Stats time!
Character Levels
Sun Quan Level 56
Ginchiyo Level 11
Motochika Level 6
Stage Records
Level 1 13m 4s 432 KOs
Level 2 9m 42s 430 KOs
Level 3 15m 43s 465 KOs
Level 4 12m 47s 507 KOs
Level 5 3m 54s 95 KOs
Level 6 13m 33s 248 KOs
Level 7 9m 34s 223 KOs
Level 8 9m 41s 281 KOs
After many years it was finally time to jump into the second Warriors Orochi title. The first one had definitely been a lot of fun so I was eager to see how the sequel would respond. Once again this is definitely a great title. I do think there’s a bit more they could have done with the story to highlight the crossover aspect but on the whole you should be very satisfied here.
The game lets you choose between playing as the Dynasty Warrior series, Samurai, or Orochi. I went for Dynasty and it’s fun that the fire team gets to be the head fighters here. The Sun clan is always a fun team to get behind even if the leader Sun Jian doesn’t look his best this time. He is determined to keep the kingdom at peace so he doesn’t make a move against the new villains until he is effectively forced into doing so. Then he is ready for action but it all feels a bit late in the game.
With Orochi destroyed everyone is just trying to get used to living in this strange world since there appears to be no way back. Unfortunately peace isn’t something that will be maintained for long as Lu Bu has returned along with one of Orochi’s trusted followers and they intend to plunge the world into chaos once more. Meanwhile, a bunch of other villains from Samurai Warriors and Dynasty have decided to use the confusion to take over as well. It’s going to be a tough few days for the Sun clan but they have to take them all down without mercy.
The gameplay is pretty self explanatory but I’ll quickly run over it anyway. The goal of the level is to take down the enemy generals. You have to do this without letting your own men be destroyed. You have your standard attacks, power moves, and super attacks. Use them wisely as you take opponents down. As this is a hack n slash there are hundreds of opponents to defeat to the point where they are practically never ending. Never let yourself get distracted in any one area too long or your partners will die pretty quickly. I died in the first level but never after that. As long as you stay sharp you’ll be fine. It’s also worth noting that this is a rare game where you keep your EXP even when you lose a level. I was really glad to see that.
There are 8 levels in the game and on average you should complete them between 10-13 minutes. The levels feel fairly short but that’s because they are a lot of fun. Your attacking speed is a little on the slow side but you can call up your horse to move great distances when needed. Initially you’ll want to beat a lot of the minions to gain EXP but then in latter levels you can run straight for the enemy generals. Once I unlocked the 5 hit combo which burned my opponents I was definitely ready to go with a more aggressive strategy. This combo could even be used repeatedly if the opponent didn’t block the launcher move which would result in a lot of damage Without that move the levels would have certainly been a lot more difficult to navigate.
The graphics here definitely look good as expected. The character models are on point and the stages are suitably ominous. I like how everything looks, the game just has an epic feel from start to finish. It feels like a grand crossover and that’s exactly how this game is supposed to be. The character roster is also impressive although not surprising since the warrior games usually shine like this. The soundtrack is always very good. Optic Lines is the most memorable track (The name is at least something like that) but there are a lot of good tunes throughout.
Naturally there is a lot of replay value here. You can play the other story modes and really perfect your skills. Maxing out all of the characters is bound to take a lot of time as well since there are so many and level ups can take some time. I think I got my character to around Level 50 by the end though so that was a pretty reasonable jump. You’ll easily be able to find 20+ hours here by the time you do everything.
One unfortunate thing though was that in the end I beat Orochi before I could even see his little pre rendered cutscene. I had too many backed up by this point as I ran through the level so it wasn’t quite up to his I suppose. Unless he didn’t have one but I would be surprised since every other boss has one. It was definitely cool to see him there though. I’m wondering how Orochi 3 will handle the plot since I’m sure they don’t want to go for the same angle of him reviving again and yet it feels like that is what they will have to do. A lot of tough decisions there to be sure.
Overall, I am one step closer to being caught up with all of the Warrior Orochi games now. Orochi 2 was definitely a blast and I expect the rest will be as well. It’s a fairly simple/direct game so there isn’t much more to say on it. If you like the main Warrior games then of course you’ll like this one. The more you’ve played the other two series, the more you will really enjoy the unique interactions here as well. I’d like to see more interactions in future games but as it is, it was fun seeing the final boss of Samurai Warriors Katana show up here since I just beat that game the other day.
Overall 8/10
Stats time!
