Hello again, everyone! Long time, no post.
Thought I'd try to write something because it has been a while.
So, I have a review for everyone.
For today, I present
"The Legend of Legacy" for the 3DS.
To begin, I was drawn into this game by it's look.
It appeared to be gorgeous and suggested some serious differences in the backgrounds and play-styles of each of its 7 characters (which included a frog prince).
I couldn't help myself.
I booted the game up and had a hard time choosing my starting character.
With a little bit of roulette, I ended up with Bianca.
I was excited.
She had amnesia and was seeking a way for the elementals to help restore her memories.
It seemed like a great start.
And then I actually started playing.
While the game is pleasing to the eye, the rest can only be described as a cesspool of regurgitated JRPG errors from yesteryear.
I've heard that other entries in the "Saga" series have similar issues and are well received.
This game has officially put me off of that franchise. For life.
To begin, after I actually finished the starting area, there was no indicator as to what I had to do next.
No helpful NPCs.
No map icons.
No journal.
Nothing.
I might just be "spoiled" by the "advances" that have been made in "JRPGs" since the "1980s," as some would "put it."
But, SERIOUSLY. Those advances happened for a reason.
And I'm sure that people not being able to finish a game probably contributed heavily to their implementation.
Second big trouble: the "level-up" system.
Works just like Elder Scrolls games. You get better by doing things.
Awesome, right?
WRONG.
In an ES game, you have so many wonderful options to avoid fights where you will simply be murdered.
In this tripe-fest, you can run once you are in a fight, sure, but you also a) get sent back to the entrance of the dungeon (which isn't all that bad, to be fair), b) are treated as having each character faint once (which decreases your HP maximum until you rested in town, btw [kind of ingenious, in a way]), and c) if you want to get back to where you were after this fiasco, you had to walk back through just as many monsters.
"Oh, but you can just keep going!" - True. But you are weaker and therefore actually can't keep going.
Third big trouble: GRINDING.
I've addressed why I hate this once before.
And you would think, with an Elder Scrolls-esque level system, this game wouldn't be too bad.
WRONG AGAIN.
Even plowing through enemies, either my stats wouldn't increase or my moves wouldn't get better.
Which, of course, meant I couldn't do jack against any actual threats.
Except run.
BUT YOU CAN'T RUN FROM CERTAIN ENEMIES. AND THEY WILL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOUR PITIFUL MEAT-BODY.
"Oh, but replay-" - Shut up. That argument is garbage.
Overall, I just became disinterested in this game because it was so disappointing.
It started out so well.
But there was just so much about this game that I didn't like.
And it all happened so quickly, too.
Final verdict: 2/5
Visual - 5/5: the graphics in this game were simply beautiful, through-and-through. Particularly the way that the maps "popped-up" like a living story book
Audio - 1/5: there didn't seem to be much of anything in terms of music or sound effects. Maybe I just wasn't paying that close of attention?
Replayability - 1/5: in my humble opinion, even one play through would have been too many. This game is so freaking repetitive, it almost caused me physical and psychological harm. The fact that you can play through with all 7 characters for slight differences in the story is nice, but I couldn't even stand to do the 1st one I picked :/
Controls - 4/5: the actual controls were comfortable and intuitive (A to activate, X for menu, Start for screenshot [okay, that one actually pissed me off], etc.), but weren't any sort of major change-up from what I've come to expect in games recently
Story - 1/5: when I first started playing, I was very intrigued (I chose Bianca's story - she has amnesia). However, very shortly into actually playing the game, I discovered things from JRPGs of yesteryear that really irk me - lack of direction after the story began (I had literally no idea what I had to do to advance the story), requiring complete exploration of an area to have any semblance of an idea as to what is going on
Overall, worse than Lord of Magna.
Don't waste your money.
Don't waste anyone else's money, for that matter.
Catch you later, readers :)
Showing posts with label 3DS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3DS. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Tri Force Heroes - A Review
Mornin' all!
Today, I thought I'd do another review for a 3DS game.
This time, the slightly-more-well-heard-of-and-anticipated
"The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes" for the 3DS
First off, I'd like to state that I completely understood that this game was designed for multiplayer and, as someone who can't spend much/any time online gaming, this was probably a dumb purchase in the first place.
However, I've also played almost every Zelda game made to-date. And I didn't want to pass this one up just because of this minor shortcoming.
And so, I began this game.
Which is very much not a standard Zelda game.
For starters, Zelda isn't even involved in the plot - this game has Princess Styla. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different.
Secondly, while you get access to an impressive arsenal of tools, the main focus of the game is the costumes that you can assemble on your journeys to give Link new capabilities. Which is both odd and neat at the same time.
Third, it's a multiplayer Zelda game focused on puzzles more than adventuring. There is no overworld map, and the dungeons are broken into manageable chunks.
