So we have 6 multiplatform releases, 1 Xbox 360 release, 1 PS3 release, 2 3DS releases, 1 Wii release and 2 PC releases.
Read on and see if you’re picking anything up!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Brink 05/10 (PS3, 360, PC)
A slightly interesting-looking FPS. You have sort of Mirror’s Edge-like platforming available here, though it’s not the focus of the game, and, from what I’ve seen, on-the-fly class change, though I’m not completely sure about that (it’s been a while since I looked up info about it…). It looks okay, but I’m not keeping my hopes up (me getting excited for an FPS, other than very rare occasions like Bulletsotrm and Borderlands, generally leads to disappointment).
L.A. Noire 05/17 (PS3, 360)
I haven’t seen any gameplay for this. Why? Because ALL I’ve ever heard about this game is “we have really good motion capture for facial expressions!”…. So that means the game probably won’t be any good since they put so much value on something as meaningless as “good facial expressions”. Any game that banks on something so utterly pointless is not going to be really good. I might rent it if I hear good things about it, but I doubt it’s going to impress.
DiRT 3 05/24 (PS3, 360, PC)
DiRT 2 was meh. Not getting high expectations for this one.
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II 05/31 (3DS, PSP)
(what a busy boxart >_<)
Huh, a portable-only multiplatform, this doesn’t happen much. BlazBlue is fun, and playing a bit of SSFIV on the 3DS showed me that fighting games can work fine on it despite the strange D-pad… so this should be good.
Xbox 360
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury 05/04
I quite like the first Bangai-O on Dreamcast. Very fun shmup-ish game with unique gameplay. So this should be a really good game… hopefully they’re gonna announce a PS3 release… but I doubt it…
3DS RELEASES
Nintendo 3DS eShop update SOME TIME IN MAY
Very little is known about this yet. We know it’s coming some time in May, it’s going to add browser support, the ability to remove things from the 3DS storage (like that fucking Ok Go video), a Virtual Console (I heard Super Mario Land and Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX might be launch titles for this, but I’m not sure if that’s confirmed), DSiWare, maybe some 3D classics, probably system transfer to get your DSiWare from your DSi and 3DSware which will include Megaman Legends 3 Prototype. There might be more, there might be less, no one knows other than Nintendo. And there’s a chance of a free game or something at launch (Japanese 3DS are getting a 3D version of Excitebike).
The pricing scheme is currently unknown, and basically everything about the update is mostly speculation at the moment. But it’s coming, and will be something interesting.
Dream Trigger 3D 05/10
It looks like… a shmup-like game? The gameplay I’ve seen looked really weird. It certainly looks like a trippy game.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions 05/24
(lol censored boxart)
I don’t like DoA. The fighting system in the DoA games have never really been interesting to me. This does look like it’s gonna be good, but I’m not interested.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
MotorStorm: Apocalypse 05/03
Wasn’t that supposed to come out last year? Anyways… Yeah, not much to say about that one. The only Motorstorm game I played was the PSP version, which was terrible, and the demo for the first game on PS3, which I don’t recall actually being good… So my expectations for this one aren’t terribly high.
WII RELEASES
MDK 2 05/09
An older TPS (I think I actually have a pc cd-rom with that game on it somewhere…) getting a Wiiware release. I don’t actually recall playing this game back in 2000 when it came out on PC, but I remember it being fairly popular. I have no idea if the Wii port is adding anything, but it is interesting to see an old-ish PC shooter getting a new release.
PC RELEASES
Section 8: Prejudice 05/04
(Apparently this was coming out in April on the 360… never knew about that…) The first Section 8 was sort of interesting, with the ability to build stuff and having those fully customizable loadouts including character stats… Maybe this will improve on some of the wonky gameplay of the first (shooting and using melee attacks never really felt right to me in the first game).
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 05/17
Not really sure what this one is about. I wanted to pick up the first a few times but never did. So I have nothing to say here! (this MIGHT be multiplatform, but I’ve only found dates for a European release (the same date as the PC version) on PS3 and 360… so I dunno, I’ll update if I find out more)
Might and Magic Heroes VI 05/17
(I’ll add a boxart soon, just wait a sec)
I love the heroes of Might and Magic series… Particularly the third game. I haven’t seen anything about this one though, but I will probably check it out.
There’s 3 multi-platform games, 2 PS3 games, 1 Wii game and 2 PSP games.
There might be a DS release (that duke nukem game that shows up on every release list for every month but never ends up coming…. and wasn’t it renamed? Whatever), but I’m not holding off for it, so I might as well not list it. Surprisingly, there’s not a single game coming on the 3DS in April… not even shovelware (well some sites have 2 shovelware games in april, but others have the same games in May, so it’s impossible to know/care). Strange.
Read on and see what’s coming!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Michael Jackson The Experience 04/12 (PS3, Xbox 360)
A Michael Jackson rhythm game. I haven’t seen anything about this, despite a Wii version already being out for it… Not expecting greatness, but at least the music will be good.
Portal 2 04/19 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
That seems pretty interesting. There are some new gameplay elements, so it should feel like a fresh enough experience from the first game… Hopefully. And there’s co-op this time, which could be interesting.
Mortal Kombat 04/19 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Terrible. Or at least that’s the conclusion I came to after playing the demo. It’s supposed to be the big revival of the series, but it’s actually WORSE than Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The only advantage it has on it is that it’s more violent. Well whoopity-fucking-doo, the gameplay is still stiff and just not intuitive whatsoever, and it still uses the prehistoric idea of having a button to block. Heck, the gameplay was actually better in MKvsDCU. This is pathetic. All it has over other modern fighting games is that there’s a lot of content… which doesn’t mean much when the basic gameplay isn’t any good.
