Now then, before I talk about the game, let me tell you about the series. There is a manga and anime based on this series, and would you like to know what? I foolishly thought that the anime would be good once I saw that Funimation had the license. And honestly, the first episode wasn’t half bad when compared to the game. Sadly…that’s where my enjoyment ends. I mean the amount of f****** plotholes this thing bombards me with, as well as unnecessary character additions and all that just make this anime not enjoyable in the slightest. Kyrie still comes off as a bad character after episode two, but hey, at least this thing TRIES to have a better reason as to why he sticks with Morte, though at the cost of making everyone retarded and even taking away certain traits I did like about characters.

Don't look at me like that! All of that was painful to watch!

Meanwhile, the manga…I have to admit, it does seem rushed and more violent, but at the same time, it’s actually more enjoyable as we see Kyrie still a pacifist, but much like the cooler pacifists such as Kira Yamato or Vash the Stampede, he actually tries to learn how to defend himself. He even finally acknowledges how retarded joining Morte is after seeing a village destroyed, and leaves her! If only it was translated more, I would actually like to read it some more.

But what about the game? Good god, I hate it. Every hour I played, I couldn’t stand it. Just let me explain why I think this is such a bad game. Okay, it isn’t the worst, but in terms of story, it has to be one of the worst. I can certainly name dumber plots and even dumber anime, like Girls Bravo, which turned me into a vegetable after one episode! But I digress.

Right off the bat, you notice that you are not in control of one of the characters on the box, but rather, a half-feral (man-animal) by the name of Naja, and you see him trying to earn the respect of his comrades, pathetically, but for a minute, you might mistake him as the main hero. Well, technically, he is kind of the main hero and he isn’t so bad. As a matter of fact, he may possibly be the best character….until the scene shifts after the attack on his home to a peasant boy by the name of Kyrie. Don’t get this confused with Devil May Cry 4’s Kyrie however; this one is much wimpier. I know we all can’t expect a character to automatically be cool and everything, but the way Kyrie’s character is designed is that he is a complete wimp, yet in combat he is surprisingly powerful…provided you upgrade him the right way; more on that later.

And the voice acting...ugh. At least the anime is better with that.

So what’s the story? Oh the usual kid has gigantic power in him that will destroy the world, but rather than get rid of it, he decides to journey with an outlaw known for viciousness and desire to destroy the world, a girl named Morte. Eventually you’ll also have a man with a whip, kung-fu teddy bear, and dragon gun-woman join you as well. I am not making this up, sadly, especially the teddy bear. And the worst part, or funny part depending on how you see it, they try to make this guy sound tough, which they do, but for a teddy bear!? Unheard of, but they get points for trying…and failing miserably. The name Topy doesn’t really strike fear into others when he looks like rogue care-bear! I had difficulty trying not to laugh or slap my head and go “Ugh…”

But moving on, you take control of your band of…heroes? It’s hard to call them that when they, or rather Morte, wants to use Kyrie to destroy the world. It’s an interesting twist as opposed to saving it, but when the game is bogged down by an idiot for a hero, it kind of loses value. Kyrie doesn’t even want to destroy the world, yet he tries to help Morte anyway. Am I the only one who sees the flaw in this plot!? Only psychopaths and emo kids would even consider deciding to destroy the world, and he doesn’t even want, yet he goes along with it of his own free will. But since none of you are going to play this game, I might as well tell you that they actually try to save it in the end. There, I saved you twenty or so hours of torture.

There is a customization system that allows you to design your attacks and such, and even combo moves in, and sadly, that is the ONLY good thing about this game, and it’s not even that great! When you fight in combat, you gain points to spend on skills to learn new techniques and upgrade them, but the upgrades usually have bad side effects. For example, upgrading offensive power lowers accuracy, or lessening the MP needed to cast spells will result in the spell being weaker. Aside from that, upgrading the combo string is the one thing you must do in order to make combat quicker and easier, for as you fight and build up combos, you can eventually either unleash a finisher, or use a mega spell. Sadly, you get limited actions, and this wouldn’t be so bad, except that having some equipment can lower the number of turns you have. I once made sure I had no broken hearts or anything, and I still sometimes only got one turn!

