#fun fact: i looked at unleashed's map for reference

[latin-dr-robotnik]

SonAmy AU - of knights and hammers

I’m feeling kinda low on inspiration after not having completed a thing I wanted for Sonic’s birthday (should I release it incomplete? Should I actually bother finishing it?), and so I went out looking for something to write, and I found some old ideas that for some reason I didn’t elaborate on back then (maybe I was overwhelmed with exams lol.) 

Prompt: basically this old ask

Now let me tell you a story about a different time.

‘Tis an old tale, from when the modern Spagonia we all know didn’t exist, and the kingdoms that joined under its flag centuries ago were as fierce and diverse as the stretches of land they ruled. 

The old Spagonia castle was the center of the bigger of said kingdoms, and it was located on the rocky coasts by the far south reaches, where the sun runs hot and the knights all over the continent face off against each other, all for the glory of the Queen... and a hefty gold prize.

For the past five years, the tournament has been dominated by a single champion, a knight with a gift of speed like no other, able to struck its enemies several times before they even have a chance to react. Nobody knows his name or where did he come from, but they call him the Knight of the Wind. In the sixth year of competing, everything looked like it was another sweep in his favor.

“Honorable people of our glorious Kingdom! Travelers from the kingdoms all across the world!” The announcer began, as the public flooded the tournament grounds with great enthusiasm, “welcome to the final day of our annual tourney, possible thanks to God and Her Majesty’s enlightment and eternal wisdom!”

The crowd cheered.

“The last bout of today will be a match of titans! On one side we have our five times champion and man of the people, the Knight of the Wind!”

The crowd cheered even harder as he raced into the arena, waving his hand at everyone and posing.

“On the other hand, we have a newcomer that has proven to be up to par for this tournament! Rumors say she’s from the northern lands, others believe it’s God’s own answer to Knight of the Wind’s speed. We don’t know her name, but folk around here have named her the Hammer Knight!”

Some people cheered, but most of the attendants could be heard talking. She stepped in, no waving, no posing, and seemingly unarmed.

“Now, as we receive our Queen’s blessing, let the fighting begin!”

The two stood on opposite sides, not moving or anything for a moment, until the Knight of the Wind broke the ice.

“So, a new challenger, huh?” He shouted, lowering his guard in the process. “A mysterious one, no less!” He started moving slowly, keeping his eyes on her. “Oh, you think you can come here, no name or anything like me, and steal MY tournament? Ha, that’s lame!”

Hammer Knight stood completely still, on guard, as the Knight of the Wind kept half-circling around her, looking for a strategic oportunity to strike like a lightning bolt.

“What’s up, girl? Are you completely frozen inside that heavy armor?” He kept mocking, then shifted to a charging position - right shoulder in front, ready to strike. “Or is it that you just wanted to meet your hero? Look, if that’s what you want, I’ll give you a quick demonstration, but it isn’t free of charge!”

As soon as he finished talking, the Knight of the Wind charged directy towards Hammer Knight, zipping across the arena in the blink of an eye. A cloud of dust covered the entire arena, as the public loudly gasped. 

When the cloud dissipated, the Knight of the Wind was standing alone, Hammer Knight nowhere to be seen.

“Heh, might’ve crushed her so hard she completely vanished.” He uttered to himself. “Okay! Thank you all for coming, it’s been a fantastic tournament but you know I’m the only o---”

The Knight of the Wind turned around to greet the astonished public, when Hammer Knight appeared magically in front of him, swinging a giant hammer she previously wasn’t wielding. The impact sent him flying straight to a wall, with the public gasping again.

He recovered quickly. “Oh... so there you are. Nice cheating, girl, but playtime’s over!”

The battle continued for several minutes with the Knight of the Wind charging towards Hammer Knight with no results for him. She would always dodge him or counter him with her hammer, as he got more relentless - and later exhausted. The public was having a hard time processing what they were seeing.

Exhausted, the Knight of the Wind tried to spice up his tactics, now dashing erratically in an effort to confuse Hammer Knight into striking at the wrong moment. He only managed to hit her shoulder, but as soon as he stopped to catch a breath, she knocked him across the entire arena again. 

This time he wasn’t getting up. After another loud gasp from the public, they started cheering Hammer Knight, and so the announcer came back.

“What an amazing combat we’ve just watched, folks!” The announcer had problems trying to contain the excitement. “Our Knight of the Wind... isn’t getting up it seems! That can only mean... Hammer Knight is our new champion! All hail Hammer Knight!”

The Knight of the Wind wasn’t completely unconscious, and as soon as he heard that Hammer Knight was victorious, he haphazardly got up ran away. Hammer Knight tried to reach for him, but got caught in the midst of celebrations.

Later that day, the Knight of the Wind was sitting inside his personal tent, reflecting upon what happened earlier, until he got interrupted by a messenger of the Queen.

“Pardon my interruption, Sir, I have an urgent message coming from the Queen.” The messenger stepped inside, the Knight facing his back to him.

“If it’s urgent, then tell the Queen to call her new shiny friend, Hammer Knight.”

“You don’t understand, sir!” The messenger urged, “‘tis an important matter that needs your unmatched speed. The Queen needs you to lead and reinforce our troops at the northern border as soon as possible.”

The Knight didn’t move. “I already made up my mind, I’m telling y---”

Another figure stepped inside the tent, interrupting them.

“Oh... I didn’t mean to...”

It was Hammer Knight. 

The messenger freaked out. “Oh my God, it’s really you! I’ll... leave you two alone, if you excuse me.” But before exiting the tent reiterated, “Sir, please consider what I told you. We are leaving this evening, the entire kingdom needs your help.”

The Knight of the Wind wasn’t on a good mood for any of this.

“What do you want?” He let out, notably upset. “You already took the tournament and the gold off my hands, are you going to take this tent from me as well?”

“Not at all,” she softly replied, then kneeled behind him, “I need your help.”

