Category Archives: Game Reviews

Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle Review

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Shadowverse is one of those games that always looked pretty fun but I can’t say that I knew a whole lot about it. It was a hype game with a fun color scheme but yeah that’s the extent of it. Well after playing through it I can safely say that this is a great game and one that you should definitely check out. There was a whole lot of effort put into this one and you can feel it in all of the small details.

The game follows the adventure of Terry (Or whatever else you name him) as he learns about the game of Shadowverse. It turns out that he is actually quite the prodigy at it and starts winning tournaments quickly. He joins up with a local club at school and that’s good because they desperately need him. If one of their members does not win the national championships then the club will be disbanded. This sounds like a job for Terry and trust me, he’s up for the task!

One aspect that was impressive right out of the gate was the full voice acting. Yes this game has every line read out loud which is great. It really makes this feel like a true AAA game all the way through. It enhances the story since you really feel the stakes this way and the fact that even side quests have voice acting and everything is cool. It works as an extra incentive for you to really play through the adventure. Either way it’s long as the game’s story is well over 40 hours. After that you enter the post game and I haven’t started that one so I can’t say how long it is but I bet it’s another 5+ hours in there.

So you don’t have to worry about replay value. Even outside of all story content there are in-game trophies to obtain and a lot of side quests to complete. You can also work on obtaining all of the cards in the game which is actually more achievable than usual. I came super close to getting them all myself after all. The character cast is likable and the story is strong. It’s not going for an end of the world kind of vibe to be sure but it still brings the tension since your club is at stake.

Now for the gameplay, with so many different card games out there I’m sure the creators had to think carefully to make this one stand out. Well, they definitely succeeded. First off, you can only own 3 of a card so that makes it feel less infinite since after you’ve obtained around 1900 total then that means you’ll have them all. You build your deck with monsters and spell cards so there are two base types. You each start the battle with one energy and it goes up to 10 by the end of the battle. You each have 20 life points and the first one to hit 0 loses.

Beyond that it will take a lot of trial and error but the game really gives you the tutorials in a way that is very easy to understand. The explanations were definitely high quality and you can view them again at any time. There are also over 200 duel puzzles which help you understand more of the specific mechanics built into each clan. Each of the different types of cards have very different strategies and by the end you will want to have more than one deck. For example I had a shadowcraft deck for attack and a havencraft one for defense. What do I mean by that?

Well, when playing a blood deck that is built on damaging the user, I’d go for Shadow which is based around dealing damage to the enemy quickly. It’s a perfect counter so it works well. Then if an opponent is using a slow burn deck like Royal, I would bring in Havencraft. It has a card that basically works like Exodia, if you summon it then you win the duel by default no matter how many life points your opponent has. That part was really cool, I built a deck around that and it helped me win a ton of battles that would have been really tough otherwise.

The game is very friendly when it comes to setting up decks. For example whenever you defeat someone then you get a copy of their deck recipe. You have to get the cards yourself but once you do, then you can set that up as a deck. It revolutionizes deck building which can take hours and hours in a Yugioh game since it’s all manual. This one actually gives you some help which was nice and it’s an incentive to find every duelist and take them down. I ended up only having a little over 30 deck codes out of over 100 so you can tell that I didn’t fight as many as I could have. Once I had my 1-2 punch setup I just figured I didn’t need them.

Meanwhile the graphics here are really solid. The characters are all very colorful and we actually get fully animated cutscenes in addition to the CG ones. That was really cool and also made the game feel more special. Finally there’s the soundtrack which is also really good. There are quite a few really epic tunes in here that get you into the flow of the duel. The game spared no expense.

Overall, Shadowverse is a great game and one that I definitely recommend. It also serves its purpose in getting you more hyped to watch the show since the game was so engaging. I dare say even the Yugioh games can pick up a few things from this one like the deck creation enhancements which do make it a lot more fun. At the end of the day it’s too strong to call this the best card game out there but it did exceed my expectations and I was definitely satisfied by the end.

Overall 8/10

Crystal Ortha Review

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It’s time for another Kemco RPG but this one is a shared production so it’s a bit different. Most of the mechanics from Asdivine Hearts aren’t here for example and this is a game that’s fairly unique in a lot of respects. For example one big change is that there are no consumable items. Yes that’s right there are no potions, revives, ethers, etc. I don’t think I’ve played an RPG without items before so that was interesting.

The game follows a bounty hunter/treasure hunter of sorts. He used to be a soldier within the government but left that to go free lance. He runs into a lady who is looking for the Crystal Ortha, a lake of unimaginable riches. Most people don’t believe that this thing even exists but she is determined to find it. Our hero is a bit of a softie so he agrees to help for a percentage of the profits which even he doesn’t totally believe in. Together they will find the money and in the meantime they’ll assist in saving the world.

That’s another way in which this game is a bit different. The main characters aren’t a bunch of superheroes trying to make the world a better place or anything like that. They are serving their own interests all the way and just so happen to be helping out in the process. They’re not bad people or anything so they help people out along the way but yeah they’re after the treasure first and foremost. Even at the very end of the game the main heroine uses that as the justification for taking all of the gold from the cave although I’d say none is necessary. If it’s in the cave then it’s finders keepers right?

That said, the main characters are some of the more forgettable ones to be sure. Ross is your classic tough guy with a mysterious past who can fight. It’s a solid character type so he’s good enough as the lead but doesn’t really have anyone to bounce off of. You have the heroine who has her gun and isn’t afraid to use it but there’s not much to her beyond that. Then you have the cowboy who is constantly flirting and making a fool of himself. There’s also a kid in a dragon costume but not much to say about him.

All you need to know about this group of characters is that they all just watch as the main heroine’s corrupt fiancé grabs her and starts to drag her away. They don’t jump up to help out or anything which made them fraudulent to me personally. Still, even without a dynamic cast I would still say that overall the story was good. It kept me engaged the whole time which was the important part and the game is fairly long. I beat it ahead of schedule compared to the play-time length it’s supposed to be but it was still around 15 hours or so. I’m even going for the Platinum which I should have soon.

