Langrisser II Review, by LoC

Langrisser II
Sega Genesis


Game Review - by  LoC

Intro:

Of all the Strategy/RPG series over the years, Langrisser has always been one of the most popular...in Japan at least. Unfortunely Career Soft only localized the first game in the U.S, under the title of Warsong. The game didn't sell very well on this side of the seas, although a small and loyal fanbase was established...even back then.


Story:

Decent enough for a Strategy/RPG I guess. Just not likely to win any awards. You play a character named Elwin,who's a desecendent of Langrisser I's Garret. There's an empire trying to claim the power of the dark sword, Alhazard. And the sword being "dark" and all is supposed to set all hell loose. So yeah, you have to claim the sword of light(also named Langrisser) to combat this threat.

Gameplay:

I once saw this series described as "Fire Emblem meets Advance Wars" and that's actually not a bad description. Like Fire Emblem you have a weapon triangle system, and like Advance Wars you have large numbers of troops serving under generals. If your troops are within a certain radius of their commander, they are given statistic bonuses. Depending on the commander's current level, these bonuses range from minimal to huge. So, you can bet it's in your best interest to keep those troops near their leader. Especially since if he/she dies, all the troops under their command go with.  

Challenge/Difficulty:

Well, I don't know how many of you have played the first game...but this one seemed a bit easier to me somehow.  That being said, this game still has more than enough challenge to keep most players entertained, and occasionally frustrated, but not TOO much! 

Graphics:

A pretty big improvement over the original's, but still not quite a work of art. They won't hurt your eyes at least, some of the attack animations look very nice. Sprites seem more super deformed than they were in Langrisser I, but they are still good enough. 

Sound:

One of the best soundtracks of ANY Strategy/RPG, at least if you ask me anyway! I believe the composer was the same one who did the scores for the Lunar RPG series, but I would have to doublecheck. Memorable and excellent music. 

Replay Value:

With multiple advanced character classes to try, there's more than enough to keep you coming back for more

Overall:

One of the best games for Sega Genesis was one that was never even released in the US, which is a complete shame. Your best bet would be to try and pick up an import copy, but even that may be hard to come by. Hopefully if there is any justice, somebody will port this game to the Nintendo DS, and release it in the US for once! 

Battletanx: Global Assault Review

Battletanx Global Assault is the sequel to Battletanx, and it shows the improvements time brought in many ways. First off, the graphics are greatly improved. The tanks have good looking textures, weapon fire look more like what it is and not a fire ball. There is a greater variety of tanks, in addition to the 3 in the original, there is now tanks such as the Rhino and the Rattler. Out of the 11 tanks in the game, Kiwi would say the only one that is really crap, it's the flamethrower touting Inferno tank, the others are all pretty fun to use. There are a hand full of new weapons, some existing weapons got improved, and some of the more powerful weapons, like the nuke of all things, got weakened. Tanks move faster in this game, and there are now ramps and such for you to fly off of. The speed does help make the game more exciting, as if tanks blowing stuff up wasn't exciting enough.

This game takes place a few years after the original. You and your wife control San Francisco, and you have a son. Everything is going well, but we can't have that, can we? An evil woman attacks to kidnap your child for something called The Edge, it might as well be the Deus Ex Machina because the game avoided saying exactly what it is (it can shoot lightening bolts and control minds apparently; it could probably wash the dishes if that's what was needed). The story seems to take a more prominent role in the game however it doesn't feel good enough to warrant this extra attention. While the story may not be that great, the game play is better then ever. This time you can CHOOSE THE TANK YOU WANT TO USE. Yes, that is big enough to warrant the capitals. This solves one of Kiwi's biggest complaints with the game. Now the levels goals, they are better as well. There are now more destroy'em all objectives, and much fewer CTF style missions. There are also some gather x amount of things and destroy a certain thing objectives. Kiwi will say that the one CTF mission is harder then previous ones in that the respawning enemies are more aggressive and there is a variety of what is being spawned. This time instead of straight forward lives, you get tank bucks, basically each type of tank is worth a certain amount and should you run out of bucks, game over. With this it encourages destroying and searching the levels even more. The AI is more willing to use secondary weapons this time, so don't be surprised to get nailed in the face with a guided missile. Even with this improvement, Kiwi found this game easier then the original. Even with this downgrade in difficulty Kiwi found it more fun, which is the most important thing.