PC releases
Darkspore 03/29
I had the opportunity to play the beta of this game… sadly it didn’t work on my computer (the game froze during the logos). So I’m waiting for the final version, hoping it works. It’s a highly customizable Diablo-style RPG, with what seem like instance dungeons, and you can change characters on-the-fly. This looks really good, I can’t wait to try it out.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD 04/19
Classic Trilogy? Are Ubisoft forgetting that there were PoP games well before the ones on PS2/Gamecube/Xbox? Are they even old enough to be considered “classics”? Anyways, this includes all 3 PoP games from the last generation, all of which are much better than the terrible reboot that came out on current-gen consoles. It’s probably possible to get them all on PS2/Gamecube/Xbox for less than it will cost on the PS3, but it’s still an interesting collection.
SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs 04/19
Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, and I did hear that it was simplified compared to previous entries of the series. I have no idea really.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES
Patapon 3 04/12
I didn’t enjoy the previous 2 games in the series much… But other people did, and this should be enjoyable for previous fans of the series.
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection 04/19
That’s very interesting to me, what with FF4 being my favorite in the series. It includes a remake of the original game with fully updated graphics (not sure if it has the extra content from the GBA version though), an Interlude story which bridges the story between the original and After Years (apparently it’s 15 hours long, which is nice), and of course it also includes After Years with all additional chapters. This seems like a really awesome package. I’m quite interested.
WII RELEASES
Conduit 2 04/19
The first Conduit sucked. As such, I didn’t keep up with any information about the sequel, but I’m not expecting it to be any good, just like the first one. I might give it a rental to see if I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.
So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.
Read on!
3DS LAUNCH!
March 27th 2011
Ah yes, the 3DS by Nintendo is finally coming out. Dave, who played it at E3 last year, was quite impressed with it, and, well, let’s face it, it’s a Nintendo handheld so it’s 100% sure to be a great handheld system (call me a fanboy if you want, you still know it’s the thruth… and no, the Virtual Boy is NOT a handheld system), and it’s 100% sure it’s gonna sell well (heck, it’s already sold out in Japan, selling almost half a million in a day). It features an analog stick, multi-touch touch screen, motion-control, multiple cameras that can take 3D pictures and of course a 3D screen that doesn’t require glasses (which is awesome) that can have the 3D effect de-activated if you don’t want it/can’t see it. The launch price is 250$, which is fair. The launch is a bit on the weak side, and there’s no dates for the currently announced “big” games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Paper Mario, KID FUCKING ICARUS), but what does it matter, the system’s lineup will end up being great sooner or later.
Launch Titles
Pilotwings Resort
Steel Diver (I haven’t seen much about this, and what I did see didn’t look terribly interesting, but people are excited about it)
Nintendogs + Cats
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (will be worth getting if you don’t have the console versions… looks very impressive graphically)
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (this actually looks quite interesting)
The Sims 3
Madden NFL Football
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Ridge Racer 3D
Super Monkey Ball 3D
Bust-A-Move Universe (Probably won’t be worth getting if you have another version of bust-a-move)
Asphalt 3D
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
Rayman 3D (didn’t this come out on the normal DS? yeah, it did, the only apparent difference is the 3D effect)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (It’s a turn-based strategy game)
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Fight Night Champion 03/01 (PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the demo for this. It sucked. I loved FNR3, and then realized that it sucked in comparison to FNR4, which was REALLY well done and ended up being very underrated. This, on the other hand, seems to use a similar graphical style to FNR4, but the camera angles are dynamic and completely changed, making the gameplay harder to get a hang of since you can barely see what you’re doing, and the actual fighting is very downgraded from FNR4, with half the punches you could do being removed, and less control over where you can hit, and NO control over where you block. I might rent it, but the demo left me REALLY unimpressed.
Beyond Good & Evil HD 03/02 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Oh, I didn’t know this was coming out. I actually don’t know much about this game, I never ended up playing it last generation despite having many chances of buying it, and people constantly telling me how good it was. So yeah, this could be a chance for me to finally check it out.
Dragon Age II 03/08 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the first Dragon Age. It was incredibly boring to me, and I lost interest after about an hour. The fighting system was dull and I had no interest in the story and characters. But I know that other people loved it. Though, from what I’ve heard, this is a downgrade from the first game.
Homefront 03/15 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Crappy brown military first-person shooter, nothing to see here…. OH, but, if you pre-order it with OnLive, you can get the Onlive Console, as well as that piece of shit Metro 2033, both for free. That’s pretty interesting at least.
Crysis 2 03/22 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The first Crysis was basically a standard brown military FPS, but the Nanosuit added some variety and fun features. This seems like more of the same. It has an advanced graphics engine, but from what I’ve seen it’s no different from the first game gameplay-wise.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 03/22 (Everything)
It’s a LEGO game. Yet again based on the Star Wars series. It’s probably gonna be a fun and popular game, the LEGO games are rarely really bad.
Dynasty Warriors 7 03/22 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Dynasty Warriors! There’s hundreds of enemies, and you have to button-mash to kill them all! Those games are generally fun to play, despite the simple fighting system. Killing tons of enemies is very satisfying. So yeah, this should be good enough.
Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot (03/29 for the PS3, 03/30 for the 360)
Oh, that’s really interesting. Rush ‘N Attack, also named Green Beret in its original arcade release, was a very simple but very fun side-scrolling… hum… platformer? Brawler? Either way, your main attack was a fast stab with a knife that killed almost anything in one hit, and each enemy type had a different method to fight them, like different timing for jumping before stabbing and such. You also got different weapons which have limited ammo. It got pretty tough. This looks a bit different from the original, and graphically it has similarities to Shadow Complex. This is hopefully going to be awesome.
Shift 2 Unleashed: Need for Speed 03/29 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
The first NFS Shift was surprisingly good. It wasn’t as deep and well-made as the big simulation racers such as Forza and Gran Turismo, but it was still very fun. So this should be good.
