Review – Toki Towa

I was rather enthusiastic in my preview of Toki Towa. I was a bit optimistic, because the magic didn’t last.

/!\ Caution! The video contains spoilers /!\

Some aspects hold true : ImageEpoch wanted to bring a bit of fresh to the JRPG scene by making Toki Towa in full anime style, and they did it right imho. The characters’ animations may be somewhat repetitive, the art style is charming and looks like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s clear that Toki and Towa are the main attraction of this, so it’s more than ever a matter of opinion. The humor is particular also, very ludicrous similarly to what you can see in actual anime (the clear source of inspiration again), while heavily leaning towards ecchi (including the illustrations that come together). But in the result, it’s super effective and I had awesome laughs quite a couple of times. Be careful though because I don’t know how well it can be transcribed in English!

The first thing that falls into pieces pretty quickly is the gameplay. For starters, enemies of the same type do always the same actions in the same order. Consequently, you always attack them the same way, that is to say in the few openings they leave. Let’s be absolutely clear about this, battles in Toki Towa are not repetitive, they’re IDENTICAL. Skills are extremely unbalanced, since magic can OHKO most enemies and even 2HKO bosses up until the first half of the game. Physical attacks as well counter are then left unused because underpowered and imprecise. Time Magic is not really better : the only useful one is the one that freezes your opponent. The others I still don’t know what they are here for, except for the time-acceleration magic which is clearly here to kill you since you take damage anyway! If you add a not so engaging quest system and a insane surge in difficulty in the 3^rd chapter, you realize that you need a great deal of patience to finish Toki Towa.

On the graphics side and independently from design which I’ve already talked about Toki Towa is again fairly modest and it’s clear that the company has privileged an economical development. Dongeons aren’t that varied and backgrounds are as empty as Moon landscape, whilst suffering from framerate drops and clipping on the top of things! NPCs aren’t fully animated or even displayed on the field… In short, Toki Towa is kind of halfway between JRPG and visual novel.

It is therefore hard to recommend Toki Towa to regular JRPGs players. It is mostly destined to Japanese anime/games fans you are deep into ecchi design/visual novels. So if you’ve fallen in love with the art direction, Toki or Towa, you might try this out, but the risk of disillusionment remains high. 

Preview – Tales of Xillia 2

Following the tremendous success of Tales of Xillia in Japan (more than 600’000 copies sold), Namco just couldn’t miss the opportunity to make a direct sequel. Thus, the game re-uses a lot of the existing assets (3D engine, backgrounds, character animations). But with Tales of Xillia as basis, it’s impossible it could end up being a bad game. Far from that, Tales of Xillia 2 has a whole bunch of new things to renew the interest.

In Xillia 2, you’re indebted. Unprecedented situation in a JRPG to be sure, but it ends up being nearly as annoying as paying back credit in real life. The girl from the bank asks you money every 5 minutes, sometimes after every fight or every screen or when you find 2 gald on the ground. It gets less frequent as you earn more money in fights or quests, but that’s definitely something we could have done without. I would have been a plus if the player was perfectly free to reimburse when he wants, also with a little more impact on the story than unlocking new zones. Same goes for the choices you’re being prompted as Ludger. The main character of Xillia 2 has no personality of his own, but the personality you give him in the answers you choose for him. I think it’s too bad, because it’s not as efficient or crucial as in FFXIII-2 for example, and I can only lament that a studio known for building awesome characters would offload that on the player. Last unpleasant surprise, trophies have been made even more difficult to gain. After 52 hours, I have like 5 or 6 six of them…

On the positive side of things, I have to say kudos to Namco for making Gaius and Myuse playable in this one. Those characters are absolutely awesome and classy, while being an undeniable plus to the story as a whole. Sidequests are far numerous than before, there are far more Giganto monsters, special episodes for every character, lots of items to search for… it’s clear that’s going to be longer than Xillia 1, which lasted me 70h. A shame every quest is centralized and guided though, it’s more fun when you discover them on the go like in Xillia 1.

All this obviously won’t ruin the pleasure to dive in Xillia’s universe one more time. Even if the «wow» effect has dried up a bit, how not to still be astonished by Xillia’s superb and colorful environments  Impossible to get tired of what has proven to be the most dynamic, the most spectacular, the most intuitive battle system of the series. Characters are back in great shape, with entirely new sides off their personality. You can switch in every possible way in a fight, but the game decides on your party in main chapters, which is lame. The difficulty can be switched anytime too, but the game is already extremely enjoyable in second difficulty.

