How My Heart Sings- Final Fantasy X- Review

   There are some things, I concede, like Bruce Lee and Super Mario Brothers 3, that are, as they say, "Worth the hype." I usually remain skeptical until I satisfy my curiosity completely. For years, as a teenager, I heard about the great game the was Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2, released at the turn of the millenium. Now we will see if that proved to be the case.

   Final Fantasy X is a turn based RPG made by SquareSoft in 2000, with a soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu. I'll explain why that was significant later. This game was a launch title for the Playstation 2 system, back when it came out as the Dreamcast killer. I was a sophmore in high school at the time, and also a Dreamcast owner and fan. During the brief stint that I owned a PS2 through a temporary trade with a friend, I actually owned this game and played about 2 hours into it before getting my Sega Dreamcast back. I was turned off to how overly cinematic the game was, feeling more like a movie than an interactive experience. This was coupled with the fact that I was dedicated to its competitors. Grandia 2 on the Dreamcast, I would argue with my friends, was a better RPG. Grandia 2 is still an amazing game today, but I had no idea my feelings would be challenged.

   Final Fantasy X is the story of Tidus- a blitzball player from a land called Zanarkand. In the outset of the journey, a large creature later known as Sin, attacks his hometown, and obliterates his world. He is saved in the process, and pulled to another parallel world that he doesn't understand, yet there are some consistent ties between the 2. He meets a cast of characters who share the goal he soon realizes, of finding and defeating Sin. He is more involved than he knows at first, and the entire battle they work towards in itself becomes a struggle for him. In the game, the character Wakka, who he meets when he washes up on the shore of the new world- Spira, also plays blitzball, and they bond through that. He meets the other characters, and they soon begin a pilgrimage to collect powerful beings called Aeons, to assist in the fight against Sin. The priests of Yevon guides the pilgrimage of all summoners, and Yuna, who leads this group, is very interested in Tidus, and respects his father. She is the only one who believes Tidus' story, and shares similar memories and relationships. Towards the end of the game, more of the history of their parents and how they also fought Sin is revealed. Auron is the one person from Zanarkand that Tidus remembers, and he somehow makes it to the new world with him, and they meet again along Tidus' journey.

   Blitzball is a recurring game in FF, and is stupidly difficult. You can recruit random and obscure people in the world throughout the game, and play seasons and tournaments to win prizes. Winning a Blitzball game is like winning the NY State Lottery. It won't happen to you. I gave up after the first couple of blowout losses. Your performance depends on stats of your roster. You have Passer ratings, block rating, Shot ratings, Attack rating, and Defense rating, When you dribble the ball, you can be encountered by up to 3 opposing players. If you try to shoot, your shot rating has to trump the block rating of the collective players. It is based on a range, so if it manages to be close, you have a chance. However, your shot's success is also calculated by the distance it has to travel, and the defense rating of the goalie. When it comes to dribbling past the players, or "Breaking," your attack has to be higher than the player you pass. You can choose to break only 1 or 2 of the potential 3 or 4 players. You can also pass to a teammate, perhaps after breaking a player or 2 to increase the odds of the pass not being stolen or blocked  and actually caught by your teammate. All of this is just as convoluted and unfair as it sounds. You have no where near the stats, number wise to beat even the weakest of teams. I lost the introduction game of blitzball, at the tournament for Maester Seymour. The items unlocked for victories never saw daylight in my playthrough. Bless the fools that found a way to master than nonsense.

  The game has a battle system that allows you to change weapons during your turn in combat, and switch party members as well, which you will do constantly. Lulu, who is a mage on your team, specializes in Dark Magic, while Wakka has a skillset perfect for flying creatures. Auron and Kimhari- who was the primary guardian of Yuna, have weapons build with the piercing attribute, making them great for armored foes. You have a sphere grid that maps out the progress of your party and is used for leveling up. You must use Attribute Points (AP) earned in combat to move along this board, and manually upgrade you HP, MP, Strength, Defense, Magic, and Magic Defense. You also learn abilities on the board, and can get items that allow you to warp to other areas of it. It is a very tedious process, but in time, you will make progress. You have to be aware that you move methodically, because if you miss vital abilities on a characters grid, you will have to spend time and points making you way back to the needed sphere to acquire the ability. All the while your character won't be improving at all statistically.

  It's hard to know what to choose to upgrade, because many abilities aren't noticeably useful until much later in the game, such as Hastega. This game, like many Final Fantasy games before it, has may status changing spells, like Slow, Petrify, Poison, Strength enhancement, Speed enhancement, Berserk, Blind, Confuse, Sleep, Doomed, etc. You will get spells like this, but many times they seem useless, and enemies that you would benefit from using them on, will almost always be immune to the effects. Yuna has her Aeons, as you fight and collect them at the various temples. As she grows in power, so do they, and some of the special ones have the Break Damage Limit attribute in them, which is immensely important in this game. Another reason that status spells seem useless at times, is the fact that most of the challenging fights in the game, have you fighting an enemy that effects or kills the entire party at once. Every fight is spent trying to survive and deal damage quickly to end it as party members are dropped constantly. You don't ever really have time to slowly add buffs or status effects on enemies. You have the ability, once you meet a party member named Rikku, to customize your weapons and armor, with the right items, and add resistance to poison, berserk, stone, and many other status effects. That will be something you will be mindful of, because each weapon and armor in the game has a limited number or custom slots. It's rare to find one with more than 2 or 3 open slots, and you cannot remove attributes.

   You also have the familiar Limit Break system in this game, where the characters have a special meter, much like a fighting game, that when reached, gives them access to special attacks and powers. In this game, the meter can be charged in various ways, not only by receiving damage. You can charge on your turn, when an ally takes damage, when you deliver damage, or when a battle is won, or an enemy is defeated. However, this too has to be earned through many battles, and meeting certain criteria.


   Getting back to the composer Nobuo Uematsu, I must commend his complete body of work. He has been at the helm of the entire Final Fantasy series from day one. And we all know and love the memorable jingles that he has composed, many of which have made appearances in every game. This game is nothing short of astounding. The motifs and themes are so strong and resonant. In every region of exploration, you get an immersive feel of the location and characters. The game has a hymn that the summoners all know, as well as many of the people of Spira who visit the temples. It is beautifully written, and makes you want to sing along. Later in the game, Tidus admits to hearing his father sing it often. The way they introduce the motif is very effective, from a musician's perspective. You get little pieces of it at different speeds and moods, and then more of it is sung as the game progresses, by different characters. When you visit the home town of Kimhari- the Ronso people, they too sing the Hymn to encourage the heroes.

   The hero Tidus, and Yuna share the same perspective of their fathers, having both lived in their shadows, and they teach each other, over time to step out and be bold. They become a voice of comfort to each other, and over time, it becomes a strong, loving bond. You witness it over time, as they genuinely get caught off guard falling for each other. When I see things like that, I can't believe it was written from fiction. These stories come from somewhere. When Yuna is kidnapped early in the game, Tidus teaches her how to whistle to call him for help, which she struggles with and has to practice. Eventually she learns, and she tells him to do the same, for her to rescue him. They have the most emotional scene in the game, right as he learns that Yuna and all summoners have a grim outcome at the end of their pilgrimages. It really makes you feel it, and wish it didn't have to be. But not long after that, Tidus reveals he has a grim future as well, and the fight becomes to change the course of history for friendships and for love.

  I have to get into the things that make many want to harm the developers, because these are all valid complaints. First, I have to say that the Aeons are the crutch of the game. As they get stronger, they can eat what would be game ending damage, as well as deliver bulks of damage on their own with their attacks and limit breakers. They can be customized and trained to learn abilities and spells from the roster, as well as consuming attribute spheres and items to grow in strength, defense, and other levels. You acquire an Aeon names Yojimbo, if you complete certain tasks and missions at the Cave of the Hidden Fayth. The Fayth are fallen summoners, who through their dreams, create the Aeons that battle Sin. Tidus finds that he is involved in that process, in a very tragic and strange way. Yojimbo works on a bounty system. You pay him gil- which is the currency in all FF games, and depending on a ridiculous algorithm, he may perform an attack called Zanmato, which instantly kills any character or boss in the entire game. This may sound like a game breaker, but trust me, not only is it needed, it is not enough.