Play Time 1h 48m
Character Level
Kojiro Sasaki Level 22
Stats time!
Arena Rank: 42
This is a game that I’ve owned for an incredibly long time. I made it pretty deep into the game a while around 10 years ago but I could never make it to the end. The game was just so difficult and the way it always moves forward added another wrinkle to the whole thing. Well, I finally started the game over and managed to conquer the game in the last instant. That final level is crazy tough. I think the game had a lot of promise but the gameplay mechanics end up really holding it back in the long term.
The plot involves a group of bounty hunters known as Ravens. You are one of these guys and your suit is pretty powerful. You accomplish missions on behalf of your benefactors and it is a pretty good gig to be honest with money coming in like crazy. Still, there’s something shady about the group and you become less and less sure about your goals as the game goes on. Perhaps its time to just get out of this job while you still can? Only time will tell if you are able to make the right move in time or if it will be game over by then.
The gameplay is that of a 3D Shooter. You can equip your robot with all kinds of weaponry and supporting weapons as well. Money doesn’t grow on trees here and there is no way to go back and earn money so that means you have to decide what to buy very carefully. You’ll want to have good weapons of course but also fundamental parts that will let your robot jump and move around without consuming too much energy. Naturally it can be difficult to balance all of this together so that’s definitely something to keep in mind. If you buy the wrong item then you’re definitely going to end up regretting it. The toughest thing to get used to is probably aiming. You have to use the L2 and R2 buttons to do this instead of looking around as you usually would. There is also no lock on feature which is unfortunate. Only missiles will lock on by themselves. Everything else requires you to do the ground work.
There are a decent amount of levels here so the game should take you 7-10 hours I would expect. There is also the Arena Mode you can play to have fun with. The objective there is to take down robots in 1 on 1 battles. Each win moves you up a spot and it also helps you unlock new weapons and such. Now this would have been a great way to earn money but you only get money the first time you complete a level. That part’s definitely unfortunate but I will admit that it’s a fun bonus mode.
I’ve already referenced this, but my main issue with the game is how restricted you are. As you lose you will end up in the final stretch of levels. The issue is that you will also be out of money so there is no real way to earn more. If you’ve got a bad loadout then that means you are basically stuck with nowhere to go. There should always be a way to earn money or replay old levels to continue improving. Locking that mechanic away just strikes me as being a bad idea right from the jump. It makes the game feel a lot more like a grind since you can’t even lose in peace. You have to quickly load the old file up again since otherwise you’re stuck in a worse position. The one thing you never want a game to do is lose the fun factor and unfortunately that’s something that Armored Core 2 is definitely guilty of.
At least the graphics are really good. The cutscenes are really ahead of their time. The story also seems pretty engaging. The final bosses were really intense as the final guy even had more than one form. It made for a very intense boss battle. Some of the levels could be a bit too ambiguous on what you were supposed to do and ironically the best option is sometimes to skip the enemies and just rush to the goal. Not really something you would expect from this game but battling minions only depletes your health and there is no way to gain any back during a level so why bother with them in the first place right? This is definitely a game where you learn as you play.
Overall, Armored Core 2 has a nice premise but really ended up underperforming in every area. While the gameplay is okay, it’s definitely weaker than all of the other big mech series if you ask me. Then you’ve got the level mechanics where they keep going even if you lose and there’s no way to earn money. That’s the part that really bites. At least in most games you could play older levels to get better but in this one you’re just stuck. That just seems like such a bad mechanic to me. I don’t understand what’s going on there. It’s a mechanic that has never worked and I really don’t expect that to change anytime soon. It’s unfortunately just the way that it is. If the game could have fixed this and given you a way to grind it would have easily jumped 2 stars. In a way that’s the most tragic thing about this one. If you’re looking for a fun PS2 game to play then I would recommend almost anything else. You’re bound to have a better time rolling with a different title like the Transformers PS2 game or one of the many Gundam adventures.
Overall 5/10
This is another game from my past that has finally re-emerged. One of the benefits of finally getting my video game backlog down from 100+ to under 50 is that these games are finally crawling out of the woodwork. I had made it decently far in with this game but got stuck on a stealth mission (Man of Influence) for an incredibly long time. Well, I finally made it out. The rest of the game was still surprisingly difficult. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is easily the most difficult stealth type game I’ve played and I would put it up there as one of the most challenging ones in general. The story is good but I didn’t care for how the stealth was incorporated.