Contrary to what he expected, Hammer Knight didn’t want to take anything from him. After little consideration, he got up and turned to face her for the first time since their battle - now without any piece of armor, just some regular knight robes. He took a long stare at her, silently admiring the one rival that managed to best him. After a minute of silence, he answered. 

“Go on.”

She nodded, then looked up to him. “A war is brewing between the three kingdoms. I’ve been travelling all across the land, trying to stop this, searching for people that could help me, but nobody would listen to me. That’s what led me to you."

“Why would I want to prevent a war, though?” The Knight of the Wind reflected. “It’s all the more chances for me to kick ass, and right now that’s all I honestly care, or need.”

“You don’t understand, do you?” Hammer Knight lamented. “Imagine how this would impact across the land. Fields and villages burning from here down to remote places like the small kingdom of Apotos. There’s a big offensive coming from the East, I bet you it wont stop at the three kingdoms, and people only seem to listen to you - even the Queen herself! Knight of the Wind, please consider the risks at play.”

The Knight of the Wind stood silent for a moment, reflecting.

“I guess the rumors were true.” He let out. “And I guess I can’t let down my people, after all, I always helped them when in need.” He lended a hand to her, she grabbed it and got up. “Just point me out to where we have to go.”

After a moment, he added:

“And by the way, just call me Sonic.”

-------------------------------------------------------

BONUS (bc I got pretty invested in this AU already):

After talking with the Queen, Sonic and Hammer Knight went up north, to the spagonian border. They joined the troops stationed at the border that very same night, and while Sonic was talking with everyone and sharing stories, Hammer Knight was sitting on a nearby cliff, overlooking the river that separates both kingdoms.

After noticing her abscence for a while, Sonic finally found Hammer Knight atop that same cliff, and sat next to her.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been there.” Hammer Knight commented, pointing out the valley beyond the river. “I wonder how is everyone doing... my family and friends...”

“So, it IS true, you ARE from the northern lands! I mean! Your people will likely be happy of seeing their champion back.” Sonic pointed out, trying to contain himself. “Think about it, the triumphant return of Hammer Knight! I doesn’t sound cool to me of course, but for everyone else I bet they’ll love it.”

Hammer Knight chuckled. “Oh, stop being so spiteful! There must be a silver lining to it!” 

“Well, the fact you are the only worthy opponent I’ve faced might count... Hammer Knight.”

“Just... just call me Amy, okay?”

“Fine... Amy.”

The two stood in silence, watching the moon’s reflection on the river.

Conversation came back after a while.

“So, Sonic, have you been up north before?” Amy asked.

“Well, five years of being Spagonia’s champion granted me a world tour already!” Sonic playfully answered. “I think I remember the northern lands, I would’ve visited them again on my sixth year on tour if, y’know, I had won that tourney!”

“Well, now you have the chance to tour around with the new champion!” She teased.

“Yeah... kill me, please.” He joked, and both laughed.

Amy let out a sigh and leaned on his shoulder. 

“I think I like you, oh, Knight of the Wind.”

Sonic didn’t say anything. But on his mind he started considering the thought of actually enjoying moments like that. Maybe she was a lot more valuable to him than just a worthy opponent.

The next morning, the Knight of the Wind and Hammer Knight went on their first adventure, hoping to stop any potential threat to peace.

(Author’s note: hey, got anything for me? Send it to my ask box!)

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: What is it about Iokath?

I think that if we did a poll on Most Hated Areas in SWTOR, Iokath would be a close front runner. Even I - who has tried to get the legendary status for every faction - have ignored Iokath's dailies. I go through once for the story, take whatever rep is given for the story quests, and then get out of there. It's only because I have a lot of toons that I've earned rep there.

Because Galactic Seasons includes Iokath dailies in its list of daily priority objectives, the planet's daily area is seeing more traffic. It's also getting some complaints. The big question: why?

On paper Iokath looks really cool. A killer techno planet that seems to have influence from the Rakata and Gree, with a legacy of unleashing superweapons on hapless worlds. A killer techno planet with technology that was at least in part co-opted by a murderous world-devouring supervillain who survives for a very long time and wreaks havoc across the galaxy. Dudes, that's intriguing.

And for those who have an interest in their toons switching factions, Iokath actually lets you do that. You can be a Republic character supporting the Empire and walking through the Imperial base, or vice versa. There's no sneaky saboteur stuff!

So why is Iokath maligned so much? It's one of those places like Makeb where it seems like it should be amazing, but it's not.

1. The story.

When I say story, I'm not referring to the Iokath chapters in KOTET, but to the traitor arc that follows.. In my opinion, the first time we visit Iokath in KOTET, it's not so bad. We get to stomp around as a giant Colossus droid, and it's one of the few "play as something else" moments in KOTET that seems to work well. It's really fun. We get to unravel some of the mysteries of the Eternal Fleet. It's a good couple of chapters, IMHO.

But then we go back for the beginning of the traitor arc. Both factions are trying to wipe the other out with a superweapon. Everyone's been led to Iokath by a traitor. The Commander gets fried on a throne again, as though that didn't just happen. The Commander is forced to side with one faction or another, instead of just saying "you are both being awful. GET OFF MY PLANET. WE'RE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN."

Instead we get a new galactic IMPS VS PUBS!!!! war (sigh), at least one major NPC death and a beloved character set up as a traitor.

2. The fact that the story cannot even be finished because they pulled an Oricon.

IMHO the one intriguing thing about the Iokath traitor arc is Tyth. We discover that Zakuul's pantheon of old gods are actually supernatural superweapon droids on Iokath. We meet one named Tyth. But then we never get to really battle it out with him - or five of the others - because that's all in an Op. The Op is the end of the story arc. Luckily, you can go on to Umbara and such without doing the Op. All the same, the question of the machine gods never really gets settled. You never really hear about them again, with the exception of Zildrog. Did you defeat them? Did they just go back to sleep? Did they rust in the Iokath toxic rain? The world may never know.

