#and the side quests and home customisation are best played through with the main game rather than after- it feels more natural that way

[miloscat]

[Review] 7th Dragon III: Code VFD (3DS)

The coolest RPG on two screens.

I’m not going to lie, the first thing that brought this game to my attention was the fact that one of the character designs is a big, clear, direct Jet Set Radio Future reference. But from that starting point I found lots more to love about it too. It has Sega legends Rieko Kodama (producer, director of Phantasy Star IV) and Yuzo Koshiro (composer) involved. I saw it recommended independently for its (somewhat) progressive queer representation, and just for being a solid RPG. And upon playing it I enjoyed the variety in combat, the side content, and the stylishness.

The 7th Dragon series started on DS, in what was essentially an Etrian Odyssey spinoff, with old-school dungeon crawling and customisable party members. The PSP sequel (and its direct follow-up) rebooted the setting to a probably Persona-inspired modern Tokyo along with an aesthetic refresh that saw manga artist Shirow Miwa take over as character designer, plus a shift to 3D graphics. Due to the demise of the developer Image Epoch, Sega gave the series to one of its in-house teams to wrap up the story on 3DS. This final instalment feels like a close continuation of the PSP games (reusing many assets as it does) but brings in time travel to revisit the original game’s setting.

It’s also the only game that was officially localised, although the other three have fan translations. I hadn’t played the others; knowing a little about them helps to bolster this game’s story but it does its best to fill in new players. The primary setting is 100 years after the PSP games in a semi-post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Otherworldly dragons have devastated Earth and you find yourself employed by a video game company which is a front for training dragon hunters. Later you travel to the past of ethereal Atlantis and the first game’s fantasy era, which is now established to be 5000 years in the future. There’s some twists and “turns out”s as you might expect, some of them pretty interesting, but it all eventually descends into faux-high-minded philosophising about evolution and the well-worn JRPG trope of a handful of teenagers defying destiny and killing God.

Oh well, at least getting there is fun. RPGs with time travel are my jam, and so is the theme of bringing together different eras and different people to a common cause. I liked expanding the office building hub zone as you progress, unlocking new functions and side activities with a little corporate satire thrown in. This includes housing refugees from the disparate time periods, so you’ll see your home base become more populated and people interacting through the side quests, not to mention the fleshing out of the main casts’ tragic backstories (but not the blank-slate PCs). You even rescue cats in dungeons to fill out a cat cafe!

The Etrian roots persist in the party composition mechanics; you can make new characters at any time, and while they are designed after the specific classes available, appearance is not tied to their role. There’s a decent range of appearances, all with two gender variants, and a host of known seiyū providing their voiced barks. I started my save from the free demo, which carries over to the full game and gives you some bonuses; this meant my initial team had default settings but I liked them and was attached to them at that point so continued with them (the demo line-up also includes the most JSRF guy—the logo is even on his shirt!—so I was happy). Later you get two backup teams that you can swap between on the fly, and which enable various in-battle support mechanics. This also unlocks new class types and appearances for further customisation.

There’s a lot of depth to character abilities. Every class feels versatile with their own buffs and debuffs, and multiple types that have healing skills. My main party had the schoolgirl samurai, the Jet Set “agent” with hacking and gun skills, and the all-around combo attacker/buffer/healer “godhand”. Experimentation is encouraged, and building your skill trees how you like is satisfying. The game isn’t too difficult but fights do require some strategy as you go on. Luckily there’s a difficulty toggle you can change anytime outside of battle, and if you lose there’s a Mario and Luigi-style option to restart the battle immediately. My ultimate party maybe wasn’t the most tactical, as I just wanted one of everything, so the very final postgame dungeon and DLC quest were beyond my scope; you need some really tailored parties and careful play to get through those marathon battles, even at level 99 with the best gear. Speaking of DLC, I recommend at least the “seed outbreak” mission pack for efficient grinding (you will very soon have to pirate this on custom firmware due to the shutdown of the 3DS eShop).