Combat is slow and repetitive, with combos being the only interesting twist, but even that could be forgiven…were it not for cheating enemies. While you technically can hit the enemy numerous times depending on your combo, the enemies can still cheat, or rather, waste my time. All my life, I learned the difference between strong and just flat out cheating, and when a boss can score in about ten turns after every one of your turns, then that is cheating and makes the combat slower! Seriously, you may wish to grind in most levels and earn new skills and powers, but even that will not help as the bosses will topple you over with so many moves. And even if they aren’t tough sometimes with this, it can still be annoying as you may just say to the game: “Can you please just go away and die in a ditch already!?” Eventually you are just going to drop the DS in frustration and forget about the game all together!

You thought I was kidding about the kung-fu bear? PROOF!

But surely there is something redeeming about this game? No. No there isn’t. This game is garbage, and that is the nicest way I can put it. While it does have some semi-interesting dungeon designs, that’s one of the only things I can say about it, and it’s clear Sega has no idea as to wtf to do with it as the manga, anime, and game nearly have no similarities aside from characters! Why anyone likes this game is beyond me! You know how Spoony HATES Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy VIII with a bleeding passion. Well, this is MY Final Fantasy VIII (I actually liked X, fyi)! You really want a good DS game? Buy Luminous Arc or Radiant Historia, but just say no to Sands of Destruction! JUST SAY NO!

But do you want to know the sad part? Imageepoch made this. The same guys who made the Luminous Arc series and Fate/Extra! How did they mess this up!? And how is Luminous Arc not an anime!? You can easily adapt that series into one! Just…ugh. This hurts even to write now. We don’t get Luminous Arc 3, but we’ll get a wretched game like this? Just…why?

God I hope so!

No, sadly not, but it’s still a good game nonetheless. Graphics for the DS are fairly nice and colored, and some familiar areas and characters from both original games are featured as well, including some news ones. While gameplay is your sort-of standard for any classic RPG with a turn-based combat system, allowing you level up, use magical abilities of the four elements called Psyenergy, and develop skill levels with your weapons to perform new and more powerful attacks, the real meat of the game comes from the puzzles, one of the main drawing points towards this game. These tend to range from easy-to-kinda hard, and can leave you stumped for a few minutes sometimes if you don’t know what to do, but they are fun nonetheless, especially as Psyenergy is now linked to the DS touch screen, though it is not necessary to use it. The game also thankfully has a map system on the top screen, just so you don’t get lost.

The Djinn, which are like Pokemon in accessory form, can also boost your skills depending on who is equipped. Their actions can range from dealing special attacks, stat boosts, or even healing allies or causing enemies ailments. Once they are used, stat bonuses are gone, but they are set. And that means you can use the real special ability: summons. These not only deal great damage to an enemy and are very entertaining to watch, but depending on which one is used, your character’s elemental offensive ability increases.

Did I mention these guys can be MASSIVE?

The story takes place 30 years after the last game, and revolves around new heroes who were born from most of the protagonists from the previous games (example: Matthew is the son of Jenna and Isaac, Karis is the daughter of Ivan, etc.), and some are brand new additions, such as Sveta, who is a mix of human and wolf. And there is a new group of villains that constantly taunt and guide the heroes across the world to try and bring this world to its knees for their own gains, and one of them is fans should obviously remember. And it is entertaining to see some returning characters reprise their roles. If you are new to the series, do not fret, for this game is actually made for new people to jump right in, offering a encyclopedia for terms that are told throughout the story as the player continues to play through the storyline. This can also help new players fill in the gap of what exactly happened during those long 30 years they have missed out on.

But with all of these great things, how can this game not be as epic? The main problem with this game is simple: the difficulty level. The original Golden Sun games didn’t have a lot of hard bosses, but most were quite challenging if you didn’t level up properly or go with a proper strategy. Here, most enemies can be taken down with physical attacks alone, so long as you have a strong weapon. Psyenergy is near useless, save for Karis, possibly the most useful healer in the game, and of course other useful healing Psyenergy. Early, it may seem useful, and the effects for every spell is wonderful to view, but when you are late in the game, you will no doubt be focusing on the physical attacks due to their useful and even overpowered attacks when you have the right abilities equipped, especially the Sol Blade. But does that mean there are no hard bosses?

Of course not, for extra bosses and the final one will give you a real run for your money. The final boss is a pure cheater, able to use a multitude of attacks during each turn, create a shield to minimize any attacks, disrupt your little djinni friends to make sure you can’t summon, and of course use special and instant-kill attacks. You can beat him with low level parties, if you count 40-50 low, but expect quite a ferocious fight if you do not have healers. But at least this is one of the fights that shows that players have to do more than just press the attack command every turn. And of course, even the plot suffers at one point for those that have actually played the series, but I’ll refrain from speaking about that, save for the gigantic cliffhanger at the end of the game, which already tells us more games of the Golden Sun franchise are on the way.

