Molten Gaming - Your first stop for the latest gaming news, reviews, and more!

Hay Day Hack

2014-02-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the only site where you can hack Hay Day using our online hack!

Using our Hay Day hack you are able to choose how many coins & diamonds you wish to add.

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Dragon City Hack

2014-02-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

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Clash of Clans Hack

2014-02-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

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Clumsy Bird Hack v2.0 Download Android iOS

2014-02-25T10:33:00.005-08:00

Molten Gaming team presents Clumsy Bird Hack Tool. It’s hard to beat the high score? we’ve created a cheat tool that will put the desired record score. It is very easy to use and in just minutes with a few clicks you will have the desired score. It can be used for Android and iOS and jailbreak or root not needed.

Instructions:
Download Clumsy Bird Hack Tool
Select you platform ( iOS or Android)
Connect you device to PC via USB
Select hack features
Click Start
Have FUN
Features:
Max Score
God Mode
Use Guard Protection

Flappy Bird 1.3 APK Android IPhone IPad

2014-02-25T06:36:00.004-08:00

Flappy Bird has leads the top free iPhone app this week at No. 1, according to data from App Data. And today I would like to share this file which you can install on your Android phone. This game is very addictive and good for killing time. It would be cool if you add a hard mode and make the bird faster or something like that to get highest score. But all around great game already! Play and flap your wings to fly...

How to play:

- Tap to flap your wings to fly.

- Avoid pipes.

- Try to get 4 medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold (hard), Platinum (very hard)

What's New in Version 1.3:

1) Bug fixes and improve performance.

2) Medal blink added.

Requires Android: 2.2+

or iOs 6+

Download File:

Payday 2 free Beta Key Generator Download

2013-08-20T10:21:00.005-07:00

Put a crew together for the second entry in the thrilling heist shooter PayDay. Don the masks of the original PayDay crew -- Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains -- and descend on Washington D.C. for an epic crime spree. The new CRIMENET network in PayDay 2 offers a huge range of dynamic contracts and players are free to choose anything from small-time convenience store hits or kidnappings, to major league cyber-crime or emptying out major bank vaults for that epic PAYDAY. While in D.C., why not participate in the local community and run a few political errands? Up to four friends co-operate on the hits and as the crew progresses the jobs become bigger, better and more rewarding. Along with earning more money and becoming a legendary criminal comes a new character customization and crafting system that lets crews build and customize their own guns and gear.

Download Instructions:

1. Download Payday 2 Beta Code Generator by Clicking Download Button Below.

Downloads: 1785

2. We are offering 1900 downloads only. Because We have only 1900 Beta keys. When you click download button just complete one simple survey to unlock your download. This will help us to make limited/countable download.

3. Save the file in your computer and open it.

4. To Generate your Payday 2 Beta key, press the Generate button and wait for a beta code. When you are revived with your Beta code, write it down on a piece of paper. Visit Payday 2 Official beta website and redeem it. After that, you will able to download Payday 2 Beta client free.

5. After doing the correct step, you will have completed the process. If you have any problems, feel free to comment below if you think this didn't worked.

Enjoy the game.

Battlefield 4: Beta downloader + key for FREE, DLC for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3

2013-08-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Battlefield 4 features several small changes compared to its predecessor. The game's heads-up display is much the same, composed of two compact rectangles. The lower left-hand corner features a mini-map and compass for navigation, and a simplified objective notice above it; the lower right includes a compact ammo counter and health meter. The mini-map, as well as the main game screen, shows symbols marking three kinds of entities: blue for allies, green for squadmates, and red/orange for enemies.
Players can now use dual-scoped weapons, including weapons with different firing modes (e.g. single shots, automatic fire). They can also "spot" targets—marking them on the map—for teammates to either suppress or eliminate. The singleplayer campaign will see the player using vehicles to quickly move across the battlefield.

The new multiplayer leaves you with some awesome new features and improvements! Your game experience will drastically improve because of the new Frostbyte engine aswell!

Get your hands on the Beta of Battlefield 4 today! Play the game on PC, Xbox 360 or PS3 -
We are providing you with the necessary downloader and a beta key!

Instructions:

Step 1) Download the Beta downloader + key by click on the Download Buttons

Step 2) Plug in a USB drive to your laptop/desktop and transfer the downloader on to it.

Step 3) Plug the USB drive with the downloader into your device.

Step 4) Now run Battlefield 4: Beta and have fun!

Download Battlefield 4: Beta downloader + activation key for PC

Name: Battlefield 4 Beta Downloader_Key_PC

473 Downloads

Download Battlefield 4: Beta downloader + activation key for Xbox 360 and PS 3

Name: Battlefield 4 Beta Downloader_Key_xbox360_ps3

384 Downloads

We have decided to protect the file, meaning that you have to fill in a short survey. The surveys are free and only take about a minute; so either download it or don't. We hope that this new gateway will limit the number of downloads to only people who really want to get Battlefield 4: Beta.

GTA V Online might be the most ambitious multiplayer ever

2013-08-20T10:06:00.003-07:00

If it's not enough having the biggest location yet, three separate protagonists and more mini-games than you can shake a golf club at, Grand Theft Auto V might just have the most ambitious multiplayer mode we've ever seen. Rockstar has released a new trailer online, showing off an incredible range of activities, from team skydiving to old-fashioned supercar-vs-motorbike shootouts. Here are a few of our highlights; there are a few questions to be answered, but if anyone can pull this off, Rockstar can.

1. Cooperative bank heists look amazing. While the multiplayer of GTA IV was strong, we can't wait to earn a five star Wanted rating and recreate Heat with a gang of online friends.

2. Customisable characters. If taking your character to the barbers (we'll have the Justin Timberlake, please) or clothes shopping is promising if standard fare, the idea of buying property in the city brings to life whole other opportunities. We just can't wait to see how it works in practice: with there only being so much real estate, will flats be like a private lobby, or will you be able to kick start a Los Santos housing bubble?

3. Create-your-own carnage. Even better than being able to race pretty much any vehicle going (including possibly a submarine)? Being able to build your own racetrack around the city. Expect Minecraft-levels of detail in no time.

4. The gameplay has been refined. The biggest test of multiplayer isn't just creativity; it also needs to have balance and polish if GTA is to challenge the likes of Call Of Duty and Gears Of War for the online crown. All signs look good, with a quick-access weapons wheel and fast, responsive players and vehicles.

5. Anyone for golf? Another thing that we can't wait to see finished is the online mini-games: the idea of a round of golf or team skydiving is tantalising, but how will that relate to other players in the "immersive world"? After all, nothing puts us off our putting game like a well-placed grenade.

Grand Theft Auto V is out on 17 September. GTA V Online is available from 1 October.

FREE BETA GTA V (5) KEYS

2013-08-19T12:32:00.003-07:00

HOW TO USE ?

Download the file from download button in our website.

Open the program.

Select you game platform (Pc,Ps3,Xbox360).

Click generate.

Copy key and play :)

Rust Beta Key Giveaway

2013-08-18T20:14:00.003-07:00

Garry Newman, creator of Garry's Mod, is currently working on the online game Survival Rust. Recently, the game went into an early alpha phase. You can get one of the beta keys that are periodically published in the official forum, and get the opportunity to test the game in its alpha version for free. But if you dont want to waste time waiting for your key, you can get your Rust beta key right below.
Can't wait to get your Rust beta key? Get yours below

Garry Newman, successful creator of Garry's Mod, is currently working with Facepunch Studios on the new and extremely promising survival simulation Rust. Currently, the online Survival game from the independent developers is at an early alpha phase. The focus of Rust is on the multiplayer and thus has unmistakable parallels to genre competitors such as DayZ, The Dead Linger, State of Decay, Fortnite and Minecraft. It is primarily the task of the survivors to procure sufficient food and supplies and to seek shelter in order to not fall ill. Rust puts special emphasis on the possibility for survivors to build their own quarters and buildings. Currently, the players stand in Rust against a horde of zombies, but - good news for those who have already had enough of zombies - are intended to be placeholders. "We hate zombies and they will be replaced at some time with other NPCs," promises Newman. When and at what price the game should appear in is not yet known at this time. The information about the game so far are few and far between. However, if you want a chance to find out more for yourself, you can get your Rust beta key with our online key generator! No download, no viruses, just click below.
Get your Rust beta key here:

Farm Ville 2 Hack tool v4.5

2013-08-18T10:41:00.002-07:00

Farmville 2 is the number one online game on Facebook currently have 40 millions active users.

This post will provide you with a 100% working free Farmville 2 Hack and Cheats. You dont need to be a expert to use this hack as this hack is single click working tool. The hack is developed by Our profession coder Ninja Woo who cracked over 1000 games. The interface is clean and easy to use here is the snapshot of it:

FarmVille 2 Hack Tool v4.5

Version : 4.5

Operating System: Mac / Windows Me / 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista / Windows 7 /Windows 8 /Windows 98 and also all other windows.

Virus Protection : 100% safe Tested over 90 anti-virus products at virus total.

Browsers: Opera, Safari,Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and every other browser.

Anti Ban Protection : Yes

Undetectable Script : Yes

FarmVille 2 Hack Tool v4.5

Farmville 2 Coins Hack

Farmville 2 Farm Bucks Hack

You can use our FarmVille 2 Hack Tool v4.5 to increase you cash.There are aslo the tweaks to increase the number of coins and get unlimited energy. Whats more , you can use this hack tool for several other purposes using other tweaks that have been coded in the tool like water hack , feed hack etc. The tool is periodically tested to check if it is working or not. Once its found that game has blocked the tool, we recode it to make it working with the latest update of the game. So most of the times our farmville hack tool is up to the date.

Just download the tool ,use its interface to login to facebook and rest is just clicks of buttons. Enjoy.

