Category Archives: Reviews
The Caligula Effect Overdose Heads to the West on PS4, Switch and PC in 2019
Today at Anime Expo, NISA has announced that they will be localizing The Caligula Effect Overdose for the PlayStation 4, and porting to to PC and the Nintendo Switch. For those of you who don’t know The Caligula Effect was released and published on the Vita last year by Atlus USA. The Overdose version is said to fix quite a few issues that plagued the original PS Vita release of this game, so this is definitely a game that should be on your radar as we learn more about the localization and the ports. The Caligula Effect Overdose will be releasing in 2019, be sure to stick around for any updates and news on this version of the game!
Sushi Striker the Way of Sushido Review
Developer: IndieZero
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Platform: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS
A Review Copy Was Provided by Nintendo
Indieszero, known for their work on the Theatrerhytm games, have brought us a brand new IP with an interesting concept. Sushi Striker is a puzzle action title, set in a world where Sushi was outlawed due to the dish causing wars and strife. The main campaign is a silly, shonen-like story that is incredibly entertaining if you just turn your brain off, and enjoy the humorous writing. This premise is way too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but it seems that way on purpose.
You’ll be in this mode a lot as the single player can range from ten to almost 25 hours. It has a lot of meat to it due to reasonably sized list of levels and missions. Though, trying to 100% the campaign became quite tedious as every level needed to be replayed at most three times to fully complete. Tedium aside, the core gameplay is addicting, fast, and very fun. After every mission, you will gain experience that go towards level ups to increase your HP, and attack strength.
The goal in Sushi Strikers gameplay is to stack as many plates of Sushi of the same color as possible, then letting go to pile up your total amount of plates. Then you will fling them at your opponents to cause them to take damage. Once the health bar depletes to zero, you win. You can toss them right away, or build up a stack, and increase your damage. Then there’s the Sushi Sprites which give the player abilities such as a shield and make your opponents lanes move faster.
The game quickly rewards on the fly thinking, as well as patience, and planning. This all applies to your opponent as well, and you’ll be competing to keep those combos up since there are seven sushi belts constantly moving. You and your opponent have three each and one shared. This gives the game a competitive edge for matches with two human players, leading to very fun times, or the loss of your best friend, whether it be locally on one screen, two screens, or online.
The game supports every control option the Switch has to offer, but the absolute best one is touch screen. Being in full control of your combo thanks to the added precision is a pure blessing. This game is perfect for handheld play as the art is much crisper on the Switch display, and overall much better suited for handheld play due to the casual pick up and play nature of puzzle games. Every control option still does the job very well, but in this case touching is good.
The weakest area of Sushi Striker is the overall presentation. The art direction just doesn’t do anything for me, as the faces on many characters are off-putting, and the designs are generally not memorable. At first glance, the title looks like a flash game, which is caused by the art style being too simplistic for its own good. The English voice acting is pretty underwhelming, with some actors giving poor delivery on various lines, but offering a better performance on other lines. The inconsistency was very distracting, and with no dual audio option this is very limiting to the player. The sound design issues don’t stop at acting, as the soundtrack is pretty underwhelming outside of that absurdly fun opening intro. The music is frantic, it fits the game, but it just never stuck around unfortunately.
Overall, Sushi Striker offers a fun frantic experience that shows that any silly premise can be made into something enjoyable. Underwhelming experience with the presentation aside, this game is so fun, it was almost completely surprising in of itself that it was this good. The price of entry is ten Dollars more than the 3DS version, but with no big differences between either the choice is entirely up to you. However, 50 USD is pretty steep for this title. Try the demo on the eshop, and go from there.
Disgaea 1 Complete Launches on Nintendo Switch and PS4 October 9th
Today NIS America has announced that Disgaea 1 Complete will be launching on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on October 9th in North America, and October 12th in Europe! Disgaea 1 Complete is a remaster of the original Disgaea to look as crisp as the more recent Disgaea games. Take a look at the latest trailer for the game here!
Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise Heading Westward October 2nd
It seems like last night’s Amazon leak was true. Today at E3 SEGA has announced that Hokuto Ga Gotoku will make its way westward under the name of Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise.
