Ys Book I&II -- All In One.

I've been playing numerous titles along side of Too Human and one of those has been Ys Book I & II for the Turbo Grafix-16 CD via the Wii and its Virtual Console. Ys has long been one of my most favored gaming series and it's great to see this one being made available to the masses. It's too bad most of them will continue to ignore it. Ys Book I & II was originally released by Hudson in 1990 for NEC's Turbo Grafix-16 CD system. In 1990 not a lot of people were going to shell out $399 for a CD system when the bigger name SEGA had the coolest system on the market at under $200 and Nintendo's 16-bit entry had yet to be released in America. Ys Book I & II easily established itself as the one, must have, title for the Turbo Grafix-16 CD. It combined both of Falcom's Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished and Ys II: Anchient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter on one CD-ROM. It's hard to believe now, but Ys Book I & II ushered in full motion video, redbook audio, and true voice. It was a graphical and aural Tour de Force. It didn't hurt that the backing gameplay was exceptionally fun. The Ys series is famous for its music. So much so that Falcom still releases Ys music to this day, some twenty-one years later. Ys Book I & II easily has some of the greatest music ever composed for gaming. You have Yuzo Koshiro's brilliant original score for Ys I and the new tracks for Ys II with Ryo Yonemitsu's great arrangements. The music still rocks as much as it ever did. The game doesn't pack the graphic punch it did back in the day. The FMV is laughable by today's standards, but it really did set the course for things to come. The voice work was very impressive back in the day and remains charming today. But again it's not going to wow anyone today. Except for maybe at how far we've come. The gameplay and the core of what makes Ys what it is, are all still firmly in place. The game is still a blast to play. Adol's adventure in Esteria and Ys is still as fun and charming as it originally was. Ys Book I & II is an amazing piece of adventure RPG history that no selfrespecting fan of the genre should do without. And for $8 entry fee on the Virtual Console, it would be criminal to continue ignoring this classic. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Too Human -- Combat is a Sticky Situation.

I've long since gotten my Commando to level fifty and I'm now grinding out the final achievements in Too Human. I need four more at this point. I've gotten the achievement for getting each of the five classes to level ten so I've gotten a pretty good feel for the classes and everything they bring to the combat. Denis Dyack wanted to revolutionize the hack and slash dungeon crawler looting style of game such as Diablo and Phantasy Star Online. He most wanted to do this by way of the combat. He's gone about it mainly with how the game is controlled. He's put the primary attacks on the right stick. You'll control your character's basic movements with the left stick. You'll swing your sword swipes by aiming the right stick in the direction of the creature you want to attack. If you're within range of a distant creature you'll automatically slide to said creature and attack. The slide range varies for each class. So with the swordplay you'll be zipping about the battlefield chaining creatures and hits together for combos. Added to this you'll have access to ranged combat via guns. Only the combo system there works with juggling creatures into the air and keeping them there as well as chaining creatures and hits together. In both melee and ranged combat you only have a few seconds to hit another enemy to keep the combo active. It's all very basic Devil May Cry. The classes play a big role in how you'll experience combat. If you play to their strengths you'll get a different experience, and if you play against their strengths you'll get something of a far more frustrating experience. The Commando is focused on ranged attacks and plays from a distance. The Berserker is all out attack and has the highest slide distance so he's zipping all over the place like a madman. The Defender is a walking tank and can't be knocked down. He's there to take damage and shake it off. The Bioengineer is the only class that can heal. And the Champion is the jack-of-all-trades type with standardized ratings in all categories but can stay in the air longer than anyone else. There is some button play within the game. You'll jump and roll from the buttons. As well as access your spider bot that offers up a different attack or shield based upon your skill tree path within a particular class. You'll have a war cry attack on a button that essentially offers up a player bonus type spell. You know, increased attack power to bullets or a shield for a set time. Again it's based on your choices within the skill tree paths for the classes. You'll also get a magic attack called a ruiner on the buttons.  The five classes each have the three skill paths, and once you reach level ten, you're forced to make an alignment choice between human and cybernetic. Your choice will offer up two more paths to choose from. The result is roughly sixty variants within the classes and skill trees. More than enough to find a character suited to you. For the most part the combat is a success. It does have a steep learning curve though. The camera isn't on the right stick as it's been in most games since the dawn of twin stick control in the thirty-two bit era. And that will cause some frustration at first. Pulling off the finisher moves by double-tapping both sticks in the same direction will also take some practice and even then it will fail you every so often. The combat is frenetic and fun when it works. The key word there being when. As I'm still farming achievements I'm not ready to wrap up Too Human just yet and there is the issue of game balance to discuss and its effect on when the combat does or does not work. But I'll save that for next time.

