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## Video Games Discussion

### Tachi's Game Reviews - Page 1

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#### Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-04-26 23:45:49
Ok, I've been playing a lot of video games lately and just thought I'd give this thing a go.
First thing on this list that I am reviewing is the game series Klonoa. First off, I will not review the gameboy advance games only released in japan, mainly because I can't play them on the gameboy, which I feel can determine how the game feels when playing them. Klonoa door to phantomile was a game developed by Namco exclusively for the playstation 1. Unlike most Playstation games at the time, Klonoa didn't try to become a 3D platformer which was flooding the gaming market at the time, instead it was one of the few 2.5D platformers that was released exclusively for the playstation. It was promoted by namco, but did not get the recognition it deserved.
Now there isn't much to say about the story without giving out too much spoilers, so I'll just give you a basic run down. Your playing as an Anthropomorphic cat…rabbit thing named Klonoa, who lives with his grandpa, and has a best friend named Huepow who is a blob that lives in klonoa's oversized ring. After they do … whatever this is http://i.imgur.com/mdS5e.jpg A ship crashes into a mountain, which klonoa saw in a reoccurring dream. After defeating a bunch of moos [img]http://opowagarocks-klonoa.blogdrive.com/images/Happy%20Moo.gif[/img] ,they reach the top of the mountain to find that 2 figures are trying to obtain a magical object, and end up kidnapping a princess. So Klonoa and Huepow set off to rescue the day. Now, although the story seems bland, it picks up by throwing you some twists and really tugs at your emotions as you go along within the game.
The graphics of this game were very good for it's time, including a polygon stage, sprited characters, and fully fleshed out movie quality cut scenes. This game was beautiful for it's time, and I still can appreciate the style and colors within the game. It doesn't end there, the soundtrack of this game was just outstanding to me. I wouldn't say it was as catchy as the music in Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time, but it fits the mood of the game, and really enhances the enjoyment I get out of this game.
I can't even tell you how good the gameplay is. I would even say it feels more fun than playing the original Super mario bros. Mario may have the fire flower, but Klonoa is already equipped with a ring that fires an extremely short distance, but inflates an enemy and can be used as a projectile or used for klonoa's double jump. Klonoa can also fly short distances with the help of his long ears. The puzzles in this game however can be frustrating beyond belief, especially in the second half of the game. However, once you solve it, you will feel very accomplished, and will want to play more. The game also has good replay value with the inclusion of trying to find all the people you need to rescue. If you do, you are rewarded with a few bonus stages.
Some complaints I do have are geared torwards the difficulty within the game. This was a kids game, and at times your expected to pull off some fast reflexive decisions to progress. The first half feels like anybody could play it, but after that it acts like it's suddenly a hardcore platformer. Another problem I've seen was that it was a little too short for my taste. If they added another act, i think it would be satisfying.
Overall I would give this game a 8/10. The game has amazing charm, and has the challenges to entertain even an adult. Although If you can find it for a decent price, pick it up, it's an extremely good game.
next review: Klonoa 2 Lunatea's Veil

