Retro Game Friday: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with another Castlevania entry! It’s Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia!

Plot: The plot is okay, it’s not the best of the series by a longshot, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the later 3D reboot that graced the last gen of consoles. It’s also nice that Shanoa is a completely standalone character and in no way connected to the Belmont line of the series.

Gameplay: The gameplay is a bit like Symphony of the Night and the more classic Castlevania games. It uses the heart system which was absent from the more recent prior entries to fuel certain attacks which was absent in both Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. I enjoyed the gameplay, and if Dawn of Sorrow had forgone the touch screen completely I wouldn’t be torn between Ecclesia and that for my top Castlevania games after Symphony of the Night.

Characters: Shanoa is our main character and she’s quite a bad ass. That being said this isn’t the best entry in terms of characters as it really revolves only around a few, namely Shanoa and Albus her enemy and once compatriot.

Art: The art is okay, and sticks to the Symphony of the Night style that was the peak of the series in my opinion. It could be a remastered with today’s standards, but it holds up fairly well regardless.

Music: I don’t remember much of it and since it was a handheld I didn’t listen to much to begin with.

Overall: A good entry, but not the best in a long running series.

For those who like: Metroidvania games, Action, Exploration, Drama, Badass Female Leads.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: The Falsebound Kingdom

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a rather obscure game in a series that was a huge fad back in the 2000’s. It’s Yu-Gi-Oh: The Falsebound Kingdom!

Plot Synopsis: Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa being invited to the testing of the virtual reality game “Kingdom,” created by the company SIC. When they enter the game they soon find themselves trapped within it, and they must summon the help of the game’s characters and monsters in order to defeat the game’s villain, Emperor Heishin, and ultimately stop the plans of the game’s designer, Scott Irvine…

Plot: The plot is pretty freaking terrible, although it serves as a reminder that the “trapped in game” plot device has been around for ages.

Gameplay: This plays mostly like an RPG, although there are some Turn-Based Strategy elements as well. Frankly the game wasn’t that great and the fact you’ve probably never heard of the game is a good indication of how bad it was.

Art: The art is really dated, but given that it’s almost purely 3D on a console that wasn’t known for it’s power compared to it’s competitors is another sign that this game wasn’t all that big.

Music: I don’t remember it at all, sorry.

Overall: Skip this game, it’s definitely not worth your time playing, unless you are incredibly bored. However there are better games out there that are free.

For those who like: Yu-Gi-Oh, RPGs, Turn Based Strategy.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, terrible plots, or Konami in general.

 

Retro Game Friday: Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering one of my favorite Metroidvania games. It’s Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow!

Plot Synopsis: Aria of Sorrow takes place in the fictional universe of the Castlevania series. The series’ premise is the conflict between the vampire hunters of the Belmont clan and the immortal vampire Dracula. Thirty-six years before the start ofAria of Sorrow, Dracula was defeated once and for all by the Belmont clan, and his powers sealed into a solar eclipse. Shortly after Dracula’s death, a prophecy was made that Dracula’s reincarnation would come to his castle in 2035 and inherit all of Dracula’s powers.

Plot: The plot is pretty great, and it features one of my favorite protagonist’s of the entire series, Soma Cruz. It also takes place in the near future, which is very nice after the medieval style of previous games. That isn’t to say that some of them were bad, but I’m a believer in the saying that “Variety is the spice of Life”. I won’t go into the specifics of the plot very much, but needless to say it’s one of the better entries in the series. Especially compared to the crap that is the Lord of Shadows reboot.

Gameplay: It played quite a bit like Symphony of the Night, although the game-breaking sword Crissaegrim didn’t return in it’s full glory.

Characters: Soma is a wonderful lead character, and the rest of the cast is amazing as well. Mina is probably my favorite of the supporting cast after Arikado, who takes the cake for being a great mysterious government figure.

Art: This was the last entry in the series to feature the art style of Symphony of the Night which was great, although AoS’s sequel wasn’t bad either.

Music: The music is classic Castlevania and is wonderful.

Overall: This was an excellent entry in the series and well worth playing even now.

