#when it's just? not true for many playthroughs just based on recruiting order

[rivilu]

Highly recommend bringing Anders as the sole mage with you when recruiting Fenris at least once, because MAN the dialogue he has in that situation lives in my mind rent free

edit: here it is

[butwhatifidothis]

"CF is the best route. Edelgard and her empire are the true heroes." has the same energy as the following:

- Wiping out the Air Nomads, SWT waterbenders, and invading the Earth Kingdom are right. The Fire Nation are the heroes.

- Wiping out all the Jedi, destroying planets, and committing who knows how many war crimes are right. The Empire and the First Order are heroes.

- Invading Wutai, doing human experimentations, and wiping out civilians to take out dissenters are right. The Shinra Company are the heroes.

- Attacking schools and discriminating against all non-pureblooded human magic users are right. The Death Eaters are the heroes.

Feel free to add more. However, it's a bit concerning how reading comprehension is a lackluster skill among many these days. Is it so difficult to tell right from wrong anymore?

Or maybe people nowadays are incapable of separating fiction from reality? They believe that their media consumption and preferences are a reflection of their morality, so they do their best to unneccesarily justify evil acts in stories.

Or have people been enjoying too many anti-hero and anti-villain stories that they can not tell which is which anymore?

I’d say it’s a combination of all three to an extent, with some “first time player” bias thrown in.

Like, I’m not going to blame a player that’s just picked up 3H and fell for the honeypot of Edelgard and believes what she says - her viewpoint is the first and nearly exclusive one that new player is going to see the game through, so it makes sense for them to see Fodlan through her eyes and coming to similar conclusions as her. There’s no immediate reason for a new player to distrust her other than some worrying lines of dialogue that can reasonably (to some extent) be looked over. Her being like Lonato and being willing to sacrifice her people? She’s being extreme now, she’ll grow out of it later. Her starting a war? Church bad (since of course it is), she had no choice. Her racist remarks against the Nabateans? Church bad and they run Church so They’re Bad. 

It’s when they have time to set down the game from their first playthrough and either play through it again or go over the details of CF that they’d probably start to realize all of the cracks in the narrative Edelgard spins. Why’s a scholar talking about how history is written based on who won? Why is there someone right before post ts that talks about not trusting everything Edelgard says? Why does Edelgard talk about “chiding” Arundel if she’s supposedly at his mercy? Why does a recruited Ashe talk about the people starving due to Edelgard’s war? Why does Petra still call herself a hostage? Why does Hanneman call Demonic Beasts war assets? Why is Hubert spying on the populace? Why is the Church only allowed under state supervision? etc. etc..

And from there that player could moves onto Edelgard herself: Why did she take Bylelth’s credit at the siege of Garreg Mach? Why did she lie to her friends about Arianrhod? Did she grow from her pre ts “I’m like Lonato” mindset? Which then evolves into playing any of the other routes and seeing what Edelgard is really capable of, compared to when Dimitri and Claude were her enemies and what they are capable of doing.

The problem comes from Edelstans never getting out of that “first time player” mindset and holding tight to that initial first impression of Edelgard as this brave revolutionary and either never bothering to read anything that contradicts it, or (more frustratingly) they read the contradictions and bend them to somehow still depict Edelgard as this paragon of good (while still totally being morally gray while also never actually doing anything that bad at the same time). They will grasp at anything to point at other character and go off about how bad they are, actually (”Look at the calendar, it said it was a sneak attack! Claude didn’t give her time to prepare to evacuate the citizens, he’s trying to make her look bad!”) or even worse straight up get shit wrong and claim the same thing (”Dimitri forced his men to take the Crest Stones, he was so desperate to kill Edelgard! He doesn’t care for the lives of his friends!”)

They also throw real life events onto Edelgard as if to justify why it’s okay to like her (while not realizing the very easy-to-open door they are building when doing so - think ya know what I mean, yikes) like they haven’t realized that it’s okay to like a villain who does bad things. That their fictional tastes are not inherently indicative of what they’re like irl. A slasher lover isn’t always daydreaming of hunting down the camp goers, and the same applies here. It’s genuinely so hard to have a conversation with them because they’re just so fervent about Edelgard always or almost always being the morally best of all the main characters, the most right who’s rarely wrong, who’s rarely done any real wrong unlike Dimitri and Claude and Rhea who clearly are way worse. They rarely accept whenever they’re wrong (which, let’s face it, is often, since they’re going off bad information and touting it as fact) and instead badmouth whoever dares to not think Edelgard is The Best Thing To Hit Fire Emblem. Whatever their reasoning for thinking that way is, it’s just tiring.

[four-loose-screws]

An Interview with Mr. Toshiyuki Toyonaga about Fire Emblem (Claude‘s Japanese VA), Pg. 8

Looking Back On Our Memories of FE And Its 30 Year History

During the “Fire Emblem Live Broadcast Round Table Discussion” we hosted and planned especially for the series’ thirty year anniversary, Toyonaga-san appeared as one of our guests. In this section, we asked him about his memories of previous titles in the series in more depth, all while looking through an illustration collection included in a previous issue of Nintendo Dream.

Everyone looks back on the past 30 years together

Fire Emblem Live Broadcast Round Table Discussion

(left) During the broad cast, Mr. Toyonaga explained to us that when he was wondering how to act out the support conversations that can be viewed during both the Academy Phase and the War Phase, he was told, "Just imagine it's three years after the time skip!"

T/N: The word on the screenshot reads "generic."

You want to play Castor from Mystery of the Emblem!?

During the live broadcast, you said that you think the first FE game you really played on your own was Genealogy of the Holy War on the Super Famicom. Did your aunt also let you play Mystery of the Emblem?

Toyonaga     She did let me play Mystery of the Emblem. I just think that I played Genealogy first. The games belonged to her, so I’m pretty sure I played Genealogy first, then Mystery of the Emblem second. The first game I bought on my own was… The Binding Blade, I believe.

Did you use the characters that you said you wanted to voice, Ryan and Castor, in your playthroughs?

Toyonaga     I did level up Ryan. Castor, on the other hand… no comment. Laughs.

Laughs. Were there any characters that you used because they were in a similar position as Arden, and you felt bad for them?

Toyonaga     Castor and Matthis.፠ But I used them during different playthroughs.

You may have used them during different playthroughs, but it’s amazing that you even remember a detail like that!

Toyonaga     It is. As a person who has always needed money, Castor left a really strong impression. The inclusion of conversations like that one made the games really fun to play.

(above) Using a video we recorded for the live broadcast, Mr. Toyonaga did a live recording of both Ryan and Castor!

Talking more about Genealogy of the Holy War, one of the great definitive titles of the series

How many times have you played through Genealogy of the Holy War?

Toyonaga     Three times, I think? I know I played it normally the first time. I applaud the game for it’s pairing and child system, and how you can pair characters together to raise their affection and marry them, then pass skills on to their children. So during my second playthrough, I planned out who should marry who for the children to inherit certain skills, and kept putting the couples in forests next to each other. ...I mean, they fought together and talked to each other! Laughs. I remember my third playthrough was an Arden challenge run.

That’s the challenge you talked about during the live broadcast, right? As an armor knight, Arden moves slowly, and doesn’t get much use in the game, so you only had him progress through the maps…

Toyonaga     Yes. During the prologue, I had him guard Chalphy Castle, used Sigurd to lure in the enemies, then had Sigurd enter the castle while Arden defeated all of them. After Arvis appeared, he defeated the boss, and after that I captured the castle. That’s how that map progressed. In the next chapter, I didn’t recruit Ayra, and she killed Arden. No matter what I did, he couldn’t win against Ayra. Laughs. I felt totally stuck, so I gave up.

(above) “Chief Feh” (voiced by Takehito Koyasu) lead the live discussion, and sparked a nostalgic conversation about memories of previous games.

So it sounds like you did your best to utilize the marriage system on your second playthrough.

Toyonaga     That’s correct. I wasn’t aware of it during my first playthrough, and there were a lot of characters that didn't inherit anything.

Were there any skills or weapons that you were particular about being passed down?

Toyonaga     Ayra’s Astra and Chulainn’s Luna. I wanted to make a character who could attack five times in succession while also making the enemy’s defense zero. Aside from that, I couldn’t decide if I should pair Edain with Jamke or Midir, so I went with the most common choice. I also thought about things like how strong Noishe’s skills are, and what would happen if they were passed down to the second generation; as well as how to combine Pursuit and Adept. 

When you’ve played every game in the series until that point, you want to counterattack.

Toyonaga     Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. Laughs.

There are some children who don’t come from bloodlines with Pursuit, so…

Toyonaga     Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, that’s right! That’s why I remember it being hard to make any marriage decisions. If I can buy a strategy guide then I will, but I was the type not to look at it until I finished the game myself. I remember playing the entire game, then once I had a good understanding of it, I looked at how the strategy guide did things, and enjoyed thinking things like, “You could move the characters around like that?!” and “So I could have utilized that sort of combination, huh?” There were a lot of people like that in our generation, I think. Laughs. As the internet grew in popularity, and strategy guide-type websites started to appear, things that I used to mull over for several days and nights were now all written out in the open! I thought “Whoa!” when I saw them, and also thought that we really are in an age of convenience now. But the present is the present, and when I look back on that time I spent lost over what to do, I remember it was also a lot of fun. So even now, I often play games on my own and I don’t look at strategy sites very much.

You said that you're hoping for a Geneaology remake. What aspects of the game do you want modernized?

Toyonaga     First and foremost, I’d look forward to the graphics. Of course I would also enjoy the event scenes, but, just like in Three Houses, when you see the zoomed in map, I’d like to be able to see not only the character being focused on, but also all of the other soldiers. Although instead, I’d rather they not seem like they are all fighting together, but something more realistic. That’s the kind of experience I’d like to have while playing Genealogy.

Seeing various types of battalions make an appearance seems like it would fit in Genealogy.

Toyonaga     I want a class change system with full customization like Awakening has, too, where characters other than priests can class change into priests, and things like that. I think that kind of class change system with a lot of personalization is fun. Also, in Genealogy, I remember really enjoying the very spacious maps where you conquer castles within them one by one. So if the game is remade, I’d like the maps to unfold in a way where once you conquer the first castle, that castle becomes the base, then the map shifts and expands in order to make it to the next castle. …Something like that to make the map unfold seamlessly. Then, in a fashion similar to an open world game, you would make your preparations at that base castle, then attack from there. If I could plan my strategies like that, then I might play the game forever, I think!

That way of expanding the image of what you can see feels very fitting for a next generation Fire Emblem.

Toyonaga     I agree. It’s something I’m personally looking forward to. Laughs.

፠ Castor: A hunter from Talys who was hired by pirates in order to save up money for his mother’s medication. In his recruitment conversation, he becomes your ally when you give him money, earning him the nickname “Talys’ Swindler.”

፠ Matthis: Lena’s older brother. He is a member of the enemy army when he finds Lena on the battlefield, but will even attack Lena for some reason, earning him the nickname, “Lena’s Idiot Brother.”

፠ A bloodline without Pursuit: One of the basic features in Fire Emblem is the ability to counterattack if one character’s speed is a set value higher than their opponents. However, in Genealogy, if a character does not have “Pursuit” as either a class skill or a personal skill, then they cannot counterattack, no matter their speed value.

[ships-n-giggles]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity; How Nintendo Subverted Expectations and Emphasizes Unity over the Lone Hero Trope

Having played Age of Calamity to death, I was one of the many people who expected the same outcome of a prequel to the much beloved Breath of the Wild; an exciting, battle based game that ultimately confirms the outcome that we see in flashbacks of Link’s service to the princess before his 100 year slumber, a tragedy waiting to happen.

But, spoilers down below, the rug gets pulled from under your feet in the most positive and heartwarming way.

