When we think back to games from our childhood, our minds sometimes do a bit of mental touch-up work. Whether we remember the games looking better than they actually do, controlling more smoothly, or even sounding more crisp, our memories can be deceiving. Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot games have aged well considering they are roughly 20 years old now, but the fact remains that they were created on dated technology and may not live up how we recall them. Activision and Vicarious Visions now aim to reintroduce these classics to a new generation by remastering them from the ground-up, hoping to make sure these games play, look, and sound just as well as we thought. After so many years of absence, it is great to see the bandicoot back and better than ever.
The Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy -- as the name implies -- contains the three main PlayStation 1 Crash Bandicoot games. Each game has been carefully recreated with modern technology for a more contemporary experience. For those unfamiliar with the series, the games are platformers that often switch between 2D and 3D perspectives. Crash 1 keeps things relatively simple, only allowing players to run, jump, and spin attack. Meanwhile, Crash 2 & 3 add in a few more moves (such as a slide, a long jump, and a sliding spin) along with a somewhat overall faster pace. I feel that the addition of more movement options, combined with more interesting level design, puts the sequels ahead of the original.
The developers put a lot of care into making sure that these games still felt like the classics we fell in love with all those years ago. Crash still has his precise controls that make running through each level a joy. The orange bandicoot has a certain weight to him that makes spinning and flipping through the areas feel immensity satisfying. This satisfaction is amplified by the game’s powerful sound effects, offering crisp thuds when Crash lands from a jump or loud smashing sound clips when he breaks a box. These, combined with the games’ improved visuals, paint an immersive experience that is an overall pleasure to play, watch, and listen to.
Crash is not the only one sprinting through these levels this time around. The remastered trilogy also adds Crash’s sister, Coco, as a fully playable character throughout all three games. Crash and Coco play largely the same, but Coco comes complete with her own set of quirky animations. She brings her laptop everywhere (even using it to shield herself from falling boxes), pulls out her phone to take pictures of the scenery while idle, and even has her own humorous variation of Crash’s signature victory dance. Switching between the characters keeps things feeling fresh, with both being a delight to navigate through the levels.
The cheerful aesthetics do soften the decently challenging gameplay moments. These games were quite difficult when they first released, and still remain challenging platforming romps in their remastered forms. This, however, is thankfully made a bit less frustrating with the addition of a proper save system. Gone are the days of having to clear a bonus level to be given the option to save in the first Crash game. All three games now support auto-saving after each level, making the challenge of Crash’s debut adventure in particular much more enjoyable.
Failing a jump one-too-many times won’t be the only reason you’ll be replaying a level. Whereas Crash Bandicoot: Warped (aka Crash 3) was previously the only game to feature a “time trial” mode, all three titles now sport this feature. Racing through the stages while breaking crates to temporarily freeze the timer is just as addictive as it was 19 years ago. The way the game quickly snaps you back to the start of a level upon failure greatly encourages a “just one more try” mentality. Having this feature spread throughout all three games (complete with online leaderboards) is an excellent addition that adds a ton of replay value.
The stories of each game are all fairly simple, telling the narrative of our marsupial hero, Crash, setting out to stop the evil scientist, Dr. Neo Cortex, from achieving world domination. While Cortex’s methods vary from game-to-game (with the stories ultimately tying into each other and telling one long narrative), the main goal tends to remain the same. Everything is easy to follow, and the charming cast of characters makes the series of events enjoyable to watch play out.
Much like the delightful animation during gameplay, the story scenes present themselves wonderfully. All the visuals have been completely recreated, showcasing the imaginative landscapes and expressive characters better than they have ever looked before. From the dynamic camera angles to the endearing way the characters are now animated, each cinematic now looks like it could pass as a clip from an animated film. Both the dialogue and music have been rerecorded as well, making everything sound clearer than it did in the PS1 days.
Despite being roughly 20 years old now, the trilogy of Crash titles themselves are still entertaining to play. All three games remain very solid platformers that are still some of the best in the genre. While a bit difficult at times, they never feel unfair thanks to the very tight controls. The level design also keeps the experience compelling as you travel through the many locales the trilogy has to offer. From deep jungles to futuristic cities, the environments feel varied and never dull. Going back to each level to discover alternate paths, break all the crates for collectible gems, or set new records in the time trials gives each stage a good amount of replay value as well.
Vicarious Visions has clearly put a ton of effort into making sure everything felt right, and it shows. As someone who played through and loved these games back when they first released, journeying through this remastered trilogy felt like a heartwarming love letter to a series that was a big part of my childhood. It is incredible seeing the amount of care that was put into this project. The end result is a treat to both Crash Bandicoot fans and platforming fans in general. It is great having you back, Crash, hope you decide to stick around.
