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.

Review Fünf!

Today's review number is brought to you by: Germany. Thank you, Germany.

Moving on.

The (supposedly) triumphant return! Alrighty. Let's jump right into it.

Today's review iiiiiiiiiiiiiis:

Cause colors and stones aren't good enough anymore.

Pokemon X and Y! (but mostly X, cause that's what I got!)

The next chapter in the seemingly endless saga of children leaving their homes to catch super-evolving monsters to pit against each other in a worldwide battle for dominance, these sequels look to do what the prior games in the series did, but better!

For those select few determined to live under a mountain of soundproof rocks and/or born yesterday, Pokemon is a long beloved turn based RPG franchise published and owned by video game giant Nintendo, developed by Game Freak, and created by Satoshi Tajiri. It is the second most successful video game franchise in the world, and X and Y collectively are the sixth generation sequels of the main series.

Anyway, this is supposed to be the next step in evolution for Pokemon as a whole.

But is it?

Let's ask the review!

First Impressions

Expansive!

The first thing this Pokemon game hit me with was an option to change the language of the game. This is an idea I generally feel more games should have, as too many games simply don't make it out of their native countries *cough*Japan*cough* and selfish as it sounds, if I'm going through the trouble of importing the game, then dammit, I want to be able to read it!

Granted, I didn't import this, it was an american copy... But still!

Anywho.

As Pokemon games have progressed over the years, their introductory sequences have gotten more and more intricate. X and Y seem to take a sort of side road to this trend, choosing to go straight to the start screen rather than presenting an introductory scene first. However, the game takes advantage of the two screens of the 3DS to present a small showreel of sorts on the bottom screen, showcasing some of the new features of the game.

Now personally, I was a fan of the little intro sequences, so to see it delegated to a sort of accompaniment for the start screen is a tad saddening, but it's not too much to get beaten up over. The showreel isn't all that great anyway, only giving a sort of half baked look at how the new features work.

However, once you pass the start screen, the game makes it apparent how much larger in scope they are attempting to take the handheld franchise. The game begins much like every other, with the game's resident professor introducing you to the world of Pokemon, an allowing you to define your character. But the sequence itself is wonderfully rendered, the shift from sprites to 3D models working rather well off the bat. After being treated to a walk through a museum of sorts that helps show a bit of Pokemon history, you are shown to a mirror, where for the first time in handheld Pokemon history, you can change the look of your character.

Once you've chosen a gender, a look, and a name, you head into the world, where you're treated to a nice little sequence following the view of a bird pokemon flying around your room before crashing into you and waking you up so you can start your adventure.

As a whole, it is a solidly more animated experience than I am used to with Pokemon, and is very welcome, certainly making me look forward to what else is in store.

8.5/10: While sparse in terms of hyping up the game pre-start screen, the actual introduction of the game is well animated accompanied by fitting music, and does a good job of getting you set for the adventure at hand.

Overall Presentation

Vast!

If there is one thing that X and Y do well, it's presentation. The game, particularly for a 3DS game is very pretty, with a huge landscape, vibrantly animated characters, good use of camera angles, and very attractive menus.

The game's main aim seems to be to invite you into a world where adventure is the name of the game, which, as most Pokemon games do, it does a very well. The game feels large and alive, with various characters to interact with and grow with, and while character development is pretty much non-existent, the simplicity of the game makes that mostly a non-issue.

Everything in the game moves with a sense of life, Gamefreak spared no little detail it seems, especially when it came to animating the titular critters, be they battling, or simply jumping for joy when you play with them.

The land of Kalos is supposed to be very inspired by France, which shows very particularly in the first half of the towns of the game, something that lends itself to some pretty architecture.

The music, while fairly common fare for Pokemon games, is catchy and happy, and does a solid job of getting itself stuck in your head when you aren't paying attention.

My favorite part of the game's presentation however, would have to be it's presentation of the Pokemon League itself. Each Gym simply gets more and more intriguing and cool as you go along, and when things finally culminate in the Elite Four and the Champion, things reach a nearly epic level of cool. Not quite epic, but it certainly has it's foot in the door. In general, the league has a very good sense of ramping up and building to the final battle, one I enjoyed.