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-05-02 23:43:39
*sigh* Klonoa 2, for the playstation 2. What can I say about this game… Well for one, Namco redesigned Klonoa's character… which looks like it belongs in a Sonic game… Okay, before I continue *bangs head against wall* WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Story: (this will be long)
Okay, the story takes place in Lunatea, a dream world, where Klonoa has been summoned by an unknown voice. (and no, *sigh* it wasn't huepow) After falling aimlessly in pitch darkness, klonoa is summoned in the middle of the ocean, where Klonoa decides to take a nap… You see 2 shady figures talking on an airplane, who seem to be after a magic charm, but decide to leave after spotting 2 other people along the coast. The 2 people on the coast are none other than Lolo, a priestess in training, and Popka, whatever this is [img]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090113193250/klonoa/images/7/7c/Fix_pk_bsc.jpg[/img].
Upon awaking, Klonoa greets the two, but is told by popka that they suddenly need to get to the island off the coast. After lolo SOMEHOW goes into klonoa's ring (oh great, thanks for replacing a green blob spirit with a full sized human girl) they jump, hover, and even ride on a bird to reach it. After getting to the island, Lolo sees a bell, and tells Klonoa to ring it, so that she can be become a priestess. So Klonoa, who has absolutely no relation to her, willingly agrees and rings the bell with a fire of the wind bullet.
Lolo talks to Klonoa, and decides they should go seek help from a prophet named Bakuji. Bakuji happened to predict Klonoa's arrival, and told Lolo and Popka to find him. (…that explaaaaaaains everything) Bakuji tells Lolo to head to the high priestess' castle to see if she herself could become a priestess. Klonoa is told by Bakuji that the only way out is to help Lolo on her quest. So Klonoa, who is now pretty much a captive, helps lolo along the trail to the caste.
Arriving at the Castle, Lolo tells the High Priestess that she rang the bell on the island. (that lying piece of $#%@) After being granted the title of priestess, the High Priestess tells Lolo of 3 elements that are scattered throughout the land. They need to ring 3 bells in order to restore peace among the land, for if the 4th bell appears, the land will see only misery. So after leaving the castle, the two figures from the plane in the beginning, show themselves. Leorina, the sky pirate, and Tat, the two toned cat, try to rob Klonoa for his ring. After releasing a robot that looks cheesier than the ones in Megaman Legends, Klonoa destroys it and moves on.
They head back to the prophet Bakuji who tells them where the 3 elements are. One is in Joilant, a city that is a huge theme park, where they experience nothing but joy. Another in the city of Volk, a city that is in constant war, and enjoys discord. And the last in Mira Mira, an isolated snow city, where the civilians are always in indecision. Klonoa first heads to Joilant, making his way through baloons, clowns, rollercoasters, and haunted houses, he retrieves the element only for it to be stolen by Tat, Leorina's sidekick. She splits into 2 and you have to complete both stages to get the element back. After kicking her @$$ TWICE, you get back the element and Leorina and her cat fly away. Next in Volk, Klonoa has to go underground to reach the city. After dodging missiles and explosions, (what is this, a Michael bay movie, geez) Klonoa discovers that Leorina was making her own copy of Klonoa's ring. After shutting down both power generators, Klonoa destroys another robot, gets the element, avoids explosions, and gets the heck out of that crazy place. Next Klonoa and the team, (if you call them that) make ways to Mira Mira. However, to arrive there they have to go to an old ship to get there. They turn on the generators and arrive at the kingdom. After some weird stages, and meeting the people, Klonoa was introduced to the castle. After making ways through the longest, puzzling (at times), and downright boring stage, Lolo happens to look into a mirror that shows her past self. After exiting the castle, Klonoa finds the bell, but has to defeat a snow related boss to get to it. Lolo suddenly decides that she wants to be sad and decides not to help. Klonoa tries to fight the giant snow demon, without a means of doing any signifigant damage. After Popka tells Lolo to get her head out of her @$$, Lolo realizes that she was letting emotion get to her and get's back in Klonoa's ring. After destroying it you get all 3 elements, woo hoo.