The multiplayer got some of these delicious improvements, there are new game types. Tank Wars replaces Annihilation, this time those other tanks are live and it's the first team to get to 25 points that wins. Frenzy is where the game places Queen Lords on the map and it's a scramble to see who can get the most. Hold'em places a Queen Lord in the center of the map, the teams run to grab it and place it in their base, and hold it for about 30-40 seconds. This would be more hectic except that there are Goliath tanks guarding the bases, making it harder to take'em away. Then there is convoy, one team guards a convoy while it heads to a point and the other team tries to stop'em. The problem with this is that while the convoy vehicles aren't exactly fragile, it's quite easy for the attacker to win by ignoring the guards and attacking the convoy. You do get to choose what tanks you use after you die, but unfortunately, you don't get to choose when the game starts up. The gangs are much more balanced this time around, and the tanks each squad has is more varied. Even then, some gangs are worse then then others. The game still has one of the same problems the first one did, you can't change the scoring options and such for the games.

The graphics have greatly improved and the weapons sound good as well. The music doesn't see great improvements. The music didn't really stick to Kiwi, he found it better to just listen to some of his own music.

Overall, Global Assault is a vast improvement. The game play is just down right better, the single player is better, and the multiplayer is better as well. At the rate the developers were going, one more sequel and they would have had the perfect game, too bad 3DO went down.

Disgaea 1 Review(Expanded) by LoC

This is an expanded and revised version of the original Disgaea review I wrote on March 28th 2008. Enjoy!

I have about 1 chapter of Disgaea left to play, but I have seen enough to write a fair review.

Story: An interesting, clever, and at times
hilarious story keeps you entertained every step of the way. The cast
of characters that you meet along the way range from a bratty and
arrogant Prince(Laharl), a not so loyal vassal(Etna), a love obsessed
Angel trainee/assassin(Flonne), a space Super-Hero with a
stereotypically “Heroic” voice( Gordon), and many other interesting
characters.


Gameplay: While it isn’t quite as refined as the
battle system in Makai Kingdom, the gameplay is still superb. The game
is easy to pick up and learn, with enough meat to keep you busy and
entertained for a long time. The Dark Council system is interesting,
but can be rather frustrating at times. There is a huge number of
classes and sub-classes available to use and unlock, although most of
the best ones take seemingly forever to get.


Sound: Solid sound effects, voice acting, and a nice soundtrack. Not bad at all.


Graphics: They aren’t that fancy, but they fit the games style perfectly fine. No complaints from me.


Overall: A must for any and all Strategy/RPG fans.
Give it a try if you never did before. With many secret stages,multiple
endings, and unlockable classes, there is much to keep you playing
through numerous times. BUY IT!

Star Wars: Republic Commando Review, by Kiwi

Game Name: Star Wars Republic Commando
Platform: Multiple

Reviewed by Kiwi

Star Wars: Republic Commando is an FPS on Xbox and PC. It was developed by the creator of all games Star Wars, Lucas Arts. It has one of the most enjoyable single player experiences Kiwi has seen in a game, let alone an FPS. The AI is intelligent, the guns are powerful, and everything looks and sounds great.

The most important aspect of the game is your squad. Without your squad this game fells more like a standard shooter with large doses of Star Wars as shown through the 2 times you must fight alone, the worst sections of the game, in Kiwi's opinion. The squad consist of you, the leader, a sniper, a demolitions expert, and a hacker. Though the roles, other then yours, don't really affect game play and mostly plays to help add personality to your squad mates. Your squad is very easy to command. Pretty much all commands are given through a single button (A on the standard Xbox control layout). You can order your squad to take up heavy weapons positions, man turrets, set traps, and even order them to focus their fire on single targets just by pushing A. You can also order your squad to take certain stances, hold a position, aggressive advancement, follow you, and to cancel all current actions, such as turrets, by pressing A and a direction on the D-pad. The presence of heavy weapon positions: anti-armor, sniper, and grenades; and opportunities for setting traps encourage you to maintain awareness of what's around you. It works so well that Kiwi can honestly say this is one of the few shooters where co-op would be unthinkable because the squad system is so well done.

