No game review today

I know I've been a little lax in updating in the last couple of days. That's partly cause I'm been playing some Crackdown which will be reviewed in the nearish future when I get a little further in it (so far it's fun and hovering around an 8 or so).

I finally got around to washing my car which I had been meaning to do for a while (don't get too excited Chris). It's gonna get cold soon so I needed to get it done as soon as I could. I noticed a few tiny flecks of paint missing in spots. That dumb cat my mom has keeps jumping up on the car to sleep and I think it's claws might have done some damage.

I also plan to see Zombieland later this week with Colin and his girlfriend Kelly, not sure which day as it seems to depend when she comes down. Hopefully not on Friday cause I managed to land a date then with a girl I used to know when I was younger. Hopefully it goes well and she hasn't become a psycho freak. Also at some point I'm hanging out with my friend Matthew Tilghman from high school. And tomorrow I'm going on a boat trip so this week has been somewhat more active then usual.

Progress on Secret of Mana has been slow due to Adam having a hard time getting over frequently but we have gotten further then Colin and I got (though I noticed Adam and I are still a lower level then the party was in Colin's file mostly due to Colin and I getting lose in the seasonal forest for hours.) Eventually I'll review Secret of Mana as well.

Not too much else to say. Fox1337 of LUELinks is having a charity topic that's been a bit of a hit on the board. He's donating money to some group that feeds hungry children for every person who colors their nose black. Kinda weird when LLers get their parents in on it and you see 60 year old men with black noses and whiskers in sharpie being posted. But at least it's for a good cause.

Eternal Ring

Recently I've been reviewing some good games (or at least games I like a lot) so I wanted to find one of the games I own that I just hate and think is an utter pile of crap. When I think of bad games I often think of this one, a release date RPG for the PS2 called Eternal Ring.

Eternal Ring

Overall:

This is a first person RPG dungeon crawler made in the early early days of the PS2. You (Cain) have have been sent by your king to an island that is being explored by some excavation team and your goal is see what's really going on there and I think to find the Eternal Ring (though it might be that you find out about it after you arrive). You explore different parts of the island with a sword and the ability to use various magics depending on what rings you've found or made and have equipped. There is no separate screen for battles, you see the enemy on the screen and then you fight them or run by them ect.

Pros:

Having one world with enemies on it you can see instead of random battles is good, I can deal with random battles but it's a lot more fun to have something else where you can see enemies like say, Chrono Trigger. I also thought the ring creation system could have had potential (not to say that it did it well, just that I could see a decent system being made from the idea).

Cons:

This game has a paper thin story. That wouldn't be a big deal if it was a racing game, or a football game, or something else where a story is of relatively minor importance. This is an RPG and they try to push this terrible story talking about the king that sent you and how he's trying to struggle free from the advisers that have the real power in the kingdom.

Another issue with the game is one of gameplay. The sword you start the game with is worthless and crappy, it's subpar in the starting dungeon and quickly becomes unusuable later on, even when you find an upgrade for it. Not only is it so weak that you shouldn't use it, but the first person combat is clumsy, meleeing in Goldeneye is an apt description of it. This wouldn't be a huge problem if the magic aspect of it was well done but sadly it's not. The process to make the rings is confusing and you have little measure for what elements are good against which monsters as the damage you do isn't shown, but it's very possible you could sit there and hit the same monster with an element it's resistant to and have no idea whether you're using the wrong element or whether it's a strong monster.

In general it's rather difficult to know whether you're underleveled or over leveled and if you do want to level up it can be difficult to find a good place to do it. There is no inn or place to get your health and mp back so wasting mp could literally get you stuck in the game since your sword is too weak to help you and you have no place to go get mp back from that isn't a finite item you find somewhere. They have a village but it gets destroyed after the first dungeon, I kept assuming they would have some place to rest and get your health back. So being stuck with finite items for mp and hp, and not being able to tell how to hurt monsters effectively makes you constantly feel like you're on the verge of being stuck forever. I literally just ran through most of the dungeons after a while and got lucky enough to find a monster that was weak to one of my rings and use it to level up on for a bit so I wouldn't be too far behind.