In order to emphasize the message of Age of Calamity, let’s return to Breath of the Wild for a minute. The game shows very clearly that this follows the Hero’s Journey, which we’ve played many times before in Zelda games. This Lone Hero Trope, as I call it, is the dedication of a single person for a greater cause, who shoulders heavy burdens on their own in order to carry out a noble mission. Both Link AND Zelda represent this trope! Not only do we learn of Zelda’s quiet, lone suffering as she struggles and fails to achieve her inner sealing power, but we see it visually when we play as Link, following his quest to defeat Ganon.

Just look at the Memory Images Link follows. When each one opens up, Link and Zelda often stand apart as time begins. Even their fellow Champions stand apart during the first memory where Link is being knighted, expressing doubts and concerns, while Zelda shrinks with reluctance.

But then when we see the opening scene of the first playthrough mission of Age of Calamity, our first shot of Link not only has him teaming up with an entire platoon, but they’re all united. Standing together, roused by a common cause to fight evil, and positioned close together. In many of the cutscenes thereafter, there’s an increasing closeness to all the characters, and a budding sense of familiarity.

What changed? Baby Guardian.

The Baby Guardian is only given a short period of time to be seen by the audience in the opening prequel, awakened by Zelda’s sealing power, and urged to flee back to the past to find her. We see the shift from Lone Hero to Unity right away; Baby Guardian knows they can’t carry out the rescue of Hyrule on their own and instinctively goes to find someone he KNOWS can. In doing so, he finds Link and Impa, who are pulled to Zelda’s side while chasing him. From then on out, this change draws more and more people together.

Now I have my own theory, which you can agree or disagree with. What we see of Baby Guardian in Zelda’s flashbacks of him hark to a childhood when her mother the Queen was still alive. And, to a smaller degree, we can connect this memory to another one not seen, but shown when Zelda gives her father a tool she and her mother found while investigating Sheikah technology.

Though her mother is dead, she is still sending means to protect her family, all of which are only achieved when the characters communicate and listen to each other. King Rhoam would most certainly have perished to the Guardian assault on Hyrule Castle if he had not accepted the tool Zelda gave him, and Zelda would not have developed her power to fight with the Sheikah tools had Baby Guardian not arrived either.

The very fact that there are literal swarms of monsters, more intense challenges, only drives home how hard it is to take someone down when they’re not alone. Any of the playable characters can take down literally hundreds if not THOUSANDS of monsters at a time because in most cases, they’re not doing it on their own. Just look at the characters we can recruit; while Hetsu, the Great Fairies, and Monk Maz Koshia are all aids to Link’s journey in Breath of the Wild, we never receive their aid as staunchly as we do in Age of Calamity. Even Kohga ends up joining the fight, when it becomes clear that Astor is a threat to their existence. And the more that join, the greater the offense.

Why change the future? What turns this prequel into a spinoff with a happy ending? It’s a shift in mindsets; from Rhoam’s to Baby Guardians.

Whether you can appreciate the King of Hyrule as a complex character or hate him for being a terrible father, the fact of the matter is that he is not only a leader, but a manifestation of Hyrule as a kingdom All kings more or less fill this role as a model for what a kingdom could be. Rhoam undoubtedly was raised to follow the Hero’s Journey to the letter, to expect a princess with sealing powers, a Hylian with a sword to seal the darkness and a monster to overcome. But when things don’t happen the way the stories tell him, like when Zelda can’t access her sealing power, he only buckles down on the importance of sole strength.

This ends up being a fatal flaw in Breath of the Wild, as he ends up pushing his daughter away. In his diary, readable in Hyrule Castle if you access his private office, we see his regrets, and decision to accept her no matter what....all far too late by the time he writes them.

But in Age of Calamity, when faced with the huge group Zelda has gathered with Baby Guardian’s help, as well as having been rescued by the very technology he tried to urge Zelda away from, he can’t deny the facts any longer. After Rhoam is recruited as a playable character, we see much less of him as a leader. He’s accepted his daughter’s growth, aided by the help of her friends, and seen the truth for what it is.

That a people united is a people saved.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I love Breath of the Wild. The music, the challenging shrines and boss battles, all of it. However Age of Calamity hit me emotionally and more or less exposed some of the weaknesses of most Zelda games. While there have been mild exceptions, we’re so used to carrying the burden of saving the whole world on our own, we forget just what a crushing responsibility it must be for these young people. We can see it in Zelda’s heartbreaking scene in the Spring of Courage, cursing her fate, pushed to tears, and standing apart. It sends a particularly poignant message to me now, often feeling like the only way something can get done is if I do it on my own.

But Breath of the Wild is evidence to why this doesn’t work. While we can see a true victory over Ganon, a kingdom saved, and a princess rescued, we also see the toll it took before it could be achieved. The Champions, King, and countless other civilians and soldiers are killed. Zelda and Link are left alone again to pick up the pieces of a fractured, weakened kingdom. The Hero’s Journey is set to continue, a long, solitary journey of hardship.

Age of Calamity on the other hand, showed how beneficial and wonderful it is to conquer a daunting world with your friends. Not only does it spirit you to the end of your journey faster, but it reinforces the message that “burdens shared are burdens halved”. And we get to save our friends, by calling upon the ones we made in Breath of the Wild through Riju, Teba, Sidon, and Yunobo. Most of the missions playable in the game, at least for replay, are able to be done by ANYONE. If you play the final battle with Link, you can replay it with Baby Guardian.

Anyone can be a hero if you fight together.

[bandyisdandy]

Persona 4 Golden - The Rainbow Connection (2/10/21)

Anyone who knows me within the space of gaming knows that my favorite game of all time is arguably Persona 5 Royal. The game just oozes personality and fun from the get-go. It is easy enough to pick up and check out, but also deep enough to keep you engaged for hours upon hours, hungering for more even after the credits roll on your 80 to 120 hour experience. Saying this, I also have to admit that, while it is the fifth entry in the franchise, I had never played another Persona before vanilla 5. Whenever hardcore players of the series I met over the years heard this, they insisted I play 3 and/or 4 before I go on saying that 5/Royal is my favorite in the franchise. This past January, I decided to finally pull the trigger and check out Persona 4 Golden on Steam. After playing the game for about 70 hours, I defeated the true final boss and finally put the controller down for a bit. All I can say is... what a god damn magical experience this was.

Persona 4 is a JRPG (Japanese Role-playing Game) that puts you in control of Yu, a high schooler living in the middle of Tokyo who is moving in to the country with his police officer uncle and young cousin while his parents go away for a year on business. While there, you meet a young man named Yosuke and a girl named Chie who tell you about a mysterious phenomenon known as the Midnight Channel that shows up when a heavy fog rolls into town and the clock strikes midnight. One night, while viewing this phenomenon, a girl appears in the screen who looks an awful lot like a senior to the students at their school. The next day, her corpse is found strung up on a telephone pole, baffling the police due to the fact that a similar death took place around the time of Yu’s arrival. While investigating the murder of their senior, Yu and Yosuke discover they can enter a special television at a department store, where they meet Teddie, a living teddy bear who can lead them through the fog-dense world within the TV. Upon finding a space where their senior once was, they fight beings known as Shadows and awaken Persona, living embodiments of their fighting spirit as well as their own belief and acceptance of themselves in order to do combat with the Shadows. After their victory, they figure out that someone pushed the upperclassman into the world within the television and the Midnight Channel prophesizes the deaths of those who appear on it. Using this knowledge, Yu and Yosuke continue to make friends, investigate the case, and do their best to uncover the culprit before a year is up and Yu must return home.

... That seems like a lot, right? Well, crazily enough, that is probably the first 5 hours or so at most, and there is another 65+ to go in your first playthrough. Now, this game, at first, is a tough sell especially if you are like me and played 5/Royal first as those games have spoiled our perceptions of what the franchise is and can be. Persona 4 Golden is definitely a step down visually as well as design and music-wise in comparison to 5. It just does not have the same substance that game does and the gameplay, in comparison, feels a bit dated here. The Shadows you encounter in 5′s dungeons are also the enemies you actually fight this time around and the Tarot Card system makes collecting and recruiting Persona much more annoying than the way 5 handles it in combat. However, while it sounds like I am being quite harsh on the game, in reality, this is by and far one of the best JRPGs I have ever played and cannot be recommended by me more. Since I got all the negatives out of the way, let’s look at the heaps of praise I have for this triumph of a game.

First and foremost, what really sets this game above and beyond a lot of others, maybe even doing this better in many respects than Persona 5/Royal, is the characters. Every character is just so damn interesting, and really adds so much charm to what is already a rather charming game. They bring the story as well as the countryside town you now find yourself in that much brighter and bigger. Each one has goals, values, idealizations, and realizations that flesh them out more than most games I have played, all of them having incredibly satisfying conclusions to their stories. Some stand outs for me are your young cousin Nanako, who is lonely due to her father always working as a police officer and her mother passing away in a car accident a few years prior to the start of the game, Kanji Tatsumi, a punk who uses violence and fear to mask his incredibly soft, caring side that enjoys arts and crafting more than he would care to admit, and Naoto Shirogane, a young detective hiding her femininity in order to find power and prestige in the world of private investigation which, in Japan especially, is a male dominated field - these are just some of the memorable characters you will meet. I am currently doing a second playthrough and have already met two characters I never encountered in my first playthrough that are honestly becoming some of my favorites in the series! Building relationships (yes, even romantic ones with your female classmates) is key to not only finding out more about them, but also key to getting stronger, unlocking abilities and weapons for you to use in your playthrough that will seriously make the game not only easier but I would go as far as to say more fun in regards to what possibilities open up to you in combat. Growing the bond between you and your friends within your party is also the only way to strengthen and evolve their Persona to bigger and better forms, making combat flow easier but also giving one a true sense of power, purpose and meaning in the memories you create with Yosuke and the gang.

The other thing that really made me fall in love with Persona 4 Golden is its story and location. While the bustling cityscape of Tokyo and Shibuya really makes Persona 5 and Royal feel big and grandiose in its vision of what a modern JRPG can be, Persona 4 Golden, while feeling smaller in comparison, feels much more unique and, weirdly enough, nostalgic - at least for me. The town of Inaba is small with little to do at first, but it still has some beautiful and honestly quite intriguing sights to see (I’m looking at you, Greedy Shrine Fox). As you become more accustomed to the town and what it offers, it surprises you and opens up even more based on your time within the game, the weather outside, and even the time of the day you are out and about exploring. I grew up in a small town outside of Boston and while it’s not exactly like Inaba, the parts I spent most of my days remind me of it - areas covered in trees near streams with small restaurants and bars nearby, nature trails to walk, seeing mostly the same people each and every day - it really sent me back to life growing up when I was the age of the characters and truly made the game something memorable and instantly connected me to what was happening. As for the plot, I am a sucker for a murder mystery - I love true crime and have always loved police or detective shows growing up. Being able to work towards a case and have your decisions, investigations, and choices up to certain points have merit and weight behind them in regards to what ending you get is absolutely amazing and really sets the tone for a game that shrouds you in mystery and keeps you at the edge of your seat at all times, all the while still finding the time to help you enjoy the ride with laughter, tears, and dialogue that just really gets to you from beginning to end, sticking with you even after you’ve beaten it. Throw in some seriously fantastic boss fights, great music, and top notch voice acting for the time and it all adds up to a package with so much content and so much to tell you along the way that you just can’t help but keep playing until you absolutely have to put it down, only to continue for hours and hours later on.