Did I mention there were puzzles? Becauses there are!

Overall, I have to admit that I was surprised and a little let down by this game, but at the same time, I really had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself. It’s not going to revolutionize anything in the gaming industry, but this is a good start to what will no doubt be the rebirth of a once great series, all while adding great characters and promises of future games in the series. Golden Sun Dark Dawn gets a 4 out of 5, and should be on your list of games to get!

...How do those things NOT tear up the ceiling?

The story…there is no plot whatsoever, which is odd considering that this is a Castlevania game, and they usually have a story behind them. In any case, the only thing you should be focusing on is the fighting. The basic idea is controlling one of the five playable characters and roaming the levels collecting treasures and slaying any demons that lay in wait. As opposed to other games in the series, there is no level-up system. However, to replace this, certain characters do grow stronger the more you use their skills, collect them, or even absorb them in Charlotte’s case. Continuing to gain new spells and skills, and leveling them up, your own stats will increase in power. As you might expect, this can be pretty difficult and will take a long time to master, but there is a wide variety of moves each character can perform. And you can also find better equipment for each character to help get bonus stats.

And regarding the characters you can play as, they each have different functions and tactics required, especially due to the way they need to grow stronger or travel around the map. So if having a close-to-mid-range fighter like Soma isn’t your style, then Charlotte can be a perfect substitute for long-range with an arsenal of powerful spells. Levels are also designed well enough and in the classic 2D style found on the Nintendo DS versions of each individual series here, but some have sections that force you to need other people just to get to that specific section to obtain treasure (example: Shanoa is needed to use the magnet glyph to travel faster). As you might expect, most of these levels are direct cut-outs from previous games, but they are also combined with several parts from each of the games, and each level contains a boss from that series’ game, including everyone’s favorite, Death. Sadly, there are only six stages, with more coming their way via downloadable content, along with more playable characters. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a chance to test all the DLC out.

Some bosses like this puppet require absolute teamwork, for if there is none, prepare to die a lot!

But the real joy from the game comes from multi-player, in which up to six people can play together, each one able to use their own character no matter what, so a team of Jonathans is entirely possible. Also, this helps in not only beating levels that have you stuck on in single player, but can also gain a multitude of treasures and possibly skills depending on your character. Naturally difficulty is increased, depending on how many players are with you, so team work is needed to take down each boss effectively. And if you are alone, you do have to observe the boss patterns when faced against them.

Overall, Castlevania is definitely worth its price on Xbox Live, especially if you enjoy playing with your friends online. As a single-player experience, this might be interesting to test your skills, but if you are hoping for a story, then you may want to look elsewhere. With that in mind, you should definitely find some friends to party with online. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair gets a 4 out of 5!

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/forums/entry.php?1552-Characters-with-Character-The-Demi-Fiend

Even if I don’t win, I am glad I had a chance to write something like this. Special thanks goes to Rachel Watson and Keith Guigan for their support and making me want to write something like this.

A game where I can use Archer and Unlimited Blade Works, and use Rider as well? SIGN ME UP MOTHER******!!!!!

Before anything, let me tell you how I got into this game: I wanted to get more into Fate/Stay Night. On Livejournal, I saw how cool the characters were and how interesting their story appeared to be. So I set out on a search to try and get into Type-Moon games and series, such as Fate/Extra. After much searching, someone managed to find me a copy on the net for me to review for free. I went into this game blind, only expecting something I would normally see in one of my SRW games. Yet none of those could 100% prepare me for what was about to happen.

You choose between Haruna, a flying girl who uses a gun and other magic to take down her enemies, all while zipping around them too to evade damage, or you take on the role of Takumi, who is essentially the Sanger Zonvolt of this game with his might sword: Futsuno. While you do still use both characters, they are both routes for this game that can lead to some different boss fights, stages, and parts of the story, so playing both sides is needed if you want to know what the other team was doing. And during that time, only a certain portion of the main cast is usable, so making sure to upgrade specific members is key in most battles more than ever.