Leaving a storyline dangling this way - because the devs want to twist players' arms into doing Ops - is a nasty trick in a story-based, solo-based game. The devs tried the same stunt with Oricon's storyline. The result was that a lot of players left Oricon unfinished - and then didn't play that storyline at all on subsequent characters. No point if you can't finish it.

Iokath is unfortunately part of the main story. While you actually CAN skip it, you would miss out on a part of the main storyline - including the proposals for two companions that can be romanced - and have some decisions autocompleted for you. If you're trying to play the entire story, Iokath is a thing. You have to go through, you end up with an incomplete story and that Op sits in your log until you abandon it. FWIW, the Op couldn't even be abandoned for years, despite players requesting that again and again. I guess the devs thought that if it sat there, players would grit their teeth and jump in to clear their log?

3. The maps.

You thought Taris, Balmorra, Corellia or Belsavis were confusing? Iokath has entered the chat. The Iokath map is a nightmare. There are paths around the area that aren't marked. Daily quest objectives aren't marked. Just better go through the winding corridors and see what you find, I guess.

4. The bugs.

Years after being released Iokath still has numerous bugs, like your companions vanishing and your abilities bar unlocking.

5. You have to pay to play for some quests.

There are daily quests to play in a walker, play as a mouse droid, etc. You have to pay credits for them. Like, no joke. It costs credits to do the quests. Needless to say that does not seem to appeal to most players, and the devs have not tried this again.

6. The walker segment in the story.

Because everyone LOVED the walker quests in KOTET so much (yes that is sarcasm), here they are again! And you have to fight three giant robots in close quarters! The fight against the three sentinel droids is horrendous and a lot of players have complained about it.

With the exception of the faction switching, IMHO Iokath should be held up as an example of What Not To Do. The result is a really great concept that fell really flat in execution and pissed off a lot of players.

[endlessdoom]

DBP21: Occult Secrets of the Third Reich on Mars

9 Maps by the Doomer Boards Community

2020

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/thread/112484

01. "Corporate Secrets" | Big Ol' Billy

Welcome to the dark past of the UAC. Or should I say, Ultimate Aryan Corporation? This is a great introductory map that tunes exploration with combat under a fun visual theme. 4/5

02. "The Final Frontier Solution" | Phobus

Shorter than the previous one but with a more powerful flow that follows a linear path full of enemies. Oh, and you bet your ass there will be a lot of Rammstein here. 3/5

03. "Blut und Eisen" | hardcore_gamer

Short level that has us moving in an almost straight line while crossing a variety of rooms in a kind of scientific base. 3/5

04. "Unterdämonen" | Big Ol' Billy

A Nazi base with a few secrets tucked between different zones with excellent encounters and variety in layout. 4/5

05. "Mars for the Reich" | Walter C. and Benjogami

A great map with a multitude of combats and a worthy ending. Entertaining encounters intertwined through a well-designed layout that promotes constant gameplay, without breaking the dynamics and always in motion. 4/5

06. "The Gas Chambers" | joe-ilya

Plenty of enemies and plenty of opportunity for combat make this map a fun example of satisfying power-fantasy. 4/5

07. "Ares Vallis" | glenzinho

Fantastical map full of action, fun and violence for everyone. Ultra-violence that is. That MIDI absolutely rocks. 5/5

08. "Drakoidian Outcast" | valkiriforce

Huge map with an intricate and complex system of interconnected paths that lead us through a glorious adventure of extermination. 4/5

09. "This Spell Banishes Space Fascists!" | Big Ol' Billy

A fantastic ending with an unexpected and welcome boss. With a fascinating design that encourages full movement under massive fire, this is a fantastic ending to a great WAD. 5/5

10. ‘‘End Credits’‘ |

And of course, the end. 3/5

Ending.

Overall:

» DBP21: Occult Secrets of the Third Reich on Mars (2020) By the Doomer Boards Community

Well, well, well, look what we have here, a conglomeration of the most controversial topics in history under a new coat of paint that may or may not have lots and lots of blood and some specks of Satanism. I can neither confirm nor deny that, yet on the other hand, I can confirm that what we have here is an absolute surreal work that brings us the best of both worlds in an engine ready to rumble, one where BJ would be happily smiling over all our glorious, rip and teary, work.

Occult Secrets of the Third Reich on Mars is a project created by the famous Doomer Boards krew where we are thrown into a world full of Nazis in space (Mars, to be exact) along with a few demons that possibly have something to do with all the related chaos. The project is an extensive example of the use of Wolf3D textures used under a strict but accurate layout system that creates images as provocative as cool to admire at all times, under any circumstances of combat and always with the great touch of quality. Self-proclaimed as the biggest agglomeration of sectored swastikas in history, I can say that probably that claim has a lot of weight confirming such a thing. Every map is a blast that shows us what Wolfenstein could have been if it had been given some love during the Doom era, luckily, Doom already gives it more than enough love in one form or another, otherwise, this project gives it not only a big hug of appreciation, but forms a respectful ode full of inspiration and grace.

As usual, I like to acknowledge the work of each mapper in these projects, even with a few words: Starting this time, we have none other than @Big Ol Billy with MAP01, an ambient intro that immediately traps us in the new spooky atmosphere while showing us some of the juice of the WAD. MAP02 by @Phobus pats us on the back as he throws us into a small but intense map with good flow. MAP03 by @hardcore_gamer shows classic tints in its design that remind me a lot of the original Wolf3D. MAP04 by @Big Ol Billy is a huge base with a multitude of secrets and interconnected paths that work synergistically to create a fun adventure. MAP05 created by @Walter C and @Benjogami expands on the previous map and opens the doors to exploration, intense combat and excellent entertainment that never stops. MAP06 is an opportunity to unleash our power-fantasy desires, created by @Joe-ilya, it pleasantly fulfills that function. MAP07 by @glenzinho is an absolute blast from start to finish that takes my heart by possessing an unstoppable flow, a fantastic layout with a well thought out design and a gameplay that combined with an exciting MIDI creates an orgasmic work of bloody proportions. MAP08 by @valkiriforce, as we can expect, is a huge labyrinthine adventure with a multitude of interconnected paths and an evolving level development that features different encounters with varied and entertaining combat. Finally, MAP09 by @Big Ol Billy brings us a rain of pain in a boss-fight arena where we face off against the boss of the Nazis on Mars. A glorious final battle that, accompanied with Rammstein, gives birth to a totally rewarding finisher. And of course, MAP10 is the credits map that curiously gives us, literally, the credits. Tarantino somewhere?