Space Channel 5 Part 2 03/31 (PS3, Xbox 360 (maybe))
I put this in the multiplatform section because, while the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have an official release date, it should be coming either at that date, or close. Anyways… the original SC5 was a fun rhythm game with a very fun and simple gameplay and a cool presentation, so this should be just as good. Never played it though, so I’m interested.
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Pokemon Black and White versions 03/06
Pokemon is always awesome. Great simple RPGs all the way through. This is probably gonna be great. Not much more to say here really. This one features a completely new set of pokemon, so that means the caves won’t just be populated by Geodudes an Zubats. EVOLUTION!
Atari’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 03/08
A big compilation of badass Atari 2600 games. There’s a lot of really awesome games in there like Yars’ Revenge, Millipede, Star Raiders, Demons to Diamonds, Warlords and various others.
Okamiden 03/15
A “cute” version of Okami. It seems to have a lot of similarities to its PS2/Wii grand-daddy, with some top-down puzzle segments. It should be really good, I have high hopes for this.
Monster Tale 03/22
Oh look, a game made by a completely new developer that no one has ever heard about, gotta have at least one of those every month… Well I think this looks really interesting. You have a sidescrolling action-platformer on the top screen, and the bottom screen seems to be where (I think) you train a monster using the touch screen to make it fight its own battles and such, and, from what I’ve seen, you can summon the monster to the top screen so he can provide support. I think it looks good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel 03/15
I was never a big fan of the Ar tonelico series. They somehow never had the same fun feel as the Atelier/Mana Khemia games which these are pretty similar to. Apparently this is going to be the final game in the series, so fans of the series should check it out. I’m not too interested though.
Yazuka 4 03/15
I have yet to play a Yakuza game, but Dave was a big fan. This should be pretty fun.
PlayStation Move Heroes 03/22
Sly, Ratchet, Jax, Daxter, Clank and a few more team up in this multiplayer 3D platforming action game. Obviously it makes use of the Move controller and it’s required to play this. Could be interesting. Maybe Dave will check it out?
PC RELEASES
Shogun 2: Total War 03/15
The original Shogun: Total War was a fun Strategy game. I was terrible at it when I was younger since it’s sort of complicated, but I still enjoyed it. This should be pretty cool as well.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle 03/08
Phantom Brave was an amazingly fun Strategy RPG on the Playstation 2 by Nippon Ichi. The story and characters were fun, the fighting mechanics were actually pretty unique to the SRPG genre, and it has the usual grinding present in Nippon Ichi games.
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy 03/22
The first Dissidia was a really fun and unique fighting game with fast-paced fighting and a nice cast of fun characters to use, each with their own play style. From what I’ve seen the gameplay here is nearly identical to the original, but it adds more characters and probably balances some things out, and it adds a few new elements like assists. I’ll get it eventually.
The 3rd Birthday 03/29
Oh, a new Parasite Eve! Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, but this looks not too bad. It seems more action-oriented than the other PE games, but it should be interesting to play.
*EDIT* Dave tells me that fans of the series who played the japanese version have been highly disappointed in the game. So you might want to not keep your hopes up too high.
Let’s Bet!
Let’s Bet is a new feature where we’ll speculate on future events and see who gets as close to the truth as possible in the form of a contest. From time to time, it’ll only be for fun, but other times we’ll put something in play. This is all for fun’s sake and nothing more.
Specific rules are set for each contest and everyone is welcome to try their shot at it from the comments. And if you beat us to it? I guarantee we’ll have a prize for you!
To participate: Post in the comments or send us a tweet @thesavepoints using the tag #NGPbet.
After years of speculations, Sony revealed yesterday in Japan its official successor to the PSP, the NGP (Next Generation Portable). Now it’s obviously an expensive piece of technology that’s going to cost a fortune to Sony to manufacture. Just the front screen seems to be worth $200+ alone (5 inch OLED capacitive Touchscreen, 16 million colors, 960 × 544 pixels).
Will we have to leave saving our beloved one for another day to buy it? Will we have to sell our clothes? Will Sony get rich over the NGP?
Will it compete with the Nintendo 3DS or will it aim for the iPad/Iphone/Android market?
So let’s play a variation of price is right on this one.
How much do you think each of the Next Generation Portable SKUs will cost?
Since there’s speculations on two different units, one supporting 3G and the other one without 3G, let’s speculate on both prices.
Important: Missing one of the two prices will be taken as speculating the cheaper one will cost $0.
To determine who is the winner, we’ll add up the difference between the guessed price of both SKUs (w/3G, w/o 3G) and whoever has the smallest number wins.
We’re testing waters with this one, so the prize will be on me. (And if I win, no one gets anything!)
Prize for this contest: $30 certificate at the Amazon Online store of your choice (.com, .ca, .uk, etc.)
Note: Entry will end as soon as we’re aware that Sony will announce the price, or whenever they do announce it.
Tie-breaker: We’ll find a way to settle tie-breakers shortly.
Edit: Tie-breakers will go to the earlier entry if it’s out of the staff. If it’s in staff, I’ll split it up. If it’s staff and public, I’ll give it to the earliest public entry and give something too to the winning staff member.
We’re expecting a price announced during the Sony E3 conference (man I wish I could be there again this year, it was pretty cool being there last year), so entries will be taken until June 4 11:59 PM. If that’s not the case, we’ll review the date.
See what bets have been made so far after the jump.
Our Bets:
David:
NGP without 3G: $379,99
NGP with 3G: $449,99
Jobocan:
NGP without 3G: $400
NGP with 3G: $450
Victor:
NGP without 3G: $300
NGP with 3G: $350
Mitsuki:
NGP without 3G: $350
NGP with 3G: $400
Wintrale:
NGP without 3G: $499
NGP with 3G: $549
Josh:
NGP without 3G: $449
NGP with 3G: $549
]]>So this is just a quick look back at the awards as a whole, with a list of all the posts.
