#greg4cr

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

Swedish developers Image & Form have taken on a variety of genres with the versatile SteamWorld setting. SteamWorld Dig and Dig 2 were gorgeous, polished takes on the sidescrolling action-adventure. SteamWorld Heist presented an addictive take on the turn-based strategy game. SteamWorld Tower Defense was, well, a creative take on its namesake. 

Now, Image & Form are back with their most ambitious release yet. SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech is the studio’s riff on the RPG genre, with an addictive card-based battle system.

Read on for my impressions.

SteamWorld Quest places you in the armor-plated shoes of Armilly - the grocer’s daughter, who dreams of living up to the legend of her hero, Gilgamech - Copernica - a college dropout who wants to bring alchemy to the people - and Galleo - a craftsman looking for a way out of his mother’s basement. Their little village is attacked by an army of mechanical monsters, and the professional adventurers prove to be completely useless. Suddenly, Armilly, Copernica, and Galleo find themselves in the spotlight, as the only ones who can repel the invaders and save the world. 

The plot of SteamWorld Quest is essentially the hero’s journey at the heart of many fantasy novels. It’s a fun ride, and the charming dialogue really carries the experience. I fell in love with the characters from almost the start - you can’t help but love Copernica’s sarcasm and Armilly’s sheer, puppy-like earnestness. The general tone of the game is perfect. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, and throws a few fun winks at the player without getting obnoxious. I expected finely-tuned gameplay from Image & Form, but was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed the writing too. 

SteamWorld Quest is presented as a series of chapters, each essentially a sidescrolling “level” to explore. Whether forest paths, a dungeon, or a damp cave, you move between a series of rooms full of enemies, characters to talk to, merchants, and obstacles. You can destroy items to collect gold, and search for chests full of items. Your map shows the rooms that you’ve explored, and indicates missed paths. Of course, there are also hidden rooms not indicated on the map, so there is incentive to explore each area as much as you can. 

If you get close to an enemy, combat begins. Battles are turn-based, alternating between groups - that is, your party takes a turn, then the enemy party takes a turn (rather than alternating between individual characters). Combat is card-based. Each of your three party members has a deck of eight cards, which are shuffled together to form your deck. You draw a hand of six cards at the start of the battle, and draw back up to six each turn. On a turn, you may perform up to three actions. You could play three cards, or use up to three items - like health-restoring potions - instead. 

The actions you can choose are determined by your SP - “steam points”. Each character has cards that represent basic actions, either simple attacks, stat modifiers, and such. Basic actions are weak, but they cost nothing to use and grant you one SP. More powerful cards - attacks, healing, powerful spells - cost one or more SP to play. SP is held in a shared pool for the party. When choosing skills, you need to decide whether to focus on one character’s cards, or whether to spread actions between party members. If all three cards belong to the same character, you get to execute a special fourth action for that character. However, some skills are more powerful if paired with another character’s abilities. Other times, it might make sense to pair one character’s mighty attack with another’s healing touch.

Using a card takes it from your hand to the discard pile, putting it out of play until the existing deck is used up. Fortunately, with a combined deck size of 24, it is never long until discarded cards come back into play. You can also freely discard two cards each turn and draw replacements immediately. This is a great touch, helping you get out of situations where you feel “stuck” and allowing you to gamble on a definite - but weak - turn versus a potentially great turn. Since you get cards back eventually, you have a lot of freedom to try to manipulate your hand.

Each character has their own specializations, strengths, and weaknesses. Armilly is your standard “knight”, excelling at physical attacks and defense. Copernica is the “wizard”, with elemental magic attacks. Galleo is your support character - your “priest” - with healing skills, the ability to inflict status ailments like poison on enemies, and stat manipulation abilities. This impacts the kind of skills they each bring to the table, and what you can expect out of them in combat.  

Each character has stats (the typical RPG ones, like strength, magic, constitution, etc.). Armilly is good at physical strikes, Copernica is not. However, Copernica makes up for a lack of strength with powerful element-based magic attacks. You also equip weapons and accessories to improve your stats, and attacks do damage based on these stats. For example, an ice attack that does 120% magic damage does 12 damage if your magic stat is 10. 

You can have three party members at one time, and eventually do meet more characters that join the adventure. Like Armilly, Copernica, and Galleo, each additional character brings their own unique twists to the combat formula, and it is worth experimenting with part composition to find the one that works for how you play the game. Unfortunately, only the active party members gain experience, so unused characters quickly fall behind. 

