, eggs to collect, treasures to look out for, areas to explore. There's even platform sections.

One cool thing about this map is it rips off the Mario & Luigi games in a way. Each character has their special abilities which are used to get over obstacles. For example, Sonic has the power of speed, and he can run through those giant Loops (from the sidescroller Sonics), while Tails has the ability of flight and can jump large gaps.

This was cool at the beginning because when you got a new character, it meant you can find new areas, re-explore previous maps to find previously un-reachable goods. I felt really good doing this, even though the benefits were not worth it. I just love having the ability to backtrack and re-explore, especially when it unlocks new stuff. Zelda games do this all the time. It's a great feeling.

Then the game comes crashing down. The first half of the game is open and fun, while the last half is linear and forced. This is when I started to HATE this game. Exploring wasn't fun anymore if the revoke your ability to explore.



----------Time to Complete Game---------
22:43

Not terribly long, but I actually wish it were shorter. After you beat the game, then you can restart it with a New Game+.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS..." was posted by zh666 on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:18:34 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-chronicles-the-dark-brotherhood/user-reviews/734373/platform/ds/ Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:59:26 -0700 zh666 reviewed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-quest-iv-chapters-of-the-chosen/user-reviews/724771/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

I played the original Dragon Warrior IV but it was a bunch of years ago and I only spent a couple hours on it. So I can't really compare this remake with the original to well. However, I must say, this remake does hold up for an old NES game. The story isn't groundbreaking, and the graphics won't blow your mind. The gameplay is still strong though, and that's all that matters.

Dragon Quest games always give you a great feeling of accomplishment. They always have that perfect difficulty balance that gives you a great feeling when you finally take down a boss. There's always that right amount of strategy and perseverance that works in these games. The constant feed of new weapons, new towns, new spells and levels really push you to complete the game as well.

It's not my favorite Dragon Quest games but I respect it, and I still had fun with it. It shows it's age, but with pride.


----------Battle System----------
Hey! Have you ever played a Dragon Quest game before? Then you know exactly what to expect. This is an old school Turn-Based RPG at it's finest. It's not to easy and it's not to hard. Dragon Quest IV requires experience grind and money grind if you want to advance to the next town or complete a dungeon. Luckily, dungeons aren't to big or complex. There are puzzles but they're never hard, or anything like Zelda or Wild Arms. Finding your next objective is never difficult either.

This Dragon Quest game has one of the biggest cast of playable characters I've seen. There are atleast 8 or so main characters, plus another 5 or 6 that join you along the way. This does give you a chance to customize your party if you want to. With this big of a cast, you're constantly leveling someone up, so it feels rewarding even fighting small battles.


----------Characters / Story----------
You play as a nameless hero. Your village is destroyed by an evil warrior, who is on a quest to resurrect an evil god named Estark. You team up with 7 other warriors to team against this evil. Blah Blah Blah.

You don't play Dragon Quest games for the amazing plot twists and expanded history. There really isn't much to the Dragon Quest IV story. However, it does one cool thing and that's to separate each main character into it's own storyline.

It almost feels like 5 seperate RPGs into one actually. There are 5 chapters in the game, and each character(s) have their own set storyline. You have the start from the scratch with each character. That means you'll have to grind out your characters each time so they can get strong enough to advance the opening storyline.

I really like this idea but it has one flaw. Each time you take control of these characters, they're all voiceless. They have no personalities. The only personalities they have is what the NPCs project of you. So by the time all your party members join together, it's just a series of voiceless protagonists.

They do give these characters speech once you take control of the main Hero, but by thing, it's too late.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are straight from the Playstation 1 era Dragon Warrior games. If you've played Dragon Warrior VII, then you'll know what to expect. The world is in full 3D, you can control the camera in a 360 direction, but your characters are sprites. The graphics are actually much improved over Dragon Quest VII but it's still the same idea.

The battle animations are mostly the biggest improvements. Each enemy musics fluently, and there's even a couple fully 3D enemies as well. There's even 3D cutscenes aswell.

----------Sound----------
The music is typical Dragon Quest affair. You won't hear any new tunes or sound effects but everything is great. This is classic stuff so it will get stuck in your head.


----------World Map----------
The world map is very typical for a Dragon Quest game or most RPGs for the NES or SNES era. You are a short squaty sprite walking over a massive piece of land. The random encounter rate is higher when you're on the map too.

You slowly gain new access to faster travel, either by magics (zooming) , sea or air. The game does section off the areas your able to visit at first but after the mid-way through the game it opens up and you can pretty much explore where ever you want.



----------Time to Complete Game---------
32:55

You can save your game after you complete it and unlock a new dungeon as well.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the DS..." was posted by zh666 on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:59:26 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-quest-iv-chapters-of-the-chosen/user-reviews/724771/platform/ds/ Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:46:50 -0700 zh666 reviewed Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/monster-hunter-tri/user-reviews/724272/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I have never played a Monster Hunter game before in my life. I missed out on the PS2 game, and never owned a PSP to care. When it came to the Wii, I felt it was time to check it out. I've played Diablo II, Phantasy Star Online, and various other games like this. So I'm not a total stranger to these types of games, but it's still something I don't regularly play. However, despite my lack of knowledge of loot grinding online RPGs go, I had a fun experience.