The Platinum hunting is always a good sign for a game because that means it was fun enough to keep playing to the end like that. At the very least it means I didn’t want to put the game down and that’s definitely accurate. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay. So aside from the items there is another really unique thing about it. Each character has normal attacks and then special attacks. Special attacks take up MP meter which naturally grows in every turn. So you can use a basic super every turn or wait and do more powerful ones.

You unlock new skills are you progress through the story, level up, and some through side quests. The best abilities are naturally near the end but with the meter constantly moving it adds a nice strategy aspect to the title. There are also collectibles scattered throughout the game which are incredibly handy. They boost your stats permanently like “+3% health to the party” and they all stack so getting those collectibles can often be even more important than getting the traditional level ups. Trust me you absolutely need these or you’re going to be in for a very rough time. I ended up grabbing almost all of them in the whole game and the final boss was still extremely difficult. I was also at level 99 with all of the characters.

This game is absolutely difficult and so you really have to plan out your attacks carefully. This is one of those games where your health restores completely after every match though which helps a lot with grinding. If you stayed injured then that would have been more difficult particularly with how frequent the enemy spawn rate is, they probably could have toned that down a bit.

The graphics are pretty solid here. We don’t get the really fun illustrations in the style of Asdivine Hearts but everything still looks solid. Likewise the soundtrack isn’t quite as dynamic but in the end it’s still solid all the way through. There are a good variety of action tunes to enjoy. The game’s length is also good and while the post game isn’t very extensive, there’s enough for about 2-3 hours before you end up Platinuming the game. In part because it can be difficult to find the last skills Ross needs for that final trophy.

Overall, This is a bit of a more low stakes game compared to other RPGs but it’s still fun. At the end of the day the story is good and the gameplay is very solid. When both of those aspects are good then the other parts don’t matter as much. I’d like to see more games try this approach of no items. I would bring money back as the currency instead of using materials though, that was just more on the odd side and made it more difficult to buy everything. Still, this is the kind of experimenting that I enjoy. The gimmicks aren’t bad and you will end up remembering this game very well since it was so unique. I look forward to the next RPG either of these companies churns out.

Overall 7/10

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review

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It’s time to sit down and have a difficult discussion about Tears of the Kingdom. I know that you’ve heard from just about every source how this is the game of the year, one of the best games of all time, etc. Well I’m here to let you down gently because it did not reach those heights. I would argue that the first game actually defeats it overall. Tears of the Kingdom ultimately tried to be too ambitious and tried too many things with a lot of them not working out. That’s the big problem here and I say this as someone who has always been a big Legend of Zelda fan. It just wasn’t ready for this and I think the series should go back to the really big story based titles like Skyward Sword. The open world format is cool but it needs extensive fixes.

Well first off the story starts with Zelda and Link exploring some ruins. Unfortunately this does go very well and Zelda goes missing, lost into the winds. Link wakes up on the sky islands and needs to find a way to get going. He must save Princess Zelda from Ganondorf who has returned to destroy the world. Link will need to meet up with various friends and allies as he reawakens the Master Sword and saves the day but can he do this?

Lets talk about some of my issues with the game. First up, they kept the whole breakable weapons mechanic. So every few swings your weapons are going to keep on shattering. Over and over and over again. Yes you now have the ability to fuse weapons with objects which is a new mechanic to the game but this only delays the inevitable as they will both be destroyed before long. The only exception is the Master Sword which still breaks but it will eventually regenerate. This is a mechanic that should have been removed by now because all it really does is force some extra length into the game instead of just letting you have fun. I don’t know about you but I want to have fun and I want to have fun now!!

Then there is the new Ultrahand mechanic to which a large part of the game is built around. With this you can lift up almost any object in the game. This helps a lot with puzzles and such as you jump from platform to platform. The thing is, it’s not a mechanic that is super fun to use. I think it could have been in small doses like using it once in a while but having to do it constantly is something else. Building objects and such is good fun at time but the game is too focused on having you do it all the time. As it is you don’t have much time to just play the game.

You maybe fight someone once every few hours but for the mot part you’re doing a lot of running and map exploring. I managed to scope out almost the whole Depths can a fairly early period in the game and likewise opened up the lighthouses. It is really good to be able to see the map at least and they didn’t exaggerate about the overall size of the kingdom. The game is absolutely massive and it would take forever to run from one side to the other. It is absolutely impressive and I’ll give the egame credit there. They just should have skipped the overall gimmicks so all of the different styles would be gone and you’re just having fun with combat.

The actual combat is smooth but it feels like that is rarely something you need to do. Aside from the occasional boss you don’t have much incentive to take down the minions. You can get some material for beating them but not much. So you’re just going to be doing a lot of running instead and probably getting stuck at some point by those puzzles. I certainly got stuck plenty of times. In the end it took me 55 hours to complete the game and I feel like a good chunk of that was running around in circles because I didn’t know where to go.

There are a ton of sidequests and bonus content to access but most of them are behind puzzles as well so get ready to try and figure those out. Additionally don’t forget that you have to complete a bunch of shrines to get the stars needed to level up your health and stamina. The game may try to present itself as a rue open world where you can make any choices you want but that isn’t always the case. For example there is one boss that you can’t reach unless you get past a stamina door and to do that you had to buy at least 5 stamina upgrades. I wanted to max out hearts and that’s what I had been doing but this forced me to change gears.

Also I believe the open world is to blame for this game not having much in the story. After each temple they play the same cutscene over and over again and just zoom in on a different character depending on the temple. It means that the game froze the progression right here and that’s no good. By the time you get to the end of the game it really doesn’t feel like there was a ton of story that you got through.