The story is something I can barely touch upon. I remind you, this game contains the following series in it: Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero, Fate/hollow ataraxia, Fate/unlimited codes, Kara no Kyokai, Kagetsu Tohya, Melty Blood, and Tsukihime. And out of all of those series/games, I have not touched any of them. At best, I know about some things in Fate/Stay Night, and I do know it borrows from the Heaven’s Feel ending while trying to combine Fate and Unlimited Blade Works. Sadly, my knowledge ends there aside from what is going on in the game, and what is going on is the usual bad guys being bad guys, uniting to try and take the Holy Grail for themselves for their own personal reasons. At times, the story is just downright confusing, but that’s expected when someone who has never seen any of the series mentioned above plays this game. However, once I finally put two and two together, I did manage to find the entire experience enjoyable, as well as all of the characters. I am even now interested in viewing all of these or play the other games to see what they were doing before. Granted, most of them are in Japanese, so I am screwed there. Thank god for the anime subs and such. And aside from those characters, the game does try to throw more original characters your way, though they are small in number.

Old vanquished enemies can also pop up during stages, such as Dark Saber here and many more.

Now onto the part everyone is so curious about: gameplay. How does it hold up? Well, it is indeed similar to that of Super Robot Wars, in that you take control of characters, upgrade them with money and skill points, use spirits to give you a further advantage, equip items for quick healing or stat boosts, and attack. Attacks however are limited at number, usually at a max of four for only a few, while others can just be limited down to one to three attacks each. Each character has something interesting to bring to the table, and while some may seem incredibly weak, like Sakura, they can eventually be upgraded through the storyline to be far more useful to your party. The game also grades them in terms of usage, but you can easily ignore this. For example, the game ranked Shiki Tohno as a B-rank fighter, yet by late game, he could easily be an A with his new upgrades and skills. Others are assigned to more healing and support roles, such as lowering defenses and aim, or upgrading other characters’ stats for one turn.

Sakura may be weak early on, but at least her attack animation is somewhat funny.

However, things remain different. Yes, attack animations do sometimes take other moves from other robots in the SRW series, such as Domon and Rain’s Sekiha Tenkyoken Love Fist, or the Combattler V and Voltes V combo. But the gameplay is surprisingly a tad different when it comes to the range of attacks. Sometimes, attacks contain yellow squares that can allow an attack to be landed with the same accuracy, but does damage that is miniscule, so trying to land in the enemies yellow zone without attack from yours is a key part when dealing with enemies and bosses. Range is especially important with the characters you pick, as some, like mages, are made for long-range combat, and getting them into position, while close-range fighters should hold the enemies in place and take the brunt of the damage or attract enemy attention, be it using a fast character to avoid their attacks, or using a heavy hitter/defender to endure the assault.

Naturally, if an enemy attacks out of your range, you cannot attack right back, and are given the option to defend or dodge, and those only work with characters suited to such a task. Otherwise, you are taking a gamble. Again, Will accounts in order to pull of stronger attacks, and the characters from each of the games do have their signature attacks. So yes, Archer in this game does indeed have Unlimited Blade Works. And yes, it is beyond epic in this game as well. They are all done beautifully, with no frame rate issues, even on this crappy laptop I have. But aside from range, height is also a factor, as well as enemies that are in your way. So if there’s an enemy in front of you and you have a range maximum of two, you can only hit that enemy and not the one behind it until it is destroyed. And as for height, other enemies can rest atop trees, lamps, and even roofs, and if your range is not high enough, and if you cannot jump up to them, you cannot get to them. Thankfully, you are given long-range characters that can take care of that problem, so they are not impossible to hit.

The maximum percentage is 200%, that way you know you can avoid a small portion if you use evade...not like it will help here for Takumi.

There are a total of about 52 stages, with bonus ones depending on how many skill points you have obtained. You can gather these by fulfilling specific objectives in the stage, but you can no longer get them if you fail it and try to repeat it. But if you do end up repeating the stage, some enemies are taken out to make it easier for you to pass the stage, or are you given more time to accomplish a task, such as escape. But the more skill points you get, the harder the game gets. And the less you get, the easier the game becomes. So it’s up to you if you want to collect them, though you don’t need all of them to complete the game or gain the extra stage.

Gee, which attack is being copied here?

And honestly, there’s not much else one can say about this game. The short summary is that it is SRW, with Type-Moon characters. That’s it. And that combination works wonders, and I was able to kill many hours playing through this game. The only downside I can think of in this game is not being able to play in a small window, and you have to use your mouse to play. Not to mention everything is not translated, such as biographies. And that is a real bummer. But hey, free translation for this game! That alone is good, and combined with this, I wish it had been made for a console, any console! If you can find this game, I highly recommend it, especially if you are a Type-Moon fan. And even if you are not, you’ll get a real kick out of this game.