Tales of Xillia 2 adds both exciting and questionable elements, so it’s difficult to say wether it will surpass its glorious predecessor (and I can’t judge the story just yet), but there’s no doubt it will place itself within the best JRPGs of this generation.

Review – Sim City

I had been playing Sim City 3000 regularly for 10 years. I am literally hooked every single time I start that game because of my utmost love for economic planning and shiny buildings. This new Sim City thus became one of my most anticipated games and threw myself on it at release.

Maxis clearly put all they had in their new «GlassBox» 3D engine : it is a BEAUTY! Buildings are quite varied, weather effects are astonishing and there are plenty of small details that make it extremely lively! On the management side, Sim City 2013 goes well beyond everything known so far. This heavy part can be divided in 3 levels.

General management and planning doesn’t change much from older Sim City games. Old timers will be immediately familiar with the various economic and social settings to monitor. Is your population fully employed? Are businesses making enough profit? Can your inhabitants move efficiently within the city? Are they educated? Can the police cope with crime? Le list is pretty long and hours go by quickly when taking on the stack of files. The AI is pretty solid despite recurring conflicts between the surface of residential zone (even with the ¾ of the map covered in green the game still says it’s not enough), unemployment and consumer spending.

This new Sim City introduces a micro-management system in which each administrative building can be customized with additional elements to boost its efficiency : the police station can have more patrol cars, the bus terminal will have to receive more garages, the university can be extended with a business school or an engineer school, etc. This system provides you further leverage to reach prosperity, and keeps you even busier than before.

But Maxis has more and offer you to choose a specialization to personalize your city. Gambling, Hi-Tech, Tourism, Oil, … a nice array of possibilities that add further value. Let’s stress that you can choose several of those in the same city : feel free to erect the Tokyo Tower next to an exhibition center, while you pump oil not far from there! Those ones are no gimmick : the warehouse exports, derricks provide barrels for your oil plant, the stadium welcomes tourists… more parameters again for the delight of virtual managers. And if you excel in one of those, you’ll have the privilege to build prestigious social headquarters to reward your talent.

The fourth layer of awesome is that your management actually has an impact on other Sim City players. The game is organized in regions of 4 to 16 cities which are communicating permanently. Goods will come from neighbours if your industry isn’t doing enough, students form other cities will come if you have the best university, stations allow tourists to visit. Economic parameters are very detailed : there are 3 levels of wealth, 3 levels of quality for merchandises and 3 levels of qualification for workers. If the middle class can’t find goods of their liking at home, they’ll be shopping elsewhere. If you’re few to produce high-quality goods, the rich from everywhere will rush to buy. Positioning yourself within your region is a game in the game.

Beyond this competitive side, cities can cooperate by sending ambulances, patrol cars or garbage trucks. Player can also sign contracts to provide electricity or water. That’s where the whole systems finds its limits. Let’s face it, you need every possible asset you have for your city, because there’s never enough. Your neighbour isn’t always monitoring his power supply, so you can being cut by mistake. To play cooperatively, players need to know each other beforehand.

I lament that the laderboards and the world market are still to be implemented. The dev. team is still working to stabilize servers. A quick word on that : apart from the launch day, I’ve never had any problem to play.

But there’s one big problem : cities are incrdibly tiny! I don’t have any problem on the principle because I used to choose the smallest scale in Sim City 3000, but here that just isn’t working and here’s why.

The standard size of the city is about one fourth of a small city in Sim City 3000. When I constructed my 2^nd city (having drawn a map before), it took me… 3 hours. In Sim City, you must constantly invest to improve the standards of living. But you very quickly reach the point at which you can’t have further residential surfaces, which means you cannot your population and your fiscal revenues. And if, like in my first city, you choose the seaside, you’re fairly limited… the other issue lies in the expansions you can make to buildings : it can necessitate far more surface than you expected at first. If you haven’t made room in advance, you have to flatten entire blocks, lose inhabitants and revenues, which makes your budget worsen dramatically. The University fully developed is about the size of 6 residential blocks of high density! You need to make several cities to exhaust the game. I wish I had a big metropolis with everything in it, but sadly it’s not an option.