At least the climax was a lot of fun though. Lin’s battle stance where he gets ready and the Master Sword lights up was brilliant. That was a great moment all around and is exactly what you like to see in a AAA title. Link has been through a lot but when the going gets tough he is always ready to hang in there. The battle involves a lot of dodging and parrying so you do need to really be on point here. Especially since I had used up all of my hearts earlier thanks to the gloom. I had to beat the final boss and the various phases without taking any hits to my hearts. It took me over 2 hours of trying over and over again but eventually I did manage to succeed.

That was easily the highlight of the game for me because I did feel good in conquering that challenge. I’d argue that the game design wasn’t the best to put you in such a rough circumstance since I feel like most wouldn’t be able to pull that off. Of course there is extra gear and food that you could have gotten to avoid that which is worth noting. The game really wants you to stick around and try all of the content so you can go into the final boss well prepared. It’s a noble goal and I know there is a lot to the game but at the end of the day there just isn’t enough to keep you here. Once you complete the game then you are likely out.

The soundtrack is definitely more on the forgettable side but I suppose I wouldn’t say that it’s bad. You just don’t feel like you will need to Youtube the themes afterwards. The graphics are definitely great here. I would have liked to have had Link’s classic green tunic throughout the game though. Lately it feels like that costume doesn’t appear enough even though it’s the best one. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere in the mode but I was hoping I would get it for the final boss.

Nobody can say that the game is short though. 55 hours just to complete the campaign is really impressive and in terms of overall content I wouldn’t be surprised if this is around 100-150 hours. There is so much to do here. The game can also be fun when you are just relaxing and not having to do anything. The problem is that the game reminds you of what’s coming all the time. Just when you’re unwinding the game throws another puzzle at you or some kind of cryptic clue. You simply can’t escape it.

This all sounds pretty negative so just for the record the reason why I would still call the game good is because the gameplay itself is good. The combat is on point and I enjoy the parrying system. The characters are good and the story is solid when it appears with a cinematic once in a while. You will get real annoyed on many occasions and will need to put the game down for a while since long batches can hurt the experience but at the end of the day it’s a game that you won’t regret buying.

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is one of the weaker Legend of Zelda games for me but I will applaud it on really trying to be as ambitious as possible. It is a huge game but the gimmicks just ended up bringing the experience down. Sometimes less is more and just letting me fight the enemies without having to worry about things would have been great. I want more story and more action next time. Throw those things into the game and I would enjoy it a whole lot more. I would still recommend the game if you want to travel through the kingdom and have fun. I’m confident that you will have a good time here but you will also get irritated at times so definitely keep that in mind. The game is very much a rollercoaster.

Overall 6/10

COGEN: Sword of Rewind Review

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It’s time for a platformer with a pretty fun time manipulation gimmick. In a lot of platformers you really focus on running to the goal and dodging attacks but in this one you actually have the ability to rewind as you may have guessed from the title which is really fun. Additionally since the game is built around that premise, it’s actually very well balanced so you aren’t just being extremely overpowered while slicing through the competition. This game has a lot of replay value and it’s actually quite a bit of fun to go back and work on those levels. I ended up getting an S rank on 6 out of the 10 levels which went over better than I had expected.

The story follows a girl named Kohaku who wakes up in a strange world in a cybernetic costume. She doesn’t really know what’s going on but there is a talking sword named EXEBreaker who wants her to break the system. Kohaku is fine with doing this but what is this system and what’s going on? As you go through the game this will all be explained. You even have to go up against your father and Kohaku will have to make some tough choices. It isn’t going to be possible to make everyone happy this time around so she can’t just press on ahead without a plan.

There are 5 main levels and then 5 SP levels so there are 10 levels in the game. Each level is reasonably challenging though which is exactly why you have the rewind feature. As Kohaku you have a single life point so taking any damage automatically means you lose. Fortunately you have 3 seconds of rewind time in the vault and so you can use that to quickly get back in the action. Of course if you die while you have no rewind time left then you go back to the last checkpoint. You passively gain your rewind time back up to 3 seconds once you use it so as long as you don’t die too often then you’re good.

Of course with the way these enemies attack that can be easier said than done. Other times you may find yourself in a death loop accidentally and be doomed. This can happen when you are squished by an object for example. So plan things out well or you will jus get yourself in a jam. On paper I know that sounds easy but that’s why this game stands out. The levels are really well designed to keep you from cheesing it. You do have to actually get a hang for the controls. I would say the gameplay itself reminds me of Mega Man Zero a lot. You can dash, back dash, crouch, use your sword combos and you have a double jump. Basically if there is a movement option then odds are that you have it.

You can cover a lot of ground and so the actual platforming will normally be easy while the real danger is sticking away from the enemy robots. Once you beat the game then you unlock a super mode which makes all of the levels a lot easier. This is perfect for earning S ranks and all of that plus it’s just fun to have a laser cannon instead of only relying on the sword. Just be careful that you don’t get sloppy as it can be very easy to relax your guard when you have a better weapon.

I died numerous times against the final boss for that reason. It’s just hard to go back to the sword when you’re used to the lasers. Also I kept getting trapped by this portal attack the boss uses and it turns out that I wasn’t supposed to go inside it. See, I thought that was just the next phase of the fight and so I always let it suck me in but apparently that’s a trap. It’s actually kind of clever when you think about it. I can tip my hat to the developers on that one.

The base game is reasonably long since those 10 levels are not a walk in the park. Then you have a lot of good replay value with trying to get the Platinum here. It’s definitely a difficult platinum but one that looks achievable. I would say to give it a go and see how you fare. Even without that, the base game was still fun enough where you will have a great time. I really enjoyed the story all the way through. It’s a pretty fun sci-fi premise with a lot of fun twists scattered all throughout the game. The cast is fairly small but memorable and each character brings something to the table.