All in all, Persona 4 Golden is a seriously fun game. While I still think Persona 5 Royal is a better game than it, I cannot stop thinking about the journey it took me on. The places I saw, the people I met and became friends with along the way - it’s a surreal, dream-like game that really gets you thinking right from the beginning and keeps you on your toes until the bitter end. I found myself engrossed in the lives of these characters, worried for them anytime something happened to them within the context of the game’s narrative and only hopes to see them come out on top, and thankfully this was usually the case in my playthrough thanks to the choices I made. I can only wonder what would have happened if I chose things differently - where would my characters have ended up at the end of all this? Would things have gotten worse for them? Who knows - all I know is that once the game was over, I had nothing but smiles and happiness going through my head as I saw my friends say goodbye and I loaded up my stuff onto the train. All those precious moments, etched into my mind forever; the hardships of the dungeons, the toughness of the Shadows, the mystery of the killer - that’s how you create a great game narrative, and finish it with an even greater, satisfying ending. Check out Persona 4 Golden on Steam TODAY if you liked this review! https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1113000/

[ultramarineicecream]

In the interest of clownfooling myself, I wrote an article on FE3H for my school newspaper

Here it is, for your reading pleasure:

The Switch, Nintendo’s newest console, has prompted the release of many highly rated games in the past year, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and many more. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is another one of these big name games released in 2019 as a Switch exclusive. The latest title in the long running Fire Emblem series, the game retains many aspects of the series’ uniquely tactical role-playing mechanics while also introducing new mechanics for players to enjoy. 

Set in the world of Fodlan, a peaceful continent where the church is the dominant political power, you enter the game as a professor at the Officer’s Academy at the Garreg Mach Monastery. There, players have to make the choice of which of the three houses they wish to instruct: Blue Lions, Golden Deer, or Black Eagles. Each house is lead by a house leader who is next in line to become the ruler of one of the three countries on the continent. The main story line compels players to spend the majority of their days at the Academy teaching, holding training exercises, and crushing rebellions, but the game also offers optional off days for players to deepen bonds with the extended cast of characters, explore the grounds, and complete optional side quests. While the game allows players to recruit favorable characters from other houses into the player’s current house, the importance of the player’s choice in house is revealed when war breaks out across the continent, and you must follow your house into battle against old classmates and friends turned enemies. 

The first Fire Emblem game released since 2017, Three Houses utilises many of the same game mechanics that are classic of the Fire Emblem series such as turn-based tactical gameplay and the grid like battlefields. The game also maintains the permanent death mechanic of characters that the series is known for, but also introduces a “casual mode” where characters revive after the battle. Other interesting new mechanics, such as unit commanded battalions, were also introduced, but the most important addition to the game was the ability to interact with characters outside of the battlefield, allowing players to realize the different personalities and quirks of both team members and enemy characters. Fully voiced dialogue accompanies this experience through the main plotline and all player-character interactions, immersing players directly into the world of Fodlan. 

Playing a route takes around 20 hours, but most players end up playing all three available routes in order to grasp a true understanding of the conflict. The Black Eagle’s route, in particular, reveals the corruption and injustice of the Church, while the Golden Deer route looks more into xenophobia in the continent. Luckily, the game provides a New Game+ option to support your endeavors and makes your second and third playthroughs considerably quicker. I personally like the Blue Lions route ending best, but why don’t you try the game and find out which ending seems just for yourself? 

[sg2tiger]

Back again for another year of games!! I dunno, making these lists is kinda fun, and it also tends to help me actually finish games I’ve started, so I’ll probably keep doing it at the end of the year for as long as I can be bothered.

As usual, the images mostly speak for themselves, but the obligatory TL;DR reviews are under the cut. May contain spoilers.

—————————————— Kingdom: New Lands (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— For a game that only requires one button and a joystick (or some WASD if you're into that sort of thing), Kingdom is surprisingly fun. I hesitate to call it 'tower defense' because it's not, but it's definitely got a similar sort of feeling to it. Like tower defense meets resource management/building game. You - the monarch - ride around on your horse and use your carefully-managed budget of coins (and by carefully-managed I mean you can and will probably run out at some point and fuck yourself over if you haven't planned well) and recruit peasants to join and defend your steadily-growing kingdom. Give them a coin and either a bow or a hammer and a peasant will become a worker, to build and repair your towers, or an archer, to hunt by day (to earn you coins) and defend your towers from the monsters who come out at night. You can have workers cut down trees to expand your kingdom further, allowing more room for towers and eventually farms to be built to keep your coin supply steady, and upgrade your intially-tiny campsite into a true fortress. Your goal is essentially to keep building your kingdom out as far as you can across the island, while making sure it's not overrun by the monsters who get steadily more powerful every night. The monsters can and will destroy your towers, and if they catch your workers and archers they'll turn back into wandering peasants who you will need to seek out once more to give new coins. This can be tricky, too, since their campsites may be deep in the woods, and night can fall quickly if you venture out there unprepared - having the monsters attack while you're not behind the safety of your castle walls can instantly spell game over. If you manage your resources right, though, you will eventually have enough of a coin surplus to repair the broken ship lying somewhere in the wilderness, which you need in order to escape the island and move onto the next level.

All in all Kingdom is as mechanically simple as it gets, but can prove quite a challenge to survive. I think my best game lasted about 38 days, and I did manage to get at least to the second island. Plus, the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful pixel art and lighting. It's a great game to play if you just want to unwind without thinking about anything too complicated.

—————————————— Stardew Valley (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— If you like Harvest Moon, you'll like Stardew Valley. I'm sure this has been said a million times, but really it's about as simple as that. That's not to say SV is just a 'HM clone' of course, but the similarities and inspirations are abundantly clear. There's a lot to do, interesting characters, and even a lot of mods if you get bored of the base game after a while. I think I got through about my first year before I started losing steam, and never got around to tinkering too much with mods. I should go back and give it another go sometime.

As consequence of writing this review practically an entire year since I last played, I can't think of anything more specific to say. But I do remember enjoying it.

—————————————— Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— If you liked Borderlands 2, I can't think of a good reason NOT to play TPS. It seems to get an awful lot of undeserved hate simply because 'it's not BL2', which, well, is stupid. Borderlands 2 is a great game and I can understand people feeling like TPS didn't quite live up to that reputation, but that alone doesn't make it a bad game. It's not Borderlands 3 after all - it's The Pre-Sequel. It exists to fill in the gaps between the first and second games while providing an experience and humor more similar to the second, if somewhat shorter.

One thing I particularly liked and hope we see again in future installments is that the player characters felt more real. They actually TALK to the other characters during the storyline quests, rather than feeling like essentially blank slates outside of their combat banter and backstory Echoes (of which I was never able to find all in BL2). It made me feel like my character was more involved in what was going on, and actually had more of a connection to these events and characters. I played Athena in my singleplayer game because she's the narrator of the framing story, but I was Nisha in my multiplayer game and played with a Baroness and Holo-Jack. It was fun hearing the vastly different types of commentary depending on which one of us handed in a quest, which gave more variety to the characters. I'd like to do another solo run as someone else someday even just to hear all their unique quest responses.

Also, managing O2 isn't THAT bad once you get used to it. It's a little bit of a pain early on, but once you get a decent Oz-Kit it's pretty manageable. Oxygen bubbles are plentiful on the moon's surface, and there's a lot of zones that take place almost entirely in oxygenated areas to boot. Plus, slamming is a lot of fun. I thought the mechanic was a nice way of differenciating the game a bit more from BL2, in a sorta gimmicky way without feeling terribly frustrating. Also, the grinder made getting Legendary weapons somewhat feasible compared to BL2, and there were many times I'd just spend over an hour going between the loot chest and grinder over and over. ...I mean, I don't do that. Using a save editor to give yourself infinite gold keys and playing the whole game with purple guns is cheating, and I would never do that in BL2 or TPS. Not ever.

Anyway, TPS was fun. I never got around to playing the DLC, so I guess I'll have something to look forward to next time I get the urge to do a new solo playthrough as a different character.

—————————————— Riff Racer (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended ——————————————

Another one of those 'zip around a track to your own music collection' games, so naturally I had to take a look at it. Audiosurf was my first Steam game, after all. Unlike Audiosurf, though (to which comparisons are inevitable since they're similar at a glance), Riff Racer is actually a RACING game. At least to the extent that one can race against oneself. You basically load up a song to generate a track, just like Audiosurf and similar games. If you're the first person to ever run that song, any other player who ever plays that song will be racing against your ghost - likewise, if you do a song someone else created first, they're the score you wanna beat. There's no actual other cars on the track though, just you and a lot of obstacles to avoid, ramps to jump and curvy tracks to drift. Drifting is the main way to earn points, and is also the most fun part of the game. It took me a bit to really get the hang of it, but once I did I started seeking out songs that were likely to have a lot of tight corners to drift around. I was floored when I actually managed to pull off the achievement for drifting 16 beats in one maneuver, because for the longest time I could barely manage to drift 4. And the feeling you get when you're actually able to beat a powerful ghost is [relieved] [okhand]

Of course, a lot of people play this sort of game just to chill out and not worry about things like leaderboards and high scores. That's totally fine too!! It's a great game to just sit back and chill out with, just drifting along the track with your favorite tunes. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who's into games like Audiosurf - I get the feeling it's a bit of a lesser-known gem, and it totally deserves some more love.

—————————————— Persona 3 Portable (PSP) FINAL VERDICT: UNFINISHED —————————————— I started playing this in March, I think...as I write this, it's December, and I still haven't finished. I know P3 is one of those games that makes the 'must play' and favorite lists of a LOOOOT of people, and many will hail it as the best JRPG of all time...but I have to wonder how much of that is just being blinded by nostalgia. I certainly don't think there's ENOUGH of a difference between the Portable and PS2 versions that I'm missing some great secret that makes this game so much more amazing than I can see, at least.

I haven't picked it up in a while (I've played it on and off throughout the year) but I believe I'm somewhere around the end of September or beginning of October in-game. So I'm certainly not dismissing it after only a few hours. In fact, I'm not dismissing it at all - as a MegaTen fan, I do want to finish it at some point. Really, I just keep getting burned out by Tartarus. For me, games are games - if all I wanted was a compelling story and interesting characters, I'd read a book. A game needs to first and foremost engage me with its GAMEPLAY, and while I do enjoy story-driven games with interesting characters, that alone isn't enough to save it if the GAMEPLAY isn't engaging me enough first!! And Tartarus is just...bad. I'm sorry, but one dungeon with semi-randomized floors where the decor only slightly changes periodically as you climb higher and every single floor is practically the same grind of collect items/attack or avoid enemies/find the stairs...that's just not fun. Like not even a little. It got old somewhere around the second block, and by now I'm on, what, fifth or sixth? I can't remember, it's all the fucking same. And while I enjoy MegaTen combat, and P3 is sorta similar to the push-turn system, even those get old after a while of the same 3 encounters ad nauseum for the next 15-odd floors until you hit the next boss. It didn't take long for me to start playing with my volume muted outside story segments (I use the undub patch, otherwise I'd probably have it muted for the entirety of the game) because I was sick of hearing the same OOOOOH YEAH!!! DADADA-DA DADADA-DA!!! over and over again. One thing I've always hated is games that run on having a LOT of battles and grinding, but only one piece of battle music outside boss fights. It's cruel and unusual.

Anyway. Tartarus aside, the game's alright. I personally find social links a little odd, because I'm linking with people unrelated to my struggle against the Shadows (I still haven't hit lofty the requirements to link with the girls, and outside the PSP-exclusive non-canon Girl Route you can NEVER link with your male teammates). It's this bizarre sort of disconnect - I understand that these people are part of my life in their own ways, but it feels very segregated. I should be bonding with the people in my party, the ones living in my dorm, my fellow Persona users who understand the stress we're under and can relate to my struggles. Instead, I'm cringing at a wannabe playboy who thinks his teacher wants to bone him, or a rules-obsessed student council jerkbag, both of whom I have to tell what they WANT to hear and not how I ACTUALLY feel because it's all about leveling up those sweet sweet link ranks. Devil Survivor 2 used a similar link system (most likely inspired by P3, since I believe that came first), but instead of being random people from my class/town I was actually linking with my party members. Being able to bond with the people I'm spending most of my game with felt a lot more meaningful to me than the P3 links - in fact, for the first in-game month or two, I kept waiting for some of my early links to find out about Shadows and get moved into the dorm as playable characters. I was very surprised to find out that they just ultimately had nothing to do with the main gameplay and storyline whatsoever. Maybe that's the point. Maybe there's some profound reason for this that I don't know yet because I haven't finished the game. But to me, it feels disjointed and unrelated to the main game I'm supposed to be playing here.