Occult Secrets of the Third Reich on Mars is a fantastic project from start to finish, with 10 total maps that are an absolute blast to play thanks to their incredible unparalleled presentation and excellent balance that allows players to enjoy a challenging but well-designed adventure for every type of doomer out there. I love the simple fact that it takes inspiration from the great father of all FPS's (at least that's what they call it) and recreates it in a new version that is able to present a unique, engaging, fun and well identifiable style. With great use of new textures and skins for the demons, as well as extra sounds and even a few new tricks up its sleeve, Occult Secrets of the Third Reich on Mars gives us a head-to-toe tribute to what Wolf 3D was and what it could have been. With little references like collecting the gold relics on the maps, or simply finding the hidden secrets where we can find wonders, WAD fulfills its purpose of delivering quality under a nice shade of, uh, Nazis and demons.

By this point, the projects have demonstrated a superior ability to enhance crazy ideas and give them new life. The idea of creating a WAD with such hardcore themes as Nazis, demons and gore in a total project of 10 maps sounds crazy, and could prove catastrophic if not done correctly. Fear not, for this WAD demonstrates with absolute grace how to create something that even though it sounds like a bad idea, can give a fantastic result. This WAD should definitely be on your must-play list, not only because of the simple idea and concept it brings to light, but because it's a blast that offers fun maps, with an entertaining combat flow and perfect MIDIs; do you like Rammstein? Do you like to have fun? Do you like Doom? You like… uh, forget it. Play this, dammit!

[blazehedgehog]

top 10 games of the decade?

This has been going around a lot, and honestly my problem is I don’t keep super close attention to what games came out in what years. So 2009-2019? What came out in that time period that I’ve played? I have no idea.

At best, we could use the new Steam interface to sort by release year, which gives a rough picture of some of my gaming habits, at least as far as the PC is concerned, but it tells me nothing about consoles or portables.

So let’s start narrowing down a list, I guess, of games I played a notable enough amount of time (and maybe even finished) to even consider for a list like this.

I’ll link it, because it’s kind of big.

So… narrowing that down to ten. Hm. I won’t number them, but:

Metal Gear Rising: Revengence (2013) Platinum Games’ finest hour, as far as I’m concerned. It’s typical Metal Gear absurdity cranked to 12. It’s hard to believe Hideo Kojima considered this a canonical piece of the Metal Gear timeline because it’s just so knowingly silly and over the top. It’s also Peak Platinum Games as far as having an intensely good-feeling combat engine goes. Just, all around, an outrageously fun game.

Sonic Generations (2011) For a brief moment, the world agreed: maybe Sonic could be good again? It didn’t last, because of course it didn’t, but even though I personally consider Sonic Unleashed a better game, I can’t rag on Sonic Generations too much, because it’s still a surprisingly well-rounded, enjoyable game, and still the best 3D Sonic game of the last 10 years.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) Any game I put 300 hours in to over the span of a year is probably worth putting on a list like this. Zelda games were getting so stale and Breath of the Wild effortlessly shakes off all the rust and dust and just goes hard on reinventing everything in such a smart, elegant, enjoyable way. Everything works together so well that it almost doesn’t feel fair for how effortless Nintendo makes it look. Like you handed them a rubik’s cube and they casually solved it in record time while everyone else is over in the corner still trying to line up the first two green squares.

Forza Horizon (2012) I like racing games, but I got really tired of racing games that take themselves too seriously. You either had the endlessly repetitive street racers of Need for Speed or the clinical blandness of games like Gran Turismo and Forza. Horizon came along and made me love Forza for finally injecting a bit of fun personality in to this series. By wrapping a shred of real humanity around all of this car culture stuff, it all clicked in to place.

Super Mario 3D Land (2011) Super Mario 3D Land kind of reinvented what a 3D Mario game even was. There was always a sense with Nintendo’s 3D platformers that they were kind of holding back, or at least designed in a certain way to help players stay oriented in 3D. To me, 3D Land, felt like finally ripping the training wheels off and getting back to 2D-style level design… while still being a 3D environment. Maybe my favorite 3D Mario game.

Super Mario Maker (2015) Nintendo finally gave us what we wanted: an official Mario level editor. It’s missing a lot of features you’d really want, but the fact that it exists at all still feels like kind of a miracle. And for as backwards as some things about it feel, enough of it is modern enough that it kind of doesn’t matter. You can make and share Mario levels! With your friends! Officially! That’s amazing!

Doom (2016) Controversial opinion: I think iD Software made more bad games than good. More mediocre games, at the very least. After Doom 2, the only game of theirs I’d say even approaches good was Quake 3 Arena, and even then, I’m not so sure that game was what I was really looking for, then or now. Doom 2016 is not only the comeback story of the century, but it blows the doors off of everything else so well that I didn’t even really care about how bad the game’s ending was. That’s just how good the rest of the game is. Doom 2016 succeeds where Quake failed, where RAGE failed, where Doom 3 failed. It’s “just more Doom,” but in the best ways possible.