Big News for 2013!

2013-01-21T13:11:00.003-08:00

It's been awhile since I last posted something since I've had way too much going on right now. Classes and homework need to get done, games need to be bought and played, a family to attend to, its pretty hard to balance it all yet we all manage. That's life for ya.

But that's not why I'm excited to be writing this post today: as you can tell from the title, the year of 2013 is a pretty big one for gamers. I'm excited for about a dozen titles hitting the shelves in just the first quarter of the year alone.

January, being known as a dead month since it comes right after the holidays, is seeing some releases despite this status. The very first week saw the release of Unchained Blades, an RPG on the 3DS eShop for about $30. It involves dungeon crawling and monster collecting akin to Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei.

The next week finally saw the release of Anarchy Reigns, a multiplayer beat 'em up, for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Sega, despite hardly advertising for the dang game when that was the whole reason for the delay between Japan and the rest of the world, decided to make the price a cool $30 since its focus is mainly on multiplayer. I heard the single player story is short, so I would only recommend getting this if you 1) have the cash to throw down 2) have the ability to play online.

A week later, we saw the release of the very divisive DmC: Devil May Cry, the infamous reboot helmed by Ninja Theory. Personally, I'm not a fan of what they did but the gameplay is decent enough for those looking to scratch that hack n' slash itch; its not as polished as the past games and has some easily exploitable glitches that make one think "how come nobody caught these?" but at the very least it looks rent worthy.

This week will finally see the release of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in North America for the PS3. However, there's been a slight delay in Europe so you guys won't be seeing it until early February due to a logistics error on Level-5's end. Don't be alarmed though as they are throwing in a free familiar as an apology. Now that's customer appreciation! If you're still iffy on the game, the demo is available on the PSN for you to try.

This week will also see the release of Double Fine's The Cave. Get ready to go exploring with seven unique characters on January 22 for the Nintendo eShop and Playstation Network and January 23 for Steam and Xbox Live Arcade.

And this week's goodies seem to keep getting better with the demo of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance being released to the public. If DmC: Devil May Cry didn't get you interested, then playing as the cyborg ninja Raiden with his cut-anything sword just might.

That's pretty much it for January's big releases, but not the end for things that happened in January. First off: Project X Zone was just announced today that it will be released in North America and Europe this summer. This strategy RPG for the 3DS brings in characters from Capcom, Namco/Bandai, and Sega to combo the crap out of each other all on one handheld.

In other localization news, publisher XSEED, who brought over titles like The Last Story, is also bringing over the last Operation Rainfall game Pandora's Tower to US shores. With this, OpRainfall is complete with all of the titles they campaigned for. The retail price is confirmed to be $40 and will be coming out sometime in the spring.

Finally, the last thing I think I'll be posting about involves one of the biggest fighting game tournaments: EVO 2013. The main lineup consists of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Mortal Kombat 9, a patched version of Street Fighter X Tekken, King of Fighters XIII, and Persona 4 Arena. That leaves open one more spot to take the main stage. That's where the Fighting Game Community comes in: we get to pick the last game by donating to breast cancer research under that game's name. So far the game in the lead is Super Smash Bros Melee with second place being the little indie fighter that could, Skullgirls.

While the choice is totally up to whoever reads this, I would love it if you voted for Skullgirls. The game, though it has the respect of the FGC for how good of a game it is, it could definitely use the exposure that EVO offers. The game was patched for PS3 players back in November - and is currently in testing again at Microsoft since the size of the original patch was massive (590 mb!) and had to be reduced to fit Microsoft's measly 4 mb size limit - and the exposure could get Skullgirls more noticed and help Lab Zero games, comprised of members that made the game, be able to finish work on the first DLC character and PC port. Plus if you support Skullgirls and forward your receipt to the email listed here, you can get your name into a raffle to win a sweet Valentine print. No matter what you pick, you're donating to a good cause. So far, the current total is supposedly past $30,000!

Save the tatas!

Now that's pretty much it when it comes to January. I don't know when I'll be able to post again, but I do want to try and get up reviews on Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Liberation Maiden. If I don't get around to those, then the next review will definitely be Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS next month.

Devil Survivor 2 Review

2012-12-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty busy since the last review: got a Wii U, Pokemon Black 2, Liberation Maiden, preparing for the next quarter of college, the holidays are coming up, etc. The "end of the world" also came and went with nothing really worth mention happening. But on the topic of the world ending, why not review a game where the world is in danger once again? That game is a sequel to the last game I reviewed: Devil Survivor 2 for the Nintendo DS.

Devil Survivor 2 places you in the shoes average teenager from Tokyo alongside his best friend Daichi and the busty Io. After the trio meet up, they receive a message from a website they all signed up for that shows death clips of people; said video shows them dying horribly in a train accident... and they just happen to be waiting for a train home. Freaked out by this oddly prophetic video, they make to leave only for the events to happen. However, demons emerge from their phones and save them. Making their way out, the teenagers find that Tokyo and several areas of Tokyo are in ruin. Does this have anything to do with the strange video clips and demons that came out of their cellphones? Will they survive the oncoming days?

... Wait a second, that sounds almost exactly like what happened in Devil Survivor 1! True enough, the same basic plot is used, but like the cartoon show Phineas and Ferb, its pretty different despite using many of the same elements.

Gameplay
Like the basic premise of Devil Survivor, this game uses the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor: grid based combat, quick skirmishes during each fight, gain extra turns if you exploit your opponent's weaknesses/lose extra turns if they abuse yours, control up to 4 demon tamers on the field, fuse demons to get better ones, etc. However, it does refine some elements and adds on more.

The one I like the most is the move away from the magnetite system from the first game to something a bit more useful, though it still uses the same basic principle: fight well enough in battles and you can add bonuses to your demons. Where the first game made it so you only changed your Command skills during battle, you earn Add-Ons that come into play when you fuse demons. Basically, you're given the option to give the new demon additional stat bonuses, access to certain branches of skills, or clear out the skills you don't like to put on the ones you get from fusing.

The next addition is evolving Racial skills. Once a demon reaches a certain level, their Racial skills changes to something more powerful. An example is Flight, which adds +1 to your movement range and ignores obstacles, evolves to Winged Flight, which adds +2 to your movement range.

The Demon Compendium appears in this game too at a certain point. Once obtained, you can register your demons and re-summon them for a price. The price will depend on what skills they have and their level.

Finally, as far as gameplay mechanics go, Devil Survivor 2 takes a note from the later Persona games and brings in the Fate system. As you spend time with your teammates outside of battle and get to know them better, you get added bonuses such as your units gaining resistances to certain elements, new demons to fuse, the ability to share Skill Cracks (either the protagonist and selected unit can kill a demon and get the Skill crack), and you can send demons to a team in need. The Fate system also comes into play in terms of keeping certain people alive, so always make sure to pay attention to your units.

EDIT: New Game +
I can't believe I completely forgot about this part! This is something that I really liked about DS2. For the most part, it does handle it the same way: you can carry over your demons, macca, Compendium, skills, grant you access to fighting bonus bosses, etc. However, instead of just giving you the ability to do all of them at the same time, you have to earn them by doing in-game achievements and gather enough points to unlock them. Then when you start up a new game, you can select which perks you want to use for the playthrough.

Story
The basic premise of the story is the same as the first Devil Survivor, but it really does differ in plenty of ways. First off, Devil Survivor 2 is definitely more lighthearted than the first game. It contains more wacky moments and characters, which makes you occasionally forget that the world is being assaulted by demons. However, these fun times are offset by the brutal happenings such as seeing death clips of your teammates - and if you fail to save them in time, they'll die for real. Even if you do manage to prevent the clips from happening, someone will always die by the end of the game. Certain deaths will also affect how some of the Fate events unfold as well, so if you're one of those players who has to see everything, some units will have to be sacrificed.

The Big Finish
Devil Survivor 2 is what a sequel should be: keep what worked, refine anything that fell flat, and introduce new elements that don't feel like they're tacked on. I'd like to see more variation in terms of the story like choosing between a male and female protagonist influencing choices presented to you or at the very least, make it so its not the same three character archetypes starting off the game. Overall, it's a great game and I would recommend either playing this one or Devil Survivor Overclocked. Considering that DeSu2 has gotten a couple of manga adaptions, has an upcoming anime adaption, and there's rumors of this game receiving the Overclocked treatment, its definitely a game that has garnered attention.

Devil Survivor Review

2012-11-20T14:07:00.001-08:00

Its now November 20th, the day Persona 4: The Golden releases in North America for the Playstation Vita! Yeah, tons of new content on an already great game. What's that? Today is also the day Playstation All Stars Battle Royale launches? Sweet, time for not-Smash Bros crossover madness. Wait, there's more? Skullgirls is finally patched after being screwed over for so long! Awesome! So is today's reviewing covering any of that? No. Sorry for getting any hopes up. Please don't hate me.

No, what today's review is covering is somewhat related to Persona though. If you don't know, the Shin Megami Tensei series has plenty of spinoffs, ranging from the aforementioned Persona to the Devil Summoner sub-series. This review is about one of those spinoffs: Devil Survivor, a Strategy RPG for the Nintendo DS.

Devil Survivor places you in the shoes of your average teenager from Tokyo alongside his best friend Atsuro and the busty Yuzu. After the trio meet up, Yuzu hands out COMPs - totally not a DS - saying that the player's cousin gave them to her. While hanging around town and reading oddly prophetic emails, strange monsters emerge from the COMPs and attack the group. They subdue them only to find out that Tokyo has undergone a lockdown, leaving them and hundreds of people trapped with little explanation. Does this have anything to do with the strange emails and demons that came out from the not-DS's? Will they survive the oncoming days?