I’m pleased I took a punt on this. It’s a slick modernisation of the dungeon-crawler format with an interesting setting and some memorable characters. It makes good use of the second screen for maps, and your backup parties in battles. It took me a breezy 35 hours, with all sidequests done. I recommend it, even without playing the previous games!

[dragontamer626]

Best Five Switch Games to get you through lockdown

With the world on hold, times have never been tougher. By now you’ve probably done all those craft projects and completed all those walks and cycle routes. With lockdown set to stay for at least another few weeks, people are turning to more indoor activities – namely gaming. Finding a console and a game that’s family friendly is always tricky. However Nintendo’s current console, the Nintendo Switch, has been out for three short years and in that time, it has built up a plethora of games suitable for all ages. Here are my top five recommendations to help you through lockdown.

Tetris 99:

A wonderful nostalgia trip with a modern twist.

Tetris 99 brings all the joy of a beloved classic mixed with a couple of snazzy extras to make it relatable to the newer generation of players. Tetris 99 is basically a battle royale. You can pick either to go against other players worldwide or as part of a team. Now I’m not going to lie. If you are no good at tetris, this game will not be fun. You might get a couple of good combo shots in but the sheer amount of opponents means the chances of winning are slim to none. However, it’s a fun way to spend half an hour or so, depending on your skills. The game is also free to download if you have a Nintendo online membership with additional extras like 2p mode and cpu battles available to buy from the Nintendo e-store.

Splatoon 2:

Modern shooter/turf war.

When Splatoon first launched on the Nintendo wii u back in 2015, it started an amazing franchise which has seen a rapid rise in popularity. You play as ‘Inklings,’  a futuristic race of shape-shifting kids who can turn into – wait for it – squids! That main aim of the turf war mode is simple. You and a team of three online players are allotted a random colour. You face off against another team of four on the opposite side of a symmetrical battlefield. The aim is to cover as much of the battlefield as you can in your teams colour in a three minute match. You use coloured ink from a variety of weapons, many of which look like modernised super-soakers and can also shoot at your enemies to destroy them in a glob of goo causing them to re-spawn and start the assault over again. Splatoon 2 follows this simple but highly addictive game play. Along with a separate hero mode single play story and hundreds of customisation options, this family friendly game can easily turn minutes into hours... you have been warned.

Breath of the Wild:

Also known as ‘Zelda Scrolls.

Hailed as possibly the best Zelda game of all time Breath of the Wild will most likely consume your life and destroy your regular sleeping patterns. Previous games in the legend of Zelda franchise have followed a very linear storyline with not being able to progress in the game until you complete tasks in a certain order. Breath of the Wild is the exact opposite. The title was actually a launch title when the console was released in March 2017 and met with a hugely positive feedback. You play as protagonist Link, waking up from a hundred year slumber with a heavy case of amnesia  and having to regain your strength armour, weapons collection and memory  in order to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of Calamity Ganon. The way you play is up to you. Echoing the freestyle play of Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls, you can spend your first three hours picking food and collecting weapons, or run straight to Hyrule castle in nothing but pants (not recommended though). There is literally no limit to how you play this game or the way you play it. There are hundreds of side quests to keep you amused for WEEKS – maybe even months. The graphics and music are simply beautiful and make you feel like you’re playing through an epic movie.  Highly recommended!

Ring Fit Adventure:

Fitness is fun.

RingFit Adventure is great fun for the whole family. Way back in 2007, Nintnedo launched wii fit. This revolutionary kit was a must have for fitness fanatics. With the trusty wii fit meter, balance board and optional yoga mat, many of us were eagerly following a rigorous regime of exercises and burning those pounds. Then in 2019, ring fit arrived on the switch. The downside is it’s expensive. You will not see much change out of £70 for the setup. But for that you get the game, the resistance ring and leg strap. Ringfit is a hard task master making wiifit look like childs play, but it gives plenty of options on levels of difficulty making it as easy or as challenging as you want. Recently Nintendo downloaded a couple of extra mini games to keep things new and shiny so for the cost of less than two months gym membership, this is a great investment. Be warned they are extremely popular at the moment, selling out at most online and retail outlets, so keep a look out and be ready to order as soon as you see them.