Social Links, and Tartarus. Aside from the storyline itself, those are basically what make up this game - and I'm not terribly fond of either. Sure, I'm enjoying the story well enough, and the glimpses I get of my party members through the main storyline and things like the hidden camera videos...but that's not enough for me. The GAMEPLAY needs to win me over as much as the story, and it's just not. I'd like to stick it out and finish it, and I do still pick it up from time to time...but there's a reason I haven't finished it despite starting it so many months ago, and this is basically it. I simply don't find it fun. And it's great if it's the favorite game or best JRPG for a lot of people? But it's not that for me.

(I'd also like to play P4 and even P5 someday, but I don't own any consoles so I'm basically riding on the popularity of things like Dangan Ronpa to convince more Japanese developers that porting their games to Steam is worthwhile...otherwise I'll probably never get to play either of those)

—————————————— Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— While I ultimately burned out before I could finish my NG+ all the way through and then go to Bitterblack Isle, I had a lot of fun with this game. DLC aside, I basically 100% completed everything else - all normal quests (had to catch a few missable ones on my NG+ for the achievement), all regular notice board quests (including the annoying ones like mining a fuckton of that one rare mineral or getting 100 clumps of hair or whatever it was, and the one with all the skulls), and even got all the badges (also including the missable ones on my NG+). The badge sidequest should absolutely have an achievement attached. I'm not sure why I bothered actually...personal satisfaction, I guess. Either way, I only bother to put that kind of effort into a game if I really enjoy it, so that says it all right there.

Dragon's Dogma, on the surface, is a fairly generic fantasy RPG. The world of Gransys is pretty dull - aside from the small village where you grew up, there's pretty much just the One Big City, and long stretches of wilderness with a fortress or two. The NPCs are mostly generic peasants with a handful of quest givers, aside from the story-important characters...and everyone talks in this weirdly forced archaic style where 'aught' is the most popular word in the entire world. Hearing your pawns say the same 3 stock phrases over and over again also gets really old - yes, I know that goblins ill like fire, I've probably killed more than a million of them by now!! The story is also told in a really confusing style to where you probably won't grasp what's actually going on until you go through a New Game+ - not because it's terribly difficult in itself, but just because of the odd way in which the game gives out information. Having to talk to an NPC 3 or 4 times in order to hear all they have to say in a given conversation doesn't help matters, either, because if you don't know enough to do that you may well only speak to them once and then walk away, simply not having enough information to know what just happened. It's basically Capcom trying to apply JRPG logic to an open, WPRG-style world, and it doesn't always work.

That aside, however...the real meat of the game is in the combat. The hack-and-slash combat and multiple character classes with their own abilities and playstyles is what really makes the game. I found it similar to Kingdoms of Amalur, if slighly more robust - not surprising, though, since it's from the same company responsible for Devil May Cry. So you can be certain that the combat always feels engaging and solid. The best part to me, though, is the giant monsters. After a while you'll get sick of cyclopes and chimera (the most common large monsters), but in the early game they're appropriately terrifying. You're ENCOURAGED to climb up on them and go after their weak points, rather than standing at their feet slashing away like an idiot. If you're fighting a cyclops, naturally you'd go for the eye. But what if it's an armored cyclops, with a helmet protecting the eye? Then you have to get the helmet off before you can really damage it. If you're fighting a chimera, each part of the beast does something different - you generally want to kill the snake first so it can't poison you, but meanwhile the goat is shooting magic at you and the lion is tearing you to shreds with its claws, so situationally it may be better to take out one of those parts first. With each part, you disable and severely weaken the beast, making it easier to finish it off. Every enemy has a weakness like that, and it's particularly important for the giant ones. And God forbid you don't take advantage of the weaknesses when fighting a dragon (sorry, a drake/wyvern/wyrm), you're pretty much guaranteed to die.

Another thing I really liked was how much nighttime really ups the terror of encountering giant dangerous enemies like this. Gransys isn't nearly so big a world as it tricks you into thinking, because there's no mounts and fast travel is fairly limited/difficult for the first half of the game or so. This means that if you want to get anywhere significantly far across the map, you're going to have to pack enough lantern oil and prepare to travel during the night. Night in Dragon's Dogma - even with a lantern - is PUNISHINGLY dark. This is the kind of darkness you WISH your Skyrim lighting mods and ENB could achieve. Your lantern only illuminates a small circle around your character - just enough to see where you're going and not bump into things. But not enough to warn you of a chimera about to leap at you from the darkness before it's far too late to dodge...something that happened to me once during the early game and nearly gave me a heart attack (I don't play horror games because I can't handle jump scares, but this chimera had more or less the same effect on me). You have to be very cautious and very quiet, and sticking to the roads can mean the difference between life and death. Resource management is also important and you can't just stock up on 300 mega-heal potions at once - even in the late game, you'll still only be buying/finding the lowbie herbs, so you've got to combine them together yourself to make more powerful healing items. The crafting system is also forgivingly simple (a case of 1 + 2 = 3, across the board) so it doesn't get overly tedious to have to spend a little prep time rifling through your bank storage and combining some items before adventuring.

The pawn system is also a lot of fun (despite how much their repetitive dialogue will grate on you after the first hour). I've always preferred that JRPG feel of traveling with a party of adventurers to the WRPG style of being a wandering solo hero (I'd travel with 3 followers in Skyrim if having even one follower didn't tip the game balance so far in the 'too easy' direction). By mid-game I'd basically settled into Magic Archer as my class, so I'd usually have a fighter (my pawn), a mage (dem heals), and either a ranger or strider to fill in the gaps. It really captures that sort of oldschool JRPG feel of traveling the little 8-bit lands with your little 8-bit party...but like, in a 3D third-person open-world(ish) way, so more immersive. I only wish there were more dungeons - after backtracking to the catacombs and the canyon place 300 times within a playthrough, it got pretty stale. But the first time through the Water God's Altar I remember feeling like this was a JRPG-style dungeon given life, with the puzzle solving that's almost never present in WRPGs.

In the end, while Gransys itself always left me wanting something more, the core mechanics of the game were solid enough to keep even the multiple backtracking trips to the same 5 places fun. And while the story was a bit convoluted in how it was told, once I really put together what HAPPENED in the end, I was speechless. Not to say it was some kind of incredibly profound, award-worthy storytelling experience, but it was one of those moments where it all clicks together at once and the realization sets in and you just sit there for a few moments thinking, 'oh my God'. I won't say anything more so as not to spoil it, but don't be quick to dismiss the story as just an excuse plot for a game that's only about the combat, either. All in all I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs, J- and W- alike, and I really really wish we'd get Dragon's Dogma online someday, or another single player game as a sequel, or something. I just want more.

Guess I'd better get my ass to Bitterblack Isle.

—————————————— Sunless Sea (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— Having played Fallen London before (on and off, with very long breaks in between because I keep forgetting it exists...then I go back for a bit, rinse, repeat), I sorta knew what to expect with Sunless Sea in terms of narrativ style, setting, and general weirdness. What I didn't realize was just how HARD it was gonna be. Within less than 5 minutes of making my first character, I got eaten by a shark. Amazingly though, through numerous EXTREMELY CLOSE brushes with death and, dare I say, miracles...my second character (Tigeru 2, in a name scheme that shows just how long I expected this character to last) is miraculously STILL ALIVE. In addition to surviving, though, Tigeru 2's life goals consist of finding the bones of their lost father and also killing crabs. Lots of crabs. Like, all of them. Because fuck those guys. Anyway, it's hard to REALLY give a solid verdict on this one given the general style of the game and the fact that I haven't gotten very FAR yet...but it's good at being what it set out to be, and that's a difficult exploration game set in the Fallen London universe.

—————————————— Darkest Dungeon (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— I had my eye on Darkest Dungeon for a while before it left early access, but was never quite ready to drop any money on it because the reviews would often swing wildly between positives and negatives. Conceptually, I loved the idea - that the reality of dungeon crawling would not just be heroic, climactic battles but also stress, resource management, and fear. But while it sounds good on paper, it also sounded like something that might work better as an anime plot than a video game, because maintaining those exact same resources could quickly go from 'fun' to 'chore'. Anyway, I finally decided to take the plunge during the summer sale, and it's almost addictively fun...in small bursts. It's the kind of game where I can get caught up in the 'just one more level' dynamic for a while, but also the kind of game that feels repetitive and tedious after so many runs fighting the same enemies over and over. But I also think that I'm playing it 'wrong', in a way - because I don't want to lose the characters I've worked so hard to build, I'm playing it too safe. I'm so terrified of dying against bosses that I've actually OVERLEVELED my best characters, not realizing that characters who are TOO strong will refuse to take on levels and bosses they deem beneath their ability. If your heroes are too strong for the weaker missions, you just won't be allowed to bring them.

Some might call this a type of 'fake difficulty' but I'd disagree because it really does enforce the game's entire theme. Which is actually kind of nice because it ensures you're forced OUT of that 'playing it safe' comfort zone that I was trapping myself in, waiting until you're so OP you can stomp anything that comes your way. That sort of gameplay goes against everything Darkest Dungeon stands for - the whole point of the game is that you're NEVER going to be truly prepared for the horrors that lurk here, and that there's no such thing as weak enemies or an invincible party. Your preparedness to tackle a dungeon lies not in your character's levels and OP abilities but your ability to manage resources, trinkets, phobias and diseases, and picking the right heroes for the job instead of steamrolling every level with your 4 favorites. And even then, there's the RNG...which is something I really hate, and the subject of many negative reviews, but I honestly think it also makes sense for this game. Again, no matter how prepared you are, you're going up against unspeakable eldritch horrors here. YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY ACCOUNT FOR EVERY CONTINGENCY. Sometimes you can do your absolute best and things will still end up going terribly wrong because you were just unlucky. Heroes will die. You may have to drop rare treasures and flee just to save at least one life. It's bound to be frustrating, sure, but it's the very nature of this game to be like that. All you can do is make the best of a bad situation, and rebuild from your losses to continue on. No, it's not going to be easy - but if that's what you expected, you picked the wrong game in the first place.

—————————————— Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: BUGGY AS FUCK ——————————————

I grew up on Baldur's Gate (well, Baldur's Gate II moreso) when I was just a wee child. Thus, when I found out they were rereleasing 'enhanced' editions, I was very excited. However...anyone who has played Baldur's Gate or similar CRPGs from the days of yore knows that they're long, and often tedious games. So while both enhanced editions sat in my Steam library for a long time, I could never bring myself to actually want to sit down and PLAY them because the idea of starting such a long saga was daunting. But during the summer, some friends I often play co-op games with proposed the idea of doing a multiplayer run...and it sounded fun!! At first.

At least, until we realized that Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition was barely 'enhanced' at all. Aside from a few new characters, it was basically just the original game...bugs and all. And there are a LOT of bugs. In fact, this is quite possibly the buggiest game I have ever played, and I wish I were exaggerating. We tried our best to deal with the snags and press on, but it eventually just got to be too much, and none of us were really having any fun with it. Thus, we decided to call it quits and do a multiplayer run of Neverwinter Nights II instead.

Unless you're a hardcore fan of the originals or a serious masochist, I couldn't recommend this game. Maybe the enhanced BG II is better...and maybe someday I'll find out. That was literally my childhood game, after all. But BG I EE...is just bad.

0/10 would not Enhance again.