Almost a full year ago I took a special trip to San Diego to celebrate the birthday of a fictional blue hedgehog. As nonsensical as that sounds, it was actually a very lively and enjoyable night with all the festivities going on. In between the flashy lights, blaring Sonic music, and numerous other bits of on-stage antics, two new upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog games were announced: Sonic Mania and “Project Sonic 2017” (now known as Sonic Forces). Here we are almost a full year later, both games are now very close to release, and we got quite a bit more info on each title last week alone thanks to E3. Let’s catch up with our speedy blue friend and see how things are coming along.
Let’s start with Sonic Mania, the 2D passion project created by a group of indie Sonic fans (and of course published by Sega). This game already looked amazing when it was first shown off during the anniversary event in San Diego, and felt just as great to play when we got our hands on it that same night. Since then, everything shown about the game has been an absolute treat. There’s something special about seeing the smoothly-animated pixel Sonic run through the expertly-crafted levels with the incredibly memorable music playing in the background. It all oozes charm and has an amazing attention to detail that only hardcore fans of the series themselves could pour into the game.
Roughly two weeks before the E3 festivities kicked off, we got a new trailer for the game showcasing some new animation drawn by artist (and Sonic fan himself) Tyson Hesse. These hand-drawn bits of animation both look and animate with a great deal of charm and whimsy. I’ve mentioned before how the sense of whimsy that Sonic evokes is one of the reasons I am such a big fan of the series, and this trailer encapsulates it so well. How bouncy and cheery everything is, right down to the smaller details such as how Sonic jumps into the air and spins before running off, makes this a very feel-good trailer. This is all accompanied by an upbeat, catchy new track by Hyper Potions titled “Time Trials”. And all this is before we even get into anything relating to the gameplay.
Sonic Mania consists of both brand new stages and remakes of select stages from earlier 2D games in the series. The most recent stage revealed is Chemical Plant Zone, returning from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This stage does an excellent job demonstrating the design philosophy of returning stages: Act 1 sticks relatively close to the original level designs of the zones and offers some updates within them, while Act 2 offers a fresher take on these areas complete with new gimmicks. In Chemical Plant’s case, the purple water from the original level can now be turned to gelatin to bounce off, giving the stage much more vertical traversal than it had previously. This still blends well with Sonic’s more traditional horizontal speed thanks to the clever level design never killing the momentum. The entire game shown off so far seems to present this same level of care to make sure each level flows and controls just right. There is no doubt in my mind that this game will be a treat to both Sonic fans and the general gaming community.
The next game that Sega is presenting is the newest mainline entry developed by Sonic Team: Sonic Forces. This game combines both 3D/2D-hybrid Modern and pure-2D Classic versions of Sonic, much like 2011’s Sonic Generations. However, this title also adds a new customizable character to the mix, complete with a third unique gameplay style. Despite the large amount of fan characters flooding the internet, this is the first time in the series’ history where fans can officially customize their own creation to battle alongside the blue blur(s). This is honestly a smart decision, as it gives players who genuinely want to make their own characters the option to do so, while also allowing everyone else to mess around and create their own bizarre creations. This third character plays in a mixture of 2D and 3D much like Modern Sonic, but can use various gadgets and “wisp” power-ups for some extra platforming challenge. While this gameplay style admittedly doesn’t look as fun as the two Sonics, mainly due to the wisps making the gameplay appear a bit clunkier, it still appears overall fast-paced and enjoyable.
Sega has recently shown off demos of all three gameplay styles at E3 this year, as well as a new trailer. Although we have been slowly receiving information about this game for the past year, we got a much better view of the overall package now. Modern Sonic still has his fast-paced boost gameplay and Classic still looks to be a somewhat slower, 2D-only Sonic with a spindash instead of a boost ability. Classic Sonic looks to be fun to play as, don’t get me wrong, but having him here alongside Modern Sonic seems a bit redundant. It made sense in Sonic Generations, as that was a celebration of 20 years of the series and demonstrated how Sonic’s gameplay had evolved over that time. Now though, especially with Sonic Mania coming soon and scratching that classic itch (complete with seemingly more accurate classic physics), Classic Sonic feels a bit unneeded here. At the end of the day though, even if a bit redundant, both Modern and Classic seem like they will be about as much fun as they were in Generations.
There are some new additions to set this apart from Sonic’s 2011 adventure. The main one is the aforementioned custom character, but there is also quite a big tonal difference between the two games from what we’ve seen. Generations was a light-hearted romp through Sonic’s history that barely had a story, meanwhile Forces seems to be focusing a bit more on its narrative. It tells the tale of how Dr. “Eggman” Robotnik has already taken over the world and it’s up to Sonic and his friends to take it back. We are given a small taste of this in the gameplay demo, as the characters communicate to each other during the stages to discuss their current situation and plans. It’s nice to see all these characters in the plot again, and this implementation makes the cast feel much more like a grand team of friends. Hopefully the writing is solid, as I loved this type of stuff in games like Kid Icarus: Uprising and Star Fox and look forward to it here as well. I do hope it can be disabled during repeated stage play-throughs however, as hearing the same dialogue when trying for higher scores can potentially get tiring.