9.5/10: The game is exactly what it is supposed to be as far as presentation, an upbeat adventure through a new land, an image brought to life with vibrant lands and people, and generally happy music. 

Accessibility

The amount of Pokemon is too damn high. And this ain't even all of em!

Pokemon stands tall as one of the most comfortably accessible games of all time. The game is very happy to guide you through the easy steps to playing like a Pokemon master. The world is simple, and the depth of story is not so massive that you need prior entries to jump in. The hardest thing as far as I can tell is trying to keep track of the admitted overabundance of creatures to catch in order to catch 'em all.

Once you've gotten comfortable enough with the game, it's fairly easy to jump into the multiplayer world as well, ranging from competitive battling to trading with friends.

9.0/10: An immensely welcoming experience, Pokemon does not ask much of you to get into it aside from remembering your critters' names. And you can give them nicknames if you want, so even that's not too hard. There are a rather immense amount of critters though.

Graphics

Grand!

Pokemon X/Y have taken the 2D landmarks of Pokemon, and dragged them rather comfortably into the 3D world. The transition has been excellent, to say the least. The land of Kalos is a large, beautiful world, containing more depth than has ever been possible in a Pokemon game, and an ambitious sight on a handheld game.

The game doesn't skimp on the vibrant colors, which create a bright and adventure filled feel that is always pleasant, and very appealing to the inner child. Graphical glitching is non-existent, and the game runs smoothly at nearly all times, only truly slowing down when the 3D is active during battle.

The game makes plenty of use of new camera angles, and various effects to truly make the world come to life, and this doesn't just hold true when exploring. In battle, the new camera views are plenty, creating a dynamic battle feel that is much appreciated in a turn based outing such as this.



Battle effects aren't often skimped on either, be they the subtle but well implemented weather effects, the wind blowing through the sky during the new "Sky Battles, or the extremely widely varied attacks and expressions of the Pokemon themselves, ranging from simple and direct, to dynamic and action packed.

9.0/10: A beautiful vibrant sight, with very little to complain about, if anything at all, aside from slowdown during battle while 3D is active.

Sound

Sound quality is very solid in X/Y, with catchy music and a series of well fitting sound effects.

Town music and the battle effects are of particular note, as they really help fill out the world each in their own way.

As a whole though, the soundtrack comes off as a bit generic from time to time, and if you've played one Pokemon game you'll understand, battle effects aside, the little beeps and boops, while charming, don't do much by way of standing out. This is a bit unfair however, as I am admittedly holding it up to other Pokemon games...

On it's own merit, the soundtrack does get stuck in your head fairly easily.

7.5/10: A great piece of work, but nothing overtly stand-out within it, X/Y's sound seems to take an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sort of approach to things.

Controls/Gameplay

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

A solid part of the appeal of the Pokemon games, at least for me, comes from the simple, but fun gameplay. Players walk around the massive world with a starter friend, running into the innumerable powerful creatures roaming the land, battling them, and catching them for the eventual end goal of catching 'em all, and raising the best to put a beating on the main antagonists, and then usually the Pokemon League.

It being a turn based sort of RPG, battles are handled via random encounter, whereupon which a player will choose to either fight, run, or use an item. Pokemon are limited to 4 total attacks, and then the player uses said attacks to either wear the opponent down and capture them using one of various Poke Ball items, or defeat them to gain experience to get stronger.

X/Y follow the good ole formula, with some nice upgrades. In older games, it was something of a pain to heal up your Pokemon out of battle as using an item involved going into the menu, selecting the item, which took you to another menu which had your list of Pokemon, then selecting one and healing it, which would take you back to the first menu, starting the process over. In this edition, thins are far more streamlined, with your Pokemon's status and such being shown next to the item list when using an item, so no more multiple screen back and forth type experience.

In battle, one can now hold down the L shoulder button when picking an attack to see a solid description of what it does, aiding in strategy with moves one is unfamiliar with, as opposed to having to go into a menu mid battle to check status, then moves, then so on and so forth.

