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Tag Archives: PS2
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Stats and Records
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.Hack//Quarantine Part 4 Review

After 8 years since part 3, it was time to dive into the final part. This one is incredibly difficult to get a hold of because it is completely out of print. Usually it goes for hundreds and hundreds of dollars so you’re really expecting a grand climax here. It was definitely fun to see the ending and everything about the game was nostalgic. That said, it is fairly short next to the other games and you’ll breeze through it. The longest part here was definitely just grinding normal enemies for the virus cores.
The story begins with the heroes preparing for their final battle. The Wave is approaching and intends to end everyone once and for all. The World is in danger and if this attempt to stop the Wave fail, then it will be too late to save anyone who is already in a coma. To prepare for this, the heroes have to defeat phases 7 and 8 of the virus. Get ready for some long dungeons.
So the game makes up for a lack of new dungeons by having absolutely massive ones in the area that remain. One of them is close to 20 floors and that dungeon took me around 2 hours to complete. Imagine losing at the end of that right? The boss had 6 phases and he wasn’t even the final boss. Granted, the final boss technically had less phases with 5 but was still really difficult to defeat. These are styled as raid bosses so they are meant to take a long while. Of course that means it would be rough to die when you’re deep into a boss. Fortunately I never lost in a phase after the first one. The first phase of one boss did manage to take me for a spin several times but then I got used to him.
I recommend having 100 revives, restoratives, and potions with you at all time. A single boss can have you using close to 80% of that. Also make sure to stock your allies with these as well for when the boss hits you with an unblockable/undodgeable one hit KO move. That may sound cheesy but every boss in the final game has this ability. It’s probably one of the only games I can think of where you can be taken down in one hit at level 99. That is super crazy but does reinforce how big teamwork is here.
You will need to set up your teammates with their orders and then dynamically continue to issue new ones the whole time. You really have to stay sharp because if you stop for even an instant then you might lose. Make sure you keep several different equipment’s ready for every part so that you can shift elements as needed. The bosses are constantly switching after all and so you have to do that as well. You can only hold around 30 types of items at a time though so you will always be running on full.
Another thing to keep in mind here is that the final dungeon has a ton of data enemies. These cannot be defeated until you have hit them with Data Drain. The problem? That increases your corruption levels. The more you do it, the more “glitches” affect your character. The effects are drastic like casting negative spells on your teammates or even losing entire level ups. I lost 2-3 levels during the final dungeon. There is even a chance that you can jump right into a game over screen. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me but I can tell you that I was definitely feeling the pressure here. My corruption level was deep in the red at the time so I knew that I was right on the border here. One wrong hit and that would be it.
The most annoying part of the game is definitely about obtaining virus cores though. Basically you have to hit enemies with your data drain ability and sometimes they will drop a core or an item. You then have to run back to an older world and best enemies to lower your corruption level and then try again. There is a lot of repetition here. Also you won’t get more than 1 EXP per enemy when you data drain them so this slows down your progress. You need a ton of cores for the final dungeons. I spent over half of my time in this game getting cores. There may be a faster way to do it but this was the best way that I knew.
I will say that the game does have a lot of replay value in terms of other dungeons. There are almost an unlimited amount of dungeons you could play through for fun. Additionally there are a lot of side quest dungeons to play through and even little games like tag against a demon. Those all help to add up to the play through if you want to have fun there. The game even has a post game with some more crazy dungeons. Getting trough that will definitely not be easy.
The graphics have aged pretty well. It definitely feels a whole lot like you are inside of an MMORPG. You get full on cutscenes and of course the text ones. The full voice acting also feels ahead of its time here. Finally the soundtrack is also pretty good. A lot of great tunes all the way around and at this point they feel pretty iconic. The 4 .Hack games really lasted a long while and it feels great to have made it to the end.
Overall, This was a fun way to end the saga. It was fun to be able to keep my levels from the first 3 games. Starting this one around the 70s after all was pretty impressive. I also like the way the level up system has a consistent 1000XP for each level and how much you get is just based on your level. I could do without the virus core mechanics though. It really feels like that doesn’t add a whole lot to anything. It’s more of a needless grind than anything. I suppose a lot of games ill have something like this to extend the play time but I’d prefer to have more main dungeons or something instead. Now I can finally go ahead and play the .Hack GU games and I can safely say that I have really high hopes for those. They always looked like a ton of fun. This next installment of 4 games shouldn’t take me as long as the first 4.
