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.

DLC Monday: Secret of Mana.

Hello and Welcome.

Ok, first, sorry for no free play friday, I was distracted....
 
Now, on to today.   You may be asking yourself, "Hey, isn't today MONDAY, and doesn't a game like Secret of Mana belong on Retro THURSDAY?"  Well, normally you would be right.  However, Nintendo's Virtual Console released Secret of Mana today!!!!!

Secret of Mana is a slightly different take on the classical square RPG.  It is an Action RPG (like Zelda)  which is playable by up to 3 characters.  You control either the "boy", "girl", or the magical "Sprite".

As you progress through the game you receive a number of different "Mana" weapons that can be upgraded into different forms throughout the game.  Most notable of these weapons is the "Mana Sword".  These weapons are the Boy's mainstays but are also used by the Girl and the Sprite.   The Girl also has defensive magic, were as the Sprite has Offensive magic.  Magic takes the form of  Elemental creatures who lend their powers to the other characters.

Square also implemented a lot of the SNES "Mode 7" graphics engine.  You see this alot in the world map navigation ( like Final Fantasy 6)  and even in some of the boss battles.

I really enjoy the music of Secret of Mana, it is a bit different from Nobuo Uematsu, or Yasunori Mitsuda's works, but it is still epic and really suits the mood of this game.

Epic Title Screen

Not really much else to say about this.  If you have a freind,or family member who loves zelda, or square games,  you should check this out on the Virtual Console.

The only draw back of the VC release... No online multiplayer.  I really hate you sometimes Nintendo, I really do.

Anyway, if you don't own the cart, I recommend it.  It's 800 points and well worth it.

~k

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