Final Verdict: Battle Moon Wars earns a 5 out of 5. And Werk, I thank you for making this game and making me a fan of Type-Moon! If I could help pay you for the game, I would if I had money!

And the massive amount of porn I can look for!...except for the loli in the middle. I don't like lolis.

Fate/Extra, is without a doubt, my favorite PSP game, but that’s not saying a whole lot considering I haven’t played that many good games on the PSP. It is nowhere close to perfect, and there are better games on the PSP in terms of gameplay, such as Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, and that is based on personal preference. But I digress. It isn’t the perfect game, but it is very enjoyable despite some flaws. Fate/Extra takes place in an alternate future from the Fate/Stay Night universe, or the actual future if anything; the timeline in this series can be very confusing. As such, not a whole lot of the old cast actually appears. This game is meant to be a standalone title, with only mentions and cameos by the originals, such as Lancer and Archer. There are other characters one may recognize, but most are either NPCs in the actual war, like Sakura Matou, or actual descendants, like the Rin in this game.

Yeah, you see everyone here? Only two made it in this game.

The world is, for a lack of a better term, screwed. The wars and such have did quite a number, and in order to save it, Magi have decided to have the war for the Holy Grail, the one thing that can grant any single wish to a Master, at the Moon Cell via the matri—I mean Moon Cell network. Really though, I don’t see much of a difference. Over 128 Magi are chosen to fight in a tournament elimination style combat, where each Master is given a whole week to train and find information about their opponent. Information is key to this war, as you’ll need it to predict enemy moves a lot quicker, and make sure to avoid suffering the full brunt of their Noble Phantasms. In this game, you take control of an amnesiac who had entered the war by mistake in their mind. You can choose either a boy and a girl, as well as a Servant. Here, your Servants to choose from are Saber, who is practically the opposite of the female blue Saber everyone is familiar with in Fate/Stay Night despite looking exactly like here, Archer, who is the exact same archer from the same series, and Caster, a magical fox girl that is brand new to the series, much like the new red Saber. And together, you must rediscover your memories, take down all the enemy masters, and win the Holy Grail.

After dealing with the prologue, the game can actually begin. And from there, you can choose your Servant and character gender, as well as the difficult modes, which are sadly limited to normal and easy for hardcore fans. However, choosing your Servant is also a bit based on difficulty as well, for each Servant has a specialty. For Saber, it’s pure brute assault, as upgrading attack and predicting enemy attacks can easily win most battles. For Archer, he is kind of the same, though he is more focused with techniques and a bit more strategy, thus making him more of a standard difficulty and flexibility. And then there’s Caster, the mage of the group, and the weakest unless her magic is upgraded to higher levels, and her stat boosts are extremely poor, making her the hard mode.

Well no matter what, I still love Caster!

And before you say anything, yes, choosing your Servant does affect the story, but only in dialogue. For example, Caster will constantly flirt with you, wishing to be a good wife, while Archer can point out and compare things between both Fate games. But sadly, that’s about it. Foes will only change when you take different character routes, with saving Rin allowing you to face two new Type-moon enemies, while saving Rani will result in fighting two original Type-moon characters, and among those actually includes Arcuied from another series. And speaking of those series, there are actually some more cameos from other Type-Moon games. As such, while the endings aren’t too different, it’s more based on character preference and their own story line.

But there is something one should know about the story presentation. There isn’t a whole lot of animation of the characters moving. Rather, everything is told from in a narration from your character; yay for not being silent protagonist for once! Since Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel, it’s nearly told in the same sense, as the character models don’t move that much save for in combat. Some may consider this a weakness, but from a prose perspective, it is done very well, save for a few minor translation errors. And it does help with the overall gameplay, as there is rarely, if any slow framerate. Plus not having to install this onto the memory card is definitely a plus. Also, there are no English voices, instead keeping with the original Japanese cast. Technically, I have no problem with this, as some games unfortunately earn atrocious English VA’s sometimes that can make a game downright unplayable. The only real problem I would have is that there are no subtitles during battle, as conversations do happen during then.