Monster Hunter can be an extremely frustrating experience, but dying 3 times in a row to the same monster, to finally defeat him on your 4th go around can be one of the most rewarding experiences I've felt with a game. Monster Hunter is not an easy game to grasp. It will take time to learn the controls, and how to react to monsters and how to use items. It's not a game you can just jump into and expect to know everything.

It's just an addicting game. It has the 'carrot-on-a-stick' formula nailed down perfectly. With each quest completed and each piece of loot gain, you're just one inch closer to the next step. It's just a constant feed and it's hard to control.

Despite a few kinks, it's easily one of the best games I've played all year so far.


----------Battle System----------
Monster Hunter Tri is a brutal Action RPG. This is not the type of game you sit down and blast through in a weekend like Mass Effect. No, Monster Hunter requires a ton of patience, and grinding if you want to get anything out of it. The good thing about Monster Hunter though, while it does require a ton of man hours to get anywhere. You can still drop in, do a quest for a half hour and go on your merry life without worries.

Monster Hunter is all about preparation and timing. You need to know what you're up against first. So you have to prepare with the proper armor, weapon and items. Each monster has their weaknesses and it's your job to exploit them to win. Next up is timing. You need to know when to attack, where to attack, and at what stance to attack. You can run and mash away to win at this game. You need to have a little patience on the battle field, watch the enemy, and wait for your turn to attack. I'm typically not a person that ever uses "Guard" in a game, but I had to use it in Monster Hunter plenty of times. Actually, it's almost required.

You can only carry a few items at a time, so you need to know which items to take with you before battle, while having enough spare space with you so you can gather new items. It's a balance but easily manageable if you get use to it.

You don't gain experience in Monster Hunter, all character upgrades come in form of weapons, armor, accessories and what items you choose to bring with you. You're a blank slate, with 100 HP, 100 Strength, etc, until you start equipping items. Each weapon and armor piece have their strengths and weakness', so this is part of the balance and preparation you need to understand before going into battle. If you're going to be fighting an Ice monster, it's probably best to equip something that's strong against Ice.

I played the game with the Wiimote and nunchuck, and it worked well enough. I never had a problem with it. Every button you needed was mapped out perfect for the Wiimote. The only thing that kinda sucked was camera controls, but it was fine overall. I works but it's not perfect. I played the majority of the game with the Classic Controller Pro and that is easily the best way to do it with. Mostly for the camera controls.

The quest's aren't very varied though. You can either join a gathering quest (which requires you get get loot to win), capture a monster, or kill one giant monster or many small monsters. The other unique quests aren't really worth mentioning. It does get a little repetitive.

Offline and Online are almost two difference experiences. While the mission structures are almost the same, you get something completely difference from them. In the single player missions, you fight alone (until you find a friend but he's mostly useless). The requirements for beating a quest is typically lower than that of an Online quest, and the monster's you fight are also slower and probably dumber too, to compensate for your lack of 3 friends.

I played most of the game Online and that is where this game truely shines. Getting online is hassle free and easy to hop on and start playing. You first begin by joining a server (the first one is easily the most populated, usually 1,500 people at a time). You then pick a room, which can hold 100 people at a time. After that you can start a room or join an existing room.

In the Online mode, you gain Hunter Ranking points after you beat quests. It's a similar system to leveling up, except you don't gain stat boosts but it does represent the true experience you have with Monster Hunter. You can check out random peoples HR points and see how they rank up to you. This is a good way to play with similarly leveled people.

You can chat with people with a keyboard with any random strange if you choose to. If you want to use Wii Speak then you'll need to befriend the person first. Once you befriend someone, then you're good to go. Wiispeak, however, sounds like trash if the person does not have it properly placed.

Monster Hunter got rid of the 16-digit Friend codes, but they just replaced that with the lower 6-digit Monster Hunter codes. Annoying, but atleast it's not 16 digits.

The online is flawless though. I never had a lag problem. I've never been glitched. I've never been kicked off a server for any reason. It's always easy to find a team.

The online is just easy to navigate, and fun to use. It's the true meat of the game.


----------Characters / Story----------
Uh.. yeah. There's barely a story. Who needs one for this type of game though? The motivation is never to kill the big bad guy that's going to destroy the world. The true motivation in Monster Hunter is to get that rare loot so you can make that badass sword.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are amazing. Sometimes I'm shocked I'm playing a Wii game. I've played much worse looking RPGs on the 360. The thing I love the most about Monster Hunter's graphics are the backgrounds. When you're on top of a mountain and you're looking down at the scenery, it's just freaking beautiful. Sometimes you'll even get unique animations depending on when you're there. Sometimes you'll see a herd of monsters run across a giant field, or if it's at night, a meteor shower. It's real basic stuff but looks great and helps the atmosphere wonderfully.

The monsters animate so well too. Each monster goes through various animations depending on it's health or mood. The animations are just perfectly thought out. They seem to mimic real animals, in their behaviors. The monster animations prove that a bit.

The only time the graphics look bad is during the create-a-character screen, which is entirely pointless to begin with. You'll never see your character's face or hair or body type, so why go through it? I had the same problem with Two Worlds and most games with create-a-character.

Another thing I hated was the text font. It's ungodly small and hard to read. The text is also blurry, which makes it even harder to read. I couldn't even read my Online ID number, so I had to make another one, it was that bad.