D'aww.

Other new features include Sky Battling, where one can only battle using Pokemon capable of flight, the PSS (Player Search System) which makes it easier than ever to find your friends wirelessly and battle, trade, or whatever suits your fancy, Super Training, where one can participate in mini games, to add extra points to Pokemon's statistics, and the Pokemon-amie mini game, where players can take a breather to simply sit and play with their Pokemon, generally garnering affection and such, and building a bond. This bond shows in game, as Pokemon gain more experience, survive attacks that would normally defeat them, dodge and land critical hits more often the more your Pokemon loves you.

In addition, there's also perhaps the most infamous update, the Mega evolutions. Pokemon holding a certain type of stone are capable of undergoing a temporary evolution that makes them a super-powered version of themselves, with various effects, sometimes changing typing, the stats or abilities of the Pokemon and most radically, their appearance, going quite over the top. Designs range from terrible to awesome, and as a whole, they have the potential to turn battles on their head with the drop of a dime.

Personally, I like them.

One also now has the ability to nearly completely customize their trainer by visiting boutiques around the game, changing clothes, hair color, putting on contacts for eye color, and generally making the avatar of your choice. Something of great excitement for me.

There is also the competitive battle aspect, where players get online, and battle players around the world with the best they have to offer, which has it's own huge levels of depth.

In all, the gameplay comes together in an excellent fashion.

Plus... You can finally move diagonally. The world as we know it is changing. It's a brand new frontier.

10/10: Pokemon gameplay at it's best, X/Y take the Pokemon formula, which was already excellent, and add enough changes and innovations to make it refreshingly different, and yet oh-so-comfortably the same. And you get skates! And diagonal motherfucking movement!

Difficulty

Difficulty? In a Pokemon game? Pfft.

At the very least, the game is one that doesn't require any real difficulty, as simplicity tends to be the name of the game, so no difficulty kind of works for it. Kind of.

1.0/10: LOL, difficulty. Right. Okay. Sure.

Replayability

Pokemon is a very social game, and restarting reaps no benefits to battling or anything in the endgame, so restarting the game to beat it again serves almost no purpose other than to re-enjoy the game. It is a game I would beat maybe one more time though just to try the adventure with a different team.

1.0/10: Any replayability the game has comes from self imposed challenges, or nostalgic enjoyment and the like. No actual reason to restart.

Story

Click here for all you need to know.

...

Yep.

...

No, but in all seriousness, Pokemon X/Y follow the adventures of you, the trainer, as he/she journeys around Kalos to become the best of the best amongst Pokemon trainers. Journeying alongside you are four hometown friends who help through your journey, one of whom is your primary rival.

Along the way, you run into Team Flare, a group of fashion focused terrorists who seek to create a world for the super elite, using the powers of the Pokemon of Life and/or the Pokemon of Destruction: Xerneas and Yveltal.

Of course, it becomes your duty to stop them, and afterwords, finish your journey to become champion.

Along the way, lessons are learned about friendship and the environment.

Standard Pokemon fare, to be honest.

5.5/10: Rolling face first back into "if it ain't broke, don't fix it territory", Pokemon X doesn't do much to distinguish itself from other games in the series save for a slightly better sense of exposition.

Fun Factor

Kersplooey.

And wouldn't you know it, it's that time again. The whole point of even playing a game, fun, in numerical measurements accompanied by text.

And, very unsurprisingly, Pokemon does not even come close to failure in that regard, appealing to all kinds ages and types of people, an enjoyable romp through utopian fantasy where all of life's problems can be handled by trusting in your monster buddy and battling it out so that everything works out in the end.

Exploring the world is a treat, and the social aspect is excellent as always, with the battling and trading being the major draws for the game after all is said and done.

10/10: Pokemon X/Y stands extremely strong as a fun time from beginning to end and then some.

And so, to the score!

THE VERDICT

POKEMON X and Y SCORE A

71.0

A GREAT DAMN GAME!

While it's not the best in it's class...