Each character has their own deck of cards. You find new cards throughout the world, and defeated monsters yield materials that can be used to craft new cards at the merchant. Very quickly, you end up with many more cards than can be used in your eight card deck, and choosing the right cards becomes an interesting optimization problem. You have to consider not just that character in isolation, but also the decks of the rest of the party. Galleo might not be the strongest attacker, but you still might want to include some of their attack cards to not end up in a situation where you only have healing cards. However, reasonably frequent save points and the ability to resurrect enemies give you a lot of freedom to explore different deck configurations. 

The battle system is incredible. I have had a blast experimenting with different party and deck configurations, and the element of random draws adds a lot of interesting little surprises and chances to plan out a series of actions. There is a huge amount of depth to each aspect of combat. Yet, at the same time, the system is easy to immediately understand. You never feel lost in a series of dense mechanics. It’s a wonderful case of “easy to understand, hard to master”. 

SteamWorld Quest is also a gorgeous game, especially on the Switch’s tablet screen. The art has a hand-drawn, painted quality to it. The blend of steampunk and fantasy is really appealing - mixing traditional concepts like wizards and knights with gears and bolts -  and I love the interesting little details in all of the character designs, like how the cards look like old-school punchcards. There is a nice variety of environments to explore, and the developers have made great use of color to present a richly detailed world. I have played almost entirely in portable mode, but the game looks wonderful both on the TV and on the go. 

SteamWorld Quest is one of the most enjoyable RPGs I’ve played recently, and it’s easy to get sucked into. Once again, Image & Form have put out a wonderfully polished, creative take on a well-known game genre, and I think they’ve outdone all of their past efforts. If you like card games or RPGs, you should definitely give this a go.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the developers.

Official Website

Nintendo eShop

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - Dragon Marked for Death

Through games like Azure Striker Gunvolt, indie developer Into Creates has made their name by dragging Mega Man-style sidescrollers into the modern era. Dragon Marked for Death is their latest update of a classic style - a class-based action sidescroller designed for four-player co-op. 

I sat down with the game over the past few days and put it through the paces. Read on for my impressions.

Dragon Marked for Death is described by its creators as a 2D “Action RPG”. This is technically accurate, but I don’t think it quite describes the full picture. The best starting place is to consider a sidescrolling action game like Mega Man. You have a series of stages, filled with traps and deadly enemies. You move left and right through that stage, defeating enemies with a variety of attacks - you get the idea.

Each stage has a time limit, and your goal is to defeat the boss within that limit. Complicating this is, of course, a small army of monsters. Also complicating matters is that stages are huge, and full of secrets to find, including items and treasure. Now, your first inclination might be to rush to the boss - and you certainly can play that way - however, this is where the RPG portion comes in. The game has an XP system, and defeating enough monsters to advance is absolutely essential to progressing. In addition, healing items are scarce, so you’ll need to collect money to remain stocked. Both of these factors create an incentive to explore as much as possible. In a way, Dragon Marked for Death presents an interesting optimization problem - how do you make the most of the time limit? 

For me, this problem was more frustrating that exciting. My inclination is to explore as much as possible. I really want to dive into every nook and cranny in a level, and the time limits absolutely prevent this - especially as a solo player. This drove me a little crazy. How I wanted to play the game is not compatible with how it is designed. This is a normal part of gaming, of course, but it is one reason the game hasn’t quite clicked with me yet. Others, however, may find the idea of optimizing a playthrough to be absolutely thrilling. 

Experience points are not the only trapping of the RPG genre that carry over. More important is the concept of the character class. In fact, the classes are the reason that Dragon Marked for Death has a confusing purchasing model. Here is the deal - there are four total character classes. When you purchase the game, you get two. The remaining two can then be added as DLC. This is why the game is split into two different listings on the eShop. $15 gets you either the “Frontline Fighters” pack - featuring the Empress and Warrior - or the “Advanced Attackers” - featuring the Shinobi and Witch. A physical release, coming later this year, comes with all four classes (and costs the price of both packs). Although this model is a little confusing, I also think it’s a cool way to reduce the overall cost. You can start with two classes and add the others in if you fall in love with the game.

The Frontline Fighters classes, the Empress and Warrior, are the best starting point for learning how to play the game. They are also the ones I have tried so far. The Empress fights at close range with a sword, but can also unleash magical attacks through her “Dragon Arm” - either a projectile or a giant sword. She balances ranged and melee attack. The Warrior is more of your traditional “tank”. He is a close-range fighter that can take a beating, and he can create shields that protect himself and allies. 