  In this game, there is a limit, as mentioned to all things. Damage, Power, Defense, and every other related attribute. There is also a limit to the amount of spheres on the grid for all characters. The HP limit in this game is 9999. You will have quite the fight just to get to that limit. And guess what? If you reach that limit with all of your characters, which would be a small lifetime, it would mean absolutely nothing to the later content of the game. After grinding for 70 hours, I was confident that I was overpowered, and went in to fight the last boss, who is someone close to Tidus that they all dread having to fight. The boss decimated my party several times, and cast Petrify on my party often, sometimes killing me that way. I was despondent, and confused as to what the heck I missed in all of the level grinding. I had to make specific armor to protect against status effects, and I also needed to buff my damage. I decided to go on a quest to get the extra weapons and equipment mods needed to give myself the boost needed, and that is where the wicked joke began..

  I had to go online to find out lore and other info that the game never mentions. I found coordinates that reveal places with items on the world map, as well as a few extra temples and dungeons. I heard about the famous Omega Ruins, where a Dark Aeon of Yevon was imprisoned. I figured I was strong enough, so I went there to grind and hopefully find needed items. I traveled to the Calm Lands, where there was not only the Monster Arena where monsters could be captured and stored, but also rare fights in certain areas that you could bribe or steal items from with a very low probability.  Bribe is an ability inherent to Rikku that can be learned by others if they activate that node on the sphere grid. It requires a large amount of money based on the HP of the enemy to be offered for a chance at them leaving combat and relinquishing the said item. Every single item I needed to help boost my attributes and equipment required layers of chance filled grinding and danger to achieve. It became infuriating. I found that to get needed items to contend with the last boss, I had to fight dark Aeons that were several times stronger than he was, which made absolutely no sense at all. Yojimbo came into play, as I was able to amass over 1 million gil and bribe him into Zanmato, taking down 1 or 2 dark aeons. This got me vital items. I wanted to get what were called celestial weapons for all my characters, and to do that was a nightmare. These weapons break the damage limit and that is needed. You see, all of the end game enemies have HP on the millions, and do damage over 9999 with each hit. So you can be maxed out as a party, but without the limit breaking customizations, you won't stand a freaking chance. And acquiring the many components needed to craft these items requires taking down some of these over powered fiends in the process. It felt like a dig from the developers.

  To start, in order to get the weapons, you need a mirror that you get from winning a chocobo race in a place you wouldn't even know exists unless someone told you. Then you have to go to Macalania Woods, an area way back in the early parts of the game, where you go on a fetch mission, similar to Zelda for a couple and their lost son. After the convoluted tasks are complete. The person blocking the shrine on that road, moves and gives you access to it which turns the Cloudy mirror into the Celestial Mirror. By now, your head is spinning at the inanity, but trust, that is a tip of it all. You then have to get the weapons themselves, and each weapon also need a certain sigil and a certain crest to go with it. When you have them, you go back to that shrine in Macalania Woods and fuse them to create the celestial weapon. Let's just go into how I got Tidus'. After I got the dang mirror, I went back to the Calm Lands. There is a man blocking a road in the north. He wants you to do something special. So somehow I should know that was to race Chocobos. The funny thing is, there is no directly stated chocobo race. There is a chocobo trainer that appears in the Calm Lands at different locations, and offers to let you ride one around, to avoid battles, and also to train them. You train them, and after completing 3 training missions, the training turns into "racing." Talk about misleading. Anyway, on the 4th trial, you race to beat the trainers time on a course. If you time is good enough, you get a reward, and the man blocking the path moves. You now present the forged mirror to the glyph, and the Caladbolg- Tidus' weapon appears. Now you need the items- the Sun Crest, and the Sun Sigil. For the crest you have to go back to where you fought one of the major bosses of the game, Yunalesca. Yuna is named after her, and once wanted to follow her, until she learned the sinister nature of her and Yevon. Somehow, you had to figure out that a chest behind that battle site contained the crest. Next is the Sigil. LOL. Many who have played the game will be laughing now.....

  To get the Sun Sigil requires not only winning in the final Chocobo race, but getting better than a perfect time. First, after the first race, you have to meet certain time criteria before you unlock another trial race where you are dodging birds and collecting ballons while running straight to a post. There are 2 modes of this. Once your time is good enough, you unlock the ability to be challenged by the trainer to an all out race on a course. The course is from the south end of the Calm Lands to the north, traveling east and west along the slope. You have randomly generated balloons that allow you to get 3 seconds taken off of your time. You have randomly generated birds that appear as you run, and home in on your location. You only control your chocobo moving left and right. You can only press these directions for specific angles, and if you hit a barrier, the chocobo rebounds in the opposite direction. You have to get a time of 36 seconds or better, with 15 balloons and no more than 1 hit by the birds to achieve a perfect time. This minigame has haunted people for years. Some people have tried and failed for 18 years and running. I read a comment by a person who had cerebral palsy and managed to get close after ages of trying and realize that it wasn't good enough. The bone chilling threats and murder he wished on the developers in his post will bring you to tears of laughter, and tears of pity. The minigame is really that hard and poorly made. You can literally be stuck forever. The birds home in unfairly, and can hit you even when you dodge them. People want to kill the developer for that design flaw. I watched tutorials online, and I even tossed my system once or twice. I was just about done. You do have to have good reflexes and talent, which thankfully I do have. After I decided to keep trying, I started to see the method. The issue with this game is that you have to beat a perfect time. You need better than 0 seconds to beat the challenge. The stars have to align for you to even get a time of under 10 seconds. I was stuck at 7.9 seconds for almost a week. Then I locked in and managed to get the best time I've heard so far. I was in shock as I got the Sun Sigil. I ran to the temple and fused the Celestial weapon. That alone took me over 5 hours.


  When it came to armor. To go beyond the damage limit, you need Break HP limit modules. The only way to get that is by collecting Wings of Discovery. You need 30 for each mod. I went back to Requiem temple where I raced the chocobo the first time. Somehow, you have to know that you need to race him and collect 3 chests on the course while doing so, and not bumping into any of the course markers, to get 30 Wings of Discovery. That was BS. I read about that, and completed it. I chose to mod Auron first, as he was close to 9999 HP already. Now I'm thinking that his HP would jump once he reached the limit. After all, Tidus was now doing on average 24,000 damage with every hit. So I grinded for about 5 more hours until Auron was ready to break the limit. Guess what? He broke nothing but my heart. His HP only went just to 10130. I was disgusted, because he had almost filled his Grid chart, I don't see any way of getting to 99999 without some kind of hack. They say there are enhanced grid spheres that will net 300 0r 400 HP to empty nodes instead of the usual 200. I don't see how that would be nearly enough to get any character all the way to 99999. I've seen people playing the game with every character at that high. To get more Wings of Discovery requires bribing certain enemies with money that you would take months to accumulate, or fighting a certain monster in the Arena. And of course, that monster is 4 times as strong as the last boss, and hits beyond the damage limit, meaning it's an instant death as soon as the fight starts. And that was the path of least resistance. I tried to get all of Yuna's summons to at least get around the deficit. You have to go back to the temples from earlier in the game if you failed to pick up certain items. The problem, is that if you failed to do so, the Guado people, who turn on Yuna and her friends, have a bounty on the party. They will be waiting for you at each of these temples with a Dark Aeon. These Aeons are several times stronger than the last boss, and hit well beyond the damage limit. The battle is a wash without  HP mods  up to 99999 for every character, so I just gave up, and went after the last boss. I was plenty strong enough for him at that point, and got vital abilities such as the Break Damage limit for Tidus and Dual Cast for Lulu, which allowed her to cast multiple spells at once. I also got a One MP mod for her and Auron, which is a weapon mod that allows the character to spend 1 MP for every spell cast, essentially making Lulu a powerhouse.


