PS2 look: Tsukiyo Ni Saraba(10,000 Bullets)

While the PS2 has had no shortage of great action games I can't remember much in the way of great 3rd person shooters (aside from Resident Evil 4). These days it's one of those dime-a-dozen genres but I guess it's fair in a way since last generation it was action games that were all too prevalent. I'm not sure why I brought this up as 10k Bullets is not a great shooter but eh I guess I needed an intro.

The storyline is your average tale of Hitmen, crime lords, betrayal, and occassional wackiness. The star of the show is a man named Crow. He's in dire need of some charisma and possibly revenge against the man that killed his lady and ruined his life. He teams up with Alice (the typical cutie), Dragon (the typical karate master), and Boris (the typical Russian badass who is also a woman). Through Crow's mastery of his dual pistols and the occasional assistance of his partners, thousands of thugs and a few bosses are going to meet their untimely death.

This game is a very arcade-style of 3D shooter. As the player runs through linear environments, they will be accosted by groups of bad guys that spawn out of nowhere or via the many doors placed throughout. Foes typically arrange themselves in formations where they can be easily taken down with style and to keep combos going. At the end of each stage the player is given points depending on how well they use their character, how fast they complete the stage, their remaining health, and so on. This is the kind of stuff one has grown to expect from the genre and with a talented developer like Taito everything is handled quite well.

As a hitman Crow is quite effective with his pistols. He can quickly lock-on to any near-by enemy or if the need arises an explosive barrel (which is always placed near a crowd of enemies). He also has the standard tools for evasion like a jump and a dodge which is necessary for all of the bullets flying around. Further rounding him out are special attacks that make him an even more effective killer. One of his most important tools is his critical shot. When locked onto an enemy the crosshair changes in shape every other second. By timing the shot properly this leads to a critical hit and usually kills an enemy instantly. This is also the only way to effectively take down the bosses.

The thing is though is that since everyone Crow faces is capable of using guns that means a lot of bullets are going to fly his way. Most of the time the only way to dodge them is through bullet-time. Activating this ability slows down everything to the point where bullets crawl at a snail's pace and bad guys stay in the air long enough to have entire clips shot into their fresh corpses. This tool is very necessary since otherwise the bullets fly so fast Crow will be dead in less than a minute.

The other playable characters have similar roles although Boris differs in that she's very slow and relies on a shadow-step to get around quickly. Dragon is oddly enough a melee-only fighter. His kung fu mastery makes up for it though, and thanks to bullet-time he can handle entire groups of thugs with ease. These other characters aren't really a factor in the first playthrough since Crow ends up doing most of the work himself (thankfully in subsequent playthroughs everyone is playable from the outset).

While the level designs never really manage to get past long hallways or large rooms with bad guys in them there's usually enough of a variety in enemies to go around. Mobsters with guns are common-place but expect to see sword-wielding dudes, typical strong-men, rocket-launcher ladies, and so on. Much of the diversity is found in the bosses as they cover the gamut of what one could expect from a shooter. There's the guitar case wielding Desperado, the Chinese woman who blocks bullets with a fan, some guy who dresses like a J-pop star and attacks with lightning, and a very annoying Crime Boss that is apparently near immortal because he recovers his life several times over the fight. These bosses showcase a lot of great attacks though they have the annoying tendency to get knocked down after taking so much damage. I guess this is to give the impression of each boss having multiple phases where they gain in power and use new attacks. More often than not however, this just tends to break up the pacing.

The biggest flaw with this game is on the technical side. Simply put the framerate is terrible. For a game that relies on bullet-time one can expect to play much of the game in slow-motion. This isn't too bad on its own but a number of stages rely heavily on particle effects (like a bar that has no shortage of bottles to break) and this kills the framerate (which tries to stay at 60 fps). Between the slow-motion and the horrid framerate the slowdown simply becomes agonising and can potentially induce headaches. Graphically it isn't much to look at anyway so maybe if there was a way to turn off certain filters or special effects it probably would have helped the framerate immensely.