Too Human -- The Genre Demands Treasure.

I have completed Too Human's campaign mode. I'm actually halfway through my second trip through the story mode. I'm trying to get my main character to level fifty. He's around level forty-five as of this entry. Too Human is a hack and slash dungeon crawler with a Diablo or Phantasy Star Online loot system in place. You play and play and play ever in search of better loot. Too Human has the loot aspect covered. It drops aplenty. And I don't think I've gotten the same piece twice. There are hundreds of thousands of items to potentially find. Each weapon or armor drop has its own unique look. So as you're constantly getting new and better armor your character's appearance keeps changing. As a result you're sometimes cool looking, or you're an absolute mismatched mess. Too Human uses a six level and color coded loot system. White is common, green is uncommon, blue is rare, purple is exceptional, orange is elite, and red is epic. Most of the better weapons and armor are going to have to be crafted from blueprints found as loot. You won't be finding great items already made in the game. Fortunately crafting is merely a matter of having the blueprint and enough bounty to make it. Bounty is the currency in the world of Too Human. There isn't any great or elaborate process to crafting that tends to be a pain in the ass as in other loot heavy games. You do it right then and there on your character from the menu. Loot resale values are similarly set to help speed things along. You'll get a decent amount of money for the items you salvage back for bounty. And at the rate in which you'll be collecting and salvaging, you'll be able to afford to craft that piece of epic loot without too much effort. Too Human is very much designed to do away with the grind found in most games of this type. As far as loot is concerned, Too Human truly delivers. And in this genre that's greatly important. So as long as Too Human plays decently well it should be a sure thing, right? Well we'll have to wait until the next entry to actually see how Too Human handles the basic combat.

Too Human -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be Silicon Knights' Xbox 360 exclusive Too Human. Easily the most controversial game this year. Too Human's controversy has little to do with gore or sexuality, as there isn't any in the game itself. No, Too Human's controversy for the most part extends beyond the game and goes back years. First of all, people have been waiting on this game for a decade. Too Human started out as a four-disc PlayStation title that first saw the light of day at the 1999 E3. Shortly thereafter Silicon Knights signed an exclusive deal with Nintendo and the game was moved to the Gamecube where a reworked version was shown at the 2000 Space World show. Silicon Knights delivered Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the system and then the partnership with Nintendo was dissolved. So the development of Too Human began anew with Microsoft's Xbox and especially Xbox Live in mind.  Time passed and the impending generational shift to the Xbox 360 further delayed the often delayed title. So finally the game hits store shelves in August of 2008. But even then, it wasn't without further controversy. And for that you go back a bit to the 2006 E3 showing of an extremely early build of Too Human on the Xbox 360. Denis Dyack, the head of Silicon Knights showed the game behind closed doors to select few people. One of those groups happened to be EGM / 1-UP. They revealed what they saw, which was essentially a very early build of the game with graphic and frame rate issues among other things. The game took a rather large hit in the public perception. This obviously didn't sit well with Denis Dyack as he went on a 1-UP podcast the following year in which he essentially rattled off some diatribe about the responsibility of game journalists among other issues. He went on to name NeoGAF forums as an example. He essentially decided at that point to take on the Internet. A truly foolish act. NeoGAF's regulars proceeded to mock him openly and incessantly until he further responded by joining said forum and posting a challenge to post in the thread if you were for or against Too Human all before anyone had a chance to play it. If the game scored below a certain average among critics then the losers would receive a forum tag. The outcome would be either 'Owned by Too Human' or Dyack would be tagged 'Owned by NeoGAF'. Childish and silly, to be sure. The demo proceeded to hit Xbox Live Marketplace and the reaction was decidedly mixed. On one hand a lot of people declared the game shit, while others declared it great. Microsoft actually let it be known that the game had received over a million downloads in a short amount of time. However it's going to play out, there is massive interest. The day before the game was to ship Dyack was permanently banned from the forum further causing childish squabbling. And it's into Too Human we go with all it's core baggage. And I say core baggage because that's also at the heart of what's going to play out here. NeoGAF is the hardcore. They're the ones on the Internet who eat, sleep, and drink video games. But does all that squawking and squabbling resonate outside of the core demographic? Does the casual player hear this? Will Too Human sell in spite of reviews and demo reactions? Is its generally negative opinion amongst the core gamers due from carryover from that initial E3 showing? Is it a good game with an unfair rap? Only one way to find out.