Ultimately this game looks to be using what fans liked about Sonic Generations as a base and expanding upon that. The trailer released for E3 also announced that previous series villains Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Zavok will be returning along with a new mysterious villain. I am getting some Sonic Adventure vibes from how this game seems to have a plot with higher stakes, which makes me quite the happy camper. Hopefully the writing will be solid enough to add some excitement to the story without becoming too melodramatic. Meanwhile, Mania in general seems dead-set on improving the classic series in any way it can, bringing back even the smallest elements (elemental shields, level transitions, the classic trio all playable, etc.), while also adding it’s own improvements (improved graphics, the new drop-dash move for Sonic, both remixed and brand new stages, etc.). Between Mania looking like it will deliver an excellent classic experience and Forces offering a promising modern take on the series, it’s a great time to be a Sonic fan.
-Written by Rich, 2017
-Image credit to (in order of appearance) Gematsu.com, TheVerge.com, GameInformer.com, Comicbook.com, IGN.com
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is the sequel to the 2014 3DS game, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Developed by Sanzaru Games as a tie-in to the then-new Sonic Boom cartoon, Shattered Crystal was not a terrible game, but a very flawed one. The game incorporated large maze-like level designs, which while an interesting idea, clashed heavily with Sonic’s faster gameplay. This, the fact that exploration and backtracking was necessary for progressing in the game, and the game’s very short length were all problems that marred what could have otherwise been a much more enjoyable experience.
When Fire & Ice was announced in June 2015 for a Fall 2015 release, fans were skeptical. Despite Sanzaru developing the great Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and having a solid enough base with Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, there was the initial fear that this was going to be a phoned-in sequel in an attempt to make some quick cash off the success of the Sonic Boom TV show. Well, a few quality-assurance delays later, I am happy to say that the game we got delivers the much-improved experience a sequel should.
The game is a high-speed action platformer that puts you in control of the five main characters of the Sonic Boom cartoon: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks. Each character can do the basic actions of running, jumping, and using the mid-air homing attack. Every character has their own unique abilities as well, such as Sonic being able to use the air dash and spin dash or Tails being able to hover and use a ray gun against enemies and obstacles. Characters can be switched on the fly using either the d-pad or the touchscreen, allowing each character’s abilities to be used whenever the situation calls for it. Each character is also able to switch between fire and ice modes, granting them the ability to melt or freeze water blocks around them to overcome platforming challenges.
Character’s abilities often come in handy when hunting out the secret collectibles scattered throughout the levels. Each level has “gears” and “hammers” placed throughout, as well as hidden challenge rooms which award “trading cards”. None of the collectibles are terribly great in-and-of themselves, only unlocking different skins for Amy’s hammer, new characters/stages for the game’s multiplayer bot-racing mode, and bits of concept art from the show. However, the simple act of collecting them should prove entertaining enough for completionists should they choose to do so.
One of the main problems with Shattered Crystal was the big, maze-like levels. Navigating them not only clashed with the speed and flow, but was also necessary as collectibles were required for progressing through the game. This has been corrected in Fire & Ice, both in terms of the level design itself, as well as the collectibles no longer being necessary to progress. Each level’s design is much more streamlined and designed for speed, offering slick, fast platforming action. Throughout each stage, the main speedy path will break off into alternate paths (some more hidden than others) which lead to the game’s optional collectibles and challenge rooms. If you’re not much of a completionist though, these paths can be completely ignored and the stages can be sped through in typical Sonic fashion.
This is where the game really shines. Speeding through the stages while executing Sonic’s air dashes, spin dashes, jumps, and attacks in perfect succession is a fast and satisfying experience. While each level has its fair share of platforming challenges - most making use of the fire and ice gimmick - each level has a main path that has been designed to be sped through given enough skill. The choice the game grants you in how you want to approach each level is a welcome one that adds a good amount of replay value while still being enjoyable.
The game itself is not terribly long, taking only roughly six hours to complete. Going back to collect everything for 100% completion will roughly double that playtime, at least in my experience. The game’s length is pretty short and may certainly turn off some players, but Sonic games have never really been known for their long length. I do wish that the game was longer, but I would rather a shorter well-polished game that I can happily replay rather than a longer game without as much care put into it.