Sim City is an amazing game, so rich and complex that it seems infinite in theory. But in actual gameplay, it ends up being limited by a clear lack of polish. The dreams of ambitious managers might well be crushed by the ridiculous size of the cities.

Is it the end of the line for Hatsune Miku Project Diva?

Tough I told this many times, let me say again that I love Project Diva f and the project Diva series, which I discovered last summer. I invested 10’000¥ in that game, in particular for the beautiful DLC that added songs from the PS3 versions. That blew me away : my brain had to make an internal update of the definition of «beautiful» after seeing Senbonzakura.

Therefore, when I learned that Sega was preparing a sequel to the 3DS iteration Project Mirai, which is not even remotely as good as Project Diva, I was far from happy. The publisher had never failed to deliver a Project Diva each end of year before. Driven by rage, I took my phone to give them a piece of my mind.

Still, I should have known. The PR guy wasn’t enthusiastic when the first Diva f numbers were published. And two days ago, Sega gave the final ones. They shipped 390’000 Project Diva f (PSVita) + F (PS3) in Japan (probably crossed the 400K mark with digital purchases). The grand total of the Hatsune Miku games (Project Mirai included) is of 1.8 million games shipped. According to GAF, Project Diva f shipped 220K, Diva F 160K. Both are nearing the end of their shipment, because Diva f hit 200K as of end of 2012, and Diva F is currently around 155K sold. The 1^st Project Mirai had 2 shipments and sold 150K in 2012. If we extrapolate, 1800K – 400K Diva f+F – 200K Mirai = 1.2 million PSP games shipped between 2009 and 2011. That means that it took one PSVita game + one PS3 game to equal the sales that PSP games used to acheive. Diva f like Diva F are each way more costly than a 3DS game, hence Sega greenlit Mirai 2.

This triggers serious questions. When even its second-best selling game can’t meet the objective, how can PSVita survive on the market? Will publishers find any interest to deliver the ultimate experience when spin-offs make more profits? Are we going towards lesser quality because of the bearish market? Bad business news are rife those days. SquareEnix’s western games are a gigantic failure that burned millions. The newest God of War, Gears of Wars and Darksiders bombed, and many more stories point towards the end of the current economic model. Next gen is around the corner, can developers keep up? Will gamers foot the bill? Won’t publishers have to cut in their budgets? Will they be still eager to surprise us while it’s the the less innovating games (CoD, FIFA, Mario,…) that make the most money? All this with the rounds of applause from the press which on the top of that often give lectures on innovation and indies. Their hypocrisy is sickening.

Those questions then find a direct illustration in the little world of Hatsune Miku games. What can I do? Unless Mirai 2 bombs hardly, Playsation versions seem out of the agenda. There are rumors of new DLC, but the official silence spells doom on the Project Diva series. I played 15 minutes to snap this screenshot, 15 minutes and yet it’s utmost delight.

Tonight, I am no longer angry. I’m just sad. Of this sadness that draws all your strengh, by which you can’t move forward or even turn on a game. After Valkyria Chronicles, losing Project Diva would far too harsh…

Review – Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor’s Edge

Back only 3 months after the WiiU version that came itself 9 months later to correct the PS3/360 Ninja Gaiden 3, this PS3/360 Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor’s Edge now comes to correct the fact that the aforementioned corrective version wasn’t running on the right system.

I haven’t played the original Ninja Gaiden 3 so I’ll compare only to Ninja Gaiden Σ2 (NGΣ2). In terms of graphics, the game is still above average, particularly in character modeling. The visual effects in Razor’s Edge are far more spectacular than in NGΣ2, first because there are many more of them, and secondly, thanks to return of the dismemberments and the rivers of blood that made the legend of the series. It’s also faster, more fluent and ever better animated than before. I can’t help being impressed despite some aliasing here and there, and my eyes enjoy every second of it.

Razor’s Edge is based on the already excellent gameplay of NGΣ2. Rapid blocking/countering are once more the key to victory, as well as the Ultimate/Obliteration technique and the Izuna Drop. Numerous surprises were added to make it richer : The Falcon Dive, the Blood Rage (basically a faster Ultimate technique) and the Steel on Bone (a mix between Ultimate and Oblteration technique). The gameplay never fails to entertain, all the more that several weapons plus Ayane, Momiji and Kasumi add different play styles. In any case, heated combat provides exhilarating sensations like games seldom do. There’s really little to complain about in that department, but the camera does take weird angles time to time, so that you lose your character in the brawl.

