Digimon World 4 Review

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This has been a game I had on my backburner for an incredibly long time. I remember playing this for the Gamecube so many years ago but never got past world 2. Well, I went back and played the game from start to finish. It’s a pretty fun title but I do have to say that the story was a little on the disappointing side. There are a lot of moments where the story feels like it was skipped or was off screen. There is just barely a plot holding this together so much so that when you beat the final boss the credits just roll. There’s no final cutscene or any final dialogue. The game’s just over and it shoos you away to the next one. I feel like maybe it got a bit rushed.

The basic plot of the game though is that a virus is spreading and going to destroy the entire Digital World soon. The heroes naturally have to stop this so you’re sent out to finish them all. That’s about it for the story. Go to all 4 worlds and blow up the enemy Digimon. Doing so will be a good move and you’ll also get to feel heroic so that’s not a bad deal is it? It’s what you’ve always wanted to do. While there are only 4 worlds I would say the length of the game is still pretty decent. I’d estimate about 8 hours of gameplay more or less. The difficulty of the game is definitely what could extend this one. It’s clear that the game was made with multiple fighters in mind since the game supports 4 player co-op. You can counter the fact that the EXP goes at a slow rate by overwhelming the enemies with sheer numbers. In particular I found the first and last levels to be very tough. I had to do a lot of leveling up and retries in order to clear the final hurdle.

The game has an overhead combat style similar to Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance. You can choose from a few weapons such as a sword, axe, spear, or a gun. I highly recommend the gun. Attacking with the swords is just really dangerous because of how close you have to get to the enemies and how they keep moving while you are hitting them. You get a lot of attack power from close combat weapons but I don’t think it’s really worth it. The drawbacks are still too numerous next to the gun which really has no big weakness. You can spam it from afar and that will take care of the enemies no sweat. You can hold onto 3 weapons while you’re on the field though so feel free to bring one of each.

In this game you do need to improve your weapon levels to use them though. For example, if you have a gun level of 100 you can only use guns up to that level. So you couldn’t equip a level 105 gun. Then if you only use guns your sword level will be at 1 so even if you find an amazing one it’ll take a while to use it. TO improve your weapon level you need to keep using your weapon on enemies. Pretty self explanatory eh? There’s not a whole lot to explain on it so you’ll just get it right away. One thing to note is this is one of the first RPGs I’ve played where you can’t just use weapons you pick up. So if you pick up a weapon on the field then you will need to go back to base and go to the Digi Lab in order to equip it. that means you can expect a lot of back and forth trips. Additionally, you can’t hold too many items so get ready to sell some. You can only sell items one at a time though.

I think that’s really at the heart of the issues for Digimon. The game doesn’t seem all that polished. A lot of the elements here just take up way too much time. We’re just talking about small delays but they’re actions you have to repeat over and over again so the time starts to quickly add up. This occurs whenever you need to change a weapon, equip a mod, etc. It gets to the point where you don’t want to bother with equipment all that much. Just get a good loadout and then get ready to head out. The Hub World is also quite huge with 3 different areas one of which has 2 floors. There are various shops and such to be found here so you should memorize which area has which shops early on so you don’t go to the wrong place too often.

The game is at its best when it’s focusing on the actual dungeon exploration gameplay. You take out all of the enemies in your way and evntually head to wherever the boss Digimon is. Each world has 4 dungeons in it except for the last one which has 3. The dungeons typically have scores of enemies that will try to get in your way until you meet the boss to take him out. The boss is usually a lot easier to deal with than the minions so I don’t expect you will have any real issues there. The final boss is a handful though so my recommendation is a lot of run and gun tactics. If he hits you with the thunder palm it’s game over. If he hits you with the shadow balls then it’s game over. You really can’t let him hit you at all so just keep on running. If you think you can squeeze in another attack…don’t. It’s just not worth it at that point. You want to live because dying means you have to go through the entire dungeon again which can take a little while.