Also the last boss is a giant fetus in a bubble that joins you on the trip back to your kingdom and then turns into a naked man thing. Don't usually spoil the ending here but that was so special I felt it needed to be said.

The music was non-remarkable and the back of the box makes fun of Final Fantasy (Who said fantasies had to be final?). Not that Final Fantasy is above being made fun of, but you need to bring something to the table a little better then this or it's just laughable.

The dungeons were bleak looking and fairly linear with no puzzles either. Nothing sticks out about this game besides how bad it was.

Overall Rating:2/10

Closing Remarks:

Besides passable graphics for it's time and a magic creation system that could have POTENTIALLY been decent (but wasn't) this game has nothing going for it besides not having random encounters. If your best feature is not having a bad feature common in other games, you know you're stretching. Don't get this game, you'll thank me.

Starfox 64

Didn't do too terribly much today, just worked, took a walk, messed around the internet, and watched some TV. Since I don't have any game I'm working on that I'm far enough into to give a review, I'm gonna grab an old game I've beaten. As you can see by the title of this post, I'm going with Star Fox 64. Now this is my first "old" game I'm reviewing and thus brings up a question of do I review it as I would when it came out or do I do it holding it to the same standard of today's games? If I hold it to today's games that doesn't seem terribly fair (and technically current-gen games getting reviewed today aren't gonna be held to future game's abilities, I'm not gonna go back and change old game scores when the current stuff gets outdated). Though reviewing them according to the standards of their day can be hard because it can be sorta hard to remember exactly what the graphics/audio/gameplay standards were when the game came out. In the end I'm gonna lean towards reviewing it taking into account it's age but ultimately say fuck it and review it the way that feels natural. Also I'm calling No Furry.

Star Fox 64

Overall:

This is the sequel to the SNES classic, Star Fox. The two stories aren't really connected (there is a cameo boss from the first one) and future Star Fox games seem to start here as far as "canon" goes. You play as Fox McCloud, a mercenary who has been hired to stop Andross, an evil monkey genius who has returned from exile to wage war on the world that banished him. It plays as an on rails shooter that has "All-Range Mode" flight simulator levels and sections (though obviously not being ultra realistic or anything).

Pros:

This game was actually the birth of modern rumble on consoles as it was the first game to come packed with the rumble pack and while some debate the merits of rumble I find it to be a net gain as long as it's not used excessively. It was also one of the earlier console games to be fully voiced (though I'm sure you could find others that came before this one that did it). The game is fun and controls well without being complicated. All of your flying and tank abilities and moves (lasers, bombs, boost, decelerate, somersault, and U-Turn (in all range mode) have frequent uses throughout the game and aren't tacked on for one specialty level that uses it constantly. The tank is also a fun vehicle and while only appearing on two levels is fun on both and controls well without being boring. The game also has three branching paths that you can jump to depending on how well you do and whether you do certain things in a level and this adds a lot of replay value to the game. The boss battles all have interesting and different ways to beat them with specific weak points. All of the characters that help you are rather useless in combat but have specific uses in game, such as Slippy displaying boss's health, Peppy hinting at the boss's weakness after a while if you're not getting it, and Falco opening some secret paths to get to different planets. The music does a good job, especially for an N64 game, of being appropriate and memorable. The graphics, obviously aged by today's standards, were pretty good back then and still do a good job of conveying enemies and their weaknesses/

Cons:

The sub level is ok the first time or two, but on subsequent playthroughs is one of the most boring levels of the game mostly due to the slow speed and infinite torpedoes. The plot isn't exactly a strong point of the series and this one has just enough to keep you moving to the next stage. Also Slippy is annoying and the naming scheme for the characters is a bit lame (but that's pretty easy to overlook). The game is a bit easy for some people's tastes though a harder expert mode is unlocked once you get all the medals. Lastly the multiplayer is a bit tacked on.