Best PSP Games
Best DS Games
Best Downloadable Games
Best Multi-Platform Games
Best Wii Exclusives
Best PS3 Exclusives
Best Xbox 360 Exclusives
Biggest Surprises
Biggest Disappointments
Games of the Year
Well it’s time to start up this year’s Games of the Year awards! We have, I think, 3 less categories than last year (that were honestly pointless anyways), so it’s going to be a bit quicker.
We’re gonna start our awards this year with what is basically the underdog every year. The support of the PSP is fairly low, so finding enough winners for it is never really that hard… unless less than 4 good games came out for it in the year, but thankfully that was not the case here, there were actually a few other possible winners.
Keep in mind we can only play/buy a limited amount of games every year (since we don’t make money off this site), so we haven’t played EVERY new PSP game. And a few games, some that might have been your favorites, were omitted from the list for various reasons. If you wonder about a certain game, just ask about why it’s not there, we’ll be happy to reply (no trolling).
So without further ado, let’s go at it and start this thing! Here are our winners for best PSP games of the year!
Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS. Darkdeath Evilman
Z.H.P is really badass. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s by far the best thing Nippon Ichi Software has made since Disgaea. It’s a really fun rogue-like, it has a good amount of content, there’s some really good customization, it’s really funny… Â Definitely a great game.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, considered to be MGS5 by fans, is the true successor to Guns of the Patriots. Covering the genesis of the entire series, players are put into the boots of Big Boss himself as he seeks to create a nation of mercenaries. With some of the best visuals and gameplay seen on the PSP, Peace Walker is a game that’s hard to distinguish from its console big brothers. (thank you Wintrale for the text)
Persona 3 Portable
Persona 3 Portable is the second remake of the much loved Persona 3, which was widely considered to be one of the best RPGs on the PS2. While it lacks the shine of the FES Edition remake, P3P is still a very well done remake, this time with a better battle system than both previous version, more playable characters, simpler navigation outside of Tartarus, cameos from Persona 4 and Catherine… Overall a great remake of an already great game. (thank you Wintrale for the text again)
What Did I Do To Deserve This! 2 AND No Heroes Allowed!
Yes, 2 games as one winner. Why? Well, basically, both games are really similar, and it’s not really possible to choose one winner out of the 2. The original What Did I Do To Deserve This! game was very simple (albeit deceptively complex), but it only had 2 levels (one of which was unlockable). The sequel adds a bunch more levels, each progressively harder, and it added a few very interesting gameplay elements, like evolving monsters. No Heroes Allowed! continues the same way. It adds water and IQ as new gameplay elements, more pickaxes with different powers and more levels again, as well as a “daily” challenge mode. Both great games, both much better than the really good original, neither being really better than the other. So I’m combining them into one winner!
Here are the categories (fairly straightforward):
Best PSP Games
Best DS Games
Best Downloadable Games
Best Multi-Platform Games
Best Wii Exclusives
Best Xbox 360 Exclusives
Best PS3 Exclusives
Biggest Surprises of the year
Biggest Disappointments of the year
Games of the Year
Each category will have 4 winners (I wanted to do 5 winners per category, like we did last year, but turns out that very few of the categories had enough worthy nominees, so we went with 4 instead). The final post will be the Games of the Year post, which will have 3 winners instead of 4.
People might wonder why we don’t only go with one winner… And that’s fairly simple: it adds more variety and gives a good view of a lot of the really good games in all the categories. It’s not like there’s actually a “best game” in any of the categories, so showcasing a lot of the good ones seems like a fine alternative.
Oh, and, when I say “Exclusives”, that’s exactly what I mean: games that ONLY came out for that system. Therefore, games that came out for PC in addition to the 360 are NOT 360 exclusives (I shouldn’t have to explain this… Â but I might as well since people apparently don’t grasp the concept of exclusivity).
So yeah, look forward to our 2010 Games of the Year winners in the following few days, with a post every day or two until we’re done with all the categories. Cheers!
]]>Nippon Ichi Software in Japan and NIS America have been pretty active on the PSP this year, with 2 “What Did I Do To Deserve This?” games, Cladun, Disgaea Infinite, and, in Japan, Prinny 2, Criminal Girls, a PSP port of the awesome Phantom Brave, and I’m probably forgetting something. But the most interesting release by NIS and NIS America this year is, without a doubt, “Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman”.
The moment I saw the trailer for this game (well, the japanese version of the trailer really, but the english one really hyped me up), I knew I had to pick it up. Not only is the title one of the most awesome I’ve ever seen, the actual gameplay and potential depth of the game made it really interesting.
Read on and see if it’s as awesome as the trailer makes it look!
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Date of Release: October 26th 2010
Platforms: Playstation Portable
Genre: Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler RPG
Rated T for Teen
What is good about this game
Presentation
The graphics have a very NIS style to them. I you’ve played Disgaea/La Pucelle Tactics, you should have a pretty good idea of what it looks like. I’d say it’s a bit more colorful, but just around the same style. The dungeons also feature 3D graphics in the same style as Disgaea. So this is definitely not a big departure from previous NIS games. If you like the look of previous NIS games, this should be right up your alley. I personally really like it. The character design is fun (Darkdeath Evilman looks especially cool), the monsters look fine, and the different areas, while not overwhelmingly well done, do the job well enough.
On the audio side of thing, it’s not too bad either. Just a quick mention on the music(more about that later), it’s all very fun and well done, usually very fitting of the situation, but most of it is very “heroic” in style. The sound effects are also quite good. The voice work kinda varies. For the most part it’s very solid: Pirohiko and Etranger are the characters you’ll hear the most, and, for the most part, they sound good. Most side-characters are also very well voiced, but there are distinct times where the voicing sounds stiff and lacks emotion. It’s not too often though, and most of the time it’s not TOO noticeable.