Going back to Bakuji's tree, they find that the prophet is no longer there. Surprisingly being greeted by Leorina and Tat, they take all 3 elements and hold them with the copy of Klonoa's ring. Leorina tells Klonoa of her plot to let the 4th tower rise, so that the kingdom of sorrow will appear. Catching up to them, Leorina opened up the Kindom of sorrow, ditching Klonoa and the gang behind. After using the ship again, They arrive in the kingdom of sorrow to find that Leorina wanted to dispose of the King of sorrow once and for all. Using the 3 elements, Leorina gets possessed and turns into a bird like thing, which klonoa defeats. The king of sorrow explains to Klonoa that he had called him, disguised himself as a prophet named Bakuji, and that he contains a fourth element. The king of sorrow also explains that the 4th kingdom was there the whole time, but Lunatea shielded themselves from it. After the King's dialogue he gets really pissed and tries to take out Klonoa with one of the easiest final boss battles I have beat. The King dies in Klonoa's hands, with Klonoa telling him he will remember Sorrow, which results in the reincarnation of the king at the credits. Klonoa rings the final bell, restores order, and leaves the dream to go home. Where is his home? I guess that pitch black void that you see when you start the game… (wait, does Klonoa live in purgatory?)
The story to me is too cliche, and is like watching a dreamworks cartoon. It's boring, has a plot twist that I guessed right off the back, and takes away from the game itself. The game probably could have done well without it.
Gameplay:
It's the same as the first game, with just a few exceptions. You have 2 different styles of gameplay now, the regular platform, and the occasional surfboard stages. The surfboard can appear in a stage, or even as a boss fight. To be honest the surfboard idea just sucks to me, it is something that belongs in a sonic game, and I really hate the idea that they were trying to copy them. The regular stages are great as usual, with an addition of power up type enemies that can give propel you up like a helicopter to shooting up extremely high like a rocket. You also have two taunts with the trigger buttons. They do absolutely nothing other than tricks on the surfboard and Klonoa catching his hat on land. It would of been cool if the taunts/tricks would do make you go faster, or even an indication on the surfboard levels.
Graphics:
They were okay. It had a cartoon like style, colorful, and was pleasing to look at. The cutscenes weren't as cool as they were in the first game, and tended to get really annoying when you played it a second time through. Even though they were okay, it doesn't change the fact that I hate the redesign of Klonoa…
Music / sound effects:
The music had a good tone, and fit the stages very well. I especially loved the music on a volk stage, the one with the buildings. The most well known song is definitely Stepping Wind, which is sung by the voice actor in the fictional language. It eventually got remixed in Namco X Capcom, which I think is the better version. The old sound effects from the first game seemed to be in here as well with a lot of new ones. They never sound out of place, and I think gives the game it's charm, right down to Klonoa's "Wa-Hoo!"
Overall: 5/10
The reason this game got this low of a score is that it doesn't hold a candle to the first game. This was a sequel, and a sequel should build upon what made the first one so great. This one had it's difficulty dropped by a landslide with the exception of that castle stage in Mari Mari. The bosses were a joke, and the story didn't hold up from the last game. I do understand that this series was marketed to young audiences, but anyone who played and beat the first game would understand why it shouldn't be. The ending of the first game had a strong message, while the second one's ending was mediocre. The addition of Klonoa's redesign and the surfboard mechanics felt like something in a 3D sonic game, and as we all know, we don't need another sonic rip off. I mean, look at Acclaim's Bubsy the bobcat.
Unfortunately the klonoa series took a turn for the worst. After Klonoa 2, Namco released a Klonoa volleyball game, a few portable games that never were released outside of japan, a cameo in Namco X Capcom, and eventually a horrible Wii remake of the first game.
Namco, now known as Namco Bandai… you have a killed such a unique character.
Next review: Coming Soon!
If you have a suggestion, leave one below.