    Even with all of this power, there was a particular couple of enemies in the game that almost cost me a system. In typical FF fashion, hokey nonsense ruins the freaking day. Spirit, Black Element, and Great Malboro are 3 characters that made me wish more than I ever have, that I could digitize myself and jump into the game to change the rating to Mature Audience Only, as I savagely ripped them apart cell by cell. These enemies were designed with extreme spite and stupidity. No matter how strong you get in this game, do not underestimate status effects. There are 2 attacks I want to focus on in particular- Poison Mist, and Bad Breath. Spirit uses the first, and Great Malboro uses the latter. I got to the point where I was strong enough to traverse Omega Ruins without any issue. I had left, and gotten enhancements and returned twice. I worked my way to the boss area, and would walk back to the entrance to grind for max experience. On 2 occasions back to back, I traveled this route for 2 hours, grinding while at work. I was trying to max out HP for Auron. At the end of the run, I went back to towards the entrance to save. On the way, I ran into on one occasion, the Spirit, accompanied by 2 black elements. I attacked first, and hit him with a less than lethal attack. On the next turn, he cast Poison Mist, which I figured I would just heal and finish him from. Little did I know, that the entire front line would stay poisoned and in Berserk mode, attacking each other, while he cast thundaga and healed himself, and the 2 black elements blasted us with attacks. We got almost wiped out on one or 2 occasions. Then I stopped seeing so much of that enemy. After a 2 hour run of grinding,  I ran into Great Malboro. I had leveled up substantially, on top of already being strong when I arrived, so I figured that I would handle him like any other time. Then I learned the worst attack in the game- Bad Breath. It poisons, inflicts slow, berserk, confusion, darkness, and silence at a 100% rate for supposedly 3 turns. The truth is that it is longer than that. You can't switch out, and the effects don't stop. He merely watches you and attacks you randomly as you kill each other and die of poison effects. It is a game over attack, and the problem is that he has the initiative buffer, so he ambushes you whenever you face him, allowing him to go first. The only way to counter this and survive, is to either have status effect resistance on your armor, or counter with initiative on Yuna's weapon and summon and Aeon to wipe him out without facing "Bad Breath." I was in disbelief when that happened the first time, thinking it was dumb chance. I restarted the run, thinking I would be ready if I ran into him, and the game literally threw Greater Malboro at me at the exact same point, ending each 2 hour grind. He did the same thing to me again, and I threw my system harder at the wall than I have in years. I thought I broke it.



  When the last battle ends, I was very surprised by the emotional storm that came. I've commented on my last review and in my review of Crisis Core and Final Fantasy 8, how well Square does relationships and chemistry. And I meant every word. But I've never meant it like I do now. I've never felt like I did with this game. I've played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which stays in my memory, being a game that made me raise a fist in the air and get goose bumps at how powerful the plot was. I also remember Red Dead Redemption having such a moving story of revenge and loss. I even felt moved by Final Fantasy 8 and it's romance chemistry between Squall and Rinoa. I even felt moved at the end of Super Mario Odyssey, when Bowser has a heart and joins Mario in his efforts after decades of being his villain, with a gripping soundtrack behind them in the process. None of these games made me want to shed tears like FFX. I fought them back, and if I wasn't so torn with priorities and distractions, I probably would have cried. This was the beauty of Tidus and his love for Yuna. The understanding they had and the pain they felt at having to be apart. When she gave a speech afterwards to the rebuilding world of Spira, she had flashbacks and added a final thought to her speech, thinking about how Tidus meant so much to her, and encouraged everyone not to forget those they lost. That rose everything to an even higher level of feeling, and it was capped perfectly by the emotional and masterful musical arrangement by Nobuo. This game was such a marriage of music and beauty. I don't think of it as overly cinematic any longer. Every piece was so important. This one was from and for the heart. It made my heart sing. I love this game.    10/10

Luscious Life- Final Fantasy XV- Review

  As a fan of the newer Square releases, I have been intrigued by every title that has come out in the Final Fantasy series since Crisis Core on the PSP in 2007. Fast forward 9 years to 2016, and we have one of the later releases that came out pretty much in the middle of the Playstation 4's lifetime. We now have much talk surfacing about the next major console, which seems to be materializing into a prospective date next year or the end of 2020. Earlier on, I reviewed Crisis Core and spoke about how surprisingly emotional and real it was. Normally, Final Fantasy games are overly hokey, and rob the emotional investment from the story with nonsense that irk you. This game was somewhere in between, yet it delivered in many ways.


   I was blown away by the graphics from the very beginning. The sunlight effects were so vivid and reminiscent of Mass Effect Andromeda. And unlike that game, this had a night and day cycle. However, early in the game, this is hampered by the fact that enemies you can't hope to face come out at night, and you are even warned to stay in town at that time. You are forced to listen, because early on, they will decimate you if you try to face them. This sucked some of the exploration out at night time, even though there were missions you could take that required night travel, where you took the gamble. The game is loaded with towns, outposts and cites to visit and discover. Each one has several outlets for purchasing food items and healing items. Food items, including meals that your own party can cook, give huge bonuses to your stats for the next dungeon.

  The game tells the story of Noctis- prince of Lucis, as he travels with his companions and friends- Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis, on their way to bring him to his betrothed Princess Luna Freya. He is set to take the throne, upon which he will receive great power. Gerald, is a disgruntled servant of the empire of Nihelm that is in opposition to Noctics' kingdom, and he seeks power himself and take the power of the crystal that their family protects. The enemy seeks to thwart the marriage of Noctic and Luna Freya. They also kill the king in the process and start a war. The plot gets a bit convoluted along the way, and even comical at times, but it's always in good taste. Towards the end of the game, the emotion picks up, and the theme is truly about frienship. In fact, it so deeply explores that aspect of relationships that is is tear-jerking. It is truly vivid and thorough how it brings it out and stresses its importance. It cast aside the love story you may expect, while still not ignoring it. One thing I have always complimented even bad Final Fantasy games on, is their ability to sell romance. They achieve that in this game with friendship.

  In this game, you have weapons merchants in the various towns, and there are various weapon types, but not a huge difference overall. I started in the outset using guns along with one-handed blades. Noctis can equip 4 items at a time. He can learn and concoct magic up to insanely strong levels, and wield large swords or fast blades. He can also equip shields. Gladiolus and company each can equip a portion of these things in combat as they assist you. Your allies can equip spells as well with the right upgrades. Noctis alone can learn summon spells which randomly become available in very intense fights, and they are so powerful, you are left wondering what happened, as they obliterate what was an unbeatable enemy. It happens so rarely that it's always awe inspiring. Noctis himself is quite powerful, but doesn't have full control over what he can do until later in the game. When the tech meter fills in combat he can enter a mode called Armiger, where he has enhanced evasion and speed and gets free damage and invincibility for a period of time. He gathers what are Royal Arms at various sites throughout their journey, that increase his power over time.

   The combat system in this game is in real time, and combos are achieved by spamming the circle button rapidly. Noctis can, however, run out of stamina, and require a recovery period where he is vulnerable if you attack too much. You warp with the triangle button to select vantage points, or if locked onto an enemy, you will warp attack into them, bypassing some defense on their part. The square button is for evasion, and can be held or press at the right time to avoid attacks. There is no block, you only evade or attempt a counter. This feature works poorly, and when the enemies get aggressive later in the game, you will find yourself getting laced visciously while slamming on the evade button. There is a counter mechanic, but it doesn't work well with barrages at all. In the later parts of the game, while trying to finesse harder enemies, I found myself attacking like a fool and running away to heal constantly, due to how back the block mechanic is. There was even a time when there were 2 Medusa bosses on a dark street, and they kept turning me to stone until I ran out of recovery items and died. All you do, while trying to skill up on an enemy, is find yourself being laced and beaten into near death state despite trying to dodge and counter. Every combat system needs to have a specific block mechanic.

   As I mentioned, Noctis can craft spells through Elemency. Using draw points like in FF8, scattered throughout the world, which replenish, he can draw fire, ice, or electricity, to combine with other miscellaneous items you find or buy that can further boost the spell or add additional effects. The issue with spells in this game, is that they are indiscriminate. You spend fights being swarmed by enemies. When you cast a powerful spell, it covers some area. You manually aim it, but getting a window of large separation is close to impossible. When you cast a level 99 Ice spell with a stone attribute, it fills the entire screen and almost the entire area. Everyone including you and your team are hurt and effected. I don't know what idiot thought that was a good idea. I've lost battles due to that stupid mechanic. Noctis can also warp, which is one of his main powers. It allows him to cling to vantage points and heal or set up a counter strike. However, the area around him can be demolished bringing him down to the ground.