The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2012) I have a lot of adventure games I’ve never finished. I finished The Walking Dead Season 1. This is the game that saved Telltale Games. It got me to watch part of the TV series. I felt emotions while playing this game that I don’t think any game has ever made me feel, before or since. I have a distinct memory of seeing these guys get an award at the VGAs, and as they came out on stage, they played the “Alive Inside” theme and just hearing that music again was like a lead weight in my chest. Even now, years and years later, it’s… heavy, hearing it again.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) The first, and possibly only, truly “good” Batman game. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the sequels to Asylum, but I don’t think any of them reach the same highs, from what I understand. This game put a lot of people, and things, on the map. A good, multi-directional combat system (so good that games are still referred to as having “Arkham combat”). A fully 3D Metroidvania that wasn’t necessarily an actual Metroid game. Reuniting the voice cast of Batman: The Animated Series. It’s not a perfect game, but dang if it isn’t still great.

Mario Kart 8 (2014) I debated on saying this was a tie with Sonic Racing Transformed, but that wouldn’t be fair, I guess. Mario Kart 8 is hands down my favorite Mario Kart, I’d say. It’s absolutely gorgeous, it has tons of tracks, and at least as far as the Wii U version goes, it’s actually balanced and fair in a way you don’t normally expect from a Mario Kart game. While I still love Sonic Racing Transformed greatly, there’s no denying that Mario Kart 8 is far more tight and polished than that game ever will be.

Honorable Mentions

Sonic Mania

Freedom Planet

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Bayonetta 2

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Dishonorable Mentions

Rocket Knight

Turtles in Time: Reshelled

Sonic Lost World

Parappa the Rapper Remastered

Yooka-Laylee

[scoutception]

Megami Tensei review: The Demon’s Souls to SMT

Shin Megami Tensei is one of the largest JRPG franchises to ever exist, spinning off into several branches such as Demon Summoner, Devil Survivor, and, of course, Persona. It regularly deconstructs the conflict of order vs chaos, the idea of using dangerous creatures as minions in combat, and just how ideal attempting to forge your own, separate path could actually end up. It's also usually extremely difficult and depressing, and God regularly being a jerk makes it unsurprising that it took about 2 decades for the franchise to actually gain a presence outside of Japan. While they’re regularly localized nowadays, many games still remain very obscure, including entire series branches. As someone who plays way more games from series he likes than he should, I’m going back to the very, very beginning of the entire franchise, before even the original Shin Megami Tensei: to the original Megami Tensei, or, more specifically, the SNES remake of Megami Tensei 1 and 2, made after the original SMT released.

Story

As inventive as SMT is, some of its main concepts weren’t of Atlus’ own invention. The original Megami Tensei was actually based on a (rather obscure) trilogy of Japanese novels, Digital Devil Story. The trilogy follows Akemi Nakajima, the reincarnation of Izanagi who invents a program that can summon demons, and Yumiko Shirasagi, his love interest and the reincarnation of Izanami, and their struggles against the demons that are unleashed the human world as a result, such as Loki, Set, and even Lucifer himself. The novels were about as depressing as many of the SMT games, with the ending of the third novel especially being about as bad as some of the worst endings throughout the games, and, as mentioned, invented many of the iconic SMT concepts, such as the COMP, using demons as minions, even the large presence of specific demons such as Cerberus and Lucifer. In fact, Megami Tensei (apparently) means goddess resurrection, referring to Izanami and Yumiko.

Quite a lot of information about a game that barely even has a story. Megami Tensei 1 was actually developed before the third novel was actually released, and thus has its own separate, and incompatible, story, though the development team seems to have at least known the general concept to it. The story is about a demonic palace that rises over the the tomb of Izanami, ruled by Lucifer, who has captured Izanami and plans to conquer the human world with the demonic legions within the palace, including a resurrected Loki and Set. Thus, Nakajima and Yumiko enter the palace to defeat Lucifer. That, about covers all the plot the game has to offer, though the ending contains a few hints of something greater I shall address in my review of the sequel.

Gameplay

Megami Tensei 1 is a dungeon craweler, and a rather revolutionary one at that. You progress through the various different areas of the palace, fighting off the various demons within and defeating Lucifer’s lieutenants, the Minotaur, Medusa, Loki, Hecate, and Set, before fighting Lucifer himself. What made this game stand out was its demon recruitment system. Normally, Nakajima and Yumiko are the only party members you have. Nakajima is physically based, though he also possesses the COMP, used to analyze enemies and summon recruited demons, while Yumiko is magically based, and has decent spell variety, including one that opens a mini map and one that returns you to your last used save point. However, while they may perform at least decently through the actual labyrinths, they have no chance of taking out the bosses on their own. Instead, Nakajima is allowed to converse with the demons they encounter and attempt to convince them to join their cause. Unfortunately, the demons, rather sensibly, aren’t exactly eager to join, and thus you have to work to get them on your side.

Demon conversations in SMT are known to be rather unpredictable and even frustrating to go through, but MT1′s system is rather simple, for better or worse. There’s 4 main options: make an offer, persuade, soothe, and intimidate. Making the demons an offer is the most consistent choice; they’ll ask for money or an item, and if you fulfill their request, they may join you. However, demons aren’t nice people. They make may multiple demands of you, and, even if you give them everything they want, they have a chance of just ditching you instead of joining. That’s why the soothe option exists. It allows you to try various calming actions, such as lowering your weapons or smiling. These have a random chance to either work, making the demon more likely to actually live up to its promise, or fail, in which case nothing changes. If you’re not in the mood for giving your stuff away, or are decently more powerful than the demon, you can instead try to intimidate them into joining. If you succeed, they join right there and then, but if you fail, they immediately attack you. As for persuade, to be frank, I’ve never noticed a difference from trying it. The demons will give various reactions to it, ranging from doubting you to mulling over whether or not to accept, though they will not actually join from persuasion alone. Once a demon joins you, Nakajima can summon in through the COMP, at the cost of some of your money, with stronger demons costing more money to summon. However, demons require a substance called magnetite to physically exist, within the human world, which translates to a certain amount of your magnetite, acquired from defeating demons or random treasure chests, being drained for every step you take in the labyrinths while having demons summoned, which increased based on both the strength of said demons and the amount of then you currently have summoned. Once magnetite runs out, the demons instead begin to lose health.