Animal Crossing :New Horizons:

A simple delight.

There is nothing not to love about this game. Animal crossing is a delight that even your nan will love. In 2001 this gem arrived on the gamecube, and over the years new games and spin offs have been trickling along. When New Horizons launched in March 2020, the fans went nuts. Much like Zelda Scrolls, New Horizons gives you as much freedom as you want. The main aim of the game is still the same tried and tested method as before. Arrive on an island, build a house, build another house, build a town hall, build a park... you get the idea. You build stuff. You can also harvest fruits, catch bugs and fish and dig up jewls and rocks to sell. Once you have sold your finds for bells (the games currency) you can buy more stuff, and build more stuff, and furnish your home. There is no right or wrong way to play the game and its certainly kept a lot of us sane over the lockdown seeing hundreds of hours being plunged into the story. The game also has plenty of online features, making it possible to visit people who have their own island and allowing groups of up to eight to connect and play together. It’s almost like having a social life again – which I truly believe is why it is as popular as it is. An absolute must have, this game provides hours of fun and is proving a huge success with players of all ages. The highest recommendation for your switch.

[tainbocuailnge]

ive played all the story chapters and a bunch of side missions and tried out a handful of characters so now it’s time for The Official Lance Tainbocuailnge Review Of Fate/Extella Link if you’re like me and were kinda on the fence about buying it after extella massively let you down

tldr; gameplay is actually fun and varied with loads of different objectives and the same servant can be played in different ways so it doesn’t get boring. main story is a bit disjointed and most servants only have a quick cameo but it gets charlemagne’s plot beats down well enough and the silly everyone-knows-everyone banter is delightful. everything looks better, the world actually feels populated, and there’s a lot of care put into special interactions. link will not disappoint you like extella did

the gameplay has much more variation than just press button use moon drive repeat. you’ve got a mix of regular attacks that lead into various combos and active skills with cooldowns. each servant has like 7 of them, generally some combination of damage skills buffs and debuffs, and you can set 4 at once so there’s a degree of customisability to how you play each servant even within the fighting style they’re inherently geared towards. servants with similar regular movesets (like cu and scathach) still have decidedly different active skills so they don’t feel interchangeable. certain moves from servants that were already in extella are generally reused either at the end of some combo or as an active skill which for me goes a long way in still making it feel like the same game, just better

attacking builds moon drive meter, and fighting enemies while moon drive is active earns you np meter. this means you can use your np as often as you can charge it instead of the pathetic One time it was in extella and you can just blow up a whole sector without remorse. you can also end moon drive early with a weaker version of your noble phantasm. some active skills are labelled as class skills and if you use those in a combo against a servant you get the button mash attack that extella had. altogether it really gives the sense of an all-out servant battle

allied servants are much much much more proactive. they’ll actively go out and conquer sectors for you and will try to join you wherever you’re fighting the boss servant. if your allies are nearby more of your active skills will get the class skill property and they’ll join you in the button mash attack. before the battle you also set two support troops, who will randomly join in on your combos or defend you when you’re in a pinch. hakuno is also out on the field, so combat is much more a team effort than before

stage objectives are varied too, there’s field effects, map jamming, hunting down messengers before they can call for reinforcements, escorting allies to specific locations, waves of shadow servants, lancelot disguising himself, robin or lishu going invisible, iskandar or darius with endless armies, drake or gilles bombarding from afar, all often used in various combinations too. on top of that the extra stages will provide random additional challenges so even replaying the same stage will be different every time. 