By splitting the 10 levels into two sets it also helped you get used to two different fighting styles. For example in the second half your rewinding abilities are much more limited so you really have to focus on your pure fundamentals. Just running in won’t be helping you out much at all because you can’t spam rewind the way that you could. Then at the very end of the game you get the third gameplay style which is a lot of fun and I’m glad it was added to free play.

The graphics here are definitely very solid. The art style really gets the sci-fi feel across very well. It has that Mega Man vibe without feeling like a clone and all of the character designs are on point. The soundtrack is also very good with a lot of solid rock type themes. I actually need to look them up later since it would be a lot of fun to listen to those tracks again. On a technical level the game holds nothing back.

Overall, Cogen really delivers on everything I could have wanted here. It’s a fun side scroller with an intense story and a lot of fun gameplay. The rewinding gimmick is one that never feels annoying and in instead it’s really innovative. The game had a very specific goal in mind and executes on all cylinders. I really had no issues with the game at all and highly recommend checking it out. Hopefully at some point we can get a sequel here since there is still a lot of potential all around.

Overall 8/10

Asdivine Menace Review

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Whenever there is an Asdivine game that is a direct sequel it’s really cool to see. It’s not everyday that you get to see what happens after the heroes have saved the day. It has certainly happened like in Golden Sun but I would argue that it is still more on the rare side. Of course the whole Asdivine series is interconnected by the two goddesses from the first game and it’s cool to wonder where everyone is at these days. We do see a cameo of the cat but since Zack and the heroine took over the roles later on maybe this takes place early in the continuity. It could also be a multiverse setting. Either way that’s not important to this game but it’s fun to think about.

The game starts with Izayoi waking up after the 100 years slumber he had to take from the first game. He saved the universe though so things should be good but unfortunately that isn’t the case when he wakes up. His powers still haven’t fully returned for some reason and the Murk (Shadow energy that corrupts all) is still around. Then a goddess from another universe arrives and explains that things are getting worse across all of the dimensions. Izayoi decides to go and tells the other gods to watch over the universe while he’s gone. This writes out the cast from the first game so don’t expect them to do much aside from quick appearances here and there. Instead the main cast is this goddess, a shrine maiden, and a mysterious little girl who accompany Izayoi. He must check in on all 4 of the universes and take down the main villain.

It’s a pretty fun plot because this was also foreshadowed back in the first game. It had that creepy ending with a girl appearing and she’s the main villain here. Her backstory is also kinda tragic so you can see why she got this demented. Of course it’s another cast of “Sad story but you’re still evil bro” moment but I appreciate the game giving her such a tragic backstory where you can really see why she went the way that she did. It would have been tough to have been on her own for so long. The story evolves quite a lot as you play through it and we have a pretty big cast here. Izayoi is as oblivious as ever and one of the characters is also super oblivious in nature which makes for some fun dialogue. On the whole this game does lean more into the shipping than some of the other Asdivine games but the core story will tide you over. It’s a good premise here and the game takes advantage of the fact that you are playing as a super powerful god this time around. You aren’t going to back down when the villains show up and that’s how it should be.

Of course the whole “I’m depowered!” trope is a bit annoying since at full power this would all be trivial but you do understand why they went in this direction since ordinarily Izayoi could just wipe everyone out. My counter would just be to make the enemies all scale up to gods though. It would be interesting to just make this a big fight between gods of all sorts of dimensions. There is still a human villain here as well but he looks really bad the whole time. Yeah he is being suckered for a good portion of the game but he was suckered too easily and it doesn’t take away from what he was doing. The guy doesn’t have a lot of strength of heart and do I don’t cut him any slack here.

The graphics are really good here as expected. I really like the way that the cosmic realm looks and of course it has one of the best tracks in the game as well. You really feel like this is a big battle to end them all. The fights are also really tough and the game notches the difficulty level a few layers higher to really make the whole thing feel authentic. No expense is spared for this game and you appreciate that. All of the tracks are excellent as you would expect too so the game really has no weak points. You definitely feel like going for the true ending as a result. I went for that right away and even with all of my level ups it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. I’ll try getting the rest of the true endings at some point.

The length is fairly standard for an Asdivine game at around 15-20 hours. You shouldn’t have a problem really diving through the game and by the time you get the platinum as well we’re definitely looking at closer to 30 hours. It’s a fun experience all the way through and well worth the price. The gameplay is top tier as always with Asdivine. The game doesn’t have some of the quality of life features that the others have but it’s got the ones that matter like battle effects and reducing enemy encounters in the wild. Then when you want to grind you can increase the encounters.

The only mechanic I never really used was Unison here. You could merge magic attacks so you do them all in one turn but then the other characters did not get a turn so I never felt like it was worth it. To me it just seemed like using your normal attacks but with more steps so why would I really need to do that? I’m sure there is some benefit but I couldn’t really figure out what it is. Just focus on leveling up and buying all of the EXP upgrades. Do that and you should be good and ready to take on any challenger. Some bosses may still take you more than one attempt but that’s normal so fight hard and just keep pressing forward!

Overall, Asdivine Menace does a great job of following up Dios and it’s a blast to see the old cast again. It would have been nice if more of the old characters could have participated as well. Maybe in a third game we would get to see the extended cast of both games team up. That would be a blast and to this day I’m waiting for an Asdivine game where the protagonists of all the games get to team up. Now there would be a game for the ages! Trust me, it would be incredible and probably a 9 star game right out of the gate. The longer we wait on doing this, the more leads there will be to crossover so I suppose that’s a plus. I definitely recommend picking up this RPG.

Overall 8/10

Asdivine Cross Review

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Asdivine continues to churn out hit after hit and this is one of the better ones in a while. I thought the characters had a really good dynamic going for the most part and was one of the stronger dynamics since the original Asdivine Hearts which will still go down as one of the best RPGs of all time. This one isn’t quite ready to challenge the original of course but it’s still a very strong game all around. With classic end of the world stakes going on and all of the usual quality of life updates this is a game you don’t want to miss.

