COUNTDOWN TO NIRVANA: Inktober Special - Day XV

I finally got around to feeling ready to carefully craft the XVth picture in my Inktober saga.



1 month and less than a half a week to go.

Conventions about Dragons!

Aloha, homies!

Over the last weekend, I had the ever so lovely pleasure to attend the Dragon Con convention, in Atlanta, Georgia.

It was super dope.

I got to see all kinds of great panels, I got fantastic food, I got to hi-five Will Friedle (Eric Matthews, Terry McGinnis, Ron Stoppable) just because, I got to see Austin St. John slip into the role of one of my childhood (and all time) heroes, and I got to see a whole bunch of amazing cosplay.

And a whole bunch of not so amazing cosplay. (Who cosplays as the twin towers on 9/11?)

And a hundred million Pokemon Go related things.

And a hundred billion Harley Quinns.

But overall, super dopeness.

So here's a photo gallery! Regularly scheduled gaming type stuff will re-commence on Saturday!

https://nomadicdopeness.shutterfly.com/pictures/852

Yep.

Review Sideed

Sideed, meaning eight in Somali!

Alright, this is for sure a bit out of order, but fuck it, I'll circle back to the seventh review eventually.

Review the eighth from the StuffMax team (a.k.a Me, Myself and I) is...

Salty death, over and over...

Dark Souls III!

Third (and supposedly final) game in the dark fantasy series published by From Software and spearheaded by Hidetaka Miyazaki, Dark Souls III sets out to be the ending the series deserves, attempting to blend all the best parts of the games that came before it, and create the final masterpiece Souls game in the epic saga.

As always, it is my aim to find out if they've succeeded.

Let's find out!

First Impression

Like nearly every other Souls series game, Dark Souls 3 wastes no time in breezing past the company logos and getting directly to the ominous, near abyssal screen harboring only the games' title.

Unlike previous games in the series, Dark Souls III doesn't accompany this simple and dark start screen with haunting and lulling music, no. Dark Souls III leads in with a beautiful angry and horrifying orchestral swell, full of tortured chanting and beautiful bell work weaved within, setting one's blood racing for one final trip through From Software's salt mines.

Once entering a new game, players are treated to a glimpse of the decaying and truly hellish world that has been left by the folly of those who came before, as well as their role in saving it before the last dregs of fire die, and the world fades into darkness.

The character creation has become solidly more robust, and the beginning stage of the game sets a proper tone for how you're going to be spending the rest of the game.

Crawling out of a coffin after you done died again.

That said, the opening cutscene is a tad on the threadbare side, and not in a way that the Souls series usually handles so well. As opposed to providing exposition while still leaving things vague enough to draw your own conclusions, Dark Souls III opens in such a way that more leaves you a bit confused, and doesn't do much for your imagination other than creating the hope that further exposition will increase your understanding of the situation.

8.0/10: While the start of the game does a very good job of hyping you on an emotional level, the opening is somewhat lacking in terms of hooking you from a storytelling position. On some plane, this works, as the lack of information naturally invokes a form of curiosity, but for people with less investment in the series who aren't coming from older games, it may be a bit harder to get into the world off the bat.

Overall Presentation

Dark Souls' dark fantasy Berserk/Lovecraftian fusion beast of an aesthetic reaches its fever pitch, going above and beyond on the towering spires, horrific bloody tentacle beasts, filthy cretinous backstabbing peasants, and stoic, almost soulless armors ranging from the shiniest of the shiny to the most grody and grimy. The goal of the Souls universe generally seems to be the strongest attempt at making a medieval world that nobody, right mind or otherwise, would want to live in and damn does Dark Souls III hit those notes.

Just don't see me. I'm not here. Not here at all.

In just as many ways though, the vistas and arching stonework sprawled across the kingdom of Lothric can be absolutely breathtaking, with there being moments of legitimate beauty amongst all the filth.

The games menus and text styles suit the mood and tone of the game throughout, and the muted colors of the HUD ensure that there's nearly no point where your immersion is broken by bright colors in this dark, dark world.

To keep you solidly immersed, ambient noise and music trade out at constantly proper moments, at a rate so natural that you almost never notice.

9.5/10: Dark Souls nails it's intended look and feel on every note. If there is anything damn near perfect about this game (and damn near every other Souls game), it is this. That said, there comes a point where things begin to look a bit same-y due to the color tone of the game, but that's easily something overlooked by the time it occurs.

Accessibility

The Souls series is not a series for everyone. Gaming has a reached a sort of position where it has become so popular that most games attempt to appease all comers, which, while benefiting the overall continued presence of gaming in the public eye, has the downside of making most big-name games these days almost feel like they are holding your hand and guiding you along until you're at a point when you don't need it anymore.

And then they may keep holding your hand.

The Souls series does not believe in that philosophy.

That said, Dark Souls III does make more of an effort to make the game more accessible to those who may have been turned off by the Souls games original style of simply pushing you into a spike covered room filled with ravenous zombie wolves, and shutting the door, living it to you to tear a key to the door in the ceiling out of the stomach of the biggest baddest wolf in the room

And when you finally climb out, there are more wolves.

And the breath fire, cause why not.

Not that the game has gotten any easier. But whereas you had to figure out most everything but the basic controls on your own before, the game creates a more forgiving initial environment, with a more comprehensive guide to the controls, faster access to healing items, and super quick access to hub area where you'll spend the majority of your time, in addition to more plentiful checkpoints (bonfires), and the ability to warp from checkpoint to checkpoint, removing the hassle of traveling and backtracking.

So the Souls series now gives you a knife and shield, and the first room doesn't have spikes anymore.

That does make the sudden face first dive into pain a bit more jarring, though.

5.0/10: Dark Souls hasn't changed much in that it's not a big fan of helping you along the pathways of it's world, preferring you buck up and fend for yourself until your strong enough to eat everything that slithers in front of you, but at least it will point you in the right direction for once. And the game's relatively intuitive to get into.

Graphics

Dark Souls III is not the strongest graphical outing on today's systems, but man oh man, does it make use of what strength it has. Where the game isn't as powerful as far as character models and such go, the expanses of Lothric be they disgusting or beautiful are absolutely fantastically rendered, no matter what kind of environment the game throws at you.

From the high castle walls illuminated in the sun being ever so slowly eclipsed, to the unfortunate swamps buried deep below, and ranging to the hauntingly beautiful frozen preserved city of those

who reside above, Dark Souls never lets up on environmental excellency.

In addition, the models for the nerve-wracking boss characters, the excellent particle effects, the trails of light that follow the ridiculously violent swings of weaponry and the fantastic textures of the various equipment all stand out as wonderfully crafted, with excellent design picking up for the few times where less powerful graphics can't manage.

8.5/10: While not the most powerful graphics in the current-gen yard, Dark Souls III makes use of everything it has in fantastic ways. Still, the occasional moments of clip and some rough looking human sized models and faces occasionally stand out as low points.

Sound

The Dark Souls III soundtrack is absolutely stunning, ranging from creepy to pulse pounding, horrifying to haunting, and with some callbacks to older tracks in the serious, even makes tasteful but firm use of nostalgia. There are very VERY few moments where the musical direction doesn't work, but they do exist. But they are thoroughly outnumbered by the constant solid work.

The groans and screams of the unfortunate souls that populate Lothric come across as just as tortured as you would wish to avoid on any day, a solid note in an overall excellently handled example of vocal direction.

The game's characters come across as thoroughly untrustworthy no matter where you are, a feel the game tries to employ with gusto to remind you that nowhere is safe, and you truly don't feel safe anywhere, a fact not helped by the drops in music that leave you with little but ambient noise and silence.

When combat is the name of the game, DSIII does not disappoint, with clangs, bangs, slices, wet thuds and crushing snaps rendered with every excellently animated swing.

9.5/10: DSIII's sound direction is impeccable, easily on of the highest points of the game, with nearly no misses.