there are four difficulties (that I’ve unlocked) but I haven’t tried any of the higher ones yet so I don’t know what they change to make it more difficult other than enemy level. there are like. i think at least 50 maybe even 100 extra stages to play after you’ve cleared the ~30 main story battles that continue until servant level 200 or something so there’s a lot to do even after you’ve gone through the story. servants unlock by clearing story battles and I didn’t realize this until very late and was very pissed off that the game wouldn’t let me use cu but that’s on me. the money is power system is still in place so you don’t have to manually train any new servant you want to try out you can just powerlevel them. install skills are also still in place and you do need to level servant bond if you want to use any decent number of those

there’s a pvp mode too but I haven’t tried it yet so no comment on that beyond i bet skilled lancelot players are The most annoying motherfuckers to fight against

graphics are a huge step up from extella. reused areas got a complete visual makeover while retaining the same feel. everyone’s models got spruced up and now they don’t look plastic anymore. there is an unreal amount of care put into sculpting karna’s asscrack. the ost actually slaps beyond the main theme this time as well as featuring some ol reliable CCC tracks. everything looks much more polished

the story is somewhat disjointed because of both the large cast and the splitting routes. the story splits up at various points to create an excuse to make different battles but it means a lot of things happen at approximately the same time in slightly different ways and it can be confusing to keep up with what happens in which order. for that reason I suggest looking closely at what path leads to which ending and playing all the quests of each converging branch before moving to the next day. the story seems to go out of its way to be ambiguous in when what happens exactly and how it’s even supposed to follow the events of extella so I think it’s best to look for the themes and the fun lore details over the linear coherence

overall the atmosphere is pretty silly and servants constantly banter back and forth even during tense situations, but it lands the occasional serious moment well enough imo. charlemagne and karl are the only ones who have any significant story focus but since they’re the only newcomers it’s not like the other guys particularly need the screentime. charlemagne himself is a pretty silly and lighthearted guy so he goes along well with the general feeling and it actually works in favour of his heavier plot beats because of the contrast. I grew attached to him incredibly quickly, not in the last place because he gets hyped about every single person he meets and it’s hard not to get excited too

the servants who weren’t already in extella generally get to show up more in the main story than the already familiar faces but most of them don’t have much more than a cameo. having a lot of people just randomly roam around with no idea what’s going on goes a really long way in making the moon cell feel populated beyond the people directly involved in the story so I actually like it a lot. they came up with like 3 different convenient plot devices to give you servants to fight without worrying about what that means for the alliances and it gives room for a lot of cool character moments

a good chunk of the extra stages come with their own mini stories told through the combat dialogue which adds to the liveliness of the setting. my favourite so far is the one where liz and nero try to hold a concert and hakuno frantically tries to explain to charlemagne in the middle of combat why it’s absolutely vital to keep them from doing that

everyone seems to know everyone so a lot of story dialogue is banter in varying degrees of playful versus vicious between both likely and unlikely combinations of servants and there’s a lot and i mean a LOT of care put into specific interactions. if two servants even remotely have an opinion on each other there’s special dialogue for it, and I even picked up unique dialogue for when archer acts as support troop for cu which no doubt means it exists for other combinations too (altho that’s not subtitled so i dont know what they’re saying there i could just tell it was the usual bickering because of the tone lol). some servants have unique win quotes from hakuno, she calls gilgamesh by his nickname ‘gorgeous’ for example. servants will sit around your home base and have a default line to say but sometimes they have lines that refer to each other instead. compared to how barren extella was, link is overflowing with the sense that these people have lives outside the current conflict and se.ra.ph is a thriving and vibrant world for them to live in

there’s a scene where karna and arjuna use their noble phantasms against each other in mutual destruction and it fucking RULES

[timsim26]

Mass Effect Andromeda Review

The Mass Effect series is one of the most revered and respected gaming brands ever released. The world building, strong characters, paralysing loss of loved characters and story moments that are iconic left a real imprint on the gaming industry. Unfortunately many people choose to remember the ending of the third game, which marred the franchise. Bioware went away for 5 years to deliver a new beginning, loosely linked with the trilogy and set in the Andromeda galaxy.