The Advanced Attackers, then, are slightly more complex classes for experienced players. The Shinobi is built around speed and dodging. He can glide through the air, and can unleash powerful kick attacks. Finally, the Witch can cast magical attacks, heal allies, and create platforms. She is intended to fill a support role. Her magic is powerful, but she is defenseless while casting it. 

This brings me to a detail I had not discussed yet. Dragon Marked for Death can be played as a single player game, but it is absolutely designed as a co-op multiplayer experience. You can join with up to three friends to complete missions and build your characters. I have played both single and multiplayer, and you can tell that the game is built around a multiplayer experience. Many levels are prohibitively difficult for a solo player, and I got a bit frustrated with the game before I tried it with friends. Keep that in mind - you can give it a go alone, but be prepared to treat it as more of a “Souls” experience. You will die more often, and you will repeat more levels. Some of the character classes, like the Witch or Warrior, also do not show their full potential until you join with others.

If you are a fan of pixel art, Dragon Marked for Death is a treat for the eyes. The sprite work is fantastic - with huge, detailed character models and richly decorated stages. It looks fantastic on the Switch screen in portable mode. The colors and details really pop off the screen. It’s a great looking game.

Dragon Marked for Death has left mixed impressions with me. There are some major positives - the game looks wonderful, the character classes add variety, and the combat is fairly deep. However, other aspects have kept it from really sucking me in. I still don’t love the strict time limits, and I’d rather have difficulty that adjusts based on the player count - I don’t tend to play many multiplayer games, and this could have been a great single-player distraction if not for the frustrating balance. The great thing is that the price of entry is fairly low. If you are intrigued - and if you have any friends also interested - it may be worth picking up one of the two character packs and giving it a try.

Official Website

Nintendo eShop (Frontline Fighters)

Nintendo eShop (Advanced Attackers)

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays -  West of Loathing (Switch)

When West of Loathing was announced for the Switch during a Nintendo indie stream, it was a welcome surprise. I’ve certainly heard of Kingdom of Loathing - but had never tried the game - and had definitely missed out on West of Loathing when it released on PC. The Nindie presentation was my first exposure to the game, and I was immediately intrigued by the core concept.

You see, West of Loathing is sort of like Skyrim, an RPG centered around discovery. You stumble onto locations strewn around a broader world, and while there is a core plot, the game is really about the vignettes that play out when you enter a location. West of Loathing is like Skyrim, except the detailed 3D world is swapped for 2D stick figures, the dragons have been swapped for evil cows, the frozen wilds have been swapped for the Wild West, and lofty Shakespearean dialogue has been swapped for biting sarcasm.  

I approve of each and every one of these substitutions.

At the start of West of Loathing, you design your own character (your own stick figure?), choosing a gender, name, and hair style. You also pick a character class, choosing between the cow puncher -  someone who, as the name implies, likes punching - the Beanslinger -  a magic user - and the Snake Oiler - a ranged fighter. While you ultimately can control your own stats, each class has a specialization and access to unique skills. The Cow Puncher focuses on the Muscle stat and melee attacks, and can also craft leather items. The Beanslinger focuses on the Mysticality stat and magic spells, and can make food. The Snake Oiler focuses on the Moxie stat and ranged damage, and can make potions. To really explore the world, you’ll need to upgrade all three stats -  as well as Grit (health), Gumption (speed), and Glamour (item-finding) - but your class biases your character’s tendencies and abilities. 

After a brief tutorial, you are left in a town on the edge of the world. When you open the map, you can either select a known location to travel to, or you can “wander” - initiating a random dive into nearby space. Wandering is your primary means of discovering new locations to explore. Unlike in a game like Skyrim, West of Loathing does not let you freely walk between locations. Rather, the map acts as a “level selector”, and location discovery is represented as feet travelling around the map screen. 

Once in a location, you are presented with a 2D “sidescrolling” perspective, where your character walks left and right. You can initiate conversations, which often can play out in different ways based on the answers you choose. You can interact with the environment in different ways based on the tools you are carrying or the skills you have. If you have a shovel, there are places where you can dig for items. A pickaxe can be used to mine for meat (eww). Snake Oilers can harvest plants to use in potions.  You may also need to press buttons or move items to solve puzzles. Characters with the lockpicking ability can open doors and crack open boxes. 