Controls

A duel! Please don't stab me...

An area where the Souls series has increased in fantastically, whereas Dark Souls controlled like a well thought out tank, Dark Souls III controls like a finely oiled sleek war machine, movement excellently responsive and hand position quite intuitive, with the minor changes to button layout making certain control decisions feel much more natural.

Offense and defense are handled by the shoulder buttons, with new Weapon Arts taking the place of series staple charge attacks when wielding a weapon with two hands.

Items, dodging and rolling, jumping (which is a bit on the shaky side) and confirmation controls are

mapped to the face buttons, with easy access to a quick menu and emotes on the PS4 touchpad (I've only played this on the PS4, so I am not aware of how the quick menu or emotes work on the X1, though I imagine they're controlled by the Start and Back buttons.)

These smoother controls with less input lag fit the increased pace of the game, where a bit more fast twitch reaction is required of the player.

Despite the increased pace of the game though, attacking is an action you commit to, so it's important to give thought to that when choosing to swing, as swinging wildly or at poor times are an extremely easy way to see that familiar glow of a bonfire far faster than you would like...

8.5/10: Dark Souls controls excellently, fluidly, and comfortably, though some may find the combat buttons being on the shoulders as opposed to the face of the controller a bit off-putting. Also, jumping, while better than previous entries, is still a bit on the unfortunate side.

Difficulty

You know, I want to go particularly in depth for how hard this game is, but I kinda think it's common knowledge that the Souls series prides itself on its difficulty. Now, I didn't find it to be particularly hard, but that's coming from having beaten every other game in the series and being used to this level of difficulty. And there is a lot to be said for how even one person joining you in jolly co-operation will make certain portions of the game far easier.

That said, when playing solo, the game has not remotely fallen off in difficulty, not even a little bit.

Enemies are faster, hit harder, and things that made previous games easier like stacking armor to make your swings unstoppable or racking up nonsensically powerful magic nukes don't have anywhere near the same impact that older games seemed to allow.

And bosses seem to be harder than ever, now with new phases and forms that they assume mid fight, disgustingly powerful grab attacks, teleportation and generally being a million times bigger than you, and reaching you from across the world.

Also, sneak attacks and poison and evil everywhere.

Expect death. And expect it often.

8.5/10: Death is a constant in the game, but almost never is it cheap and not a result of you fucking up. This is for sure a game you should only come for if you're looking for challenge though, as you can't select your difficulty, and on new games, it only goes higher.

Replayability

One of the highlights of the Souls series is it's replayability. DSIII is a bit on the disappointing side as far as that goes, as there isn't much reason to continue playing once you've finished the game besides the challenge of the increased difficulty, as unlike in other Souls games, not much changes as far as your rewards and character interactions go when you start a new playthrough.

420 Praise It!

But if challenge and joining with people in jolly co-operation (or not so jolly invasion) is your game,

then feel free to get yourself in there!

That in mind, there are at least 3 planned expansions coming up, so the game does still have life beyond the first thrill of success. But as that hasn't be released yet, we can only anticipate excitedly.

7.0/10: The game isn't as full of cool surprises on later playthroughs, but the joy of victory and the thrill of jolly co-op (or invasion, if that's your thing) make replays worth it. Plus, it's really easy to miss stuff, so it's nice to find what you missed the second (or third) go-round.

Story

Dark Souls III's story surrounds the struggle of  you, the reborn Ashen One, conglomerate of all those who failed to link the fire and save the world as you rise in a last ditch effort to use the souls of the Lords of Cinder (the big baddies spread across Lothric) to give energy to the First Flame before it's snuffed out, and everything goes to hell in a handbasket....

Well, more to hell in a handbasket. A lower circle.

Aaaaand... Well, that's about all you get, story-wise. There are some more threads and such, connections to previous games, but the game does it's damnedest to let you know that any story you gather is almost conjecture. And while in some regards, that can be the beauty of the Souls series, it doesn't work if the game doesn't give you much to formulate ideas with.

There's plenty of fantastic lore in the item descriptions and environment, but very little by way of what's happening as the main story progresses.

Now, admittedly, there are fans who have likely looked harder than I have, and gleaned a much more complete story, but admittedly, I didn't really feel like enough was given to have a satisfying and fulfilling conclusion.      

5.0/10: The lore of the Souls series is always strong, and it's a solid base, but the game feels too vague to even enjoy the regular art of Souls theory-crafting.

Fun Factor

I still don't like these odds...

All that said, we come to the most important part. Is the game fun?

Hell yes.

The story is not solid, sure, there's a solid chunk less content, and damn is this game sometimes like beating your face against a wall until your blood transmutes into pure rage-induced salt.

But between the beautiful world, extensive lore, dope armor and weapons, cool attacks, fending off invasions, Jolly Co-operation, and the sweet, sweet taste of victory...

Man.

There's pretty much not a damn thing like it.

I just wish it was longer. I wish there was more.

9.5/10: I have every intention of going home and swinging in to this game later this week. Maybe even tonight. My one gripe is it's over too soon. Good thing there's both New Game + AND incoming DLC!

SCORE

And so, we reach the goal-line!

Survey says....

THE VERDICT

DARK SOULS III SCORES A

79.0

A GREAT DAMN GAME

Woo. Yeah!

Dark Souls III is a really solid game, and despite the score, I love it way more. Maybe I'm getting better at this bias thing!

Anywho, I will revisit this game once the expansions drop, and see how it looks to me then!

WOO! Just before deadline.

Alriiiiiight.

Look out for new video content on the StuffMax youtube channel on Saturday!

Yep.

Top 10: Fighting Game Main Peoples!

Okay, so this list has been bubbling about in my head for a while now. I wanted to get it out of my head while the iron was still hot, but, you know, I suck at deadlines and stuff, so that didn't work. BUT I'M STILL GONNA PUT DIS SHIT OUT!

Just way... WAY later than planned...

Here be the rules and regulations.

First and foremost, regulation-wise, it is worth noting that this list is very subjective, and the criteria I am judging upon is first personal preference, followed by (much less importantly) impact and legacy, followed by and least importantly, general popularity.

Think of it sorta like 50% Cause I Want To, 30% Impact/Legacy, 20% Popularity. Sort of.*

As for numerically ordered rules:

1. Must be the/a generally agreed upon protagonist/main character. No deuteragonists or rivals.

2. Must have appeared in more than one installment of the series, provided the series has more than one installment.

3. Series must primarily consist of fighting games. So no side games of a series that is another genre.

4. Series must be original, so no fighting games based on other series.

*These numbers and percentages are not to be taken as gospel, and subject to change as I go, cause fuck it.

So. With those caveats out of the way, let's get it on!

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First and foremost, Top Five honorable mentions in no particular order include Kasumi from Dead or Alive, Eiji from Battle Arena Toshinden, Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown, Jago from Killer Instinct and Akira from Virtua Fighter.

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Oh, and for those who have any interest in such things, there are very likely to be spoilers in this here list. So, keep that in mind.

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And onto the list proper:

10. Yugo Ōgami (Bloody Roar)

"Yugo Ogami (大神勇吾 Ōgami Yūgo) is a fictional character from the Bloody Roar series.  His beast form is the wolf and he's currently the leader and founder of the organisation World of Co-Existence.

Yugo is very aggressive, impulsive and short tempered; he is also somewhat childish and very upbeat. Despite his hot-tempered nature however, Yugo is actually a caring and kind-hearted man who hates injustice and will always lend a hand to anyone who needs it.

Yugo appeared in the first installment, Bloody Roar. He is considered to be the main protagonist of the series, and often viewed as the series' mascot."

The main character of the Bloody Roar series, Yugo makes the list for me and beats out the honorable mentions because his fighting style (a mix between overly speedy boxing, and whatever the hell he does as a wolf) is enjoyable as hell, and he acts as the figurehead of one of the more fun and unfortunately overlooked fighting game series that I've had the chance to get my hands on. 