Overall Rating:9.5/10

Closing Remarks:

A very high rank for one of my favorite games and easily the most played N64 game I own. Nearly all of the cons mentioned are very small problems (some of them are a stretch I just added to have the con section not be too short) of which the only one of any significant mentioning is the sub level and it's skippable depending on the path you take. Even today I enjoy replaying it and have a good time. There are a few levels that fall somewhere between "meh and average" but the majority are very fun and at worst you'll hit maybe one bad level on a playthrough. It's short but you have to play it a couple times to get everything so that helps make up for it. And while all the characters are furries, they don't sexualize it until later games with Krystal so I don't consider that a problem in this game. Overall a great game I recommend.

Con report and little change to reviews

I realized my last two game reviews were more using the traditional 7 as an average type reviewing mechanic. While I could go back and give Punch out a 7.5 and ODST an 8 or 7.75 under the old system I realized I'm gonna keep slipping back into that. That being the case, from now on I'm gonna review games with 7 being the average like most places do. I've gone back and changed ToS:Dawn of the New World's and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts's scores to reflect what it would be under the new system. Sorry about that but this will keep me giving scores the way that feels natural instead of constantly having to argue it in my head and I won't have to remember I'm working with a 5 as an average system. I admit the 5/10=average is more mathematically correct but I'm gonna do it the way that feels right.

Anyway, no game review today but I will talk about my trip to northern Maryland (Towson Maryland to be exact) for Tiger Con. It was put on by the college anime club and I think it was the 2nd or 3rd year they had had it. It was in Towson University's University Union (aka their Russell House and sadly their Student Union looked nicer then ours) so it was basically a Nashi Con level anime con (though it was free). It was a 2 or 3 hour drive, a bit much maybe for such a small con but I had nothing else planned and I sorta wanted to compare their con to Nashi Con. I heard about it from a webcomic I've been recently following called Erfworld that I like a lot. I actually met the guy who writes it and got a picture of him as well as an Erfworld button for a dollar.

The drive up was annoying due to heavy traffic and a multitude of roads that merged and split constantly near the Baltimore area but I finally got to Towson and once there found the con quite quickly (their campus has signs all over the place telling you where buildings are) and they had a garage next to the student union so parking wasn't a problem either. I got there around 2 or 2:30PM since the only morning thing I wanted to do was a Left 4 Dead skit and happened at 9AM, there was no way I was getting there that early (when I got there I found it had been canceled anyway) so I slept in and left at 11:30 or so. It was on all three floors of the building (though there was only one room on the third floor being used) and I spent most of the time on the second floor where the majority of the action was. They had the dealer's area in the middle of the second floor with con rooms ringing it but they had extra dealers and artists (no official artist alley as far as I saw) spread throughout the con. I liked the placement of the main dealer's room but I didn't like how they sorta flung everyone that wouldn't fit all over the place, makes me feel like I might have missed a few dealers. It was at the main dealer's area I met Rob Balder (the Erfworld guy) and they had a few other things including a guy selling all the generic comic book stuff stuff like overpriced Magic cards and dice.

Considering it was a one day con and I was only there for 5 or 6 hours I was happy to make it to 4 panels. The first one I went to was one on webcomics but it was pretty dead. There were like 4 or 5 people there to start off with though a few more came in as it went on. Some Narutard who was there for the next panel literally wasted 5 or 10 minutes talking about Red vs Blue and kept talking about it after the panel guy got it back on track, I wanted to smack him.

After that I saw the the Erfworld guy had some music concert so I went to check that out. Apparently the guy writes his own nerdy songs and sings them (one of them was apparently big on Dr. Demento). His songs "Goth Chick", "Gamer Funk", and whatever the last one he did were good, but the stuff in the middle fell a little flat (A song about nethack for example even though I'm almost positive no one in the audience had played it before). He had a song about his ex girlfriend who was a crazy furry, it was a little awkward to hear but still kinda funny.

After exploring the con area a bit I wondered back into the room where the concert had been and they had a panel that was kinda interesting. They had a group of four people that were members of the college club and the audience was supposed to give them topics and the panelists would go on and rage about it. It was pretty funny and a solid panel that Nashi Con could easily use in theory. One of the chicks doing it had to comment on everything even if she hadn't seen it or played it and she got on my nerves a little bit but it was a good panel overall.