----------Sound----------
The music is simple but it's basically there to set a mood. If the area is calm, you'll hear calming music. If a monster enters an area, you'll get a loud, Metal Gear Solid style alert sound, and the music intensifies. Sometimes the music is really freaking good, when you're watching a cutscene, or even the opening of the game.

There's no voice acting but each NPC has a unique grunt, which is something the recent Zelda's would do.


----------World Map----------
There's only 5 real world maps in the game. Each world map consists of a starting base, where you can rest in a bed or to receive items from the item box.

Five areas doesn't sound like alot but you don't really need much in a game like this. The areas are only window dressing for the most part. The only true difference between them is some require items to help you survive. One area might be hot, which would require a cool drink, or another area will be cold and will require a hot drink. Some areas have water, others have changing weather patterns.

Each area is segregated into multiple sections. The ice level, for example, is a small level and only has about 8 or 9 sections. While some areas consist of 15 or more. The more areas, the harder to tract monsters, obviously.



----------Time to Complete Game---------
106 Hours and counting...

Monster Hunter Tri is an extremely long game if you try to get the most out of it. I didn't complete the main quests in either the offline or the online mode but I was only a couple quests away from completion. After you beat the main quests, they just recycle previous ones in harder forms.

The calendar quests keep you motivated to play though, and trying to upgrade your armor or get a new weapon is always addicting. So there's a ton to get out of Monster Hunter.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:46:50 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/monster-hunter-tri/user-reviews/724272/platform/wii/ Tue, 04 May 2010 16:29:01 -0700 zh666 reviewed Rune Factory Frontier for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/rune-factory-frontier/user-reviews/719387/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

I've been a fan of Harvest Moon games since the SNES, but I'll be honest, they haven't progressed enough for me to continue buying them. The Gamecube Harvest Moon was the last one I was excited for. With that said, I loved the idea of Rune Factory. They basically took the Harvest Moon "simy" stuff, and thrown in an open world Action RPG into the mix. It turned out to be an awesome balance of grind and harvest that I was looking for. They made the harvesting alot more accessible, while keep the dungeons tough as nails.

Rune Factory requires a ton of patience though. There is a ton of grinding involved. If you aren't into leveling up your Fishing stats or getting the right amount of cooking experience, then look elsewhere. Rune Factory might look cute, but it will eat your soul.

The difficulty in dungeons can be frustrating, but the penalty for dying isn't sever enough to worry about it. You will die alot.. and I mean ALOT. I died in this game atleast 200 times. I'm not kidding. It can get really hard.

Overall, I had a ton of fun with Rune Factory.

----------Battle System----------
Rune Factory: Frontier is an action RPG / Farming Sim. The action RPG part of the game reminds me of loot grinding games such as Diablo with a simplistic elements such as Chocobo's Dungeons.

The dungeons don't really challenge you, in a puzzle sense, like in a Zelda game. The true difficultly in a dungeon are the monsters, and the glowing bulbs that spawn them. You have to destroy these monster gates, like in Gauntlet, so they stop spawning.

The other difficult issue about Rune Factory is your HP and RP meters you have to keep watch over. Each time you use an action, your RP meter drops. Once your RP meter is at Zero, then your HP starts to drop. There's really no easy way to get RP or HP restoring items early in the game, so you have to escape the dungeon and start from scratch until you're powerful enough to plow through the enemies.

Rune Factory is a very grindy game in that sense. If you don't like grind, then don't play these games. You'll have to grind your weapons, your tools, your cooking skills, your forging skills. The higher your skills levels are, the less RP you use. The less RP you use up, then the easier it is to dungeon crawl. The higher your levels are, the better weapons you can make aswell. RUne Factory is a constant state of "almost there" that you're continuously hooked.

There are only 4 dungeons in the game, but it can take up to 20 hours per-dungeon to conquer one. It might require that much grinding, but also, you're doing other stuff in the game too.

You also have a garden to tend to. The garden starts out small, and since you have to start from scratch, you have to clear off all the rubble and debris covering your garden. To clear out the rubble, you need Hammers, Axes, Hoes, and Sickles. Then you need to upgrade them, and level up your skill. This is also a time consuming task, but ultimately a rewarding one. Once you open up more garden space, you can start to grow more crops. When you have more crops, you make more money.

With the money you make, you can buy new items such as healing items, or seeds. You can also upgrade your house by having the town carpenter (played by a Twilight goth) add new areas to it. You can buy new items for your house from the town peddler. You can buy new recipes from the town librarian as well, this will help you create new items with your forge or by cooking.

The point of the game is to balance your dungeon crawling time with your farming time. It can be a little overwhelming but once you get the knack of it, you'll have it under control in no time.



----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Raguna. You have lost your memory, and you're wandering through a small town looking for a girl named "Mist". Mist was a friend of Raguna when they lived in in a different town. Mist moved away to the town of Trampoli. Raguna reunites with Mist and decides to move next door to her. Raguna starts from scratch, as he rebuilds an old farm house.

Above the town of Trampolis is a mysterious floating island shaped like a Whale. It's a mystery to the citizens, but Raguna tries to make sense of it during his adventures.

----------Graphics----------
The graphics are pretty good for the most part. The locations look lush, the enemies have a nice variety to them. I like the anime cells they use during dialog scenes. I'm also a fan of fully animated cutscenes in video games as well. The anime cutscenes don't look mind blowing, as they do look compressed a little. The character models could have used some more work.