I mean, shit, the entire series is the clashing of characters who transform into raging were-animals ranging from Dragons, to Unborn, to Rabbits to Chimeras, and whatever in-between!

I also have a tendency to enjoy "character duality" (a term likely to pop up a lot in this list), mirroring, and other things regarding two sides of a coin, or things of that nature when applied to fictional characters. Especially cool ass transformations. The shift from man to beast is not necessarily well executed here, but damn does it look cool.

Between his biker style, boxing techniques and rather cool wolf transformation, Yugo hits some sincerely right notes. At least enough to place him at number 10.

9. Morrigan Aensland (Darkstalkers)

"Morrigan Aensland (Japanese: モリガン・アーンスランド Hepburn: Morigan Ānsurando) is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. Morrigan is a succubus and a princess of the demon realm Makai, who is very vain and lives for little more than the excitement of battle, but slowly takes up more of her royal responsibilities seriously despite her obsessive fascination of the human world.

Morrigan was introduced in the 1994 game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and has since appeared in every game in the series and in various related media, as well as in multiple video games outside the Darkstalkers game series. She is the central character of the extended Darkstalkers franchise and is widely perceived as one of the most popular Capcom characters."

One of the originators of video game sex appeal, and longtime fan favorite, Morrigan has been able to spread her influence far outside of her own games, appearing in nearly every crossover game that Capcom even thinks about putting out and then some.

Interestingly, her character sprite is probably one of the most used sprites of all time, hilariously appearing in nearly every entry of every game she's appeared in utilizing her original sprite from the first Darkstalkers up until Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, where there was no longer a choice but to update, as Capcom had made the transition to 3D models.

My personal enjoyment of Morrigan, however, comes from the fact that she plays like a Shoto character, so in addition to being all different kinds of sexy and being iconic than a motherfucker, at least as far as Darkstalkers is concerned, she also plays in the most familiar fashion possible. And that's great.

She's also a case of character duality, in the case of the shard of her soul, the more impish but innocent looking Lilith.

But all things considered, Morrigan earns her spot on this list due to her impressive legacy, having become the face of Darkstalkers with no doubt, and gaining arguably more popularity outside her own games than within.

8. Kyo Kusanagi (King of Fighters)

"Kyo Kusanagi (草薙 京 Kusanagi Kyō) is the main character in SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters video game series; he was first introduced in The King of Fighters '94 as the leader of the Japan team. He is one of the iconic characters of the series and regularly appears on publicity material and merchandise. 

His name and abilities were designed in order to relate him with the Yamata no Orochi legend. Because he was highly popular and his outfit changed along the series, the designers created a few clones with his old appearance.

Kyo is first introduced as a cocky delinquent high school student who is the heir to the Kusanagi clan, who can use pyrokinetic powers. In The King of Fighters universe, his clan is one of the three clans that sealed the legendary snake entity, Yamata no Orochi. Due to his clan's past, Kyo fights against the Kusanagi's enemies; his rival Iori Yagami, the last member of the Yagami clan, and the Orochi's soldiers. He enters every The King of Fighters tournament representing Japan and uses his clan's fighting style to combine fire with kenpo. Aside from the main series, Kyo also appears in several other media series such as spin-offs and crossover video games as well as comic adaptations of the series."

The delinquent of delinquents when it comes to fighting games, Kyo is bad-boy-style cool personified. His character design is so well loved that whenever it changes, SNK makes a story related clone of him just to be able to keep the costume in circulation. He's not the most original personality, but said personality is so classic, and pulled off with such shameless gusto in Kyo that I cannot help but enjoy it.

In addition, Kyo represents one of the few gaming series willing to go head to head with the mighty giant "Street Fighter", and not come out completely chewed up and spit out like so much rotten food. Not to say that KoF wasn't still soundly handed it's ass, just less so than other series competing at the time.

7. Ragna the Bloodedge (BlazBlue)

"Ragna the Bloodedge (ラグナ＝ザ＝ブラッドエッジ Raguna za Buraddoejji) is the main protagonist of the BlazBlue series. Also known as the Grim Reaper, he is feared by the NOL for being the most powerful individual to have ever rebelled against them since the Ikaruga Civil War. His actions, which included destroying countless number of their branches, has labeled him the most wanted criminal to received the largest bounty ever in the history of the NOL. He possesses a powerful form of ars magus called the Azure Grimoire, or simply referred to as the titular BlazBlue, which is often either the secondary or primary target of those after him and his bounty. His ultimate goal is to destroy the NOL, for he blames them for destroying his family.

Ragna is sardonic, rude, and abrasive to anyone he comes across. He is also quick to anger, quite stubborn, and never misses a chance to use as much vulgar language as possible. In this regard, Ragna is similar to the stereotypical anime delinquent. This is caused mainly by Yūki Terumi practically destroying Ragna's life, which has created a mass of hatred in him; stronger than that of any other individual. Ragna often becomes infuriated at first sight of Yūki Terumi, which he often takes advantage of through taunting him. However, even in cases where he cannot win or is on the brink of death, Ragna possesses an undying will and refuses to give up, something many characters either hate or admire.

Beneath his gruff exterior, however, Ragna does possess a softer, more compassionate side. He chooses to keep up his public front because of the path he chose – that of revenge. He does genuinely care for certain people, and despite Jin's role in the destruction of his life, still cares for him as a brother.

Later on after the events of Chronophantasma, Ragna goes through more personal development which changes his opinions about the reasons he fights. He starts to rely on his own strength instead of the Azure Grimoire, as its power is to "steal" instead of "protect". He declares that he will no longer fight to destroy and for revenge, and instead, decides to fight in order to protect his loved ones. "

Whereas Kyo is delinquent incarnate, Ragna is a the slow developing delinquent who eventually embraces his destiny as the hero he is meant to be. To me, Ragna belongs where he does on this list 1: Because his design is fucking awesome, and 2: because I am hard pressed to think of a fighting game that so well fleshes out both it's story and characters in game. More often than not, character development in fighting games either doesn't exist, or is delegated to external materials and theory on the interwebs. Ragna and BlazBlue blatantly defy that mold, crafting a lengthy and deep story through which Ragna subtly shifts and changes from hardened criminal, to selfish delinquent, to reluctant champion, to selfless (most of the time) hero, all while still maintaining the surly, angry and sarcastic qualities that make him amusing in the first place.

The story of his struggle against his potential destiny of becoming the Black Beast of legend that will go on to destroy everything only adds to my enjoyment of him, and seeing little pieces of the Beast in his fighting style are little details that add together to make me thoroughly enjoy the Bloodedge.

The only reason he doesn't rank higher is because as much as I love him, I feel like he needs a bit more time to expand his legacy. Those higher on this list are people who have stood strong in my head as the faces of fighting games for quite some time.

6. Terry Bogard (Fatal Fury)

Terry Bogard (テリー・ボガード Terī Bogādo) is a video game character created by SNK Playmore (previously SNK), and is the main character of the Fatal Fury series. In the series, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide tournaments called The King of Fighters to kill Geese Howard, a criminal who killed Terry's father. Terry becomes a formidable fighter, earning the title of "Legendary Hungry Wolf". In the fourth tournament he participates, Terry nearly kills Geese, but relents at the last moment. Geese responds to this by apparently committing suicide. Terry then decides to become the guardian of Geese's son, Rock Howard.

Terry Bogard is an incredibly charismatic, cheerful and friendly man with everyone around him. He bears no ill will towards anyone other than Geese Howard, the killer of his adoptive father. His relationship with Andy is that of respect, recognizing his younger brother as a potential rival. He feels a sense of kinship with Blue Mary for her loss, and the two developed a long time relationship. He treats Rock as his son, but allows him to choose his own path in life. He teasingly calls Rock, "Rookie". Terry is also well-informed of what goes on in the streets.