The main other wrinkle in your demon summoning adventures is that demons cannot actually become stronger on their own. While there’s plenty of decent demons throughout each area, the main method for building your party is by fusing demons at the Cathedral of Shadows, sacrificing two of them for a (usually) stronger one. The downside to this is that, unlike some later SMTs, there’s no demon compendium to keep track of or even resummon previous demons you’ve had, which is especially bad, as the combinations needed are very specific, due to the lack of elementals. While you can analyze the demons you encounter, after a certain amount of them, earlier entries get deleted. The last thing to mention regarding the demons is that they are divided into three moral alignments, evil, neutral, and good (the law, chaos, and neutral alignment system is not present in Megami Tensei 1 and 2). Evil demons are completely unrecruitable, either due to lack of sentience/means of communication, or simply due to them being malicious. Compared to the unrecruitable demons in SMT1, it’s much easier to tell which are and aren’t recruitable, as the only ones that even pretend to be open to conversation specifically ask to speak to you, sending you into a panic if you accept. Neutral demons are the recruitable randomly encountered ones, and good demons are obtainable through fusion, though they make up for it by having most of the most powerful demons in the game.

As for the rest of the gameplay, there’s some... questionable elements to it. Most SMTs are out for your blood, and this is no exception. Whether it be extremely limited healing items that only drop from demons, which demons may even ask for, to the actual combat system, which can feature up to 8 of a demon during random encounters, which your party members just swing at randomly, to mechanic with the bosses where, with the exception of the Minotaur, whose gimmick is just beating you up about as well as SMT4′s version of him, all of the bosses possess an extremely powerful ability, like Lucifer fully healing, which makes them extremely difficult, or, in the case of Hecate, flat out unfightable, as she just likes being invisible. This forces you to scrounge the areas for a special item that seals off their broken abilities and makes them reasonable. While it is an interesting idea to encourage exploration, it can be frustrating, especially with how large some of the later areas are.

Sound & Graphics

The graphics are about on par with the original Shin Megami Tensei, by which I mean not very good. The NPCs you encounter aren’t very detailed, and the battle and spell animations are pretty limited. The best looking part are the demons themselves, but even they don’t look great, at least partially because this game did not actually have Kazuma Kaneko, the main demon artist for the franchise, working on it. Thus, most demons look very different to their later designs, and not really for the better, especially Lucifer himself.

As for the sound, it gets the job done. Sound effects are nothing notable, and the music is, ok. There’s some decent, if ummemorable, tunes during area exploration, but any music having to do with battles is pretty dull.

Conclusion

Overall, I would have to say this game is not recommended. The lack of story, only adequate sound and graphics, and frustrating gameplay elements, including some things I didn’t even mention, like the rotting sea of flames that forces you to go through a lot of damage tiles until you get some protection, make the game feel very outdated and even dull. I did have some fun with it, and it was a very important game that set the foundations for one of the most interesting game franchises out there, but overall, that’s just what it is, the foundations.

If you actually read through all of this, thank you very much. This is the first written review I’ve done of a game, so I’m open to criticism. Otherwise, I’ll be back, with the much more interesting sequel, Megami Tensei 2.

-Scout

[operationrainfall]

Title Kawaii Deathu Desu Developer Pippin Games, Top Hat Studios Publisher Eastasiasoft, Top Hat Studios Release Date April 16th, 2020 (Switch); August 30th, 2019 (Steam) Genre Action, beat’em up, fighting, arcade Platform Nintendo Switch, Steam Age Rating Teen Official Website

What happens when you take GWAR and make them cute monster girls instead of alien warlords? Kawaii Deathu Desu is a start. Developed by Pippin Games and Top Hat Studios, KDD (as it’s affectionately referred to in-game) is a fast-paced beat’em up button masher in the vein of One Finger Death Punch. Nine adorable supernatural beings have found themselves incarnated as Japanese idols, and have decided the best way to lay claim to the throne of the underworld is to kill as many of their fans as possible. Whoever reaps the most souls wins. Pretty straightforward, honestly. And like GWAR, the fans are more than happy to throw themselves on stage to be slaughtered by their idol overlords. (Fun fact: I was killed by GWAR once. They sacrificed me to the Meat Grinder. It was a blast, and thankfully I recovered.)

Death-chan is your default idol and she’s a pretty fun introduction to the game’s simple but addictive mechanics.

Each of the girls has a unique moveset, though they generally fall into one of two camps: a mid-range melee or a short-range melee. For instance, Death-chan, the game’s default monster girl, wields a scythe that has some decent range on it. When she activates her special, she conjures a much larger scythe, extending the range of her melee attack across half the screen while retaining full mobility. On the other hand, Emmy (my monster girl of choice for the majority of my playthrough) is a brawler who uses her hands and feet to beat her fans to a pulp. Her special plants her in the center of the screen and she spits zombie bile at her approaching zealots who are slowed down by corpse hands rising from the floor. The rest of the girls follow similar patterns with different weapons.

Since each idol is locked except Death-chan, here’s your options: Death-chan, Emmy, Suu, Mary, Elysa, Abigail, Gummy, Ruka, and Mira.

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I played a review copy on the Nintendo Switch for about six hours, and the controls were very, very responsive. You use the left and right bumpers to attack in their respective directions, and every tap had my girl turning on a dime to maul whichever poor soul had ventured too close. The tight controls were great, especially in later levels and when tackling hard modes, because the fans come fast and often. Unlike One Finger Death Punch, where you’re penalized for button mashing, Kawaii Deathu Desu pretty much requires it, though you can make breathing room for yourself by focusing on one side of the screen and only turning around to take out faster-moving fans as they approach. At other times it’s just a mash-a-thon to keep them from touching you, which is actually kind of exhilarating.