While on school campus, your options are very limited. Usually, it’s just information gathering and retrieving items for a certain teacher, but you can also go to your room and chat with your Servant for interesting conversations about them. For the most part, this helps with characterization and such, and made me grow more attached to my Servant. You can also gather items to decorate your room as well, giving more of an appeal to your eyes. But it doesn’t change the fact that things are limited. Dialogue is important though, and choosing the wrong actions can actually lead to a game over, such as when fighting Archer and you choose to go the wrong way, thus leading to an instant kill by him.

And make sure to talk to the NPCs with the YELLOW boxes above them.

On the other hand is the Arena, which you can fight and level up, though not save, but that isn’t a problem unless you both suck and can’t know how to use the PSP’s standby function. Events go on in the Arena at times, but you must also keep an eye out for important items and Cipher keys which are necessary in facing your opponent in the final day of the week. Don’t have them, you cannot fight, and that results in game over. You can technically reset the entire week, but that is a bad idea considering if you power-leveled before then, your level will be reduced back down to the first day.

As for the gameplay, it revolves around the standard rock-paper-scissors, with attackàbreakàguard and so on. Unfortunately, you have a 1 in 4 chance to guess each panel correctly, and I say that because of the fourth factor in this game: skills. Skills, with the exception of boosting and defense skills, all surpass any of the commands save for another offense skill. As such, these can be great tide turners as you try and figure out the enemies pattern. And should either of you have both break/attack, you will either hit each other for 0 damage in a clash, or do full damage to each other in a simultaneous attack. And here’s where the Extra in Fate/Extra comes in.

However, your Servant isn’t the only one that can fight, as you fight as well using items and spells to turn the tide. But these are limited only to once per turn, so planning ahead is essential. You are given two slots for Formal Wear, which add extra MP and a new skill, but as you expect, you are limited to two skills at most. Should your Servant score three hits in a row without the interruption of a skill, you can pull off an additional physical blow, finish your enemy off that much quicker.

And if you can do that much damage in the game...good for you. o-o

And in order to do all of this, as you level up, only you skill points, HP, MP, and Master MP increases. You make use of skill points at the Chapel, where the Aozaki sisters use them for alterations. The more points you put in, the higher ranking your stats can become and you learn new techniques. Fail to do this correctly and you might as well call it quits for this game, as some stats are downright useless, so don’t pour your points separately into each stat. The good news about enemies is that if you beat them over and over again, you can actually gain the hints and then the actual enemy pattern, though that takes quite a while.

Dear Penthouse: jackpot!

Okay Type-Moon fans, you have wanted to hear this for awhile now: can you use Noble Phantasms, which to other people, are basically a Servant’s finishing/special move. The answer is both no and yes. You cannot use it right off the bat, and they do give a reasonable explanation: identity. See, revealing a Servant’s identity is a grave disadvantage, as your enemies can predict your moves far more easily. As such, you cannot use a Noble Phantasm until during the last of the 5^th week. But when you do, my god, it makes the entire game, that little moment, worth it. While I wasn’t too fond of Caster’s Noble Phantasm, both Saber and Archer’s completely change the battlefield and give you an incredible advantage, all while the music changes. This was especially great when I was on the ropes, limited chance of winning a fight. And right when I unleashed the Noble Phantasm, it felt glorious and worth all of that grinding to get to that point.

...It's so beautiful and deadly!

But this brings me to some of the bad points. The environments you go to in the arena are all underwater, save for maybe the last two, and the first areas you always go into before going to the second floor. No, those represent rejected levels from Tron. And the enemy types aren’t all that amazing. You get some rather basic design, and I was hoping for more along the lines of maybe more demonic creatures, not something that reminded me of Space Invaders or Megaman EXE. And that also brings me to another note this game fails at: relationships. You have limited to no control over this. People compared this to Persona 3, but it isn’t anything like it despite the school. Everything feels a bit forced, and while I do enjoy the story, having the freedom to choose it is nice, and this game doesn’t give me that luxury. And this can be even more frustrating if you are homophobic, as there are hints of the female main character liking the other girls or their female Servants. Just keep in mind that I am not homophobic, and this was one of the better parts of the game, if only because I’m a perv. Still, it kinda made me feel like a manwhore, so that wasn’t cool. Family issues tend to do that.

Yes, you face mighty enemies like...a bee? Really?...SCARY!