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-05-13 01:18:40
Megaman had 4 seperate series. There was the classic Megaman, Megaman X, Megaman Legends, and Megaman.EXE or Megaman battle network. Megaman and megaman X were 2d platformers, with megaman X going into a 3d platformer, while Megaman Legends stayed a 3d platformer/3rd person shooter. But what about Megaman.EXE?
Megaman.EXE is a series released on the GBA, and a single game on the gamecube. It is not your average Megaman title, for it uses an rpg style similar to duel hearts and Pokemon TCG (gbc). It is a unique take on the megaman series by having megaman, and the robot masters, as a program rather than a living being.

[size=18pt]Spoilers ahoy![/size]
Story: Lan wakes up to his PET (a pda like device) screaming his name. The PET contains megaman, who informs Lan of what time it is. After being told he's late, he rushes to class with Mayl, who tells him of the local news about ovens catching fire. (because that's the best crime Capcom could think of)
Lan's friends are
Mayl - the operator of Roll. Has a crush on Lan.
Dex - the operator of Gutsman. Fat, ugly, rude, and is obviously too old for the class he is in. First starts out taunting Lan.
Yai - operator of Glyde (a new character who is a butler). Small, helpful, but never seems to battle.
After the teacher Ms. Mari teaches the kids on how to virus bust, or battle, (your in game tutorial) Lan faces Dex, wins, then heads home. When he reaches home, he plays on the net some, and the oven catches fire. Thinking on his feet, Lan extinguishes the fire and plugs Megaman in the oven (in this world, almost everything seems to have 2 things, wifi and a USB or Universal Serial Bus). After defeating a shit ton of small viruses, he reaches a Navi (they call the characters in the PETs net navis) known as Fireman. After megaman defeats fireman, Lan decides he needs a nap.
In the next "act" of the game, Lan rushes to school because he woke up late. Sneaking back into class, Lan notices that there is a new teacher called Mr. Higsby. After some dialog, the school suddenly is hacked, and the kids are trapped. Lan "jacks in" the electronic chalk board, and finds that mr. Higsby did it (*gasp* I never would have guessed). After a easy match with numberman, Mr. Higsby resigns from his evil organization known as the WWW. So Lan heads home and celebrates with a nap
In this act the water dries up and school was canceled. Lan heads over to the water plant. He bumps into a kid named Chaud, who is the operator of Protoman, who has admittance to see the control room. Lan steals his dad's ID, trespasses into the control room, and is greeted by the owner. Without questioning how a kid, who has no permission whatsoever, entered the control room, the owner agrees to let Lan help. Lan "jacks in" the control room's computer and finds that the computer has been "frozen" (it's an ice level). Megaman finds iceman, who attacks megaman for no reason. After defeating him, protoman shows up to delete him, but megaman asks protoman to show him mercy, and the water is restored. After all that, Lan needs another nap.
In this act Lan gets an email from Mayl, who informs Lan of Yai's birthday. Yai is interested in antiques, and the only shop is in dentown. Lan goes to dentown, and waits for Mayl, who said she will be there momentarily. After checking out the place, the traffic lights start screwing up. After a car crash, a WWW agent named Ms. Madd shows up, and says she is selling a program that will help their cars with the traffic issue. After hearing her outrageous price, Lan fixes the lights, defeats her navi colorman, and informs the people to not purchase her program. Ms. Madd chuckles, and tells Lan that Mayl, who is on a bus, is in trouble. After an email from Mayl about the bus' controls hacked, Lan rushes to stop it. After messing with the lights, he is able to get inside the bus' controls and save Mayl. After they buy Yai's gift, Lan takes a nap.
The game has another petty crime, with one of the most annoying, long, and harddest levels in this game. You have to face the WWW's navi, as well as protoman back to back, leaving you no chance to save in between the two battles. By the way, Protoman is hard as F&*#.
Biggest spoilers, so copy/paste at your own risk
[size=3pt] You find out that the WWW's boss is none other than Dr. Wily, who has a grudge on Lan's dad. To beat him, you have to face Yahoot's navi Magicman first, and defeat Wily's creation without being able to save in between. This adds a level of difficulty, but not in the good way. Also (biggest spoiler) it turns out that Megaman was created from the dead remains of Lan's brother who passed because of heart failure. Lan's father used his DNA to reconstruct Hub, now known as megaman, to carry out his memory.[/size]
[size=18pt]End of Spoilers[/size]
Gameplay: The game plays like an rpg collect-a-thon. Your main attack is the mega buster, which does minimum damage and is overall crap. You can upgrade it by collecting Power ups, which can be bought for a heavy price, given by performing a task, and can be found in certain hidden places. You can increase your max health the same way like power ups, but are not as expensive. Your best option for the most part of the game is to use battle chips. You can use up to 5 at a time during a turn in the game, as long as they follow the conditions of:
A) they are the same name
B) they are the same code (a letter from a-z)
Using 3 certain items in one turn can make a program advance, which is a super power chip by combining three. The program advance is temporary though, so choose wisely. You can have a total of 30 chips in your folder, ranging from health, attacks, shields, and even others navis to assist you. Choose wisely what goes into your folder, and the game should be no problem.
In battle mode, you have 9 squares in which you can move, as well as your enemy. You cannot go into your enemies squares, and only certain enemies can come into yours. You start out selecting your chips, or an option to add 5 chips to the next choice. When you hit Ok, or Add, you start the turn. You can choose to end the turn by pressing L or R when the guage up top is full. The guage refills fast, and is from time.
Graphics: they were gba graphics. Nothing more, nothing less.
Music/sound effects: Ok at most, the hub world's song can get annoying at times.
Overall: 7/10
This game idea is pretty sweet. Later in the series, (if you order it) you can use a gba attachment that can read chips from the toy battle chips made in japan for the PET toys, as well as use the ones within the game. It does seem a lot like a marketing gimmick, but I enjoy it none the less. This game has some minor flaws that are annoying, such as bad navigation, the money is hard to get in bulk, armor is hard to find, some places where you really want to save but it won't let you, and the difficulty before you know enemies attack patterns. Overall, you should try it if you haven't, it is definitely worth a playthrough.

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-05-16 19:03:55
[size=1em]Today's review is on one of the most widely known games of today.[/size]
[size=14pt]MINECRAFT[/size]