There are boss battles that appear throughout the adventure, each using both of the 3DS screens as one big screen. The bottom screen is usually focused on the playable characters, while the top screen focuses on the boss and its attacks. Sonic is paired up with one of his allies for each of these fights, with characters being switched out automatically once the boss reaches a certain amount of health. Each encounter plays off the character’s abilities well, offering entertaining fights against large-scale foes.
Adding to the mix of the mandatory normal levels and boss levels, there are optional levels sprinkled throughout the world map which grant access to more collectibles. In these levels you either control Tails’ submarine through underwater mazes, pilot Tails’ boat through upstream shooter stages, or control Sonic from a behind-the-back view through auto-runner stages. These are all nice distractions from the main game, and their optional nature makes them never feel like they’re getting in the way.
The story itself is the fairly standard Sonic fare of Dr. Eggman doing bad things and Sonic and friends setting out to stop him. This time Eggman builds a robot to hunt out a resource called “ragnium”, which he plans to use to build robots that can outrace Sonic. The ragnium-hunting robot is a failure, resulting in him being given the name “D-Fekt”, followed by the Doctor mining out the resource himself. D-Fekt is then put on guard duty of the fissures popping up as a result of the ragnium hunt, making sure Sonic’s team doesn’t foil the Doctor’s plans. Sonic and friends must then set out to seal the fissures and stop Dr. Eggman’s quest for ragnium from further damaging the environment.
The story itself is nothing amazing, and unfortunately it never reaches the heights of the clever writing in the Sonic Boom cartoon. However, I wouldn’t say it’s anything bad either, and it gets the job done with its numerous fully-voiced cutscenes that never feel like they overstay their welcome. It’s all very light-hearted without ever getting too cheesy. It does feel like you are playing an episode of the cartoon, just not one of the better ones.
During your adventure you will traverse several different worlds, each sporting its own theme. There’s an ice world, beach world, pirate island world, etc.. All-in-all though, both the locations and music unfortunately fall a bit on the generic side. Much like the story they are not bad, just nothing special at all. Unlike most other Sonic games, there are no tunes here that you’ll find yourself humming later, as well as no locations that are terribly memorable.
Despite the average music, environments, and story, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is an overall enjoyable game. The game leaves the choice of whether to speed through the stages or go at a slower pace completely up to you, with both options feeling satisfying. Sprinting through the levels as Sonic in particular was the highlight of the game for me, as chaining together all his speed-based moves as I breezed through the levels provided a really pleasant sense of flow. Its short length and generic aesthetic do hold it back, but the gameplay itself provides a good time. Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is the much improved experience a sequel should be, and one that I would recommend to 3DS owners looking for an enjoyable platformer.
-Written by Rich, 2016
-Image credit (in order of appearance) to Destructoid.com, Perfectly-Nintendo.com, SonicStadium.org, Sonic.Wika.com
Saturday, September 17th sees the release of a game that we’ve all been waiting for. Cockroach Simulator is a game about the war between humans and cockroaches. According to its Steam page, it will feature multiplayer with up to 10 players, and there’s going to be some amount of weapon variety. This is not to be confused with Contagion’s cockroach spectator mode (after the break, doing taxes).
The game began on Steam Greenlight last year and appears to share a lot of similarities with a bevy of other simulator games. It’s hard to look at the kitchen shown in the screenshots and not see a renovated version of I Am Bread’s infamous kitchen level. As someone living in a city, this one might hit too close to home for me. It’s out tomorrow for PC via Steam.
The new Playstation 4 software update dropped this week. I didn’t even notice it when I booted up yesterday, but it does add up to a number of quality of life improvements. This includes UI upgrades, faster times bringing up menu screens, a quick menu, the ability to organize apps into folders, and an HDR update.
The change that will likely have Playstation owners sighing in relief is the quick menu update. With a long press on the Playstation button, this allows you to pull up a quick menu where you can change microphone settings, send messages to friends, and join parties without having to back out to the Playstation menu screen. For folks who use Spotify, you can also use this menu to change tracks or your playlist. Overall, it slides out pretty fast and is a vast improvement over the separated menu options of the past. As a PC player, the long menu navigation to change audio settings was something that always bothered me about playing with friends on Playstation.
A few other notable updates include a streamlined share menu, so that screenshots and videos are a bit less of a hassle. Folder updates, so you can toss all the useless Playstation apps into one place. And data transfers between Playstations have also been made more simple for the upcoming Playstation Pro. You can find more details about these changes over on the Playstation Blog.
With the assistance of our handy random number generator, we are happy to announce the winners of our Tales of Giveaway. The winners of the two games offered are:
-Tales of Symphonia: @dynneekx
-Tales of Zestiria: @torwob
The winners have been sent their Steam game codes through Tumblr.
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who participated! And of course don’t be discouraged if you didn’t win, there’s still next time!