Gameplay
Tokyo: The Center of All the World's Problems
Devil Survivor has you battling through hordes of demons while navigating through various parts of Tokyo as you try to figure out just what the heck is going on. When not fighting, you can select from one or more locations to travel to and hear gossip from chattering passerby and others will say "Free Battle" next to them, where you can battle enemies without having to worry about time moving forward. However, some locations have a clock next to them indicating that time will pass by if you go there (a half hour will pass after the event). Some events are there to move the story forward while others let you interact with the many characters around the city - talking to them and figuring out what to do impacts which ending you can choose. Due to the characters having to go to sleep at some point, there's only so many events you can see each day; some events you can only see on certain days at specific times.

Its impossible to see everything in your first playthrough because even though you can find enough time to see most of everything, you can only choose one ending path to take. If you screw up and don't spend enough time with any of the characters, there's always one ending you can get. I'd recommend it for a first playthrough since its the easiest ending - of course, being an SMT title, that's not saying it will be easy.

The COMP
The DS-like device you receive at the start of the game is the most important possession you currently own in this situation. With it, you can organize which demons go to which demon tamer and set skills, save your game, change your settings, try to win demons at the Devil Auction, view character bios, use the Cathedral of Shadows app to fuse demons in order to make stronger ones, and check notices/emails.

Fusing Demons
If you've played any Shin Megami Tensei game, you'll know that demon fusion is an integral to getting new and more powerful demons. Devil Survivor makes it much easier compared to the other games due to the fact that you can select which skills the new demon will inherit based on which ones the two you're fusing have. There's also a search function that allows you to separate the many demon categories to see what demons you need to make one of that category.

Devil Auction
Known as D-Bay by some, the Devil Auction allows you to try and win new demons for you to use. Like in a real auction, you need to place the highest bid in the five seconds given. Other users may give up if you place a high enough bid; if they don't give up and a price isn't decided in the five seconds, you get to place one final bid and whoever has the highest gets the demon. If you don't want to go through the trouble, you can just buy the demon but the price can be a lot higher than if you take the risk and bid. Every once in a while, special auctions happen where you can get demons with certain skills they wouldn't have normally.

Combat
The real meat of the game lies in all of the fights you get in. Your terrain will vary depending on the area, but if you're expecting the surrounding area to morph into something demonic looking there isn't any of that: you're still very much in modern day Tokyo. Before every battle, you can decide where to place your characters, switch around demons, and decide on Skill Cracks (more on that in a bit). Once you've set up everything, go to town on the demons; however, not every fight will be as simple as going against the demon hordes. Some encounters have you trying to get survivors to safety or reach certain objectives.

Skill Cracks, mentioned above, are the only way for your team to learn new moves, which you get by assigning certain characters to certain enemies. Once in combat, that character's team has to defeat that specific enemy in order to get the move. If a different team kills them, you don't get that move unless that group is also set against the demon. Once a skill has been cracked, the move can be assigned to anybody.

And on a side note, after leveling up characters and demons to a certain point it becomes harder to gain experience until you start fighting tougher enemies. Basically, you can only level grind so much at one time.

Setting up the Player
Finally, the protagonist and his friends are customizable in terms of abilities - and in the player's case, stats. Each person can have a total of three Command Skills (moves to use in battle), Three Passive Skills (skills that alter stats), and an Auto Skill that activate automatically at the start of each individual skirmish. Each skill can only be set to one person and require a stat minimum in order to equip the skill. Know what each character is good at and equip them with the appropriate skills; for example, a player built around strength is better off knowing physical moves.

New Game +
If you can manage to survive the demon horde for seven days and reach an ending, you can start over from the beginning to try and get another path. Except for the demon tamer levels, everything carries over: your demons, the devil auction ranking, macca, exp cap is removed, and all of your skills along with the ability to fuse demons that are a higher level than you. It makes tearing through the game a second time a lot easier; there's always the bonus boss to look out for, who is far from easy.

Story
Your adventure begins simply enough: figure out what's going on and try to find a way out. As the days pass, escaping the lockdown is the least of anyone's worries and you find yourself drawn into the conflict between angels and demons like in most other SMT games. Who you end up siding with determines which ending you get and who you fight. Its your basic Shin Megami Tensei game, what do you expect? However, its not like the others in that the world ending apocalypse hasn't happened yet and you can mold the world to how you want it. Overall, its a pretty grim tale: the trapped citizens start going crazy, riots break out, and all hope of returning to a simple teenage life seems pretty bleak.

Devil Survivor Overclocked
Because Devil Survivor was already such a great game but enjoyed a limited print run like most Atlus titles, an enhanced port to the 3DS came out last year to bring in new players and new goodies for old ones. New stuff includes more demons, changeable difficulty levels, improved visuals, voice acting, and an extra 8th day if you followed certain paths. If you have a 3DS and are interested in this game, this is definitely the version to get.

The Big Finish - Lets Survive
Devil Survivor is an SRPG for the Nintendo DS and 3DS and yet another spinoff from the Shin Megami Tensei main series. Despite being another spinoff, Devil Survivor is great at what it does and deserves a spot with the other SMT games. Its challenging but not to the point of being unfair; if you play strategically, battles become a lot easier. I would recommend getting Overclocked if you have a Nintendo 3DS. If you can't get your hands on that version or don't have a 3DS, the vanilla game is still just as good. If you're one for games like Fire Emblem, this game may appeal to you as well.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Review

2012-11-10T23:51:00.003-08:00

Last month, I reviewed the visual novel Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999) for the Nintendo DS. It was released in two areas: Japan and North America. 999 didn't sell too well in Japan but was a surprising hit in North America due to its excellent story, characters, presentation, and puzzles. Thanks to its success, a sequel for the Nintendo 3DS and Playstation Vita was created called Virtue's Last Reward, reprints of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors have come out, and the series as a whole has been named Zero Escape. The question is whether or not VLR lives up to the success of its predecessor? My answer: YES!

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward throws the player into the shoes of 22 year old college student Sigma, who is kidnapped late one night and wakes up to find himself in an elevator with the aloof girl Phi. After escaping the elevator, they find out that they're trapped in a facility along with seven other individuals to play the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition.

... wait a second, that sounds exactly like the last game! However, the rules of this Nonary Game are very different. This time the Number 9 Door is right in front of them, but they can only escape once they accumulate nine or more Bracelet Points (BP); to earn BP, players must participate in the AB Game. By picking Ally or Betray, players will receive or lose points based on their choices but if you're reduced to zero, it means automatic death. Will you be able to make it out alive or will this game be your last reward?

Seek a Way Out!
Like 999, Virtue's Last Reward is split between novel sections and escape/puzzle sections. First, let's evaluate the novel sections. VLR steps it up from its predecessor by bringing in voice acting into the fold, so it cuts down on a bit of the reading if the large amounts of text scared anyone away from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. You still have to read what Sigma says because he isn't given a voice like everyone else. Puzzle sections also lack voice acting, though it isn't a real loss. The game also offers dual audio for NA audiences every time you start up the game so if the English cast isn't to your liking, you can pick the Japanese audio. Sadly, dual audio is something for only the US release; the Europe release will only have the Japanese audio. I haven't used them myself yet but I heard its still pretty good - even better than the English cast - so its not all bad.

The Escape sections are also a little different from the first game in that instead of still images of the areas that you cycle through, you can move around the room on a rail by using the control stick/circle pad or touching the screen. The mainstays from the previous game such as collecting objects and combining certain ones to progress are still in. As for the puzzles themselves, they're harder than the previous game but still doable if you work at it. In case they're still too difficult, the game offers an Easy mode where the characters you're with will give you more hints to help you along. Each time you enter a puzzle room, you're automatically set to Hard and if you switch to Easy, you can't switch back until you go back into the room. Besides the characters lending you a helping hand, they also have some pretty funny dialogue so its advisable to at least go back and view those later.

Finally, the escape rooms offer one more new feature: secret files. When escaping a room, there's a safe that hides away the key out and other stuff to progress through the game. The secret files, though stashed away in the same safes, require a different password to obtain them. They aren't needed to complete the game but they do offer insight to details and other background information that might not get enough explanation in-game.

Another new feature to VLR is the flowchart. With it, you can jump to certain decisions that decide where you go, AB rooms, and escape sections that you may want to replay. Sure, it takes away a bit of the finality of the decisions you make, but being able to jump around to whenever makes it very convenient in case you run into a game over or a lock; instead of having to replay the entire game up until the point where you screwed up, you can just go back to the choice. Considering the game takes about 30 to 50 hours anyways, its a handy feature to have.

That's another thing about the flowchart. There are some parts of the game where you won't have enough info to continue along that path. With the ability to jump back to earlier parts of the game, you can find out what you need to know in order to advance. Since there's 24 endings, there's a lot you need to know to finish the story.

To wrap up the gameplay section, Virtue's Last Reward has a memo function that lets you jot down notes so you don't have to keep a pen and paper on hand. There's only two pages, meaning you can't write down the solutions to all of the puzzles but it offers enough room to write down passwords, do some quick calculations and the like.

The (Complex) Story and Characters
Like 999, there is a huge emphasis on the story and its cast. Once again, the writing is amazing and the characters are interesting. You'd think a game that has the same basic premise as the last one would mean it'd be pretty boring and predictable, but its very much a new take on the same formula. What's the reason for another Nonary Game? Just what is the purpose for everyone being there? And since the game is much longer than the first game, you get to see more of the characters as you travel with them through different rooms. If you're still unsure of the story, 999 received awards for having the best story of 2010 and this game goes beyond that; its pretty dang good and will have you engrossed with what happened even after you've finished and seen everything in the game.

I said in my review of the first game that Virtue's Last Reward was self-contained but in actuality 999 has a lot to do with this game. It's highly recommended that you play the first entry in the Zero Escape saga to catch any references, but its not entirely necessary due to some characters giving recaps at certain points.