Base gameplay
It’s actually fairly simple, but quite fun. As per most Rogue-like games, you control one character, and move them through a grid. Each movement takes one turn, in which any monster in the  map can move as well. Each attack also takes one turn. You can use special attacks, which require casting the attack (which “stores” it) taking one turn, and later “activating” it, choosing your target within the special attack’s range. As you walk around and beat enemies up, you will find items lying on the ground, or find them as drops from killing enemies: some that can be equipped, some that can be thrown to damage/give status ailments to enemies, and money. You also gain experience points from beating enemies, which level you up.
Walking and attacking leads to your character losing EN. This can be made slower or be completely stopped by using the proper equipment/skills. When your EN goes down to 0, you lose 1 HP per turn, and it can kill you. To recover EN, you can eat meat and certain equipments. There’s certain equipments/skills that enable you to eat different things that wouldn’t usually be edible. Also, attacking/getting hit will weaken your equipment. To the point of barely giving any stat boosts at all if they’re at 0% of durability, and removing whatever special effect the equipment gave.
As you progress through a dungeon, you unlock “Unlosing Mode” (when your meter next to the HP is full), which enables you to boost any stat, to varying usefulness. For example, Unlosing SPD enables you to do a ton of moves/attacks without anything else in the map being able to do anything. Another weird feature is the Barriers…. which I don’t really understand, and it’s largely reliant on a piece of equipment I never use, so I never got around to figuring out if it was useful at all.
It’s really quite simplistic most of the time, but it works, and it’s definitely fun if you enjoy this type of game.
Dungeons and boss battles
The dungeons and boss battles are actually quite interesting. Most dungeons have some kind of gimmick: having to use hookshots to get to other rooms, flying with a balloon to reach higher plaforms, disappearing rooms, collapsing rooms, and various other things, there’s some good variety here. How you travel through one dungeon will be completely different from how you travel through every other dungeon. It’s predictable for this genre, but the dungeons are randomly generated, so going through a dungeon more than once doesn’t mean you’ll be going through the same thing every time. Randomly generated also means random invisible traps (all of which you can be rendered immune to).
The boss battles are fairly similar. Rather than just being “bash on the boss until it dies” all the time, each boss has a gimmick. Sometime there’s a hint, sometimes it’s obvious, and other times you’ll never figure it out unless you ask online. One has you redirecting lasers, another has you thrown bombs… the boss fights can be quite interesting, and each are very different. Good stuff here.
Story
I actually quite like the story. It’s definitely very humorous, but it’s not without its strengths. Demon General Darkdeath Evilman(most awesome name for a vilain ever)Â has kidnapped Super Baby (a baby who is supposed to save the world according to prophecy), and threatens to destroy the world. The Unlosing Ranger wakes up late and rushes to the scene, but, on the way, he gets hit by a car and dies, but not without giving his morphing belt to a random bystander (you), who must go save the world in his place. Since he’s a newbie, the new Unlosing Ranger fails and almost dies, but is saved by the WHS (World Hero Society), who transports him to their base on Bizarro Earth, an alternate version of Earth where all the inhabitants are actually alternate versions of people on Normal Earth. You do your training there, going through dungeons in hopes of getting strong enough to fight the final boss.
One thing I like of the story is the concept of Bizarro Earth. Each chapter gives you one “target”. You find the person’s “equivalent” on Bizarro Earth, and help them solve their personal issues, which mirror the issues that the Earthling has, which in turn affects the person on Normal Earth. I actually find that this is a very nice plot device to move the story and character development forward.
As for the humour… well, before even actually playing the game at all, I was laughing at every other line of dialogue, it’s really well-written. There’s jokes thrown around everywhere, no matter the situation, and also references if you can catch them. Heck, the game starts by warning you that “there is only one battle in this game, but it is very epic” (or something to that effect), which is very funny, and actually true (the rest is training to continue that one battle). If you’re in for the laughs, there’s some to be had here.
Depth
Each time you start a dungeon, you’re level 1. As you progress through the dungeon, you level up and get stronger. When you either die or complete the dungeon, all the levels you accumulated go into your total level, and, when you total level gets high enough, you get stat boosts to your base stats. So, despite being level 1 at the start of every dungeon, you can be a stronger level 1 character than before. But that’s not anywhere near where the depth of the game starts. And total levels aren’t the biggest thing here, as the game sort of gives out levels like crazy, and there ARE exploits so you can powerlevel.
After a few missions, you get access to the Shadowgram, a big grid where you can implant items (which turn into chips) into the main character’s body, which raise your stats. But that’s not enough. As you level up, you will be able to unlock more spaces in the grid, leading to more leveling up. In addition to chips, you can place big, strangely shaped “boosters” in the shadowgram, which will increase certain things: capsules let you “save” items in your inventory when you’re in a dungeon (keeping them if you die), containers let you carry more stuff, and others will increase the power of certain equipment types (and more can be found in mastery dungeons). And then, in the shadowgram, you have spaces that have “hero energy source”, which can direct streams of energy to boosters, which will make them stronger depending on how long the energy stream is and such. There’s a lot of depth in just the shadowgram.
You can also make equipment itself stronger. I haven’t experimented with that a lot yet, but you can use items to synthesize various equipments together, which will make them stronger. And you can also take passive bonuses on other equipments and implement them on the equipment you want. In addition to synthesis, equipment also comes in different ranks, so 2 longswords can have different strength depending on how high-ranked they are. But one very interesting thing I never noticed until it was pointed out to me: your equipment not only affects your look, stats and various passive bonuses, but it also changes the background music depending on the type of equipment you have. That’s pretty crazy.