The difficulty is the snag in Razor’s Edge. I do understand that the whole point was to make it harder than Ninja Gaiden 3, but THAT is extremely brutal for anyone not who isn’t familiar with the series. I miss the Acolyte mode of NGΣ2, which had a perfect balance between challenge and accessibility for newcomers. Instead of that Team Ninja has implemented a Hero mode. It doesn’t correspond to an easy mode : it’s actually the normal mode with assisted gameplay, by which the game helps you block and dodge. As I am weak and wanted to unlock Kasumi ASAP, I threw my pride away and switched to that mode after losing 15 times against the T-Rex. By counting the number of assists, it turned out I would have died approximately 37 times during that fight : my chances to beat that boss in normal mode were essentially zero. Let’s point out that after more experimentation, the Hero made makes you evade 99,99% of attacks when your life is low… let me get this straight. NO! Replacing the player by an A.I is NOT a solution to poor difficulty settings. True, I later succeeded in beating the dinosaur with Momiji, and such a merciless fight did feel great. Overcoming the difficulty is part of the pleasure provided by Razor’s Edge so I don’t want to reject it entirely, but some bosses are hopeless.

It’s really too bad because the story has been handled with care. The plot, while not outstanding, has some sense of grandeur and is definitely more interesting than NGΣ2′s. The direction is convincing, characters arouse sympathy and the action is non-stop and varied at the same time. A story mode quite short (5-6h) but intense.

But Razor’s Edge has much more to offer. Ninja Trials, similar to NGΣ2 team missions, are also more difficult than before but more always enjoyable since you side with another online player. There are dozens of them, divided in various difficulty settings and you can choose any of the 5 characters (including the unknown Ninja fully customizable). It’s a shame you can’t be assisted by an A.I. character in solo missions, because even the simplest one are tricky to complete alone. The Clan Battle mode however, in which players face one another in team deathmatches, felt a bit disorganized. The game adds a progression system by which your character can learn new moves and become progressively more efficient in battle. This fits perfectly in the Chapter Challenge mode that make the girls playable in the main story and it’s a real joy to make them stronger so as to achieve what had seemed impossible until then.

Had its normal mode been really normal, Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor’s Edge just would have become the perfect BTA. Its dream-like gameplay is endless delight, it’s richer that any game in the field, and its stunning presentation as well as its charming heroines, directly make it one of the best in history.

Review – Senran Kagura Shinobi Versus

Just to remind you, Senran Kagura is a 3DS series that has been kinda taken over by Sony, in the same fashion Nintendo got Bayonetta 2 for WiiU. Senran Kagura Shinobi Versus thus comes to Japanese Vitas… and consequently yours!

The sudden shift to full 3D gameplay is not without problems : you have to re-learn everything. Bosses are now super agressive and won’t hesitate to chain long combos immediately followed by their 秘伝忍法 (special ninpo), to the extend that it is at times difficult to stand back up. It is therefore crucial to master guard and parry, but the latter is not as efficient as it is in Metal Gear Rising for example. Because of that, the best option is often to run away and engage the enemy from a distance. Ditto for the lock which has you touch the target on the touchscreen, because you can hardly free one hand to do so. Finally and much like MGR, the action is fast and camera has a hard time following. In short, a more nervous gameplay with diminished precision.

It’s just too bad the difficulty settings should keep being so poor. The first Senran Kagura was quite easy to beat, while Senran Kagura Burst was an interesting challenge during chapter 5. Shinobi Versus is again fairly easy, and for a rather stupid reason : you gain XP too fast. The good news is that there is now a difficult mode, but it’s so fu** hard that it requires a long time grinding. The game lacks something in-between that would have allowed the player to experience the main story better. Let’s also point out that EVERY mission includes a boss fight.

The devs went wild on the ecchi side of things in this version. Adding to kinky touchscreen options in th changing room, outfits now have up to six level of tearing, which may lead to nudity (with blurry effect on sensitive parts). I personally think that’s too much at this stage. Not that I turned into extraordinary gentleman overnight, but outfit tearing breaks the flow of battles and it’s slightly annoying. And I lament the fact that Shinobi Versus would trivialize that because the very fact that it was a rare occurrence in the first Senran Kagura made all the pleasure of it.

