I found a few new games that I wanna play from E3.

So, I watched E3 for the first time ever (I know, I’m way late). Well, mainly it has been because I’ve never wanted any spoilers nor felt the need for it. I’ve found the games I wanna play anyhow by other means.

But this year I thought, hey, let’s see what all this E3 fuss is about. And I didn’t regret it. Well maybe it is because of all the games I got so excited for. There were surprisingly many titles that I’ll be waiting for, and a few titles that I never thought would come.

For example, Elder Scrolls 6 is a huge drop for me, and I bet it is for a lot of people.
I don’t particularly liked Skyrim but I love both Oblivion and Morrowind so I can’t wait for this game.

Another game that I have been waiting for is Cyberpunk 2077. Saw the first trailer back in 2013 I think. With romance, male/female gender, customization and more, what can go wrong?

Also another game on my waiting list is We Happy Few, a trailer I saw some time ago that piqued my interest. It’s already in Early Access on Steam but I’ll wait.

A game I recently got my eyes on is Fallout 76. At first I thought I’d be really bummed that the game wouldn’t be a singleplayer game like the rest but I’m not. I’m sitting here thinking “Hey, an online fallout game? I want that!” So I’m super excited.

Something I got super excited about as well is the new Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. While I haven’t really played any of the others, I couldn’t help to be excited about this one. You can play as a girl, you have romances and all that. Feel free to tell me if any of the other Assassin’s Creed has something like that as well. I hope it drops for PC.

Another big title I swore to myself that I wouldn’t play is Kingdom Hearts 3, but when I saw what I believe is Kairi in white hair, I just have to despite it all!

Unravel 2 is another game I’ve not played the first of but both looks so much fun.

The other games that I found really interesting on E3 were:

Twin Mirror This game did not get the attention it seem to need at E3 imo. It reminds me a bit of Deadly Premonition for some reason…

Starfield It’s not much but still, a new huge game from Bethesda, I’m hyping.

Sea of Solitude

The Quiet Man

Skull and Bones

Control

Marvel’s Spiderman

Trials: Rising

Also, an honorary mention to Trover Saves the Universe but I’ll prolly never play it as it seems to be PS4 and PSVR only. Also it’s from the makers of Rick and Morty.

Resident Evil is one badass game!

So, I finally finished Resident Evil this Halloween and I have to say that I didn’t think I’d love it as much as I do. It’s truly scary, very claustrophobic and immersive.

The story, while a bit narrow, is good. It really unfolds in a great pace and is sure to keep your attention all the way to the end. It picks up intensity exactly when it’s needed. The story isn’t the game’s strongest point though, and combined with way awful voice acting and script, can make you giggle at times.

However, right after the cut scene ends and the game once again overwhelms you with it’s haunting atmosphere, you surely won’t be giggling much longer. It gives a strange sensation but never take away from the horror. I’ve read somewhere that they intended to make the game like a cheesy low budget horror movie and that does explain the dialogue for sure, if its true. But I’m glad that doesn’t show anywhere else in the game.

One thing however that I found extremely hard to get used to in the beginning is the static angles and the controls. It didn’t take to long however to used to and now I can’t see a Resident Evil without it. Most people seem to dislike the style in which the early resident evil is made on. I think it’s great, and I’m glad I’m not like people. You can’t switch the camera angles yourself at all, which puts you at the games mercy and preset angles completely.

This may sound like a bad thing and it would be, if the game wasn’t so awesomely designed. The thing is, this only make the game even more claustrophobic, and the designers have really put great care in making the angles very creative and creepy. They show you just enough sometimes to get your heart pounding and just enough so that you won’t know exactly what is coming up. Sometimes they show the area you’re in from a perspective so you see some extra creepy ambiance at the expense of your own visibility. But this isn’t bad and the fact is that it’s done intentionally, and very well at that.

Sometimes you will walk into a room and be at such a narrow angle that shows just about nothing until you dare to step out into the room. But do you dare to step into it? What if it’s something there? Well, then you better use your ears. Combine that with the fact that the game gives you limited saves and a very limited inventory, you truly feel like you are struggling to survive. But it never gets annoying, it’s just part of the great atmosphere.

I mentioned the controls earlier and while they do feel strange at first, they really are good and simple and you realize that with this games unique “angle system” there could not really be any other way to control the character. The combat can be a bit clunky for sure, but in the end, this is not necessarily a combat game and whenever you do fight, the clunkiness only enhances the survival feel of the game. It also can give you panic in certain moments.

The game itself is fluid. No slowdowns, no glitches and the replay value is pretty high too, considering you have two characters that you can play as, however they actually alter the gameplay and progression quite a bit. It also gives you different supporting characters for each. If Chris Redfield, you take the harder path, while Jill Valentine is the easier one and she also has a lockpick which is really useful in my opinion.