You play as Sara or Scott Ryder, brother and sister, who are part of the human ark. This ark has been sent on the 600 year journey to the Andromeda universe in search of a new world. The humans are not alone in their journey, as the Turians, Asari and Salarians have also sent arks into Andromeda. Krogans have also made the trip as well as dozens of individuals who went earlier to establish a home base known as the Nexus (think Citdadel). Of course, when you awake as either Sara or Scott, shit has definitely hit the fan, as a giant space phenomenon has crashed through the ark, causing malfunction and your sibling to be put into a long coma. Your job as the Pathfinder’s daughter or son is to check out the first potential home world known as Habitat 7.

While this all sounds very safe and very familiar, it does establish Sara (I played as Sara and haven’t as Scott) as an interesting character that has a variation of approaches. Removed is the renegade and paragon options. This allows much more freedom, rather than committing to one approach, even though you may not agree with all the actions. You are free to make decisions as your character based on how you want them to react to that particular situation. After a terrible incident on Habitat 7, which sees your father killed saving your life, you inherit the prestigious role as the Pathfinder, in charge of finding a new world for the human race to live. This is a huge job and involves difficult choices, putting up with the new galaxy’s politics and also fighting the new enemy and new alien race, the Kett.

As the story continues, there are a number of interesting twists and turns, that introduces new characters to join your squad and offer loyalty missions, similar to Mass Effect 2. While the loyalty missions hold the same purpose, there is no real consequence to not following them through like in the second game, where you would see characters die as a result. The loyalty missions were the best part of the second game, as they gave you a reason to delve deep into your squads history and personal lives. While there are some examples of this in Andromeda, I found the loyalty missions to be very, very, very long and drawn out. They are designed to continue over the course of the entire game. This time around, Andromeda is a 50-70 hour game. I spent 57 hours in the game before I reached the ending credits, still giving 3-4 major side quests unfinished. That was main story, exploration and loyalty missions padding that time out (also a good 3-4 hours of loading I presume). The loyalty missions in Andromeda do boil down again to doing a specific tasks that links and helps a certain character. They can get very fetch quests heavy and in some stages of a few loyalty missions it becomes a planet hopping slog, that got very old and tedious. It still pushes you through as some of the story moments that occur are fantastic.

Your squad again consists of a range of characters with unique outlooks and motivations. Drack, an, old battle scarred Krogan that has fought in many wars and is here in support of his daughter Kesh. Cora, a human who is obsessed (it is unhealthy) with the Asari and saving the Asari Ark. Liam, another human who is in support of the Andromeda initiative and colonising the many planets around Andromeda. Vetra, A turian try hard female Garrus who simply is not as good at calibrating things. Peebee, a quirky Asari, with a big personality who is keen to research and learn about the ancient technology of the Remnant that becomes a big part of the story and why the planets and galaxy are the way they are. Lastly is Jaal, who is a mix of Thane and Garrus from the original trilogy. Jaal is the 1 major new species introduced in the game, other than the kett. The Kadara are a large, unique looking alien that are very spiritual and present the most interesting moments in the game. Jaal is a warrior, who sticks to his beliefs and is interested in learning more about the Milky Way galaxy and why we have come to Andromeda. The cast of characters, are strong, however nothing will compare to the original trilogy’s squad. It puts Andromeda on the back foot straight away.

One major positive of the Andromeda is how open to exploration and discovery the universe is. There are 7 major planets that can be explored and made a viable living space. Every action completed on a planet increases the percentage that the planet is viable. Side quests, clearing hostile wild life, helping the locals with collecting materials and discovery special locations known as Remnant vaults lead to setting up an outposts, which again leads to even more activities and quests. The Remnant vaults are the key to making each planet liveable. This is presented early in the game and completing the Dungeons (vaults) allow the planet to remove the factor that is currently making them uninhabitable. This is explained throughout the story as your progress. Planets that are too hot, too cold, covered in radiation, have electrified water and so on can be repaired by completing the dungeon like vaults. Inside each vault are a number of puzzles that can be solved with the game’s new movement system allowing dashing, jumping and side stepping with a booster pack or simple logic and combat puzzles. The Vaults never out stay their welcome and always offer an interesting and unique gameplay experience that then make life on each of the planets much easier.