The other big problem with this game is that today there's more than enough 3rd person shooters to go around. The only real quality that helps Tsukiyo separate itself from the pack is that it's developed in Japan. It's pretty bog-standard otherwise and the frame-rate does it no favors. I guess if I had played this game when it came out it would have been something special due to the genre being relatively un-touched at the time but today there's not much I can say that makes it worthwhile. But hey if you're like me and have to play everything just go for it. It's really a harmless game and the music is pretty good, shame about the absolutely dreadful cutscenes though.

Oh and yes I did hear about that Xbox 360 "Game Room"

As big of an arcade fan as I am it's only natural that'd I be excited about the 360's upcoming "Game Room". Unfortunately the launch library isn't much to look at but apparently over a 1,000 games are expected to release over the next three years. Hopefully any or all of these companies throw some support at this service:

Sega - Admittedly I'm not sure how this'll work out since they seem pretty keen on porting arcade titles to XBLA but I figure with this service they'll consider throwing in stuff like Shadow Dancer, maybe some racing games, and hey maybe Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder. Then again I'm not sure if they'd be willing to de-value the original Golden Axe XBLA since RoDA would be about $2 cheaper and about a hundred times better.

Capcom - Another obvious choice. Again these guys have a couple titles up on XBLA but I think with this service they'd be more willing to put out their shooters and action games. Toss in the few beatemups that aren't tied down by licenses(like Battle Circuit) and it could turn out very nicely.

Konami - Actually these fine folks have already announced a few titles for the service. However one can only hope they consider putting some of their good games out there. It doesn't help that like others they already have a number of titles on XBLA. I gotta say though it would be very nice to have Xexex or...Xexex on the service(It'd have to be the JPN version though cause the US one is pretty bad).

Irem - While their flagship shooter has already seen a port/remake in R-Type Dimensions there's always titles like R-Type Leo, GunForce, In the Hunt, and a few others.

Taito - This is an obvious choice. With Taito/Square Enix's tendency to release remakes/new games on XBLA and similar services I figure Game Room is the perfect place for all of their older arcade titles. Course on that same note it may be difficult to justify buying many of these titles when Taito Legends 1 & 2 can be had for less than $10 total.

Raizing/8ing - This is more wishful thinking on my part since there's hardly any reason for these guys to allow anything to be ported to the service. On the other hand since much of the porting work is handled by a particular team I don't see why anyone would turn down the easy money.

Midway - Are these guys even around anymore? Well if so there's a lot of stuff that could be ported(and yes this is accounting for their games on XBLA).

Cave - More wishful thinking here. Like I said though it's free money and having titles like Dodonpachi, ESP Ra De, and even Dangun Feveron floating around would give some incentive for shooter fans to consider importing their newer games. Then again if anything I believe Cave will go the XBLA route.

SNK/Playmore - Considering that a number of titles have already been put out on the Wii's Virtual Console I figure Game Room support is obvious. There's a big problem with this though as VC NeoGeo games are typically $9. Compare that to $3-5 and well I'm not sure how that'll work out.

Data East - While there is an upcoming compilation on the way it's rather empty(15 to 20 games?) and missing a number of key titles like Midnight Resistance. I expect they'll fill in the blanks somehow through a combination of Virtual Console and Game Room.

Namco/Bandai - These guys are never one to turn down easy money. I fully expect to see every arcade title possible getting a port.

Unfortunately the possibility of any or especially all of these companies doing Game Room support is slight at best. In fact considering many of the titles announced for launch consist of Atari 2600 and Intellivision games I figure that a large number of future releases are going to be in the same vein. Still though with over 1,000 games I figure at least a few great ones are going to make their way over.

Still playing Bayonetta.

After nearly 30 hours of play time I've got to say that Platinum Games/Sega have produced the hottest action game this gen. I still have a ways to go as there's a third difficulty setting I need to complete as well as assorted weapons & characters to unlock. For now at least I think I deserve a break and I'm going to focus on some of the other games I've picked up lately.