For the first time since the PlayStation 2, a Yakuza game will have an English dub. But fret not for those of you wanting to hear the Yakuza cast of characters voice certain roles, the game will still come complete with Japanese dub.
What you can find in the game:
- Become the Fist of the North Star – Explore an alternate version of the Fist of the North Star canon; take control of Kenshiro as he searches for his lost love Yuria in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. For anyone unfamiliar with the original story, Lost Paradise can be enjoyed as a completely standalone experience.
- “You Are Already Dead” or “Omae wa Mou Shindeiru?” Why Not Both? – Lost Paradise features English / Japanese dual-track audio, so you can ‘ATATATA!’ in the language of your choosing.
- Master the Hokuto Shinken Style – Kenshiro’s ultimate assassination techniques, the Hokuto Shinken, are at your disposal in battle. After building up the Seven Star gauge, you can demolish enemies from the inside out with dozens of brutal and iconic Hokuto Shinken techniques, faithfully recreated from the original manga. More lethal techniques will be available as you progress through the story and battles. Keep your fists up!
- Explore a Lost Paradise and the Wasteland Surrounding It – Even Kenshiro needs the occasional break from beating up thugs. Luckily, even in the dilapidated city of Eden, there’s no shortage of engaging side missions and minigames to take part in. Use the power of Hokuto Shinken to prepare drinks at a bar, manage a struggling nightclub, customize a buggy and race through the barren desert, play retro games at the arcade or your hideout, including the original Fist of the North Star game, and more! Tired of the city? Head out into the wasteland in your buggy to collect materials and complete side missions, but be careful of hidden dangers lurking beyond the dunes!
- Extra Carnage – Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise features everything available in the original Japanese version, plus extra carnage for the localized version! For the first time, witness the full effects of Kenshiro’s brutal Hokuto Shinken on the lowlifes and thugs of the post-apocalyptic wastes.
Expect more coverage on the game as the news breaks but we are excited to see this game is coming westward!
Attack on Titan 2 Review – Doubling Down on Titan Action
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platform: PlayStation 4*, PC (Steam), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: March 20th, 2018
MRSP: $59.99
*The PS4 Pro Version was used to review this game
Thank you, Koei Tecmo for providing a review copy!
Attack on Titan 2 is the sequel to the 2016 game adaptation of the popular anime series. In this iteration, Omega Force tries to provide a new perspective on the story by introducing an original character to play as instead of the original cast from the show. Does this new perspective change up the experience or are they just retreading old ground? Today, we dive in and take a look.
Story:
Attack on Titan 2 covers the first and second seasons of the popular anime, though it is mostly a rough retelling of the story from the first game. You play as an unnamed recruit who happens to be present at every major event. It’s a nice change of pace from the first game. However it ends up being very boring for having the choice of one character during the games main story mode. This is especially disappointing after experiencing the predecessor’s small but diverse character roster. Even if the characters in the first game mostly played the same, the dialogue and aesthetic differences made the experience at least a little refreshing. The added character adds a few weird inconsistencies and minor plot holes in the story. On top of this, the character is silent, and contributes nothing to the conversation in any major story scene. There are fun side conversations that involve you learning a bit more about your fellow comrades but most end up feeling like the same two to three jokes being told on a loop. The season 2 content is the main draw of the game for me. It did not have any prevalence in the original. Sadly, the extremely short length of the season two content compared to season one content only means that about 20 percent of the games story is “new” material. The fact that the series is currently ongoing, the ending is just as abrupt and underwhelming as the first game is.
Graphics:
In terms of the visual quality, this game is on the exact peg the first one stands on. Almost nothing has changed graphically, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The game’s menus have a nice aesthetic in tune with the world the characters live in and the motion blur was used surprisingly well. The character models are great and remained true to the show as one would hope. The particle effects are pleasant to look at and the performance is mostly stable with no major problems to report during my playthrough.
