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Persona 5 - First Impressions

Persona 4 was one of my favourite games on the PS Vita that got me so addicted to it I am on my 3rd NG+ walkthrough. It was my first JRPG experience and enjoyed it that when Persona 5 was around the corner I was anticipating the new entry with high expectations. 

The game makes a jazzy introduction with it’s stylistic presentation alongside fusion jazz with pop in the mix of it’s opening credits. As soon as I started I was greeted with a prologue section where the protagonist; Joker, is making an escape in a casino. Soon afterwards of a few platforming and stealth sections added in this entry ended with a cutscene with the asthetic of a good anime gets caught by law enforcers. He ends up in an interrogation room smacked up and abused by the officer soon visited by a lawyer. Later then the protaganist told his story resulting in a flashback thus beginning the whole walkthrough. 

The game follows a similar structure to Persona 4 where you start off as a transfer student from the hometown due to an incident and end up in a new area to continue the protagonist’s educational path. The difference is while in persona 4 everyone is interested in you, in this game everyone suspects you due to a rumor. The game also throws you into a dungeon at the very start when your about to enter school though personally I would’ve have appreciated having an introduction to the school as initially but I went along the flow of the story. The characters met weren’t welcoming when introduced but soon to grew on me as I interacted with them. Compared to persona 4 the initial introduction of characters were likable from the start.

The first story arc I played was interesting and made me question the difference between reality, the metaverse and prison which is sort of the velvet room from persona 4. Also Instead of entering the metaverse worlds through a television, we ennter it through a phone appliation where it’ll notify the user of a desired palace where the shadows reside. It had me intrigued as I listen and real everyline of dialogue as I usually bore during these sections COUGH...andromeda...COUGH. The dialogue and voice work is what I expect from a persona game.

The gameplay combat as I said very reminiscent with new features added. In persona 4(And previous titles) I’m given an area e.g city, park or town to explore and interact. Same deal with this game and It felt how expected it to be only in the bustling city of tokyo instead of the rural town of Inaba. There are interaction that can be done like shopping, dinning and more. FOr the dungeons they are greatly designed where now there is verticality to this sections with the added platforming. For combat during a fight an enemy may plead for his/her life adding the option for diplomacy.

So far I have completed the first metaverse boss and eager to play more after this blog and moreover invest deeply into the story.

Written by Yusof Gibran

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Ideas for MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA 2(UPDATED)

After completing Mass Effect Andromeda I felt the sense of accomplishment beating the end mission with all of my squadmates loyal to my protagonist. However it leaves me wanting more from this universe as the game felt like an amalgamation of ME 1,2 & 3 which is not a bad design perpective. The fact that there are certain stories left hanging in the air makes me want more. Not to say the past games had a similar fashion to the quest storylines but I would’ve prefered a complete resolution. Perhaps it’s a build up to much more bigger story.

My issue with the game is not entirely the gameplay which is excellent but it’s more of an asthetic problem. The character creator system is very limited since the last outing from bioware Dragon Age Inquisition had depth to the creation system where I could mold certain parts of my characters face from cheekbones to even the adam’s apple. In this fourth iteration of Mass Effect the animations(pre patch 1.05) are very mediocere that it puts me off at times. Also why does default fem Ryder look like her face got streched out. Default fem Ryder’s model she’s based off looks no where near good as her. It made me utilize the lackluster creation system to create a decent looking Ryder(https://masseffectarchives.com/#user/2839582383/playthrough/1531401761/gender/female).

my next issues are the characters, they’re fine. I found some characters interesting and some flat out bland. The interesting squadmates are Vetra, Drack and Jaal on first impression. Cora and Liam weren’t interesting initially due to flat voice acting but soon they grew on me. Peebee was annoying initially but down the latter she toned down abit but still I didn’t like her carefree nature as I wouldn’t want her going on mission with me if she were real. The thing that’s missing from this game is the sense of ferocity throughout the game like mass effect 2. I guess that’s a preference thing and not really a flaw in the game. The voice acting and writting puts me off at times. “My face is tired”, who came up with that. And that’s just 1% of the cringe in this game. Please bioware you can do better next time. Also the main antagonist is about as bland as a standard kett minion. More could be done for the Archon.

So here are the things that I would like to see in the next mass effect title.

Firstly, more indigenous races in the next cluster wherever in andromeda. The angaran race reminded me of Twi’Leks from Star Wars but with Cat-like eyes and electrolyte cells. The angara lore and history where intersting and their accents where close to South-African and Australian. In the next game hopefully I get to see more alien races in the next cluster like Spiderlike-beings, organic robotic aliens, ethereal beings and heck even a survivng prothean civilization just so happen to be there repopulating. More weird stuff is what I want.

