Category Archives: 7 Star Games

Bendy and the Dark Revival Review

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It’s time for the next Bendy adventure. I actually beat this one a little while ago so this review has definitely been waiting. Bendy is one of those titles that is always intense and so it’s a good October type of game. It’s fairly short so you won’t be playing it for too long but there is a decent amount of replay value in trying to Platinum the title. You do not want to miss out on this one if you have not played it yet.

The game starts out by introducing us to the new main character. She was working the late shift when she notices just how abandoned the place is. The only one left is the janitor and he tends to act rather suspiciously. Unfortunately the two of them seem to be locked in the workplace now and monsters are appearing everywhere. Is she even still in the real world? There are a lot of questions to answer and no obvious clues in sight. The only rule here is to never let your guard down.

That’s why the heroine does come across as being rather naive or just unintelligent for a good chunk of the adventure. The way she acts just doesn’t make sense at times like listening to a guy who is obviously evil and falling for the most basic of traps. It’s one of those games where you’re basically pleading with the main character not to talk into the 10th trap in a row but there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. In general there always tends to be a lot of backseat driving in a horror title for any medium but I dare say this one was more extensive than usual. You’re just really wondering why she isn’t coming to terms with what is going on.

The gameplay is initially more of an inspection game. You walk around and click on things that are suspicious. As the game goes on you get a weapon and that’s when the core gameplay really changes. Now you’re bashing all of the enemies that come your way with a few exceptions that are immune to your weapon. There is actually a super weapon that can beat them but I never came across it in the playthrough. For the most part I think I did a pretty good job of getting almost all the collectibles but I still missed a few.

You want to use the vending machine as much as possible and constantly hit enemies with the shock pipe since both things help you accumulate trophies. The more stuff you do upfront, the less grinding you will have to do in the post game after all. Same with knocking out enemies from behind, if you get into one of the areas where they respawn forever, I would recommend taking advantage of that.

I would need to go back and get them for the Platinum but that requires beating the game at least 3 times so I would definitely want to space that out quite a bit. There is a form of quick travel in the game that you unlock at the very end but unfortunately it is one of the clunkiest ones that I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to find various sewers and each one takes you back to another location but there is no map and this gets confusing very quickly. I appreciate the attempt but it is something that the next game could improve upon.

The gameplay is smooth outside of that though. Also if you think the action takes you out of the experience, you can play on a higher difficulty where I hear attacking is not nearly as good of an option. Stealth is the name of the game there and that will probably feel a whole lot more like vintage Bendy. I personally like the combat as it turns the whole thing into a full action title but to each their own.

The graphics are really good and you can clearly tell the difference between this one and the last installment. The developers made the most out of the new tech and it also helps with the scares because of how realistic everything looks. There isn’t as much of a soundtrack but of course that’s by design. I would have liked some hard rock tunes of course but it works well enough with what they’re doing.

While the game length isn’t super long, there is enough here where you don’t feel bad about the purchase. You’ve got a pretty good amount of content to go through as it is. Meanwhile like I mentioned earlier there is a good amount of replay value with getting the trophies. The story is also compelling so this is definitely a perfect example of a game that is worth the money and will provide you with a fun experience. You really can’t go wrong here.

Overall, This is definitely a really fun game and one that I would recommend. Longtime Bendy fans will get even more out of it as I didn’t notice some of the guest stars or easter eggs that popped up. It has more combat than the first adventure so you really get to have fun taking out the enemies and progressing through the adventure. It has a good amount of difficulty as well so you won’t just be closing your eyes and progressing through the levels. You’re going to have to work for your victories here and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next story. There is certainly a lot more Bendy to experience!

Overall 7/10

Fatal Fury Special Review

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Fatal Fury is one of those video game series that has done pretty well for itself. It has tons of games and remakes over the years and yet it has always struggled to reach the same heights as Street Fighter and Tekken. It’s tough for any fighting series to match those two though. Street Fighter has decades of legacy among the core fans and Tekken has its legendary story. Fury is sort of stuck in the middle of that and has to share a lot of screentime with King of Fighters. Still, this is a pretty fun game to check out on the Nintendo Switch Online. A true retro title that keeps you on your toes.

I jumped right into Arcade Mode and naturally picked Terry Bogard as my character. That guy is a whole lot of fun to play and he’s also a good all around fighter. So I couldn’t really ask for much more than that. The arcade mode is quite a bit longer than the average one. Usually you have around 8 fights in this mode but this game went closer to 15. Not bad eh? It really makes you work for this and you fight all kinds of secret bosses.

It was a good decision because it does make you feel like you are playing the special version here. The gameplay is very smooth and you will have fun mixing up your combos. The game does a good job of not letting it feel like the villains know all of your moves ahead of time. You can actually “trick” them with a mixup every once in a while which was definitely a good thing. It helps make the whole thing feel more realistic.