Speaking of I have two more additions to my rapidly growing library.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand - I've heard a lot of great things about this game. Admittedly this comes as a great shock to me and I figured what the hey may as well give it a shot.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War - Going by the art-style and Koei's previous titles I was expecting another Dynasty Warriors game except I'd be playing as Joan of Arc or....Joan of Arc. Yes I pretty much forgot everything I ever learned about the Hundred Years war. Maybe playing this game will inspire me to do some reading like Dynasty Warriors got me to read Three Kingdoms. Where was I again? Oh yeah Bladestorm is a Tactical Action game. Winning battles is more about thinking on one's feet and properly applying tactics than pressing buttons and relying on reflexes to get by(though there's probably a bit of that as well..hence the word "Action" in the description). I managed to get a good deal on this game via ebay and it'll help me kill time until the next big game(which knowing me is either Data East Arcade Classics or Milestone's Illvelo...provided either of them actually release).

Picked up Bayonetta!

Yes indeed I've finally gotten this game and yeah it's really sweet. It's a bit easier than I expected considering most of my deaths have been due to the stupid QTE segments. I'm up to uhhh..chapter 10 I believe so I'm moving pretty quickly. Granted this isn't accounting for additional difficulties and all that other good stuff but hey I'll figure all that out when I get there. So far it's great stuff.

Also while I was at Gamestop I found P.N. 03 for....$3. Pretty swell eh? So with DMC1, VJ1, and PN03 I've covered all the bases and can focus on how these games have influenced each other and whatever whatever.

Course that's all going to wait until I can get my new PC up and running as well as play through all four games. At least I think things will be quiet up until the release of Mass Effect 2. Then again I'm not so sure if I'm going to get that game(the aspect I'm most looking forward to in ME2 is the soundtrack if you can believe it).

Wasted more money today...

I finally got around to purchasing a PC. Granted I'm not sure when it'll arrive and I haven't heard much of anything regarding its status but well yeah a PC. To celebrate I threw away more money on games.

Echo Night Beyond - From the makers of King's Field comes uh..well I have no idea what this is. I'm guessing it's an adventure game set on a spaceship and its more about messing around with ghosts than slaying beasts. It was 3.99 so at least I'm not out much if it doesn't turn out all that hot.

Castlevania: Rebirth - Dunno why but I've been on an "old-school" Castlevania kick. So far I'm finding this game to be very enjoyable.

Final Fight 3 - I heard a lot of great things about this beatemup so I took advantage of the fact that it was just released on the Virtual Console yesterday. At the moment I'm not really feeling it. I'll give it some more time but ehhh...yeah.

Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires - My highly sophisticated taste in videogames should prevent me from continuing to play games from the Warriors series. So much for that I suppose.

I'm also supposed to pick up Bayonetta today but I'm kind of conflicted as to whether I should beat Devil May Cry 1 and Viewtiful Joe first.

Xbox 360 look: The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant is in some ways Square-Enix's attempt to bring the Romancing Saga franchise to the next generation of consoles. I think this is extremely interesting because the Saga series has always been very unique in its approach. In fact the Saga games tend to take their uniqueness a bit too far and create games only a small group of people can understand let alone enjoy.

I know the phrase "It's not for everyone" gets terribly overused around here but once again it has to be said. While the Saga games have aspects standard to the JRPG they also have tons of their own sub-systems that create something rather off-putting and picking up on them can be a bit of a struggle. Take for instance how experience is handled. In Saga games the characters don't level up. Instead they randomly gain stats as they win battles. Furthermore the battles they win must be ones where the party is weaker than the enemy. Where this gets strange is that enemies can gain in strength along with the party. There's a hidden rank in some of these games that actually cause enemies to change to more powerful ones. This means that after awhile the rats the player was picking on in the first dungeon could become behemoths of the apocalypse. This rank extends beyond battles as if the player doesn't properly maintain it it'll lead to them missing out on the many quests NPCs dole out. Sure other quests will pop up depending on rank but since some can open up entirely new dungeons and lands to explore that equates to a lot of missed content.

Thankfully it's not all that frustrating. Saga games are usually light on the equipment requirements so the party is adept for whatever situation that comes about. After every battle all party members are restored to full health. Magic Points(MP, TP, EP, or whatever) are given out as battles progress so the player can use powerful skills constantly. So for the most part even if the player can't quite figure out how to work the system to their advantage the games never become truly daunting.

The Last Remnant is definitely a Saga game. The storyline is about as tolerable as the average JRPG will allow and most of the player's time will be spent in dungeons or in combat. While the dungeons are very standard and predictable they serve their purpose.