Also pro-tip, don’t trust the quick save. You have the ability to use a gate card to make a shortcut deep in the dungeon that takes you home. Thing is, the shortcut expires as soon as you quit the game so if you save and exit then that’s it for that. I got burned on that once. I guess it’s meant as just something fun to have on hand for long play batches but it’s definitely not something you want to take chances with. My other tip is to really use the healing attack a lot. You cant to have it keep improving since you recover more health that way and eventually you’ll never even need to use potions. It’s a great help not having to depend on the items. You can use that space for something else.

The graphics here are pretty good. It’s definitely got that nice Gamecube feel to it and looks very nostalgic. The boss designs are on point and the stages all look pretty different. The soundtrack is fairly standard and not too memorable but it works well enough I’d say. As mentioned the game length is fairly decent. There’s not really much in the way of replay value though. I suppose you could go and learn all of the evolutions to have fun with. I believe they take you back to level 1 though and since leveling up isn’t very fast in this game I’m guessing you won’t want to put so much time into doing things all over again.

Overall, Digimon World 4 is a fun game. It’s just one that feels like it was rushed quite massively towards the end. A lot of the gameplay mechanics take longer than they should and the story was nonexistent. The actual dungeon gameplay was fun though and having to go up against such large numbers of enemies can be pretty thrilling. You know that you can’t lower your guard for an instant or it’ll be over. I also appreciate the fact that this was made as a 4 player co-op game as you don’t really see that anymore. If you want to check out a Digimon game this is a good one to get but I would sooner recommend Cyber Sleuth or Rumble Arena.

Overall 6/10

Kirito vs Halloween

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Halloween is a pretty scary fighter but the same can be said for Kirito. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would really want to go up against this guy. Kirito’s powers are just insane. A single swing of his sword could potentially end this match as soon as it has begun. Halloween has a lot of projectiles and abilities at his disposal but I don’t see any way he can compensate for his lack of speed. Kirito will be running rings around him pretty quickly and as soon as he lands a good blow then that’s game over. Kirito wins.

Suzuko Homura vs Ruko Kominato

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Suzuko Homura is a very talented LRig fighter. After Ruko you could make a case for her being right up there although it’s probably better to put her top 5 than in second. Still, while her knowledge as a player may potentially be Ruko’s equal (Likely slightly lower) the difference in their LRigs is key. Tama is one of the strongest to ever be put into the game and even got a super form augmenting her abilities further. Suzuko won’t be able to overcome that gap and if necessary Ruko can play her LRig of Darkness as well which further tips the scales in her favor. Ruko Kominato wins.

Ruko Kominato vs Lan

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Ruko and Lan are both talented fighters who enjoy battling with their partner. That said, Ruko rarely gets to actually have fun dueling due to the stakes while Lan has always made sure to have a ton of fun. When you put it all into perspective, his combat experience is just far greater. Ruko will have a difficult time keeping up with him at all. Lan will be able to end this as soon as he crossfuses. A single blast will be able to do the trick in Hubstyle. Lan wins.

Akira Aoi vs Chaud

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Akira is a talented fighter who is also great at mindgames. That’s a dangerous combination for anyone to have to go up against. Still, Chaud is more than a match for anything she can throw at him. Protoman’s speed is out of this world and with Chaud’s Crossfusion he will be able to surpass him limits. At that point Akira will find that her options are quite limited against him. She may have more than one LRig, but Chaud’s abilities will be enough for him to overcome the numbers advantage with ease. Chaud wins.

Freed Justine vs Medaka Kurokami

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Freed Justine can copy a lot of forms and use magic to make the abilities his. He can write in the air and his Kanji have great versatility in combat. None of those will be able to do a whole lot to Medaka though. Not only are her physical abilities already at an exceptionally high level but she can copy any ability that she has only seen once as well. So given that her abilities are greater than his in every way and she was already stronger than him, there is no way for Freed to make a comeback here. Medaka Kurokami wins.

Garnet (Final Fantasy) vs Cloud

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Garnet is a pretty talented Final Fantasy fighter but there are few who can hold up to Cloud in that verse. Cloud’s exceptionally gifted with a blade and moves at speeds that are considered almost unthinkable. None of Garnet’s spells will do a whole lot of good here and Cloud’s summons will counter any that are thrown at him. No matter how you slice it, Garnet is not going to be able to do a whole lot here. Cloud is just on a completely different level. Cloud wins.