 The game is full of interesting side quests, such as delivering a package, finding special frogs or plants, or eliminating a threat. It was interesting, as you drive around in the theme car of the game- The Regalia. It is a sweet car. You can buy and play various soundtracks while driving around the world. Noctis can even go fishing and build on that skill while gathering items. Some quests have you discovering a huge dungeon buried in a luscious forest, and battling an insane boss at the end, to emerge back into the sunlight. I truly loved how bright and inviting the game was. The overworld, as mentioned, is enormous. The game bears similarity to Mass Effect, except it takes place on one planet. However, I must say, I think FFXV might have the bigger world, if only by a little. I never explored everything. You can literally get lost in the wild. Similar to Breath of the Wild, as far as you can see, you can roam, except with this game, it is all packed with varying localities and regions that have their own secrets. And the map opens up even more each time you visit an outpost and get info from the local eatery on mission locations and stuff. It quickly becomes overwhelming. I was thinking by a couple of hours into the game, "There is no way I'm ever going to cover all the places available." It is insanely huge, I dare say like a miniature real-life world.

  The leveling system is called Ascension. It is a grid across many pages, similar to FFX. I despised how it was set up, because it costs an extreme amount to buy skills, and by the end of the game, I was choosing which powers and skills I was never going to see or benefit from which was annoying. I ended up grinding at the end, because I was playing on hard, and I was getting crushed by enemies in the last part. I'm glad I realized you can use Umbra- the royal dog, to go back in time to areas of the game and continue quests and exploration in real time. The last boss- Gerald will have you hating his guts by the end of the game. For whatever reason, he appears to help the party during the early stages of the war between kingdoms. He then begins to sabotage them left and right. He lures them on wild goose chases, and then lifts them from confusion at the last moment, just toying with them, and trying to get Noctis to acquire great power so they could face each other, as he wants the throne. He is truly wicked and annoying. The fight with him was epic and fulfilling. It was during that time, and down to the end that the game hits an emotional crescendo. Noctis fights to near death.

  The emotional scenes at the end of how much friendship means to them all, through all of the fights that happen in the game, really get you into it. It was so raw that you may find yourself crying as it unfolds. The game is brimming with passion and life. It's shocking that it received mainly criticism. I loved this game a lot, and it was Luscious!  9.2/10

Shenmue 3 Review- The Dragon Kicks the Nuts!

  I have been a long time die-hard fan of Shenmue the series. Now, this review took me a while to write due to the novel's worth of drama I have going on in my personal life. I could bloviate about that context, but it honestly isn't worth the breath. Since 1999 I have been interested in and fixated on the concept behind this game. I wasn't one of the launch day purchasers, simply because I was in 9th grade when the system launched, and lacking the funds. I played it extensively at friends' houses, and also got to experience the game Shenmue as well as others, before they did, because of a flea market store I visited a year prior, that had early copies of the Dreamcast system and a few games. So I was well in tune with what was in store. Not many people appreciated the game, but I remember the commercial showcasing the graphics and the mystery gameplay. It didn't show much martial arts at all if I recall, which was weird. I was intrigued by such a simple premise of a boy trying to find out the secret behind his father's murder. Only a year and change after its release, I had a copy myself, which was pretty quick for me at that time. Many people still hadn't played through it. Some gave up after getting bored midway through.

   I remember enjoying the bonus disc, where 3D avatars of the main cast explained martial arts principles to you in interactive rooms. It was very unique, and the only game I saw do something similar ever since was Soul Calibur. When I played the game, I never got bored of the exploration, and the training and combat. It all made it feel like a second life. Then the job system kept things interesting, with new events happening almost every work day, and a healthy balance of work and outside activities. The uncovering of secrets and events also moved very naturally. The combat interwove QTE events with directional combos that were easy to learn and hard to master. There were throws, parries, and intricate moves that showed an attention to detail. By the end of the game, I was hooked to the character.

   In Shemue, to give a brief synopsis, you play the character of Ryo Hazuki, son of Iwao Hazuki. He is a young 18 year old boy soon to graduate high school, who was raised by his father as a martial artist, in Yokosuka, Japan. His father is very mysterious, and traveled abroad many years ago to China, where he trained with a man named Suming Xiaou. Xiao was murdered, and his son- a Chinese cartel leader named Lan Di, comes to Yokosuka seeking revenge on Ryo's father, who he believes killed him. He takes the mirrors that Iwao brought back, which hold special meaning, and kills him in front of Ryo. As you progress in the story, you find that many who knew both men are adamant that the murder was not committed by Iwao. You also find out that the mirrors have been sought for centuries. Not much more is revealed, as Yu Suzuki wants to milk the story going forward to feed his drug habit.

   When Shenmue 2 was released in Japan, I got an import copy and played it with subtitles on my Dreamcast. So I ended up playing it before Americans did on the English Xbox version. I eventually owned both versions and liked them equally. I also beat both of them. Again, the game raised the bar and was a huger version of the first. You explore a larger area. However, there was a slight dip in intricate detail that I forgave. After the events of the second game, the scene went silent. Nothing was heard from the creator- Yu Suziki for 17 years. I doubled in age. Then he announced the kickstarter to release part 3, and everyone got aroused. I however, was afraid. I was afraid because of the reality that I see in people. If you are honest, the world has become more ignorant and intolerant of art and intellectualism. Many people who claim to be fans of the Shenmue series, I observe enjoying debased and mindless entertainment today, and often being disgusted and insulting when discussing the arts. I've often said that it would be impossible to make a tribute or sequel to a great and epic martial arts film of the past with any justice. It would end up being a mockumentary film. When people discuss martial arts, jazz, poetry, boxing, or any other scientific and deep art form, it is with a laughably simply and uninformed diction that disgusts me. So when I think of the fans petitioning Suzuki to finish what he started, I can't imagine him winning them over staying true to what he began.

  When I saw previews of the game, the animation looked stiff. I understand the budget for the first game was record breaking, but he hit high numbers on this budget. I missed the kickstarter. I was part of the very first petitions for Shenmue, as an official member, and ringleader of several petition sites. I did so for well over a decade before I discontinued. Our demands fell on deaf ears. When he said he decided to make another game, I was partly angry at the fact that he ignored us for that long, saying that we didn't exist. Then I felt he would cave to the common whims. I ended up getting the game for a steal of a price on black friday, a week or so after its release. I pre-ordered the game, but my copy was sold idiotically by a worker at Gamestop. I tracked down a copy at another branch and had them hold it for me, so I actually picked the game up late due to the release date I had been told being changed at the last minute. I wanted to jump into the game before idiots could spoil it.

   The game starts off right where part 2 ended, with Ryo Hazuki- the protagonist, and Shen Hua- the supporting start, exiting the cave, where her father made the duplicate Phoenix mirrors. Sadly, you spend just about the entire game tracking him down, after his abduction. I won't spoil the plot, but it does make up for some expectations in the very last 30 minutes of the freaking game. That was not nearly enough.


   The game has a job system, where you can work as a dock loader, similar to the past, as well as a purveyor of herbs, a wood chopper, a gambler, or even a chicken chaser. You don't make nearly enough money in this game. You actually have to resort to a developer encouraged exploit of save spamming, in order to rack in some money from betting at tables. It's disgusting! You have a couple of Martial Arts Halls in the game that you go to and level up you abilities, but the fighting system in Shenmue 3 sucks absolute butt cheeks. You have no throws, and are limited in attack fluidity. Your defensive options leave you with stamina issues and taking massive damage with no control over it. Gone are directional combinations, and now you press sequences of buttons to execute moves. The moves available are also watered down trash with no reference to true martial arts. It is watered down to the fullest. Even Ryo's character puts on the persona of someone who only just started grabbing at the basics of Karate. Due to the combat system, no fight ever felt artistic or magical. And the gear and items you crave in shops require tens of thousands of dollars to purchase. You will slave away for  complete 3 or 4 hour sessions of gameplay and make 1 or 2 thousand dollars if you are lucky. The game has no  time limit like part 1 did, but there is also now a food system, where every second Ryo is losing health rapidly due to hunger. At a certain point, he bottoms out and requires food to run again. If you enter combat, that nightmare continues. I also could swear that the hunger carries on while fighting, as my health never seemed to stop dropping rapidly. No human is that dependent on food.