Most of you have heard of the newest installment of the lego video game series one of the most talked about games these days, Minecraft. Minecraft was developed by a swedish programmer, and was published by Mojang. There isn't any set goals to do, but only what goals in which you want to accomplish. With 3 different modes, a map that generates as you play, and updates now and again, this game has obvious replay value. The game has absolutely no story, and relies on your imagination to decide what to do next. I'm not certain if it was intentional, but it brings back the spirit of when kids played "pretend" and didn't rely on a video game to determine the future on story. The game has been well received by the public, and has many ports of the game, such as pc, xbox 360, android, iOS, and surprisingly a Raspberry Pi port.
[size=0.7em]Off topic: The raspberry pi is a credit card sized computer that has been increasing in popularity. I'm kind of surprised it has the capability to run minecraft. Click Here to learn more.[/size]
Creative:
This mode allows you to have everything you need in terms of materials. You cannot die (as far as I know), you cannot starve, and no enemies are around to harm you. It was intended to allow you to create anything you wish without the hassle of enemies.
Survival:
This is what I consider the actual game. You start out with absolutely nothing in a random spot. From here, one must gather resources, use the resources to make tools, shelter, armor, etc. A common strategy when starting is to immediately go after wood, to craft into wood planks. Using 4 planks to make a Crafting Table, you can create tools and many other things. Some would start with a wooden axe to get more wood to prepare. If you can, make a pick axe to get stone, to make a furnace, or walls of your house. You can make a sword, to defend yourself, and gather food quicker. If your slow at the game like I am, you would only have a few stacks (64 of an item is the max, which is called a stack) of wood planks and make a house, table, tools, and door, before the sunset. At night is when all the dangerous NPCs will come out to attempt to kill you, ranging from giant spiders, to zombies. Let me tell you, this game WANTS you dead. Unless your a god at navigation, when you start the game, your going to try to chase animals to get food by the 2nd or 3rd day, which makes you forget where your house is. If your lucky, you'll find it before night, but I've never had that happen. Once you die, you lose all of your items, and go back at the spawn point. If you can locate where you died, you can get back everything.[size=1em] To avoid losing a lot, and to have stuff handy, chests can be made. The survival has an ending by defeating an entity known as the Ender dragon, which is a giant enemy with tons of health that does cheap attacks which do a lot of damage. [/size]
[size=1em]The survival mode is what it's called, "to survive". It has very few friendly npc's, and the world is very empty. Again i'm not sure if it was intentional, but it gives off an eerie feeling. Even the "nether" (the game's "hell") is in it, which really can make a first timer nervous.[/size]
[size=1em]Multiplayer:[/size]
[size=1em]Minecraft has multiplayer servers that are created by users, groups, etc. By doing this, you have to locate the i.p. addresses to connect. This is great for exploring a huge world, and leaving the empty feeling behind in single player. The Server's rules are put out by the administrators, which can lead to lack of enjoyment, or security depending on who you are. Many server's have a theme, such as an overworld based on the novel "The Hunger Games" leading to 'interesting' ways to play. [/size]
[size=1em]Many enjoy this, however I find multiplayer servers downright crap. The real things that get to me are the servers ways to forcing you to donate. They claim the donations go to keeping the server running, and expanding it to allow more players with less lag. THAT IS COMPLETE CRAP! The admin's I have came across claim that running the server on a single computer couldn't allow so many players with the speed in which they play. The ones I have came across spend money on a VPS, which is a software that acts like a separate computer to host servers. However, you pay for the software monthly, which can be very pricey.[/size]
[size=1em]From asking admins of large servers, I found out that a lot use the deluxe windows service on hostmysite and I found a computer with the same memory specs at computerrefurb. For bandwith, that just depends on your internet, and what software you use to host your server. Perhaps I'm being a little critical, and my solutions may not work ENTIRELY as well, but when I'm playing a game, I don't want to hear an ad every 10 minutes about donating paying for DLC, that is obtainable in the world anyways. It's also a pain that the ones that do pay, get better equipment, giving them the sense that they are more skilled at the game. (seriously guys, using your mommy's credit card doesn't mean you play the game better)[/size]
[size=1em]Another problem with the servers, is the difficulty. It can range from having absolutely no challenge that your bored to tears, to trying to survive being killed off by monsters, as well as users who had more time to get better equipment. It's hard to play a game when the first thing that happens is that you get killed and lose your stuff by somebody camping. The internet is full of children, and complete dicks, so always keep that in mind when playing this mode.[/size]
[size=1em]Graphics:[/size]
[size=1em]The game's graphics aren't too much to look at. When I first saw the game, it reminded me entirely of the n64 games 3d graphics with inspiration of the gameboy advance's 2d graphic games that use a lot of outlines. Everything is a block, and your items are flat and blocky as well. I guess it's their way of saying good graphics don't make a good game, but these are so uninspired. [/size]
[size=1em]Music/sound: [/size]
[size=1em]The game's music is HEAVY into ambiance, and is very dull. Some video games music are song's I would listen on an mp3 player, while some I loved to hear it within the game, but this one is in the category of "oh dear god, please mute this". It kinda fits the mood of the game, but it's just too annoying for me to even listen to. The sound effects aren't all that good either. For a game of this date, most of the sound effects feel generic, and the ones that don't are downright annoying. The #1 reason I hate the nether, is because of those baby voices you hear the ENTIRE time. The worst part is that muting the sound effects isn't a good idea, because being in a first person view, listening for your opponents is necessary to avoid dying.[/size]
[size=1em]Overall: 4/10[/size]
[size=1em]the reason this game is getting such a low score, is because it is hardly a game. Being in a giant world, with weapons, open space, and many possibilities, is extremely boring when this game is so isolated. What fun is it to only kill enemies in a sandbox game that has this much possibilities. I guess you can say the villagers aren't, but those guys are so rare, and weak, it's not worth your time. All these items, tools, resource, don't really mean anything unless there is a purpose to use them, but most you don't even need. You COULD design a giant mansion with gold and diamond blocks, or you could save the time by making a dirt house that has the same function. The multiplayer would be more fun if it wasn't so flawed, and building things in singleplayer gets really boring after a while. With the only real goal to defeat the enderdragon, I find myself collecting resources for days (actual days) to get in a self sustainable situation to survive. It's very repetitive.[/size]
[size=1em]I don't get why this game is still popular, even after all these updates, none of them really give the game more potential. [/size]