The last panel I went to was by far the most popular, it was a Geek Stand Up Comedy thing and I was amazed that every single one of the guys I saw up there was actually funny (I got in a little late and missed the first guy). I don't think it was just random local Watarus though, they had one guy that had gone to 30 different states and some of the others had done other shows as well. Most of them talked about nerdy stuff but it wasn't shit like obscure Japanese references in some anime you've never heard of, they talked about the 360 and making fun of con goers and stuff. The people here easily outnumbered everyone in the other three panels combined.

After this there wasn't anything else I wanted to do (I would have checked out the Batman is Awesome panel, but I would have to wait til 11:00PM or so just for it to start and I didn't want to get home super late) so I took a few more pictures and left. It was raining hard and the traffic was still bad at 8PM but I managed to get home safetly.

Oh, they also had a game room (that was actually big enough to walk around in!) with Smash Melee and Brawl, Street Fighter IV, Power Stone, and a few other games but you could tell they had just gotten people to bring stuff in like at Nashi Con as many of the TVs were too small and of all different brands and quality.

Overall I enjoyed it but don't think it was worth driving 3 hours each way. I have 10-15 pictures but I'm not gonna stretch the page to post them (when only 2 or 3 people read my blog) so if you care just IM me asking for them.

Halo 3: ODST

Today I slept in late, a lot later then I should have since I need to get up early tomorrow for my trip to the Towson Anime convention "Tiger Con". I really wish the cons I go to would stop naming themselves in a manner that makes one think it's a furry convention. It's a small local con hosted by a college anime club so I expect it to be on scale with Nashi Con. My next entry will include a review of the con as well as of a game.

Speaking of games, today's is Halo 3:ODST for the Xbox 360. I've spent the last 2 or 3 days playing both the campaign and the Fire Fight mode and am ready to render my verdict.

Halo 3 ODST

Overall:

This is Bungie's latest game in the Halo Universe (do they have any others nowadays?) and set between the events of the second and third games. It's a FPS like the main Halo games but you play as an "ODST" (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) instead of the Master Chief or the Arbiter. Basically the guys in black armor from the 2nd and 3rd games, they're better then regular marines but not as good as Spartans. You play various members of an ODST squad that got separated when they dropped into the city. You play as the voiceless "Rookie" in a hub world consisting of the city at night and find evidence of the battles your comrades had during the day (you were knocked out upon landing and missed the day time action) which triggers flashback type events where you play a level as different ODSTs. It also uses a more Halo 1ish system of health with a recharging shield but non regenerating health (instead of both being regenerating like in Halo 2 and 3).

Pros:

If you like the combat of the Halo games you'll like this as there hasn't been any huge changes from how things function. One change that I know a lot of people are going to like is that there are no Flood levels, not a single one or even a hint. Bungie finally got the hint that people hate playing them. Most of the Halo weapons we all know and love are here and they let the ODSTs use the big weapons that before only the Spartans, Elites, and Brutes could use. They don't really explain this, but if suddenly you couldn't use the hammer and the brute shot that would be sorta lame. Bungie tried experimenting with how they do the story telling, mixing it up and letting you tackle the flashbacks (for the most part) in the order you want even if this gets a little confusing chronologically. Another plus was that they finally threw in the Engineer species of the Covenant from the books and other assorted associated Halo media. I think they were mentioned in the 3rd game's manual but you get a new bad guy to play with. Firefight is a welcome addition to the game and what I think you'll see people coming back to in the long run. Obviously taken from Gears of War 2's Horde mode, Firefight pits you (and up to 3 friends) up against wave after wave of enemy troops. Every once in a while they turn on a new skull to make it harder and you play until you run out of lives (you start with 7 for the whole team but every 5 waves you get more). It's fun and a nice multiplayer activity that probably won't get turned into competitive bullshit and something you can just play while chilling with your friends. The game also comes with a disc containing all the Halo 3 multiplayer maps and updates so anyone who has fallen behind on that can quickly catch up (though you have to play it from the extra ODST disc and not your Halo 3 disc which might actually be a plus for those running low on 360 hard drive space).