   After a few hours of gameplay, it became clear that it was stalling for time. dialogue and plot lines stagnated and completely stopped altogether. Everyone cries about Final Fantasy 15 being a bad game, when that game is actually excellent, especially compared with this trash. At the half-way point of the game, there is a sequence with the blind elder of the village, who finally begins to open her mouth about secrets that you need to know. The lore actually takes on impressive form at that time, and it feels like a Shenmue game. After solving a tricky riddle that ties in knowledge you learned so far, you unlock a secret and eventually travel to another area in China to look for Shenhua's father. That area, customary to Shemue's structure, is much larger. It is not as huge as many fools say, but it is enormous. There is a hotel to stay at, that sucks money from you daily, and multiple jobs to take. I actually enjoyed the first area of the game more than the last. After working and stalling, learning very little, you finally get a tip off, after a dozen hours of monotonous gameplay,  as to the wherabouts of Shenhua's father and another stonemason. The end of the game was a release from torture, and had some action that was enjoyable to an extent. Some events were clearly fan request fulfillments, but it was entertaining.

    As a die-hard fan, I was very angry at the outcome of Suzuki's hard work. He DID compromise in this game, in many ways. Even the casual fans were crying for an improvement to the combat system. Regardless, I will have to think very hard about going forward with this series, as this installment literally sucked almost all of my interest out of seeing an end to the plot. My score, a dismal dragon kick of 6.5/10

Podcast Episode and Blog

Hello all. It's been a while since I have spoken. I have much that is transpiring in life, and I'm still processing everything in many ways. For a time, I was sure I would not release any sort of creation again, but in time, that may change. Who know? As for now, I had to speak on very heavy recent events in my latest Podcast and I'm also proud of releasing my fourth novel, "Lovely Prisoner." I will link the info below.

Novel
Lovely Prisoner

Hello All- Slight Update

I've been away for quite some time. I can't say I've reached every needed resolution just yet, but on a positive note, I have completed a few projects. My new novel, "Lovely Prisoner," is finally completed and revised. It may undergo a new revision in time, but it is essentially done. Also, I have had my final album, "Native Son," reviewed by Ark of Music. I had been tempted at times to discuss current events and sports in recent times, but overall have been very busy. I even completed Assassins Creed Liberation, as well as a few other games, that I have yet to review. I have been thinking about tackling finishing my autobiography over time, as I think it would be a good thing. I'm not sure about how to do it, as exorbitant typing is not fun, nor converting written text into type. I have thought of doing the autobiography as a audio/music album. We'll see. I urge you to check out my music on Spotify and Itunes, and tell other people about it.

  This is the link for the album review
https://thearkofmusic.com/jokatech-native-son/

And this is the link for the novel. I ended up making it an illustrated novel using pieces from the "Into Me" art series I did, which I felt fit very well.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/jason-addae/lovely-prisoner/paperback/product-24320285.html

Let Me Count The Ways- StarLink- Game Review

  I've seen countless articles, reviews, and comments on Starlink over the past year, and every one of them does nothing but talk about the failure that the game was. All you see, is mention of the flaw of the customization system, and peripheral utilization by the company. It is labeled nothing more than a failed gimmick. This inanity could not be more ridiculous, and poorly representing of the actual game. This is a true analysis of what is going to be a hidden gem in years to come. Starlink- Battle for Atlus, is a space adventure and action game for the Nintendo Switch, created by Ubisoft and released in October of 2018.

  I must start off by saying in admission, I am a huge fan of this genre. However, this does not bias me, as there is so much you have to get right in order for space exploration games to fly. The game does not take place in the Starfox story line as many idiots have you believe. It is not a spin off Starfox game. The Starfox characters and universe, align with, and are contained within this bigger mythos and universe. Atlus is an enormous encompassing universe in itself. You play as a team of space explorers working under St. Grand- an exceedingly brilliant scientist, who's protege and first selected crew member Mason Rana , created Starlink technology, allowing rapid transport throughout the galaxy. He chose, and trained the team, before being kidnapped to be used as a means of accessing the Warden race of space creatures, who have technology that the villainous Legion race desire.

  That is where it can be a bit confusing at first. You see, St. Grand, has a buddy who is of the Warden race, named Judge, that he discovered and brings along to travel with him. He is then joined by the crew that he puts together. The Wardens were once a volatile and enigmatic race themselves, but Judge knows little to nothing of his past, and is peaceful. Many of the prospector races you encounter in your travels are also curious about Judge, but the Legion are the most villainous. They are headed by Grax, who deploys several Primes, Extractors, and Dreadnoughts throughout the galaxy that overtake and dominate planets systematically. Your team is equipped with ships that can equip multiple elemental weapons and shields that allow you to combat these forces, as well as travel seamlessly on the surface of planets, and into the vast space around them. Where the criticism has legs, is the fact that there was supposed to be the intention of using peripherals, in the form of model ships and weapon accessories, that you scan into the game, like Amiibos, which allow you to acquire the item. This required the purchase of these rare models in stores. It was a stupid idea, that locks up a lot of extra features and content, but does not affect the base resources of the game.


   Your ship, as well as enemies, can equip Vortex, Fire, Gravity, Freeze, and Stasis damage effects. You have to balance the elemental triangle to utilize what the enemy is weak against. You are also equipped with a deflector shield that you may ignore early on, but trust me, you do well to learn to use it to reflect blasts periodically while fighting and dodging, or you will be decimated in the later parts of the game. While in your ship you will engage or cut your flight engines to enter and exit the atmosphere. You can also enter hyperspace and travel great distances in space rapidly, which is needed for how enormous it is. And every single square inch of the terrain in this game is alive. Nothing is empty. There are bunkers, and asteroids scattered throughout space with vital items and resources, as well as bounty pirates and outlaws that hide in traps to ambush you. Outlaws comprise the second group of villains you face, until you find a way to become allies with them. They inhabit almost every planet at some point, and also have a homeworld you can find and enter to barter and compete at some point.

   Each planet has a host of creatures and plants that you can harvest and research. That is a job in itself, as it takes time and work. I love that aspect. You can also find native planet dwellers, researchers, and prospectors that will join you and allow you to take over facilities when you work together. You can also build facilities from the ground up on building sites, with your money and resources. The ultimate goal is to build towers that will allow you to transport to the stronghold of the villainous Grax and his Legion army. This requires securing several worlds.

  The fight is very difficult and time consuming. After destroying extractors on the planet, you weaken the Prime that deploys them. When he is destroyed, the planet is liberated. A dreadnought is a large mothership that occupies that sector of the galaxy, dropping primes on planets. When enough primes are beaten, you can take it on, as a weakened form, and hopefully defeat it to stop the cycle of primes being deployed. When you liberate a planet, you do well to build military armories as well as research centers to defend future threats. There is nothing like coming back to a world you fought hard to free, to find it completely overrun with legion again, and oppressed and dangerous. Also, it is a good idea, I found, to discover and reestablish towns and sites on the planets, as then locals and researchers will join the cause and help defend.

  This game looked amazing, and had such variety in settings. I was often mesmerized by the variety of creatures and plants and ores around the planet. I went from sunny and lush green planets to ones with various ice structures. And planets, unlike in other games, had various ecosystems. You had marshlands, forests, and mountainous areas etc. on each planet, so the variety did not require you to hop from one world to another all the time. There were also many abandoned Warden relics that required puzzle solving to unlock secrets and equipment. The game has a modification system allowing you to buff each weapon with different boosters, as well as buff your ships defense and characters abilities. Each character has unique powers and abilities that they use in conjunction with the ship they pilot, even though you don't technically see them ever exit the ship. These mods are rewarded in missions, in bunkers, and forged at various locations, or purchased. As you play with each weapon individually, you can work towards mastering its proficiency, and increasing the level of your pilot's powers.