In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Terry was voted as the staff's eighth favorite character. In a 2005 poll made by SNK Playmore USA, he was voted as the number one fan favorite character with a total of 10014 votes. He was voted as the second most favorite character at the time of Garou: Mark of the Wolves with one commenter saying that "Terry's the eternal hero". In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, he was voted as the fourth favorite character with a total of 2,479 votes.

He has appeared in every Fatal Fury and King of Fighters game, and is one of the characters of choice to symbolize the company in crossover games, merchandise and publicity."

Terry Bogard, quite possibly the epitome of the Japanese Vision of the All-American Hero, Terry Bogard is a better version of what Kyo Kusanagi should be for SNK: A worthwhile protagonist and face to go up against the mighty, mighty Street Fighter.

A man of simple tastes and cool as fuck style, Terry looks every bit the part of what is imagined to be the simple American hero archetype, with simple, functional clothes that still look cool, an upright attitude, and all of the muscles. He would fit right in to damn near any 80s and early 90s action movie.

Terry's hilarious/awesome and instantly recognizable engrish, in addition to his explosive and rather cool fighting style easily add to his iconic aesthetic. The culmination results in a classic style of character, one who gets over on being as much the archetype as he can possibly be.

His classic styling make him quite possibly the most popular single creation that SNK has ever produced. He no doubt deserves a spot on the list for that alone.

But my biggest personal reason for including him on the list is because I just really fucking love the Buster Wolf.

5. Jin Kazama (Tekken)

"Jin Kazama (Japanese: 風間 仁 Hepburn: Kazama Jin) is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Tekken series released by Namco Bandai Games. Jin is consistently voiced by Isshin Chiba since he debuted in Tekken 3, making him the only Tekken character and one of the video game characters that are consistently voiced by one actor in every appearance.

Trained by his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, in order to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament, Jin wishes to avenge his mother's apparent death. However, during the tournament it is revealed that Jin possesses the Devil Gene (Japanese: デビルの血 Hepburn: Debiru no Chi (Lit. 'Devil's blood')), a genetic abnormality within his body, which causes the betrayal of Heihachi who wants to take it. He is also antagonized by his father, Kazuya Mishima, from whom he inherited the gene. While dealing with them, Jin loses control of the Devil Gene, which causes his transformation into an alter-ego named Devil Jin (Japanese: デビル仁 Hepburn: Debiru Jin), first introduced as a non-playable character in Tekken 3 and playable in Tekken 5.

Jin's personality ranges from calm to angry at various moments, and his words and actions hint toward the bitterness within. He also has one personality trait which is common with many Japanese action heroes. Once Jin's mind is focused in any particular direction, it is very difficult to get him to change or even notice the events and people around him. People close to him, including his friends Ling Xiaoyu and Hwoarang, are always going to extremes to gain Jin's attention, and yet, he rarely seems to notice. It is known, however, that he will help them if they need it, as related media has shown."

Maaaaan talk about a character with family issues?

Jin Kazama debuted as a smooth, cool, apathetic version of Kazuya Mishima, taking over for the former when he went the rout of villain and supposedly kicked the bucket. (Turned out to be not so dead about a game later, but eh. Death is cheap in fiction anyway.)

Easily the best apart about Jin (yet another character struggling with some inner dark side... This is really a trend for me...) is the amount of development Jin has gone through over Tekken's lengthy lore, from being the hip young Kazuya clone, to becoming whatever form of tortured soul he was when he abandoned the Mishima Martial Arts in favor of straight up Karate, to the out of his mind world domination plans he enacted in an attempt to become powerful enough to end the Mishima Bloodline problems forever.

Jin has been through a lot, and his struggle to keep doing the right thing, no matter what he does in pursuit of it is a fantastic concept.

4. Siegfried Schtauffen (SoulCalibur)

"Siegfried Schtauffen (ジークフリート・シュタウフェン, Jīkufurīto Shutaufen) is the main protagonist character in most Soul series's games and the most central character of the series until Soulcalibur V.

He is one of the only characters that have been included in every game in the series since Soul Edge, appearing in Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II as the story's main villain, as well as appearing in Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur IV as the main hero. In Soulcalibur II, he is an unlockable costume for his temporary alter-ego, Nightmare, and Nightmare's unmasked appearance (his alternate costume) is that of Siegfried. The non-canon spin-off title Soulcalibur Legends was released in 2007 with Siegfried being the central character, and he has returned in Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. Siegfried returned as a major supporting character in Soulcalibur V and he also is playable in the PS3 exclusive Soulcalibur: Lost Swords.

In Soul Edge and Soulcalibur Legends, Siegfried is somewhat cocky and arrogant, never stopping to achieve what he desires. However, after being freed from Soul Edge in Soulcalibur, he stops being selfish and strives to atone for his sins. When he becomes Nightmare again in Soulcalibur II, he is portrayed as a heartless beast. But when he becomes himself again in Soulcalibur III, he regains his desire for atonement. In Soulcalibur IV, Siegfried fears that he would get other people hurt if he lets them join him. So he isolates himself from others in order to destroy Soul Edge and repent for his sins. However in Soulcalibur V Siegfried is much calmer and relaxed, he also acts as a mentor to his comrades."

Tortured soul with a giant sword fighting to save the world. The tragic struggle of Siegfried Schtauffen from his nonsensical patricide-colored past, to his foolhardy quest to undo history via an insane quest to become powerful enough to murder the bastard who killed his father (hint: It was Siegfried. Siegfried is out of his damn mind) to his fantastic tenure as the Azure Nightmare, terror of the world, and finally ending with his free and clear mind waging one last sacrificial battle against the essence of evil itself that he unwillingly released upon the world covers is riveting from beginning to end, and his aesthetic is positively fantastic. Especially when he's Nightmare in Soulcaliur 2.

I mean damn. Who the hell even needs to look that cool?

That aside, Siegfried, along with Heishiro Mitsurugi and Ninja-in-a-Painted-On-Suit Taki are the faces of one of the most successful, deep, and well crafted 3D fighting games ever to exist, to say nothing of being probably the only successful weapon based fighter aside from maaaaaybe Bushido Blade.

Maybe.

For that alone, he deserves the props. Add the Nightmare costume from 2 to that, and it's on like Donkey Kong.

3. Sol Badguy (Guilty Gear)

"Sol Badguy (Japanese: ソル＝バッドガイ Hepburn: Soru Baddogai) is a fictional character in Arc System Works' Guilty Gear video game series. He first appeared in the 1998 video game Guilty Gear, as the main character and namesake. In the series, he is a bounty hunter who has dedicated his life to the destruction of Gears, a race of magical bioweapons that plunged the world into a hundred-year war known as the Crusades. He was once a member of the Sacred Order of the Holy Knights.

At first glance, he is an aloof, anti-hero bounty hunter, whose apparent laziness and gruffness belies his terrifying fighting ability, and the amazing genius and emotional depths beneath that brash exterior.

Sullen and unrefined, Sol only speaks to others when absolutely necessary. This is reflected in everything he does, and his fighting moves, while rough and unpolished, are executed with absolute precision. He also tends to be impatient and rude towards those who wish to interact with him, whether they are friend or foe. Overall, Sol is not a friendly man, but he is not an inherently evil one neither. He is a person who prefers to convey his intent with his actions.

While he cynically mocks those who speak of justice, he has exhibited a staunch sense of righteousness that motivates him to prevent anything that might potentially threaten the world and the peace established after the Crusades. He is also surprisingly compassionate as seen when he spares and even helps both Dizzy and Solaria, despite both being Command Type Gears whose power could potentially endanger humanity if left unchecked. It is seen through the course of the series that Sol has much deeper emotional depths that he normally doesn't display towards people."

So there's Kyo, the Basic Super Delinquent. And then there's Ragna, the Good Hearted Dummy Delinquent Hero. And then? Then there's the man what all delinquency the world round aspires to be. The final form of delinquency, if you will.