The game follows an organization by the name of UNITY which keeps the world safe and secure from the shadows. They have been doing this for a long time to great success but now they have a new threat on the horizon. The name of this terrorist organization is HARM and they have already taken down most of our operatives. They have some big plans for the world and we can’t wait to find out what they are. This forces us to mobilize our fairly new recruit by the name of Cate Archer. She used to be a thief but has since turned into a dependable field agent. One of the higher ups is pretty convinced that she will fail so we have to prove him wrong. This leads to a whole lot of missions across the globe as we get closer to finding out the truth behind this organization.
The story is quite cinematic and feels like a 007 adventure. Each level introduces more and more characters as well as new gadgets. The villains have quite a few generals at their disposal all of whom get their own levels. There are a lot of twists and turns to the story as well. You even have multiple choice based levels where your answers will determine if you win or lose. There isn’t any gameplay in them aside from answering questions. The gameplay varies rather dramatically from stealth to full on action to dialogue. There were even a handful of levels that were purely cutscenes so it was like watching a mini movie. By the end of the game you’ll really have to re-evaluate everything you’ve seen up to that point. It’s hard to trust anyone but such is the life of being a secret agent.
So the story is absolutely great but as I mentioned I had some problems with the gameplay. Ironically it is in a similar case to Pryzm at times. You gain new gadgets in many levels but the game doesn’t tell you how to use some of them. For example towards the end of the game you needed to use a blowtorch to get through. The way to do this is to take out your lighter and then switch its mode so that you have the more powerful flame item at your disposal. The game ambitiously tackles a lot of different gameplay options such as even adding in levels for driving cars but because of that each mode is less polished than it needs to be.
Take the stealth levels, not only are they extremely difficult to get through but when you die there are no checkpoints in sight so you’ll be sent back as long as 15 minutes. Other times there will be a camera around but you can’t check where it is facing without running out of your cover so if it’s looking at you then it’s game over. The only way to get through these levels is to muscle through them at times after dozens and dozens of attempts. You’ll be tired of the levels after a while. I never like having to wait in a level but in these cases you need to. For example, in some stealth missions you have to wait until the characters are properly arranged for you. That can take a minute though and the minutes add up every time you die. I’d love to have seen what the play time looked like by the end because I imagine it must have been pretty high at the end of this.
It’s not all bad though. When you’re allowed to just go in and start blasting then the game can be quite fun. Make no mistake, the game is still incredibly difficult but it doesn’t feel as bad because you know exactly where you went wrong and how to correct it. Perhaps you tried taking on too many of them at once or something like that. You may die a lot but you don’t have to wait for anyone either. You just dive in. This does lead me to one more issue though. Each level has multiple acts in it so if you turn off the game you can continue from the latest one so long as you remembered that there is no auto save here and manually got it through. The tricky thing is if you win an act with low health then you don’t actually want to continue to the next one or you may be stuck in a loop. For example there was one level I completed with only about 1 health point left and in the next level there were a ton of enemies to defeat. I ultimately had to restart the whole level again from the first act because you can’t just pick an act to start off of. You either go to the latest one or the beginning so take that into consideration when you save.
The graphics are definitely solid though. Everything looks pretty impressive here which is important since there are so many cutscenes all over the place. You need to have a good looking game or these will probably really get to you by the end. The soundtrack isn’t quite as noticeable, I don’t recall any themes outside of the main menu. That one is pretty catchy though so as a whole I’ll give the game some kudos there. I suppose with all of the shooting it would be hard to hear the songs anyway. The length of the game is pretty good and there’s a ton of replay value as you try to assemble all of the Intel. When you put all of that together then you’ve definitely got a complete experience here.
Overall, No One Lives Forever is a mixed bag. At its best the game is quite brilliant and at its worst it can be painful to get through. That’s why at the end of the day I’d give this a score right in the middle. Even if you enjoy playing games that are super difficult you only might enjoy this game based on how it’s handled. It’s always rough having to figure things out on your own especially if you’ve already played the game many times over. After a while the level will just lose its charm. Stealth games always have a hard balance to try and attain but this game could take some notes from Carmen Sandiego or Barbie Secret Agent, both top notch games from back in their days with how they handled the stealth elements.
Overall 5/10
Pryzm is one of the oldest games I have on my backlog. I remember playing level 1 many years ago and quickly diving out of the game because of how crazy it was. Well, I finally went back to it and I can’t say that the game has aged very well. The main problem here is really just the fact that the gameplay is not explained very well at all. This leads to a whole lot of guessing/trial and error until you get the right combination down. Then you have a move that you’re taught in the tutorial but never works in the actual game. Did they forget to program that in? Wouldn’t surprise me.