Overall 7/10
Stolen Stats and Records
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The Great Escape Stats and Records
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The Great Escape Review

It was about time that I finally played the video game for this one. I can safely say that is wasn’t one of the more impressive games though. It is a good example of a stealth game that feels like a stealth game in all the worst ways. You can’t let enemies make contact with you or you get crushed and there are no checkpoints within the level. That is absolutely crazy! This game desperately needed some powerful quality of life updates to even begin to turn things around.
The game roughly follow the adventure of the movie but starts out a bit sooner. We actually get to play through the adventures of the different soldiers before they all landed in the base so that was different. There are 18 levels in the game and around 15 of them are pure stealth missions, with two driving ones and one shooter mission. I can tell you now that those 3 levels were the best ones in the game. I will give the game credit for having a full story and everything though.
The gameplay is fully in 3D and the main objective in most of the levels are to go through areas undetected and grab different objects. The levels will keep updating the objectives as you go through them and then by the end you will have cleared the level. If you are spotted, there is a slight chance you can hide long enough for the enemy to forget about you but it’s really unlikely. The game is not forgiving in the slightest and if you are spotted then you are most likely dead.
With the exception of a few levels where you have a gun, you have no way of actually defeating the enemy soldiers. Meanwhile if you stop for too long then they can just arrest you which is an instant death. They can also shoot you from long range. There are a lot of ways to die here basically and you have to factor in that some of the stealth missions are timed so you have to move quickly. Should I mention again that there are no checkpoints in these missions?
Now what about saving? Well, fortunately you can save 4 times per level. So you want to be really careful where you save. Even if you load an older save, you don’t replenish saves so that gets real tricky. In a way it’s like access points but the limited amount of saves is rough. By the way, 4 saves is if you play easy mode. If you go to normal mode then that drops to 3 which is even crazier. I can say without a doubt that this is one of the tougher games that I’ve played in a minute. It was really intense.
The problem is that it’s just not in a fun way. You have to replay large portions of the game over and over again. The compass doesn’t make a whole lot of sense so it’s hard to tell where the nearest soldier is. Then you also have to factor in that the controls are rather clunky. It’s really hard to aim with the gun and the auto aim isn’t reliable. If you get too close then you will try to punch an opponent instead of shooting them.
The enemies also seem to regenerate mid battle. Now I can’t prove this…but it seems to be the case. I would be taking down so many of them and more would appear. This may just be to show how you’re not supposed to beat the villains with force but it was still annoying. Just let me get in a car and drive around for more levels then. Those were a lot of fun.
The graphics are decent though. Sometimes it could be a little hard to see but that is more due to my TV than the game itself. The game looks good when it needs to. The soundtrack is surprisingly decent though. There are more tunes than I would have expected and they can be rather catchy. It helps to make up for the fact that there aren’t many stages in the game so they have to keep on reusing them. If anything that’s just a bit funny though. I always appreciated the rare daylight levels since the night ones were brutal though.
There’s not a ton of replay value here but if you beat the game then you get to play it again on great escape mode which adds a timer to each of the levels. Very fun right? Well, in the end if this game was more fun than it would have been higher. My main issue is just that it’s not super enjoyable. There are too many annoying segments of the game with the whole stealth approach. If they could just tone that down a bit then I think we would be in good shape but as it stands that wasn’t in the cards.
If this was more of a proper shooter then it would have been good or of course if there were more save points and such. I also think there should always be a way to fight a bit even in a stealth game. I imagine that a lot of people may disagree with that though. As a silver lining, I did feel a sense of accomplishment when I completed the game because this one was seriously no walk in the park. I felt like I had to earn it every step of the way.
Overall, This is a game that I wouldn’t recommend too highly. You can find better titles to play on the IOS App Store tbh. That being said, if you like stealth games then I suppose it is worth checking this one out. It’s not like it’s terrible or anything, it just isn’t my genre. Titles like Carmen Sandiego and Stolen handled this a lot better. For a stealth game like this where you are expected to die a lot, you need consistent save states. That’s really the crucial aspect here if you want the game to succeed. If you get away from that then it is game over.