For those who like: Castlevania, Metroidvania Games, Action, Adventure, Stupendous Gameplay, Excellent Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Great Art, Amazing Music.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate all of that?

Video Game Tuesday: The Best and Worst of 2015

Hi all this week for Video Game Tuesday I’m going to be looking back at the last year. It’s The Best and Worst of 2015!

The Worst:

Destiny: Taken King might have revitalized the game, but after months of PUDs prior to and then further PUDs after it’s release Bungie has shown time and again over the past year and 3 months that they can’t be trusted with anything. They consistently backpedal on issues like Patch Note inconsistencies and mess with unnecessary things while refusing to budge on their own stupid quest to achieve “Balance” while fucking up the game for the majority of the players. I’m sick of this shit, and so is most of the Destiny community. This coupled with the fact that real bugs that affect gameplay, hello “random death to landing funny” bug, take months or at this point over a year for the one I just mentioned, to get even acknowledged is pathetic and shows serious lack of staffing that Bungie shouldn’t have. Destiny has destroyed the company that brought us games like Marathon, Oni and Halo. It’s pathetic and shows lack of foresight by the leaders.

Launching Broken Games: Wow, I thought 2014 was bad for this with the release of the Master Chief Collection, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and Destiny. But the crap that’s occurred with Batman Arkham Knight topped it all. The PC release was launched bugged and still has issues to this day, half a year later. Can’t we agree to stop launching shit that’s broken and take our time with making games and do it right the first time?

Konami: Boy did Konami shit all over the community with their near slavish work conditions and their handling of Hideo Kojima. I’m seriously disappointed in the company, nearly as much as I am with Bungie. Removing his name from the series he made and barring him with legal bullshit from accepting an award he earned for it is unacceptable and I refuse to buy a Konami game from now on.

The Best:

Final Fantasy XIV: I started playing this early this year after being fed up with Destiny and I’ve never regretted that decision. It’s got a real storyline with excellent plot, characters and enough stuff to do to last me a lifetime! Heavensward has only raised the bar of expectation for me and many others, with it’s storyline being some of the best we’ve ever seen from Square Enix, or Squaresoft for that matter. The gameplay is also pretty good, even on a PS4 using a controller.

Rocket League: This game came out of nowhere and has pretty much shown what a small team can make with a simple idea, some good programming, and artists. It’s probably the best small Indie game I’ve ever played and is the only PS+ free game that has stayed on my hard drive through the year since it was released via the service. It’s fun, simple and competitive. Gaming at it’s best.

Tales of Zestiria: I’ve gone on and on about how much I love this game, but despite it having a significantly smaller development team than any recent Final Fantasy game, it’s the best JRPG I’ve ever played. Also Rose is freaking awesome and I love her character. Naysayers can go twiddle their thumbs.

That’s it for this year’s Video Game Tuesday! I’ll see you all in 2016!

Retro Game Friday: Castlevania Symphony of the Night

Merry Christmas everyone! This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a true classic. It’s time to conquer the dark Castlevania Symphony of the Night!

Plot Synopsis: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night begins during the ending of the previous game in the series, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, where Richter Belmont confronts and defeats Count Dracula. Four years later, Alucard arrives at the castle. Inside, he meets Dracula’s servant Death who warns him to stop his quest to destroy the castle and strips him of his equipment.

Plot: The plot isn’t the best, but it’s pretty good.

Gameplay: This game changed the entire Castlevania series and led to the term Metroidvania. That being said I personally loved the gameplay, although there is a certain item that completely breaks the game. It’s Crissaegrim and is one of the most broken items in Video Game History. It allowed Alucard to wield with one hand a weapon that could strike 20 times in a second and had no delay between attack inputs. Not only this, but you could move while using Crissaegrim to attack something not possible for most weapons in the game. You could also equip two of them, although that’s purely overkill as everything in the game will die pretty quickly to Crissaegrim.

Art: Pretty classic pixel art, it still looks pretty good even today. There were a few FMV sequences which are very dated however.

Music: Probably the best in the series, it’s got an awesome musical score.

Overall: If you’ve never played it, you need to.

For those who like: Metroidvania Games, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Good Plot, Excellent Gameplay.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.