Fable II Pub Games -- All In One.

I have completed Fable II Pub Games, such as it is. I say that as there really isn't a defined end to it. You could conceivably play until you're either hundreds of millions in debt or in the black, but who is going to do that? Fable II Pub Games is a wicked concept. They've essentially broken off the gambling games within Fable II and lumped them together as a self-contained game that will link back up with the Fable II when it releases in October. You're able to merge your Fable II character with your temporary placeholder character within Fable II Pub Games.  Your Fable II character will inherit all of your temporary character's debt or riches. So you'll want to be careful. Imagine starting Fable II with your character a hundred-thousand dollars in debt. That would put a damper on things, wouldn't it? There is more to it than just the money. You can unlock fifteen items that can also be inherited by your Fable II character. They range from the useless Plaits Hairstyle (dreadlocks), to the useful Championship Cutlass (strong sword that boosts spell power) to the comical Dog Training: Backflip. There are others that seem more interesting like the Mysterious Ring that seems to hint at quests or something based around it in Fable II. There are even fifteen gorgeous Fable II concept art pieces to unlock. The game itself offers three main games with roughly fifteen variants each. The three main games are Fortune's Tower, Keystone, and Spinner Box. They're all actually decent fun once you get past the learning curve on Keystone which starts out a tad overly complex for its own good. Keystone is Yahtzee crossed with roulette. And Spinner Box is Yahtzee crossed with slot machines. Fortune's Tower is a card based press your luck. Spinner Box is the only game that is truly pure chance. Fortune's Tower and Keystone both have a level of basic strategy that allows you to turtle your way to profit. The game has the standard twelve achievements for two-hundred Gamerpoints. I've completed eleven of them for the two-hundred, the last one worth zero will be earned upon merging my Fable II character and playing any one of the pub games. As a free bonus for reserving Fable II,  Fable II Pub Games is actually very cool. As a stand alone ten dollar game, it provides some decent bang for the buck.  Overall I enjoyed the game which has decent simple and clean high definition graphics and a very slick and cool interface.  The music is also quite awesome. If the rest of Fable II's music is as good, then players are in for a treat come October. As of this writing, I'll be starting Fable II with just over a quarter of a million dollars in the bank. I'm giving Fable II Pub Games for Xbox Live Arcade an 8.

General Update.

I haven't exactly been twiddling my thumbs since my last update. I have been playing games. A little Phantasy Star Universe, a little multiplayer Battlefield: Bad Company. Some Soul Calibur IV, which you may have noticed didn't get a run of proper entries. The bulk of that time however has been spent replaying Yakuza in preparation of the imminent release of Yakuza 2 next month. Yakuza 2 uses the save file from the original Yakuza and I needed the original save put on the PlayStation 3. I had two options with that. I could go out and buy the memory card transfer cable from Sony for $14.99 or I could replay the game. I just couldn't bring myself to buy the damn thing to only ever use it once. Plus the story refresher wouldn't hurt at all. I ended up originally finishing the game in October of 2006 with a time of just over thirty-four hours. This time around I managed to shave off ten hours. The game was just as strong as it was originally. And the story is still all kinds of kick ass cool. So yeah, I'm all rah rah rah for Yakuza 2.

I should mention a little event that has firmly become entrenched in my coolest gaming moments. It happened late the other night while Neo and I were playing some online multiplayer for Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3. It was the only time I had played the game co-op. Which was tougher than I expected it to be. No lag or anything, it's just I wasn't used to another character running around on screen. It caused me to forget what I was doing half the time as I watched him. Needless to say, we weren't doing too hot. The game has a set number of lives and no continues. We were down to our last lives by midway through the second level. Neo got taken out and he proceeds with a halfhearted 'you can do it' and promptly proceeds to fall asleep. I had the one man. So I wasn't expecting much. But this is one of my coolest gaming moments, so you can guess what happened. That's right, I went on ahead to finish off the rest of the game with one man. But what makes it cool is Neo awakening to find me still playing and nearing the final boss. What's even better is his reaction to getting the achievement for completing the game in online co-op. He essentially wakes up to having the achievement handed to him with a 'fuck I didn't deserve that' topped off with a little giggle.

