PS3

Acceleration of Suguri X Edition

March 1, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Gerry Pagan Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Continuing the collaboration between Sony and Rockin’ Android, Acceleration of Suguri X Edition is the latest Japanese doujin title to be released on the PlayStation Network. In AoSXE, two players fight each other from top-down and isometric perspectives, attacking with a combination of long-range danmaku (bullet hell) patterns and close-range melee attacks, whittling each other’s life bar until the battle ends. It’s similar to G.rev’s Wartech: Senko no Ronde in execution, only with 2D visuals instead of 3D models. 

As part of the SUGURI series, there is a bit of a disconnect in the game’s plot for players who only buy Acceleration of Suguri X Edition. Suguri, the series’ main character, is an android created to protect the Earth from an alien invasion that takes place during the first game, SUGURI, which is as of writing only available on PC. AoSXE takes place after that game, so it’s easy to get lost in the narrative with the characters talking about events that people assume we already know about. Most characters have an “Extra Story” that can be unlocked by clearing Arcade mode with each respective person, which shows a little extra back story on what each character does after the events of SUGURI.

The gameplay itself is rather fun. Each character has a varied play style and move set, ranging from close-ranged melee barrages to long-range ice barriers and shards which really mixes up the combat. You can dash around which prevents you from taking damage by projectiles, but this raises a heat % that makes you take more damage when you do get hit. Each character has multiple super attacks that are performed after you fill up a charge meter, which grows as you dodge attacks, perform attacks, etc.  The stages themselves aren’t exactly varied, as they’re just a big circle with changing background environments depending on.

Visually, the game is pretty hit-or-miss. People who dislike the “cute anime” look best look elsewhere, as everything from the portraits to the in-game sprites are done with that style in mind. Even then, the art takes some getting used to and is rather off-putting at first glance. The story mode portraits do leave a little to be desired though, as they aren’t done as well as the main character shots. 

Overall, the game is worth the low asking price. It’ll provide a few hours’ worth of entertainment for those into the whole arcade bullet hell genre, more so if you have a few local friends to play with. People looking for more substance and longevity should look elsewhere though, as the game’s story mode only really lasts for an hour or two. Acceleration of Suguri X-Edition really works best as a play once in a while type game, though at $6 you can’t go wrong getting involved in this “strange little war”.

 

Hyperdimension Neptunia

February 28, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Hyperdimension Neptunia has gotten a lot of press for its premise: personified game consoles who stop their war with each other to fight a villain named Arfoire. (Get it?) It’s an interesting concept, and a game full of industry references seems like a recipe for success. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fully commit, and the underlying gameplay isn’t quite as cohesive as it should be.

You play primarily as Neptune, the game’s version of Sega, as she gets kicked down from the goddesses’ realm down to the mortal world (populated by various third-parties). You team up with characters based on the companies involved in development, like Compa (Compile Heart), I.F. (Idea Factory), Gust (well, Gust) and Nisa (Nippon Ichi Software), and fight monsters in dungeons. Eventually you also acquire the other Console Patron Units to use.

The combat is turn-based, and uses a combo system. Face buttons correspond to actions, and you can chain up to four actions together. While the basic moves are simply physical attacks, weapon strikes and ranged shots, each character has a customizable move tree that you can slip special moves and combo link actions into. These special moves are where game references are made in combat, as game logos appear in them. (There are also “R/W Disc” moves, where you can customize the name and image to whatever you’d like.) You eventually gain up to six party members, but only three are active at a time. (There’s a “switch” move to bring in a reserve character.) There’s clearly a lot a player can do here, but it’s unclear why in many situations. Party members have strengths and weaknesses, so most of the time you’ll be constantly using the ranged attack button with the ranged character and avoiding range altogether with a melee expert. (Using special attacks is fun for a little bit, though. It’s just unfortunate that they don’t correspond to elements of the actual games they reference.)

Everything is set in a dungeon environment, with chests, items to pick up and mostly random encounters. (Boss battles are obvious and triggered.) Each character has an in-world ability. For example, I.F. finds hidden chests. This is a 3D world with a behind-the-back camera, and for dungeons so nondescript and spread out, it all seems a bit unnecessary. 