Naturally the graphics are fun with the retro sprite look. It will feel like you were playing the game right at the arcade. The soundtrack is also very old school and fast paced to match the action. There are a good amount of levels for the game considering how old it is. There isn’t an abundance of content here so the value is really going to be in the multiplayer. That’s true for most fighting games to be honest. I’d say the ones with a robust story mode are outnumbered by the multiplayer ones, certainly back in these days that was even more true.

So compared to newer games in the series this one won’t be able to compete but if you look at it in a vacuum, this is a good game. It’s very basic but delivers what you are looking for in a fighting game. The characters all have distinct movesets and the combat is executed well. The gameplay is smooth and the game doesn’t seem overly unbalanced. I’m sure it probably would be in the hands of an expert but for the most part on a casual level it feels like the devs did a really good job here.

At this point I own most of the Fatal Fury games. I’m certainly not caught up but I’m always glad to play a fun fighter like this one. The Switch Online has been a great way to play through a lot of retro games so I look forward to seeing which ones come up next. There is certainly still room for quite a lot more titles in the future especially if they keep on adding more consoles.

You probably won’t need rewind a whole lot for this one compared to some of the other old games but of course it can never really hurt. Some of the secret bosses at the end can really hit like a tank and the game’s sped is just fast enough where it can be difficult to react to their attacks at times. You have to absolutely bring your A game at all times and also have to be careful not throwing out too many big hits. They deal a lot of damage but naturally leave you open for quite a while as well.

Overall, Fatal Fury Special is a really good game. It’s one of those titles that reminds you of the fundamentals the whole time. You can’t just close your eyes and start spamming specials. Instead you have to slowly close the gap and win. Also I couldn’t figure out how to use most of the special attacks even if I wanted to do them. So I did a lot of sweeps and throws which is a fun and balanced way to play anyway. I would definitely recommend checking this game out.

Overall 7/10

The Gex Collection Review

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Gex is one of those series that I was not overly familiar with before playing the collection. I knew about him in a vague kind of way but I can’t say that I knew the story behind the games or even the gameplay. Well, now I got to play through the trilogy and it is definitely an example of a game series that has aged well. The first game is definitely the weakest since it’s in 2D, but as soon as it went over to 3D, it was off to the races.

The first game is your classic platformer, only there is an extra objective. You have to find various TV remotes in order to clear each level until you make it to the end. If you finish the level without it, then you don’t unlock the next level and in a way all you’ve done is waste your time there. So you don’t want to let that happen. They aren’t that hard to find once you’re really looking for them but if you don’t know about this objective, you will probably waste a little time when you complete the level the first time.

It’s a pretty quick game all around though. It doesn’t take you very long to beat all of the main levels. There is a bonus world at the end which does take more time since those levels intentionally go crazy. I ended up going through them for the Platinum trophy but otherwise they aren’t quite as fun. I enjoy a good 2D platformer as much as the next guy but it’s just not as satisfying as playing in 3D. You aren’t able to rush on through and do what you want because there are always pitfalls to watch out for. There is also a bit less of a story in this one as the original. So all in all it’s fun, and certainly brings in a good challenge but it doesn’t hold pace with the next ones.

The second game is where things really kick it off. Gex is called back into the TV worlds to beat his arch nemesis and we get our first look at the 3D environments. They’re definitely quite a bit of fun and feel like something out of Mario 64. You have different worlds which each have multiple remotes to obtain. So you will be completing each world several times until you’ve really gotten the knack for it. You need to complete most of the missions in order to reach the final boss, but not every one. So if there’s a mission you don’t like, you can just skip it.

The gameplay is smooth and without any real issues so you’re able to just enjoy it. The game is much easier than the first but that is pretty hard to avoid with the 3D environment. The jumping and tail spinning are both mechanics that are handled really well. You will be moving with purpose the whole time and the only tricky thing can be the camera at different points.

The game continues with Gex’s smooth sense of humor and boundless confidence. He’s always got something to say about everything. The lines do run out early on so you will be hearing the same tunes quite a few times, but that’s fine. It’s still better to have reused lines than to not have voice acting in the first place after all. It’s all about that balance.

Then we have the third game which changes up the flow quite a bit. Gex has gone from being ultra confident to being a very pleading guy as he begs for the attention of a girl who’s been kidnapped. She enjoys making fun of him while waiting to be rescued and it’s definitely a real crazy dynamic. That being said, the gameplay is still really solid here. The game is even easier than the second one as there are even less levels that you need to play through in order to unlock the final boss. You can skip a great chunk of them and so I had to go out of my way to at least get to play one level in each world. The war level is probably the best one in the game. It’s definitely a lot of fun and shows how the game could really tackle different genres.

Control wise it’s basically the same as the second game so it really stayed consistent there. I’d definitely have no real complaints on this end. So the Gex Collection was definitely solid and the graphics have aged well. The art style works and everything is very clear. Additionally, the soundtrack isn’t bad although it could use a few more all timers. The tunes we have here are good, but I doubt you will be remember any of them a few years from now.