The controls are simple enough to understand: Y uses your equipped item (you only get one, sadly), X takes a screenshot for the Miiverse, L/R is dash, A is activate/talk/Totem (in which you stack Links to solve puzzles [order is VERY important when doing this, btw]), B is swing sword.
And that's basically all you need to know there.
Like A Link Between Worlds, this Zelda game made use of the energy meter instead of finite numbers of bombs/arrows/etc. Which meant that exploring was less limited than in previous entries.
AND I WOULD LIKE EVERY ZELDA GAME FROM NOW ON TO USE THE SAME MECHANIC BECAUSE IT IS PURE FREAKING GENIUS.
-ahem-
So, the first thing that I'd like to point out is that there are 8 larger dungeons comprised of 4 smaller dungeons each (and each of those small dungeons contains 4 rooms).
Which means that this game has 32 dungeons in it.
Which sounds like a lot, but isn't all that bad (keep reading for more on this).
Definitely gives you room to run around and play with your friends :D
I played the first dungeon completely in multiplayer and, I must say, it was a blast. I'd never played any Four Swords games due to not being able to meet with that many friends at the same time. But, thanks to the plug-in-group method used in Tri Force Heroes, I was finally able to see how fun multiplayer Zelda games could be.
To help things out, the tappable icons to communicate were not only useful for chat, but tapping them multiple times allowed you to send some of your emotions through the internet. Very well done, Nintendo.
Working together with players from around the world, I was able to plow through some puzzles that were refreshing and inspired in a series that has often been criticized for feeling stale. It was some of the most fun that I've had playing a Zelda game.
After the first complete dungeon, I decided to play the game in solo mode.
And, while doable, swapping dopples is more of a chore than anything.
Unless you use the games unique (and awesome) Totem feature, moving each dopple individually could take a long bit of time out of your day.
Not to mention, some puzzles simply could not be done using dopples. You'd think that Nintendo would have thought of this, but there are points in the game where you simply have to skip a section of a dungeon using faeries. Which, of course, means less reward at the end of the dungeon :/
Kind of a slip-up, in my opinion.
Speaking of faeries, I discovered around the third dungeon that I could beat the entire game and get its complete story in less than 1 hour.
By skipping around using faeries.
Once you finish the first room of any dungeon, you can spend your three faeries to skip right to the treasure room.
No muss, no fuss.
And, oddly, no boss fights (you can skip them just like everything else).
Did I miss out on anything doing this? In terms of story, no, but I'm sure that I missed at least one really nifty puzzle along the way. Oh well :/
So, if you can beat the actual story mode in about an hour, what else is there to do in the game?
If you are a completionist, you can go back through the dungeons, complete the Tri Force Challenges, gather materials, and build costumes that you'd missed.
Or, if you just wanna beat up things, you can enter the arena with two other Links and compete for the top spot (which nets you some Rupees and a costume material).
But, if you don't want to be that thorough (like me), there isn't really anything to do after you defeat The Lady and save Princess Styla.
Which is kind of a bummer.
If I'd beaten the game in one sitting, I could have turned it back in the same day that I bought it. But, overall, it was a pleasant Zelda experience with some welcome shake-ups to a familiar formula :)
Final verdict: 4/5
Visual - 5/5: great graphics inspired by A Link Between Worlds and the game ran smooth as butter :D
Audio - 5/5: everything that I've come to expect from a Zelda game in my many years of playing that series
Replayability - 3/5: with an arena mode and a plethora of costumes to unlock, there's a lot to do after you beat the game, though only if you are a major completionist
Controls - 4/5: in multiplayer, the controls are just swell, but in solo play, having to swap dopples sometimes resulted in puzzles that could not be solved :/
Story - 3/5: the game has a story, but it is brief and very much not a standard Zelda game (Hytopia? Princess Styla? cursed dress? 32 mini dungeons?)
So, there you have it - the newest Zelda game reviewed by yours truly.
Until next time, my read-folk :)
Today, I thought I'd do another review for a 3DS game.
This time, the slightly-more-well-heard-of-and-anticipated
"The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes" for the 3DS
First off, I'd like to state that I completely understood that this game was designed for multiplayer and, as someone who can't spend much/any time online gaming, this was probably a dumb purchase in the first place.
However, I've also played almost every Zelda game made to-date. And I didn't want to pass this one up just because of this minor shortcoming.
And so, I began this game.
Which is very much not a standard Zelda game.
For starters, Zelda isn't even involved in the plot - this game has Princess Styla. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different.
Secondly, while you get access to an impressive arsenal of tools, the main focus of the game is the costumes that you can assemble on your journeys to give Link new capabilities. Which is both odd and neat at the same time.
Third, it's a multiplayer Zelda game focused on puzzles more than adventuring. There is no overworld map, and the dungeons are broken into manageable chunks.