Anyway, those who have played Compile Heart games in the past will be familiar with many of these design decisions, and many may find them endearing. The clear purpose of the game is to make game references, and that happens. The game is largely quest-driven, with players crossing back and forth across the four worlds taking care of various missions. Sometimes there are just vignettes, where the characters talk to each other about the world, and these were clearly meant to contain the industry charm. 

That’s where the problem is. See, we love the game industry, and some well-timed jokes would redeem any experience. Neptunia, though, just makes references. It’s the difference between telling someone that you’re telling a joke and actually telling the joke. For example, do we like Tetris references? Yeah, we do! But a scene shows the characters talking about some off-screen people efficiently packing a truck, saying they work for a company that makes what certainly sounds like Tetris, and describing how they’re packing the truck. We want to get it. We don’t.

NIS America clearly wants to please its fans, and anyone who likes the game will really like it. They’ve bundled in a hardcover art book, and as they’ve done in the recent past, they made some of the game’s DLC available for free. It’s a wonderful gesture, and it’s something we hope continues, but it’s simply not something that would make someone enjoy the game if they don’t already. 

If you’re a fan of esoteric Japanese RPGs, Neptunia has some redeeming qualities, and it certainly provides hours and hours of quests and battles. It’s not the breakthrough hit that will make gamers of all sorts laugh and have a good time, though. 

 

Pros: System depth leads to hours of gameplay, slick visuals can be rare in niche titles

Cons: Tedium abounds at every turn, jokes miss the mark

Mindjack

February 23, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Mindjack is a great gimmick stuck inside a mediocre game. In Mindjack’s future disembodied consciousnesses can zip from person to person inhabiting them to further their own agenda. It’s a very interesting and scary concept that, sadly, is never really touched on in the game’s narrative. It made for an interesting, if flawed in its execution, gameplay mechanic, but it really would have shone as a central part of the narrative. It’s a shame that it was only intended to be believed as a part of this world and not an interesting part of the narrative.

And the narrative needs all the help it can get. Despite the interesting premise the story is sub-standard spy fiction complete with unexpected twists that you’ll see from a mile away and enemies cum allies that are easy to spot. While the by-the-numbers spy story is going on you’ll be busy mind-controlling enemy soldiers, inhabiting robots, and forcing civilians to do your will. Taking over enemy soldiers and robots in one thing. They’re out to get you, and you’re just fixing the odds in your favor. Everybody is a willing combatant. Everybody, that is, except for the small army of businessmen you convinced to storm the enemy and be ripped to shreds while you take potshots at them from relative safety. There is a huge missed opportunity here to show the player the negative repercussions of his actions. Instead the only criterion for success is that you must make it through the level and both agents must survive. There is only one outcome, and nobody cares at all that I sent innocent people to their deaths.

Much of this would be forgivable if Mindjack were a competent shooter. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of mindless shooters with terrible stories. Responsive controls and decent enemy AI that make for fun firefights can save just about any FPS for me. Mindjack stumbles on both counts. Movements feel robotic (which is only okay when I’m inhabiting a robot) until you try to dodge – then you have superhuman speed. Enemy AI is sub-par as well. Enemies will try to take cover to shoot at you, but you’ll never see them execute a flank, and occasionally they’ll just run around in circles as the code behind them desperately tries to figure out which box is the best one to hide behind. 

Mindjack’s most interesting gameplay feature, though, is the ability to enter other players’ games. We’ve been doing this for years. Co-op is the best way to play Halo: Reach, and the co-op mode in Shank is a blast. The difference in Mindjack is that more often than not when you join an online game you’ll be playing as the bad guy. This is great on paper. We’ve wanted enemies that felt like human opponents for as long as we’ve had enemies. And now we do. The problem is that there is no real reward for the enemies when they win. Since somebody else is playing through the story your win is their loss which makes their do-over the closest thing that you have to a reward. This serves to frustrate those playing the protagonist and bore those playing as enemies. It’s entertaining at first to play an enemy and make the game more challenging for the guy on the other end, but it’s only fun to yank the football away from Charlie Brown for so long.

Mindjack reminds me a lot of the first Assassin’s Creed – amazing premise with loads of potential that just doesn’t come together. Mind hacking is a very interesting concept that needs to be better explored, and adversarial multiplayer bleeding into the main story could be amazing. As it is now, Mindjack is a collection of neat ideas jammed into a mediocre game. The neat ideas just aren’t enough to forgive the below average movement and shooting. Mindjack should be a much better game. Hopefully we’ll see a sequel flesh out those ideas and deliver on all that potential.