Days of Thunder Review

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Sport based films tend to be a lot of fun. Naturally I’d be most partial to a Football movie but you can also do quite a lot with Basketball and Tennis as they are high action sports. Then you’ve got car racing which is a sport but then you also see it used a lot more recreationally like in Need for Speed or Fast and the Furious. Well, this film is really about Sport car racing and it’s executed pretty well. I would definitely give this a thumbs up and would definitely recommend it. It’s got a quick pace, likable characters, and a good story to back it up. When you mix all of those elements in together then you’ve really got a recipe for success.

The movie starts with one team owner deciding he needs to start getting some wins again. He recruits his old pal Harry who used to be one of the best mechanics in the biz. He then recruits a racer known as Cole who has never really competed in this kind of circuit but is a whiz at cars. Cole proves himself rather well but has one weakness, he doesn’t understand the technical aspects of racing a car. He’s got the skill, he just never learned the terminology which puts him at odds with Harry quite often. Can the two of them reconcile their differences and get their car to win the big championships or at the end of the day are they doomed?

Of course there are other plots going on here as well. You’ve got Rowdy who used to be a huge rival with Cole to the point where his methods were rather underhanded and dangerous. When they have an accident Rowdy is confronted with the possibility that he may not be able to race again. He quickly becomes a fun character by the second part of his character arc. The scene of him and Cole racing around in their wheelchairs is definitely the best scene in the film if you ask me. The music was on point and it had a good amount of humor.

Then you’ve got Dr. Claire who is trying her best to help Rowdy and Cole but the two of them are quite stubborn and don’t really listen to her advice the way they should. This certainly causes a lot of friction as well that is difficult for her to navigate. There is a bit of a romance set up between her and Cole but I would have to say that this is the weakest aspect of the film. The romance doesn’t really seem to have a purpose here other than ensuring that the movie has some romance in it. Once that plot’s over with it goes back to the main focus of being all about the races. Claire’s definitely a very reasonable character throughout and knows what she’s talking about. She does not like racing and it’s easy to see why. It’s a very dangerous sport. I like watching Football for example but I would definitely never play it. Just seems entirely too risky to me.

Towards the end of the film we also meet a guy named Russ who surprise surprise, is also a dirty racer. From the start you can tell that this guy is going to be an issue from how he addresses Cole. He sure has a lot of confidence considering that the guy was only just hired. He makes for a good endgame boss though. Then of course we’ve got Harry who really is a solid mechanic. I do think he needs to own up to a bit more of the responsibility whenever Cole’s car breaks down though. Whether he was gripping too tightly or not that sounds to me like the car could be built a little sturdier. If you’re trying to win and going at 100% then it just sounds to me like the car should be able to take that. Once he and Cole have a good dynamic going though they are definitely all set for the rest of the journey.

Finally there’s Cole and he’s a solid main character. He’s got a good amount of confidence himself and is serious about winning all of the races. He’s definitely not the kind of guy who is satisfied with second place. It’s the gold trophy or nothing for him. He also does have a sense of humor off the field. When he’s on it though the guy is pretty serious and will blame just about anyone if he doesn’t score first. The pressure does seem to get to him at times.

Part of what helps make Days of Thunder succeed here is that it’s just a very balanced movie. The writing is solid and the character cast is good. Mix that in with a good story even apart from the racing and you have a winning formula. The blend of humor and thriller aspects works out quite nicely. Then for the races themselves you can tell that a lot of good effort was put into them. It’s definitely very exciting to see the cars moving so fast and trying to get the inside corner. I admit that part of why watching it in real life isn’t so thrilling to me is because it does seem like nobody’s doing much of anything since you’re just driving in circles but of course it is an incredibly difficult task to pull off. By shifting camera angles all over the place the movie makes the races feel a lot busier which is good.

Overall, I would recommend checking out Days of Thunder. It’s really a solid movie that succeeds on all accounts. I don’t expect it’s a movie that would have you giving it a bunch of awards of anything after watching but it’s just fundamentally sound. There are no big issues with the film that would have me docking it any points. It’s just got really good fundamentals and that’s exactly what you want to see from a film like this. I’d definitely be on board with some more racing films. We don’t see a whole lot in the circuit and it’s a nice change of pace but what I think the best thing to do would be is to have a sequel take place in the city. Have the company rent out a bunch of blocks so you’re going at high speeds in that environment. That would work out quite well.