3DS vs Vita
To be honest, I've only played the 3DS version of the game so its only that version I can confidently tell you what features it has; I can only repeat what others have said about the game on the Vita. Here's the breakdown in simplest form:

Nintendo 3DS
+ User Interface is very similar to 999 and is easier to use
+ You can have your memo or stuff from your archive on the top screen as you solve puzzles
- Only one file for saving
- Supposedly the sound quality is a little lower here than on the Vita

Playstation Vita
+ Three files for saving
+ Ability to use screenshot function to take pictures
+ Three colors to use on the memo
+ Trophy support
- User Interface isn't nearly as great as on the 3DS
- Writing on memo without stylus isn't that great

If you're still reading because you were interested by this, here comes the really scary part about this review....

Game Crashing and Save Corruption Possible
As great as Virtue's Last Reward is, there is a serious problem with the game. There have been many reports of the game crashing during some segments; sometimes your save file becomes unplayable meaning you'll have to erase your save and start over. If the game crashes, make sure to boot up the game to make sure that you can still play, otherwise you're starting over. Sadly, the problem is more widespread on the 3DS. However, the Vita version of the game isn't entirely safe either and so you still have to be careful.

Aksys Games are looking into the problem and will hopefully bring news of a patch in the near future. The only known ways to counter this problem is to avoid saving in any of the puzzle rooms - definitely not the PEC, which seems to be the biggest offender - and only save during the novel segments. This isn't a foolproof method but its better than nothing. I've played and finished VLR in about 42 hours and haven't run into any of these problems using only this method, so I can say it kind of works. If there is ever a fix released, I will update this review upon hearing about it.

You Found It!
Virtue's Last Reward, the second entry in the Zero Escape saga, is definitely as good as the game before it, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, if not better. The story is bigger, there's more time to interact with characters, the puzzles are harder, and overall its a great experience. There is the crippling con of having save corruption issues as of this writing that can strike any player at any time with the only hope that Spike Chunsoft, the developer, will offer a patch. Despite this game breaking bug, VLR is an amazing experience that will boggle the mind of the player through its tough challenges and the complexity of the narrative. If you're one for visual novels, puzzles, deep story and characters, definitely go for this game and its predecessor. If the save bug is scaring you off or you don't have the time to engage in a deep story, I would avoid this game.

To get a glimpse of the story and characters, here's the (non-canon) promotional OVA for the game:

And the official trailer for the game below:

So will you ally...

or betray?

Eternal Darkness Review

2012-10-31T23:56:00.003-07:00

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting..."
- Edgar Allen Poe

As the game opens up with this spooky quote from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven", we finally reach the only actual horror game in my collection just in time for Halloween (or after it depending on time zone). That game is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem made exclusively for the Nintendo Gamecube by Silicon Knights before they went downhill. Classified as psychological horror (and dark action by some), Eternal Darkness is famous for screwing with the mind of the player; not in the sense that the story is confusing, but for the fact that the game starts to use different effects to mess with the player the lower your sanity goes...

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem follows Alexandra Roivas, who finds out that her grandfather has been brutally murdered. Determined the find the murderer, she searches the mansion her grandfather lived in and discovered an odd, unnatural book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Recorded in its fleshy pages are accounts of people throughout time who encountered and fought demonic gods to varying degrees of success. Even as her grip on sanity slips with every turn of the page, Alex must persevere and figure out how to stop these unholy monsters.

Gameplay
When engaging an enemy, you may have a couple of options of doing so: with a melee weapon, a projectile weapon, or in the very possible event that you don't even start with a weapon, running away. You can choose to attack blindly but that's never a good idea. Instead, target an enemy with the R trigger and you can highlight targets such as arms, the chest, and the head to cut/shoot off. Of course, going for headshots isn't always beneficial due to some of them spawning more monsters but its generally recommended. A couple of monsters regenerate their parts if you don't deal with them fast enough. To make it all worse for you, the game has no problems throwing several enemies at you at once. Thankfully, dispatching most enemies isn't too hard so it doesn't feel unfair even though you'll probably be dealing with them one at a time.

Sanity
The biggest selling point of this game is utilizing sanity of the character you're playing as. You lose sanity when an enemy spots you because honestly, who else wouldn't freak out if an inhuman monster sees you and starts to attack? In any event, if you knock an enemy down, you can perform a finishing blow that kills and restore a little bit of your sanity. But what happens if you don't get a chance to restore your sanity and you let it drop? Simply put, the game starts to mess with the character and you. If you've only lost a little bit of your mind, you start hearing things such as muttering or strange chanting playing in the background. As time goes on, things progressively get worse as see things such as fake flies walking on your TV screen, ammo everywhere only for it to disappear, or horrible things such as the infamous "delete your save file" screen. That last one is a trick and it even says so on screen, but it can be cause for panic if you don't notice it. Despite how fun seeing these different effects can be, having your sanity low for too long will cause you to lose health. Overall, the whole sanity idea is the best part of the game just because it feels like anything can happen anytime you walk into a room.

Magick
Being a game about eldritch monsters that we can't hope to understand, of course magick shows up at some point. Its never usually brought up, but the magick system is pretty neat. By finding Circles of Power and Runes, you can combine them to cast spells. Sounds simple enough, however you can start mixing and matching the circles and runes to create new spells such as restoring health or sanity as long as you have the right pieces to make them. You can also assign quick spells to your + pad if you don't want to go through the spell creation process. While casting spells, you have to wait for the spell to finish otherwise it won't work so try to distance yourself from enemies before you start.

Atmosphere
Any successful horror story in any genre has to have the appropriate atmosphere; without it, its not really scary. So how does Eternal Darkness hold up against other competitors in the media? To be honest, quite well. As you play through the game, you'll visit some locations several times and each time you do, they'll become decrepit due to the centuries passing by between each visit. Then you have the Roivas Mansion where Alex spends most of her time reading the Tome of Darkness: even at the beginning of the game when nothing has happened yet, you can already hear the occasional whispering that usually doesn't happen until your sanity has dropped. You expect something to happen as you continue to roam the mansion: a monster to jump out, a scream to cry out, the walls starting to melt, but nothing happens... well, not usually anyways. Jump scares are utilized but sparingly at moments you'd never expect, which is great when other stories tend to overdo them. I'd say Eternal Darkness nails the spooky atmosphere quite well, especially the screaming hallway where the eponymous tome lies.

Story
As Alex reads through the unholy tome, she follows the exploits of the people who have dealt with the eldritch gods. At the beginning of the game, you'll control Pious Augustus and at the end of his chapter, you have to pick one of the three colored icons: red, blue, and green. Your choice influences which god you're up against, the dialogue you see between them and Pious, some of the enemies you'll fight, etc. though the main story is the same. For the most part, the characters you play as don't get explored too much: the only really important bits are how they end up receiving the tome and the end result of their efforts. So basically, there isn't too much plot to interfere with the game but enough to keep it interesting. I wonder what would happen if you continue playing after your first playthrough and go for the other two icons...

The Big Finish
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a cult classic game for the Gamecube that is not only ambitious in what it does, it does it well. The sanity effects are amazing because you won't always get the same ones and they can truly mess with the player as their grip on reality starts to falter. The combat is decent and robust. The plot does have some interesting ideas and is Lovecraftian in style. Overall, Eternal Darkness is a game that belongs in every horror-game fanatic's library. If you aren't a fan of horror or don't feel like trying to track down this game, avoid it.

Code of Princess Review

2012-10-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

(This isn't part of the whole Halloween. I'm simply making up for the one week I missed and I realized that there's five weeks this month, not four. The final Halloween review will be up on October 31)

My first foray onto the Nintendo 3DS is the recently released Code of Princess, a beat 'em up very reminiscent of Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn... well, I can't actually make that comparison because I've never played it or knew about the HD release it got last year for the Xbox 360. Anyways, Code of Princess is a lot of things: funny enough that it doesn't take itself seriously and addicting when it comes to gameplay. So what can this game possibly be about?

Code of Princess stars Princess Solange Blanchefleur de Lux, the innocently-minded, scantily clad lady on the cover, as she makes her way out of her kingdom with the DeLuxcalibur in order to find out why monsters are attacking the kingdom while avoiding the Distron Army, who seem to be leading these monsters. Along the way, Solange runs into several people who soon follow her such as the thief Ali, the nercomancer/not-zombie Zozo, and sage/bard Allegro.

Gameplay
CoP is pretty easy to understand as far as controls go. Weak attacks are performed with the B button, strong attacks with A. You can perform special attacks with a down-forward or down-twice motion along with a button input. Each character's movelist is a little different, so click the Command List on the bottom screen to check though they're all pretty simple to figure out.

Pressing Y will perform an attack that locks onto the enemy it hits. Once locked on, any ranged attacks will go straight to the locked on target and deal double damage. The X button will activate Burst, which stuns enemies for a short and deals double damage at the cost of your MP bar constantly draining. If you combine lock on and Burst, you can deal quadruple damage; it seems cheap early on, but its definitely needed for the later missions.

The L and R triggers are used for blocking. You can use either the circle pad or the D-pad for movement/special moves; I found it easier to use the D-pad since performing special moves - especially the down-twice onces - harder to use with the circle pad.

Finally, this game makes use of "lanes". When you block and press up or down, the character will switch which lane they're in. They're useful for getting out of a crowded area but enemies can follow you onto the next land. Generally speaking, you can only attack enemies on the lane you're on unless you're locked onto an enemy, which means your ranged attacks will go after them. Some characters have attacks that can hit enemies on adjacent lanes without having to lock on, so be wary of them.