As you are working your way through the planets you are going to be engaging in a lot of combat. Way more than the original trilogy. The combat though is very tight and responsive. It may be the best part of the game as every combat scenario is a good mix of challenging and satisfying. The Kett are a pretty standard enemy and will attack you in traditional Mass Effect nature. Hiding behind cover, making use of the environment, flanking and firing off a number of powers challenges you to think quickly, bring the right squad mates and also be mindful when picking your loadouts. The system has changed in Andromeda in which you are no longer locked to choosing and upgrading skills that link to a specific class type. In previous games you were stuck upgrading skills that linked to a soldier, vanguard, sentinel etc. However Andromeda allows you to pick and choose your skills, upgrade them how you see fit and swap them on the fly. If you are struggling in the middle of a challenging fight against a bunch of enemies that have armour, you can upgrade something like incinerate that destroys armour. Struggling against shielded enemies, then upgraded overload or singularity. It really allows a great diversity in every combat situation and ensures that everyone playing the game is going to have a different approach to enemy encounters. As you put upgrade points into your preferred skills you will unlock class types that have particular buffs and skill enhancements based on the upgrades you are using. The more points, the better the class types become. These can also be changed at will from the menus.

Weapons are also very come and go in Andromeda. Mass Effect 3 really slowed down the customisation of weapons and armour, however the huge and expansive crafting system in Andromeda allows a large range of weapons to be crafted and customised to your liking. First you will have to find the resources by planet scanning or mining using the Nomad (yay it’s back) when you are on the many planet’s surface. After which, you can return to your crafting bay on your new ship the Tempest. There are so many variations of weapons that can be built and as you acquire mods and other upgrades weapons can be adapted to buff whatever suits your playing style. The game gives you a lot to play with and tinker with as you advance. Not only can you tinker with all of your skills, classes and weapons, but you can customise your rewards, strike teams and more. These strike teams link to the multiplayer, which returns in similar fashion from the third game. Wave based combat in a group against enemy AI is a fun side challenge and again very rewarding when playing with a group of friends. The strike teams can earn rewards in the single player which unlock minerals for crafting and even weapon modes. These can be completed by your strike teams, which Ryder can organise from her main hub. AVP missions are unlocked as you advance the plot and can impact experience boosts or delivery of goods and rewards.

Andromeda is a deep game with a lot of systems. While they don’t always present themselves in a way that makes sense, it does give you a lot of variation with how the game plays. Unfortunately combat is the primary way most situations are solved. There doesn’t really ever feel like there is a viable workaround in challenging situations where Ryder must make a choice that doesn’t result in violence. Often Ryder will shoot first and ask questions later. There are also not as many memorable choices throughout the game. There are a number of interesting options that at the time seem like they will impact something later on, however most never eventuate. This makes me wonder whether they were intended to be answered or featured in a sequel, a sequel we may never get after negative reviews, bugs, glitches and general negative word of mouth.  

Despite the gifs, news stories etc. surfacing about the game’s buggy and glitchy nature. I didn’t really encounter any problems. Considering this is a 70 hour, open world RPG, people have seemingly forgotten how hard it is to bug test games of this nature. We gave Fallout 4 a pass remmeber. The dialogue, facial animation and character issues have been resolved with the many post release patches and as a result give the game a much more polished feel. Clearly EA needed this game out and didn’t feel like delaying it until May. If they did, the game may have been much more successful away from Horizon, the release of the Switch and Zelda. A more rounded, polished experience in a quieter month, may have been what this game needed.

I loved playing Mass Effect Andromeda. The game presented so many fantastic combat scenarios, plenty of laughs from the engaging cast of characters and plenty of surprises when exploring the massive plants. While the story was familiar, safe and often nonsensical, I enjoyed the ride that it presented. The game leaves a lot of questions unanswered and is clearly meant to be the start of a new franchise and I really hope we see the second game at some stage.

8.5/10

Reviewed on Xbox One.