Of course, any RPG needs battles. Battles in West of Loathing are turn-based, with ordering based on speed. The standard options are present - a melee attack, ranged attack, and items. In addition, you have a limited number of “action points” that can be spent to use special moves that you gain over time. Some of these moves replace your attack, while others can be used without ending your turn. For example, Cow Punchers get a special move that boosts their strength for a single action point, and doesn’t end their turn. Another move, the Haymaker, does some damage and causes an enemy to miss their next turn. It costs two action points to use. Action points and HP refiill at the end of each battle, meaning that you are able to go all out without worrying about later battles.

During the tutorial section, you can recruit a companion. That companion will follow you around for the rest of the game, and has their own storyline to explore. In my case, I recruited an alcoholic nurse, who is investigating a necromancer whose skeletons have been menacing the countryside. In battle, she can do things like heal and fire a shotgun at the crowd of enemies.

Although many of these gameplay elements have been seen in other games, West of Loathing is a wonderful complete package. The writing is sharp, and very funny. The situations you stumble into are utterly creative. Rather than stringing together a set of worn-out tropes, West of Loathing merges the tropes of the Western genre and the Fantasy RPG in hilariiously great ways. Evil cows stalk the desert, preying on travelers. Goblins ride horses. You can bring newspapers (and a wife) to a lonely cactus. It all works, and the game is engrossing, creative, and utterly addictive.

One interesting aspect of West of Loathing is how streamlined it is in design. For example, the open world of a game like Skyrim has been replaced by a simple map. This make sense from a pure economics standpoint - Asymmetric Publications is a smaller developer than Bethesda. They couldn’t afford to create a massive world. However, they don’t need one either. By generating random events while travelling from place to place, they capture what is really important about that world. You are still exploring the world for important locations to visit, and you still encounter strange events in the world. 

In general, I feel like Asymmetric Publications took these big complex RPGs and tried to figure out how to distill their experiences to the core. As a result, West of Loathing is this fast-paced, distilled experience. Rather than feeling like it overstayed its welcome, I wish it was a longer game. It’s a rare feeling to have.

This comes through in the art direction too. The world of West of Loathing is depicted using stick figures and simple black & white line art. Despite the simple approach, the graphics are sharp and detailed. The game actually looks great, especially in handheld mode. The stick figure art fits the humor and style of the game, and I kind of want to see their take on other genres.

West of Loathing kind of came out of nowhere for me. The trailer in the Nindie stream caught my attention, and I’m really glad that it did. West of Loathing is a blast. It’s brilliantly creative, subverts the Western and Fantasy in interesting ways, and captures the essence of RPGs without the bloat. I absolutely recommend checking it out.

A review copy of the game was provided by the developers, Asymmetric Publications.

Nintendo eShop

Official Website

[4colorrebellion]

Adam West passed away today. There are many reasons to remember the man - his time as Batman, for instance. I watched the Batman '66 movie on Netflix tonight for just that reason (spoiler - it's still incredible). However, this is primarily a video game blog, so it seemed worthwhile to post this wonderful little essay that West wrote near the dawn of the gaming boom. I love his attitude and openness towards the medium, especially given the time period. RIP, old chum!

[4colorrebellion]

First Impressions - The Caligula Effect

Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

So, a group of Japanese high school students have discovered that the world they live in is a lie. They must band together to escape a surreal dream world where their fellow students have been turned into monsters by their own emotions. Along the way, friendships build, and you come to know the deep, inner secrets of your colleagues. 

Uh-huh, sound familiar? 

In this case, I’m actually not talking about Persona 5, but The Caligula Effect - an RPG that launches today for the PS Vita.

The Caligula Effect (just Caligula in Japan) was developed by Aquria - the team behind the Sword Art Online games - and has been localized by Atlus - the team that, I think, just has first-dibs on all games about plucky high school students fighting psychological concepts. Atlus offered up a copy of the game, and having finished off the first chapter, I thought I would offer up my first impressions.

The story of The Caligula Effect centers around a virtual reality called Mobius. Mobius was created by μ, a virtual idol - think Hatsune Miku - as a place of refuge for people who were unable to function under the weight of their own emotions. However, Mobius has become a prison where students attend high school forever, looping back around when they graduate and never getting the chance to grow in their emotional maturity. A small number of students have begun to realize that they are trapped, and have banded together as the “Go-Home Club” to find their way home. To do so, they have to defeat a group of evil music producers - the Ostinato Musicians - who have corrupted μ, bending the world as they desire. Along the way, they must overcome the emotional problems that brought them to this world in the first place.