The only weakness is that the third game’s story is not able to hold on as well as the others. The nonstop flirting between Gex and the captive gets old quick and the game is leaning a bit too hard on the fanservice angle here. I would argue it even makes Gex look a little out of character since he was always in control for the first two games and suddenly he is ultra desperate in this one. It may be hard for you to be a fan of the guy by the time this one ends.

There isn’t a ton of replay value here because the Platinum trophy is very easy to obtain. I got it upon beating the third game and so your game’s length will really be based purely on the story modes. Fortunately, that’s the advantage of being a collection. You’ve already got 3 games lined up here and clearing them all will still take some time. Between the three of them you’re probably looking at around 10-12 hours or so and that’s definitely not bad. The games are all individually fun as well so this won’t feel like a bad purchase. I’d definitely say to check it out when you have some time.

Overall, Gex is definitely a fun character and the collection ended up working out pretty well. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a solid platforming experience. The story in the third game can definitely be a bit of a weak point as it’s rare for a video game to be relying on fanservice but as long as you can get around that you will be okay. I think the series would definitely do well with a modern reboot someday although we’ll have to see if that’s in the cards. For the most part this does feel like a forgotten series all the way through.

Overall 7/10

Shining Force II Review

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You may remember my review for Shining Force I a while back, well I’ve been playing this one ever since and finally completed it. The game is definitely a long one so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I also appreciate that it really followed the template of what a sequel should be. It improved upon all of the weaknesses of the first game like long loading times and making it difficult to swap out party members. Everything has been streamlined quite a lot here which I really appreciate.

The general plot involves a group of devils trying to resurrect the ultimate evil once more. These beings can possess people which makes them rather difficult to stop. The main character’s kingdom is blown up so they are forced to relocate but now they are surrounded by enemies. The King dispatches him to make some alliances and take down the villains along the way but time is not on their side. With every step, he gets closer to danger.

The gameplay is a tactical RPG like the first one. You will have a squad of around 11 fighters and your opponent gets around 30. You have to maneuver around the map in a turn based system to wipe them all out or wipe out the captain of their forces. That means your strategy will often either be about winning slow and methodically or be rushing their king right off the gate. The latter will rarely work to be honest but there are usually a few minions you can skip if you play your cards right. Stay far enough away and you won’t activate their attention.

As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for which units are strong and which ones are basically just meat shields. Sometimes you will even want to opt for launching into battle with a smaller group as a result. I would just bench the ones who weren’t contributing at all because then there are less turns to go through and that makes the battles go by a lot faster. Sure you could eventually get them strong enough with enough level ups but their growth rate was so bad that it didn’t seem worth it.

Meanwhile like I mentioned before, the game did a great job of really speeding everything up. The turns go by wayyyy faster than in the first game. The menus have also been simplified. You can also revive people with one click when at the priest’s house since it is the default option rather than having to select another option each time. So these were all pretty good quality of life features.

It goes without saying that the graphics here are definitely pretty good. The colors have aged really well and I like all of the various attack animations. It’s clear that the game spared no expense here and that’s really what you like to see as a player. The game did not hold back at all. The soundtrack is also good, although I would say it’s less memorable than some other titles I’ve played. They probably could have had a little more fun with that.

Outside of the battles, the game also has a pretty big hub world with a lot of towns to explore. You’re really rewarded for checking these places out as you can recruit more folks to your army and find rare weapons. The only downside is that the game added random encounters for some reason and these can be annoying since each battle in this game is rather long. You have to try and walk around the encounter zones but there is no way to tell which area will trigger a battle. This felt pretty unnecessary since the game already has a built in exp grinding mechanic with the main character’s teleport ability.

Maybe they just felt it would be easier to level up this way. It’s the only reason I can think of at least. It’s still a rather small detail though. The game’s story will hit you with a lot of different twists and turns as you go through the journey which is also fun. You will really have a hard time guessing exactly how things will turn out. Also if you stay on the credits long enough, you’re rewarded with a boss rush. I’m assuming this is still around on the Switch Online version but after waiting for a while I eventually exited. It’s a cool easter egg for those who wait though.

My main advice here is to make sure to always have the Phoenix in your party. He is by far the best party member and has absolute crazy range. Anytime he would die to a critical hit, I’d have to back up and try again. He is absolutely necessary for winning. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the RNG in the game can really change the flow of battle in an instant. Enemies will randomly hit you twice or paralyze you sometimes or you’ll flat out miss. That means no fight is really a sure thing. I wouldn’t mind if they dialed that down a bit, although of course it’s a lot of fun when it’s your side getting the lucky blows.

Overall, Shining Force II is a pretty fun sequel. I had a good time with it and the game is definitely very well balanced. The wild spawn mechanic may have been unnecessary but at least with rewind you can dodge that most of the time. Without that it would have absolutely been 10x as annoying. I can see why this game has such a strong reputation, it was really well made and I look forward to getting to play the third game someday. What other quality of life updates will they be able to add in there?