   If I have to launch any criticisms, they would be at the somewhat stagnant soundtrack, and the idiotic reliance on accessories. There are many blanked out items and weapons in the sub menu, that I wanted to use, but will never be able to thanks to the idea these idiots had, of selling them in physical stores. Other than that, the game was a success. While I did have rage points, where the difficulty, and quickness with how I died annoyed me, I can't find any aspect of the design to call flawed.

   It was an enormous game that refined what was attempted with the game, "No Man's Sky" on the PS4. It has drive, and a purpose, even in an infinitely huge universe. You always know there are mountains of secrets you haven't found, yet you don't feel overwhelmed by that. The last bosses of the game, including Grax and the Dreadnoughts and Legion forces he has surrounding his base, were tough as nails. They were the kind of fights you don't want to have again. I like that kind of difficulty, even if at the time, I felt like raging. It must have taken about 50-60 hours for the campaign, but honestly, this can easily be a 200 hour game. Much like Mass Effect Andromeda, once you complete the game, you get closure, but also continued missions and aspirations that encourage you to further explore the galaxy and conquer the new threats. All in all, this was close to perfection. Oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways. 9.5/10

You Are the Light!!- Zelda Breath of the Wild- Review

 Finally, a review I've been holding back for some time now. Zelda Breath of the Wild, a 2017 release from Nintendo for the Switch, was quite the interesting experience. I write this knowing that there are countless other reviews, and specifically because of that. Here we go.

  I'll start this off by saying that aesthetically, this game shows how massive of a team was behind production. The textures, and cross between cell-shaded, and true 3D graphics is amazingly executed. The draw distance and environments are high level. You start the game being woken from cryo sleep as Link, who is the known hero of Hyrule. Zelda- the princess of the land, and also master sorceress is battling Ganon, who is powerful and evil creature that has plagued Hyrule and the world for ages. She speaks to you telepathically from the castle where she is fighting to keep him at bay. You awaken in underwear and are guided to a sheikah slate on a platform which will be your guiding device. It allows you to interact with the ancient relics around the world that uncover maps, dungeons, and abilities for Link. There are conveniently 2 chests outside of this dark room with a shirt and pants with shoes. I would like to know where Link shops that gives kicks bundled with  pants.

  Anyway, you set out on a journey in an enormous world. You meet an old man who happens to be the king of Hyrule in disguise. Why an old man would have his daughter trapped in a castle fighting the ultimate boss, and choose to lead you on before setting you off on your journey to help, is beyond me. Link has lost his memory, and there were 4 guardians of ancient beasts who he discovers and receives help from along the way. He also gains abilities through the slate he possesses, and through the shrines he visits with monks within who grant him abilities. He has the standard Zelda equipment, with swords, bows, and shields, only more variety. His bombs are an ability he learns from the shrines, which he can spawn infinitely at will. They come in handy as the only offensive weapon he has that doesn't ever go away. He can also wield large swords two-handed, and spears, as well as wands. All weapons in this game, including shields, break, and that is the crux of my issues with this game, which I will expound upon.

   The soundtrack is amazing, I must say. Not only do classic Zelda tunes make cameos, but original tunes up the standard for sure. I was never not pleases with the sound in the game, except for while cooking. When cooking one of the many enhancement recipes that you learn by trial and error, it makes a metal clanging sound that completely takes me out of immersion. I know it's a minor thing, but I want to hear savory sounds when cooking, like in any other RPG, like Star Ocean, or Monster Hunter. In this game, the cooking system consists of utilizing herbs, meats from slain animals, seasonings. vegetables, fruits, and monster parts you gather throughout the world. Everything can be cooked, but not everything goes together. Sometimes, you get a description prior to cooking an ingredient that will let you know the stat that it enhances, like endurance or strength. Much of the time, you are guessing, and trying to remember recipes. In the game, every shrine you complete, yields you a spirit orb. When 4 are collected, they can be redeemed at the shrine in Kakariko village, for 1 health heart, or an additional quarter of stamina bar. The health bonus is a joke, because giving me 1 heart in this game is like loaning me 1 dollar. Hits from the weakest fools do near full life damage. It really would have been nice to have 2 rows of health standard towards the end like in previous Zelda games.

   The world is not just drawn. It is a literal enormous world, that is seamless and completely open and connected. When you see it, your first thought will be to expect a wall, but every single land and forest out in the distance, can be traveled to in real time as you see it. There is also very good variety, from cold regions, to deserts, to rain forests, to open fields, to mountains, to volcanic regions. They are all unique and vivid. Many praised the game upon release at changing the structure and meta of Zelda for being so interactive, and that is true and also false. The world full of people I was told to expect is partially a freaking joke. Much like Zelda games of old, there are a handful of people in general. Yes, there are towns, and a good number of NPC's, but there is a wide open, convoluted, and barren world in between. I was very often lost, with no clue or direction to where I needed to go. I must say, the night and day cycle was done very well, and something I wish games did more. I really liked how it seemed to almost change seasons at times. Towards the end of the game, it started to rain every night, which got annoying. I feel like the game reads the weather where you are, because the days got really long, just like where I am now, and it rained often here too.

   The flow of the game was stupid in my opinion. There was some beautiful lore and story to be had, but from the outset of the game, the final mission is open to you. It is up to you to fill the measly 40 hours or so yourself, as you gain gear and experience, while preparing for the final boss. Having faced him, I can say that the prep you do in completing the dungeons and divine beast quests, actually makes the fight with Calamity Ganon- the ultimate boss of all Zelda games, too daggon easy! It isn't like other games like Monster Hunter or Final Fantasy Crisis Core, where the side missions that sit alongside the plot are meaningful and feel like part of the campaign. It felt like I was looking for missions after a while, to justify playing the game. And that became a chore after a while when  I found that there were only 3 or 4 villages at my disposal in the entire huge world, and there was nothing left to do in them. I started hunting for shrines, and looking for lost towns to find purpose in the game. And I began to think to myself how stupid it is to be playing an RPG where I'm reaching for content. I'm not saying there is absolutely no content there. But in a world than enormous, it feels very out of place to run out of side quests and errands, minus the DLC, and be struggling to find something else to do, to avoid just going in to fight Ganon. You can fight him before clearing the missions to weaken him, and he wouldn't be that difficult, as well as the game being stupidly short at that point. That's an issue for a game that massive.

  And while I'm sure there were a few places I didn't visit completely, I certainly made an effort, and found some lost cities as well. One was a coastal town ravaged by monsters, which I saved, and made a bustling town again. I found many of the shrines, although not all. Towards the end, I became disgusted with the baby errands that people would give you. I wanted a solid and juicy quest line to be had alongside the story, and there just wasn't one there at all. Just small, idiotic side missions to waste time and resources. One girl, I found by a river, on my way to look for Keese bats to build some armor. She wanted me to jump in a river and follow her bottle with lettter in it, to the first person it reached. I started the mission, and then just rolled my eyes and stopped. That's a summary of how the missions felt. And the next issue is why it was all the more annoying.


  As I mentioned, all things beside armor break in this game. Also, another thing worth noting, is that all resources needed for building armor and equipment are limited. So when you build a sword with hard fought resources, after 10 swings, it breaks, and you have to find somewhere else where those resources are found. I've played games with equipment wear systems. I've never played one this stupid. Weapons and shield break ridiculously quick. After blocking 5 or so strong blows, your shield is gone. After swinging the sword, or club, or whatever, depending on the object you strike, 20 or so strikes and it's gone. And Link can't shoot the hands. When he is out of weapons and shields, he can not block or attack. And Nintendo was too stupid to put a base construction system in the game, which allowed you to construct equipment from resources that refresh, like trees and rocks. Nope. And no stores sell weapons or shields at a base level. The one place that does, is Akkala Research Center, which is in a perilous region, and has equipment that is very taxing to produce and afford. Those resources needed for that equipment are even more rare and limited. Luckily, the Ancient weapons and shields you build there last a bit longer.