In addition to all that, you can also customize the WHS base. You can put various types of facilities to your liking (house to store stuff, hospital to use the shadowgram, blacksmith to repair equipment, caravan to meet you in the dungeons to give you limited access to facilities and sell you stuff, and much more). Most facilities have a one-use power you can do in the middle of a dungeon (getting food from your wife in the house, getting one repair from the blacksmith, etc). In addition to deciding which facilities you want, you can set the employees you want to whichever role you want in each facility. You can get more employees from the Mastery Dungeons, each with its strengths and weaknesses (making them better for certain jobs), as well as more or less base stats (useful for when you meet with a caravan in the dungeon, the stronger they are the least likely they are to die on the way).
I’m most definitely forgetting something here, as I have yet to experience everything here, but there is clearly a lot of depth in the game. And it definitely becomes a grindfest. If you’re in for that, you’re gonna love it.
Dying isn’t a good thing
While dying isn’t THAT bad, since you get the levels you have added to your total levels AND you get a phobia, which in turn gives you more EXP if you kill enemies of that particular phobia, it’s still punished in the game. First and foremost, you lose all your unsaved items/unstored items, including your equipment, and are left only with an Unlosing Cape. That can be fairly annoying, especially if you’ve been going through a dungeon and getting good stuff on the way. Also, you lose all your money. So while there are benefits to dying, the bad stuff that happens balances it out.
Post-game content
The game takes around 22 hours to complete the first time (at least for me, I was total level 979 at the time). But there’s still much to do after finishing the main game.
The game has multiple endings. Somewhere around 18 different endings. On your first playthrough, you get the “Normal Ending”, which is entertaining, but, when you restart, you can get a variety of endings if you can manage to beat Darkdeath Evilman earlier than the final chapter, and certain chapters have alternate endings as well. Not exactly post-game content, but there’s a lot of content that I’d rather do post-game: hunting for powerful equipment, finishing mastery dungeons, finding the Dengeki dungeons to find various anime characters (from: Ore no Imouto, Inukami, Durarara!!, Bacanno!, Dokuro-chan, Kino’s Journey, Toradora, Shakugan no Shana, Spice and Wolf, and a few more), which gives you costumes which apparently affect your stats, and of course your look.
There’s definitely a lot to do after you’re done with the main quest.
Anything negative about the game?
Not really… Though there are some parts that annoyed me. It’s really minor things.
The story might be really entertaining and wacky, but it does try to convey a message. But that’s not a big problem. It can be about the environment, or about bad parenting, or about bullying and various other things… and it’s SO ANNOYING. The problem is that they’re not subtle about it. They shove it in your face and the conversations here are just obnoxious and they don’t stop. WE GET IT, bullying is bad. No need to keep talking about it.
Minor thing: when you pick up items, or if an enemy spots you in a dungeon, Pirohiko (the previous Unlosing Ranger) and Etranger comment on it, and there’s this big sprite that comes on the screen, blocking most of the mini-map and part of the place you walk on. Really annoying.
It has minor glitches. The most noticeable one, that I did experience once, is that if you’re in a dungeon and put your system in sleep mode at the wrong time, it can take away some levels away and remove all your items.
Another minor problem to me is that you have to replay the whole game every time you go for a different ending, which could end up being pretty annoying. At least you can skip cutscenes/dialogues.
Oh, and, having played both versions of the game, the UMD version has noticeably longer loading times.
…Yeah, that’s about it. Some other people might not like certain elements that I do like, Rogue-likes aren’t that popular, partly since most of them aren’t anywhere near as good as ZHP, or they might find but, to me, this is a very fun game.
Overall
Z.H.P. is a very fun game. There’s lots to do, the story is fun, the characters are fun, the dialogue is funny, the jokes are quite funny and the game can last quite a long time.
While there are some annoying things, as mentionned above, there’s really not much BAD about the game. The character and gameplay as a whole is very customizable, and everyone can play the game in a different manner.
NIS got another masterpiece on their hands, no doubt about it.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Deep leveling systems
- Fun gameplay
- Really good story
- Funny
Cons
- A few minor problems (described above, not big enough problems to have separate cons for each of them really)
The Save Factor
The game costs 30$, may it be the PSN or UMD version, and it’s definitely worth it.
When this was announced earlier this year, it was kinda overshadowed by the announcement of the upcoming ZHP game by NIS, since both games were announced at the same time and the trailer for ZHP was just so much more awesome. But it still looked fairly interesting, with its semi-8-bit/16-bit graphics and 8-bit music.
The game was called Classic Dungeon in japan, which I think is a better name… At least the title tells you it’s an RPG.
So let’s go right away and see if NIS has made another masterpiece!
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Date of Release: September 21st 2010
Platforms: PSP
Genre: Action-RPG
Rated E10+ for Everyone over 10 years old
Presentation
The character sprites are pretty much 8-bit-looking. What’s interesting here is that you can actually edit your character sprites, pixel-by-pixel… for their heads at least. It can be pretty fun to play around with that, though I’m not much of an artist so I just went with pre-made faces. The 8-bit-like sprites have a cool cartoony style, but with no black lines surrounding the sprites which gives a unique style. The rest of the graphics are very much 16-bit style. The environments are a bit repetitive, but the enemy sprites look very nice and detailed. There’s a good amount of color swapped enemies though, you quickly realize that there’s not a HUGE amount of enemy types, and their color generally just shows what element they are. The game still looks nice, but a bit more variety would have been nice.
On the music side of things, there’s something for everyone here. If you’re a retro gamer, you can choose to have 8-bit music which sounds very nice, but, if you prefer real instruments, you can have that as well. The real instrument music is sort of lame though, just doesn’t have the energy of the 8-bit version and the composition is slower. The sound effects are classic too. There’s no voice acting but it’s not really needed in a game like this.
