Author Archives: mankoto
Senran Kagura Estival Versus Review – Bigger Is Indeed Better
Platform: PS4/PS Vita
Developer: Tamsoft/Marvelous
Publisher: XSEED Games
Rated: M
Release Date: March 15, 2016
A review copy of the Vita version has been provided by XSEED Games
Senran Kagura Estival Versus is the newest entry in the Senran Kagura series. This entry brings our girls to a mysterious island where shinobi who have passed away aren’t ready to move on yet. So, it’s up to the Hanzo, Hebijo, Gessen, and Homura squad to fulfill the task asked upon Asuka’s grandmother – to complete the Kagura Millennium Festival. To complete this festival, each group must protect their platforms from each other for eight days.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Review
Platform: Playstation 4/Playstation Vita
Developer: Media Vision
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Rated: T
Release Date: February 2nd, 2016
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth came out in Japan and was garnered with nothing but praise from the Japanese audience. With the lack of recently localized Digimon games, this and Digimon World Re:Digitize: Decode for 3DS were highly requested to be localized by western audiences. Cyber Sleuth is currently the only one to see a western release.
Danganronpa (PC) Review
Platform: PC
Original Developer: Spike-Chunsoft
Port Studio: Abstraction Games
Publisher: Spike-Chunsoft
Rated: M
Release Date: February 18, 2016
A review copy has been provided by Spike-Chunsoft
Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel created by Spike (before the merger with Chunsoft) and started off as a PSP game in late 2010. Since then it’s been ported to iOS, then Vita, and now the PC. In the past 5 years, it’s become a very popular multi-media franchise.
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Slice It – Review
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Com2uS
Publisher: Aksys Games
Rated: E
Release Date: January 14, 2016
A copy has been provided by Aksys Games
Images taken from the Nintendo Eshop
Slice It is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a game with a simple objective: slice the shape given to you in as many pieces as required in the amount of cuts required. The puzzles are very fun, especially when the shapes become more complicated.
In Slice It, you’re given a shape and that shape must be cut perfectly even with the exact amount of cuts they give you. So let’s say they give you a triangle with four cuts and tell you it has to come out in four pieces. That’s all you have to do. Nothing more, nothing less. If you cut it into four pieces, and all sides are completely equal, then you get a perfect. Otherwise, the rank goes between failed and three stars.
The games’ presentation is nice and clean. All of the puzzles are set on graph paper so that you make as accurate lines as possible which is great because when you’re finished cutting, it shows how large they are in comparison to the original piece. For example, like the triangle I was talking about in the last paragraph, it could show that one piece is 25.9%, 30.6%, 31%, and 12.5%. Or, if you’re going for a perfect, it would show 25%, 25%, 25%, and 25%.
When compared to the mobile version, it’s exactly the same and nothing is left out in terms of content. The differences come up in the amount of puzzles you get right off the bat. In the mobile version you must go through one puzzle before unlocking the next. There is also the fact that it’s much harder to get hints in the 3DS version than the mobile version. Lastly, from what I noticed, to make up for the fact that you can use two fingers in the mobile version, you can use the circle pad for directional purposes.
Overall, with over 200 puzzles and a time attack mode, you might be glued to this game quite a bit because there are so many bite-sized brainteasers.
7.5
+ A well packaged time waster
– The circle pad works but isn’t good enough to replace a second finger
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Review
Platform: Playstation 3/Vita
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: XSEED Games
Rated: T
Release Date: December 22, 2015
A Review Copy Was Not Provided By XSEED
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a fantastic JRPG brought to us by Falcom and localized by XSEED Games. While, yes, there are previous entries in this series (Trails in the Sky: First Chapter/Second Chapter/Third Chapter, Trails to Zero/Azure) none of them are necessarily required to be played to enjoy this game. The Trails in the Sky trilogy isn’t referenced a lot as it was a passed event. Meanwhile, Trails to Zero/Azure are connected to Trails of Cold Steel in that both games are happening at the same time as this one.
Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space – Review: I’m Gonna Need More than a Shoe for This
Platform: Playstation Vita
Developer: Sandlot
Publisher: XSEED Games
Rated: T
Release Date: December 8th, 2015
A review copy of the was provided by XSEED Games
Stella Glow Review: A Glowing Farewell
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Imageepoch
Publisher: Atlus USA
Rated: T
Release Date: November 17, 2015
A review copy and screenshots have been provided by Atlus USA
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Announced for Wii U
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD has been announced for the Nintendo Wii U due out March 4th, 2016. An Amiibo has also been announced for the game and the game. Pre-ordering the game will grant you access to the game’s original soundtrack.
Stella Glow – Preview
About a week ago, in my write-up Thoughts on a Demo- Stella Glow, I wasn’t sure how Stella Glow would turn out because the demo didn’t leave me much to say in terms its battles. However, after about 4 chapters and 17 hours of play, I have to say that this game has met my expectations. The story isn’t anything special and is pretty run of the mill, but it doesn’t bring down the game at all. The characters keep me coming back to this game as they’re all very enjoyable. The battles, while still overall pretty easy are pretty fun to play.