Siren: New Translation -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Siren: New Translation with a time just over twenty hours. That's a lot of survival horror you might be saying. Not really, you could easily rip through the game if you weren't collecting every last archive. I collected all fifty weapon archive entries and all fifty story archive entries. To do so I had to play most chapters numerous times. One of the main questions to be answered is just what has Keiichiro Toyama done to Siren in the creation of Siren: New Translation. The answer to that is quite a lot. As a revision goes New Translation is heavily altered with new content that includes characters, scenarios, action set pieces, locations, and puzzles. They've also removed characters, scenarios, locations, and puzzles found in the original Siren. They've altered the overriding story in an effort to tighten up and clarify what's going on. It's hard for me to attempt to guess what someone would make of the story who hasn't played the original Siren. I have, and as a result I'm taking a little of this and a little of that and it helps me fill in the blanks. I feel I'm further able to understand what's going on in New Translation because I've played the original Siren. On the other hand having played the original also sort of messes with you as you play New Translation. You notice what's missing, what's changed, what's new in a way that takes you out of the game a bit. That's not the best thing going for a survival horror title that relies on the immersion of it all. The original Siren had controls that you had to get used to. They never truly reached intuitive. You were always aware of them throughout the game and New Translation is the exact same thing. They allow you to get the job done but you'll have to work for it a bit. The original Siren had you wandering about wondering just what it was you are supposed to be doing. It wasn't the clearest game when it came to objectives. New Translation fixes this flaw rather well. You're able to pull up a map with every location clearly labeled and goal way points displayed. You're also able to toggle them on and off within the map if you're a masochist. That's not to say there aren't any secrets to be had, as there are. They're just not as obscure this time around. You'll also be notified of what chapter your actions have just affected. Another aspect that was flawed in Siren was just how much they expected you to accomplish in one go. You were able to save between chapters. So if you messed up or were killed you needed to replay whole chapters. New Translation breaks the episodes down into further chapters and even employs checkpoints within the chapters. And once an archive has been added you'll never have to get it again. It's saved to the archive. This is great, but it comes with an unwanted side effect. It makes New Translation more accessible for sure, but it also lessens the overall scariness of the game. There isn't nearly as much tension when you're aware that the checkpoint is just back there. Siren wouldn't be considered a great looking game and even though New Translation is a big improvement it still only manages to feel graphically competent. You'll clearly feel that New Translation isn't pushing the PlayStation 3 in any way. The sound on the other hand is awesome. In both sound effects design and music. The score retains that Siren flavor while expanding without straying too far. No easy trick I'm sure, but they've pulled it off. The voice acting is very well done all around. Especially the effects put on the shibito voices, who you can now understand via subtitles this time around. Just like the original Siren, New Translation is more than the sum of its parts. It delivers great survival horror action with a still interesting and twisted story. I'm giving Siren: New Translation an 8.5. Hopefully this sells well enough to receive Siren 2: New Translation.

Braid -- All In One.

I have completed Braid for the Xbox 360. Braid is an Xbox Live Arcade title that's currently the new it thing, the new media darling. You know, like last year's Portal. Braid is an action game with puzzles that focus on the manipulation of time. You can run and jump and perform context sensitive action like the flipping of a switch. You also have control over time with the press of a button. You're able to rewind throughout an entire level. You can't ever die. You just rewind. Time applies to both the puzzles and the action. Missed that jump? Just rewind. The game's focus lies within its puzzles. And they're quite impressive and varied. A lot of people have seemingly been blown away by the puzzles with claims along the lines of Braid has made them use parts of their brains they didn't know they had access to. As if they've been forced into that great untapped area of the brain scientists say we're not currently utilizing. The puzzles are good, and more than a few of them are rather original, but I'm not going to go any further than that with praise. I don't feel enlightened. I just had some fun. The game's puzzles will frustrate you, but they will reward you just as much if not more. There is a good sense of accomplishment. The game has soothing music that fits the imagery perfectly. The game's look is of a watercolor painting come to life without the childish overtones of other games in said style. It's an unquestionably pretty game. Braid has a story, should you care to check it out, as it's purely optional given the nature of its delivery. It will turn off some people as it did me. It's very high concept and I found it slightly annoying with its mix of new age hippie drivel and bemoaning of the loss of the sense of purpose of the modern male. Is Braid the next great thing? Is Braid the future? Is Braid art? Will Braid expand your mind? Who cares, I'm giving Braid an 8. I enjoyed it for what it is, and my mind is already on to the next thing.