Shinobi Versus illustrates the difference in power between Vita and 3DS : it has far nicer graphics and superior animation. Cel-shading is a perfect and it’s a real pleasure for your eyes. 奥義 (special attacks) are splendid and classy, I definitely can’t have enough of it. On the other hand, shadows are very poor and the game slows time to time. That said, the 3DS versions that were pretty advanced for the system look like a rough sketch next to Shinobi Versus (while still being nice games overall). Musics are discreet, but some of them are inspired. In terms of pure content, this Vita iteration adds 2 ninja schools, 10 characters which makes 22 with returning ones, new game modes, trophies and countless outfits & accesories. Consider that Shinobi Versus is roughly 4 times as rich as the first Senran Kagura.

The story keeps the balance between serious themes and (very) basic japanese humor. As it was the case before, the various stories are of unequal interest but some do entertain. The destiny of certains characters draws you in the story, and this newest game tells more about events that occured in the previous stories (you come to know what a «Kagura» is, for example). It won’t matters for most people though, because the level of Japanese required is atrociously high. You see words that hardly appear outside of Japanese libraries.

Senran Kagura Shinobi Versus truly is the ultimate version we hoped for. Boosted by the power of the PSVita, it is far richer and polished than the 3DS ones. You nevertheless have to hold some interest for kinky games to disregard the drawbacks in gameplay, and give up with the story unless you have years studying Japanese behind you.

Review – Sol Trigger

The Sol Trigger demo that appeared on the Japanese PSN in September had revealed quite a potential for this game. Potential that was no illusion.

ImageEpoch certainly didn’t fail on the graphics : character modeling is insanely good and animation is unrivaled on the system. It’s smooth, lively and facial rendering is unbelievable. Make no mistake : after Sol Trigger, all existing handheld RPGs can be stacked in museums. The character design was what drew my interest first, and I must say I am extremely pleased with it (probably one of my favorites of the year). Even the bad guys are so classy that you’d actually wish you wouldn’t have to fight them. You will like some more than others, but every character contribute to the bigger picture and to a unique and complete world. The same cannot be said about the level design though. Dark and varying little, they’re not fun to progress into. Music is far better, but it takes several hours to hear really inspired compositions.

The storyline is also pretty solid. A tribe known as the People of the Light have been oppressed and used as a source of energy by fellow humans for centuries, but some of them have decided to resist the tyranny. You play as Farel, the young leader of the group of rebels who call themselves the Soul Triggers, in reference to the Soul energy the People of Light inherits from generations. To stop the exploitation of their companions they plan a series of sabotages. The plot never falls into Manicheism : it’s not about good and evil but the decline of a society torn by its own survival and ethical problems that come with it. In a shonen style very like Xenoblade, the narrative deliver suspense, turnabouts and breathtaking sequences.

The interest is again boosted by the fact that the story is divided in two distinct parts (of 15h each). Just after the most important scene (when you traditionally have all the answers), the game STOPS. In utter bewilderment, you realize that the game gives you characters that have (apparently) no connection with the first ones. You progressively come to know the «truth» that the game had been hiding. The new characters are an excellent surprise and I must say I was delighted. Of are 3 different endings, I didn’t get the one I wanted, and believe me I will replay this.

I must point out that Sol Trigger has a strange sense of logic time to time : save points in dungeons can teleport yourself to your base to replenish your HP/SOL, but no one worries about HQ being connected to enemy command centers! There are things like that are a little puzzling, but it doesn’t dampen the experience.

Let’s talk about gameplay. Unexpectedly, Sol Trigger chooses a first person view in battle, just like good old Dragon Quest. Disappointed at first not to see my characters, I must admit this view puts the player right into the action. My worries flew away when saw the extremely stylish and extensively used skills, during which you I could admire the superb modeling. Every time you use a skill, its level goes up, and the game leaves you use which degree of power/efficiency you see fit : 120%, 140%, etc. until an apocalyptic overcharge. The game is not that hard overall (especially the second part), but some areas or boss fight really made me sweat. Let’s point out that there are no sidequests, only the main story in a very corridor-like fashion, which is too bad.

ImageEpoch wanted to make the last great RPG of the PSP, they might actually have made the greatest…