Cons:

The chief complaint you hear about the game is that it's short. This is a true and valid complaint as you can beat the game in one (relatively long) sitting. Another problem I had with the game was that the Elites do not show up whatsoever. The Elites at this time in the canon are still fighting the humans and they're more fun to fight then the brutes so I really have no idea why Bungie didn't put them into the game. The lack of Elites naturally leads to a lack of Energy Swords so fans of that weapon will have to go without. Speaking of weapon disappearances the BR (Battle Rifle) is missing entirely. This isn't really addressed in-game as every other human weapon is present and one would think in a city full of soldiers that at least one or two would have their standard weapon of choice. I heard that the director for this game didn't like the gun personally but that's just something I heard and may not be true (though if it is it's a pretty crappy reason for it to not be in there). The only complaint I had with firefight was that I wish they just threw harder or more numerous waves of enemies against you instead of activating skulls (like having to melee enemies to get your stamina (aka shield) back). That's a fairly minor complaint though as it doesn't take away much from the game. I did find the characters to be not very memorable and there were a few plot holes in the game (why was there a huge enormous Drone Hive under the most heavily guarded human area in New Mombasa 6 or 7 hours after the attack?).

Overall Rating:8.75/10

Closing Remarks:

How much you like this game is gonna depend largely on how much you like the FPS Halo games so you'll probably already have a good idea whether you're gonna buy this or not. I like Halo's combat system so this review might not be applicable to those that are not as big of fans. Regardless I think Bungie has done a good job trying some new story telling mechanics and while the characters aren't terribly memorable the story was more about the fear, hopelessness, and terror of having no safe haven now that Earth had found and invaded. A lot of people liked the new jazzy music and it was nice, but I also sorta missed the Halo theme and the rock music so I'll call that a draw music wise. Sixty bucks for a short single player game, a horde mode, and multiplayer maps might be a bit much (and if you don't have Live definitely wait for the price to go down) but the game itself is very fun and enjoyable.

Punch-Out!!

I tried out ODST's firefight mode today with a friend. It was made for four players so we didn't do too terribly great but got a feel for it. I'll review it once I play through the campaign. I also bought some card sleeves for a new MTG deck, but they're too slim to put my cards in, cheap crap. No idea what I'll do with them. Also got a call from my dad and he wants me to go out this week to have dinner with him and my step mom for her birthday. Also taking my mom out to dinner tomorrow cause it's her birthday, and then I need to get Colin something for his birthday. So with that and buying ODST I'm gonna wait to buy things for a bit, the idea this year is to SAVE up money, not spend it.

Today I'm gonna be reviewing Punch-Out!! for the Wii, not the NES one, though I will probably eventually feature that on here as well. I didn't JUST beat this game but I'm not far enough into Secret of Mana or ODST to give a proper review of either of them yet so I went to a game I beat in the past.

Punch-Out

Overall:

The 3rd game in the Punch Out Series brought back after a long hiatus. You star as Little Mac, a small 17 year old kid from the Bronx who wants to become the boxing champion. Obviously a boxing game isn't going to have the deepest story but this is more about the fighting and the memorable characters. While lacking in size and power, Mac relies on speed, his trainer Doc Louis, and his special Star Punches to get him through. This is not a game that tries to be ultra realistic boxing game with in depth physical stats and training and reach. This is a fun brawler all about memorizing your opponent's patterns and having fast reflexes.

Pros:

The most important pro first: This game is fun. The concept is simple and easy to pick up. Mac doesn't have a huge variety of punches and dodges to learn and memorize, but he doesn't need them. It's all about timing and sometimes the combination of what you have. All the characters from the original Punch Out return with the exception of Mike Tyson/Mr.Dream. You also have two of the unique characters from Super Punch Out (Bear Hugger and Aran Ryan) so fans of the old games will definitely see some nods to old school opponents. They also struck a good balance between modeling their moves and patterns off the old games but giving them new moves and timing so it's still a challenge. Fans of the old games will know about Bald Bull's Charge and King Hippo's stomach, but the timing on the charge is different so you still have to fight hard. Once you beat the game they open a new mode (Title Defense) where all the boxers are faster and get new moves. This lets the casual people enjoy a fun first part and the hardcore gamers can still get a run for their money with the harder Title Defense Mode. If you have a really hard time of it, they'll give you a headgear item that reduces the damage taken (you have to lose 100 times) so even if you can't progress they'll help you out some. They also have a hologram mode where you can fight your next opponent as a hologram that can't do damage to you but it will let you practice against their moves without getting your ass kicked 10 times trying to find out how to get stars on them (you recoil from their punches but don't take damage). Another nice aspect of the game is the music which are all remixes of the character's themes. Some are better then others but this game feels like a sequel to Punch Out and is a blast to play. The graphics are colorful and each character feels unique for the most part.