C'mon. It's Pokemon. It was bound to be really good, at the very least.

With that out of the way, got one more that I'm gonna try and push out this week. Here's hoping that works out.

Also, considering changing my score system somewhat, making a change to perhaps the difficulty section or something.

Something to think about anyways.

Yep.

Lies, plans and resolutions (which are also likely to be lies)

Okay. So clearly that Pokemon X review hasn't happened yet. I am a liar.

I will get around to it.

I also have reviews for a few other games in mind. And for once, I won't even make it a mystery! Consider this a preview post, if'n you will!

Upcoming reviews (In no particular order):

Nier
Pokemon X
Grand Theft Auto V
Demon's Souls
Sonic Generations (Warning: gonna be fanboytastic)
Metal Gear Revengeance
Fire Emblem Awakening
Various Final Fantasy Games

And of course, there are more, but those are what I'm gonna try and focus on.

Now for the final part, resolutions.

It is my plan and resolution to go forth and try and write two reviews a week, starting in January. I dunno how well I will hold to it, but I'm gonna give it a go.

In January, I will also be tracking my Winter-Een-Mas tribute. Last time, it was Demon's Souls. This time, I shall tackle Dark Souls.

Pray for me.

That out of the way, as a bonus, I finally finished FFIV, and while I haven't finished XIV, I've gotten far enough that I can give a solid impression, so some quickie reviews:

FFIV: Strong storytelling with a diverse plot hampered by a basic overall story, bland world, and a truly forgettable endgame. Tired of Kain's punk ass betraying me. But very enjoyable as a whole. Love that soundtrack. 7.5/10

FFXIV: Hard to describe why I like this one so much in quickie format, but screw it: Lush and lovely world, excellent soundtrack, fluid (for the most part) gameplay, solid story, and decent, if sometimes sluggish pacing kept me hooked. The community, at least pre-level cap is pretty solid, and I can even bear playing with people I don't know, something I am normally very much against (weird, I am aware, but it's just a quirk.). Don't have the money to continue my subscription atm, but as soon as I do, it's go time. 8.5/10. Very much considering a 9.

Okay. So that's that.

Yep.

DAMN YOU GAMES! TAKIN' UP ALL MY TIME!

So I'm supposed to still be totally blazing through all of the Final Fantasies. But then I got my hands on Pokemon X. And now my hands are tied. But on that note, I should have a review for that up soon, so that's a thing.

Yep.

Wherein-which I muse on the Pokemon.

Okay.

So, here we are just days from release of the next generation in the Pokemon franchise: Pokemon X and Y.

Me? I am stuck at a strong crossroads. Well, not so much anymore, but I was. So I feel like talking about what kind of crossroad I was once stuck at. You see, I am a Pokemon fan. Very much, through and through. I look forward to every new generation, and this one was no different.

At least, at first.

When the Legendary Pokemon for X and Y were revealed, I was quite impressed. They showed a level of imagination a step up from Black and White, which in and of itself was leaps and bounds above Diamond and Pearl. This could only be a good thing. But as more and more designs were revealed, my enthusiasm dwindled. The starter Pokemon weren't anything of note. And save one or two designs, they just seemed to steadily go downhill from there.

But I wasn't too worried. Game Freak had only revealed some 15 Pokemon, and didn't seem keen on revealing anymore, so I assumed I'd see some cooler designs in game.

It is at this point that I feel I should touch on the fact that Pokemon designs are very important to me.

You see, the gameplay of a Pokemon game rarely if ever disappoints me. It is a tried and true method that I haven't found fault with yet, and so much of my anticipation and enjoyment of a Pokemon game does not come from that. It's nice, but adds up to about 20% of my overall love for the game, if that. No, my true passion for Pokemon stems from the Pokemon themselves. I love seeing new Pokemon to catch and raise and journey with. I mean, if it was the same Pokemon every time, the tried and true gameplay would require strong changes. There would have to be a much stronger story. But with the core of my love coming from the new blood, I never have to worry about that.

I catch the new guys, I fight the gyms, I beat the evil team, save the world, fight the elite four, become champion, go home happy.