Story Mode
In this mode, you can play through the story with four characters: Solange, Ali, Zozo, and Allegro. For the most part, they all share the same missions and if you get further with one character, the later missions are unlocked for the other characters. The missions start off easy enough but they become more challenging around the 3-star missions. Note: you can fast forward through scenes with the R trigger.

The objectives of each mission usually fall down to defeating all of the enemies, then the boss. There's one mission where you have to survive for a minute and forty seconds and a few more that involves protecting people, but that's it. There really isn't any variety to them.

Free Play Mode
Free Play lets you play through the story mode, this time without having to go through all of the cutscenes. You can also use any character you want once you unlock them and beat the game once.

Bonus Quests
These quests are unlocked as you make your way through Story Mode. Again, you usually have to kill the enemies on screen, beat the boss, or even the occasional protect-the-person, but these are a bit more challenging than Story Mode.

This and Free Play mode are probably the two modes you'll spend most of single player on due to the fact that you can play as pretty much everyone that has a 3D model except for one person. That includes the main cast, the enemies, and even the villagers that can't do too much.

Online Mode
You can play co-op missions or go against other people via local or wifi connection. There's only some equipment that can only be gotten by winning matches. However, I haven't had a chance to actually try this myself since I'm not usually playing when others are. Hopefully I'll be able to post a small entry about it next month along with The Last Story's online capabilities.

Story and Characters
The story of Code of Princess beyond the summary above isn't all that deep and you can probably go through a character's story in a few hours. However, the characters and their dialogue more than make up for the short story. No one takes anything seriously and some of the voice actors get really hammy with their lines (I'm looking at your Juppongi). If you're looking for character development, there's not a lot. There are some animated segments sprinkled throughout the story as well,

The Big Finish
Code of Princess is a hilarious beat 'em up for the Nintendo 3DS. The story is short and not too interesting, but the cast manage to make it fun with funny lines and occasionally breaking the fourth wall. Its not too hard to go through the single player with one character in a day, but most of the time is going to be spent trying to figure out what combos you can pull off, leveling them up to the max, and going online to brawl against other players. If you're put off by short games or don't find trying to level up the large cast of characters fun, this isn't the game for you. If you're into the niche genre of the beat 'em up variety, don't mind the missions getting repetitive, or just want to go up against others online using one of the joke characters, this is the game for you. Overall, Code of Princess is a decent yet addictive title for the 3DS. Buy a copy of the first print and you get a very small artbook with a sample of the game's soundtrack.

(Here's a quick character trailer to get you introduced to the main cast)

(And just because, here's the catchy shop theme)

Assassin’s Creed III - Launch Trailer

2012-10-25T09:06:00.003-07:00

Not long now til we don the assassin's hoods once again and get stuck into the latest chapter in Assassin's Creed!

Assassin's Creed III is set for release on 31st October for Xbox 360 and PS3 with a PC release on 23rd November, and a promised Wii U release to be confirmed. Featuring the exploits of half-English and half-Native American protagonist Connor Kenway during and after the American Revolution from 1753 to 1783, the new game also features a series staple of a 'present day' setting in which Desmond Miles must prevent the 2012 apocalypse. Hope he manages it, we've got plans.

Borderlands 2 - Captain Scarlett And Her Pirate’s Booty DLC (PS3)

2012-10-25T09:00:00.003-07:00

With Borderlands 2 already providing a blast, the first of four planned DLC additions for the title – Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty – is a great way to squeeze a few more hours out of the main game.

A roughly eight-hour story leads the content, with a wealth of new side missions giving us plenty to get distracted by. Landing in the deserted town of Oasis, a once tourist hotspot whose residents have long since died of thirst, the player is led to seek out Shade, the lone survivor. Shade is a pretty clear Hunter S. Thompson reference, and an agreeably manic character who dishes out missions and advice to the player. We are told that there is a stash of treasure in the desert, with the eponymous plum-voiced English lady pirate anchored nearby looking for it. Entering an uneasy alliance with Captain Scarlett, the player is then dished up plenty of enemies across the main mission and numerous side quests.

In all honesty, it was a little tough to gauge how much of a challenge the missions and encounters were in our playthrough, as we were put in control of a level 50 Mechromancer, the pre-order bonus character. A likable protagonist, Gaige is an unbalanced schoolgirl with an affinity for machines. Her robot sidekick Deathtrap cuts a swathe through even the firmest resistance at this level, however, meaning that the demo did feel a little more like a walkthrough at times. Haring around the desert on a Return of the Jedi style sand skiff fitted out with projectile razor blades was great fun, however, and the loud, brash presentation made this added content a winner with us. The side quests do occasionally grate, feeling a little too much like fetch and carry jobs at times, but scaling enemies keep the challenge level high enough for this to be well worth a look for players at any stage.

All in all, Borderlands 2 fans will find plenty to enjoy in this pack, and Gaige is a great character to play as. The pirate aesthetic is good fun and different enough to have some novelty value, with a typically funny script giving players the odd laugh along the way. There is that streak of broad wit that we have come to associate with Borderlands, and the larger-than-life stylings of the whole thing make for a great extension to the main game.

Borderlands 2 is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

GunGirl 2 Review

2012-10-22T12:56:00.002-07:00

Halloween review number three is another game with the Metroidvania style: GunGirl 2. Usually, I try to review the order a game series comes in, but from what I've heard, you might as well skip the first game entirely and go to this one. So what is this freeware indie PC game all about? Just look at the picture below...

If you can't tell, GunGirl 2 is all about zombie killing. You wake up one day as the eponymous GunGirl (or guy should you choose him) to find that the world has been taken over by zombies. Grabbing your trusty pistol, you go out to try and stop the zombie apocalypse. Your journey takes you around several locations and even Hell itself to find the heart of the problem. Are you ready for this?

Gameplay
GunGirl 2, being a Metroidvania, starts you off with just the basics of skills: one jump and a pistol as your starting weapon.You have to progress through the game at certain points to unlock your abilities such as double jumping and holding onto ledges rather than finding them in the world.

As for your guns, you can find those at certain points of the game as well. As per zombie game, you have your pistol and eventually get a shotgun but you get some pretty cool guns as well: a fireball launcher, an ice gun that can freeze enemies, a sawblade cannon, and a hidden gun that isn't necessary to complete the game. You can upgrade your guns to have an alternate firing method by finding a corresponding red orb. For example, the pistol's alternate is a three shot burst and the shotgun shoots a giant burst that annihilates the zombie hordes. However, these red orbs are hidden pretty well, so good luck finding them!

What sets this game apart other than having an unusual arsenal is that there's also another way to upgrade your guns. As you kill enemies, they'll occasionally drop purple G's for you to grab. Picking them up fills a battery on your screen; as you fill up the battery to the next level (max of three), it improves traits such as reload speed and damage. If you're hit, then you lose a chunk of the G bar and have to fill it up again. Each weapon has their own bar, so if you don't care if one of your weapons isn't up to date, you can use that one to take hits.

Finally, there are floating blue orbs hidden throughout the game. These orbs can be used to upgrade your health bar, the effectiveness of Medkits, increasing ammo count or damage, etc. Thankfully, the game is nice enough that you can buy them from the shops scattered around the world in case you can't find any (or you found all of them) and want to upgrade something.

Normally I would list the controls that you use, but since this is a PC game, you can customize your layout however you please.

New Game +
Completion of the game once allows you to go back and play through the game again with most of your stuff. You can go back and collect stuff you missed, beat the game again, the usual.

However, you do unlock a new character to play as. Unlike GunGirl/Dude, this character starts at a hub where you can collect ammo, shop, save your game, anything you need to do to get prepared. In this mode, you have to go through a teleporter and fight through a series of randomized levels in order to get more stuff. You start off only having to do one level, but as you keep playing, more rounds keep getting added on.

Arcade Mode
Selectable from the main menu after beating the game once, Arcade Mode is a mode where you get a set amount of time to kill as many zombies as you can and get the highest score. You can select from a number of places you've been to in the main game. If you die, game over (duh); win, and you may see yourself on the leaderboards.

Story
I'll admit, there really isn't that much story to GunGirl2; its basically what I listed above. Most of the time is spent exploring and killing zombies. That isn't to say that there isn't a surprising twist or two, but overall the story is just an excuse plot. It doesn't stop the game from being fun, that's for sure. There are a few cameos from other series thrown in here...

The Big Finish
GunGirl2 is a Metroidvania-type game where you kill zombies that takes as long as most other games of its type (around 8 to 10 hours). Overall, a pretty fun experience: the idea is simplistic but well done. The best part? Gungirl2 is a freeware game, meaning you can get it for free at this site. You can also get the game's amazing soundtrack for free as well.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Review

2012-10-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

Continuing onwards for October, this week's review is of one of the Gameboy Advance's several Castlevania titles, Aria of Sorrow (AoS). Like the later Castlevania titles on the Nintendo DS, AoS is one of the Metroidvania type games: you start off with a (weak) weapon, maybe some armor/equipment, and are thrown onto a map where you must make your way to the final boss. Exploring the map is vital, as you can acquire powerups that allow you to further progress through the game; clever players will find exploits that will allow them to get to places one usually can't reach until later. Metroidvanias are often labeled as action/platformers with RPG elements included; this style of gameplay started with Metroid and was later used in Castlevania starting with Symphony of the Night.

Anyways, enough of the genre lesson. Time to begin exploring...

The game takes place in the year 2035 and stars Soma Cruz, a college student who goes with his not-girlfriend Mina Hakuba to see a solar eclipse at a shrine, only to find themselves transported to Dracula's Castle. Soma sets off into the eponymous castle to investigate why it has reappeared and to possibly find a way out. Inside, Soma discovers that he has the Power of Dominance, the ability to use the souls of defeated enemies for himself. Armed with this new power, Soma sets off to slay monsters and find the cause of the game's problems.