The only thing that really bugs me about the graphics are the long load times between areas. It's not a major issue, but it does get tiresome after a while.

----------Sound----------
The music is pretty good, although repetitive over time. The only song that really annoys me is the opening theme song during the anime cutscene. It sounds like a mix of Melt Banana and some generic J-Pop.

Each character is voiced out, sometimes you will get fully voiced dialog, but most of the times its plain text. There's nothing truely offensive by the American voice casting, so that's good.


----------World Map----------
Rune Factory is an open ended RPG almost from the start of the game. While the world isn't very large, you can run around the entire map. The only thing that are locked are the dungeons, which you can open up during the course of the game. You can actually open up 2 dungeons fairly early in the game too. There are only four dungeons in the entire game, but don't let that scare you. It can take hours of preparation to finally beat one.

Each dungeon has their own garden, where you can plant flowers, vegetables and fruit. Each seed is required to grow during a certain season, and each dungeon is perpetually in a season. For example, the Fire Dungeon is always "Summer" and the Green Dungeon is always "Spring". You can use this to your advantage if you need to grow certain off-season plants. So even if you do beat a dungeon, they are still useful.



----------Time to Complete Game---------
71:45

If I didn't want to grind out my skills and if I knew exactly how to activate each storyline trigger, I'm sure Rune Factory would have been a much shorter experience. I played this old school style, no hints, no cheats. I grinded everything I needed and wanted. That's why this game took so long to complete.

It felt rewarding though. Each new level upgrade, each time you find a rare loot drop, each time you finally activate a new storyline. It felt great.

After you beat the game, you can continue grinding your way through it if you want.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Rune Factory Frontier for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Tue, 04 May 2010 16:29:01 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/rune-factory-frontier/user-reviews/719387/platform/wii/ Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:28:57 -0800 zh666 reviewed Magical Starsign for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/magical-starsign/user-reviews/710858/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Magical Starsign was complete agony for me to finish. The story wasn't interesting enough to push me forward. The battle system was so slow and boring I just wanted it to end early. The only reason I finished it is because I was expecting it to be a 16 hour game. By the time I reached the 16 hour mark, I invested to much time into it already. So I had to complete it, even though it was a complete waste of time. I put 33 hours into Magic Starsign and I regret it.

The worst thing about Magical Starsign, for me atleast, are the controls. Nearly everything in the game is controlled with the stylus. You can walk with the D-pad or face buttons (can't run) and skip text with the R butons. Everything else is controlled with the stylus. Which I find to be completely annoying. There is nothing about this game that takes advantage of the stylus. As matter of fact, using the stylus for equipping or using items or choosing attacks makes the game even slower than it actually is. I hate the fact that they don't give you the option to use either the buttons or the stylus.


----------Battle System----------
Magical Starsign is a by the books turn-based RPG. Turns are taken by the enemy or character with the highest speed. You can fight, run, use magic, and defend. Fighting is the most useless command in the game. You never gain any attack skills, everyone has the same basic kick or punch attacks. Even your "tank" characters are weak fighters. This makes sense because you're a team of wizards. So in a sense this is the only unique moment in the game. Everyone has to use magic to fight.

The bad thing is, you don't gain a ton of magic. So for a large chunk of the game, you'll be using the same basic magic you start off with. Attack animations are long and dreadful. So the battle system is completely tedious.

There are 6 playable characters, but 8 positions to place them. If your character is in one of the four front row spots, you can use a more powerful magic but only to single enemies. If your character is in any of the backrow positions, their magic spreads to every enemy (or ally) but weaker.

You level up simiarly to a Suikoden game or Final Fantasy Tactics. The higher the level of the enemy you fight the more experience you'll gain. Once you reach 100 experience points, you'll gain a level. The higher the leve you are, the harder it is to gain levels.


----------Characters / Story----------
I really didn't care for the storyline right off the bat and it didn't get any better through out the course of the game. There's a few couple funny moments in the game but overall, the writing just seems aimed at a young audience. So much to the point where you feel the staff is talking down to you. Kids are smarter than this. I was a kid once and had no troubles understanding Final Fantasy IV.

Basically, you play as a no-name, voiceless character. You can choose between a male or a female character. You're a student at a special school for wizards. Your teacher is eventually kidnapped, so you and 5 other students vow to save her.


----------Graphics----------
I really liked the graphics and that was one of the selling points for me to try this game. The graphics are just so charming. The worlds and characters are highly detailed and animated. The attacks are cool the first few times you see them, however, you see them over a million times by the end of the game and you end up wishing there was a skip button.

There are a ton of pre-rendered CGI cutscenes, similar to the ones you would see in the PS1 days. They're a bit grainy but cool to see.

----------Sound----------
The music is good, not amazing or super memorable, but good. It reminds me of early Final Fantasy games at times. There's no voice overs and the sound effects can get on your nerves after a while. Otherwise, sound is ok.


----------World Map----------
The world map is segregated into various isolated islands. Each island has a 'unique' element to them. So you'll go to an Earth Island, Fire Island, Water Island, etc. Nothing original or exciting.

There's usually a town or two on each island, and you'll find special warp zones around to help ease travel if you ever need to backtrack. Backtracking is almost never required, because the game flows extremely linearly. You can backtrack if you want but there's nothing to look back for. Sometimes the game requires you to backtrack for storyline purposes but that's about it.