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-05-23 20:42:46
Anime is everywhere. From the child like anime on 4Kids and Cartoon Network, to the more adult oriented ones on Toonami, there is no doubt that its a big topic. One of the most well known anime Dragonball, had a huge success leading to the sequels like Dragonball Z, and Dragonball GT. However, the sequels are what most remember in terms of having good video games, but what about the original?
Well, today's review is on the game Dragonball Advanced Adventure for the Gameboy Advanced.
[size=4]Dragonball Advanced Adventure[/size]

Dragonball Advanced Adventure is a unique game with it being a side scroller beat em up, and a 2d fighter game. Its story is a very watered down take of the actual series, and obviously leaves out a lot of detail. It's graphics are what you would expect on a gameboy advanced game, and the music is ok but can get a little too repetitive at times. What makes this game unique is the idea of having 2 gameplay styles (it claims 3, but i don't consider the flying stages different than the beat em up) and both are very fun to play.
You start out playing goku, who is a little slow at attacking, hasn't learned energy blasts, and has 2 bars of health. Throughout the game you can collect power ups to make the Power Pole longer, increase your energy bar, and increase your max health. To beat this game, I recommend you find at least 7/9 of these power ups, because some of the boss fights can get ridiculous on terms of difficulty. The first stage is goku's house after he meets Bulma, and tries to locate the dragonballs. It's nothing more than a jungle filled with pig monsters, Pterodactyls, and wolves. They aren't hard to kill, and most stages are like this, where it requires little to no effort to get to the boss. After this stage, they introduce you to the flying stages, where it's the same as the beat em up, except your on nimbus and flying in the sky. It's not till later you get the Kamehameha and are able to use energy blasts. The energy blasts are kinda useful, but they have to be charged up to a certain point, and aren't that much powerful. Until you get enough upgrades for it, it has piss poor range, and can only hit one enemy. Also if you use a "special move" which is used by pressing L, you have to regain the bar by hitting enemies.
Eventually your introduced to the world tournament and learn how to fight in the fighting mode. Your attacks are used by B, jump is A, and the only real difference is that you can guard and can't damage your opponent unless you run out his stamina meter. By running it out you can FINALLY dish out some combos doing significant damage.
After beating the game, your introduced to the minigames mode, as well as the option to play as Krillin in the story mode. For some reason the developers made Krillin the better choice to play as. He has a short range, but can dish out some heavy combos, attacks a lot faster, full max health, full energy, and can use the solar flare as his special move. He also can double jump, and do a high jump anywhere he feels like it. (goku can only do a high jump on certain areas)
Graphics:
they were good for what they were, but could of used more enemy sprites. Most were the same other than a pallet swap, and maybe a projectile.
Music/sounds:
again, they were good for what they were, with sometimes the music being a little too repetitive.
Overall: 8/10
This game was a really good beat em up for the Gameboy Advance, and is easy to pick up and play for enjoyment. It's not too short, but I think a few extra stages would of made it better. If you find it cheap in a thrift store or yard sale, pick it up, its worth a play through.

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-08-12 16:35:14
All right, it's been a while so I have a few I would like to review.
The first one is made by NIS america, who is semi-popular from their RPG series, Disagea. Back then however, they experimented with a few series concepts as well. The one I'd like to talk about is Soul Nomad & the World Eaters.
Now if you haven't already read my reviews, you should know by now that I include spoilers, and I am very nit picky about small things. So let's dive in.
[size=24pt]Soul Nomad & the World Eaters[/size]