The world has been split into many factions due to a plague spreading across the land. Everyone believes that a Unicorn started this global pandemic and so they have not been doing very well. Or at least that’s implied but the only kingdom we actually see is ruled by Unicorns so…I dunno. Well, Pryzm has decided to go and put a stop to this and she is accompanied by an old Dwarf who isn’t thrilled about the partnership but wants to prove that the Unicorns did start this mess. The duo will have to go and purify all of the countries in the land and may also have to go up against the embodiment of darkness itself.
The gameplay is in a 3D perspective. You ride around on your Unicorn as you search for flowers. Each level has 5 flowers to destroy which then allows you to get to the core plant. Destroying that purifies the land. There are 4 worlds and each of them have 5 levels to conquer. Once you have done that then you will unlock the final boss. The objectives in each level are the same but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. The flowers are completely invincible unless you destroy the minions powering them up. Some are immune to your sword so you’ll have to hit them with energy. You also have to do this quickly because the minions respawn in under a minute so taking out the flower is your best bet. You also don’t have a lot of energy and the only way to refill it is to lose a life or run back to the last purified area.
For your attack options you have the sword, magical energy blasts, and then the Unicorn’s horn blast. You’ve also got a charge attack but as far as I could tell it doesn’t deal any damage to any of the enemies you fight in the game so I’m not sure what that’s all about. You can also hold your sword out to sense where the next flower is which is nice…or you could just press R3 which brings up the map and shows you exactly where it is without relying on a magical compass of sorts. Personally that’s the option I recommend. So when you face an enemy with a red barrier then you need to use energy blasts. Against the plants the sword is the best bet and for bosses you need to shoot your magical blasts at it and then use the unicorn blast to deal damage. Does the game tell you any of this? No, so try and pick up on things as much as possible.
There are also some flowers where it is impossible to beat all of the enemies with the limited magic you have. The trick is to weaken all of them without dying and then run back to the last save point which restores your magic. Go back to the flower and then finish them all off. It’s a bit tedious of course but it’s really the only way to do it. Once you’ve got these tricks up your sleeve then you’ll be ready for the game. It’s just that finding all of this out the hard way doesn’t make for a very entertaining experience. By the time you’ve died 50+ times you’ll just be ready to move on. You’ve got unlimited lives at least so that helps a lot.
The game is rather short. With only 20 levels and each one being completable in around 10 minutes or so this can be about 3 hours. You do have to factor in the fact that it’ll take time to get used to these controls though. I’d say that the game took me around 6 hours or so. There isn’t any replay value here though so what you see is what you get. You can replay old levels of course but that’s it. There are no collectibles, upgrades, or anything of that nature. So hopefully you’re on board with the story. I didn’t consider the story to be all that bad. There aren’t a lot of cutscenes as most levels just end with some stock narration from the characters you saved. Occasionally you’ll have the dark unicorn show up to taunt you a bit or even to beg for mercy. He can never decide if he is a hero or not. I suppose the darkness just had too hard of a grip on him.
In terms of graphics the game is going for a very different arttyle. It’s fairly dark and I would say that the Dark Unicorn’s design really looks impressive. The gameplay is not quite as good as the cutscenes though and I would have to give that one a thumbs down. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of effort put into the game. The soundtrack is quite limited as well and it should be noted that during gameplay you will be hearing the same lines as the characters argue over and over again. It was a nice touch that in the final levels they spam lines where they actually get along a little better now. At least the game was trying something unique there.
Overall, This is one of the few games that I would not recommend. I’ve played hundreds of games and there are probably only a dozen or fewer games that I’d say were just not good. This is one of them. In a way it’s regrettable since once you get used to the gameplay you may find it enjoyable but it takes way too long to get to that point. The game also fails to actually tell you the rules of the title so you’ll need to find other sources to help you out there. That should never happen in a game, but especially not for a platformer which is more of a basic genre as is. Just tell us what the objectives and controls are and we’ll be able to do the rest. I can see why we never got a chapter 2.
Overall 4/10
Stats time!
Intel assembled 37%
As expected this game doesn’t keep track of any stats after clearing it. I’ll definitely have this review up pretty soon though.