----------Time to Complete Game---------
33:33

You can save after you defeat the final boss, but you can't really do anything afterwards. The ending was rather long but not interesting at all. No rewards after the game either.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Magical Starsign for the DS..." was posted by zh666 on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:28:57 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/magical-starsign/user-reviews/710858/platform/ds/ Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:25:27 -0800 zh666 reviewed No More Heroes for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/no-more-heroes/user-reviews/703815/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

No More Heroes was a blast from start to finish. There were real surprises, huge laughs, and gory fun. Hack and Slashers tend to bore me towards the end, but this one didn't and it's twice as long as most Hack and Slashers.

It does have faults, mostly the world map and somewhat boring level designs. The positives clearly outweigh the bad, so the No More Heroes is clearly going to stick with me for a while.


----------Battle System----------
No More Heroes is a no frills Hack and Slasher. There's alot going for No More Heroes, even compared to other games in the same genre, like God of War. You can just bash your way through the game hacking and slashing but you can have fun with it too. There's alot of things you can learn and upgrade during the course of the game. You can learn various wrestling moves by finding letters or even watching Wrestling tapes.

To use Wrestling moves on people, you first have to knock them out by kicking them during combat. Once they're dizzy (like in Street Fighter II) you can then grab them, and perform a wrestling move on them. The wrestling moves are sort of like QTE but not really since they give you ample time to complete them and they're usually similar acts each time. You can't pick your wrestling move though, it seems randomized to me. However, once you started a move, you have to mimic the sign they give you. This means you have to lift the nunchuck and wiimote left/right/up/down. I like doing the wrestling moves.

The gimmick to the Hack and Slasher is simple and fun. You can attack with the A button, and do a melee attack with the B button. You can Z-target with the Z button, and you can dodge and roll with the D-pad. It's all very simple, easy and fun. The gimmick is this. If you hold the Wiimote UP, then Travis attacks UP. If you hold it DOWN, then Travis attacks DOWN. Some enemies you can't attack up, so you need to always have an eye on that.

The actual battle system never gets old, and was fun until the very end.

Boss fights are always huge and fun too. While the sub-enemies you fight during the game are almost the same through out, the boss will always have a unique fighting style. So you have to learn and adapt. I was probably defeated by half of the bosses on my first fight with them.

You can get a ton of character upgrades through out the game too, if you're into RPG elements. You can go to a gym to upgrade you HP, Strength and Attack combos. You can buy new weapons and weapon upgrades at a shop. You can learn new moves at a shop. You upgrade your health, Zelda style, after you defeat a boss. If you're into small, constant upgrades, then you'll be happy with this.



----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Travis Touchdown, a hired Assassin that joins a guild of Assassins. His goal is to be the #1 Assassin, by killing each Assassin above him. Only so he could have sex with the Assassin Organizations leader, Sylvia.

Travis is an otaku nerd that humps pillows, lives alone with a cat, and an ex-professional wrestler. He is not a cool, sly character that gets all the ladies, or even kills everyone in perfect fashion. He's flawed, and nerdy. So that's what makes him kind of original.

While the humor is completely juvenile, it's still one of the more funny games I've played. Very few games set out attempt humor and actually get laughs out of me. No More Heroes actually made me laugh.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are hit or miss. The style is there, and the cutscenes show it. Anything that involves fighting is epic and amazing looking too. The gore is over the top, the attacks are huge, the enemies look good. On the bad side of things, the world map looks bland, and chuggy. It's almost like a completely different game. The combat just looks so amazing but when it comes to "exploring" it looks like a first gen PS2 game. The "dungeons" are just linear paths, so they're not very epic or exciting to look at either.


----------Sound----------
The sound effects are great, the voice acting was awesome and the music was catchy as hell. There's not a bad thing I can say about this.

----------World Map----------
The world map is a basic GTA clone. It's honestly not much different at all. GTA might be more lively with cars, things to steal and people, but it's the same idea. There's shops, random missions, and places to visit. There's also a ton of collectables scattered at random on the map.

After you beat an Assassin mission, you unlock more world map, but since everything looks nearly the same, you won't notice much "expanding".

It's clearly not as good as GTA, but it's one of the better GTA rip offs I've played.


----------Time to Complete Game----------
14:59

After you beat the game, you unlock a new difficulty. The game forces you to start a new game after this, but you might be able to access your old save by loading on the menu screen. I did not want to replay the opening again to find out.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed No More Heroes for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:25:27 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/no-more-heroes/user-reviews/703815/platform/wii/ Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:42:57 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Digimon World for the PlayStation... http://www.gamespot.com/digimon-world/user-reviews/701820/platform/ps/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

I have played this game when i was in elementary school. it was fun back then because im a child and was a digimon maniac.
Play it by a digimon starter Agumon you have to train him everyday so he will be stronger and you can bring down the enemy easier. Trust me the train things is a real headache. Not only train the digimon you have to care about his food, sleep and metabolism. It will greatly effect your digimon evolution by how you treat him before he become champion digimon.
The most disappointing here is when you finally have digimon of your dream and he lost the battle three times you get a new infant digimon and start all over again. So this is hard if you didnt make your digimon stronger your digimon most of the time.
Keep making your digimon stronger but you have the main task here, you have one year to recruit a lot of digimon out there. The battle here is kinda lame, your digimon will do your command but it takes time, depends on the power. The adventure is laughable if i may say. Digimon who run here and there waiting to battle you and sometimes you really need to avoid the enemy you dont know really well.