9/9/99 is a date that will forever be ingrained into SEGA fans’ minds. Apart from just being easy to remember (know the number nine? You’re good.), it was the American launch of SEGA’s last home console: the SEGA Dreamcast. This console holds a special place in many SEGA fans’ hearts, and rightfully so. With a classic lineup of games showing SEGA at perhaps their most quirky, there was really nothing else like it.
Launching in 1999, Sega ushered in the 6th generation of consoles with a bang. Many would say that the Dreamcast was ahead of its time, with it being much more powerful than then-current Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. Pure power isn’t all that’s important though; a solid lineup of games are also needed. And while the system was only on the market for two years, it still built up a great collection of classic games.
From the plentiful arcade ports to the more single-player driven experiences, the Dreamcast delivered some of the most unique games at the time. Whether it was the local multiplayer fun of Power Stone, the online multiplayer of Phantasy Star Online, or the single player spectacle of Sonic Adventure, the system delivered on all fronts with numerous great titles. It even filled in that still-untapped market of “games that allow you to talk to fish” with the release of Seaman.
Back before internal hard drives were used to save game data, the Dreamcast also had one of the most unique memory cards on the market: the Visual Memory Unit (or VMU). This small device plugged into one of the two slots on the controller and featured a screen, a directional pad, and four face buttons. Games would display all different sorts of images/clips on the miniature screen during gameplay, with some even offering gameplay benefits (such as being able to privately see your hand in Sonic Shuffle, utilize secret plays in NFL 2K, etc.). In a way, it was like the Wii U Gamepad before the Wii U Gamepad (except completely optional).
The device could also be taken out of the system and used on its own. Some games offered mini-games you could save onto the VMU to play in its handheld state. One such example of this was the “Chao Adventure” game offered in Sonic Adventure, which let you raise your virtual pet on the go and transfer it back into the full game later. Unfortunately though, this also highlighted one of the main problems with the VMU: the short battery life. Playing these handheld games drained the battery quickly, and replacement batteries were quite pricey. However, the memory card still functioned perfectly fine even with a dead battery once plugged into the system.
One of its biggest and most “ahead of its time” contributions to gaming was a built-in modem that allowed for online gaming at blazing fast dial-up speeds. This allowed for online multiplayer in games like Chu Chu Rocket and Phantasy Star Online, which was unheard of at the time for console games. It also allowed users to go online for game hints in single player games such as Sonic Adventure. With online console gaming being such a normal thing now, it’s interesting to look back on its humble beginnings.
The Dreamcast was such an energetic console in general. From the upbeat rhythm action of Samba De Amigo to the wonderful sense of adventure Skies of Arcadia evoked, the system and its games had such a strong charm that is hard to replicate. True, most of its standout games have been ported to newer consoles, but the Dreamcast still remains the birthplace of all these games. While the newer versions of these games are superior in numerous ways, there is a certain charm to hooking up the old Dreamcast, hearing the loud *BEEEEEEEP* of a dead VMU battery when you boot it up, and playing these games on the older original hardware.
Although the system was discontinued only two years after launch (and what a magical two years it was), it still lives on in many gamers’ hearts. Indie games are still being developed for it to this day, custom servers are still up for games like Chu Chu Rocket and Phantasy Star Online, and someone even recently bought the domain for the old Sonic Adventure site and almost completely restored it. While the console unfortunately ended its shelf life pretty early, possibly due to numerous different factors (the lack of a DVD drive, the hype of the upcoming PlayStation 2, the failure of the SEGA CD, 32X and Saturn, etc.), it was an amazing ride while it lasted. SEGA ended their console history on a high note that I can always fondly look back upon.
-Written by Rich, 2016
-Image credit (in order of appearance) commons.wikimedia.com, sonic.wikia.com, retroconsoles.wikia.com, kixor.net
Role-playing games are usually enjoyable romps through fantastical worlds where you immerse yourself in what the game is both showing and telling you. Not only is everything you see happening on-screen important, but the information that is being passed onto you through dialogue, item descriptions, synopses, etc. is also arguably a big part of the experience. Therefore, one would think that playing an RPG in a language you have very limited knowledge of would take a chunk of enjoyment out of the experience.
However, I still enjoyed my initial time with the recent Japanese release of Tales of Bereseria.
This most recent Tales of game places you in the role of Velvet Crowe on her quest for vengeance. What begins as a relatively normal day for the happy 16-year-old quickly turns into a day from hell over the course of the prologue. After a series of very unfortunate events, her calm village life as she knew it is over, she is now left with a demon arm, and she is locked up in captivity for three years. Velvet escapes with a bit of help, and thus begins her quest for revenge in a world currently in the midst of a war between the exorcists and the demons.