And another issue is the Matrix information. You see, throughout the week, you have to gain information on your opponent, and this usually means either beating them at a game, talking to other characters, etc. And without that stuff, you are in for one heck of a disadvantage in future battles. It’s easy enough to get an E-Matrix for everyone, but that’s the problem. Rather than dig through books, it’s done in such a linear fashion, it’s not really that much investigating like it should have been, thus making it boring to do. And of course if you don’t do this, or screw up, these can lead to dead ends in the game, meaning you have to restart from another save point. In fact, it’s recommended you have multiple saves, because if you are terrible like me, you are going to need them. Though even then, I didn’t even need them that much.

Aside from that, nothing else comes to mind, save for maybe wishing for more playable Servants, like Rider (Medusa) for this game. Again, these are problems you may ignore or take personally. Considering everything stated above, I managed to last through the game for about 30-50 hours with each playthrough, however, that was in part mostly with grinding and over-leveling my characters. If you really are a gaming junky, you can even finish this game in three days tops. But despite all that, I had a great time and am looking forward to the sequel that will come out.

Yes, and you can see why I like sequel. The one on the left, and the one the right...for both of them.

Fate/Extra gets a 4 out of 5. And with this game under my belt, hopefully I can retain my sanity when I talk about the next game on the list. It’s…not gonna be pretty.

I shall be updating the blog to make it more Facebook and Twitter friendly for notifs with the help of my new man-slave, Mr. Falvador! Rather than me using the site, I’ll be bossing him around to give updates for the blog for more people to follow. He will also be dealing with any and all Capcom reviews from now on, though that doesn’t mean he’ll be buying the newer ones, unless they are given to him or me.

Next, expect a slew of reviews. One of them is Fate/Extra for the PSP coming soon, while the rest will be mainly older games and comparisons as well. So about 5 extra reviews will be put up with any luck. I wanted to do some Xbox 360 reviews, but unfortunately, it has passed on to the great beyond, where dead nerds shall play it until it breaks again. While it won’t stop my comparison of FFXIII vs The Last Remnant on the PC, it has halted every other 360 game that I have not previously written a review for. Still, I do have a Wii as a replacement until I can get a new 360, and I have a DS, PSP, and PS2, so more reviews are definitely guaranteed.

And that folks, is that. Again, sorry it took so long, but within any luck, the reviews will start pouring in either later tonight or tomorrow, depending on the mood I am in for writing.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/33243-top-11-reasons-he-wont-review-digimon

If you are smart, you will support this and fight the power! OUR VOICES SHALL NOT BE SILENT!

I have played horrible games before, even the console versions of this game, but nothing could ever prepare me for the terror that this game is on the DS. Spider-man Edge of Time? That was horrible and horrendous, but this game…oh my f****** god, this is the worst, the absolute worst game I have ever played in my entire flipping life! The only good thing about the game is the menu, which does nicely detail the characters into a mix of cartoons and colorful visuals, a absolute opposite compared to the dark and gritty visuals of the home console versions. Sadly, everything else in this game is epic fail. While others are spared the pain of seeing their favorites “die” in the story, there is absolutely nothing to the story. There is only a bit of dialogue and two different endings, one for the marvel cast and one for the Imperfects, leaving this nothing more than the simpliest of arcade games. Sadly, a simple arcade game would be better if the controls weren’t the worst I have ever experienced.

Gameplay revolves in a one-on-one fight with either an Imperfect or a Marvel character, with destructible environments. Again, the graphics are poor and a bit blocky, and there is no detail of the destruction caused by any characters. And movement is unbelievably hard, and you will find that hitting your opponent will be the hardest task you have in this game. But losing may not be such a difficult task because of two reasons. One, the AI in this game is absolute garbage, and will only fight back when it feels like it. And two, enemies can be stuck in an endless loop of combos, thus guaranteeing victory so long as you don’t mess anything up. Then again, one has to question who on Earth would play this brain tumor of a video game!? Then why did I play it? I’m an idiot!

With horrendous visuals, poorly done combat, and a story that is nonexistent, it makes me feel as if the game developers just did not care. Aside from the menu artwork, there is no effort in this game, as if it was done in a week and without any care in the world. This has to be the worst game I have ever played, and I forced myself to suffer through other games such as the other Rise of the Imperfect games and many other titles. For this head bash into my skull, Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects gains my first ever 1 out of 5, an epic failure, on every level. The console versions made me shake my head and sigh heavily at what was going on, but this game literally comes out of the screen and deals that cold slap to my face.