The game revolves around a thief named Harvey who is really good at what he does. So good that the son of the leader of the guild wants him out of the way and is always trying to get him captured. This time he succeeds but Harvey is broken out along with a girl who claims to be the princess of the kingdom. Problem is that a shapesifter/look-alike has taken her place so she is not currently wanted at the castle. Harvey will have to help her out since his thieves brigade’s motto is to always protect a lady at any cost. He’s not thrilled about this assignment but will do his best. Along the way the heroes will meet up with some allies and enemies as they get closer to unraveling a giant conspiracy. It wouldn’t be an Asdivine game without some cosmic threats on the way right?

Right off the bat we do have a lot of the usual quality of life features that make the games so much fun. You can reduce enemy encounters, turn off battle effects, and more to make walking around and the villain encounters more fun. Grinding up to the max level just doesn’t feel like a chore this way since you can keep on getting stronger and stronger. There are also a lot of different abilities from unity attacks to skills, magic, etc. So you can have fun building your character in a whole variety of ways until you find the one that really sticks with you. Then once you are strong enough you really feel like you can do anything. It’s one of those games where you really feel your strength as it increases which is nice.

The Asdivine series also has fun experimenting with a bunch of features to keep their games feeling different. For example one had a tree that you would raise to get stats every 8 hours, others have weapon merging to make them stronger, roulettes, combo attacks, etc. They’re always features that you don’t have to use of course but they make the game more balanced overall and I appreciate them being there. Trust me it’s a great thing to have. You’re only going to get one final smash during a battle so you have to decide if you use an offensive one that deals mega damage or a support type that restores everyone’s health and boosts their stats. Personally I really liked the support one for once because restoring everyone’s health is huge.

Grinding to get the levels also benefits you in slowly earning currency that can be used to buy online items or saved to use as an extra life mid battle. I recommend using it to buy all of the EXP upgrades and then after that it’s really up to you. I’ll typically buy other permanent upgrades but I recommend skipping on money since by the end it is inevitable that you will have more than you know what to do with. Don’t make the mistake of of wasting your coins on that since they are tough to come by. Extra lives are also super handy because even at around level 300 I was getting beat by some of the opponents. These games can really be challenging if you don’t have a plan up your sleeve.

So the story was really good and that’s one of the things I really enjoyed about the game. Sometimes these titles will go a bit too far in trying to make all of the characters very quirky and zany but this one was mainly keeping the characters feeling real. There is one that gets to be a bit too tsundere by the end which could make you shake your head a bit but otherwise the cast all interacted well. I enjoyed seeing the stakes get higher and higher as the game went on. I’m sure you will see some of the twists coming before the title ends but maybe not all of them. Either way it still makes for a fun adventure cover to cover.

The graphics here are also very solid. I always enjoy the illustrations used for each character portrait. It would be nice if the game ever went a bit farther to have some kind of cutscene during the game. That would just go a long way to making the game feel a bit more special. It’s not necessary of course but would be really effective since it hasn’t happened before. One of the highlights of the game is the soundtrack as expected. The Asdivine games always have a tremendous ost with a ton of really fast paced tunes and this one is no exception. The tracks really hit you with a lot of power in an instant and it works perfectly. I highly recommend looking up the tracks on Youtube when you finish the game.

The story is a good length at around 15 hours or so and then there is a good amount of replay value in trying to unlock all the endings. My only slight complaint here is that unlike most of the other games where you just keep reloading and fighting the main boss, for this one you actually have to play the whole game again on new game+ mode. I thought that was a bit odd and feels a little forced since it was never like that before. It’s not a big deal because you don’t have to play the game again but it seems like a way to extend the replay value a bit without needing to.

Overall, Asdivine Cross is definitely a great game. It’s an RPG that is a whole lot of fun to play. The aesthetic, combat, and soundtrack are all top notch. Kemco knows how to really get you invested into a game and they spare no expense on the fundamentals. In some ways the game will feel familiar and that just makes it even better since you know that all of the other games you’ve played in this style have been fantastic. So naturally that would be the case for this one as well. Hopefully it gets a sequel like some of the others have at some point because there is definitely a lot more you can do with this cast.

Overall 8/10

The Lego Movie 2 Review

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It’s time to dive into the Lego Movie game. I haven’t played a whole lot of Lego games. They’re fairly safe platformers that don’t try to be too ambitious and give you a good time but at the same time they never seem to really be able to match the big titles. There are so many of them that it could make for a good theme someday but as it is this would be the weakest one that I’ve played. It’s not bad by any means, but as I said it’s just rather basic.

The game starts off with the Lego world being invaded by all kinds of crazy enemies. Only the two main characters from the first movie can try to save the day since Batman and the rest of the heroes have all been scattered to different planets. They must be found and assembled before taking the fight to the villains but it won’t be easy. Do they really have what it takes this time? The game doesn’t go much more into the plot than that though and most of the story only appears very suddenly during the final cutscene which was an interesting move. I can tell you that I had not seen this before but ultimately it felt a bit lazy. They could have easily tried to throw in some more cinematics and a plot to this. The main character doesn’t even get to speak outside of grunts because there isn’t much to say although the heroine talks a lot.

Let me jump into my first main issue with the game which are the unskippable cutscenes. Right when you boot up the game you are greeted with a very long intro that can not be skipped and this happens every time you turn the game on. Then during the game whenever there is a tutorial you have to listen to a full speech and there are a lot of tutorials. This is an easy quality of life miss for the game since in this day and age there should never be so many moments that are unskippable. You should always give the player some way to get around that because if you don’t then that’s just going to be annoying.

It was a rough first impression. When it comes to the gameplay I can’t say that I have very many issues though. You use the legos to create objects and move through the stage. It’s all rather easy to understand and there are less characters with specific abilities than in other Lego games so that helps in keeping track of things. There are even some boss fights here which can be fun as you have to create specific objects to defeat them. They don’t always explain everything so get ready for some guessing but on the whole it’s handled well. I would have liked more bosses though.