Gameplay
After describing what Metroidvanias are all about in the above section, the gameplay should be pretty simple to understand. Soma must make his way through Dracula's Castle, killing the various monsters that get in his way. Killing monsters gives you experience; get enough experience and you level up. Occasionally enemies will drop items - which range from expendable healing items to weapons and armor - and sometimes you'll receive their soul. You'll know when you receive a soul when a colored orb flies out of the enemy and into you. Not every monster will have items to drop, but they all have souls for you to collect. 120 souls for you to collect to be exact and not all of them are easy to get due to drop rates.

Now what exactly due souls do? First off, there's four types of souls: Bullet, Guardian, Enchanted, and Ability souls. Bullet souls perform attacks, often pertaining to the monster you gained it from, at the cost of MP (the green bar below the red Health bar) and are performed by pressing Up+B. Guardian Souls have a variety of different effects: some souls can transform Soma into things like bats or Valkyries while others give him defensive or offensive abilities. Press (and hold depending on how the soul works) the R trigger to activate these souls. Enchanted souls affect your stats; just equip the soul and they'll always be active. You can only equip one soul of each category. Ability souls, like Enchanted souls, are always active, but unlike the other three categories, once you get them they stay activated unless you turn them off. But considering these types of souls allow you to perform things like double jumps and slides, you probably don't want to turn them off.

As for exploring, the whole castle is technically available to walk through at the start. However, you'll lack most means of seeing every inch of the castle from the start, so you'll be stuck following the path laid out for you at first. Once you're able to double jump, swim underwater, and obtain other souls, you can mix up the order of places you go to. Also, be on the lookout for hidden rooms, which you can find by destroying certain sections of walls or floors.

Story
Aria of Sorrow's story isn't exactly long and could be paraphrased in a paragraph or two. Despite the story taking a backseat compared to how long you'll be wandering around the castle and trying to farm souls or items, its not bad. There are several twists and unless you look them up, you probably won't be guessing most of them.

The Big Finish
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a pretty good game. It may not be the first game to do what it does, but its still a decent experience. Being someone who played one of the Metroidvanias on the DS before coming to AoS, this little GBA game holds up well even against the later titles. If you're looking to get into Castlevania or the Metroidvania genre, Aria of Sorrow is a good place to start.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Review

2012-10-03T11:59:00.004-07:00

It's now October and I figured I would at least try to embrace the holiday spirit of Halloween early. For this month, there will be four reviews on horror-related games, whether they actually be scary to you or not varies from person to person. This first one is Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999 for short), a visual novel/puzzle game for the DS and the first title in the Zero Escape series. Wait, that doesn't even sound remotely scary. What's so scary about reading and doing some puzzles? Considering that many people compare this game to Saw and there are some pretty intense moments, it'd be fair to classify it as horror-related.

You take control of Junpei, a normal, college-aged boy, as he's kidnapped from his apartment and wakes up in a room not his own. After solving the puzzle to get out of the room he starts in, he finds out that he's trapped on a ship along with eight other people; all of them have bombs implanted in them and must compete in what is called the Nonary Game to survive. Zero, the person running the game, tells them the rules of the game via intercom and leaves them with this goal:

"On April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner, known as the Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for two hours and forty minutes, it sank between the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. Nine hours. That is the time you will be given to make your escape."

Seek a Way Out
999 is split between solving puzzles and a text-heavy experience - a given since this is a visual novel. During the visual novel sections, you'll sometimes be given a selection of choices; some of them only change dialogue that happens immediately afterwards, some of them affect which room you go into (and by extension the puzzles you're faced with), and others will impact the ending you will get. There are six different endings to get and unlike other games where you can just get one ending and be satisfied with it, they're all important to understanding the whole story. You could say the story itself is a puzzle and you must find the clues within each different path.

Then there are the puzzles of 999, which is presented to you through a point-and-click, escape the room scenario. With the left and right directions on the D-pad or touching the sides of the touchscreen, you can move to predetermined points in the room. By clicking on various items or fixtures in the room, you'll be treated with dialogue from the characters: sometimes you'll find a vital item for escaping the room, other times you'll find humorous details that lighten the overall situation you're stuck in. Thankfully, finding the items or funny bits don't rely on pixel hunting; anything that's clickable is big enough for you to find without having to check every little detail.

The puzzles of this game aren't terribly hard, but there may be times where you'll get stuck and have no idea what to do. Before you run to GameFaqs for a guide, you can always check out your items, select one, then press Search (or the R-trigger) to hear your partner's opinion on it. Like with clicking objects in the room, you may just get some humorous response from somebody - or worse, them stating the obvious - or you may get a hint on what you're supposed to do with said item. You can also combine some items to get new ones (i.e. combining a screwdriver and a picture frame will get you the picture inside the frame since you unscrewed the screw from the frame). If the problem isn't having the right item, you'll just have to get the old thinker fired up or look it up online; even then, only a couple of puzzles may require that but there are still clues to push you in the right direction if you can make the connection.

New Game +
Once you have finished Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors at least once, you can play through the story again. Subsequent playthroughs are made easier for the player as you can fast forward through dialogue you've already seen before via pushing right on the D-pad and you'll automatically stop at segments you haven't seen yet. The game also grays out any responses you made before so you don't have to try to remember if you chose it or not. Another bonus that playing through the game again is that allows you to access the True Ending. If you're on the track to getting it on your first time, you'll get cut off with a To Be Continued... and get a different ending. Finally, a couple of endings give you previews on how to get certain endings, though you'll have to pay close attention to them if you want to get them.

Memories of the Escape
New Game + is always nice, but what if you just want to replay a certain room without having to spend time going through the story mode again? That's where Memories of the Escape come in: you can replay any room you've already been in. If there are any visual novel/reading sections you would encounter while playing normally, you'll skip past them entirely. You can still click stuff or check your items for witty remarks, but the story sections are cut out.

Story and Characters
The escape-the-room type puzzles are good, but other games may do them better. What really makes 999 great is the story and the people playing the Nonary Game. You start off only knowing what the danger is and who is with you. Even then, you only know people by the nicknames assigned to them and nothing more. As you split up and go into the rooms with the other players, you'll start to gradually piece together what is really going on and who you can trust. A lot of the conversations may seem innocuous as you start out, but as you read on, it becomes more relevant to understanding the game.

As for the story itself, it can be engrossing once you get the plot moving, leaving you to the point where you're racing for a finish. Everything is well written; certain scenes are so detailed in their description that its very easy to imagine them (which makes the murders that take place all the more disturbing). Some endings are less satisfying than others, mainly because those are bad endings. Overall, the first playthrough will take anywhere from 5 to 10 hours depending on how fast you read and how fast you go through the rooms. Subsequent playthroughs are a lot shorter due to the fact that you can skip the stuff you've already seen. Though the story does wrap up nicely, there's an answer section that will hopefully clear up any lingering questions that can be found here.

You Found It
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is an amazing game, even if it is a little short. Despite its length, 999 presents an intriguing story, a likable cast of characters, and neat puzzles. If you're into those kinds of things, definitely give this game a try; if you're not one for reading, not a DS owner, or don't like the idea, stay away from this. If I had reviewed this earlier, I would've said to find this game asap because copies of the game are hard to find... however, Aksys Games was kind enough to do a reprint of the game with a new cover (shown below), so getting your hands on it should be a bit easier now. As if that wasn't enough, there's an upcoming sequel set to release this month called Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (this time on the 3DS and the Vita). Its a self-contained story, but there are call backs to 999, so play this first if you can! And if this still isn't enough to convince you to buy the game, there's a demo that you can play here.

(New cover art)

The Last Story Review

2012-09-23T11:41:00.001-07:00

After a month of life problems and not enough time to play this game during the month it came out in the US, I can now give a decent review of Mistwalker's Wii-exclusive RPG, The Last Story. After Operation Rainfall's efforts to raise awareness and find a way to bring it over here, Xseed Games published it for North America players. Before anyone says anything, The Last Story isn't connected to Xenoblade Chronicles in any way other than being an RPG and promoted by Operation Rainfall. So what is this RPG all about anyways?

(Note: I'll be referencing controls for the Wiimote+Nunchuck setup, though you can also play using the Classic Controller/Pro)

The Last Story follows the mercenary Zael, who travels to Lazulis Island to set up shop with his ragtag bunch of friends. On their way to Lazulis, Zael acquires a strange power that draws the attention of his enemies but helps his allies as well. After reaching Lazulis, Zael runs into a beautiful woman that turns out to be the niece of Count Arganan, ruler of the island; during their new job, the mercenaries find themselves tangled up with the Count's plans and the Gurak, an exiled tribe of creatures that want their revenge on the humans.

Gameplay

Like every RPG, gameplay is divided between the fights you get into and the time spent roaming around the land. As far as combat goes, it could be described as action RPG meets third person cover shooter. (Note: its recommended that you set attack settings to manual)

Combat

Attacking as Zael is as easy as pushing the A button, which has him slash with his sword or occasionally kick his enemies. The default setting for the game has it so you auto-attack whenever you get close to an enemy, but since you pretty much attack if you so much as step next to them even when they aren't your target or you aren't facing them, its better to switch the controls to manual mode. The game will warn you that you'll do less damage but considering how cumbersome the default setting is, dealing slightly less damage is better than having to stop every two seconds to attack enemies when you don't want to.

While offense will take down your enemy sooner, defense also plays a vital role. With the B button, you can block most attacks sent your way and reduce the damage taken by those attacks. Some attacks will break your guard and send you flying. As for dodging, you press down on the + pad and tilt the thumbstick in any direction to dodge that way.