Alright, the game takes place in a fictional land called Prodesto. They introduce you to the history of it, and it's kinda important for the story to make any sense, so here is a summary:
Prodesto was split, but was all brought together by one man named Median the Conquerer. He was forever known as a hero, but after 10 years the empire collapsed, as well with the death of himself, and his son. So because of the lack of leadership, it caused a civil war. Median's daughter proved herself to be a good leader and united the remaining countries creating peace again.
After 50 years, the empire collapsed AGAIN, as the Master of Death, Gig, arrived with 3 gargantuan beings known as the world eaters. They quickly destroyed the land, and annihilated entire nations in a matter of days. With all the chaos, some of the nations allied themselves with the world eaters in attempt to save themselves.
Things were bleak, and then Layna, Median's daughter, gathered up the remaining forces and made a direct attack on Gig. In a battle that was said to have destroyed them both, the world eaters fell quiet without their leader. They stand their, like monuments of destruction.
After that fictional history lesson, you are introduced to the actual story. 200 years passed since then, and you are a person who lives in a hidden village in the country of Raide. Your best friend is Dory, from finding nemo, except she's a half-cow, half-human whos name is Dannette, who can kick some serious ass if you use her right (i'll explain the battle system later). The village's leader is Layna (sound familiar?), who apparently survived and went into hiding.
So the day is the day where you and your friend are being promoted to town guards, a noble title…i guess? Lady Layna allows dannette to pick her weapon, she chooses the twin blades. As for you, you don't get a choice. Lady Layna gives you a black sword that cleeeeeaaaarly couldn't be at all an evil swo… oh wait. As soon as you touch this thing, you are brought on your knees, and a voice speaks up, who is none other than Gig. Lady Layna uses a red jewel called The Crimson Tear to fuse you with Gig for …some reason that isn't really clear. So you pass out, and Gig appears in your head, taunting you with his incredibly bad ass voice acting. (seriously, this voice makes vegeta, and shadow look like pussies)
He basically explains that he wants your body [giggidy] and to slowly destroy your soul. From here, you are given your first option, to submit, or to refuse, but if this is the first playthrough it doesn't matter, gig doesn't get to have your soul.
Okay the game has multiple endings, and different paths, so I can't really get deep into the story as it is made by your choices. So you escaped seeing any major spoilers *snaps* :(
Gameplay:
The battle system is very similar to disagea, however your using units of people, rather than individual characters. So it's like advanced war and disagea combined. It has a lot of choices to choose from, and a lot of optional stuff to improve your units, however it's still possible to beat the game without doing these. It's very complex and a lot to explain, so if you're into that kind of strategy give it a shot. Having certain troops or main characters in the same unit can also help you out by giving you special moves that can vary from attacking multiple people within a unit, or target the leader itself (which if destroyed will destroy the unit entirely). This game revolves around choices, which to me is good because they have reasonable expectations in the game. I'd give the gameplay a 7/10, its well thought out, battles are fun, but the optional parts can be confusing and too complex at times. The inclusion of multiple stories, and a shit ton of options really is what's brilliant for its time, but it could have been done better. For a 2D rpg game, from an unknown publisher/developer (back then at least), this was good if you consider the companies budget at the time, and trying something new-ish as well.
Graphics:
I enjoyed the chibi style throughout the game, with the occasional cutscenes involving the portraits of the characters. The art style is suiting, and the visuals in the battles are pretty and eye catching. However, sometimes you wish you could skip animations (such as the cleric) to speed up battles. 6/10, they look great, but its not anything spectacular, as they are 2D sprites, and attacks are semi generic, but in a good refreshing way.
Music/SE/Voice acting: (disclaimer i am only talking about the american voice acting in Soul nomad, and disagea)
Ugh, how do I tackle this one. The music is very… mixed to me. A lot of the songs don't stick out to me, but the few that do sound really good. I want to love the soundtrack, but a lot of it is very forgettable with the few exceptions. The sound effects are generic, but again, an okay generic. Nothing sounds out of place, but the explosions can get a tad loud at times, but if you play it on a t.v. with built in speakers it sounds fine. The voice acting is really good, i'd say a major improvement from disagea 1. People shouting feels like they're shouting and match their expression very well. They sound like how it SHOULD be. Gig's voice really takes the cake, as his character is an arrogant, cold-hearted, bad-ass, with amazing smart-ass lines. His really fits, and makes him very memorable because of it.
so audio overall….uh 9/10, this game's audio was good, the composition of the soundtrack is mediocre and pretty generic overall, but how everything seemed to blend in well is why it gets this rating. The only thing that bugged me is when they changed tracks suddenly, but the voice actors reading their lines after the change made it okay, even though it felt abrupt at first.
Overall: 6 1/2 out of 10. This game is good, but not there. The story was amazing, and can stir emotion, as well as the audio/voice acting. But everything else had some room for improvement. I'd reccommend it to the hardcore RPG players, but other than that, nah. I personally would like to see a remake or a sequel to improve upon this system, and NIS has made a few nods to the fans of this game,
Gig and the main character (default: Revya) are DLC in disagea 4.
Its one of those "potential series" that just needs a little more to making it epic.