Every shooter is made or broken by it's weapons, and Republic Commando does very well on this front. The first one you will have and will become very familiar with is the DC something rifle. Good rate of fire, accurate, and does decent damage per shot. The weapon is modular in that you can take off and put on parts to make it an anti-armor weapon or a sniper rifle. You also start out with a pistol with infinite ammo. It however, can only fire a few shots before requiring to recharge, and it is really only good against weaker enemies. You also have 4 types of grenades, thermal detonators, good against organic enemies, ECDs, good against mechanical threats, sonic grenades which can be thrown on walls or the grounds and go off if an enemy comes near, decent against both, and flash bang grenades. The first two are extremely useful, sonic are ok if you are out of what you need, and the flash bang's uses are very limited, they do nothing against droids. That makes up your standard equipment. It is further complimented by a variety of weapons that you can pick up off your enemies, or just find lying around. There is your basic SMG, shotgun, heavy machine gun (complete with a bayonet) and a homing rocket launcher. Then there's two weapons that are more unique, the concussion rifle which fire a projectile that, when it hits a target, makes a loud noise, then the projectile explodes. The concussion rifle also has a melee attack that stuns enemies, making it worth picking up, if only for the melee attack. The Geonosian Elite Beam weapon, which fires a laser beam after a very brief charge up time, not very damaging, but it has its uses. Then there is the Wookie Crossbow, it bounces off walls and can pin enemies to walls as well, in addition to a scope. And with any weapon you can melee, the speed varies depending on what you have out, but melee is a very effective, if risky way to deal with enemies. Many can be taken out with a single blow. Some of the more powerful enemies, such as Super Battledroids can be dealt with by running up and punching them over and over again. Though that tactic is less effective when there is more then one of said enemies.

The AI of this game is exceptional. Your squad is intelligent, knows where to take cover, and can do well for themselves in a fight against most enemies. The only enemy that seem to be generally incompetent are the basic Battledroids, but that seems more like staying true to how they are generally portrayed then anything else. Others, such as Trandosian mercenaries are quite intelligent. Both your squad and certain enemies will throw grenades back if one lands at their feet. Also, while meleeing enemies is effective, if you're not careful you can find yourself on the receiving end of a punch to the face. However, there are times where the AI does show it's weakness. Sometimes your squad mates will run right in front of turrets; this doesn't happen often but it is quite annoying when it does. Another is that while the members of your squad are touted as being specialist in a certain areas, they all do the same task with the same efficiency. Kiwi understands why it is, but it would be nice that if, for example, you order someone to place explosives, that the demolitions expert would be the first to do it. As it is, the closest one does it.

Graphics wise, the game is fine. Some of the areas struck Kiwi as bland, however this is balanced by the excellent enemy and weapon design. There are many cool animations. Just watch an enemy charge one of your squad mates, and you'll see what Kiwi means. The voice acting in this game is excellent, your commandos are full of awesome lines. The enemies are also enjoyable as well, even though some too talk too much. The weapons sound like they are as much fun as they are to use. The music is a downside. Kiwi only remembers hearing one song through out the whole game.

The single player is a fun ride, with the exception of the segments where you are alone, and the two timed segments. The ending seemed kinda sudden to Kiwi though. Kiwi wishes the same could be said for the multiplayer. The maps are pretty small, and Kiwi just didn't enjoy it that much. The fact that you can customize the look of your character is pretty cool, and choose between a Commando and a Trandosian Mercenary. Granted, it might be different since Kiwi didn't play it that much.

An excellent single player shooter, with a bland multiplayer. If you want something to play with friends, look elsewhere, but if you're looking for something to take your mind off the fact that you have no friends, then this is for you.

Touch The Dead Review, by Kiwi

Game Title: Touch The Dead

System: Nintendo DS

Reviewed by Kiwi




Touch the Dead (or Dead 'N Furious if you're European) is an on-rails shooter for the DS. It attempts to replicate the feel of arcade shooters such as House of the Dead. Only with a stylus in the place of a lightgun.

The touch screen is well suited to touching the undead with bullets. There weren't really any moments where it didn't register a shot. Needless to say, it is much easier to be precise with the touch screen then with a light gun. This does take away some emphasis from precision and places it on reloading, which is done by sliding the clip from one side of the screen to the other, most importantly the timing of it and doing it quickly. Even after you slide the clip acorss, your character must go through the animation before you can go back to shooting'em up. The strategy of where to shoot, head shots are good enough for normal difficulty, but furious can require a bit more thought behind shot placement, and reloading does lend some tactical thought to a game that requires little otherwise.

There are four weapons you find throughout the game: Shotgun, SMG, Pistol, and Crowbar. The pistol and shotgun are the most useful, however the SMG is near worthless. Your firepower is further improved by obtaining weapon upgrades at certain points, the first is always increased reload spead.

The story is pretty much non-existent. You are a prisoner, door opens, find gun, everyone's a zombie, go kill them. There are cutscenes in between levels, but they are mostly one-liners and generally uninteresting.

The graphics are down right ugly. Everything is blocky and the textures are very low quality.

Palette swaps make up most of the variety of enemies in this (with increases in durability). Though the ranks of the undead also include zombie rats, zombie bats, zombie alligators, zombie leeches, and robots, which are probably also zombies. There are also bosses at the end of each chapter which are pretty fun to face. The standard zombies also pull out neat tricks occasionally, but not often enough.