Overall 7/10

Yu-Gi-Oh GX Tag Force Review

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Yugioh has always been a great franchise for games. That said, the World Championship series has always been a whole lot better than the Tag Force titles and I would say that this one is no exception. Tag Force spends a little to much time on developing bonds and such instead of just jumping into the duel. Around this time period we had World Championship 2006 which I still consider to be the absolute definitive Yugioh game. This one isn’t nearly as optimized but is still fun in the end.

The game is divided into 3 parts which you load up almost as separate games. The first part gives you around 100 days to become best friends with at least one of the characters. If you don’t pull that off, then you’ll keep repeating the final week until you do. Every movement into a new area causes one hour to go past and you can end a day by going to sleep. You become friends with a character by dueling, talking (Which is 50/50 odds on increasing your friendship), and giving them sandwiches. The sandwiches are the most important factor to speeding this up but if t’s a flavor that they don’t like, then it won’t help.

Along the way you will want to get into standard duels as well to level up your character and give yourself money to buy new cards. Your initial deck is very weak after all so you want to change it as soon as possible. Personally I would recommend figuring out who you want to partner with and then creating the same kind of deck. I ended up teaming with Jaden so I built an elemental heroes deck since otherwise he would just keep on eating my cards to summon his weaker ones.

As you would guess thnaks to the name, this is really focused on tag duels. As a resut I would say it makes for a rather tough game because there are so many times when your partner will mess up your strategy. The A.I. isn’t terrible or anything like that but it is very stubborn and will absolutely do whatever it wants to do, regardless of whether or not it helps you. Yeah, that’s the kind of duel partner you have to worry about here.

Part 2 is a lot quicker as the two of you have to win the oturnament together. The length will just depend on how often you win. The main thing to remember is to talk to both partners before you accept a challenge since one will offer more tokens than the other. Since you need 90 tokens, you want to always go for the higher number to make this as quick as possible. I recommend knocking out all the Slifers first, then the Ra Yellows, and the final cleanup can be with one or two named characters or some Obelisk ones.

Finally Part 3 is about beating the Shadow Riders but by now your deck should be about as good as it’s going to get so this may not take quite as long. Most of the enemies will be using some broken cards but not a ton of them. Just keep on fighting and eventually you’ll win. The final boss of the game has an ultra cheesy deck where he basically relies on preventing you from attacking at all. It’s important to hit him as hard as possible early on to beat him before he can set up his traps. I actually got a bit lucky on this one as he got an awful hand to start on our second attempt and then that was a wrap for him.

I suppose you know what you’re getting into with Tag Force but I would have liked more single duels. In the 5Ds game there was absolutely a heavier emphasis on that so it is definitely possible. I would also say the gameplay is a lot choppier here than it would be later on. The game constantly asks you or confirmations on card effects even when it’s not your turn and there’s nothing you can do about it. It makes the game a lot longer than it needs to be. The sequels clean this up but it’s a bit rough for this one.

The graphics are solid enough though. I definitely enjoyed seeing the little animations for when you would summon a particularly powerful creature. The levels are good as well and so I have no issues here. The soundtrack is okay but not one of the sharper ones. That’s another area where the series would end up improving in the future. It’s good enough I suppose, you’ll be so focused on the game that you probably won’t really notice the music too much.

The parts system is a bit clunky as well but hey there is a ton of content here and the day system becomes a non factor after the first part which I appreciate. I never tend to be a fan of that and so the sooner it was gone the better. There is a ton of replay value here and a lot of different card packs so you could have fun here for a while. The price can be kind of high for this one but ultimately it does a good job of living up to it.

Overall, Yugioh GX Tag Force is a pretty good game. It has been rendered obsolete by most of the newer installments both in quality of life and in cards but on its own the game is still solid. It’s the kind of Yugioh game that still did its best to make sure you could have plenty of duels, even if everything else was put on the backburner like the story mode. There are a lot of ways that this could be better but at the same time, Yugioh is always easy to enjoy in any format. I still need to get the final Tag Force titles although their prices can get a little crazy.

Overall 7/10

GI Joe: Operation Blackout Review

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The GI Joes have returned and you could say that his game is definitely a lot more intense than the previous one. I wouldn’t call it super high budget or anything but I appreciated that it was trying to be a full adventure. The third person shooter action works really well as you’d guess because that genre is one of the best. It’s a game that is reasonably short but not super short and since you can get the game for a good price, it doesn’t feel bad. I would definitely be recommending this one.

The main story sees the GI Joes going up against Cobra once more. Cobra had been quiet for a while but it turns out that they were just biding their time and they launch an all out offensive against the heroes. This results in most of the Joes being captured so the last remaining ones have to find a way to launch a counter attack. Meanwhile everything is not well within the Cobra household as 4 different members are all betraying the commander and working on their own plans. He will have to try and deal with them before it’s too late.

I’m not the biggest expert on GI Joe so based on the vibes in this game, it definitely looks like the Commander could use some more loyal allies. If he has to be constantly watching his back all while fighting with the Joes, then that’s not going to be a good combination for him. To be sure, he doesn’t end up looking good in this game and that’s impressive since part of the whole premise is that his side won for once. That’s why you can’t get overconfident.