All is well.

Carrying on from where I left off earlier.

Not long after making the decision to wait out the game for other designs, Mega Pokemon were announced. This blew my mind. New designs for older pokemon?! At first, I assumed these would be branch evolution chains. Lo and behold they were not. No, they were temporary forms granted by Mega Stones. Okay. Taking the Digimon route. Not my favorite idea, but I can live with it. Besides. MegaAmpharos was now an Electric/Dragon type with luxurious hair. Fine by me.

Not too long after this though, things began to go south.

More and more designs continued to be leaked. More New Pokemon, and more Mega forms.

And they sucked.

Like...

EXTRA hard.

They made a fucking key ring Pokemon.

A key ring...

Ugh. I'm getting off track. Anywho, the rather dismal designs began to crush my hopes for the games. Damnit, if my enjoyment of the game comes from the new damn critters, and the new critters suck hot eggs, what the hell do I want to play the game for? Surely not the story?!

Argh...

Not long after I had reached a point of disgust with the game (something that occurred after they made the decision to make one of my favorite Pokemon, Gyarados, Mega Evolve into a giant ass shrimp...), I came across an interview.

And to be honest, it changed my whole view of the game.

I find myself now thoroughly looking forward to the game. I have to know just what they're going to do with the world itself. It seems they've stayed true to the main formula, but have made enough changes to garner interest. Without needing a million new cool critters. And if I really think about it, there are already 600+ of the little dudes, so I kind of don't need more. But there's still a huge part of me that can't stand the idea of dealing with such craptastic designs.

Or at least, there was that part of me.

As I stand now, I've gotten over that. There are a couple of new dudes I can get behind, and, mixed with some of my old favorites, I'm sure I'll enjoy my journey through Kalos just fine. And with any luck, the game will surprise me, and be one of the better outings in the series.

Here's hoping.

Oh yeah...

There's now a score guideline compendium page. Cause I don't feel like having to continuously link to the darn guidelines every time I put up a review. But yeah! It's all over there on the side. Under the header marked "Stuff!"

Yep.

Cobwebs all over the blog and other news.

Well.

I've certainly failed at maintaining something resembling upkeep.

Hopefully, that will change at some point in the near future.

My own horrible schedule-keeping capabilities aside, as far as news in my universe, I am currently undertaking a challenge to beat all 14 main line Final Fantasy games before the fifteenth game is finally released and consumes my soul. As of right now, I've currently beaten 1-3, 7 and 13, and am in the middle of 4 and 14. I suppose the easiest way to ensure that I gain a semblance of maintenance is to post along as I make progress.

Let's keep hope that I can make it happen, eh?

Oh. And for the sake of keeping in theme with the blog, some super quick reviews of the series so far!

And I mean super quick.

Games measured on a 1-10 scale.

FFI:

Super-basic and bare bones, but a fun experience during travel. Takes joy in giving you no idea where to go next. Kinda makes me feel like a kid again.

6/10

FF2:

Just as basic and bare bones as far as combat is concerned, but with a far more valiant attempt at making a story. Level up system is cause for fury, but game is easily made fun when you discover that pretty much everything in the game short of a few enemies and the last boss can be defeated via liberal use of Teleport.

6/10

FF3:

Backslides a bit in the story department into more basic territory, but is more fun than the other two in takes place in a more enjoyable world. Evokes the feeling of wanting to be a hero as a child. Plus, I'm always down for class switching.

7/10

FFVII:

I love this game. The world easily creates a sense of immersion, and the characters are beyond enjoyable. Graphics haven't aged well by any means, but when playing it on my PSP, I find it easy to ignore that.

8/10

FFXIII:

I feel like this game had serious potential that just got wasted. The battle system is quite fun once you finally have the ability to toy with it as you want, and switch party members as you want. And the world is beautiful, if a bit generic at times. The game itself is linear as fuck, and I find myself totally unable to care about any of the characters, or even the game's prominent story issues until nearly the last chapter.

4/10


And I suppose that's that for now.

Yep.