The sounds are a mixed bag. The pistol and SMG sound pretty cool, but the shotgun sounds weak. The zombies' groans get old pretty fast, and there is no music, except during boss fights and in the main menu.

Touch the Dead has captured how much fun it is to poke dead things with a stick. Unfortunately the sounds, graphics, and shortness (about 2-3 hours) holds it back from greatness.

Suikoden Tierkreis Update, and estimated US Release date!

Fallen Knights Fanzine has recently learned that the English translation of Suikoden Tierkreis is already well under way at Konami, and the North American release is expected to be sometime during the first quarter of 2009, although a more specific date is yet to be announced.

More game details have also recently been revealed in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. Progression within the game will be mission based, and these missions are also the only way to get potch(Suikoden's currency).Other changes from prior Suikoden games are that One-On-One Duels, True Runes, and the strategy battles are not present within Suikoden Tierkreis, nor are weapon upgrades. All weapons will instead be found within stores, like in most other RPG's. Another huge difference is that the game takes place in a parallel world. However, other familar elements such as co-op attacks, different attack ranges(Short,Medium,and Long) do return. The Japanese release date is set for December 18, 2008, and more details should be revealed as the release draws closer.

Top Five Favorite Horror Games

I consider myself to be a pretty big fan of horror games and the horror genre in general. It is a hobby of mine to collect survival horror games and play through them. The following is a list of my top five personal favorites from the horror games I've played.

Note: This list is subject to change.

5. Parasite Eve (Playstation)

Parasite Eve is an interesting hybrid of the RPG and horror genres, combining some of the best elements from both to create a unique, refreshing mix. I particularly love the creepy, unnerving atmosphere and the modern-day New York setting in addition to the storyline, which manages to be quite interesting and well-written. Another feature of Parasite Eve worth mentioning is the impeccable soundtrack; I'd even go so far as to say that Parasite Eve's game soundtrack ranks as my personal favorite of all time. The music has a very ambient, atmospheric quality to it and I find it quite pleasing to listen to.

4. Resident Evil (GameCube)

The Gamecube edition of Resident Evil is a remake of the Playstation classic. It completely revamps the graphics, dialogue and voice acting in addition to introducing new puzzles, enemies and areas, and the result is an experience that is almost completely different from the original. While the original was a highly entertaining, campy game reminiscent of B-horror movies, the remake is actually genuinely terrifying and creepy. In my opinion, it has by far the creepiest atmosphere of all the Resident Evil games and actually managed to make me jump out of my seat quite a few times. It ranks as my favorite installment in the Resident Evil series and one of my favorite horror games in general for its dark, creepy atmosphere and ingenius, excellently-designed enemies (Crimson Heads, Lisa Trevor).

3. Siren (Playstation 2)

Siren is a very unique, unconventional type of survival horror game. The stealth-oriented gameplay is quite a bit more challenging than your typical survival horror fare, and I must admit that at times I found it to be rather on the frustrating side; however, I feel that the game's excellent storyline and atmosphere more than make up for the gameplay flaws. The storyline is told in an out-of-chronological order from the perspective of ten characters, which, in my opinion, gives it an unusual and almost surreal sort of feel. The atmosphere and setting are both very dark, creepy and unsettling with a hopeless, dreary feel at times. I also found the game to be one of the scariest I've ever played. All in all, I found Siren to be a very unique, unusual survival horror game that is a different experience from your usual survival horror game and is definitely worth experiencing.

2. Rule of Rose (Playstation 2)

Rule of Rose is a very interesting, underrated title. It received some negative feedback and criticism due to its clunky combat and awkward controls. While I admit that there are some flaws in the gameplay, I still love Rule of Rose in spite of that. The reason why I love Rule of Rose so much is due to its excellent and memorable storyline. I love how it contrasts childhood innocence and an almost fairy tale-like feel with some very dark, disturbing and adult elements. The story is also very psychological, intricate and beautifully told, and even manages to be very poignant and moving in parts. I also feel that the game does an impeccable job of immersing you into its atmosphere, which, while not as creepy or scary compared to other horror games, gives off a very surreal, bizarre and dream-like feel and ambience instead. Overall, I feel that it's a game worth playing for its wonderful story and atmosphere, even if the gameplay may be flawed in parts.

1. Silent Hill 2 (Playstation 2, XBox)

Silent Hill 2 ranks as my favorite horror game of all-time. It was my introduction to the survival horror genre of gaming and a huge part of why I'm such a big fan of it to this day. The game excels in storyline, characters, music, atmosphere, graphics, and scare factor. It also features one of the most prominent and recognizable icons of horror gaming -- Pyramid Head.