Tokyo UK

[tokyoukstore]

Why Mark stopped playing Tales of Zestiria.

I could get over my party’s complete indifference to child murder on two separate occasions but this is ludicrous.

By the way, this would be a proper screen shot except that Namco Bandai have prevented people from taking screenshots or capturing footage of the game on PS4 by effectively turning the entire game into a blocked scene. Well done.

[tokyoukstore]

The Chuckle Brothers Play Real Life Hitman

Io-Interactive and Realm Pictures recently invited a select group of people to become Agent 47’s handler as he goes on a mission to eliminate a Serbian arms ...

Possibly the best thing Square Enix has done in years.

Eliminate the target without being detected AND NO SLACKING!

[tokyoukstore]

Gaming Anniversaries: 2016

I’ve been playing through the old Dragon Quest games because the 27th of May 2016 happens to be the 30th anniversary of the original Dragon Quest. Recently i purchased  the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and I realized that this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. Thing is, I missed it! It’s been and gone.

Frankly, I’m embarrassed. I often forget to wish people a happy birthday, even though Facebook reminds me, but this is something else entirely. With that in mind, here is a list of some 2016′s gaming anniversary highlights.

9th of February, Bahamut Lagoon, 20th anniversary

21st of February, The Legend Of Zelda, 30th anniversary

27th of February, Pokemon, 20th anniversary

9th of March, Super Mario RPG, 20th anniversary

22nd of March, Resident Evil, 20th anniversary

24th of May, Metal Slug, 20th anniversary

27th of May, Dragon Quest, 30th anniversary

23rd of June, Super Mario 64, 20th anniversary

19th of July, Star Ocean, 20th anniversary

6th of August, Metroid, 30th anniversary

8th of August, Dead Rising, 10th anniversary

31st of August, Crash Bandicoot, 20th anniversary

19th of September, Okami, 10th anniversary

26th of September, Castlevania, 30th anniversary

15th November, Tomb Raider, 20th anniversary

[tokyoukstore]

Previously on the Dragon Quest Diaries (I was originally going to use the Dragon Quest Diaries as a title. I like the alliteration but I think it sounds a bit like softcore pornography somehow. I have no idea why that is but I am aware that holding that opinion reveals something about myself. I grew up in the flipping 90’s. It was an absolute bastard to get proper pornography in the 90’s.) previously, Mark started on Dragon Quest III when he probably should have just give it a rest for a bit after finishing Dragon Quest II. Then he had a week off work and watched all the Resident Evil Movies and played a frankly unhealthy amount of EDF 4.1.

And now…

After receiving my quest from the king; venture forth and defeat the evil Baramos, I head to a place on the edge of town called Patty’s.

Patty’s is a one stop shop for adventurers looking to recruit party members. To accompany me on my journey I have chosen a Mage, a Priest and a Martial Artist. They are called Claire, Rebecca and Jill. The eagle eyed may note that they are all characters from Resident Evil. (Side note; I was pleased to see the Redfields make an appearance in the movies, less pleased to see that they had nothing to do with the plot. To the point that by the fifth movie they drop off the face of the earth and nobody says a flipping word.)

As I leave town I am warned that the game features a day to night cycle and that more powerful monsters will come out at night.

“What a horrible night to have a curse!”

Some directionless meandering later I arrive at a tower. I’m finding there are a lot of towers in Dragon quest games. At the top of the tower is an old man. Of course there is. How many times have I gone into a cave or up a tower to find some old hermit with a bit of advice or a key? This guy gives me a key. The thief’s key.

I try out my new key in the nearby village of Reeve. There I find a wrecking ball (which I can apparently just carry around) and learn of a Sacred Spring. The spring lies across the mountains to the east of Reeve and is a popular first stop for new adventurers.

Join us next time on the Dragon Quest Diaries for the hot spring special.(Softcore pornography.)

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Oh hell yeah!