The game is very short. You should be able to beat it in a few hours, maybe 4-5. There is some replay value in trying to get the Platinum trophy though. I’m not sure exactly what that entails just yet but I think I’m going to aim for that one. It seems like it would be a fun little thing to do that wouldn’t take very long. It does help to make the game a bit more worth it and the price is fairly low so you also have that to consider. If this was full price then I would be a little harsher but for the price it’s a decent value.

It’s hard to really gauge the graphics since the Lego style will never look amazing or anything like that but it’s clear enough. I was able to always know what was going on and keep moving from there. The soundtrack is more on the generic side and I don’t think that you will really love any of the tracks or even remember them to be honest. It’s very by the numbers in that respect and you can tell that the game is just playing it safe on every turn. Nothing wrong with that but you’ll never be a great game by doing that. You have to go a little farther and try something dynamic.

That sums up the game in a nutshell. You’ll have a good amount of fun the whole time if you just want a fun little platformer to play but there are so many better ones out there that you will never quite feel like this one is a title you would search out. For some things the game does well, I like the map/compass. It always tells you where you should be going and I appreciate that. The collectibles are clearly labeled and all of the menus are very easy to understand. You could put this game down for years and I bet you would still understand exactly what was going on after that. This is absolutely one of those games and some of the level designs are also decent. I actually liked the DC world where it’s just a bunch of houses and roads. It felt like something out of a classic Gamecube game which was great but other levels were more on the generic side.

Overall, The Lego Movie 2 is a decent game but it just doesn’t do anything special enough for me to call it very good. It ends up being stuck right on the edge instead of really going anywhere. If you’re looking for a little game to keep you entertained then you can’t go wrong here. That being said, you can do better so keep that in mind. Buying one of the main Lego games like Batman or Star Wars would also end up giving you a lot more content but hey maybe you should go and check them all out. The prices for the Lego games actually aren’t that bad nowadays.

Overall 6/10

Knighthood Review

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All right it’s time to talk about a mobile game that sort of came out of nowhere and ended up being a blast. It’s the kind of mobile title that’s definitely very addicting with a whole lot of content to keep you busy. The campaign is likely upwards of 100 hours, I only just beat it now and I started the game back near the end of February. The iPhone sadly doesn’t track play time past 10 days, but I’m at 30 hours played over that time to multiply that by 6 for the 2 months and that’s even close to 200 hours. Especially considering that I was putting even more time in at first and you’ve got a big grind here. Of course that’s only the beginning as any player would tell you.

So the basic plot here is that you are a new knight ready to serve the kingdom and make a name for yourself. Your timing couldn’t be better as the kingdom is in desperate need of help now that monsters are invading. The legendary knights of old have all turned evil except for one who is determined to train you to be the best there ever was. Still, you will have to travel across several continents and defeat all of the knight masters. Are you up to the task?

The story is fairly basic but I do appreciate the fact that there are some actual cinematics here. Near the end of the game you even have a big team up among all of the characters you have met thus far against the main villain and it’s actually kind of hype. So the game’s story does hold up and the best part is that it’s a story which actually “ends”. Well….after you beat the main game there is a post game which seems to have a story of its own and there is a bit of a cliffhanger if you were to end after the main story. So it’s not 100% finite, but at least you could say you beat a saga as opposed to some games that like to just go on forever. From the start of Knighthood you know exactly how many levels there are and it helps you plan things out.

Now what is the gameplay like? Well, it’s a turn based RPG and you have 4 kinds of attacks. You have your weapon attack based on what you have equipped. Then you have your punch and the power is based on the gauntlet you have equipped. Then you have the hero abilities based on the heroes you have unlocked to fight by your side. Finally you have the Rage ability which you can charge up using your punch and then use for great results. This is an extremely simplified version of the controls though so expect a bit of a learning curve as you jump in. The game does a good job of being intuitive though so while it may be hard to explain it all in text, as you’re playing it will just make sense. Trust me on this, it’s a very smooth experience all around.

As you level up all of your stats improve so you really feel stronger each time. Mainly what will slow you down from beating it all in one shot is that you will run out of materials. Materials are used to strengthen your weapons and armor and the material you need changes every 10 levels. Additionally you need rank up materials as you approach the next 10. There are 9-10 different modes that you will be playing daily in order to grab materials but so you have to realize that this will be a gradual process. You won’t be getting everything at once, that’s just not happening. A lot of these are time gated as long as you’re a free to play user so keep that in mind.

That said, the game doesn’t feel very pay to win because you can eventually access all materials. You are given a good amount of currency each day so just spend it wisely. Additionally this is a game where most of the content is really PVE (Player vs Enemy) so it’s not like you’re watching other users beat you up all the time. There are two main PVP modes though in Arena and the Guild Wars. Note that you are fighting an A.I. in this case though so they aren’t live battles. Live battles would be cool but I’m glad that’s not the case here because I’ve experienced that in other games where the wait times get crazy. (Mega Man X Dive)

The Guild Wars can be rather unbalanced depending on your opponents. They need to work on the matchup criteria a little more. I’ve been in two Guild Wars so far. In the first we dominated 100% so we got every single reward (Which was awesome since I was a young player at the time and it gave me a huge boost in materials) but we got destroyed in the second one and couldn’t get almost any materials. So it can be hit or miss but at least you’re getting something either way right? The game can feel overwhelming at first with how much content there is but it’s ultimately a good thing because there is always something happening and there’s always a way to earn what you don’t yet have.

In terms of replay value it goes without saying that this game has a ton of it. With a main campaign well over 100 hours that’s a lot right there. Then the post game is guaranteed to take just as long I’d say. Put it this way, after completing the game I tried the first post game level and I lost in one hit to a normal minion. Needless to say the difficulty jump is quite extensive. Apparently the reason for this is that the post game came out like a year or two after the game’s ending so they were taking into account that people would have really upgraded their gear. There is something called “Mythic Gear” for example that is really strong but I’ve only obtained 1/9 of the gear so far so I have a ways to go.