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-08-14 20:24:05
All right, for the review above I completely half assed it. However, this game is very complex and the options are seemingly infinite. The things I didn't really touch up upon was the gameplay and the story.
Now, this game is very tame at first. HOWEVER, the so called "demon campaign" makes me laugh at the ESRB rating. This game has a LOT of shit in it, from rape, suicide, murder (obviously), slavery, and even genocide. Laharl, you ain't got shit compared to this. (even though he makes a quick cameo in the game)
The story, like i said, branches out. Most decisions just lets you find out info about small things between the important characters. These choices can end you up with a different ending. I would LIKE to spoil some, but it's just too much to discuss at all, so just play the game to find out. Trust me, this game has a lot of plot twists, and the story is compelling, you won't be bored.
Now the game uses troops, but also what's so fucking awesome, is that the units don't have tiers. (Too much possibilities to even establish a tier system). So basically, there isn't any "bad classes", just his/her stats determine that (besides the main, he's OP for a reason). I think they also have a system similar to the EV/IVs in pokemon, but I'm not sure if the source is reliable.
You have classes that are good with Range, Melee, Magic, and Special (healing, stat boosts), and each class has their own set of special moves, such as to boost stats before engaging battle, heal, turn invisible, etc. Also if you have the same type of class in a troop, that number you can use it increases. Certain classes that are together in a troop can create special attacks. These attacks happen right after your main attack and can hit all the enemies' units, directly the leader, or just a portion of the units. The special attacks that target your troop happens before your main attack though. It's good to experiment, because the special attacks help a lot, and some troops stats vary from others. These stats can help in determining their placement in their "room"
A room is divided into 3 sections. Front, Middle, and Rear. These sections are important, as they determine what type of attack your troops will do. Each room has it's own power up, except the neutral one you start out with. You gain rooms as you progress, and you can change the room type by pressing change. The change command changes every room into a random type and layout, except those with room locks. Trying to get the one you want is a pain in the ass, as you are constantly hitting change hoping you will get one with a good power up and layout. You can also purchase a "home" that will give you the option to choose your type, but will always give you the layout of 2 front, 1 middle, and 2 rear.
You can also "inspect" rooms to try to gain room points, to train individual classes. This is done by defeating the Room master in the stage provided. You can equip rooms with decors to power up that room for one stage. Each room can only have 4 power ups at a time, and the power ups the room has permanently counts.
You can purchase decors through the assignment menu, as well as gig edicts. Gig edicts are a lot like items, but some can be used outside of battle to interact with npcs, such as Steal, fight, or kidnap. However some only work in battle, and can range from restoring health, stat boosts, stat drops, and even a temporary level increase. While purchasing edicts or decors in the shop, you can better your merchant level to have a range of better items to purchase. When the merchant points is ready to be leveled up, You can use a "battle" edict to engage in battle with the store's troop.
Bad vibes are a random troop that occupy a room randomly after a change. You can get rid of them with another change, or keep them. You can't summon them to battle, (exception of kotaro) and each will do a specific effect while you win stages. Some give you free edicts, decors, and room points (be careful not to change or you'll lose those room points), while others will create space in their rooms. You can rid them and get their room, but only after a certain amount of battles, and doing so requires you to fight them.
Okay, second opinion 8/10 for gameplay, as the options are incredible and well thought out.

#### Re: Tachi's Game Reviews

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2013-09-03 14:01:11
Here's one we should all know, so here's a little history about it. Square and Nintendo released a mario rpg game called Super Mario RPG Legend Of the Seven Stars. This game was phenomenal and even I used to own the SNES cartridge when I was younger. However, it seemed that Square merged with Enix and thus ignoring any partnership with nintendo from then on. Nintendo had to please the fan base of this game, and the elements of the "sequel" were then ported to the Nintendo 64 game, Paper Mario.
[size=24pt]Paper Mario[/size]

Story: The story of this entire game is very charming. It's just an average day in the mushroom kingdom, then one day BOOM bowja flew his caaaaashel, over peach's castle. Another kidnap, another Italian plumber's adventure. Mario is defeated by bowser's star rod (giggity), and learns he must collect 7 star spirits to save the mushroom kingdom because blah blah blah blah blah. He learns this through the help of the elder star after defeating the goomba king (…You'd think bowser wouldn't approve of this). Mario then must collect all star pieces, chaos emeralds, i mean star spirits to save the day from the evil clutches of a paper incarnation of bowser.
The story is mario, and has a comparable charm to Super Mario RPG thus getting a 9/10
Gameplay: Ah the gameplay. Taking a notch up from the SMRPG game, Paper Mario added a more "fun" way of timed hits as well as timed blocks and pretty interesting items to help you through battle. Characters have very little health comparing to other RPG games, and the attacks are piss poor because of it. Seriously, the most I've seen was about 6 damage in that game. There are TONS of side missions, bonus games, and neat stuff throughout the entire game. Many unique partners help you along the way, each with a different personality. If you get bored of this game on your first run, there's something wrong with you.
10/10 Great improvement in the battle system, and child friendly.
Graphics: This game wasn't about the graphics, it's supposed to look like paper and yet be in a 3d environment. For the N64 however, this wasn't too shabby. 8/10
Soundtrack: To be honest, this game has a few tracks that stick out to me, but all the songs are fitting in their environment and the sound effects are perfect for each animation or event. 8/10
Overall: 9/10 this game is a must purchase if you own an N64, and is definitely worth the buy on Nintendo's virtual console. If you haven't tried it out, I'd recommend you do so as soon as you can.
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