To properly explain the battle system we must first start with how parties work. In this game they are known as Unions and eventually the player can form up to five unions with 18 party members(though in the 360 version only six of them can be powerful leaders). After deciding on the characters for a Union a formation must be decided upon. These affect everything from defense to certain attacks to mobility to achieving a particular maneuver with slightly more success. Rarely does this boil down to life or death but any advantage is worth having.

When a battle starts all of the Unions will participate. The enemies are like-wise organised into Unions and after deciding their orders they will clash until one side is wiped out. I say "orders" because unlike other RPGs they are a not "commands". When the player selects an enemy party to attack a list of orders will come up. These are adapted to the current situation and take into account multiple factors like morale(the huge bar at the top of the screen), union configuration, status of other unions, and so on. The average list of orders will consist of "Attack", "Attack from afar(with spells)", "Attack with special skills", "Heal selves", "Heal other unions", and so on. Don't be surprised if not all of these pop up at a given time as the game will only allow you to give orders if they are deemed necessary. You can't give individual commands to party members so if there's certain weapon-skills you tend to favor it can be frustrating.

Skills cover all of the necessary things like killing and healing. They are learned during battle and gain in power from constant use. There are also character unique abilities like summons and special attacks. These are definitely useful and should be triggered whenever possible(though getting special attacks require certain conditions).

When two opposing Unions attack each other it is known as a deadlock. From there other Unions can join in to flank their enemies, assist from outside, and so on. Since many foes are capable of area of effect attacks it may be necessary to keep unions out of direct combat to heal others. Bosses and certain enemies tend to lead to multi-deadlocks. These can be a very bad thing because as long as the unions are involved in those the enemy can continue to make moves(this tends to be especially devastating depending on what attacks they are capable of).

It's definitely a lot to absorb but the game gives the player several tools to make things a bit easier. The Battle Rank is back and while it won't cause the player to miss out on quests it will lead to slight gains in enemy stats over time. The Battle Rank doesn't account for other factors like the Union's equipment or skills so no matter the rank the player should have little trouble with fights deemed to be below the player's level(as determined by the morale at the start of the battle). Obviously with these easier battles there are less stat gains to make so that means the player will have to constantly do tougher battles. At least they'll have more fun in the process.

All the same though I'd recommend being overpowered for certain story-related encounters. I say this because these fights can take over an hour just to complete and losing all of that progress because the boss wiped everyone out in a couple turns will lead to quite a bit of rage. The majority of the game will be spent in side-quests anyway and the story-related fights can only scale so much. Despite my misgivings with the battle rank it actually turns out to be well thought-out and the worst aspect of it is that maybe you'll find yourself slightly bored from destroying too easy foes for little gain. This can eventually become an annoyance if like me you decide to run away from enemies during exploration. Thankfully BR is pretty easy to control and as long as you don't revisit areas constantly it stays fairly level and very challenging.

Like many other recent RPGs there is a crafting system of sorts in The Last Remnant. There are tons of components to find and collect and certain parts will be used by union members to strengthen their equipment. It can be a headache to scour the world for a certain flavor of insect wing though.

All of the biggest faults with this game are in the technical sense. At least on the 360 you're in for a pain if you don't install the game on your HDD. Even then the battles are plagued by low frame-rates and stuttering. It gets tolerable after awhile but if you have the PC for it I recommend going that direction. As a bonus the game allows for players to make Unions filled entirely with Leaders. Aside from Leaders having more versatility and power than regular soldiers they also have their own looks and voices that lend a bit of personality to each battle(plus there's actually a Leader named Gabriel, can't go wrong with that right?).

I should also mention that this game is best played with the minor assistance of a guide. There are a handful of missable side-quests and in order to get the most out of the game every last one of them must be completed. Despite this game being one of the better JRPGs I've played this year I have to admit that missing out on these quests took a bit away from my enjoyment of the game. I'm also a bit perturbed by the lack of a clock that tracks amount of time spent on the game. Then again it's probably best that I don't know.

PS2 look - King's Field: The Ancient City

One of the most pleasant surprises of this year is the success story Demon's Souls. Considering the nature of the game and how its designed I was quite shocked to see it sell as well as it did. Sure it's nothing incredible especially when compared to the likes of Infinity Ward's or Nintendo's latest it's still quite respectable.