It is worth noting here how much of a darker tone this has compared to other entries in the series. Without going into too much detail to avoid spoiling what occurs, we see Velvet’s way of life destroyed before her very eyes. Instead of just being a happy-go-lucky protagonist out to save the world, find some sacred object, etc., Velvet’s a character that has had pretty much everything taken away from her and is out for revenge. I’m perfectly fine with a more upbeat story when done well, but this game’s tone is a refreshing change of pace.
After those three years of being locked up, we witness the once-happy Velvet change into a much more serious and standoffish character -- complete with a very different tone of voice for all her dialogue. Touches like this help convey the game’s meaning despite the language barrier. Even though I do not speak Japanese, I felt I still had a decent enough grasp of what was going on during the game’s numerous animated cutscenes. And thanks to the internet, I’m able to look online and fill in any gaps I miss (with a grain of salt of course, because the internet can indeed lie). There’s actually a certain charm in watching a scene in another language, interpreting it, and then reading a translation of the events online. It also helps when you play the game with someone who understands bits and pieces of Japanese.
The “skits” from previous Tales games return, which are scenes sprinkled throughout the game showcasing some entertaining character interaction. They contain expressive anime portraits of the characters conversing and are usually a joy to watch, even in a different language. They display a good amount emotion in addition to the in-game cutscenes, using zoom-ins, background color changes, and expressive art to good effect.
While the skits themselves are a Tales series staple, they have been redesigned a bit. Instead of just cut-outs (or in some Tales games’ cases, heads in boxes) of the main cast moving their mouths and sliding around, each skit now takes place over a series of slides. With each slide focusing your attention on a particular event happening during the skit, they do feel a bit more lively thanks to this change in presentation. The skits have been some of the more charming parts of previous Tales games, offering a good deal of character interaction between the cast that makes them feel more human. I’m really liking the presentation on the newer skits. I’m excited to see them in English!
The game itself runs at a smooth 60 FPS, which is a pleasure to watch. While the game still shows signs of being a PS3 title ported to the PS4, with some flat and somewhat blurry textures in the environments, the colors are vibrant and do pop. Whether you’re running through bright green fields with the rich blue sky above, or staring at the foreboding glowing red moon at the end of the prologue, the environments aren’t technical masterpieces but are pleasant to look at.
The character models do fare a bit better than the environments, though. They look great, sporting nice detail and animation during both cutscenes and gameplay. It feels like nothing was lost in translation from the 2D art to the 3D models. The only problem character-model wise I can really think of is that when characters sometimes have effects applied to them (such as dirt and blood), the effects look a bit low-quality. I would say that this is more of a problem with the effects than the character models themselves, however.
Gameplay is the usual Tales fare of running around fantasy areas (with the next area you need to go to being marked on your map with a star, making the game a bit more import friendly) while engaging in numerous battles that utilize the series' unique real-time battle system. Once a battle starts, you are free to run around and fight in the battle arena with your three other party members (who can be controlled by either AI or local friends). This is where some additional changes are made to the series formula.
Previous games in the series kept you on a 2D path toward the opponent you were locked onto, while (starting with Tales of the Abyss) you could hold a button to enter free-run mode and roam the 3D area. Berseria however, defaults you to 3D movement without the option (as far as I'm aware) of 2D locked movement. While I was happy with the previous system, this change does make moving around the battlefield easier. I do enjoy how it feels; In a way, it actually kind of reminds me of a much less hectic version of Power Stone 2.
That's not to say that battles don't get chaotic, however. As you and your team are executing the numerous attacks available to you on the four face buttons, there’s a ton of flashy action happening on-screen. Chaining together these moves, learning the ins-and-outs of each attack, and watching the fluid animation as you go all-out on your enemies is a rewarding experience that makes even grinding enjoyable. You are also given the option of changing your character’s moveset. However doing so requires navigating some menus and attack names in Japanese, and thus a bit of trial-and-error unless you can read the language (or wait for the game to come out in English, of course).
The number of moves you can use in a chain is limited to how much of your Soul Gauge you have, represented by a bar of up to five blue squares near your health. Each battle starts with three, with them depleting as you use attacks and refilling during your downtime. You gain one whenever you defeat an enemy and lose one whenever you activate a Break Soul -- special abilities that are unique to each character. Velvet, for example, can activate her demon arm with her Break Soul. This allows her to do a new array of moves (which increase in damage the less health you have), but also rapidly decreases her own health. The health decrease is not a huge issue though, as you also gain health back when you’re tearing your way through enemies using Break Souls. Other characters’ break souls aren’t bad, but unfortunately aren’t as fun to use. Rokurou’s counter move comes to mind, which I found to be more effort than it's worth in chaotic battles like this. But hey, at least Eizen can grow wings, fly, and shoot fire at enemies.