Good point :
1. For digimon lover this is like tamagochi - PS version

Bad point :
1. Bad quality of graphic
2. Too hard for beginner

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"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Digimon World for the PlayStation..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:42:57 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/digimon-world/user-reviews/701820/platform/ps/ Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:15:13 -0800 zh666 reviewed Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/overlord-dark-legend/user-reviews/701573/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

It's a shame. A dirty shame. I really loved the first Overlord. I was super excited for this game being announced for the Wii. Wii controls just seem like a perfect fit, and the graphical style would work well on the Wii too. Well, they got that much right atleast. Everything else.. ehh.. not so much.

The Wii controls are really fantastic. I think they work better than the 360 game. The camera works just fine too, despite the lack of buttons. The graphics hold up really well for a Wii game, that is, until all the texture pop ins and bugs start to wear thin. There were some areas in the game that were really impressive, but it seems they ran out of time or budget to fix all the kinks.

Dark Legend also felt gimped. The humor is toned down, the "choices" are tone down.. aka there are none. You're suppose to be evil in this game, and I'll agree that your final deed in the game is pretty evil and messed up, everything else felt like a kid pulling pranks.

The game was so easy. There was literally no challenge at all. The original Overlord had the right amount of challenge to get you through the game without it feeling like a baby game. Heck, even Little King's Story was hard at times. Dark Legend is just a cake walk. That's why I would find it hard to recommend for anything. It's extremely short (7 hours if you skip sidequests and extra exploring) and extremely easy.

It's a shame, because they fixed so many things about the original Overlord, at the same time screwed it all up too.



----------Battle System----------
Dark Legend is a simple action rpg with RTS elements thrown in. Just like the original game, you order your minions around to gather items and to fight. In this game, you can only control a maximum of 20 Minions. While that sounds like a steady decrease amount of minions to control, they seem tougher and stronger than the original game. So they don't die as often and you don't have to pick up things that require a mass amount of minions.

You control them with the Wiimote's pointer. You point at any object or area and can tell them where to run. Picking certain units is MUCH easier with the Wiimote than the 360 game. You can scroll through your minions with the Left and Right D-Pad, or pick all with the Down D-Pad. Up controls your magic, but seriously, magic is useless in this game. I never once needed to use magic, and I never tried to use magic. Why even bother putting it in?

You gain new Power ups, like Max HP, Max MP, new weapons and armor and more minions by finding special items on the battle field. One thing this game really lacks are Pikmin elements where you need to pick up an item, and defend your units at the same time. Once your Minions pick up an item, they'll take it back to the nearest waypoint in the matter of 2 seconds. Usually, all the special items are right beside the waypoint too.

Speaking of Pikmin moments, there's almost zero puzzles in this game. There were some in the original Overlord, I remember them being kind of fun. However,there are NONE in this one. I really don't consider anything in this game a puzzle because they spell out EVERYTHING to you. The main minion guy is annoying about this, he's like Navi from Ocarina of Time but you can't tune him out.

The Forge is a big improvement over the original game atleast. In the original game, you had to forge new weapons by sacrificing your minions. In this, all you have to do is spend money that you gathered in battle. You can buy up to 9 weapons, and 9 pieces of armor. You can't modify them in any way though. You can even level up your minions now, but I never quite felt the "upgrades" when I used them. They still felt like the same faceless minions as before.

You get money almost to easily in this game, so there isn't much for a "carrot on a stick" feeling. Once you unlock new armor or minion levels, you can almost be certain you can afford everything.

There are only a few sidequests, and none of them give you a real reward. Boss fights are extremely simple. Almost insulting. The rest of the game is easy to navigate through too.


----------Characters / Story----------
You play as the youngest sibling of a fallen royal family. Your father is gone on a mission to recapture his pride, while you and your siblings fight over power. It's your 16th birthday and you are given a evil glove to control minions. That's about it.

This was billed as a prequel to the original Overlord, but there's no tangible connections other than a couple wink wink moments. Neither story is compelling enough to worry about timeline differences.

With that said, Dark Legend has better characters than the original game.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are inconsistent. Some smaller rooms, the frame rate moves perfectly, other rooms it just chugs along. Sometimes you'll see texture pop ins. You eventually forget you're playing a Wii game because it looks so good at times. Then again, you'll see some areas in the game that look like sub-PS2 games.

Dark Legend is buggy as hell too. The game crashed on me 5 different times. It even crashed on me the first time I beat the final boss.


----------Sound----------
The music is good, but I'm pretty sure its just recycled tracks from the original game. The voice work is hit or miss. The main minion is awesome, but some of the human characters are poor. Oh well.

----------World Map----------
The world map is a big improvement over the original game. In the original Overlord, you navigated your map by warping back to your castle, and then opening a Menu at your starting gate. You never had a sense of the world, other than what you explored.

In this game, you get a real map, which is all darkened out. When you unlock new areas on the map, they open up. It even has a sub-map which dissects each area you're in too. However, it shows the entire map right off the bat, so you get a sense of how small the world is too.

While the game flows very linearly, you never feel trapped. So you can wander around the world at your own pace. It's just a shame they didn't throw in more sidequests.