The game was definitely made with a multiplayer mode in mind. Easch level has two playable characters, the second will be controlled by the AI when playing single player mode. You typically have to defeat all enemies in an area, proceed to a checkpoint, or stay inside of a circle to conquer it like in Overwatch. There are 17 missions in the game and each one tends to range from around 8-10 minutes. The default difficulty also gives you a mild challenge in some areas.

I died quite a few times but it never feels bad because the game has a really excellent checkpoint system. You will see respawn points constantly so you never lose more than a few minutes of progress. Some characters have better weapons than others so you really want to be careful who you pick on the character selection screen. That said, just try enough times and you’ll be fine. It’s one of those games where you just have to brute force it. Also sometimes when the mission is about getting to a checkpoint, the best thing to do is just run through the enemies without fighting.

Sometimes their aim isn’t that great and you will make it without any real issues. Other times you will end up dying and then you have to play it the traditional way. The different kinds of weapons vary between standard guns, explosives, and lasers. Generally lasers are the best. Yes, they deal the least amount of damage but the ammo and nonstop firing makes it worth it. They are on a completely different level. The enemies are always moving around so quickly that it’s just easier to follow them with an endless stream as opposed to trying to time the bullets perfectly.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty good. The cutscenes don’t have a lot of movement to them but I’m just glad for the fact that we have cutscenes in general. That’s something you wouldn’t have expected too much of for a cheaper game. It would have been dialogue based or something. The voice acting is fun and the graphics within the gameplay as also on point. You definitely won’t see any complaints from me in that area. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a soundtrack so I guess you can’t win them all. I would have liked some fun rock themes or something there.

There are also a few vehicle levels. These tend to be pretty easy and seem to just be around as a change of pace. You have to try and dodge land mines and defeat opponents while racing to the goal. It’s essentially a straight road as you get to the end of the game. You just have to keep on driving and driving until you get there. There are a lot of health containers in these levels that are hard to miss which is why the levels feel so much easier.

One last gameplay tip for the standard levels, your close quarters attack is really good against most bosses. Don’t try it on Storm Shadow since his sword will slice your health bar apart but on the other bosses it is the best way to whittle down their health. I was able to complete the final boss way quicker than most of the others in the game because of that. I just went in swinging and they went down extremely quickly. This is because your close quarters attack cuts through the shield and straight to their health bar but of course the same is true of theirs so watch out for the counter attack.

Overall, Operation Blackout is a pretty fun game. It’s nothing fancy, you’re not going to find a lot of fancy gameplay mechanics or anything like that. At the same time, the fundamentals are sound enough to where this is the kind of game you could really recommend. It takes you back to a simpler time of gaming where you only needed a few buttons to play through a game. You can pick this one up and play it at any point without worrying about what the advanced combos were or how you’re supposed to be playing it. Not bad eh? Hopefully more GI Joe games come out in the future.

Overall 7/10

Shining Force Review

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Shining Force is a game that I was never really familiar with back in the day. In fact, it was so unknown that I didn’t even realize it was a tactics game until I played it. I can definitely say that this is a long adventure though so it’s the kind where you really get your money’s worth. The game also gets quite difficult towards the end. There are a number of areas where the game has not aged particularly well but all in all you will have a fun time here.

The game starts with a lot of turmoil between the kingdoms as always, but this is all spurned on by a group of villains who seek to resurrect an ancient evil. Once this evil is let loose, the world will be in great peril. The main character has to band a lot of allies together in order to save the day. They will be known as the Shining Force and will be travelling across the planet in order to take on all challengers. Will they be enough?

The game’s story is pretty solid. It seamlessly mixes in some humor at good points but is otherwise a pretty serious story. There is a body count here to be sure and the villains tend to always be one step ahead. It’s really not until the very end that the heroes really seem to even stand a small chance. The ending is pretty fun and so you have a real complete journey here.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, tactics style will always take a while. It’s almost self explanatory since you need to come up with plans to win and then manipulate all of your fighters into the right spots. That won’t be an easy task because you will often be outnumbered and have to keep track of a lot of fighters. Your team caps out at 12 active fighters at once while the enemy forces can have around 30 or so. Next up is the RNG to account for. Each enemy has a standard attack which does almost no damage, and then a power attack which can wipe the health bar of even an experienced fighter.

The final boss even has an instant KO attack which feels incredibly cheesy. While the A.I. is dangerous, at least I won’t say that it is completely unstoppable. I was able to exploit it a few times like attacking from an area where the boss would refuse to move. The final boss and his lack of speed also make him easier to exploit which might be why the developers gave him a one hit KO move. Still a bit cheesy if you ask me but that’s how it goes.

Where the game’s age shows is in how the menus work. Each character can only hold 3 items in addition to their weapon. There are a lot of chests everywhere with items but when your main character is full, he can’t pick it up. So you have to go through 4 menus to remove one item and give to someone else. Rinse and repeat every single time you come up to a treasure chest. Trust me when I say that this absolutely gets old quicker than you might expect.