  Because of this setup, I was hesitant to explore, knowing that my hard fought inventory was being put at risk whenever I decided to venture out. It sucks not to have an equipment set, in an RPG, that I can call my own unique set that I keep. When I got to the end of the game, rather than complete a few extra quests, I took the healing items and equipment that I spent hours building, and went to face Ganon. The game has a lot of risk and very little reward. Enemies, or dungeons that you fight to the brink to conquer, losing all of your items and weapons, will often yield items that don't even begin to match the trouble it cost you. The abilities you gain from the guardians were priceless. One gives you the ability to launch high into the air to glide great distances, and one heals you to full health upon defeat 1 time before recharging. In the beginning of the game, you get a cloth that you can use to glide anywhere when leaping from a great height. It is the primary means of travel in such a big landscape. It is dependent on your stamina, which I increased quite a bit. Most people I see play the game didn't do that, but I appreciated being able to glide for extremely long distances across the map.

  All in all, the story, and visuals were beautiful. I enjoyed the cinematic end scene during and after the last battle. It was far too easy, and hate the fact that to avoid that, the game would have to have been cut to ridiculously short length. I would have appreciated the ability to craft items and equipment I wanted, once I learned the components, like in other game. This way, even if it broke, I could always fashion a new set. That was a huge blunder on Nintendo's part. Idiots for that. The game isn't full enough, and while I really wanted to love it, it just didn't offer enough content. It was a beautiful world to explore for fun, but I wish there were more directed and meaningful things to do. All in all, I had to finish it, and it did have a lasting appeal in its own way. Great presentation yes! Not the GOAT that fools are calling it!! I Knight Thee-  7.5/10

Metal Rating- Horizon Zero Dawn- Review

I'll just say, this review is another reason why I write reviews. To some, this is a time consumer and meaningless. But to those who aren't so shackled to the Jokatech hate train to see anything in front of them, I'm sure you must know when a good project is released, and done well. This is my breakdown of Horizon: Zero Dawn for the PS4. It took me quite a while to finish this game, as I was taking my time, and had many obligations, contrary to what some think.

  This is one of the titan IP's for the console, released in 2017 (ancient by today's standards), by Sony. It was developed by Guerilla Games. It stars a young female protagonist, as many IP's today do. Her name is Aloy, and she is an outcast of the Nora people who is raised by an outcast named Rost. He found her as a child and took her in. Much of her past is either unknown or fabricated in the outset. The beauty of it all, is how intricate and meaningful it all gets as you learn more. You start playing with the character as a small child, who is exploring an abandoned cave, where you find a small but important piece of bluetooth-like technology, called a Focus. As time goes by, little does she know that the Focus was a means of tracking her. She undergoes a proving trail approved by the Nora to earn the right to be a hunter for them, which would alienate Rost if she wins. After successfully completing it along with other youths, the entire camp is immediately attacked, and Rost killed, while Aloy manages to barely escape with her life. The Oseram, Carja, and Shadow Carja, are clans that have been at war for ages, and Aloy learns that the shadow carja are seeking her out for some reason. When she finds out that it has to do with her resemblance to the scientist who protected mankind years ago, she begins to look for answers. The planet is filled with hostile machine monsters that have driven mankind into submission. The Shadow Carja are awakening a device that will unearth the worst of them and bring about a second destruction. Aloys is on a quest to stop this, as well as find the truth.

   To start, the game is a gorgeous looking game, where they utilize the night-day cycle very well, as I wish Mass Effect would have. It's one enormous world, with bodies of water and various climates, as it's a version of Earth. Aloy will even react to sudden or persistent climate effects such as the cold or rain. As a child, Rost taught her how to hunt machines and to forage for supplies and materials. I had wondered how the foraging system would work, as it was just randomly scattered singular samples of various materials like ridgewood, and medical plants. When you take down machines, you can salvage materials from them, including metal scraps, which are the currency of the game. There are still regular animals and wildlife in the game as well, including birds, foxes, boars etc. These animals are usually hiding on the fringes of main paths and avoiding both you and machine monsters. Aloy is equipped with a spear as her base weapon, which she can perform melee attacks with, and various bows and crossbows, which she can affix different kinds of ammunition to, depending on the weapons specs and the supplies she salvages. She can have bows that do tear damage, fire damage, ice damage, electrical damage, or corruption damage. Corruption is a state that is overcoming many of the machines in the world due to the influence of the ultimate machine adversary known as Hades. It is a rouge machine, that existed at the beginning of the conflict, and is seeking to repeat the destructive process that occurred centuries earlier.

   One thing that stood out to me immediately in the game, is the fact that there are no inns or areas to rest. While you can find sanctuary in towns and some few isolated areas, the world is pretty much covered completely with machine monsters, who all turn hostile when they hear, see or sense you. The game has many bonfires to save at. In fact, there are probably too many. Every few steps you take, you uncover another one. At first, in the game you acquire what are called Fast travel packs, which can be purchased from merchants in various cities. Once you collect the proper rare materials, you can construct a Golden Fast Travel Pack, which allows unlimited instant transmission to any previously visited bonfire. Because there are so many bonfires in the world, it makes travel a bit too quick in later portions of the game. And you are not always safe at these bonfires. Many of them are in the open, off of trails, where various kinds of dangerous machines roam freely. And, as I mentioned, you only heal with manual intake of medicines or herbs that you concoct on your own. This was not very good in my opinion, as it takes a lot of time, searching and salvaging to fill your pouch with medicinal plants. Each time you heal, Aloy consumes as many plants as it takes to top off her health. There is no in between. This usually depletes an enormous amount of the plants you harvested. The alternative are potions that you can store after mixing with specific ingredients. It is not easy to come by the ingredients, so it is extremely helplful when you win skirmishes with shadow carja camps or troops, as they tend to carry them, and have them stored in chests on their settlements.

  The backstory was phenomenal, and what really sold me on the adventure. You meet Silens, who is among those tracking you through the focus tool that you wear, that you found as a child. He has an unnatural thirst for knowledge that led him to assist the villain of the game, which he claims he isn't proud of. You work to mutually uncover answers, and you find out about Aloy's ancestor, who once stopped the threat. Hearing the dialogue in the recordings that you find strewn about the world, really gave meaning to the relationships that formed and fell before your civilization came to life. You even hear how the Carja became involved from different perspectives. There were many moral decisions and choices that the scientist in the past had to make as humanity faced extinction. By the end of the quest, Aloy goes from an uninformed warrior outcast, to sounding like a nuclear physicist graduate, with her understanding of the science behind the weaponry and technology used to reprogram and counter attack the machines in the past.

   The difficulty was awesome, but ridiculous at time, with enemies that were boss level being thrown at you in bulk on often occasion. There were times, I had to lower it from hard to normal, sad to say, such as when you had to head back to the Nora village later in the game after the unleash of an attack, and several Deathbringer machines are casually thrown at you. Or, there was a time I faced a rockbreacker machine that took forever to take down. Enemies like the Thunderjaw and the Stormbird, while having elemental weaknesses, were still insanely accurate, almost to a psychic level, and durable, exhausting all of your resources to get past. It felt, and was often unfair, but the challenge was exhilarating in its own way. There were just some boss fights that were off the chain, and bulks of enemies that were inopportune. For instance, there was a mission where I had just escaped from one of the science research facilities that was operated by Aloy's ancestor, who's name is Elizibet Sobeck. I believe it was a facility where they housed the clones, which is an intricate part of the story. Aloy emerges hanging on for dear life. Outside the facility, was a Stormbird sweeping the area. There was no way past him, and no way to outrun him without a fight. These enemies do insane damage, and will exhaust either all of your resources, which I didn't have and/or your life. He did so several time- thank goodness for autosave. Eventually, I had to find a way to sneak past him, as defeat didn't exist in his world.

  There was also a side mission where I took on a Rockbreaker for some miners, thinking it would be a breeze. He did life bars in damage with each hit, and had beyond deadly accuracy. I died on that fight a good amount of times. Even on another occasion, where I took over a facility that the Shadow Carja were trying to excavate, after the dungeon was complete, there was an army of them waiting for me outside. It was one of those moment where you watch your cinematic death with a smirk, while saying, "This is a part of the plot right? This has to be a joke, or tense scene or segue right?" And then after watching the loading screen, you realize you are actually supposed to win that fight. The game needs some kind of auto-heal mechanic to get a fresh start at points.