Pros: Mindhacking is a great concept, adversarial campaign multiplayer is interesting

Cons: Controls feel stiff and unnatural, sub-par plot that ignores mindhacking altogether, no real reward for those playing as enemies online

 

Stacking

February 22, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Gerry Pagan Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Double Fine Productions are well-known for their offbeat, quirky humor.  Their latest offering, Stacking, is a departure from the typical adventure genre, with Russian stacking matryoshka dolls serving as the inspiration and basis for everything in the game. One controls Charlie Blackmore, the youngest son in a family of chimney sweeps, as he uses his ability to stack into larger dolls to save his family from an evil baron.  

The game is broken up into a hub world and several stages, each filled to the brim with different scenarios and puzzles. Every doll has a unique ability, from the smallest tap-dancing child doll to giant gentleman with proper uppercuts. Each puzzle can be solved by putting all of these abilities to use, with multiple possible solutions for each scenario. The puzzles are incredibly clever and well-thought out without becoming frustrating, and finding dolls with unique abilities is not hard to do. 

The game has a built-in hint system for each puzzle scenario, which gives you two vague hints before telling you the answer outright. It’s encouraging to solve every puzzle on your own, but it doesn’t penalize you for using the hints. There’s a small timer that prevents you from abusing the system, but it’s not too long before it might be bothersome to wait it out instead of getting frustrated with some of the more vague and abstract puzzles. The multiple solutions and hint system help the game feel accessible, always making progress into the game.

It’s amazing how Double Fine can take a game, center the game’s plot on issues like child labor and the Great Depression and turn them into a humorous story. Stacking is long enough that it feels lengthy without overstaying its welcome, and the puzzles ever feel repetitive. It’s well worth the asking price, and we hope Double Fine sends more games like this our way soon enough.

 

Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll

February 18, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is an RPG where you play as Areus, a half-elf swordsman, as he gathers a party and ventures across the land of Vyashion to take down evil King Balor.

Wait, let me try that again. Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is an action-adventure title where players take the role of burly Dagda as he uses his bare hands and the environment around him to take on larger and larger bosses on the path to redemption.

Okay, I think I messed up. One more time. Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is a mission-based hack-and-slash game from Omega Force, the makers of the Dynasty Warriors games, starring the vampire assassin Selene taking down hordes of enemies and building up meters for super attacks.

Actually, all three of those are true. 

In the game, you can switch between the three characters as they take on quests and find enemy weak spots. There are good times to use each one, and while most will find a favorite and stick to it in the early game, the developers did a good job of forcing players to use everyone. Need to bust through walls or take down armored foes? That’s what Dagda’s for. Need to get to high ledges or just get anywhere fast? Switch over to the speedy Selene. Areus’ elemental attacks are needed for taking down certain enemies.

As with most quest-based games, there are many hours of gameplay in Trinity. It can get a bit tedious at times, but the signature Omega Force combat system works much better in this context than it does in the Dynasty Warriors games. It makes much more sense to grind and search for better versions of items in a quest-based adventure than it does to replay historical battles to do the same thing. Focusing on three characters also works well, as the team made each have its own range of potential play styles.

Everything is presented in a visual style that hasn’t really been seen in games. The screen has some sort of filter on it to make everything have a texture that, while not hand-drawn like Valkyria Chronicles, feel somehow fantasy-based and foreign. The voice acting? It’s signature Koei, which means when people speak, the focus on making mouth movements line up means no one sounds natural. Luckily, this isn’t Heavy Rain, and the story is a means to giving you new quests, special items and bigger bosses to defeat. 

You’ll spend a lot of your time buying and selling items, upgrading stats and abilities and talking to random people in taverns. All of this is menu-based, with action only taking place in certain zones. The game’s not immersive, and it doesn’t try to be. The process of honing your characters’ abilities and boosting the aspects you use most, though, is an engrossing task, and one worth experiencing.

Our biggest disappointment? It’s a squad-based game, and there’s no cooperative mode. Being able to have three players control all characters at once would have made things much more interesting. 

Trinity scratches a very specific itch, and it does it about as well as anything on the market. If you’ve ever enjoyed an Omega Force game and don’t mind a little grinding in your RPGs, pick this up and say goodbye to a few dozen hours of your life.

 

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