Additionally, there is no way to easily gauge where your units are and their stats. You have to look them up one by one as you navigate the field. You also can’t skip animations so all of the turns tend to take forever. I also think they went a bit too far when increasing the dodge rate for the enemies later on. It gets to the point where they are really dodging everything and that just feels like a really cheap way to lose. I want to lose because their units are more powerful, not because I missed at a critical juncture.

The length also makes field effects feel tricky. For example, there are a few levels where you are in a forest. In those levels, each character’s mobility is cut in half so that immediately doubles the amount of turns to win. It can be seen as a difficulty thing but I’d prefer adding more enemies to just making everything slower. So there are a few times in the game where things can drag a little bit because of that. I generally enjoy tactics gameplay but a smooth interface is absolutely necessary. It’s part of why Fire Emblem is so popular nowadays, they have really done a great job of optimizing the gameplay.

I do like how the game handles EXP grinding though. In some games like Fire Emblem you can effectively get permanently stuck because there is no area to grind. In this game, you can grind forever. The main character has a magic spell that works as a guaranteed escape from battle. You keep all EXP when doing this so all you have to do is keep on defeating enemies without ending the level and you will watch the EXP really rack up in no time. Trust me, it feels really satisfying to pile that up.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can promote a unit to its evolved form as soon as they hit level 10 but you get much better stat boosts if you wait until 20. Personally I decided to wait for my heavy hitters and then the others I did around level 13-15. It’s just hard to wait for some of these fighters who take a while to level up. It’s almost inevitable in a tactics game that you will have some favorite units who will soak up the EXP and that definitely happened here. At the end of the game I had a swordfighter, archer, and a mage. That was about all that I needed, I just left the other units for dead and marched through to the end. Probably not the recommended way to fight but it worked for me.

The graphics are pretty good and definitely benefit from a colorful artstyle. The game has really aged well and I also liked the combat effects like the energy moves and such. The soundtrack is good but a little limited. You’ll probably be tired of the combat theme by the end because you will have heard it hundreds of times. There’s probably no way around that except to set up multiple battle themes that play randomly for encounters.

Overall, Shining Force is a pretty good game. I definitely had fun with it and am looking forward to seeing how the sequel stacks up. If you like a good tactics game then I think you’ll enjoy this one as well. While there are quality of life features that keep me from calling this a great game, it still holds its own when it counts. At the end of the day that’s the important part and all first games in a series will end up having some lessons to learn.

Overall 7/10

Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition Review

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This game is one that I’ve been playing for a long time. Both games in this collection are quite long and the game is also no walk in the park. You’d better be prepared to train and grind for a long while to get your fighters to a level that is needed to clear the game. By the end of its run, I had put more play time in this title than any 3DS game except for Super Smash Bros. That is not an easy feat so this is a game with a ton of bang for your buck.

For the Mario game, you’ve got a classic story with Bowser causing some trouble. You will go through a bunch of worlds and have to go through the Koopa Kids and Jr. The story is pretty barebones and you will go for large chunks of time with no cutscenes. The appeal here is clearly just about having fun with the gameplay and seeing the Mario characters. I can’t really complain, you’re never going to be playing Mario for the plot. I’m just glad there was some kind of a story here.

The other game has you starting off as a junior monster tamer. You are part of the defense force stopping dragon from running wild. Unfortunately there is a villain group on the rise which have decided to awaken the dragon gods and bring the world to ruin. You will have to stop them along with a mysterious little dragon that popped up. It won’t be easy but you can never count out basic friendship. You also have some allies at the ready, but the burden of saving the world is squarely on the main character’s shoulders. The story is definitely a lot better than the Mario one although a very questionable choice for a villain’s musical theme does take the edge off.

The gameplay is about matching orbs of different colors to create combos. In a lot of ways it’s like Candy Crush and I have to admit that I always wanted them to come out with a story based game using this gameplay style. I got my wish so that was really satisfying. The game could definitely use some solid quality of life updates though. Gathering minerals to evolve monsters is incredibly tedious and everything takes way too much energy. Getting energy back is difficult since it seemed like back when the game had online access you could farm it better. Apparently the mobile version fixes all of these issues but on the 3DS you’re stuck.

When you’re allowed to just play the game it’s a bunch of fun. That said, the level up system does mean this will be impossible eventually. You will need to evolve your fighters in order to raise their level caps to level 99. The final boss has absolutely deadly attacks and can regenerate all of the health bars his parts have in a single turn. If you have your initial fighters who cap out at level 30, you are simply not winning. I ultimately had to complete every side quest and 100% the initial game in order to win. It still took me a lot of tries to actually get through.

I can only imagine how difficult the post game is. Each game has a post game that literally doubles the amount of levels in it. So that would make this a 100+ hour game which is extremely impressive. I tip my hat off to the developer because delivering that much content without paid dlc is always welcome. I’m tempted to bump the score up for that but to me the tedious parts of grinding so ultimately hurt the gameplay just enough for me to drag it down a star. It’s still a pretty good game but quality of life is always a big factor for me.

