Retro Thursday - MegaMan X4

Hello and Welcome.

This week's Retro Thursday we will talk about one of my Favorites: MegaMan X4.

 

X4 was the first entry on the PlayStation and brought with it a few new conventions.  For one, X and Zero grew a little taller, and had more of a contemporary anime look to their sprites. It also added anime cut-scenes to tell key parts of the 'story'.  The most notable feature however, is the ability to play the entire game as Zero.

X4 Opening Cinematic

Aside from these extra features, X4 was pretty much more of the same:  8 Maverick Bosses with the same weakness systems that made MegaMan great, X's upgradeable armor, and chargeable enemy weapons.

Despite all that, or maybe because of, this is my favorite MegaManX game.  Playing as X is fun as always, due to the ability to upgrade, but Playing the game again (or the first time) as Zero is where I got the most challenge and enjoyment.

Zero's arsenal consists of different sword attacks gleaned from defeated Mavericks.  All of these sword attacks are (obviously) melee attacks, so you can't attack from a safe distance like X.  It makes for a challenging and rewarding combat for sure.

X4 is available as part of the MegaMan X collection for PS2 and GameCube (it's probably less than $20 at your local game retailer).  The collection also has X1-3 and 5-6, plus two games that were released only in Japan.  I think it is MegaMan cart racing or something silly like that.

Anyway, pick it up, woop up on Sigma with Zero.  You won't be sorry.

~K

Retro Thursday: Fable: The Lost Chapters

The first Fable came onto the scene in 2004 and barely a year later was rereleased with extra content and an extra island/ending for the story portion of the game. When I picked it up and began my playthrough, I found an incredibly enjoyable (although sometimes flawed) action -RPG experience.

The thing that really pushed the game along for me was the fact that the story was completely engaging. I loved the fact that you got to start out as a child (albeit not for too long), and then got to trace the child's journey through training and then work your way up to become the Hero of Albion. The big draw of the good/evil choice scenario was cool enough, but when you get to the main point of the game, all you have to do is make one choice that really effects what road you walk down to the end. I (like usual) went through the first time being a goody-two-shoes, but once I had completed the storyline, I went back and had some fun at the brothels just long enough to get back to neutral territory. It also helped that I would beat my wife until she would divorce me, then remarry her.

The battle system worked well enough, although I don't think I ever used a ranged weapon during my travels. Magic was definitely a plus to keep around, but I would never use, because I didn't want the white glowy all over me. I know it made sense to put that in as a consequence for using all that power, but I always wished that I had been able to use it the whole game and not worry about how nasty I'd look.

I also really loved the customization of hair and clothes. Being able to dress my dude up and walk through Bowerstone and see all the ladies fall for his manly awesomeness.... priceless. Again, the only gripe with this is that certain clothes added to your good/evilness, and I kind of wish it hadn't because I would want to wear the badassy assassin clothes, but I didn't want it to take away from my goodness. It's a small complaint, but I definitely felt it while playing.

Although I never felt that the game ever had everything working perfectly (I would always run into a stupid combat glitch or get stuck on a wall), it was definitely a wonderful play and completely set up a nice framework for Fable 2, which takes everything to the next level extremely well.

Retro Thursday - Mother 3

A couple weeks back, I professed my love for Earthbound (or Mother 2) and although Mother 3 has been out in Japan since 2006 it was just last Friday when the English fan translation was finished and I could finally check it out for myself. Since Friday, I have logged about 12 hours into the game and have to say that (despite early misgivings) it is completely living up to my high expectations.

While Earthbound began in the middle of a representation of small town America and you gradually moved into larger and larger cities, Mother 3 begins in a town that has no concept of money and is one with the surrounding nature. Soon into the game, things begin to go sour, as people discover that guys wearing pigmasks have begun to experiment on the local wildlife in order to make "cooler animals." Fast forward 3 years (or 2 more chapters into the game) and the pigmasks have transformed the town into modern suburbia through the use of their Happy Boxes that the townspeople became addicted to. At my present point in the game, the way to save society and return it to a sense of normality is to retrieve the seven pins located throughout the world and release the dragon hidden inside for good.