Also in post game the enemies attack your health directly and that’s my weak point for now until I get some charms. Put it this way, my armor is at around 50000, but my health is at 10000. So you can take it down really quick when you’re skipping armor and that’s not something that level ups will help with much. So right now I am completely stuck with the post game and am just going to have to keep playing the side modes and leveling up my gear before I can get through. Once I have done that though, get ready! I’m going to be absolutely dominating, you can count on it. The max level in the game is 60 and at the time of writing this I am 48 so I’ve made good progress. Now again since this is based on the gear, just being level 60 doesn’t mean much as there will be 60s with much better gear than me.

For example I’m level 48 right now but most of my gear is around 41 and almost all of my heroes are level 20 or lower. So it takes a while to actually bump everything up, but I am getting up there. Slowly but surely is what I always say and you just gotta keep the grind up. As long as you complete the daily and weekly tasks each time you should really be good to go. Right now in my guild out of 17 people I’m the 14th strongest so I’d really like to boost that up but we’ll see. I’m pretty far at the moment.

Overall, Knighthood is a great game. The amount of content it has is just fantastic and that’s one of the positives of jumping into a game that has been going on for so long. Of course the only downside is you will be years behind the other players. For example I know I won’t be touching the upper echelon of players for at least a year or two because of how long the grind is. I don’t even know if I’ll still be playing the game that long. There are very few games that last that long, only Mega Man X Dive and Pokemon Go have pulled off such a feat and X Dive is nearly out of business based on the story ending so soon that’ll be gone too. In the meantime though I’m definitely having a fun time here and I would recommend this to players looking for a fairly unique mobile game. The rpg type combat here really is different from the average title and so it helps make the whole thing stand out.

Overall 8/10

Monkey King: Hero is Back Review

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This game was definitely one of the more random ones that I ended up grabbing from Gamestop but when a title is just a few bucks you’re inclined to take a few risks right? Odds are that this would be worth the few bucks and naturally that was the case in the end. This is the kind of game that may not be great but it’s good fun and by the end you realize you had a good time with it. I’d definitely be down with a sequel to this one someday.

The game starts off with the Monkey King getting taken down by the gods so his powers have been sealed. A kid unseals him and the hero, Sun saved him but a girl gets kidnapped by the villains. The kid begs Sun to help out and at first this Monkey King can’t be bothered but as the adventure goes on he realizes that it is finally time to step up and be a hero. Without his famous powers will he really be able to win though? Only time will tell! One thing’s for sure, he will need to eventually find a way to remove those chains before it’s too late.

The story of the Monkey King is a classic one and this adaption does a good job of going through the motions. He gradually learns about empathy, kindness, and humility as the days go on. At first he is very gruff but gradually becomes a team player. It’s all handled rather well here even if it may come across as just a little generic. The story is fairly barebones as it is. Even the trio of characters have a fairly old dynamic with Sun being the gruff one, you have the guy who talks tough but is actually weak, and finally the kid who means well and is super cheerful but isn’t really cut out for tangling with the others even if he has the heart for it.

So you’re playing this one more for the gameplay which is fortunately pretty good. It’s a 3D action game where you take out enemies with hand to hand skills or use one of your attack powers. I highly recommend using a bench to fight most of your battles. Yes, you heard me right…. a normal bench. It’s surprisingly effective the whole time. It has a longer reach than your normal blows and also deals more damage so it’s kind of a no brainer right? Once you get hooked on it then you won’t want to use anything else. The only exception is a staff that you should unlock by the very end of the game. Once you have it, it is an immediate upgrade over the bench so you’ll never use it again.

You can upgrade all of your special abilities as you play through the game so choose the ones that you want to max out carefully since by the end of the game you won’t have enough points to max everything. Mainly if you go with a maxed out bench and staff then you should be okay. There are other fun abilities like your projectiles but they all just feel a whole lot weaker. Also, the game is more fun with those items because otherwise the game can feel a little too slow and clunky the whole time. I do have to say it’s a pretty valid complaint against the game. The core combat doesn’t feel super balanced or organic at times. Mix that in with how the game can actually be rather difficult and you can have a rough time here.

I only barely beat the final boss after a lot of cheesing and was nearly out of magic meter. Just one or two more hits and I would have lost. It makes for a spectacular story down the road of course and you feel good when winning a real nail biter like that but I can’t help but feel that I would have done better if the game was just a bit more polished. At times it can feel like you dodged an attack when you get hit or an opponent launches an attack with no real way to dodge it. The enemies also have a whole lot of health at their disposal and you feel like they would have calmed down on that a bit.

The free roaming parts of the game where you pick up collectibles and find things is okay but I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of effort put into that. The focus is definitely more on the combat. I do give the game a lot of props for making the final, final boss a blast though. There is a whole different gameplay style created just for that fight and it ends up making a real big difference. See, you can actually feel the power and high stakes behind the final boss due to this. It is worlds different from every other boss fight and that’s exactly the kind of feel and atmosphere you’re supposed to be going for with this. The game understood the assignment here.

Overall, The Monkey King is a fun game. I’ll admit that it gets off to a rocky start and you have to get used to the game so initially it was leading up to more of a 6 star slot but by the end the game came into its own and really surprised me. It’s still a fairly short game so you’ll likely have it beat in around 10 hours or less but it’s a complete title. It also helps that I got the game for around $5-10 which is a fair price for this title. If you see it for a price like that then I recommend grabbing it. There’s not a lot of replay value here beyond aiming for the platinum so I’d say to just enjoy the gameplay/experience and call it a day. At the end of the day that’s really all that you need/want here. The wii Monkey King game I played was more fun but this one still gave me a good time.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Odyssey Review

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It’s time to talk about Strawhat Luffy and the gang in their latest adventure. I remember thinking that Odyssey sounded like a lot of fun with how you would get to relive the old adventures in a new way. It was also bringing in the turn based combat system which is fairly rare for One Piece games as they usually go with a 3D action/beat em up style. It definitely does work well for this title even if I have some issues. Ultimately this is a great game but they really dropped the ball on the story itself which is unfortunate.