Berseria also adds the ability to assign whatever party members were left out of your main four-character party to sub status. This lets you swap party members in and out mid-battle with the D-Pad at the cost of one Blast Gauge unit (which can otherwise be used to perform powerful Mystic Artes) shown in the circle to the right of your health. This addition does open up more combo opportunities, as well allowing more seamless character switching. Each party member has their own unique play style and feel, such as Velvet’s up-close hack-and-slash style to Magilou’s long-range magic attacks. While Velvet is without a doubt my personal favorite, each character did feel satisfying to use. There was never a time where I felt like I wasn’t having fun while trying all the characters out.
Battles did seem pretty easy so far, but this early in the game I’m not really expecting a whole lot of challenge. I also can’t really comment on equipment effects during battle or anything else related to it due to not being able to read any of it. The most I can do is look at how new equipment affects my stats and upgrade my characters when I can. Not being able to fully utilize equipment may come back to bite me later in the game, but it's not really an issue for now. As for items, thanks to item icons, knowledge of past Tales games, and bits and pieces of the item descriptions I can understand (mostly involving numbers), I can thankfully use most items I need without too much of an issue.
The dungeons that you encounter these battles in don’t seem like anything really special so far; just pretty standard point A to point B affairs with a few branching paths. I’m not terribly far into the game, so I will give the game the benefit of the doubt and hope that later dungeons will get more interesting. However, even if the dungeon layouts stay like this the entire time, it’s not bad, just nothing special. The dungeon aesthetics themselves do at least seem pretty interesting so far, including locations such as a cave lit up by dark purple crystals and a towering fortress that you make your way in and out of as you scale it.
While running around the fields and dungeons, you will notice glowing collectable orbs sprinkled around. These are “Katz Spirits”, which can be spent to open “Katz Boxes” to get special items such as accessories. These collectables are a welcome addition and give incentive to explore an otherwise empty area. The accessories they grant have as much over-the-top customization as they do in Tales of Zestiria, allowing for some great creations. Enlarge, reposition, and rotate to your heart's desire to replace your character’s head with a giant hat, for example.
Spending roughly 14 hours playing this game in Japanese has actually been quite fun. I may not be getting the complete experience, missing out on some story, gameplay mechanics, and anything else that requires knowledge of the Japanese language. However, that’s why I still plan on getting the English version when it releases. Playing the Japanese version has just been a way for me to get my hands on the game a bit early and see how it plays, and I’m happy with it so far. The story and characters seem interesting, the game runs and looks smooth for the most part, and the battle system is just as fun as ever with some nice improvements. The visuals could look better from a technical standpoint and the dungeon layouts have not wowed me so far, but I’m enjoying the game as a whole despite the language barrier. Looking forward to the English release in 2017!
Once upon a time, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company turned their heads on the idea that smartphones could be a platform where independent games and programs could be played successfully.
Recently, however, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company the decided to collaborate with Niantic -- creator of Ingress -- to create an augmented reality application, implementing the concept of catching virtual pocket monsters (Pokémon). This application was called Pokémon GO.
Pokémon GO is a revolutionary application that became one of the most downloaded and used apps all over the globe, despite a rocky road of constant server crashes and feature failures.
Story
Pokémon GO does not follow a set storyline. Professor Willow speaks to you at the beginning of the game and throws you out into the world of Pokémon GO immediately afterward. He gives you a vague introduction of what you should do in the application but does not explain the smaller features hidden within the program.
You start off choosing your name, your trainer’s gender, and his or her clothes. Once you achieve level five, you are able to face gyms and either join the ranks of Team Mystic, Valor, or Instinct. The leaders of the gyms located around the world are defined by these teams and their colors.
These teams each use the Kanto legendary bird trio as their own mascot, with really nice designs representing them. Articuno is presented in a hexagon shape, symbolizing ice in blue, Moltres is shown in a circular shape in red flames, and Zapdos is displayed in a jagged upside-down triangle, lightning bolts surrounding the silhouette of the Pokémon.
The gyms are run by real players who also play the game. Android and iOS players are able to play in the same world as each other, battling and collecting Pokémon together without different operating systems being a problem. Players who are on the same team that the gym represents can increase the gym’s prestige and ultimately level it up. Unfortunately, there is no system in place handing out badges for defeating these gyms, which was an essential part of progressing the story in the traditional handheld versions of Pokemon.
This game consists of the classic 151 Kanto Pokémon. However, some certain Pokémon – such as legendaries and Ditto - are not yet included in the app yet due to Niantic’s reasons. These are the Pokémon that everyone first started off with 20 years ago in Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow for Gameboy/Gameboy Color.
In short, this game focuses on conquering gyms and catching them all.