The more fans you kill, the more your special gauge fills up and you can unleash particularly devastating attacks. Early on you’ll see this rarely and it doesn’t offer much help, but later on it can mean the difference between life and death. To trigger the special, you have to hit both left and right bumpers at once. I almost always triggered it without meaning to because of how rapidly I was weaving back and forth. While not terrible, it did end up feeling like there was no way to strategically use my special. The game is also on Steam, and this issue might not come up when you’re using a keypad or mouse, but on the Switch I’d almost rather it be automatic once the bar fills.

Gummy’s special move envelops her in a ball of goo and she attacks oncoming fans using tendrils from the floor.

What’s nice about the controls is how easy the game is to pick up. There’s virtually no learning curve, and the pop aesthetic of the game itself is very inviting. My nine-year-old was able to pick up a Joy-Con and play with me without any hassle. What is a hassle is the fact you cannot remap the buttons on the Switch. I almost exclusively used a Pro Controller when playing, and my fingers would ache after about 20 minutes. Playing in handheld mode on the Switch itself was even worse. Constantly mashing your index fingers on the tiny bumpers made for a painful gaming session, and KDD is incredibly grindy. Playing PVP isn’t any better, as the game forces you to use individual Joy-Con, to which even my son felt the buttons were too small to play comfortably. (As an addendum, you can remap buttons on the Switch itself, though you cannot make it game-specific – or rather, I couldn’t figure out how if you can. This is a workaround if you intend on having long gaming sessions, but it’s cumbersome. Ideally, I’d prefer being able to remap in the game itself.)

The game suffers from a few other quality of life issues, the least of which is that confirm is mapped to the B button. As any Switch owner can tell you, confirm should be mapped to the A button, and it throws me for a loop every time. The UI is pretty cumbersome as well, and nothing aggravates me more than when I back out of a level to move on to another and it knocks me all the way back to the character select screen. When working your way through the game, you also cannot access the Hard or Insane modes until playing each Normal stage three times. It felt needlessly gatekeepy. The game also lacks any sort of information guide. Your monster girl has multiple stats you can level up using souls, but none of those stats are explained. Some are easy to infer (Life, Block), but others aren’t so straightforward. I think Magic is how long your special lasts? But I’m not sure.

I also stumbled across what I can only assume is a glitch. KDD has achievements for each character, which are nice motivators to keep playing. One of them is leveling each character to her max level. I maxed out Emmy at level 10, but her achievement says I’m still only 77% of the way toward the goal. It’s not a deal breaker or anything, but it does irk me a bit.

I’m not entirely sure why this says I’m only at 77% when my Emmy is maxed.

Speaking of souls, everything in KDD relies on them. Leveling up a character? Souls. Unlocking a new monster girl? Souls. Buying outfits for your idol? Souls. As far as I can tell there are no micro-transactions to be seen in the game (thank goodness!), so I expect some grinding, but coupled with how painful it is to play for extended periods, that grind feels interminable. As it is, I was able to level Emmy and unlock each idol, but never bothered leveling up anyone else or going for outfits.

One of my favorite aspects of the game was the music. This is a chiptune lover’s paradise. The game is broken up into four countries with three venues each: Japan, China, America, and Brazil. Each country has a distinct sound, which I really liked. Some of the tracks are absolute bangers (my favorites were “Tashite,” “Oturan,” “Fruity Dance,” and “Na Town Pongster”) but there are several that didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I do wish though that a game focused on idols had done more with that concept musically. With so many characters, I’d have loved to see character songs or boss levels that showcased each girl’s style of music. What we got was good, it just feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

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Kawaii Deathu Desu is a fun time waster that would really benefit from some quality of life changes. (My soul for a button remap option!) For someone looking for a quick, simple gameplay experience, you can’t really go wrong picking it up.

KDD is available on Steam for $3.99 USD (or $4.99 if you also want the soundtrack), and $4.99 on the Nintendo eShop.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″]

Review copy provided by the publisher.

REVIEW: Kawaii Deathu Desu Title Kawaii Deathu Desu

[ramialkarmi]

The car that saved Porsche isn't perfect, but it's close

The Porsche Boxster is one of the most successful and controversial sports cars to hit the market recently.

Upon its debut in 1996, many Porsche purists saw its water-cooled engine and mid-engine layout as an affront to brand's iconic rear-engine, then-air-cooled 911 flagship.

At the same time, the car's supporters praised the first-generation 986 Boxster for its superb driving dynamics and effervescent personality.

The Boxster is now in its third generation. For 2017, Porsche gave the roadster and its sister model, the Cayman Coupe, new names. The duo are known as the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman in reference to the four-cylinder 718 race cars that Porsche campaigned in the 1950s and '60s.

I was excited to find the latest version of the sports car waiting for me at the airport on a recent trip to Atlanta — home of Porsche Cars North America.

And what a sight to behold! A 2017 718 Boxster S in agate grey metallic livery with a red retractable convertible top.

But first some Porsche history

Today, Porsche is a financial juggernaut, and the company's profit margins are the envy of the car industry. In 2016, the German automaker sold more than 237,000 cars around the world while generating $24 billion in revenue.

Two decades ago, things were very different at Porsche. A recession, coupled with an uncompetitive lineup of aging products, led to dwindling sales that pushed the company to the brink of financial ruin.

The trouble arrived swiftly. In 1986, Porsche was flying high, having sold more than 30,000 cars in the US and Canada that year. But by 1993, sales had withered to just 3,700 cars. Enter the Boxster. In 1996, the Boxster's first production year, Porsche sold 7,500 cars in the US and Canada. By 1997, that number had nearly doubled, to almost 14,000 cars. Last year, that number topped 54,000.

The financial windfall from the worldwide release of the Boxster allowed Porsche to make the changes that put the company on the path to long-term success, including the development of a water-cooled engine for the iconic 911 as well as laying the groundwork for the Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan.

Less engine, more speed

In addition to a new name, Porsche gave its mid-engine sports car a new heart. Gone is the brand's trademark horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine. In its place is a brand-new turbocharged flat four cylinder.