But you want to know what’s wrong, don’t you? Well even if not, your eyes are glued to this site, so I might as well just tell you what is so abysmally horrific about this embarrassment of a game. And before anyone dares to say that I am not a Spider-Man fan, I’ll have you know that he is indeed my favorite, not just one favorite, I mean THE favorite Marvel superhero of all time. Not even Captain America or Wolverine can top my love for this character, though Wolverine does come at an extremely close second. Point is I loved everything about the Spider-Man series, save for Spider-Man 3 and a handful of crap games. But that’s a topic for another day.

However, before I get to the bad, allow me to get to the good of how much stuff I was able to uncover in 30 minutes. The voice acting for the game thankfully is good, with the voice of the Spider-Man from the cartoon in 1994 returning at long last as the voice of Spider-Man 2099. This little bit of fan service made my expectations higher for this game, a foolish, FOOLISH, thing to do. Another good thing is the character portraits, which look nicely, though not perfect, but hey, they are the best animation in this hunk of crap. Plus, rather than get a limited amount of villains like in Edge of Time console versions, there are more variety of villains, like Menace, Rhino, Overdrive 2099, and much more, though I am going by the wiki for the others.

Oddly enough, I never even seen Anti-Venom during my first thirty minutes, and yet I met Sloan, the villain Miguel/Spider-Man 2099 is after, instead replaced by Rhino. And it’s all downhill—no, it was downhill the moment I popped this game in and saw the visuals. Okay, Web of Shadows and Shattered Dimensions weren’t great to look at, but they were far from atrocious. But when a GBA game looks far better, and even plays better than this hunk of indescribable garbage, something is wrong. But visuals aren’t everything, right? Well I don’t normally mention graphics in my reviews anymore because the level of graphics today in games, and it can just be average, especially if there are no frame rate issues. Here, the amount of frames dropping was ridiculous, and it completely kills the gameplay!

Okay, okay, I lied…the gameplay was already dead before all of these issues! Remember how the other two Spidey games encouraged combos, jumping around and using your webs in inventive ways in combat, both defensive and offensively? Well, someone told the developers to shove those games right in the shredder, because the controls are horrendous. Spider-Man’s range is extremely short, hit detection can sometimes be difficult, you cannot web up enemies and only toss them, and your combos are extremely limited. I don’t feel like Spider-Man in this game. I felt more like Spider-Man in the Captain America game for the DS for crying out loud! Blasphemy, I know, but it’s the truth! When you make a game that makes even games like Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety more like real Spider-Man games, something is horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY wrong!

How about boss fights? Surely they can be entertaining, right? Oh you poor sap, you should know by now when gameplay is screwed, so are the boss fights. How so? Bosses far too difficult? Quite the opposite actually. I maybe got hit like 3 times at most, and the normal enemies and the annoying flying robots that will always hit you actually were far more difficult. How? Well, the pattern of the bosses is extremely easy to figure out: they charge towards you, jump. That’s it. Aside from that, when they fly away or try to shoot you, you just got to run behind them, or even in front, and the odds of them hitting you are absurdly slim. As such, it is boring.

There are at least differences between the two Spider-Men; I’ll admit that, but not enough to make this entertaining, especially when you have to navigate an absurdly horrible map system. You can get upgrades in the environments and markers on map, but good luck trying to find your way around it, because it is too horrendous and close up to your face, you will not know where you are going. I once even stupidly went in an entire circle thanks to it! You hate maps like Castlevania? Well at least you can see everything there! Here, I don’t know where I am going. Plus there are glitches, like when I didn’t know how to pass a blue wall, yet somehow, I crawled through an opening that I couldn’t even see. Want more? Try robots CLIMBING THE AIR! What more do you need when the robots can climb the air, not fly, CLIMB!

Just…I just wanted to relax and play a good, cheap game. Instead, I get tortured and am very hesitant in even trying the console version. Developers, just because you focus on the main consoles don’t mean you should ignore the little ones. If you can’t even make it good, then do not even bother and force reviewers like me to play this piece of ****, torture themselves, and make them hesitant to play anything with the Spider-Man name on it. This is inexcusable, especially when there Spider-Man games years ago that are ten times superior to this title.

Let this be a Demotivation poster: DEVELOPERS - Learn how to make a f****** Spider-Man game right!

Thirty minutes…No, I pretty much gave it enough to be a review! At least Orphen had more content and I could play two hours before quitting. You want a score? 1 out of 5 and that’s only because I can’t give it a 0 or a negative number! And the real sad part is that the number of pictures I could find for this game were absolutely miniscule, and I’d rather not use pictures IGN picked up.