So far, the story hasn’t necessarily done anything unique to sink me into it. The broad overview is that, for some reason, Hilda is bent on crystallizing the world. In order to stop this, Queen Anastasia has ordered her knights to find the Earth Witch, Fire Witch, Water Witch and Wind Witch. This is due to the fact that their powers combined can defeat Hilda. Along the way, they pick up Alto and his friend – just turned Witch, Lissette. All-in-all, the story is nothing amazing. But it’s not boring either. No real twists or any foreshadowing for later in the game. It just feels “standard” for lack of a better word. If anything, there was one interesting turn early on in the game that might have made the game a bit more grim or at least darker in terms of overall scale had that mood been kept throughout the game. But that was just an early chapter. Nothing more.
The characters that hold this story together aren’t necessarily the most unique or special, but they certainly have great qualities to them and mold together very well creating a fun cast. Look at Archibald for example. He’s the most serious of the knights and comes from a long line of honorable blacksmiths. However, during his bonding events, we find out he has an arranged marriage. Believe me when I say that while he’s one of the best in battle, him on a one-on-one conversation is absolutely horrible. I almost felt bad for the girl he had to meet. Constant stuttering, indecisiveness – it’s just a bad time for who has to date him. Naturally, you have someone in the exact opposite camp than him like Rusty, for example. He’s a real ladies man. Never too serious or one to want any responsibilities or deal with children really. He’s just incredibly laid back. So laid back that he’s actually the one who takes you to the tavern for the first time too despite not being old enough to drink. At the end of the day, he’s just a down to earth kind of guy. There are some other people in your party as well like Klaus and the other witches but those two just go with each other so perfectly, that it was immediately noticed.
The only thing so far that’s slightly disappointing are the battles. Don’t get me wrong, the game is very fun. I love SRPGs due of the depth and strategy they provide. This one however, is just straight forward and very simple. The only way to make it difficult is to try and beat each mission under the special conditions they give. Even then, it’s still pretty easy due to the use of songs. What makes Witches special is that they’re the only ones in the world that can sing and that transfers over to gameplay. When Popo sings for example, the opponent can’t attack for two turns. After the first turn of the song has passed, the opponents then have their defense lowered making the whole thing a huge game changer unless the opponent is the type to not be affected by status effects. Luckily, you can’t outright abuse these as they are pretty costly. This example in particular costs four PP. PP can be gained when you do damage to an opponent, you defeat an opponent, an opponent defeats you, and so on. So while battles aren’t necessarily the most balanced thing in the world and are very much in your favor, it’s nothing terrible or even bad. The only real complaint I have is that it’s just too easy.
For Imageepoch’s swan song, I’d say that they a pretty great job. How great? Well, if you want my full thoughts, wait until November 14th for the full review. But, if you couldn’t tell already, I enjoy this game a bit. While nothing in particular stands out on its own, it’s how it all comes together that makes this game worthwhile.
Thoughts on a Demo – Stella Glow
The demo of Stella Glow by Imageepoch has left me with some positive impressions. Granted, the demo only covers the prologue which, in itself, is only an hour or two long. However, it still provides an interesting set-up for things to come. The demo also provides 4 battles and a “tuning” section.
To summarize the prologue: there was (still is?) a God on the moon. People praised and worshiped this God and made it very happy. However, once Regnant Kingdom was founded, people stopped caring about the God. Due to this, the God sent his angels to kill the people who didn’t believe in him. In return a boy went to the God to calm him down. The boy’s plan ended up working and he was regarded a hero. This story is now regarded as a fairy-tale to children which brings us to today’s time. Alto (the main character in this game) goes out in the woods where he finds a witch named Hilda. There’s two things that tell us that she’s a witch not only can she use magic, but she can also sing. For some reason only witches can sing. Upon their meeting she tells him to leave the village he lives in. When he ignores her request, she uses magic to crystallize his entire village. Tragically, this crystallizes everyone in it with no apparent way to get them out of it. Hilda escapes as the Kingdom’s guards show up and demand that Alto and his sister, Lisette, come back with them without question because Lisette turned into a witch, herself, during the events of village’s destruction.
The combat of Stella Glow seems to be of standard SPRG fare. You have normal HP and SP bars, some characters have special abilities (Alto for example can counter some attacks), and the position you strike your opponent in determines accuracy of the move and even output damage. The overall presentation doesn’t seem to be too bad either. Character portraits look nice, the environments feel alive, and when you get into a battle you get a nice little cutscene of the exchange. If anything, sure it’s only the demo, but so far the gameplay seems to be on the simpler side with the story being the main draw. It’s far from boring, but I just need to see a lot more of it before I can really judge it.
Tuning in this game refers to the process in which one turns into a witch. In the case of the demo, Lisette didn’t feel at ease of her village being destroyed and once you reached her, you had to calm her down by making the right choice in conversations. I don’t know if failing them is possible or not, but if they’re all like they are in the demo, then there might not be anything to worry about. Of course I’m sure there’ll be some sort of obstacle in the way as you get more witches in your party (judging from the opening theme).
All-in-all, as long as the story doesn’t fall apart or the game remains too easy, this has the potential of a really good, if not marvelous, game. It would be highly unfortunate if Imageepoch’s final game would be remembered on a sour note. They weren’t the best of the developers, but they were far from terrible.
The Gaming Gamma 