It’s time to look at one of the classic Crash games from the PS2 era. I knew right away that it was going to be time to give this a shot after going through the newer Crash game. It’s always fun to take a peak at the classic games and Twinsanity definitely has that charm. In some ways I would even say that the plot may beat the newer one. It definitely has a lot of fun embracing the crazyness of the series and a certain guest star’s cameo at the end of the game was brilliant. It’s not something that can be topped very easily.
So the game starts with Cortex hatching another plan of his. He dresses up as Coco and is able to even trick Crash with his disguise. It’s not Crash’s best moment but you could also make the case that it’s pretty much par for the course with this Bandicoot. Unfortunately for Cortex there are other players at work here. A pair of aliens have shown up and they want revenge on Cortex for something he did to them as a child. They certainly don’t tend to forgive and forget the way that other characters do. Cortex is basically forces to work with Crash as a result so that he doesn’t get destroyed. Along the way all of Crash’s other enemies pop up including the iconic Dark Crash. Will the heroes be able to win?
The plot is pretty bonkers but that’s part of why the game succeeds so well. Things just happen out of nowhere and the story goes crazy. Dark Crash literally jumps out of nowhere to chase Cortex and vanishes as soon as he shows up. It’s almost like how Shadow just suddenly showed up in Sonic Boom the game. Dark Crash has a pretty terrifying final scene though so he’s still someone you don’t want to mess with. Cortex certainly does look very good here so I can see why he was a fan favorite. We learn a bit about his backstory like in his school days and more of his motivations for dealing with Crash. The guy may not be a very serious Crash villain most of the time but he is still a genius so you really don’t want to be on his bad side. He can deal out quite a bit of pain when he really wants to. Even by the end of the game he still tries his usual tricks.
For a villain like Cortex you do gotta find the right blend of comedy and action for his character to work. Cortex is just skilled enough where you can picture him destroying Crash but a nice enough guy where they could team up on the regular. I’m always up for a team up so that part of the plot was definitely a blast. The ending also leaves a lot of potential for future games even if it’s unlikely. Perhaps the most emotional part of the game is that Crash clearly still wants to be friends with Cortex. he doesn’t let any of this get to him personally as seen by his attempt to be Cortex’s friend in the end. The betrayal hits really close to home as a result and you may even shed a tear.
As for the gameplay, this is your classic 3D Platformer. You jump across obstacles and try to get to the end. While it’s a simple style, the execution wasn’t nearly on the same level as what I’m used to seeing in the series. Some jumps that should be very easy end up being quite tricky thanks to the various camera angles. It’s hard to see where you’re going and in the levels where you’re running towards the screen you better have lightning fast reflexes. The gameplay changes at times when you play as a different character. I was sad that the robot style gameplay only showed up for part of one level but that was certainly fun. Maybe it just comes down to the physics engine not being very good which messes with the jumps. I don’t know, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly but making the experience a little smoother would go a long way.
The graphics are excellent here. The character animations are often way out of model but I believe it’s on purpose. Sonic DX for example was very authentic in the graphics and it just so happened that it would become very humorous in the future. For this game I think they were trying to make it as out there as possible and I would say that it really succeeded. I love the designs and mixing that in with the dialogue is perfect. The scene where Cortex’s voice cracks as he talks to his teacher mixed in with the animation was brilliant.
The soundtrack can also be pretty fun. It’s a really crazy one for sure though. Sometimes you’ll have a very tropical theme and then you’ll quickly switch to something that’s pure rock. The changes happen quite suddenly and you can never guess what the next tune will sound like. The shock value may not be enough to make this one of the all time greats, but I would definitely call it a pretty solid array of themes.
There isn’t a lot of replay value here but enough to keep you going. Each level has some gems which look like Chaos Emeralds. So you can go back to the old levels and try to grab them. The hub world is also quite large so you can have a lot of fun exploring. I almost wonder why the game bothered with the hub world since you never really get to walk around it during the story. It was nice that they put in the effort to set it up though so that’s definitely pretty neat. I suppose I would recommend giving it a shot at some point. The game is pretty cheap so it’s well worth the purchase.
Overall, Crash Twinsanity is a pretty fun game. I do feel like the gameplay wasn’t very polished though and that’s what would keep it under the main 3 as well as the recent time travel story. You gotta have clean gameplay to accompany the rest of the title. Still, it’s a fun adventure. The game may be short but you should die enough times to stretch out the length a bit. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how Crash fares in the next installments. It’s not like the enemies are going to be getting any easier so Crash will really have to focus himself. One thing’s for sure, this Bandicoot is never afraid of charging in since he can’t understand the danger.
Overall 7/10
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