The avatar of the moment you surpass the simple idea of delinquency, ride your flaming motorcycle straight past every other step in-between and finally evolve into the Downright Unforgivably Sinful Epitome of Cool (tm? Sure. tm).

Easily one of the single coolest characters of all time, from aesthetic to personality to moveset to even his goddamn voice, Sol Badguy exudes awesome from every pore, lights it on fire, uses it to light his cigarette, and goes on about his day with a yawn.

The titular Guilty Gear, when he was still a human scientist, Sol took part in experiments that basically broke everything, started World War 3, eradicated Japan, and fucked up life for everyone ever. Rather than letting his dumbass life-ruining decisions turn him into an emo candyass punk, The Badass formerly known as Fredrick decided to just become the most powerful motherfucker the world has ever seen. And then proceed to use his endless swole-ness to make money by beating the shit out of everything. Probably while bored as fuck.

Plus his favorite band is Queen.

2b, Scorpion

"Hanzo Hasashi (波佐志半藏), now known as Scorpion (全蠍人, "Full Scorpion Man"), is a resurrected ninja in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He is one of the very few original characters, debuting in the first Mortal Kombat arcade game. He holds the unique distinction, along with Raiden and Sub-Zero (in one form or another), of appearing in every generation of Mortal Kombat games as a playable character.

Scorpion is a hell-spawned spectre, inexorably seeking vengeance against those responsible for the destruction of his clan and the death of his own family. Despite his malevolent appearance, he is not inherently evil. He joins the forces of evil when promised a means of resurrecting his clan on Earth, or the chance to inflict his wrath against those who butchered them. Scorpion has also (indirectly) assisted the game's protagonists to fulfill these motives.

Although Scorpion is often strict and wrathful, at times he shows a caring side and is very honorable. In the original timeline, when he discovers the Sub-Zero in the second tournament isn't Bi-Han and in fact his more merciful brother, Scorpion vows to protect Kuai Liang instead for killing his kin. In the second timeline, Scorpion truly intended to spare the first Sub-Zero in exchange for the resurrection of his clan, but Quan Chi prevented this. Most notably, in the Mortal Kombat X Comic, it's shown he took in victims and survivors of the Netherrealm War into his iteration of the Shirai Ryu while also raising Takeda. During this time, he treated Takeda like his own son, such as when he comforts Takeda after Fox's death."

Fuck the Ghost Rider, this dude here is the REAL Spirit of Vengeance.

A fire-breathing, sucka-impaling, kung-fu slingin', whirling ninja dervish of pain, vengeance, and rage, and bearer of one of the single most iconic fighting game sound bytes of all time, Scorpion is like the embodiment of every kung fu revenge flick ever smashed into one ninja, rolled in hellfire, then shot out a cannon to wreak havoc on any and everyone standing in his way.

Shit, even if the fate of the world is at stake, if some dumb bastard done goofed and crossed Scorpion in any way? He's dying. Guaran-damn-teed.

I always gotta respect the guys willing to let everything burn for their cause. If you're gonna go for it, you go all the fucking way, no matter what.

Plus, he's one of the OG video game ninjas. Regardless of how overused they are, Ninjas are automatically cool, especially 90s ninjas.

2a. Liu Kang (Mortal Kombat)

Liu Kang (Chinese: 劉康; pinyin: Liúkāng) is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He was introduced in the series' original video game installment in 1992, as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save Earthrealm (Earth). Since his victory in the tournament, Liu Kang becomes the champion and chief defender of Earthrealm, guided by his mentor, the thunder god Raiden. He also becomes romantically involved with Princess Kitana, an adopted daughter of Shao Kahn, the evil emperor of Outworld.

Liu Kang is one of the most popular and accessible characters in the series. He is one of Earthrealm's greatest warriors, having defeated many to prove his valor. Throughout the series he has been gradually portrayed as the main hero, becoming champion after the first Mortal Kombat tournament. Liu Kang has found a nemesis in the traitorous Shang Tsung, a sorcerer who he has defeated on numerous occasions. Kang is often considered the greatest threat to the plans of Tsung and his emperor, Shao Kahn. He is a member of the White Lotus Society and trains extensively at the Wu Shi Academy. It was at the Academy that he was murdered by the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi.

His body was resurrected without his spirit in Mortal Kombat: Deception. This physical half killed hundreds of innocent people, with the skills he refined to protect them while he was alive. He retained his personality as a zombie, as he still had his trademark yells. A notable exception is the intro of Armageddon, where he groans like a recognizable zombie.

He is said to be one of the Great Kung Lao's last descendants through various media (a trading card, the first film, etc.) It is possible that Liu Kang and Kung Lao are cousins. He is referred to as "The Immortal Champion of Mortal Kombat" in later games, and his ending in Mortal Kombat: Deception has him again assuming the role upon his restoration to life.

You know? I'm not even gonna lie to you. I love Liu Kang, but his placement this high on the list is for certain 90% thanks to his characterization in the first movie. Liu Kang is great. That's about it.

AND NUMBER ONE

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1. Ryu (Street Fighter)

Ryu (リュウ or 隆 Ryū) is the protagonist and main character of the Street Fighter series. Ryu has made an appearance in every Street Fighter game, as well as in almost every crossover fighting game with Capcom characters in it.

Ryu has arguably become the most famous character in the fighting game genre, starring in early fighting games such as Street Fighter, and started to become popular in Street Fighter II, where he was considered a "basic" character. He, along with Mega Man, is considered one of Capcom's unofficial "mascots".

Ryu is usually a silent, humble, serious individual whose severity is often juxtaposed against the light-hearted, fiery persona of his best friend and oldest rival, Ken. He travels the globe with a stern nature, often appearing to others as boring or detached. On rare occasion, Ryu shows a very bad sense of humor. Cool and calculating, patience is Ryu's biggest strength. Ryu's overarching goal in Street Fighter is to become a total master of his fighting style. To this end, Ryu plays the part of the wandering warrior, and takes both his travels and his training very seriously. Although he appears to be aloof and unemotional, Ryu is actually a kind and good-hearted person. He respects others with skills equal to his own and holds heroic figures like Captain America, Spider-Man and Cyclops in high regard, as seen in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. However, by the time of Street Fighter III, it seems that Ryu has developed a somewhat more friendly personality. He is still very quiet and reserved, but is willing to greet people with a smile and some kind advice, very much like his master Gouken. Ryu doesn't exactly consider himself a heroic person, but he does fight for innocents when he sees injustice.

There is, however, a dark side to Ryu. His drive to improve himself, no matter the difficulty, can sometimes develop into a drive to win and to be the best, no matter what the cost, as these two goals are so dangerously similar. This darker drive is fed by, and in turn feeds, the Satsui no Hado within him, an influence which Ryu must constantly fight to suppress (at least until the time of Street Fighter III). Ryu's desire to be better can sometimes make his advice to his defeated opponents seem more arrogant and judgmental than Gouken's, though he is fundamentally well-intentioned. In times when his inner darkness threatens to overcome him, Ryu relies on his friends and rivals - primarily Ken, Chun-Li, Gouken, Rose, Sagat and Sakura - to keep him grounded and snap him out of it.

Early Street Fighter manga often depicted Ryu having a more "rough and tumble" personality, as well as a bit of a goofy side. He was also shown to be quite irritable when hungry. In his short story in Street Fighter Gaiden, he was shown to be a rather happy individual and, personality-wise, somewhat like Goku from the Dragon Ball series. This is quite different from the stoic person he is often shown to be in the games.