Audio/Music:
It would be extremely hard to replicate Hiroyuki Sawano’s iconic anime soundtrack for the game, but there was a pretty good attempt. None of the tracks stand out as fantastic by any means, but they aren’t bad either.” The various titan noises are just as creepy and sometimes hilarious as they are in the source material. Pleasantly enough, there are a surprising number of songs in the OST. It’s a very average soundtrack overall, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.
Gameplay:
There are a good number of improvements to the gameplay from the previous iteration. One of the original game’s strengths was its extremely fluid and satisfying combat which is back in full force. New additions in the game include: a skill system that allows you to spend free time with your squadmates and have them teach you new skills to equip your custom character; new equipment to attack titans with such as molotovs and attack buffs; and the tower system feature. The tower system is easily one of the best things they’ve added to the game. It allows you to build support buildings once you’ve cleared out an area on the map which can grant item bonuses at the end of a battle, an extra hand in clearing out titans, or buffing your entire team with defense/attack buffs. Out of battle you can upgrade them at your camp with a new currency called, “Wings of Freedom”, which you earn for performing well in battle. Unlike the original version, it actually rewards replaying through old levels for a better score.
Content:
The singleplayer and multiplayer components of this game are packed to the brim with content, though maybe not new content. While the singleplayer content is mostly a repackaging and lazy expansion pack on the original game, the multiplayer feature has a ton of missions you can play with friends, with a small but explorable camp. The roster is vastly improved over the first, with an upwards of 37 playable characters compared to the previously playable 10 characters. Though they weren’t in the game at launch, a few fun versus modes that allow you to play as a titan were added free of charge. The main game’s story will take you anywhere from 10-12 hours and the multiplayer can take upwards of another 10 hours depending on what difficulty you decide to tackle. There are a few post completion game modes but they’re mostly new game+ or just higher difficulty modifiers.
Overall:
Attack on Titan 2 is the very definition of “one step forward, two steps back”. While the gameplay is massively improved over the first and the soundtrack is mildly enjoyable, the awkward retelling of the first game’s story mode with the very little new content leaves a lot to be desired. The character roster is every fan’s dream, though you’re honestly better off just playing the first game which does them much more justice.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Review King of the Genre
Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Release Date: May 4th, 2018
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
MRSP: $59.99
Thank You Nintendo of America for Providing a Review Copy of this Game.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze launched on the Wii U back in 2014 as a follow up to the Wii classic Country Returns. At the time the Wii U was already swamped with a ton of 2D platformer games such as New Super Mario Bros and Rayman Legends, people at the time were just burnt out of the genre causing less than optimal sales. It was a shame because in my opinion, Tropical Freeze was a much better platformer than either of them. Fast forward to 2018 and Nintendo has re-released this classic for the Nintendo Switch, giving Nintendo fans another chance to try out this amazing gem.
Detective Pikachu Review Some Interesting Ideas
Developer:Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Release Date: March 23, 2018
MRSP: $39.99
The Pokemon series has had many different spin offs in the past, but honestly none of them have intrigued me as much as Detective Pikachu did. Detective Pikachu is Game Freak’s attempt of a much more narrative and puzzle focused game that can be best compared to Professor Layton or Ace Attorney. So the question that needs to be asked is this a good fit, or is this a mystery that is best left unsolved.
Persona 3 Dancing Moonlight and Persona 5 Dancing Starlight Come Westward in 2019.
This morning Atlus USA has announced two more games for their E3 line up, and those are Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5 Dancing Star Night. Both games are expected to launch on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in early 2019.
Calling all dancing queens, kings, androids, talking cat-like creatures, and everything in between! All are welcome to join their favorite characters on the dance floor in Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight when they’re released in the Americas and Europe early 2019 for the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita platforms. Fans of Persona 3, Persona 5 and newcomers alike are invited to Club Velvet for a magical dance party they won’t soon forget.
-PR
You can expect the following in this duo of games:
- Memorable Soundtrack – Return to the worlds of Persona 3 and Persona 5 and relive cherished memories with the games’ most memorable songs by Shoji Meguro, composed by Ryota Kozuka, as well as all-new remixes by ATOLS, Lotus Juice, ☆Taku Takahashi (m-flo / block.fm), Jazztronik, and more! Unlock a total of 25 fan-favorite tracks in each game.