Overall 5/10
Stolen Review

It’s time to dive into a stealth game that I didn’t even know existed. Stealth can be hit or miss for me, it all depends on the execution. I suppose you could say that is true of anything but stealth is a particularly volatile area. I am glad to say that this one ended up being pretty good. The beginning of the game gave me a lot of issues but once I mastered the mechanics, then I was really ready for action. The game is over very quickly but you will have had a good time.
The game follows a spy/secret operative named Anya and unfortunately she is blackmailed by another evil spy. She must now help a corrupt politician in his pursuit for power, but only until she can manage to get the upper hand. This guy must not be allowed to rise to power, even if it means bringing back the old mayor who was not particularly good either. Sometimes the status quo is better than the change but will she really be able to pull this off? It’ll be her toughest mission yet.
For most of the game, the objective is to find different data items and avoid detection. If you are detected, you need to find a place to hide or quickly down the attackers. Of course if you do knock someone out, they will sound the alarm as soon as they wake up. You have a number of gadgets that can help like stun guns and such but usually hand to hand is your best bet. There is also a heavy emphasis on platforming here so you should be prepared to be jumping across areas and running quickly.
There’s a rooftop chase that is rather tricky because one wrong move will take you down. Fortunately the game has a good amount of checkpoints which is absolutely crucial for a stealth title like this. Whenever you die, you don’t feel too bad as a result. I certainly died in this one quite a lot but I would always be more prepared for the next run. The gameplay can be a little clunky at times so you do have to be ready for a few deaths that shouldn’t have happened. Trust me, it’s annoying but that’s just how it goes sometimes.
My biggest advice here is to always choke the enemies out. If you knock them out then they wake up in around 30 seconds but choking them out will down them for around 3 minutes. That is an absolutely massive difference when you’re running around. You can choke someone out by sneaking up from behind or from throwing 3 punches which stuns the opponent. The game becomes much easier once you start doing this.
You will still run into issues as their attacks deal a ton of damage. Also be sure not to use your health packs unless you really need them. Sometimes it is better to just die and respawn with your health packs than to clear the level while using them. You don’t automatically get new ones later on after all and you may wish that you had them for the final boss. The final boss is a pretty fun one though as it actually uses the stealth mechanics right up to the end. Now there is a game that never lost sight of its objective.
The graphics are pretty good here. It has that retro PS2 style that has just aged extremely well. The soundtrack was also rather good although it took me a while to even realize that the lyric was saying “stolen” the whole time so it may not be the clearest lyrics that I’ve heard in a while. The technicals were on point the whole time. I do think Anya could have been a cooler main character though. She’s meant to be a fairly tough fighter who has a lot of confidence like Lara Croft would, but Anya falters too much and also ends up letting her partner get away with too many subtle cracks at her. A better main character would really have been able to bounce back with the banter the whole time and that would have been a more fun dynamic.
I also think that if they leaned more into being an action game it would be a good idea because I was looking forward to fighting with the rival but that never really gets to happen. Not directly at least and so the climax feels a little underwhelming compared to what it could have been like. The game saw its vision through to the end so I can’t say that was a mistake but I would have liked a big boss battle. I give the game credit for letting you fight back when you are spotted in the stealth levels though instead of just automatically losing. Now that would have been annoying.
The game is fairly short and there’s no real replay value so that is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to the value. You will probably complete this game in around 5-6 hours I would guess. It will really wrap up before you even know it. The game only has 4 levels after all, but granted they are fairly long. The difficulty is also what makes the game longer than it would have been otherwise.
Overall, This was a pretty good game. I had fun with it and while it won’t go down as a great title, it satisfies the requirement of being entertaining. The story was good and the level designs were fun. The game could be rather dark at times but that’s really because of my TV and not totally the game’s fault. The soundtrack is solid and the writing is good. If you can find this game, I would recommend checking it out as you can really get it for cheap. Maybe one day they will do a remake.
Overall 7/10
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Review

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
Final Fantasy X Review

It’s time for one of the most well known RPG titles out there. Final Fantasy X is one of those games that was super well received and you can see why because they went all out here. The graphics are really good, the gameplay is on point, and the story is great. It’s definitely another elite Final Fantasy title that any gamer can enjoy. There is definitely a lot of content here as well so it’s also not a game that you will breeze through either. There is plenty to keep you busy.