Siren: New Translation -- Initial Impression.

We're jumping back over to the PlayStation 3 for Siren: New Translation. The game is Keiichiro Toyama's revision of the 2004 PlaysStation 2 title of Siren. Siren was a critically acclaimed but small selling title that offered up visceral horror and palpable tension. It also offered up interesting but ultimately confusing storytelling mechanics and a less than friendly objective system. This reworking is aimed at correcting those issues. It'll be interesting to see if they succeed. It'll also be interesting to see just how reworked New Translation is. Are we witnessing the same story and events? Are we experiencing something entirely different? Or are we being treated to a nice balance of the two? It should be noted that I'm playing Siren: New Translation, and not Siren: Blood Curse. They're the same games, but New Translation is the name of the Asian version of the game. Blood Curse is the Western version of the game that as of this writing is only available via digital distribution through the PlayStation Network online shops in North America and Europe. The game is sold online as a whole or in four installments with a total file size of just over nine gigabytes. In Asia regions the game is available via download or on Blu-Ray disc. And seeing as the PlayStation 3 is region free with regard to software I decided to import the disc based version as the Asian version comes with full English support in both text and voice work. The deciding factor really being the total file size and the considerable download time and the prospect of ever wanting to potentially play the game again sometime down the line. Sure I could always download it again or keep it eternally on my PlayStation 3's drive, but I find that potential prospect to be annoying. At least with the disc version I'll always have it without having to download it again and I could take it on and off the drive with relative ease. The disc based version still requires an install over five gigabytes. I have the original PlayStation 3 with the sixty gigabyte drive and I find the install issue annoying. I can't imagine what it would be like for those with the twenty gigabyte models where one digitally distributed title would take up the majority of their free space after taking into account the operating system in place on the drive. The install of the disc based version took about eight minutes. None of that will really matter of course if Siren: New Translation delivers some fierce survival horror action. We'll soon see...

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors -- Final Opinion.

Twelve and a half hours later the credits have rolled on Dragon Quest Swords. I had initially described it as Pokémon Snap meets Dragon Quest and that's essentially what it is. You'll play as the hero in a first person view with only the Wii Remote. You'll move about town with the D-pad. Forward, backwards, left and right. Holding B can also move you forward. And Up and B will make you run. You walk around the simple town and castle getting bits of story and shopping for and upgrading items by talking to the non-player characters. Once you're ready for combat you'll leave town and come to an area select map. Selecting your destination loads up the action level. In the levels you'll again move forward on rails and every so often you'll come to a set of creatures and combat will begin. Within combat you're able to swing the Wii Remote in left and right swipes as well as up and down and diagonal strokes. You're also able to stab by thrusting the Wii Remote forward. In combat you can set what's called a focal point by pressing the A button. The focal point will last for a few seconds and expire. You can set another focal point without having to wait for the first to expire. The focal point allows you to shift where you're strikes are centered. Say three Magidrakes come on to the screen and align themselves vertically on the left side of the screen. You can quickly move the cursor over one of them and set a focal point and then strike up or down and you'll hit all three in one swipe. You'll face wave after wave of enemies in each battle. And you're able to use a shield by holding the B button. You'll have to defend yourself properly to earn a higher rank in each level. As you make your way through the levels you're able to search for items in tall grass and under rocks and the like. There is a decent materials collection system in the game where you're able to use them to upgrade your weapons. The on rails aspect comes off as Pokémon Snap, but the actual combat feels closer to Link's Crossbow Training. Graphically the game isn't all that impressive. The graphics get the job done and retain the charming Dragon Quest trappings but they are clearly not pushing the Wii. The PlayStation 2 Dragon Quest VIII looks infinitely better. The music is great and most of it comes from other Dragon Quest titles. The story is actually pretty  good and very Dragon Quest like. Which means everything is very straightforward and  there isn't anyone asking the existential why of everything. It's just a classic adventure with good characters and good writing. Like most later Dragon Quest titles the game offers up a rather substantial amount of things to do after the completion of the main quest. The main quest is a decent length, but you'll definitely get your money's worth should you stick around to complete everything the game has to offer. Dragon Quest Swords is a charming little title, just don't come in expecting the epic nature of the Dragon Quest series proper.  It's worth the $30 or less entry fee. I'm giving Dragon Quest Swords a fun 7.5.