The treading of familiar themes should not be particularly surprising, given that it was written by Tadashi Satomi - the scenario writer for the original Persona and both Persona 2 incarnations. In the introduction, I bagged on this game a little for sounding like a Persona game, but honestly, the plot is actually pretty intriguing. At the point I am at, not much has happened in the storyline, but I would like to know where it goes. 

Like with the Persona series, The Caligula Effect has a focus on character relationships. You can send text messages to each character, or poll the party on what you should do next. As you do so, you build up a “friendship level”. You can also get to know almost every student in the school. By talking to students in the hallway, you build up the same gauge, and gain the ability to send them text messages. Each of the 500+ students has a pre-assigned class, and ultimately, you can recruit any of them into your party. You can assign four students to your party at any time from the collection you have build up. 

Unfortunately, my impression of this aspect so far is that the idea is much better than the execution. I have not gotten any of the students (outside of the core party) to the point where they can be recruited, but the actual conversations are pointless and feel inane. Most exchanges in the hallways are one or two lines long - and just represent the beginning and end of a conversation that you don’t actually get to read. Also, there are only a handful of actual conversations that repeat across students. The same feeling applies to the text message aspect. You can only choose from three questions, and the responses don’t really feel like conversations. The conversation aspect, so far, just feels like pressing a button to add a small increment to a gauge. 

Again, I am not far into the game, so I hope that the rewards when you hit friendship milestones are a lot more substantial. I love the idea of getting to know and recruiting a huge cast of characters - like in Suikoden - but none of the interactions yet have the same emotional depth as those in the Persona games. 

The battle system - called the “Imaginary Chain” - is really what sets The Caligula Effect apart. Each character may choose up to three skills to use each “round”. Each skill costs a set amount of SP, but using more than one at once reduces the cost of each. When you choose skills, you can adjust the timing to decide when each should be activated. The goal is to choose skills that feed into each other, setting off chain reactions that devastate your foes. When you select a skill, you get to see a preview of what will happen when the turn begins, allowing you to adjust your strategy to get the optimal effect. 

As you can imagine, combat can get quite complex - particularly as you add additional party members. You need to choose carefully. Just as party members can build on each others’ attacks with careful timing, making a mistake will render your other party members useless as their attacks miss the target. I definitely do not feel like I have gotten the hang of the system yet, but have begun to recognize basic patterns, like how to break through shields or counter certain attacks. It is a really interesting battle system that I think will be a bit divisive. Some players are going to love the insane strategic depth. It is overkill for simple enemy encounters, but gets a chance to shine with the bosses and special “hard” enemies you run into when exploring. 

The Caligula Effect is a bit of a mess, technically. The framerate can dip quite a bit, and is definitely noticeable while playing. However, the art direction is fairly nice. The character designs are unique - particularly in the little tweaks each cast member has made to their standard school uniform - and the character portraits, by illustrator Oguchi, that accompany conversations look great. 

The soundtrack is also fantastic - fitting, given the focus on virtual idols and musicians. Japanese artists OSTER project, 40mP, 164, cosMo@Bousou-P, and a bunch of others have all contributed to the soundtrack. The music definitely stands out - it’s good enough that I listen to it rather than a podcast, like I usually do with portable games.

I love the ideas behind The Caligula Effect. After the first chapter, I haven’t quite fallen in love with the execution - I don’t quite have the hang of the battle system, and the friendship-building aspects have fallen flat. However, I’m also intrigued enough that I plan to keep playing. The overall storyline is interesting, and I’m excited to really dig into the strategic depths of the battles. I’m not sure that I would recommend it unreservedly, but if you’re a fan of the Persona series, and need a fix after Persona 5, The Caligula Effect could be right up your alley. 

[4colorrebellion]

Review-In-Progress: Yakuza 0

The Yakuza series is always one that has fascinated me, but for some reason, I had never actually sat down and played any of the games. This distinctly Japanese take on Grand Theft Auto has always hovered on the periphery of my awareness as something that I was pretty sure I would enjoy, but until recently, it was just one of those series where each new entry arrived at a bad time.

When SEGA reached out and offered up a copy of their newest entry, Yakuza 0, I was thrilled to finally give the series a fair try. Read on for my impressions of the first three chapters.

I should preface the following with one disclaimer - I have not finished the game. This is a long game. I could easily see sinking 70 or 80 hours into it. Since I have a full time job, I haven’t had time to finish this off in the two weeks that I’ve been playing it. Right now, I am fifteen hours into the game, and in the third chapter (out of 10). With the game coming out in a few days, I thought that I should share my impressions for those of you thinking about picking it up.