The game follows a guy named Tidus who is probably the world’s greatest Blitzball player. This guy draws in huge crowds and has really made a name for himself. One day a giant monster attacks though and he falls into a whole new world. Blitzball still exists fortunately but otherwise everything is pretty different. He may even be in some distant future as his home country appears to be destroyed. He meets a girl named Yuna who is a priestess. Her job is to fight against monsters known as Sin and to do that she has to go to various temples and unlock all of the summons. This will allow her to beat Sin, at least for a time. She is protected by several guardians and so Tidus joins in with the bunch. This may sound like a simple mission at first, but there are definitely about to be a lot of complications.
This title is over 30 hours after all so that leaves plenty of time for tons of plot twists and different characters to show up. It’s one of the many things I love about RPGs. You really get to be invested into the story and everything. The characters are also pretty likable and so they have a good group dynamic going on here. Tidus is definitely very expressive and he’s not afraid to go against tradition which is always good. He’s got that aggressive main character energy going for him and I can always appreciate that. Yuna is a good heroine as well who has to make a lot of tough choices without looking back.
Her plans aren’t always good to be honest but she is trying her best and often has to think of things on her own. So you have to give her a good amount of credit there. Wakka goes through quite a bit here as he quickly realizes that things aren’t going to go over very well for him. He hits a rough patch for a while there but in general is a solid character. It takes some time for him to expand his horizons. Rikku is also a fun character even if it felt like she could have talked things out with Tidus a lot sooner and prevented some misunderstandings. Of course, everyone was generally keeping a lot of things from him so she is hardly alone in that.
Lulu probably has one of the smallest roles from the main cast. She is always around and is a good ally to be sure but doesn’t really have her own sub plot the way that the rest do. Auron certainly has a huge role and looks pretty good even if he falls into the same trap of keeping way too many secrets half the time. He has power though and the characters would have been doomed without him. Finally we have Kimahri who I wasn’t a huge fan of for a while there but he is loyal. There’s just not a whole lot to his character for a while there since he is the real quiet type.
At the end of the day, Yuna was definitely lucky to have a real loyal supporting cast with her. The rest of the summoners were generally not so lucky. The game does have one of the weaker main villains in Seymour though. The guy had a cool design and a solid enough intro but as the game went on his motives didn’t hold up as well and he lost a lot of hype. He’s tenacious but I was definitely ready to see him go down for a while there. He wasn’t really enhancing the story the way a better villain could have.
The level up system is a bit different here. When you level up, your stats don’t increase, instead you are given one movement point on a board that has stat boosts and new abilities. Each character has their own board which is massive and you can hop onto someone else’s board after you have gotten enough power ups. This means there are a ton of different variations you can make to each character’s skill set. It also means you can get a ton of level ups without actually feeling much progress if you always end up picking the wrong tiles. So just be careful which movements you make here. The level ups naturally get harder as you go on. Although if you get stuck at the final boss, the area before him is absolutely amazing for grinding! I got so many level ups there.
The gameplay is your classic turn based style but with a few twists. For starters, only Yuna can use summoning. The summons all scale to her personal stats so you will want to build her up real quick because these guys are absolutely deadly. Bahamut carried me through all the boss fights in the second half and that’s even considering that most bosses are set up to KO your summon in one turn. Even with that he could deal crazy damage. He knocked out 64K from the final boss in one hit which is how I just barely managed to beat him. Some enemies are too high to be hit with physical attacks which is when you need to break out your long range fighters.
So there is a ton of strategy here, I dare say even more than the classic RPG types. Make sure you power everyone up as you will need to be switching a lot. Or almost everyone I suppose. I didn’t really use Rikku or Kimahri at all. Rikku just super briefly for some of the robots. As long as you have one long range fighter at the ready and your close quarters specialists, then you should be good to go. The game is hard to be sure and it’s definitely one you have to focus for but it’s always in a fun way.