Cons:

The hologram training thing is a good idea, but I wish you could still use it after you beat the boxer in the campaign mode especially against some of the boxers that are really tricky and feel cheap at times. If you don't fight a boxer for a while you can forget his patterns and I hate losing 5 times cause I was trying to relearn how to dodge his special punch. And most boxers have a secret punch combo weakness where hitting them with a star after so many stunned hits knocks them out instantly and being able to use the hologram trainer to learn that would be nice. I also wish they had a better secret character then Donkey Kong. I know a lot of people were hoping for Mike Tyson and I can understand not wanting to include him cause of the controversies surrounding him or because they couldn't get the rights but Donkey Kong just feels out of place. I'll take it over no secret character, but they could have done better. They give many control methods but anything that relies heavily on the Wii's motion sensor is far too inaccurate against Title Defense level enemies (though the one that doesn't rely on the Wii Fit board or motion controls works fine).

Overall Rating:8.5/10

Closing Remarks:

This is a fun game that I recommend to anyone with a Wii. The pros outweigh the few cons and if a few of the characters didn't feel cheap at times, this game would be in the 9's. It has an old school feel, before boxing games cared about RPG stat growth crap (usually I like RPGs but for some reason I've never been huge on have RPG characteristics in boxing games). It's not a long game, but when it all comes together and you get your opponent's moves down it's a real blast. Given the lack of what I consider good games on the Wii this one is definitely a keeper.

Tales of Symphonia 2

Today was a relatively average day. Did some grant work and played some games. Tonight (well, technically yesterday but I'm writing this at 1:30AM so I still consider the 21st) they were having the ODST midnight release. I was gonna go but got busy talking to some people and didn't feel like fighting the crowds. I didn't really have time to play it tonight anyway since I'm heading straight to bed after writing this (business trip tomorrow).

Found out dad's getting a root canal due to some infection he's had for a week or two that's been causing him to feel down. I can tell he's been a little nervous about not shaking being sick so easily. The male side of our family has a history of dying in their mid to late 60s and dad is 63 so I guess he was worried it was something serious. Anyway I'll be wishing him the best and that there are no complications. He came over to drop some pictures for the web site (which I did a little bit of work on today) but I think he mostly just wanted to see me. I could tell he was uneasy about the operation.

Anyway, the game we're doing today is Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Same format as last time. Also: Spoilers for the original Tales of Symphonia.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Overall:

A sequel in both name and story to the popular Tales of Symphonia, Dawn of the New World (I always call it ToS2 in my mind, so if I slip you know why) is set a few years after the original and the two worlds have been joined as one. Of course all is not well or there wouldn't be much of a game and in this case the problem is that all over the world there have been mysterious and deadly weather patterns popping up. Also the first game's main character Lloyd has apparently gone bad and is causing destruction all over the planet (though apparently only you seem to know about it somehow) and the new main character has a vested interest in stopping him as his town was one of those hit. There are two new playable characters: Emil (the one just mentioned) and Marta (mysterious girl involved with the the weather thing) as well as the old characters from the first game joining (and leaving) your party throughout the game. You journey to a bunch of familiar places to try to right the wrongs and save the day using Tales' action RPG battling system.