Yeah, it's a pretty obvious statement - very similar to the one made in Earthbound, but the writing is really what makes it stand out. Without spoiling anything in the game, I have to say that the way certain events were scripted do a great job of expressing the emotions of the characters and give you that little tug at your heart that connects you to the characters and pushes you forward into the game if only so you can find closure alongside them. With this comes the same wacky sense of humor found in EB that keeps me grinning throughout the game (especially when you run into each of the Magypsies).

The combat in Mother 3 has the same interface as EB in that you don't ever see your characters performing actions through the battles, however there is one really cool addition. In each battle, if you are able to press the attack button at the correct time in beat with the background music, it allows your characters to attack multiple times and score more damage. This, however, this is incredibly hard to do - the highest combo I have achieved is only 4 hits, and that was with the backbeat turned up after hypnotizing the enemy. Maybe it just shows how bad I suck at music...

Altogether, Mother 3 is a great package that just feels good to play. Like all the best 16-bit rpgs, it sucks me back to a time of naivety and complete joy that came with playing video games. I guess the best thing that can be said about it is that every day since I've gotten it, I couldn't wait to get home from work and play more.

Retro Thursday: Kingdom Hearts 2

[EDIT] Hi, Kent here.  I know KH2 isn't really that retro, but my internet was out, and Nate was kind enough to step up and throw something up here at the last minute.   Enjoy!! [\EDIT]

When I first heard about a game that was an amalgamation of Disney and Square franchises, I was so excited to check it out. But then I heard it was on Playstation 2, and as one of the only people who has never owned a PS2, I missed it... and then I missed the sequel. Now that I've borrowed my brother's PS2 (which enabled me to play through Shadow of the Colossus), I have the opportunity to play Kingdom Hearts 2. Before you say "what about the original?" I was told that I should just skip it for its crappy camera and just play the second. It did provide a few moments of having no idea what was going on, but I soon got a handle on the story (not that it really mattered, but more on that later) and continued on.

You begin the game as Roxas (who turns out to be Sora's Nobody) in Twilight Town... blah, blah, blah. It would be pointless to try to explain the story outside of: Sora has a Keyblade, Sora uses the Keyblade to seal worlds away from the Heartless, the worlds are Disney movies, Sora wants to find his friends Riku and Kairi. That's all you really need to know, because the main story really goes out the window everytime you go to a different world and you wind up just playing through plotlines of Disney movies with Goofy and Donald at your side (as a melee and mage character respectively).

It's pretty fun to play through the plots of certain movies that have good action -like Mulan or Lion King, but the Beauty and the Beast and Nightmare Before Christmas levels in particular got pretty tedious for me. Speaking of the action, it's basically a game of repeatedly pressing X and letting Sora do the combos for you and Donald or your other partner (based on the world) heal you when you get low. The combat got a bit boring, but was never really that hard until the last few bosses, where a couple of them were controller breakingly frustrating - nearly as bad as The Force Unleashed (click to read my thoughts on that).

But really, the whole reason to play the game is the interaction with all the familiar Disney characters (or Final Fantasy characters, if that's your thing). In this respect, I'll admit Kingdom Hearts does pretty well. It reeks of nostalgia everytime you enter into a familiar world and get to see and chat with all the characters within. Although, like I mentioned a little above, the Disney levels are pretty much coincidental to the plot as a whole and I really wish they could have worked it in a bit better. The only level that felt like it belonged within the story was the Disney Castle, and that's only because it was pretty much created to fit within the lore.

It was a fun game as a whole, definitely worth the current budget price, but my interest in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts titles really depends on how they work in the combat and story, seeing as those were the two things that felt a little lacking to me.