Before Demon's Souls however From Software's mainstay Fantasy game was the King's Field series. These first-person RPGs feature a heavy emphasis on atmosphere, exploration, and punishment. Anyone who has played Demon's Souls can attest to the punishment aspect. It is a welcome part to the game because it's designed fairly and creates an experience that's a bit more unique than more traditional adventures. The only problem with King's Field is that most of the games are only available on the PS1 and tend to look very dated. Everything else holds up if you can look past that though.

The Ancient City is the sole PS2 King's Field game and is the best entry to start with for those interested in the series. In a land doomed by constant fear and death one man must take a mysterious idol to the bowels of evil itself to restore light to the kingdom. While The Ancient City's strength isn't in story-telling it's certainly in atmosphere. These games are very dark and somber experiences. You'll meet less than 20 living people throughout your adventure and almost all of them wish they were dead(and a few are even granted that wish). This isn't like the average RPG where there's always somebody to welcome you at the front gate with a warm greeting. Everyone in King's Field is depressed about something and their face carries an absolutely dismal look.

When the player looks at the world surrounding them they will also gain that feeling of hopelessness. The Ancient City is a horrible place filled with ruins, crumbling villages, lava-pits, and pretty much every dungeon design we don't look forward to. In what has become a sort-of tradition for the series one of the first things the player will do is fall into a pit of lava.

Death is a concept we've long grown accustomed to when it comes to videogames and The Ancient City does little to make it easy. While the game can be saved it is only through save-points and chances are good that the player will have to go for thirty minute or even hour long stretches without saving. Clearly the designers could have implemented a system where the game can be saved at any time but where's the fun in that? Progress is only gained by taking risks while at the same time approaching everything with caution.

The pacing in King's Field has always been very methodical. While some would say that this is simply a slow-paced game I think this is not something you can run through and expect the best. The pacing is everything here and every situation must be carefully handled. This is especially true early on since simple mistakes are usually fatal.

To explain this better I'm going to look at the foes of The Ancient City. These creatures come in all shapes and sizes and cover about everything you're bound to expect. The thing to keep in mind is that these monsters can hit very hard. If the player is caught off-guard or surrounded they will die. One of the very first dungeons is filled with poisonous slimes. If the player touches one of these the poison will kill them in seconds. Pretty much any mistake made in this game usually leads to death.

The way that combat is handled leaves little room for error as well. A melee-based first person perspective is enough of a challenge but King's Field brings it up a notch by requiring that the player is properly facing the enemy in order to hit them. To further complicate things a stamina bar determines how much damage they do with a swing. Stamina is drained by running and emptied entirely by swinging. In order to take down any beast it's important to watch for openings, play it safe, and always keep track of the environment. Not only is it possible to fall off a cliff while fighting with a foe there's the chance a player could run into a wall and get stuck just as the monster makes the killing blow.

The strangest thing is however is that as the player progresses the game will actually become easier. While the game strives to keep the level of challenge at a state where it grows with the player's skills and abilities after several hours things start to pose less of a threat. This is mostly due to the magic system in the game. As the player explores The Ancient City they'll come across magic crystals that teach spells. While they start off very weak through constant use they gain in levels and start to become very useful. In fact I would argue that some of them can potentially become game-breaking(like the healing spell). In a way though it is a good idea to be able to allow for more mistakes as the dungeons and puzzles become more challenging to solve. Every aspect of the game plays off each other naturally and when one aspect starts to become easy another aspect will jump in difficulty.

The Ancient City's greatest strength is the design of its world. It's seamless and unlike Eternal Ring each area is sensible and creative. There's no wandering nothing more than increasingly similar hallways to flip a switch or find a key. Every inch of the land feels meticously crafted to be just as real as a videogame can allow.

As far as replay value is concerned that's a tough one to consider. There's not much to this game in terms of optional content and the only reward for completing the game is an ending. It might be an experience worth re-living in a month or even a few years at least. Aside from that the player could challenge themselves further to abstain from certain spells or focus on using different weapons and equipment to progress. There's a bit of leeway in how to handle combat at least.

In any case The Ancient City is a worthwhile trek and is certainly worth a look for those seeking adventure or fans of Demon's Souls who want to explore previous games.