Overall 7/10

Fatal Attraction Review

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This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative.

Fatal Attraction is one of those films that makes it really impossible to be all that sympathetic to the main character. He makes a ton of mistakes throughout the film and ultimately has to live with the consequences. It’s a nice cautionary tale about how a one night stand can quickly wreck your entire future going forward. It’s definitely not a romance film I would recommend and works as a complete opposite to People Will Talk. If that film depicted one of the most wholesome romances out there, this one would be one of the more sinister depictions.

The movie starts with Dan attending a party along with his wife Beth. Things have been going pretty well for the two of them over the years. They have a kid and a solid home environment. Dan is also making pretty good money as a lawyer. Unfortunately Beth heads off for a day to go check out a house they are interested in buying. Dan can’t imagine the thought of being alone for a night so he quickly makes an advance on Alex, a lady he has only known for a few hours and they have a one night stand which quickly becomes 2. Dan then decides to cut this off with Beth being back but Alex won’t accept this. She says Dan has to stay with her and her upcoming kid or she will continue to wreck his life. She goes from spamming his phone to outright murder and kidnapping. Can Dan really stop her or will this be game over for him?

So there’s no way to sympathize with Dan here. The guy just makes mistake after mistake which comes back to bite him. He knew exactly what he was doing at all times so lets keep that in mind. It’s not like this was some accident, he was drunk (Which is still no excuse) or he was alone for months and slowly started to crack. It was a single night…he hadn’t even gone home yet so more like an afternoon before he cracked. The guy had absolutely 0 loyalty to his wife Beth and that means his bond was never as strong as he thought it was. He also doesn’t prioritize his dog as he even forgets to feed him/give a walk the first night. That shows that Dan also isn’t responsible.

The movie definitely makes sure to show what a hopeless path Dan has found himself on. Unfortunately the film decides to throw in some animal violence as well as when Alex murders their rabbit. Did we really need to see this? At this point Dan still does not immediately call the cops on her. I suppose getting fingerprints may be difficult but I’d like for them to have at least conducted a search, see if you can come up with something. Alex had quite the rap sheet by the end when you factor in the kidnapping. It’s why schools always got to have a very strict policy about who is allowed to take a kid off the premises. If you’re going to have someone different pick up a kid then there have to be agreements and something in writing saying that this person is allowed to take the kid. Someone just saying it isn’t quite enough.

Beth was a solid character. She had no reason to suspect anything during the film. As far as she knew Dan was just a faithful husband going about his business so the whole thing definitely comes as a big shock. I don’t really see how she can ever forget that so I don’t see things going well after that. The kid was too young to really contribute anything to the film but did add to the tension later on. Dan’s friends were pretty reasonable. They had some good banter with the leads and even Dan’s co-workers were pretty reasonable. It shows how much he threw away during all of this.

We do get an action scene at the end of the film though so it ends on a bang. Dan looks pretty bad during this fight though and I also have to suspend a lot of disbelief for his not hearing anything with the tea kettle on. Tea is fairly loud but not quite That loud. I also thought Beth could have fought a little more as she was mostly just frozen in shock the whole time. There’s quite a bit of back and forth here though. For the most part the film’s about mental warfare but I suppose the actual ending wanted to shake things up a bit.

I wouldn’t say there’s a whole lot to like here though. The plot itself ensures that there are few likable main characters. It’s always tough when a film has a main character you just can’t get behind because you’ll be seeing him throughout so that can be tricky. The romance itself is naturally pretty bad as well. It was definitely an ill advised affair from the start. The writing is okay I suppose but nothing out of this world and the pacing is also fairly standard. The animal violence didn’t do the film any wonders either but even without it this just seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Overall, Fatal Attraction is definitely a reminder on how all actions have consequences. Dan thought he could hide from his but at best that will just delay the inevitable. After a while you have to own up to things although ideally in less of a theatrical fashion. At least the film had the restraint to not have anything happen to the dog or that would have definitely hurt the movie even more. As it stands, if you want a film about quality characters with a good romance then I would recommend People Will Talk a whole lot more. As I mentioned in the beginning these films are polar opposites so with as good as People Will Talk ended up being, it makes sense that this one couldn’t reach those levels.