Secondly, the plot. Here’s an example; after some years after the rise of Milky Way species in the Heleus cluster they’ve begun expanding to the second cluster. How the game starts is that a black ops ark(potentially a cerberus ark) arrives to the second cluster where the Milky way expansion is progressing has problems with the Kett empire invading colonist and it’s up to the black ops team to bring down the kett empire. The thing is the Kett has no idea of the ark’s pressence. Since the ark is solely military comprising of operatives, scientist and engineers, they are equipped with warships and combat vehicles for backing up the ground team unlike the ark hyperion. This could spin a creative gameplay descision where we the player could craft missions with the resources at hand and see them play out via cutscenes instead of the craft of a developer; whether  a mission was performed covertly or all out assualt is up to the player and the actions of how the mission was done will reflect the progress of the story. 

Thirdly, the characters. Before I continue I need to get this out of the way; can there be appealling looking characters or atleast well written and convincing characters instead of bland voice acting e.g Liam and Cora. That improvement would’ve made me give a damn for the human characters. I know bioware has gone for diversity in their cast but it needs to be diversity if needed and not forced. Well written characters is what I crave when playing these type of games. Anyway now I got that out of the way here’s what I want for characters. A new protagonist is needed, he or she needs to obey how the player wants them to react. How we treat people and our crewmates. Think Mass Effect 2 where we get to a deep personal level with our crewmates. Miranda Lawson was interesting not because she was hot but because she had an arc to her character. By the end of ME2 there where badass speeches till the final boss. In ME:A there was one speech and it was brief, doesn’t really solidify the comradery among crewmates. I wanted tense moments like to suicide mission in Mass Effect 2 or close to that mission in a different style. Also, CAN JAYDE ROSSI PLEASE LOOK LIKE JAYDE ROSSI. The main villain needs to be compelling and menacing to our heroes. Give the villain character depth with more cutscenes. One thing I like about Saren from Mass Effect 1 is that he had motif for his anarchy and very intelectual when debating the fusion of synthetic and organics with Shepard.

Fourth and finally the gameplay. Since we are a black ops division based on the andromeda initiative or cerberus organisation or an andromeda initiative division funded by cerberus we can have the possibility of playing as different races from human, asari, turian,salarian, krogan and quarian etc. upon arriving the second cluster. A serious bump in the charater creation system to create what we want is appreciated. If I want a beautiful looking charater I should be able to do so and if I want an ugly looking character that’s my choice to do so. The gameplay can be spiced up where we tackle the missions how we see fit instead of giving the player an open environment to play with, give us tools to utilize with. Imagine assembling a task force to accompany with us on a mission or side quest with the given resources and later expanded giving a sense that we are on a military operation whilst exploring different planets. We could select where we can place bases beit scientific, trading and military based. Also assigning protection to a certain community if needed.

All in all I have stated down the things that I hope to see in the next Mass Effect game so that bioware could redeem after the mess that was mass effect andromeda.

Written by Yusof Gibran

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Mass Effect Andromeda - 1st impressions

Mass Effect Andromeda is a Science-fiction Role playing game that takes place in the Andromeda galaxy as a new starting point for the franchise. Upon starting th game I was customizing my protagonist with a lackluster customization system as biowares previous outing Dragon Age Inquisition has an excellent character creation system. With that said I manage to fully utilize the system to the best of my ability and ended up with a tolerable looking protaganist. After the customization I was booted into the game via a cutscene well made giving promise of what’s expected to come. Being that this is a new start for the fourth iteration in a franchise interesting aspects are expected. I played through the opening sequence getting my bearings of the game mechanics and gameplay as bioware opted for a more “DOOM” style combat with fast movements and known abilities from the previous Mass Effect game. The combat has taken for a more fast past aproach where I’ll be jumping around picking off enemy’s like they're fish in a barrel and it feels smooth with the addition of a contextual cover system which works for the most part. The RPG system is somewhat similar the Mass Effect 3 where the only difference is that classes are now gone in place of profiles. These profiles allow me to switch classes on the fly without hassle allowing me to adapt to the situation. However with all  the good I have to state the ugly. Though past bioware games didn’t really have great animations they were still manageble to be convinced, however since this is the fourth Mass Effect game the animations seems to be subpar and good at certain times.Certain, well most characters would be bugs eyed and doesn’t seem to be convincing as if their face is tired …cough *Adison*…cough.The voice acting is competent albeit not great as some characters talk as if the weren’t paid enough to do so. And the choice of characters, that I will cover in the review. Certain characters are likable and interesting and some are forgetable and plain. All in all I’m still enjoying the game with some glaring issues like bugs, glitches and poor animation work. Until I finish the game fully I will give a review of the game as I am still halfway through the game performing side quest and settling outpost. 

Written by Yusof Gibran

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Where ever I go my camera goes

Yusof Gibran