Zael also has the ability to diffuse magic circles (the area that hits opponents after a mage casts a spell), which will activate them. Not only can he do this to friendly magic circles, but he can use circles left by enemies and make them benefit his team. Diffusion is done so through two methods: Gale and Vertical Slash. Gale, performed by holding down the A button, stops time and shows the battlefield from above. You can then direct where you will use Gale and Zael will slide over and diffuse circles. Vertical Slash is a wallrun (performed by running to a wall) that, while it doesn't have the benefit of stopping time, is more powerful than Gale.

The biggest advantage Zael has over his enemies and even his allies is the strange ability he acquires at the beginning of the story, called Gathering. Activated via the C button, Zael's right arm glows and draws the attention of nearby enemies. Normally having all eyes set on you is a bad thing, but the other side effects of Gathering that make it a vital component of combat. First off, every strike you deal restores a chunk of your health; second, having it activated will double the casting speed of your team's mages. The most important of Gathering's abilities is that you can revive your teammates if they get knocked out, though you can only do so for each person five times.

So what does any of this third person shooters, which I described as part of gameplay? First off, you can take cover behind barriers, pillars, walls, etc. to avoid soaking up damage like a sponge. Alright, sounds cool, but any game can have that. In The Last Story, Zael has another ability his friends don't: a one-handed crossbow. With it, he can shoot his enemies with a variety of ammo types, from regular arrows to exploding ammo and even prank bananas that cause people to slip. While aiming, you can press the + button during combat to see an enemy's weaknesses; looking around during combat also allows for Zael to find ways to interact with the terrain. For example, the first fight in the game shows that you can have one of your mages attack a bridge to make it collapse on the enemies below and on the bridge. The crossbow is very useful in The Last Story as it gives Zael the ability to hit targets from far away but to manipulate the area if given the chance.

One last important component to the battle mechanics: Command mode. To activate Command mode, you press up on the D-pad and the game will stop to let you issue commands to you and your teammates. You can activate abilities this way or retreat to the nearest healer/healing circle. Command mode can only be activated when the skill bar is full, though it doesn't take that long to fill up.

Finally, we have the mage characters. They work the same as Zael, but when you hold down the A button, they'll start casting a spell. The speed of the spell is faster when you control them; you only get to control them a couple of times during the story, which is kind of disappointing since they're fun to use. However, you can use them in the Online Multiplayer mode.

The game goes into every ability and how they work with a little tutorial whenever they show up, making it so you aren't in the dark on how to fight. Even better, the tutorials will tell you the control scheme for either controller setup.

Exploring the World

When you aren't on a mission, you'll most likely be exploring the moderately-sized Lazulis City. The city is always bustling with people going about their business; they don't like it too much if you bump into them and will get mad at you if you do. As you walk around, you'll sometimes find people you can talk to or you can listen to some groups gossip about the latest happenings. Sometimes you'll come across folks who require your help, usually requesting you bring them assorted goods such as eggs, bananas, coconuts, or to find certain people or animals in the city. It bothers some people that these missions aren't recorded in some form of log and that they have to remember where the people are or what they need, but honestly many RPGs are like that. At least if you find that person but forgot what you need, you can always ask them.

Then there are the various shops around the city. Some sell food or weapons while others will upgrade your equipment. Upgrading weapons/armor requires you to pay a certain fee and later upgrades will require certain expendable items you get from enemies or treasure chests. As you upgrade your stuff, they'll get new side effects and new appearances.

In the northwest part of the city is the Arena, where you can run through several rooms defeating enemies for gold and item drops. As you keep winning, the enemies will get stronger but you'll win more. Outside the Arena is a group of people that will eventually start giving you stuff if you win (but only if talk to them beforehand). Its a quick and easy way to get money if you need it.

Finally, you'll find items lying about in alleys and on the ground. The items found in these hidden spots will give you a random stat boost for Zael or the entire party. The best part is that these items respawn so you can grind for stats without having to battle. The items you find on the ground (you'll see something shiny or see your crossbow icon come up) will also be random things; manage to string five items in a row and you'll get a nice rare item for your trouble.

Customization

In most games, putting on different gear normally doesn't affect the way you look. Other games will show the changes, but sometimes varying colors and appearances clash with each other. In The Last Story, you can change the way Zael and the other mercenaries wear their armor. For example, having fully maxed out Heavy Armor will load the character with a bunch of armor everywhere (its armor after all, its supposed to cover you); going to the "Colour" menu on the pause screen will allow you to remove any or all of the parts without sacrificing your stats. You can also buy color dyes and change what color your armor is: you can have Team Zael be a rainbow of colors or have them run around in underwear while still having high defense.

Dagran embracing the "Real Men Wear Pink" mentality

New Game +

After you beat the game once, you can play through it again with all of your weapons, equipment, skills, and levels. With most games, that would mean the game is a walk in the park; in The Last Story, some of the harder enemies and bosses are scaled so that they're still a high level than you. You can also upgrade your items beyond their regular levels all the way to +99, which is good since the harder enemies will laugh at your gear that was previously the toughest around.

Story

The Last Story being an RPG, especially one made by the creator of Final Fantasy, it must have some sort of epic story with knights, princesses, and all that, right? The game certainly does have that, but the main plot doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The bad guy wants to kill all humans (and looks a lot like Ganondorf), Zael and love interest Calista love each other but don't exactly say why, the mercenaries are all good friends who support each other, etc. There's also the fact that the game isn't too long, with the average playthrough clocking in at around 25 to 30 hours. I'm about 35 hours in and I'm done besides having seen the credits.

Despite the story not being anything new, it still plays around with them in ways you wouldn't expect. For example, this may be a tale of knights and princesses but this nowhere near the romanticized version of it that most people associate that with; most of them are corrupt people. People you wouldn't expect to die end up doing so. There's unexpected uses for technology in a time that generally doesn't have it. Zael and Calista's love story, shallow as it may be, isn't all in-your-face about it and doesn't interfere with the plot all that much.

Then there are the characters themselves. I found the cast of The Last Story to be likeable and the camaraderie between the mercenaries was nice to see. However, I would've like to have seen more development in the characters: what were Lowell's and Syrenne's lives like before becoming mercenaries? Why can't Zael smell anything? How does Mirania eat so much? The game does bring up some developments and backstories, but I feel like more could've been done.

The English Dub

Like Xenoblade Chronicles, North America got the localization of the game that Europe got. Just like Xenoblade Chronicles, the English/British dub is very well done. Names were changed to be more fitting and the voice actors did an excellent portrayal of their characters. Overall, this localization fits the theme and tone of the setting that I find it hard to imagine what the Japanese version would sound like; even with the option to change the settings, I would keep the English voice track.

Online Mutliplayer Modes

Surprisingly, The Last Story has online capabilities, which most Wii games typically lack. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to play it myself - I'll try to cover it in a later review - but I do know the basics. You can play Deathmatch mode, where you take on an opposing team as characters you pick. Then you have a mode where you team up to take on enemies and bosses from the game. Beyond playing the game with others, you can get various rare items to use in story mode, so there is some incentive to play online before the community dies out on it in the future.

The Concluding Review

With a title like that, you can be assured that I'll be making a ton more reviews and milking for all its worth. Anyways, The Last Story is definitely a great game; not the greatest in the land, but one that fans of RPGs or action games should get around to buying. If you hate RPGs or generally dislike what this game is all about, this isn't for you. The story isn't anything new to gaming, but the gameplay itself is pretty solid. Also, the first prints of the game in North America come in a nice box and a 44 page artbook, which you get while still paying for a regular price Wii game.

A quick look at The Last Story to tie it all together

Mission 11: Review Time! Elite Beat Agents at Your Service

2012-09-13T23:20:00.002-07:00

Continuing the trend of rhythm games to review, we have the DS game Elite Beat Agents, also developed by iNiS like Gitaroo Man was. Elite Beat Agents (EBA for short) is the Western version of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, changing the songs to better fit with its new audience, new scenarios, and changing it from cheerleaders to secret agents, though the core concept is still the same. So what crazy game did iNiS make this time?

Elite Beat Agents doesn't have an overarching story like most games do, instead focusing on missions that show a person going about their usual business only to be presented with a difficult, sometimes even impossible sounding, problem that they must solve. With stress levels being pushed out through the roof, the person will scream a loud, highly exaggerated "HEEEAAALP!"; from a secret base located somewhere in the world, Commander Khan watches the scene unfold. Proclaiming "Agents are... GO!", the Elite Beat Agents are sent out to help motivate the person needing assistance... through the power of song and dance.

Are You Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!
The gameplay for EBA is very simple - so simple that many other DS games (usually shovelware or licensed titles) borrowed aspects of it in their games.

Hit Markers are numbered circles that have circles closing in on them called Timer Circles. Once the timer circle reaches the edges of the Hit Marker, you tap it. If you tap it on time, you'll receive a 300; if you're slightly off, then 100; if you tap is really off but you still hit it, then you get a lowly 50; and if you outright miss, then you get an X. The Hit Markers will appear in numbered order and you have to tap them in the right order otherwise you'll mess up.

Phrase Markers are like extended Hit Markers: you tap the first marker, but then you follow the ball through the shape that appears (which can be lines, curves, and various other shapes) until you reach an end point. If you move your stylus off the ball for too long or go outside the bounds given, then you'll miss and lose points if you don't get back on course.

Finally, there are Spin Markers. With these, you have to spin a circle and fill up the bar on the side to the top before the Timer Circle hits the middle. If you fill up the bar before the Timer Circle reaches the middle, you can keeping spinning for more points. If you fail to reach the top, then you'll receive an X and miss it. Most of the times these occur at the end of a song, though sometimes they'll show up in the middle.