Ryu is consistently ranked as one of the most popular and memorable characters from the Street Fighter franchise as well as gaming in general among critics. GameSpot featured him in their article "All Time Greatest Game Hero". He additionally ranked number seventy-one on UGO Networks's "Top 100 Heroes of All Time" article. UGO also placed him at #2 on their list of "Top 50 Street Fighter Characters", stating "Whereas Ken is flashy, Ryu is contemplative, tortured and driven." IGN ranked him first in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, stating "Ryu is a testament to the virtue of simplicity in character design. White gi, dark gloves, red headband for a little touch of color, and that is it. It's rare, when you think about it, to see too many fancy pieces go into the making of an icon". GameDaily listed him at number two in their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, stating "He always seeks a bigger challenge, and that determination makes him one of our favorites"; in a later character profile article for Ryu, they stated "Ryu is a formidable fighter that gets the job done.... Bottom line, you can't go wrong with Street Fighter's most iconic character." The same site ranked him sixth along with Ken in the Top 25 Capcom Characters of All Time with editor Robert Workman saying "It was just impossible to choose between one of these world warriors". 

He has also been recognized as one of the best gaming characters from all time. He was voted as one of the best fifty characters in both a Famitsu issue and the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition from 2011. In the February 1992 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan Ryu ranked third Best Character of 1991. In the January 30, 1997 issue Ryu ranked number thirteen in Top 50 Characters of 1996. In a 2010 survey of 4000 online matches for Super Street Fighter IV, Ryu was the most popular character, with 16.6% of the usage. In 2011, Empire ranked him as the 27th greatest video game character, adding "he has remained the definitive beat-'em-up fighter and go-to-guy for the discerning player since the days of SF2."

UGO listed Ryu's headband twenty-sixth on their list of "The Coolest Helmets and Headgear in Video Games". In GamesRadar's article "The 56 characters of Marvel vs Capcom 2", Ryu was described as "The heart and soul of the Street Fighter series" and "probably the most well known fighting game character in the world"

Honestly.

Seriously.

If you thought any

AND I MEAN ANY

other person was gonna be in this #1 spot?

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Man...

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There aren't even words.

Just go home. Go on, get. Get away from me. Friendship over.

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You still here? Kick rocks! Touch gravel! Go away!

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Okay. Now that that's been handled

Ryu is the greatest fighting game character ever. Period. Bar none. There isn't even competition. He is the face of not only the most popular fighting game series ever, but (NOT) arguably the face of the entire fighting game genre.

His iconic (and often mispronounced) special moves, both on the stage of look and execution are the base influence for almost every fighting game protagonist to follow him.

He is the fighting game basis, if you know how to play with Ryu, you can get into damn near any 2D fighting game at a basic level with almost laughable ease.

He is the eternal wanderer, gracing innumerable fighting game titles, and a major draw to a nonsensical amount of crossover games and references. From his moves appearing in other Capcom titles, to clones of him appearing in other media ranging from Avatar: The Last Airbender to Gravity Falls and countless others, Ryu's influence is felt across a huge range of pop culture.

He's the friggin' man.

He's the best.

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Alrighty! That took foreeeeeeeeeeever to finish. I don't think I've ever had a more severe case of writer's block. Like, I've been late and lazy before, but damn. 

That said, I'm trying to keep content coming out semi-regularly, and while the blog's been kinda stagnant, the youtube channel has been updating significantly more regularly, so, you know, keep an eye out on that. I do intend to eventually post stuff there that isn't me getting my ass handed to me in Street Fighter, maybe the next top 10 list will be a video instead or something.

Ooh, that could be fun, actually... We'll see!

Anywho, more stuff coming soon! If you got beef with the list, feel free to let me know with a comment or something about how wrong you are!

Cause this list is infallible. Fact.

Mwahaha.

Yep.

(Basic character descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Capcom, Soul Calibur BlazBlue and Guilty Gear Wikia pages)

Street Fighter V: The Misadventures of Scrub Necalli!

Ha! More content in less than a year!

Breakin' records out here.

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Anywho!

I picked up Street Fighter V on release, and I've been bashing my head against ranked mode ever since trying to stubborn my way to the Gold League so I can feel dope about myself for however long that lasts.

It has not been working.

Finally tired of getting frustrated trying to make it work with my homie Ryu, I've decided a new approach is in order.

Time to learn a new character.

The way I figure it, if I have to learn a new character from the ground up, I'll have to learn things about the game and shit, and eventually, after much winning and losing and losing and winning and replay watching, I'll actually get better, and then achieve my goal!

So.

In a bid to knock out two birds with one stone (namely getting better at Street Fighter AND providing more content here) I've decided to record my scrubtastic struggles for enjoyment for all! The character of choice is Necalli, because if you've seen me, then you know that Necalli is somewhere on the spectrum towards my final form, so this is damn near an obligation.

Join me in my grand adventure to both get good AND make it to gold!

The first match!

The runback!

Yeah!

Review Sita!

Sita: Six in Kiswahili! Thank you Swahili peoples.

Anywhos, it is indeed time for another review!

And the subject of today's review iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis:

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance!

A multiplatform game developed by Platinum Games, produced by Kojima Productions and published by Konami, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (also referred to in this review as MGR, or just Revengeance) is the most recent outing in the Metal Gear franchise, and an attempt at an extreme departure from the normal stealth game formula, chronicling the adventures of Raiden in a flashy cyborg hack and slash frenzy.

Was the transition worth it?

Spoilers: the answer's in the review!

And away we go!

First Impressions

Raiden. Looking cool. Something he spends pretty much the whole game doing.

MGR's opening screen is a lightning filled, occasional camera-angle-switching view of Raiden first opening his eye, then standing all prepared for battle and and looking cool. A fun tidbit is that the Konami Code does in fact work at the start screen, unlocking all of the difficulties from the beginning of the game. You'll know you did it right if you hear Raiden say the title of the game.

Anyway, the game does not spend too long keeping you from the action: There's a solidly comprehensive tutorial right in the beginning of the game, one I personally chose to skip as I do enjoy learning as I play a game for the most part. 

There's a cutscene that gives you an idea of Raiden's situation since the events of the previous Metal Gear game, now acting as a security detail of sorts for the Prime Minister of an un-named African country as a part of Maverick, a private military company.

Missile. Hopping.

It takes no time for things to get pretty hairy, with an opposing force quickly putting the beats on the Maverick grunts, and kidnapping the prime minister, which of course, means it's Raiden's job to get him back, control now being put in the player's hands. Once the action starts, it flatly refuses to stop, with Raiden facing off against other cyborgs, ramping up to helicopters, then giant Metal Gears, all of whom he faces with no problem and a rather ridiculous amount of flash and flare (I mean, when fighting Metal Gears and helicopters, to close the gap, Raiden goes missile hopping, jumping from missile to missile to get close enough to bisect whatever he's dealing with... And this is to say nothing of when the giant Metal Gears try chopping you and get thrown over buildings, chased, and chopped to ribbons in midair for their troubles), and culminating in a fight on a train against your stupendously cool in game rival, "Jetstream" Sam Rodriguez.

One that Raiden rather handily loses.

Raiden's failure to save the prime minister marks the end of the introduction, and the beginning of the game proper.

By the time I was finished running around this intro, chopping things to bits, and defying physics on a regular basis to a tense, action movie styled soundtrack, I was quite hooked.

9.0/10: Cool is the name of the game, and the beginning of Revengeance exudes cool all day, err day, giving you an idea of what's to come.

Overall Presentation

One! One spine. Ah Ah Ah.

Streamlined, futuristic and action packed are the main vibes MGR embodies, with a sleek digital styled HUD, slick visuals, liberal use of neon and blur effects, and a constant and enjoyable pacing that for the most part carries through from beginning to end.

The game, for the most part, keeps it's cutscenes as sort of setpieces and bookends, usually situated in the beginning, middle, and end of the chapters which in some cases, work as excellent breather moments from the constant action, but sometimes are sudden stops that aren't entirely welcome when enjoying a particularly well paced combat section.

'Copter kick!

Moving back to the slick visuals, Raiden and his foes are a treat to watch, with everyone moving in such flashy and vibrant ways, making it so combat is never boring.