The graphics have definitely aged really well so you can really feel that this is a AAA title. The big budget cutscenes all really go hard and of course it’s no surprise that the soundtrack is also super good. There are a lot of fun battle/boss themes to play around with. In terms of replay value, the game’s got everything you could ask for as well. There are tons of post game dungeons and everything to keep you busy. They’re so high leveled it can be hard to imagine how much time you would need to complete them. I would definitely expect it to take at least another 20 hours or so.
Overall, Final Fantasy X is definitely a top tier title. It really does great in every area so I had no complaints here. It’s the kind of game where you can always come up with a new strategy if you lost a boss fight. There are many different ways to tackle each encounter after all so you never really have to limit yourself. Just keep on fighting hard and eventually you will have cleared the game to see the satisfying ending. I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good story or in general to anyone that likes the classic turn based combat.
Overall 9/10
King of Fighters 2002/2003 Review

King of Fighters has had many games over the years. There are very few who can say that they have played all of them. Even for me thanks to the elusive 99 I won’t be able to say that but I will have basically played through the whole series so that feels like a rather massive W if you ask me. These two games are pretty fun and continue the game on a rather high note.
First up the 2002 game doesn’t really have a story. So for that game you’re really playing through the arcade mode to have a general sense of the controls and you get to beat up a revived Rugal again which is always intense. Definitely not a boss that you want to mess with. In 2003 you’re mainly playing with Ash as you try to get more power and then get wrapped up into another big villain conspiracy. Looks like the Orochi factions aren’t quite done yet but Ash can hold his own.
At this point King of Fighters has so many different factions and it’s always fun to see all of them being active a the same time. That’s not something that you usually see so that’s pretty different compared to other fighting game titles. You have the Orochi revivers, the NEST remnants, Ash basically counts since he’s trying to absorb more power, Rugal’s kids, etc. The game would really be able to do a whole lot as an RPG with this many characters to play around with.
The gameplay is pretty classic as you would expect. There are different mechanics that get added and removed as the games go on but the classic core of the gameplay is still the same. Use your attacks and special moves to take your opponents down. The arcade mode will take you down the path to taking down the main villains. After playing so many of them in a row, I do think it’s impressive how consistent the games are. They all tend to generally follow the same patterns and schedules.
It’s mainly the story that changes and of course some specifics in the actual gameplay like I mentioned. I wonder if the hardcore fans could immediately tell you which game it is based on the win screens after a match. That would be a fun test for some of the more intense fans. I naturally wouldn’t be able to clear that quite yet but I do think I would be able to put up a decent fight since they’re all really fresh in my mind.
The graphics are good as always. I definitely have no problem with them. I do miss Terry’s old design with the cap but since he gave it to a girl at the end of one of the games, it makes sense that he no longer has it. It was so iconic though. I forget if he ever gets it back in the newer games but hopefully he does. He still has it in all of the spinoffs after all. The soundtrack is also good. I felt like we got some more memorable tracks this time around although it might be difficult to find them. I suppose I’d just have to listen to the full soundtrack to pick it out.
As always there is no limit to the replay value here. Just keep on playing with a friend and you could do that all day. If you’re only playing by yourself then that might not be quite as fun but that’s always been the case historically. So it’s not unique to King of Fighters or anything like that. These games were made to be enjoyed by everyone and that way you can also learn how to fight the right way. In a lot of ways fighting the computer teaches you the wrong things since you are focused on exploiting the AI and your moves may not be optimal. Like overusing the jump kick to sweep kick combo may work on the computers but if you keep on doing that against a real opponent then you’re going to be countered real hard.
As always get ready for some real crazy final bosses. These aren’t the craziest to be sure but you’ll likely still die a few times an need the bonus. It’s still very impressive that the bosses are always this tough though. It’s like a point of pride for the series and it is definitely well earned. That kind of difficulty doesn’t just appear on its own. The developers had to work really hard on that one.
Overall, These two games were fun as expected. They had some fun tunes and the gameplay was good as always. You really get to test your limits in these games as well as your reaction times. You’re not going to go down very easily that’s for sure. I’ll be having more King of Fighters reviews up pretty soon so get ready for that. It is definitely a really fun franchise and if the developers were willing to go just a bit harder with it on the next big title, it could really start to make waves on the fighting game scene. Give us a story like Street Fighter V or what Tekken always has. The characters in KoF and their backstories are definitely detailed and expansive enough to support this.
Overall 7/10