We’ll have some footage of this one when it comes out. I guarantee it!

[tokyoukstore]

Footage of me being swarmed in EDF 4.1

I dare you not to buy it. we can only hope Independence Day 2 is anywhere near as good.

[tokyoukstore]

It’s 1988, over in the west we’ve had five years to get our heads around Krull, three years to ponder Legend (y’know, the one with Tom Cruise) and now, along comes Willow. As we stare into the faces of Val Kilmer and Warwick Davis we think to ourselves; surely this is the pinnacle of fantasy entertainment as we know it. Then it’s back home to play some Altered Beast and pretend that it is good.

In Japan, they’re watching Akira. I watched Akira once, I don’t think I was ready for it. If I believed in such a thing as a soul I would say that Akira has stained mine forever. I bought Akira, watched it, and traded it away for a copy of Pokemon the movie within a matter of hours. (True story.)

To forget the horrors of Akira, the Japanese game playing public could at least turn to their shiny new Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest III.

After entering my name, the game asks me if I am male or female. Not bad, this is years before Mass Effect. I don’t even have to check that on Wikipedia or anything. The game begins and I am stood in a forest. For the first time in the series I am not looking at a tile-set. The forest is illustrated, for want of a better way of putting it.

I leave the forest and arrive at a waterfall. Here a voice asks me a bunch of personal questions such as my real name and date of birth. The voice then gets me to fill out a personality test, a bit like the G.O.A.T. from Fallout.

“Do you dream often?” (Yes)

“Do you take great care over your appearance?” (No)

“Do you often dwell on days gone by?” (Yes)

Once the questions are over, I find myself in a cave. Ahead of me the path splits, I may go left or right. There is a sign post that instructs me to go left. I suddenly realise that I am playing the Stanley Parable. I follow the signs until one of them tells me to head north no matter what happens. I head north until I see a girl trapped under a rock. She asks for help and I deviate from the path to move the rock and help her. The test ends and I reappear at the waterfall. Here the voice informs me that my personality type is ‘straight arrow’.

“You may not realise it but you are incapable of lying. Your dishonesty shows instantly on your face.”

Now the voice introduces herself as ‘she who watches over all’ and promises that one day we will meet. The screen fades to black and I am told it is the morning of my 16th birthday. (Dragon Quest III is apparently set in 2001 then.) I am in bed when my mum wakes me. Today I am to start on a journey, but first I must receive the king’s blessing. My mum escorts me to the castle, bit embarrassing. The king already awaits me. I quickly learn that I am the son of a man named Ortega. Alas Ortega is dead, having fallen into a volcano. I am to follow in his footsteps (hopefully not all of them) and continue my father’s quest to defeat the Archfiend Baramos who seeks to conquer the land. The king might as well have said,

“Hi Mark! The new one is called Baramos. Off you pop.”

I wander through the castle nicking stuff from the drawers. The drawers now animate to show that they have been opened. Nice touch. In the castle dungeons I speak to a prisoner who uses the phrase ‘what a plonker’. I tell you this for absolutely no reason.

As I leave the castle I already know my next destination. A place at the edge of town called Patty’s. Here, I am told, I may recruit a party. Sounds a lot simpler than what I had to go through in Dragon Quest II. What companions will accompany me on this new journey. Find out next time!

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

【公式】『名探偵ピカチュウ ～新コンビ誕生～』 紹介映像

ニンテンドー3DSダウンロード専用ソフト『名探偵ピカチュウ ～新コンビ誕生～』は、2016年2月3日（水） 配信開始予定。 ▼『名探偵ピカチュウ ～新コンビ誕生～』公式サイト http://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/TANTEI-PIKA/ ©2016 Pokémon. ©1995-2016 Ni...

Imagine the meeting.

“I’ve got this idea. People like Pikachu right?”

“Flippin’ love him mate! What’s your idea?”

“We take pikachu...”

“Genious!”

“...put him in a hat...”