The controls are simple enough to understand: Y uses your equipped item (you only get one, sadly), X takes a screenshot for the Miiverse, L/R is dash, A is activate/talk/Totem (in which you stack Links to solve puzzles [order is VERY important when doing this, btw]), B is swing sword.
And that's basically all you need to know there.
Like A Link Between Worlds, this Zelda game made use of the energy meter instead of finite numbers of bombs/arrows/etc. Which meant that exploring was less limited than in previous entries.
AND I WOULD LIKE EVERY ZELDA GAME FROM NOW ON TO USE THE SAME MECHANIC BECAUSE IT IS PURE FREAKING GENIUS.
-ahem-
So, the first thing that I'd like to point out is that there are 8 larger dungeons comprised of 4 smaller dungeons each (and each of those small dungeons contains 4 rooms).
Which means that this game has 32 dungeons in it.
Which sounds like a lot, but isn't all that bad (keep reading for more on this).
Definitely gives you room to run around and play with your friends :D
I played the first dungeon completely in multiplayer and, I must say, it was a blast. I'd never played any Four Swords games due to not being able to meet with that many friends at the same time. But, thanks to the plug-in-group method used in Tri Force Heroes, I was finally able to see how fun multiplayer Zelda games could be.
To help things out, the tappable icons to communicate were not only useful for chat, but tapping them multiple times allowed you to send some of your emotions through the internet. Very well done, Nintendo.
Working together with players from around the world, I was able to plow through some puzzles that were refreshing and inspired in a series that has often been criticized for feeling stale. It was some of the most fun that I've had playing a Zelda game.
After the first complete dungeon, I decided to play the game in solo mode.
And, while doable, swapping dopples is more of a chore than anything.
Unless you use the games unique (and awesome) Totem feature, moving each dopple individually could take a long bit of time out of your day.
Not to mention, some puzzles simply could not be done using dopples. You'd think that Nintendo would have thought of this, but there are points in the game where you simply have to skip a section of a dungeon using faeries. Which, of course, means less reward at the end of the dungeon :/
Kind of a slip-up, in my opinion.
Speaking of faeries, I discovered around the third dungeon that I could beat the entire game and get its complete story in less than 1 hour.
By skipping around using faeries.
Once you finish the first room of any dungeon, you can spend your three faeries to skip right to the treasure room.
No muss, no fuss.
And, oddly, no boss fights (you can skip them just like everything else).
Did I miss out on anything doing this? In terms of story, no, but I'm sure that I missed at least one really nifty puzzle along the way. Oh well :/
So, if you can beat the actual story mode in about an hour, what else is there to do in the game?
If you are a completionist, you can go back through the dungeons, complete the Tri Force Challenges, gather materials, and build costumes that you'd missed.
Or, if you just wanna beat up things, you can enter the arena with two other Links and compete for the top spot (which nets you some Rupees and a costume material).
But, if you don't want to be that thorough (like me), there isn't really anything to do after you defeat The Lady and save Princess Styla.
Which is kind of a bummer.
If I'd beaten the game in one sitting, I could have turned it back in the same day that I bought it. But, overall, it was a pleasant Zelda experience with some welcome shake-ups to a familiar formula :)
Final verdict: 4/5
Visual - 5/5: great graphics inspired by A Link Between Worlds and the game ran smooth as butter :D
Audio - 5/5: everything that I've come to expect from a Zelda game in my many years of playing that series
Replayability - 3/5: with an arena mode and a plethora of costumes to unlock, there's a lot to do after you beat the game, though only if you are a major completionist
Controls - 4/5: in multiplayer, the controls are just swell, but in solo play, having to swap dopples sometimes resulted in puzzles that could not be solved :/
Story - 3/5: the game has a story, but it is brief and very much not a standard Zelda game (Hytopia? Princess Styla? cursed dress? 32 mini dungeons?)
So, there you have it - the newest Zelda game reviewed by yours truly.
Until next time, my read-folk :)
Monday, October 19, 2015
Lord of Magna - A Review
Or "I'm Here to Trade in This Hunk of Detritus."
So, the Sunday gaming group didn't meet, sadly.
But, on the positive side of things, I was able to trade "Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven" away.
And that led me to this thought: I could write reviews of 3DS games on the blog!
"Why 3DS games?" you might be wondering?
Because I own one and don't have time to game at home. Ever.
SO, here goes:
"Lord of Magna - Maiden Heaven" for the 3DS
Normally, I love JRPGs and when I saw a game from XSEED that combined dating sim elements with JRPG elements with bowling elements, I was kinda big on that idea.
So I bought a copy.
Visually, the game is cutesy, using chibi characters. Which, you know, whatever. No big deal for me. Very vibrant.