Retro Thursday: Earthbound

Earthbound (or Mother 2 if you want) is quite possibly my favorite game of all time. The gameplay is your typical Japanese RPG, complete with lots of grinding and semi-random encounters, but what really sets the game apart is the crazy awesome (and also just plain crazy) story.

Earthbound is a classic RPG on the SNES that takes place in a pretty modern world (unlike the swords and sorcery of other 16-bit RPGs), and in the game you take the role of the boy Ness, who soon learns that he is one of the chosen few who will save the world from teh evil Giygas. During your time in the game, you run into your friends who help you on your way Paula the psychic girl from Twoson, Jeff, the genius from Winters, and Poo the amazing from Dalaam. The four kids travel throughout their world collecting the 8 sounds from the Your Sanctuary locations into your Sound Stone in order to use the world's power to turn away Giygas' evil.

Your time in the world introduces you to awesome people like Everdred, the loveable thief in Twoson park, Master Belch the pile of goop who enslaved the Mr. Saturns of Saturn Valley, or even the hit band - the Runaway Five! Speaking of the Runaway Five, the music in Earthbound is wonderful. It's really odd and strange at times, but every bit of music fits in with its point within the game so well, that whenever I listen to songs from the soundtrack (pretty muc every day), I can imagine that part of the game vividly. Basically, what really makes Earthbound so wonderful is the characters. The conversations with even the random townspeople are good for a chuckle. It's a really well written (and translated game), that I like to pull out at least once a year and play through.

Now, all I have to do is pray that they release it on the Wii Virtual Console, or (like in my dreams) release it on DS with Mother 1 and 3.

Retro Thursday: Xenogears.

Hello and welcome.

This week on Retro Thursday, We will be talking about a Playstation 1 (PSX) Game: Xenogears.

So, I recently bought a psp. One of the main reasons I did this,was because I heard you can play PS1 games on the PSP and it works like a charm. And since I had a large library of PS1 games (RPGs specifically) that I had never completed during my PS1 days, I thought this was my chance. What I didn't realize before I bought it; you must play the game remotely on your PS3 or use custom Firmware to play the games. Not wanting to shell out $500 more, I opted for the ardous process of getting custom firmware on my PSP.

NOTE: All the games I play on my PSP I OWN the physical disc, and are not available on the Playstation Store in the US. If a game becomes available on the Playstation store in the US you should buy it (as of the date of this post, Xenogears is not in the US Store , but on july 25th it was made available on the Japanese store) I do not promote, or condone piracy. Nor will I provide any information on how to put custom firmware, etc on you PSP.

Another reason that I was excited to play these PS1 games on my PSP is summed up by two EVIL words: Battery Backup. As many of my friends could tell you, I have a very unlucky history with games and memory cards that use a battery backup, instead of solid state memory like SD cards and sony's MemoryStick. I have lost countless hours of RPG and other game progress because of this (the main reason I have so many unfinished PS1 and PS2 games....). The ability to back up my saves (which I do weekly, now) and the assurance that, if my battery dies I won't have to start ALL over, Made this a perfect fit. Seeing as this is the third time I have played Xenogears (First time I had a bad disc, so had to wait a few years before I got a better disc.  Started over, and lost my save more than half way through....))

But enough about my sad gaming history, we're here to talk about Xenogears.

Released in 1998, Xenogears was produced by Hiromichi Tanaka (producer of the great Secret of Mana), and Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final fantasy) among others.  The Anime cutscenes where drawn by Koichi Mahimo, who was a lead animator for the Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion animes.

Music (some of my favorite square music) was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger) and definitely exemplified his own style, rather than trying to emulate Nobuo Uematsu ( And not putting himself in the hospital for it!).

Xenogears had me hooked from the first time I played the demo which came with my friends Final Fantasy 8.  The interesting thing about this title, Square almost did not release this game in America (it never reached the European  PAL territories) due sensitive religious themes (which I find pretty humorous, considering half of the PS1 RPGs where about killing "god").