----------Time to Complete Game----------
8:28

The final boss was so freaking easy. I didn't even know it was the end boss. It felt like a mini-boss leading up to a dungeon boss. This game just doesn't feel complete. It's like they got half way done with it and called it a day. So disappointing.

Anyways, you get nothing for beating the game. You can go back to your previous save file and do whatever you want. Sadly, there is nothing else to do in the game.

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"zh666 reviewed Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:15:13 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/overlord-dark-legend/user-reviews/701573/platform/wii/ Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:57:32 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Digimon World Data Squad for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/digimon-world-data-squad/user-reviews/701485/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 3.0.

First thing you should know about this game is nothing.
If you're not a digimon fans you probably shoudnt waste your money on this game and buy other game. Not to mention in this game you face 7 sins and the boss represent each sin, that makes me want to puke every time i fight them.
The story is readable , no spoiler so i dont think you will need spoiler cause im not into the story, it so lame and old school.

Anyway in the battle you will realize if you already buy this game you will completely want to puke like i did. The battle is so slow to choose the action command and the animation is like "what the hell is happening in this game?" like we're a child to believe that.

Im not here to bad-mouthing this game but this game made me do this. The graphic is so anime but i suggest for anime lover you shoudnt play it , this game is all about headache.

Good point :
1. easy to finish, but who wants?

Bad point :
1. a retarded battle system
2. with not so good graphic
3. full of headache maker music

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/digimon-world-data-squad/user-reviews/701485/platform/ps2/ Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:23:05 -0800 zh666 reviewed Little King's Story for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/little-kings-story/user-reviews/700669/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Little King's Story is not just one of the best Wii games I've played, it's one of the best current gen games I've played aswell. I loved exploring the world, collecting loot, fighting monsters. The music was awesome, the visuals were great. Expanding the Kingdom felt great. The humor cracked me up.

There was just so much to love about Little King's Story. I wasn't disappointed with anything about it.

Little King's Story just reminded me of all the best parts of Pikmin, Zelda, Diablo and Dragon Quest. If you like any of those games, then do yourself a favor and pick this game up.

I haven't been this excited about a game since Opoona.


----------Battle System----------
Little King's Story is a weird game to explain. It's a strategy game? It's a sim? It's an RPG? Yes, it's all of those. It's a strategy game because you have to manage your units. Send the correct units in battle. Compared to Pikmin's 3 types of units and Overlord's 4 types of units, this game clearly outmatches them with up to 20 different types of units at a time. You can scroll through the mulitple units with the down button. Specific units can kill specific enemies faster than others. You need specific units to clear roadblocks and other obstacles too. So the strategy is there.

It's a sim because you control the build of your kingdom. Although technically, you don't get much say so in how it lays out, but it's there. You're rated by your citizens how well you do.

It's an RPG because you grow your citizens over time. You boost their HP, you equip them new weapons. You also loot grind. Each time you kill an enemy, it drops loot. You then sell this loot to further grow your kingdom. The world is open ended, and you can take on sidequests at your lesure. From the begining of the game to the end of the game, you get a true sense of growth, more so than you would any most RPGs.

Little King's Story is a much deeper experience than I ever expected too. You're constantly unlocking new items, new units, new areas and collecting new collectables. It's a constant feed that had me hooked from start to finish.




----------Characters / Story----------
You play as the king, a lonely kid just playing with puppets. When he gets interruped by rats, he chases them out of the house and finds a crown in his backyard. This takes him to the world of Alpoko. You are guided by your trusty Bull Knight, and servents to take over the world.

Little King's Story is a very very weird game. I love the quirkiness of it all. I love the cutness of it all too. However, this game is about world domination and destorying peaceful nations for personal gain. There are also a ton of screwed up things in the game. Like how you marry a new Queen each time you defeat a boss. So yeah, you're also a polygamist.

Either way, the weird story gives the game the charm I was wanting. I loved just about everything about it.


----------Graphics----------
There's nothing about Little King's Story that's going to blow you away on a technical level, but on an artistic one, you're going to love it. Every piece of land, every character, every boss fight, every enemy is well crafted. I love how much personality each area has. Each area changes with time aswell.

My favorite part of the game are the cutscenes. They look like paintbrushed cartoons, but I think they just use a filter effect. It just looks really really good.

The only thing I can say negative about the game is the framerate drops once you get more citizens in your party, but it's not enough to stop you enjoying the game. It just moves slightly slower. Nothing skips or anything.

There's also this weird blur effect on everything. It looks like they put vasoline on the lens. I think it was intentional though, because the blur effect was completely gone during one boss fight. I actually liked the blur effect, but I can see why people wouldn't.

----------Sound----------
The music is weird because it's a mix of original tunes and stock music. The stock music are classic songs you would be familiar. Mostly classical songs. So they fit the game pretty well, but it was just a shock to me that they were in there. The original music is very good too.

The voice acting is weird. While the intro movie has voice clips, the rest of the game use those chirping voices that Animal Crossing or Okami did. I think it fits the game though, especially once you meet some of the crazier boss battles.

----------World Map----------
The world map is very open ended, much like an early Zelda game. The game starts off linear, but you're still given 100% freedom to do whatever you want within a bubble. However, that bubble is small. The more stuff you gain, and more enemies you clear, the bigger your bubble will get, and the more area you'll be able to walk through.