—————————————— Tabletop Simulator (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— Simultaneously not an actual game, but yet, every game known to man. You know that feeling when you walk into the local comic and games shop and see all these really cool games that you and your friends would have a lot of fun with...if your friends didn't all live halfway across the country - if not other countries entirely? Because I know that feel, and it sucks. Enter Tabletop Simulator, where those games probably already have mods...and if they don't, you can make your own with just a little ambition and elbow grease!! In fact, I've got 181 hours in TTS currently, and I'd wager less than 50 of that was spent actually playing games with friends - the rest has been me MAKING games to play with my friends. I made Umineko Clue (AKA Clumineko) as well as a version skinned for my friends and our roleplaying OCs...then I adapted the Risk-based game of gang warfare that I'd made as a final project in my game design class in college...then I just spent ungodly amounts of time decorating a 3D room with 3D objects to play games in with my friends, AND applied the same treatment to revamping the Clumineko mod into an entire 3D room based on the iconic witches tea room. Never in a million years would I call myself a 'modder', but I actually learned how to do some basic stuff in Blender and Unity ENTIRELY so I could make fun games and shit to do in TTS with my pals.

It may not be a 'game' so much as a sandbox physics engine with which to make and play many games with ease, but even so I'd be hard-pressed not to call it one of the best games of all time. If you have a good group of online pals I seriously could not recommend this one enough.

—————————————— ICEY (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— At the very last minute I found out about the Steam Link bundle deal in which you'd get the normally-expensive device for $1 with purchase of a little-known little 2D action game. Despite not having a great interest in the Link, I could hardly pass up the offer to get it for a dollar, and the game seemed pretty fun besides. On the surface, ICEY is a pretty fun little action platformer...but ALSO on the surface, it's a meta game. And that's because it advertises itself in exactly this way. That's the biggest flaw with ICEY, I think - you don't make a meta game and then say 'hey, this secretly is a meta game!!'. If it had downplayed those aspects and just branded it as an action platformer with maybe some cryptic hints that there was more to it than that, encouraging players to explore and find out what's going on in the game's multilayered world...it would have been a lot better, and maybe could have gone on to become a cult favorite instead of flying under everyone's radar. That aside, it's a pretty good game. The action is actually quite fun on its own, and uncovering the various endings is entertaining. The English voice over could use some work, but it's a Chinese game that only recently even GOT an English voiceover, apparently, so it's hard to fault that too much. Again, the meta aspects would have been more enjoyable if the game didn't advertise it outright, but it's alright.

I haven't actually finished it yet (think I have another boss or two to go; I got stuck and haven't yet gone back to it) but if the story actually ends up making sense in the end that'd be nice. I'm sort of waiting for that kind of payoff because right now everything just seems a little nonsensical. For what it's worth, though, I did have fun playing it.

—————————————— World of Warcraft: Legion (PC) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— I first included WoW on my 2015 games list, back when I first started playing. My verdict was essentially 'it's okay I guess, but it feels super dated all around and not very welcoming to players expecting a more modern game'. Well, obviously that hasn't changed - old content is still old content - BUT, with Legion, I feel like the newer content is at least taking steps in the right direction towards making the game feel less dated overall.

Legion was actually my fourth WoW subscription. Since my best friend has been playing for like 8 years and is really into the game, I get free subs thrown at me at least once a year, and I play for a few months until next time. My previous subscription ended just on the heels of Legion's release, and the changes to all the classes hit me pretty hard when suddenly my preferred Rogue spec (Combat) was altered so completely that I just did not want to play anymore. Everything I was used to was retooled, if not completely gone...and I was angry. But having an entire year to cool off and lose that muscle memory, I came into Legion with a fresh spec (Outlaw) and a new region to explore.

Legion content was definitely the most enjoyable to me so far. After making it through all the older content during leveling, my highest version during my first subscription (and review) was Pandaria, so I spent by far the most time playing in that zone. I liked the aesthetic, but the gameplay still felt dated, and I spent most of my time working on my farm or building rep with two factions who had mounts I wanted. Draenor wasn't TERRIBLE, though I had more fun building my garrison than I did questing the actual Draenor zones. Legion was the first time I felt like I actually had a LOT of different things to do, and had a real sense of character progression for the first time. I admit I know almost nothing about WoW lore (nor do I care to go down the rabbit hole of learning it), so there was a lot of ??? during the main Legion questline, but I still felt like I was being engaged in a real STORY for once. The cutscenes and voiced dialogue went a long way to making the game feel less old-fashioned, for one thing. For another, having the order of each zone be up to player's choice because of leveled enemies gave me some much-needed freedom during leveling, and not feeling like I either had to stick around in a lowbie zone with no EXP for the sake of following a storyline...or moving through the zones so fast that it wasn't even worth bothering to follow along with the stories because I'd only abandon them all halfway to move onto the next higher-level area. In Legion, I ended up doing basically every single quest in a zone before moving onto the next one (though I'd then do all the mandatory dungeons in one burst rather than one at a time). I actually read through the quest text instead of skipping along and just trying to hit 100 as soon as possible. And when I DID hit 100, halfway through Highmountain (having done Azsuna and Val'sharah already), I continued the Highmountain quest to the end and then did all of Stormheim.

Hitting level cap no longer felt like I'd met the 'goal' of the expansion, and had nothing really left to do but fuck around. After finishing all four main zones, there was Suramar, and the Broken Shore. There were world quests and the reputation tied to those. There were the class weapon quests, and the goal of gaining the class mount. There were even the falcosaur quests which I just barely managed to finish before my sub ran out!! Plus, having played September/October/November, I also had a lot of holiday events to work on (it was my first Brewfest, and then I went about finishing the Halloween and Thanksgiving achievements I didn't get last time I played in the fall). And in addition to all of THAT...I also got my Hunter through the rest of Draenor so he could do Legion content, too. I had wanted to make a Demon Hunter after that because it seems like the sort of class I'd enjoy playing, but I didn't end up having the time for that. Point being - for the first time, Legion gave me a whole lot of stuff to do, and I never really felt like I was 'done'. Every time I met one goal, there was another to work towards. That's the kind of experience I feel is really important in a game like this...but something I always sorta felt I was dragging myself through in past subscriptions, where I'd spend more time doing pet battles or trying to get transmog gear and mounts and basically anything but actually questing. This time, the questing and dungeoning didn't feel like a chore, or just a means to an end. The whole Legion experience managed to be enjoyable - and I never even wound up going to Argus.

By the time I play next, the newest expansion will be out, and I'll have even more to do. I hear there's gonna be new playable races this time, so maybe I'll even end up making another alt once I get my Rogue and possibly my Hunter through the expac content. Plus I can still make that Demon Hunter and go through Legion again. All in all I think WoW is finally breaking through my initial perceptions of it being a dated game, more fun for long-term players or hardcore raiders and not so much for newcomers who are more into PVE. What the new expac brings remains to be seen, but for once I'm optimistic that I'll end up having some fun with whatever that is.

—————————————— ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam) FINAL VERDICT: Recommended —————————————— Growing up, there were three things in particular that captivated my interest (and also conveniently my Lego sets): pirates, ancient Egypt, and dinosaurs. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag captivated the first. Assassin's Creed: Origins will no doubt captivate the second, once it drops in price enough that I can actually buy it. And since I somehow doubt that assassins existed in the prehistoric eras, picking up the third interest is ARK.

I'd been watching ARK with a close eye since the early access days, precisely because the very concept of taming and riding dinosaurs sounded rad as fuck. It made it from my 'following' list, to my wishlist, to my 'groans sadly' list during every Steam sale when it'd drop no lower than $18 which was still far more than I was willing to spend on an early access game whose reviews were always swinging wildly between positives and negatives - particularly in the optimization department, as I had doubts that my computer could even RUN the game comfortably in its then-current state. Finally a friend of mine (who had bought and refunded the game several times already, also I believe due to optimization issues) had started playing it comfortably and generously gifted it to me about a year ago, just a short time before it finally left early access and went for full standard retail price. As predicted, I could barely run the game...even on the lowest graphic settings, with no sky effects and on the low memory setting, I was getting about 15 FPS just trying to walk around on the initial beach where I'd spawned. I sadly had to shelf the game and hope that I'd be able to play it someday in the future, when it was either optimized better or I'd upgraded to better hardware.

Now, both of those things have happened, so I decided to give it another go. Now that I can run it at an average 50 FPS on a mix of medium to high graphics settings and have actually been able to PLAY the game, it's the early days of Minecraft all over again, and I can't stop. I've been playing both singleplayer and multiplayer with a friend on an unofficial PVP server, and each game is sort of its own experience. The PVP server has everything set to 10x, so gathering resources and EXP all goes REALLY fast. I'm already like level 70 after only playing two days of multiplayer, and we've gone from a somewhat crude houseboat base to a slightly less crude base in the mountains with a decent crop of early to midgame dinos (we had more, but some died to alpha raptor injuries with others being on the wrong end of a tame and otherwise non-hostile T-Rex and its fertilized egg). Meanwhile in singleplayer, which I've actually spent more time in (only doing multi when my friend is available), I just hit level 30 and am only now starting to feel confident enough to venture away from my crude campsite on the beach where you first spawn...and have faced more than a few setbacks already. I did turn my dinosaur tame settings up to 10x (because waiting several REAL WORLD HOURS to tame critters is like, unreasonable) but otherwise I'm running just standard growth rates for everything, plus going solo...so it's a much slower experience overall. I want to keep my singleplayer experience a bit slow and steady, with more of the intended 'harsh survival' feel to help me better grasp the basics of the game before getting too adventurous playing on servers without the help of my friend, but once I feel that I've got a good handle on the game and its dangers I will definitely branch out more.

Between PVP, PVE and mod-based servers, not to mention the other official DLC maps, ARK is a game with a LOT to do. If I ever actually manage to conquer The Island, there's still a ton of content left waiting for me, giving the game a long life with lots of replay value. The only thing is that I tend to get burned out on games that have SO much to do and little in the way of like, actual endgame goals, so I'm sure I'll hit that at some point - but for now, I'm just having a blast enjoying the ride.

—————————————— Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile) FINAL VERDICT: S'Alright —————————————— I don't normally include mobile games on these...well, probably in no small part because I don't normally PLAY mobile games. But, being a fan of the main Fire Emblem games, I decided to check out Heroes back when it first launched earlier this year. And it kept my interest for several months, which is impressive considering, again, I'm not really that into mobile games. I was impressed by how much it captured the same basic feeling of a Fire Emblem game despite being distilled down into a simplistic bite-sized mobile system - incredibly easy to just pop on and kill some time, but also enough to provide a challenge for those who want it. The 'story' was never really anything more than an excuse plot, but it's not as though I would have expected much more for a game like this in the first place so I don't really dock any points for that. All in all it's very good at being what it set out to be - a simple implementation of Fire Emblem as a mobile gatcha game.

Before long, however, it got very stale. For quite a while, new characters were introduced few and far between. It felt like 90% of the roster either came from Awakening or Fates (at the time the most recent games in the franchise), with almost everyone else from the Marth games. Games like Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones had next to no representation. As someone who has yet to play Fates, having that HUGE pool of characters from both games making up most of the heroes felt alienating from the start. Naturally, in a game like this, you most look forward to getting your favorite units...so for me, that part of the appeal was already lost, since most of my favorites weren't even IN the game. By the time they started adding in more variety my interest in the game was already waning, because it just felt like there wasn't much to DO. Once you've cleared all the story maps, it's basically just grinding your units up in the training tower, doing the arena 3 times a day (unless you build up a small fortune of dueling swords over time from the daily login rewards, which I did), and waiting around for a decent challenge map Tempest trials didn't even exist at that point. Of course, there was always quests, which for a long time I did try to complete as many as possible of before the month was up - the problem is how incredibly unfair so, SO many of the quests are. Almost every one with a worthwhile reward requires all 4 units to survive, which is fine...good rewards should be earned through challenge. But when you add to that '...and you have to use all red units' or 'a team of fliers' or something extremely specific like that, and the map is specifically designed to pit you against a bunch of blue units or archers...asking all four units to survive ON TOP OF THAT is just outrageously unfair. There's a big difference between the sort of strategic challenge of a regular Fire Emblem game and the kind of 'fake difficulty' imposed by these quests, and it got to where they just plain weren't fun anymore.