“Shut up! SHUT! UP!”

“...and call him a detective!”

“Get Nintendo on the phone right now! I wanna see all kinds of Pokemon in hats doing different jobs!”

“Postman Porygon?”

At that point I imagine the other man would faint.

The trailer for detective Pikachu looks amazing. No word on a western release yet but it’s flipping Pokemon, if it doesn’t go world wide I’ll eat my hat. My detective hat!

[tokyoukstore]

Rendarak, the realm of Hargon, is enclosed behind a ring of impassable mountains. I reckon Hargon could probably just stay where he is and let the rest of us get on with our lives. But he did destroy castle Moonbrooke at the beginning of the game. Justice must be done.

There is a cave which leads into the heart of Rendarak. Its entrance is revealed only to those in possession of the false idol. I’m sure if Dragon Quest II were a more modern game there would be a very involved explanation as to what the false idol is, why it can reveal hidden things and what it was doing at the bottom of a volcano in the sea. I don’t know if I want that or not. I do get sick of games when they over explain things. As long as there is a clear internal logic, I’m happy enough.

As I enter Hargon’s castle I am greeted with a strange sight. The place looks exactly like Midenhall. I speak to the citizens; they all seem surprised that I should wish Hargon any harm. Apparently he is a great guy. Of course none of it is real. It is an illusion, like that bit in Gurren Lagann. I raise the Eye of Rubiss, which I obtained by complete accident, and the illusion is dispelled. (I think the Eye of Rubiss may have been the end result of collecting all those sigils.) Hargon’s castle is revealed. It is a dismal place, haunted by the dead and infested with monsters that have really obnoxious attacks. On the way to Hargon’s castle I was attacked by one of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. It did a kamikaze attack which killed my entire party. Cheers for that.

The castle itself is surprisingly (mercifully) brief for a final dungeon. There are no dead ends or traps or pitfalls. It’s pretty straight forward, unlike the flipping cave I had to go through to get into Rendarak in the first place. I reach Hargon’s throne room and am strongly reminded of the Dragon Lord sat on his throne at the end of the first game (and the middle of this game).

I defeat Hargon (no sweat) but the game is not over. Remember the wounded soldier from the start of the game. He made his way from Moonbrooke to Midenhall and in his dying breath, warned us of the plans of Hargon. It’s what started this whole thing. He said that Hargon planned to summon a dark god. To be honest I had forgotten this detail.

No, it’s not the dragon from Dragon Ball Z. It’s Malroth, dark god and final boss of Dragon Quest II. This fight feels like a final boss fight. By which I mean it goes on forever and I feel like I have to spend every turn restoring HP and re-buffing my defences. After what feels like ten minutes this side of too long, I finally defeat Malroth. Hargon’s castle crumbles to the ground. (Like in Lord of the Rings or Ocarina of Time.) The land is saved once again!

I return to Midenhall. The entire kingdom (seven or eight people) has turned out to greet me and my companions (nearly forgot about those guys). The king, my farther, is proud of me. He says it is now my time to step up to the throne and become king of Midenhall. I accept. Now come the days of the king, may they be blessed!

Any way you want it! That’s the way you need it! Any way you want it!

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

I head into what I think is the ocean cave. I do not need the Moon Shard, which I went through great efforts to acquire. The place is like a great depression in the middle of the ocean. I descend several flights of stairs. Water surrounds me but some force seems to keep it at bay. Like that bit in Dragon Ball Z where Frieza punches Vegeta to the bottom of the ocean. On the lowest level a voice speaks to me. The voice or Rubiss! I have no idea who Rubiss is but he bestows upon me the Eye of Rubiss. This item will dispel the illusions of Hargon. Lucky I came here.

Back to the ship. After a bit more sailing I come to the actual ocean cave. It is surrounded by impassable rocks. I hold the moon shard aloft and the rocks disappear. Venturing into the cave is like venturing into a volcano. A poorly planned volcano with lots of redundant staircases and dead ends. There is lava everywhere. Luckily Arthur knows a spell called ‘safe passage’. With it, we can walk on lava, no sweat.