Pros:

This game retains the same fun battle system of the first ToS game and actually expands on it in some ways by letting you move in any direction and not just towards or away from the enemy you're targeting. Anyone who liked the feel of playing as Lloyd will find a good fit with Emil and the few people who liked playing as Colette will find Marta to be similar though a tad more healing based then Colette was. The graphics are about the same so if you like the anime cel-shaded look then that's a plus (if you don't add this to the next paragraph). Multi-player is present like it was in the first game so you can play as a friend if you want.

Cons:

One of biggest flaws in this game is how they tried to shoe horn in some pokemon monster collecting crap into the game. While relevant to the plot, it feels rather tacked on in how it's implemented into the game. Combine this with the fact that the Tales 1 characters don't level up (even after they join you permanently at the end of the game) and you're stuck with half of your team being grossly under leveled since the levels the ToS1 guys join you at are (with the exception of the first time Colette joins you) much lower then Emil and Marta or having to collect and train monsters to use in your party. You can not control the monsters and even if you choose the under leveled route you can only play with two human players as opposed to 4 of your friends like in the first game. The monsters actually level up insanely fast, they have a Disgaea-ish transmigrating thing where they go back to level one but are a higher class of the same kind of monster and retain a percentage of their stats (in this case I think it's roughly 20%). A wolf I caught near the beginning and have been using throughout the game has transmigrated 2 or 3 times (from about level 20-30 each time) and is still 30 levels higher then Emil and Marta who have also been used the entire time. It feels like the developers knew people tend to not play as monsters in RPGs where established story characters existed and instead of letting us have levelable ToS1 guys (and you can't change their equipment either) they said screw it and practically forced you to use monsters. This problem is compounded by the fact that neither Emil or Marta are likable. Emil is your typical mega-pussy who is afraid of everything, except in other games it doesn't take them 50 hours to get over it to an acceptable degree. But Emil is still better then Marta who is a lovey dovey jailbate girl who literally can't go a single cut scene or battle without saying how much she loves Emil and wants to marry him. I'm not joking, that's not much of an exaggeration, 90+% of cut scenes involve her wanting to jump his bones and most of her end of battle quotes involve love and loving Emil. If I wasn't playing with a friend I would have switched her out of the party for another level 80 or 90 monster. To pile on more complaints the game designers were pretty lazy when it came to dungeons as you go back to all of the summon shrines from the first game as all the macguffins (in this case "Centurions" that control a given element) all happen to be in the same spots as the elemental summons were. Lazy. They added a side quest thing that you can access from the Katz guild as well. In theory I like this idea that they are giving you some straight forward side quests that aren't easily missable like some of the sidequests in the first game were (they can be missed if you go too far in the story, but the katz are everywhere and you have a long time to do them). Alas they screwed it up as each chapter of the game they repeat 60-70% of the quests but with slightly stronger monsters in the exact same dungeons with monsters placed at the exact same points and chests placed at the exact same points. And there are only 4 locations (Forest, Volcano, Ice Cave, Windy Cave) these quests take place in so not only are you doing the literal same quest over and over in the same locations you are doing quests that are 95% the same in the same locations as well (seriously, the only difference between the "different" quests is that the cut scene at the end and after each mid boss are different). Oh and you have no real black mage to play as, so I hope you weren't planning on playing Genis as Marta only gets offensive magic at about level 35+ and even then it's two spells of the same type.

Overall Rating:4.75/10

Closing Remarks:

As you can see from the sheer size of the Pro paragraph versus the Con one that this game has a lot stuff that they messed up on, much of it actually a downgrade from the first game. I was gonna give it a 4 or 4.25 but just writing all that con stuff made me dislike it more. In it's favor the fun battle system is all it has to stand on and even that was hurt by reducing multiplayer and gimping the ToS1 guys while forcing a monster collectathon. I loved ToS1 and had high hopes for this game and if they had just kept it the same with a new story it would have been significantly better then this. While a good battle system can go a long way in a game where you have to use it hundreds of times, that alone can't save a bad story that sounds like a bad fanfiction, bad characters, bad dialogue, last gen graphics, and the sheer lost potential this game has. That's the worst part, you could see how this would be a fun game if only they left the good formula alone. So yeah, skip on this unless you have a high tolerance of annoying characters and LOVE the ToS1 battle system.