Without wanting to do quests, things got boring quickly. Sure, they introduced skill inheritence, adding a new layer of customization...but not only does that sort of micro-managing not appeal to me personally, but having to go up against ridiculously overpowered units in the arena and losing constantly made THAT not fun anymore either. No longer was it just about what units you got lucky enough to pull in a summon and took the time to raise to 5 star max level, but ALSO about what units you were lucky enough to pull and feed to your 5 star max level units to create the most broken and unbeatable character builds. That was around the point where I stopped logging in every day, only playing sporadically...and then, eventually, almost never at all.

I know by now they've introduced even more changes. Suddenly there's been a huge surge of new characters from the new and upcoming games, and then I log in and see that winning in the arena now nets you coins and other items that I have no idea what they're used for, or how I see some kind of element marker next to my name that I also don't understand. There's new story mode quests now, it seems, but for me it's all just too little too late. The initial months of the game were very stagnant compared to now, and it wasn't enough to keep my interest. By now, my lofty arena rank has fallen due to inactivity, and my once massive stockpile of orbs has dropped down to less than 10 because the most I might do is hop on and run one of the new summoning events in hopes of getting a character I actually care about, but end up walking away with 5 3-star Ests yet again.

I'm a Fire Emblem fan, but not a mobile gatcha game fan. It's hard to really say whether I'm FEH's target audience or not. All I know is that I had some fun for a while, but that time's now passed.

—————————————— Dragonball Z: Dokkan Battle (Mobile) FINAL VERDICT: Bretty Gud —————————————— After the above review, it may be surprising that I ended up giving another mechanically similar mobile gatcha game a try. It's no secret to most who know me personally that I have a very love/hate relationship with Dragonball. It was my adolescent obsession and the reason I even got into this crazy anime world in the first place, and will always hold a special place in my heart...but I also despise literally everything the franchise has become, and Super just plain does not exist in my world. So why would I play a game that basically exists to promote the Dragonball of today, full of Super characters and weird SSJ3 fusions and all kinds of other stuff that I hate? Peer pressure, mostly.

That aside, I've only been playing for a few weeks now (I think my consecutive logins are in the 20s, and I've logged in every day since I began), but I'm enjoying it so far. There are a lot of systems that are naturally very similar to FEH given they're both the same genre of mobile game, but in most cases I feel that Dokkan implements them better. For instance, duplicate units. In FEH, all those 3-star Ests are useless. 3-stars are almost never worthwhile for skill inheritence, and the effort it would take to rank them up is simply not worth it when you could invest your feathers in 4-star characters. In Dokkan, however, I can use those duplicates to increase the special attack of the original, or to unlock paths in their hidden potential. Plus, ranking up weak units is a lot easier. A 3-star Est may not be worth investing the time into raising, but an R or SR Dokkan unit can be trained with very easy-to-acquire training items and awakened to a higher level - and oftentimes awakened even further if they're given a Dokkan mode. In the event that you pull characters that truly are useless, you can at least cash them in for some trade points that can be used to buy rare items or characters in Baba's Shop, or just sell them for Zeni, which will get you more use than the small pittance of feathers you'd get for releasing duplicates in FEH.

Of course, aside from sharing those gatcha game staples, they're two totally different games and it's probably not entirely fair to compare them...but since I have played both and have no experience with other gatcha games, naturally I'm going to compare my experiences. Gameplay-wise, Dokkan seems at first like a pretty simple 'tap to match the colored line' game, which is a far cry from even the simplified Fire Emblem strategy battles in FEH. The complexity of Dokkan comes less from the orb tapping itself and more from the other aspects of team building. Using units with good skills, and who share links to power each other up, is often just as important as getting your purple character to get a long chain of purple orbs. Gathering medals from maps and using them to train and awaken your characters, and unlocking their hidden potential, are all more important in the long run than tapping the pretty colored lights. Basically, the actual 'battle' of Dokkan Battle is the least important part...though they can still require some strategy in the more difficult missions (where just having your purple unit grab a lot of green orbs isn't going to be 'good enough'), and you can still feel satisfied if you manage to pull off a really long chain and activate a super attack at just the right moment.

As I said, it hasn't been long. I may very well get bored of Dokkan in a few months just like FEH before it. But for now, I'm having fun, and I think a lot of the gameplay is more fair and balanced than the often-frustrating FEH. I will probably continue playing at least a little bit each day for some time yet.

[entergamingxp]

Chimera Squad Review — XCOM? More Like XCOP!

April 23, 2020 9:00 AM EST

Neither a full-fledged sequel nor a cheap cash grab, XCOM: Chimera Squad is a solid spin-off with a smaller scale approach to the XCOM formula.

XCOM: Chimera Squad is quite the pleasant surprise. It was announced without fanfare just a few days ago, slated to release less than a fortnight later. The dislikes on the reveal videos suggest that people were unhappy with it though, and I don’t exactly blame them. With the hints and setup for an XCOM 3? Chimera Squad looks nothing like that.

So let’s clear the air here. XCOM: Chimera Squad is NOT XCOM 3. It’s a spinoff made by a small team within Firaxis that takes the setting and gameplay formula of XCOM in a new direction. Most likely, it was XCOM 2 DLC that became its own standalone entity. But for all that, it is priced like a budget game and delivers a good amount of quality content. It’s not trying to be a full sequel, yet it should absolutely sate the appetites of those wanting more XCOM until such a release. All clear? Alright.

XCOM: Chimera Squad takes place five years after XCOM 2. Humans won the war against the invading aliens and drove off their Elder leaders to retake Earth. However, now there are many displaced extraterrestrials stranded on Earth with nowhere to go, looking to live a life free of their overlords. Given that we’re all sharing and rebuilding an Earth now, this leads to the formation of City 31, a place where all the species can try to coexist. That notion is challenged by tension from Elder sympathisers, rogue organisations rejecting coexistence, and just day-to-day chaos of a big city.

That’s where you come in.

“It’s not trying to be a full sequel, yet it should absolutely sate the appetites of those wanting more XCOM until such a release.”

  The titular Chimera Squad is a division of XCOM deployed to City 31 to help the local police maintain order. Given that the squad is a mix between human and alien members, they’re as much an experiment as City 31 is. If the city falls or the squad fails, the prospect of peaceful coexistence on Earth looks bleak. Best not to fail, then. But as anyone who has played XCOM before knows, success won’t come easily!

Chimera Squad plays very similarly to the main XCOM games before it. It’s a turn-based strategy game where you outfit and lead a small squad to battle overwhelming odds. This is split up into two phases, each with their own strategic aspects: the overall squad and city management, then the missions themselves.

The management aspect plays as you might expect. You manage your base of operations, research and develop new equipment, kit out your soldiers, and train them as they gain experience. With luck, your rookies will one day become hardened elites. How this spin-off differs from prior XCOM games is in scope. Instead of trying to manage a globe-trotting force saving the whole world like in XCOM 1 and 2, Chimera Squad is confined to a single city split up into numerous districts. Classic, pre-reboot XCOM fans may recognise the XCOM: Apocalypse vibes.

Leaving situations to fester in specific districts will gradually lead to unrest and anarchy. Too much anarchy, and it’s game over as City 31 collapses around you. Choosing which missions to tackle and when is crucial to keeping unrest in check. There will be times when you have to let a situation get worse because you really need the resources from a different mission. Other times, you’re managing which crisis out of three you can address in a turn with arguably no correct answer.

One of the most notable differences for Chimera Squad is that you have a specific roster of characters to assign for your squad. Gone are the human squaddies that you can tailor-make and develop a story for based on their campaign experience. Instead, the characters of Chimera Squad are actually characters. They have their own personalities, quirks, and banter in between missions and tense moments that really gives them life. I didn’t expect to like this aspect, but it really ends up filling the game with charm. This is backed up by radio broadcasts and vignettes detailing life in City 31, and I really grew attached by the end.

“Gone are the human squaddies that you can tailor-make and develop a story for based on their campaign experience. Instead, the characters of Chimera Squad are actually characters.”

There’s a total of 11 agents in Chimera Squad, but you start with four and gradually unlock up to eight in a campaign. The initial tutorial campaign has a select four chosen for you, but subsequent playthroughs let you pick your starting squad. Later recruitment phases in the game will let you pick from one of three options randomly. Mechanically, each character has their own class and abilities unique to them, as well as a specific weapon type. As they rank up, you’ll gain new abilities or improvements, and every second rank lets you choose between two options to tailor-make them.

Missions are the meat of any XCOM game, though. Once you’ve picked your mission and outfitted your squad, you’ll be launched into an encounter, of which each mission can have up to three. These encounters are further split up into breach and regular phases. The breach phase will let you select which method of entry that your squadmates will take. This changes depending on the mission in question. A warehouse bust might see you choosing between the main door, side door, breaching the wall with a charge, or a combination of the above. If you’re raiding a top floor penthouse, you might rappel down and bust in through windows. Further methods can be made available by equipping specific breach items. Other breach items will let you soften up the enemy once you door kick, like tossing in a flashbang to start.

Once you’ve committed, you’re given a single round to pick and choose from the targets close to the entrance. You can shoot or use some specific abilities, it’ll resolve normally, and then you’ll quickly move to cover. If enemies were alert and perceptive on breach, they’ll get their own shots in. You can try to soften up bigger enemies, take out the surprised ones that are easier to hit, or snipe the aggressive ones before they get reprisal shots.

From there, the combat will move into the standard turn-based fare. You’ll get two actions to move around and use abilities, and committing to an attack will end your turn. Upgrades or situations might allow you to attack without ending your turn, or else gain bonus actions. Some abilities will have a cooldown of a couple of turns, but others can only be used once per mission, so pick the encounter in which you deploy them wisely. This once-per-mission limitation also affects consumable items. That said, they come with a hefty improvement from prior games: most don’t consume an action to use. As such, the various grenades will become crucial to maximising your action economy and gaining the upper hand.

Using your actions has a percentage to hit and crit. It’s a lot easier to hit an enemy that you’re flanking and who is out of cover, but much harder to hit the guy behind a building a city block away. The same is true of your enemies however, so taking cover and positioning carefully is crucial to success. Plus, as any true XCOM player knows, 99% is not 100%. I absolutely missed a shot in the high 90s percentile, whereupon the surviving enemy crit another agent to knock them out, forcing a cascade of disaster that saw the mission fail. That’s XCOM, baby! It’s something you’ll learn to be mindful of right away, or you won’t get far.

Previous XCOM games would alternate between player and enemy turns, with most enemies hidden by fog of war until you moved up and alerted them. Chimera Squad instead reveals everything in an encounter immediately, and turns are shared by both factions. A timeline is displayed that shows the move order, determined mostly by stats. This further lets you pick and choose your targets, and playing smart can see you eliminating enemies before they get a chance to move at all. Otherwise, it’s a case of mitigating what they can do to your squad since you’re probably grossly outgunned at first.

“I absolutely missed a shot in the high 90s percentile, whereupon the surviving enemy crit another agent to knock them out, forcing a cascade of disaster that saw the mission fail. That’s XCOM, baby!”

Encounters will have their own objectives; it’s usually a case of clearing the room, retrieving an NPC/item and getting to evac, or surviving a wave onslaught. After the encounter is cleared, your squad will reload their weapons and heal up to a threshold (which you can set or disable at the start of a game if you want a challenge) before the process repeats. After every encounter is done, the mission is cleared. You’ll get your rewards — either currency to utilise in the management aspects, or new gear to outfit your squad with — and proceed on with the campaign.