The backgrounds and characters are all amazing and much more creepy than I imagined they would be. There are a lot of ambiance everywhere and the mansion just brims with grittiness in a way games doesn’t capture today. The sometimes smudgy graphics on the ps1 only helps with the feeling IMO, but not even once does the graphics look bad. The designers really did the best out of the hardware they had to work with back then and the result is really uniquely terrifying.
On top of all the great stuff, it also has multiple endings and even some “roleplay esque” choices which will determine some peoples fate in the game. The game is also truly non linear so you can explore the game in whichever pace or order that you want. It has a good difficulty, its not too hard but not too easy either. The puzzles are involved and elaborate and also helps the games creepy atmosphere a lot. They make the game even more claustrophobic and gives that mystical sensation, but at the same time they aren’t annoying. Well designed all in all. It’s different from today’s games in the sense that you can often not solve the puzzles right away, but instead they continually loom over you and progress in a very natural and immersive way. This really adds to the horror value and makes the game much more interesting. They don’t make genes like this anymore.

Also, the music is great. There usually isn’t any music in the game at all, but when there is, oh shit. When the music plays, you really know something terrifying is going to happen. The games sound design is actually pretty amazing. You constantly have to listen for footsteps to keep track of monsters or other creepy stuff because, as I’ve mentioned earlier, you can’t see them properly at all times. This keeps you invested in the sounds at all times and you are constantly listening for anything suspicious. And sometimes you will think there is something there (or could be something) because you keep hearing some rattling trees or howling wolves, and then you enter another room and it’s just dead silent, which in this game is equally haunting. It really keeps you on your toes. The game uses sound as a pretty effective horror mechanism, and it really works. Damn.

As a conclusion I also have to mention how cool the various real life video sequences are in the game. They have real actors that looks like the characters in the game. I just love that. So, if you haven’t played this game yet, you absolutely should!

Retro Gaming Weekend: X-Files, a really intense point-and-click.

So, this weekend, I finished playing The X-Files Game, another interactive movie point-and-click game but this time for the PlayStation. I thought it would fit the Retro Gaming Weekend well.

Based upon the X-Files series, you take the role of Craig Willmore. An agent for FBI who is on the case to find the missing agents Moulder and Scully who’s gone missing.

The game will take you through Willmore’s daily life as he solves the case. It is a bit tricky, as the game doesn’t hold your hand in any way. You can get a few hints from your boss and your intuition, but they’re a bit vague.

It’s also rather realistic, for example you have to either remember numbers in your head or write them down when you need to call them. You also get a few choices in dialogue, which are time based. It may take a little while to get used to, especially when you aren’t presented with the options all to often.

Also, as you move the pointer with your controller, it can be a bit hard to reach the choice you want, and see what reaction Craig will have, before time runs out. A point-and-click like this really needs a mouse, as the joystick is rather sluggish.

Compared to a game like Phantasmagoria that adds real characters to a made-up world and lets you see your character all the time, this game uses more real areas and what looks like photographs as you move around. You also don’t see Agent Willmore all the time besides in cut scenes as this game uses a first person perspective, while you move between “squares”. Either you go left, right, ahead or look down while you explore, gather evidence and talk to people to find out what really happened.

The first part of the game is rather slow, but if you move thought it, the game will pick up and be really interesting. It is really intense, and the story twists and turns in a few directions before you can solve it all. Also, if you play your cards right, you’ll even get a bit of romance in there which is a big plus for me.

All in all, it’s actually a well worth game to play through, especially if you like detective work and crime stories, or if you like X-Files in general.

Legend of Legaia

So, I just finished Legend of Legaia. The world have been taken over by a mist that turns every human wearing a Seru into a monster. A Seru is a type of being that coexists with the humans, that enhances them and lets them do things that they normally couldn’t, like flying for example. Not everyone uses them however.

The story takes of when the little village of the main hero, Vahn, is attacked. There is a tree in the middle of the village that calls to him and it is a Ra-Seru, who then fuses with him. These Ra-Serus are different, more enhanced and isn’t affected by the mist. The tree is revived when their powers works together and it drives off the mist.

Now Vahn has a purpose, to save the lands from this mist and during his quest, he meets up with two others that thanks to their own fates, have their own Ra-Seru.

The story in general is rather linear and weak but the game is full of little details that makes me wonder why games today lacks so much. For example, the use of mirrors and character design. This game might use lots of recoloring but the design in the monsters are both funny, and really cool. The end boss had the coolest design of them all.

The battle is turnbased with a twist. You choose how to hit, using your arms, feet and Ra-Seru, which gives you a lot of combos which are called Arts and skills that would be seen as magic (like healing and attack spells). There are Arts, Hyper Arts, Super Arts and Miracle Arts.

For example, Vahn’s greatest Art is called a Miracle Art and it looks like: > v < ^ < ^ > v <. That’ll make him use every Art he has into one grand combo. All Arts use the same tactic, left, right is his arms, while up and down is his legs and a high attack.