That's right! It finally happened.

For many years, fans of the car have asked Porsche to unleash the beast and introduce a Boxster Turbo. Porsche refrained from doing so for a variety of reasons, ranging from protecting the iconic 911's performance supremacy to the challenges of cooling a turbocharged flat-six inside the Boxster's compact engine compartment.

The new turbo-four, developed at the greatest expense by Porsche, especially for the 718, comes in two flavors. The base 718 gets a 2.0-liter version with 300 horsepower, while the S variant gets a 2.5-liter unit with 350 ponies.

Both turbo fours come standard with an old-fashioned six-speed manual; the seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) manumatic transmission is available as an option.

The drive

We opted for the always engaging stick shift.

Thank goodness we did, too, because the new four-banger in our Boxster S proved to be an absolute joy. Even though the engine doesn't unleash all 350 of its horsepower until relatively high in the rev range, drivers can tap into its 309 pound-feet of torque at just 1,900 rpms.

The result is acceleration — lots of it, and with little to no turbo lag. In addition, the engine's relatively broad power band means the driver doesn't have to be overly precise in his or her rev matching to get the most out of the 718.

According to Porsche, the manual-transmission Boxster S can hit 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds while cars equipped with PDK and launch control can make the sprint in 4 seconds flat. All Boxster S vehicles have a manufacturer-claimed top speed of 177 mph.

(The base Boxster with the manual does 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, while the PDK and launch-control-equipped version can make the sprint in 4.5 seconds, according to Porsche. The 718 Boxster has a top speed of 170 mph.)

At the same time, the 350 horsepower four-cylinder engine delivers solid miles per gallon — 20 city/26 highway/22 combined. With PDK, those numbers improve to 21/28/24.

On the twisty mountain roads of North Georgia, the 718 earned its keep and then some, attacking each bend with poise and purpose. The adjustable PASM sport suspension and torque-vectoring system teamed up to help the Porsche power through the corners.

Even in the rain, the rear-wheel-drive sports car never lost its cool or led you to distrust its ability to stay on the straight and narrow. In fact, the deftly tuned suspension and intricately balanced chassis help make the Boxster one of finest-driving road cars in the world — on par even the gold standard of sports cars: Porsche's own 911.

At the same time, our Boxster S felt perfectly at peace cruising around with the top down at a leisurely pace on a sunny Saturday afternoon. With the 718, Porsche's chassis and suspension tuning has truly reached new levels of excellence.

But it's the personality of the Boxster that separates it from the 911. Whereas the critically acclaimed older brother is a serious world-class athlete living with pressure of winning at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the little brother has no such burden. Instead, the Boxster is all about having fun. And behind the wheel, it's a point that the Porsche makes abundantly clear.

Beauty and comfort

Overall, the Boxster's looks are, well, unmistakably Boxster.

For 2017, Porsche refreshed the aesthetics of the third-generation Boxster with some tweaks. Updates to the front and rear fascia — including new LED headlights, redesigned vertical front intakes, and modified rear deck lid — are subtle but tasteful alterations to an already attractive design.

Inside the cozy cockpit the driver is treated to a fine blend of style, luxury, and utility. Our tester came covered in a lush Bordeaux-red leather — a $2,950 option — tastefully off set by metallic accents. The Boxster's well-bolstered vented seats offer solid support in the corners while proving themselves to be remarkably comfortable on longer drives.

The new 718 is fitted with the latest generation of the company's PCM infotainment system, running through a seven-inch touchscreen display. The new PCM system's user interface, functionality, and responsiveness are significant improvements over the outgoing version. With that said, it's still not quite as good as the best systems from GM, Ford, and Porsche's corporate sibling, Audi.

Fortunately, PCM now features full Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration — a feature of which I made abundant use.

Our test car's infotainment system came equipped with Porsche Connect Plus — a $1,300 option — which upgrades the car's navigation system to include real-time traffic information along with Google Earth and Google Street View mapping services.

Even though the 718 Boxster S tips the scale at the lithe 2,944 pounds, it's a small package that offers a surprising level of utility. With the engine mounted low and behind the driver, the car features both a frunk (front trunk) and a traditional rear trunk. The deep 5.3-cubic-foot frunk made easy work of my full-size suitcase, while the shallow 4.4-cubic-foot trunk took care of my backpack and smaller pieces of luggage.

Not quite perfect

The 718 Boxster S is not without faults.

First, as amazing as the four-cylinder may be, it doesn't provide the same ear-pleasing exhaust acoustics as the six-cylinder it replaces. Even with the upgraded sport pipes, the 718 sounds like a Subaru. That makes sense, because they are really the only other cars on the road with this type of engine. But that's simply not good enough, especially when you consider the car's price of entry. (More on that later.) Porsche's sports cars are known for emitting a very distinctive timbre, and it's part of the experience that is lacking here.

In addition, the 718 is pricey — especially once you pack on the options. The base 718 Boxster starts at about $57,000, while the Boxster S starts at over $68,000. Our option-laden S-variant test car left the showroom at $89,690. Yikes!

That puts the Boxster S squarely in the crosshairs of more powerful V8-powered sports cars, such as the 460-horsepower Corvette Grand Sport and the 550-horsepower Jaguar F-Type R. In addition, our Boxster S came out to be roughly $15,000 more expensive than the as-tested price of the more exotic carbon-fiber Alfa Romeo 4C Spider.

Conclusion

Sure, it's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close. The new four-cylinder lacks the soulful exhaust note of its predecessor, and its price tag can be a bit scary for the pocketbook. But these faults are far outweighed by the astonishing performance of the engine, the confidence-inspiring nature of the chassis, and enjoyability of the overall experience. As for the price, no one ever said Porsche excellence was cheap.

It's fun, it's capable, and it's surprisingly easy to live with. When it's all said and done, you can't help love the Porsche 718 Boxster S.

SEE ALSO: I drove the fastest Jaguar sports car in the world — and it was incredible

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