The newest game, Yakuza 0, is a prequel to the five mainline entries in the series. Set in the late 1980s, the story follows two characters - Kiryu Kazama and Majima Goro - who have, for various reasons, found themselves drawn into a power struggle over a vacant lot in Tokyo. The story swaps back and forth between Kiryu - who has been framed for murder and ousted from the Yakuza - and Majima - who has been exiled to Osaka for his role in an earlier assassination.

The story of Yakuza 0 is not exactly going to win any literature awards, but like a great action movie, it really sucks you in. Every bit of the writing in Yakuza, from the central plot to the dialogue, is played completely straight. Yet, at the same time, there is this surreal insanity to it. The story is over-the-top - hell, every interaction is kind of over-the-top - and you just have to smile at the madcap machismo of it all. 

Whether it is Kiryu - on his knees in the rain, imploring his adoptive father to induct him into the Yakuza - or Majima - dodging punches from a drunken cabaret patron while playing the role of the doting, obedient waiter - I love every melodramatic exploit that these characters get into. They’re these ridiculous tough guys, and I really want them to succeed. I want to be them. Hell, I’d settle for being half as cool as them.  

Where the writing really shines is in the side stories. Yakuza 0 has two different cities that you can explore - the Kamurocho neighborhood of Tokyo and the Sotenbori neighborhood of Osaka. As you wander around these two cities, you end up stumbling into the lives of the locals. Sometimes, this is indirect - you overhear a rumor about an event going on in another part of town, and can wander over to check it out. Sometimes this is quite direct - somebody sees you as their knight in shining armor. These quick optional quests offer welcome breaks from the central storyline, and do a great job of drawing you into the world of the game. 

To give an example, as I walked by a restaurant, a TV crew begged me to stand in for their missing producer. The producer had quit after getting tired of the endless demands from the hard-assed director. As Kiryu, I had to pretend to know my stuff long enough for filming to complete. In the end, the show went off without a hitch - until the previous producer and his buddies showed up to beat the tar out of the director. Fortunately for him, they picked a fight with the wrong mobster. In the end, the sobbing director confessed that he just wanted the entire crew to understand his passion

Insane, right? Also, completely awesome. The side stories even build on each other over time. My friendship with the director ended up leading to a job protecting the “Prince of Pop” from.. Well, you’ve probably seen the video. 

The characters you meet in these stories, and the interactions you have with them, really make these cities come to life. You can even befriend a number of characters, and learn their stories as you stop and interact with them. 

Speaking of characters. If this scene does not convince you to play this game, nothing will.

The art direction also does a great job of bringing these cities to life. Although Yakuza 0 is not going to blow anybody away on a technical level - it was released in Japan on both the PS3 and PS4 - the sheer attention to detail that has gone into every nook and cranny leaves a great impression. The streets of Kamurocho are dense with detail - loaded with endless neon signs, pay phones, and storefronts. Just like any Japanese city, the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori are densely packed with people, businesses, and twisty back alleys to get lost in. You are almost hit with sensory overload, and it is all a great feast for the eyes. 

To really see what I mean, just enter one of the many convenience stores dotting Kamurocho. I have never seen instant noodles rendered so lovingly in my life, and I cannot think of another game where I can enter a store and see such a variety of items at once, at such a level of fidelity. It’s fun to enter buildings just for the “virtual Japan” experience. 

That attention to detail extends to the open-world gameplay. The sheer number of things you can do in the game is staggering. You can go to bars and play darts or pool, you can go bowling, you can hang out in Mahjong parlors. There are two entirely different rhythm games - representing karaoke and disco dancing. You can go to SEGA-branded arcades and play actual arcade games, such as Outrun, or collect stuffed animals from the crane machine. The list of minigames goes on and on, and you could easily put hours into them. 

There are even alternate modes on many of the games. For example, you can either play a standard game of billiards, or you can play “Puzzle Pool”, where you are presented with particular arrangements of balls and tasked with sinking the target in one shot. 

Many of these minigames are quite good. I’ve enjoyed bowling, pool, and darts the most so far. Actually, darts is another case where the attention to detail is fascinating. You go to a bar to play, and other patrons will come and challenge you to a match. If you win, they usually want a rematch - with a round of drinks in between. Yakuza 0 actually models drunkenness in the darts minigame! The more you drink, the more your vision blurs and your aim is affected. Again, I just can’t stop marveling at the endless little details that the developers have packed into this game.