There’s not much story-wise. You meet various characters with different personalities, all going to this weird world for their own reasons, may it be treasure, or just to find friends. After going through certain dungeons, you get small cutscenes with some character interaction, but it’s still very barebones story-wise.
Gameplay
Fighting/Dungeon Crawling
The fighting is fairly simple. X does a basic attack. 3 times in a row does combo attacks. Pressing square makes you hold up your shield which increases your defense (depending on what shield you have equipped). Holding R lets you run, which obviously makes you go faster, but also halves your defense (and you can slide if you press square while running, which can be useful at times). Circle lets you jump, and you jump further if you’re running. Triangle does nothing at first, but, as you level up, you learn abilities, which you can use by pressing triangle button, if you have the proper weapon equipped.
Each enemy type has its own attacks and patterns, and strategies to kill them. There’s not that many enemy types so figuring them out isn’t that complicated. If you get hit by certain types of fire or ice attacks, it gives that element to your attacks. Enemies can absorb attacks from their element, or at least be invincible to them. Being hit by fire hurts you over-time until the effect somehow stops or if you touch water. Being hit by ice makes you slide on the floor.
Spread across the floor of each dungeon are traps. Some shoot arrows at you for damage (hitting enemies on the way). Other shoot gas which can put you to sleep or temporarily poison you. Some can instantly explode. Others shoot magic that can heal you (and it’s one of the very few ways to get healing). There’s also one that can make you move faster, which is useful. Other than traps, there’s various things on the floor, like grass, or oil, or ice, which hinders your movement.
The point of every dungeon is just to get to the end. There are certain puzzles in each dungeon, which usually involve opening certain treasure chests or killing certain monsters, which will open the way to the exit. It’s very straightforward, though it might be a bit too repetitive for some people.
There’s a second type of dungeon in the game. Other than the “story” dungeons, which aren’t randomly generated, you can visit randomly generated dungeons, which work a bit differently from the story dungeons. The goal here is still to get to the exit, but here the exits are gates, which bring you to the next level. When you go through a gate, the item drop rate changes, as does the rate of rare items, and the monster levels. Depending of the gate you exit the floor through, the effects are different. Angel gates minimize monster level increase but the item and rare drop rates increase more. Hell and Devil gates increase the monster level a bit more, but decrease drop and rare item rates. Gamble gates are just that, a gamble. And each of those have chances of having completely different effects than expected, like Hell gates giving huge item drop rate increases. Random dungeons are a great way to level grind, or to find good loot.
Leveling
The game might seem a bit actiony, but it’s actually fairly RPG-ish. Rather than having a party system, you have the Magic Circle system. So instead of going around with multiple characters through the dungeon, you control only one, but attacks hit people in the magic circle instead of your character, only hurting your characters when all the characters in the magic circle (called sub-characters) are dead. So how does the magic circle work? Well, you get various versions of the magic circle as you advance through the game, which enable you to “equip” different numbers of characters. Each spot in the magic circle can also has special effects. Some give more XP, some double the amount of mana a character has (will explain mana later), some increase stat gain for different stats, and some of them have different slots for equipping artifacts (each enabling for different kinds of artifacts).
Mana comes in play when you start equipping artifacts. Each artifact has a mana cost when you put it in a slot. Artifacts can raise the sub-characters’ HP, or various of the main characters’ stats, like attack, defense, HP and a few more. While each type of slot is limited to certain types of artifacts, you can equip mana-increasing artifacts to any slot, boosting your stat-increase potential.
As for leveling itself, the “main” character and all the currently “equipped” sub-characters all gain experience points as you kill monsters in the dungeons. When you die or leave a dungeon (dying penalizes you by removing half of the money and experience you gained in the dungeon), you get said experience. Get enough EXP and you level up, which increases some stats. That might seem simple, but there’s some weird things involved here. As your characters level, they get different stats if they’re the main character than if they’re the sub-characters. Main characters mostly get HP and mana, as well as minor boost of other stats, and sub-characters mostly get attack and defense with minor boosts of the other stats. So properly leveling a character is pretty complicated. Actually, the right way to go is to put your PLANNED main character as a sub-character to get his attack and defense up, and putting the characters you want as subs as mains for a while to get enough HP… if you have the time to waste to do that, it can be pretty fun to build the ultimate party.
Other than that, you can buy equipment or find it in the dungeons to boost your power. Equipment comes in multiple varieties. Other than just normal items, each item you find will have a grade. Crap means they’re no good, Normal is that item’s base stats, Wall gives you a minor defense boost, Rise is just overall stronger, and there’s various others. Finding the best equipment is the best thing to do to get strong, in addition to strong artifacts and optimal leveling.
Overall
Cladun is a very fun game. The fighting is simple but fun, especially when you try figuring out the best way to kill each enemy type. The leveling has a huge amount of depth. And there’s some things I haven’t mentioned here, like different character classes and various other stuff.
It’s slightly repetitive, and the story isn’t much to write home about, but it’s very fun. If you’re looking for a fun RPG with unique leveling systems, with a lot of value and gameplay time, Cladun is fairly interesting.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun fighting
- Deep leveling
- Fun presentation
Cons
- Hum… not much really…. Let’s say that it can get a bit repetitive
The Save Factor
The game costs 20$ on the PSN, and, for the amount of gameplay you can get from this, I feel like the price is fine. But, since it’s a download-only game, maybe something like 15$ would be a bit more appropriate.
]]>This time there’s releases on every system which is good. 3 DS releases, 2 PC releases, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PSP releases, 1 Wii release, 2 360 exclusive releases and 10 multiplatform releases. Everyone should at least find one interesting game to play in here.