Given that the characters in Chimera Squad are actually characters, death is no longer an option. If their health is reduced to 0, they are left Bleeding Out. If you can’t stabilise them within three rounds (or if they’re hit by an explosive of some kind), then they’ll die. The mission is over and you’ll be forced to restart that encounter. Downed characters develop a “scar” after the mission if they’re saved, which is a permanent debuff that remains until they’re given corrective training. They’ll be out of action in the meantime, so you’ll have to choose between suffering the drawback or making do without. In the earliest parts of the campaign, before you get your full squad on hand, you might not even have that option.

Other XCOM games could see your members killed outright and be gone forever. Sometimes they’d just be bleeding out to be stabilised, but it wasn’t something you could rely on. Losing a member could have drastic ramifications on your capabilities, and a wipe of your best squad could effectively doom your campaign. This was a big factor that many XCOM fans appreciated. Completing an Ironman run that disables saves and reloads was a real achievement. Its omission is a contentious point, but I think it suits the style that they’re going for with Chimera Squad, even if I appreciate the traditional XCOM formula more. This is akin to playing Fire Emblem on Casual, effectively.

Still, there are a lot of options on offer. The standard four difficulties (Story, Normal, Classic and Impossible) are present. Ironman and Hardcore modes can be enabled as well. Ironman still disables your saves, and forces you to restart a mission on a death — rather than just the encounter — which makes the longer set pieces quite challenging. Hardcore takes this one step further by ending your campaign entirely on a death, with the save deleted outright. Specific modifiers can be enabled to make it more relaxed, or else just make a campaign replay punishing.

Campaigns themselves are divided into parts. Once you start a run and select your opening squad, you’ll be given a choice of three enemy factions to focus your attention on. Loosely translated, your options are Psionic heavy, Alien/Plasma weapon heavy, or Mech/Tech heavy. Your missions will deal with that faction until they are completely shut down. Further choices will occur within these faction investigations that you let focus on one aspect of their operations, but let the other fester. Want to eliminate Andromedon links to one faction? Now they’ll mass produce androids instead.

After a faction is eliminated, you’ll choose your next target and proceed until all three are eliminated. Depending on the order you face them, they’ll further increase in strength and gain access to mercenaries, new units, or other threats. It also changes the mission layout and plots on each run. Fighting the alien faction first in the campaign led me to a completely different mission than when I fought them last. There’s a meta content tracker to show you how much of the game you’ve seen, so you’ll want three playthroughs at least to see all possible permutations. Once you’ve beaten the other factions, you piece together intel on the shadowy fourth faction manipulating them all, and they’re your foe during the finale.

“I was able to finish a Normal playthrough in about 15-20 hours. […] I promptly started a new campaign, cranked it up to Ironman Impossible, and got thoroughly demolished.”

I was able to finish a Normal playthrough in about 15-20 hours. The earlier stages were the roughest, but it didn’t take me long before I knew my squad, picked my strategy, and had the equipment to be a dominant force in City 31. I promptly started a new campaign, cranked it up to Ironman Impossible, and got thoroughly demolished. That’s a pet project for me to tackle in the coming weeks. The variety of options and “everything is descending into crises” potential for Chimera Squad isn’t as high as it was in XCOM 2 (and that’s to say nothing of the Long War mod), but they exist and they’re fun to play around with.

Presentation wise, the graphics and designs are functional and varied. They manage to shake up the locales of City 31 enough to keep it from feeling too samey. Sound and music is fairly strong, and voice acting is mostly good. The cutscenes are animated images rather than fully rendered models, but they’re well stylised and have a very synthwave palette to them, so it hardly detracts from the overall package.

There are bugs, however! Graphical issues and animation absences were a fairly common feature of my playthrough. Breaching, in particular, would see characters unable to keep up with the rapid target swapping possible, so shooting from the side of their guns was a common occurrence. There were also plenty of instances where objects or cover would be destroyed but pieces would continue to float in the air. Some of the enemy ragdolls on death were hilariously distracting.

It was also not uncommon to commit an action, see it start, but the animation would get stuck or fail to load. There’d be a brief few seconds of wait, then things would adjust as if the effect had gone off as planned. A couple of times, I’d catch an enemy in overwatch and shoot them, and they’d finish their turn as normal. It would then quickly reset them to the start of their turn and they’d carry out a new one, as if they changed their mind after getting shot. They still took the damage, so it was just a visual effect that even occurred when the enemy was already dead. Still, these all added up.

Beyond the presentation hiccups, I had at least two instances where the game froze and forced a restart. But the biggest issue was a nasty game-halting bug, where every one of my submachine guns vanished permanently. Unlike in XCOM 2, there was no way to replace them, as they’re set gear pieces depending on the character. Because they were without weapons, it wouldn’t let me deploy those units to combat ever again. With only eight units, and three of them using SMGs in that run? I couldn’t field most of my squad reliably, so I was forced to restart, losing multiple hours of progress.

I suspect this was a bug left over from Chimera Squad’s obvious nature as being built from XCOM 2 content. See, some of the missions allow you to get “epic” weapons, which have a unique ability for each. Aside from assigning these in your loadout, you otherwise have no need to swap out the basic weapons and can’t build new ones. Since I was swapping the unique one to whichever SMG-wielder I was fielding for a mission rather than assigning it to just one, this seemed to cause the issue. In my full playthrough, I just assigned them to a character and left them there. No issues followed.

Given that this was a pretty major bug, I felt the need to detail it as such. Still, even after losing multiple hours, I restarted the campaign and changed up my strategy and loadouts. Despite the setback, I nonetheless had fun, and that’s the nature of XCOM in general. There’s always the chance that this was a bug for the review build that’ll be fixed via Day 1 patch, but be advised regardless.

“The smaller scale, tighter scope, and focused nature of Chimera Squad was honestly a refreshing change, and I really did appreciate what was on offer here.”

So, to summarise: Chimera Squad is a decently content-rich XCOM title with a bigger focus on set characters, released by a smaller team on a budget as a standalone while XCOM 3 is (hopefully) being developed. You don’t have quite as much freedom in options, research, and macro strategy as a full game XCOM game, but neither are you stifled or limited. The smaller scale, tighter scope, and focused nature of Chimera Squad was honestly a refreshing change, and I really did appreciate what was on offer here.

Despite the occasional bugs or hiccups, I enjoyed my time with Chimera Squad quite a bit and would heartily recommend it to series and strategy fans. It’s also debuting at half price of an already cheap MSRP, so this stands as an unexpected surprise in an otherwise crazy year. If XCOM 3 is still a ways off, I’m more than happy filling the time with these small and focused glimpses into the setting like this. X-COM Enforcer, this ain’t.

April 23, 2020 9:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/chimera-squad-review-xcom-more-like-xcop/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chimera-squad-review-xcom-more-like-xcop

[thehallofgame]

Review: Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume

Release: 2008

My Rating: 8/10

 Review Under the Cut,

              While it wasn’t the long awaited Valkyrie Profile 3, the Covenant of the Plume spin off was at least something. At least that’s the way I felt at the time. Several years without any word on further development on the series has endeared me to Covenant of the Plume and softened many of its disappointments.

              Typically a Valkyrie Profile game centers around one of the series’ titular Valkyries but the Nintendo DS spinoff explores another point of view. Wylfred is a normal mortal whose father was a knight. When Wylfred’s father fell in battle he was chosen by the Valkyrie Lenneth to become an Einherjar in the afterlife. It’s considered a great honor, but the death left Wylfred’s family destitute and starving, a condition which claimed Wylfred’s sister’s life and his mother’s sanity. Wylfred swore vengeance on the Valkyrie and set off into the war torn countryside as a mercenary. After a disastrous first battle the goddess Hel makes a deal with Wylfred: the power to destroy a Valkyrie in exchange for his service on the mortal world.

              He accepts and is granted the Destiny Plume, a feather of the Valkyrie corrupted by magic from the underworld. The plume collects the suffering and pain of others and gains power, eventually becoming the means of felling a goddess. The plume can reap power from the slaying of enemies but its’ true power comes from felling trusted allies in the heat of battle.

              Covenant of the Plume bears a far more poignant resemblance to the original Valkyrie Profile than to the sequel, Valkyrie Profile 2. The story is conveyed largely through dialogue performed by anime-style, watercolor toned headshots laid over pre-rendered painterly backdrops or pixelated battle fields. The art bears a strong resemblance to that of the original games, but it becomes clear it has become somewhat more stylized and less anime-influenced when characters make a return from the first game. Likewise the music of Covenant of the Plume is mostly composed of reworkings of that of the first game with more synthesizer, drum and electronic sounds.

              Likewise the story and pacing of the game takes cues from the first game. There are five chapters and the choices you make during them, specifically whether and how many of your companions you sacrifice to the plume, determine which of four endings you receive. Three endings reflect a good, neutral and evil path for Wylfred and the forth is a failure scenario strongly reminiscent of Ending C in the original Valkyrie Profile. The first chapter offers you the choice of two factions or a neutral dungeon to enter at the beginning of a civil war Wylfred will fight in over the course of the game. Each of the three dungeons has a different story tied to it which keeps replays interesting as the path the player is on will only change at the end of the chapter. The player begins on the good path and can only proceed to darker paths.

              In each path the player meets most of the same characters and enters most of the same scenarios. However who lives, dies and who the player can recruit changes. Similarly, the outcome of each scenario will change. Much like in the original Valkyrie Profile the characters who join your party will begin with a story arc that introduces them and their role in the world to the player. Then they will join as a permanent or guest member of the party. Both types can be used in combat but only permanent members can have their equipment and skills changed out. Guests may also leave the party again later in the story whereas permanent members never will. Unfortunately, much like in the original game, once a character enters the party that is usually the end of their role in the story. They won’t have more dialogue or involvement in world events, which is a shame because in the late game some very noteworthy individuals are recruited.

              Some characters are better written and more interesting than others but every route seems to have at least a few interesting characters. Additionally, it takes playing all three routes to really understand the world-state and all the characters’ stories because there’s no way to see every interaction on one route. The three routes are all the same length and the stories each feel equally interesting. The final save after completing the last boss of each route is in fact a New Game + which will start Wylfred at the beginning of the story with all the equipment and skills he gained in the last playthrough. This makes it painless as possible to run through the game multiple times to experience all the endings. The one frustrating detail is that the ‘good’ ending is nigh impossible to beat on the first run due to the lack of end-game equipment that can only be obtained on the other routes.

              During every combat there is a ‘Sin Meter’ displayed on screen with a target goal for each battle. Sin in accumulated either by continuing to damage enemies after their health gauge is depleted or by using the Destiny Plume in battle to sacrifice allies. Using the plume will net a large number of Sin points, as well as unleash a signature special ability for the character sacrificed. These are usually large area effect techniques that add negative status effects to enemies. After the battle Wylfred will learn a less powerful version of the technique, making using the plume a long term benefit as well as a short term power move. If the party accumulated at least the requested amount of sin during the battle they will be rewarded with equipment, curatives and new techniques to learn. Earning double the requested amount of sin will lead to rewards of legendary weapons and armor, many of which would be familiar to players of the previous two entries in the series.

              Combat in this game is an interesting fusion of earlier Valkyrie Profiles and a tactical RPG. Players select locations to travel to on the world map and enter into pitched battle with enemy armies or monsters. As in previous games each of a four member party is mapped to one of the four lettered buttons on the face of the ds which can be tapped to have the character attack when they are in range of an enemy. However each character has a sprite that can be ordered around the grid of the map independently of the others. The goal is ultimately to utilize the game’s siege system which rewards the player with extra damage, loot or experience based around trapping an enemy between two or more party members. Each party member will have up to three attacks they can use in one combat round that need to be timed with care so that each attack does not interfere with another character’s attack, but must also not be too far spaced because the chain gauge that each attack builds will begin to decrease. The chain gauge is a vital component to combat and sin accumulation because filling it will allow characters equipped with strong enough weapons to launch their special attacks. Special attacks are unique to every melee character (a mage’s special attack is based on the spell they have equipped) and do massive damage as well as contribute to the chain gauge. If the chain gauge can be filled again another character can use their special attack. The goal of this is not only to kill the enemy but to build an overkill gauge up to earn the maximum number of sin points. It’s a simple system but can become a little fiddly because after an enemy’s hp is reduced to zero the player must move quickly to get their overkill strikes in before the death animation begins. Unfortunately lining up an enemy for a massively powerful attack will easily be ruined when a mistake in the player’s timing leads to a premature end to the combat turn.