If those weren’t enough, you can also build up business and real estate empires on the side. I haven’t delved into business management just yet, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be just as addictive as the other minigames. 

Of course, the minigames aren’t the main focus of your adventure - those are the battles. At its heart, Yakuza 0 is a kung-fu crime flick, and you’ll spend a lot of time beating the hell out of an endless procession of goons, punks, and other ne’er-do-wells. At story-mandated points, or as you wander the cities, you’ll be ambushed by a bunch of guys and have to defeat them to move on - almost like a JRPG, but with more punching and fewer menus. The basic fighting system is relatively simple. You have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a grapple. You can also block moves. From these basic building blocks, you string together combos. You can also use objects in your environment as make-shift weapons, or equip more deadly weapons that you buy from merchants. All weapons have limited durability, so you have to manage their use carefully. 

As you chain together attacks, your heat gauge builds up. Once it reaches a high enough level, you can unleash brutal attacks. When I say brutal, I mean it. You smash faces into walls, stomp on heads, and break limbs with abandon. None of this is shockingly brutal - it all fits into the over-the-top aesthetic - but it can still make you cringe. 

Each character has three distinct fighting styles. Kiryu’s default is the “brawler” style - a balance between speed and brutality. He also has a “rush” style, based on boxing, that favors mobility and dodges. Finally, his “beast” style is slow, but devastatingly powerful. Majima’s default is the “thug” style, which acts as a balance between his “slugger” style - a weapon-heavy stance - and his “breaker” style - a speed-based style that makes use of dance moves.

You can switch between styles freely, and all of these styles have their place. If you are surrounded by enemies with weapons, the faster styles will allow you to avoid being hit. The heavier styles are needed to bring down the big guys. So far, I spend most of my time in the default balanced styles, but break into the others in special situations. The brawler style, in particular, just feels satisfying to use. 

Defeating enemies and playing minigames both earn you cash. This can, of course, be spent on items such as food or clothing. More importantly, cash can be spent on your moves. Each fighting style has a number of upgrades that you can purchase, arranged in a series of rings. The cost to upgrade increases dramatically between rings. For instance, abilities in the first ring cost 400,000 yen to purchase. Abilities in the second ring cost 2,000,000. Abilities in the third cost 30,000,000. The prices just keep increasing from there. If you want to master each fighting style, you are going to need a whole lot of dough.

After fifteen hours, I am hooked. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of what Yakuza 0 has to offer, but I can’t wait to get back in there and keep digging. If, like me, you’re curious about the series, Yakuza 0 feels like the perfect point to jump in. As a prequel, you do not need to know a thing about the characters or storyline to appreciate what the developers have crafted. Going in, I suspected that I would like these games - I just didn’t know that I would like Yakuza this much.

Yakuza 0 launches in North America on January 24th, for the PS4. 

[4colorrebellion]

Challengers of the Unknown

Reviews are pouring out for the new Fantastic Four movie - or, fant-four-stick, as the posters proclaim. The results are, unsurprisingly, negative. Really negative. To the point where snarky titles like “Fantastic 4/10″ are actually reading as optimistic. 

I’m not surprised. I went into this one cynically. It was doomed from the start. Fox poured untold amounts of money into the production just to keep the character rights a little longer. You can’t expect good results out of that. The trailers bore my feeling out - the movie just looked like annoying, self-serious dreck. So, the final movie falling flat doesn’t exactly surprise me.  That said, the whole debacle got me thinking again about my ideal Fantastic Four movie again.

I actually didn’t hate the first Fox take on the series - it was fun, at least - but none of those movies actually understood what makes the Fantastic Four great. Hell, Pixar got way closer to actually capturing what it is that makes FF special - what makes it unique - with The Incredibles. Still, even The Incredibles didn’t quite land what I want to see out of the Fantastic Four. 

For me, the ideal Fantastic Four movie is not a “superhero” movie.

Hear me out on this.

I don’t mean that they shouldn’t have powers or wear costumes. That’s fine. They can beat up Doctor Doom, if you really need that - though, I’d really like them to skip that for once. 

What I mean is that the best FF stories aren't necessarily the ones where a villain shows up in New York and the FF are the ones who must save the day in a blockbuster-grade fight sequence. That structure works for The Avengers, but I’d abandon it completely for the Fantastic Four. 