The music is great, though. Beautifully scored.
And the combat? Using bowling to fight your enemies? Inspired. Mind you, it wasn't nearly as involved as I thought it was going to be. Mostly just setting up foes to fly into each other. Kind of wished that you actually used a bowling ball in combat.
Where this game fell apart, for me, was playability.
Not replayability.
Playability.
There are simply no choices that you make that actually affect the story.
You literally go from cut scene to fight to cut scene.
Very little to do between those points, except maybe buy healing items.
Worse, is that the box promised fully animated cut scenes, then delivered 3 seconds of animation every hour of play time.
And voice acting?
Forget about it.
You get about one line of that per 10 minutes of play.
In this day and age, and with how simple the rest of the game was, you'd think that XSEED could have gotten full voice acting and fully animated cutscenes.
And the combat, while innovative, was extremely repetitive.
You have special attacks, sure, but only once the story allows you to use them.
And there's only so much of knocking one enemy into another to rack up combos I can take.
Kind of a nit-picking point for me about this game: a near complete lack of 3D support.
For a game that is designed for a system that has been shown to really push dimensional boundaries, this game simply lacked 3D scenes.
Even with my slider turned all the way up, there was almost nothing showing :/
It makes me feel like XSEED dropped the ball there.
The game had a lot of promise, and the story seemed to be going somewhere (maybe?), but I just got so bored with all of the repetition that I made it about halfway into the game and traded it away. The quote at the top of the page is exactly what I told the store clerk when I walked in.
Final verdict: 3/5
Visual - 4/5: would have been better with actual 3D and maybe less cutesy characters
Audio - 5/5: great music and sound, even if voice clips were few and far between
Replayability - 0/5: if I couldn't even stomach playing the main game to completion, I dread to think what a NG+ would have looked like
Controls - 4/5: intuitive overall, but could have used more of the bowling mechanic
Story - 3/5: based on what I had gone through, the story was there, but it wasn't terribly original
And that's all for now!
Still working on older homebrew things (which I actually received suggestions on!) and getting my life in order after my move.
Until next time, gentlefolk :)
So, the Sunday gaming group didn't meet, sadly.
But, on the positive side of things, I was able to trade "Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven" away.
And that led me to this thought: I could write reviews of 3DS games on the blog!
"Why 3DS games?" you might be wondering?
Because I own one and don't have time to game at home. Ever.
SO, here goes:
"Lord of Magna - Maiden Heaven" for the 3DS
Normally, I love JRPGs and when I saw a game from XSEED that combined dating sim elements with JRPG elements with bowling elements, I was kinda big on that idea.
So I bought a copy.
Visually, the game is cutesy, using chibi characters. Which, you know, whatever. No big deal for me. Very vibrant.
The music is great, though. Beautifully scored.
And the combat? Using bowling to fight your enemies? Inspired. Mind you, it wasn't nearly as involved as I thought it was going to be. Mostly just setting up foes to fly into each other. Kind of wished that you actually used a bowling ball in combat.
Where this game fell apart, for me, was playability.
Not replayability.
Playability.
There are simply no choices that you make that actually affect the story.
You literally go from cut scene to fight to cut scene.
Very little to do between those points, except maybe buy healing items.
Worse, is that the box promised fully animated cut scenes, then delivered 3 seconds of animation every hour of play time.
And voice acting?
Forget about it.
You get about one line of that per 10 minutes of play.
In this day and age, and with how simple the rest of the game was, you'd think that XSEED could have gotten full voice acting and fully animated cutscenes.
And the combat, while innovative, was extremely repetitive.
You have special attacks, sure, but only once the story allows you to use them.
And there's only so much of knocking one enemy into another to rack up combos I can take.
Kind of a nit-picking point for me about this game: a near complete lack of 3D support.
For a game that is designed for a system that has been shown to really push dimensional boundaries, this game simply lacked 3D scenes.
Even with my slider turned all the way up, there was almost nothing showing :/
It makes me feel like XSEED dropped the ball there.
The game had a lot of promise, and the story seemed to be going somewhere (maybe?), but I just got so bored with all of the repetition that I made it about halfway into the game and traded it away. The quote at the top of the page is exactly what I told the store clerk when I walked in.
Final verdict: 3/5
Visual - 4/5: would have been better with actual 3D and maybe less cutesy characters
Audio - 5/5: great music and sound, even if voice clips were few and far between
Replayability - 0/5: if I couldn't even stomach playing the main game to completion, I dread to think what a NG+ would have looked like
Controls - 4/5: intuitive overall, but could have used more of the bowling mechanic
Story - 3/5: based on what I had gone through, the story was there, but it wasn't terribly original
And that's all for now!
Still working on older homebrew things (which I actually received suggestions on!) and getting my life in order after my move.
Until next time, gentlefolk :)
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