The graphics are definitely solid. I like the monster designs and the energy effects in combat. The Mario side is especially striking with the way the artstyle works in the game. Then for the soundtrack, well it’s pretty good. I just don’t like the bad guy theme in the Z story. It’s way too happy for the tone that the game was trying to go with. I don’t need to go into replay value here since I already mentioned the 100+ hour runtime. If you like this gameplay style, you should absolutely pick the game up because it is worth the price.

I would say as a gameplay tip, be careful not to hatch or power up anyone when you start the Z story. Save the resources for when you’re really stuck and then figure out who you want to use. Make sure to keep track of their new abilities because sometimes one evolution path will lock you onto truly terrible special moves which will make it way harder to win the game. There are just so many factors to keep track of and of course RNG does play a role here. Sometimes you just don’t get a good role on the colors and have to play again. Just try, try again each time. Eventually you’ll win and since you know ahead of time that it will be 50+ hours, that may help you be patient with the game. It’s not the kind of game you can beat while on auto pilot. When you feel burnt out, just put the game down for a bit and do something else. Getting combos requires a lot of concentration so if you aren’t feeling it, then you’re not going to do as well as you’d like.

Overall, Puzzles & Dragons is a pretty fun game. I really do like the gameplay style and I’d be down to play more games in the style. Amp up the story a bit while cutting down on the grinding for materials and we’ll really be in business. There are a few cheesy bosses near the end like the guy with the one hit KO and pure RNG but at least they’re rare. I didn’t know much about the game series back in the day and really just got it for Mario. It’s impressive that Mario got a game with this style in the first place. Maybe one day we’ll get another Nintendo title like it. In the meantime, this one is usually cheaply priced online.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

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It’s time for the last of the big Metroid Prime titles before the new one comes out. I was pleasantly surprised that they added way more story to this one than to any of the previous installments. I finally felt like I was playing a true sci-fi epic here so that was a lot of fun. The Wii controls do hold the game back to an extent as that type of gameplay system never quite caught on. Still, I definitely had a real good time here and hopefully Prime 4 is able to keep up with this one.

The story has Samus returning to the Federation to catch up when they are all attacked by an army of Ridley’s men. Oddly they seem to be infected by some kind of dark energy and then Dark Samus herself shows up. She easily conquers the team and then proceeds with her invasion of the whole universe. The only way to stop her will be for Samus to liberate a few key planets and then open a wormhole to stop Dark Samus at the source. This won’t be easy, but Samus will do whatever she has to in order to win.

Like I said before, the plot doesn’t just vanish after the first few cutscenes like in the other games. Here we have actual dialogue and story for the whole adventure. It’s such a novel concept to actually see the federation in action this time and all of the players making their moves. Samus actually having some reliable allies is pretty cool even if you have a good feeling on how the story is about to play out.

The soundtrack is really ominous the whole time with some new tunes for Dark Samus and general tension themes throughout the game. I really enjoyed hearing Ridley’s theme as well. The Metroid saga has definitely done an absolutely incredible job with this and so you will not be surprised at how good it sounds. Additionally the graphics are really solid. Nintendo never cuts any corners here and that definitely shows.

The gameplay may be a bit rough with the motion sensors but the core gameplay itself is still solid. You will have a good time blasting away at enemies. One area where it is far superior to the previous two is that you actually level up your main blaster as you play through the game. So you can easily destroy older enemies as you backtrack through the worlds. The only catch is that the missiles have never been weaker. They are utterly useless in this game since they are weaker than your normal gun so you probably are not going to want to use them for very long. Except for puzzles, I completely stopped using mine.

This game also completely bypasses the end of game collectathon that the first two games had. In this case you would have already gotten most of the batteries just by playing the game naturally. It makes the whole thing feel much more organic and the quick travel here is also much better than in the first two games. So that helps a great deal as well.

It feels like they prioritized having fun this time much more than in the first two games and I appreciated that. After all, you are playing these games in order to have fun right? Having to go back and forth too many times takes away from that and so this area has been greatly improved. I even got over 80% of all collectables while playing through the game which is easily my highest score. The quality of life improvements were off the charts here. It’s why I am hopeful that Prime 4 will keep this up. Additionally I’d love another great story like this but I suppose I shouldn’t get my hopes that high.

In terms of replay value, you can naturally try to go for 100% in order to get the true ending. You can also try beating the game on the new hard mode that you unlock upon completing the game the first time. I can definitely see that being a real challenge with how the gameplay works. FPS titles like this were absolutely made for high difficulties. Hopefully it’s not just that the A.I. become damage sponges and they just get a lot smarter. Part of what made this game a lot easier is that they heavily nerfed how much damage you take from attacks. So I’ll be curious to see what hard mode does to that one.

The length of the base game is long enough to be satisfying though. Even without playing through it a second time, you’ll have gotten your money’s worth. Unless you’re buying an out of print copy, then you may want to hold ff on that. The prices online can get tricky but I got a good price on this one. Guess my main advice while playing the game is to try and just follow the map directions as often as you can and only backtrack when you need to. The longer you wait, the more power ups you will have so it minimizes the amount of times you have to go back and forth. Makes the whole thing far less tedious, especially since this game easily has the longest loading times for opening doors. Villains got a whole lot of cheap shots on me that way.