In the depths of the cave I find an altar. The altar is protected by two goons whom I instantly vaporize with Princess Eileen’s Kaboom spell. On the altar is an item called the false idol. It looks like it belongs in a museum, or possibly a Crash Bandicoot game. The false idol has the power to reveal the way into Hargon’s realm, Rendarak.

I check my watch. It’s payback time! (For Eileen’s dad, remember?)

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

The quest for the remaining two sigils turns out to be laughably easy. I find one in a large tower, guarded by gremlins, the other, in an underground jail in Moonahan.

To access the jail I needed the jailor’s key. This I found in the underground city of Burrowell. Did you ever see that anime Tokyo Underground? Yeah? Not great. The residents of Burrowell moved underground out of fear. For they live in the shadow of Rendarak, the home of Hargon. At last, my enemy is within sight. Within sight but not within reach. Though I have the five sigils, it is not enough to gain entry into Hargon’s land.

While in Burrowell, I come across a thief named Roge Fastfinger. He has escaped from jail. By which I mean, he is living in a small gap behind a jail cell. He rewards me, for some reason, with the Slewse floodgate key, which he has, for some other reason.

Finding my way to Slewse is an adventure (pain in the arse) in itself. It is the only town on the world map I have not yet visited. Just south of Slewse I spy a tower. It is the tower of the moon and is surrounded by a moat, inaccessible.

I open the floodgate at Slewse with the key I got from Fastfinger. The water connects the moat at the tower with a river that is accessible from the sea. I can now sail my boat right up to the entrance of the tower of the moon.

In the tower I find a Moon shard. I have heard (from GameFAQs) that this item will grant me access to a cave (another cave! Yes!) somewhere on the open ocean.

Away me hearties! Yo-ho!

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Happy Valentines day! To everyone! In the world!

It’s a beautiful thing to be in love. Maybe you’re in love right now, maybe not. If you’ve ever felt it, even for a day, for an hour, for a moment. You’ll know it’s worth it, and you can count yourself one of the lucky ones.

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Project X Zone 2, who is in and who is out? I haven't played it yet, I'm just going off the back of the box. Newcomers to the 2nd game include; Capcom - Phoenix Wright, Strider, Star Gladiators and Captain Commando. SEGA - Yakuza Dead Souls, Shinobi, Nightshade, Shenmue, Segata Sanshiro (really, Google it) and Streets of Rage. Namco - Soul Calibur V, Summon Night 3 and Adventure of Valkyrie Project X Zone 2 also features guest characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and Xenoblade Chronicles. I used to write a bit of fan fiction when I was younger. Honestly what is the point anymore.

[tokyoukstore]

“Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together! Do you understand?”

My next port of call is Dirkandor which lies on a remote isle south of Midenhall. The city of Dirkandor is like a grand courtyard surrounded by a mighty wall. (You have to use your imagination a bit.) The king sits centre-stage on a lavish throne attended by beautiful women. (Keep imagining.) Before the king; an arena where men do battle. I spy cages housing wild animals and begin to guess at the sport of the king, whom I already dislike.

I speak to the king. He reckons Eileen, Arthur and myself as a group of capable warriors and offers us a reward if we will entertain him. Hesitantly, I agree to his offer. The cages are opened and our group is faced with a Striking Sabrecat! It is as I feared. We defeat the poor creature and return to the king.

“Are you not entertained!”

The king is pleased with us. Our reward, one of the five sigils. I take the sigil and leave Dirkandor. According to my spell checker, sigil is not a word. However, according to Google it is. That is good enough for me. Only two of the five sigils remain to be found. Soon I will have completed my quest and I will re-join my family, but not yet.

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Star, Moon, Sun, Water and Life.