Probably, the most interesting aspect of this game is the unique (for the time at least) battle system.  Using a "Combo" system of weak, medium, and strong attacks (Triangle, Square, and X buttons.) you learn new "Deathblows" based on the amount of times you press certain attack sequences.   As you learn new deathblows your "Gear" (bipedal mechs that are used to fight larger enemies) also recieves new attacks.  The magic or "Ether" system in Xenogears feels pretty tacked on at times, the only really useful Ether attacks are the ones that heal your characters.

Xenogears is also supposed to be the 5th installment of 6 in the Xenogears universe (sounds like Starwars math to me...).  The first four chapters where released as the Xenogears : Perfect Works, an encyclopedia of Xenogears art and history that was released only in Japan.  The 6th volume of the Saga was never released, but many fans thought that Namco's Xenosaga was going to be a sequel.  This wasn't that strange of an assumption given that about 70% of the original Xenogears staff worked on Xenosaga.  Unfortunately for most fans, Namco and Square weren't best buds so the rights to Xenogears remained with square.  Xenosaga is more of a reset on the whole Xenogears universe.

Well, that is enough for me.  Gonna go hook up the PSP to the TV in my hotel and play some more Xenogears!

~K

Retro Thursday: E.V.O

Hello and welcome to our first Retro Thursday.

In light of our post Monday on Spore, We are going to talk about a Super Nintendo game: EVO - Search for Eden.



EVO was released in 1993 by Enix (The company behind the Dragon Quest games, who eventually merged with their rival Square ). EVO is an action platformer with some RPG elements. The game is broken up into five worlds or ages (Fish Age, Amphibian Age, Dinosaur Age, Mammal Age, and the "Age of Eden"), each with multiple stages. The world map (and levels for that matter) is structured similarly to Super Mario World. You progress through each side-scrolling level fighting enemies, and eating the meat they leave behind. This meat serves two purposes, first it restores your health, second it serves as an experience system (EVO Points) which allows you to evolve your character in a few different ways. You can save these evolutions in the "Record of Evolution" for later. At different points in the game, you can aquire crystals that give you special properties. The green crystal, allows you to turn in to any creature in the record of Evolution. The red crystal, allows you to unlock secret powerful creatures (which you can save in the record of evolution...) for a limited amount of time.

Check out this video review of EVO.

Turn the volume down if you just want to see some gameplay.

And that is why I decided to post this week. The premise of this game is almost exactly the same as Spore. Sure, spore has slightly more complex game play, but the core element, the one that makes spore truly interesting, is the ability to evolve your creature. Sure, it isn't quite as dynamic as Spore's creature creator ( you can't say, articulate your spine), but each level offers a slew of different parts you can use to upgrade your creature. In total, there are eight different parts of your body you can upgrade: Jaws, Horn(s), Neck, Body, Hands&Feet, Dorsal Fin, Tail, and the Back of your head. Each part has multiple options each typically better than the last.

Really, there isn't much else to the game. To get the best parts for you creature, you always have to spend some time grinding (hey, it IS a game by Enix after all) as going straight through each level only nets you enough Evo P. to get the weakest of parts.

So, how does this game hold up today? Well, I started replaying it this week, and I can say, it holds up pretty well. While the backgrounds and levels are far from inspired, the creatures are detailed and well designed. The game play, while repetitive at times, is simple and fun. The music (composed by Kouichi Sugiyama from the Dragon Quest series) has a very classical sound, and easily compares in quality to some of the finest SNES RPG scores.

I was definitely suprised that my nostalgia for this game holds up even today (it rarely does). True, I am a sucker for anything that lets me build up my character, or make visable changes to your character.

All in all, I highly recommend this one. If you can get your hands on a reasonably priced cartridge, pick it up, you won't be sorry. Barring that, we will just have to wait for its release on Virtual console. But given Square-Enix's limited North American support for the VC, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Now that I have propagated my evil Darwinist evolution to our nations children, my plan is almost complete...

~K