  The game was a good length. It lasted me about 50 hours minus any DLC content. Being in such an archaic setting, it didn't really provide much in the way of entertainment activites, like other RPG's. That's why I've always had a love for futuristic dystopian setting. I'm going to cut this review here and say that it was an enjoyable experience with very tough enemies, that I would play again. I had a very elaborate review written up, but my computer just scrapped the last hour of writing, and I'm not going to write that all again. I rate this highly as a  metal of a game. 9/10

The Knight is Young- Dark Souls Remastered- Review

  So this marks my completion of the famed difficult juggernaut of a game- Dark Souls Remastered. The game was originally released on the Playstation 3 in September of 2011. It was developed by FromSoftware. This is a company famous for making very gritty and tough games such as their famous Armore Core series. I heard about the game when it came out all those years ago, but although I was becoming a fan of the genre, I didn't like the cover art that much and was a bit put off by the dark nature. I really fell in love with dungeon brawlers when I played Genji on the same system. After looking it over and researching it for quite a while, and completing Nioh in the process, I began to consider Dark Souls, as it has its own separate lore, and does make some effort to distinguish itself from the usual tasteless blood, gore, and deemo games, which I despise. It really focuses on being as hard as possible, and I will discuss the different types of hard.

  What I've come to find in difficulty in video games, is that very few games have the ability to nail it just right. Monster Hunter might have come the closest of all games I know, besides a couple of obscure titles like The Red Star. I have always appreciated hard games, because to me, that's what video games were created for in truth. They were meant to push us physically and mentally to new levels. But you have some games, that are near insurmountable in challenge, where you wonder at times, if you will every overcome the difficulty, and then you have games that you know you can overcome, but wonder how you will weather the brutal challenge that requires patience. I liken to the power lifter versus the fitness expert. One man attempts to take on bench pressing 500 pounds for the first time, and sweats under the challenge, while another man takes on benching 200 pounds for 50 reps. These are different avenues, but both equally challenging. While Monster Hunter is the big weight game, where skill is all that can save you, Dark Souls is the rep challenge, where you are capable of becoming very powerful, but can always fall into cycles of dying for unknown reasons.

  Dark Souls was the game that brought about Nioh and other titles. It is the basic dungeon brawler, that relies on equipment sets and weapon upgrades, as well as learning the patterns of enemies and layout of dungeons. No one nails challenges that push your skill level like Capcom. What I've come to find of FromSoftware, is that their games are more arduous than insurmountable. Even Armored Core, was extremely hard, until you found the right mech design and specs. In Dark Souls, unlike Monster Hunter, you do not rely so much on attributes and breaking down large bosses with skill. While that element does exist, the game is more reliant on leveling up and becoming stronger in various ways.

   You are and undead warrior who starts out being released from a cell as you are tasked with travelling to the world of the great lords and saving the world. You gather intel and weapons along the way, such as spears, swords, great swords, axes, bows and short swords. In the character menu, there is a huge board of attributes to upgrade. Each time you level up, you can only upgrade one, making leveling up very daunting and critical. You can enhance strength, endurance, stamina, dexterity, faith, intelligence, and resistance. Each attribute effects different weapons and armors. The game has different types of magical attack attributes. There is fire, lightning, and poison. You can raise resistance to help slow and neutralize the effects of such attacks. Your dexterity will help your damage proficiency with some weapons like katanas, swords and spears. Your strength will help you wear heavy armor when the prerequisites are met, and will increase attack power with some large weapons like great swords. Endurance will increase you ability to carry a larger load in general and will make you able to even wield certain weapons or wear certain armors in the first place. Based on a percentage, your movement speed and stamina consumption are effected by the ration of capacity to carried weight. By increasing either your stamina or health, you can build the meter to sustain more damage and launch more attacks.

  In the game, there are a few randomly placed black smiths who you meet that can upgrade your equipment and sell you components to do so. This is crucial to making your armor and weapons good enough to fight the enemies. I found that the game does a horrible job of explaining things. There is very little in the way of cutscenes and direction. I found that I had to refer to walkthroughs and videos, made by people who put the time in, dissecting and looking through books etc. to learn the lore and how to find things. To me, that is ridiculous. There were a lot of things I would have had a hard time finding out I had to do. One example is that in the end of the game, some areas like Anor Londo, which are labeled as optional, had many items and areas that I could not have beaten the game without finding and exploring.  When I heard how big the world was, I was skeptical, but let me tell you, it is absolutely enormous. And it is connected as they say, but in a very convoluted way. I was so pleased when I achieved the teleporting ability near the end.

   The bosses in this game were pretty good. What will hang you up, is adjusting to the new enemies in the area. They will be so strong, that you will be surviving the area for quite a while as you level up. It really is a good feeling to get so strong over time, that you can comfortably travel an area that you used to sweat walking through. In fact, now playing new game plus, I kind of smile, as I am obliterating enemies that used to give me fits. The game is specifically designed to turn up the intensity, and in my opinion, begin to break game mechanics to take you out, when you have a lot on the line. In this game, you acquire your currency from souls you pick up from downed foes. Like other games in the genre, if you die, you can make it back to where you died and collect the loot you dropped. However, if you get killed before that happens, all souls are lost. After a while you learn to spend your souls on leveling up you character and equipment as often as you can. Because some areas are so huge like the Catacombs  and Anor Londo, you are constantly searching for bonfires to sleep at and save. These are the areas where you level up, change equipment and save. The game has a spell system, where you can build up slot capacity and equip spells from various schools such as Pyromancy. In your loadout, you can equip as many spells as you can contain. You can have 2 weapons for each hand that you  cycle through, and several items, such as estus flasks, throwing knives, dung piles etc. Estus is the healing item of the game, as you find bonfires, you  replenish them and increase capacity by kindling the bonfire further.

   I think the most memorable boss fight in the game was the fight against the two lovers Ornstein and Smough. Ornstein was a lighting sword wielding knight, who moved very fast, and Smough was a giant hammer wielding beast who covered insane range. You had to fight them at the same time, and after beating one, fight the other after they powered up with their lover's remains. It was one of those fights that taught me how to tackle bosses in general. Many of the boss fights can seem very unfair, until you find a trick of sorts that stifles their offense. The enemies in Dark Souls all have the ability to modify their attacks to throw off your defense. You can block most attacks, and parry some melee attacks, but the timing has to be perfect. I mastered it of course, but when fighting later enemies, almost all of them have unblockables. It's so weird to play games where every single enemy has a move list.

   I would be remissed to fail to mention the aesthetics. The graphics and lighting are superb. The scope of the draw distance, textures and level design really give it a grand scale look. This serves to show off the ability of the Switch console, as it seems unreal to play such a game on a handheld. You visit many different locations from old temples to forests, to mountains and catacombs. However, I feel there could have been a bit more sunlight in the game. And the camera angles were at times, atrocious. There are times when I walked to my death due to a sudden flip of the camera on a very narrow ledge. Once again, like Genji, this game likes to interweave intricate platforming into a game where the mechanics don't suit it at all. And when it comes to save points, many times you are stuck in a long chasm between them. I also feel the game could have done a much better job explaining what needs to be done. For a game that can and will kill you in an instant when entering a new area, it would be nice to know where I need to be generally before I run out of healing items.

   
  I spent so much time trying to find my way in the huge world, that I became insanely powerful. I got a great sword that I used that was insanely strong. I  used it, and pretty much began to become a boss myself. In the end, the last boss, Gwyn, who was the creator of all the turmoil that had happened, was an interesting, but not very crazy fight. He used a long flame sword, and the thing that threw me off, was that he was in such a small area. I was anticipating a long dungeon, with many hidden save points and mini bosses, but after fighting 7 knights in a wooded area, I found him in a tower. He rushed me, but was easy to time and hit. What made him dangerous, was the fact that he could vary his combos and rest very quickly, so if you got caught in his reset, you could end up trading with him and taking death damage. Unlike Monster Hunter, there is no chance to whittle away at the enemy. You usually die in 2 consecutive hits. Your healing items will quickly disappear. The key is to beat the boss as quickly as possible.

   I appreciate the design, and I think I will enjoy the new game plus even more. While difficult, it was more of a strenuous ordeal than one that required insane skill. I'll keep playing it for a bit, but I must say, I wish it had more cinematics and explained lore. Still, it was amazing, and addictive for the last couple of months. So I give it  a knightly 8.8/10