Overall 2/10

Midnight Club: Los Angeles Review

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Midnight Club is a pretty big racing series in its own right. It has long been overshadowed by the Need For Speed games but it has still lasted a while. In effect it’s like a Grand Theft Auto mixed with Need for Speed game or at least that’s the kind of vibe you get from it. The open world may be even bigger than what NFS usually brings. It’s a pretty great game with a ton of content at your disposal so you really can’t go wrong here.

The basic story is that you’re a new racer who is trying to gain reputation and move up the ranks. You know that you’re the best racer on the block but in order to challenge the best racers you will have to go up the ranks slowly but surely. You make some friends along the way like Karl and Annie as well as some rivals and enemies like Hugo or the 4 Champions. You’ll have to defeat them all, friend or foe in order to claim the title.

One thing I always appreciate in a racing game is having an actual story. You can’t take these for granted because a lot of games in the genre don’t have one. It’s not like this story is particularly unique or ambitious but it’s a story nonetheless. There’s a lot of fun banter between the lead and everyone else which ends up being the best part to me. They never stop with the burns, especially the lead and Karl. There are a lot of great lines like “Face me if you want a real challenge” “I’d love a real challenge but I’ll settle for racing you Karl” and a lot of lines like that. The burns and insults just keep on coming.

I played in over 200 races during the course of the game and I would still have needed to play a bunch more in order to unlock the final events. You’d think that taking down the city champions was the final battle but after that there is a champion for each kind of vehicle which is the part I didn’t finish. To unlock them you would need to play a lot of races in each car type and that was definitely not going to be done
anytime soon. I put in over 20 hours on this game s you definitely don’t need to worry about content here. There’s enough to tide you over and then some. With replay value on the other races and getting more cars I’d estimate this title to be around 30 hours.

The gameplay here is pretty direct, you drive through the stages and try to reach the goal first. Simple as that, that’s what you need to do in order to score a win here. There are other racing types in the game as well like time trials and trying to ram people off the road. The delivery events were likely the trickiest if you ask me because usually you would at least need to know where one or two of the shortcuts were in order to progress further.

As for my car of choice, it wasn’t even a car. As soon as I had enough money to buy a motorcycle I grabbed one and never looked back. The stats are off the charts and the only drawback is that an enemy attack can instantly knock you off your bike and your durability is very low so there is a good chance that you will get “damaged out” during the race and lose by default. Essentially you’ve got ultimate speed at the cost of your defense and that’s a fine trade off for me. I figure durability won’t be a concern as long as I stay ahead of the other racers and that’s exactly how things played out. It was really hard to go back to a car after that for the events where one was mandatory.

One issue I have with the game though is the fact that there is no fast travel. The main world is quite large so at times you would be driving for whole minutes to get to the next event. I’d much rather just be able to jump into the next event. I suppose the reason this game was designed that way was to prevent such things from happening. Admittedly if fast travel was an option I would have skipped most of the hub world experience and jumped straight into the duels.

The graphics here definitely look really good as expected. The game had aged quite well from the PS3. It’s naturally under some of the more high budget experiences like Need for Speed but I’d say it did good with what it had. The soundtrack is not very good though. I spent the majority of my play through constantly switching through songs to find the few gold ones. I would definitely have liked the ability to remove songs from the lineup so it would only cycle through a few that I would give a thumbs up.

Overall, Midnight Club is a great racing game. There is just so much to do here between all of the cars to collect and events to complete. 200 races is quite a lot so there’s no way to beat them all too quickly. In fact I even managed to make it to the maximum driver level which was a lot of fun. That’s not something that I can say happens every time. It was a pretty rare event and one I won’t soon forget. If you like racing games then I highly recommend this one. See how it stacks up for you compared to the famous Need for Speed franchise.

Overall 8/10