Overall, Metroid Prime 3 is definitely a pretty good game. On almost any other console it probably would have been a great game since the only thing holding it back are those motion controls. Without those things would be a whole lot easier right out of the gate. Ah well, that’s just how it goes. I would still recommend picking this one up when you have the chance. Get those batteries out of the closet and power up a wii remote. While this isn’t an ideal gameplay setup, the game is much easier than either of the first two Metroid Primes so you should still be just fine.

Overall 7/10

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Review

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I haven’t played too many Dragon Quest titles so far but I can say this one definitely lived up to the hype of their being massive titles. This one ended up taking me over 70 hours to complete. It even passed the original Final Fantasy XIII in terms of grinding time as that one took me into the 60s to complete. This one has a rather large difficulty curve and is missing a few quality of life updates that make things even harder. Regardless, it is a pretty fun game and there is a lot to enjoy here. You absolutely cannot accuse the game of lacking in content, that’s for sure.

The story begins with an ancient evil arising and cursing a princess and her father, the King by turning them into creatures. The King becomes a monster while the princess is a horse who cannot talk. The villain escapes and the heroes find out that they will need to destroy him if they are to reverse the curse. It won’t be easy though as this guy is incredibly powerful. Additionally he is hunting 7 descendants of powerful sages. If he murders all 7 of them, then the world will be doomed. Can the hero stop them?

The hero was just an ordinary soldier so he is really thrown into a rough spot here. Still, he is courageous and does whatever he can to help. Along the way you meet up with a number of allies who wish to lend their aid in true RPG fashion. You can tell that the power levels here are quite a bit lower than in the average adventure though because there are several times in the game where the humans are overpowered by ordinary humans and guards.

Yes, you can make the case that the heroes were holding back but I wouldn’t say it always tracks. In one case, getting captured ended up keeping them behind bars for over a month which was an absolutely crazy look for them. The villain could do whatever he wanted during that period and the heroes were just completely out of the loop. Yeah that is an absolutely tough pill for them to swallow and then they basically had to sacrifice someone in order to escape.

One thing that is certainly different from the average title is how often the heroes lose. They were on the back foot for a large part of the adventure. The villain ends up murdering most of his targets without a whole lot of resistance so even by the end of the game, the body count is rather high. It does help to underscore just how tough of a fight this was though.

While the story wasn’t the most interesting that I’ve played in an RPG, it was still good. It was nice to see all of the different areas and monsters all over the place. There were a lot of settings and the quick travel was really good. The game wasn’t often trapping you into places. Yes, it could be really difficult but not in an annoying way. My biggest problem with the game was how frequent the random encounters were. I hear that the 3DS version fixed this but on the PS2 it could be rather brutal. After a while you’re sick of seeing those enemies.

I also tend to generally prefer when all of the shops update their inventory as you progress through the game instead of having to memorize which shop has which items. It wouldn’t be so bad if everything was purely in order but sometimes a shop in an earlier world will have better equipment than a newer one. So that means a lot of running around and since each character can only use a few weapons, you really have to look around in order to find the one that you want. Not always an easy thing to do.

Quick travel helps but that’s still a lot of running around and loading screens to get through. There’s also the decision to not let you open almost any treasure chest until you get to near the end of the game and unlock the master key. Then you can decide to go all the way back to the previous lands to open the treasure or not. All of these things tie back to one common element, exploration. The game really wants you to run around and enjoy the scenery. I can respect that but it does make things a bit tougher than they need to be in the long run. There’s also the option to gamble and then to use the alchemy pot to get new weapons. Both are useful but absolutely tedious so I mainly tried to avoid them until I had no other choice.

The soundtrack for the game isn’t bad. It’s not particularly memorable but I did like the boss theme. As for the graphics, I would say they have aged well. I like the various character designs from the game and the energy effects are solid. Especially the strongest sword skills which are really cinematic. The game definitely had a really good budget.

The core gameplay is of course good as it is your classic turn based gameplay. You use your best attacks and then the enemies do the same. In the end my party had 1 swordfighter, 1 Axe Fighter, 1 Spellcaster, and 1 Archer. Apparently most people don’t go with the Archer class but I thought it would be handy. As you play through the game you will likely get enough power ups to max out 1 category for every fighter and a second for your top two. leveling up categories will determine the kinds of abilities that your character unlocks so choose those carefully. There are no takebacks after all and it is impossible to max out every category.

Overall, This game will give you a pretty fun time. Lasting for 70 hours also means that it will keep you plenty busy for a while which is definitely the true goal of any title like this. Any game in general really. While it didn’t have a strong enough cast/story to jump this to the next level of an 8, I would still recommend this game to anyone. It is absolutely the embodiment of what you would expect an RPG to be like. A really long, grand adventure that puts you through your paces.

Overall 7/10