The game starts off with Luffy and the gang having a good time at sea as always until a storm knocks them off their course and they land on an island. A girl named Lim shows up and steals their powers with her cube abilities. In order to get their powers back they will have to defeat 4 legendary colossuses on the island and additionally they must relive some of their most dangerous adventures. Lim will help them do this by unlocking the memory world and her friend Adio is also glad to help in any way that he can. The whole thing feels a little suspect but the heroes figure they can get stronger and have some fun so it’s a win/win. Are they embarking on their final adventure?

The story’s a bit forced there but hey it’ll be fun to see Luffy and friends utterly demolish all of their old opponents like Lucci and Crocodile now that they are so powerful…right? Well to get around that the film says that the villains have all gotten way more powerful in their memories and of course the heroes have lost all of their new abilities thanks to the cube. So what that means is…every arc basically plays out in the same way. It felt like the laziest way possible for the writers to not have to think of any new scenarios which was unfortunate. What’s even the point of not just making this a direct adaption then. It just felt like the biggest cop out imaginable. The only arc with any real differences is the final one in Dressrosa and even then it was just a small change by adding 2 characters in there.

So the game really didn’t deliver on its premise at all. In a lot of ways it’s sort of like the bait and switch that Sonic Forces did back in the day. The present storyline with the Colossuses and the mysterious Adio was good at least. That’s the part where you can at least get invested in. If the gameplay weren’t so good I would definitely get a bit more annoyed at that though. Odyssey tried to fumble the bag there a bit that’s for sure. We did get a full cinematic fight near the end which was cool though. For a minute there I thought we were going to get another phase to the final boss fight but when it was all a cutscene I thought that was cool. It’s not every day that you get to just watch a pure fight like that after all.

The game is fairly long too and took me over 25 hours. There are 9 chapters here but they each have a lot of battles. Each battle can take a while since you can’t skip cinematics and all special attacks have a full cutscene animation to them. It can make the fights a little longer than they need to be but I’m guessing the devs wanted to show off what a good job they did. I totally get it even if I always love how the Asdivine series lets you turn off attack animations for that exact reason. One mechanic I liked a lot here is that using normal attacks fills your special attack meter. It’s something I don’t recall any other RPG doing so that was cool. It’s better than having to use ethers every turn.

The game also has a customization aspect to it as you can power up your attacks and skills using your level up points. You can also reset the points at any time if you want to distribute them in another way. Additionally you can equip items to improve your stats and make foods/smoke bombs to get stronger or make your opponent weaker. There’s a good amount of options within the game and so you’ll find that unlike most titles it starts out rather difficult and gets easier as you go. This is because you unlock more and more items to use as you go through the game and they easily outpace the enemies you’re dealing with. For example a level up may improve your stats by 30 but then you can by an amulet that increases your attack power by 1400. It’s like you suddenly jumped up tons of levels. Whenever I would see an item like that I had to grab it.

Then later on you gain the ability to merge two equipments together to keep both of their effects in one shot. That made things even better. So there are lots of ways to power yourself up. Finally there is the old fashioned way of leveling up by fighting enemies. The final area has minions that each give you close to 200,000 exp points which is enough to level up twice in every battle. It was crazy how the exp skyrocketed since that’s more than just about every boss fight in the game. You could say the game wasn’t very well balanced by the end.

That leads to one of my issues with the game which is that there actually seem to be “dead spots” where you are trapped in a place with no enemies to fight and no way to escape. So in theory if I couldn’t find a way to beat the boss then I would be permanently stuck. Any good game always needs to leave you a way out so you can go and train so that was surprising here. I could see that being a real big issue if I played on hard mode or something. It’s something any RPG needs to really be careful of because that would just be incredibly disheartening. I’d probably have to put my controller down right then and there.

Meanwhile the graphics are very solid here. The character models can be a bit stiff but we do get fight scenes with them so the game does know how to use this pretty well. Then you also have the soundtrack which is rather limited but still good. What this all tells me is that the game’s budget wasn’t super high or anything like that but they still did a good job in making the game fun so I have to give them credit there. That isn’t always easy. With an even greater budget I’m sure there is a lot more they could have done here.

As it is there is still a good amount of replay value here. There are plenty of bounties to be completed and collectibles to grab. At the end of your journey you can even grab the Platinum trophy which would certainly be fun to have. I’m not sure just how difficult this one would be to grab but if it’s not too high then I may go for it. I have already gotten the platinum for a few One Piece games in the past after all. Either way you can see how the game gives you a whole lot of content for your purchase so you can definitely buy the game at full price and feel good about it.

The game’s original characters in Lim and Adio do a good job of being very memorable. Lim may not be much of a fighter or anything like that but she has a classic character arc of slowly learning to enjoy the journey with Luffy and friends more instead of always being so analytical. Adio’s mystery gradually unfolds as you play through the game but ultimately he’s not really someone I liked all that much. Maybe in part it’s because the game was too obvious with where his story was going to go but whenever the guy was on screen you knew that nothing good was going to happen for him at least.

Overall, One Piece: Odyssey is a great game. At times the lack of budget starts to seep through but ultimately it’s a good chance to hang out with Luffy and the gang again. I think it did have some ambitious mechanics within it like every character having their own special ability. The game just could have done a little more with it. Mainly I’d just like them to follow their own premise a bit better and not just sabotage it right away. It’s just a very strange move narratively. Still, if you like One Piece or want to play a fun RPG, this one should be right up your alley.

Overall 8/10