Of course, there has to be a way to fail songs. At the top of the screen is a meter, 45% of it being red and the rest being yellow. Play well enough and you'll be in the yellow area; at the end of a section you'll see the character succeed at part of their task and you'll get a circle, indicating that you passed the section. However, if you start missing enough - or on the hardest difficulty you get more 100's and 50's - you'll be dropped down to the red part of the bar and the agents will look like they about to collapse. If you finish a section while in the red area, the character will fail at that part of the task and you'll get an X for the section. Obviously, if the meter hits the bottom of the bar you get a game over.

As for the circles, X's, and section stuff, each song is divided up into 3 or more sections, showing the person as they try to complete their task. Depending on how many circles or X's you get will affect their endings. All circles show the person completing their task with utmost efficiency, all X's show the polar opposite but still barely succeeding.

Story
As stated earlier, the game is divided up into missions that focuses on a new person instead of having an overarching plot. The game starts off fairly tame, with the first mission helping a girl babysit three unruly kids while trying to make sure the jock of the football team doesn't leave so she can ask him to be her boyfriend. As you complete missions and move on, they start to get weirder (even the first mission is odd and I made it sound boring!) with the agents going back in time to help Leonardo da Vinci woo Mona Lisa and paint her, to motivating a retired baseball player to save an amusement park from a fire-breathing golem, and more. Overall, the missions are ridiculous but they're all fun and memorable.

Despite how wacky the game is, the story does take a few dark turns when you aren't expecting them, mainly from the game over scenes. Some show the people utterly failing at their task, other times the character will be on the verge of death; and its only an E+10 game. It's a huge mood swing from the upbeat tone of the rest of the game and it serves as a bit of motivation to not fail. Especially missions 12: you fail that one, it will be a depressing punch to the face. Even if you avoid the game overs, there are a few serious missions, though they culminate in some of the best moments of the game.

The Music
Being a rhythm game, it has to have music and EBA is no exception. All of them are covers and most of them tend to be pop songs that you'll no doubt have heard before and possibly hate. Yet Elite Beat Agents manages to make songs like "Sk8er Boi" and "Survivor" fun to listen to when you put them with the scenarios they during the game. "Survivor", for instance, is used for a zombie mission where the guy, who looks like he'd belong in Doom, stops the outbreak... with peanuts. Even "You're the Inspiration", which was panned by a lot of people, manages to be a bit of a tearjerker for its mission. So even if you're against pop music (though not all of them are pop), it doesn't ruin the game; in fact, I'd say it makes it better. The songs are recognizable so you can tap to the beat and they're fun to play.

And if you're curious about the song list, here is all 19 of them:
1) Walkie Talkie Man
2) Makes No Difference
3) Sk8er Boi
4) I Was Born to Love You
5) Rock This Town
6) Highway Star
7) Y.M.C.A.
8) September
9) Canned Heat
10) Material Girl
11) La La
12) You're the Inspiration
13) Let's Dance
14) The Anthem
15) Without a Fight
16) Jumpin' Jack Flash
17) Believe
18) ABC
19) Survivor

YEAH!!! Mission Complete
Elite Beat Agents, despite usually being found in game accessory packs and bargain bins, is actually a pretty fun game, with its oddball missions, dancing MIB agents, and over-the-top presentation. The gameplay is well done and can be pretty addictive once you try to get higher scores to unlock the bonus stuff. I'd say this is a DS game to get if you like rhythm games. The prices for it are low in a lot of places as well so it won't be making your wallet too light.

"Makes No Difference" on Cruisin' difficulty (medium)

"Sk8er Boi" with all difficulty modes shown

Gitaroo Man Review

2012-09-04T11:32:00.003-07:00

After a couple of weeks, I'm back with another review of a game. This time, I'm switching it up by going over a rhythm game - an obscure one at that. The game is Gitaroo Man, a PS2 game developed by iNiS and released all the way back in 2001, though it later received a PSP port titled Gitaroo Man Lives! with some extra stuff and changes.

Gitaroo Man follows a young, awkward boy named U-1, who is ignored by his peers and the girl of his dreams, Little Pico. One day, his talking dog Puma teaches him how to play guitar and after the lesson, a devil baby with an axe/guitar attacks them. Puma transforms into a robot dog and gives U-1 a strange looking guitar, transforming the boy into the eponymous Gitaroo Man. The transformed boy must now fight and defeat the opponent in a guitar battle. It's a very... quirky and colorful game, yet its fun and actually challenging.

Gameplay
Gitaroo Man is a very simple game to play but somewhat hard to explain with words alone. At the middle of the screen is a dot; move the left thumbstick in a direction and a fan opens up to show the direction you're pointing in. A bar will come along and you must press (and hold if the bar is long) any of the four buttons once the bar reaches the dot, at which point you'll start playing music. Hold down the button until the bar ends to play the note in its entirety. If any of that confuses you, just note that a tutorial at the start of the game will show you how to do it.

The battles are divided into several sections: usually they start off with a Charge phase to build up your health bar. Play the notes right and you'll build up health; miss the bars and you don't get health from it.

Next up will either be Attack or Guard phase. During Attack phases, you'll play notes and for each bar you hit, the enemy takes damage. If you miss any bars, you'll be the one taking damage. Guard phase puts you on the defensive as you have to avoid the enemy's attacks. Instead of playing the bars, you have to press the corresponding buttons (Triangle, Circle, X, or Square) as they come from the sides to the dot in the middle. Press the buttons as they reach the middle and you avoid taking damage; mess up and you take damage.

If you can survive through the intense battles, you'll reach the Harmony and End phases. The Harmony phase is when you'll go all-out on the offense and bring down the remainder of your opponents health, if they aren't at zero already. Once you reach the End phase, you'll finish up the final part of the song; you won't lose any health in the End phase if you mess up, though you will in Harmony, so don't drop your guard.

Once the level is done, you'll be graded on your performance and if you do well enough, you'll get character bios for the Gallery section. You can go back to the levels at any time to get a better score.
Something that I found interesting about the game is that each time you play will be bound to be different. The Charge, Harmony, and End phases will play the same and be in the same spots, but Attack and Guard phases will always be different. You'll run into familiar patterns if you play the song multiple times, but they won't always be in the same place or you may not get them at all during the song. This makes it so that you can't play with your eyes closed and always keeps you on your toes.

Master's Mode
The game's default difficulty is set to Easy, though you can set it to Normal, where you'll get less health during Charge phase and lose a little more health if you miss. Beat either difficulty and you can play on Master's Mode, which is a fancy way of saying Hard mode. Like Normal mode, missing at all will hurt you more - except during Charge phase, where you just won't get health. You'll also receive less health during Charge phases, making it so you'll have to hit every bar perfectly to fill up on health. The battle phases also throw a lot more bars at you for you to hit and makes them all come out faster. If you aren't careful, even the first level can be a pain in the butt. Also, you'll have to start from level one again.

Cons
I haven't put in cons for awhile, usually because they aren't apparent or I never had any to list, but unfortunately Gitaroo Man has some that stick out. First one off is the length: its pretty short, finishing in at about 10 levels not counting the tutorial. However, the levels start to get harder around level 3, so unless you beat everything on the first shot, it will take a few hours to get through it all on Easy or Normal mode. Master's Mode, being ridiculously difficult, takes a lot longer than the first playthrough and due to the difficulty, its possible you might not even finish. Personally, I got stuck around level 3 before I gave up.

The next con is possibly the worst ever: pausing the game. You can pause during a song, but the problem is that you can't resume your progress if you pause. It gives options to either retry the song from the start or go back to the main menu. That's a pretty big flaw in my opinion because it means once you start a song, you have to be committed to finish it and if something comes up - a phone call, bathroom break, someone breaking into your house, etc. - you either stop playing or ignore the problem. Thankfully this is fixed in Gitaroo Man Lives!, which lets you resume progress.

Story and Style
I'll admit the story of Gitaroo Man isn't all that great. Continuing from the premise given above, U-1, now in possession of one of the eight legendary Gitaroo, must battles the forces of the evil Zowie, who wants U-1's Gitaroo because he has seven of the eight Gitaroo and possessing all eight will let Zowie take over the galaxy. As U-1 takes on Zowie's minions, he comes more confident in himself and becomes a better person. Its basically a coming of age story... a story fueled by the power of rock and other types of music! The dialogue is, as Tvtropes calls it, narmybut honestly, we aren't really here for the well written story.

Then there's the style of Gitaroo Man: the game is cel shaded and has very vibrant colors everywhere you look. Then you have the characters during battle: U-1, who goes from short and dreary looking, dons red and white armor and becomes taller while possessing his Gitaroo. Puma goes from a cute little dog to a tough looking boombox/dog hybrid. Together these two take on things like cartoony UFO's that fight with synthesizers and a space shark that can transform into a giant robot.

Then there's the music, which is wildly different with each level. For example, the first level is straight up rock while the second level is J-pop, then the next is Blues, etc. Though each level is a different genre with the opponent using a different instrument, U-1 will always use a guitar. Ever want to see a guitar vs trumpet battle? This game has it (level 3). All of the game's songs are excellent, with only one of them I didn't really enjoy, mainly due to how odd it was to play.

Gitaroo Man Lives!
As stated earlier, Gitaroo Man was ported to the PSP back in 2006, bringing in some new changes. Along with being able to resume progress during songs, there are two new songs, you can play co-op with the new songs, and WiFi multiplayer. If you have a PSP and are interested enough by this game, definitely get this version of the game.

The Big Finish
Gitaroo Man is a bright and quirky rhythm game that follows U-1 as he saves the galaxy with the power of rock. It isn't a very long game and has its flaws, but if you like games that do something different than everyone else gameplay wise and enjoy music, you may like this game. Having become something of a cult classic, finding copies of the game may be difficult and/or expensive; if Gitaroo Man seriously interests you, go for it. Otherwise you could just watch a playthrough on Youtube. Speaking of which, here's two videos: one is the tutorial at the beginning and the other video contains the first two levels.