So yeah, read on to see what possibly interesting games are comming in september 2010!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
NHL 11 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)
The canadian equivalent to Madden! Every year, a new Madden game comes out and sells millions in the US and Canada despite being the same game as the year before. This also happens with the NHL. Same game as the year before, but with new players. And it sells like crazy in Canada, moreso than Madden.
H.A.W.X. 2 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)
I don’t have anything to say about this one… I haven’t played the first one, and I won’t play this one.
R.U.S.E. 09/07 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
This looks like it could be not too bad. I played the beta a few months back and, while it did nothing for me, I can see why some people might be really interested in the game. Though it probably loses a lot of its audience with the previous release of Starcraft 2… It really shouldn’t have been delayed.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
Will this redeem Spider-Man in the video game world, after the disaster that was Web of Shadows? Well, it definitely looks really interesting, with 4 different Spider-mans (Noir, Amazing, 2099, Ultimate), each with its own gameplay elements and graphical style. I’m quite interested in trying it out.
Front Mission Evolved 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
A new Front Mission game! But… this one is an action game? Weird choice. I know lots of fans are pissed that the game isn’t a turn-based strategy game like the other games in the series. But, from what I’ve seen, it still looks fairly decent. I don’t know if it’s going to be as good as Armored Core, but it should be worth checking out.
Dead Rising 2 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
I’m one of the very few who wasn’t impressed by the first Dead Rising. The actual gameplay just wasn’t very fun. Yeah, finding various things to kill zombies with was entertaining for a few minutes, and there was a good number of enemies on screen, but it got old fast, and the actual objectives/story and such just gave me no incentive to play. Maybe the sequel will fix the problems I had with the first? Well, at least you don’t have to take pictures this time, big plus.
Quantum Theory 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Constantly called the Gears of War on PS3 (despite it being multiplatform). I actually haven’t seen any actual gameplay for this… I’ve seen a screenshot, and a cinematic trailer, but that’s it. From the information I’ve seen it does have interesting concepts (like the tower constantly changing in real-time), but I’m not too hyped for it. Run-off-the-mill TPS. (NOTE: I have no idea if this release date is right, and will edit the post if it ends up being false)
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
It’s Guitar Hero… The setlist I’ve seen, though I don’t know if it’s official, is kinda lame, even if it does feature a handful of good songs. (and a handful of those being  available on rock band…)
FIFA Soccer 11 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
I’m not too familiar with the FIFA series. I have no idea if it’s just like Madden, where it gets a roster update and not much more every year. But hey, this series is incredibly popular, so it’s on here.
PC RELEASES
Sid Meier’s Civilization V 09/21
I actually never played a game in the Civilization series. I don’t know why. So I have no idea how they’re like. But they’re a pretty big deal usually. So this could be worth playing.
Final Fantasy XIV Online (Collector’s Edition) 09/22 Final Fantasy XIV Online 09/30
It’s a Final Fantasy MMORPG! Again! I didn’t check lots of information on it, since frankly I don’t care for games that require you to pay every month to play . But, from what I heard of friends that played the beta, it seems like it’s a very well-done game. I can definitely see it getting big.
PS3 RELEASES
EyePet 09/07
How long ago was this announced? I didn’t think it would actually come out, but here it is. It has Playstation Move functionalities for when the Move comes out later in the month. It… also really doesn’t interest me. I think some of the technology in the game is interesting, but the game itself doesn’t seem like something that I’d want to play for more than 2 minutes.
Playstation Move (also comes bundled with Sports Champions) 09/17
Well, it was frequently joked that Sony would eventually copy the Wiimote, but lo and behold, here it is… except with a stupid ball on top. So, to buy enough to play 1-player games, you need to spend 170$ (Camera, 2 Move controllers since some games require that, the Navigation Controller (AKA Nunchuk)). Maybe more if you want to play with more than one person at a time. The little gameplay for this thing I’ve seen shows that there’s, depending on the game, up to half a second of delay from when you do something with the controller and it actually happening in the game. That’s pretty bad. I have no good expectations for this. Let’s wait until it’s more properly supported… maybe it won’t end up being as bad as I’m expecting, you never know. (NOTE: Dave, who tried the thing at E3, tells me that, if there’s delay in the input, it’s barely noticeable… or maybe it depends on the game, I wouldn’t know)
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland 09/28
I quite like the Atelier series. Usually pretty fun RPGs, with fun alchemy systems and a good battle system. It has been a while since this was released in Japan, but we’re finally getting a taste of it… after Japan already got a sequel… YAY!
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Otomedius Excellent 09/07
Gradius with half-naked loli anime girls. Do I need to say more? Well, I can say that it’s a disc release, so it’s going to be way overpriced like all shmups that get disc releases.
Halo: Reach 09/14
It’s Halo.
WII RELEASES
Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame 09/07
A side-scrolling Batman beat ‘em up. It seems  similar in gameplay style to The Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES. Looks like it could be good. (There’s a DS version coming too, though my expectations for that one aren’t too high… but it does have DS/Wii connectivity which is a small plus)
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future 09/12
The Professor Layton series is a solid puzzle game series. I actually quite liked the first one I played (which was the second in the series). It had interesting gameplay elements and good puzzles. I have good expectations for this one as well.
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City 09/21
The Etrian Odyssey series is pretty fun. It uses a very classic style first-person RPG gameplay, including the classic difficulty, but changes it around slightly with some JRPG elements, and an automatic map-making system.
SONY PSP RELEASES
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 09/07
A new Kingdom Hearts game, which, from what I recall, takes place before the events of the first game. The KH series is generally very high quality, even the DS game which wasn’t nearly as good as the PS2 titles, so I have high hopes for this.
Phantasy Star Portable 2 09/14
I have yet to play a Phantasy Star game that isn’t Phantasy Star Online(though I’m hoping to change that very soon). So I have no idea what to expect from this, nor do I know if I’ll end up playing it. We’ll see.