I love games like this. Clearing each area is very rewarding. Finding that new item, beating that new boss or getting that new citizen to advance through the world is also extremely rewarding too.



----------Time to Complete Game----------
31:26:38

That doesn't include the time it took me to get to the final boss and fight it. There was still a ton of side stuff I could have done too. Little King's Story is a very meaty game when it comes down to it.

The ending was fantastic, between the build up, intense boss fight and cool ending. It was one of the best endings I can think of in recent memories.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zh666 reviewed Little King's Story for the Wii..." was posted by zh666 on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:23:05 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/little-kings-story/user-reviews/700669/platform/wii/ Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:11:58 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed The Warriors for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/the-warriors/user-reviews/700153/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Rockstar once again with their violence theme game is hit the jackpot. This game is based on its movie on 1970s, an old story about american gang who fought because of the tough street.
The Warrior is the gang you will play on, You will using character alternately, like Rembrant, Kleon, Ajax, Swan, etc.
The story itself is a two thumbs up story, not some cheesy story. You will play 3 moths before the meeting occurred, the big event where one gang could run out the city and control all the city, but then turn out the honorable man shot by one of the gang member and the warrior is being accused.

In this game, you can mug people, steal car radio, get your protection money from restaurant or car dealer. Beat people up and tagging all the city with "W" word, and a lot more. Besides the side-quest in Coney you have different mission like teach a gang a lesson if they trying to messed up with you, take over all the coney island from destroyer, and running away from the baseball furious gang.

Good point :
1. Like all rockstar violence game, it's totally likeable by gamer
2. You can get to know the story if you haven't watch the movie

Bad point :
1. This game may affect you to mayhem people, so you might end up in jail

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed The Warriors for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:11:58 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-warriors/user-reviews/700153/platform/ps2/ Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:55:08 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Sid Meier's Civilization III for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iii/user-reviews/700152/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

I still playing this game when i write this review, this is a different kind of wonderful. I know this is not my most favorite game but i'm totally addicted with this game.

You who want to play a strategy game should pick this game. Because you will control a country from its diplomatic relationship, science development, city improvement, and military activity. This is one similar but different with Age of Empire, same addictive different gameplay. If AoE is a real time strategy then Civilization III is a turn based strategy.

In Civilization III, its not always the widest country who will win, because there is space race at the end of the age. Your ability to manage each city is the key to win. You are given one settler to build a city and one warrior at first. After you build a city it is all your choice to choose which you should make next, warrior , worker, settler or even wonder (pyramid is the first wonder). Your logic and experience from playing this game will give various result, but there is a score at the end of your game. Depends on your difficulty level you choose too, the score can give you a reflection about your logic skill and your tactic in playing the game.

I always love to see the picture of a winner political leader and the other leaders are bruised, lol. But if you lose you're the one who'll be humiliated, so be careful in playing this game don't be careless.

Good point :
1. Best strategy game from Sid Meier
2. I'm sure you never get old for this
3. Various result of the game and various political leader

Bad point :
1. This is your own risk, be careful of your electricity bill

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Sid Meier's Civilization III for the PC..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:55:08 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iii/user-reviews/700152/platform/pc/ Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:37:13 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Sid Meier's Civilization IV for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iv/user-reviews/700148/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I love this game, especially when i hear that music at main menu. This game gameplay hasn't change, except the political leader for each country. There is Roosevelt, Napoleon, etc.
Civilization IV graphic is much more realistic, you can zoom in or rotate the camera. And the wonder building here is also looks alike with the real one on earth. There is more real-life scientist like Louis Pasteur, Galileo,etc that can help your city culture and maybe to make the science development in your country progress faster. Not only scientist, but great people for religion, engineer, and also leader is gonna be in this game. Each have different effect that related with their ability.

The time system is not changing and still like the old Civilization from medieval times to modern times where you can make a tank to destroy your opponent who may still at the rock age.
The diplomatic system is the old thing but i never get old for this, you can make a trade agreement so you can trade with another country or an open border passage, so you can explore more.

Good point :
1. Best turn based strategy for PC
2. More realistic graphic
3. New political leader, new dirty politic

Bad point :
I haven't found out about this, still playing and haven't got bored

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Sid Meier's Civilization IV for the PC..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:37:13 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iv/user-reviews/700148/platform/pc/ Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:13:39 -0800 Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Wild ARMs 5 for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/wild-arms-5/user-reviews/700143/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

How interesting to play a game in the cowboy era. You will have the experience to feel the old western style. But this game is not about catching the bad guy who kidnap a beautiful girl (that's so old school). The game Wild Arms 5 is about a boy name Dean, he wants to be a golem hunter and by accident he will be gifted a weapon that will make him be a hero to save the world (like usual).

This game offers a unique battle system that gives you polygon tile for your movement, the tile is limited so in battle you or your enemy who get closer then kill or be killed. The weapon for all playable character mostly is gun or double handed pistol.

In the middle of gameplay there is a mysterious girl who i think has amnesia , her appearance makes the game more fun. And don't worry if you think you don't know how to proceed in this game. At the save point there is a parrot or cockatoo who can give you hint.

Good point :
1. Fun battle and gameplay
2. Good voice acting

Bad point :
1. i think the story is kinda lame and boring

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Flaren_Kuldes reviewed Wild ARMs 5 for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Flaren_Kuldes on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:13:39 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/wild-arms-5/user-reviews/700143/platform/ps2/