Sound & Graphics
The game looks gorgeous. The Pokémon are given 3D models with a fresh, defined look while maintaining their classic clear sounds back from when they were initially introduced 20 years ago. The trainers look older than ten years old, the typical age of in-game Pokémon trainers. This could be to tailor to the first audience that fell in love with the series.
The area surrounding the trainer is basically a 3D GPS map. This helps players be aware of their surroundings, being able to view potential Poke Stops, Gyms, and Pokémon nearby. This map is simple, clear, and easy to read.
In terms of sound, the music is a bit repetitive. You can always have your game muted and miss none of what the game has to offer. Pokémon GO also includes sounds such as the cries of Pokémon and the Pokéball’s classic sound effects (shaking, captures, breaking).
Gameplay
This game has “simple“ written all over it. This is a very easy game to pick up and play, but hard to master. This allows Pokémon GO to tailor to a wider audience.
The professor could have told the player how everything works in a deep tutorial, holding the player’s hand throughout every moment of gameplay. However, he doesn’t. This is done in hopes of letting people’s curiosity guide them. This way, people are allowed to understand the game fully at their own pace, while achieving a sense of accomplishment by doing so. The community has also been involved with teaching other players how the game works. This helps to create the interaction between people that the team behind Pokémon GO was hoping to achieve.
Catching Pokémon
Players are able to pick between Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Pikachu (when players get into a catching sequence with each starter and run away from all three, the Pikachu will appear) as their first Pokémon. Players can throw a Pokéball by holding the ball or spinning it, then aiming it and flicking it up heading towards the Pokémon. With a bit of luck and precise aiming, the ball will land in the right place to catch the Pokemon. Then, the player has to trust their that their Pokéball is strong enough to not open after three shakes from the Pokémon inside.
This style of gameplay is simple enough for many people to grasp and master with ease.
Catching Pokémon rewards players with experience, dust, and candies of the respective Pokémon’s evolution line. Dust and candies are required to level up a Pokémon’s Combat Power (CP).
Players need a certain amount of candies to evolve Pokémon that are capable of evolving. The way that players can acquire such large amounts of candies is by catching a desired Pokemon within the evolution line over and over again. This is done to obtain stronger Pokémon, or obtain Pokémon that are needed to complete the Pokedex.
Players go to certain memorial sites or special areas, called Poké-Stops, to get some free goodies. These include Pokéballs, berries, items, and eggs.
After obtaining an egg and incubating it, players are required to walk a set distance in real life to hatch the egg. No other strategies are included in the game to increase the speed of the hatch time.
Battling
Players can use Pokémon to battle gyms. Each Pokémon has two moves – a weak move and a strong move.
Pokémon GO doesn’t show players the basics of Pokémon types, in terms of what type is strong against another type and vice versa.
Players can use the weak move by tapping the screen repetitively and use the strong move by holding their finger on the screen to charge a bar below the player’s Pokémon HP during battle. Players can dodge attacks by flicking left or right on the screen.
The battle sequence is in real time rather than turned-based, which is unlike the older Pokémon games in the handheld series. This section of the game is only used when challenging a gym from a player or group of players. You cannot battle other Pokémon outside of gym battles or when you commence the catching sequence.
Replay Value
It depends on the player entirely. While this game does contain a lot of replay value, many may be turned off by the repetitiveness of the game and quickly lose interest.
People may be hooked on participating in never-ending gym conquering to be the talk of the neighborhood. People might play for the joy of completing the Pokedex or obtaining strong Pokémon to use in battles. There are also others who are determined in getting all of the medals to gold.
There are people who just enjoy the thrill of catching Pokémon and interacting with others playing the game. The game’s community will help Pokémon GO thrive and people retain interest as the months go on.
Opinion/Verdict
I recommend people download Pokémon GO. This game provides a sense of thrill and an escape from life’s routine. The game has gone through multiple updates adding in the options of letting people change their clothes, change their name once, and so on. This app is the focus of both millions of people worldwide and the gaming industry as a whole. The game will only be improving as time goes on.
This game also allows people to meet up with new people and make friends over a common interest. This game is an open opportunity for people to welcome new people into their circle of friends.
Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I am not a fan of mobile games but decided to give this Pokémon-themed game a try, since I have played every other Pokémon game in the series. I felt as though I was obligated to try out the game. This game has a completely different feel than the Pokémon games I grew up with.
This game bores me to an extent. It doesn’t challenge me or entertain me mentally like the other Pokémon games do. I don’t feel the same type of feeling when I play this game compared to how I feel when I play older games in this franchise. I understand that this game is probably meant for those with their nostalgia glasses on.
This app is one that everyone can play because it is very easy to understand at first and gets addicting and more challenging as the game goes on. With peers both sharing experiences and competing against others, this game has the potential to stay popular for months or years to come.