- Dancing! – Choose from several difficulty levels and dance alongside the members of SEES and the legendary Phantom Thieves in a customizable rhythm game experience. Characters can tear up the dance floor with a partner by performing well during a song and entering “Fever” mode; try out some of your favorite character combinations!
- English and Japanese Voiceovers – Choose to listen to your favorite characters’ voices in either English or Japanese with dual audio options! English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish subtitles are also available.
- Social – In “Social,” players can connect with their favorite characters and deepen their social bonds through conversations and mini-events. Fulfill character-specific conditions to unlock special events and unlock new items.
- Collect Costumes – Collect and equip a variety of costumes and accessories to create an even flashier dance experience.
Currently there is no news on if Persona 4 Dancing All Night will be joining this duo of releases, but more information about DLC and other content will be revealed at a later date. In the meantime you can check out the announcement trailers for both of these games fully dubbed!
Nagoshi Confirms Yakuza 3-5 Remaster is for Western Fans, Yakuza 6 Sold an Estimated 800k Globally
In the early hours of the morning SEGA hosted one of their regular live stream events. In this event Toshihiro Nagoshi had a few bits of information to say in regards to the Yakuza series as a whole. In the stream he had confirmed that the purpose of the Yakuza 3-5 remasters were a way for western fans to play the complete series on one home console. This isn’t the first time that the western market influencsed their decisions, as it is believed that Yakuza Kiwami 2 was created for a western auidence in general. Nagoshi also went on to confirm that there will be no cut content in the remasters, and that fans can expect to play the game how it was orginally made. While no localization announcement has been made yet, this pretty much all but confirms that the west will be getting the Yakuza 3-5 remasters in a timely fashion.
Also when asked about the success of Yakuza 6 the Song of Life Nagoshi went onto say that when he last checked the sales were around 800,000 world wide. We are unaware if this includes both digital and physical, however it is amazing to see that Yakuza 6 is approaching one million!
With E3 around the corner, it wouldn’t surprise me if SEGA were to announce some news on the localization status of the remasters and other Yakuza related games. In the meantime, you should check out our review of Yakuza 6!
Valkyria Chronicles 4 Memoirs From Battle Edition Announced
This Morning SEGA has announced that Valkyria Chronicles 4 will be receiving a Premium Edition titled the “Memoirs from Battle” Edition.
The Memoirs From Battle Edition will run you about $99.99 and you can expect the following things in this edition:
- Exclusive Vinyl Statue of the “Hafen” Tank – Triumphantly bursting onto the scene, the “Hafen” tank vinyl statue is ready to conquer the snowy battlegrounds of Europa. More than just a tank, the “Hafen”, named after Claude’s hometown in Gallia, is a meaningful symbol for all of Squad E’s members. This version may not have the firepower of the original, but it makes a great centerpiece for any fan’s collection!
- “Claude’s Travel Journal” Exclusive 100-Page Themed Artbook –Valkyria Chronicles 4‘s story is told through the photos, notes, and memories captured in Claude’s travel journal. This exclusive artbook, inspired by Claude’s journal in-game, features a wide selection of the beautiful watercolor-styled art from Valkyria Chronicles 4.
- A Pair of DLC Adventures Featuring Squad 7 Characters – “A United Front with Squad 7” and “Edy’s Advance Ops” reunite fans of the original Valkyria Chronicles with the soldiers of Squad 7. Fight alongside Welkin, Alicia, Isara, Rosie, Largo, and Edy in over 3 hours of gameplay across 4 exclusive story missions, featuring fully-voiced cutscenes and unique challenges! After completing these missions, you’ll unlock those six Squad 7 members, as well as Edy’s personal submachine gun for use in your army in the main game. Bolster your forces with the renowned soldiers of Squad 7!
Valkyria Chronicles 4 will be launching on the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One this Fall. Be sure to stick around for future coverage of this game including a review!
The Gaming Gamma 