Of particular note is, of course, the game's free slicing, cut anywhere ability, the Blade Mode. The slow motion view of things simply separating into confetti as you control Raiden slicing them to bits is simply satisfying as hell, and a well timed or placed chop will usually net you a sweet reward of some sort, accompanied by a stylized Japanese character (and as we all know, stylized Japanese letters and characters are always cool, no matter what.)

The graphics are excellent and consistent throughout, and the soundtrack is mind-blowingly awesome, always capable of hyping a fight up to levels even further beyond, creating a well maintained atmosphere throughout the game.

Voice acting is of high quality, which is not surprising, considering it's an entry in the Metal Gear franchise, and the cutscenes, while sometimes timed awkwardly, provide a good amount of information without being overbearing, leaving extraneous details for classic style codec conversations, which are quite enjoyable, and do well to flesh out this particular entry's world.

The most unfortunate note is probably the game's length. It is only about 7 hours on a regular playthrough, even without skipping the cutscenes. The game could do with being a bit longer, but that's a nitpick at best, as the game doesn't particularly suffer for it's length, I would just personally like more.

9.5/10: Cutscene timing is sometimes a little iffy, and I really wish the game was longer, but the overall presentation for the game is top notch, slick, and cool as hell.

Accessibility

Revengeance, for the most part, starts off fairly forgiving, with most enemies defeat-able using a variety of comfy mashing techniques. But soon enough, it becomes apparent that to progress with any ease in the game, technique is your friend. Fortunately, MGR offers a fairly comprehensive tutorial that's easy to follow from the very start of the game, so it's fairly easy to get used to the basic techniques of the game.

Stifling points more often than not will be getting used to being accurate with Blade Mode, and learning to block and parry correctly, things that will come with practice as opposed to being taught, but they are techniques one will need in order to complete the game without frustration and constant re-attempts.

The action does get a little intense at points however, so if action games in general aren't your thing, it isn't likely that this is going to convert you if you aren't ready to get used to high intensity gameplay of the hack and slash variety.

The story of the game is fortunately a separate story arc from the main Metal Gear series, so as such, the game's story doesn't require that you play the older games to follow it, so jumping right in here is totally fine. Even references made to older games can usually be expanded on via codec conversations, so following the story is a smooth experience.

8.0/10: There are a few techniques that are necessary to beat the game without rage-quitting that may be kind of hard to learn for some to learn, but as a whole, the game is playable by pretty much all comers.

Graphics

Cyborg kick!

MGR's look is heavily stylized realism, often done beautifully under the now common blue and orange screen tones. The character models all move with a sense of action very welcome in a game of this style, and the various lights, blurs and colors that accompany almost every action and menu do a great job of emphasizing the sleek, futuristic action atmosphere that the game puts forth.

The game is practically a 7 hour eye candy trip, with sword swings and explosions accompanied by beautiful effects, and the backgrounds and game world itself are wonderfully detailed, particularly in how nearly everything can be destroyed, more often than not in totally dynamic and not pre-programmed ways.

Fight scenes and the like are handled wonderfully, with excellent choreography (for lack of a better word), and camera angles putting you at all the best points to see the action all up in your face.

One of my favorite parts of the game are the things happening in the background of boss fights that add to the atmosphere of each one, be it exploding gas tanks during the battle with Mistral, the mysterious fog that makes the psychological fight against Monsoon, or the excellent wild west showdown feeling, tumbleweed, swirling sands and all when finally facing down Jetstream Sam.

I do feel the need to tough back on just how much the effects that happen during actions effect the feel of the game. Nearly every swing Raiden makes is accompanied by a blur or an electric blue burst of color that truly adds to the force of the swing, making one really enjoy the feel of throwing down in a superhuman frame. This also extends to the bright orange glow made when slicing through things, as if cutting through like a hot knife through butter, the explosions of sparks when clashes of metal are made, the impact waves when particularly hard hits are landed, and the interspersing touches of lightning that appear during the game, as if to subconsciously drill home that Raiden is associated with lightning. Something that, for me, the game succeeded with.

The biggest downside I can think of is that fairly rarely, the textures on the cyborgs come off as slightly unrealistic, and backgrounds in the distance are occasionally bland and uninspired, particularly when outside. It becomes easy every once in a while to feel like you may have seen a section once before, and not because you're backtracking.

Two! Two spines. Ah Ah Ah.

There are also occasionally camera problems, when things get hectic, it is sometimes easy to lose Raiden amongst similarly colored objects, especially with the perpetual use of blur and the sometimes constant explosions.

Despite this, it just all comes together to make a vibrant and beautiful package.

9.5/10: There's an occasional bland background moment and some camera issues, but more often than not, Revengeance is simply beautiful, rife with vibrant effects and lively characters in excellently rendered locations that can all be chopped to itty bitty pieces.

Sound

Without a doubt, the sound is my favorite part of the Revengeance experience. From the manic, high octane, pulse pumping soundtrack, to the various well selected sound effects, the obviously cheesy one liners seemingly tailor made for the action genre ("Time for Jack to let it Rip!" - heh, Raiden's real name is Jack, he rips stuff apart, he has a crazy murderous side, Jack the Ripper was a crazy murderer. I was amused.), the sound quality for the game is stellar.

Three! Three spines. Ah Ah Ah.

Levels and combat are filled to the brim with the sounds of explosions, loud thudding impacts, ringing clashes of metal, the shrill shrieking of concrete and steel being torn apart by sword, bullets whizzing by, enjoyable repartee from Raiden to his opponents and back, the satisfying crunch and sizzle of crushing an enemy's spine and absorbing the life energy from it, and even the classic Metal Gear sound effect of being caught while sneaking. All of these touches really ramp up the atmosphere of the game, making you always feel like you're either deep in some kind of action, or always just on the cusp of it.

Most notable, however, is the flat out outstanding soundtrack directed by Platinum Games' Naoto Tanaka, best known for his works on the Megaman X and Phoenix Wright series, and composed by Jamie Christopherson, who has done work for a smattering of games and movies, but no work as far as I'm aware so memorable as this.

Literally almost every track skyrocketed my hype level for whatever fight I was about to be a part of, especially during boss fights. The songs just continually escalate in scale and awesomeness, usually playing an instrumental portion during the first half of the fight, then switching to a vocal version when things get intense.

Each track usually contains lyrics inspired by the characters you're facing and their ideals, from "I'm My Own Master Now" when facing off against LQ-84i Bladewolf and "Stranger I Remain" when facing off against Mistral, to the undoubted standout track, and the one that plays in my head whenever I think of epic final battles these days, "It Has to Be This Way" from the final boss fight.

There are only one or two tracks on the whole thing that I didn't outright love and listen to repeatedly, and as far as I'm concerned, the game is worth playing for the soundtrack alone.

10/10: Hands down my favorite part of the game, I can, and often will rant about how much I loved this game's soundtrack.

Gameplay/Controls

Bisection!

MGR is primarily an action game, and the controls are very suitable to that gameplay style, if sometimes a little over complicated. Movement is handled with the left analog stick and the camera with the right, Raiden's movement options allow him to traverse the battlefield very easily, holding R1/RT will allow Raiden to go into a "Ninja Run", which will automatically vault over small obstacles, up small ledges, deflect small projectiles, and create dash attack opportunities. 

As far as offense goes, Raiden's primary attacks are used with Square/X and Triangle/A, the first handling light attacks and controlling Raiden's katana (the High Frequency Blade), the second controlling Raiden's secondary attacks, which by default are kicks where Raiden has the sword attached to a foot using cybernetic foolishness. When equipping a secondary weapon, it will take the place of the default kicks, making your combos a mix between the HF Blade and whatever secondary weapon you have selected.

Sub-Weapons, usually ranged, are also useable by holding R1/RT while stationary, and aiming using L2/LB and the right analog stick.