The Fantastic Four came at an interesting time in comic book history. There were superheroes before them - Captain America and Superman had been fighting crime off and on for roughly two decades - but the Fantastic Four represented the reawakening of the superhero genre. During the 50′s, superheroes were has-beens, relics of the World War. The biggest comic genres featured monsters, romantic liaisons, and cowboys. The Fantastic Four was something the world hadn’t quite seen. The characters had superpowers, but they weren’t wearing red, white, and blue. They weren’t perfections of the human form, but were something a bit more complicated - a grotesque rock monster, a flaming man barely in control of his powers, a woman that can’t be touched, and a stretched-out scientist who had more in common with bubblegum than Superman. They represented a weird melding of genres - superheroes, and monsters, and more than anything, the revival of the pulp explorer. It was something unique, and something that informed the Marvel Silver Age to come, but something that Marvel themselves never quite duplicated. 

It’s that pulp part that I always end up focusing on. The Fantastic Four work best when they are cast as explorers, as scientists, as “challengers of the unknown.” It’s right there in their origin. Reed Richards isn’t a soldier. He didn’t volunteer to get powers. He wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I mean.. He was. Still, in a way, he chose his path. He was curious. There is a whole lot of “out there” to explore beyond the atmosphere of the earth, and he wanted to see it. He wanted to see it so much that he put on a space suit, climbed into his experimental rocket, and dragged his family into space with him. He didn’t know what would happen, but he probably would have made the decision all over again even after it messed up his best friend for life. 

That curiosity is the crucial factor that underlies the Fantastic Four, and what every big-screen take on the series has missed. The Fantastic Four aren’t a second-rate Avengers. They have much more in common with the adventuring scientists of the pulp era - Reed Richards is a stretchy Doc Savage from head to toe. 

Something I *love* about the old pulps and old sci-fi is the sense of optimism. There was a prevailing sense of hope and adventure. Science and engineering were the best they had ever been. The industrial revolution had propelled us forward more in seventy years than centuries of civilization before that point. It felt like anything was within grasp. You just needed to reach out and grasp it. Got a problem to solve? Science will find a way to solve it. It might take a little while longer, but we will eventually explore and conquer the unknown. 

The best takes on the Fantastic Four are when they are cast in that role. They are curious - endlessly curious - and between Reed’s brain, Ben’s strength, Sue’s armor, and Johnny’s energy - there is no problem that can’t be overcome. Time portal? Jump into it. Portal to another dimension? Jump into that too - we’ll find a way back. Comet passing through the rings of Saturn? Let’s hop into a rocket and get out there. Bring a picnic. 

They’ll save the world, sure. They’ll fight a supervillain and save the day, but at the end of the day, those villains are more “problems to solve.” Mole men are overrunning Manhattan? Somebody should stop that, certainly - plus, wouldn’t it be cool to see some mole men? 

The Fantastic Four are adventurers, exploring the unknown, inventing the uninvented, and finding ways to solve the most complex problems facing the world. They make humanity better by bravely stepping into danger, by being at the forefront of discovery, and by inspiring the rest of us to do our part in making the world a better place in whatever way we can. They represent that optimism - that faith in science and our ability to innovate - in a way that other superheroes never have for me. 

What I want to see out of a Fantastic Four movie is a big, fun adventure. The FF shouldn’t wait for a bad guy to come to them. They should be out there pushing forth into trouble, inventing what they need to overcome that trouble, and widening the bounds of human knowledge of the universe. Skip the familiar skyscrapers of New York. Skip the maniac in spandex threatening the United Nations. Give me something I’ve never seen, give me planets with upside-down gravity and three-legged tentacle monsters lecturing on the tenets of the spore god’s philosophy, give me a team of superpowered scientists who stumble into trouble, escape by the skin of their teeth, and return with the knowledge to fix our world. That’d be a hell of a time.  

[4colorrebellion]

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse reminds me of why I love Nintendo games so much.

I just finished up Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and while I enjoyed it, it was so damn grimdark that I couldn't help but laugh at cutscenes. Popped in Kirby today, and I'm just in love. The game is gorgeous, constantly creative, and so endearing that I can't help but grin like an idiot as I play it. 

Reading the bios that accompany the figures you unlock will melt a heart of ice. 

Between Kirby and Captain Toad, Nintendo is on a roll with their smaller Wii U releases. Nintendo, as always, does their own thing, and that's a-ok with me. I'll take something as joyful as Kirby over the grey and grim that utterly saturates the AAA space.