The main character isn’t really talking at all except a few options during the game, which makes him just a visual pawn in my opinion, where his followers talks a lot and interacts with the surroundings and all the people you encounter. The game lacks romance the way I would have liked it to be, and still insists on very few occasions that there actually is some love there but it feels random and forced.

Most of the items in the game, is a bit useless as you get your healing when using the Ra-Seru and you need all the money you can get to upgrade the armor and weapons when you need it. Statuses like poisoned, fainted or such doesn’t hold after battle so if you don’t need to, don’t use items that removes it. The leveling in the game is slow, so each level does upgrade you pretty nicely.

Overall the game was really enjoyable, and rather fun to explore. If you haven’t tried it, it’s worth to play through.

Legend of Mana, one of the cutest games I’ve ever seen.

So, after 30 hours of grinding, dungeon crawling, saving beautiful Jumis and the Mana tree, I finish the game called Legend of Mana.

It has a really cute and beautiful art style and the story with all its quests are fun to do. All the characters are unique and each dungeon is very different from the last. Not to mention that it lets me choose a man or a woman to play as.

The game in it self is all about collecting, finishing everything and getting all quests, but it can be played however you like. Fast, slow, just collecting or grinding and so on.

There is also a pet system where you can find and collect pets that you’ll use in your party alongside your other companion of choice. I always used Elazul, I hoped somewhere that there would be a romance but there weren’t.

All in all, this sweet little Ps1 game is well worth the try.

 

The epic tale of Star Ocean the 2nd Story

So, yesterday I finished up the game Star Ocean the 2nd story for PS and I have to bow my head down to that game, it has to have it all or damn close anyhow. It’s never boring and has that feel good aura. Sure it might not be the “best” writing but it fits perfectly. It’s emotional, serious and so sweet.

The story takes off as you choose one of two players. Claude, the young man that walks through a portal, on a space mission, and ends up on another planet or Rena, the young girl who is saved by the Warrior of Light from the prophecies. Two almost completely different stories that intertwines with each other perfectly. The game mixes sci-fi with fantasy, Claude bringing the sci-fi side and Rena bringing the fantasy side.

I can say without a doubt that anyone would really like this game. It has it all. Are you a grinder? Then you can grind til you drop. Do you love story? Then this game with all the story twists and romances is a game for you. Do you just wanna achieve it all and accomplish everything? This game is full of things to collect, achieve and reach. It is yours to play however you want.

The game is also filled with side stories, secrets and dungeons like the Cave of Trials. A well worth trip to visit it before the last boss, especially if you wanna get the angel armband that is a epic accessory and the bonus boss that can only be reached after you clear the cave and all its floors.

I did unlock the final boss, and kicked his ass with Opera (with her epic “α on one”), Ernest, Bowman and Noel (who can’t resurrect), a “tougher” party to play for sure than the “usual” characters that people might choose to play with (with Rena as the full fledged healer), For example, if you pick up Ashton, you can never recruit neither Opera nor Ernest.

You can get up to 8 characters that follow you through out the game, but only 4 are with you in the real-time battles. Some you can only get as you plays as Rena and some when you play as Claude for example and as I mentioned, some characters doesn’t join when others already have.
Throughout the game, as you progress in the story, you grow closer to your companions and you can get both friends and romances. And in the end, the game gives you around 150 character endings depending on how you played it with them all.

A social part, called Private Actions, are found in every town and it gives you the chance to see your characters interact and it also gives you side quests to give you the chance to know your characters better. Private Actions even gives you the opportunity, if you do them well and in order/the right time, to unlock the final boss and to give you the true ending.

For the battles, the game lets you change formations and leaders. In the battles you have different attacks depending where you stand based on short/long distances. You also have killer moves and magic that can be leveled up the more you use it. Battle maps changes depending on where you start them and can contain things that can disrupt you as you battle.

It’s hard to get this game down in words as it is so much to do, from talking to your friends in every town to grinding so you can kill the boss. From aiming to be a super chef in a cooking tournament to be the winner in the fighting tournament. The list goes on and on.

On top of that, the game generates each character every time you start the game so their “personalities” changes each time. First time you play, maybe Rena, for example, is the perfect painter, and in the next she can’t paint to save her life but she can sing or write etc.

These traits are really helpful as it mixes well into the vast skill list that this game has.  Most of the skills aren’t combat based. they instead let you do things like publishing books, write music, whistle for animals to get you things, ride bunnies (like chocobos), scouting, pick pocketing and cook and so on. It also has a full fledged crafting system.

I have to quit writing now or the post will never end. One last thing that I have to point out is the really nice use of FMV all the time and the art of this game, the details that each character/enemy has is amazing.

If you haven’t played it already, go do it. You’ll be happy you did, I promise! Just keep away from the remake.