The D Pad is used to control support options, like using healing items, accessing inventory, and Augment mode, which is a sort of display to help Raiden survey the area.

Four! Four spines. Ah Ah Ah.

Raiden's most interesting form of offense is, of course, the oft mentioned Blade Mode. By holding L1/LT, Raiden will enter an over the shoulder view, taking a classical kendo stance of sorts. While in this stance, things will go into slow motion, an Raiden can begin chopping things into ribbons at your discretion. While in Blade Mode, the left stick controls the camera, and the right stick controls the aim of Raiden's blade, represented by a line appearing over whatever you are aimed at. By altering the direction, then quickly pushing the right thumbstick in that direction, Raiden will quickly slash at whatever you have aimed at, often cutting it in half. Repeated re-aiming and slashing will often lead to your foe in pieces.

If you're having trouble managing the right analog stick, you can aim the camera with the left stick and use Square/X to chop horizontally, and Triangle/A to chop vertically.

Five! Five spines. Ah Ah Ah.

During Blade Mode, if you chop at the right point on a cybernetic foe's body, you will expose their electronic spine, which you can then take when prompted by pressing Circle/B to perform the Zandatsu technique (Zandatsu, meaning "Cut and Take"). Successful Zandatsu attempts will see Raiden taking the foe's cybernetic spine, and crushing it to absorb the energy within, regenerating your health and enregy available to use Blade Mode.

Defense is handled either via Ninja Running, dodging (when acquired) by pressing Square and X/Y and A and a direction, or, more often than not, parrying by pressing Square/X + the left analog stick in the direction of the opponent/the attack on larger enemies.

This being a Metal Gear game, stealth play is also an option, by moving slowly, using cardboard boxes, and stealth killing foes by sneaking up behind them and using the Circle/B button when prompted to perform a "Ninja Kill".

Gameplay is usually handled in chunks, with Raiden exploring an area, then entering combat. At the end of each fight, your performance will be scored, and at the end of the level, your total score will be added together for an end of level grade.

When mastered, the game comes together as a ridiculously cool and fluid experience,and it's very easy to feel like you came straight out of an anime, thrashing things as an unstoppable one man cyborg ninja wrecking crew. But it does take some time to really master some of the intricacies of the gameplay, and admittedly, some features end up falling by the wayside, like the ranged sub weapons.

In addition, while the secondary melee weapons do have their uses, only on or two of them actually feel fluid and satisfying enough to be worth replacing the default secondary attacks with, even for a short amount of time.

8.0/10: Basic controls feel fluid and comfortable, but certain advanced features can feel more complicated than necessary at first, and some features eventually fall by the wayside in the face of far cooler options.

Difficulty

...*gulp!*

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance comes in 5 different flavors of difficulty, all offering a decent level of challenge. For those looking to just enjoy cyber ninja awesomeness, there's Easy, and for the gamer who wants to earn a bit of his awesome, there's Normal. Hard provides a decent bump in challenge level by making AI a bit more aggressive and more powerful, and things ramp up even more impressively on Very Hard.

And for those who believe themselves to be true cyber ninja badasses who want to take on the best MGR can through, there's the Revengeance difficulty, which is at times absolutely cruel, with enemy AI at it's most ruthless, and damage going through the roof. It is a truly unforgiving difficulty, and you had best bring your defensive A game, or die trying to make it past the first segments of the game. Often.

Cause shit like this is annoying on normal. On Revengeance, this shit is flat out unfair.
Why can you break yourself apart, Monsoon? The fuck?

Granted, as far as difficulties go, it takes until Very Hard to get challenging for more experienced gamers, and people who have conquered the likes of Ninja Gaiden on Master Ninja mode and the original American release of Devil May Cry 3 on Dante Must Die mode may not even blink twice at Revengeance mode, but note the calibur of player necessary to feel that way. For anyone else, this shit is still pretty hard at later difficulties.

7.5/10: There are a solid variety of difficulties for all types of gamer, though gamers experienced with high difficulty action games shouldn't really find much trouble until the last two difficulties, if at all.

Replayability

There are plenty of costumes and various extra VR missions to unlock, in addition to the unlockable difficulties. There also DLC campaigns that also come with 5 extra VR missions each, so those who enjoy the game will have a solid amount of reason to keep playing until things are over and done with.

8.0/10: There's a pretty solid amount of extra content to unlock, and a good chunk of it is playable, or affects gameplay, so there's reason to tackle this more than once.

Story

Dog. Man's best friend.

The story for MGR is kind of convoluted, like most Metal Gear stories, but is primarily a message about morals, beliefs, and the things you're willing to do to enforce and protect them.

Or at least that's what I took from it.

Four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden has found himself contracted by the "Maverick Security Consulting" private military corporation (referred to as a PMC in game), a job he took on to be able to provide for his family without having to return to the darkness of direct combat and battlefield situations.

During one of the jobs he was contracted for, a prime minister from an african country was kidnapped and killed on his watch by a rival PMC, Desperado Enforcement LLC, a PMC composed majorly of cyborg soldiers, and intent on using it's resources to violently change the world in a very dark manner, primarily by killing world leaders and supplying terrorists with arms.

Raiden himself was completely defeated, requiring a nearly complete reconstruction to return to service. 

Raiden has no intention of simply letting Desperado do as they please however, and so has his cyborg body upgraded to top of the line, cutting edge technology.

Now physically up to the task, Raiden throws himself into battle, attempting to nearly single-handedly take on Desperado and their own top of the line cyborgs in pursuit of both justice, and Revengeance (which, believe it or not, is a real word. An old one, but a real one.)

The game, when not cutting things to all kinds of pieces, is spent following Raiden's quest for revenge, a quest that often leads him to question himself as his trail of blood and destruction grows, and he finds himself often apathetic, or sometimes enjoying the carnage, and even further questioning himself when not every enemy he faces has the most black and white cut and dry reasons for performing the dark deeds that they do.

Along the way, Raiden's various behind the scenes allies provide interesting different personas to entertain from Raiden's solemn and grim personality, and his interactions with them make some of my favorite moments of the game, particularly with an ally who defects to his side, the Bladewolf.

Backstory is also further explored in the DLC, eplaining the origins of Desperado members such as Bladewolf, and the ever awesome Jetstream Sam.

In the end, it seemed to me like a character study of the human mind on all sides of the coin when pushed to the limit, and it was one I enjoyed.

7.5/10: The story occasionally comes across as heavy handed, but Raiden's sometimes questionable pursuit of revenge, and the motives of his villains were very entertaining as a whole, and, despite some awkward cutscene placement, is in the end told well.

Fun Factor

Motherfucking. Missile. Hoppin.

You know it. You love it. It's time for that ultimate determining factor in a game's worthiness, the Fun Factor!

And holy shit, is Revengeance a rip roaring good time. In fact, I think I'm just gonna let a few images talk for me before I continue.

Good

Times

Were

Had

By

ALL!

This game was an exhilarating experience that I thoroughly enjoyed playing through, and would gladly pick up again. It did a wonderful job of letting my feel like the unstoppable ninja force that only exists in movies and Ninja Gaiden, and the soundtrack alone is worth giving the game an impeccable Fun Factor score.

The shift to action game was very well implemented, and makes all the sense when controlling a monster like Raiden. Platinum games again proves their Action Game know-how in making this wonderful thing.

Totally something I would recommend over and over again.

10/10: A total blast, anyone who enjoys chopping things needs to give this game a shot.

Aaaaaand on to the score! And the survey saaaaays....

THE VERDICT

METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE SCORES AN

87.0

AN EXCELLENT GAME

And the crowd goes wild!

MGR was an excellent non-stop thrill ride. And I can't rave enough about dat soundtrack. Play dat shit.

Was hoping to have this out before today, but that's what I get for procrastinating. But still, I'm already doing better than last year!

New review should be up by mid-week.

Yep.