              The switch to a tactical, turn based combat system was an interesting choice and ultimately a successful one. It manages to marry the fast paced button flurrying combos of the earlier games to a more strategic and paced feeling better suited to a portable game. Each character can take a movement and an action on their turn and the game rewards careful positioning and using combat techniques to strengthen the party or debuff enemies over just hammering opponents into the ground. The idea is solid but could use a little tweaking. The camera is positioned at a side on view of the combat area which can make it difficult to judge where a player is positioning a character in relation to enemies or allies. A top-down viewing option would have helped avoid placement mistakes. A related issue is the difficulty of judging what an enemy’s effective attack range was due to there being no way to view what their attack range and movement range amounted to on the map. These are fiddly details that are annoying simply because they would have been easy to correct, but overall the combat is fun and fresh feeling.

              The rest of the game is spent traveling location to location on the world map. When the player isn’t fighting they will have the opportunity to visit towns to shop and taverns to dig up lore and optional dungeons. All the game’s missions take place in the small kingdom of Artolia, which is in some senses disappointing, but reflects both the civil-war story and the smaller scope of Wylfred’s power when compared to that of a Valkyrie. That said, the game is beautifully balanced to show Wylfred’s progression from average soldier to bafflingly powerful goddess slayer. The standing of his companions, role in the story and ability to breeze through battles all increase steadily through the chapters, culminating in one of three bosses that should logically be impossible for him to defeat yet are not.

              Despite not being the sequel Valkyrie Profile fans had been, and continue to be, asking for Covenant of the Plume was somehow both a love letter to the original game and a new, interesting point of view on a familiar world. The gameplay is fast and fun, the game itself just the right length and the cameos a tantalizing tease at the mystery of what era, if it even exists in the timeline of the main series, Covenant of the Plume occurred in. I finally think I know, and the ‘aha!’ moment of discovering when I think the game took place was a welcome reward for all my hours spent digging through this small but beautiful series. This game is worth playing for fans and new players alike. Even without understanding the scattered references throughout a new player is just as likely to be charmed by the oddly dark and beautiful world of Valkyrie Profile.

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Playtesting. The science of analysing players’ behaviour and emotion during play. Observing real players’ actions during playthroughs of your pre-release or prototype game helps you find flaws in the experience and inform changes, thereby bringing the game closer to your design intent.

Running great playtesting sessions is notoriously difficult, requiring significant preparation and expertise, but they’re richly rewarding when run well. There is a reason all the top grossing apps, the critically well-reviewed games, and the commercial mega-blockbusters achieve such lofty heights: They’re being playtested properly.

To get unbiased and honest feedback from invited members of the general public you’ll need to carefully consider their every sight, sound and smell during your playtests.

So what does a great playtest …

        … smell like?

       … taste like?

       … sound like?

       … feel like?

       … look like?

       … and is there a sixth sense?

What does a great playtest smell like?

A playtest shouldn’t SMELL LIKE FEAR

When running your own playtests there is a huge temptation to sit next to a player, look over their shoulder or to talk to the player while they’re playing your game, but consider the impact this is having on players’ confidence and attention. If you’re sourcing players from the general public (and you should be), having a complete stranger sit and observe your every move is more than uncomfortable - especially for children. Playtests shouldn’t smell like fear - either on the part of the player (“Why are they watching me? Am I playing the game right? Do I look stupid?”) or on the part of the moderator too (“Should we interrupt? What are they thinking? Should we explain this mechanic, or point out where the assets are missing?”). The best way to avoid situations is to not be in the room with the player. By using screen mirroring and a video camera, or one-way glass, you remove the pressure on both the observers and the player, allowing for a more relaxed atmosphere. Playtesters will be nervous, and potentially shy, so do all you can to mitigate uncertainty or fearfulness.

Playtests shouldn’t come up SMELLING OF ROSES

Every game has flaws. If your playtests aren’t finding things that players acknowledge they don’t understand, or have difficulty interacting with, or their ratings aren’t changing over time, then your problems are likely with the playtesting process itself. You’re perhaps asking leading or biased questions and undermining the feedback, you’re not inviting playtesters with enough diversity of skill or genre experience, or perhaps the playtest environment itself is affecting players’ willingness to be honest, meaning that your game is unduly ‘coming up smelling of roses’.

What does a great playtest taste like?

Playtesters shouldn’t be REWARDED WITH FOOD

If you’re in a country that makes paying your playtesters in cash legally difficult, or if budget is pretty tight, it can be tempting to reward playtesters with food and drink. Providing payment with banquet of tasty snacks rather than cash is legally and logistically simpler. One of the biggest challenges in running great playtests is in sourcing players of particular demographics or experience; in order to encourage the general public (non-fans) to attend your offices, players should be offered a fair reward for their time. Saving a small amount on player incentives risks biasing your playtester pool, and skewing your playtest data.

Playtest food shouldn’t be SICKLY, SMELLY OR SUGARY

An over-consumption of free pizza, soda or sugary sweets can easily turn well-mannered children into sticky-fingered monsters focused on gummy sweets and not the game. If you do need to feed players, it is generally better to stick to simple, non-pungent foodstuffs, not forgetting to explore the dietary requirements of your playtesters. Furthermore, the most important thing you should provide along with food and drink is the location of the toilets, ensuring children have the confidence to ask to go. Having a sense for when a child is distracted by their need to visit the little boy’s or girl’s room is just another of the unsung skills of a playtest moderator.

Playtests shouldn’t leave a BAD TASTE IN THE MOUTH

Asking players to attend your premises requires significant trust in your professionalism and legitimacy. Players might be considering taking a leave-day from work to attend, or travel a long way. What you see as a one-day iterative playtest to explore a small part of the game, players see as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of something they love. As you might imagine, this discrepancy in enthusiasm can cause very significant issues. It will be important to manage your playtesters’ expectations at every stage of the process, starting from their very first interaction with you, lest they leave with a bad taste in the mouth.

What does a great playtest sound like?

Playtesters shouldn’t OVERHEAR DEVELOPER DISCUSSIONS

Professional playtest labs are carefully built to be completely soundproof. Nothing will throw players off their stride more than overhearing talking, laughing or yelping. Give playtesters over-ear headphones to help block out any background noise, and ensure that the observing development team know to keep the noise down too. Streaming the playtest live to a different floor or a back-room can help lessen the impact of noisy observers.

Playtesters shouldn’t GET AN EARFUL OF QUESTIONS

As a playtest observer you’re going to be brimming with questions to ask the player as they play. Part of the reason you’re not sitting next to the player is to deny you the temptation to continually ask questions. In doing so you’re interrupting the flow that your team has so carefully designed, and invalidating players’ feedback on pacing and understandability. Unless you’re a seasoned playtest coordinator you should write down and stick to a watertight interview script, lest you blurt out a biased, mal-timed or leading question.

Playtests shouldn’t ever be held on a NOISY EXPO FLOOR

Showing games at expos is a seemingly great opportunity to gather player feedback, but they often lack the controlled environment needed to contextualise players’ behaviour. Surrounded by booming music and noisily eager fans, players will have difficulty in concentrating on audio prompts, and conversation will be difficult. More than just the noise, players may also have opportunities to watch other players play before playing themselves, or skip tutorials in favor of ‘getting to the game’. These aren’t normal behaviours, so it is unwise to change your game based upon them. Perhaps most importantly, by delaying playtesting until a stable expo-ready build, you’ve likely waited far too late into development for players’ feedback to be meaningfully implemented: too little, too loud, too late.

What should a playtest feel like?

Playtesters shouldn’t FEEL SICK

The challenges of interaction design in virtual reality makes VR playtesting doubly important. Simulator sickness is a uniquely troublesome factor, not least because of the ‘suggestibility’ of the condition: warning playtesters about potentially feeling ill can make them more likely to feel ill. Ensure you’re doing all that is necessary to keep players comfortable: don’t use wheely chairs with seated VR; avoid sickly food or drink and keep playtesters hydrated. Be prepared for some number of players to feel unwell and halt the playtest; for this reason, VR is the exception to the ‘don’t be in the room’ rule.

Playtests should feel IN CONTROL

Playtests are stressful. Builds break down, players don’t show, and sessions overrun. Not communicating these pressures and stresses to the playtester is important. Having a dry-run session the evening before a playtest can be great to soothe nerves and work out any kinks in the schedule. For all-day playtests, consider pinning up the day’s time schedule on a board or wall to help players feel reassured. Ultimately though, acting naturally around your playtesters while being secretly terrified about build stability or accidentally asking leading questions is a skill that takes a lot of practice. As you might have gathered by now, there is a great deal of preparation and expertise that goes into running great playtests - and here we’ve only really considered the playtesters’ experience, not the science of observation or analysis of player’s feedback.

Playtesters should FEEL WELCOME

Playtesting is all about introducing diverse voices into game development. By recruiting playtesters of all genders, races, experience-levels and capabilities, a game’s audience and appeal is broadened accordingly. There are very many easily-implemented ways in which games can be made more accessible to persons with disabilities, for example, and you should consider including playtesters with impairments. Inviting playtesters that are outside your pre-conceived audience for the game can help expose flaws that genre-fans and experienced players can overlook or won’t encounter, all toward more inclusive and more successful games.

What should a great playtest look like?

Playtesting shouldn’t look like a MARKETING EXERCISE

Consider the environment you’re inviting playtesters to; if your walls are covered in award cabinets or concept art, you’re putting up barriers between yourselves and the players’ honest feedback. The objective of playtesting sessions should never include trying to make a sale; in fact, the opposite should be true. Making the playtest environment as dull and uninteresting as possible helps to reduce biasing playtesters through excitement, or making players themselves feel as if they have a duty to be polite in return for your niceties.  It can be valuable to try and distance yourself from the product being playtested in order to encourage honesty: “I wasn’t involved in the making of this game, so it won’t hurt my feelings if you find things you don’t like or feel you don’t understand”.

Playtesting sessions shouldn’t look LIKE A SCAM

In asking prospective players to sign up to a playtest, it is easy to overlook the risks you’re asking players to take in sharing their personal details with you. Asking for players’ names, ages, addresses or other details in exchange for the chance to play unreleased videogames can look too good to be true. There are also both legal and moral implications in collecting personal information - doubly so if you’re wanting to invite children to playtest. Ensure wherever possible that all players’ touch-points are suitably branded, sent from official email addresses, and feature a comprehensive privacy policy.

On the ‘sixth sense’ of a playtest moderator

Crafting an environment within which players can feel comfortable and willing to give honest feedback - soundproofing, sick-bags and all - is just part of the answer for studios to truly benefit from player-centric development. Reseachers' sixth sense of when to ask players for detail and when to keep quiet; when to press development teams for playtest builds; when to apply one playtest format over another, and so many other situations, is critically important. Groups of Researchers have been perfecting this science of player research to aid their development teams in iterating towards a great experience for their players; starting from concept-stages, through design and production.

Those studios adopting a more player-centric development process have seen, felt and maybe even smelled the difference that well-run playtesting can make.

Have these tips helped you come to your senses?

What might your next playtesting session smell like?

About the Author: Seb Long is a Games User Researcher at Player Research examining game usability and the player experience through playtesting and game UX analysis. Player Research are the multi-award-winning playtesting studio based in Brighton UK, with a portfolio of more than 200 games, 1 billion+ players, and clients including EA Games, Microsoft, SEGA, Zynga, and a whole host of creative indie teams.