The powers of the kids from Captain Planet (near enough) but more importantly they are the five sigils. Five magical objects I must collect if my quest to defeat Hargon is to succeed. I already have the Sun sigil, though I have no idea where I picked it up. My search for the remaining four brings me to an island in the south-east corner of the map and the quaint fishing village of Zahan.

For the moment, Zahan is populated entirely by women because all the men have gone fishing. This I learn from talking to the villagers. Then I talk to a dog. The dog says ‘bark’ and then he shows me something which he has buried in the ground. It’s the gold key! Can you believe that? The gold key will open every gold door in the world. It’s a very important item; which I obtained on a whim by talking to a dog. Imagine if Doctor Strange acquired the Eye of Agamotto by talking to a dog. (That might be what happened. I haven’t read the comics.) Lets think of Japan-centric example. Imagine if Gendo Ikari found the Lance of Longinus by talking to a dog.

Gold key in hand, I return to Tantagel to solve the mystery of why a guy dressed like a king would be holed up in the first floor of an item shop behind a door nobody can open. The king refuses to explain himself. He says he is a retired armourer and hands me one the captain planet infinity sigils. While this does nothing to satisfy my curiosity, I am up one sigil, so, result.

Two down, three to go.

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Today I run up against the first proper boss in Dragon Quest Builders!

To beat this boss you will need the the Shield of Merukido. There is a quest to build this item just before you fight the boss. You will also need at least six bombs.

The golem will jump around a bit before charging up an attack. While he’s doing this, place the Shield of Merukido between him and the village. The golem will throw a massive rock which should bounce harmlessly off the shield.

Do that three times and the golem will get mad and do a Zangief double lariat. Avoid him for a few moments and he will get dizzy. While he is dizzy, place a bomb at his heels and he will fall over. Immediately place another bomb directly under his face. This will remove one third of his health bar.

Repeat the whole process a couple of times and you’re done. the golem will summon monsters to help him out as the fight progresses but they are really no bother.

Mark Smee

[tokyoukstore]

Previously on Dragon Quest II. MARK seeks the five sigils which are important for some long forgotten reason. Having no idea where the sigils are located, he sails aimlessly around the world. Thus he arrives at the floating city of Beran.

“Goddess preserve us! The mark of death is upon thee!”

I ignore the words of the priest as I enter the city of Beran. The journey to the floating city has depleted my Mp reserves and so I seek out the inn. I stay the night. In the morning I find that I am a companion short. Arthur remains in bed. It transpires that he is deathly ill and cannot move. Now what? By speaking to the residents of Beran I learn two things.

1. Arthur’s sudden illness is likely caused by Hargon, who is able to strike down his enemies from afar with curses. Hargon resides in a place called Rendarok.

2. The malady which afflicts Arthur may be cured with a leaf from the tree of Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil can be found on a tiny island, east of Beran.

With this knowledge in mind I set out to find the legendary tree. The seas of Dragon Quest II are rife with monsters and I am subject to random encounters even while sailing. I don’t like being a member short in my party. In the first Dragon Quest you must complete the entire adventure solo. At this point in Dragon Quest II, I have become accustomed to a three person party; fighter, mage, healer. With Arthur out of the picture, Eileen is having to pull double duty as mage and healer. I have packed extra healing items for the voyage but my carrying capacity is limited. Remember, each character must also carry their own equipment.

East of Beran there is indeed a tiny island. Unfortunately there’s nothing on it. I get back in my ship and continue to sail further east. My supply of items begins to run low and Eileen’s Mp reserves are depleting rapidly. Luckily, on the next island, stands the lofty tree of Yggdrasil. I obtain a leaf and ferry it to Beran.

The healing properties of the leaf return Arthur to full health within an instant. I am mightily glad to have him back, the addle-pated dawdler. Unfortunately this distraction has brought me no closer to obtaining one of the five sigils. My search must begin anew, next time.

Mark Smee